Exalted Homebrew

But the person who made it made another post today!

Yeah, but not applicable in this case, where it's not attached to a social attack (which was part of the problem: there was no method given to resist or avoid it, such as going through social attack rules would give) so there's never any threshold successes to boost it.

 

I got an idea, which originally was a pretty small one, but she held my interest and grew and grew, and things seemed to fit together in a pretty fun way. I have been prevaricating on publishing her due to a somewhat sketchy mechanical background in Exalted, but with the recent interest in this thread and the general good-naturedness of QQ I decided that it would be pretty silly if I just left her sitting on my googledocs forever.

Hunanura, The Heart-Frost Unending, is a Yozi who as far as I know did not have a Charmset. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Feel free to comment here or on the googledoc. I would reformat it for the forum, but the thing is 25 pages long and makes extensive use of Hyperlinks, so I decided it was better done this way.

 

I'm typing this up as I go through the doc.

First, Urges. Nothing particularly wrong, exactly, but I feel it may help to give an example Urge rather than the generalizations you have like the canon Yozi have. For example, Malfeas has "Purge House Cynis of its debauched reputation, by pogram if necessary" or SWLIHN has "Restore the Delzahn nobility to its “traditional values.”"

Second, Torment. It's just bad. Like, seriously and extremely bad. It's not even bad in the sense it makes trouble for your character. It's bad in the sense that it can kill your character like Paradox or standard Resonance. Those are pretty much universally reviled for a reason. Now, canon Torments also tend to be fairly bad, but ideally should be a representation of your Patron Yozi losing their shit over something filtered through the Infernal and their circumstances, but which also shouldn't take the form of "Lord Malfeas smites you for displeasing him." Basically, your character lashing out or losing it in a manner appropriate to their patron.

Even if you're in love with the "Lightning blasts you" Torment, the one most like that in canon is Cecelyne's, which only does (Essence) dice of Lethal soakable through natural stamina. Your current one is almost literally an order of magnitude worse.

Next off, the Imperfection. It is also bad in that it can only be used against Enemies, whom if I'm reading this right are only characters that you have a Negative Intimacy for personally. This encourages you to go to other Yozi for your defenses. An alternative is that the Imperfection makes it cost more(3-5 motes or 1wp) if used against someone who is not an Enemy.

Vicarious Victory Validation could use some clarification. Do the successes added to allied characters count against their Dice caps or the Infernal's? For example, I'm a Dragonblooded which means my dice cap is Ability + Specialty. An Infernal's dice cap is Ability + Attribute. If I've paid for a full Excellency and you use this Charm on me, do the extra successes not count because they're over my dice cap or what?

Additionally, the wording of the last paragraph could use work. By RAW, it would only work on Infernals and Eclipse and Moonshadow Castes since any other characters can't learn the Hunanura's First Excellency and therefore don't qualify.

Effortless Specialty Application is iffy IMO. If I'm reading this right, this basically means you always count as having a Specialty in whatever your doing with an Ability and would basically mean that you get +3 dice on every action forever at no cost. Could definitely use some tightening up, either a cost to activate it for an action/scene/whatever or requiring that you actually Stunt how you're using that Specialty to be relevant to whatever action you're taking.

For clarity's sake, Constance Vigilance Paranoia should probably state something to the effect of "This charm removes the unexpected quality from an attack, whether physical or social, allowing the Infernal to apply the appropriate DV. Additionally, it allows the Warlock to make a reflexive Defend Other Action on behalf of a Friend subject to an unexpected attack within (Essence x 5) yards."

Loyalty Without Bound has similiar issues. Defend Other is an Action that does basically what these Charms are intended to. If the language/mechanics for something is already present, you should include it for ease on everyone.

Your Words are Wind is awkwardly phrased. By RAW, it seems to activate when the Infernal rolls Join Battle in response to what someone says, but while the intent is that this is done because another character lied, the way it is written means it is equally valid to activate this Charm in response to someone saying "I'mma deck you in the schnozz."

The wording of its effects is also awkward. I think it basically means that if the character you're responding to believes themselves to be lying, you get the various effects, but if that character thought they were telling the truth you.....just spent four motes to do absolutely nothing?

Maybe make this Charm a lie detector in the vein of Judge's Ear with a built in compulsion to attack if you hear a lie, thereby getting the bennies?

Inevitable Truths Shintai should probably include some kind of physical alteration to the Infernal, even if just an aesthetic one. That's kinda their whole shtick after all.

Radio Wave Demodulation's cost is weird. Basically, you can commit four motes to gain.....the privilege of paying eight motes later to activate the rest of this charm? I would suggest dropping the initial commitment.

If not, maybe add something that the Infernal can passively pick up and understand radio waves? Doesn't seem like it would have too many benefits in vanilla Creation though.

Inviolate Aspect of Ice and Lightning definitely needs some work. For three purchases, you get passive costless immunity to Poison, Sickness, and Environmental damage. By Essence 3. For reference's sake, the Solar equivalent to this would only cover Environmental hazards, take four different charms to get(five if you want to block out the hazards caused by other characters) and require Essence 6 to have on with no cost.

Eternity's Icy Grip is good in concept, but could do with being made into a Scene Length charm because as written, someone can spam Shaping attacks at you to forcibly drain your Essence and Mote pool or kill you with Agg and you don't really have any choice about it. And I think that may apply even if you've got another Shaping Defense already up...

Forced Convolution Technique is sort of awkward. I think the way it's intended is as the Emperor blasting someone with Force Lightning and they can't do anything but get zapped, right?

Since this is the follow up to a lightning blast, it should probably specify that it lets the Infernal Grapple an opponent from a distance(whatever is appropriate) and that the target of this Charm can't seize control of the grapple, only break free. I'd suggest mining Mind Hand Manipulation for mechanics on the ranged grapple thing.

Finally, neither Personalized Electrotherapy Massage nor Love Is Power need the Sorcerous Keyword. They only last for the scene as a Training Charm and using Counter Magic someone effected by them does nothing.

 

Wasn't sure how to work this, since all the canon Torments tend to spread to your Intimacies to to people nearby, and hurting your friends is absolutely the one thing Hunanura does not want you to do no matter how much shit you lose. She also hates effects that hang around, so that left a Solar-style mind-affecting Limit Break or damage, and I went with damage. The value was much higher than Cecelyne, since it doesn't mess with anyone else. I'll probably switch it over to something more like a Solar one, though iirc none of them as written fit too well.

It's meant to be somewhat ameliorated by the mythos exultant, but even then it is pretty harsh. I erred on the side of not breaking it, but if you think it's fine I'll change it to a 1 wp surcharge.

This is a very good question, and I think it should probably count towards a total cap as if the character was an Infernal? That or just ditch the cap altogether and cap the successes the Charm grants by Essence or something. The latter sounds less likely to be confusing, if its overpowered maybe it can be nerfed some other way

It's meant that they would need to meet the stipulations, but Ill see if I can make this more clear.

The latter feels most appropriate; I think I'll look at that Charm of Cecelyne's where she declares obscure law to perfectly defend herself and try to base the wording off that, maybe adding a 1m cost?

The Charm is meant to alert the Friend to the danger allowing them to apply their DV as well, but not to defend them directly here, I'll firm up the wording.

It's meant to be a gambling Charm. Someone says something; you gamble that they told a knowing lie. If they meant what they said as a lie, the charm is effectively costless and you get the benefits. If you were wrong and they were trying to tell the truth, you burnt 4m for nothing. I'll firm up the wording of the lying condition, but I'm unsure how to remove the element where it doesn't do anything if they weren't lying without gutting the purpose of the whole affair.

I would like to avoid giving out a social tool that lets you detect lies passively, and forcing you to attack every random bystander that happens to lie to you is a little crazy even for this Yozi. Having it be an indefinite commitment is a possibility but I forsee some wording and concept issues.

I'll think on it, though the idea is so mentally based I'm unsure what it might even be.

Cost was bugged, it's meant to be an indefinite commitment of 8m to turn it on and leave it on, making loud noise until you intentionally turn it off.

The Sickness level is modeled after Blight Internalization Transcendence, where you pay a sickness period to be immune for a season; here you're paying with being completely obviously alien-looking instead, so I don't think that part is especially problematic. I could easily cut the environmental portion. Where is Poison on the scale? I'd like to have it handled either here or in Resurgent Cryoelectric Metabolism, if all-out Immunity is too much I'll throw it into there and anything that beats you in less than an hour will pretty much just beat you. I think I'll do that for now, and kill the stackability on this charm.

I was unsure if Shaping effects were cheap enough to spam for the spam to overcome to 1m cost after the first activation, and it seems they are indeed that cheap. Paying 1m to reparry every scene seems insignificant, and paying 1wp per scene lets them whittle you into death a different annoying way, so should I just have this leave itself up for the day? Maybe have it be 4m per scene? Maybe just free after its on for the day?

The Lightning charm is a melee range attack, so it is actually you physically grappling the person. The fluff of it is instead of using normal grappling, you're blasting them with your built in taser and winning the grapple by causing them to spasm helplessly in your grasp.

Done.

Thanks a ton for your help, I really don't have a safe innate sense of what's broken in this system.

EDITS:

No great idea how to fix Your Words are Wind now, I'll look again tomorrow.

 

On one hand, I'm kinda leery about posting this in this thread, but only other one we've got is the 3E thread and that's less appropriate.

So, Holden recently released a fan-content Exalted/World of Darkness crossover book running off of V20 rules and since he's not a dev anymore, I guess that counts as homebrew?

Either way here's the link, it's free, let's not fall into a screaming frothing mess, eh?

 

I don't like double posting, but no one else is posting and I finished reading through the book.

So general things;

The systems are fairly simplified. There aren't any sprawling Charm trees with Essence and Ability minimums. Instead, there's a fair few Charms that are broken up by Caste and are rated by dots on a scale of 1-5. You don't have to buy Charms in any particular order and Dot rating is hybrid powerlevel/cost for Charms(Rating x 3 XP for Caste and Favored, X 4 otherwise).

Excellencies(Exalted's main dice adders) are organized according to their Caste. Each one represents a clump of related Abilities that you have to buy separately, unless you are that Caste in which case you get all of them for one purchase. Excellencies add either three dice to the rolls for the linked Ability for one scene for one Essence, or up to your dice cap for one Essence and One Willpower.

Essence is compressed to more WoD resource levels. You have only like, 10 to 20ish from Power Stat 1-5. Exalts have really good recovery over time for Essence. Solars and Dragonblooded get back three Essence at Sunrise, Abyssals, Lunars, and Sidereals at Sunset. They've got a recovery mechanic tied to their Caste that provides one a scene. If they're camping out on a Place of Power; Caeren, Node, Freehold, whatever you wanna call it(Dragon's Nest for Exalts), their Essence recovery soars like crazy to one Essence every fifteen minutes. Design intention is for Exalts to be either bursty where you show up like the opening scene in Blade or the lobby in the Matrix and wreck everything and then go to ground for a few days to recover, or you have a set location you have to fall back to in order to recover.

Setting wise, Exalted was the secret prehistory of the World of Darkness like originally intended. Everything got blown up and Creation became the World of Darkness and the Celestial Exaltations were locked away in "The Black Vault" ever since. The Dragonblooded remained, barely, in the form of several spread out families. Their blood has thinned drastically, to the point they can only Exalt if they grow up in a Dragon's Nest. Naturally, that means that Dragonblooded tend to want big ones they can build a facility on and also tend to have property disputes with Werewolves and Mages. Dragonblooded Families try to keep their heads down and avoid conflict due to low numbers, but are perfectly willing to defend themselves.

The very few families that were guarding the Black Vaults decided that the world was sufficiently fucked with everyone's apocalypse prophecies being entirely too accurate at the moment for comfort and so their only option is to open the Vault and hope. The book notes that Ravnos waking up and the Week of Nightmares is the "default" time period that this happens, but also says you can set things earlier or later depending on tastes.

Also of note, Solars don't have their anima count as Sunlight for Vampires. The reasoning in the book is basically "it's fun the first time, not so much the next twenty or thirty times." That said, a Vampire trying to drink a Solar's blood goes about as well you'd expect it to.

The book is equally supportive of doing a dark and serious story as it is of just doing wacky bullshit.


It's 171 pages and pretty good all said and done.

 

I poked through it, and I liked pretty much everything I saw. But I'm not super into WoD. It does seem like a nifty way to do Exalted in a modern setting.

 

Maybe try to hijack it into a Shadowrun crossover instead?

 

Possible. Shadowrun would also be a bit more advanced than what little I know of the WoD, tech wise at least. It's up to you or your GM. I could see it working, but you'd have to settle on a rule set that works for both, and I don't have the know how on how to make it all work.

 

Huh. Back when I was playing Exalted, I used to put things in this document... Lemme see if I can find it...

Spoiler: Flowing Water Society (martial arts organization, its style, and the Lunar who founded it)

FLOWING WATER SOCIETY:
In many areas of the East, and in a rising number of Northern cities, one may find a dojo with the symbol of three water drops sliding across each other. These dojos belong to the Flowing Water Society, and teach a wide variety of martial arts to all who come.
The Flowing Water Society has no official leadership, just a unifying philosophy: The belief that all humans, from lowly peasants to mighty Dragon-Blooded, ought to aspire to personal greatness and strength...and that martial arts are an effective way of forging the self and achieving strength, both inner and outer. There are several contradictory tales of the society's origin, but the truth is that it was founded by Kenimoto Steelfist, a Lunar Exalt of the Full Moon Caste. A strong partisan of the Winding Path, Kenimoto has founded the Society as his Thousand Streams project seven decades ago; he is still working on it, encouraging its growth and spread.
Sifus and students of the Flowing Water are encouraged to study many different styles - various dojos teach First Pulse Style, Terrestrial Hero Style, Forceful Declaration Style, numerous non-supernatural styles...and, of course, the official "Flowing Water Style" itself.
The Flowing Water ideology encourages students to work hard and rise above their station: Peasants should be strong enough to protect themselves, mortals should enlighten their Essence, and Dragon-Blooded should master Celestial styles. And indeed, the society boasts many Enlightened Mortals...and counts several Dragon-Blooded among its rank (in addition to Kenimoto) who know Tiger-And-Bear Awareness and Tiger-And-Bear Unity.

PLOT HOOKS:
-The Flowing Water Society can provide a background for martial artists - player characters may have studied in one of its dojos. It is, after all, one of the only ways besides the Immaculate Order for Dragon-Blooded to master Celestial styles...
-So far, all the Dragon-Blooded students of the society are Outcastes. Even so, not all the Silver Pact will take kindly to someone handing greater power to the Terrestrial Exalted. By Silver Pact law, Lunars are not supposed to interfere with each other's Thousand Streams projects...but what happens if one of Luna's chosen decides the society is a clear and present danger?
-A Flowing Water sifu decides to open a dojo in a city under the PCs' watch. His teachings will both encourage the people to be more ambitious, and hand them some of the means of their ambition. Do the players oppose him, or encourage him?
-Wherever there is power, someone will try to control it. An Abyssal Exalted, a Green Sun Prince, or even an ambitious Solar notices how many powerful martial artists are part of the Flowing Water Society, and begins working toward directing it to serve their goals. Does Kenimoto Steelfist intervene? And if so, does he do so directly?
-The Immaculate Order decides that the society's teachings are a dangerous heresy, and Immaculate Masters begin attacks on its dojos. The PCs could be the Immaculates leading the charge, members of the society trying to halt the onslaught, or a third party that can either pick a side, or play both against the middle (after all, a conflict that keeps several Immaculate Masters busy could be good for those who want to avoid the Wyld Hunt).

ALTERNATE TAKES:
-Rather than the society being infiltrated by Green Sun Princes, Kenimoto may be an Akuma himself. The Society is a manner by which powerful martial artists are trained, with the best being then subverted by the Yozis. In this version, students who wish to become sifu must obtain authorization from their current sifu...and the process, handled in secret, involves accepting Akumahood. Those who refuse are eliminated. As such, the Flowing Water Society has dozens of Dragon-Blooded and Enlightened Mortal Akumas running their own dojos, ready to act as muscle for various Yozi cults.
-Instead of a Thousand Streams project, the Flowing Water Society is a creation of Gold Faction Sidereals. By encouraging a heroic mentality among students, they are hoping to have some of them exalt as Solars. In this version, the society has ties to the Illuminated Order, and probably teaches some of its philosophy. The more ruthless Sidereal sifus may even deliberately endanger some dojos, so as to create situations that attract a Solar Exaltation.

FLOWING WATER STYLE:
The supernatural martial art most commonly taught across the society, Flowing Water is actually two styles, deliberately designed to parallel each other: Kenimoto Steelfist worked together with a Silver Faction Sidereal to design a Terrestrial and a Celestial style such that the latter naturally evolved from the former. As such, every Charm of the Celestial version has an equivalent in the Terrestrial version, and knowing one Charm provides a 2XP discount for learning its equivalent.
Flowing Water Style emulates the way water flows around solid objects. Practitioners try to flow around their enemies' blows, and then strike through the cracks in their defenses as water enters through the cracks in any solid obstacle.
The form weapons of Flowing Water are the iron boot, the fighting gauntlet and improvised weapons, though there is often an emphasis on unarmed fighting. Practitioners cannot wear anything heavier than light armor.

Terrestrial Flowing Water Style:

Flow Into Danger
Cost: 1m
Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: none
Effect: An enemy's defence is at its weakest when he attacks.
This Charm enhances an attack against a foe whose last Action involved attacking the character. The DV penalty incurred from attacks against him is raised by 1 for every two attacks in the enemy's last action, rounded up (though this only applies to defense against the practitioner himself).


Glimmer In The Water
Cost: 1m per attack
Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Flow Into Danger
Effect: A man standing in a river's path with a shield won't remain dry; the water will simply go around it. Rather than overcome a foe's defence, the martial artist may misdirect it.
This technique is used as part of a flurry. The attacks became nigh-simultaneous, acting as potential feints for each other and exerting the foe's defenses even as the practitioner strikes from every direction. As a result, the onslaught penalties caused by every odd attack in the flurry are doubled. All attacks in the flurry must aim at the same target.


Style's Bane
Cost: 1wp, 1m
Mins: martial arts 4, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Flow Into Danger
Effect: Any warrior who specializes in a type of attack, defense, or weapon runs the risk of becoming easy prey to those who understand his style's weaknesses. Flowing Water Style requires its practitioners to understand many styles' strengths and vulnerabilities.
When using Style's Bane, the practitioner can take advantage of the flaws in his opponent's style, effectively neutralizing any combat Specialty when used against him.
Note that this does not prevent supernatural applications of specialties. A Dragon-Blooded with 5 dots of Martial Arts and a +3 Specialty in barehanded attacks, if he fights someone using this Charm, will not get the 3 dice granted by the specialty, but will still be able to buy 8 dice with his First Martial Arts Excellency.


Many Streams Form A Sea
Cost: 1m
Mins: martial arts 3, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Flow Into Danger
Effect: A novice martial artist may use several quick attacks. The master, however, will use each attack to set up the next.
The martial artist uses this technique to supplement a strike. The attack helps her get in position to launch the next strike, and as such, the Action's Speed is reduced by 1, to a minimum of 4.


Flowing Water Form
Cost: 5m
Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-Type, Combo-Basic
Duration: Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Glimmer in the Water, Style's Bane, Many Streams Form A Sea
Effect: The essence of Flowing Water Style is territory, and how fluid the practitioner's position and control over it is. The practitioner maintains full awareness of her surroundings, of her reach, of her opponent's reach, and of what attacks she can and cannot avoid.
While using this form, the practitioner adds 2 to her defence value and 2 dice to her attacks. She may also parry lethal damage attacks bare-handed.


Accurate Strength Method
Cost: _ (+1m)
Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3
Type: Permanent
Keywords: none
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Flowing Water Form
Effect: Liquid water is uniform; it has no weaker or stronger limbs. To become a master, the martial artist needs to make his kicks as accurate as his punches and his punches as strong as his kicks. After the long training involved in obtaining this technique, the practitioner can add 1 to the accuracy and one to the rate of attacks struck with the feet, and 3 to the damage bonus of attacks struck with the hands. This applies to form weapons as well. In addition, for 1 mote, an attack's bashing damage can be made lethal (this is due to intense conditioning of essence flow through attacks, and does not count as Charm activation).


Tidwal Wave Strike
Cost: 2m
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Accurate Strength Method
Effect: Water may patiently erode rocks over centuries, but it also possible for a single tsunami to destroy whole cities. A master of the martial arts knows how to concentrate his power into one blow.
This technique complements a single attack, which may not be part of a flurry. It increases the attack's damage bonus by the practitioner's Martial Arts rank.


Flowing Mirror Method
Cost: 1 wp, 3m
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Flowing Water Form
Effect: Over his studies, the martial artist will have been exposed to many different ways of fighting. Flowing Mirror Method allows him to imitate several different ways, thus rendering his attacks nigh-unpredictable.
For the rest of the scene, the martial artist's foes suffer an external -2 penalty to defence against him.


Water Becomes Ice
Cost: 4m
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive (Step 9)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Flowing Water Form
Effect: All of martial arts revolves around the application of strength to defeat an opponent. Water Becomes Ice uses the opponent's own strength to supplement the martial artist's.
This technique may be used when the practitioner successfully blocks or dodge an attack (it must not be a naturally unblockable attack). The martial artist then takes a stable stance, and has the opponent impale himself on the practitioner's own attack. For the purpose of calculating raw damage, he adds the raw damage of his opponent's attack to his own.



Celestial Flowing Water Style:

Flow Into Danger
Cost: 1m
Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: none
Effect: An enemy's defence is at its weakest when he attacks.
This Charm enhances an attack against a foe whose last Action involved attacking the character. The DV penalty incurred from attacks against him is doubled against his own attacks


Glimmer In The Water
Cost: 2m per attack
Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2
Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Flow Into Danger
Effect: A man standing in a river's path with a shield won't remain dry; the water will simply go around it. Rather than overcome a foe's defence, the martial artist may misdirect it.
This technique is used as part of a flurry. The attacks became nigh-simultaneous, acting as potential feints for each other and exerting the foe's defenses even as the practitioner strikes from every direction. As a result, the onslaught penalties caused by all attacks in the Flurry are doubled.


Style's Bane
Cost: 1m
Mins: martial arts 4, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Flow Into Danger
Effect: Any warrior who specializes in a type of attack, defense, or weapon runs the risk of becoming easy prey to those who understand his style's weaknesses. Flowing Water Style requires its practitioners to understand many styles' strengths and vulnerabilities. At the Celestial level, this practically becomes second nature, no longer requiring WP expenditure.
When using Style's Bane, the practitioner can take advantage of the flaws in his opponent's style, effectively neutralizing any combat Specialty when used against him.
Note that this does not prevent supernatural applications of specialties. A Dragon-Blooded with 5 dots of Martial Arts and a +3 Specialty in barehanded attacks, if he fights someone using this Charm, will not get the 3 dice granted by the specialty, but will still be able to buy 8 dice with his First Martial Arts Excellency.

Many Streams Form A Sea
Cost: 1m
Mins: martial arts 3, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Flow Into Danger
Effect: A novice martial artist may use several quick attacks. The master, however, will use each attack to set up the next.
The martial artist uses this technique to supplement a strike. The attack helps her get in position to launch the next strike, and as such, the Action's Speed is reduced by 2, to a minimum of 3.


Flowing Water Form
Cost: 5m
Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-Type, Combo-Basic
Duration: Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Glimmer in the Water, Style's Bane, Many Streams Form A Sea
Effect: The essence of Flowing Water Style is territory, and how fluid the practitioner's position and control over it is. The practitioner maintains full awareness of her surroundings, of her reach, of her opponent's reach, and of what attacks she can and cannot avoid.
While using this form, the practitioner adds her Essence to her defense value and as many dice to her attacks. She may also parry lethal damage attacks bare-handed. Finally, she rolls with the blows, thus adding half her Martial Arts rank (rounded up) to her Bashing and Lethal Soak.


Accurate Strength Method
Cost: _ (+1m)
Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 4
Type: Permanent
Keywords: none
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Flowing Water Form
Effect: Liquid water is uniform; it has no weaker or stronger limbs. At this level, the martial artist has trained her entire body to be a deadly weapon; as such, all unarmed attacks (or attacks made with the Style's form weapons) have their Accuracy, Rate and Damage raised by 1. In addition, for 1 mote, an attack's bashing damage can be made lethal (this is due to intense conditioning of essence flow through attacks, and does not count as Charm activation).


Tidwal Wave Strike
Cost: 2m
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Accurate Strength Method
Effect: Water may patiently erode rocks over centuries, but it also possible for a single tsunami to destroy whole cities. A master of the martial arts knows how to concentrate his power into one blow.
This technique complements a single attack. It increases the attack's damage bonus by the practitioner's Martial Arts rank. At this level, the martial artist is powerful enough that this Charm can be part of a Flurry.


Flowing Mirror Method
Cost: 3m
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Flowing Water Form
Effect: Over his studies, the martial artist will have been exposed to many different ways of fighting. Flowing Mirror Method allows him to imitate several different ways, thus rendering his attacks nigh-unpredictable.
For the rest of the scene, the martial artist's foes suffer an external -2 penalty to defense against him, as well as a -1 external penalty to attacks against him. At the Celestial level, this becomes almost second nature, requiring no WP expenditure.


Water Becomes Ice
Cost: 4m
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Type: Reflexive (Step 9)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Flowing Water Form
Effect: All of martial arts revolves around the application of strength to defeat an opponent. Water Becomes Ice uses the opponent's own strength to supplement the martial artist's.
This technique may be used in response to an attack (it must not be a naturally unblockable attack). The martial artist takes a stable stance, and has the opponent impale himself on the practitioner's own attack. For the purpose of calculating raw damage, he adds the raw damage of his opponent's attack to his own. Additionally, the attack is itself a form of parry; if the martial artist chose to parry rather than evade, then the Counterattack does not reduce his DV (though this only applies to one such Counterattack until his DV refreshes).



Kenimoto Steelfist:
"You seek justice? Then seek first the strength to enforce it."
Kenimoto exalted somewhere in the East about twelve decades ago. A cool-headed martial artist, he found himself in agreement with the philosophy of the Winding Path Society, and sought to make his own contributions to the Thousand Streams Project. His first contribution, called the Invincible Fists Society, ended up a disaster about which he'd rather not talk to this day - but he learned valuable lessons from it. His next project was the creation of a monastery that taught its members the Golden Janissary Style, essentially providing the region with powerful monster hunters (which, given the nearby presence of Shadowlands, was very much a necessity). Following that, he took over a street gang in the Hundred Kingdom, organized it, taught its members First Pulse Style, and turned them into an honorable militia that kept its neighborhood safe.
His most important project, however (and by far the one to which he has dedicated the most time) is the Flowing water Society. He has been working on it for over seven decades, training sifus and spreading dojos across much of the East and some of the North. Currently, he is wondering if the time has come to step back and see how the Society manages without his input. At the same time, he is wondering about the validity of Thousand Streams Projects in general in a world where the Solars are back and Deathknights can obliterate mortal organizations...
Kenimoto is methodical and cautious. He will usually give matters a lot of thought before committing to a course of action. Within the Silver Pact, he is mostly known for his martial arts expertise, and his willingness to mentor recently exalted Lunars.
_________________
Caste: Full Moon
Motivation: Make the people of Creation strong enough to defend themselves.
Spirit Form: Gorilla.
Strength 5, Dexterity 6 (Martial Arts+2), Stamina 5, Charisma 4, Manipulation 4, Appearance 4, Perception 4, Intelligence 3, Wits 5
Archery 4, Martial Arts 5, Melee 4, Thrown 5, War 4, Integrity 5, Performance 2, Presence 4, Resistance 5, Survival 5, Investigation 2, Lore 3, Medicine 2, Occult 4, Athletics 5, Awareness 4, Dodge 5, Larceny 2, Stealth 3, Linguistics 3 (Forest Tongue, Riverspeak, Old Realm, Air Tongue), Ride 1, Socialize 1
Knacks: Humble Mouse Shape, Towering Beast Form, Internal Form Mastery, Subtle Silver Declaration, Deadly Beastman Tansformation, Devastating Ogre Enhancement
Charms: After 120 years as a Lunar, Kenimoto has picked a wide variety of Charms; to the very least, he has an Excellency in every Attribute. His main focus, however, is Dexterity Charms (including Flawless Dexterity Focus and Impossible Dexterity Improvement) and Martial Arts Charms.
Terrestrial Styles: Flowing Water, First Pulse, Golden Janissary
Celestial Styles: Flowing Water, White Reaper, Forceful Declaration, Tiger
Valor 5, Conviction 4, Compassion 2, Temperance 3, Willpower 9, Essence 5
Knows Tiger-and-Bear Awareness and Tiger-and-Bear Unity, and so can enlighten Dragon-Blooded into Celestial Martial Arts. Creator of Terrestrial and Celestial Flowing Water Styles. Knows White Reaper Style.
Merits: Omnidexterity, Legendary Dexterity, Pain Tolerance (5pts), Martial Arts Prodigy, Past Lives 1
Backgrounds: Allies 3 (Silver Faction), Artifact (Moonsilver Smashfists), Backing 3 (Winding Path), Followers 3, Heart's Blood 4, Reputation 3, Tattoo Artifact (Breastplate)

Spoiler: Quishin (small nation with issues needing to be addressed)

QUISHIN:
Quishin is a small Northern realm at the border between Gethamane, Shanarinara and the Haslanti League. Covering about 60,000 square miles, most of its 700 000 inhabitants are farmers, living in small villages. There's a handful of towns with over ten thousand souls, while the capital, Quidom, gathers over eighty thousand. Quishin has traditionally prized skillful craftsmanship, and as such has rarely lacked for great artisans; it has generally enjoyed a relatively high level of culture for the region, at least in the cities.
For most of the Second Age, Quishin has been an absolute monarchy, where the king - supported by a well-oiled bureaucracy - was chosen by his predecessor, and believed to rule with the blessings of Heaven, appointing bureaucrats to administer each city and village. Unfortunately, when the last king died four years ago, he had not designed his heir. The country fell into civil war as two After the death of the king four years ago, fell into civil war between the two candidates to the throne. On one hand was the late king's chancellor Bailu - an experienced bureaucrat with a reputation for fairness, popular among the people. On the other hand was the king's nephew Kao-Tse - an ambitious man who could play to the court, but who quickly proved himself to be rather cruel and self-entitled in his pursuit of the throne.
Bailu had as an advantage the support of the Dragon-Blood Zhu the Blue Spear, Quishin's most notorious war hero. The civil war seemed to go his way for a while, until Kao-Tse passed an alliance with the Guild. The latter, in exchange for important trade concessions, provided him with elite mercenary armies that managed to capture Bailu, forcing his armies to surrender.
Kao-Tse currently rules Quishin as its king, but his rule is proving quite dystopian: In order to pay back the Guild, the peasants are overworked, the city folks overtaxed, the indebted sold as slaves, and large tracts of farmland are turned to the culture of drugs that the Guild gets almost for free. Opposition is ruthlessly crushed, but, with his armies weakened by the war, Kao-Tse cannot guarantee peace and order in the countryside, and roving bandits are becoming a more and more frequent threat. On top of it all, the country is still reeling from the disastrous civil war, where nearly a tenth of its population lost its life.

Kao-Tse: Though he is mostly seen as a brutal tyrant, Kao-Tse would disagree. A skilled strategist and competent administrator, he believes that his ambition may bring a new golden age for Quishin. That so far he has only brought ruin and desolation has not shaken his conviction.

Kao-Pi: Kao-Tse's eldest son, Kao-Pi is every bit as ruthless and ambitious as his father. He is also, however, unfailingly loyal - a fact that his father recognizes, having made him one of his generals. Kao-Pi is currently striving to pacify the countryside, intent on proving his worth, so as to one day inherit the throne.

Bai Lu: A compassionate man, Bai Lu was horrified by the civil war, but refused to give an inch, convinced that Quishin would be better off under his rule than under Kao-Tse's. Since the end of the war, he has remained imprisoned in a gilded cage, kept within a wing of the royal palace. Seeing the magnitude of his failure, he has considered suicide on multiple occasions...though he fears it would only cause further harm now.

Zhu the Blue Spear: A Fire-Aspect Dragon-Blooded, Zhu exalted in service to the former king of Quishin 32 years ago, and served him and his nation loyally for all that time. A noble and dedicated man, he was liked by nearly all, including most of the local spirits (including one that taught him Fivefold Dragon Style). When the king died, he supported Bailu's bid for the throne, judging him to be a far better candidate than the Kao-Tse. Zhu fought well in the civil war, at one point defeating an entire talon of soldiers on his own, but when Bailu was captured, he had to swear fealty to Kao-Tse to protect the former chancellor. Serving the cruel tyrant rankles him; Kao-Tse, who isn't fully confident in his loyalty, prefers to send him on errands outside of Quishin whenever possible.
A deeply honorable man, Zhu obeys Kao-Tse's orders in both letter and spirit, but his heart goes out to the people of Quishin (who are the subject of his Oath of the Ten Thousand Dragons Charm). He wears a Breastplate of Blue Jade, and wields a Dire Lance of the same material, which is the source of his nickname.


PLOT HOOKS:
-Even after the civil war has officially ended, Quishin is far from peaceful. A Solar or a Lunar could easily exalt there.
-The PCs might discover the sad state of Quishin through rumors, by traveling through it, or even from Zhu the Blue Spear (though he's not actively seeking to recruit opponents to the regime). Do they try to fix the situation somehow?
-Alternatively, the characters might be recruited by Kao-Tse himself, to pacify the country, fight its enemies, or fix its economy, depending on their skills and reputation.
-The State Secretary of Shanarinara has been eyeing the Quishin situation for a while. He believes that, if Shanari agents can free Bai Lu and put him back on the throne, Shanarinara might gain a loyal ally (or, depending on how they play the game, a useful puppet).
-The Haslanti League has also been paying attention to Quishin. In its weakened state, the small nation would be unable to resist an assault by Haslanti forces...and if they are freed from Kao-Tse, the common people may actually welcome the Haslanti as liberators.


ALTERNATE TAKES:
-Quishin doesn't have to be located in the North. It could just as well be one of the nations of the Hundred Kingdom, a small Southern realm...
-Both Kao-Tse and Kao-Pi, whatever their flaws may be, are men with a strong Conviction, and much ambition. Either or both could have exalted as a Solar Dawn Castes during the civil war. If Kao-Tse is exalted, he will seek to build up Quishin in preparation for an invasion of Shanarinara, possibly allying with the Bull of the North. If Kao-Pi is exalted, he will push for the same policies, but may find himself in greater conflict than before with his father, who may feel threatened by his power; this might, after some time, erode Kao-Pi's loyalties. If both are exalted, war across the North is coming.
-Alternatively, Bai Lu's failure might have attracted the attention of the Yozi. Though Bai Lu would have nothing to do with them under normal circumstances, here despair was enough to make him accept the Infernal Exaltation. As a Green Sun Prince (probably of the Fiend Caste), Bai Lu has by now taken back his country, much to the relief of the people...But as his Urge makes itself known, he may find out that as cures go, he is worse than the disease.
-Similarly, Kao-Tse may have sold out to the Yozi rather than the Guild: By becoming an Akuma during the civil war, he may have acquired infernal powers that would have allowed him to triumph over Bai Lu. In this version, Quishin isn't being squeezed by the Guild...but gradually turned into a Yozi enclave, as its Akuma king helps Yozi cults flourish in secret.
-Tens of thousands died during the civil war. If Shadowlands have opened, Quishin's issues might be roaming undead rather than unchecked banditry.

Spoiler: Refracted Light of the Most High Style (Sidereal Martial Art that emulates the Incarnae)

REFRACTED LIGHT OF THE MOST HIGH STYLE:
By far the Greatest of the gods, the Incarnae possess power comparable to the very Primordials, sufficient to give even the greatest Exalts pause. It should come as no surprise that one of the earliest Sidereal styles was designed to imitate this power. Refracted Light of the Most High was wielded to great effect during the Primordial War, but fell out of favor with most younger Chosen of the Maidens in the late First Age.
This style's form weapon is the lance. It cannot be practiced in mundane armor, although Artifact armor fashioned from Starmetal, Moonsilver or Orichalcum is permissible.
The student's sutra of Heaven: There was once a glorious band...

Compassionate Sun Spares Creation
Cost: 5m
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple (Speed 3)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: (Essence) Actions
Prerequisite Charms: None
...the leader was a hero perfect in every way...
Effect: Powerful though he may be, the Unconquered Sun is no brutal tyrant; only the wicked need fear his might.
For the duration of this Charm, no martial arts-based action of the practitioner can hurt anyone he doesn't intend to hurt. Techniques that affect everyone in an area harmlessly pass by allies and hostages. Punching out pillars and bringing down buildings miraculously leaves friends unharmed. Note that this effectively means those same actions won't harm someone if the martial artist is unaware of their presence (although intending to harm "everyone in the building" will accomplish just that. Intending to harm "everyone in the building except the minister" is also valid.)
In addition, for every attack that succeeds while this Charm is active, the martial artist decides before applying damage whether or not he wants to possibly kill the target. If not, then the damage cannot exceed the Incapacitated Levels. (The martial artist is not, however, supernaturally aware if this aspect of the Charm actually had any effect; it is perfectly possible for a foe to pretend to be down for the count.)

Solar Conviction Slays the Wicked
Cost: 5m
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple (Speed 3)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Holy
Duration: (Essence) Actions
Prerequisite Charms: None
Effect: The Unconquered Sun seeks righteousness in all things. Beware his wrath, for the wicked find no protection from it.
While this Charm is active, the martial artist may choose for each of her individual unarmed attacks whether it causes Bashing, Lethal or Aggravated Damage. Against Creatures of Darkness, this Charm also reduces Hardness by (martial artist's Essence), and adds (martial artist's Essence/2, rounded up) levels of post-Soak Damage.

Unconquered Valor Saves the World
Cost: 5m
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple (Speed 3)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: (Essence) Actions
Prerequisite Charms: None
Effect: No threat is too fearsome for the Unconquered Sun. His enemies soon discover that he has the strength to back up his courage.
While this Charm is active, all the martial artist's unarmed attacks gain +3 to Accuracy, +1 to Rate, and a Speed Reduction of 1 (to a minimum of 3). In addition, the minimum damage of her attacks is doubled.

Temperate Sun Shines Eternal
Cost: 8m (+1WP)
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant or Until Next Action
Prerequisite Charms: None
Effect: What would become of Creation without its sun? The cycle of day and night must remain a safe constant, lest darkness fall, be it literal or metaphorical.
This Charm is a Perfect Parry, completely negating a single attack. For a 1WP surcharge, its duration can be extended, protecting the martial artist from all attacks until his next action.

Unbending Will of the Most High Form
Cost: 15m
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5
Type: Simple (Speed 3)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Holy, Obvious, Form-Type
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Compassionate Sun Spares Creation, Solar Conviction Slays the Wicked, Unconquered Valor Saves the World, Temperate Sun Shines Eternal
...and he fought against the darkness, unbowed and unconquered...
Effect: The martial artist draws upon the perfect idea of the Unconquered Sun, adopting it for battle to become an unstoppable force of righteousness, surrounded by a corona of solar fire.
For the duration of this Charm, the character benefits from the effects of Compassionate Sun Spares Creation, Solar Conviction Slays the Wicked, and Unconquered Valor Saves the World. In addition, he also adds 10 to his Natural Bashing, Lethal and Aggravated Soak.

Loving Moon Defends Creation
Cost: 5m
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
...and the lancer was clever and unpredictable...
Effect: Changing and mutable though she may be, Luna will always love Gaia. Whatever else may happen, she will always defend her to the last breath. Similarly, the martial artist dedicates his strength to protecting the people inhabiting Gaia's body.
For the rest of the scene, the martial artist's Defend Other actions ignore all External and Internal Penalties, including Flurry Penalties. In addition, as many as (Essence/2, rounded up) Defend Other Actions may be placed in a Flurry.

Changing Moon Finds a Way Technique
Cost: 5m
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple (Speed 3)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
Effect: Luna's greatest strength is her adaptability. When faced with a new problem, she chooses to become the appropriate solution.
While this Charm is active, the martial artist treats all situations - both rolls and static values - as if she has 3 Specialty levels that may apply to the situation. When attempting a barehanded attack, treat her Martial Arts score as having a 3-dot Specialty in unarmed attacks. When attempting a jump, she has a 3-dot Athletics specialty in jumping. When attempting to dodge an arrow, calculate her Dodge DV as if she has a 3-dot Dodge Specialty against projectiles.

Argent Madonna Conquers all Hearts
Cost: 5m
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple (Speed 3)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: (Essence) Actions
Prerequisite Charms: None
Effect: Luna is not only Creation's most adaptable god - she is also the most seductive.
For the rest of the scene, every unarmed attack performed by the character can also be a Social Attack. If it hits, the martial artist may waive the attack's Damage (and any other effects it might have via other magical means) to turn it into Unnatural Mental Influence, bypassing the target's MDV. If it succeeds, it counts as a Scene spent building an Intimacy toward the martial artist; the martial artist chooses the nature of this Intimacy. This effect costs 1WP to resist.

Luna's Many Aspects Form
Cost: 15m
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5
Type: Simple (Speed 3)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Form-Type
Duration: (Essence) Actions
Prerequisite Charms: Loving Moon Defends Creation, Changing Moon Finds a Way Technique, Argent Madonna Conquers all Hearts
...and her endless resourcefullness overcame all obstacles...
Effect: The martial artist draws upon the conceptual, perfect adaptability of Luna, glowing in distinctive silver light.
For the rest of the scene, the martial artist benefits from the effects of this Charm's prerequisites. In addition, the character's body and mind acquire a fluidity that allows them to bend around hostile influences, adding (Essence) to both the character's Dodge DV and Dodge MDV.

Mercurial Positioning Method
Cost: 5m
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: (Essence) Actions
Prerequisite Charms: None
...and the five sisters fought by their sides...
Effect: None has mastered the art of getting from one place to another as fully as the Maiden of Journeys. Every shortcut that is or can be - and even some that can't - falls under her purview.
While this Charm is active, the martial artist cannot be constrained: He advances over quicksands unhindered, passes through walls as if they weren't there, and is immune to grapples and blockades. Additionally, he can move (Essence X 8) yards per Action, without incurring a DV penalty.
Note that while this allows for physically impossible movements (such as going through a wall to reach a foe), it does not allow the martial artist to end up in an impossible location (so, at the end of his Action, the martial artist can't still be inside a wall - barring another effect rendering him incorporeal).

Harmony in Battle Prana
Cost: 5m
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple (Speed 3)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: (Essence) Actions
Prerequisite Charms: None
Effect: Some would believe that the Maiden of Serenity has no place on the battlefield. That is not so. The serene martial artist may remain entirely focused on the task at hand, and harmony between brothers-in-arms may be the road to victory.
For this Charm's duration, the martial artist suffers no Wound Penalties. In addition, if the martial artist is taking part in a Coordinate Attack (as leader or otherwise), the Charisma+War roll for coordinating the attack benefits from (martial artist's Essence) extra dice. Last but not least, the martial artist's serene state of mind allows him to waive a 1WP cost incurred during combat.

Fated Victorious Battle Kata
Cost: 5m
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple (Speed 3)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: (Essence) Actions
Prerequisite Charms: None
Effect: Mars rules over both battles and fate. What suicidal madman would dare challenge such a foe? This Charm takes hold of destiny, declaring that victory is inevitable.
While this Charm is active, the martial artist reduces the Target Number for all her combat-related Actions by 1 (to a minimum of 4). At the same time, attacks against her (but not Actions that are not in themselves attacks) have their Target Number raised by 1 (to a maximum of 8).

Knowledge Is Power Technique
Cost: 5m+
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple (Speed 3)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: (Essence) Actions
Prerequisite Charms: None
Effect: As the Maiden of Secrets, Jupiter knows better than anyone else how powerful information can be, especially when hidden from one's foes. Channeling her purview through this Charm, the martial artist renders his attacks secretive, keeping them hidden until it is too late.
While this Charm is active, the character may turn one attack every Action into an Unexpected Attack. If he makes several attacks in a Flurry, he chooses which one becomes unexpected; alternatively, he may pay a 2-mote surcharge for every additional attack in a Flurry he wants to affect in this way.

To End the Enemy Offensive
Cost: 5m
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple (Speed 3)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: (Essence) Actions
Prerequisite Charms: None
Effect: Even the most fearsome and skillful assault can be ended by Saturn, as can all things.
While this Charm is active, the martial artist may enact a Counterattack on Step 9 of any attack aimed at her that she successfully defends against (this does not apply to attacks stopped by a Defend Other action). If the Counterattack hits, it also ends any Flurry the target was engaged in (although this means the target does not incur any penalties for the Actions he has to waive as a result).

Five Interwoven Destinies Form
Cost: 15m
Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5
Type: Simple (Speed 3)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Form-Type
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Mercurial Positioning Method, Harmony in Battle Prana, Fated Victorious Battle Kata, Knowledge Is Power Technique, To End the Enemy Offensive
...and their mastery made victory certain...
Effect: As light in the colors of the Five Maidens plays across her body, the martial artist channels the concept of fate as it ought to be, turning victory into an ordained certainty of life.
For the rest of the scene, the martial artist benefits from the effects of this Charm's prerequisites. In addition, once per Action, she may freely reroll an action and choose the better (or worse) of the two outcomes, as Fate bends to her will.

The Incarnae Triumphant Form
Cost: 20m+
Mins: Martial Arts 6, Essence 6
Type: Simple (Speed 3)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Holy, Form-Type
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Unbending Will of the Most High Form, Luna's Many Aspects Form, Five Interwoven Destinies Form
...and these glorious bandmates found more heroes, and taught them their power.
Effect: The Incarnae are glorious, but their glory would do Creation little good if they were in conflict. The martial artist combines the aspects of the Incarnae into a deadly and harmonious whole.
While this Charm is active, the martial artist may freely and instantly assume one of its prerequisite Forms at the start of each Action. She may switch Form mid-Action for a 1-Mote surcharge, though the switch remains a free action. In addition, this Charm allows her a glimpse of the true power of the Most High: If her Permanent Essence is below 10, she treats it as being one Dot higher during the Scene for all purposes except the size of her Essence Pool.

Spoiler: Watchers of Ascension and Ruin (Yu-Shan society that gambles about Terrestrial events)

THE WATCHERS OF ASCENSION AND RUIN:
The political games of the Celestial Bureaucracy can get vicious at times. As entrenched and eternal as a god's position may seem, it is always possible that unforeseen circumstances or a rival plot will hurt their standing, destroying a millennia-long career...Or that luck, success, or conspiracy will raise one of Yu-Shan's deities to a higher position. And where there is uncertainty, gambling soon follows.
The Watchers of Ascension and Ruin is a secret society of thousands of celestial gods who convene to bet Ambrosia - in amounts that range from token sums to the salary of years - on the rise and fall of others. Most bets are made over other celestial gods, but others are made on their terrestrial brethren, on the Sidereals of the Bureau of Destiny, on various personalities of the Terrestrial Sphere, and even on nations.
Technically, what the Watchers of Ascension and Ruin do is not illegal. Nevertheless, they keep their gambling activities secret from the rest of Yu-Shan and its censors - after all, if it was known that certain gods had a lot to gain from a recent tragedy, they could be suspected of having had a hand in it. And in some cases...those suspicions would be right.

SOYOVALA: Officially, Soyovala is merely a humble god of the second rank, occupying an unremarkable post in the Bureau of Heaven. Officiously, she is the creator and organizer of the Watchers of Ascension and Ruin: It is Soyovala who takes the bets, who distributes the winnings...and who keeps 1% for herself. This operation has made her far wealthier than her job ever could (earning her the equivalent of Salary 4); she barely even shows up to her actual office nowadays, preferring to bribe other gods into doing her work.
Soyovala is motivated in part by greed, and in part by an addicting feeling of success: After thousands of years stuck in the same job with little hope for promotion, she was herself caught off-guard by how lucrative a business the Watchers of Ascension and Ruin have turned out to be. Nowadays, she spends most of her time finding new gods to introduce to it (selecting them based on wealth, potential interest in the gambling, and the likelihood to maintain secrecy), and egging the gamblers on.

PLOT HOOKS:
-The Watchers provide a motivation for various gods to either help or hinder the PCs (or people and organization the PCs have taken an interest in): A god who has bet two months' worth of salary on Sijan losing power this month might be willing to go to great lengths to ensure that it does...and if he's the god of city fires, or has some influence on said god, then one of Sijan's neighborhoods might go up in smokes.
-Inversely, a politically-motivated individual with vast amounts of Ambrosia might attempt to use the Watchers to advance an agenda: By betting an outrageous amount on an outcome, one could motivate many gods to bet on the opposite...and take measures to ensure that they win.
-In order to effectively gamble over the rise and fall of others, the Watchers need to actually KNOW whether others rise or fall. In some cases, such things are hidden: An organization might feign its own destruction while going underground, an exalt might officially concede a defeat while secretly plotting behind his enemy's back. What appears as a loss might be a victory, or vice-versa. As such, Soyovala (and perhaps some of the gamblers) might pry into the secret plans of the PCs, or even hire the PCs to investigate someone else's secrets.

ALTERNATE TAKES:
-The Watchers of Ascension and Ruin need not be a secret society. If their gamblers number in the hundreds of thousands, and count enough high-ranking deities, they might operate openly. In this case, the law enforcers of Yu-Shan are often eyeing them suspiciously, and often investigating them, but Soyovala (with the equivalent of Salary 5) can wield immense influence, and even rely on a small bureaucracy of her own to manage the organization.
-Soyovala might not be the true mastermind behind the Watchers. In this take, she is receiving her orders from a Sidereal of either the Gold or Bronze Faction: By spending enough Ambrosia at the right time and place, the faction can turn various gods against specific targets, or make temporary allies out of them.
-Some of the gods brought into the Watchers of Ascension and Ruin might have a dark agenda. Itzcalimon could join their ranks, trying to manipulate gamblers, turning them against those who might stand in the path of the Reclamation. The same could happen with members of the Listeners of Silence, serving the Neverborn.

Spoiler: Some not-so-balanced stuff for hypnofetish purpose

ESSENCE OF JUST ATTRACTION:
During the last centuries of the First Age, the existence of Essences of Just Attraction was an open secret among the Deliberative, although no Solar would have admitted to owning one in front of the Lunar Exalted - it had been designed by Lawgivers who, taking inspiration from the less noble applications of the Lunar Bond, wished for an easier sway over the Chosen of the Moon, their Mates or otherwise. After the Usurpation, there was little purpose in creating more of them; the only existing copies have been buried in Solar tombs along with their owners.
This Artifact comes in the shape of an elegantly-designed bottle made of Adamant and Orichalcum, and requires no attunement. Instead, if it is filled with water, a Solar may turn the water inside into one dose of perfume by spending 5 motes of Essence. The perfume will simply come across as a pleasant and refined scent; however, any Lunar (or, for that matter, Lunar Half-Castes and Beastmen) who smell it on a person for the next scene will be subject to a subtle form of Unnatural Mental Influence, perceiving the person as extremely attractive, regardless of orientation. If subject to Social Attacks from that person, they will suffer a penalty as if the attacker's Appearance was greater than theirs by 3, regardless of actual comparative scores. Note that this will not change how the perfume's wearer MDV when receiving Social Attacks from Lunars.
The Essence of Just Attraction is a 3-dot Artifact.

Spoiler: Demon Hand (Helltech)

DEMON HAND:
A deadly piece of Helltech graft, the Demon Hand is a 4-dot Artifact designed to empower the Green Sun Princes with deadly martial arts.
The Demon Hand is in reality an arm, bulging with red and black muscles, larger than almost any human arm. It is meant to grafted in the place of the Infernal's right one, and will almost immediately give them away as unnatural. Under most aspects, it is treated exactly as a natural limb.
The Demon's Hand usefulness stems from being designed specifically to channel Essence for martial arts. It contains in itself the programed reflexes to use four Martial Arts Charms, all of which must be from the same style, none of which can be Sidereal. The Demon Hand's wielder can use these Charms as if they knew them. If the Infernal DOES know those Charms, the Demon Hand makes their use trivially easy, reducing their Essence cost by 2 Motes (to a minimum of 1).
A Demon Hand is usually built with Charms from Infernal Monster Style. However, if the Infernal learns other styles (or simply other Charms of the style programmed into the arm), he can spend five hours practicing katas in order to replace the Charms of the Demon Hand.
None of the Charms contained in this Artifact may be Permanent, Form-Type, or General Charms.
Surgery: 30/5 hours/5/4

Spoiler: Laurels of the Virtuous Hero (Artifact)

LAURELS OF THE VIRTUOUS HERO:
A 5-dot Artifact, these Orichalcum laurels were designed toward the end of the First Age by Truthful Arbiter, a young Zenith. Truthful Arbiter, growing disillusioned with the Exalted host, had hoped for a way to rekindle virtue and greatness in both humanity at large and those who lead it. This Artifact was one of his tentative approaches.
When someone wears the laurels (no attunement is necessary), they examine the bearer's soul. For the next few minutes, they expose the bearer's mind to the mental image of his idealized self - what he could be if they cast off his vices, embraced virtue, and became as great as he could potentially be. The experience is entirely in the bearer's mind.
The laurels do not actually force any change upon the bearer's mind; if he resists, nothing happen. If the bearer embraces this vision of his idealized self, however, he may gain one Virtue dot and/or one Willpower dot as a Training effect, going into XP debt if necessary. If he gains a Virtue dot, he also refills his Temporary Willpower pool. Mortals who embrace the vision become Heroic Mortals.
The same person using the laurels more than once in a single year will gain nothing from uses beyond the first.

Spoiler: Slens and Noctimorphs (Darkbrood)

THE NOCTIMORPHS:
One of the Darkbroods, the noctimorphs were created during the Primordial war to wage guerrilla warfare in the East, but have since adapted to the underground caverns of all five Directions. Though not sentient, all of them possess military instincts that let them fight cleverly and efficiently most of the time.
The average noctimorph is a jet-black, chitinous monster the size of a brown bear (though much sleeker). They can climb on walls, eat anything organic, and regenerate during combat. Every now and then, select individuals in the colony transform into gigantic "queens" that produce new noctimorphs at frightening speed (up to three per day and per queen, as long as she has enough food). Worse yet - if a queen is fed sufficient amounts of Jade (of a single type), then she can, within a few months, break it down and produce a noctimorph "prince" with a Jade carapace (it should be noted that she does not stop producing drones during that time). If all queens in a colony are killed, new drones will turn into queens as soon as enough food has been gathered (the transformation takes about a week). Noctimorphs are perfectly willing to eat the corpses of their own dead, but will never outright attack healthy fellow noctimorphs.
Because of the speed at which noctimorph swarms regenerate, the presence of these Darkbrood usually attracts a swift and overwhelming military response from the Mountain Folk: The goal, in such situations, is to completely eliminate the entire colony, burn every corpse so that stragglers may not consume the flesh for new queens, and take back the Jade carapaces of any princes so no new ones may be bred.
All noctimorphs are Creatures Of Darkness.

Noctimorph Drone:
Strength 7, Stamina 7, Dexterity 7, Intelligence 1, Wits 4, Perception 4
Martial Arts 5, War 2 (Guerilla Warfare +2, With Fellow Noctimorphs +1), Athletics 5, Dodge 5
Soak 9B/7L, Health Levels 4/4/3/2/2
Valor 4, Willpower 7, Essence 2, Mote Pool 20
Regeneration: Whenever a drone is injured, it will start healing, without needing to spend an action on it. It will heal 2 Bashing levels with 2 Motes (or 1 if it's the only injury) every five Ticks, or one level of Lethal Damage (also for 2 Motes) if there's no Bashing Damage. Noctimorphs cannot heal Aggravated damage.

Noctimorph Queen:
Strength 9, Stamina 9, Dexterity 1, Intelligence 1, Wits 4, Perception 4
Martial Arts 5, War 2 (Guerilla Warfare +2, With Fellow Noctimorphs +1), Athletics 5, Dodge 5, Soak 12B/10L, Health Levels 4/4/6/6/3
Valor 4, Willpower 7, Essence 4, Mote Pool 40
Queens are about halfway between an elephant and a yeddim in size, and lack mobility; they may only move one yard every two ticks.
Regeneration: Queens regenerate in a manner similar to drones (two Motes per Lethal level, one Mote per Bashing level, Bashing levels go first), but will spend up to four Motes every four Ticks.

Noctimorph Prince:
Strength 10, Stamina 10, Dexterity 10, Intelligence 1, Wits 5, Perception 5
Martial Arts 5, War 3 (Guerilla Warfare +2, With Fellow Noctimorphs +1), Athletics 5, Dodge 5
Soak 13B/11L/4A, Hardness 6B/6L, Health Levels 4/4/5/2/2
Valor 4, Willpower 9, Essence 4, Mote Pool 40
Regeneration: Princes regenerate at the same rate as queens.
Frenzy: A prince may use Essence to enhance any Atheltics, Dodge or Martial Arts action by spending up to 3 Motes on it, gaining one extra die per Mote.




THE SLENS:
The precise origins of the slens has been lost to time. Were they one of the races that inhabited Creation before the creation of the Exalted? Were they created as living weapons of titanic revenge during the Primordial War? The Jadeborn can only speculate. What they do know for certain, however, is that the slens are among the most hostile Darkbrood that can be encountered beneath Creation.
From a distance, a slen can be mistaken for a tall, slender man, almost invariably clad in black. Up close, however, the resemblance fades. Slen skin is white as snow, and they lacks both a nose and hair or any kind (including eyebrows and eyelashes). Their mouth is wider than humans, and reveals rows of small sharp teeth when open. It is generally assumed that the black clothing they fashion for themselves (from whatever material is available underground) is for stealth, but, considering that they do not seek to darken their faces, their might be another purpose.
Slens are generally of human intelligence, but do not possess the proper vocal cords to speak, and can only make hisses; they communicate among themselves through a complex sign language. Regardless, they almost never show any interest in communicating with non-slens. In fact, when encountering other living beings (with a few rare exceptions, most of them among the Darkbrood), their reaction is usually to kill them as quickly and efficiently as they can. When it comes to causing death and destruction, they can either attack on sight, or take the time to strategize against a superior foe, especially when faced with superior numbers - which can happen frequently enough, as slen colonies tend to number in the dozens of members.
Slens do not visibly age, but, somewhere between the age of 50 and 70, a slen will start growing weaker, dying and disintegrating within mere hours.
All slens are Creatures Of Darkness.

SLEN:
Strength 3, Dexterity 4, Stamina 2, Perception 4, Intelligence 2, Wits 2
Martial Arts 2, War 1, Integrity 2, Resistance 3, Survival 3, Craft 1 (Earth, Wood, and/or Water), Occult 1, Athletics 2, Awareness 3, Dodge 2, Stealth 3
Soak 3/2/0, Health Levels 3/3/1/1/1
Conviction 3, Valor 3, Willpower 7, Essence 1, Mote Pool 10
Touch of Shadowy Death: If they were merely hateful, omnicidal Darkbrood, the slen would be nothing but a minor inconvenience. What makes them so feared, however, is the ease through which they bring death: When a slen makes an unarmed attack, it may spend 2 motes to make that attack's damage Aggravated against creatures native to Creation.
Dark Birth: The slen have no gender. Their reproduction is more chilling: By spending 10 Motes and 7WP, a slen may infuse his essence into a freshly-killed humanoid corpse. He rolls a die; on a success, the corpse begins moving on its own, and becomes a fully functional slen within one full day.

Spoiler: The Arena of Shadows (hidden lair of a forbidden god)

THE ARENA OF SHADOWS:
In the age where Primordials ruled Creation, there existed a variety of ceremonies and rituals which they enjoyed having the mortal races hold in their honor. These holy rituals were no less varied than the Primordials themselves.
One such ritual, which was held in honor of the Dragon's Shadow (or rather, for his amusement) was the kaikiten. It was a form of ritual combat, within which a gladiator was brought before Rakumbra, god of the kaikiten. Rakumbra would then create a hateful double of the gladiator, devoted entirely to the destruction of the original. The two would fight to the death, all for the amusement of the Dragon's Shadow. Often enough, he would specifically hold the kaikiten in Rathess, selecting gladiators who had fought in the honor of the Unconquered Sun, in order to taunt the Incarna.
After the Primordial War, Rakumbra was declared a forbidden god, and had to hide below ground, among the Darkbrood. To maintain some measure of power, he has taken to keeping the tradition of the kaikiten alive. To that purpose, he has gathered a small army of hundreds of slens, with which he captures and breeds slaves among the People of the Earth, the Jadeborn, and humans taken from the surface. With these slaves, he has built a massive arena below ground; there, he forces the strongest slaves to fight as gladiators, and puts the best gladiators through the kaikiten.

RAKUMBRA:
The forbidden god despises the people of Creation and Yu-Shan, due to the loss of his comfortable position. He would support the Reclamation in a heartbeat if he caught wind of it, but for now, his focus on his Arena of Shadows, and using it to maintain his Essence.
Rakumbra is lacking in honor (or any sort of redeeming quality), but he does enjoy a good fight practically as much as he enjoys watching it. If he believes he stands reasonable odds of winning, he is as likely to fight by himself as to impose a kaikiten.
Physically, Rakumbra appears as a seven feet tall, constantly-shadowed humanoid with a wide, somewhat fish-like head.
Motivation: To maintain his power by keeping the tradition of the kaikiten alive.
Strength 6, Dexterity 5, Stamina 5, Charisma 3, Manipulation 3, Appearance 2, Perception 3, Intelligence 2, Wits 3
Martial Arts 4, Melee 4, Integrity 2, Resistance 4, Survival 2 (beneath ground +2), Presence 2, Performance 3 (ceremonial gladiator matches +2), Awareness 2, Dodge 3, Bureaucracy 2
Compassion 1, Conviction 3, Valor 3, Temperance 2, Willpower 7
Essence 4, Essence Pool 70, Cult 1
Soak: 6L/9B
Health Levels: 2/6/4/1/1
Charms: See Charms of a God of the Second Rank. Additionally, Rakumbra possesses the Hateful Darkening Mirror Charm: For 2WP and 15m, he can create a copy of someone in his presence for the duration of a scene. The copy has the same abilities and equipments as the original, with the following exceptions:
-The copy has only one dot of Compassion and Temperance, and five dots of Conviction and Valor.
-Every positive Intimacy of the original is mirrored by a negative Intimacy of the copy: What the original loves, the copy hates.
-The copy's Motivation, which it follows with brutal single-mindedness, is to destroy the original. The copy fades once it has done so...which does not make it hesitate in the least.
-Rakumbra's copying ability is limited. As such, the copy cannot have an Essence above Rakumbra's, Artifacts ranked higher than 3, or Celestial Charms or Sorcery (including Celestial Martial Arts).

PLOT HOOKS:
-In the lethal conditions of the Arena of Shadows, slaves tend to die faster than they can be bred. As such, Rakumbra will often send his slens on raids, even on the surface. Finding the source of these raids and putting a halt to them can be a challenge for Terrestrial PCs. (Or a way for Celestial PCs to get familiar with their abilities.)
-Hunting down Forbidden Gods is one of the tasks of the Sidereal Exalted. If Rakumbra's continued existence and general location is discovered, Sidereal PCs might be sent after him...which might provide a hook for exploring what lies beneath Creation, be it Mountain Folk cities, or Darkbrood working with the Reclamation.
-The Ebon Dragon may have fond memories of the kaikiten, and send an Infernal Coven to find Rakumbra. Recruiting him to assist the Reclamation provides a ready-made small army of Darkbrood.

ALTERNATE TAKES:
-Rakumbra's forces might only count a handful of slens trying to control a couple dozen slaves. In this case, he might be an epic adversary for a group of Heroic Mortals.
-Inversely, Rakumbra may be one of the greatest potentates of Creation's underground, unifying armies counting thousands of Darkbrood of a dozen different species, ruling over an empire with thousands of slaves, and an Arena of Shadows the size of a small city. In this case, raise Rakumbra's Essence to 6, his cult to 3, possibly add a dot to his physical Attributes, and possibly let him have Artifact weapons and armor. This version of Rakumbra might be able to threaten an entire Jadeborn city if he is so inclined...or wage war with a surface nation for slaves.

Spoiler: Fort Logar (Shogunate remain in the Wyld)

FORT LOGAR:
Several hundreds of miles beyond the borders of solid reality, somewhere in the Middlemarches, there is an island of stability. A bubble, five miles in radius, that obeys the laws of Creation; a haven where the Raksha may not enter. In the middle of it stands the ancient fortress of Fort Logar.
When the Balorian Crusade came, the 9th Shogunate Legion had been located in the area. Among its forces, it counted an elite unite trained and equipped to handle Raksha in the Bordermarches, under the command of Dragonlord Victorious Stone. When the countless legions of the fae descended upon Creation, Victorious Stone marched his men to Fort Logar: He knew that it hid a Reality Engine, and hoped to use it to create a strategic weak point in the invasion. By the time he and his surviving men reached the fortress, it had become obvious that fighting the Fae was not option - the difference in numbers was simply too overwhelming. Instead, the 9th Legion's 1st Wyld Dragon turned on the Reality Engine to interdict passage to the Raksha, and fortified itself on its positions.
Eventually, the Realm Defense Grid came to life, and the Balorian Crusade was beaten. The soldiers of Fort Logar didn't know it - the war had pushed back the borders of Creation, turning the fortress into an island of solid reality surrounded by the Middlemarches. Remaining and new Fair Folks soon took an interest in the unassailable fort, and Raksha courts would form over the centuries to act as loyal opposition to Fort Logar, constantly besieging it and coming up with new schemes against its inhabitants.
Dragonlord Victorious Stone was nothing if not dutiful. He wasn't sure if the Shogunate still existed. He wasn't sure if Creation itself still existed. But he had every intention of keeping vigil over Fort Logar like a good soldier for all eternity, or until his men could rejoin with Shogunate forces - whichever came first. Over the coming centuries, he instituted draconian discipline in Fort Logar (even by the normal standards of Shogunate legions). Dragon-Blooded troops were to breed and produce children in great quantity. Children were to be trained in the art of war (and artifact repair, and agriculture, and anything else that was useful) from a young age. Any child who exalted were subjected to even more intense training over the years to raise their Essence - and, after raising it enough, were subjected by Victorious Stone to the Purity Crucible Strike Charm. Many painful casualties over the centuries have thus resulted in a population of over 200 mortals, and about 40 Dragon-Blooded who all have five Dots of Breeding.
Officially, Fort Logar is still a Shogunate bastion. Even though all its inhabitants except Victorious Stone were born inside the fortress, they have all grown up in a micro-culture devoted to literally holding down the fort and maintaining what's left of the world the 9th Legion hailed from. Every inhabitants is a trained and disciplined soldier. Magitech weapons and armors from the Shogunate are maintained in working condition. Mundane iron weapons are crafted with exquisite care, and are often of perfect quality.
All of Fort Logar's discipline and martial prowess, however, would have come to naught if not for the fort's own peculiarity: It is itself a powerful manse, whose Hearthstone is used to power a Reality Engine. Said Engine, in addition to maintaining the laws of Creation in the area, instantly calcifies any Raksha who dares enter. This prevents the Fair Folk from storming the castle, but not from besieging the bubble of reality (or coming up with a variety of creative tricks over the centuries).

DRAGONLORD VICTORIOUS STONE:
Possibly older than the Scarlet Empress, Victorious Stone has remained alive through judicious use of Well-Tended Garden of the Soul. With the grim duty of keeping Fort Logar together over the centuries, he was forced to turn himself into a paragon of conviction, a pillar of his survivalist community, an apt administrator, and an uncompromising, ruthless perfectionist. If he has regrets, then he does not have the time to dwell on them.
With centuries spent almost exclusively working, training, leading and fighting, Victorious Stone has become a formidable force indeed. His Essence, as well as a large number of his Attributes and Skills, are ranked as high as 7. After centuries spent in the middle of the Wyld, he is also utterly unflappable, remaining calm in pretty much any situation - an attitude that has spilled over to the rest of Fort Logar, whose population never seems to display what enthusiasm or strong emotion they might be feeling.
Victorious Stone may dream of one day getting back to Creation and the Shogunate, but he considers it more likely that his fortress is all that's left of his world - after all, none of the expeditions he's sent back to explore have survived long enough to return.

PLOT HOOKS:
-Anyone who can reach Fort Logar is obviously not a Raksha, and its people will at least politely listen to what they have to say (while maintaining Essence weapons aimed at them the whole time). However, Victorious Stone and his soldiers are going to take any claim with a huge grain of salt if it comes from one of the Anathema (though they are unlikely to attack Solars and Lunars if they believe the battle can be avoided - resources are tied up in containing the Fair Folk, after all). If Victorious Stone is presented with sufficient evidence that Creation still lives, then he will plan his forces' return to it carefully; if he learns that Lookshy is effectively ruled by other remnants of the Shogunate, he will almost certainly seek to pledge allegiance to it.
-Fort Logar has a unique population of high-Breeding Dragon-Blooded, much as in before their blood got diluted. Parad, God of Inherited Might, may become aware of this. As he has sought to return the Terrestrial Exalted to this state for a long time, he may be quite desirous to bring these Dragon-Blooded back to Creation, possibly use them as an example to inspire the others. But how does a god of the Third Rank arrange an expedition into the Middlemarches?
-Victorious Stone isn't certain if Creation has survived...but he chances across a discovery of capital importance: One of the Directional Titans is located not too far from his citadel. If he and his troops can seize the flying fortress, then searching for Creation becomes entirely doable. But what happens when they find it?

ALTERNATE TAKES:
-Fort Logar can be more or less powerful. Maybe instead of a Dragon, it was the entire 9th Legion that ended up stuck in this fortress. In which case, Fort Logar is a massive fortification armed with magitech surpassed only by Lookshy, and its discovery (or return into Creation) would cause a massive upheaval in the regional balance of power. On the other hand, maybe a recent Fair Folk plot has successfully killed off much of the fort's population, and the survivors know they won't last long if they remain there.
-Fort Logar is in the Middlemarches, yes, but in which direction? Deep in the blizzards and mists of the North? Lost in the jungles of the East? Surrounded by volcanoes in the South? A lone island to the West?
-It's not real. Fort Logar is just a Fair Folk court playing the role of Shogunate survivors. Their "Reality Engine" is glamour, an illusion they pretend to believe, as do the other Fair Folks who play at besieging them.
-Fort Logar was holding a Reality Engine. But what if that wasn't just it? In this version, Fort Logar was a Shogunate vault of powerful artifacts, some of them dating back to the First Age. Its return to Creation can be a game-changer even with small numbers.

Spoiler: Raging Heart of Solar Passion (so you want to be Nanoha...)

RAGING HEART OF SOLAR PASSION:
Though Solar Exaltations are not transmitted from parent to child, it has never stopped the First Age Solars from having high expectations for their children. One particular First Age Night Caste was no exception to that, and observed closely the progress of his little daughter. On one hand, he was delighted to see that the young girl's kind and helpful nature did not in the least diminish her martial abilities nor her eagerness for battle (in fact, the Half-Caste's tendency to resolve disputes with her fist had earned her the nickname of "Golden Devil" among other children). On the other hand, her continued failure to learn any social Charm worried him.
And so, he set to work to create the perfect gift for her. And thus, for her 9th birthday, he gave her a powerful Artifact...
The Raging Heart of Solar Passion takes the shape of an Orichalcum staff, curbed at the end to form a Hearthstone socket. Though it requires only 6 Motes to attune, it needs another Mote to fire every shot.
The Artifact's most obvious application is as a non-lethal weapon: Damage caused by its blasts can never reach past Incapacitating unless the wielder deliberately wills it so (though it can reach back into Lethal). Its other use, however, is more insidious: Anyone the weapon has knocked into Incapacitated (regardless of other injuries) must either spend 3WP or instantly develop a positive Intimacy toward the wielder (the wielder chooses the context of the Intimacy - feelings of friendship, romantic love, or even the love of a child for its mother are all valid examples). This Unnatural Mental Influence is subtle, and the target must spend 3WP at once to be aware of it.
The Raging Heart of Solar Passion is a 5-Dot Artifact.

Speed: 6 Accuracy: +3 Damage: 18B/5B Rate: 1 Range: 250 Ammo: NA (need one Mote to shoot) Minimum Str: 2 Tags: 2,O

 

Exalted homebrew eh? Well I made this thing:

Exalted Motorbikes!?

 

So, it's been mentioned on SV but not here.

As you may or may not recall, a little while ago Holden decided to be a crazy person and make Exalted vs World of Darkness as a fan book.

Recently, he's decided to be more of a crazy person and put together a Companion to the original. It's got a smattering of new Charms, some rule tweaking, and Holden figured out how to fit in Infernals and Alchemicals in a satisfying way.

 

So I've got an Exalted crossover where an SI Slayer Isekai goes on a recursive isekai adventure. I Can't Believe They Chose Me To Infiltrate Faerûn
Thread includes a variety of side stories and alternate crossovers as well.

While writing it, I've been inspired to make some homebrew, especially Malfeas organization charms because he gets fuck all for that. I'm confident on the thematics (quite pleased, actually), but the balance is pretty iffy. It's fine for a story, but any input on making these something actually playable would be appreciated.

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BEATING PLOWMEN INTO SWORDS
Cost: 10m; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Simple (Dramatic Action)
Keywords: Obvious, Touch, Training, Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Calloused Hands of the Brass Smith

Malfeas' lessers are less capable than him, thus he disdains relying on any but himself. However, treading Creation underfoot is a tedious task best delegated to others, and incompetence on their part is unacceptable. Fortunately, Malfeas is well-skilled in all the most advanced educational techniques.

This charm is a Craft Item dramatic action with an interval of one week, during which the Infernal beats skill into a student. Pain being the best teacher, this process inflicts at least one unsoakable level of lethal damage on the student per interval. As a Training effect, for every 10 successes on the craft roll, the student learns 1 dot of any ability or specialty known by the Infernal, up to the Infernal's own rating or the subject's maximum allowable rating, whichever is lower.

At Essence 4, the Infernal may additionally train his students in attributes, with the same restrictions as Abilities.

A repurchase at Essence 5 allows the Infernal to begin reforging his students rather more literally. As a permanent Desecration effect, the Infernal may craft mutations within a subject at a rate of one mutation point per 10 successes. This process consumes magical reagents worth Resources equal to half the mutation's point cost

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MENTAL CLAY
Cost: -, Mins: Essence 3, Type: Permanent
Keywords: Touch, Illusion
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Beating Plowmen Into Swords

Strong tools are worthless if they lack drive equal to their strength. However, Malfeas knows how to change the minds of men.
This is an upgrade to its prerequisite, allowing the use of Medicine as a craft skill to strengthen, weaken, add, or outright remove intimacies instead of increasing ability ratings. Simply altering the nature of an intimacy is impossible with this effect; Malfeas has no desire for sloppy seconds.
The explicitly invasive nature of this procedure inflicts unsoakable levels of lethal damage sufficient to bring the subject to their Incapacitated level, which cannot be healed while the charm is in use. This charm does not provide any form of healing or stabilization to the subject and it is recommended that the Infernal implement something suitable.

With Integrity 1, the Infernal gains another option allowing the creation of Artifact Intimacies. Using Integrity in place of Craft, capped by their Medicine, the Infernal may perform a Craft Artifact action to construct an intimacy within their subject that is as inviolable as the artifact it is. This requires all the same magical materials and effort as creation of traditional artifacts, though the subject itself counts as a single component. An Artifact Intimacy does not count towards the subject's maximum number of intimacies and one rated at 3 also affects the subject as an additional motivation.

A repurchase at Essence 4 allows increasing or decreasing Virtues and Willpower as a training effect, with a cap of the Infernal's own rating or the subject's natural limit, whichever is lower.

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CITY ON A HILL DEVELOPMENT
Cost: 20m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 4; Type: Simple (Dramatic Action)
Keywords: Obvious, Touch, Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Mental Clay

In order to minimize the amount of attention required for managing his underlings, an Infernal may turn to that blackest of Autochthonian arts, automation. After all, if people are objects and magical objects are artifacts, then, logically, organizations are magitech.

This charm is a craft artifact action to construct an artifact organization. The process is identical to constructing an artifact using the rules for magitech, with a few exceptions. The exotic materials used must be either artifact intimacies or the policy of an artifact organization. If an artifact intimacy is used, the holder of that intimacy must be and remain a key individual of the resulting artifact organization. If an artifact policy is used, the organization in question becomes and must remain a subsidiary of the resulting artifact organization.

Spoiler: Artifact Organizations

This has the potential to be extremely broken. Entirely unsure about it.

ARTIFACT ORGANIZATIONS:
Artifact organizations can only be constructed with magic that specifically allows it.
Artifact organizations are designed and constructed just as other forms of magitech and require maintenance. The ST must adjudicate the capabilities of an artifact organization, but suggested powers include reducing the interval for certain organization actions, adding successes or removing penalties from organization actions, or adding new functionality to an organization (i.e. a telepathic network between all members or automatic replenishment of assets).
Intact and properly maintained artifact organizations innately resist attacks. An artifact organization regains Loyalty equal to its artifact rating per scene. Natural mental influence attacks against the Policy of the artifact organization may be ignored for 0 Loyalty. Rejecting UMI has its loyalty cost reduced by the artifact rating of the organization.
During the design phase, the crafter decides the purpose of the organization, which determines the specific ritual of maintenance, including ability roll. This ability is also the ability used for the roll to construct, repair, or alter the artifact organization. If an artifact organization goes without the regular maintenance determined during its design process, it gradually degrades, losing access to its special capabilities, and may eventually break. A broken organization, whether due to lack of maintenance or the destruction of components such as key individuals or subsidiaries, ceases to function and no member may make leadership actions with it. The organization must be repaired before it will function again.

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PILLAGING PIRATE PRANA
Cost: 5m; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: One raid
Prerequisite Charms: Destruction Begets Creation (Source: Revlid crafting)

The whole of existence is the King's by right; when the time comes for him to reclaim it, he is disinclined to ask politely.

By carrying off riches by force, the Infernal gains temporary Capital equal to the stolen Wealth value that must be committed to a Leadership Action.

A repurchase allows applying a surcharge of +5m +1wp to the activation of this charm, expanding its scope. This mode enhances an Attack Project leadership action; if successful, the attacking organization gains temporary capital equal to their Competence. This mode is sometimes referred to as PILLAGE, THEN BURN TECHNIQUE

Explanation: The simplest way to use this is by fencing the stolen goods, a Grow Asset (Wealth) action. The base use does nothing if loot worth less than Wealth 1 was acquired, Wealth 0 can be added as much as you'd like, it's not going to help.

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THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 4; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: One interval
Prerequisite Charms: Forged In Fury (Revlid), Beating Plowmen Into Swords

People respond well to threats of violence. By incorporating this concept as a management principle, we are on track to surpassing every quarterly metric by 14%.

This charm reduces the time interval of a leadership action by one step (Years > Seasons > Months > Weeks > Days). It cannot reduce a leadership action to less than one day.
Overuse runs the risk of the organization's Size asset shrinking, if efforts are not made to mitigate manpower loss. If this charm is used more frequently than (Essence) times per year, the organization loses a dot of Size. A Protect Organization action can be used to reset this count, though it may not be enhanced by this charm.

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BRASS DANCER SHINTAI
Cost: 8m, 1wp (+4m); Mins: Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious, Wanton, Social
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Beauty Without Malice

Malfeas, once Emperor and now just another inmate in a prison of his own flesh. He has raged impotently for millenia, utterly incapable of altering his circumstance. However, there is one small part of him that does not rage, is not tortured by failure. In that one place, he is free to just dance.

This charm may only be used while dancing, and ends as soon as the Infernal stops a dance-based performance. Like its prerequisite, witnesses are compelled to stay and watch the performance; however, a +4m surcharge also compels any witnesses with Dodge MDV less than the Infernal's Performance rating to join the dance, instinctively choreographing with the Infernal to provide a teamwork bonus to his roll. The sublime nature of Primordial dance transcends mortal form, doubling the maximum Mental Defense Value bonus or penalty the Infernal can inflict or benefit from based on difference in Appearance, and removing the limit entirely after Essence 6. Additionally, by mimicking Malfeas' own style, this charm doubles the successes on the roll before comparing them to the target’s MDV.

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ENTOURAGE COMPONENT FORMATION
Cost: - (2m+); Mins: Essence 4; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Obvious, Shaping
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Ascendent Objectivity Stance

Committing a surcharge of 2 motes per passenger, the Infernal may extend the flying platform to carry others in the same fashion. This expansion may occur when the platform is created, or it can be expanded later, which counts as a charm activation.

A repurchase at Essence 6 allows carrying up to Essence rating in magnitude worth of object-scale individuals or supplies, at a cost of (Magnitude) motes.

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UNORTHODOX REALITY FRAUD
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 4; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Heretical, Shaping, Sorcerous
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Soul-Sand Devil Shintai, Corrosive Pattern Infliction

Despite her infinitude, there exist realities beyond even the reach of Cecelyne. Foolishly, they don't abide by the laws set down by the Primordials, instead preferring the absurdity of "physics" and "matter". With the aid of the Ebon Dragon, this weakness can be exploited.

The Infernal must be within a reality that functions via a non-Primordial physical paradigm to use this charm. While already material, the Infernal then materializes again, converting their natural motonic processes to the local paradigm. This includes such things as particle physics, mass, cellular biology, and DNA. In this state, they are physically indistinguishable from a native of the reality. Dematerializing safely cancels the charm without countermagic, while using countermagic will return the Infernal to their normal material form. Despite utilizing the principles of Corrosive Pattern Infliction, the Infernal's soul and exaltation provides sufficient inherent stability to prevent their altered form from decaying over time.

(This is exclusively relevant in crossovers where Exalted comes in contact with a world that uses things like atoms.)

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UNWORTHY CHOSEN MOCKERY
Cost: -, Mins: Essence 5, Type: Permanent
Keywords: Heretical
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Beating Plowmen Into Swords, Unquestionable Yozi Authority

Demons are strong, clever, and mad as a sack of cats. Mortals are fragile, foolish, and infinitely malleable. The Exalted are Autochthon's over-engineered attempt to compensate for mortal failings. This enhancement technology might be less powerful, but it is significantly more accessible.

Two subjects are required, a mortal and a demon (which must be no more than 2 dots away from the mortal's essence rating) that has been converted to chalcanth. In a crafting process identical to that of creating a genesis artifact of a rating equal to the essence of the resulting combination, the two are forcibly, permanently, and completely merged as per the Ride spirit charm. The chalcanth counts as one exotic ingredient, as does the mortal if they are enlightened.

The mortal retains control of the gestalt, though it gains all of the demon's intimacies, and the demon's motivation is applied as an Urge in addition to the mortal's original motivation. If the addition of the demon's intimacies would put the gestalt character over its intimacy cap, it loses excess intimacies naturally.

As an interesting academic note, if it were possible to render other spirits down into a form suitable for crafting, a similar merger might be possible with gods or elementals. The Celestial Bureaucracy would strongly frown on any such experiments though.