Playing the Field

    Celestial Power and Martial Arts

    For a while I've been wondering what are appropriate prerequisites for learning Sorcery. As I've said before the minimum Traits needed are unusually low making it possible for players who haven't been at the game long to access Solar Circle Sorcery. The need for players to be able to access sorcery with starting characters is important, so Terrestrial circle sorcery must havve low prerequisites. 3 for Essence is certainly appropriate, 3 for Occult may seem a bit low but it fits if other circles of sorcery have high Essence levels.
   On that note, I've decided to increase the minimum levels of Essence and occult to 6 for Celestial circle sorcery and 9 for Solar circle. This also raises the question of where the Terrestrial Exalted fit in. And the threshold for increasing Essence above the metaphysical boundary where it becomes a major challenge which currently stands between three and four as well as the limit of Essence for Terrestrial Exalted.
    In their current state, the Terrestrial Exalted and their associated martial arts, are both underpowered and very boring. Repeating my previous post, the key to the Celestials' power does not need to reside in the fact that their powers are vis-a-vis to the Terrestrials greater, but that they have access to higher Essence Charms and for a very long period if they live out their whole natural life span.
    One important point to address is the apparently arbitrary cut off point of the Terrestrials' natural age, about 350 years, limiting them to a maximum Essence of 8, and then only for a short time. Normally mortals do not live beyond 99 years and so, even if they can wield Essence, are unable to increase it or their other traits above 5. This may prove to be an appropriate lifespan for the Terrestrials too, as it would mean that their powers are not weaker or any less interesting than the Celestials, but mean they cannot rise to the same heights, which is what marks the Celestial Exalted out.
   Taking martial arts as a case in point, since it involves all Exalted in a comparative structure, current Celestial martial arts, many of which are animal styles suited to the new theme of Terrestrials, would prove to be good Terrestrial martial arts. The Form Charms universally have an Essence rating of 2, which would be within the grasp of a starting level Terrestrial character, and the high level Charms never exceed Essence 5, making the whole style available to Terrestrials. This may make players of Celestials baulk but remember that at such levels they are only beginning to develop their powers.
   Sidereal martial arts mark the opposite end of the spectrum and have one major limitation. Despite supposedly being the epitome of martial arts and the Sidereals' area of greatest prowess, only one of them reaches Essence 8 in the post Form Charms and does not go beyond that. Since Celestial Exalted Essence can go all the way to 10, this should be the limit of the Sidereal martial arts styles, not 7 as is typical for many of them. In their current form many of the Sidereal styles look like templates for Celestial styles, giving access to transcendent powers that their unnaturally high Essence allows them. Sidereal martial arts however should go all the way to the top, the highly unusual nature of Border of Kaleidoscopic Logic Style, which often exceeds even the constraints of being a fighting style, is a good indicator of what Sidereal martial arts should be.

Scroll of the Monk

    Guide to Exalted Martial Arts

   This is one of my favourite books from the Exalted series. It starts off with a description of the 'Martial Arts World,' the subculture of martial arts practitioners and how it differs from other fighting arts. There's also a treatise on the three different levels of martial arts styles, how the Exalted and other supernaturals relate to them, and how mortals can learn supernatural martial arts through Essence enlightenment from esoteric practices, dangerous artefacts, or most intriguing for my character the supernatural drug Celestial Cocaine.
   The main part of the book is a description of a plethora of styles, one chapter on Terrestrial martial arts, one of Celestial and one on Sidereal. The Terrestrial styles although unusual have an air of insubstantiability about them. I personally think they should be the opposite, very direct and solid. The Celestial Martial arts are great, especially Silver Voiced Nightingale Style, created by a Lunar with a very unmartial Spirit Shape who learned to use her voice as a weapon; the deadly Mantis Style, esoteric Righteous Devil Style that solely uses flame weapons and the Abyssal Laughing Wounds Style (which partly inspired my Denied And Forsaken Widow Style.)
   The Sidereal Styles go beyond conventional notions of Martial Arts. The first, Border of Kaleidoscopic Logic Style that starts the chapter isn't representative of all Sidereal Styles, the write ups are very long and it starts at Essence 6 Charms going all the way up to Martial Arts and Essence 8. The Charms of this style are quite disturbing to read, it attacks people's perception of identity rather than attacking them physically. The other styles are somewhat more ordinary but are still exotic. This chapter is doubly important since not only are Sidereals unable (according to Dreams of the First Age) to develop Sidereal Charms with an Essence above five, it provides a valuable guide to people who want to develop high Essence Charms.
   At the end is an appendix of new martial arts weapons and artefacts versions, including ones for weapons in the main rule book. I'd definitely recommend this as a book for storytellers as it can open you eyes to an important an exciting aspect of Exalted that you may not have considered before. It also gives storytellers and players plenty of reference for developing their own martial arts styles.

5th March

    Terrestrial martial arts supplement the power of ordinary techniques, using Essence channeling techniques to fortify blocks, grapples and other martial arts move.
   Celestial martial arts take on a more transcendent aspect. By focusing and channeling the flow of Essence they are able to change their fighting technique by in some way changing what they are albeit temporarily. Hence with a Celestial Form Charm they alter their Essence so that they take on some aspect of what the style emulates.
   The difference between Celestial and Sidereal martial arts is that Sidereals become something that a dimension of existence takes after. These styles are truly transcendent and permanently alter what the martial artist is.

4th March

    They found ways of imposing their will on Creation. Charms create effects that Exalted can use to their ends. Spells of Solar Circle Sorcery can directly impose the Exalt's will on Creation rather than achieving it indirectly.
    Terrestrial Martial Arts can channel Essence Floes to alter the nature of conventional martial arts to enhance them. Celestial martial arts change the nature of martial arts themselves. Instead of empowering attacks and such like they determine the nature of such attacks such as Flying Mantis Kick and can even alter the Exalt's body temporarily such as with Form Charms. Sidereal martial arts sometimes transcend the idea of simply being fighting styles such as Border of Kaleidescopic Logic Style and raise combat to new arenas such as identity or perception.
   However martial arts and shapeshifting are a means to an end. As the level of sorcery rises they become closer to achieving that end directly culminating in Solar Circle Sorcery. Sorcery where they can achieve the effect they are attempting.

   This isn't exactly on the mark. Part of the beauty of sorcery is that it achieves it's aims obliquely through unusual methods.