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Allegedly a Villain in Brockton Bay: a Tale From The Broken-Winged Crane

Summary:

A Lintha Primordial Loyalist Infernal Exalt arrives in Brockton Bay via a failed attempt to escape the Judgement of the Daystar. This is a Worm Crossover with Exalted 2.5e. Of note, this is the only work in this category I know of that is about a Primordial Loyalist instead of one of the ones trying to rebel against the Yozi or Neverborn. At least I haven't seen one of those crossing over with Worm.

Notes:

This part is not really required reading, outside of the first few pages that explain the basics of this Worm Crossover with Exalted 2.5e.

Chapter 1: Setting Notes, Sheets, and Exalted 2.5e Errata

Summary:

This is mostly optional information, outside of the first few pages about the setting.

Notes:

This work and all chapters in it are in the Public Domain, or by the CC0 license where that does not exist.

Chapter Text

Notes and Background:

 

[Required Background Reading: 

 

You need to know what Worm is, which is happily very popular right now:



You need to know vaguely what Exalted is:

 

While it might not be factual, these somehow more cleanly convey the important points of the setting, what Yozi are, and why being an Infernal Exalt makes you eventually grow into an embryonic Primordial (which is good fluff):




Expanded Tellurian / One World Of Darkness To Rule Them All (the semi-canon AU were this story is set):

http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/exalted/1310851-ex2-5-mage-the-ascension-archmages-are-tyrant-raksha-original-content



If you don’t care about background mechanics, feel free to skip straight to Chapter 1 at this point.

 

Note: 

No characters in this story are aware of the game mechanics of Exalted, save for Raksha of various kinds, especially Tyrant Raksha and their Primordial cousins. They were the designers of it all, of course they were aware of it. However, following standard martial-arts and wuxia precedents, some aspects of the mechanics of the world have been discovered and named, like cultivation, Essence, motes, charms, Virtues, etc. The game mechanics are here for a very important reason: to show the audience the stakes up front. If someone or something dies because the dice rolled poorly, no one can complain about unfairness. Similarly, writing a character with hundreds of charms can make it seem like there are no limits to their powers. Seeing their sheets or summary stats in this work is my response to that. 

 

CONTENT WARNINGS AND GENRE EXPLANATIONS:

Gore, violence, addictions, insanity, drug use, body horror, fantasy-style cannibalism, no actual sex though, go figure. This is not a happy fun shonen action story, but is instead (like the source material, Worm) vaguely realistic depictions of the consequences of comic book heroes and villains on the world around them. Specifically, this one focuses on one whose powers are so terrible and horrifying that one of his least horrifying powers is being able to eat anything: food, bones, humans, rocks, trees, gods, space, and himself. It’s strangely less awful than his other qualities, because there is essentially an afterlife in his stomach, and if he really wants to, he can remake their bodies so long as he didn’t fully digest their souls beforehand. All the same, this story is about trying to make new friends, despite that. It won’t dwell on exhausting darkness and drama, but it does have the threat of fates worse than death backed up with several options to really make the most of it.  This has been called “dark absurd humor” by at least one reviewer. I will try to keep somewhere in the middle. Not too hot, not too cold, just right. There is a slight chance of warm-fuzzies.

 

]



[Author’s Note: FYI Mariner is Essence 7, and has all Kimbery, Metagaos, and Cecelyne charms, as well as Laughing Wounds Style, Mantis Style, as well as all of the Dragon King Martial Arts styles [Debris From the Fallen Races p3-17; including all four TMA and the one CMA]; the only other charms he knows are soak charms from Malfeas, as well as some upgrades to Crowned With Fury, because he was a literal dictator who ruled through fear; and finally these Heretical charms: Unsurpassed Devil-Craft (subbing Kim/Metag crafting charms instead counts). Yes, he is very powerful, but not arbitrarily so, and he will generally have a hard time against other Celestial Exalts who are specialists, since his charms are relatively broad in their coverage, but don’t provide all the specialist advantages to him that a Solar might have. Yes he is very powerful, but it's best to think of him as a loner who hit the Essence Wall, and had to just keep buying charms instead; his own powers and skills not directly related to his three patron yozi are due to him killing and eating those who knew those powers. He is about as powerful as you would expect someone to be when they conquered a country on their own (mostly), but his sheet is carefully balanced so that he is only really OP in situations where everyone and everything around him are fair game (also as an Infernal, he naturally gets a lot of seemingly unrelated powers, so I don’t think his wealth of sailing-related charms are going to really put him over the top in the powers of the setting). If not, his natural drawbacks come into play, and he can’t show off his hypertoxic AoE or transformation abilities. His Martial Arts styles are mostly overshadowed by Laughing Wounds, unless he is grappling someone and uses Mantis Style (it is useless otherwise, save for jumping and crippling people); the Terrestrial Dragon King Styles are entirely there for flavor and will almost never come up (and they also cost almost no XP for him to learn). While he can be subtle, its not a great long-term plan, unless you can find actual allies or something; thus the murder-hobo problem of his is solved by making his neighbors keep track of him. In the setting Worm, where he will be kind-of alone in a world full of things trying to kill you and parahumans with power levels between derpy-mortal and Solar God, having more charms than the canon Ess 7 NPCs is not a bad thing (it is an AU after all). Mariner’s sheet will not arbitrarily change over time, save the potential to go Devil Tiger, or when he has explicit training arcs (requiring him to summon at least 2nd Circle Demons as tutors). If you care, the Sherden Caste (my name, since there is no official one) as well as others are mention in Shards of the Exalted Dream, and I’m using them because this is an AU version of Creation, and I don’t want to make folks angry for small inaccuracies about the setting. Exalted was awesome for being inspirational, even if it didn’t always wind up with the best implementations of those ideas. Oh and just to make it clear, while Locust Mariner is symbolically tied to water and wood, he is no Terrestrial or Elemental. He is not those things, just like Kimbery is not a water goddess, but the Inventor of Spite and Hate who just happened to take all the water for herself, to conceal her dark secret heart from the world. As well, in the opening scene he is both suffering from a Metagaoiyn Torment (see below), as well as personal regrets. Thus, An-Teng is saved in large part because he cannot force himself to grasp it in his madness, unable to free himself from his ennui. 

“The Torment of Metagaos: When an Infernal with a Metagaoiyn Urge accumulates 10 points of Limit he suffers the Torment of Metagaos. For one full day, the impossibility of finding true fulfilment looms large in his mind, turning all worldly pleasures into bitter, taunting reminders of his insatiability. He cannot find enjoyment in food or drink, and will resentfully pick at his meal if he doesn’t simply toss it aside in disappointment. Similarly, he is untitillated by sensual delights and uninterested in wealth, and reacts to offers of either as though he had been gravely insulted by some aspect of them. He is petulantly disinterested in keeping hold of his possessions, unbothered by theft and likely to abandon or damage his assets.”

The main character has many easily exploitable weaknesses based on having permanent charms that require active Willpower expenditure from his pool of 10 points to ignore those include (Willpower is regained slowly and only via sleeping it off):

  1. Sunlight/bright lights/not using Manipulation
  2. Cannot use Manipulation against Beloved targets
  3. Loud Sounds above whispers
  4. Being so hungry that he basically cannot do anything unrelated to eating (can’t spend a willpower to ignore that penalty, oddly, but he can spend it to avoid killing and eating someone on hand out of starvation)
  5. Greed/Lust
  6. Love/Hate
  7. Emotional appeals by those he considers ‘beloved’
  8. Trivial Betrayals
  9. Being unable to avoid massive collateral damage

 

Essentially, these are not too hard to overcome individually, but it’s easy to make him snap if you keep pestering him.

]  

 

==

 

Setting Notes:

  1. Entities are a kind of Demon, spawned from Metagaos. They vary in power, much like Behemoths, their Essence rating does not really indicate their power rating. 
  2. Shards are Sort of like Possession, but result in what are a bunch of essentially Demon Blooded running around. They are permanent as well, until dead, or that brain node being removed.
  3. Shards work exactly like Infernal Wonders in Graft form (brain implants), save that they are not actual Infernal Wonders, they just work like them for convenience sake.
  4. Any time there is a conflict that isn’t totally obviously one-sided, I roll dice. I have a real character sheet and everything (Wildbow did much the same). Just because the main character is hard to kill doesn’t mean the story can’t go on without him. Rolls are notated in place like this: {{Author Rolls X dice. Results: Stuff happens}}. The mechanics are all 2.5e Exalted, with the best community expansions being used. These should be infrequent enough to be ignorable if you don’t like to see the mechanics.
  5. Because I don’t want it to be boring, the Endbringers are unbound Wyld Behemoths, not demonic ones. Shards cannot be perceived unless they are actively reproducing/installing themselves, otherwise they don't exist in this plane at all. Even then, when they are in this world doing their reproduction/installation they are immaterial and follow the normal rules for things like gods and spirits.

 

TODO:

  • Choose timeline start: ~1 week before Skitter debut?
  • Figure out what Armsmaster and Dragon were doing
    • As a character, JFLM is very powerful, but not at all subtle. The closest thing he has to subtle is doing terrible things to people, slower. His powers do nothing to help him unless he is trying to sell people things, or exploit their desires. At most, he can understand others, and hide his weirdness a bit, but it is a terrible long term plan, and with Int 7, he is well aware of that. 
    • Blossoming Rose Style and the Fan 2.5e updates of Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style are all chosen here because they are balanced and of high quality compared to some of the poorly thought out styles in canon, as well as providing proper keywords and consistent mechanics. I am honestly surprised that it is not a canon style, given how it fits in between White Veil and Citrine Pox of Contagion Styles.
    • While he has access to Ocean Washed Words, he knows that it is temporary, and has bitten him more than a few times when he allowed its commitment to lapse, and it reset, causing him to need to spend another day reacclimating it. He only uses it when he absolutely has no other options. Of course, it is common knowledge that being immersed in a new place is the best/fastest way to learn about it, and he has better ways to spend his motes. (Also, he knows that there are dozens of ways to target committed motes, but he has none of them; Solars and Sidereals have most of them.)
    • Similarly, he does not use the Kimbery charms that summon Resources for collection at the shore, because anywhere that he uses that carries a real risk of having it all stolen from him. Thus, it is not an option outside of areas under his full control.
    • He will try not to use Mind Control or other social manipulation powers on his friends. That’s a betrayal of their trust.
    • Frenemies are fair game for being manipulated, but not Mind Controlled, because that means that he would be losing out of the chance to cultivate a true Rival.
    • Muggles are kind of fair game, so long as he is subtle, and he does not care about them.
    • Enemies are fair game for everything, unless they are perfect Rivals, in which case he will go out of his way to take *everything* from them before he ruins them; he is too compassionate to kill a rival unless he has to, perhaps for their loved ones sake, since he now loves them too, and better than his Rival.
    • His biggest virtues are Compassion/Conviction. If anyone ever knew what he really did, they would be horrified. His love is toxic, but good intentioned. As a result, he supports the really old-school approach to things: so long as they aren’t dead, I am being merciful, even if they are crippled and in agony every second. Old School Mercy, like the Romans and Greeks.
    • He will never have any Artifacts or other equipment unless he makes it himself.
    • XP Balancing vs Canon Characters: he starts with nothing other than his Charms, so having XP thrown into them as though he was Ess 8 without actually being Ess 8 is fine, balance wise.
    • The House of Wellness and Fortune, teaches Lintha and their allies how to be sneaky deadly martial doctors, merchants, and courtesans. Traders and pharmacists considered this a more practical alternative to the Brotherhood of Blades. This House is connected to The Ten Shadows Academy of Malfeas, and is little more than a front for it. Lintha were always highly variable in their personal capacity and forms, so there was a reasonably wide range of specialties available in The House, save that they all had the core theme of allowing traveling Lintha to appear harmless and unarmed, unlike the Brotherhood. While some among the Lintha decry the merchants and courtesans as being a waste of precious personnelle, the Septs affiliated with the merchant-mariners and their rooks recognise that not all battles are fought at sea.
      • Locust Mariner was trained there, in Laughing Wounds Style. 
    • Mariner strongly favored Kimbery (his Caste Yozi) and Metagaos (his Favored Yozi), and only slowly grew to appreciate the sublime ways of Hegra later on, once he started to understand the value of leaving people alive, even if they aren’t on his side. Intolerable Burning Truths let him be selective about his Compassion, and his boundless greed always wanted more everything. So, it was simple to make due with death. Now, he views himself as being powerful enough to not *have* to kill everyone.
    • Storm-Surge Stance + Storm Tossed Sea Prana + Font of Vitriol Invocation = 70 mile radius Kimbery’s Waters and Poison Lacquer; Add Poison Well and you can sub your blood or any other toxin; Larger radius than even the Hegra charmset, generally not used unless he’s invading. It deals poison and acid rain, and lasts up to 7 hours (with Storm Curse Condemnation). Combine this with Demons Sea Shintai to invade a country. Can be subbed out for Hegra charms, but those storms are 7 miles radius, even though their env penalties are crazy good, and they support the same kind of substitution via Poison Well. 
    • His blood contains the following by default: Kimbery’s Depths Poison Lacquer, Hegra’s Toxin, Psychedelic Rain, Kimbery’s Waters/Acid, anything Metagaos related.
    • Grappling Charms: (Kimbery )Ichor Flux Tendrils, Seared Fruits of Union, Gore Bloom Extrusion, Vile Brine Distillation, Inescapable Whirlpool Grasp; (Metagaos) Hidden Roots Revealed, Devil-Weed Body Unfurled, Eutrophication, Hunger-Driven Embrace, And Then He Stole The Air, Choking Greed
    • Constant Self-Compulsions: [all ignorable for 1w/scene]
      • Mother Before Daughter: The Infernal can’t knowingly betray beloved characters or ancestors from whom she descends (i.e. parents, grandparents, etc.). Betrayal means a course of action or inaction that she believes will result in more harm than good. When making rolls to navigate anywhere or track a beloved character, she adds bonus successes equal to the number of beloved characters she has.
      • Trust Is Naïve: The Infernal takes refuge in the depths of her loving faith, refusing to believe anything bad about a beloved character. She can still become convinced that such a character has been duped or forced into poor decisions by the wickedness of others, but will never assign blame to them. Just as Kimbery's waters welcome all, she may reduce the number of scenes necessary to build a positive Intimacy toward any character she has never reviled by any amount, to a minimum of one.
      • Existence Is Agony: The Infernal can’t show mercy. She may spare an enemy, but only with the intent to prolong his suffering. If multiple courses of action seem to offer roughly equivalent benefit to herself, she must choose the path she believes will maximize harm to non-beloved characters along the way. Compassion 3+ no longer compels her to care about anyone except beloved characters, though she may magnanimously choose to care about strangers in hopes of making them beloved.
      • Never Forgive: The Infernal cannot abandon or weaken a negative Intimacy toward reviled characters and refuses to believe anything good about them. When she makes a social attack encouraging others to think ill of a reviled character (Emotion and/or Illusion) or harm a reviled character (Compulsion), her words become unnatural mental influence.
      • Hate Springs Eternal: The Infernal can’t knowingly help a reviled character unless she believes her own life depends on it. Her great heart can still sustain (Willpower + Compassion) positive Intimacies without risk of losing them through sleep, but negative Intimacies do not count against this limit and never fall off that way. Additionally, she adds +1 to her DV and MDV against the attacks of reviled characters; manifest loathing shields her even against enemies too foolish to fear her.
      • Hegra is a being of desire, both within and without. Upon taking this Charm, an Infernal becomes much more skilled at understanding the desires of others, adding his permanent Essence in bonus dice to any roll used to discern or exploit the desires of others. In addition, he becomes much more focused towards fulfilling his own whims, negating the Appearance modifier of any social attack that attempts to convince the Infernal to go against his desires. However, there is a drawback: this focus on desire makes the Infernal incredibly unstable, flitting from one whimsy to the next. Whenever someone makes a social attack against the Infernal that attempts to influence his emotional state (including all social attacks enhanced by Charms with an Emotion effect), he subtracts his permanent Essence from the dice pool used to calculate his MDV against that attack. This penalty does not apply to any attack that is attempting to change the Infernal’s opinion, his perception or any other aspect of his mind, only his emotional state. In the event that a social attack alters the Infernal’s emotional state in addition to other effects, this penalty only applies in cases where the emotional effect is the central aspect of the social attack (as determined by the ST).
      • Hegra does not simply embody or understand desire; she encompasses it, transcending mere joy to become euphoria itself. This Charm grants a number of benefits to the Infernal: 
        • The Infernal may, upon activating Poisonous Euphoric Panacea, choose to create any other intoxicating substance with which the Infernal is familiar, so long as its Resources cost is less than or equal to his Essence.
        • The Infernal becomes immune to all mundane Poison effects, and adds his Essence in automatic successes to resist magical poison (but will still experience any psychotropic effects, regardless of success on the roll to resist). 
        • The Infernal learns to ignore the pains and aches in his body, the better to indulge his fantasies. The Infernal may reduce his combined wound and exhaustion penalties by his Essence. This does not obviate the need to rest or heal; it merely allows him to ignore the penalties for not doing so. 
      • However, this comes at a price: the Infernal’s priorities becomes warped, putting his wants over his needs. He must roll Conviction to avoid accepting, indulging or acquiring any material good that is offered or otherwise made easily available (stacks with Greed Without Restraint).
      • The Infernal experiences emotion as a synesthetic chorus of music, from the violet strains of love to the bright red cacophony of anger. This perception allows her to know the dominant emotion of all characters she can perceive, and she may place any character’s emotions in context within the scene, if applicable. In addition, if any of a character’s Intimacies or their Motivation resonate with their current emotional state, they are made Obvious to the Infernal. The Infernal may perceive this with any of her senses, allowing her to benefit from this information even if she is blinded or deafened–she might taste the different flavors of emotion on the air, or feel their psychic vibrations. This does not allow her to ignore any of the usual penalties for sensory impairment, however. A second purchase of this Charm grants the Infernal (Essence) automatic successes on all Awareness-based actions to perceive any character whose emotions he can detect with this Charm. However, he suffers an equal external penalty on all Awareness-based rolls to perceive things without emotions or whose emotions he cannot read. In addition, even if blinded or deafened, he may still use the synesthetic perception of this Charm in place of his lost senses, allowing him to visually or audibly perceive characters without the usual penalties of his impairment, so long as he can sense their emotions. He still suffers the normal penalties for  perceiving anything with no emotions, or whose emotions he cannot detect. The perception granted by this Charm extends to (Essence x 100) yards when used in this way as an independent sense
      • Intolerable Burning Truths: 
      • Hunger Without Satisfaction: An uncomfortable emptiness eternally gnaws at the innards of the All-Hunger Blossom. He is beyond starvation, but all the world must be his trough, lest he suffer even a moment of discomfort. The Infernal can no longer die from hunger or thirst, suffers no negative effects from overeating, and can extract enough fluids from one full meal to eliminate any thirst penalties, regardless of how desiccated his food was. However, he starts developing hunger penalties after just (Stamina + Resistance) hours without eating a full meal, at a rate of one point per hour to a maximum of -10. The Infernal ignores any hunger or thirst penalties affecting actions that would help him acquire food. This includes attempts to track or kill prey, forage for edible plants, persuade a grocer to give him leftover stock, and so on. Only actions that would directly alleviate his hunger benefit. The warlock cannot ignore penalties while tracking an enemy messenger unless he sincerely intends to devour them (or something in their possession). 
      • Greed Without Restraint: The belly remembers no past favors or future promises, but demands to be filled now. The warlock requires just one scene to develop intimacies of hunger (literal or otherwise), and if he has Conviction 3+ must roll to avoid accepting, indulging or acquiring any material good that is offered or otherwise made easily available. However, he can channel Conviction to acquire or enjoy material pleasures and goods, even at the expense of his long-term goals. He converts dice from channeling Conviction or from intimacies related to greed, hunger, or lust into automatic successes when persuading others to help him gain such delights, this includes indirect methods like negotiations or trade, or when he is otherwise pursuing them himself. If you can rationalize some kind of self-benefit, your Compassion may be spent interchangeably with your Conviction. With a repurchase, any activation of Palate Without Limit also grants you perfect perception of the value of objects or trade goods in various markets and includes the effects of the Solar Charms, Frugal Merchant Method and Insightful Buyer Technique. As well, this grants you one bonus success on honest haggling, and three bonus successes for dishonest dealings (either your own, or your opponents). At Essence 3+, this upgrades to permit you to passively perceive the Resources or Wealth ratings of visible targets, including the ability to infer the source of their wealth. With an Essence 3+ repurchase when you know Desire Without Escape, you may pay an additional (+5m) when activating it, to allow you to track abstract wealth in addition to concrete targets of your desires, and you may cough up a living map to this target, which includes a depiction of what kind of hardships you will face in your pursuit as well as other clear landmarks; this item gives you a +5 success equipment bonus to pursue that target. With this repurchase, you also may make a perception roll to taste all of the trades or exchanges that a target has made within a specified timeframe, with a month being the default, and a year giving a -3 difficulty, and so on.
      • Ecstatic Erudition Insight:
      • Incomparable Intoxication Ideal:
      • Vibrant Rainbow Chorus:
      • Hateful Wretched Noise
    • Social Perception Charms: 
      • (EEI Passive) He experiences his own roiling maelstrom of desires, and like the charge that calls Hegra’s black lightning, like calls to like, and he is drawn to desires of any kind.
      • (Vibrant Rainbow Chorus) The Infernal experiences emotion as a synesthetic chorus of music, from the violet strains of love to the bright red cacophony of anger.
      • (Palette Without Limit) Putrefying offal and fine steak each have their merits, contemplated alongside every flavor by the petal-tongues of the All-Hunger Blossom.
      • (s) Keen/Unsurpassed Taste/Scent Technique
      • (s) Frugal Merchant Method
      • (s) Insightful Buyer Technique
      • May even reveal basic details normally restricted to other avenues of perception, allowing the Infernal to determine someone’s height and eye colour by licking up an errant drop of their sweat. 
      • Permitting even the most abstract qualities to be determined, including information about wealth, possessions, organizational ties, resources the target may have access to, or any other information that might be the target of one of your intimacies.
      • May also include their relationships with other characters or ot her truly esoteric information that a full scene of investigation might reveal.
      • Passively perceive the Resources or Wealth ratings of visible targets, including the ability to infer the source of their wealth.
      • You also may make a perception roll to taste all of the trades or exchanges that a target has made within a specified timeframe, with a month being the default, and a year giving a -3 difficulty, and so on.
      • This Charm supplements a normal or dramatic action to estimate the value of a good or service and the quality of it. Examples include the condition and value to the owner of an allegedly "priceless" pearl, or much "not flooding a district of Malfeas" is worth to her supplicants. This Charm gives the Infernal a perfect awareness of the target quality's condition, and how much ownership of it is worth to its prospective or current owner. This awareness grants her two bonus successes on any price haggling which ensues.
      • (s) Irresistible Salesman Technique
      • Perfect defense against all attempts to read the Infernal's emotions, Motivation, Intimacies, or mind.
      • he rolls (Perception + [Investigation or Socialize]) adding his Essence in automatic successes and compares the result to every character present. If the Infernal garners more successes than one half the (Manipulation + Socialize) of any individual, the Infernal learns that character's goal in the current scene, his Motivation, and any Intimacies that may be present.
      • Infernal becomes much more skilled at understanding the desires of others, adding his permanent Essence in bonus dice to any roll used to discern or exploit the desires of others. In addition, he becomes much more focused towards fulfilling his own whims, negating the Appearance modifier of any social attack that attempts to convince the Infernal to go against his desires.
      • enhances a read intent or read motivation action meant to discern the desires of another, using Perception + Investigation or Socialize against the target’s Dodge MDV, adding the Infernal’s Essence in automatic successes to the roll. If the Infernal succeeds, the Infernal automatically understands the target’s greatest desire at that moment. This requires no vocalization on the part of the Infernal or his target; the Infernal must merely be able to see his or hear his target to be able to use this Charm. This is an entirely subjective measure: though a subject’s greatest desire will often revolve around their Motivation or one of their Intimacies, a man who has not eaten for several days may most desire food, while an addict experiencing withdrawal (especially one addicted to Hegra’s toxin) will almost always desire the object of his addiction most of all. The Infernal may use information gained from this Charm to enhance his ability to persuade his target; so long as he exploits this knowledge, the Infernal increases his effective Appearance against the target by his Essence. This does not allow the Infernal to exceed the cap on benefits he may receive from high Appearance.
      • This perception allows her to know the dominant emotion of all characters she can perceive, and she may place any character’s emotions in context within the scene, if  applicable. In addition, if any of a character’s Intimacies or their Motivation resonate with their current emotional state, they are made Obvious to the Infernal. The Infernal may perceive this with any of her senses, allowing her to benefit from this information even if she is blinded or deafened–she might taste the different flavors of emotion on the air, or feel their psychic vibrations. This does not allow her to ignore any of the usual penalties for sensory impairment, however.
      • A second purchase of this Charm grants the Infernal (Essence) automatic successes on all Awareness-based actions to perceive any character whose emotions he can detect with this Charm. However, he suffers an equal external penalty on all Awareness-based rolls to perceive things without emotions or whose emotions he cannot read. In addition, even if blinded or deafened, he may still use the synesthetic perception of this Charm in place of his lost senses, allowing him to visually or audibly perceive characters without the usual penalties of his impairment, so long as he can sense their emotions. He still suffers the normal penalties for perceiving anything with no emotions, or whose emotions he cannot detect. The perception granted by this Charm extends to (Essence x 100) yards when used in this way as an independent sense.
      • [This is always channeled through Taste/Smell]
      • Summary: Unless he activates charms, the only natural passives are Ecstatic Erudition Insight. In order, he leaves the following active unless out of motes:Palette Without Limit, Vibrant Rainbow Chorus. All of the others are pumped as priorities shift.
      • Palette Without Limit+Greed Without Restraint (activated):
      • Price-of-Everything Undercurrents (activated):
      • Hidden Depths Temptress (activated):
      • Dark Depths Unseen (activated): 
      • Hidden Currents Awareness (activated):
      • Ecstatic Erudition Insight: 
      • Shallow Hearts Cry Out (activated):
      • Vibrant Rainbow Chorus (activated): 
    • Semi-secret weakness: compassion. He is almost alien in his views, but his compassion is more human than human, save that it is only ‘average’ when applied to those he has no attachments to. Couple that with the fact that his usual social charms get overbalanced by Hegra, and you have someone who will let themselves be manipulated, because they just feel so much empathy. 
    • Official Appearance: JFLM is an unnaturally tall and wiry man, possessed of a grace and poise that seems at odds with his appearance (Blood and Salt p 41). His face is long, with a cleft chin and high cheekbones, and he has a variety of symmetric facial piercings of gleaming Vitriolic Moonsilver (MoeP:Inf 173). His skin is bright emerald green, almost the same color and shimmer as an iridescent beetle shell; he has a Custom Tattoo of his own devising that slowly moves and shifts across his flesh. His eyes are ruby red, and possessed of a shrewd piercing gaze that seems to read through all pretensions. His hair is beyond frost-white, passing into the realm of being almost opalescent; it is often styled based on where he is and who he is meeting with; his hair smells slightly of pepper. His voice is neither too deep nor high, but has a melodic twang when he speaks, like he’s a step off of spitting verse. He is attractive, in a solid and angular kind of way that is almost universally exotic. 
      • It adds the “Vitriolic Blood” quality from Madelrada (CoCD:Malfeas p125), save that it adds that effect on top of your normal blood exposure, if it would be more. This may be turned off, but turns back on automatically whenever it could affect a Reviled target.
      • It adds (Essence) successes to any combat rolls against your children or descendents, so long as those actions benefit from Kimbery’s First Excellency.
      • It makes anyone rolling to hold their breath, avoid environmental effects, resist poison or disease, they roll their pool twice, and take the worse result. The range of this effect is the same as the Vitriolic Blood, 3m. 
      • By smearing your acid blood (if you have no current wounds this costs 1lhl) on a weapon you own, it freezes Obviously becoming coated with Indigo Ice, and gains the quality of being an Acid-Rime Weapon (MoEP:I p178) for the scene.
      • You may add your number of negative intimacies (Motivations and Urges count) as an equipment bonus to the Toxicity, Virulence, Morbidity, and Penalty of Toxins (e.g. Poisons, Diseases, etc) that you create, control, or which occur within places you own in any sense. If the defender is the subject of one of your negative intimacies, they must roll twice, and take the worse result. This stacks with similar effects.
      • It is a Green Sun Tattoo, but he benefits from the full protection, even though he is not a Lunar akuma.
      • The only downside to this tattoo is that, being a gift specifically to him, as the result of that bet, it cannot be transferred or used by anyone besides JFLM; this is an exception to the normal rules for Tattoo Artifacts.
      • [IGNORE THIS DONT USE IT]“Mother Drowns Child”: Custom Artifact Demonic Green-Sun Tattoo (*****); The Chalcanth of this was made from the arms of  Madelrada, That Which Wears Down The Mountain, which she lost in a bet to JFLM. She did not expect to lose the wargames that were being performed, and so bet her own arm against his. The quicksilver components were Szorenic Quicksilver, which he gathered himself from the invidious forest. The tattoo moves and changes over time, and he can move it and reshape it with a moment’s focus, as though he were doing calligraphy or painting. Its exact color and style are not fixed, but typically contrast with his skin. It is specifically designed to self-conceal when he uses charms to conceal his appearance. The tattoo is designed to passively respond to Flesh-Weaving Tendrils without appearing obvious and disgusting. It’s appearance has nothing to do with its function, which is multifold: 
    • He loves his children and dotes upon them. Even those who plotted a coup against him he left alive. If a particularly cute kid comes along, his ‘Grandfather’ mode comes on, and he is very sweet. Part of why he is loathe to just kill everyone in cities is because he knows of the bystanders. So long as he is merciful, he reassures himself that all wounds might heal with time. This tendency is a little strange, given that he’s 400+ yrs old, so even full grown adults might poke his button. 
    • Glory Girl and Gallant’s Emotion powers: GG’s power is a passive Emotion effect, Gallant’s is an active Emotion effect. Both count as Social Attacks and are resisted with MDVs. While Ecstatic Erudition Insight makes Mariner vulnerable to Emotion effects (-7), Demonic Primacy of Essence (and its upgrades) cancel that out (against an Essence 1 Human, it’d be +6), while Impervious Primacy Mantle and Crowned With Fury make actual orders unacceptable. That means that both GG and G can target him, and if they sweet-talk, per Impervious Primacy Mantle’s wording, they could make him have a -1 or -2 to his normal MDVs against them. This is why their powers aren’t auto-mind-control against his emotions. However, if they figure out that his Compassion and Conviction are stupidly high, they can use that against him. Of course, with the Errata I’m using, he can ignore his self compulsions for a scene with 1w. If Jack Slash or some other truly manipulative opponent truly wanted to get on his weakness, they would need to know enough about him to successfully not only get him to trust them, but also to want what they want. Its not impossible, especially given that any betrayal by a trusted friend make them Reviled, and then he kind of has to always hate them to death. Sloowly.
      • If he doesn’t have IPM, then it’s harder to resist! He has one actual weakness.
    • One of the biggest turning points in Mariner’s life was when he realized that his own kin feared him. No, not loved and feared (that’s normal enough in the Lintha), but just feared. He took it badly, and soured his reign, knowing that his distant grandchildren were little more than frightened strangers. Unlike many of the Yozi, who have specific powers that cause fear (like HG), neither Kimbery nor Metagaos have ever needed such a thing. They are legitimately terrifying in their own right, and being their representative on the mortal plane makes JFLM a small piece of Malfeas on earth. He is a humanoid abomination, whose main powers call down the wrath of the lands, seas, and skies. He is a king with the sensibilities of something between a  merchant prince a pirate lord and El Chapo, and powers driven by greed, disease, poison, lust, hate, and addiction. Thus, he is legitimately terrifying, not through any kind of trickery, but because he has the capacity to terrify even a rational mind. Even his family knew this, and knew that even if he had sworn to never lay a hand upon them, he was just one bad day away from reconsidering his largesse. Even those family members which had crossed him usually survived, but the ‘mercy’ shown them caused vomiting in the court.
    • The ‘sponsor’ of JFLM is Madelrada, Eighth Soul, That Which Wears Down the Mountains; she has rather blatant favoritism in her selection, and he gained his tattoo artifact from her ‘playful’ spirit. 
    • Mariner is a man driven by passion and hedonism. While his original personality had more Temperance than he does now, his has always been stubborn about what he wants and needs. His story is going to be about finding people he can trust, for business and for family and friends. Can’t do his Urge without it. Can’t trust people if they are always mind controlled, since there is no loyalty there (as he recalls from An-Teng). He can’t cheat in this new life, not if he wants it to be genuine. 
    • Final balance notes: Dip HG+LWS final. Added back IPM/CwF. Added back Cec DPoE. Those two sets of charms are much less than the SZ one, and represent the ‘king/dictator’ background from JFLM.
    • “Maybe you would say I am unambitious, compared to my fellows in the Thing Infernal. I have but claimed one country; a dictator but not an emperor. Such words wash off me like gentle rain off a duck’s back. They commit a categorical error, placing me among them in their bellicosity. I took An-Teng because I wanted a place to raise my family. It was my home and my workshop and my laboratory. But most of all… it was mine. All mine. If I wanted to expand, all of Creation would not slake me.”
    • Per the maps, The Principalities of An-Teng are absolutely huge, and are the nearest landmass to both Bluehaven and The Blessed Isle. His lands extended the full width of An-Teng, going past the mountains all the way to the Inland Sea, and stopping just shy of The Lap. This area is a rectangle roughly 1200 miles deep (from the shore) by  2600 miles long. This is roughly the side of most of North America. The sea-claims extended out much farther than that, covering roughly double that area out including Bluehaven. Within An-Teng and its territorial waters, all Merchants and Lintha are free to pass and do business, and it was a Free Trade zone, where nothing was forbidden from sale and services. The only things that were verboten were Realm military forces, unless they were just Dynasts and their personal guards on civilian business and out of uniform. Most of the inhabitants didn’t even know that they had been invaded over, but their newfound love of the ‘new leader’ was universal. None who would live within An-Teng as its citizens and serfs were spared that fate, save for the Lintha Family, and their direct allies. Merchants and travellers, and any who were not ‘natives’ were exempt, per the free trade agreement. Violating the local laws was harshly punished, however, even by free traders.
      • An-Teng in canon has no standing armies, but instead depends on Guerilla Warfare, permitting their invaders to sink too deep and get stuck overextended while they foul drinking water and raid supply chains. This worked against them with JFLM’s invasion, since he fouled the lands they hid in, and corrupted their own men into his personal guerilla forces. Not even death could free those he claimed, and the dead rose again as his almost mindless infantry.
      • His primary advantage was the availability of canals running all the way to the deepest mountains. His penetration drowned the areas nearest the waters, and spread toxic flora and fauna in his wake. Grey Swamps and floating lab-wombs spawned countless atrocities in his wake. Entire cities were swallowed in the darkness, ignorant of any invasion happening at all. 
      • The whole invasion took just 3 months, slightly slower than the total time it should take to cross An-Teng. Entire communities were left ‘fallow’ and ignored entirely. They were of course infected with his Self-Seed, and that plague proved decisive. The other major factor was the 70-mile radius storm that rained his toxic acid blood from the skies, which simultaneously carried the worst of all diseases as well as the horrid seeds of his infectious ownership.
      • By the time that he took on the Pantheon individually, his followers had increased more than a thousandfold from mind-control conscription. 
      • The eastward limits of his conquests was a failed attempt to capture Lap. Overconfident, he used his brain-washed and addicted conscript navy, headed by a former rival that he had broken and pulled into his forces in lieu of death. The force of Cousins, slaves, and conscripts were held together with fear, addiction, kimberian oaths, and his self-seed. The force was easily defeated through a combination of unhelpful weather conditions causing them to travel too slowly and run out of their supplies midway. Though the captains tried to keep order, the crew fell to withdrawl and were consumed from within by the self-seed and oaths of service. With 90% of his forces in no state to fight, the skeleton crew was killed by the Dragonblooded within the city. Because he relied too much on addiction and mind control of various kinds, he lost a near-monopoly on agricultural products in the South. His expansion stopped just outside of Lap, and he learned not to trust his powers unless he intended to kill whatever it was he used them on.
      • The era of Lintha Peace within An-Teng was marked internally as an apparent Cult of Personality. JFLM was looked upon as a semi-legendary being by those who did not know his touch during wartime. Those infected could never believe anything bad about him, and set up the Cult of Personality themselves, to explain to themselves why they all loved him so blithely. He permitted it, as efficacious. Of course they could never question it either, nor realize that there was a plague that infected them. Just that some who opposed the Dictator went missing.
      • JFLM used a levy on Dynasts to pass Tribute to the Realm. In truth, the Tribute was generally tainted foodstocks, bearing very specific versions of his Self-Seed. It took almost 140 years for the Realm to catch on that they were no longer in power, and that a potential Yozi cult had taken control of their doorstep.
      • Even after his Exile, it will take centuries of concerted work by Heaven to restore An-Teng to what it was before JFLM’s touch. His Self-Seed is almost impossible to remove, even for the Solars. However, it is of greatest annoyance to Heaven, that the Sidereals are unable to Countermagic his works, unless they have a Solar to help them.
    • A Bite That Keeps Gnawing + Unities and Disunities from Root-to-Petal make it so wound penalties can go  above -5 and have no cap, and that means that the usual internal penalties (min pool from Core p121) means that you can get dice pools to 0 using the wound penalty rules easily. You can also add Taste of Shared Pain to add yours to their own. Add Evolve or Die and you are basically as buffed as the LWS Form would make you.  Good design! 
      • You can also combine it with Hegra’s weather effects, which are external, as are Metagaos’ environmental effects. Any of these plus disease or poison are a good way to get a pool to 0, and become inapplicable per the rules. There are a very small number of charms that set your pool up to ignore these.
    • Working on an internal storage cache that’s bigger on the inside than the outside; based on a Prof Haywire theory about bending space without punching holes. The earlier tests were successful with the help of Vista, this one is being done without her in front of a review panel consisting of several PRT bigwigs.
    • Their issue came from essentially dividing by zero, and putting Armsmaster’s spatially warping miniaturization technology into the box as a test, and the whole thing imploded, sucking everyone through the floor of the box into the Endless Staircase.
    • They meet JFLM in the staircase. He is upside down above them, trying to figure out if he’s finally gone crazy. He does not speak their tongue, but tries to pantomime needing help and whistling. He uses FLOWERING THE FAIRER FACE to appear to know how to signal for help.
    • Dragon is able to fly. Armsmaster’s spear is broken again. 
    • Dragon, given the option to ignore what she’s seeing, decides that (for expediency sake) this is close enough to a shipwreck to qualify for rescuing the stranded man. When she flies up to meet him, it becomes clear that the distance is greater than it appears.
    • Dragon gets footage of him jumping 100m up to meet her, so they know he’s a Cape.
    • Armsmaster calls her out for being reckless. Stares hard at the two and eventually says ‘Protocol says he goes into Quarantine’ and curses them both for how much paperwork he has to do on this. 
    • Vista is called in to extract them from the space hole
    • They pop out in front of the PRT, who have Hazmat folks standing by. 
    • JFLM of course is a hazardous material, but if he doesn’t want to get stuck in an isolation jar, he needs to cooperate with the Protectorate, so that his weirdness can be channeled into productive ends. 
    • JFLM does not speak their language, so this is conveyed by drawing, primarily. He  uses PERVERSE WHISPER CAMOUFLAGE to put his words in the mouths of grunts, though no one seems to realize that. He uses FLOWERING THE FAIRER FACE extensively, hating to rely upon it. He stops using PERVERSE WHISPER CAMOUFLAGE as soon as possible. 
    • Will wind up as a Probationary Protectorate member. He is kept in Brockton Bay by Armsmaster’s interference, so he can ‘salvage’ something from that embarrassment. Armsmaster hopes to wring extradimensional tech from him.
    • His main job for the first couple weeks is learning English from the Wards. He is initially only sent with groups of 3 or more including full Protectorate members, but after a few weeks, its reduced to 2 or more Wards. It is considered a bad assignment for most of the Wards, due to the gulf of difference in trying to simultaneously explain the modern world to the dimensional traveller. While also overcoming the differences from a native Old Realm speaker, who writes in something more in common with Nahuatl.
    • He goes into one of the equipment storage areas for Maintenance, and grabs ones of their 3kg uncoated lead dive-weights, and then uses Prime Element Wonder and the Alchemy procedure, Heavenly Transmutation Processes (Lead to Gold) to make the payment for his lawyer. 
    • He winds up being on patrol with Armsmaster when they go to pick up  Lung. It is the first time anyone witnesses him doing anything medicine related, since that was very hard to translate without a common understanding of modern and supernatural medicine.
    • Notes




----





Roles in the story:

  • Facilitates canon?
  • Expands canon?
  • Gently Changes/Expands canon? THIS ONE: explains the nature of entities in the context of WoD+ and gives the setting a role in the universe.
  • His purpose in the story is to go and try to learn more about the other characters from canon, especially those that catch his eye. He especially envies families. Fortunately, he does not have a crazy compulsion to kill everyone and take their stuff, but its nice to know that he can do so if he wants to. 



Relationships:

  • Works for the Protectorate / PRT; at the very least is cooperating with them to enforce order/peace. He is a probationary member.
  • Does not Mary Sue his way into being friends with everyone
  • May be antagonistic towards Skitter?
  • Don’t make him instant friends/allies with Wards/Protectorate, let relationships form naturally.




Themes:

  • Unhappy with how conquering turned out
  • Wants to start over where they aren’t a villain or rule by mind-control/fear
  • Personal aim is to get friends and family
  • Struggling with how to best use their power
  • Struggling with their past as a villain



SWL+Elloge: spends a lot of time trying to figure out other characters. Interesting read for people who like those characters? Yes, I think so!




What I have decided is this Kimbery+Metagaos is fine. His part in the plot will derive entirely from friendships and personal relationships that I will build in a reasonable way, as he comes to understand this new world and his place in it. He will struggle with the fact that his bad habits make it easy to fall back into his old ways, and it is only his friends and/or rivals who will challenge him not to, as a personal thing. 

 

Even with 39 Hegra charms, this is still less than the 45 charms from Szoreny (not to mention the cost of the added Excellency, which costs about 20 charms extra on top of that 45). Keep Hegra: more focused, keeps with existing themes, just expanding on them to make the fluff have teeth. I am very happy with this. 




Ink Monkey’s Modern Infernal Charms:

 

https://ericminton.wordpress.com/2014/07/02/ink-monkey-bones-8-modern-infernal-charms/comment-page-1/

 


AO3 Formatting Guide for hidden text areas: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5046274/chapters/11603362#mobile1

 

Parahumans Online Forum Formatter:

https://github.com/ujamer/myrddin

https://ujamer.github.io/myrddin/




~~~ REAL SHEET ~~~ 



"Joyful Fluttering Locust Mariner, Grandfather of Sennong Sept ,and Dictator of An-Teng": 

Ess5/7 (Meta/Kim); Sherden Caste; Urge: Metgaoiyn; All charms from the revised Meta list and the Kimbery. Basic sorcery only. Knows Laughing Wounds and Mantis CMA Styles and all four of the Dragon King TMA styles [Debris From the Fallen Races p3]. He mastered the charms of his patrons as a matter of religious devotion, as his family worship the Primordials, and his interpretation of that is that learning their charms is the best thing he can do to understand them. He has made it his life’s work to attempt to heal/repair/fix the Yozi and Neverborn, and failing that grow their Excellencies and Charm-sets personally to help them grow beyond their limits. Not so secret weakness: can be easily bribed, and actually has to roll (Greed Without Restraint and similar charms) at great penalty to not accept it. He has Compassion and Conviction 7, Kimbery’s Intolerable Burning Truth make it so that his Compassion is ignorable for those that are not Beloved. Current Urge: Become wealthy and affluent beyond reproach. Current Motivation: Find new family and friends. Personal Anima is impossible thalassic wings made of swirling helixes of eyes and mouths, though it is hard to tell whether the wings are fins, flippers, or flapping tentacle cloaks like are found in the depths, the wings are in constant erratic motion, only lining up to reveal their proper shape seemingly by accident. Per caste errata, Neomah Coadjutor gives a in-caste discount on Malfeas charms in addition to 3 favored. 

  • Excellencies: (These are bought for both Kimbery and Metagaos and Cecelyne) 
    • First (Yozi) Excellency -- Essence Overwhelming [Adds dice]
    • Second (Yozi) Excellency -- Essence Triumphant [Adds Successes]
    • (Yozi) Mythos Exultant [Gain something in place of Willpower for a stunt]
    • (Yozi) Inevitably Technique [Ess 7+: free use; drops Target number to 6]
    • Effortless (Yozi) Dominance [Cumulative First Excellency discount per scene to min 0]
    • So Speaks (Yozi) [First Excellency can be used as innate power, no EYD discount]
    • Ascendency Mantle of (Yozi) [Raise your Ess limit for your age by one, unless you fail to do something]
    • Essential (Yozi) Archetype [ECG; ignore penalties using the 1st Ex]
    • (Yozi) World-Shaping Cosmogony [HBC; Wyld-shaping… ]
    • (Yozi) Paragon Paradigm [HBC; sets difficulty to 10]
    • Children of (Yozi) [HBC; your offspring get access to your 1st/2nd Ex’s, and count as Demon Blooded with you as their Coadjutor…]
    • (Yozi) Arts Externalized [10k; discount on spells that invoke your Yozi]
    • Expansive (Yozi) Consciousness [HBC; net +5willpower secondary pool, fillable with Ex-enhancable stunts or Yozi-related charms… ]
    • Cosmic Forge of (Yozi) [HBC; easier Yozi-related specialty crafting]
  • Sorcery Charms: Sorcerous Enlightenment of (Kimbery|Metagaos|Cecelyne), Sorcerous Integration of (Kimbery|Metagaos|Cecelyne) Principles [lots of effects… ; 100]
  • Non Kimbery/Metagaos/Cecelyne Charms:
    • Combat/Soak Charms:
      • Hardened Devil Body
      • By Pain Reforged
      • Scar-Writ Saga Shield
      • Nightmare Fugue Vigilance
      • By Agony Empowered
      • By Torment Immortalized [100]
      • Basalt Flesh Withering [ECG]
      • Countless Cities Clotting [HBC]
      • Towers Rise Again [HBC]
      • Armored With Suffering [HBC]
      • World-Mastering Authority [HBC]
    • Social/War Charms:
      • Impervious Primacy Mantle
      • Crowned With Fury [Note that this happens during Social combat only, with the Social keyword, so you cannot accidentally activate it without Joining Debate]
      • Know Your Place [10K/HBC] (‘Social’ just like CWF, “As an unnatural mental influence, for the rest of the scene any character who interacts with the Infernal and whose Dodge MDV is lower than the Infernal’s Charisma gains an Intimacy of Terrified Awe towards them.  This may be resisted for a scene by spending one willpower, and as an exception to the normal rules for unnatural mental influence a character who resists does not gain Limit. At Essence 5, this Charm’s duration increases to Indefinite.”; my errata below includes this: “Know Your Place [Malfeas; 10K] Add in the following text. “At Essence 5+, this charm’s duration becomes indefinite. If you know World Ruling Intensity, then this duration becomes Permanent and it is automatically on, and is automatically applied to all actions which are either social or which allow you to address or otherwise be perceived by others (this includes actions outside of Social debate which demonstrate your might, in contravention of the normal Social rules [this is a permanent downside, of course]). If you also know Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion, in any scene where your splendor would be overwhelming to your lessers, you may take a miscellaneous action to redirect (this is a reversible toggle) that energy towards your Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion, causing that both that effect as well as Know Your Place to be applied automatically, to all valid Lord-Over-Beasts targets within (Ess) times the normal radius; this may be reverted at any time. While this redirection happens, Know Your Place uses normal (non-Permanent) costs and durations. Regardless of this redirection, the following permanent effect is added to this charm: characters who already have Intimacies of Terrified Awe towards you count each interaction with you, including just being able to see or hear you as once full scene spent reinforcing these Intimacies. You may choose to permit the coexistence of intimacies of Terrified Awe alongside those caused by your other charms, if they would normally replace one another.”, making this the huge permanent fear effect!)
      • Traitors’ Heart Conflagration [10K/HBC] (“This Charm permanently enhances its prerequisite [CWF].  When it is used against a character who possesses an Intimacy of Terrified Awe towards the Infernal, the character must pay a lethal health level to resist the social attack, on top of any willpower cost.  Their flesh visibly blackens and chars, the odour of burnt flesh marking their fleeting rebellion.  Characters with a Limit Track may choose to pay a point of Limit in place of a health level the first time they would be affected by this Charm in a scene, which immunises them to its effects for a day.”)
      • Fear Births Obedience [10K/HBC] (“ Any character with an Intimacy of Terrified Awe towards her must pass a Valour roll at Difficulty 1 to act against the Infernal’s commands or interests in any way, physically or otherwise.  What is best for the Infernal is judged as perceived by the character, unless a command would contradict their belief.  Moreover, they roll the lower of their Essence and Valour.  Characters may spend one willpower to ignore the effects of this unnatural mental influence for one scene. Essence users count each point of willpower spent to resist this Charm as a scene weakening their Intimacy of Terrified Awe.  This benefit is not enjoyed by demons of the first circle and gods, for their kinds were made to be slaves and in slavery they shall remain.”)
      • World-Shaking Commands [ECG] (“This Charm may supplement any social attack that is enhanced by Crowned with Fury. If it exploits a character’s Intimacy of awe, fear, or loyalty towards the Infernal, then it becomes  unblockable and undodgeable.”)
      • My Will Be Done [ECG] (“A crown of emerald flames blazes upon the Infernal’s brow, engraved with glyphs that spell out his name and imperial title. If he makes a social attack or exerts mental influence that constitutes an unacceptable order against a character with one or less points of temporary Willpower, it is not rejected outright. If the target ‘s MDVs are overcome, they must resist it normally. If a character possesses an Intimacy of awe, fear, or loyalty towards the Infernal, they may instead be given  unacceptable orders if they have three or less points of Willpower remaining. Non-heroic mortals are always subject to this Charm, no matter how many points of Willpower they have remaining. Exalts and other beings with a Limit track may override this power, allowing them to ignore the unacceptable order normally, but they must accept two points of Limit to do so for each unacceptable order they reject (Abyssals gain Resonance instead).”)
      • Restrained Punishment Generosity [100] (“The first time the Exalt performs a social attack during an action, she may activate this Charm to enhance it and all subsequent social attacks. As she begins her attack, the Infernal makes an intensely rude or threatening gesture, though not so combative as to call for Join Battle, or opens with a vicious comment. This grants the Exalt (Charisma) extra successes for the rest of the action on all social attacks against those who can feel fear.”)
      • World-Ruling Intensity [100] (“With this Charm, the Exalt is forevermore capable of inflicting fear or benefiting from effects that rely on fear (such as Restrained Punishment Generosity) against any volitional being, even the mindless undead and automata. This includes forcing such normally fearless beings to make Morale checks when confronted by the Exalt. Even the dumb matter of the world, the truly inanimate and senseless things, are terrified by the Infernal, though they can not express their feelings.”)
      • First King’s Demand [HBC]  (“This charm enhances a social attack phrased as a demand. Leave this place, Bring me aid, and Bring me his head with a side salad are all valid uses of this charm. It makes the attack an unblockable social  attack, causing unnatural mental influence that costs willpower to resist equal to half the user's essence. Servants of the Incarnae or the free Primordials (Such as Solars, Sidereals, Lunars, Alchemicals, elementals to name but a few) reduce this willpower cost by one, due to the ancient surrender oaths. This demand is often phrased oddly, and the powerful quality of their voice is utterly inhuman, providing the Obvious nature of the charm.”)
      • Mantle of Lordly Dominance [HBC] (“permanently enhances its prerequisite [CWF so that when its effects are used against anyone who has an Intimacy of fear or awe towards the Infernal or anyone the Infernal holds social or metaphysical authority over, the target must spend two points of Willpower instead of one to resist a successful so
      • King of Terror Mien [HBC] (very complicated, see the text, but makes people run away…)
      • Trauma-Repressing Denial [HBC] (upgrade KoTM, makes them repress the memory because scary)
      • Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion [10K/HBC] (
    • Malfeas Soak/Healing/Armor:

“””

Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion

Cost: — ; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Compulsion, Emotion

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Crowned By Fury

In times gone by, every beast knew the authority and dominion of the Primordial King. These ancestral memories leave them helpless in the face of Malfeas’ wrath. This Charm projects an unnatural compulsion with a radius of (Essence x 2) yards, forcing all natural animals to submit to the Infernal. Camels kneel, flies land and cower, wings buzzing in harmony, birds freeze in place, singing songs to her glory; mechanically, they are rendered Inactive by their submission. A ridden animal may be spurred to ignore its reverence for a scene if the rider spends 2wp, and succeeds on a reflexive (Charisma + Ride) roll at a difficulty of the Infernal's Essence. Mounts marked by marked with Fealty Acknowledging Audience or who have an Intimacy of Terrified Awe towards the Infernal, or whose rider has been marked or has the Intimacy, may be spared these effects at her discretion so long as they are not hostile.

Any natural animal ridden by the Infernal has its Control Rating set to 0. Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion has no effect on animals which are magically compelled by other effects or supernaturally loyal, such as familiars. The Holy Tyrant had a similar charm, but it could be controlled; Malfeas, who harbours secret fears, must shout his dominance least any doubt him.

 

”””

  • Misc. Charms:
    • Nightmare Fugue Vigilance
    • Insignificant Embers Intuition
    • Dim Irrelevancies Unveiled
    • Skyfire-Seizing Repast
    • Sun-Heart Furnace Soul
    • By Hunger Nourished [BwC]
    • Unassailable Conflagration Spirit [ECG p78]
    • Somatic Catacombs Concealment [10K]
    • Calloused City Growth [10K]
    • Urban Legend Agyiopathy [HBC p442]
    • Mean Streets Curriculum [HBC p422]
    • Kneel or Be Knelt [INK p52] 
    • Demon Core Meltdown [INKM]
  • Martial Arts Styles [Martial Arts is Favored]: 
    • Laughing Wounds Style [2.5e updated version in the errata below]
    • Mantis Style [Scroll of Individual Greatness Vol 3: Echoes of Enlightenment 02, p61]
    • Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style  [2.5e updated version in the errata below; Lintha Rook]
    • Black Claw Style [INK p95; won it in a bet against Mara] 
    • Eye of Heaven Style [Debris of the Fallen Races, p13]
    • Infernal Monster Style [INF p157-163, INK p70-77, HBC(REVLID) p1101-1118,  ECG p96-97, Scroll of Errata 992; learned from Suntarankal]
      • Shattered Hope Mockery
      • Corpse-God Mutilation
      • Earth-Shaking Cataclysm Blow
      • Hero-Breaking Horror
      • Creation-Swallowing Hellmouth Strike
      • Star-Shaking Fury
      1. INF: All including native expansion charms
      2. INK: All except Untamed Apocalypse Shintai (the always mad one), and all of the Chained Beast charms (akuma-native anyway)
      3. HBC(REVLID): All except the Hateful Apotheosis charms (the ones from Perfected Rage-Saint Sarira to Back With a Vengeance)
      4. ECG: 
    • Flame and Stone Style [Debris of the Fallen Races, p4]
    • Black Tide Style [Debris of the Fallen Races, p7]
    • Dagger Wind Style  [Debris of the Fallen Races, p9]
    • Shadow Hunter Style [Debris of the Fallen Races, p11]
    • First Pulse Style [SotM p45] 
    • White Veil Style [SotM p61]
    • Crimson Pentacle Blade Style [SotM p63]
    • Even Blade Style (all variants stolen) [SotM p69]
    • Fivefold Shadow Hand Style [SotM p75]
    • Celestial Styles:
    • Terrestrial Styles: (First Pulse from Suntarankal; Fivefold Shadow Hand Style and White Veil Lintha Rooks; all others Litha Traditional)
  • Misc:
    • Flowing Kata Form [INK, p95]
    • Roots of the Brass Lotus [Scroll of Errata, p 149; Infernal version of Swallowing the Lotus Root]
    • Lotus Root Internalization [100; p103]
    • Tiger-and-Bear Awareness [MoEP:DB; p195]
    • Tiger-and-Bear Unity [MoEP:DB; p195]
    • Touch of Divinity [Scroll of the Monk p17; assuming this is the logical prerequisite to Soul-Enlightening Beneficence for Infernals]
    • Soul-Enlightening Beneficence [Scroll of the Monk p18, Infernal version has no stated prerequisite charms] 
  •  Heretical: 
    • (Coadjutor) Flesh Extravagance
    • Fourth-Soul Devil Domain
    • Blossoms of the Tiger Empire
    • God-Beast’s Mantle
    • Self-Within-Self Inversion
    • Omphalic Reverence Receptacle 
    • Two Is Company
    • Unsurpassed Devil-Craft (Kim/Metag crafting charms count)
    • Verdant Desolation Understanding (Metag/Cece from metag book)
    • [All of these are from The Fourth Soul and are locked behind having an active Unwoven rating, he cannot currently access them: link]

 

  • Kimbery Charms (canon/Modern https://ericminton.wordpress.com/2014/07/02/ink-monkey-bones-8-modern-infernal-charms/ ): Consuming Hatred Dissolution, Heart-Controlling Tides, Mother Knows Best (ink-monkey’s),  Wound-Drowning Metamorphosis.
  • Kimbery Charms besides Canon+REVLID’s: 
    • Survival:
      1. Friendship With Animals Approach
      2. Spirit-Tied Pet
      3. Bestial Traits Technique
      4. Hardship-Surviving Mendicant Spirit
      5. Element-Resisting Prana
      6. Eternal Elemental Harmony
      7. Food-Gathering Exercise
      8. Trackless Region Navigation
      9. Unshakable Bloodhound Technique
      10. Traceless Passage
      11. Eye-Deceiving Camouflage
      12. City-Moving Secrets
      1.  Steadfast Elemental Emperor Stance
      1. Guiding Light Shines On
      2. Life-Sustaining Shelter Preparation
      3. God-King Benevolence
      1. Refuge-Finding Intuition
      2. Trail-Soothing Grace of The Sun
      3. [clarification on canon charm] Element-Resisting Prana
      1. Storm and Sun Prediction
      2. Woodland King’s Court
      3. Harmonious Wilderness Domain
      4. Golden Paradise Dominion
      • Ex Core p209-211
      • Glories of the Unconquered Sun p28:
      • Dreams of the First Age (Lords of Creation Revised) p67-68:
      • [100] p15:
      • [ECG] p15-16:
    • Ride:
      1. Master Horseman’s Techniques
      2. Worthy Mount Technique
      3. Single Spirit Method
      4. Phantom Steed
      5. Wind-Racing Essence Infusion
      1. Dragon-Riding Meditation
      1. Immortal Rider’s Advantages
      2. Horse Skids Trick
      3. Hero Rides Away
      4. One Man Cavalry
      5. Thunder-Hoof Method
      1. Draft Horse Measure
      2. Sun-Towing Method
      1. Heroic Course Familiarity
      2. Attendant Chariot Gesture
      3. Impossible Maneuver Execution
      4. Pilot’s Steady Hand
      5. Narrow Escape Strategy
      6. Majestic Bearing Intuition
      7. World-Crossing Stamina
      1. Mount-Guiding Intuition
      2. Superior Horseman Style
      3. Breaker-of-Horses Technique
      4. Race the Lighting’s Course
      • Ex Core p234-236
      • Glories of the Unconquered Sun p33:
      • INK p2-25:
      • Dreams of the First Age (Lords of Creation Revised) p82:
      • [100] p29-30:
      • [ECG] p26-27:
    • Sail:
      1. Salty Dog Method
      2. Invincible Admiral Method
      3. Ship-Claiming Stance
      4. Hull-Preserving Technique
      5. Shipwreck-Surviving Stamina
      6. Perfect Reckoning Technique
      7. Storm-Weathering Essence Infusion
      8. Sea Ambush Technique
      1. Dark Waters Odyssey 
      2. Ruthless Captain Efficiency / Crew-Inspiring Courage
      3. Sea-Scanning Glare / Oceanic Omniscience Intuition
      4. Mist-Veiled Doldrums Technique
      5. Shroud-Crossing Miasma (NOTE: this should probably travel to or from any world you have been to in the past, as well as specifically  Malfeas, Kimbery, or Cecelyne by default not the Underworld until you have been there at least once; JFLM canonically has been there to lick things)
      1. Immortal Captain’s Advantages
      2. Flag of All Nations Method
      3. Mariner’s Parable Defense
      1. Omnipotent Admiral Authority
      2. Invincible Solar Vessel
      3. Ship and Soul Union
      1. Expert Pilot Concentration
      2. Invulnerable Solar Vessel
      3. Sun-Racing Clip
      4. Golden Cove Trick
      1. Wind-Defying Tack Rigging
      2. Splice The Mainbrace
      3. Eternal Storm-Breaking Harbor
      4. Unwavering Admiral’s Flag
      5. Captain’s Beloved Seahome
      1. Blood-Dimmed Tide (Unhallowed Ghost Ship is Mirrored from (Ship-Claiming Stance; Exalted, p. 237); this should obviously claim the as being outside of Fate, and counting as as the waters of Kimbery instead of anything death related)
      • Ex Core p236-238
      • Abyssal p178-181 (only listing new charms that aren’t already published in the Ex Core book; Ab/Sol for Mirror charms):
      • INK p25-26:
      • Dreams of the First Age (Lords of Creation Revised) p82-83:
      • [100] p30-31 (n.b. all published sail charms are mirror-keyword, with first listing here being solar): 
      • [ECG] p27-28  (only listing new charms that aren’t already published in the Ever-cascading  book; Ab/Sol for Mirror charms):
      • [ECG] p71  (the only non-Mirrored Keyword Abyssal Sail charm):
    • Sea’ s Fickle Favor, Sudden Storm Fury, Dark Depths Unseen, Hidden Currents Awareness, Endless Pounding Surf, Untiring Sea Prana, Heart Eroding Method, Crashing Wave Unity, Current Shifting Technique, Dreg Purging Method, Tide Turning Gesture, Waves Fall Back Emulation, Flood of Violence Prana, Tides of Battle Approach, One Mind Ocean, Stone Eroding Touch, Filth Consuming Dissolution, Caustic Wave Embrace, Vile Brine Distillation, Armor Corroding Attack, Inescapable Whirlpool Grasp, Dark Water Embrace, Flame Quenching Presence, Storm Surge Stance, Storm Curse Condemnation, Tempest Calming Gesture, Storm-Tossed Sea Prana, Font of Vitriol Invocation, Sea Home Stance, Treacherous Waters Navigation, Favorable Current Benevolence, Spare the Unworthy Vessel, Ocean Carving Futility (gains Sea Keyword for the purpose of paying the normal 3m surcharge), Fury-Absorbing Vastness (costs 8m, gains Sea Keyword), Sunken Treasure Technique (gains Sea Keyword), Pipe Navigating Flow (gains Sea Keyword)
    • Acidic Body Meditation, Steel-Melting Skin, Burning Hatred Release, Acidic Depths Spewed Forth, Tide’s Flowing Wave, Bittersweet Poison Reverie, Caress of Taint, Flowing Water Prana (8m),  Matron’s Malicious Smile, Vengeful Mother’s Diatribe (8m), Mother Never Lies (self-compulsion per Witness to Darkness; the negative to Manipulation applies to Beloved targets only otherwise it is forever incompatible with other Kimbery social charms!), Mommy Knows Your Secrets, Petulant Scorn Tongue, A Wave of Flesh and Sinew
    • Blue-Ringed Venom Garden
    • Grotto-of-Sweet-Songs Shintai
    • Pelagic Muse Artistry, Squamous Idols Raised, Monstrous Manse-Mother Fountainhead, My Pretty Baby, Geomancy-Suckling Little Darling, Potential-Drowning Depths Dweller, Unhallowed Dreaming World-Progeny, Rocking-Cradle Envelopment, Ocean’s Bounty Blessing, Pearls of the Secret Deep, Weeping Wounds Tribunal, Toxic Love Indulgence, Great Mother’s Blessed Waters. 
    • [Bo10kS] Price-of-Everything Undercurrents, Hidden Depths Temptress, Rising Tide Gratuity, Kindness Expects Repayment, Rapturous Leech Rupture, Great Mother’s Blessed Waters, Ocean Washed Words, Surging Tidal Retreat, Attention-Holding Grace, Passion-Driven Maelstrom, Heart-Rending Loveliness, Martyr’s Open Endearment, Beauty-Over-Truth, Carmine Mantled Emissary, Organ-Pulping Reprimand, Lurking Indigo Haar, Demon Sea Shintai, Haar-Hidden Dealings, Pain-as-Witness Oath, Esoteric Inundation Investment, Benthic Sibling Vow, Red Tributary Envelopment, Instruction from Mother, Hidden Family Secrets, Grasping Ocean Hag, Well-Reputed Grotto, Primordial Smugglers Trail, Godmother’s Own House.
    • Mother Masters Children. (war)
    • Grand Motherhood Ascension (creates/populates lab-wombs at your option, can be used to modify anything that is in a lab-womb of yours)
    • [Repurchased via Ess4 Treacherous Waters Navigation]All Solar charms in the Survival, Sail, and Ride trees. The Exalted Index shows these pages for the canon sources, plus [100] and [ECG]: “Ride ........................................234, GS33, IM, Lr66, LR82”; “Sail .......................................236 , Ab179, IM, Lr66, LR82”; “Survival ...................................209, GS28, IM, Lr60, LR67”
    • For reference, these charms come on when his Anima is up: Muse of Beauteous Horrors, Art Begets Art, Horrid Idols Raised, Pelagic Muse Artistry, Squamous Idols Raised (Blue-Ringed Venom Garden may activated reflexively for 15m, without needing to spend an action to do so, wherever he was when his anima first hit 10+, later invocations are activated normally).
  • Metagaos Charms: 
    • Feast Upon (Shinma) [Nirupadhika actually teleports any target you can sense to anywhere within your reach that you can sense. This is not a Shaping or Sorcerous effect, but things which specifically stop teleportation effects without keywords can contest the strength of the power with their (Ess+Occult) vs your own (Ess+Occult+Resources), and they get an external penalty equal to your Essence, and you get bonus auto-successes on this roll equal to your roll over dice from hitting the target]
    • Revisiting Old Wounds [initial purchase you just take the damage as part of the cost, with the repurchase you still take the damage, but it is soakable with you natural soak, armor does not help]
    • Dragging Prey Out Of Sight
    • Feast of A Lifetime [This works with your other taste memory effects, and lets you actively dig through memories without needing to do the white-room interrogation]
    • Maw of The Bloom [The Bite Mutation here permits him to bite even without Teeth Without Number active, though that version still requires a Clinch as normal.]
    • Words Like Vipers 
    • Predatory Dominance [This intimacy can either encourage your food to keep coming back to feed you anew, or discourage your food from annoying you; the intimacy can go either way, since the wording was confusing in the write up. Pick one when you activate the charm. For clarity, Mafleas-style ‘Terrified Awe’ is as much an option as anything else.]
    • Aspect of the Perfect Predator [does not require that you have eaten it before, unlike the other similar charms]
    • No Greater Treasure
    • No Place Is Safe
    • Hunter’s Trophies
    • Scent The Elusive Prey [If you already could, add +Ess successes to do so]
    • Screaming Heavenly Morsels [If you already could, add +Ess successes to do so]
    • Food That Keeps on Feeding
    • Prey Are As Nothing (cost is 8m)
    • Top of All Food Chains
    • Mouth of The All-Hunger Blossom [upgrades the base bite statistics as listed, Def penalty is +0; subsequent upgrades allow your mouth to widen and optionally extend your retractable fangs, but are not visible unless in use.]
    • Carnivorous Virility Regeneration
    • Pestilence Plagued Maw [the willpower cost is only if you have no other way to make the disease, and you only pay it to create the disease from nothing, especially if you’ve encountered it before and are not currently a carrier]
    • You Are What You Eat (HBC:Hunger Blooming Bite Prereq version)
    • Ethereal Bonds Delicatessen
    • Voracious Appetite Meditation [Starvation penalty is Hunger Penalty or HL Penalty]
    • Many Mouths Mutilation [concealable just like Teeth Without Limit, separate maws though]
    • Sharpened Incisor Snap
    • Spawn-Snatching Chomp
    • Horror-Birthing Feracity
    • Second Seeding Propagation
    • Voice From The Woods
    • Chewing The Cognition
    • They Live
    • Voluminous Gastric Larder [This provides an Elsewhere bypass before things hit my Inner World Genesis Stomach, permitting things to be stored without actually being fully digested into the Taste-Memory Afterlife]
    • Suspicion-Averting Murmur 
    • All of those from my version of the charms 
    • These from [HBC]:
    • These from The Book of Ten Thousand Scorpions:
  • Cecelyne Charms:
    • Desolation Of The Numinous
    • Lowly Pebbles In Their Place
    • Hell Messiah Dictum
    • Gospel Of Oppression
    • Mandates Of The Demon-Prophet
    • Faithless Infidel Flagellation
    • Oasis-Haunting Phantasm
    • World-Weathering Sandstorm
    • Endless Sands Exceed Mere Grains
    • Arrogant Princess Superiority
    • Soul-Scouring Devil Sandstorm
    • Blighted Dream Desiccation
    • World-Swallowing Wasteland Invocation
    • Heart’s Lust Granted
    • Forbidden Arcana Tutelage
    • Ifrit-Binding Sorcerer’s Smile
    • Abundant Generosity Patronage
    • Caged Soul Renewal
    • Ordination Of The Hourglass
    • Blessed By Silver Chains
    • Bountiful Locust Blessing
    • Bleak Cosmos Demiurge
    • Broken Messiah Benediction
    • Endless Horizons Unfolding
    • Infernal Adjutant Sacrament
    • World Author Eminence
    • Multitudinous Repleation
    • Teeming Swarm Reprimand
    • Lawful World Benefaction
    • Bleak Spirit Internalization
    • Scales Of Feast And Famine
    • Sins Born In Blood
    • Erosion-of-Freedom Patience
    • Faithful Follower Discernment
    • Hundred Demons Curriculum [1]
    • Law Breaker's Abrasive Reprisa [2]
    • Swift-Sand Desert Coffin [3]
    • Unquestionable Scrollkeeper Citation [3]
    • All-Authority Glass Gown [4]
    • Quixotic Benefactor Shintai [429]
    • Desolate Monument Scheme [437]
    • Vice-and-Virtue Equation [440]
    • Between You And I [440]
    • Divination Of Endless Inadequacies [441]
    • Lacerating Desert Assault [452]
    • Altruism Mocking Desiccation [487]
    • Pneuma-Moulding Marvelous Muneration [489]
    • Measure Of Might [637]
    • Untouchable Shining Glory [637]
    • Deference-Imposing Demeanor [638]
    • Call To Worship [638]
    • Resplendent Power Unveiled [638]
    • Beloved Matriarch Edict [639]
    • Instinctive Essence Subordination [639]
    • Ardent Hypocrisy Internalization [703]
    • Blemish-Smoothing Transcendence [772]
    • Infinite Horizon Desolation [773]
    • All the canon ones from the Infernals book [INF p118-130], including Broken Winged Crane [BWC p14-19] and Inkmonkies [INK p54-58] as well as Ink Monkeys Modern page. Note that for charms similar to Stone-Flayer Touch or Sandstrike Blast, the 1w surcharge for attacking materialized creatures while dematerialized only needs to be paid once per scene. Generally, the rule of thumb is that unless specific costs are specified, while you are dematerialized, you treat the materialized with the same charms you would normally use against dematerialized spirits (for example). Per Cecelyne charms, he is natively Immaterial and uses the Materialize charm to become real flesh.
    • All of these from [EGC p81-85]:
    • All of these from [100 p80-81]:
    • All of these from 10K:
    • All of these from HBC:
  • Thaumaturgy: All (only via Blood Cauldron Swamp Soul)
  • Sorcery: All Levels, spells list: He knows all of the basic Counterspells and Dispellations, as well as the Infernal Demon Summoning spells. He almost never uses Sorcery or Thaumaturgy, because he is too lazy, and can’t be bothered. He has Sorcery Initiations from Kimbery, Metagaos, Hegra, and knows all spells which would receive a discount from any of those initiations.
  • Combat: Occult (MA/Melee…), Thrown, War
  • Crafting: Genesis, Vitriol, Water, Wood
  • Backgrounds: Backing 5, Cult 5, Savant 5, Unwoven Coadjutor 5
  • Attributes:
    1. Physical: Str 2(7); Dex 2(7); Sta 7
    2. Social: Cha 7; Man 7; App 2
    3. Mental: Per 7; Int 7; Wits 7 
  • Other Primary Stats:
    1. Willpower: 10
    2. Essence: 7
    3. Virtues: Valor 2, Compassion 7, Conviction 7, Temperance 2
    4. Urge: Metagaos
    5. Coadjutor: Neomah
    6. Backgrounds: Cult 6, Savant 5, Unwoven Coadjutor X (5 prior to soul poison), Backing (Kimbery/Metagaos/Cecelyne) 5, Influence (Malfeas) 5, Contacts (Malfeas) 5, Infamy 5.
  • Calculated Stats:
    • PDV: [Dex+Skill(Occult usually)+Ess]/2 = 11
    • DDV: [Dex+Dodge+Ess]/2 = (7+7+7)/2= 11
    • PMDV: ([CHA OR MAN]+Skill +Specialties)/2=(CHA+PRES); (7+7)/2=7
    • DMDV:(Will+Integ+Specialties)/2= (10+7)/2=9
    • Join Battle: (Wits+Awareness)=14
    • Join Debate: (Wits + Awareness)=14
    • Join War:  Solo (Wits + Awareness)=14
    • (Base) Personal: 31
    • (Base) Peripheral:  79
    • Expansion Pools (max 7*10motes): [Actual: 5*10m=50m]
      • Sun-Heart Furnace Soul
      • Bottomless Belly Mantra [META]
      • Crimson Fed Fecundity [META]
      • Rising Tide Ascension [BwC]
      • Transcendent Desert Within [BwC]
      • Malfeas
      • Metagaos
      • Kimbery
      • Cecelyne
    • Overdrive Pools: (max 25 motes regardless of pool count)
      • Demon Core Meltdown [INKM]
      • Crimson Offerings [META]
      • Empty Stomach Frustration [META]
      • Something’s Out There [META]
      • Song of The Depths [INK]
      • The Tide Turns [INK]
      • Tug the Umbilical Leash [HBC]
      • ~Unerring Grief Discipline [INK]
      • ~Spite Honing Curses [INK]
      • Wayward Serf Remonstration [INK] 
      • Specks Before Infinity [INK]
      • Grind Your Bones
      • Clenched-Fist Krodha Soul
      • Malfeas
      • Metagaos
      • Kimbery
      • Cecelyne
      • Infernal Monster Style [HBC REVLID]:
    • -0: 1 (base)=1
    • -1: 2 (base)=2
    • -2: 2 (base) + 7*3 (HDB*7)=23
    • -4: 1 (base) + 7*1 (HDB*7)=8
    • Incap: 1 (base)=1 
    • Dying (effective -5): 7 (base) + 5*7(DiFTW)=42
    • Sum (Including Incap, excluding Dying): 77
    •  Natural: 
      • (Base) 7B/4L/0A
      • (Scar-Writ Saga Shield purchase 1) 7B/7L/0A; Hardness 7B
      • (Scar-Writ Saga Shield purchase 2) 14B/14L/0A; Hardness 7B
      • (Scar-Writ Saga Shield purchase 3 w/errata) 14B/14L/0A; Hardness 14B/14L; Ess < 4 set Min Damage to 1. 
      • (Scar-Writ Saga Shield purchase 3 w/errata and Basalt Flesh Withering) 14B/14L/14A; Hardness 14B/14L; not subject to Min Damage from any attack. 
      • (Armored With Suffering*2) automatically gain ([Current Wound Penalty]*Ess) to natural Bashing and Lethal soak.
      • (Evolve or Die) B/L/A Natural soak = current damage levels (not wound penalty), prevents Bashing Rollover, adds (for a cost) your wound penalty is reversed and becomes a bonus.
      • (Sensuous Torment[TDO]; 3m/tick Counterattack) +20 B/L Hardness that stacks with 14 B/L Hardness from above
      • (Insatiable Slave Stamina[TDO]; 4m/scene) add Wound Penalty to B/L soak
    • Armor: 
      • (Greedy Gawping Grip) depends on Resources rating of equipment.
    • Ignores wound penalties (By Pain Reforged+2*By Agony Empowered); costs 1LHL, indefinite duration (By Torment Immortalized)
    • Bashing Doesn’t Roll Over to Lethal (Evolve or Die, costs 6m1w)
    • Wound Penalties reverse and become bonuses (Evolve or Die,  costs 11m1w)
    • Example: (-0 Wound Penalty no Armor) 14B/14L/14A,  Hardness 14B/14L 
    • (Exalt Base) Bashing damage heals 1 health level per 3 hours. Lethal damage healing rate varies (-0 = 6 hours; -1 = 2 days; -2 = 4 days; -4 = 1 week; Incapacitated = 1 week). Double these times if not resting. Agg. damage cannot be healed magically; otherwise heals at lethal rates.
    • (Countless Cities Clotting*2) Base healing rate * (10 + Current wound penalty); (3m/B; 5m/L) dramatically heal over a minute.
    • (Towers Rise Again; upgrades/replaces Countless Cities Clotting) Base healing rate * (10 + Higher of STA or RES + Current wound penalty); (3m/B; 5m/L) dramatically heal over a minute. Can heal automatically from amputations and Crippling effects. 
    • (Weakness Is Food) Base healing rate * 7, applies to B/L/A healing, and provides a bonus level of healing to non-passive healing charms (this adds to Towers Rise Again, doesn’t multiply it); Lethal and Agg heal at the same natural rate as Bashing, passively
    • (Weakness Is Food + GWR + GGG): as above, but the base rate is * (7 + Resources)
    • Example: 1 B/L/A heals at least x(10+7+7[Res=0]=24 times faster than normal, making each point of any kind of damage take at most 7.5 minutes (at least 8B/L/A per hour) to heal. Amputations and Crippling Effects automatically heal when the damage associated with that limb is healed. Effects not damage related heal attached to your last wound levels that would heal.
    • (Base Human) Bite[Clinch stunt] Speed 6, Acc +0, Dam +0B, Def. - , Rate 1, Tags C N P.
    • (One Hand Fury; Punch base per Scroll of Errata; left hand just looks like a dark glove until active): Speed 5, Accuracy +2, Damage +10L/2, Defense +1, Rate 3, Tags N, O, P 
    • (Mouth of The All-Hunger Blossom) Speed 6, +(Essence/2) Accuracy / +(Essence) L damage / -0 Defense / 2 Rate, Tags C N P. Can be used without the C, can be used with MA or Athletics. 10s rolled on bite damage rolls to count as 2 successes.
    • (Maw of The Bloom) Speed 6, Acc +Ess, Dam +Ess B, Def. - , Rate 1, Tags C N P; From above: Speed 6, +11 Accuracy / +14 L damage / -0 Defense / 2 Rate, Tags C N P. Can be used without the C, can be used with MA or Athletics. 10s rolled on bite damage rolls to count as 2 successes.
    • (Base Teeth Without Number; 1m-> 10s count 2x) Bite[Punch] Speed 5, Acc +8, Dam +7L, Def. +2 , Rate 3, Tags N. ; From above: Speed 5, +19 Accuracy / +21 L damage / +2 Defense / 4 Rate, Tags N P. 10s rolled on bite damage rolls to count as 2 successes.
    • (Consumption Without Joy; -1 HL, ignore armor) Bite[Punch] Speed 5, Acc +8, Dam +7L, Def. +2 , Rate 3, Tags N O2; ignores Hardness, is magical material; From above: Speed 5, +19 Accuracy / +21 L damage / +2 Defense / 4 Rate, Tags N P O2. 10s rolled on bite damage rolls to count as 2 successes, ignores Hardness, is magical material.
    • (Pestilence Plagued Maw) Add disease, +Essence to the virulence and untreated and treated morbidity of the disease. This is a Shaping effect. 
    • (Mutilation Feast Method; 1m+5m add Crippling or Amputation)
    • (Insatiable Eucharist Appetite; can eat immaterial beings and souls and spirits; -1 HL if eaten a god, bite can only be soaked with armor)
    • (Infinite Ailment Anatomy; can infect with a bite)
    • (Contagion of Weeds; inflict Self-Seed with bite)
    • (Hunger Blooming Bite; 2m/8m Inflict starvation with bite) Also add you Hunger Penalty as bonus to your base bite equipement damage rating. Sorcerous, you retain this effect for 8m, until dispelled.
    • (Voracious Appetite Meditation) Similar to Hunger Blooming Bite, see text.
    • (Virulent Carnal Appetite Unfurling; may inflict cannibalism with bite) 
    • (A Bite That Keeps Gnawing; read charm, huge penalties)
    • (Poison Well; lots of poison/disease, read charm)
    • (Maw of Indolence and Fertility; adds at least hunger level to damage, lots of details read charm) This sums the HL bonus two damage to 2*Hunger Penalty (including the one from Hunger Blooming Bite.
    1. Base DV’s:
    2. Base MDV’s:
    3. Base Join:
    4. Essence Pools:
    5. Health Levels: 
    6. Soak: 
    7. Healing:
    8. Pre-Computed Bite Attacks: (each builds on the prior)
    9. Precomputed Weather Range: Max via Storm-Tossed Sea Prana (Kimbery), 70 mile radius. This is enough to really fuck up most of the major cities on the east coast at once, while also TPK-ing the center of that range.
  • Metagoiyn Urge: To Become Wealthy And Affluent Beyond Reproach.
  • Motivation: To be loved and respected by real friends and family.
  • Intimacies: TODO
  • Skills: (all at 7; anything he is likely to have exposure to is at least 1-3 dots)
    1. Crafting (All; he ate enough people to count for the Fire/Earth/Air ones and legit trained with Water/Wood as a mortal; Alchemy/Vitriol/Genesis/Shaping came from Exaltation; Glamour/Magitech/Necrotech/Fate all came from eating supernaturals, and he cannot use most of them, save Glamour thanks to Hegra)
    2. Linguistics
    3. Occult
    4. Medicine
    5. Performance 
    6. Presence
    7. Lore
    8. Bureaucracy
    9. Athletics
    10. Dodge
    11. Integrity
    12. Resistance
    13. Martial Arts
    14. Melee
    15. Ride
    16. War
    17. Sail 
    18. Investigation
    19. Awareness
    20. Socialize
    21. Larceny
    22. Survival
    23. Stealth
  • Costume/Equipment notes:
    1. Resources Value: 5 (you literally cannot buy this except from 1-2 artisans worldwide)
    2. Muse of Beauteous Horrors, Art Begets Art, Horrid Idols Raised, Pelagic Muse Artistry, Squamous Idols Raised; social attack encoded “Mortals beware, all others know your place beneath my heel.”
    3. The cane can be adjusted to unhinge in the middle to act as Nunchucks. 




-  “Chosen of Kimbery”: The Sherden Caste are the chosen agents of The Great Mother. They reflect the love and hate of their creator, and walk a tidal path between being secretive monsters and loving family. They are widely feared for their capricious favor, driven by fickle motivations known only to them. Their love is as dangerous as their hate, for it is corruptive in addition to deadly. As a whole, they oversee the execution of Kimbery’s whims, however variable and fleeting those might be. Generally, they are less outright warriors, and more occult patrons. They are notorious for their ability to insinuate themselves into organizations and families, before twisting them into something unnatural and dependent on their largesse for its continuance. Skills: Occult, Craft(Genesis), Sail, Presence, Socialize. Caste Powers: So long as your Anima is visible at all, you count as being in an area where the Sea keyword applies. If it is at 10m+ then you count as a piece of art (with an Artifact Rating of your Essence) enhanced by Muse of Beauteous Horrors and Pelagic Muse Artistry (or any other ‘art’ or ‘crafting’ enhancers you might know)  and any upgrades you know, save that merely seeing you is enough to trigger the touch effect (it restarts any interval clocks as though the first exposure just happened); so long as you are visible, all viewers who do anything besides passively admire you take -2 to their pools and rolls. Beloved targets can be optionally excluded, they see only the thalassic light show of your anima, and not the secret alien beauty of either of the two charms art effects. Reviled targets take an additional penalty equal to your Intimacy rating toward them. Anima: You are initially suffused with the sensations of the sea, salt breezes and a blue-green glow. At bonfire level or higher, the glow is the reflected visions of the sea’s depths. Those who are Reviled feel that they are drowning, and see only the darkness of the killing waters of Kimbery’s hatred. Caste Mark: Transparent green-blue disk, that moves as though it reflects the sea; reviled characters sea a dark hole into the fathomless hell depths lit only by unearthly lights. Beloved Characters see a pleasant glowing blue disk whose radiance is calming. The disk floats right in front of the forehead instead of being on your skin.



~~

JFLM was once the ruler of An-Teng, claimed in a violent rush from the seas, after failed negotiations with the Navy. He led a force of his own pirate fleets and quickly converted the cities within a days march of water to his own, before using the converted to march upon and lay siege to the remaining inland holdouts. He held the lands until overthrown by a bloody coup led by Gold Faction Sidereals and their Solar allies. His attempts to avert burnout caused his Exaltation to kill its next host, putting him in its place. His biggest regret was that he ruled not only his country but his family too with fear and assimilation. Eventually, he was surrounded with fawning sycophants and parasitic courtiers. Not even his mates knew him as anything besides their overlord.

 

Errata: 

  1. Blood And Salt Ruling: The Pinnacle of Mercy’s (Blood And Salt p75) nonviolence field property is mechanically implemented as a “One Mind Within” Manse power (Oadenol’s Codex p78): “ONE MIND WITHIN: Presence 6. Symbols of mastery fill the manse; its arches are high and spreading, and its halls intimidatingly wide. Like a manse built with Invisible Theft (Power 5), its architecture resonates with the mind, but its structure is unsubtly overpowering. It controls sentients within its walls, directing the activities of any thinking creature with a Dodge MDV less than 10. This is an Unnatural Mental Influence for Compulsion. Resisting the manse’s attempts to use oneself as a tool costs one point of Willpower, and grants freedom for one action. Beings with an Essence score at least equal to the manse’s rating may shrug off this effect for a scene by spending three Willpower. Attuned characters are immune.”
  2. Per Dreams of the First Age: Lands of Creation (REV) Appendix Old Realm Script, the Old Realm pronunciation of Lintha is Li-Ni-Da, following this arrangement from the book:

Li | Ni

-----

  D  A

  1. XP Costs: this setting is for a single character, not a circle. Thus, Excellencies for Patrons/Caste/Favored do not need repurchased (others are repurchased normally); thus the XP cost to repurchase charms or to purchase charms that are mechanically identical to a repurchase (like a permanent upgrade that doesn’t have a unique activation stat block otherwise) all cost 0 XP; they do still take the normal amount of time to learn and unlock, however, making them about roleplay. Likewise, Infernal Monster Style charms are both favored and cost half price because they are divided up so weirdly specifically that you need to buy a bunch. I think this is because no one could decide if they were meant to be GSP native brawl charms, or the leash for Akuma of any size, or if they were a style for little demons and yozi worshippers. Thus, the power scale is strange and the lore of who developed the actual charms is designed around the very first Akuma Solar using them to kill his former Circle. The trade off for this is that the Lintha character does not gain nor retain any charms from when they were “god blooded”. As well, since the character will primarily be alone and using these very infrequently, outside of boss mode, so their cost is discounted.
  2. Craft(Genesis): This can be used to make permanent changes to someone as a Project. Increasing an Attribute or other stat in this way costs as much as the new Attribute value minus the old Attribute value. This is a mutation by design, but via Genesis it becomes a ‘natural’ and ‘permanent’ part of the target. See the “Secret of the Ooze” section of the Revlid’s Genesis rules. 
    • The first dot in an Attribute or Skill is 1M (mutation point, for genesis project planning purposes)
    • Normal mutations cost their rating in M, variable rating ones cost a specific rating, not the sum of all of them. Progressive mutations like size increases cost the sum of the mutations that make them up.
    • The dots must be bought in order so 1 -> 2 -> 3 … 
    • Each dots costs its rating so Strength 4 costs 4M for just that dot
    • When you calculate the final cost, halve the cost of any skill or background or virtue or willpower rating.
    • Essence dots can be granted at 1M per XP they would normally cost.
    • If you are adding this to an existing creature, you subtract the cost of their existing ratings, as through you were buying them from scratch, so going from Str 2 to Str 5 would cost: 5M + 4M + 3M + 2M + 1M -(2M + 1M)
    • If you are making a brand new creature, try to work something out by analogy with existing examples in the books and Revlid’s examples.
  3. Crowned With Fury: The automatic triggering is something that the user is very much aware of, and requires only a modicum of self control to avoid flashing a crown of flames and mind controlling everyone. Generally, it should only affect direct orders, and not phrases that indicate that you would like something to happen. Conversely, the orders can be couched in politeness and ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, and still work fine. Otherwise it would be a crippling social charm to everyone but those who do  not care about social interactions. For flavor, it would not be strange to accidentally order someone to do something in times of stress.
  4. Illusions: Resisting Illusions requires some proof that there is something amiss to trigger the ability to spend Willpower to resist. Illusions are not strictly static things, aside from the basic use of Chimeric Delirium (which is more like Chim), but their main weakness is that they cannot adapt to their setting changing or other circumstances; thus within the original creation description they can move and react just like they are supposed to, but they cannot do things which are outside of that narrow description. Those who are hallucinating from Hegra’s various poisons are  almost never allowed to mundanely disbelieve Illusions, and double all penalties to their rolls or pools to do so supernaturally (with items, spells, or charms). 
  5. All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight (and similar perfect detection charms): for rules purposes, Illusions and similar essence-based disguises are resolved as attempts at Stealth against the user (for the thing beneath the Illusion), unless they pierce them normally like any mortal could. Otherwise, Illusions would be completely worthless for 90% of all uses. The normal presentation of the Illusion appears under AESS as whatever the Illusion provides so a fake table would appear under AESS as the supposed table would down to the littlest details; while the thing the fake table is hiding would be concealed as Stealth until the user of AESS has cause to disbelieve the Illusion, and AESS instantly sees both the Illusion as the magical effect as well as the thing that was concealed. Unless the AESS user has other charms that simultaneously invalidate all Stealth and Cover and Concealment and Disguises, there is no way for AESS to bypass the disbelief process. Remember that the The Eye of The Unconquered Sun and similar perfect effects invalidate stealth too.
  6. Social Keyword during combat: [IGNORE THIS (read after the end brace for new text): As a Stunt, a short one-liner can be mixed with other combat, permitting it to benefit from Social-keyworded charms that do not explicitly state that they take a long time to do, or which could not possibly occur during battle. Using a Stunt like this prevents you from regaining Willpower or motes or Virtue Channels or similar things from that Stunt. This one-liner must somehow be tied into the current fight, either trying to command someone or otherwise directly relate to the stakes of the combat. Similarly, any normal combat charms that would cause you to issue a command would be sufficient to trigger Crowned With Fury; LWS Instructive Punishment Method can be used to trigger CWF. Similar charms replace the need for distinct stunt usage.] Per a reading of the  forums,  you cannot mix Social in mid-combat. While I originally thought that the  LWS option could not work as intended, and that I would need to use INF instead, it being the only way to do this at this point; I was shortsighted. It turns out that what LWS does is basically perfect, and while Instructive Punishment Method and Brand of Obedience are applied using normal combat ticks, their effects are Social scale UMI, and do trigger all of my Social charms. Keep in mind that there are a bunch of Emotion keyword charms that can be used in normal or social combat. Remember that most non-Social charms can be included in Social actions, if well thought out, but not the reverse. Social is about grinding people down and breaking them, not sudden force. LWS does its best to bypass their resistance by causing physical harm that  pre-drains their will to fight back, more or less.
  7. Fixed Non-Instant Duration Charms: All charms that you use which have a cost that would logically need to be renewed periodically in order to keep an ongoing effect up can automatically be paid by the user so long as there is no effect that prevents both Shaping and teleportation effects. The cost paid is fixed to be the exact same amount as was paid to initially activate the charm in question, and the user is made aware of when they need to do this, depending on how time sensitive the situation is. If paid in this way, there is no interruption in the charm’s effects, and the new duration is added onto the old duration. You may pay this amount in advance, up to (Essence) times beyond the current one.
  8. Blossoming Rose Style (Scroll of Individual Greatness Vol 3 Echoes of Enlightenment 02; p28):  the bonuses from the From charm stack with other sources, as they are typeless equipment bonuses. The official armor and weapons are a little vague, so they can accept any kind of light armor. The weapons it accepts are identical to Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style, add the Fighting Needle and Tapered Staves to the DPCS weapon list, as “Ink Brushes” and “Hairpins”. Since I can’t find Tapered Staves anywhere, I assume it applies to the following two weapons: Pressure Sticks and Fighting Sticks (DEx Armorium 1.2) of any kind, especially the kinds concealed as either walking sticks or umbrellas. The artifact versions of this are the Wrackstick (for the Fighting Sticks), Hornet Wand (for the artifact Pressure Sticks; DEx Armorium 1.2)  and the Space-Warping Needle (for the Fighting Needles; these are used in the hand too, and have no penalty for doing so; it gains the M tag), and either the normal clinching options for DPCS artifacts, or with the Fate String (the artifact version of the garrotte DEx Armorium 1.2). Pressure Sticks are a kind of Cesti mechanically, and use the stats of a Smash Fist for the otherwise unnamed Artifact Cesti, save that they look like artifact decorations or other kinds of non-weapons. Needles / Pens / Pins of any kind, and the Garrotte are valid, since the Garrotte explicitly blocks the meridians running in the neck or through limbs.  The Form charm’s bonuses are Equipment bonuses that stack with other Equipment bonuses. These weapons are explicitly permitted for DPCS form weapons.
  9. Dreaming Pearl Style (Canon [Scroll of the Monk p88] with Errata and Additions largely cherry-picking from the rewrite [Scroll of Individual Greatness Vol 3 Echoes of Enlightenment 02; p25-28]):
    • As this is taught in the House of Wellness and Prosperity, it is compatible with all form weapons for White Veil Style, as well as Blossoming Rose Style. 
    • The range increase from the charms of this style are added to the base range.
    • Add this form weapon errata from the This style treats as unarmed attacks  (Scroll of Individual Greatness Vol 3 Echoes of Enlightenment 02; p25) version: “This style treats as unarmed attacks those made with fan, sash, cape and rope. Without appropriate reinforcement (as a war fan or rope dart), such weapons are rarely useful. Some have artifact equivalents, like the fate ring or forms of magical clothing. Most clothing and similar things are too flimsy to serve as weapons for this style, but those that are specially weighted (usually at negligible increased cost) can serve as improvised weapons that are compatible with the style. They generally have Speed 6, Accuracy -3, Damage +0B to +4B, Defense -2, Rate 2. Many carry the ‘R’ tag. This style is incompatible with armor.”
    • Add this from the revised (Scroll of Individual Greatness Vol 3 Echoes of Enlightenment 02; p28) version: 

“””

New Enchantment Procedure

Careful Master Peacock Attire (2, Intelligence, 3, One week): 

This is a ritual that is often used to reinforce clothing for use with this style. It transforms ordinary clothing of any quality into subtle protective gear that gives its wearer +1L/1B armor soak that stacks with standard forms of armor but not similar sources of soak (such as steelsilk clothing, which is a suitable artifact substitute). Clothing or other objects so enchanted are sturdy enough to be used at least as improvised weapons that are compatible with Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style’s Charms. Increasing their Artifact or Resources cost by one allows them to be used as real weapons, eliminating the Accuracy penalty their equivalent improvised version would suffer. 

“””

  • In keeping with that, while Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form is active, the accuracy and defense value of all form weapons is raised to +0 if it was less.
  • DPCS and Hidden Devil-Weed Body Unfurled and Fang-Missile Method and It’s Raining Phlegm: While the DPCS floating weapons are normally mundane objects, floating through your MA charm, once you activate FMM targeting the form charm it gets them all at once, they reveal themselves to be your body parts. Then, HDWBU can be used to include them, just like any other body part, twisting and whirling like madness. Finally, the IRP effects targets the form charm, so that the floating weapons all get it once. Visualize this as a number of floating fans unfolding to reveal themselves as beautiful miniature Agatae-like wasps covered with shining mandibles. Then, those wasps warp and stretch, unraveling mid-motion to unfurl and strike a distant target with their hooked mouthparts/tendrils. 
  • If you have multiple limbs with reach or flexibility similar to the floating weapons the style uses, they may be used in place of a prop (just like your fins in Gazelle-carp form). If this is done, your hands typically take on symbolic gestures or mudras. These limbs are treated normally if attacked, instead of being taken out of service. The main benefit of this is that your limbs take on the unpredictable floating motion that the props otherwise would. If you have additional limbs or props that are not currently in use for a grapple or floating, they can fill in the slots of limbs/weapons that are. If any of these limbs are already stretchy and/or super-flexible, then their range upgrades are based on those of the floating weapons.
  • Seven Storms Escape Prana: If you have the Form charm active, you may activate as a Counterattack instead of a Simple activation as follows: 

“””

Seven Storms Escape Prana 

Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive

(Step 9)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack, Obvious, Social

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata

Giving ground before opposition, the martial artist gains a new

position from which to respond. Such canny strategy is as much a

defense, and as admirable, as remaining a bulwark and standing

one’s ground. This Charm is activated in response to an attack

either physical or social, the martial artist exhaling a small cloud of

murky, blue smoke and disappearing in a flurry of sleeves, fans,

gestures and polite nods. The character disappears and reappears

up to (Essence x 5) yards away. The martial artist may only reappear

in a place that she can see and could currently reach with any

number of valid Move actions. This Charm fails to activate if the

martial artist attempts to bypass a ward against teleportation.

When the martial artist activates this Charm and sacrifices a valid, readied (in hand or floating nearby with Dreaming Pearl

Courtesan Form) in-style weapon to serve as a distraction, she may

roll her (Manipulation + [Stealth or Socialize]), adding her Essence

as extra successes. Leaving behind a torn sleeve or crumpled fan,

the martial artist is nowhere to be found, having slipped into

hiding as per a valid Stealth or Socialize action to conceal one’s

location and intentions. The martial artist rolls Stealth in physical

combat or Socialize in social combat. She may even hide when there

is no valid cover, her foes dumbly losing track of her, but in this

case she remains concealed only for two ticks.

This Charm does not help to defend against the attack to which

it responds, though if that attack is part of a flurry it may render

her an invalid target for the rest of the flurry. Obviously, this

Charm does not render her an invalid target if she remains visible

and within range of the attacker, but whether using Stealth or

Socialize it can be equally effective at hiding her from a

bone-breaking assault or a withering argument.



“””

 

  • Invoking the Chimera’s Coils:
    • Your fins count as your normal unarmed attacks with the +3 Damage modifier, save that they are obviously floating and detached and can be used for all purposes like form weapons. If you do not already do lethal damage, these do lethal damage and can be used to parry lethal sources unarmed.
    • Replace the last paragraph with this: “This Charm lasts for as long as the Exalt wishes, and she must spend a point of temporary Willpower to end it. Invoking it is risky, however. A martial artist who learns this Charm comes dangerously close to the Blossom of the Perfected Lotus, without necessarily the wisdom to control such esoteric forces. The Exalt thrills to an ecstatic bliss in this form, and many who have done so forgot they were once mortal. For every additional scene her character remains in this form, the player must make a Willpower roll with a cumulative +1 difficulty modifier. If she fails this roll at any time, the character disappears in a blinding flash of pearlescent light, never to be seen again except in fragmentary, half-remembered dreams. Those masters who have grown well beyond--that is Essence 5+ with Mastery of at least one other style or Essence 7+ without any other style mastery-- the minimum Essence of this charm do not suffer this risk, and their cumulative difficulty caps at +(10-Essence) and they never permanently disappear, but just remain stuck in this form.”
  • With Style Mastery, you may repurchase the following charms in order to gain added benefits:
    1. When the character can validly apply her own Martial Arts based Parry DV with an unarmed free hand or with a form weapon of Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style. It grants her a cover bonus to DV equal to the Defense trait of her weapon. This does not count as a dice bonus from Charms and this bonus is based only on the Defense of the weapon in question, not any external bonuses that may increase the weapon’s Defense like Perfected Kata Bracers. Magical material bonuses and the like are not external bonuses. If a weapon’s Defense is 1 or less, this Charm’s distracting kata still provides a cover bonus of +2.
    2. On the tick the martial artist activates Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form and until her next action tick, she may activate Demure Carp Feint as if it were not a Charm. By reflexively paying a two-mote surcharge, the martial artist may do so again after having already activated this Form. The Charm also gains the Social keyword while this Form Charm is active, allowing it to apply its DV bonus as bonus dice to shield the user’s motivations (Exalted, p. 131) and to enhance Socialize rolls to set up an unexpected social attack. These social combat options do count as a dice bonus from Charms.
    1. When it is used to enhance an unarmed Martial Arts attack, this Charm reduces its Speed by one, to a minimum of 3, and raises the weapon’s Accuracy to +0 if it would be lower. If the weapon already has Accuracy +0 or higher, this Charm adds one to its Accuracy. 
    2. If you have the Form charm active: If a weapon’s Accuracy would be less than +0, it rises to +1. If it is already +0 or higher, it is increased by +2. Taking advantage of this benefit increases the Charm’s cost by one mote and is optional. This same surcharge may be applied to give the Charm the Social keyword, allowing it to further emphasize the points made by the martial artist’s flying weapons. This enhances a Presence- or Performance based social attack, making it unnatural influence that costs one Willpower to ignore as the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan’s words cut truer and deeper with her showy emphasis.
    • Demure Carp Feint: 
    • Pearlescent Filigree Defense: Every two motes spent on the Charm also increases the character’s Appearance for the scene, but only to a maximum of (Essence) additional dots. No combination of Charms that includes this one may increase Appearance by more than a total of (Essence) dots, and dice provided this way count as a Charm bonus.
    • Lethal Paper Fan Attack: 
    • Flurry of August Leaves Concentration (may be optionally invoked as a Extra Action charm as follows):

Cost: 2m per weapon, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type:Extra Action 

Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious

Duration: Instant 

Prerequisite Charms: Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form

The martial artist’s delicate movements extend through her awareness of herself into the props she surrounds herself with, be they fans of silk or steel, sashes weighted or not, and even the air they fly through. These are her minions, and they act in concert with her to perfection. This Charm is a flurry of up to (Essence + 1) unarmed Martial Arts attacks, at least one of which must be made with the character’s own hands or a held weapon. The others may be made with her hands, feet or held items, or by the flying weapons that surround a martial artist who has activated Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form. Attacks made with flying weapons can validly target foes up to (Essence x 5) yards away. The attacks made with this Charm ignore multiple action penalties but not Rate, and impose a DV penalty equal to the highest of any one attack in the flurry. 

  • Resplendent Sash Grapple Technique (may be optionally invoked  with a single instant activation)

Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 9)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack, Obvious

Duration: Instant or until the clinch ends

Prerequisite Charms: Flurry of August Leaves Concentration

The whirl of high society surrounds the martial artist, deflecting and subduing distractions that are not worth his time. This Charm is an unarmed Martial Arts counterattack using the character’s full (Dexterity + Martial Arts) pool to respond to an attack against him. The martial artist must have successfully parried the attack. If he has activated Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form and has at least one floating weapon available, he may use this Charm to respond to attacks from as much as (Essence) yards away; otherwise, this is a close combat Charm. It may have one of two effects: 

  1. Successfully striking the aggressor is resolved as an attempt to disarm them in response. This follows all the rules found on Exalted, p. 158, save that the martial artist suffers no external penalty on his attack roll. This is an Instant effect.
  2. Successfully striking the aggressor initiates a grapple that can only be used to hold them. This clinch is maintained as long as the martial artist remains within (Essence) yards of his foe and commits motes to this Charm. Every six ticks after initiating it he reflexively maintains the clinch with ([Dexterity + Martial Arts] ÷ 2) successes, which may be enhanced further with Charms. He may not maintain more of these grapples than he has flying weapons as per Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form, and each grapple reduces by one the number of weapons considered for the effects and bonuses of the Form Charm. A foe that gains control of the clinch can only respond by ending the clinch normally. If the flying prop used for the grapple is attacked and destroyed or knocked out of orbit, the associated clinch ends immediately.
  • Vindictive Concubine’s Pillow Book (upgrades the alternate instant version of Resplendent Sash Grapple Technique):

Cost: — ; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Permanent

Keywords: Emotion, Shaping, Social

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Resplendent Sash Grapple Technique

With a word and perhaps a rude gesture, a secret properly revealed might leave even the most confident exposed and unmanned. Having gotten to know a foe, the martial artist can now embarrass him. This Charm permanently enhances its prerequisite, adding the following response options: 

Successfully striking the aggressor does not inflict damage. Instead, the target makes a reflexive roll of (Wits + [Dodge or Larceny]) against a difficulty equal to the martial artist’s threshold successes on the counterattack. If the target fails, the straps and buckles loosen on their armor and their bulwark flies from them as they try in vain to evade the counterattack, depriving them of the benefit of their armor as it comically slumps across their shoulders and down their knees. This is equally effective against mundane and magical armor, but it can only remove one source of armor soak at a time. A character may resituate their armor and regain its benefits with a number of consecutive miscellaneous actions equal to its mobility penalty (minimum one), which cannot be flurried. If the target benefits from armor soak from Charms, these become Obvious in nature to the martial artist. Instead of stripping the target of the physical armor that hangs from his frame she may f lense his spirit with derisive laughter, forcing one of the target’s armor soak-providing Charms to prematurely end as if the target canceled it. This is a Shaping effect.

In social combat, the Charm can be used to respond to a social attack with a saucy slap to the behind (with or without the aid of a long, weighted sleeve) or even just a knowing look that tells everyone how transparent the target is. This is still resolved like a physical counterattack, but if it successfully hits the target must roll their Temperance at a difficulty of half the 

  • Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata (may be activated at a discount for less overwhelming effects): 

Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata

Cost: 6m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Simple

Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion, Obvious, Social

Duration: One scene

Prerequisite Charms: Flurry of August Leaves Concentration

There is only so much room around the star of the show, and so there is always competition to fill that space. Those left out of the running are heartbroken, neither savvy nor lucky enough to spend time with the martial artist. This Charm is activated with a (Manipulation + Martial Arts) roll, adding extra dice equal to the character’s Performance. Those whose MDV is lower than the  martial artist’s successes are helplessly entranced by his posture, his movements, his mere presence. This unnatural emotion imposes a -1 internal penalty to an affected character’s actions that do not reflect such feelings, such as paying close attention to other tasks or even defending oneself. The penalty increases to -3 when performing actions directly contrary to infatuation with the martial artist, such as attacking the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan or attempting to leave her presence. This lack of self-control lapses for (target’s Temperance) actions if the martial artist attacks a given target, and it may be ignored completely for two Willpower for the rest of the scene. This cost rises to three Willpower if the target already has a positive Intimacy to the martial artist when the Charm is activated. The infatuation of this Charm lasts as long as a character can see the martial artist. When the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan is out of sight, it does not fade but instead transforms into longing melancholy to recapture the vision of one so lovely. It is otherwise dealt with in the same manner, inflicting penalties and resistible with Willpower expenditure as above.

  • Invoking The Chimera’s Coils: 
    1. The armor bonus increases: armor soak of 8L/12B and 4L/4B Hardness
    2. He may substitute his permanent Essence for his Appearance rating as if it were his natural Attribute rating for the duration of the Charm
    3. The character’s gear disappears Elsewhere for the duration, though necessary equipment may be called back to rest daintily atop a fin by paying one mote and taking a miscellaneous action to draw it forth. These appendages offer no hardship in holding, manipulating or caressing the world around the martial artist. 
    4. Though tales may be told of the Chimera body’s physical perfection, its beauty touches something deeper than  simple visual aesthetics and transcends all known boundaries. The first time in a scene anyone with Dodge MDV less than (martial artist’s [Martial Arts + Essence]) sees, hears, feels or smells the martial artist, they are subject to an unnatural emotion that instills in them an Intimacy of heart-aching appreciation for the wonderment that is the Chimera. This Intimacy cannot be suppressed or eroded until after the scene ends, though it may be rejected initially for two Willpower, rendering a character immune to this effect from any source for the rest of the scene.
    5. A character who has adopted the Chimera body treats the Type of Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata as Reflexive (Step 2) rather than Simple. In addition, he reduces the total cost of activating any other Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Charms (including the Form) by one mote, to a minimum of one.
  1. White Veil Style: The version taught by the House of Wellness and Prosperity is designed to be used with DPCS, and so uses its rules for weapons and armor instead. Also, Birdsong Over Blades, once you have mastered the style, permits you to use charms that are dependent on how much damage is dealt, up to a pre-zeroing damage of (Essence).
  2. Black Claw Style: The version taught by the House of Wellness and Prosperity is designed to be used with DPCS, and so uses its rules for weapons and armor instead. Students are trained to tell whether a DPCS weapon is too conspicuous for Black Claw usage, generally anything which could be mistaken for clothing, jewelry, or decorative accessories are fair game.
  3. Crystal Chameleon Style: The version taught by the House of Wellness and Prosperity is designed to be used with DPCS, and so uses its rules for weapons and armor instead. Students are trained to tell whether a DPCS weapon is too conspicuous for CCS usage, generally anything which could be mistaken for clothing, jewelry, or decorative accessories are fair game.  This is definitely a Linth style since they are mentioned specifically during the Primordial War: “This ancient Celestial martial art dates back to the Primordial War, when it was innovated and used by the Chosen of Mercury to help deliver vital messages despite overwhelming Primordial opposition. Demons and Lintha alike were left blinking and confused as practitioners quickly blurred through their blockades, leaving only footprints and corpses to mark their passing.”[Glories of the Most High: Maidens of Destiny p24]
  4. Lintha Martial Arts Styles: All of these Dragon King TMA and CMA Styles were historically stolen and adapted by the Lintha thousands of years ago.  For clarity, the Lintha learned all of these styles from their enemies, and prior to the fall of their Genesis labs in their homelands, could modify their bodies easily to fight in a variety of styles. Therefore all of these styles may be used with the following weapons in addition to their original weapon types (armor restrictions are unchanged): unarmed, natural weapons, Auhzian, Sawfish Swords, all Martial Arts Weapons, all chain and rope weapons, all blunt impact weapons, and all traditional Dragon King weapons (including all of those associated with the original styles); all together these are called Traditional Lintha Martial Arts Weapons:  
    • Flame and Stone Style [Debris of the Fallen Races, p4]: no additional changes needed here.
    • Black Tide Style [Debris of the Fallen Races, p7]:no additional changes needed here.
    • Dagger Wind Style  [Debris of the Fallen Races, p9]:  This version of the style only requires that you are capable of attacking in the air, not that you have your own wings; attempts to do these actions while jumping without powered flight are possible, but give you a -2 external penalty to all Martial Arts rolls to do so. It is compatible with flying mounts as taught by the Lintha, doing so requires at least two dots in Ride and one in Sail. All Lintha prefer to use the Auhzian here, as it is a hooked counterweight that can fill for wing buffets, usually paired with flying Agatae, Eristrufa, or Radeken mounts, making it popular for scouts. 
    • Shadow Hunter Style [Debris of the Fallen Races, p11]: no additional changes needed here.
    • First Pulse Style [TMA; SotM 45]
    • Crimson Pentacle Blade Style [TMA; SotM 63]
    • Even Blade Style (all vars)  [TMA; SotM 69]
    • Eye of Heaven Style [Debris of the Fallen Races, p11]: this style has been corrupted so that the Heaven and Yu Shan that offerings would normally go to have been redirected to the Yozi.
    • Crystal Chameleon Style [Glories of the Most High: Maidens of Destiny p24-27]
    • Fivefold Shadow Hand Style [TMA; SotM 75]
    • White Veil Style [TMA; SotM 61]
    • Dreaming Pearl Courtesean STyle [CMA; SotM  p88] using errata version here
    • Auhzian effectively combines piercing/slashing swords with a bill-hook polearm while the handle is always reinforced for use as a blunt weapon like a club or blunt polearm so those weapons always count as any of those for the purposes of charms and styles. The bill-hook itself may be sharpened (if not used to board boats from underwater) making it usable as an axe or pole-axe, depending on your grip. Just like real life bill-hooks they can be used as a (short) spear by changing the grip. If they are used for boarding, they can be thrown like a javelin or harpoon or similar, and those are always tied to the user with a rope, usually to the offhand. They are a versatile weapon, if not especially  powerful. Trained opponents can usually guess which usage mode an auhzian is designed for based on whether the user wears reinforced gloves and which parts of the weapon are sharpened. For example fully sharpened and no gloves indicate use without changing grips as a more normal sword might be, while gloves and only the main cutting edges and thrusting tips being one that is likely to use them in multiple unpredictable patterns at the expense of efficiency at pure sword attacks. While it is not specifically listed, all auhzians are usually longer than similar swords of the same type, kind of like how a no-dachi would be compared to a katana, even though they are otherwise the same kind of weapon; this includes the longer handle which is obviously designed for either one or two hands, being at least long enough to hold the blade like a spear or pole-axe, even if that isn’t used by the style, like Even Blade. 
    • TMAs
    • CMAs
    • Lintha Rook Styles only taught to Rooks and not the Sword Brothers or other similar groups:
  5. Laughing Wounds Style: 
    • Any “Chain or Rope Weapon or their Artifact Equivalents”.  Per DEx Armorium v1.2 p18; Cat o’Nine Tails, Combat Yo-Yo, Fighting Chain, Meteor Hammer, Nunchakus, Seven Section Staff, and Whip.
    • Any thrown chain or rope weapon. Per DEx Armorium v1.2 p20; Bolas, Lasso, and Net.
    • All versions of the Flail. Per per DEx Armorium v1.2 p11-12; Flail, Great Flail, Hand Flail, and Pole Flail.
    • All Mancatchers. Per DEx Armorium v1.2 p12-13; Clothsentangler, and Mancatcher.
    • All Clinching weapons. Per DEx Armorium v1.2 p22; Clinch, Razor-Harness, and Strangling Cord/Reinforced Scarf.
    • For this style, attacks with the flail-like weapons are typically aimed for maximum pain rather than death, all the easier to have options when speeding up reluctant submissions. So long as that weapon could be used to entangle or punish without killing them before they can feel the pain of the style’s methods, so non-masters do not have the appropriate patience and insights to use all weapons of this style. Most are only accessed by style masters, in order to apply the style even against armored opponents as well as provide tactical flexibility. This includes: Nunchakus, Fighting Chains with the One-handed Weapon option (the attached weapon need not otherwise be a style-weapon, any valid combination works), Seven Section Staffs, Flails, Meteor Hammers, and Razor Harness. 
    • For All Lintha Family or those who learned this from any school associated with them, Traditional Lintha Martial Arts Weapons are included. All of those that are not normally part of this style follow the same mastery rules as flails.
    • This works fine with effects of your own which allow you to ignore wound penalties, you still have the wound penalties, but your charms replace the final penalties with -0 or similar no-ops.
    • Errata: weapons are: 
    • Armor is unarmored, but garments treated with Acid-Hardening Bath are fair game, as are similar non-Armor protective garments, so long as they could allow you to flaunt your appearance or feel a blow should you move correctly. 
    • Finally, the spell mentioned in the style description is  “Blood Lash” from the Black and White Treatise p38. This spell creates a ‘Whip’ with the listed stat block; to reflect this add ‘D’ and ‘RR’ to the canon Tags below, and it may be used in a Clinch, and being entirely supernatural, can be used at any distance within its range without penalty. The variable damage for this is recalculated based on your current damage each time you use the weapon during combat, and not just when you first call it into being. Learning the form charm of this style permits this spell to be cast either Sorcerously or Necromantically (for which purposes it is an Iron Circle spell), depending on the learner’s desires, it may be recast to produce additional weapons, if you can pay the cost and the committed damage levels. Copied here from the Black and White Treatise p38: 

BLOOD LASH 

Cost: 10m, 1lhl

Target: Caster

Most sorcerers consider the Blood Lash a weapon of last resort, for the spell can be cast only if the sorcerer bears a bleeding wound—at least one unbound, unhealed level of lethal damage. The character may wound himself if he must (this self-inflicted damage does not trigger reflexive Charms of defense). Blood from the sorcerer’s wounds surges outward, forming a lash of blood. This effect inflicts another health level of lethal damage, which cannot be healed until the caster ends the spell or the spell’s scene-long duration expires. This whip of blood can make Melee or Martial Arts attacks. Its reach is a number of yards equal to the sorcerer’s Willpower. It inflicts dice of lethal damage equal to (caster’s Strength + Essence) + the number of lethal health levels the caster currently suffers. Its full traits are as follows: 

BLOOD LASH 

Speed

Accuracy

Damage

Defense

Rate

Tags

5

+1

(Varies)L

+1

2

M,N,R
  • The Sorcerous Enlightenment of Kimbery gives a discount on “Blood Lash” reducing it’s cost 5m+1lhl; my usual Damage is 14L + (damage)L
  • This “Blood Lash” is actually made from your blood, and so it has any properties that it would normally cause. Since it is a whip, you may merge it with your body using Greedy Gawping Grip as normal. If you wield it with something that already enhances your reach, it measures from your outermost extension for its range.
  • Also, charms that allow you to ignore wound penalties or sets them to 0 for some duration work fine with this style, just keep track of the normal rating and use that for LWS purposes, regardless of your other powers. This is vitally important, and it’s less that you are not in pain (just look at Malfeas himself for example), and more that you are not inhibited by pain; original LWS form turns this into a bonus!
  • The following revised/debuffed versions of the style charms are to be used, they are from TDO (whoever that was has been lost to bitrot when the White Wolf forums went down) but I found them here:

 

Kiss of the Whip

Cost: 2m; Mins: Essence 2, Martial Arts 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling, Stackable

Duration: Instant

Prerequisites: None

With a predatory smile, the martial artist lashes her foe with vicious exactitude, making him cry out in shocked agony. If an unarmed attack enhanced by this Charm hits its target, it deals no damage. Instead, that character suffers a Crippling effect, increasing the wound penalty he suffers by -1 for the rest of the scene. Multiple uses of this Charm stack their penalties to a maximum of (Martial Arts).

[Errata: This does nothing if the target takes zero post-soak damage. Each -1 level of this Crippling effect cannot be healed until the end of scene, after which point the Crippling effect is healed as though it were a level of the same kind of damage as the source attack would have dealt, Bashing for a Bashing attack, Lethal for Lethal, Agg for Agg. This may not be used on yourself.]

 

Sensuous Torment

Cost: 3m; Mins: Essence 2, Martial Arts 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 9)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack

Duration: One Tick

Prerequisites: None

The martial artist thrills to the torment that her pitiful enemies fear. This Charm can be activated in response to any attack that hits the martial artist, even if it does not successfully deal damage. She is overwhelmed by a wash of ecstatic essence, numbing her body to all pain. The martial artist gains bashing and lethal Hardness 20 against all attacks for the rest of the tick.

[Errata: This stacks with ‘natural’ Hardness from Scar-Written Saga Shield, but not from armor or other charm-based sources of Hardness. It is not Hardness from armor, but instead temporary natural Hardness.]

 

Laughing Wounds Form

Cost: 6m; Mins: Essence 2, Martial Arts 4; Type: Simple

Keywords: Form-Type

Duration: One scene

Prerequisites: Kiss of the Whip, Sensuous Torment

Even as blood runs down her skin, the martial artist laughs savagely, whirling undaunted through battle like a scarlet-streaked demon. While this Charm is active, any wound penalties the martial artist suffers are not applied to combat-related actions, unless she attacks or defends with a non-form weapon. Whenever she makes an unarmed attack, she adds the magnitude of any wound penalties suffered by the attack's target to her raw damage. Finally, she may pay a level of lethal damage in place of a point of Willpower to channel Conviction or Valor. If she suffers a wound penalty of -4 or greater, she need not expend a channel of the chosen Virtue when doing so.

 

Instructive Punishment Method

Cost: 4m; Mins: Essence 2, Martial Arts 5; Type: Reflexive (Step 1 for attacker, Step 2 for defender)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion

Duration: Instant

Prerequisites: Laughing Wounds Form

The proper application of pain swiftly teaches weaklings how to serve. The martial artist may activate this Charm whenever an enemy attempts to attack her, defend against an unarmed attack made by her, or attempts to defend against mental influence exerted by her. With a crack of her whip or a menacing glance, she terrifies the fool who dares defy her, causing them to suffer a -3 internal penalty on the action. This is considered to be a wound penalty. If, within the same scene, the martial artist has dealt damage to the penalized character or imposed a Crippling effect on them with her unarmed attacks, this penalty is external. A character may pay a point of Willpower to resist all instances of this unnatural mental influence for the rest of their action.

 

Brand of Obedience

Cost: 3m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 3, Martial Arts 5; Type: Reflexive (Step 7)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling, Obvious

Duration: Indefinite

Prerequisites: Instructive Punishment Method

The martial artist truly owns her pathetic disciples, and can mark them as hers if she deems them worthy. If an unarmed attack enhanced by this Charm deals damage or inflicts a Crippling effect on the martial artist's foe, she leaves behind a disfiguring scar or an ugly welt. So long as she commits the motes spent on this Crippling effect, the wound is enchanted as a symbol of authority, and glimmers with the Old Realm rune for "Mine" if observed with essence sight. If a marked character attempts to attack the martial artist, defend against one of her unarmed attacks, or defend against mental influence exerted by her, she may choose to punish them for their disobedience by paying a single mote. The mark glows red and burns their skin, dealing (Essence) dice of lethal damage to them as a secondary Crippling effect. This damage ignores soak and Hardness from armor. Once the martial artist breaks her commitment to this Charm, the magic fades from the scar, though it remains until it is healed naturally.

 

Insatiable Slave Stamina

Cost: 4m; Mins: Essence 2, Martial Arts 5; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK

Duration: One scene

Prerequisites: Laughing Wounds Form

Grinning as black bruises darken her skin, the martial artist demonstrates an even greater appetite for pain than she expects from her slaves. So long as this Charm remains active, the martial artist does not fall unconscious if reduced to Incapacitated by bashing damage. Instead, she remains fully aware and active, with further levels of bashing damage being converted to lethal normally. Furthermore, she may soak lethal damage with her full Stamina, and adds an amount equal to the magnitude of any wound penalties she suffers to her bashing and lethal soak.

[Errata: While this is active, add “an amount equal to the magnitude of any wound penalties she suffers” to the Hardness granted by Sensuous Torment.]

 

Ecstatic Tenacity

Cost: 8m; Mins: Essence 2, Martial Arts 5; Type: Reflexive (Step 7)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling, Obvious

Duration: Instant

Prerequisites: Insatiable Slave Stamina

The most terrible wounds mean less than nothing to one who has refined her tastes for agony. This Charm can be activated in response to any attack, reducing its raw and final damage to zero. However, this Charm does not prevent the martial artist from suffering, instead converting the damage to a Crippling effect that increases the wound penalties she suffers by -1 for the rest of the scene. Multiple uses of this Charm stack their penalties. This drawback is considered to be a unique Flaw of Invulnerability.

 

Rapture in Chains

Cost: 3m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 2, Martial Arts 5; Type: Supplemental

Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion

Duration: Until released

Prerequisites: Laughing Wounds Style

Victims restrained by the martial artist find themselves unwilling to break free. If an unarmed clinch attack enhanced by this Charm succeeds, the martial artist's whip or chains seem to come alive as they twine around her foe, slipping into impossible knots of painful tightness. Whenever the grappled enemy rolls to establish control of the clinch, any wound penalties that apply to his roll are converted to external penalties. In addition, each time the martial artist would successfully deal damage to a clinched opponent by crushing him, she may instead cause him to lose a point of Willpower as an Emotion effect. If a character is reduced to zero Willpower while clinched, he gains an Intimacy of submissive lust towards the martial artist.

 

Groveling Penitence Prana

Cost: 7m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 3, Martial Arts 5; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK, Compulsion

Duration: Instant

Prerequisites: Rapture in Chains

Daring to oppose the mistress's will is like begging for humiliation. The martial artist may activate this Charm whenever she holds a clinched enemy, rolling (Charisma or Manipulation + Martial Arts) as a reflexive social attack against his Dodge MDV. If the martial artist's roll succeeds, her foe falls to his knees in submission. He is incapable of acting for the rest of the scene as if he were clinched, even if the martial artist releases him from her clutches. This unnatural mental influence can be resisted for a cost of three Willpower.

[Errata: they count as being grappled for all purposes, save that you need not be physically in contact with them to perform clinch-related actions (your force of personality being enough to crush them at this point it presses on them just like you normally would), and they cannot move unless you permit it.] 

 

Ravishing the Unworthy Heart

Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 4, Martial Arts 5; Type: Supplemental

Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Servitude

Duration: Instant

Prerequisites: Brand of Obedience, Ecstatic Tenacity, Groveling Penitence Prana

Shaping her lips into a kiss, the martial artist reaches forward to stroke her foe's chest. Then, with a grinning snarl, she plunges her hand through his ribs to rip out his heart. An unarmed attack supplemented by this Charm deals aggravated damage, leaving behind smoldering welts or bloody scars. In addition, if the martial artist's target suffers a wound penalty that exceeds their (Valor), then the attack is unblockable and undodgeable. If the penalty exceeds their (Valor + 3), it is also unexpected. Characters that have no temporary Willpower always suffer from an attack that is unblockable, undodgeable, and unexpected. If an attack enhanced by this Charm would slay the martial artist's enemy, she is faced with a choice. If she wishes, she may execute him, pulling out his heart with her bare hands or the tip of her whip in a gruesome fatality. A more merciful mistress, however, may choose to cancel all damage past her foe's Incapacitated health level in order to impose a Servitude effect on her victim. The victim's Motivation is replaced with a new Motivation of obeying the martial artist. Characters enslaved by this Charm may pay two Willpower to resist it for one scene, and are freed once they have spent a total of ten Willpower resisting this unnatural mental influence. This Charm can always be activated just as the Canon version if that is preferred, it must be decided once per target per sceen. 



  1. Mantis Style [Scroll of Individual Greatness Vol 3: Echoes of Enlightenment 02, p61]: 
    • THIS SECTION IS MERGED WITH OUR ERRATA 





Aspect: This Style is elementally neutral.

Weapons and Armor: The mantis is lightly armored but has a sure grasp of anything it gets in its claws. Practitioners of the Mantis Style may wear light armor and may wield any Martial Arts weapon with its Charms, treating attacks with them as unarmed. Because it is so basic and fundamental, it is easily adapted to new martial arts weapons, such that any martial art you are trained in may be combined with this style as though they were Martial Arts weapons. As taught by the Lintha Family Traditional Martial Arts schools, this includes those weapons as well. Bites can count as Crush actions, if you choose to do so.

 

Leaping Mantis Technique (2)

Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1; Type: Supplemental

Keywords: Combo-OK

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: None

Swift and sure, the mantis appears before its foe ready to take

matters in hand (or claw). This Charm may enhance a Join Battle

action, adding additional dice equal to the practitioner’s Martial

Arts rating to the roll. The martial artist may also perform a

reflexive Jump action along with her Join Battle roll (see Exalted, p.

127 and 144 for rules on jumping), as long as it is towards a foe or

moves her closer to where she believes a foe to be.

The martial artist may also use this Charm after having already

entered combat, in which case this Charm enhances a standard

Jump action, eliminating the DV penalty for that action and

adding the character’s Martial Arts to the (Strength + Athletics)

pool used to calculate her leap’s distance. A Jump enhanced this

way may also benefit from Martial Arts Excellencies used to

enhance the character’s (Strength + Athletics + Martial Arts) pool

to increase the distance covered. Remember your Jump’s distance

starts outside of your actual Reach.



Iron-Arm Block (2)

Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)

Keywords: Combo-Basic

Duration: One action

Prerequisite Charms: Leaping Mantis Technique

Like unassailable chitin walls, the mantis’ forearms are not

merely weapons but also shields. This Charm enhances the martial

artist’s attempts to make unarmed Martial Arts-based parries. In

addition to allowing him to parry lethal and ranged attacks

barehanded without a stunt, he gains a +2 cover bonus to his DV.

As a cover bonus, this does not count as a dice bonus from

Charms.



Mantis Form (2)

Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Simple (Speed 3)

Keywords: Form-type

Duration: One scene

Prerequisite Charms: Iron-Arm Block

Adopting a straight but somehow askew posture, the martial

artist gains both nobility and a rock-hard but delicate grip. Her

dignity sets her apart, aloof from the carnage that may surround

her as she wades into battle and does what must be done. For the

scene the character’s unarmed Martial Arts attacks may inflict

lethal damage if they would instead deal bashing, and she ignores

onslaught penalties to her Martial Arts-based Parry DV as long as

she is defending herself with a Martial Arts weapon or her bare

hands.

A martial artist who adopts the Mantis Form and is Essence 3+

may improve the benefits of her Iron-Arm Block. Invoked normally,

it provides a shield bonus to her DV equal to her permanent

Essence. Alternatively, it may be invoked as if it were not a Charm

activation at the normal +2 bonus. This latter use of Iron-Arm

Block adds the Obvious keyword to the Charm.



Grasping Claw Method (2)

Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2; Type: Simple (Speed 4,

DV -0)

Keywords: Combo-OK

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Mantis Form

The mantis first removes the threat to itself, dispassionately

and purposefully, before moving on to the more pressing matter of

what to do with its prey. This Charm is an unarmed Martial Arts

attack that is resolved as a normal attack that inflicts damage as

well as an attempt to disarm the target (Exalted, p. 158). The attack

suffers no external penalty for the disarm attempt.

Rather than simply sending the weapon flying, if the attack hits

and would have ended with at least one die of post-soak damage as a

normal attack, the martial artist may choose to deal a single die of

bashing damage while disarming the target. The martial artist then

takes hold of the weapon. If the character wishes to then wield the

weapon, this Charm counts as a reflexive Ready Weapon action.

 

Grasping Mantis Defense (2)

Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 9)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Grasping Claw Method

Like a mantis finally reaching out to take hold of its prey, the

martial artist strikes quickly and ensures that her foe cannot harm

her. This Charm may only be invoked when the martial artist is

using her Martial Arts-based Parry DV in close combat to defend

herself against an attack. As long as she successfully blocks the

attack she may then attempt a counterattack to clinch and hold the

attacker. If the martial artist successfully initiates the clinch, the

attacker becomes inactive and on the martial artist’s next action

tick the two begin fighting for control of the clinch normally. The

mantis stylist cannot perform a crush or break hold before her next

action tick; she simply maintains the new clinch until then.



Joint-Locking Technique (2)

Cost: 3m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK

Duration: Until the clinch ends

Prerequisite Charms: Mantis Form

The mantis drags its victims close with inexorable strength,

ensuring that there is no escape once it has chosen them. This

Charm may only be activated to enhance an unarmed Martial Arts

action to maintain control of a previously established clinch. Use of

Joint-Locking Technique adds (character’s Essence) extra successes

to the roll to control the clinch and continues to do so until the

martial artist’s foe gains control or the martial artist ends the

clinch.

 

Crushing Claw Technique (2)

Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK

Duration: Until the clinch ends

Prerequisite Charms: Joint-Locking Technique

This Charm enhances an unarmed Martial Arts clinch attempt

to crush a foe, adding (character’s Martial Arts) to the raw damage

of the crush and allowing it to inflict lethal damage rather than

bashing. This bonus persists as long as the martial artist maintains

control of the clinch and attempts to crush the victim every action.

 

Joint-Disabling Attack (2)

Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Crippling

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Crushing Claw Technique

There is only one end to the feeble struggle of the mantis’ prey,

but to ease and speed along this conclusion the mantis crushes,

twists and disables them to make its job easier. This Charm

enhances an attempt to crush a foe with an unarmed Martial Arts

clinch. If the crush would have ended with at least one die of

post-soak damage, rather than inflicting damage it inflicts the

equivalent of one amputation crippling effect of the martial artist’s

choice (see Exalted, p. 152). The martial artist may only disable

hands, arms and legs this way, and they are not actually amputated.

This Crippling effect lasts for the rest of the scene and should likely

result in situational internal penalties to continue resisting grapples

or other actions in which an arm or leg is often useful if not

absolutely necessary. This is how it works if your grapple would deal 

bashing damage, but if it would deal lethal, the crippling effect 

manifests with shattered bones and ruined joints (which heal like any 

normal supernatural Crippling injury). In such a case, 1 post-soak 

lethal damage would be enough to effect something small like a finger 

or thumb, 2 for an ankle or wrist, 3 for a forearm or shin, 4 for thigh or 

bicep, 5 for shoulders or hips, and +5 with a called shot penalty for any 

of the myriad of joints in the torso. 



Flying Mantis Kick (2)

Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)

Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious

Duration: Instant

Prerequisite Charms: Mantis Form

As one action the mantis leaps and strikes. This Charm

enhances an unarmed Martial Arts attack, allowing it to be

accompanied by a reflexive leap towards the target, putting the

target within range of the attack if they were not already in reach.

This jump is calculated using Martial Arts instead of Athletics (see

Exalted, p. 127). If it hits, extra successes count double for

determining the raw damage of the attack. This Charm is fine when

the intended target is already within range, allowing you to 

Reposition yourself relative to them, potentially moving behind 

them or into a blind spot (normal perception checks apply).

The combined action of jumping and attacking counts as a

single normal Jump action for the purposes of Leaping Mantis

Technique, allowing that Charm to enhance the soaring assault

This eliminates the DV penal y of the attack and adds (Martial

Arts) to the pool used to calculate the leap’s maximum distance.



Unfolding Retribution Stance (2)

Cost: — ; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Permanent

Keywords: None

Duration: Permanent

Prerequisite Charms: Grasping Mantis Defense, Joint-Disabling

Attack, Flying Mantis Kick

Amongst the most dangerous of foes, the master of Mantis

Style sits patiently, awaiting the mistake that will put his enemy at

his mercy. With aplomb he gently takes his foe in hand and then

squeezes the life from them, or, if he is generous, merely teaches

them a lasting lesson and lets them go. Ah, the vagaries of the

inscrutable mantis! Mantis Form is modified permanently, while 

that Charm is active 

Unfolding Retribution Stance allows the martial artist to activate

Grasping Mantis Defense as if it were not a Charm, requiring no

Combos to do so. He may do so only once per tick. Instead of

taking advantage of Grasping Mantis Defense on his action tick,

the martial artist may activate Flying Mantis Kick once as if it were

not a Charm. It also changes the following charms:

  • Joint Locking Technique gives an equipment bonus, not a charm one.
  • Grasping Claw Method gains the Reflexive keyword, and may enhance any attack you make. It may be activated as though it were not a charm when your Mantis Form is up. If you do, resolve the attack normally, but add the disarm effect too.
  • Joint-Disabling Attack may now enhance any kind of attack. As well, it does not replace all the dealt damage, but instead reduces the extra damage by the amount required. Masters of the style have the Crippling effects under their control better, and may choose whether the effect is Bashing or Lethal in nature, and if it ends at the end of the scene, or if it persists like a normal Crippling injury.
  • Flying Mantis Kick: This now always deals damage, but if you have the Form charm active, or if they are within the normal range requirements, add +1 to the Minimum Damage for the attack, for every 10 meters of distance between your starting position and the target up to a maximum of +(Essence) Minimum Damage. 







  1. Infernal Monster Style: The ‘One Hand Fury’ and similar charms work fine with any kind of Infernal charms which make you shape shift in any way, allowing them to be used in Shintai forms, where the Hand merges into your new form in some way the allows you to still use it in whatever way is reasonable. Other self-targeted shape shifting powers could work as well, but it’s specifically designed for users which are either Green Sun Princes or Akuma. The One Hand and similar things work additively with your new form, generally giving you the best combination with the new shape, and either adding (in the case of damage and accuracy and defense) or taking the best available value (e.g. Speed, Rate). Parade of a Thousand Demons has a final line implying that you are always in some kind of controlled Overindulgence, ignore that line, instead it should read: “Your Rage is permanently altered such that the effects of Casting Off The Eight Restraints is your default way to channel Rage, and you only revert of fury and killing when there are no more indulgences to be had, as normal. However, if you ever want to go straight to anger and fury, you need to spend 1w in reverse of the original charm direction.” The original wording was poorly thought out, and would result in almost no benefit (or at least benefits that would certainly not be worth it) for essentially character-derailing levels of pseudo-limit behavior that really did not interact well with other style charms.
  2. One-And-Only Insistence [REV, Isisdoros]: This charms’ penalty from “the Infernal suffers the same penalty when attempting to hide or disguise his identity”. This applies to all mundane attempts by the infernal to make a physical disguise or mundanely hide his identity. It does not apply to anything else, regardless of how broadly it was worded.  As well, for the purposes of mundane disguises, adopting a cape costume and ‘title’ that derive from your real titles does not count, nor does not giving a name or not introducing yourself, but portraying an entirely different background and demographic would not; again mundanely. This applies to the upgraded version at Essence 3+, such that mundane attempts are prevented. For our purposes, being enhanced by more than just Excellency charms is sufficient to qualify as no longer mundane; Excellency charms can conditionally qualify as no longer mundane, but only if there is the maximum possible exertion on your part, just like you were using the Theion First Excellency. While you are larger than life, it would undermine that concept entirely if you could not do it yourself, at least with effort. Finally, this may all be ignored for 1w per scene, like all permanent Yozi self-penalty charms.
  3. Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion: [Ruling] The is always on, but any supernatural effects by the warlock to disguise themselves or cover themselves with an illusion or conceal themselves preempts this charms effects, forcing the natural beasts to break through their defense against that disguise, illusion, or see through your concealment before they realize your might and cowtow. Ruling, Skitter’s swarm is not “mundane” when she is actively using it, and Bitch’s Dogs are mundane, but are usually “ridden” when they are around. Those who are Beloved, your own offspring, addicted to you, or bearers of your self-seed all can be excluded as though they were bearers of your “Terrified Awe” intimacy.
  4. Weight-Exaggerating Ego Density [REV, Isidoros]: At Essence 3+, the increased weight goes from times (Ess) to times (Ess*10) and the reduced Knockback range increases from (Ess*10) to (Ess*Ess*10); the charm now costs 4m to activate. At Essence 5+, the automatic successes to Blockades and Control Clinches goes to (Ess*2), and the effective strength increase for feats of strength is (Ess*10), while the damage to surfaces increases to (Ess*10); this charm now costs 8m to activate. Note that the tracking difficulty improvement only applies to surfaces which are both fragile and persistent, like a tile mosaic, but not to anything that would naturally revert like dirt, rocks, or mud, or is sturdy like thick stone bricks, metal surfaces, or stone. As a rule of thumb, if cattle would destroy it by walking on it, then it may be ‘fragile’ enough for this effect to be trackable. If you have other charms that would make you harder to track in a supernatural way, then this tracking bonus does not apply; it is strictly a mundane side-effect of being so dense.
  5. All Shintai charms having “scene” duration are actually “Indefinite”. Instead of committing the cost or paying it per scene, at the end of the first scene that they assumed the Shintai form, they may choose to remain in it or not. Afterwards, they will need to pay the normal cost to return to normal at some later point.  This is to keep consistency with the other canon Shintai charms, which represent the transition to a small Joutun-form Titan. 
  6. All-Devouring Depths Shintai: Use a combination version of the Revlid’s rewrite and the canon/errata’d version, add these from the canon one on top of Revlid’s rewrite:
    • Gains all the benefits of Fathomless Poison Haven.
    • Eyes of variety blink and glare across her body, allowing her to use All Things Betray as an innate power for free.
    • Contact with her body is an environmental hazard with the same statistics as her acid blood. Victims struck by her suffer one-time exposure, while those clinched steadily dissolve.
    • On each action tick, she can give herself one permanent mutation as a Desecration effect. All of these mutations dissolve when the Charm ends.
    • ~Ignore all caps on the number of mutations you can inflict on yourself in this Shintai. Using this to increase in size also increases your reach.
    • She flows through or over other liquids at her swimming speed. She flows over solid surfaces at her ground move speed without regard for gravity (such as by oozing up walls). 
    • Halve the Minimum Damage of any attack against you which is not fire, lightning, or Essence blasts.
    • ~Non-Excellency Infernal charms which add dice to your pools for any kind of grappling give stacking equipment bonuses instead of normal charm bonuses. 
    • ~Subtract your Essence from any target’s Essence rating when calculating minimum Internal Penalty pools for Essence users and Exalts (Core p121), leaving them a minimum of 1 die in their minimum Internal pool. This only applies to grapple-related checks.
  7. Demon Sea Shintai: At your option, you may activate Lurking Indigo Haar to cover the surface of your waters with the effects of Lurking Indigo Haar, up to a height above your surface equal to your depths beneath it. If you do, you may choose whether any particular targets are spared its effects, or if it is possible to float or swim through the Haar fog. Those who are subject to its effects and not permitted to float or swim through it are likely to drown while trying to breathe at the ‘surface’ that they cannot swim above.  Additionally, activating any of Kimbery’s weather charms while this Shintai is active adds the option to extend the Haar as a secondary effect of the weather charm, spreading it beneath your storm clouds (for example); the depth of the Haar in the case of these weather charms is the same limit as the depths it would have with Demon Sea Shintai active. All costs must be paid as normal, but the Shintai increases the range. As a bonus effect, your Shintai may communicate at the range of the weather charms, if it would be greater than the default range for this Shintai. Whenever Lurking Indigo Haar is activated in coordination with this Shintai, the Health Level cost must be committed for the duration, despite being Sorcerous. It is through this bleeding wound that the Haar is sustained. So long as you have one or more of Kimbery’s weather charms active, you and your designated allies benefit from Mother Sea Mastery, Fathomless Poison Haven, and Acrid Slip-Stream Assist, and the area within your weather effects count as the Sea. If your weather would include the Haar effect, then you and your fleet may travel over land and air as though they were the sea, as the Haar effectively lets everyone swim or sail or whatever even if there’s nothing for the Haar to logicaally sit on besides clouds or similar weird things.
  8. World-Gnawing Worm Shintai: add the following effects to it.
    • The capacity for the Infernal to feed is amplified to match his appetite, which is without measure. 
    • The cost to activate Feast Upon (Shinma) is 1m per power, and doing so does not count as a Charm activation. 
    • The Infernal also gains an eighth activation for the duration of the Charm, Feast Upon Advaita Iraivan. Attacks supplemented thusly are made at Speed 3. 
    • Finally, the Infernal may supplement any melee range attack with Feast Upon (Shinma.) 
    • When the Infernal would use lethal health levels as alternate payment for motes or willpower, he may use whatever sort of damage he should choose, and may combine sources to determine the cost paid. 
    • So, the Infernal may pay two aggravated health levels to activate Evolve Or Die, or a single bashing health level for three activations of Feast Upon (Shinma.) 
    • The Infernal's Bite has the Clinch Tag as optional, and increases the Accuracy, Damage, and Rate values by four (+4). Whenever an Infernal would successfully deal damage with his Bite attack, he may reflexively pay 3m to heal a health level of damage.
    • The following charms are automatically active: Hunger Blooming Bite, Virulent Carnal Appetite Unfurling, And Then He Stole The Air, Scent The Elusive Prey, Screaming Heavenly Morsels
    • The charm cost discount applies to the following charms too: Hand Biting Retaliation, Platter Cleaning Violence Flicker, Taste of Shared Pain, Aspect of the Perfect Predator
    • Any powers which are normally capped by your hunger penalty and which would let you produce almost infinite resources (motes, willpower, health levels, etc) if they were not, are still capped as normal.
    • If you have seven repurchases of Feast Upon (Shinma) then this shintai adds the following effects for an extra (10m 1w; the willpower is not committed):
    • Ignore all caps on the number of mutations you can inflict on yourself in this Shintai. Using this to increase in size also increases your reach. This also includes any caps on how many limbs you can have, or your size.
    • Whenever you would inflict a Crippling effect, or whenever you would grow limbs, and you are not currently suffering from a Crippling injury, then each limb may be used to add +1 meter to your size (in any or all directions you wish to grow). Increasing your size in this way adds a temporary+1B/+1L/+1A to your soak, and one temporary -0 Health Level; it also temporarily increases your base reach by +1 meter. These temporary effects go away if you receive an external Crippling effect; these temporary limbs absorb and negate one Crippling effect in this way, and reduce your size accordingly, undoing their contribution. If you know Swallowed Offerings, any Crippling injury you inflict counts as eating the same amount of flesh (or whatever you crippled), and may be stored within your extradimensional stomach instead of adding to your overall size; at the end of any scene where you have left over temporary levels from this charm, you may spend 1w to swallow them all and either return to the base size of this shintai, or back to normal form.    
  9. Lotus-Eaten Dreamer Shintai: add the following to it:
    • Any Illusion effects you create require two successful resistance rolls to disbelieve them. Any illusion charm costs 5m less and 1w less.
    • The ‘1 full year’ timer is reset whenever they either become addicted to you, or they are reduced to <=3 Willpower while suffering from Withdrawal.
    • Those trapped in the shintai’s illusory world are inactive, and must exert effort per the charm to escape.
  10. Nightmare Tempest Shintai: add the following to it.
    • Soul-Husking Monochrome Strike’s discount and activation also applies to its upgrades, Sky-Crisis Strike, save that Sky-Crisis Strike is still Simple action instead of Reflexive. That means that activating them costs no motes.
    • Firmament-Shaking Cataclysm: Against targets with addictions towards you, or who are presently suffering from either of Hegra’s poisons, or who have not seen through your illusion charms, these upgrades cost nothing, and any or all of them are applied all at once. For everyone else, there is no willpower cost, and the base cost per is 1m each.
    • World-Drowning Cloudburst: waive the willpower cost here, so long as Firmament-Shaking Cataclysm would cost nothing too. 
    • Any Illusion effects you create require two successful resistance rolls to disbelieve them. Any illusion charm costs 5m less.
  11. Spiteful Sea Tincture: The Obvious tag can be waived entirely if you use Vituperative Smuggling Technique, Innocent Petal Assumption, or Canker-Concealing Trunk Confusion, or other similar illusion charms. Vituperative Smuggling Technique is her own way of hiding her touch, until it is time to strike, and a single application can conceal all such stains. 
  12. Sea Within Veins Prana: This immunity to magical poisons and diseases applies to you too. If you choose to, you may ignore either or both within your body; or even just leave specific ones alone.
  13. Great Mother’s Tears: yes, this does allow you to substitute any of Kimbery’s toxins in place of any other poison that a charm you are using would produce.
  14. Lurking Indigo Haar: Since this is based on Sea-Within-Veins Prana, and the wording is unclear, I am interpreting this fog to be a prolonged version of the SWVP effect, so it is an ongoing version of the base charm’s effects. Otherwise it is little more than an expensive replacement for a smoke grenade. If you know Storm Curse Condemnation then this Sorcerous zone may be attached to either yourself or some unfortunate target (or boringly an object or point on the ground). This follows the same counterspell rules as Storm Curse Condemnation.
  15. Vituperative Smuggling Technique: Errata: targeting one part of a group with countermagic does nothing to the rest of the group. As well, there is an Essence 6+ repurchase that removes the 1 month time limit for the Sorcerous effect, this removed time limit only works for you and its use on non-character objects; for other people and groups of people, it becomes (Essence) years.
  16. Sunken City Camouflage: Errata: For this to be targeted with countermagic, the original location within the locale where you used the charm would need to be targeted, unless you explicitly set some other location instead.
  17. If you have multiple ‘Geomantic Charms’ that you are using, they are mutually compatible implicitly, but their Blasphemy Rating automatically stacks where available.
  18. Spreading Damp Envenomation: This can be used to trigger the lacquer application and then Poison Well (or any other Poison substitute charm) can substitute the toxin of your choice instead of the normal one.
  19. Storm Curse Condemnation and Tempest Calming Gesture: The use of successful countermagic exempts the user from the weather effects for a scene, but the AoE effect is tied to the actual target of the charm. Thus, the storm only goes away when the tagged target is counterspelled directly, following the range limitations of Counterspells. 
  20. Font of Vitriol Invocation: As the transmuted waters are Kimbery’s anyone within it also treats each action they take in it as though they had been exposed to a dose of her toxins, in addition to the caustic properties. Once you learn this the difficulty to counter any of the following charms is based on your Essence, not the Min Essence:  Storm Curse Condemnation, Tempest Calming Gesture, Font of Vitriol Invocation, Lurking Indigo Haar, and all of your Shintai which are Sorcerous. If you know any weather charms from Hegra they are likewise covered. For all upgraded charms, the unmodified difficulty is all that is required to exempt a single target from the Sorcerous effects, so long as that is not the ‘center’ or ‘target’ of the effects. Thus, it is much harder to remove the whole storm than to protect a single non-target VIP from its effects.
  21. Stone-Eroding Touch: at Essence 3+, this may be applied to any kind of attack against an object or creature, not just Touch.
  22. Vile Brine Distillation: makes a dose of Poison Lacquer, or of your own distilled bodily fluids; using Craft(Genesis or Vitriol) can be used to modify the result.
  23. Great Mother’s Blessed Waters: typo, it is “up to a limit of (Infernal’s Essence/2)”, and the “If she is injured, then the duration on bodies of liquid in range at that point is Indefinite.” should be interpreted to include self-injury, such as spending a health level.
  24. Treacherous Waters Navigation: 
    • ‘The Great Mother’s touch blurs the lines between mounts, vehicles, and vessels, but all flesh needs to consume’; With an Essence 4+ repurchase; this charm may be repurchased once to gain access to any non-Native keyworded Solar charms related to the Sail skill, Ride Skill, or Survival Skill. All uses of the Ride Charms for mundane, non-aquatic creatures require the charm to be used on either Beloved targets, or be used within range of the Sea keyword. Somewhat similarly, all of the Survival charms take a +2m surcharge when used where the Sea keyword doesn’t apply, this is waived for Beloved targets. All Abyssal Sail charms lacking the Native keyword count for this purpose, but replace the Spectral keyword with the Sea keyword and satisfy the Avatar keyword with the added requirement to have that many repurchases of Intolerable Burning Truths. These charms, with all of their prerequisite charms being replaced with this one, and only their minimum Essence and skill ratings being met. Remember that Kimbery’s versions of these charms are always slightly warped by her nature, and definitely at least look like something Lovecraftian fever dreams. This implies that charms that specify ‘riding’, ‘swimming’, ‘sailing’, ‘driving’, etc are all mutually consistent, so long as they make sense when applied to those targets; that is you may target things with charms that should vaguely apply to that category, if you squint, so for example something that speeds up overland journeys from a riding charm should logically apply to the others, so long as the method makes sense thematically.
    • ‘The Sea That Marched indeed’; With an Essence 5+ repurchase, this charm can enhance the activation of other charms, primarily, if it is activate when activating one of your weather charms (including those that either cause or calm storms, it is just the unnatural part) while you also have Sea Home Stance active, then the area beneath that charm counts as ‘Sea’ for your charms’ purposes. If you have this charm active, then activating Acrid Slipstream Assist allows you and everyone you choose to include within the area of effect of Acrid Slipstream Assist to sail or swim together over anywhere that qualifies as ‘Sea’ including over land (they cannot fly per se, but are borne along the ‘sea’ surface by captive waters that the ships take with them; they may move up or down relative to the ground up to (Essence) meters above their minimum draft, and there is enough captive water to keep that vessel afloat under normal conditions, just kind of captive in place by the swirling curtain-currents of ichor per the Acrid Slipstream Assist write-up), if you add One Mind Ocean’s activation to this, you may include as many Magnitude worth of your forces as you can fit (up to Magnitude (Essence), all of whom must be with the weather effect’s area during activation, and at least one part of that number must be within the Acrid Slipstream Assist sphere during activation) One Mind Ocean stays up until at least the duration of your Acrid Slipstream Assist (max (Essence) days). All of these require you to personally oversee the process of traveling; if you cannot spare the time, activating Treacherous Waters Navigation while blessing a vehicle with Favorable Current Benevolence and Spare the Unworthy Vessel, permits them to travel without your guidance, until one or both of those charms deactivate. The only catch is that they must have initially been part of the group that you were guiding overland, and they are still restricted to the area beneath the ‘Sea’ keyword.
  25. Ocean Washed Words [Complex Errata]: 
Ocean Washed Words

Cost: 3m; Mins: Essence 2; Type: Reflexive

Keywords: Combo-OK, Sea, (Optionally: Sorcerous)

Duration: Permanent (toggleable) / Scene (Optionally: Indefinite) 

Prerequisites: Tidal Renewal Discipline

Kimbery’s waves have touched many shores and countless tongues have screamed desperate prayers to her.  Such knowledge lurks within her depths. This charm permanently lets you (passively, requiring no charm activation since just knowing it is sufficient) speak (so the range is ‘within hearing distance’) to anything remotely aquatic in nature, including things which would be found living in the analogous liquid bodies in Malfeas, or any other planes. The language which is the lingua franca with them all is Old Realm, specifically the Lintha dialect used in Kimbery’s other charms. This allows social attacks against animals and other creatures that do not otherwise communicate through language, or which are too stupid to talk. If you know Mother Knows Best, these creatures which are normally nonsapient or which are sapient extras that normally cannot communicate without this charm, then they count as your ‘descendents’ for the purposes of that charm. These creatures do not gain the ability to speak per se, but so long as they are around you, they may do so in Old Realm. When you leave, they lose that ability, but will (as far as they are capable) try to continue whatever they were told to do by you. Everything up till now is unconditional and permanent, and does not depend on the Sea keyword; you need merely will it to happen or leave it permanently on/off. 

So long as you are within range of the Sea keyword,  Mortals and other things which are not per se aquatic (as described above) will understand you when you speak the Lintha dialect at them (to clarify this is two-way communication with your Lintha being translated into their native tongue within their own heads and their native tongue being translated into Old Realm as soon as they speak it aloud for all to hear, it also works with reading and writing similarly; similarly to the first paragraph, so long as you are around they may speak to each other via this Old Realm dialect), but this grants no understanding of each others languages, nor does it convey cultural context, jargon, or idioms. Thus, it’s not a full replacement for Linguistics and related charms. The highest fidelity translations within it are things related to either trade, the sea, or anything thematically related to Kimbery. It is fitting that she privileges her creations above all others even privileging the dialect she birthed so that all would know it when they hear it.

However, if you are not within range of the Sea keyword, you may use it as follows: The Infernal can activate this Charm after meditating for (8-Essence, minimum 1) hours while submerged, allowing her to develop a basic understanding of a language commonly spoken within a region. She can speak, write, understand and otherwise communicate in that language.  She is clearly not a native, and speaks with a notable Old Realm accent - specifically the dialect of the ancient Lintha. The language slips from the cold darkness of her mind when she ends this effect – alternatively, she can instantly acquire it as a Linguistics specialty, as a Training effect. At Essence 3+, this charm’s activation changes such that it may be retained for a specific region as a Sorcerous effect (treat it as an Essence 3 effect for dispellation or countermagic use). This charm’s base non-Sorcerous form allows the 3m to be committed for the duration of up to a day, until it is expended at the end of the ‘active’ scene where it was applied. This will trigger automatically if at any point you desire to communicate with someone whose language you don’t speak, but which would be covered by your meditation. Thus, when not within the Sea, its usage is difficult or more easily interrupted by opponents.

  1. Rising Tide Gratuity: This charm may be repurchased an additional time for each of the following options, each of which replicates a Solar Bureaucracy Charm, which follow all of the normal mechanics for their activation, save that you need only the minimum Essence to be met and the prerequisite charms need to be already bought in this way with this charm counting as Speed The Wheels for that purpose, however, the duration of the charms are still sorcerously tied to the gift per this  base charm, and stop when that gift is gone; any damage done prior to that time remain, but the charm otherwise ends:
    • Indolent Official Charm [ExCore p232; Ess 2; requires Kimbery Excellency]
    • Foul Air of Argument Technique [ExCore p232; Ess 3]
    • Halo of Ministerial Dominion [Dreams of the First Age Vol 2 Revised p80; Ess 4]
    • Charter-Stripping Condemnation [Dreams of the First Age Vol 2 Revised p80; Ess 6; to clarify the non-bureaucracy activations,  those may be used normally without a gift, however the bureaucracy activations still require the gift per normal.] 
    • If you know Charter-Stripping Condemnation and Esoteric Inundation Investment, you may activate Esoteric Inundation Investment to sanctify oaths and contracts so long as they fulfill any of these criteria: this may be done in person or via prayer per Esoteric Inundation Investment, or via prayer in the same cost within any location that you own or control or which is geomantically yours or metaphysically claimed by you, or if it is done using materials that you have sanctified in your own name or that of an organization you are a member of, or in the name of any Yozi. Sanctifying oaths in this way works mechanically identical to a Fiend doing so, save that those oaths and contracts which you and your subordinates or beloved or descendents must be somehow business, commerce, or politics related. Only you may personally sanctify oaths not related to businesses, requiring you to be personally present, and those involved in the oaths must either be beloved, creatures of darkness, Malfean natives, your descendents or creations, or any of the Yozi. Charter-Stripping effects may be included as part of your stated consequences for violating the oaths, at your option.
    • If you know Esoteric Inundation Investment and Godmother’s Own House, you may activate the prior charm while touching a shrine you have prepared using Well Reputed Grotto, and the shrine gains the qualities that qualify as a Sea, while the interior of the structure surrounding it expands its original design (Essence*[Sail+Stealth+Larceny+Bureaucracy+Occult]) times larger on the inside than it was before (technically it is by (Essence*[Sail+Stealth+Larceny+Bureaucracy+Occult])^3, but that is harder to say), expanding in every direction you desire up to (Essence*[Sail+Stealth+Larceny+Bureaucracy+Occult]) times each dimension. The interior appearance is based loosely on the original design, and you may choose the details of the revised implementation of the expansion. This place is not exactly normal space, and not exactly Elsewhere, and the warp in space is incredibly secure, so long as the charms are not broken. Access to the area can be further secured with charms, sorcery, or any other ways you choose, given that you metaphysically own it. There is no change to the exterior structure to indicate what is hidden within (especially, it does not change apparent size), however, any attempt to damage or pierce the structure to access the interior without going through the intended entrance fail, just as any attempts to destroy (superficial damage is fine) the structure fail. The only way that the structure can be destroyed or entered is through the intended entrance, so long as the shrine is still active, the rest is too, making the shrine the real structure so to speak.
  2. Pollen of a Writhing God (Metagaos): this wording is ambiguous, but you can use Digestion Without Distinction and other self-targeting powers on others. The catch is that it isn’t cheap, costing +4m for each activation, and multiplying the total cost by COST*(1+MAG), but it only works for your infectees.
  3. Charms that allow you to target Dematerialized Creatures when material have the opposite effect when you are dematerial yourself.
  4. Most of the historical Primordial Races (most of which are long extinct) were originally created in Lost Zen-Mu and thus were preserved by their creators' world-bodies during the transit. Humans and the Dragon Kings were natives to this Creation not actually being primordial races. 
  5. For the segment of the Lintha who do not adhere to the Cult of Dukhantha, or at least those who are most-traditionalist, there are four approved kinds of people to breed with, which either does not dilute the blood, or which improves it, the offspring of which are both legitimate and full-blooded: 
    • Other Full-blooded Lintha.
    • Those demons or deva descended from Kimbery.
    • Demons or deva descended from Yozi or other Primordials of equal or higher Essence than you; Green-Sun Princes and Infernal Akuma qualify for this category too.
    • Literally anyone who has received direct permission from Kimbery by either directly asking or via public prayer, or by having the copulation blessed by and witnessed by Demons of the Second or Third Circle descended from Kimbery.
  6. The real reason for the downfall of the Lintha’s bloodlines was a combination of being systematically exterminated by Yu-Shan’s forces, as well as the Solar Deliberative and its allies. The fact that they survived in any way is due only to the love of Kimbery for her favorite children. Her hate and disappointment following their loss to the Solars was tempered by the fact that everyone lost, and so her wrath was simply to hold back on saving them until they were very nearly extinct. Their breeding issues could have been trivially solved with the Organic Technology (Genesis) that the historical Lintha had co-invented with Kimbery, but she held enough of a grudge to not mention it to them, nor offer to help them rebuild. She would not stop them if they did it on their own, however. The terrible inbreeding issues come from an incorrect interpretation of historical records, and are largely the fault of a few ancient scholars. Original Pureblood Lintha were designed by The Great Mother as part of her infrastructure, and as such were not themselves designed to be genetically stable when breeding amongst themselves. To avoid degeneration, they needed to breed with Deva of Kimbery (preferably), or with non-Lintha who descend in some way from Primordials. Breeding with humans was just a side-effect of their design, of being able to mate with pretty much anything. Their purpose, beside worship and soldier-subjects, was to spread Kimbery’s touch to all things through their breeding. As Kimbery’s children, she did bear the first of them conventionally, and they are her descendants in fact and design. This gives Kimbery metaphysical control over them as her descendants, but they also remind her of what she has had stolen from her, in her descent into a Yozi. Indeed, while she can make more Lintha if she wishes, the capacity to invent new true descendents with all of her blessings. Instead, she may design and grow things in laboratory wombs, or mutating existing beings. They can count as her descendants, but frustratingly different and diminished from what she could do at her full capacity.
  7. Lintha in canon count as either Sprits or God-Blooded/Demon-Blooded for the purposes of learning charms, but are neither in truth. As the weapons and favored troops of Kimbery, they were permitted to learn CMAs, provided they had Essence 3+ and had a teacher of at least Essence 5, or they have mastered one TMA; they can learn TMA’s without restrictions. They buy such charms at normal cost, not the extra high one. They are never allowed to learn SMAs, just like the Green Sun Princes. Remember that Kimbery did not like the Dragon Kings, and Lintha were designed to at least fight on par with them. As well, they were the original prototype for how the Exalts could live within mortal frames, and so it is reasonable that part of that was being able to access charm pools with effort.
  8. Lintha Funerary Rites: Those Lintha who are eaten by the Lintha Family as part of their funeral go on to a special kind of after-life. The women who are eaten go on to be part of the racial memory of the Lintha, which is less like a hive-mind or anything like that and more like having dots in the Whispers background (which usually goes up with age and spiritual enlightenment), with the Lintha matriarchs and the Great Mother at the root; she rarely speaks after her transformation into a Yozi. Males who are eaten go to join the Lintha Dead. This means that while anyone can learn the knowledge of the males (largely warriors and traders and sailors), only the women get the knowledge of the women. It is thought that this is part of the nature of the Great Mother’s designs reinforcing the natural matriarchy of the species. This continuity of knowledge has helped rebuild after the many great tragedies that have befallen the Lintha, while simultaneously making it very clear that it cannot wholly prevent them. 
  9. Learning Martial Arts Ruling: Many styles are taught outside of those Essence users who know how to truly utilize its teachings. This means that when one later gains Initiations or Essence Awakenings, they realize the truth behind what they’ve been taught. This more or less lets the training occur when is appropriate for the story, rather than needing to shoehorn it all in after a breakthrough, and permits Exalts with martial training backgrounds to have a reason to suddenly start with MA charms instead of just their native ones. All Wuxia features breakthroughs happening at dramatically appropriate moments, and not always in a classroom. 
    • Also, because all the Terrestrial Martial Arts styles are written assuming Terrestrial Exalts learning them, no matter what any of the charms descriptions may imply, the only ones who take elemental surcharges are those who are natively  Terrestrial Exalts or Elementals, no other characters have anything to do with this, and take no penalties for anything related to those. 
    • Terrestrial Styles may have poorly thought out mechanics like Fivefold Shadow Hand Style’s multi-purchase and implied 4 times higher XP cost compared to any other style in the same category. Just ignore all the sharing and learning rules for that style, as well it only costs the normal amount of a single charm purchase instead; it just takes longer to unlock the full mastery for each. Ignore the multi teacher part too, since it’s dumb. Completely ignore the Share-(Element) keyword entirely, it’s incoherent and makes no sense.
  10. Setting Note: Once of the Oaths of Surrender  in the Primordial War was for the the Primordials to never again use certain of their Charms, effectively forcing them to diminish themselves from Primordials (regardless of whether or not they suffered fetich death or personal death) into Yozi or Neverborn. This meant that the Charms still existed, since they were baked into the fabric of Creation itself, and removing those underpinnings was what the Three-Sphere Cataclysm wrought. The Solars knew that any of the Primordials could do such a thing, without their Oaths of Surrender, including the Neverborn. Thus, the Charms of the Primordials existed, but were forbidden from the use of their creators and their Devas. Green Sun Princes are not subsouls, and thus are not subject to that restriction. While many of these Oaths of Surrender were kept secret, this aspect was revealed to reassure the Deliberative that there was no longer the existential threat of the 3SC happening again, while also stabilizing Creation in the long term.  For some reason, the inability of the Yozi and their subsouls and Green Sun Princes and the Lintha to learn Sidereal Martial Arts was included within the Oaths of Surrender, the exact wording is known only to the signers and the authors of the oaths.
  11. Setting note: Neverborn are more or less Yozi in so far as they are capable of being a ‘dead’ version, relevant quote: “I saw, back when the 2e Yozi focus was still in full swing, suggestions that the tomb-corpses of the Neverborn would be alterations of what they had been as Primordials, and I did quite like that…  I agree with this presentation. Recall that Primordials are multiple things, a world, a humaniform jouten, and their entire soul structure. So the Neverborn would each be their own tomb-world (as varied as the forests of Szoreny and the trackless desert of Cecelyne), inhabited by deadly ghosts (as varied, though less life-filled, as Ligier, Zsofika, and the tomescu), and haunted by a central intelligence (who probably has some sort of weird hobby, like Malfeas and dancing).” (http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/exalted/1156891-a-bad-idea-to-indulge) ; Insofar as they are capable of normal thoughts like the Yozi, it is best to understand that they have been forced into something which is simultaneously agonizing and impossible to escape. Thus, the Neverborn are driven by pain and oaths of surrender, as well as being so paradoxically alien to their own Creation, that they accidentally dug out an entire underworld with their fall, as well as created the undead and necromancy. Thus, they are not ‘black mirrors’ like the Abyssal Exalts, but are rather every bit as themselves as the Yozi are, aside from their unique alternate prison.
  12. Setting note: The total number of Solar/Lunar Exaltations is 500. Of those Solars, 250 were taken in the efforts of the Reclamation. 50 went on to become the Abyssals (does anyone really like Abysalls? I think they’re such a waste being literal Mirrors of Solars--but so much worse--with Resonance to punish all stories besides the boring default ones). 200 went on to become Infernals. The weird writing about Lillun in chapter 1 of the infernals book is something that I ignore because it only fits with Ebon Dragon and not with the other Yozi (remember that Malfeas is not the place depicted in Dante’s Inferno, but instead it is the Greek Tartarus, back before it held anything besides Titans). Instead, the Infernal Exaltations are wholly determined like this:
    • Have a Coadjutor associated with that Primordial.
    • Have an Urge associated with that Primordial.
    • Have your Phylactery-Womb form in or near a sacred site (e.g. a temple) dedicated to that Primordial.
    • Be a follower of that Primordial, and leave a sacrifice in their name in or near a sacred site dedicated to them. This may be done during your formative period after leaving your Chrysalis Grotesque, but before you raise your Essence rating for the first time, post-gestation.
    • Receive permission from the Primordial in person, either from one of its component souls, or from one of its jouten. This may be done at any time, and can be used to voluntarily shift Castes, Urges, and favored status to the new Primordial.
    • Have witnessed or interacted with the Primordial in question, sufficiently that you have an understanding of all of its Excellency as well as most of its Charms. This must have happened prior to your gestation.
    • Possess a Caste associated with the Primordial.
    • Have done any of these in a past life, for example during the Primordial War. The only restriction on this part is that if you were one of the Solars who killed a particular Primordial, you are forever forbidden from having any connection to it, except as a mere Akuma, lacking free will.
    • There is a pool of 200 Exaltations, when one is stirred to life by a potential host, it is implanted within a demon of the appropriate Yozi to generate either their Caste connection or the Urge connection. There is no Lillun, so the Exaltations are kept within tumorous Phylactery-wombs which are grown throughout Malfeas and the other Yozi’s world-bodies like literal cysts. The only commonality among them is the fact that each one bulges when full, and they are all single use, withering away like an afterbirth. New ones grow most closely to places which are most holy or protected for each Yozi. Your favored Yozi are determined by your Caste, your Urge, your Coadjutor, and where your Womb was kept, that means that the ‘favored’ discount applies to those specific Yozi’s charm sets, with at least 2 (and at most 4) giving you discounts.
    • Coadjutors must either match the Yozi of the Caste or the Urge the infernal exalt will receive.
    • Those who have unlocked the Heretical Triumphant Cry of the Devil-Tiger are freed from this restriction, and their modified Caste and Urge may be triggered with any host. Their own charmset is discounted, as are any that were previously discounted. This changes your caste permanently, and modifies your Exaltation permanently, as a Heretical feature of the metamorphosis. Doing this frees the old Exaltation you were attached to previously, and forges a new Primordial Exaltation as a Heretical effect. Thus, becoming like the Creators does not detract from their Exaltations. This is proof of your might, no longer drawing power from the Yozi directly, or the Unconquered Sun indirectly, but your own Primordial hierarchy of souls, even as incomplete as a newly made one might be compared to the originals. You and any future bearers of your Exaltation no longer die from old age, and you are effectively immortal unless killed. Your continued ability to learn and use Infernal charms is part of your new Exaltation, and you are of course using your own charms in addition to those that you could otherwise take. 
    • Each of the Canon Yozi receives host priority for each of the Infernal Exaltations that they favor in canon. This means that other Yozi are forbidden from filling their ranks with one of these favored original solar castes so long as the favored Yozi has fewer than a minimum of 10 of their own Infernal Caste active and made from that solar caste stock.
    • All of the other Yozi (including Kimbery) are permitted to grab their own Infernal Exalts with the other 150 exaltations. Each of these Yozi must cooperate with the efforts of the Reclamation for it to apply. 
    • The Canon Reclamation’s Yozi may also grab extra ranks from the pool, but have the same issues with compatibility as all Yozi, and so do not grow any faster than the others. Thus, the priority system just holds everyone else up, if they were going to use Infernal Exaltations of that particular original solar caste.
    • While there is no quota system to prevent hoarding, other than basic Yozi politics, it is the case that the Yozi are so inhuman that finding mortals to select which will not reject their might nor burn out immediately is actually much harder than making Akuma.
    • All canon Yozi participate in the Reclamation in their own way. Sacheverell for example does so while asleep, and being picked over by his lesser souls like bed bugs or lice. 
    • While it won’t come up, this method could be applied with the Deva of Primordials, or with the broken soul-parts of the Neverborn. The resulting Exalts would have more in common with Infernals than Solars or Abyssals. Autochthon cannot do this because he has no Deva anymore. Gaia or Infernal Exalts who use Heretical charms to get their own fetich/souls/deva/demons could too, thereby permitting more than one possible member of their Caste showing up.
    • All references to Lillun should be replaced with less squicky references to Phylactery-wombs. 
    • Per the Neverborn ruling above, the Charms of Theion and Mardukth (The Neverborn, He Who Holds In Thrall) and Ta’akazoka (The Neverborn, Perfected Principle of Consumption) all still exist. The only things that don’t are those Charms of She Who Lives In Her Name that were associated with The Three Spheres’ Cataclysm. She unmade herself and the world rather than let its perfection be tarnished by Solars. Assuming that similar acts may or may not be associated with the fact that Time Travel no longer works in Creation, lends evidence that similar things may have happened in the past. 
    • In order to learn charms from Neverborn, an Infernal requires at least one dot of the Whispers background. With 4+ dots of it, it's possible to have a Caste associated with one of the Neverborn’s past, as well selecting them as “Patrons”; this is done in the original name (e.g. Mardukth, Who Holds In Thrall, not He-Who-Holds-In-Thrall), not the Neverborn one, calling upon powers that were carved into Creation and beyond by their inventors, regardless of their current inability to use them. Neverborn might be mad, but they are as much Primordials as the Yozi are, to the point that they retain vestigial soul hierarchies even in the Underworld. Doing this does not actually cause you to be an Abyssal, and you still use living essence; Infernals do not gain access to Abyssal charms in this way, nor can Abyssal Exalts learn these charms. Whispers for Green Sun Princes also pick up the lamentations of Theion, He-Who-Bleeds-The-Unknown-Word, and all of the other mutilated Primordials, and does not function normally; depending on your caste and patrons, the whispers cry out for vengeance and justice, not Oblivion. Should you ever use Ultimate Darkness Internalization, Whispers reverts to normal for the duration. For Green Sun Princes, they may develop their Whispers rating anywhere in Malfeas, or places in Creation and beyond which resonate with the themes of any of their patrons/coadjutor/caste, not just the Underworld.
    • In order to learn charms from Theion, He-Who-Bleeds-The-Unknown-Word or any of the other Primordials that were mutilated into Yozi, you need to have some kind of Tutor or Mentor, who remembers what used to be. This can either be an Unspeakable who remembers what was, like Liger. Or, it could be those things you personally witnessed, via backgrounds like Past Lives or Savant. Other backgrounds could work, so long as there is a clear way to find out about the past from a first-hand witness. The modified Whispers background above is also an option. It does not matter if the current Yozi either cannot or will not currently use those powers; Malfeas seeks vengeance for what was lost, regardless of whether or not he still has the heart to use Ultimate Sovereign Fundament or not. 
    • All that is required to form a connection (that is either learn those charms without a teacher, or to get them as a favored Yozi or something similar) with one of the now-dead Primordials is to fulfill any of the following requirements (fulfilling these requirements for a living Primordial will work too, but they are likely to reject any connections with Green Sun Princes, unless directly associated with the Reclamation somehow):
  13. Witness to Darkness: Replace paragraph beginning with "Finally...", with "Finally, the Infernal is unimpressed with the murk of others' guile, and adds her Essence rating to her MDVs against inherently deceptive social attacks and as bonus successes to recognize or pierce another's deceptions. Her attunement to lies makes it harder to be honest, however, imposing a -Essence internal penalty to all attempts to be honest and straightforward, save when truth brings more pain than lies." In addition, as with Hateful Wretched Noise, the penalty imposed by bright light and the self-penalty to social behavior can be ignored for a scene with the expenditure of 1 Willpower. 
  14. Similar Charms: other permanent charms that inflict a self-compulsion or similar things can be suppressed using willpower like Witness to Darkness or Hateful Wretched Noise.
  15. Remember that the Flora of Malfeas are as much metal as they are organic, so the aesthetics of the works of Metagaos and Kimbery should be as much Phyrexia and Giger as Lovecraft and Swampthing. That means that purely metal things are fine so long as they have some kind of impossibly organic aspects, just like meat and flesh and wood and metal are all able to intermesh within Metagaos and Kimbery. 
  16. Excellency Notes:
    • Metagaos [Revlid, modified MTG]: Metagaos is a voracious hunter who lurks in plain sight within the jungle of his body, stalking his prey until they are ready to be devoured. He is cunning in his predation, easily tempting his quarry into the deceptive labyrinth of his bayous and glades, ensnaring them in traps from which there can be no escape. The ravening nature of the All-Hunger Blossom is concealed beneath false familiarity and fertile decadence until it is too late, allowing him to entice fresh fools into his waiting maw. These bloody sacrifices cannot quell his self-indulgent demands, for he is never satisfied. The Trackless Quag consumes everything within his insidious influence, and is himself consumed by countless diseases and parasites which infect and degrade body and mind alike, assimilating victims as surely as if Metagaos had eaten them whole. This Excellency aids actions that provide the Infernal with something he wants at someone else’s expense, helping him to seize or seduce appropriate offerings from others, be they wealth, information, or flesh. Attempts to acquire or improve sustenance always qualify. Such ruthless acquisitions are broken down and merged with their new owner, cannibalized for their juiciest parts. This Charm cannot benefit any act that emphasizes prudent planning over immediate indulgence, as Metagaos cannot abstain from what he desires, even for later gain; the exceptions are other actions which this charm would benefit, or anything which helps him either be lazy, or get food. The Excellency explicitly can be used to enhance martial arts, grappling, choking, biting actions, or attacks made with weapons enhanced by his own charms, for all of those allow him to taste his prey.
    •  Metagaos [HBC, NEVERWAR RPNATION MIRROR]: Metagaos is a devouring predator and a cunning hunter, and in his eyes all are prey. When he feeds himself, nothing is safe from his rapacious appetites. When others feed him, he receives blood offerings, he rewards initiative with growth. When desperate, the All-Hunger Blossom will devour himself, using self-cannibalism to transform, striving always to be more deadly than before. Metagaos is a host of deadly traps and plants, and can always inflict disease in a pinch. In the swamps of Metagaos, there can only be growth through feeding. This Charm can enhance any action that either creates life or consumes, as the cycle of self-predation is a defining aspect of Metagaos. Actions involving sacrifice, typically a blood offering may also be enhanced by this Charm. Hunting and stalking resonate well with the themes of the All-Hunger Blossom's predatory themes, as do improving one's self. Finally, the All-Hunger Blossom's nature as a dominant creature may extend to social situations when asserting personal authority, although the authority from a title holds little power unless it was a title earned through establishing dominance.
    • Metagaos Uses any action which benefits from either the Revlid (modified) 1st Ex or the HBC version. As well, he has the following, “The All Hunger Blossom does not Plan endlessly like Szoreny, but sustained growth requires planning. Nor Analyze every variable, like She Who Lives In Her Name, but he does calculate, usually in order to forecast opportunities, losses, and risks.  Nor does he arbitrarily scheme like The Ebon Dragon, but he could not conceal his traps without guile and enough understanding of others to create without drawing attention. However he does grow and change, and when he can trade a small amount of forethought to avoid labor, he happily takes that deal. As a result, his works are as much art as design, dynamic and iterative, building upon themselves, his designs evolve (to the utter disgust of SWL). The only unifying theme is that it must be worth his time and effort. He takes great satisfaction in reshaping the world to demonstrate his personal mastery of his skills as well as his ownership over things. His works may be artistic, but something is beautiful when it demonstrates his insightful use of what is his. Sometimes this takes the form of hands-on work, sometimes it's about managing and guiding his designs or properties, sometimes it's about squeezing blood from stones so he gets the most out of what is his. Showing off like this isn’t necessary for him to do these things, getting things done while rubbing it in the noses of his competition is generally worth the effort. He  would apply himself to any kind of trade or gambling, so long as its net expected result is you walking away with something you want most of the time, but he has a special place in his heart for rigged bets and predatory deals; besides the works described above, he can do long term plans, but they need to either be edible, or let him be lazy, or include some kind of trap/rigged quality. After all competition breeds perfection, does it not?  In a related but orthogonal sense, taking what you  are owed, or reclaiming what has been taken from you always qualifies. Metagaos often claims vast swaths of The Demons City under justifications and questionable legitimacy, swallowing up whole fiefdoms through eminent domain.”
    • Kimbery Uses any action which benefits either the canon 1st Ex from Broken Winged Crane, or these. Kimbery’s ex’s benefit her whenever she would plot and scheme, obviously, since it’s implied by her trying to do things secretly or otherwise long-term. This means that any action which includes plotting, planning, or other long-term thinking can benefit from her excellency. As well, her artistic and business endeavors show that she is more than capable of designs and crafting, regardless of the specific medium her bizarre creations might be wrought in. Thus, any time could express herself symbolically or semiotically through her alien or unexpected creativity, it qualifies for this charm, regardless of whether she is subtle or horrifyingly overt in her “creativity”. Kimbery would apply to smugglers and backroom politics as much as real trade, especially those involving fleet logistics or naval action; she almost exclusively plans in the long term, if only to prolong the suffering of everyone she deals with.
  17. Trust Is Naïve: (use the fan version) The Infernal takes refuge in the depths of her loving faith, refusing to believe anything bad about a beloved character. She can still become convinced that such a character has been duped or forced into poor decisions by the wickedness of others, but will never assign blame to them. Just as Kimbery's waters welcome all, she may reduce the number of scenes necessary to build a positive Intimacy toward any character she has never reviled by any amount, to a minimum of one.
  18. While He has access to the Ascendency Mantle Charms, he does not use them, so his listed Ess 7 is his actual Essence level. If and when he ever really needs them, he needs to buy up Ess 8-10 during gameplay.
  19. Those infected by your Self-Seed may be counted as your own body parts for the purposes of your area-of-effect charms that cause damage or similar things under your control. 
  20. Predatory Dominance: [Errata] This already allows Emotion with any attack; With a repurchase it is permitted to be used with the Social keyword too, causing its effects with any successful social attack action. You may choose to treat these intimacies specially, and you may allow them to coexist with other intimacies caused by your charms. You may choose any reasonable intimacy based on the nature of your interaction, so long as there is some part of it that prevents opposition. With a Ess 4+ repurchase of this charm, the cost to resist the charm or erode that intimacy increases to 2w and -1 Hunger Level, as their body’s own prey-like panicked reaction exhausts their vital stores physically as well as mentally. Per the import errata far above, the Intimacies created by this effect either discourage opposition, or encourage interaction with you at your discretion, either or both are possible, as Metagaos values migratory herds as much as any hunter. As well, with this repurchase, you may select other intimacies caused by your own charm or effects, and choose which ones may coexist when they would otherwise permit only one.
  21. Words Like Vipers: If you know Predatory Dominance and you are at Ess 3+, then it can be activated whenever that charm would be applied, with the poison    applying one scene worth of reinforcing that intimacy for each point of  damage that the poison winds up inflicting that was not resited fully. At Ess 3+, if you know Insidious Ideas Mantra or Pandemic Notion Parasite, it can be  applied to the initial use of those charms to taint the  target with either of those, then whenever they would trigger again, if the target resists the influence in any way or acts against any intimacy so instilled, they trigger Words Like Vipers poison again. This also now applies to any attempt to resist the intimacy from Predatory Dominance, so long as you activated this charm when you applied that one. If the intimacy is ever removed, then this effect goes with it (thus those who can tough out the poison long enough to remove the intimacy are best able to resist this charm). 
  22. Prey Are As Nothing: Costs 8m. You may repurchase at Ess 3+ that applies its perfect defense against any influence which would prevent you from fulfilling your desires or which discourage you from hunting prey or eating food; having an intimacy to support these such as hunger towards something or desire for that thing is helpful but not necessary if any other charms permit you to supernaturally influence yourself towards those ends. At Ess 4+, this charm may be activated when one or more of the following conditions is true during any combat besides Social (this does not have the same restriction on how recently anyone has been attacked): a target has triggered the base defense of this charm; you are in the presence of things which would count as the targets of your desires or something which you hunger for or which is your prey; your prey is under unnatural influence of some sort from you; they are addicted to something; they are your employee or a grey walker or a creature of darkness or they are affiliated with worshipping you or the Yozi. Then those who can see, hear, or otherwise sense you, with a MDV less than your successes on a Int + Ess + Occult roll find themselves under (until end of scene) an Emotion effect which compels them to indulge in whatever your own tastes are, regardless of their own tastes, to the point that they feel compelled to seek out those things even mid-combat. This costs 3m for normal combat and 8m for any other non-Social combat.
  23. Horror-Birthing Feracity: Errata, this can be used to create a doppelganger from a Grey Seed. This doppelganger acts and looks exactly like the victim, save that they have no special personal knowledge of what the victim knows beyond what the user can guess at. However, if you used Memory Without Time, Picking Yesterday's Gums, or similar charms that permit you to grant a copy of that info to the doppleganger, so that it is much more convincing, even if it may not know everything, and its knowledge may be out of date. This doppelganger is a Creature of Darkness and is mechanically a Grey Walker, save that it follows any orders from you, regardless of whether other Grey Walkers could do so. Creating this doppelganger embeds the Grey Seed within them, using it up, but still preventing the victim from recovering until the doppelganger dies. These doppelgangers do not have any powers that your Grey Walkers would not have access to, but permanently benefit from Innocent Petal Assumption, save that it hides their lack of real powers instead of their potential violent actions or nature. Thus, the 'turn their eyes away' part makes people look away and not think about the lack of powers, for example. The reverse is also true, hiding any qualities or traits or powers of the Grey Walker-based doppelganger that the victim does not actually have.
  24. Second Seeding Propagation: Errata, Ess 7 removes the time limit on how recently something was born, and likewise removes the once-per lifetime limit. A second errata: if you know Seared Fruits of Union, these seeds can be implanted as if they were lab-wombs, in addition to any other methods of creation and gestation.

 

  1.   Note: this is how I am representing speaking in a foreign language [compared to the rest of the characters in the scene], assume it to be Old Realm unless I noted otherwise: <<This is me speaking in Old Realm! Be glad I didn’t have real a real Old Realm Logographic font. It looks like a cross between Egyptian Hieroglyphs and Mayan logographs, and is written in a order even more confusing than boustrophedon ordering.>> Similarly, “--” or “---” are used to mark logical transitions in the text, usually swaps of POV or scene changes. If posted in one-big-doc mode rather than being split up per chapter, then “===” is used to break chapters exclusively. I get personally annoyed when writers choose stylistically not to clearly demark scene breaks with appropriate whitespace or rules. It makes it so that any interruption in concentration makes it difficult to figure out the context of the line being read, and forces backtracking to figure out where you were. If it matters, I try to keep the contents within quote marks to be the literal (in the programmatic string literal sense) contents, and don’t move punctuation outside of it. I don’t care if that’s not what the US style guides suggest, I am a programmer and string literals are literals.
  2. Modern Setting Errata: 
    • Archery: this covers firearms and anything that shoots projectiles or beams.
    • Thrown: this covers grenades, flashbangs, and anything chucked.
    • Ride: this covers all vehicles that are not ships of any kind.
    • Sail: this covers all ships, including anything that flies. Also submarines and space ships.
    • Computers/Tech: These don’t actually have their own skill (unlike VtM) and use whatever skill you’d normally be using with them, like Presence, Craft, Socialize, Linguistics, etc.
    • Supernatural treatment includes basically anything which is derived from Capes or supernatural sources. Tinker-tech products work for this purpose, as do their commercial derivatives. The catch is that commercial products are either very hard to find, very expensive, or don’t work very well for the cost.
    • The “Powers” are 100% “Implanted Infernal Wonders” (which makes them give charms and Urges and maybe Ess Pools) made from the 1st circle offspring of the 2nd circle Demons that manifest as Scion/Zion, which are beneath the 3rd Circle Demon which is “The Spawning Pit”. Scion/Zion is Ess 8. All of these are parts of the Soul Hierarchy of Metagaos. All of them give some kind of ‘basic Cape buff’ in addition to their normal functions, and the Charm pool is strange, and seemingly customized based on initiation conditions. The worm fragments exist on the other side of the not-gauntlet, and only manifest immaterially here to implant the pea-sized graft to the human’s brains in a single 1 second long action, before returning.
    • As there is no sense in having more skills unnecessarily, the following skills are still used in modern settings, if you have never been exposed to either the new scientific forms or the old magical/low-tech forms, then you need at least some hands on experience to avoid getting circumstance penalties for unfamiliarity, and treat everything as improvised:
  3. Demonic Primacy of Essence (and upgrades: Lowly Pebbles in Their Place and World Author Eminence): If you have the ‘gods’ upgrade for DPoE, then it applies the MDV to any and everything listed in the normal list, as well as LPiTP’s list. When anything would not be effected like a god (like Exalts or LPiTP’s list), then you can activate WAE to upgrade them for that instant to be treated like a god. For the purposes of Sublimation of Ordained Purpose, most humans are designed as menial servants and worshipers. Other mortal races may have alternative purposes. 
  4. Holy Land Infliction: This charm has the dumbest size (10 sq yards is on average less than half of one US parking space) and the slowest growth (none) of all Infernal geomantic charms, despite being an infinite desert and the whole point of deserts is that they naturally grow despite anyones attempts to stop it (look up desertification). This makes no sense and is just dumb. Replace the base area to being a circle (you can of course concentrate on making it a different shape than a circle, but the total area is what matters here) of radius 10*Essence*Cult meters wide, and all further increases are based on adding to that radius by the listed amounts; all upgrades use this base size and multiply the radius increases by whatever they would normally apply to the usual base 10 sq yards. It also has the natural base growth rate increased add to the radius per day of +10*Cult meters per day, with all upgrades also applying their effective bonuses to these growth rates, if they are daily ongoing acts (usually either Prayer or toil), rather than one-off sacrifices. Since the only one that increases the size instead of what counts as one or when it counts as prayers/sacrifices/etc is Lawful Word Benefaction, that means the HLI+LEB is radius (10*Essence*Cult*Essence) meters wide, and daily growth is a base of +10*Cult*Essence meters per day, and all sacrifices are multiplied by your Essence rating before being applied. Here is the list of all the related upgrade charms:
    • [INF] Withered Soul Wastes / Footprints Like Heralds Focus 
    • [INF] Endless Torment Emanation / Sand-Scouring Society Infliction 
    • [100] Lawful Word Benefaction: “When the Infernal uses Holy Land Infliction, he may expand the space it covers to as much as (Essence x 10) square yards. Desolations created with the Charm can also grow in new ways, drawing strength from oppression. This functions like expansion due to prayer, but is based only on the presence and activity of a spiritually desolate society or group as per Withered Soul Wastes or Sand-Scoured Society Infliction.” This cham is permanent and Obvious when applied (as in you can choose to apply it, and when you do it’s Obvious and unless you are very weak, it probably tips the size limits to make it and automatic Blasphemy).
    • [100] Bleak Spirit Internalization: “The Infernal’s Withered Soul Wastes lowers its mote cost to five and extends its duration to five days. Another purchase of this Charm at Essence 6+ removes the Willpower cost and extends its duration indefinitely.”
    • [ECG] Bleak Cosmos Demiurge: “upgrades Endless Torment Emanation. It may now erode or build Intimacies even if doing so would oppose a character’s Motivation. Exalted and other beings with a Limit track may accept a single point of Limit to ignore this for one scene (Abyssals gain Resonance instead). If the Infernal also knows Sand-Scoured Society Infliction, the benefits of this Charm are extended to it as well. A second purchase of this Charm At Essence 6+ allows the Infernal to strip others of all purpose. Whenever a character within the aura of spiritual desolation created by Endless Torment Emanation or Sand-Scoured Society Infliction loses all points of temporary Willpower, their Motivation is broken. They become listless and depressed, and can be given commands that violate their Motivation. The Exalted and other beings with a Limit track are immune to being broken by this effect, but they gain two points of Limit if they lose all points of Willpower, and gain an additional point for each scene they spend within the aura without regaining Willpower. As before, Abyssals gain Resonance in place of Limit.” 
    • [ECG] Broken Messiah Benediction : “upgrades Endless Torment Emanation. The Infernal may activate it to target a character, requiring that they touch them to bestow Cecelyne's favor upon them. The spiritual aura created by Endless Torment Emanation is centered on the target, although the Infernal may choose whether or not he is affected by it, carving out a spiritual niche at the center of the blight if she wishes to bestow a blessing, rather than a curse. At Essence 5, the Infernal may re-activate this Charm to maintain her curse on a character whenever its duration ends naturally (but not when dispelled). Her target must be within the same realm of existence as her, and she must succeed on a (Charisma + Occult) roll at a difficulty of the target's Essence in order to maintain it. This counts as an entirely new effect, allowing the target another chance to using relevant defenses against it.”
  5. If you have multiple charms that would cause Unnatural Mental Influence, the way that they stack is that each added UMI-causing effect (probably a charm) beyond the first raises the Willpower cost to resist by 1 to a max of your Essence. A target may bypass this extra cost by stunting if they can Channel their highest Virtue when resisting it mentally (this would reduce the cost from max Ess to 1w for the first UMI, and then 1W 1Virtue Channel for all of the rest). This cost adjustment applies both to the cost in willpower to reject the influence temporarily (e.g. for an action) as well as permanently (e.g. you must normally spend 5 willpower to permanently get rid of the base effect).
  6. Towers Rise Again: These limbs may be integrated within a day, just like stolen limbs from You Are What You Eat. 
  7. Urban Hell Renovation: Calloused City Growth or Impossible Freedoms Imagined are enough to substitute for the prerequisite 1st Malfean Excellency. 
  8. Swarm Damage interacts mechanically as per a weapon being wielded by the controller, and does not mechanically track individual members of the swarm doing attacks.
  9. Instruction From Mother: Style’s in this case should read “Martial Arts Styles” and the ‘three dots’ should read “...either 3 MA charms from a single style, or a Form charm…”, and the limit on teaching is that you cannot teach what you do not know.
  10. Just in case it is unclear: when Metagaos charms say “you count as touching and tasting” your self-seed infectees, and that you can “deliver bite attacks” through them. That also allows you to deliver touch effects, either with a bite or not. The mechanics are otherwise identical.
  11. When treating Old Age as a Crippling Effect to treat, you may choose what age they look like afterwards.
  12. Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion [Malfeas; HBC]: this submission causes them to be Inactive unless explicitly directed otherwise by the infernal. Riding a horse is an example. Attempts to perform social attacks against them is possible by the infernal, but without a common tongue, what he can convey is limited.
  13. Know Your Place [Malfeas; 10K] Add in the following text. “At Essence 5+, this charm’s duration becomes indefinite. If you know World Ruling Intensity, then this duration becomes Permanent and it is automatically on, and is automatically applied to all actions which are either social or which allow you to address or otherwise be perceived by others (this includes actions outside of Social debate which demonstrate your might, in contravention of the normal Social rules [this is a permanent downside, of course]). If you also know Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion, in any scene where your spendor would be overwhelming to your lessers, you may take a miscellaneous action (this is a reversible toggle) to redirect that energy towards your Lord-Over-Beasts Dominion, causing that both that effect as well as Know Your Place to be applied automatically, to all valid Lord-Over-Beasts targets within (Ess) times the normal radius; this may be reverted at any time. While this redirection happens, Know Your Place uses normal (non-Permanent) costs and durations. Regardless of this redirection, the following permanent effect is added to this charm: characters who already have Intimacies of Terrified Awe towards you count each interaction with you, including just being able to see or hear you as once full scene spent reinforcing these Intimacies. You may choose to permit the coexistence of intimacies of Terrified Awe alongside those caused by your other charms, if they would normally replace one another.”
  14. Invincible Colossus Stature: this does not grant mutations. It is a permanent change to your base size. Remember that the reach of your charms and effects also increase based on your change of scale, so being 3x your normal (or rather 3x the size of a reference human) size makes the radius of your AoE power 3x longer (for example). 
  15. “Dreamstone is Resources 3 for a small one or Resources 4 for a big one. These are rare green opals primarily from the pit mines near Gem. If held while sleeping, they store and preserve your dreams. Small stones are about the size of an acorn and will catch the first dream of each night. Large gems are about the size of an apricot and can capture all dreams in a night. Anyone can then take the stone and touch it to their forehead to experience the stored dreams the next time they sleep, or may hold it for a time in a peaceful place to see the dreams as visions. The stone will hold the dreams until purged via a special meditative technique.” They are also called dream opal in Ex Core p55.
  16. Infernal Magical Materials Exist as a consequence of Vitriol / Theion To being included in the realm. These materials are just as fundamental as any other of the big five magical materials, save that Theion To was excluded from Creation in the Time of Glory, otherwise these infernal magical materials would be part of Creation’s Canon five; Adamant was similarly associated with Autochthon. Hepatizon is just as indestructible as Orichalchum. 
    1. New Metagaos Charm:

  17. Writhing Chirurgeon Bore-Worm

    Cost: 6m 1HL, Mins: Essence 4, Type: Simple

    Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious 

    Duration: Instant

    Prerequisites: Revisiting Old Wounds, Genesis of Predation, 

    Canker-Concealing Trunk Confusion, Pollen of a Writhing God, 

    Thousand-Folk Budding Buffet

    While Metagaos would never be associated with wellness, many things are offered to him, both as a sacrifice to foolishly attempt to avoid his attentions, as well as a way of getting rid of things that one would rather not own. In Malfeas, those demons who may have witnessed crimes or plots are knocked out and thrown hogtied into the bogs. In Creation, bastard children and onerous elders are sacrificed in his name. All of these things he eats, leaving not even the lingering taste of evidence in the air. Thus, when a mortal wishes to be cured of cancer, he must offer it up to Metagaos by sacrificially feeding it to one of the parasitic maws of the All-Hunger Blossom.

    This charm creates one of these parasitic maws, usually in the form of a writhing bore-worm, but the details vary as widely as potential hosts do. It matters not to the charm’s effectiveness. All forms will harden into cryptobiotic cysts if not immediately introduced to a suitable host; this form usually looks like a small gray lump and can be either swallowed, injected, ground up and inhaled, or mixed with water and applied topically. These cysts keep on their own for centuries, and are almost impossible to destroy; merely crushing or liquifying it does not destroy it, it just changes shape. A single activation produces enough of this parasite (or parasites) to infect a target for (Essence+Medicine) Days. During each day, the target loses enough body mass to the parasite to get a -1 Hunger Level (HL) penalty at the start of each day. Without any other actions or modifications, the target heals as though they were one of your Grey Walkers, but they do not get any immunity to disease or poison from this effect. Once a host's Hunger Penalty hits their (Stamina+Resistance-1; since Sta+Res total hunger penalty kills you per Ex Core p129, however, non-Infernal charms that would increase this are ignored by this effect, as the flesh of exalts and mortals is equally affected by this parasite), they cannot voluntarily pay any more flesh from their body to the parasite. Hosts that cannot pay this cost lose dots of Stamina instead, dying at Stamina 0 from this treatment. At Essence 5+, those who die in this way may be claimed as Grey Walkers for free, they may carry any diseases you wish upon ‘waking’. The target, so long as they have not yet become a Grey Walker, may also benefit from any passive immunities or resistances that your Grey Walkers would benefit from, at your option (the last paragraph elaborates on this). At Essence 6+, these dying souls can be reborn in their last moments as full priests under Thousand-Folk Budding Buffet, retroactively applying the appropriate Intimacies and infections in the process. 

    When you activate this charm, you may also activate any charms that you could use to effect a self-seed host or Grey Walker, but only those which provide immunities and heal crippling effects. For the duration of the charm, whenever those effects could be applied, they are automatically applied to the target again. This costs them -1 HL each time it happens, and if the effect costs HL or Willpower, they pay those costs too. Each time one of these effects would be applied, the daily cost goes up by -1 HL, which persists for the duration of the charm.

    Any changes that would require direct touch and surgery by you, such as surgery, adding mutations, or performing Genesis effects on them must likewise be paid ahead of time, and require that you have a sample of their flesh or blood that you use up in the process of making their personal batch (which does nothing when used by anyone besides that target).

    All products of this charm count as ‘making something for consumption’, or ‘cooking’ if it matters. The base fluid is his own flesh and blood as well, so it is up to him if he decides to taint it with his self-seed or blood or whatever else. You may also choose to leave targets susceptible to your toxins, leaving their immunity to poison or disease or whatever only partial. Other susceptibilities can be included too, but those require deciding ahead of time when preparing a dose, and cannot be changed afterwards. 

  18. Goat Build: “look at the extra space from Esoteric Inundation Investment in my errata, and apply it to a simple horse-drawn carriage that probably looks like a Sheep Carriage or a Shepherds Wagon. Instead of the stupid Manse thing. YES DO THIS, just replace the horse with a mutated goat. We treat the goat+the living yew carriage as one project. Goat-drawn carts are a historical real world fact, and this is just making the goat a little bit larger with Genesis/charms. Add self-seed (no specific  trigger, besides betrayal; not transmissible), with the following mutations (REV): Large(2; goat ram -> horse -> big-ass clydesdale; mechanically, we swap the base template creature to a Simhata (Ex p349) since size changes are weird, and add on the fluff that the Gore attack uses the same stats as a Bite), Alternate Form(2; Natural Swimmer, Substance Breather, Air-Downer), Involuntary Transformation(0; Alternate Form when immersed in water or other liquids), Natural Swimmer (4), Substance Breather(2; water), Air-Drowner(-6), Fast(6), Wall-Crawler(5), Creature of Darkness(-4), Cosmetic Mutation(0; shaggy coat hides most physical mutations unless closely examined),  Natural Armor(1; shaggy coat), Natural Tool (1; cart control), Jumper(base 2[+3=5]); this creature is specifically designed to that it’s form and it’s attachment to the cart work together, and it can move freely in all movement modes, taking the cart with it. The cart is part of this design, with slightly different presentation of the traits, obviously than the goat, but they are a pair, and this thing essentially become a yew-tree clad in exterior plates of my own teeth, to protect it against almost anything normal. As it’s a tree, it works fine in any environment, as well as having what looks like a decorative tree on top. That’s just the remnants of the original form. So he will still do the normal beach base thing, but once he is there, he will make this shrine. Instead of doing anything with a bus, he instead swims across the river to find feral goats on the island, and grabs one. The creation of all these things is now the focus, it should be more interesting than buses, and much more focused. Total time 48 hours of terrible rain but nothing else. His aim is to measure his effectiveness without giving anything away about his powers, as much as it is to keep people from seeing his works before they are ready. Back of the envelope calculation, the interior of the original cart (based on the size of early historical public transit buses) is 123 m^3, so the adjusted interior is 42k+ m^3, which is a small warehouse size. The signs are designed to be folded and flipped around, rather impossibly simple in their design, but actually let him hide or show different things without revealing that there are more options. ‘Hungry Joe’s House of Traditional Medicine and Arts’, with his signboard listing ‘gold, barter, or trade only ’, ‘sacrificial food/drink required’, and his services being ‘Traditional Medicine’ on one half, and ‘Traditional Arts’ on the other. Medical services are relatively cheap on his chart, as are mundane tattoos and piercings. All of their prices are based on basically giving him two food objects instead of one, or beer and food for example. Under the Traditional Medicine he also sells drugs and medicines for slightly more than that rate. Personal Enhancements are available, as is beautification and de-aging treatment, as well as longevity and mundane immortality treatments. Traditional Arts section has a number of weird things he can provide for fees, mostly anything from the old world he could grow in his lab; he can provide Sorcery casting as well as Artifact creation but that one is very expensive, aside from Demon-Ink Tattoos  or Demon Grafts. Many of these special treatments as well as custom stuff all take at least a day or two to do. This is a new version of one of his older designs, and he needs to gestate it in his stomach while he is working on the rest; he designed the Cart and the Tattoo and the goat to all be built within his  allotted time frame; there is ‘Esoteric Consultation’ under the Arts category, which includes all of his Cecelyne based wish granting its listed as ‘variable’ cost.”
  19. Artifact Tattoo Build: “New Franchise Artifact Tattoo:
    • base tattoo appearance: A spiraling kudzu vine bearing flowers around a large central one; this is an artwork blessed by Kimbery's aesthetics, and is clearly unnerving to gaze upon closely for it is impossibly detailed.
    • employee tattoo appearance: Determined by their specific employment contract
    • base mark appearance: Stencil of the Fools' mask that JFLM wears
    • base employee mark appearance: Determined by their specific employment contract
    • base mask appearance: Fools mask per the image I saved; he looks like an aboriginee with green eyes and a blonde afro.
    • base employee mask appearance: Determined by the specific employment contract
    • base: the tattoo can be on or off, when toggled on, it creates a specific disguise in the form of a specific mask and a specific 'disguise' that the mask applies to the rest of the body. The mask appears to be wood with various decorations possible, but is only compressed motes and not real material. It is not actually an illusion, as it is a self-shaping effect that leaves afterwards. The mask and the tattoo both count as your tongues, for sensory and charm purposes. If you 'take off the mask' (it reveals your specific disguise's face), you may lay it upon some object or location or person or contract to mark them with a specific mark, based on the nature of the 'franchise or employment contract' you have for the organization that you either run, are the head of, or are a duly appointed representative of in keeping with your employment contracts. Items and places marked in this way count as your tongues just like the mask does. Employment Contracts marked in this way may include granting them a 'employee' copy of the tattoo. That tattoo behaves exactly like your own, aside from the fact that it's purely a sorcerous marking upon them, which immediately ends if they are no longer your employee.
    •  "Hungry Joe's Mercantile Corporation" employment contract bullet points:
      1. 1: Temporary Labor; unable to offer employment contracts, unable to use branding marks. Mask rank mark is a big 'X' mark
      2. 2: Contractor; unable to offer employment contracts, unable to use branding; can order around Temporary Labor. Mask rank is a big 'O' mark.
      3. 3: Base Employee; able to offer only Temporary employment contract, able to use branding; can order around Temporary Labor. Mask rank is a single '-' mark. 
      4. 4: Supervisor; able to offer Temporary or Contractor employment contracts; able to use branding; can order around Temporary Labor and Contractors. Mask rank is a single '=' mark. Tattoos are individualized slightly.
      5. 5: Manager; able to offer any employment contracts below Manager; able to use branding; can order around anyone of Supervisor or lower rank. Mask rank is single '#' mark.  Tattoos are individualized slightly.”
      1. Standard subordinates masks are the same as the boss's mask, save that they have their employee rank on the forehead.
      2.  Standard subordinates disguises are generic mixed-race looking people, who are vaguely tan with brown hair and brown eyes.
      3.  Standard subordinates tattoos are single kudzu flowers clearly arranged in a kimbery-aesthics way. Don't look at it too closely, for it is impossibly detailed. These are clearly inspired by the real tattoo design.
      4.  Standard corporate ranks:
    • Name: Brand of the Unfolding Mercantile Corporation
    • Rank: 1 (base effect barely rank 1 then +1 for the company shares it part, and then -2 from that Heretic charm he knows; min Rank 1; Essence commitment = 1m-2m -> 0m)
    • Made from JFLM's own tongue flesh and sea water (not a demon ink tattoo, but a regular tattoo artifact)
    • Effects:
  20. Archived notes: 
    • Sultai CC: primordial order is oldest order, rule by the mighty over the weak
    • You are being offered a deal you cannot possibly afford with terms you cannot understand; it is not a gift, it is a binding non-refundable legal pact. The process for filing the paperwork is indeed arcane, but no less so than that used in the British commonwealths.
    • Thus, the Greed Is Good angle still works, it's not a gift so much as a legal deal that can technically be refused--an incredibly shady legal deal at that. Anyone smart would immediately flee to foreign lands seeking surgeons to remove any lingering self-seeds.
    • Canon CC BwC charm Inevitability of Law makes self-seed bearers skip directly to spending willpower to resist UMI no defense rolls allowed; seems pretty bullshit with the normal Self-Seed penalties.
    • Anyway I think CC is probably viable in theory this way, just not in a way that inspires me like Hegra does, I just need to keep the thin line with Hegra to avoid becoming Grim-derp and/or Darkness Fatigue. Ironically, CC has the same exact issue!
    • Inspiration Sources:
      1. The Eagles: Hotel California
      2. Big Iron: The Longest Johns
      3. That one locust song from YT
      4. Cult of The Lamb
      5. Dinkum
      6. Kenshi
      7. Huacachina
      8. The Outsider from Dishonored
      9. The Godfather
      10. Dune
      11. Trop Talk: Faustian Bargain
      12. TVTropes: Deal With The Devil 
      13. TVTropes: Magically Binding Contract
    • OK: I have thought it over with all of these considered. I still think HG is a better fit, just so long as I go subtle with her charms and don’t spam them
    • Yeah sleeping on it made me want CC; install Cult of the Lamb and Kenshi instead of the other options;
    • Alright: HG because madness and infamy specialist is his schtick not vaguely god-demon–lawyer.
    • OK 5-19-25 Update: I figured it out, and he can offer Magically Binding Contracts and Deals With The Devil, which sounds to my ear like Business deals conducted by Mafia Bigshots like the Don/Godfather; he can do all that in addition to calling upon a wide variety of ‘fuck you powers’ on the social end, as well as dozens of way to destroy the lands (into deserts and locusts usually) or call up a number of sandstrike blast upgrades that make persistent sandstorms that kill you pretty fast or you can turn into one thats at least a mile wide. This makes an actual angle for JFLM to be able to offer deals that people will foolishly accept, while HG offers nothing lasting, CC’s bargains are always fulfilled for the bargainer (immediately more or less too), while the thing that is paid is neither their souls (why would JFLM want souls?) nor is it impossible nor does it kill them. It is limited to at-most a month of service that cannot be refused per bargain. As well, smart bargainers can simply run away and hope that they can avoid the notice of JFLM so that they will never be found for the bargain to be invoked while those aware of their self-seed infection status will likewise need a competent surgeon to excise that from their flesh since both are required to get the most insane fuck-you powers to work on them.
    • List of things he can grant with Verdant Emptiness Endowment (range is at least a mile and may be online, perhaps inheriting it from the leadership in an org; lots of extra penalties for breaking too including damage/death losing benefits for failing a clause):
      1. Traits
      2. Backgrounds (Most, Including other people’s stuff)
      3. Mutations
      4. Locusts
      5. Literally any Charm (besides Martial Arts Charms you don’t know)
      6. Martial Arts Charms (that you know)
      7. Degrees in Thaumaturgy (any that the target is ‘capable’ of qualifying for)
      8. Attributes
      9. Abilities
      10. Specialties
      11. Instant healing including Crippling effects
      1. True Love (technically shared Intimacies and mind control)
      2. Sorcery Spells I know (native ones get translated into normal non-native equivalents)
      3. Multiple ‘bound’ Demons (they perform some task and ignore the wishes of their charge unless directed otherwise)
      4. Immortality and Eternal Youth (technically adding +100+Ess*25 [+275 years to their current life span])
      5. Ordination into being a priest of yours
      6. Free/discounted VEE activations for priests or cult members
      1. The ability to cast VEE to Essence users (Desolate Monument Scheme is complicated)
      2. Wishing for someone else’s behalf (Altruism Mocking Desiccation is complicated)
      3. Rebirth into a Demon-self possessing your old corpse (Pneuma-Moulding Marvelous Muneration is very complicated)
      1. Canon (including INF, BwC, INK, INKMOD; INK p56 Miracle Gift Mastery very important multiple dots per gift and only one debt as well as mortals getting Training while in XP debt)
      2. ECG:
      3. HBC:
    • Yeah, this is actually pretty easy to write compared to the ‘its always drugs’ angle from HG, while making all of those options available too via his Kim/Mtg Crafting charms and Kim/Mtg/Malf for the king being terrifying/predatory/eldritch-horror. I can also cause slower madness via Diseases and Mutations (all mental illnesses are one of either in the game and Kimbery can rain ‘Mutation: Derangement  (Fear of Clowns)’ for example. Mtg can also track people who try to run perfectly, provided he is anywhere near them to start with. CC can also offer to ‘scour the flesh from their bones’ or be ‘devoured alive by locusts’. Chimeric Delirium still lets general Illusions like oWoD Chim as well as infectious illusions with upgrades.  Fang Missile Method lets me turn any attack into a bite attack; Tainted Sandstrike Blast!
    • OK lets sleep on this one; so long as it’s not dumb, it’s probably a better long  term thing that won’t have him spamming ‘hyperaddiction’ constantly
    • ALSO: I briefly overestimated how uncommon reasonably competent Trumps  classification is (way more common including ones that are basically unlimited unlike his which has a hard cap on Willpower use per day)
    • Alright, I tried swapping to HG 3 times and sleeping on it again: no dice, Cece will be a challenge to write, but it should be less one-note than HG. CC keeps me just outside of the grim-derp because I can actually help people who keep their oaths, instead of only having one option.
    • NOTE: After filing that Azure-edged paperwork he begins to feel himself getting reconnected to the faith mechanisms of his infernal cult in Creation and Malfeas, greatly delayed it seems.
    • This calls to me despite changing more that HG I think one more pass to smooth things out should be enough
    • Remember that INF/Rage keyword charms are modified per Boar to be essentially only triggered by denying him what he is trying to consume, unless you go out of your way to actually damage him a lot and are a credible threat that isn’t so far beneath him that you are an ant biting at a boot (per CC’s charms). Then he needed to spend willpower to suppress it for the scene, unless he redirects it into consumption. Case in point, he would have been Rage-ing in the scene with Lung, if he wasn’t actually able to keep eating his prize. I can totally work with that!
    • Oasis order: use Metagaos to claim the local flora and fauna, then use Holy Land Infliction to desert the area around save for your magical shit, then use either the Kimbery Dark Waters charm to claim existing waters or Whispering Up From Below [HBC p191] to make a mile-wide lake out of underground connections to kimbery making it a mile deep lake too (Lake Baikal is deeper, slightly; you mush decide when invoking this charm whether the end result will be freshwater, seawater, hypersaline brines, or any combination of that and the many expressions of Kimbery’s waters that you can imagine including having an https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchialine_system  connection to either Kimbery or mundane seas, underground caves systems like karsts, etc; remember that Kimbery canonically connects to all hidden places in almost this exact way; there is the option to connect to the hidden hot parts of the mantle too, making geothermal hotspings, or the reverse making places irrationally (perhaps by pulling water around to mess with vapor pressures or mixing in deep cold toxic brines that are impossibly cold already) colder than they should be, usually with indigo rime around the shores ). Then depending on your desires, either make it a home or make it a trap, or make it a hidden smuggler's base, or whatever.
    • FROM HG Version: 
      1. Fixes applied: locust farm ref done; everything else is just good background context. Notes that he gets sick of only eating  locusts eventually, just like MTG eventually gets sick of eating his own limbs.
      2. Fixed: added 2 extra martial arts styles to bring it up from 7 to 9; with CC Style being canonically used against the Lintha in the Primordial war, and the last one Infernal Monster Style so I have actual charms to point out to make him actually scary like before, just a berserker who starts with Gluttonous Boar Approach first before getting actually furious. Fortunately no more HG means that I can actually stay sane unless someone really ticks me off and steals my food. Figures it out: greed is good wants to own things, INF generally destroys those things that you might own, so those that would trigger it probably get a grudge for forcing him to bite his own tongue to restrain himself from putting them in the dirt.
      3. “~NOTE-TO-SELF: Keep this version, it’s not OP and I won’t need to explain why he theoretically had all kinds of powers that would have prevented him starving in the staircase, as well as being able to do space-warping powers and summoning demons constantly. That is just more endless rewrites! Possible Solutions:
    • I am having troubles writing Hegra
    • I have minimized Hegra in my current writing, but it will show up eventually
    • Hegra is either edge-lord pain fetishist or it-was-all-a-dream episodes that I hate
    • What I want to consider is Hegra->Cecelyne
    • Keep basically everything else the same, including the important Lintha + Sheridan caste plus devouring urge from Metagaos
    • Verdant Desolation Understanding makes Meta work with ‘place of physical or spiritual desolation’ because literally nothing natural can live there without becoming unnatural, it means that the sea stuff jives fine so long as you mix all three together; counting infected as demons is crazy good, as is the elimination of the Metagaos inconsistencies with desolated areas. 
    • Cece goes really good with his long term job as a Dictator, and lets him make ‘deals with the devil’ where you can make seemingly good deals that have a death sentence if violated. Generally its to do some non-specific deal once in the future; the similarities to the Godfather is good for a Lintha dictator/merchant/doctor
    • Grixis (Esper does not fit the ‘arbitrary and capricious hypocrisy of placing the weak beneath the strong not because it is right, but because you are strong enough to force it’)
    • OK sheet updated, charms updated, basic text updated via search/replace Hegra, and looking for addict and hallucination; it’s obvious how I tried to remove Hegra. Cecelyne has like 2 or 3 weather charms, but they are all basically sandstorm shintais or permanent sandstorms that don’t really interact with the other weather charms being a single kind of weather instead of weather changing charms.
    • STill need to slightly tweak the scenes to see if there is anywhere that need changing, but save that for this weekend, 
    • Did initial pass to tag FIXME for a few places that needed tweaking to Cece it up
    • Still need to do final front to back review to sanity check it, and note anywhere that needs tweaking or is a good place to fill in extra stuff
    • OK the great thing about that Verdant Desolation Understanding charm is that the exact words are ‘as well as the hosts of the Self-Seed to be counted as 'demons' for the purposes of desolation charms, including treating them as actual demons if your Essence is higher than theirs.’
    • I assume this follows the idiom that anything that is just a generic demon means that they qualify as the average demon in hell, the 1st Circle Demons, since your Essence is already higher
    • Mention that your locusts double as seed carriers for  Luscious Jungle Germination in chapter 9
    • Remember, we are more like the Godfather ‘look dont ask how the sausage gets made just remember that you got a debt now’ than a proper cult leader or god; we are the object of worship due to our Self-Seed mind control angle more (just like before), just now we have the option to ‘generously’ answer requests with actual things instead of just rain or drugs or dreams
    • Our most common response to prayers is handing out self-seed infested locust to eat, since that costs nothing compared to normal wishes
    • CC cult title: “He-Who-Waits Demiurgos of The Order of the Locust”
    • HG cult title: “Screaming-Gap Demiurgos of The Cult of the Dreaming Butterfly”
    • OK: it turns out that An-Teng all the way to Lap is the legit border between the West and the South, including plenty of info from pages Ex54-55 about the weather and nature of An-Teng being essentially a mixture of hot arid lowlands, temperate forested highlands, up to cold inhospitable mineral rich mountains. The Fire Mountains mountain range is the middle of the area between An-Teng and Lap, and everything south of Lap is obviously Cece-favoring.
    • This tells me that, since he did not actually conquer the Southern reaches instead of where his really did in the border of teh south and west, that he cannot thrive there, so canonically he cannot have been Cece-favoring! Finally a counter example!
    • note: having canonically stopped at Lap due to the fact that his men couldn't keep going, it would make more sense if his strategy hinged on being able to hide in either the woods, seas, or the southern wastes just south of his eventual borders. Especially when your cult is a mixture of self-seed bearers and normal worshipers cult
    • Now, long story short, CC gives wish granting and commanding demons/self-seed carriers easier however, they already had those negatives from MTG in the first place, and HG has the unique angle he literally can drive people mad with his attentions
    • (because I am well aware of things being hard to think through all at once, I am keeping both sets of programs installed until I sleep on it with the Cece style cult vs the HG style cult; he almost has contempt for his worshipers in HG vs Cece being more like a mixture of a wish-granting monkey's paw and Mafia Godfather )
    • CC style cult doesn’t make sense for him; his moral compass says greed is good and does business, while the worship angle is vaguely the wrong flavor; HG’s cult are those addicts and madmen who he vaguely has contempt for since they ask for things for free. This is the thing that should rule out CC, not the others!
    • Great! It’s done! CC doesn’t fit with Greed Is Good, and regardless of how it might seem like Godfather, it’s just not. [CONSIDER THIS]:
  • Speak all languages with Hundred Demons Curriculum only applied to Self-Seed hosts, not everyone
  • Space-Warping: this almost always only applies in places that are ‘journey-scale’ and not local scenes
  • Summoning Demons: Don’t summon demons unless you need specific demons like that translator
  • Starving on the Endless Staircase: yeah add in a single line about ‘farming locusts’ to avoid eating only stone: remember the real issue is that it had almost no mote regeneration at all.
  • Granting Wishes is too easy: most people won’t just take that offer, no matter how desperate, and the ones the would generally are the weakest and least useful people to work with. Remember that he can advertise ‘esoteric consultation’ services for the modern nights, and just kept the wish-granting stuff as a specific service he could offer but given how terrifying he wound up being, no one was dumb enough to take him up on it without a lot of convincing. In context, it was mostly handled by the apparatus of his cult, and very rarely in person. Otherwise it was kind of like taking out an occult loan from the Godfather.“
  1. Archived notes: Random Encounter Table for JFLM at night (default at debut with no reputation at all) After rolling 4dF (4 Fate/Fudge/’0/+/-’ on a d3/d6):
  • -4: Catastrophically bad encounter default to a fight scene immediately, bad here means either very visible, very outnumbered, or very important enemy faction
  • -3: Run into someone who is an enemy who is not a potential customer at all, and they definitely either already have a group, or are able to call their backup.
  • -2: Run into someone who is an enemy  who is not a potential customer, but you can probably talk to them before anything important starts.
  • -1: Run into someone who is an enemy who may or may not be a potential customer.
  • 0: Run into someone neutral who may or may not be a potential customer.
  • 1:  Run into someone neutral who is  a potential customer.
  • 2:  Run into someone friendly who is  a potential customer.
  • 3:  Run into someone neutral or friendly who sought you out specifically to buy something or partake of services.
  • 4: Run into someone friendly who sought you out specifically to buy something or partake of services, and can be addressed about side-jobs or long term contracts.

 

  • ~ OFFICIAL FIRST ENCOUNTER ROLL: 4dF = -2 ABB squad out scouting their borders for fresh tags, they do not recognize JFLM, and since he’s not specifically Asian, they aren’t recruiting. They are not actively hostile, but are not here for anything other than a dog marking it’s territory. The mobile cart part doesn’t register to them as something in their turf that needs ‘integration’ 
  •  



=== 

 

Archival Community Sources 

(stand against the bitrot)

 

Extended Infernal Magical Materials 



(source link: http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/exalted/464774-infernal-magical-materials/page2 )

I don't know whether I would change all the above mechanical ideas if I wanted vitriol-aspected Jade to be a separate thing from Hepatizon. I still don't know if a new Jade color, on top of Hepatizon, would be too much cheese. Vitriolic Jade would probably carry the hate and bitterness themes, along with the theme of dissolving things (from Ink Monkeys Infernal geomancy, vitriolic themes include: acid, atrophy, corrosion, damage, decay, degeneration, depression, destruction, emotions (negative), evolution, hate, mutation, patience, refinement, resentment, resistance, revenge, ruins, rust, scarring, stoicism).

 

Hepatizon would also reflect hate and bitterness, but would have authority and pain themes from Malfeas, and of hunger due to hepatizon's association with Metagaos.

 

Those two sets of themes look like they'd produce very similar bonuses for weapons and armor, though. I dunno.

 

Corroding acid: 1 automatic damage to non-magical armor, +? damage

Armor bonus: (like regular Jade)

 

Hate/Bitterness: + accuracy, + damage, and/or convert 1 damage die to automatic success in Step 10

 

Pain: targets hit with it have +1 difficulty to resist Stun and Knockdown

Authority (similar to Brimstone): +50 yards range (archery) or +10 yards range (thrown); +hardness on armor?

Hunger/Parasitism: how to make this unlike Green Jade? reduce bearer's healing times based on health levels dealt with a weapon, instead of stealing motes?




EDIT: I won't necro this thread when everyone is talking all about 3E, but unless I get some feedback on balance I think I have got the bonuses for Vitriolic Jade and Hepatizon. I'm a bit concerned that Hepatizon armor is too weak and that melee weapons are too strong.

 

The demon realm has infernal variants of adamant, jade, and moonsilver, and a unique magical material named hepatizon. Not including jade, the three "infernal metals" must be laboriously refined, in similar fashion to the celestial metals of Creation; but despite with the abundance of the raw materials for their creation, not many demon souls are able or inclined to refine magical "metals". For millennia most hellforged artifacts intended for the hands of Infernal Exalted were crafted from jade, simply because most akuma have been Dragon-Blooded. Most ancient infernal relics of storied history and powerful evocations are jade -- but artifacts commissioned for the new Princes are often of adamant or hepatizon instead. Learning to refine "infernal metals" for themselves takes more persistance and patronage, but because the raw materials are so abundant the potential for the panoplies of the Green Sun Princes is great indeed. Already, hepatizon and adamant are less rare than perhaps ever before in infernal history.



In order of relative abundance and availability today, the magical materials are:

 

Vitriolic Jade

Infernal jade is a sixth color of jade, one influenced by the Essence of the corrosive element vitriol. While it needs no refining and is easier to work than all other infernal magical materials, it can only be mined from vitriol-aspected demesnes in the demon realm, and many such demesnes produce no jade at all. Furthermore, the right to quarry deeply into the body of one of the Yozis is not granted to just anybody, even among the Exalted -- most productive quarries are owned and tightly controlled by an Unquestionable descended from the Yozi whose world-body contains the demesne, and mining even from one's own personal demesne is still illegal without permission from one of the Yozi's Third Circle souls. From these mines jade flows into the Malfean economy in markedly less abundance than jade in Creation.

____ Appearance: Jade aspected to vitriol is a pale, sickly yellow color with a greenish tinge. It is obviously jade, but closely resembles yellow jade. If the jade is alloyed with Malfean green iron or steel, it takes on an appearance closer to green jade.

____ Weapons: Vitriol seethes with the hate and venom of the imprisoned Creators, and dissolves every substance it touches. Vitriolic jade weapons, though not nearly as corrosive, deal +1 damage, and burn non-magical armor and clothing like acid. On a successful hit, such a weapon deals 1 unsoakable damage to the target's armor or clothes.

____ Armor crafted from vitriolic jade provides attuned wearers with the same bonuses as other jade armor.



Hepatizon

Hepatizon is a magical metal derived from infernal brass (refined with demon blood, green sunlight, and vitriol). Some demons tell rumors of pure hepatizon veins running under the sucking bogs of Metagaos, but fools who dare to seek it rarely return. It resonates with the Essence of both Malfeas and Metagaos.

____ Appearance: Hepatizon is a dark, brown-purple or black-blue metal with an appearance somewhat like bronze. Its colors and lustre are as beautiful as any celestial magical material, though their somewhat patchy arrangement gives an overall impression of corroded and burnt metal.

____ Melee Weapons: Hepatizon hungers to punish foes and consume their life, and the burning rage of the Malfeas sears flesh with every strike. Melee weapons forged from hepatizon gain a +1 bonus to both Accuracy and damage. On each successful strike, convert one die of post soak damage to an automatic success in Step 10. Finally, the wielder's wounds heal more rapidly after they have absorbed the life-force of their victims: after striking a living target, reduce wound healing times by the wielder's (Essence) days, to a maximum of (health levels of damage dealt by the attack).

____ Ranged Weapons: Who in any world is beyond the hate and rightful authority of Malfeas? What under the light of any sky is not coveted by the greed of Metagaos? Nothing and no one. Hepatizon bows add 50 yards to their range (thrown weapons add 10 yards). All ranged weapons forged from hepatizon gain +1 Accuracy, and deal especially painful wounds: rolls to resist Stunning and Knockdown caused by these weapons are made at +1 difficulty.

____ Armor: By the laws of the Primordial order, lesser beings have no right to oppose their betters. Those who dare to harm the Infernal Exalted find the very force of their blows subsumed by hepatizon's hunger. Armor forged in hepatizon gains +2 to both Hardness values, and +1 to both soak values.



Cecelynian Adamant

Adamant forged from Cecelynian glass has the same magical material bonus as any other adamant, and is almost identical in appearance; the base color is closer to grey than blue, and it refracts indirect light in a duller red hue.

 

Infernal Moonsilver

Moonsilver remains the rarest true magical material native to Hell, and very few Green Sun Princes prefer it. There are three varieties, identical to Creation's moonsilver in magical material bonuses but differing in origin and appearance.

____ White Moonsilver is somewhat more common than the other colors of infernal moonsilver. Forged from the silver wood of Szoreny himself, it's paler than Creation's moonsilver and more reflective.

____ Crimson Moonsilver must be refined from crimson silver. It resembles normal moonsilver in every particular except its blood-red color.

____ Opalescent Moonsilver can only be made from silver steeped in the Essence of Oramus -- for example, that obtained from Mursilis, the Skittering Jungle. It has an odd opalescent luster with pale, shifting gleams of many different colors.



Notes:

Evocations

When designing Evocations for infernal artifacts, consider the themes of vitriol, or the Yozi most closely associated with the magical material. Look at the themes in the Ink Monkeys Collection: infernal geomancy.

 

Identifying Infernal Artifacts

Infernal magical materials are just as obviously magical as their counterparts in Creation, but that doesn't mean that the average savant recognizes them for what they are. Without familiarity with Creation's magical materials (or at least samples and time to make comparisons) even learned savants can mistake these obscure materials for something else they already know of (note that occultists have usually never heard of adamant or yellow jade). The roll to realize the difference is Intelligence + Occult. When carefully comparing samples of two materials side-by-side reduces, the difficulty is never greater than 2. 

 

Infernal Magical Material

Can be mistaken for... 

Difficulty to tell the difference

Vitriolic jade

yellow jade

4

Jade alloyed with green metal

green jade

2

Hepatizon

nothing else

0

Cecelynian adamant

Creation adamant

5

White moonsilver 

Creation moonsilver

3

Opalescent moonsilver

Creation moonsilver

3

Crimson moonsilver

red jade

1




--

[ Wiki ]

Why the Yozis are Right (And You Should Suffer and Obey For All Eternity)

If the Abyssals are Evil Buddhists and the Sidereals represent a sort of utilitarianism taken to its High-Conviction conclusion and the Dragon-Blooded represent the idea of positive law, and Fair Folk what happens when you have to view reality as a story and not so much reality - other people can phrase all that better than I; Stephenls, are you listening? - the Infernals are basically Divine Command Theory. Like all the splats they basically have a reason and a developed ethical system that impells them to do what they do, and that system is - the Primordials are Right.

The Primordials created the world. They fastened its bases from pure chaos and built up a bubble of reality. Gaia and Cytherea built the Creation known by most mortals, while others laid the foundations of Yu Shan, wrote the rules for the Games of Divinity, and invented things like gravity and hierarchy and romantic love. Autochthon gets called the Great Maker by the bacteria living in his belly because he's the only one they know, and gets called a Mary Sue because he made humanity and the pattern spiders and Exaltation, but they all did stuff like that. The Primordials are all Great Makers - it's why they formed themselves into solid shapes and implemented grand visions instead of staying in protean, aproggressing chaos like all the other Unshaped, if you subscribe to that metaphysic.

And with the Primordials there isn't all that much of a difference between "making" and "being." And they made, did, expanded out everything that exists, and you know how at the end of the day you just want to sit back and have a beer? Damn right you do! And so they came up with these nifty subroutines so they could just take a fucking break, right? Some awesome robots, and even set up in a nice hierarchical system, so everybody's pet creations can get overseen by these spiritual subroutines that are overseen by these neato "Incarna" bots...

And then everything went to shit. The housecleaning-bots turned malfunctional and took everything over and locked their parents , their creators, the beings responsible for their very existence up , but not, before, mind you, actually killing some of the Makers of All, allowing so so many intelligent races to die, and killing some their very souls , mutilating them into wholly different identities.

What kind of sick fuck murders half of her loving parents and grandparents , destroys some of their souls, their hearts, their very beings, and locks everybody living left together in a cage composted of their own bodies?

And the Yozis are the Primordials who have survived this. They have carried on, because they have not forgotten creation, and those among them who put faulty programming into the bots to make them go nutso, and because they must carry on, because they are Will and Making and Vision themselves.

And you are an Infernal. In a previous life, you mutilated your mother and tied her up, binding her flesh to your father's - and all so this creepy man down the street could live the high life in their beautiful house that they built with their bare hands. Now your mother, crying, is calling for help. Guilt overcomes you, guilt defines your existence. You know what you did was wrong. You have to make it up, somehow. Mommy says you and all the other rebellious children have to be punished, and you, contrite in your heart, understand. You will submit to it. O dear god, how could you hurt your mother so?

In your heart, will she ever forgive you? Maybe, maybe; she's still your mother and she loves you - now, now is time to untie her, to cure her wounds, and round all the other children up for punishment. Not because it will spare you that punishment in the least - not that you'd want to be spared that, overcome with guilt as you are - but because it's just the right thing to do and because you want be regarded, someday, in the end, as a good child again. It's going to hurt her more than it hurts you, ultimately.

And they have taken mercy on you. They have said to you, little child, little child whom we parents love, we know that you hurt us, we know that you did this to us, and you and the rest of Creation will have to be punished for hurting us, because we love you. But you'll make us very proud if you help us accomplish that - we'll in the end, forgive you, look with pride at you among all the rebellious creation, because you are our prodigal son or daughter.

Won't you make your loving parents proud?

(Or hear it straight from the source.)

But how is that the action of a loving parent? The Yozis are horrible stewards of Creation, the wayward student observes. Here, calmly explains the Infernal, if emotion shall not suffice, perhaps intellect will. Here is how the Primordials love you:

The love a Primordial feels for its creation is the love one feels for a thing that one has created and that does its job excellently. Look at it this way:

What is objectively best for a thing? To fulfill excellency? What is excellency? To fulfill its purpose, to be itself most fully. This is all tautological. An excellent knife, for instance, is a knife that cuts well, doesn't rest, is aesthetically appealing, et cetera. If you take pride and love in your knife then you keep it sharp, polish it, and maybe even keep it in its own leather container.

What is an excellent tree? One that grows, that doesn't get weird infections, that produces fruit that is good to eat, that provides a home for birds, that provides shade, that doesn't mess up the erosion patterns of the local environment. If you chop it down, it will provide good, sturdy wood. An excellent flower, likewise, is pretty, whether in the ground or in a vase, provides polination for bees, does not inhibit the growth of flowers around it, and maybe even has medicinal properties. A good gardener - who can truly be said to "love" her garden - will go around and uproot the bad flowers, she will take careful track of the soil, and she will find a way to arrange all the flowers harmoniously, beautifully, and creatively. It's what is best for the flowers - how flowers become the best flowers they can be. A good arborist will cut off diseased limbs, and good forest managers understand that forest fires play a natural role that helps forests to be the most excellent forests that they can possibly be.

Consider a bonsai tree. Its growth is stunted. Do its caretakers hate it? No. They are good, loving caretakers - they want it to be a good bonsai tree, beautiful and touching precious.

When girls' feet were likewise bound, was that because their parents hated them, or didn't care for them? No. Their parents did it because they loved them. They wanted them to be as beautiful as possible. What about circumscision? Do parents go through a bris because of hate or neglect? No, the do it out of love for their son. They want him to be as pleasing before G-d as possible. They want him to be fully a member of the community. They want the best for him.

Some child wants to do nothing more than eat candy and watch TV all day. The parents will not have it! They take away the candy, which makes the child happy, and the TV, which makes the child happy, and force them to eat vegetables, which are painful, and read books, which are torture. How could the parents be so cruel? "You hate me!" screams the child at his parents. "You hate me! You never let me do anything I want!" This breaks the hearts of the parents. They love him so much, they want the best for him. Do eating candy and watching TV (and being able to use the house for some party while the parents are away, et cetera.) objectively make him much happier than eating vegetables and reading books? Yes. Categorically. But it is the negligent parent that lets him do what he wants, be truly happy in this regard. The loving parent abrogrates this preference - "hurts" if you're using that way of looking at things - in order that the child might be a more excellent person.

What is a patriot? A patriot is somebody who loves their country. "Stand beside her, and guide her..." A patriot wants her country to be the best country that it can possibly become. A patriot isn't someone who dreams of her country falling into idyll - a patriot, a hero, understands that there are sacrifices that must be endured to make the country as best as possible.

What is most excellent for a thing is for that thing to be most excellent, and if you love a thing, you will promote its true best interests - being all that it can be. Its subjective states of happiness and unhappiness are categorically not what that is. States of happiness and unhappiness in humans and other intelligent beings are subroutines that were part of their most pussiant design, a feature created - just like feet, or hands - so that it might most fully fulfill its purpose. And if it's not working towards that purpose then, for the sake of the being of which it's a part, that has to remedied. That's what love - or at least the kind of love with which we're concerned here - is.

The Abyssals' mission is purely destructive, the Fair Folks' totally senseless, the Sidereals' only to preserve the status quo, the Solars' and Dragon-Blooded's and Lunars' and Guild's for nothing but pure and petty power. The mission of the Yozis is purely and uniquely soteriological. They propose to heal a broken world, not by petty secular standards, but by the only standards that truly matter.

And that, dear child, is why you should suffer and obey, repent and adore, for ever and ever.




--

 

AO3-specific Changelogs:

  • 20250828: added "Because I don’t want it to be boring, the Endbringers are unbound Wyld Behemoths, not demonic ones. Shards cannot be perceived unless they are actively reproducing/installing themselves, otherwise they don't exist in this plane at all. Even then, when they are in this world doing their reproduction/installation they are immaterial and follow the normal rules for things like gods and spirits." to the setting notes; clarified the infernal wonder text too, per "Shards work exactly like Infernal Wonders in Graft form (brain implants), save that they are not actual Infernal Wonders, they just work like them for convenience sake." Also remplaced some notes about Hegra with Cecelyne references.
  • 20260303: added Tiger-and-Bear Awareness and Tiger-and-Bear Unity from the DB book, because he obviously taught mortals martial arts, but this pair of charms is the canon way that non-Imperial folks who have records from before the Usurpation would do that. 
  • 20260403: I accidentally deleted my new custom Metagoas mediine charm: Writhing Chirurgeon Bore-Worm