I thought that Dreams of the First Age would have a comprehensive collection of genuine high Essence Charms for all Exalted, including maybe Abyssals. The scale of Charms with Essence 9 and 10 allow the Exalted to strive against the Primordials. These are the Charms they used in their defeat, the powers that led to their defeat and enforced the oaths they took that banished them Elsewhere and imprisoned them in Malfeas (Eclipse Caste.) This is the potential for greatness an Exaltation holds.
Guide to the Camarilla has an encyclopaedic section on all of the major Disciplines and the Camarilla ones at levels 6 to 10. This is what they should do with Exalted when making a book about the First Age. Also they should have given it more history so you could set a game during any period of the First Age. From it's herioc beginnings around the War of the Primordials when the Solars are fighting to free humanity; to the true High First Age when they made Creation the awesome wonder that it was and everyone remembers the Age for; to the twilight of the First Age when the Exalted's long developed powers are at their greatest but their corruption throws a dark shadow over the world and although their magic and technology have reached a height never seen before they have become evil, scheming despots about to tear apart the world they once created. This is why the Sidereals took the drastic step of assassinating every one of the Solars and imprisoning their Essences for all time. I like the booklet that gives you a guide to Meru, it gives you a feel of the contemporary setting, but the First Age has such distinct parts it really should have covered all of them.
I've been thinking too about the scale of history of Exalted. Although it shouldn't be overdone because the scale it's at gives it a level of immediacy and more gravity to individual actions, earth history and the Primordials give me other ideas. There's a major opportunity to use the stories of H. P. Lovecraft, especially Call of Cthulhu as an inspiration in Exalted. Earth history goes back aeons. I don't think that the history of Exalted should go back thousands of millions of years, but there's such a strong link between the elder races from Call of Cthulhu and other stories, and the Primordials that the writers really should have looked into. The Primordial Age sounds so much like an age of earth when being of vast power ruled or fought with eachother. I think it's something that should have been gone into in greater depth creating a truly primordial and arcane past.
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
The Animals That Grow In Five Places
Terrestrial Exalted are Aspected after the animals that live in one of the five Elements. All Dragon-blooded have a totem creature that embodies one of the aspects of the Dragon they are descended from. When they start to spend peripheral Essence their anima, their totem creature, starts to manifest.
Maybe being locked into beastman form is the effect of Lunars manifeesting their anima as exhibition of their powers reveals their true form. Their Spirit Shape is what they really are. Maybe they always are their Spirit Shape and what they appear to be is just an illusion. Their Spirit Shape is the shape of their spirit, their Essence.
Maybe being locked into beastman form is the effect of Lunars manifeesting their anima as exhibition of their powers reveals their true form. Their Spirit Shape is what they really are. Maybe they always are their Spirit Shape and what they appear to be is just an illusion. Their Spirit Shape is the shape of their spirit, their Essence.
Less powerful artefacts are not made from a compound of a conventional material alloyed with a magical one but are a combination of the two with the magical material instilling it's power in the conventional one. Such 'conventional' artefacts follow my rules (for weapons) of a superior mundane item with a magical material bonus and powers according to it's artefact rating. Artefacts made from a solid magical material are much more rare though they were more common during the First Age, and far more powerful. With such artefacts anything seems possible.
The scale of powers for an artefact made from a solid magical material are far greater than those made from a combination of a magical and a mortal substance. Use the characteristics in the end of Exalted for weapons and armour, but their individual powers dwarf these enhanced properties.
Making these artefacts is considerably more difficult. They require far higher skill and a more sophisticated workshop. The ingredients they require are far more powerful and harder to obtain. Also magical materials themselves are rare and gathering enough to make an artefact entirely out of one is an impressive feat.
Only the huge scale of Creation, abilities of the Celestial Exalted and the infrastructure they made allowed Wonders such as Warstriders (superior to Common Warstriders in the way pure artefacts are to common ones) to be made as anything by exclusive rarities.
Noble Warstriders were so called because they were the first class of Warstriders to be made entirely from magical materials. Even then they were usually reserved for Celestial Exalted. Starmetal Noble Warstriders were unheard of.
In lesser artefacts the magical material may be a piece of carefully cut jade in the guard of pommel of a sword or a talisman in a suit of armour. A hearthstone amulet should be just that, an amulet with special powers like Tullaris' Black Amulet. Only the most basic ones would just house a hearthstone and slightly increase the rate of Essence recovery.
The description of making the Fellblade in the Skaven army book is a good example of artefact construction.
Only solid material artefacts can contain the energy that the creation powers of a greater magical ingredient gives. No one would waste precious magical material on making a solid artefact just to use the powers of lesser esoteric ingredients. It's the ingredients themselves that give the artefact it's unique powers. The magical material can contain their energy and provide a bonus.
The scale of powers for an artefact made from a solid magical material are far greater than those made from a combination of a magical and a mortal substance. Use the characteristics in the end of Exalted for weapons and armour, but their individual powers dwarf these enhanced properties.
Making these artefacts is considerably more difficult. They require far higher skill and a more sophisticated workshop. The ingredients they require are far more powerful and harder to obtain. Also magical materials themselves are rare and gathering enough to make an artefact entirely out of one is an impressive feat.
Only the huge scale of Creation, abilities of the Celestial Exalted and the infrastructure they made allowed Wonders such as Warstriders (superior to Common Warstriders in the way pure artefacts are to common ones) to be made as anything by exclusive rarities.
Noble Warstriders were so called because they were the first class of Warstriders to be made entirely from magical materials. Even then they were usually reserved for Celestial Exalted. Starmetal Noble Warstriders were unheard of.
In lesser artefacts the magical material may be a piece of carefully cut jade in the guard of pommel of a sword or a talisman in a suit of armour. A hearthstone amulet should be just that, an amulet with special powers like Tullaris' Black Amulet. Only the most basic ones would just house a hearthstone and slightly increase the rate of Essence recovery.
The description of making the Fellblade in the Skaven army book is a good example of artefact construction.
Only solid material artefacts can contain the energy that the creation powers of a greater magical ingredient gives. No one would waste precious magical material on making a solid artefact just to use the powers of lesser esoteric ingredients. It's the ingredients themselves that give the artefact it's unique powers. The magical material can contain their energy and provide a bonus.
Eternal Torment Cage
Abyssals use this to trap the man's soul inside his body so they can go on torturing him after he's dead. This is one of the spells valued by mortificers as the victim's soul doesn't pass while they're being tortured. Some fasten their victims with soulsteel nails while assembling their creations. Abyssals have shown such a mastery of torture that people's souls escaped only because there was no body left for the to inhabit.
Some have so much disregard for the etiquette of respect for the dead that they've become notorious. Far from being frightened by an enemy's vengeful ghost they relish the chance of a victim coming back to haunt them. It gives them a chance to kill them all over again.
Some have so much disregard for the etiquette of respect for the dead that they've become notorious. Far from being frightened by an enemy's vengeful ghost they relish the chance of a victim coming back to haunt them. It gives them a chance to kill them all over again.
If you look at the difference in experience needed to increase Essence between what the Solars and the Terrestrials and the difference in the size of their Essence Pools for instance Solars have Essence x 3 in their Personal Essence Pool, Terrestrials have Essence; Solars have Peripheral Essence of Essence x 7, Terrestrials have Essence x 4. That should give you an indication of the difference Essence to Essence between Celestial and Terrestrial Martial Arts Charms. Also Terrestrial Charms would require less Essence because Terrestrials have smaller Essence pools. So for Celestial Exalted they're more like tricks.
What if disciplines like physics and chemistry didn't exist. All 'science' was based on an understanding of Essence. In most Crafts it wouldn't be recognisable and as formal as Lore but would involve practical application of the same rules. This element is what makes magitech technological. Actual artefacts work purely on the way they channel Essence which requires knowledge of Occult.
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Jade artefacts, armour in particular needn't be plain objects but could resemble creatures that live in the region of Creation where it's Elemental Pole is. I thought of the idea from the cover of The Sea Watch. The man's armour looked like a crab beastman. I thought why make jade as plain as just being elemental which makes it rather dull. Wavecleaver Daiklaves made from water jade that's turquoise and looks like shallow blue water are cool, but basing artefacts on living things would make them so much more interesting. This would go with ideas about making Lunars more orientated towards the Wyld rather than just animals, although Terrestrial Exalted wouldn't have the power to transform themselves, although they could call on an animal's characteristics. For example a crablike suit of water jade power armour would give them great strength and protection.
Terrestrial Martial Arts also seemed very dull. I think they should be solid rather than boring. For instance they could include animal styles, or at least versions of animal styles but replicating the immediate traits of an animal such as reproducing it's movements. My version of Snake Style with fighting chains to mimic and snake's coils and tiger claws to mimic it's bite would be a good example. Celestial Styles are something deeper. Something about actually becoming like the subject of the style, not just physically but inside. It's not just about changing their bodies but their minds and Essences. In Sidereal Martial Arts instead of trying to change themselves into something, they try to absorb something into themselves.
Terrestrial Martial Arts also seemed very dull. I think they should be solid rather than boring. For instance they could include animal styles, or at least versions of animal styles but replicating the immediate traits of an animal such as reproducing it's movements. My version of Snake Style with fighting chains to mimic and snake's coils and tiger claws to mimic it's bite would be a good example. Celestial Styles are something deeper. Something about actually becoming like the subject of the style, not just physically but inside. It's not just about changing their bodies but their minds and Essences. In Sidereal Martial Arts instead of trying to change themselves into something, they try to absorb something into themselves.
Other Exalted can learn the basic Charms of a Hero Style by mimicking the real Charms. The Hero Styles are actually martial arts Charms for that Exalt. Other Exalted can mimic the basic Charms as a Celestial Martial Art but the real Charms are Charms those Exalted make by channelling Essence through martial arts like another ability.
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.
Masters of Unreality
Just as the Wyld is made of possibilities, it is a place where possibilities are very real, Lunars learn to extrapolate those possibilities in their own heads into the Wyld to change it. It is this characteristic that allows them to change their own form through their Lunar Essence, which is like a part of the Wyld within them. They have the same effect over moonsilver as well. They can make it into anything they want. For all their association with the Wyld the Lunars are the opposite of the Fair Folk. They are not an existential antithesis like iron is to them, but are fundamentally opposed to them.
Solar Exalted- Lords of Creation
Many Lunars prefer the Wyld to Creation as it is a place they can change to their own whim. However this can make them go insane and and become addicted to living in this ever changing Nether World or become dangerously isolated and unused to reality. Just as some Fair Folk become 'sane.' It's this ability to turn 'things' into abstractions that is the basis of their ability to combat the Fair Folk. They can reverse their physical forms and turn them back into the emotions and ideas they were in the Wyld. They can also learn to do the same to other things. As emotional intensity went into creating an object like a statue they can turn that object back into the emotions that created it and either hold those emotions inside them or release them in a psychic shockwave that floods the minds of everyone nearby. It's this ability to manipulate possibility although in the opposite way to the Fair Folk that lies at the root of all their Charms and gives them the ability to fight the Fair Folk in the way they do and is the reason they spend so much time in the Wyld where their powers are strongest. Just as the Fae can turn themselves as an intention into a physical form the Lunars can turn themselves as a physical form into an intention and so exist in the Wyld.
Accomplished Lunars see the Wyld as a playground where they can make any dream come true.
Some Lunars become experienced enough to extend their transformative powers into things they touch. Some can enlarge this effect into the surrounding area. Can moonsilver capture these intentions and turn them into powers for the Lunar to wield?
Solar Exalted- Lords of Creation
Many Lunars prefer the Wyld to Creation as it is a place they can change to their own whim. However this can make them go insane and and become addicted to living in this ever changing Nether World or become dangerously isolated and unused to reality. Just as some Fair Folk become 'sane.' It's this ability to turn 'things' into abstractions that is the basis of their ability to combat the Fair Folk. They can reverse their physical forms and turn them back into the emotions and ideas they were in the Wyld. They can also learn to do the same to other things. As emotional intensity went into creating an object like a statue they can turn that object back into the emotions that created it and either hold those emotions inside them or release them in a psychic shockwave that floods the minds of everyone nearby. It's this ability to manipulate possibility although in the opposite way to the Fair Folk that lies at the root of all their Charms and gives them the ability to fight the Fair Folk in the way they do and is the reason they spend so much time in the Wyld where their powers are strongest. Just as the Fae can turn themselves as an intention into a physical form the Lunars can turn themselves as a physical form into an intention and so exist in the Wyld.
Accomplished Lunars see the Wyld as a playground where they can make any dream come true.
Some Lunars become experienced enough to extend their transformative powers into things they touch. Some can enlarge this effect into the surrounding area. Can moonsilver capture these intentions and turn them into powers for the Lunar to wield?
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
The Host
Comedy horror isn't exactly my favourite genre, it's alluded to in some more mainstream horror films. Fortunately (largely because it's an Asian film I suspect) they avoid the usual bad jokes. It also doesn't have the mood of a film that doesn't take itself seriously that way. However it doesn't really make me laugh that much and at times gets unusually serious. You might recognise of the characters from Vengeance is Mine. I've never heard of this director before. I can't critisize anyone's acting and the director avoids making any real mistakes except not making the film involving enough. I think this is partly due to skipping parts of the story that leave you jilted for a couple of seconds. They miss out important scenes in the series of events. Unfortunately I couldn't take the ending that seriously, partly due to western film cliche, but I just never got into it that much.
Monday, 9 May 2011
Realm of Death
It's impossible to enter the Labyrinth without feeling the tide of hate that emanates from the tomb Neverborn. Whether any will lies behind that hate is a mystery to wise men but those listening to it are too strong in their convictions to listen to reason.
Simply entering the Labyrinth itself would be a sanity threatening experience. Many ghosts who enter it have already been infected with it's madness. The Labyrinth is a soliloquy, the last act of creation of the Neverborn. The Labyrinth may even be the inside of the Primordials' minds when they died, a psychic dimension flooded with hate. Spectral cults who worship the Neverborn, which is hardly a surprise since they were greater than the gods, have complex and often conflicting beliefs on the nature of the Neverborn. It's uncertain if sentience still lives in their tombs or if their minds spilled out into the Labyrinth. If so the Labyrinth is actually the minds of the Neverborn, which would be no surprise to those who've seen it's twisted, warping depths. Others contend that the constant ringing of hate, a scream you can feel with your body that almost invariably induces an overwhelming desire to kill, is only the voice of the Neverborn and their minds are far worse.
However twisted these Spectres and Nephwracks are, the shadow of Oblivion gnaws at their minds and fills their hearts with terror. Only the recent advent of the Abyssals have given Oblivion champions. They wield the power of the blackest evil. A mindless horror that threatens to consume everything. They scare even the most fanatical and violent Nephwracks with displays of Oblivion's power. Some are content to use their morbid powers and live their unlives as death knights. Others feel there is something more to their existence and search for a deeper meaning to their lives now that they have escaped death. These are the ones who travel to the Labyrinth on a vision seeking quest.
All the Deathlords would learn Labyrinth Circle Necromancy that's a given. Abyssals don't know Void Circle yet but have the potential to do so and that scares the living Fuck out of the Deathlords. A Spectre might learn Shadowlands Circle Necromancy. As bearers of shattered reflections of souls of the Neverborn the Deathlords, who are ghosts, can learn Labyrinth Circle Necromancy as the Celestial Exalted who created Necromancy and developed it learned from the Neverborn. But only the Abyssals, whose power comes from Oblivion itself can learn Void Circle Necromancy if they seek for it and gain Whispers of Oblivion.
There may still be remnants of First Age Solars who created the first Void Circle spells. The nature of Chiaroscuro Nos Veresus' mysterious companion points to such a possibility, that at least he may have tried to do so.
Simply being an Abyssal gives them access to the power to learn Shadowlands Circle Necromancy. Labyrinth Circle Necromancy requires the hatred of Whispers of the Neverborn. Void Circle Necromancy requires Whispers of Oblivion.
How Much Does Black Exaltation Change Them?
It depends on how much they allow it to. Oblivion inspires but it does not create. Some feel drawn to seek out the source of the dark power within them.
Necromancy- power over death
Do the Deathlords have unique powers from possessing the spectral remnants of the souls of the Neverborn. What allowed them to encorporate their ghostly souls in the first place? Was it because of a psychic resonance that they hated Creation as much as the Neverborn?
I think it's important to distinguish between the power of the Neverborn and the power of Oblivion. That fact that Abyssals' powers and those of others beings like the Deathlords seemed to come from both without much distinction was a weakness of the rulebook. I like the way the Oblivion is portrayed more as an entity than as a force, like Mr. Shadow in The Fifth Element. The get the feeling that there's a malevolent intelligence lurking in there rather than it just being a black hole. The outright presence of sentience in the Neverborn annoys me though. It should have been made much more unclear whether they are dead or alive. Call of Cthulhu was an obvious potential source of inspiration for the Neverborn and possibly the Yozis but it's one the writers seemed to ignore. They could have created a realm of great msytery which would have been excellent to explore through but instead they chose to spell things out. The Neverborn are obviously not truly dead and I think it would have been far more interesting for the game if no one knew really if there were dead or not. All they have to go by are the Whispers that emanate from their tombs and the apparent miracles they cause.
Simply entering the Labyrinth itself would be a sanity threatening experience. Many ghosts who enter it have already been infected with it's madness. The Labyrinth is a soliloquy, the last act of creation of the Neverborn. The Labyrinth may even be the inside of the Primordials' minds when they died, a psychic dimension flooded with hate. Spectral cults who worship the Neverborn, which is hardly a surprise since they were greater than the gods, have complex and often conflicting beliefs on the nature of the Neverborn. It's uncertain if sentience still lives in their tombs or if their minds spilled out into the Labyrinth. If so the Labyrinth is actually the minds of the Neverborn, which would be no surprise to those who've seen it's twisted, warping depths. Others contend that the constant ringing of hate, a scream you can feel with your body that almost invariably induces an overwhelming desire to kill, is only the voice of the Neverborn and their minds are far worse.
However twisted these Spectres and Nephwracks are, the shadow of Oblivion gnaws at their minds and fills their hearts with terror. Only the recent advent of the Abyssals have given Oblivion champions. They wield the power of the blackest evil. A mindless horror that threatens to consume everything. They scare even the most fanatical and violent Nephwracks with displays of Oblivion's power. Some are content to use their morbid powers and live their unlives as death knights. Others feel there is something more to their existence and search for a deeper meaning to their lives now that they have escaped death. These are the ones who travel to the Labyrinth on a vision seeking quest.
All the Deathlords would learn Labyrinth Circle Necromancy that's a given. Abyssals don't know Void Circle yet but have the potential to do so and that scares the living Fuck out of the Deathlords. A Spectre might learn Shadowlands Circle Necromancy. As bearers of shattered reflections of souls of the Neverborn the Deathlords, who are ghosts, can learn Labyrinth Circle Necromancy as the Celestial Exalted who created Necromancy and developed it learned from the Neverborn. But only the Abyssals, whose power comes from Oblivion itself can learn Void Circle Necromancy if they seek for it and gain Whispers of Oblivion.
There may still be remnants of First Age Solars who created the first Void Circle spells. The nature of Chiaroscuro Nos Veresus' mysterious companion points to such a possibility, that at least he may have tried to do so.
Simply being an Abyssal gives them access to the power to learn Shadowlands Circle Necromancy. Labyrinth Circle Necromancy requires the hatred of Whispers of the Neverborn. Void Circle Necromancy requires Whispers of Oblivion.
How Much Does Black Exaltation Change Them?
It depends on how much they allow it to. Oblivion inspires but it does not create. Some feel drawn to seek out the source of the dark power within them.
Necromancy- power over death
Do the Deathlords have unique powers from possessing the spectral remnants of the souls of the Neverborn. What allowed them to encorporate their ghostly souls in the first place? Was it because of a psychic resonance that they hated Creation as much as the Neverborn?
I think it's important to distinguish between the power of the Neverborn and the power of Oblivion. That fact that Abyssals' powers and those of others beings like the Deathlords seemed to come from both without much distinction was a weakness of the rulebook. I like the way the Oblivion is portrayed more as an entity than as a force, like Mr. Shadow in The Fifth Element. The get the feeling that there's a malevolent intelligence lurking in there rather than it just being a black hole. The outright presence of sentience in the Neverborn annoys me though. It should have been made much more unclear whether they are dead or alive. Call of Cthulhu was an obvious potential source of inspiration for the Neverborn and possibly the Yozis but it's one the writers seemed to ignore. They could have created a realm of great msytery which would have been excellent to explore through but instead they chose to spell things out. The Neverborn are obviously not truly dead and I think it would have been far more interesting for the game if no one knew really if there were dead or not. All they have to go by are the Whispers that emanate from their tombs and the apparent miracles they cause.
Bitten
Rating: Red Stuff
I'm not much of a fan of vampire films, most of the time I think werewolf films are better (thank you Ginger.) Initially I liked this film although admittedly I've only seen the second half of it. The main character is played by Jay from Dogma. It's an underground vampire film rather than a night stalker 30 Days of Night film. Most of the time I quite enjoyed it, watching the relationship play out between 'Jay' and his vampire girlfriend in a way fans of Masquerade would approve of despite the occasionally coarse attitude and the propensity of the director to layer on music more than is useful. Unfortunately the director tries to turn the film into a comedy when the mood of most of it makes that totally wrong. The film has a feel that reminds me a lot of Ginger Snaps, albeit in a cruder setting, but the attempts at humour are too out of feel with that and at the end the director doesn't take the film seriously at all. Then end credits are full out out-takes that ruins what was left of the atmosphere. Jason's acting measures up but towards the end just doesn't carry emotion that would have made it a climax. It had elements of a really good horror film but it also had elements that ruined that. It could have been a vampire equivalent of Ginger Snaps, a remarkably similar feel and two people enjoying and wrestling with the effects of a supernatural condition but most of all let down by the director not approaching their material properly. I would love it if they did it right. To be fair maybe it wasn't the director's fault, they get a lot of pressure from other members of the production to do things a certain way but this is what they made it.
Friday, 6 May 2011
Legion
I wondered what to do for a larger force. Either four or five square would form a larger unit of identical troops. With four they could themselves form into a larger square of forty by forty men. And they could form a triangle in the same way as hundreds. They could also deploy in squares at each corner of a formation. On the other hand five squares would give them reserves although they might be out of place in a battle in their own camp or another defensive situation.
I thought of a model for a larger Legion structure based on a game I used to play in Age of Empires II called Chinese warfare. There are eight players in a land based game with a population limit of 150 or 200. This allows you to have truly vast armies and fight battles where the rules should support unit versus unit combat rather than man against man combat. My preferred infantry formation was based on a combined formation of 10 Elite Chu ko nu, 10 Pikemen and 10 Elite Skirmishers. This formed an anti all arms unit with troops capable of fighting against infantry, cavalry or archers. Added on were field artillery in the form of four or five heavy scorpions and light cavalry to prevent an enemy approaching the formation unnoticed and making a surprise attack. A unit of heavy cavalry would also have been useful to attack artillery who infantry are very vulnerable to. A similar structure could be used with a Realm Legion with three groups of squares, each a different troop type and several extra units like artillery and cavalry. Scouts should be placed on the corners of the formation to give them the greatest line of sight around the infantry. The scale of the game was so huge you could field several of these divisions. It would have been good if you could fight units against units in battles that size. The scouts are very important for giving the unit awareness.
I thought of a model for a larger Legion structure based on a game I used to play in Age of Empires II called Chinese warfare. There are eight players in a land based game with a population limit of 150 or 200. This allows you to have truly vast armies and fight battles where the rules should support unit versus unit combat rather than man against man combat. My preferred infantry formation was based on a combined formation of 10 Elite Chu ko nu, 10 Pikemen and 10 Elite Skirmishers. This formed an anti all arms unit with troops capable of fighting against infantry, cavalry or archers. Added on were field artillery in the form of four or five heavy scorpions and light cavalry to prevent an enemy approaching the formation unnoticed and making a surprise attack. A unit of heavy cavalry would also have been useful to attack artillery who infantry are very vulnerable to. A similar structure could be used with a Realm Legion with three groups of squares, each a different troop type and several extra units like artillery and cavalry. Scouts should be placed on the corners of the formation to give them the greatest line of sight around the infantry. The scale of the game was so huge you could field several of these divisions. It would have been good if you could fight units against units in battles that size. The scouts are very important for giving the unit awareness.
Lost Artefacts
At their height there were nearly one million Terrestrials. Their families had heirlooms of Jade. Now there are only ten thousand so what happened to all their artefacts? Many must have been swallowed up by the Wyld during the Great Contagion. Many more must have been buried with them (albeit primitively) to placate their ghosts during that time. Who knows what happened to the others. Devices leading to places where artefacts rest must be popular. The Dragon-Blooded of the Scarlet Empire must have unearthed many when rebuilding the new Realm to establish their power. No doubt hoards and scattered artefacts remain. In lost treasure chambers or places men fear to go for reasons they may no longer remember.
Sandglass
Create a martial arts style that affects perception of time.
People unknowingly gain comfort from the fact that their minds are fixed in the present. This Charm releases the mind from the present moment, indeed from their very existence and allows them to contemplate eternity. As an attack they must make a (_____) roll. To use this power on themselves they must meditate and make a (_____) roll. Success removes the character's mind from their own existence. They become unaware of everything that is happening at the present time, in fact they become unable to understand or perceive what the present is as only the endless is truly comprehensible to them. Sidereals use this Charm to consider the effect of elaborate and extremely long lasting alterations to the Loom of Fate.
Anyone who knows this power who wishes to return the mind of someone they know to be affected by it reflexively spends a point of Willpower and must make an A roll at a difficulty of the attacker's Essence when the Charm was used.
People unknowingly gain comfort from the fact that their minds are fixed in the present. This Charm releases the mind from the present moment, indeed from their very existence and allows them to contemplate eternity. As an attack they must make a (_____) roll. To use this power on themselves they must meditate and make a (_____) roll. Success removes the character's mind from their own existence. They become unaware of everything that is happening at the present time, in fact they become unable to understand or perceive what the present is as only the endless is truly comprehensible to them. Sidereals use this Charm to consider the effect of elaborate and extremely long lasting alterations to the Loom of Fate.
Anyone who knows this power who wishes to return the mind of someone they know to be affected by it reflexively spends a point of Willpower and must make an A roll at a difficulty of the attacker's Essence when the Charm was used.
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Legion
I thought for a long time about creating an organised military during the second age. My various attempts didn't create anything that would hold up creatively so I decided after finally hitting on a good idea to use the army of the Realm. The Realm Legions are directly descended from the army of the Old Realm and follow many of it's fundamental principles. The main reason for the overwhelming strength of the Realm Legions is their use of the accumulated knowledge of the First Age. Armies are still organised and trained as faithfully as possible according to First Age practices. Unlike the idea of the Realm which was revived in a diminished capacity 750 years after the end of the First Age, the Legions are descended from an unbroken line from the time of Solar warlords. Many of them gained more individualistic characters from the fractious era of the Shogunate when legions fought eachother.
The Square
This description of a Realm legion's basic tactical unit is from a scene in Hero. I was very impressed by the units of the Chin army standing in squares forming vast areas covered with troops. So I thought of basing the main tactical unit on a square formation with a square number rather than using a decimal system (like 500, then 250, then 125) or basing them on getting the most from the Magnitude table. Something like 15 across didn't really sound like enough so then I thought of twenty. Each unit of 400 men is divided into subunits of hundreds. The leader of the unit commands of the hundreds and thee heroes command the others; one of whom is a senior commander. Each hundred forms a square of ten by ten men. The great thing about this formation is that it can rearrange itself from a square to a line or column facing either direction very easily by moving the square hundreds like blocks. The back two squares can move sideways and then forwards to form a line. Or the right squares can move forwards or backwards and then left to form a column. And a column in one direction is a line 90 degrees in the other direction.
Carrying on from my rules about mass combat, I'm not convinced about the rules for messangers in mass combat units. For one thing they aren't different enough to really be special characters. There should also be an optimisation of number of subunits for a size of parent unit. The advantages are if a square of shock troops confronted a captaincy from Harbourhead with 180 men they could split up into two units of two hundred and attack them from two direction with unit of equal Magnitude. If they were against a much smaller enemy they could split up into hundreds and surround them.
Each hundred is divided into ten man units who are trained to fight in column beside other units and in ranks.
This formation is extremely flexible and allows it to be reform very quickly. A unit this size could include a unit of skirmishers to combat enemy skirmishers and prevent them from being vulnerable to attack from a small band of light troops. Hand picked men, or one ten man unit from each hundred could carry a missile weapon such as a sling. Larger attacks would be countered by formations of missile troops. Missile troops would have different drills and different formations to shock troops (soldiers in the First Age and afterwards would have spent a long time drilling so they could changing formation as quickly as possible.) Another advantage of the square that missile troops would exploit is that it literally lets them form a square. Each side is one of the four hundreds of troops. Missile troops would probably spend most time of the battlefield formed into two ranks or another shallow line to allow them to shoot. The typical arrangement for a ten man unit is two lines of five so a unit of a hundred can have a frontage for fifty or twenty five men.
My military genius knows no bounds. In addition to forming square, column and line, the square mix of ten and four based units also allows them to form triangle. Triangle formations may have been used to assault an enemy line. The number of men in each ten man unit allows them to form a triangle like the red balls in snooker. If the ten skirmishers detach the other nine units can form a group of interlocking triangles in ranks of one, three and five. All four hundred in a square can make interlocking triangles to form one huge triangular wedge with the skirmishers as a detached unit, or two units.
The Square
This description of a Realm legion's basic tactical unit is from a scene in Hero. I was very impressed by the units of the Chin army standing in squares forming vast areas covered with troops. So I thought of basing the main tactical unit on a square formation with a square number rather than using a decimal system (like 500, then 250, then 125) or basing them on getting the most from the Magnitude table. Something like 15 across didn't really sound like enough so then I thought of twenty. Each unit of 400 men is divided into subunits of hundreds. The leader of the unit commands of the hundreds and thee heroes command the others; one of whom is a senior commander. Each hundred forms a square of ten by ten men. The great thing about this formation is that it can rearrange itself from a square to a line or column facing either direction very easily by moving the square hundreds like blocks. The back two squares can move sideways and then forwards to form a line. Or the right squares can move forwards or backwards and then left to form a column. And a column in one direction is a line 90 degrees in the other direction.
Carrying on from my rules about mass combat, I'm not convinced about the rules for messangers in mass combat units. For one thing they aren't different enough to really be special characters. There should also be an optimisation of number of subunits for a size of parent unit. The advantages are if a square of shock troops confronted a captaincy from Harbourhead with 180 men they could split up into two units of two hundred and attack them from two direction with unit of equal Magnitude. If they were against a much smaller enemy they could split up into hundreds and surround them.
Each hundred is divided into ten man units who are trained to fight in column beside other units and in ranks.
This formation is extremely flexible and allows it to be reform very quickly. A unit this size could include a unit of skirmishers to combat enemy skirmishers and prevent them from being vulnerable to attack from a small band of light troops. Hand picked men, or one ten man unit from each hundred could carry a missile weapon such as a sling. Larger attacks would be countered by formations of missile troops. Missile troops would have different drills and different formations to shock troops (soldiers in the First Age and afterwards would have spent a long time drilling so they could changing formation as quickly as possible.) Another advantage of the square that missile troops would exploit is that it literally lets them form a square. Each side is one of the four hundreds of troops. Missile troops would probably spend most time of the battlefield formed into two ranks or another shallow line to allow them to shoot. The typical arrangement for a ten man unit is two lines of five so a unit of a hundred can have a frontage for fifty or twenty five men.
My military genius knows no bounds. In addition to forming square, column and line, the square mix of ten and four based units also allows them to form triangle. Triangle formations may have been used to assault an enemy line. The number of men in each ten man unit allows them to form a triangle like the red balls in snooker. If the ten skirmishers detach the other nine units can form a group of interlocking triangles in ranks of one, three and five. All four hundred in a square can make interlocking triangles to form one huge triangular wedge with the skirmishers as a detached unit, or two units.
R'yuk kan
R'yuk kan is a god of itself and as such has free will just as it's creator intended. He is motivated to serve his master but may choose not to do so. That he does is largely due to the fact that they are together and he offers the most opportunities for social interraction.
His entire manse was raised as a study where he could live while he researched his project. He was working completely from scratch and and to work out the entire process himself. At the end of the year long procedure of making the staff he sacrificed a Third Circle Demon he kept in the boundary circle from Calibration to Calibration. Exactly one year since he started on the last night of Calibration, the most inauspicious time of the year, he completed his work at midnight and R'yuk came into being.
He takes great pride in the fact that he is unique, the only god created intentionally since the fall of the Primordials. Some gods wonder whether the demon was actually destroyed during his creation or formed part of his psyche. It certainly would account for his twisted personality. But then it's designed who based R'yuk on himself was quite similar. His powers against demons would certainly account for destroying a demon during his creation. This may have been R'yuk first act.
He also is effectively the god of deliberately created gods. His existence went unnoticed because he had no place in Fate when he was made. It was only when Sidereals stormed the manse they found what an abhorrent creation he'd made. His master was largely an unknown quantity among Exalted society and the creation of R'yuk had been kept absolutely secret. Not even his closest Dragon-blooded attendants had the faintest inkling of what he was doing. As a result the Sidereals assembled one of their most powerful groups to deal with him. As hand picked elders from among the most powerful members of the Bronze Faction they were horrified when they discovered what he'd done.
Rather than destroying the manse and risk raising the ghost of an elder Solar who'd seen the culmination of his life's work destroyed, they sealed the manse turning it into a mortuary where he could rest in private with everything he created. His spirit soon passed away and the powerful defences round the manse have been impenetrable to grave robbers ever since.
He used the supreme, specially focused, geomantic Solar Essence of the Manse the way a swordsmith would use the heat of a forge.
It's uncertain since R'yuk possesses unique characteristics if he actually is a god or a new type of supernatural creature. Since he has no star in the Heavens some wonder if he can actually be killed. Maybe his creator succeeded more than anyone could have thought of and he cannot be killed, then he is truly immortal.
Archive- they are unimaginably complicated writings written by someone who's understanding of Essence exceeds almost any living Exalted. As Creatures of Darkness are the Deathlords capable of learning Solar Circle Sorcery?
His creation as a result of it's effect may contribute to his antithesis of demons. At the end of the ritual which lasted for five days Amarec slayed the demon by driving the orichalcum staff through it's chest. His creation was in a way synergistic with the slaying of the demon and it was the first thing he was aware of.
R'yuk's name is written in emeralds, saphires and adamant on the staff in an apparently lost Primordial dialect prompting rumours that he travelled to Malfeas to learn the secret from the Yozis especially given his apparently anti demonic disposition. What did he plan to do with the staff once it was completed? Journey into Malfeas and conquer it for his own? Demons fear R'yuk's very name and quail at the sight of the staff.
A completely alternative possibility is that R'yuk is the result of a failure. Maybe what Amarec was trying to do was create another Solar Exaltation for a being that would do his will as just as the Solars did for the Unconquered Sun, an ultimate insult and blasphemy in his eyes. To wield Solar Circle Sorcery is to wield the power of the Unconquered Sun himself. Using it to try to recreate his achievements for your own advancement is an unprecedented crime against the Celestial Incarnae. Perhaps he saw himself as equal in power to the Unconquered Sun after the Solars long development of power during the First Age and sought to finally confirm it by creating an Exaltation as the Unconquered Sun did. Perhaps that's why the spell 'failed' and created a twisted version of him. Whatever his intentions he didn't seem disappointed with the results and found R'yuk was an adequate companion despite his low Essence and inexperience.
His entire manse was raised as a study where he could live while he researched his project. He was working completely from scratch and and to work out the entire process himself. At the end of the year long procedure of making the staff he sacrificed a Third Circle Demon he kept in the boundary circle from Calibration to Calibration. Exactly one year since he started on the last night of Calibration, the most inauspicious time of the year, he completed his work at midnight and R'yuk came into being.
He takes great pride in the fact that he is unique, the only god created intentionally since the fall of the Primordials. Some gods wonder whether the demon was actually destroyed during his creation or formed part of his psyche. It certainly would account for his twisted personality. But then it's designed who based R'yuk on himself was quite similar. His powers against demons would certainly account for destroying a demon during his creation. This may have been R'yuk first act.
He also is effectively the god of deliberately created gods. His existence went unnoticed because he had no place in Fate when he was made. It was only when Sidereals stormed the manse they found what an abhorrent creation he'd made. His master was largely an unknown quantity among Exalted society and the creation of R'yuk had been kept absolutely secret. Not even his closest Dragon-blooded attendants had the faintest inkling of what he was doing. As a result the Sidereals assembled one of their most powerful groups to deal with him. As hand picked elders from among the most powerful members of the Bronze Faction they were horrified when they discovered what he'd done.
Rather than destroying the manse and risk raising the ghost of an elder Solar who'd seen the culmination of his life's work destroyed, they sealed the manse turning it into a mortuary where he could rest in private with everything he created. His spirit soon passed away and the powerful defences round the manse have been impenetrable to grave robbers ever since.
He used the supreme, specially focused, geomantic Solar Essence of the Manse the way a swordsmith would use the heat of a forge.
It's uncertain since R'yuk possesses unique characteristics if he actually is a god or a new type of supernatural creature. Since he has no star in the Heavens some wonder if he can actually be killed. Maybe his creator succeeded more than anyone could have thought of and he cannot be killed, then he is truly immortal.
Archive- they are unimaginably complicated writings written by someone who's understanding of Essence exceeds almost any living Exalted. As Creatures of Darkness are the Deathlords capable of learning Solar Circle Sorcery?
His creation as a result of it's effect may contribute to his antithesis of demons. At the end of the ritual which lasted for five days Amarec slayed the demon by driving the orichalcum staff through it's chest. His creation was in a way synergistic with the slaying of the demon and it was the first thing he was aware of.
R'yuk's name is written in emeralds, saphires and adamant on the staff in an apparently lost Primordial dialect prompting rumours that he travelled to Malfeas to learn the secret from the Yozis especially given his apparently anti demonic disposition. What did he plan to do with the staff once it was completed? Journey into Malfeas and conquer it for his own? Demons fear R'yuk's very name and quail at the sight of the staff.
A completely alternative possibility is that R'yuk is the result of a failure. Maybe what Amarec was trying to do was create another Solar Exaltation for a being that would do his will as just as the Solars did for the Unconquered Sun, an ultimate insult and blasphemy in his eyes. To wield Solar Circle Sorcery is to wield the power of the Unconquered Sun himself. Using it to try to recreate his achievements for your own advancement is an unprecedented crime against the Celestial Incarnae. Perhaps he saw himself as equal in power to the Unconquered Sun after the Solars long development of power during the First Age and sought to finally confirm it by creating an Exaltation as the Unconquered Sun did. Perhaps that's why the spell 'failed' and created a twisted version of him. Whatever his intentions he didn't seem disappointed with the results and found R'yuk was an adequate companion despite his low Essence and inexperience.
Damage
I thought of a different system for calculating damage while thinking about a Lunar Excellency that was based on the actual numbers of the dice rolled rather than the number of successes. The player rolls one dice for each point of strength they have. They add the weapon's damage to the number on each dice and the difficulty to score a success is their opponent's armour value. The defending player then makes a soak roll with their stamina at standard threshold of seven. Weapon's damage values would have to be re-evaluated and piercing damage would probably be removed from mortal weapons. Another change is that more solid weapons would have an Overwhelming Damage of one where they didn't before. In this system Overwhelming Damage adds to the attacker's strength when making a damage roll so large weapons will inflict more injury. Artefact weapons would massively increase the user's strength under present rules.
Monday, 2 May 2011
Elemental Pole of Air
What if the Elemental Pole of Air is the sky, the Heavens that the faces of the Incarnae move through an infinite distance from Creation. A craft made of starmetal can travel the infinite distance to the stars and enter Yu-Shan.
30th April
Magitech vehicles don't just go through matter, they go through Essence and use it to move themselves.
Because they move through Essence the pilots would need to have Lore to understand the Essence flows to pilot them. Crews of magitech vehicles need to be able to read Essence flows in the landscape.
Solar Circle Sorcery should be the power to forge the will of the Unconquered Sun himself. It's divine power in it's most mighty form.
Each of the Celestial Exalted were taught the divine powers by their patrons. Solar Circle Sorcery is the will of the Unconquered Sun himself. Lunars leaned the masterful, perfect protean nature of Luna which allowed them to be anything they desired. The Five Maidens taught their Chosen the Sidereal Martial Arts which give them power over aspects of reality.
Because they move through Essence the pilots would need to have Lore to understand the Essence flows to pilot them. Crews of magitech vehicles need to be able to read Essence flows in the landscape.
Solar Circle Sorcery should be the power to forge the will of the Unconquered Sun himself. It's divine power in it's most mighty form.
Each of the Celestial Exalted were taught the divine powers by their patrons. Solar Circle Sorcery is the will of the Unconquered Sun himself. Lunars leaned the masterful, perfect protean nature of Luna which allowed them to be anything they desired. The Five Maidens taught their Chosen the Sidereal Martial Arts which give them power over aspects of reality.
30th April
Instead of designing a building with architecture they design it with magic. Rather than using physical paws of structure they channel Essence through sheer aesthetics and intent. During the First Age and Shogunate designing a building based on architecture was very vulgar for Exalted and many mortals. The Primordials designed buildings using a mastery of Essence that made building of a kind which haven't been seen since.
Saturday, 30 April 2011
The Titan Slayers
How do you think the Solars defeated the Primordials? In hand to hand combat? I don't think so. They built fucking big war machines. Royal Warstriders were designed to let them fight beings like Vodak, something so vast it's stamina is practically incalculable.
Loremasters were given the gift of Solar Circle Sorcery. Armed with the will to invoke the very wrath of the gods to fight their enemies.
Lunar warstriders must have been vast. Built to be piloted by Exalts in gargantuan spirit shapes and in the form of their totem animals they were capable of wrestling with the Primordials as well.
The Sidereals characteristically fought with something other than brute force. They used reality warping 'martial arts styles' which in fact transcend the idea of mere fighting styles altogether.
Warstrider rules would have to be rewritten. Not just that but warstrider weapons would also have to be rethought. They would simply be far larger. A warstrider could have a battery of Concussive Essence Cannon on the back of it's fist. Their purpose made weapons would be huge. A warstrider could have a house sized Storm Hammer mounted on it's shoulder. They would have unimaginably sophisticated technology systems.
Loremasters were given the gift of Solar Circle Sorcery. Armed with the will to invoke the very wrath of the gods to fight their enemies.
Lunar warstriders must have been vast. Built to be piloted by Exalts in gargantuan spirit shapes and in the form of their totem animals they were capable of wrestling with the Primordials as well.
The Sidereals characteristically fought with something other than brute force. They used reality warping 'martial arts styles' which in fact transcend the idea of mere fighting styles altogether.
Warstrider rules would have to be rewritten. Not just that but warstrider weapons would also have to be rethought. They would simply be far larger. A warstrider could have a battery of Concussive Essence Cannon on the back of it's fist. Their purpose made weapons would be huge. A warstrider could have a house sized Storm Hammer mounted on it's shoulder. They would have unimaginably sophisticated technology systems.
Friday, 29 April 2011
Dreams of the First Age
I bought this book to find out about High Essence Charms for Celestial Exalted largely so I had some idea of scale for spells since I decided that the Essence and Occult requirements for sorcery should be much higher. Unfortunately they rarely go into Essence 7 territory, a few Lunar ones go up to 8 and they don't go any higher. There aren't any Charms for Essence 9 and 10. Warning, there aren't any Sidereal Charms in this book. And since it sticks strictly to the First Age there are no Abyssal Charms either. The lists they do have are rather short, not like the long lists they have in other source books. I would have probably written a chapter about each Exalted. This is annoying because at Celestial Circle Sorcery having Essence 7 and Solar Circle Sorcery having Essence 9 it gives very little detail for the scope of their spells which I was looking forward to. The cloth map is nice but I thought Creation would be vast compared to what it is now. What's left is just an island in the sea of the Wyld under the control of the Terrestrial who were never meant to be in control, rather than the vast empire ruled over by the Solars. As is unfortunately the case with Exalted they say how it should be a game of epic scale with legendary heroes but they don't take the breaks off and go completely bonkers which you need to do to write about such all powerful personages. The book does have a list of luminaries like Salina herself and the soon to be infamous Anjei Marama. It only gives an idea of like at the peak of the First Age however rather than describing it from start to finish. It's a nice idea in itself with more of a feeling for the moment, it even comes with it's own guidebook for Meru, but doesn't describe the epic was against the Primordials or how the Realm became so degenerate that the Sidereals thought the Solars had to be stopped and their final downfall.
Basically the designers need to think bigger and act completely without restraint to describe the Celestial Exalted at the height of their powers which I imagine to be the end of the First Age when they're at their most powerful but also their worst. Scroll of the Monk regularly goes up to Essence 7 and in one style has several Essence 8 Charms, but the designers' decision to not do any high Essence Sidereal Charms because it would cause damage to the Tapestry of Creation limiting them to sorcery and martial arts is very bad. Lunars, Solars and Abyssals each have their supernatural speciality and have ordinary Charms so why shouldn't the Sidereals. Once again I'm very disappointed by the fact that I haven't seen an Essence 9 or 10 Charm that would help me with perspective for Celestial/Solar Circle Sorcery and my project, Dark Messiah Style. I guess I'm going to have to get creative...
Basically the designers need to think bigger and act completely without restraint to describe the Celestial Exalted at the height of their powers which I imagine to be the end of the First Age when they're at their most powerful but also their worst. Scroll of the Monk regularly goes up to Essence 7 and in one style has several Essence 8 Charms, but the designers' decision to not do any high Essence Sidereal Charms because it would cause damage to the Tapestry of Creation limiting them to sorcery and martial arts is very bad. Lunars, Solars and Abyssals each have their supernatural speciality and have ordinary Charms so why shouldn't the Sidereals. Once again I'm very disappointed by the fact that I haven't seen an Essence 9 or 10 Charm that would help me with perspective for Celestial/Solar Circle Sorcery and my project, Dark Messiah Style. I guess I'm going to have to get creative...
Mobile Suits
I was reading the part about Bonestriders in the Warstrider section of Wonders of the Lost Age and realised that Warstriders aren't the only mobile suits that exist inn Creation. Apart from Bonestriders which would fall under my section about Black Magitech, a truly epic Black Magitech device would be an undead Behemoth. Mask Of Winters already used one as a war machine. You can imagine the megalomaniac at the helm with a demented grin going "I'-m driving a Be-he-moth!" Of course black magitech is made from people or things while they're still alive while necromancy brings them back from the dead. To create greater undead a necromancer may have to journey through the Underworld, even the Labyrinth to find the spirit of the person they're trying to resurrect and bring them back.
It makes me wonder though what other ideas Exalted and other creatures get. Do the Fair Folk use Warstriders (that would be a sight to see.) What other things have the Deathlords thought of reanimating or piecing together. Not all Warstriders have to be human shaped, some Lunars probably have aquatic suits specially made to hold their animal forms like fish, kraken or even other weirder sea creatures. These would be more like colossal suits of armour. Starmetal Warstriders unfortunately would be a rarity if they exist at all. There's hardly enough to build a complete Warstrider out of especially in my new specifications.
It makes me wonder though what other ideas Exalted and other creatures get. Do the Fair Folk use Warstriders (that would be a sight to see.) What other things have the Deathlords thought of reanimating or piecing together. Not all Warstriders have to be human shaped, some Lunars probably have aquatic suits specially made to hold their animal forms like fish, kraken or even other weirder sea creatures. These would be more like colossal suits of armour. Starmetal Warstriders unfortunately would be a rarity if they exist at all. There's hardly enough to build a complete Warstrider out of especially in my new specifications.
Man-of-War
Sea Scourge First Age light battle cruiser
The ship's design is solid and functional, if somewhat inelegant. It's sides are flanked by 74 Medium Concussive Essence Cannon on three gun decks with at least 12 on each side of the deck. The guns are crewed by pairs of Terrestrial Exalted who may have a synergistic Charm that allows both of them to attune to the gun so if can still be fired if one of them becomes a casualty. The gun crews all wear water jade lamellar armour that makes them float in the water in case they are blown overboard. All the weapons are operated by the gunner's Essence since there's no way they'd be able to find enough level 3 hearthstones for the whole battery, let alone all the guns in a fleet. Every gunnery officer is an Experienced Terrestrial Exalted with an Essence of 4 or 5 so they have enough Essence to power their gun for a reasonable time. Each battery on the side of a ship is a combat unit with three gun captains, two of them acting are heroes so the decks can fire independently to maximise firepower. A contingent of marines on board wear water jade articulated plate that also allows them to float in water and carry artefact weapons.
In single ship combat a ship would probably have to be used as several different combat units with the captain acting as the commander of a larger force.
The Gunnery Captains are hand picked Experienced Terrestrial Exalted from the gun crews who have leadership skills.
The ship's hull is made from water jade making the vessel self-propelled. It has masts that hang sails of air jade to boost it's speed. The whole vessel is an artefact rather than Magitech.
The ship's design is solid and functional, if somewhat inelegant. It's sides are flanked by 74 Medium Concussive Essence Cannon on three gun decks with at least 12 on each side of the deck. The guns are crewed by pairs of Terrestrial Exalted who may have a synergistic Charm that allows both of them to attune to the gun so if can still be fired if one of them becomes a casualty. The gun crews all wear water jade lamellar armour that makes them float in the water in case they are blown overboard. All the weapons are operated by the gunner's Essence since there's no way they'd be able to find enough level 3 hearthstones for the whole battery, let alone all the guns in a fleet. Every gunnery officer is an Experienced Terrestrial Exalted with an Essence of 4 or 5 so they have enough Essence to power their gun for a reasonable time. Each battery on the side of a ship is a combat unit with three gun captains, two of them acting are heroes so the decks can fire independently to maximise firepower. A contingent of marines on board wear water jade articulated plate that also allows them to float in water and carry artefact weapons.
In single ship combat a ship would probably have to be used as several different combat units with the captain acting as the commander of a larger force.
The Gunnery Captains are hand picked Experienced Terrestrial Exalted from the gun crews who have leadership skills.
The ship's hull is made from water jade making the vessel self-propelled. It has masts that hang sails of air jade to boost it's speed. The whole vessel is an artefact rather than Magitech.
Thursday, 28 April 2011
The True Meaning of Might
I remembered reading somewhere that if Juggernaught stood on it's hind legs it would be half a mile high. Also power armour was preferable to Warstriders for fighting any opponent smaller than a Behemoth. The given description of Warstrider being up to 25 feet high just doesn't do it. A Royal Warstrider should be like a quarter of a mile high or more (these things are general categories not design specifications.) If you want something capable of fighting a Behemoth it has to be massive.
That raises the point things like Mount Mostath and Vodak have stats which are sometimes off the chart (Vodak's stamina is 'immeasurable') Who the hell rolls 50 or a hundred dice? The real meaning of Might or True Might is for combat that takes place on a scale that outstrips mortal boundaries, just like Warfare (not just mass combat) outstrips it in size. Such being powers should be rated on a different scale, one that's applicable to Warfare they're likely to take part in.
That raises the point things like Mount Mostath and Vodak have stats which are sometimes off the chart (Vodak's stamina is 'immeasurable') Who the hell rolls 50 or a hundred dice? The real meaning of Might or True Might is for combat that takes place on a scale that outstrips mortal boundaries, just like Warfare (not just mass combat) outstrips it in size. Such being powers should be rated on a different scale, one that's applicable to Warfare they're likely to take part in.
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
28th February
Terrain features aren't created by ordinary geological forces but by the actions of Elementals formations impossible under normal circumstances.
Elementals should be a family of exotic species who live unseen in the forest corners and haunt snowstorms. People have many myths about such things but few people really know about them anymore.
Elementals should be a family of exotic species who live unseen in the forest corners and haunt snowstorms. People have many myths about such things but few people really know about them anymore.
26th February
The problem is they're trying to create a game that's baseless, that's solely the product of their imagination. There's nothing wrong with having influences.
The trees the Haltans dwell in are so vast that they use branches as roads, walking along them as comfortably as ants walking along the branches of a normal tree. Haltan society should take place more in the treetops. The Essence of Wood is extremely strong in this region creating increadible fecundity and allowing living things to grow to vast sizes. After the Contagion, Linowan war and occupation by the Fair Folk they ceded control of the ground. But considering how vast the forests are- trees tower miles into the air like wooden mountains- and the aid of their Lunar allies, this did not prove to be a disadvantage. In environmental scale as with so many other things the designers needed to take the brakes off and go absolutely wild. The scale of things like the Haltan forests and their cities need to be much bigger, which is very appropriate for a game of the type of Exalted.
Living in such an extraordinary forest has imprinted itself on every aspect of Haltan culture. Many people live among forests- but none can claim to live in them as the Haltans do. A word on large animals- the East isn't the only place where mega fauna and flora exists, giant sea creatures live in the West, but because of the life giving energies of the Pole of Wood and the increadible bounty of the forests they can live here in greater density than anwhere else. They erect vast gatehouses on nodes where twigs branch out forming natural junctions. Holes in the bark where dead branches have fallen can become the site of a whole town. Each branch provides food in the fruit that grows on it's twigs. Haltans live a form of nomadic lifestyle travelling from tree to tree. The food collectors get around anyway.
Each tree is like a city with it's branches forming it's districts. Use giant snakes and apes as pack animals. Some Haltans learn to ride between trees on the backs of flying squirrels. The natural world is the very environment. Haltans live together in cities spanning many linked treetops.
The trees the Haltans dwell in are so vast that they use branches as roads, walking along them as comfortably as ants walking along the branches of a normal tree. Haltan society should take place more in the treetops. The Essence of Wood is extremely strong in this region creating increadible fecundity and allowing living things to grow to vast sizes. After the Contagion, Linowan war and occupation by the Fair Folk they ceded control of the ground. But considering how vast the forests are- trees tower miles into the air like wooden mountains- and the aid of their Lunar allies, this did not prove to be a disadvantage. In environmental scale as with so many other things the designers needed to take the brakes off and go absolutely wild. The scale of things like the Haltan forests and their cities need to be much bigger, which is very appropriate for a game of the type of Exalted.
Living in such an extraordinary forest has imprinted itself on every aspect of Haltan culture. Many people live among forests- but none can claim to live in them as the Haltans do. A word on large animals- the East isn't the only place where mega fauna and flora exists, giant sea creatures live in the West, but because of the life giving energies of the Pole of Wood and the increadible bounty of the forests they can live here in greater density than anwhere else. They erect vast gatehouses on nodes where twigs branch out forming natural junctions. Holes in the bark where dead branches have fallen can become the site of a whole town. Each branch provides food in the fruit that grows on it's twigs. Haltans live a form of nomadic lifestyle travelling from tree to tree. The food collectors get around anyway.
Each tree is like a city with it's branches forming it's districts. Use giant snakes and apes as pack animals. Some Haltans learn to ride between trees on the backs of flying squirrels. The natural world is the very environment. Haltans live together in cities spanning many linked treetops.
26th February
Since the power of the occult has diminished people are less familiar with it and superstitions abound. People gifted with supernatural powers may find themselves alienated and even persecuted. Shamans may be treated with wariness and even suspicion. Someone gifted with Essence sight who has visions of the supernatural world beyond Creation may be thought possessed for having such an unnatural power and seeing things that aren't visible to ordinary folk. Places such as Great Forks where gods and godlings live in the open in eachother's company are havens for such 'gifted' individuals.
Think of Essence Awakening and learning supernatural martial arts as Luke Skywalker's awareness of the Force and his ascetic training in Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.
Think of Essence Awakening and learning supernatural martial arts as Luke Skywalker's awareness of the Force and his ascetic training in Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.
26th February
Where Solar warriors triumph through skill and determination the Full Moons use raw physical prowess.
In comparison with other Abyssal Castes the 'Moonshadow' Caste (the Watchers of Midnight?) rather than using the evil in themselves, the Moonshadow Caste use the evil already in others to destroy them often with no trace of their presence. When they arrive towns and whole nations suddenly destroy themselves with no trace of outside involvement.
The Midnight Caste rule their allies through overwhelming power. Moonshadow Caste rule their enemies through subtle and insidious manipulation.
In comparison with other Abyssal Castes the 'Moonshadow' Caste (the Watchers of Midnight?) rather than using the evil in themselves, the Moonshadow Caste use the evil already in others to destroy them often with no trace of their presence. When they arrive towns and whole nations suddenly destroy themselves with no trace of outside involvement.
The Midnight Caste rule their allies through overwhelming power. Moonshadow Caste rule their enemies through subtle and insidious manipulation.
Casket of Eternal Lamentation
The suit's edged spikes are designed to tear the wearer's flesh as they move, slowly filling the suit with blood.
During step 10 of attack resolution reduce the successes on the damage roll by the number of injury levels. If successes still remain apply them as normal. If all the damage is cancelled out, apply all the damage successes to the attacker instead. Resistance Charms can be used against the rebounded attack, but if they depend of variables use the attacker's own traits since they struck the blow, such as Iron Skin Concentration. Since the attack has already hit, Dodge Charms, even perfect defences cannot be used against it.
When they put on the armour they immediately lose all -0 health levels.
An alternative idea is the character's number of injury levels is used as the armour's soak value. The armour is unaffected by piercing. When the wearer takes a fatigue roll, if the fail instead of incurring a -1 internal penalty they suffer 1 level of lethal damage. their fatigue rolls are unaffected by environmental factors. At a -1 wound penalty add 1 to the character's soak and the time between fatigue rolls. When their wound penalty rises above one multiply their soak and fatigue duration by their wound penalty.
The Deathlord who possessed this Monstrance was so impressed by it he created a Black Magitech device called the Blood Reaper Harness based on it to equip suicide squads. As the wearer suffers more and more injuries from the spikes they protrude and move further into the wearer's body as they cut through flesh eventually killing them but make them almost invulnerable until then.
Activation: the suit must be activated by pouring on sacrificial blood (a typical practice for activating Black Magitech.) the amount needed is generally equal to the object's artefact rating in magnitude of sacrificial victims, or the Essence of a supernatural being.
During step 10 of attack resolution reduce the successes on the damage roll by the number of injury levels. If successes still remain apply them as normal. If all the damage is cancelled out, apply all the damage successes to the attacker instead. Resistance Charms can be used against the rebounded attack, but if they depend of variables use the attacker's own traits since they struck the blow, such as Iron Skin Concentration. Since the attack has already hit, Dodge Charms, even perfect defences cannot be used against it.
When they put on the armour they immediately lose all -0 health levels.
An alternative idea is the character's number of injury levels is used as the armour's soak value. The armour is unaffected by piercing. When the wearer takes a fatigue roll, if the fail instead of incurring a -1 internal penalty they suffer 1 level of lethal damage. their fatigue rolls are unaffected by environmental factors. At a -1 wound penalty add 1 to the character's soak and the time between fatigue rolls. When their wound penalty rises above one multiply their soak and fatigue duration by their wound penalty.
The Deathlord who possessed this Monstrance was so impressed by it he created a Black Magitech device called the Blood Reaper Harness based on it to equip suicide squads. As the wearer suffers more and more injuries from the spikes they protrude and move further into the wearer's body as they cut through flesh eventually killing them but make them almost invulnerable until then.
Activation: the suit must be activated by pouring on sacrificial blood (a typical practice for activating Black Magitech.) the amount needed is generally equal to the object's artefact rating in magnitude of sacrificial victims, or the Essence of a supernatural being.
23rd April
The Haltans live in the treetops and sleep under the stars. So far to the east the trees grow far higher and more densely than they do elsewhere. The canopy is thick and blots almost all the light from the forest floor making it almost impossible to tell whether it's day or night. In this perpetual twilight lights of the Fair Folk glow in an unearthly wilderness unseen outside the Wyld.
Lunars' spirit shapes don't have to be ordinary, conventional animals. One of them assumed the shape of a giant, twelve legged cat. Some of them aren't even animals that exist in Creation. Such are the expressions of the Chosen of Luna. Knacks are expressions of the Lunar given form by their protean nature.
Black Magitech- communication device, skulls that talk. Two people have them and when one of them says something their skull can hear the other skull says it.
Life in Yu-Shan- Spirited Away
Some Lunars gain names from their spirit shape. Like the wingless Flying Wolfdragon.
If the thing a god has domain over is lost they lose their power and influence and end up in the slums begging for Essence.
All the gods naturally live in Yu-Shan and sometimes visit Creation to spend time in their domain. Elementals live in Creation and carry out the wishes of the gods who can instruct them immediately from Heaven.
Lunars' spirit shapes don't have to be ordinary, conventional animals. One of them assumed the shape of a giant, twelve legged cat. Some of them aren't even animals that exist in Creation. Such are the expressions of the Chosen of Luna. Knacks are expressions of the Lunar given form by their protean nature.
Black Magitech- communication device, skulls that talk. Two people have them and when one of them says something their skull can hear the other skull says it.
Life in Yu-Shan- Spirited Away
Some Lunars gain names from their spirit shape. Like the wingless Flying Wolfdragon.
If the thing a god has domain over is lost they lose their power and influence and end up in the slums begging for Essence.
All the gods naturally live in Yu-Shan and sometimes visit Creation to spend time in their domain. Elementals live in Creation and carry out the wishes of the gods who can instruct them immediately from Heaven.
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
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?
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?
20th April
By the end of the First Age the Realm was a cesspool of corruption. Rules by megalomaniac Exalted of limitless power, backed by armies of demons, undead and other abominations, vying for power. At first their use of demons had been practical, after a while under their influence they started using their power over them to pursue power itself even appointing Demon Princes as lieutenants in their armies. Those who thought sorcery was too philanthropic and it's demands too selfless turned to necromancy. This may have been why necromancy was first discovered.
17th April
The societies in Exalted's setting lack a cultural basis
Sample southern cultures: arabia, cambodia, south america
The different societies in Creation need more cultural development.
Magical materials are often in short supply in Exalted. Artefacts are often made from a combination of a magical material and normal materials like wood and metal. The materials are not mixed but used with eachother in a composite. Using jade on a wooded club makes a goremaul.
Although they're not magical materials the other parts of the artefact have to be unusual, esoteric components. How unusual depends on the power of the artefact they're trying to create. The definitive part of an artefact like the blade of a weapon, has to be made from one of the magical materials.
An alternative idea for creating artefact powers: the scale of artefact powers goes up to 10.
Sample southern cultures: arabia, cambodia, south america
The different societies in Creation need more cultural development.
Magical materials are often in short supply in Exalted. Artefacts are often made from a combination of a magical material and normal materials like wood and metal. The materials are not mixed but used with eachother in a composite. Using jade on a wooded club makes a goremaul.
Although they're not magical materials the other parts of the artefact have to be unusual, esoteric components. How unusual depends on the power of the artefact they're trying to create. The definitive part of an artefact like the blade of a weapon, has to be made from one of the magical materials.
An alternative idea for creating artefact powers: the scale of artefact powers goes up to 10.
Tamal Ylma
Tamal Ylma is a genuine Necropolis, a city of the dead. Walls made from countless neatly stacked long bones rise above the head like overground catacombs. Only the dead are there.
Handles made of actual hands.
Handles made of actual hands.
Black Magitech
"Dangers he met unflinchingly. Crimes he committed unmoved. I think the climax came when he had proved his point that rational life can be restored, and had sought new worlds to conquer by experimenting on the reanimation of detached parts of bodies...Two biological points he was exceedingly anxious to settle- first, whether any amount of consciousness and rational action be possible without the brain, proceeding from the spinal cord and various nerve centres; and second, whether any ethereal, intangible relation distinct from the material cells may exist to link the surgically separated parts of what had previously been a single living organism."
-H.P.Lovecraft, Herbert West-Reanimator
The Black Art
Black Magitech started among several unrelated sources. usually it was researched in poorly organised hospitals, especially during times of great catastrophe when hospitals were swamped by the number of afflicted and there was a plethora of patients and human material and disposing of evidence was very easy. The chaos and conflict of the Usurpation cast a dark shadow under which some of the most dedicated and derranged mortificers worked, researching at a fevered pace knowing discovery would come soon. Inevitably stories of gory surgeries were circulated when uncovered by the Sidereal directed Dragon-blooded. Stories of depraved post mortem experimentation mixed with exagerrated and fictitious tales spread during the world shaking chaos. Some of the most horrific legends of the First Age are based on experiments in Black Magitech.Unfortunately the science did not die with the fall of the Soar Deliberative. Dragon-blooded potentates, freed from the overbearing presence of the Celestial Exalted uncovered a great amount of information about this forbidden art and now had the world to themselves. The increasing frequency with which warlords vied with eachother made resorting to Black Magitech an attractive option in the dwindling remains of the First Age. Operations like the relocation camps that were used to dispose of the creatures created by Solar breeding programs offered an opportunity for a new generation of mortificers, educated by the information gained by picking over what the Solars left to ply their trade and hire their services and servants to competing warlords.
The final cataclysm of the Great Contagion and the would be world destroying attack of the Fair Folk almost put an end to Black Magitech for good as most of the mortificers themselves ended up in the grave pits. However a few of them did survive to capitalise on the tide of death and almost completely unsupervised conditions. But with the appearence of the Scarlet Empress and the universal rise of the Immaculate Order they were forced to go underground or give up their research entirely.
There was however a group of individuals in a position to investigate deeply the secrets of Black Magitech without interference: the Deathlords. Some of them were almost certainly mortificers during their lives as Solars. The aptitude of Mask of Winters and his ability to make an infrastructure to support the creation of Black Magitech marks him out as an experienced expert in the field. Deathlords with a mind for Black Magitech take Abyssal Exalted into their services as apprentices and assistants. Those with no interest in pursuing it but consider it too important to ignore simply allocate resources to talented Abyssal servants and tell them to make progress on their own. Of course one more efficient way of doing that is to steal someone else's secrets...which leads to employment of other Abyssals who otherwise would have no involvement in the black art.
Thursday, 14 April 2011
7th March
Lunar Charms are often not made with an evident purpose like Ability Charms but can be put to any use the Lunar can think of.
Stamina Charm- the Lunar can raise their body temperature.
Dexterity Charm- they can repeat one physical action 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 melee weapons. 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.
Stamina Charm- their bodies can generate more or less heat.
At higher level they can freeze or boil water within the proximity.
Stamina Charm- the Lunar can raise their body temperature.
Dexterity Charm- they can repeat one physical action 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 melee weapons. 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.
Stamina Charm- their bodies can generate more or less heat.
At higher level they can freeze or boil water within the proximity.
7th March
They've succeeded in creating artefact flight but still haven't truly harnessed ice jade's power to produce levitation. So they have to keep their gliders flying at all times or they'll plummet to their deaths.
5th March
The whore's finger beckons me
Finger on the end of a pustulated arm
The stain of love drips from her hand
Down through the holes in her skin
Her back laying on a curtain of stale sweat
The love of ten customers dumped in a plastic lined bin
can't cut through the smell
But the movement of her finger still arouses me
Pulling me towards her ten times violated pussy
They don't call them hookers for nothing
I'm like a fish on her finger
I go where she points me
What does she like more?
The money of the ten minutes of pleasure I give her
before I come
I bet some men before me haven't lasted so long
Finger on the end of a pustulated arm
The stain of love drips from her hand
Down through the holes in her skin
Her back laying on a curtain of stale sweat
The love of ten customers dumped in a plastic lined bin
can't cut through the smell
But the movement of her finger still arouses me
Pulling me towards her ten times violated pussy
They don't call them hookers for nothing
I'm like a fish on her finger
I go where she points me
What does she like more?
The money of the ten minutes of pleasure I give her
before I come
I bet some men before me haven't lasted so long
5th March
Perhaps the consumption of the dead is an important ceremonial activity. Some societies would never let their relatives be eaten by dogs and maggots. They even go so far as leaving the bones of their ancestors on display on platforms to show their right to live on the land.
People are beset by forces like ghosts, the Fair Folk, rogue Elementals and gods, even demons and the Deathlords with their twisted machinations. Yet these forces are remote and alien to them. Knowledge and familiarity with the supernatural world has diminished making them all the more threatening. Much superstition and mysticism surrounds the world of Essence so the Exalted whose awareness and control of Essence is intrinsic seem miraculous...or terrifying.
The Wonders of the First Age have been forgotten and decayed in neglect and isolation leaving people only the resources of physical technology to survive when before they had magitech.
Mainstream humanity has been thrown back on it's own resources, now greatly diminished after the apocalyptic horror of the Great Contagion and the ineptitude and internecine warfare of the Shogunate.
People are beset by forces like ghosts, the Fair Folk, rogue Elementals and gods, even demons and the Deathlords with their twisted machinations. Yet these forces are remote and alien to them. Knowledge and familiarity with the supernatural world has diminished making them all the more threatening. Much superstition and mysticism surrounds the world of Essence so the Exalted whose awareness and control of Essence is intrinsic seem miraculous...or terrifying.
The Wonders of the First Age have been forgotten and decayed in neglect and isolation leaving people only the resources of physical technology to survive when before they had magitech.
Mainstream humanity has been thrown back on it's own resources, now greatly diminished after the apocalyptic horror of the Great Contagion and the ineptitude and internecine warfare of the Shogunate.
5th March
At one time the Elemental Dragons dwelt in their borders of Creation, each of them shoring it up against the Wyld. Then they were destroyed by the Primordials.
During this time Creation was well ordered and each element was in it's place. Water in the West, Ice in the North, Wood in the centre, Fire in the South and Earth in the East.
The Dragons exuded Elemental Essence. Slowly their shattered Essence gathered and coalesced back into spirits.
Essence in Magnitude x Essence of original being
Total magnitude = Essence of original being
Most woodland people are actually very nautical, rivers are the roads of the woods as they are far easier to travel through than dense forest.
They returned at various points in Creation creating a wild, more chaotic landscape. Also the absence of the mighty Dragons along Creation's edge made it more vulnerable to the Fair Folk. Although their place was taken by some Lunar Exalted (perhaps they were created during the Primordial war when the Primordials destroyed the Dragons leaving Creation's borders dangerously unguarded. The Lunars were designed to live in the Wyld at the boundaries of reality.) The bodies of the Fair Folk are a Shaping Effect. What if the bodies of the Lunars are real but Lunar Essence like moonsilver is a Shaping effect (in actuality it would be more the other way round- the Lunars are to the Wyld what the Fair Folk are to Creation.) The Fair Folk need to take on a physical form to exist in Creation, they can't exist as naturally transforming, inchoate Essence except in Free Holds. What is the nature of Lunar Essences, moonsilver and the Lunars themselves. How do they manage their unique ability of shapeshifting (the ability way be an essential part of their function, just as Fair Folk become real enough to live in Creation the Lunars become unshaped enough to live in the Wyld, as a result they can change their form just by thinking about it.) A power remarkably like the materialisation of the Fair Folk but in reverse. Instead of coalescing Essence into endless variations they make solid matter endlessly protean.
During this time Creation was well ordered and each element was in it's place. Water in the West, Ice in the North, Wood in the centre, Fire in the South and Earth in the East.
The Dragons exuded Elemental Essence. Slowly their shattered Essence gathered and coalesced back into spirits.
Essence in Magnitude x Essence of original being
Total magnitude = Essence of original being
Most woodland people are actually very nautical, rivers are the roads of the woods as they are far easier to travel through than dense forest.
They returned at various points in Creation creating a wild, more chaotic landscape. Also the absence of the mighty Dragons along Creation's edge made it more vulnerable to the Fair Folk. Although their place was taken by some Lunar Exalted (perhaps they were created during the Primordial war when the Primordials destroyed the Dragons leaving Creation's borders dangerously unguarded. The Lunars were designed to live in the Wyld at the boundaries of reality.) The bodies of the Fair Folk are a Shaping Effect. What if the bodies of the Lunars are real but Lunar Essence like moonsilver is a Shaping effect (in actuality it would be more the other way round- the Lunars are to the Wyld what the Fair Folk are to Creation.) The Fair Folk need to take on a physical form to exist in Creation, they can't exist as naturally transforming, inchoate Essence except in Free Holds. What is the nature of Lunar Essences, moonsilver and the Lunars themselves. How do they manage their unique ability of shapeshifting (the ability way be an essential part of their function, just as Fair Folk become real enough to live in Creation the Lunars become unshaped enough to live in the Wyld, as a result they can change their form just by thinking about it.) A power remarkably like the materialisation of the Fair Folk but in reverse. Instead of coalescing Essence into endless variations they make solid matter endlessly protean.
5th March
Exaltation, especially for the Solars (and the Abyssals) should be an enormous, profound, life changing event. For the Zenith Caste it would be a religious awakening. They may have been a priest of a different god or even trying to be noticed by the Unconquered Sun (the Zenith Caste are the only real priests of the Unconquered Sun.)
As priests of the dark powers Midnight Caste start off with one dot in Whispers.
At the final moment they receive the attention of the Unconquered Sun during their meditation (after days of ceremony) they are granted their Exaltation.
As priests of the dark powers Midnight Caste start off with one dot in Whispers.
At the final moment they receive the attention of the Unconquered Sun during their meditation (after days of ceremony) they are granted their Exaltation.
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
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.
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.
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.
26th January
There are many magical materials, salt and iron are baneful against ghosts and the Fair Folk, iron is also used to mix with soulsteel along with onyx and obsidian; but only five materials are capable of channeling Essence to the degree that makes them essential for artefact construction.
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Infernal Love
Froth was foaming from her mouth as she gasped out of time with her rhythmic pounding, spraying foaming spit into the air and onto his face. No matter how hard he tried her body never started to convulse with lust. She never felt the feeling of being lost inside herself while someone else lost themselves inside her.
Soon he was foaming too. Feeling the final most powerful thrusts as he came into her she couldn't control it anymore. She grabbed his neck with her teeth. At first he was half overcome with surprise for a short instant before her teeth started tearing through his skin. She ground her jaws together as he reacted, teeth clenched trying with his weak arms to prise her teeth from his neck. Her teeth tore into his flesh like a predatory beast, driving forwards as he tried to pull away from her dragging her with him, her jaws locked around his throat like a fanged creature of the depths tearing it's prey to pieces.
The thick white foam washed down her neck nearly choking her, before it was replaced by the hot, watery blood he sucked from his torn arteries. The grip on her slowly started to weaken and soon his arm fell limp, dropping onto the blood-spotted white sheets, followed by his body, falling backwards, resting on an expanding pool of it' own gore. Hellebron licked the blood from the top of the right side of her mouth and looked down at her recumberent former lover. For a moment she felt tears welling up around her eyes. Everything she tried had failed. The only time she'd enjoyed an act of love was with her sister. The knowledge she tried to fight against ever since then but was closing around her heart like a hand of iron was she was incapable of caring about anyone but her sister. She would never forget how liberating the feeling of awakening was when she'd first tried to kill her; and so nearly succeeded. She'd achieved something that was exceptionally rare among witches and unheard of in a novice. She's brought someone back from the dead. Not merely moving their body like the vulgar acts of a necromancer but restoring her heart so it beat again bringing her back to real, breathing life. She'd been more attached to her ever since. They were both more attached after that.
Cecelyne had been driven into a rage that her attempt to take here sister by force had failed and that she'd resist her so much she'd rather kill her than be overcome. Compounded by the fact that her standing among the society had drastically increased after that. She'd been taken in by the highest Hag Queen for special training. They'd realised a special talent lay in herand it was all because she's been defeated by her greater older sister. It was as if she's been brought back after her total defeat for it to be recognised by the highest authority in their order that was their entire lives now, that they'd traded everything in the outside city to enter. The order was their world now and Hellebron had been acknowledged by the highest of it's members as a uniquely talented witch because Cecelyne had been defeated and then brought back by her.
Hellebron splashed two handfuls of water from the bowl into her face to wash away they blood around her mouth, then soaked a rag and rinsed her neck, the translucent drops of half diluted blood dripped irritatingly down her body. She sighed as she dropped the rag onto the dresser and looked despondently into the mirror. She's tried sleeping with some of the males who she'd taken to but it was always the same. They could never break through that level of her consciousness that didn't seem to exist when her sister was around. She's killed every last one of them performing every manner of violent act she could think would excite her but. No matter what she did, however bestial her acts of murder she committed, no matter how savage the slaughter, it just made her feel empty. Her sister couldn't stand the sight of her and that was tearing her heart apart.
By the time she's finished staring at her despondent reflection she saw that his blood had stopped flowing. So much waste. If it was my sister's I'd lap up every last drop and howl that I couldn't drink it again. But her love for her sister was the very thing that had driven her to hate her. She couldn't stand being shunned like this. Maybe that's why I really killed them? She quickly dismissed this thought. She knew why she killed them, killed every one of them like she was no more than an animal. She wanted her sister. She looked for the feeling she gave her in other elves but it was nowhere to be found. The only one who could give her the thing that justified her life despised her for that very fact. Despised her for the very fact she was still alive to despise her. Her heart was torn apart by hate for someone who loved her. It was love. She loves me too. Maybe that's what torments her all the more. She's never forgotten the soft feeling of her sister's flesh in her arms after she'd foiled one of her early attempts to rape her. She remembered holding her submissive body locked in her arms and legs after wrestling with her and how aroused she felt. Was that when she started to hate me? That I enjoyed triumphing over her so much?
This was enough. The night air was chilling her bare skin. She dipped a finger into the slowly coagulating blood that had soaked into the bed and licked it. It was cold and tasteless. So unlike my sister. Such passion. Such a craving to dominate me. Such heat.
At that moment she felt an urgent longing in her maidenhood. She took the bloody towel and wiped herself clean, careful not to use the part that was stained with his blood. She quickly put on her night cloak before pacing from the room without looking at the body and the blood she eft behind.
Trying not to be noticed as she worked her way out of the house she winded past other rooms where she heard laughter and sounds of revelry of their own. She'd never made love in a carefree way that other elves enjoyed. She cared too much, that was her problem. So she walked onto the deserted street and made her way through the rain to the only one she cared about.
Three loud knocks rumbled on the iron bound convent door. Clipped steps echoed from the hall within.
"Who is it?"
"Hellebron" she answered sternly.
The eye hole slid open. No eye or feature was visible to her in the dark shadows. After a few seconds that tested Hellebron's growing impatience the eye hole closed and simultaneously the door pulled open with a loud knock as the lock was released.
Hellebron was breathing deeply, her breath making clouds of fog in the air. Partly she was exhausted by her journey but more she felt a need, a compulsion to see her sister. She had no idea what to do when she got there but had to confront her. To tell her everything and see how she'd react. If she would even look at her. She was doubtful if she would listen to her words.
She bowed he cowled head to the witch at the door and walked past, breaking into a fast stride as soon as she passed her. He feet hammered down the corridors, twisting through each turn on her way to the lower rooms where the newest initiated lived. She knew which room her sister slept in and knocked sharply on the door, trying to wake her without any of the others. After waiting impatiently she sighed with exasperation and knocked again. Inside she heard some shuffling and the her sister's face appeared at the barred hole in the door, her nose and mouth invisible under the bottom of the viewing hole.
They just stared at eachother for a few moments, Hellebron breathing audibly as she looked into her sister's eyes, unable to see the expression on her face.
"Are you going to let me in?"
He sister's eyes widened slightly. A sign of passion. But what kind?
"What do you want?"
"Open the door and I'll tell you."
Those perfect blue eyes, the colour of shallow water on a bright day, stared back at her, their expression unreadable without the look on Cecelyne's face. They stared unblinkingly back in a hypnotic trance before abruptly breaking contact as the lock was pulled open and the door revealed Hellebron's slightly shorted sister holding a serrated dagger in her hand. Her face was just as inscutiable as when she'd been hidden by the door. Hellebron couldn't tell if she was angry, exasperated or feeling some other emotion.
Cecelyne took in the image of her sister, her long brown locks obscured by shadow and her cowl in the dark corridor. Even then her eyes were drawn to spots of darkness that weren't as black as the shadow that surrounded her face. Then she recognised the look in her sister's eyes, that empty, almost pleading look that made her expression seem so glazed.
"I've done it again."
Soon he was foaming too. Feeling the final most powerful thrusts as he came into her she couldn't control it anymore. She grabbed his neck with her teeth. At first he was half overcome with surprise for a short instant before her teeth started tearing through his skin. She ground her jaws together as he reacted, teeth clenched trying with his weak arms to prise her teeth from his neck. Her teeth tore into his flesh like a predatory beast, driving forwards as he tried to pull away from her dragging her with him, her jaws locked around his throat like a fanged creature of the depths tearing it's prey to pieces.
The thick white foam washed down her neck nearly choking her, before it was replaced by the hot, watery blood he sucked from his torn arteries. The grip on her slowly started to weaken and soon his arm fell limp, dropping onto the blood-spotted white sheets, followed by his body, falling backwards, resting on an expanding pool of it' own gore. Hellebron licked the blood from the top of the right side of her mouth and looked down at her recumberent former lover. For a moment she felt tears welling up around her eyes. Everything she tried had failed. The only time she'd enjoyed an act of love was with her sister. The knowledge she tried to fight against ever since then but was closing around her heart like a hand of iron was she was incapable of caring about anyone but her sister. She would never forget how liberating the feeling of awakening was when she'd first tried to kill her; and so nearly succeeded. She'd achieved something that was exceptionally rare among witches and unheard of in a novice. She's brought someone back from the dead. Not merely moving their body like the vulgar acts of a necromancer but restoring her heart so it beat again bringing her back to real, breathing life. She'd been more attached to her ever since. They were both more attached after that.
Cecelyne had been driven into a rage that her attempt to take here sister by force had failed and that she'd resist her so much she'd rather kill her than be overcome. Compounded by the fact that her standing among the society had drastically increased after that. She'd been taken in by the highest Hag Queen for special training. They'd realised a special talent lay in herand it was all because she's been defeated by her greater older sister. It was as if she's been brought back after her total defeat for it to be recognised by the highest authority in their order that was their entire lives now, that they'd traded everything in the outside city to enter. The order was their world now and Hellebron had been acknowledged by the highest of it's members as a uniquely talented witch because Cecelyne had been defeated and then brought back by her.
Hellebron splashed two handfuls of water from the bowl into her face to wash away they blood around her mouth, then soaked a rag and rinsed her neck, the translucent drops of half diluted blood dripped irritatingly down her body. She sighed as she dropped the rag onto the dresser and looked despondently into the mirror. She's tried sleeping with some of the males who she'd taken to but it was always the same. They could never break through that level of her consciousness that didn't seem to exist when her sister was around. She's killed every last one of them performing every manner of violent act she could think would excite her but. No matter what she did, however bestial her acts of murder she committed, no matter how savage the slaughter, it just made her feel empty. Her sister couldn't stand the sight of her and that was tearing her heart apart.
By the time she's finished staring at her despondent reflection she saw that his blood had stopped flowing. So much waste. If it was my sister's I'd lap up every last drop and howl that I couldn't drink it again. But her love for her sister was the very thing that had driven her to hate her. She couldn't stand being shunned like this. Maybe that's why I really killed them? She quickly dismissed this thought. She knew why she killed them, killed every one of them like she was no more than an animal. She wanted her sister. She looked for the feeling she gave her in other elves but it was nowhere to be found. The only one who could give her the thing that justified her life despised her for that very fact. Despised her for the very fact she was still alive to despise her. Her heart was torn apart by hate for someone who loved her. It was love. She loves me too. Maybe that's what torments her all the more. She's never forgotten the soft feeling of her sister's flesh in her arms after she'd foiled one of her early attempts to rape her. She remembered holding her submissive body locked in her arms and legs after wrestling with her and how aroused she felt. Was that when she started to hate me? That I enjoyed triumphing over her so much?
This was enough. The night air was chilling her bare skin. She dipped a finger into the slowly coagulating blood that had soaked into the bed and licked it. It was cold and tasteless. So unlike my sister. Such passion. Such a craving to dominate me. Such heat.
At that moment she felt an urgent longing in her maidenhood. She took the bloody towel and wiped herself clean, careful not to use the part that was stained with his blood. She quickly put on her night cloak before pacing from the room without looking at the body and the blood she eft behind.
Trying not to be noticed as she worked her way out of the house she winded past other rooms where she heard laughter and sounds of revelry of their own. She'd never made love in a carefree way that other elves enjoyed. She cared too much, that was her problem. So she walked onto the deserted street and made her way through the rain to the only one she cared about.
Three loud knocks rumbled on the iron bound convent door. Clipped steps echoed from the hall within.
"Who is it?"
"Hellebron" she answered sternly.
The eye hole slid open. No eye or feature was visible to her in the dark shadows. After a few seconds that tested Hellebron's growing impatience the eye hole closed and simultaneously the door pulled open with a loud knock as the lock was released.
Hellebron was breathing deeply, her breath making clouds of fog in the air. Partly she was exhausted by her journey but more she felt a need, a compulsion to see her sister. She had no idea what to do when she got there but had to confront her. To tell her everything and see how she'd react. If she would even look at her. She was doubtful if she would listen to her words.
She bowed he cowled head to the witch at the door and walked past, breaking into a fast stride as soon as she passed her. He feet hammered down the corridors, twisting through each turn on her way to the lower rooms where the newest initiated lived. She knew which room her sister slept in and knocked sharply on the door, trying to wake her without any of the others. After waiting impatiently she sighed with exasperation and knocked again. Inside she heard some shuffling and the her sister's face appeared at the barred hole in the door, her nose and mouth invisible under the bottom of the viewing hole.
They just stared at eachother for a few moments, Hellebron breathing audibly as she looked into her sister's eyes, unable to see the expression on her face.
"Are you going to let me in?"
He sister's eyes widened slightly. A sign of passion. But what kind?
"What do you want?"
"Open the door and I'll tell you."
Those perfect blue eyes, the colour of shallow water on a bright day, stared back at her, their expression unreadable without the look on Cecelyne's face. They stared unblinkingly back in a hypnotic trance before abruptly breaking contact as the lock was pulled open and the door revealed Hellebron's slightly shorted sister holding a serrated dagger in her hand. Her face was just as inscutiable as when she'd been hidden by the door. Hellebron couldn't tell if she was angry, exasperated or feeling some other emotion.
Cecelyne took in the image of her sister, her long brown locks obscured by shadow and her cowl in the dark corridor. Even then her eyes were drawn to spots of darkness that weren't as black as the shadow that surrounded her face. Then she recognised the look in her sister's eyes, that empty, almost pleading look that made her expression seem so glazed.
"I've done it again."
Monday, 11 April 2011
Comparing Supernatural Powers
Each of the Celestial Incarnae gave their Exalted powers that only they themselves possessed. The Unconquered Sun gave the Solar Exalted the powers to change Creation according to his (their) will. Solar Circle Sorcery is awesome and unstoppable. No other power can oppose it. It's the will of god.
The Five Maidens gave their Chosen the power to learn the Martial Arts styles than only they knew.
Lunar gave her Chosen the ability to change form according their will in the manner that she did. In there was a lesson, Solars change Creation, Lunars change themselves.
The Five Maidens gave their Chosen the power to learn the Martial Arts styles than only they knew.
Lunar gave her Chosen the ability to change form according their will in the manner that she did. In there was a lesson, Solars change Creation, Lunars change themselves.
Celestial Martial Arts styles aren't simply ways of fighting, they are methods of understanding, paths of meditating on the subject of the style. Whereas Terrestrial martial arts replicate specific effects Celestial martial arts styles are more figurative and involve progressive understanding of what inspires the style. Once having mastered a Celestial martial art a martial artist can embody the aspect of the style as much as what bears it's name. Many in the martial arts society believe Celestial styles, particularly the ones based on animals were created by Lunars as they repliate the Lunars' practice of embodying and transforming themselves into another being.
The difference between Celestial Styles ad Sidereal Styles is that where Celestial Styles use the martial art to understand the subject of the art, Sidereal styles use the subject to understand the martial art.
If Sidereal Martial Arts integrate Creation as a facet of the style, what are the other facets of it?
9/4 Celestial styles are ways of understanding the subject. Sidereal styles use understanding of the subject to learn the martial art. Or perhaps in a Celestial martial art they transform themselves by learning what the style represents but in Sidereal martial arts they transform themselves by making what the subject represents part of them.
The difference between Celestial Styles ad Sidereal Styles is that where Celestial Styles use the martial art to understand the subject of the art, Sidereal styles use the subject to understand the martial art.
If Sidereal Martial Arts integrate Creation as a facet of the style, what are the other facets of it?
9/4 Celestial styles are ways of understanding the subject. Sidereal styles use understanding of the subject to learn the martial art. Or perhaps in a Celestial martial art they transform themselves by learning what the style represents but in Sidereal martial arts they transform themselves by making what the subject represents part of them.
Raise Skeletons
Shadowlands Circle Spell
A Shadowlands Circle Necromancer can make ageless skeletons out of the living. Performing this spell culminates in a ritual sacrifice takes place when the being they are bound to dies. When a potentate dies and is buried, priests perform an act of Necromancy sacrificing servants that will be bound to them in the afterlife. Their bodies are dressed and equipped and buried with their master. Their spirits are tied to their bodies for as long as this spell lasts. They are now subjects if their master's will who must be one of the greater undead. Not just in possession of their own will but able to command other forms of undead. This spell can also be performed at sites where the living have been sacrificed and prepared to serve their master in death. Such spirits are in limboand can be invoked by performing this spell at the site. The rite takes place during the Darkest Hour, where all the names of the dead must be recited. Any whose names are not read out are not reanimated.
A Shadowlands Circle Necromancer can make ageless skeletons out of the living. Performing this spell culminates in a ritual sacrifice takes place when the being they are bound to dies. When a potentate dies and is buried, priests perform an act of Necromancy sacrificing servants that will be bound to them in the afterlife. Their bodies are dressed and equipped and buried with their master. Their spirits are tied to their bodies for as long as this spell lasts. They are now subjects if their master's will who must be one of the greater undead. Not just in possession of their own will but able to command other forms of undead. This spell can also be performed at sites where the living have been sacrificed and prepared to serve their master in death. Such spirits are in limboand can be invoked by performing this spell at the site. The rite takes place during the Darkest Hour, where all the names of the dead must be recited. Any whose names are not read out are not reanimated.
Water, air, fire and wood, earth and air occur where their Elemental energies are present. These energies attract Elementals (is it like that or the other way round?) Water and wood are complimenting partners rather than opposing forces like fire and ice. The Poles of Earth and Air exist an infinite distance beyond Creation. How far are all the Elemental Poles from Creation? Dragon Lines from all the Elemental Poles meet in the centre of Creation at mount Meru making it a nexus of geomantic energy and the most powerful manse in all Creation. Dragon Lines, lines of elemental energy form the very structure of Creation itself so moving them is highly dangerous if not done with a proper understanding of geomancy. Each Elemental Pole is the source of Essence of one Element in Creation and the origin of it's Dragon Lines. Celestial Essence isn't so straightforward.
Warfare/Mass Combat
Exalted needs two sets of rules for large scale combat. One for mass combat when characters lead units instead of fighting individually, and one for full scale warfare.
Shadow Of A Doubt
Apparently this film was on today but because I didn't check the TV schedule where I first saw it and must have missed it on the television download schedule I forgot about it. This is unbelievable since I love The Craft and I'm prepared to do almost anything to see Fairuza Balk on screen, even if Adam Sandler's in the same film I'll watch it. So I'm putting this up to remind myself next time and hopefully it'll live up to my expectations.
Sky Captain And The World After Tomorrow
This is an absolutely atrocious film. I have no idea how they got so many otherwise respectable actors to play in it. I can only imagine that because all the effects would be done in post production they had no idea how bad it was going to look.
Thir13en Ghosts
I've seen suckered into watching this film a few times, forgetting I'd seen it before because the amount of it I watched was so short. One of the characters is played by one of the killers from Scream. It only takes me about 45 seconds to start to think watching this film is a bad idea. This time I tried for a few minutes and started to get past all the initial turn offs but my bullshit meter was still on so I tuned into The Hunted instead. I hope that I remember this film title so I don't get excited about it again.
The Planets
I've wanted to gut this ever since I read an utterly snotty review by some proscribed wanker on Amazon.co.uk. I loved the TV series, the music especially made it resonant in a way that a documentary series almost has no right to be. It's truly gripping on a scale appropriate to a study of the solar system. Why Amazon's pet moron criticises it's special effects and the presence of sounds during animation even though sound doesn't travel in space (get a clue, no one gives a shit) is as absurd as it is irrelevant. The wrongly employed Roger Thomas can go to Hell and be forced to watch this excellent series in perpetuity as a fitting punishment for his confounding stupidity and lack of taste.
Watching a program about the Casini mission to Saturn brought back some memories of this series, the music has a feel to it reminiscent of Alien, I bet the original music for the films was inspired in part by The Planets by Holst. There's plenty of information to keep the genuinely interested occupied and it has a feel to it that conveys the sheer vastness of it's subject. Even the ten minute short unnarated mini programs had good soundtracks. This is probably a one off in the history of documentary making.
The Planets is hot. Roger Thomas is not.
Watching a program about the Casini mission to Saturn brought back some memories of this series, the music has a feel to it reminiscent of Alien, I bet the original music for the films was inspired in part by The Planets by Holst. There's plenty of information to keep the genuinely interested occupied and it has a feel to it that conveys the sheer vastness of it's subject. Even the ten minute short unnarated mini programs had good soundtracks. This is probably a one off in the history of documentary making.
The Planets is hot. Roger Thomas is not.
The Hunted
One of Tommy Lee Jones more obscure movies. I may be living in a cave but he doesn't seem to be on the radar too much right now. This isn't simply a replay of The Fugitive and has a quite understated mood. At first I thought it would simply be a stalking movie to find the hunter but he's actually revealed quite early on. He's motives are well thought out and described just enough, he'd be quite an intriguing character if the film dwelt more on him. Unfortunately it's too short for that and I felt the ending should have been more climactic. It doesn't make the mistake of substituting raw action for depth however, and the portrayal of the landscape actually overpowers the details of the film itself. It makes me want to go and spend time living in the woods but doesn't give me the thrill of an edge of the seat cop chase movie.
Sunday, 10 April 2011
Oldboy
This film never ceases to surprise me with it's desperate humanity. It lacks true poignance but has a Shakespearean drama and is full of style. The first time I saw it it went over my head and I actually returned it. It seemed to grey with a business aesthetic. I must have been having a bad day. I've watched it every time it's been on TV since. The main character was actually locked up for years and educated himself with TV.
Like it's predecessor in the Vengeance trilogy the film contains graphic violence but is done humourously rather than with a detached view. In one scene a man is taped to a chair and his teeth pulled out to the tune of Vivaldi's Four Seasons and then his garbled voice is subtitled in Korean. Park Chan Wook uses classical and modern music throughout the film, reusing pieces of music at key moments but the finale of the film has no music and is filmed from a first person view giving it a feel of high drama rather than a film.
On a perspective of how the film is portrayed it's a polar opposite to Vengeance is Mine, expressing itself with style and flash rather than almost uninterrupted sombreness. But that doesn't make it less impressive to watch. The emotions of the characters show through far more in this film, their motivations are more secret being revealed as the film goes on giving it an element of thriller. This film's a more heartfelt and human story than it's predecessor right from the start when a desperate man is trying to throw himself off a building. Park still gives it a sense of seriousness that makes it seem like an eastern version of Shakespear but brilliantly works in a element of humour that adds a totally new dimension to what is otherwise a tragedy.
Rating 8/10
See his smiling Wikipedia photo
Like it's predecessor in the Vengeance trilogy the film contains graphic violence but is done humourously rather than with a detached view. In one scene a man is taped to a chair and his teeth pulled out to the tune of Vivaldi's Four Seasons and then his garbled voice is subtitled in Korean. Park Chan Wook uses classical and modern music throughout the film, reusing pieces of music at key moments but the finale of the film has no music and is filmed from a first person view giving it a feel of high drama rather than a film.
On a perspective of how the film is portrayed it's a polar opposite to Vengeance is Mine, expressing itself with style and flash rather than almost uninterrupted sombreness. But that doesn't make it less impressive to watch. The emotions of the characters show through far more in this film, their motivations are more secret being revealed as the film goes on giving it an element of thriller. This film's a more heartfelt and human story than it's predecessor right from the start when a desperate man is trying to throw himself off a building. Park still gives it a sense of seriousness that makes it seem like an eastern version of Shakespear but brilliantly works in a element of humour that adds a totally new dimension to what is otherwise a tragedy.
Rating 8/10
See his smiling Wikipedia photo
Thursday, 7 April 2011
Malekith
After reading the Shadowking I was impressed by how well he'd turned from a games designer into a writer. However it seems he did a lot of improving between his second book and this one. It might just be the shadow of Malus Darkblade and the much more microcosmic scale of those books that allow for a slower, more detailed plotline and their incredible pace but this book doesn't sound as good at all compared to the Shadowking. What really annoys me isn't his broad brushstrokes that make it more immature like it was intended for a younger audience. It's the multiple errors of the book in regard to the game's history. It's an annoying fact that writers of even officially sanctioned fan books get things wrong. Anyone who's properly familiar with Halo will know the mistakes made even in the first book. But it really gets on my tits that he gets so many things wrong. This may have something to do with the story I heard when I tried to order it that the book was being recalled and destroyed. He just makes one mistake after another. First was just a pet peeve by spelling Dwarfs which is the Games Workshop spelling if not the one I and Tolkien prefer. Lothern was only an insignificant fishing village at the start of the reign of Bel Hathor and probably didn't even exist at the time of this book. The Cult of Pleasure worshipped Slaanesh, not dark Elven gods. Bel Shanaar poisoned himself, he wasn't murdered by Malekith himself. The Phoenix Guard only started to take a magically enforced vow of silence during the reign of Caledor the Second because of the events instigated by Malekith. Ellyrion horsemen became known as Reavers when they answered Caledor's call to arms during the war against Malekith, After a while this catalogue of errors makes the book almost unreadable. The older sources are more original and take precedent over newer ones or the writers will end up contradicting the background of the game itself.
This review is probably redundant as the book is no longer widely available but the lessons of it's inaccuracy should be noted by all writers and publishers putting out work based on games. Get it right.
This review is probably redundant as the book is no longer widely available but the lessons of it's inaccuracy should be noted by all writers and publishers putting out work based on games. Get it right.
Monday, 4 April 2011
The Breed
Rating: Hot Dog
I saw a snippet of this a while ago but wasn't awake enough to watch it all. I didn't know what I was missing. This is a typical 'here there be monsters' type horror film where a small group of misguided people go out into the middle of nowhere and end up in peril for their lives. The people in question are a group of university students/friends but fortunately this isn't the stereotypical horror (why doesn't this fucking piece of shit cursor work- stupid dodgy blog) where teenagers go out into the woods as an excuse to have sex and then get attacked and have arguments about how to escape (this fucking cursor thing is really getting on my nerves.) The characters are more mature in a High Tension sort of setting and it isn't a piece of crap camping trip, in some godforsaken why would anyone go there lets get laid thing gone wrong. Fuck blog is so crap. Personally I think they should have fed the blog administrators to the dogs. This film avoids all the usual horror cliches of the type of story by using much more mature characters and treating the story more seriously. But I would prefer to watch the half arsed blog technical staff being eaten alive for their incompetence right now. As you probably can tell have not had a very good day. I hope Michelle does some more films better than this one. I'd like to see more of her on screen.
Sunday, 3 April 2011
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.
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.
Abyssal Motivation: To carve out an empire soaked in blood
They're given the power of the Abyss, what they do with it depends on their motives. Some seek to create empires of their own. Some explore death through metaphysics and experiments on the dead and living. Others simply indulge in pleasures now they're liberated from the constraints of mortality. For every soulsteel daiklave wielding fanatic dedicated to ending Creation there's a self interested hedonist who indulges all manner of perverse or unnatural vices. They're gifted with the power of the Abyss, that doesn't mean they're controlled by it.
They're given the power of the Abyss, what they do with it depends on their motives. Some seek to create empires of their own. Some explore death through metaphysics and experiments on the dead and living. Others simply indulge in pleasures now they're liberated from the constraints of mortality. For every soulsteel daiklave wielding fanatic dedicated to ending Creation there's a self interested hedonist who indulges all manner of perverse or unnatural vices. They're gifted with the power of the Abyss, that doesn't mean they're controlled by it.
Saturday, 2 April 2011
Magitech and Thaumaturgy
Thaumaturgical facilities like oil refineries. During the First Age Solars put thaumaturgical engineering onto an industrial scale. Including weapons engineering. Artefacts made the Exalted even more mighty, but thaumaturgical weapons armed their armies. Magitech is a half-way point between artefacts ad engineering. It works mechanically but needs to be infused with Essence to become activated. The world was dotted with factories producing thaumaturgical items during the First Age. As time went on ore and more of them were uesd for producing weapons and other military hardware as the Exalted became more and more antagonistic towards eachother.
Witht the requirement of Essence attunement and even hearthstone power, it was inadvisable to use magitech for disposable weapons but thaumaturgy was a viable option.
Producing these weapons however was far from safe, especially the more dangerous ones. These were also difficult to produce and their place of manufacture, sometimes their very existence were kept secret. Due to the dangerou, unstable nature of the substances often involved, research and production were usually expensive with a large proportion of resources spent on exotic safety measures.
The energy used in magitech came from the power of Creation itself. Using Elemental and Celestial enegies they powered the magitech devices that made the First Age an unparalleled era of civilisation and later decadence.
Witht the requirement of Essence attunement and even hearthstone power, it was inadvisable to use magitech for disposable weapons but thaumaturgy was a viable option.
Producing these weapons however was far from safe, especially the more dangerous ones. These were also difficult to produce and their place of manufacture, sometimes their very existence were kept secret. Due to the dangerou, unstable nature of the substances often involved, research and production were usually expensive with a large proportion of resources spent on exotic safety measures.
The energy used in magitech came from the power of Creation itself. Using Elemental and Celestial enegies they powered the magitech devices that made the First Age an unparalleled era of civilisation and later decadence.
Dreams of the First Age
Guided Essence weapons would need some way of transmitting and receiving information and a way of tracking it's movement. Black magitech weapons could use a bound Hungry Ghost and try to use their risen hunger to try to guide it onto their living enemy before it explodes. They would have to be careful it didn't turn around from it's distant target and move towards living (or dead) targets in their own army.
In Jade Elementals can affect physical objects while remaining dematerialised. Water Jade submarine: the whole vessel is an Essence engine allowing it to move through water. It can dematerialise in water allowing it to travel to any depth.
Dematerialised- something becomes composed solely of Essence. Water has the power to crush, air has the power to float. The deeper in water (or the closer to the water's bottom depending on how you look at it) the greater the power of water gets. The higher up in the air you get the harder it is to float.
Travelling to Yu-Shan means travelling across the infinite distance to the other side of the night sky which is the face of the Celestial Incarnae.
In Jade Elementals can affect physical objects while remaining dematerialised. Water Jade submarine: the whole vessel is an Essence engine allowing it to move through water. It can dematerialise in water allowing it to travel to any depth.
Dematerialised- something becomes composed solely of Essence. Water has the power to crush, air has the power to float. The deeper in water (or the closer to the water's bottom depending on how you look at it) the greater the power of water gets. The higher up in the air you get the harder it is to float.
Travelling to Yu-Shan means travelling across the infinite distance to the other side of the night sky which is the face of the Celestial Incarnae.
Wanted
Rating: Cold Fish
Did Angelina Jolie sign up for this film before reading the script? It looks like it, the direction was trite and the main character (during the first five minutes I watched of it) is an abnoxious arse hole. I started reading the TV schedule before it had been on for two minutes. This is undoubtedly her worst career move since Sky Captain And The World After Tomorrow. Although interestingly I haven't actually seen her during either of these films. Which is probably best because that would taint her reputation. The only thing this film is good for is slapping the director's face.
Friday, 1 April 2011
Vacancy
Rating: Vacant
This is one of the worst films I have ever seen. It's a perfect example of how direction can totally fuck up a movie.
The film itself is well written. Unfortunately the casting isn't so good as Luke Wilson doesn't at all fit the horror genre here, which is a surprise because he made a good out of character performance in 3:10 To Yuma the previous year.
The exact reasons for it being so dire escape me since I only watched it once some time ago. It seems I'll be in the unusual position of watching a film I already know is bad. I saw that it's on next week so decided to give it this drubbing which will be administered more thoroughly when I've had a better chance to scrutinise it's failings.
Armour of Cursed Iron
Additional/alternative effect. When an attacker strikes the wearer bu fails to inflict more levels of damage than then have already suffered, the damage rebounds onto them instead.
Choke
Rating: Carpet Burns
Don't worry if you thought they were going to mangle this and there was no way they'd make a good film from one of Chuck's books after Fight Club. I was quite excited to hear someone had made another adaptation of one of his books with Angelica Huston and of course a little anxious to see what it would be like. Lo my opportunity came and I grasped it by the... well you know.
I've only read part of the book which is how I came to know about the story and thought it was hilarious if a bit of a difficult read, probably too funny. There's nothing awkward about the film. The soundtrack is a little like Mr and Mrs Smith (the theme song) but isn't too flat, it's more playful. Surprisingly for one of Palaniuk's books there's actually a serious love story (OK it's kind of serious, as much as having to get pregnant in the chapel of a mental hospital can be.) That combined with the character's relationship with his hopelessly demented mother makes it a lot more resonant on a basic human level than Fight Club.
You won't have any truly mind altering experiences watching this film but it gets into the gritty side of human relationships in a way that a film based more on events like Fight Club can't.
They don't get carried away with the sex side of the film but it's always there for your enjoyment and amusement. It doesn't have any Gozu-esque tales of sexual misadventure.
I suspect there would be little surprise reading the book after seeing this but maybe I'll do it anyway to deepen my comparison. From what I've read (which is a classic story of human degradation made funny in the way only Chuck Palaniuk could) it's as faithful a recreation of the book as they were likely to make. There isn't a huge amount of directoral style in this film but then there shouldn't be because that would only undermine the story and throw you off thinking about the people in it which is what you're supposed to do. I think I would enjoy this film more if I wasn't sober though.
Ironically for a subject that so many people consider objectifying, especially since it's associated with how people look, the element of addiction takes that away and makes it far more human story. You get a great sense of the characters as people and how they look doesn't matter that much (because they're all viable for boning-except for his mother. Even one of the old mental patients thinks he's done it with her.)
Ironically for a subject that so many people consider objectifying, especially since it's associated with how people look, the element of addiction takes that away and makes it far more human story. You get a great sense of the characters as people and how they look doesn't matter that much (because they're all viable for boning-except for his mother. Even one of the old mental patients thinks he's done it with her.)
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