A Ninth Nation?

It's not so much about balance, as a lack of spark or imagination. Not that I'm accusing you of not having any, but a simple translation like that...it's sort of generic and simple.


Mind you, I already came up with my system to handle this sort of thing, and I adapt it to other d10 games, and sometimes expand or contract the rules set, depending on the game setting.


That, and my players enjoy the process of finding and combing through lists and minutia to find their goodies, as opposed to a generic list that anyone can get.


They prefer more specific and direct applications, as opposed to sort of general lists. Which is why the Martial Arts Techniques system came about as well, to give players who really like to build things in a very specific fashion that kind of involvement.
 
It's easier sometimes to convert something familiar into something new, especially if you are concerned more with the background material than the specific mechanisms.  I had a completely unrelated question though, has anyone created a nonhuman race, one that wasn't a varient of the Dragon Kings or Fair Folk, for Exalted yet?  I'm working on an undead one, but I was wondering if anyone had fully developed a living one.  I don't mean furry humans with Essence Channeler either, I have a set of rules concerning those type of nonhumans awaiting approval.  I mean a type of nonhuman as different from the Exalted as the Dragon Kings are.
 
It's easier sometimes to convert something familiar into something new' date=' especially if you are concerned more with the background material than the specific mechanisms.  I had a completely unrelated question though, has anyone created a nonhuman race, one that wasn't a varient of the Dragon Kings or Fair Folk, for Exalted yet?  I'm working on an undead one, but I was wondering if anyone had fully developed a living one.  I don't mean furry humans with Essence Channeler either, I have a set of rules concerning those type of nonhumans awaiting approval.  I mean a type of nonhuman as different from the Exalted as the Dragon Kings are.[/quote']
Whip out your Star Wars races book....


And as for Jukashi, a bottle of Bailey's or St. Brendan's to the head ought to shut him up.


Here, Dragon King, Dragon King.
Click to expand...
 
I just like to create a LOT of specifics.  For instance the Wyld Mutation charts that I use are modified from the Warcraft mutations tables. That's about two hundred results of varying fun.


Same with Demon creation, I often use modified versions of the Warcraft Daemon creation tables to put together First and Second Circle Demons on the fly.  Again, using d1000 to generate a lot of details. About 200 results for both power levels.


Same with expanded Spirit Charms and attributes, for pulling together odd and unique critters of the Spirit Realms or Elementals on the down low. About 200 results.


Give me a few minutes, and I'll retcon a reason for the why they have metal bones and and blue flames around the face of a skeletal goat. In the mean time I have a fair idea of some nifty powerz and some very solid details on their appearance and tactics.


I do much the same with Artifacts on the fly.  I can put together Artifacts from a few random tables of varying levels.  Around 200 separate results, 40 or so for each power level.


Theme can be negotiated later, and edited before I put them out there, but I like a wide playing field to start with. Wider than just the Charms lists.


Again, with a few tables, and about fifteen minutes, I can put out unique races and creatures.  Not Exalts, not even God Blooded, but just odd races, and forgotten things, cast offs and rejects.  And few with anything resembling the normal Charms lists, that I have to admit, my players have read through and through.


I find if you have a lot of options, it gives you a lot of leeway to build just odd things, or bring a lot of details to the players that you might not think of, off the bat.  Or recognize right off the bat, which keeps them on their toes, and worried less about surreptitiously searching through the book for the best counter to Charm, and instead just listening to the description and what the thing is doing.
 
Ok, here's one.


***


Bonesculptors


Created by the Solar Exalted in the First Age, Bonesculptors were made as artisans and shock troops to serve the Exalted. Their name comes from their ability to shape their own skeleton at will; they may grow, re-absorb and alter their bones in simple ways almost instantly. Most often, they were employed to create objects from their own bones, which were the next best thing compared to the Magical Materials. In the Age of Sorrows, there remain about two hundred Bonesculptors scattered through Yu-Shan, some small groups in the far northeast who have turned to a barbarian lifestyle, and perhaps a few in magical hibernation in the pre-Usurpation tombs of Celestial Exalted, waiting for their masters to be reborn and reawaken them.


Bonesculptors somewhat resemble bovid beastmen, ranging from goat to gazelle or otherwise depending on their precise heritage, but are very tall (about nine to twelve feet) and long-limbed with many bony outgrowths on their head, back, and joints. They shared a somewhat symbiotic relationship with the Silverleaf tree, a plant made alongside them; the tree collects moonlight in its leaves at night, collecting it in its fruit which, when eaten by Bonesculptors, grants their bones some of the qualities of moonsilver. Without the trees, Bonesculptors lose their extraordinary abilities, so they made sure to look after them.


Bonesculptors can never awaken their Essence, as all of their essence is bound up in their body. They can, however, use mortal thaumaturgy through other sources of power. Mostly, though, they use Formations, their bone shaping techniques which are somewhat similar to Charms. Bonesculptors also have powerful regeneration, healing 1 bashing health level every tick and 1 lethal level every 4; this is not quite as effective as it appears, however, as most Formations cause their user to suffer health levels of lethal damage as their bones emerge from inside their bodies. Bonesculptors learn Formations as if they were Charms, but most Formations do not have any prerequisites.


Sample Formations:


Natural Weapons: Form natural weapons such as claws or horns from bones. Bonesculptor bones have no magical materials bonus but count as a magical material for purposes of resisting and inflicting damage. Cost: 1 lhl.


Sculpt: Roll Stamina+Craft(relevant Craft), difficulty of item's resources cost. Form an object from bone over 5 ticks. Only items that could be made from bone may be made. Bonesculptor bones have no magical materials bonus but count as a magical material for purposes of resisting and inflicting damage. Cost: 1 lhl, 1 wp, 1 additional wp to separate the object from the body.


Armour: Gain bashing and lethal soak and hardness by forming boney plates under the skin. Cost: 1 lhl per 4 soak/2 hardness gained, also 1 wp. Every 4 soak also inflicts a -1 mobility penalty for reduced flexibility.


Shield: Extend large, thick plates from a forearm, creating a shield. Grants +2 parry DV or +4 parry DV and -1 mobility penalty. Cost: 1 lhl, plus 1 wp for the larger shield.


Ox-Body Technique Formation: Permanant Formation. Through gradual development, create slivers of bone coating the internal organs or muscles. Adds 1 -1 or 2 -2 health levels per puchase, limit Stamina. No cost.


Bonesculptors have an instinctual compulsion to obey the Exalted, particularly Lunars, and suffer -2 to all mental DVs against a person they know to be Exalted and -3 against Lunars. They are somewhat resistant to effects which change their shape: though they are not immune, they gain +1 to pools to resist and will, hanks to their bones and regeneration, gradually return to their original form so long as they are still alive. Bonesculptors gain +1 Strength and an additional -0 health level due to their size. Bonesculptors are highly resistant to pain and reduce all penalties due to pain by 1.


Bonesculptors live about 150 years before making Stamina rolls for aging. First Age sources maintain that they have no souls, but Bonesculptors themselves believe that their consciousness is bound up in the lunar essence infused in their skeleton and that, when they die, they turn back into moonlight and become part of Luna, whom they honour particularly.


***


Howzat?
 
You always come up with excellent stuff. Usually I am weary of fan additions but you always put a lot of consideration into how stuff fits into the existing background. Very well done.
 
For some reason, these guys really remind me of the Jem'Hadar, right down to the bony protrusions, reliance on an outside chemical agent, and a inborn tendency to obey their creators :P
 
One of the few Underground races to be allied to the Jadeborn before the Primordial War was the Dha'han.  The Dha'han lived in the Underground and inhabited the True Deep, the system of caves created by Torshamal, the First Worm, a behemoth created by Gaia to draw viens of rare earths and rare metals from the infinite depths of Creation to the surface in an eternal cycle.  Torshamal, who is rarely if ever seen, is one hundred meters in radius and one thousand kilometers long, with hairlike bristles a centimeter thick and a meter long that are made of rare earths and rare metals.  Torshamal loses thousands of these bristles every day and they are the source of the concentrated viens of jade, moonsilver and orichalcum, depending on the type of stone that Torshamal ate.  Every minute, Torshamal bores through a meter of rock, and every minute Torshamal craps an adamant egg the size of elephants, the waste products of its life cycle.  Even so, it takes Torshamal two years to move its entire body-length.  


The name Dha'han means the 'People of Adamant' in Old Realm.  They prefer to call themselves the K'ya'to, meaning 'Children of Torshamal' in their language.  The Dha'han resemble humaniod star moles.  They are effectively blind, as absolute darkness is not uncommon in their caverns, but their other senses are finely tuned to deal with the darkness.  They are natural artificers beyond the capabilities of the Exalted or the Jadeborn, unmatched in the shaping of adamant and equaled in technique only by the Dragon Kings.  It is said amongst them that they were born from the adamant eggs of Torshamal, though no one quite knows what they mean by that, as they are quite capable of reproducing naturally.


When the Primordial War occured, the Dha'han went even deeper into the Underground and have rarely been seen since.  They still have good relations with the Jadeborn, though no more than one caravan bearing exotic trade items visit the Jadeborn every year, but the rest of Creation is unaware that they still exist.  The Jadeborn know that they too fight the Endless War, but they fight against enemies of the True Deep, enemies that the Jadeborn are glad that they do not have to fight.


The Dha'han are supernaturally gifted artisans.  The Dha'han have an Essence Pool equal to (Essence*4) + (Willpower*2) + (Compassion) + (Temperance).  They have a maximum Essence of 6.  At Essence 6, their maximum Attributes, their maximum Abilities and their maximum Virtues increase to 6 and their maximum Willpower increases to 12.  The Dha'han effectively have the Mutations of Blind Sight, Enhanced Hearing and Smell, Fur and Talons.  They also have a unique Affliction, called Tunneling, that allows them to dig through earth at a rate of (Strength) yards per minute and stone at a rate of (Strength) yards every three minutes.  Increase time by tenfold if they wish to create a stable tunnel behind them.  Stable tunnels may be a much as a yard in diameter.  


The Dha'han live as long as the Dragon-Blooded.  Their spirits do not reincarnate, in the beliefs of the Dha'han they join with Torshamal when they die, whom they see as the repository of all of their ancestral knowledge.  They do have a form of racial memory which automatically grants them Savant equal to their Essence, so the memories of no Dha'han are ever lost.  


The Dha'han are naturally gifted with creating artifacts made from adamant.  They do not require a workshop to work with adamant and receive (Essence) extra successes to design or create an artifact made predominately of adamant.  They must commit 1 Willpower and 6 motes plus one mote per artifact level (ten motes for level N/A) to create an artifact of adamant.  They may naturally attune to adamant artifacts, but they pay twice normal cost to attune to other artifacts and cannot force natural attunement.  They have a natural talent for building Manses, receiving (Essence) bonus dice and may attune to any Manse.  They may learn Mortal Thaumaturgy, Terrestrial Martial Arts and Terrestrial Sorcery.   Their racial Charms temporarily or permenantly instill the Essence of Adamant into them and may not be learned by the Exalted.  They slowly become monsters of the True Deep.  It is not unknown for elder Dha'han to have a 12 in Strength and Stamina, a natural soak of 24B/24L, -0*12/-1*12 health levels, etc.  When an elder Dha'han dies, they usually turn into a statue of pure adamant.
 
Adamant molemen! :D


That's 2. Now, if anyone can tell me what these next guys are based on, I will be very suprised. Most obscure Exalted inspiration evar.


***


Haos- The Gardeners


Haos are strange, plant-based creatures, created by the First Age Solar Exalted to provide them with vegetative technology and expert tenders for their personal gardens... without having to rely on the Dragon Kings, who were growing more withdrawn (and who required too much respect for the sensibilites of some Exalted).


A Hao is a very distinctive creature. They are vaguely humanoid, but have a long, slim body and dog-like heads. They are about five feet tall. Their smooth skin is a mottled green; the only other colour they have is their "hair", which in reality is more like a mane of flower petals, growing on the top of their head, down the back of their neck and around their shoulders. The colour of this mane can vary wildly, often into various bright colours and vivid patterns.


Haos are plant-based creatures; they photosynthesise, eating naught but soil and drinking naught but water, relying on the sun for all else. An individual Hao is both male and female; their reproduction results in large nuts from which their young eventually emerge. Mostly they reproduce with two parents, but an individual can bring forth a child asexually (see below). They are physically frail, with -1 from their Strength, but tend to be quite insightful, gaining +1 to their Perception. They can't catch diseases from humans but can catch diseases of their own, and are vulnerable to poison (except plant-based poisons, to which they are immune). They are very long-lived, however, living up to 300 years... and this is only the span of their bodies. Hao believe that the asexually produced child of one of their number is a continuation of that individual rather than a separate being, and indeed, such Hao do possess many of their progenitor's memories and a talent for their skills; the seeming incapacity of a Hao to have more than one "clone" at a time backs this up. A small number of Hao have "lived" since before the Usurpation. Hao often die of old age, for they do not live violent lives and are skilled in medicine.


All Haos can channel essence, with an essence pool of [(Essence x 5) + (Willpower x 2)], and can learn the Dragon Kings' Growing Wood Path naturally... but nothing more than that, besides mortal thaumaturgy. They cannot even develop the Path to its conclusion, as they are limited to Essence 4. If they have a tutor, however, they can learn Wood-Aspect Terrestrial Charms and emulate some of the powers of wood elementals. Most Haos also carry vegetative artifacts; in particular, nearly all Hao carry an Essence Seed, a softly glowing, spherical fruit about the size of a child's head, held within a root-like setting atop a long wooden staff. These artifacts, uniquely attuned to Haos, have many wonderful properties, among which are the capacity to store essence, to communicate with each other over large distances and even, in some cases, to wield Terrestrial Circle Sorcery (though this was never recorded in the First Age). Above all else, though, a Hao has a genius with plants of all types; they gain a blanket +3 to all dice pools that can be improved with an affinity for plants, such as Craft (vegetative), Medicine (herbcraft) or Survival. This innate talent allows the most skilled Hao the capacity to make vegetative Artifacts up to the Artifact 4 level.


Hao are generally pleasant, pacifistic and polite, but are nevertheless alien creatures. They seem to consider plants more important than animals, and even the wisest Hao don't seem to understand pain or sorrow as humans do. Their driving directive is to care for plants, and although some compassionate Hao care for other creatures as well, many will simply ignore unExalted humans. They get along best with wood-aspect Terrestrials. Perhaps for this reason, the Hao did not loose too many in the Usurpation; but in the wars that followed, the upheaval of the Shogunate, their numbers dipped heavily. They were spared the Contagion, their physiology much too different to even catch the disease, but the depredations of the Fair Folk swallowed entire forests and cities in the Wyld, and their numbers were devastated.


In the modern age, Hao can be found working alongside wood elementals in some places; indeed, most humans believe that the Hao are wood elementals, and they for their part are content to maintain such an illusion. A handful of them serve the Dynasts, tending the gardens of the Dragon-Blooded; one Hao, who lives in the Heptagram, has tended the magical plants grown for the studies there since it was founded. The last real place of the Hao, however, is deep in the east, where they live among the canopy of the enormous trees and ward off the Wyld with their artifacts. To the local barbarians, they are the powerful children of the trees, and their treetop domain, lit and living with the essence of the forest, is a sanctuary where wounds and illnesses will be healed and violence is a taboo; in return, the elder Hao who rule in council call upon the tribes to protect them from the Fair Folk.
 
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