Navi

All original material is Copyright © John Hodson 2011-2012. If anyone wants to add any material to my Exalted section I''ll include their with name and copyright in the post notes unless they want to contribute anonymously.

The first section is basically my take on Exalted. Right now I'm just copying up my notes so everything's very raw while I put down my ideas. I'll work on editing everything and making it more coherent later. As a result things will contradict the in game canon and even be self contradictory especially since not all my notes are copied in chronological order. They've been typed up without editing to remain as close as possible to my original vision.

Thursday, 31 March 2011

2046

    I am writing this under a state of considerable distress.
   Apart from martial arts films (wuxia) Chinese films often don't grab me because of their lack of emotional involvement. This one doesn't lack style that other modern Chinese films lack. They tend to avoid using music which stops me from getting wrapped up in them but this one has a whole score including a great piece of Latino music which is very lilting and they use several times. I feel a bit like Mr. Chow writing this. He spends a lot of his time writing or talking about his writing. The most lengthy part of the plot is his romantic involvement with characters including one played by Zhang Ziyi who as always plays a handful. I didn't recognise her at first, he looks very different with her hair not tied back.
   The story takes place largely during a series of Christmas eves during the sixties in Hong Kong. Li Gong (from Hero) works as a journalist and writer (which gives me a kick writing this review because it's like being a hack journalist with a typewriter.) The rest of the story is about his foreign escapades and time on a futuristic android inhabited train taking him from 2046 which no one has ever left. It's not truly surreal or bizzare but is surrealistic, it's different but not disturbingly abberant.
   It doesn't try to grab me too much but if you like films that give you a lot to think about in terms of characters' motives and a plot with a lot of mystery you'll probably like this. The feel of the film gets to me more than an emotion it inspires but it's no less interesting because of it. This is kind of a sci fi mixed with history. Being set in east Asia it's more like a film about the 1930's than the sixties but I love that kind of posh glamour combined with a writer living in a tiny room with noisy neighbours. Added to the colourful scenes of he train leading away from 2046 it's got style and glamour that other Chinese directors should be paying attention to. It isn't just wuxia that has exaggerated style but it isn't done in an overpowering way. He uses colour and effects very gracefully, combined with the wonderful soundtrack it's a film you can enjoy even if all the intellectual stuff goes over your head so much you feel like you're autistic not to be able to understand why the characters are feeling the emotions they are.
   This is a great example of the style and depth Asian cinema can have and I only wish I was properly taught how to understand and write about it as well as the director Wong Kar-wai wrote and made it. If you're interested in more of his work and want to know more about the film's storyline watch Days of Being Wild and In The Mood For Love. I haven't seen those yet so can't say how good they are.

Message For M

    Draw a character with a breast on her face and faces on her breasts. Each face speaks directly from it's lung. The character can vomit through it's breast and eats by expanding it's nipple and wrapping it around things like the invertebrates in King Kong.

Wednesday, 30 March 2011

Jade

    What if Jade is made directly from a transformed Elemental? The dragon-blooded's affinity with that element makes it easier to craft than other Exalted. Making an artefact from one of the magical materials should be a genuinely supernatural process not simply a physical or alchemical one. Orichalcum is naturally molten as it is always found in lava.

Beastman Transformation

    30th March Beastman Transformation doesnt have to transform into a war form. Beastman doesn't mean a crude combination of a human and animal. Becoming a beastman means transforming into a humanoid version of an animal that can speak with humans. They can learn beastman forms for other animals with additional Knacks. Beastman transformation means becoming a much more elegant combination of animal and human that is mostly animal. Like Chihiro in Little Norse Prince. Their beastman form is their natural spirit shape. They can express themselves through facial expression as well as speech, walk on two legs or move like animals and have unusual dexterity with their paws. When in their natural forms they do not use their moonsilver tattoos so these are less visible.
   Their alteration of Attributes while in animal form, possibly to the detriment of values makes them more dependent on Abilities. Should they have Ability based Charms?

Little Norse Prince

    I quite like this anime despite the fact it was made in 1968. It's quite cutesy and some of the characters especially Chihiro are really sweet. The children are drawn rather like pepperpot figures and make the film a lot more immature. The song and dance scenes also make me squirm. Some of the animation is faulty and even incomplete like two of the action scenes which are only storyboarded and let the film down. It would be nice if someone rereleased it with these scenes properly animated but there's nothing like the original.
   It's age doesn't mean it has a boring or uncomplicated storyline although once scene reminded me of a communist propaganda film. It can be a bit simplistic at times but in a way that's fitting because it's set in a small village in medaeval like times. The age does show in the soundtrack, it sounds quite old but I still like this film anyway. Some of the animation in water scenes is done in a traditional Japanese style reminding me of block prints of waves.

Monday, 28 March 2011

    Dark Messiah Style - creates the effects Oblivion causes including the ability to destroy people's souls incidently similar to the Fair Folk but the Fair Folk do it to prolong their lives in Creation.

Ravening Mouth of the Abyssals

    Horrible stories abound in the Threshold of deathknights drinking the blood of their enemies, marching forward unstoppably as if they could heal wounds through their own appetite for slaughter.
   Cost: 8m, 1 wp
   If they inflict a number of levels of lethal damage in one action (including the use of extra action Charms) equal to their Ability level they regain one lethal health level or two levels of bashing damage.
   They can only use Ravening Mouth of (Ability) for one Ability at a time.

Time

    If you want proof that this country is mad look no further than how we use daylight saving time. The emphasis is on saving, as in making it last longer.
   The point of using DST is that people spend more of their time awake during daylight. The sensible thing to do would be to use it when daylight is short. Since the working day is skewed towards the afternoon and daylight saving time means the sun rises and sets later it would be logical to use it at the darkest time of the year. And yet that's exactly when the Great British people stop using it. During five months of the year you have to endure purgatory when everyone are making things more dismal than then have to be.
   Did you know people spend most of their lives thinking noon is at 1 P.M. We spend most of our lives using daylight saving time rather than real time and it doesn't even make sense. I used to wonder why the light lasted so long in the summer. The reason is for most of their lives people use false time.

Wednesday, 23 March 2011

Going Forth by Night

    Labyrinth Circle Spell

   The spell can be performed on someone who has died recently. If so they must start casting the spell within the same scene. If the dead became a ghost they have three days until their soul splits and enters the afterlife. The spell binds a person's soul to their body by preventing it from escaping. Each person has four Divine Virtues that make up their Essence. On death their Essence leaves the body through four gateways associated with the Virtues. If these gateways can be sealed the spirit can be kept inside the body that once lived.
   Once the ritual has begun the Necromancer must concentrate on performing the spell continuously or it will fail. If preserving the body of a ghost the ritual starts at sunrise when they return to their body and ends at sunset. If someone has dies after sunset the ritual goes on until sunset the next day. If they die before sunset they have until nightfall to complete the ritual.
   To perform this rite they must remove each of the organs associated with the Divine gateways: the brain (Conviction), the heart (Compassion), the liver (Valour) and the sex organs (Temperence.) These organs are placed in four sealed earthenware jars. The body is then covered in dessicants, the stomach and intestines are emptied and filled with herbs. Then the body is wrapped in layer after layer of oiled bandages containing amulets of onyx. If the ritual is completed by sunset the Necromancer and all who assisted in the rite mount a vigil until the last light has disappeared from the sky. When night falls the body comes back to life.
   The newly ressurected mummy is now one of the undead although they maintain their own free will and intelligence. They are not automatically controlled by powers that exert control over the undead as their spirits are not in the Underworld and did not pass through Lethe.
   Their continued state depends on two things however. Firstly their level of animation depends on how well preserved their body is. Normally this is not a problem as the preservatives, oils and amulets prevent the body from decaying. However damage from injury affects them normally and damaged body parts canot be regrown or healed. Any part ocf them that is severed can be reattached under proper ritual conditions but requires further spells to be restored to an animated state under control of the mummy.
   Secondly the Virtues contained in their organs are affected by the organs being removed and their gateways being sealed shut. The mummy suffers a -1 internal penalty on all Virtue rolls and loses one channel for each Virtue which has been closed and the jar containing the organ is shut. As long as the jars remain sealed the power of the Virtues within them is contained. If a jar is broken or otherwise opened then the organ's power is released and they regain full function of that Virtue. However when all of a mummy's jars have been opened the power of it's Essence escapes and it dies.

Twisted Sister

    M My Minion, I hope you're reading this on a big screen. It's much better that way.

   The lithe, pale form of her upper arm flowed seamlessly to her bulkless shoulder. Her skin was so pure and uniform that even her sister's sharp senses could find no fault or blemish. She was so pale and yet not bleached and featureless white, but the colour of her skin darkened the straps that wrapped around her body, and the links running down her inhumanly long, elegant and graceful limbs, eccentuating their perfect proportions. These are what aroused her sister's lust the most. They presented the illusion of being bound, a feeling that was pleasurable to onlooker and wearer alike. But such an illusion was dangerously disarming. Four males had tried to share the bed of her sister but the only fluid they had spilled onto the sheets was their blood. She had tempted the last one, she was sure. Cecelyne had seen her luring the noble, too impetuous for his own good, drunk with wine and the promise of a night's ecstasy back to her room where she had several knives waiting. Cecelyne watched inconspicuously through a special peephole she had made to watch her sister undress and sleep as she played with him, torturing him to death inch by agonising inch, her lusty naked body just out of reach.
   The first time Cecelyne found it unbearable to watch yet unbearable to look away from as he tried to rape her. But he had asked for more than he bargained for. With a surprise move Hellebron had managed to turn the overconfident male onto his back and mount him. Thinking that she might have decided to submit to his advances or just confused by the sudden positioning, he's let his guard down as Hellebron grasped his chest between her legs in an iron grip and sank her fingers into his throat. Cecelyne always watched her when she had visitors after that.
   The second time she brought a casual lover up with her and actually seemed willing, but again he tried to use violence to force her to submit. It was as if she didn't understand the rules of druchii courtship. This time it was bloodier. She'd disabled him with a crippling strike then dug her long fingernails into his eyes. Again she strangled him to death.
   The third one- they seemed attracted to her like fish drawn to a lure under her loincloth- had the worst passing of all three. Again they sat down on the bed and he began teasing her and caressing her and then tried to rip off her clothes. At the first sign of violence she abandoned any sexual interest and then began savagely beating him to death. The unchanging mask of hate on her sister's face had been unlike anything she'd ever seen. He must have died some time before she ceased beating his face into an unrecognisable pulp.
   It always amazed her how calm she seemed afterwards. For all her violence and the malice that blazed in her eyes afterwards she was as calm and serene as a maid waking on a peaceful morning. That said she behaved more violently in the days after killing a would-be suitor. Her temper flared at the slightest irritation, and loud, acrimonious arguments raged over the dinner table over the alleged, attempted rape of a noble maid. Her father tried to explain that all males behaved that way; but there was still a difference between that and actually trying to force her as Hellebron never failed to vociferously point out, only ceasing her tirade when her father sharply slapped a glove across her face. The money he'd had to pay in recompense for these shady, alleged crimes upon her person was costing her family and her father years of profits.
   The forth time she killed she prepared in advance. Knives had been hidden around the room and servants subtly deflected from coming near her chamber. This time she had gone out hunting and brought back a youth who looked like he'd come from some sleazy bordello. Only Hellebron would ever dare do such a thing Cecelyne mused with a hint of wistfulness and heartfelt envy.
   After slipping off a gauzy silk gown that covered her very revealing underwear and coquettishly describing the use of her toys- which had incidently been paid for by her parents Cecelyne noted- she convinced the naked male to allow her to tie him to the bed. With an artistry that truly surprised Cecelyne she'd begun carving off his skin, starting with his feet and hands and working her way inwards. She didn't simply cut him into a bloody ruin, he turned him into a sculpture of flesh, a sculpture that should have died long before it actually expired. Her and Hellebron were the only ones to see the work of art. No one found the body afterwards.
   That night Cecelyne dreamed of the scene, dreamed of the screaming. But most of all- that fleeting moment she wished she could hold onto for longer but was all the more valuable for it's briefness, the moment that made her feel heat in her heart and all through her body, was her sister's absolute silence as she cut him up. That thought aroused her. The thought of making her sister break that silence. I'll hold you in my bed as firmly as you hold your torture victims, and I'll make you moan and scream in ways you never thought you could. You won't be able to stay quiet for a moment. I'll have you my dear sister, as surely as you've protected yourself from everyone else I'll have you.
    She woke the next morning, white sheets clinging to her naked body, soaked with sweat and something she'd never smelled before.

Tuesday, 15 March 2011

Undead

    Necromancy offers ways to raise both the lesser and the greater undead but there are times when Abyssals and other nefarious agents of death need access to more immediate or more unusual followers.
   The still living blood of the unfortunates used in it''s construction is then fed to the beast filling it with a relentless thirst for blood.
   These spells are also helpful in making soulsteel as they can torture their victims for much longer so they are ready to be transubstantiated into that ethereal material or just for recreational purposes.
   Zombie Motivation Consume the flesh of the living
   They'll keep eating corpses they've killed until all the flesh is consumed. They usually don't bother killing the before eating. Although their intellect is limited, driven by one of their most basic desires they are extremely strong in pursuing what they want and frighteningly resilient as their minds and partially reanimated bodies no longer sense pain. 'They are created en masse by a spell with limited effect, it's doesn't do a very good job of reanimation or the process of reanimation is not perfect or as developed as used for skeletons or other undead creations. But despite their poor (read negligible) intelligence and undisciplined hunger they are quite effective on the battlefield and in war, particularly as terror troops.'
   Zombies are often raised then a Necromancer immediate servants although they are often retained for as long as they can sustain themselves afterwards. They are the lowest form of undead reanimation with necromantic power and possessed by only the most basic instincts and absolutely no intelligence. 'This may be a result of an early necromantic formula that worked on a more physical level literally restoring incomplete and imperfect life to the dead rather than more advanced spiritual magic that was created later for use on skeletons. Perhaps the presence of the roughly complete victim's corpse prevents use of different Necromantic principles, or the limited age after death and something to do with the proximity of the body's spirit limit the intelligence it can possess. Much older bodies can be imbued with a element of the deceased's soul, and the greater the age or the strength the dead had in life the more complete the link.'
   Skeletons are far too decomposed to reanimate in such a way. Instead the Necromancer locates a trinket associated with the victim's soul and binds a fraction of it to the newly risen deceased. As a result skeletons can function as servants, perform basic tasks and hold weapons and wield them in battle. Skeletons of warriors are used to staff undead legions following instructions hammered out by their greater undead leaders.
   The horrid magic that reanimates these things allows for the most unnatural creatures. The twisted genius of the Mortificers shape amalgamations that work in ways that were never intended, or even conceivable to onlookers.

Monday, 14 March 2011

Perfidious Courtesan Style

    Perfidious Courtesan Style uses martial arts in social combat to control and opponent- and then destroy them.
   Use Virtue orientated attacks.
   The mistress sensuously caresses her target leaving streaks of blood and peeled skin as the victims can't bring themselves to stop her.
   Any contact that would normally create pleasure causes agony as skin peels and flesh tears in contact with her body.

Man O' War Touch

    The merest touch from a Lunar can bring agonising death.
    They can recover one bite of venom per hour for a -1 fatigue penalty, up to a maximum number of bites equal to their Stamina.

Crocodile Stomach

    As crocodiles never starve during a disaster, the character can safely feed on any carcass, no matter how rotten. Although it might not be as nutritious as fresh meat they can gorge themselves on any kill available without risk of disease or inability to eat from wretching.

Exalted Hero Styles

    The martial arts styles of each kind of Exalted personify what they are.
    Here's a short part of a story I've thought out part of.

   She leaned forward and clasped he upper lip between her lips. After a fulsome kiss she pulled her head down clasped it to her chest.
   "I'm sorry I tried to rape you."
   "I'm not sorry I tried to kill you. I enjoyed it" she said, kissing the top of her sister's head again. "I would have let you die if that male hadn't come in."
    "Am I weak?"
   "No. I'm stronger. As I should be."
   "Maybe one day I'll be stronger."
   She didn't say the implicit 'I hope not' as they both knew what that meant.
   After a moment savouring the last of the oddly fearful expression on the male's upturned face she finally pushed the contorted corpse off the bed.
   Free from the prying eyes of the deceased stranger, still staring at her, frozen in the moment he died, the Elf maiden returned he attention to her familial bedfellow.
   The younger girl whimpered slightly under her touch.
   "Don't do that" warned her older sister in a soft tone.
   She replaced her whimper with a gentle groan.
   "That's better." She grasped the white haired girl, wrapping her lags around her's and stroking her back with a lazy gentle motion.
   "I'll never let anyone else hurt you."

    I just wrote this while I was naked in bed. I wanted to do something that reconciled a love theme with the inherent malice of the Dark Elves. A story like this would never work in 40,000, the setting and the background of the character wouldn't allow for it, it's far too stern for any major characters to have any love interest without totally breaking background. But in a Fantasy setting it could work if it was properly handled because romance and fantasy have a long history and Fantasy is far more romantic than the dark, far-future of 40,000. Romance and sci-fi seems too corny.
    The problem is writing a story from the perspective of the Dark Elves with them as the main protagonists is difficult if you want you characters to have emotional range and depth. Without positive emotions they're at risk of being one dimentional, but you have to temper that with the fact that these beings are fundamentally evil which is the reason people read this story. The writers of Malus Darkblade seem to have done a good job from what I've read, albeit within the confines of a pure adventure plot. Alith Anar (also hailing from Nagarythe) has love interests in his story. To counter the insidious viciousness that's overtaken the Dark Elves this takes place quite early in their history and is inspired by the characters of Hellebron and her sister in The Shadowking (although it's nothing like this, you'll never hear about Dark Elf sisters getting down to it in something that's Black Library approved, that's why this is fan fiction and I'm not seeking any sponsors.)
   More personally this is my first trial of writing genuine fiction, with a proper narrative, dialogue and characters. I mostly just wrote descriptive prose, and while this is very enjoyable I felt like I wasn't a writer of the same type or the same calibre as the ones I read. I've also thought out a few other parts of the story, which crucially hinges on dialogue not all poetic description so at last I can become a proper writer.
   There I've just spent more space writing about myself and storytelling and my actual story. I'm nothing if not introspective, but that will change soon when I start being more expansive in my writing.

Snake Style

    Most or all of the entries here are about an alternative version of Snake Style created by one of my characters. Enjoyment.

   Undated A snake's venom kills it's target after it has struck, leaving the snake to wait until it's dead. The martial artist can employ the same principle with an unarmed martial arts attack. The master of snake style covers his fist with infectious Essence. When successfully struck roll against the target's Stamina + Resistance. If successful the Essence has infected the target and they suffer the effects of the blow again every time the player reflexively spends five motes on an action up to Essence actions. Roll the attack's raw damage pool as if they had just been struck again with the same number of successes.
   This is a good high level Charm but is conceptually a bit too much like Terrestrial martial arts, a problem which afflicts my whole reinvention of the style and should be more abstract in the celestial style. Like working on the precept that the snake doesn't have to be in contact with it's victim for it's venom to have an effect. Merely touching a target can prove fatal. Very dangerous considering the snake's ability to ambush.

Unclean Promise

    With the collapse of the world controlling First Age technology caused by the disappearence of the Solar Exalted and the continuing wars of the Shogunate worship of gods and elementals has made a huge resurgence as the elemental energy has no longer been dominated by the Solars' geomantic engineering leaving the elementals redundant. Now they are in control again and have power, not just over their elements but over people. People who were originally made to empower the Primordials by worshipping them and now free to worship the elementals and gods on who their survival depends.
   Entering one of the five elements is a bit like entering a sanctum. It is the elemental's natural domain and is never easy to enter. Whether it's standing on a wind-swept snowy peak, crawling through a tunnel under a mountain or sailing across a river no one travels and elemental's domain if hey are angered. A boat only floats if the water elementals allow it to. Setting out on the water or entering into it is a religious transition they are entering a different world controlled by unseen beings. Since the collapse of the First Age people have become very spiritual and very primitive. Instead of the wonders of the Celestial Exalted they have been required to call on spirits for mystical aid; not all of them call on gods or elementals...

Sunday, 13 March 2011

    People who flew in the Heavens found that the sun and the moon never appeared to grow any larger no matter how long they flew towards them. The heavens were inaccessible.
    The disappearence of the Scarlet Empress heralded to Age of Sorrows which was given it's ominous curtain raiser by the conquering of Thorns and the open existence of the long-scheming Deathlords and the appearence of the Abyssal and Infernal Exalted. But there is reason for hope too. The Solars have returned and may save mankind again. With turmoil overtaking the Realm and the Wyld Hunt now in check the Lunars are free to play their powerful hand again and may well come to the side of the resurgent Lawgivers. Which side will the Sidereals stand on? Will they continue to surpress the Lunars and the returning Lawgivers pitting themselves against the enemies of the Deathlords and their former comrades, or will they accept the failure of the Dragon-Blooded rule after a millenium and a half of upholding it no matter how bloody or duplicitous the cost.

Ata Beasts and San Beasts

    San beasts have intelligence equal to a human child but that's an inaccurate comparison as they are not underdeveloped but exceptional. Imagine hunting a jaguar with five times it's normal intelligence. They are able to understand human speech and possess rudimentary obvious communication. The enormous flying insect at the beginning of Labyrinth of the Faun has san beast level intelligence.
   Ata beasts are cognizant and able to speak in human languages. They may also have developed languages they use only amongst themselves. However you shouldn't confuse them with humans, they are exceptional animals with fundamentally different ways of thinking.
    You can use creation powers up to equal the artefact level. It's really down to the players to decide what they want and the Storyteller to arbitrate what level it's powers are and what ingredients it would need. You may think it's best if you are the only authority who decides what esoteric ingredients effects need putting more control in the hands of the Storyteller.

Lunar Exaltation

    The power to be what they really are. Lunars shape their own reality just as the Solars shape the reality of the world around them.
    Lunars Exaltation comes to those who are determined to be themselves and from a quest like the Fickle Lady to realise what they really are.

    11th March The power of Solar Exaltation is to make the world anything they want it to be (best expressed through their unique mastery of sorcery.) The power of Lunar Exaltation is to make themselves anything they want to be like Luna herself.

    12th March The background of Lunar Exaltation is bad story writing with one contradiction after another. On the one hand they are individualists (good point) but they are defined by the need to protect something (which sounds more on the Sidereals wavelength and is a bit wet when written about the Lunars.) In addition to this deep seated requirement to protect something (which sounds more like something belonging to the Chosen of Gaia rather than the Chosen of Luna) they specifically have to sacrifice it according to the practices of the Crossroads Society to be initiated into sorcery.

    13th March Lunars can exist in the Wyld because of the Essence within them, their physical form doesn't have the same permanence as other physical beings' forms do, allowing them to change themselves with thoughts to cause shapeshifting and their manifestation as an expression of identity helps protect them against the warping effect of the Wyld. 'It's a bit like the Fair Folk forms in reverse. The Fair Folk must create a fixed physical form to enter Creation in order to exist within it because that's the nature of the physical world. Dreams and consciousness cannot exist within it on their own without the Fair Folk's own powers. In a similar way the Lunars have powers like those belonging to the Fair Folk, they have a close association with the Wyld since Luna was created to protect Creation against it. In a way that can't be imitated by other Exalted they can shape their bodies through belief. Like in the Wyld where the Fair Folk can be anything by thinking it the Lunars can do the same, in Creation as well. Moonsilver tattoos extend this ability making the Lunar's form ever more protean and capable of internalising new forms. The critical difference between the Primordials and the Fair Folk is that the Primordials' thoughts shape the physical world whereas the Fair Folk and the World they inhabit are dreams.'
They are what they believe they are. Whereas other beings have a permanent physical shape which can be changed equally permanently by the warping effects of the Wyld. Moonsilver tattoos are specifically designed, placed at certain points on their body to amplify this effect to change their form based on belief. Firstly they have to understand another creature and believe they are it in order to become it. They have to take the creature's nature into themselves.

Saturday, 12 March 2011

10th of March

    The eerie noise of the wind is the sound of air elementals blowing it, wailing and howling.

   The North is naturally and eerie and haunted place because of it's element's association with otherworldliness.

Lunar History

    Some Lunars became so disturbed by the physical degeneration of their kind that they took steps. Barred from meeting with their comrades in the Solar Deliberative they resorted to desperate measures to halt their condition. Fleeing into the Wyld and risking mutation they used it's reality warping effects to fix their bodies in shape. Using moonsilver to make nodes in the seething Essence saturated lands of the Wyld, as demesnes do in Creation they managed to stop their bodies from warping further. But it came at a terrible price; they could no longer shapeshift. The form of their Essence was totally fixed and could not be altered. Those Lunars willing to undergo the ordeal were readmitted to the Senate Chamber and resolved to rebuild themselves as a political force. These Lunars named themselves the Silver Pact after the tattoos that shone beneath their cowls. Although at a great disadvantage to the other Exalted they banded together and made sure their kind would not suffer such a indignity again. Fate had other plans.
   While the newly formed Silver Pact consolidated their standing in Exalted society with a spirit of solidarity they realised they were now outclassed. The other Exalted lived on with their powers intact while the Lunars of the Silver Pact had robbed themselves of their once cherished Knacks. However there was another way. Learning from the skills of other Exalted and combined with their own intrinsic ability to channel Essence through their natural attributes they slowly but determinedly created a new set of powers, similar to those of their Exalted teachers but fitting for the Chosen of Luna. Just as the Solars and their counterparts used Essence to forge supernatural effects so they learned to do so in a way that imitated the effects of their Knacks. Their natural powers given to them by Luna were lost but they had created something new they thought would do just as well. And so the Lunars reestablished themselves as the greatest Exalted save their Solar mates.
    This sacrifice and it's readmittance into Exalted political life was not universal. A great many Lunars saw this development as an unforgivable treason. Not only had they turned their backs on Luna and the wonderful gift she's given them but they'd also abandoned what it meant to be Lunar Exalted. Denied the right to live in civilised lands and spurned by all even the Dragon-Blooded they abandoned their peers to live in self-imposed exile in the wilds. The Lunars of the Silver Pact regarded them as regressive and weak, merely living out the Primordial's Curse to be nothing but animals when an alternative was so easily available. However these rustics saw the Silver Pact as no longer Lunars at all and wanted nothing to do with those who would turn their backs on their natures and the reason Luna chose them in return for power. Many of them thought that the Solars' rejection of their bestial Lunar cousins was an act of hypocracy. They couldn't stand the sight   of them because it reflected their own degeneration and the Sidereals were too haughty and aloof to share the council chamber with a pack of beasts. Since the Lunars new Charms were based on those of other Exalted it made their powers easier to accept. Their presence was unsettling but at least it was tolerated by the majority of the Deliberative. The Lunars who rejected the ideals of the Silver Pact saw this as the final, decisive proof that they had abandoned their patron and all she held dear for the sake of acceptance and power.

Thursday, 10 March 2011

Knacks III

    Any Knacks the Lunar knows relating to their spirit shape are automatically in play when the Lunar assumes it without Essence or Willpower cost.

    One of the greatest advantages of Knacks is they go on until the Lunars decide to reverse them. The Lunar can simply have a Knack and live with it as a personal enhancement to their capabilities. In fact they often gain reputations and are recognised by their unique combinations of Knacks they leave in effect.
'The Tell.'

    The use of Knacks is mosst obviously being able to use the beneficial traits of an animal without having to assume it's form. Knacks allow selected traits to be used in any form whether human or animal. They can stack Knacks using a variety of them at any time and don't suffer drawbacks from the creature they're based on. For instance Man O' War Touch is very useful but a jellyfish isn't going to live long on land.

Lunar Charms II

    All Lunars have a natural affinity with animals and an ability to make the wild their home.

   Lunars don't work in conventional, human parameters of ability. That's the sort of thing Solars do.

Lunar Hero Style

    Weapons that enhance natural attacks may be used in combination with this style. Such weapons include: the cestus, armoured gauntlets, iron boots, khatar, the razor harness and tiger claws.
    Weapons and armour are incompatible with this style which focuses on the Lunar's inner strength. Most who practice it think that their animal forms they can assume are the greatest weapons they need.

The Thousand Streams River

    Lunars who truly are trying to create a 'better world' wouldn't base their societies on bullshit like arranging the verdict of a trial of dissenters beforehand or framing them for other crimes. If Ten Stripes 'experiment' on Simenare was conducted by an Abyssal it would have been a success.
   More likely they would work to protect a society they have an existing loyalty to or find a new one shortly after being Exalted and shown the way by Luna. A Lunar's motivation or task in life doesn't have to be so direct. Winter Leopard (Irontail) is determined to understand the secrets of the Underworld. Whereas Mureken Blackspear has become a folk hero among the Haltans although few een know what he looks like because he keeps his distance so his actions can't be traced directly to them.
   There's something about Creation that's precious to them. Something they won't allow to be hurt or destroyed (it sounds a bit more like a Terrestrial's motivation as decendants of the servants of Gaia: to protect the world at command of their betters. What exactly is the relationship between the Terrestrials and the Elemental Dragons?) At a moment when this is particularly important to them, when they show how passionately they hold their beliefs, Exaltation finds them.
   Who says they have to mix with humans. They can care about humanity but that's not all they care about.

Knacks II

    Knacks draw directly from their connection with animals.

    'High and low living in caves. Eventually you can read the soil and earth like books.'
    Knacks aren't always made for a direct purpose like Charms but can be used for whatever the Lunars can think to do with them.
    Hump-backed Nomad The Lunar can use this Knack to become almost immune to thirst.
   'Lunar Hero Style' is really a collection of Knacks Lunars use in unarmed combat rather than a martial arts style. Like martial arts styles it has form weapons and cannot be used with armour instead of using Essence as a weapon to fight with, like other forms of Knacks they use it to transform themselves.
   In order to learn a Knack associated with an animal they must hunt the anial and kill it in a sacred hunt. At the culmination of the hunt they show respect for their quarry and internalise not just the animal's form but some aspect of it's nature, whether it's body, it's mind or it's spirit. The hunt is the final stage of learning the Knack, after studying the creature and interracting with it to truly understand it then they are ready to take on it's form and absorb part of it in themselves. Knacks that have diverse effects like Hundred Skins Hunter can use any animal in the Lunar's heart's blood background.
   Solar Hero Style emulates great heroes, with Lunar Hero Style they actually  become the forces of nature that made the Lunars think these Knacks were worthy of the name.
   In a sense using Knacks as martial arts powers is a more basic and fundamental extention of supernatural martial arts.They use Essence to change an aspect of themselves they then fight with. With Raging Tiger Spirit their emotions change to those of a ferocious tiger. It's the tiger's fearless nature that is now a part of them that allows them to unhesitatingly assault far greater forces, often with such a lack of trepidation it fills their enemies with dread. Add half the Lunar's Charisma (rounded down) to a morale roll for attacking a superior opponent. If the total successes exceed the opponent's valour they are so unnerved by the Lunar's singlemindedness in the face of overwhelming force that they must take a morale roll of their own at a difficulty of the Lunar's own Valour.

Writer's Note

    The idea of 'experiments' is so stupid, when you look at it from an out of game context it looks like a bad idea.
   Lunars aren't a bunch of half-hearted dabblers who play around creating societies that don't need Exalted even though they were founded by them unless they're shaping a society in a place they can't afford to be noticed because of the Realm's influence. Lunars are survivalist heroes not sociologists generating lies among backwater societies that they're making progress when a Lunar is doing all the work for them.
   The rule of the Terrestrials is crumbling, prominent Sidereals will soon die off. For better or for worse the Solar Exalted have returned and is the Lunars dont move to fill the power vacuum now the Abyssal Exalted will. For long enough the Lunars' concern could only be for their own survival. Creation's natural survivalists had their acumen tested to it's limit during their long and troubled exile which they haven't got through unscathed.
   It just makes for bloody atrocious reading. Supposed great heroes fucking around with petty little 'experiments.' Surely they could have come up with something better than that.

Wednesday, 9 March 2011

Knacks

    What if Knacks were the Lunars' natural powers designed to supplement their inherent shapeshifting ability. When the Silver Pact created moonsilver tattoos to protect themselves against the degenerate effects of the Great Curse they started using Charms outside of Martial Arts and Sorcery to emulate these effects. Many believe that this is when Luna turned her sight from her Children for refusing the gifts she gave them. Those who refuse tattooing believe this fervently, believing their rejection of their transformation into animal form was a clear rejection of Luna's nature of her Chosen.
   When the Primordials levelled the Great Curse on the Lunars they condemned them to be the animals they'd become. As they grew older their bodies became an amalgamation of their human form and their spirit shape until it was recognisable as neither. This was the Lunar's new and only True Form. They were the first Beastmen.
   Expand Lunar Knacks across Attributes so they are a full family of powers. Charms may be prefereable since they were invented rather than discovered but they are not the true powers of the Lunars.
   All Knack are shapeshifting effects; they might change their skin into another colour or a different type of tissue altogether in Hundred Skins Hunter or become as lithe and sensuous as a stalking cat in Silent Jaguar Steps. These powers aren't just magic effects like Charms, they actually change an aspect of the Lunar's physical form. A character using Silent Jaguar Steps doesn't just use Essence to surpress the sound of his footfalls as a Night Caste might, he walks with such stealth and gracefulness that his movements make no noise.
   Even at night in the darkest forest he makes no sound.
   But the price exacted was terrible, a Lunar with tattoos was incapable of shapeshifting.
   The Lunars feared such a condemnation of their animal nature and what consequences it might provoke from Luna. They also darkly warned about the consequences of using moonsilver for something against it's natural purpose. Craftsmen speculate that it was this perversion that caused Luna to withdraw her favour from them.
   Understanding of their new family of powers highlighted the difference between them: Charms imitate, Knacks alter. A Solar would use Charms to see and interract with dematerialised spirits. A Lunar would assume the form of something that could do that. This is the great versitility of Knacks. Lunars who use Knacks can also learn Charms, they appear to suffer no approbrium for doing so, it's unlikely Luna even knows they do, but find them unnecessary compared to Knacks. Knacks can't make a Luanr do everything a Solar can, but they're not supposed to. A Solar can't turn themselves into a Behemoth at a moment's notice.
   Physical Knacks often work obviously, changing a visible aspect of their nature. Other work by inward focus.

Dark Messiah Style

    Mortificers like this style as it allows them to work barehanded. Their tools can also be used as form weapons.

Irontail second incarnation

    Although it took him time to realise it often spending significant time in Creation spies and assassins began to track him and more disconcertingly somehow managed to predict his movements if he stayed for long enough. After the decimating losses of the Great Contagion and the anarchy following the Fair Folk invasion recovering new Lunar Exalted became a far more difficult prospect. Creation was in chaos. The large number of newly Exalted Moonchildren and the few remaining Lunar veterans meant that many young Lunars spent decades before being noticed. Luckily the dreadful toll of the Contagion and Yu-Shan's isolation had a similar effect on the Wyld Hunt. However the Dragonblooded remained along with their perfidious manipulators, and eventually stories of Anathema walking in the satrapies prompted the Dragonblooded to ride to the hunt once more. Although it took him a long time to realise it his chosen domain offered him a great advantage, the Loom of Fate could not track those in the Underworld and the Sidereal's astrology could not piere the boundary into that realm leaving the Sidereals blind and powerless unless they ventured into that realm as well. If hunted that far the nightmarish chaos of the Labyrinth is a real beyond the Fate of even the Underworld and acted as a null zone if any Siderealss were willing to chase him into it's endless maze and dare it's Hekatonkhires and Spectre armies. After his miraculous survival of his first journey through the Labyrinth he learned to thrive on his wits like his animal persona and survive in the most dangerous of refuges. His Charm were specifically chosen by Luna to allow him to survive in the Labyrinth, at least there his enemies couldn't use astrology to track him.
    The Primordials cursed the Lunars to be like the animals they became. As a Lunar ages and their Essence grows so does the taint within it. Luna blessed each one of her champions with a spirit shape. As the Lunar's Essence grows more powerful their spirit shape starts to manifest and grows more noticable as they get older. Like the Solars they gain Limit. When this reaches crisis point the Lunar becomes overwhelmed by animal instinct and degenerates into a feral state. As they get older their tell becomes more pronounced and merges with their human form until there's not much left of them that is themselves. Lunars believe this was a particularly cruel curse deliberately placed on them by the Primordials since they are individualists.
   when their Limit reaches 10 roll their Limit against a difficulty of their own Essence. Repeat this roll every action. For every roll made reduce their Limit by one. 10's count as two successes as usual. As long as the number of successes is equal or greater than their Essence they're fine. If the roll fails then the Lunar's mind is overcome by animal instincts and they enter Limit Break. The savage power of their primal urges gives them increadible willpower, adding a number of temporary points equal to their Primary Virtue even if it takes their total above ten. They spend a number of scenes/minnutes in this condition equal to their Limit when they failed their Essence roll. Lunars may attempt to dull the effect and manage to exert partial control. To do so they must spend a willpower point at the beginning of every hour and Limit Break lasts hours not scenes, until they've spent a number of points equal to their Primary Virtue. Once they have they have successfully asserted Partial Control athough will still continue until all the time is spent. Attempting to assert total control may result in another Limit
Break roll or degenerate into complete animalism if the Storyteller thinks fit.

Doomed Straggler Isolation

    Packs survive by hunting the weakest animals in a herd. Lunars can target the weaker multitude of an enemy formation to inflict more casualties. The Lunar's instincts guide them to the easiest enemies and inflict the most damage. The Lunar makes an 'aimed attack' at a mass combat unit targeting the ordinary rank and file members instead of the leader. Add the Lunar's ___ on the roll to attack stragglers and those cut off from the rest of the unit. The leader can attempt to close ranks. If the attack hits resolve damage against one of the ordinary members of the formation, who may well well be extras, using their stamina, armour and health levels.
   Defending leader has a dice pool of charisma + war add drill. Lunar attacks with dexterity + martial arts + Essence.

Trappings of Death

    The Trappings of Death are what make the Abyssal Exalted universally dreaded wherever they are seen, their very image fears of a witness of their death. To avoid the constant wretched experience of their Essence crawling beneath their skin that feels like a imminent Resonance eruption, in Creation the Abyssal Exalted must dress like the dead, after all their previous self that lived in Creation died. Some who actually died and were prepared for their funeral still wear their tattered funeral regalia. One or two twisted Abyssals satisfy this need by wearing the ritual trappings of the priest who prepared them for burial, especially is they were actually buried and then buried the offending priest alive. Some more spiritually inclined deathknights, especially Necromancers, wear the garb of morticians, witch doctors and other priests associated with death especially if they used to be one. An Abyssal may even be venerated as a god of death among the cult she attracts. Their appearance is a constant and clear reminder of death and whoever they were before their Exaltation has passed on.
    More spiritual Abyssals find wearing the garb of priests of death quells this feeling especially if they used to be one, the only apparently acceptable connection to their previous existence. This is an important fact since the person they were before is truly dead, their thread in the Tapestry of Creation snapped. They don't even belong in Creation anymore. Any acknowledgement of their earlier existence brings Resonance with it as they engender an emotional connection to life when they are not alive.
   On the more visceral side Daybreak Caste Mortificers relish the fact that their work garb literally are the clothes of the dead, stained with the blood of those who died in unspeakable torment and reeking with the stench of a human slaughterhouse. Dusk Caste warriors decorate their armour with trophies made from enemies whose deaths were particularly memorable. Midnight and in particular Moonshadow Castes find this demand an impediment since they are both highly visible and yet find it unwise to so obviously advertise the fact that they are a deathknight. However since they are refined and often of high standing withing society they find the resources to sport elegant finery which dulls the feeling of Resonance while making them seem quirky rather than morbid. One Midnight Caste even has a graverobber on his payroll whose job it is to locate and discretely procure clothes fit for a lord from the bodies of well dressed nobles.
   Some go so far as to use their considerable fleshcrafting skill to make expertly fashioned if unsettling couture from their subjects.

Shadow Caste

    Those Who Walk Among Shadows do not tire, they know no rest until their prey is taken. Night is the natural time for the Abyssal Exalted to enter Creation, and the time their enemies rest will bring them no respite from those Hidden in Daylight.

Tuesday, 8 March 2011

Kraken Style

    2nd March

    Luckily I just found this when I needed it (Sons of Anarchy is on in five minutes.)

    The Kraken survives by hunting smaller prey. It's no contest. When they swin unwittingly into it's writhing tentacles they don't stand a chance.
   When the character initiates a clinch
   -Opponent has to use strength when making a grapple roll
   -Use weapon enhanced damage for grappling roll
   Roll strength + damage bonus + martial arts. If the result exceeds the opponent's score use their grappling pool to calculate damage.

Solar Hammer

    This is the artefact of a companion of a Lunar character I'm working on. I've been chewing this over for a while and just had the brainwave to make it work.  You'll have to see my other notes on artefact rules to really understand it or it'll seem more fiendish and powerful than it actually is.

   The weapon is an orichalcum goremaul. Crafted by a novice Solar character- under my new rules it has the stats for a superior hammer with the bonuses for orichalcum construction.
   The key to it's effectiveness is the way it works when it hits someone. Instead of the soak value of a target's armour reducing the force of the blow it adds to damage.

Bloodthirsty Sword-Dancer Spirit

    Whispers If the character has an positive intimacies he must end them immediately. Failure to do so results in a psychic attack: roll Resistance + Essence, add a number of automatic successes equal to their Whispers against their MDV. Success destroys the intimacy, failure results in a point of Resonance as their inner darkness battles with the hope in their own souls.
   To their most vicious champions the Neverborn grant this power.

Alternative History I

    The Crossroads Society a secret society created to perpetuate the practice of sorcery among Lunars when jealous and paranoid Solars were trying to surpress it among any but their own. Eventually they started to make war on eachother as each power-crazed Solar believed they had an excllusive right ot practice sorcery (based on nothing but their own ego.)
   Alternative history The Solars meet out of custom once a year at the feast at Meru in an atmosphere of barely restrained tension as factions had been battling with eachother (using their dragon-blooded minions and increasingly reluctant Lunar and Sidereal allies) only day before. Rather than try to defeat this convention of nigh-omnipotent god kings directly the Sidereals of the Bronze Faction make them believe they have betrayed eachother ordering eachother's assassinations and set them at eachother's necks. Meru is utterly devastated as 300 Solars and their few remaining Celestial Exalted allies and entourage of Terrestrials battle eachother to the death as Sidereal assassins stalk through the city. A few who escape the destruction (after fighting their way out and killing their fellow Solars and possibly Sidereal and Lunar allies they thought had betrayed them- the Bronze Faction may have created secret new Charms and spells for this purpose) realise too late that they have been deceived and that in one night all the power of the Deliberative has been destroyed. One of these may well become one of the Deathlords seeking an escape from existence or possibly a reaffirmation of faith and the need to believe in something greater than themselves and believing themselves unworthy of the Unconquered Sun and knowing he has turned his attention from Creation look to the only thing they know greater than themselves- the Neverborn.
   Are all the Deathlords Solars? Although the fall of the Solars was greater than any other Exalted, what happened to the Lunars from this time? Two of them were members of the Black Nadir Concordat and who knows what other groups they belonged to. They would have been almost as destroyed by the Usurpation as the Solars themselves.
And one of the Sidereals, refusing to abandon their Solar masters may have been driven so insane by the need for revenge that they would submit themselves to something as terrible as the Neverborn to punish their betrayers.

Lunar Charms I

    Lunar Charms are often not made with an evident purpose in mind like ability Charms but can be put to any use the Lunar can think of.
   Stamina Charm- the Lunar can change their body temperature
   Dexterity Charm- they can repeat one physical ection that they failed.

   Fault Mastering Swiftness
   Solar Ability Charms are more evidently designed for a purpose. Iron Whirlwind Attack dramatically increases the number of attacks the character can make with a melee weapon. Lunar Charms are more like effects that don't have a purpose in themselves but can be put to any use they can think of.
   Higher Essence Charm they can replay the moment using a different method without incurring penalties for repeated action. This Charm is good but it's basically the Third Attribute Excellency (a Lunar secret weapon because it does the same thing the Third Ability Excellency does only is more versatile.) It would be good to make it more distinct.

   Stamina Charm At Higher Level they can freeze of boil water within their proximity.