Soul Devouring Infection

    This Charm expands the effect of Chakra Violating Blow, changing it from a Crippling Effect into a Sickness Effect. If the initial blow is successful the victim has been infected with Abyssal Essence that will continue to consume them.
   After a number of days equal to their Willpower, the infection makes an attack on their lowest Virtue using the same dice pool as the initial attack. If this destroys the targeted Virtue it may make another attack after another number of days equal to their Willpower have expired.

     Like Oblivion, Dark Messiah Style doesn't focus a practitioner on petty ideas like cruelty or bloodlust. The nature of Oblivion does not seek to kill but to destroy. Other, weaker martial arts might focus on the torment and manipulation of their victims, Dark Messiah Style is used to feed on them.

   While it's possible for a Dark Messiah to tear an enemy's soul apart, with a greater Charm it's possible to tear it out of their body completely.
     Resolve the damage from an unarmed martial arts attack with an external penalty equal to the sum of the target's Virtues. Victims of Chakra Violating Blow cannot be affected by this Charm since a part of their soul has already been destroyed and replaced with Abyssal Essence so it cannot be stripped away. If the attack succeeds the Dark Messiah tear the opponent's heart from their chest and their soul with it killing them instantly.
    The power of the victim's soul now becomes their's. While the magically preserved heart is still in their possession they may use the soul's Virtue channels for their own dice rolls as if they were their own (these cannot be combined with the character's own Virtue channels) and use the number of the soul's remaining Virtue channels in place of the own Virtue rating for a related roll. They may use any Willpower points the target has and gain no Resonance for doing so (the dead soul of another Exalt no longer has an Exaltation to cause the tormented spirit Limit Break.) The character may also bite into the heart consuming it's Essence as a Miscellaneous Action and decreasing it's Essence rating by one. Doing so gives the character access to ten extra motes of Essence until the end of their next action. A spirit reduces to zero Essence is destroyed and it's heart shrivels and dries up into dust.

Chakra Violating Blow

    As they have lost the last dot of a Virtue that is a defining part of their soul they can never do anything associated with that Virtue. Those without Valour cannot face danger, without Conviction they cannot stand for their own beliefs, without Temperance they cannot repress their urges, without Compassion they can never help other except purely to serve their own ends.
   Roll Martial Arts + Essence adding a number of automatic successes equal to their Avatar, comparing against the target's Dodge MDV plus their targeted Virtue (doubled if it's their Primary Virtue.) If the roll succeeds the target loses all points in that Virtue and all related Virtue channels. Furthermore, if they suffer an internal penalty equal to what their Virtue used to be, or an external penalty if their Primary Virtue was destroyed. If the combined penalty exceeds the character's Willpower they slip into a coma.
   The effects of Chakra Violating Blow are permanent. It is impossible for anyone to heal someone affected without the use or Charms or healing artefacts. To heal someone they must spend a Willpower point and make an Intelligence + Medicine roll at a difficulty of the attacking character's Essence at the time the Charm was used with an internal penalty of what the character's Virtue was (or an external penalty in the case of a Primary Virtue.) The roll must score more threshold successes than the attacker's Avatar rating to overcome the consuming effects. A healer can only return someone's lost Virtue to a rating equalling their own. Returning someone's spiritual state to a level higher than their awareness is beyond their capability. When someone is healed they immediately enter Limit Break and suffer a Flaw for the related Virtue. This Flaw ends after the proscribed time. It is impossible for them to exert partial control and they gain no Willpower bonu for entering Limit Break.

Call of Exalted

    I thought a while ago that Exalted would work best when given an angle, combined with another idea to make it into what the storyteller wants it to be. This resulted in my background for the character the Ghostwalker, and many of my ideas about the Neverborn and the Underworld.
   This game style is a combination of Exalted and not surprisingly the Cthulhu Mythos, including the video and roleplaying games based on it.

   Each player starts with a number of Sanity Points. Having high Permanent Willpower reduces the chance of losing Sanity. As a character's Sanity approaches zero they become increasingly disturbed. When their Sanity reaches zero they become completely mad and lose all Permanent Willpower and gain a derangement. The higher their Willpower was at the time of losing their Sanity the more severe the derangement is.
   There are two possible ways of resolving Sanity loss. Either use the Exalted system of using the character's Willpower as difficulty or a penalty. This is more flexible, for instance you can use Vitues to add temporarily to the character's Willpower but also carries possibility of greater Sanity from especially large threats. It's a more predictable system since low level threats could be ignored by someone with reasonable Willpower. Another system is based on Vampire where the character's Willpower is the minimum number required for a success. This makes a character more resistant to greater Sanity loss but still means they could be affected by minor threats. Another system is where like in Call of Cthulhu each threat has a dice eg. D3, D6, D8 etc. where you could add a fixed modifier eg. +1, and if they score higher than the character's Willpower the difference is the Sanity loss. You may have pre or post roll modifiers where a post roll modifier only applies if the initial roll succeeds. A similar system could be used as an alternative method of damage resolution. Eg. damage 2D6 + 4
   If they suffer further Sanity loss they continue to experience the effect of mental dying health levels. Use the difficulty of the character's highest (their primary) Virtue for difficulty of Sanity loss rolls. Each loss of Sanity in this state inflicts loss of a 'phantom' health level and a -1 internal penalty on all of the character's dice rolls. The madness is now eating away at their psyche. When they lose a number of health levels equal to their highest Virtue their mind is irrevocably destroyed causing pathological suicidal behaviour (killing themselves with the nearest thing possible) or homicidal mania that will inevitably result in death. Only potent mind altering Charms can retore (or more disturbingly reduce) a character's mind when they are losing mental health levels or their mind has been lost forever.
   Abyssals can inflict a similar direct effect on someone's psyche with the Charm Chakra Violating Blow. The difficulty to lose their last mental health level is their Virtue Rating plus all the levels lost so far. This is the difficulty of undoing the last core element of someone's psyche.

    Consuming the flesh and blood of the living by consuming their life force. Mastery of Dark Messiah Style allows them to consume their opponent's Essence itself. They can even consume someone's Exaltation as their opponent's soul is naked before their assault. Defeating the four chakras is like unlocking four keys.

22nd April

    Some artefacts dating from the Primordial Age were created by the Incarnae when they walked Creation. Some more recent ones were stolen from, or smuggled out of Heaven. What of the artefacts made by the Primordials themselves like the Eye of Autochthon? Other artefacts dare back to Exalted heroes from the Primordial War.

    Some believe that Dark Messiah Style is the key to destroying Creation and releasing the Primordials from their torment into Oblivion. Only the Abssals can learn this style, it's Charms elude even the ghostly Deathlords. Some believe the very Exalted who slew them are destined to become masters of this style.

    Their power to alter what they are the deeper they go into the Wyld means the deeper in the Wyld they are the stronger their transformative power are.
   In the Deep Wyld they can use a Knack which allows them to become unshaped like one of the Fair Folk. The ability given to them by their Lunar Essence to make their forms inconstant allows them to travel the Wyld without being permanently mutated and venture into it's dimentionless depths without going mad.
   Their moonsilver 'tattoos' are gifts from Lunar, marks of their god in Old Realm that appear on their bodies when they learn a new Knack. Learning a Knack involves meditation on Luna and a popular belief is that only those who gain her favour learn a Knack. Luna's powers like the Wyld have infinite potential. She knows every Knack and shared her knowledge with those who commune with her. Learning a new Knack is for a Lunar like learning a spell is for a Solar, learning a new way to exert their will on Creation. Solars have the power of will. Lunars have the power of transformation, power over their identity. Sidereals have the power of Destiny. Why isn't destiny an element of Sidereal Martial Arts?

    Abyssal Martial Arts

   Chakra-Violating Blow

   Black-Hearted Disabling Technique

   Digging their fingers into their victim's energy centres an Abyssal can drain and enemy's life force from with their bare hands.

   Bands of black power circle around the Chosen's body, strengthen it to inhuman extremes.
   Cynically exploiting an opponent's weaknesses, the Abyssal's grip snaps bones like a vice, breaking the strength of their feeble mortal frame. Damage from a clinch attack is lethal and is crippling, affecting the victim's strength. Characters whose strength reaches 0 are unable to move except twitch and writhe helplessly. Also the sheer caloussness of the attack revolts onlookers.

   Unbinding the Mortal Coil

   The deathknight mystically guides his hands towards the nodal points of his opponent's body, sinking them into his flesh and unlocking his life's Essence.

   If the attack causes a number of levels of injury greater than the target's Essence they are killed outright.

   Rather than simply causing physical injury masters of Dark Messiah Style can slay an opponent by attacking their Essence directly.

    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.

Dark Messiah Style

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