Dice [Characters] The Best Laid Plans of Gods and Men

[Random Word]

Standard E1 Character creation for Sidereals and one slightly lost Lunar apply. Nothing fancy. Alterations to Craft will be considered upon request.

I will amend character creation: Old Realm, High Realm, and Seatongue are free merits (Add another if one is your native tongue). One free dot in Bureaucracy, Lore, Occult, a Martial Art, and Linguistics. This represents baseline Sidereal education.

Sherwood, you get the languages, plus three first dots in skills your Shahan-Ya (or the school of hard knocks) taught you, and two extra dots of Hearts Blood.

 

[Sherwood]

• Attributes and Abilities
• Merits
• Charms
• Martial Arts
• Equipment
• Combat Stats
• Background and Intimacies
• Experience

• 
  Name: Garnet Alcarre
  Age: 31
  Caste: Journeys
  
  Attributes
  Str: 2
  Dex: 5
  Sta: 2
  
  Cha: 3
  Man: 3
  App: 5
  
  Per: 2
  Int: 3
  Wits: 3
  
  Abilities
  Archery
  Athletics: 2
  *Awareness: 2
  Brawl
  Bureaucracy: 1
  Craft
  *Dodge: 5 - Hand to Hand Combat
  Integrity:
  Investigation: 3
  Larceny
  Linguistics: 1
  Lore: 2
  **Martial Arts: 5 - Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style
  Medicine
  Melee
  Occult: 1
  *Performance: 5 - Dance
  *Presence: 3
  **Resistance: 3
  **Ride: 1
  **Sail: 2
  *Socialize: 3 - Pleasant Conversation
  Stealth: 2
  **Survival: 1
  **Thrown: 1
  War
  
  **Caste Abilities
  *Favored Abilities
  
  
• 
  Artifact Weapon: Meteor (Gossamer, Moonsilver, and Starmetal Wipe): 3
  Artifact Armor: The Serene Misfortune Sashes (Starmetal Silk Armor): 3
  Artifact Item: Collar of Dawn's Cleansing Light: 2
  Backing - Bureau of Destiny: 2
  Hearthstone: Stone of Resilient Bamboo: 2
  Languages: Old Realm, High Realm, Low Realm, Seatongue, Flametongue - (3 languages free): 1
  Martial Arts (free): Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style
  Resources: 3
  
  Anima Powers
  Auspicious Prospects for Journeys: The Harbinger may pay one mote to learn whether a journey would align with destiny and any relevant details about the journey’s circumstances, like what time the travelers should set out.
  Lesser Sign of Mercury: The Harbinger may pay five motes to reflexively make Mercury’s lesser sign, tracing it in yellow stardust. Until her next turn, she and all allies within close range add (her Essence, maximum 5) non-Charm dice on movement actions. This is free at bonfire.
  Greater Sign of Mercury: Once per story, the Harbinger may pay twenty motes and one Willpower to make Mercury’s greater sign, shining golden in the sky. She transports herself, her Circlemates, and up to (Essence x2) others to anywhere she’s familiar with in Creation or Heaven. Rolls she makes to overcome wards against such travel gain −2 target number. In combat, this takes her entire turn and she must wait until the start of her next turn for this effect to take place. If she moves or is moved before her next turn, this power fails, refunding its cost and resetting it. Characters she brings with her must remain within long range until this is completed.
  
  Limit Trigger
  • The Sidereal suffers a significant failure or setback.
  
  Celestial Hubris
  Foreseen Threat Elimination
  The Sidereal has no time for delay. If she’s aware of an enemy or threat, she’ll take immediate and decisive action to deal with it using the most extreme measures possible. She can choose what methods she employs, but can’t take any half measures. She need not commit her every waking hour to this, but must make it her utmost priority. When facing multiple threats, she may choose whether to prioritize the most imminent problem or the most severe one.
  Duration: Session. This ends if the Sidereal loses a battle she initiated because of this Hubris.
  
  
• 
  
  Spoiler: Excellencies

  Excellencies are Sidereals’ fundamental supernatural prowess. They can add dice to (Attribute + Ability) rolls for one mote per die or raise static values for two motes per +1.
  With Ability 3, the Sidereal can pay one mote to reduce an (Attribute + Ability) roll’s target number by one (usually to 6). With Ability 5, she may pay two motes to reduce its target number by two. With Ability 5, Essence 3, she may pay three motes, one Willpower to reduce its target number by three.
  Sidereals gain Excellencies for each Caste or Favored Ability they have at 1+ and each other Ability they know a Charm from.
  Athletics - 2
  Awareness - 2
  Dodge - 5
  Investigation -3
  Lore - 2
  Martial Arts - 5
  Performance - 5
  Presence - 3
  Resistance - 3
  Ride - 1
  Sail - 2
  Socialize - 3
  Stealth - 2
  Survival - 1
  Thrown - 1
  
  Journeys Charms
  
  Spoiler: Honest Face Spirit

  Cost: 3m; Mins: Any Journeys Ability 2, Essence 1
  Type: Reflexive
  Keywords: Mute
  Duration: One scene
  Prerequisite Charms: Any Journeys Charm
  The Sidereal is easily trusted, distinguished by fate from her shiftless and unreliable fellows.
  The Sidereal gains +2 Guile. Anyone seeking someone to perform a task or responsibility is inclined to see her as qualified, which counts as a Minor Tie. Rolls to uncover a lack of qualifications suffer +1 target number.
  An Any Journeys Ability 5, Essence 2 repurchase extends this Charm’s duration to Indefinite.
  
  Resistance Charms
  
  Spoiler: Optimistic Security Practice

  Cost: 3m; Mins: Resistance 3, Essence 1
  Type: Reflexive
  Keywords: Dual
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  Reflecting on the sacrifices she may one day be called upon to make, the Sidereal imbues her enemies with her own generosity of spirit.
  After a withering attack hits her, but before damage is rolled, the Sidereal can imposes a –2 penalty on the damage roll. If she has a positive Tie or compassionate Principle applicable to her attacker, the penalty increases to (Intimacy + 1).
  If the Sidereal is unarmored, she can penalize decisive attacks.
  
  Dodge Charms
  
  Spoiler: Absent Self

  Cost: 2m; Mins: Dodge 1, Essence 1
  Type: Reflexive
  Keywords: Uniform
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  Foreseeing her enemy’s attacks, the Sidereal arranges to be elsewhere when they land.
  The Sidereal ignores (higher of Essence or 3) points of Evasion penalty. This can’t negate penalties from surprise attacks. If she’s unarmored or suffers no Evasion penalties, she can dodge an attack whose successes equal her Evasion.
  Spoiler: Graceful Crane Stance

  Cost: 3m; Mins: Dodge 1, Essence 1
  Type: Reflexive
  Keywords: None
  Duration: One scene
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Sidereal is one with the world, balanced within and without.
  The Sidereal gains perfect balance and can stand on or move across surfaces too narrow or weak to support her normally without needing to roll.
  
  Performance Charms
  
  Spoiler: Compassionate Essence Replenishment

  Cost: —; Mins: Performance 3, Essence 1
  Type: Permanent
  Keywords: None
  Duration: Permanent
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Sidereal may go unrecognized, but she’s a central figure in the lives of others, empowered by the lives and relationships that revolve around her.
  The Sidereal gains motes equal to the 9s and 10s on rolls with any Ability to inspire positive emotions, instill positive Ties, weaken negative Ties, or make bargains involving sensual pleasures. This can’t exceed the number of motes spent enhancing the roll.
  When the Sidereal upholds a Major or Defining Intimacy’s that’s a positive Tie or compassionate Principle, she may gain five motes in place of the Willpower she’d normally receive.
  Spoiler: Easygoing Friend Approach

  Cost: —; Mins: Performance 3, Essence 1
  Type: Permanent
  Keywords: None
  Duration: Permanent
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Sidereal moves and speaks in harmony with the fates of those around her, smoothing over hostility, mistrust, and awkwardness.
  People meeting the Sidereal (or her current resplendent destiny) for the first time count as having a Minor Tie of friendship toward her, as do those who share in food, drugs, music, or other sensual pleasures with her. Characters with negative Ties toward her treat them as one step weaker instead.
  Spoiler: Impossible-to-Remember Party Approach

  Cost: 4m; Mins: Performance 3, Essence 1
  Type: Simple
  Keywords: Mute
  Duration: One performance
  Prerequisite Charms: Easygoing Friend Approach
  Standing at the center of attention, the Sidereal makes whatever party she attends a night to remember — or to regret.
  As long as the Sidereal performs, her audience counts as having a Minor Principle of “I should throw caution to the wind and give in to the temptation.” Characters with Principle of asceticism, temperance, discipline, or self-restraint instead treat their intensity as one step lower. This Charm’s performance is incompatible with influence rolls.
  
  Investigation Charms
  
  Spoiler: Efficient Secretary Technique

  Cost: 5m; Mins: Investigation 1, Essence 1
  Type: Simple
  Keywords: Divination, Mute
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  Upon learning this Charm, the Sidereal spits up a small spider of living emerald, a jubilant assistant that skitters into the strands of her fate until she beckons it forth.
  The Sidereal’s spider emerges so that she may ask it a single factual question, to which it
  provides an accurate answer. It can’t answer questions involving speculation, matters of opinion, or subjective judgments, nor does it have any insight into supernatural powers or people’s thoughts, plans, and emotions. It also can’t reveal any information that anyone’s taken efforts to conceal, nor can it reveal information if it’s not known to anyone in existence.
  Examples of information the secretary can provide straightforwardly include the name of the local carpenter, how long ago a widow’s wife died, how many oxen an old friend owns, or the temperature of in Nexus. A question like “what’s the Bull of the North doing?” will typically give an accurate but not useful result, as the secretary can’t ascertain the Solar’s intentions or speculate as to the purpose of his current activities. Questions like “who’s winning this war?” or “which of these two men is more beautiful” are too speculative or subjective for the secretary to answer; it can only chitter its apologies.
  This Charm may be repurchased any number of times, each repurchase adding an Evocation to the Sidereal’s secretary that can expand the range of its information gathering and talent as an assistant. These Evocations’ themes and functions derive from the secretary’s established personality, the Sidereal’s Caste, and the themes of the constellation of the Key and the Scripture of That Old Thing. If the Sidereal has a pattern spider familiar, she can also use these Evocations through it.
  Spoiler: Marvelous Inclusion of Details

  Cost: 2m; Mins: Investigation 3, Essence 1
  Type: Supplemental
  Keywords: None
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The world aids the Sidereal in her investigations, contriving to present her with exactly the evidence she was looking for.
  The Sidereal completes a case scene or profile character roll instantly. If she has a relevant Intimacy, she adds (Intimacy) bonus dice. If successful, her player may specify the type of evidence she wishes to receive: “the murder weapon,” “footprints,” “the door to a secret passageway,” etc. As long as there’s something like that involved in the Sidereal’s investigation and it being at the scene wouldn’t contradict established facts or the Storyteller’s plans, she uncovers it serendipitously. If not, she finds the closest equivalent evidence.
  
  Lore Charms
  
  Spoiler: Systematic Understanding of Everything

  Cost: 1m; Mins: Lore 1, Essence 1
  Type: Simple
  Keywords: Stackable
  Duration: Indefinite
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Sidereal has glimpsed hints of a grand design in dreams and half-remembered visions and gained certain insights thereby.
  After a night’s sleep, the Sidereal gains a temporary Lore specialty in a topic of her choice. It must be related or thematically relevant to the current story’s events, the Five Maidens, or the Celestial Bureaucracy. She can stack up to (higher of Essence or 3) uses of this Charm.
  Once per story, the Sidereal may permanently purchase a specialty gained with this Charm for one experience point as a training effect (p. XX).
  
  Stealth Charms
  
  Spoiler: Soft Presence Practice

  Cost: 2m; Mins: Stealth 2, Essence 1
  Type: Supplemental
  Keywords: Mute
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Sidereal steps lightly through the tapestry of fate.
  The Sidereal ignores up to (Essence) points of penalty on a Stealth roll. If the roll’s target number is reduced, each point of reduction lets her ignore an additional point of penalty.
  
  Athletics Charms
  
  Spoiler: Forgotten Earth

  Cost: 3m; Mins: Athletics 2, Essence 1
  Type: Reflexive
  Keywords: Mute
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Sidereal momentarily severs the invisible tether that binds her to the ground.
  The Sidereal can use a reflexive move action to jump one range band in any direction without needing to roll, which counts as her movement action. Alternatively, she can inflict +1 target number on a falling damage roll.
  With an Athletics 4, Essence 2 repurchase, the Sidereal can pay a three-mote surcharge to end a horizontal leap in mid-air. On her next turn, she must use this Charm again to continue the leap or fall to the ground. She can choose to descend one range band in addition to her forward movement.
  
  
• 
  Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style
  Dreaming Pearl Courtesan is a subtle style—graceful, elusive, and lethal. A student learns to maneuver herself into the perfect position to strike, gaining the confidence and trust of her victims as she navigates the veils of defenses they put up between themselves and the world. Once the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan has reached her victim at his most vulnerable—whether that is in the tangle of his boudoir’s sheets, a friendly conversation in a tearoom, or a secret meeting at court—she reveals her true nature as a killer, fighting with a deadly grace and the elusiveness of a dream.
  
  Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Weapons: Dreaming Pearl Courtesan style uses elegant unarmed strikes that seem more like dance moves than attacks, as well as war fans and whips. Courtesans also learn to wield numerous improvised weapons with this style through the use of the Charm Elegant Weapon Repertoire, strangling enemies with a silken sash or slashing them with the jagged edge of a broken teacup.
  
  Armor: Dreaming Pearl Courtesan style is incompatible with armor.
  
  Complementary Abilities: Many Dreaming Pearl Courtesans use Dodge, both to evade the attacks of their enemies and to withdraw from close combat. It is also common for them to use Performance or Presence to make influence rolls both in and out combat, which later Charms of this style enhance.
  
  
  Spoiler: Demure Carp Feint

  Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
  Type: Reflexive
  Keywords: Mastery, Uniform; Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Dreaming Pearl Courtesan dances away from the blows of her enemies without effort, as if her body was nothing more than so many cherry blossoms caught on the wind. Demure Carp Feint adds +1 to the martial artist’s Evasion, or adds one success on a roll to disengage. If the martial artist’s Appearance is higher than the Resolve of her attacker, or of all enemies she is disengaging from, this increases to +2. Successfully defending against or disengaging from an enemy whose Resolve is beaten by the martial artist’s Appearance grants her a point of Initiative, as her provocative elegance and sinuous grace gain her an improved footing.
  
  Mastery: When the martial artist gains Initiative with this Charm, her attacker loses a point of Initiative as well. When disengaging, all enemies whose Resolve is beaten lose the point of Initiative (although this does not increase the amount the martial artist receives).
  Spoiler: Elegant Weapon Repertoire

  Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
  Type: Supplemental; Keywords: Dual, Mastery
  Duration: Instant; Prerequisite Charms: None
  A paper fan, a colorful sash, a pair of chopsticks, a ball gown’s train—all of these can be killing weapons in the hands of a student of this style. Elegant Weapon Repertoire adds the accuracy bonus of a weapon to the raw damage of a withering attack made with it, or one die to the raw damage of a decisive attack.
  Alternatively, this Charm can supplement a ready weapon action to suffuse an accessory, garment, or some similar ornamental object with Essence, allowing the martial artist to wield it as a weapon. For the rest of the scene, it is treated as a mundane light weapon, with tags based on the exact nature of the item, as described below. While several examples are provided for each category, the Storyteller is encouraged to reward creative ideas that fit within the aesthetics of this style.
  Disarming: The disarming tag applies to garments or accessories that can be used to leverage weapons out of their wielder’s grip—primarily sashes or sleeves that have had lead weights sewn into them for this specific purpose (which overrides the usual tag they would receive). These weapons usually also have the bashing and flexible tags.
  Grappling: The grappling tag applies to accessories and garments that could conceivably be used to entangle or tie up an enemy, such as the sash of a kimono, a long scarf, a ball gown train, a blanket or sheet, or a length of silken rope. These weapons usually also have the bashing and flexible tags.
  Piercing: The piercing tag applies to accessories that are small or sharp enough to conceivably slip through the defenses of armor, such as hairpins, cutlery, a broken teacup, knitting needles, or elegantly decorated false nails. These weapons usually also have the lethal tag.
  Shield: The shield tag applies to accessories and garments that seem well-suited to fending off attacks with their broad surface, such as paper fans, hand mirrors, or the long sleeves of a robe. These weapons usually also have the bashing tag.
  Mastery: Elegant Weapon Repertoire adds +1 to the Overwhelming value of any weapon readied with it for the duration of the fight.
  Spoiler: Pearlescent Filigree Defense

  Cost: 1m; Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1
  Type: Reflexive
  Keywords: Mastery
  Duration: One scene
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  An iridescent sheen comes over the martial artist’s garments as Essence enfolds them, turning silk as strong as steel. Any clothing the martial artist wears while this Charm is active is treated as mortal light armor. This is explicitly compatible with this style, but not with any other styles that forbid armor. In addition, whenever the martial artist is hit by an attack, she may spend up to her (Appearance) in motes, adding one point to her armored soak against that attack for each mote spent this way.
  Mastery: The first time the martial artist uses this Charm to defend against a decisive attack in a fight, she reveals the supernal resilience of her seemingly vulnerable figure, gaining hardness 10 against the attack as well as a surge of three motes that can be spent to add to the armor’s soak, or on similar effects, such as many Solar Resistance Charms. These motes vanish at the end of the scene if not spent.
  
  
• 
  
  Spoiler: Stone of Resilient Bamboo (Wood, Standard)

  Keywords: None
  This stone gleams the pale green of young bamboo leaves. When its bearer sockets it in an attuned artifact and commits one mote, it helps shrug off minor injuries. She adds two to her soak, can parry lethal attacks unarmed without a stunt, and halves healing times for bashing damage.
  Spoiler: The Serene Misfortune Sashes (Starmetal Silk Armor, Artifact 3)

  Upon her loom of sacred cypress, Ouzha Nine-Handed wove nine sashes from nine bolts of rainbow fabric. Nine measures of starmetal she used for her weft, beaten thinner than a maiden’s hair. Nine are the colors of the sashes themselves: crimson and ultramarine, jonquil and viridian, cyan and gamboge, indigo and rose, and a singular black snipped from cloth-of-night. She wove for nine years, and smiled at her works, for Ouzha feared nothing in the world but death, and fear was the tenth fabric upon her loom.
  Each of the Serene Misfortune Sashes is a delicate froth of woven rainbow and irregular brocade, unique in its pattern from its sister-sashes. They may be tied around the waist or fastened with a needle-fine starmetal pin, their hues shifting subtly to suit the wearer’s outfit and complexion. Of the eight sashes whose locations are known to Heaven, some are kept by the Cerulean Lute’s quartermasters for Sidereals of suitable temperament. Others belong to the treasure-wardrobes of powerful celestial gods, having been given as gifts by Ouzha (and subsequently changing hands several times). Some of these gods have been known lend their sashes — freely or otherwise — to allies and proteges, whether to curry favor or enrich their sash’s burgeoning mythos. Of the ninth, nothing is known.
  Woven with Ouzha’s fear of death, the sashes are silken armor that subtly bend fate to transform their wearer’s tragedies into calamitous bad luck. One might escape certain doom by the grace of their sash, only to find their lives crumbling around them. They are infrequent plot devices in heavenly plays. In tragedies, their wearers batter their fists against the ground in despair; in comedies, they look upon their misfortune and smile. They say: Calamities may pass with time, but death gives no reprieve.
  
  Attunement: 4m
  Type: Light (Soak +5, Hardness 4, Mobility Penalty −0)
  Tags: Special, Silent
  Hearthstone Slot(s): 0
  Era: The Season of Nine Shoguns
  
  Evocations of the Serene Misfortune Sash
  The Serene Misfortune Sashes don’t count as armor for determining their compatibility with Martial Arts.
  Each of the nine sashes has its own unique set of Evocations, each taking its own approach to substituting misfortune for injury, failure, and other setbacks. The following Evocations focus on protecting the wearer from physical injury, but some sashes might instead protect its wearer’s reputation, wealth, relationships, or the like.
  
  

  Spoiler: ++Borrowed Luck++

  Cost: 3m, 1i; Mins: Essence 1
  Type: Reflexive
  Keywords: Perilous, Uniform
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisites: None
  Adapting an untroubled mien, the wearer radiates quiet confidence that unnerves and enthralls her would-be attackers.
  The wearer adds up to (higher of Essence or 3) to her Defense. However, she suffers a penalty equal to this bonus on her next attack roll, which can’t be negated.
  Reset: Once per scene, unless reset by attacking.

  Spoiler: ++Tomorrow’s Troubles Defense++

  Cost: 2m per health level; Mins: Essence 1
  Type: Reflexive
  Keywords: Decisive-only, Perilous
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisites: Dancing Among Razors
  Swords and arrows turn aside at the last moment as the sash cinches tight around the wearer’s waist, heavy with knotted misfortune.
  Against a decisive attack, she may pay two motes per health level to transform damage into bad luck, up to (higher of Essence of 3) health levels. This misfortune takes a form of the Storyteller’s choice at some point after the scene but before the end of the story, based on the number of health levels transformed:
  
  Health Levels / Transformed Effect
  1 or 2 Small twists of fate that inflict a −2 penalty, such as unusual traffic, awful weather, misplaced papers, etc.
  3 or 4 Temporary, personal setbacks, such as the theft of an important document, the arrival of an unexpected investigator, or mistaken identity.
  5 or more Significant trouble, often for the character’s Merits, such as seized assets, incapacitated contacts, or misunderstandings that sour a relationship.
  
  Reset: Once per scene unless reset by falling to a −2 wound penalty or lower.
  Resonant: This Charm loses the Perilous keyword.

  Spoiler: ++Waltzing Away from Calamity++

  Cost: —(6m, 1wp); Mins: Essence 2
  Type: Permanent
  Keywords: Shaping (Fate)
  Duration: Permanent
  Prerequisites: Tomorrow’s Troubles Defense
  The wearer may walk away from an avalanche with nothing worse than rumpled robes…at least, for a time.
  The wearer may spend six motes and one Willpower to invoke Tomorrow’s Troubles Defense against a Crippling effect or an instance of uncountable damage, negating the harm. In exchange, she becomes the subject of a baleful prophecy of the Storyteller’s choice, bringing a certain type of misfortune to herself, such as bankruptcy, illness, defeat, or scandal. She suffers +1 target number to rolls that could result in that misfortune for the rest of the story. If this Charm is used towards the end of the current story, the effect may carry over to the next instead at the Storyteller’s discretion.
  Repurchase at Essence 3+ allows the wearer to learn how to negate a Shaping effect instead of a Crippling one.
  Dissonant: Wearers dissonant with starmetal suffer +2 target number to avoid their misfortune instead.

  Spoiler: ++Grinning Albatross Infliction++

  Cost: —(+1wp); Mins: Essence 2
  Type: Permanent
  Keywords: Shaping (Fate)
  Duration: Permanent
  Prerequisites: Waltzing Away from Calamity
  Loosening a knot from the sash’s Essence, the wearer shunts her future misery onto someone else.
  Once per session when she uses Tomorrow’s Troubles Defense, the wearer may pay a one Willpower surcharge to foist her bad luck on a target within short range. If her Essence is higher than the target’s, this happens automatically; otherwise, it requires a contested (Wits + Integrity) roll, with the wearer gaining −1 target number. Success subjects the target to the misfortune instead; failure resets this Charm.
  Spoiler: Meteor (Gossamer, moonsilver, and starmetal wipe) Artifact 3

  User: Mijo Darren
  Smith: Matheus
  Forged by the Lunar-Fae Hero Matheus, this wipe was made as both a celebration of and a gift to the Lunar exalted Red Sky. It was drawn whole cloth from Godwin the Dreamforce. Meteor was made to celebrate the newly created alliance between the Lunar-Fae and the Silver Pack. However, treachery stoke both sides. The envoy that was heading to the Lunar Camp was attacked by Shogunate Forces. At the same time Sidereal Agents assaulted the Lunar Camp. They would ensure no alliance between the two would be finalized.
  Meteor was recovered by a Journeys caste Sidereal named Mijo Darren.
  
  Attunement: 5m
  Type: Light (+5 ACC, +10 DMG, +0 DEF, OVW 3)
  Tags: Lethal, Melee, Concealable, Flexible
  Hearthstone slot(s): 1
  Era: Usurpation
  
  Meteor is a moonsilver artifact. However, due to its theft and use by Mijo Darren, Sidereals may treat it as Starmetal.
  
  Evocations of Meteor
  This gossamer and moonsilver whip hosts a starmetal tip. Gossamer constructs the handle where its sole hearthstone socket lies, with articulated moonsilver links snaking their way down to the tip. There, Mijo added the starmetal nettle.
  A character who attunes to Meteor and is resonant with moonsilver automatically learns Sliver Reach at no cost.
  

  Spoiler: ++Silver Reach++

  Cost: 5m; Min: Essence 1
  Type: Reflexive
  Keyword: Resonant
  Duration: Scene
  Prerequisite: None
  Wrapping around a target is childʼs play for Meteor. Mijo would often restrains his adversaries and grant his circle an easy target.
  The user may make Grapple Gambits out to Short Range. The user does not take a penalty to their Defense while in a Grapple using Meteor.
  Resonant: A character Resonant with moonsilver may make attacks out to Medium Range.

  Spoiler: ++Slicing Release++

  Cost: 4m; Min: Essence 2
  Type: Supplemental
  Keyword: Dual
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite: Silver Reach
  Often Mijo found it more effective to send his opponents flying as Meteor ripped at their flesh. The user may throw a grappled opponent (p. 201). When they do so they may increase the number of turns of control forfeited for damage to (Strength + Accuracy).
  When used as a Decisive attack the target always suffers Lethal Damage.

  Spoiler: ++Twintails++

  Cost: 7m; Min: Essence 2
  Type: Supplemental
  Keyword: Decisive-only
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite: Silver Reach
  There were days when Mijo encountered unruly mobs on his travels. Rather than dealing with each person individually, he found ways to deal with many at once.
  Glowing phantasmal wipes emerged from Meteor grappling up to [Essence + 2] opponents who defend as normal. While grabbed only one target may be attacked at a time without Charms or Evocations that allow multiple targets.

  Spoiler: ++Starfall++

  Cost: 10m, 1w; Min: Essence 3
  Type: Simple
  Keyword: Dual, Resonant
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite: Twintails, Slicing Release
  Mijo called to the heavens at the crack of his whip, summoning a celestial rain.
  The user makes a ranged attack using Dexterity+Melee at target as normal summoning a meteor down on them and all within Short range of them. When used as a withering attack it deals full damage to the original target plus Essence fire damage to all targets within Short range which ignores Soak. The user gains no Initiative from the area effect damage.
  When used as a decisive attack the original target takes the userʼs full Initiative in damage and a environmental hazard, bonfire (p. 232) is created. Any flammable objects in the area immediately catch flame.
  Resonant: A character resonant with moonsilver adds the stackable keyword to Starfall. They may call down their Essence meteors in the same attack creating additional bonfires at the cost of 5m per.
  Spoiler: Collar of Dawn’s Cleansing Light

  This artifact comes in a variety of forms including studded bands, chokers, torcs, collars or delicate necklaces. Although no artifacts are common, these collars are sufficiently simple that the Realm’s Dragon-Blooded artisans can create them without vast amounts of difficulty. Wealthy Dynasts own and wear them when possible, not just for their useful properties, but also as displays of fortune and opulence.
  The purpose of this collar is to keep its wearer clean in every respect. She could spend weeks living beneath a rubbish heap and emerge at the end as though she had just spent hours preparing for a grand ball. The artifact negates all penalties to Social rolls that would be applied due to the character being dirty or unkempt. Attuning to the collar extends its powers beyond the Exalt’s clothing
  to her physical body. The artifact’s cleansing light adds two dice to (Stamina + Resistance) rolls made against disease or poison. The wearer must commit one mote to use this artifact.
  
  ++Indicates Evocations that have not been unlocked yet.++
  
  
• 
  
  Health Levels
  -0 [ ]
  -1 [ ][ ]
  -2 [ ][ ]
  -4 [ ][ ]
  I [ ]
  
  Willpower: 5
  Essence: 1
  Personal: 11
  Peripheral: 31 / 20
  Committed: 11
  
  Join Battle: 5 + 3i
  
  Parry: 5
  Evasion: 6
  Resolve: 2
  Guile: 3
  
  Natural Soak: 2
  Hearthstone Soak: 2
  Armored Soak: 5
  Total Soak: 9
  
  Weapons
  Meteor
  Type: Light (+5 ACC, +10 DMG, +0 DEF, OVW 3)
  Tags: Lethal, Melee, Concealable, Flexible
  Hearthstone slot(s): 1
  
  
• 
  Defining Principle: Creation must be protected from the threat of the Anathema
  Major Tie: The Anathema (fear and distrust)
  Major Tie: The Bronze Faction (loyalty)
  Minor Principle: She's never felt like she fit in
  Minor Principle: "No, I'm not a secret Chosen of Serenity. Like I've never heard that before. So original."
  
  
  Raised to loving parents in the heart of the Blessed Isle, Garnet never felt like she fit into the 'normal' roles that she was expected to fill. Like a round peg in a square hole, she would try to make it work to please her family, but it never felt 'right' to her.
  
  Even with her eventual Exaltation as a member of the Fivescore Fellowship, Garnet was shoehorned into being a Chosen of Journeys instead of what she felt would have been a better fit for her, being a Chosen of Serenity. Some would even joke that Garnet was secretly Chosen by the other Maiden, and was working undercover. With all jokes aside, she took to the teachings of the Bureau of Destiny with gusto, learning much from the many teachers that were placed before her.
  
  As time went by, Garnet found herself gravitating towards the teachings of the Bronze Faction, looking upon the threat of the return of the Solar Exalted with trepidation, knowing that if they were to be placed back in power, all of Creation would be threatened. This must not be allowed to take place, considering the horror stories she learned about the old Solars and the excessive things that they did.
  
  
• 
  TRAIT - EXPERIENCE COST
  Character Advancement
  Attribute increase - current rating x4
  Non-Caste, Non-Favored Ability increase - current rating x2
  Caste/Favored Ability increase - (current rating x2) − 1
  New Ability - 3
  Specialty - 3
  Purchased Merit - new rating x3
  Willpower - 8
  Charm - 10 (8 if Occult Caste/Favored)
  Sidereal Martial Arts Charm - 10
  Spell - 10 (8 if Favored)
  Evocation - 10
  
  Xp Earned:
  Xp Banked:
  
  Sidereal Xp:
  
  Bonus Point Spending
  Martial Arts to 5: 2
  Performance to 5: 2
  Presence to 3: 2
  Dodge to 5: 2
  Socialize to 3: 3
  Int to 3: 3
  Extra Language: 1
  
  

 

[Esbilon]

• Profile
• Stats
• Merits/Panoply
• Combat
• Charms
• Reckoner Abilities
• Intimacies & Limit
• Experience

• 
  
  
  

  Practice by krysdecker on DeviantArt

  www.deviantart.com
  Name: Spirited Breath
  Age: Mid 20s
  Caste: Chosen of Endings
  Concept: Agent of vengeance and revolution.
  Anima Banner:
  Iconic Anima:
  
  Birth Sign: The Banner
  Exaltation Sign: The Sword
  
  Backstory: The worship of the Unconquered Sun is the oldest in Creation. The Dragon-Kings of old worshipped Him and taught humans to do the same when the world was young and the Gods resided on the Blessed Isle. In the uncoutable years since then, His worship has been much diminished, but though the Immaculate Order proscribes the worship of individual deities, it is not quite stamped out. One place the two coexisted is in the great south-western city of Goldenseal. The Vilna people who worship Him did not initially live in Goldenseal, but moved there centuries ago when they were driven from their original home further south by the incursion of the Fair Folk.
  
  In Goldenseal, the Vilna people lived peacefully as a sometimes mistrusted, but generally well-tolerated minority. Their homes and places of worship were located close together in the eastern part of the city, but all were welcome to trade with them and to visit their library of ancient texts.
  
  The dynamic changed in the 637th year of the Empress's reign when after a short war, Goldenseal was made an Imperial satrapy and the Immaculate Order entered the city in force. One by one, the rights and freedoms of the heretical Vilnians were stripped away.
  
  A hundred years to the day after the first Satrap had taken up residency in Goldenseal, a girl with pale, grey eyes came silently into this world. She would cry later of course. When a run through the city went awry and her knees were scraped on the paving stones, when her brother came home bruised and beaten, and when her early attempts at romance went as poorly as those often do. But in the moment of her birth, she made no sound, but merely looked with curious intensity up at these people who would guard over her as best they could for the first twenty-four years of her life.
  
  Despite the discrimination faced by her people, Spirited Breath had a pleasant enough childhood. Her father as a talented merchant and was able to give his family a life of relative luxury. His young daughter was able to spend time pursuing her passion for poetry as well as attending relious school where along with the history and theology of her people, she was taught how to defend herself and her people with fist and staff.
  
  That changed when Breath was 21 when a new satrap arrived from the Isle and brought with him a new abbot for the Immaculate temple in Goldenseal. Ledaal Uyina and his sister Amilva were determined to not only extract as much value from their family's new possessions as possible, but also straighten out the unbelieves.
  
  When the satrap's soldiers and the abbot's monks shut down his store, Breath's father spoke out and was rewarded with a spear in the gut. When her brother threw a stone that broke the skull of the soldier who killed their father, he was tortured and killed. Soon after, her mother was overcome by grief, refused to eat and finally died. That was when Spirited Breath and many other young people fled to the surrounding jungles to fight the Realm from hiding.
  
  While Breath and her fellow partisans fought the Ledaal forces with all they had, the people left in the city were starved, robbed, and killed. As weeks turned into months, it became clear that for all that they fought and all that they killed, they couldn't do enough. Their familes and friends, all that they had known were being murdered and all they could do about it was bring vengeance to those who by their deeds, their words, or their blood were responsible.
  
  No one, of course, was more responsible than Ledaal Uyina and Ledaal Amilva, but how does a group of mortal warriors, skilled and determined though they are, assassinate a pair of expericed dragonblooded? That becomes somewhat more straight-forward if they do not care who else they kill and have access to enough poison to murder an entire household.
  
  Getting the poison was another matter, but the Guild is everywhere and always willing to trade if you have something they want. It may hurt to part ways with an heirloom that has been with one's family since fleeing the Raksha more than a century before, but hatred does strange things to a person's mind.
  
  In the end, the plan was for nothing. Spirited Breath had the poison and the will to use it, but when she arrived at the satrap's palace, a man with purple eyes was waiting for her. He said that he could not let her kill everyone - there were threads of destiny whose time had not yet come, and she had a responsibility now to uphold that destiny. But the man also understood that she had a responsibility to her people and fortunately for both of them, the Satrap's destiny was not nearly as important. The man held out a fighting staff banded by a strange metal and when she looked at her reflection in it, she saw that her eyes were the same purple color as his.
  
• 
  Attributes
  Strength: 3
  Dexterity: 5
  Stamina: 3
  
  Charisma: 4
  Manipulation: 2
  Appearance: 3
  
  Perception: 2
  Intelligence: 2
  Wits: 3
  
  Abilities
  Archery:
  Athletics: 1
  Awareness: 3
  Brawl: 1
  Bureaucracy: 3 (Spirits)
  Craft:
  Dodge: 3
  Integrity: 1
  Investigation: 1
  Larceny:
  Linguistics: 3
  Lore: 3
  Martial Arts: 5 (Staffs)
  Medicine: 3
  Melee:
  Occult: 1
  Performance: 5 (Poetry)
  Presence: 1
  Resistance: 1
  Ride:
  Sail:
  Socialize:
  Stealth: 3 (Urban)
  Survival: 1
  Thrown:
  War: 1
  
• 
  Merits
  Backing 2 (Divison of Endings)
  Resources 3 (Stipend)
  Languages (Native: Flametongue; Old Realm, Seatongue, High Realm)
  
  Artifact 4 (Gnomon)
  Manse 5 (Sidereal, Seven Leaping Dragons Stone)
  Contacts 1 (Let Mountains Fall, Weather-Worker Second Class, Bureau of Seasons)
  
  Panoply
  
• 
  Essence: 1
  Personal Essence: 13/13
  Peripheral Essence: 23/33
  
  Committed Essence:
  
  Willpower:
  Join Battle:
  Health Levels: -0, -1, -1, -2, -2, -4, Incapacitated
  Resolve , Guile
  
  Attacks
  
  
  Actions
  Rush:
  Disengage:
  
  Evasion , Parry
  Soak/Hardness: / ()
  
• 
  Excellencies: Martial Arts, Athletics, Awareness, Bureaucracy, Integrity, Medicine, Linguistics, Performance, Investigation, Lore, Stealth
  
  +Linguistics+
  *Ice-and-Fire Binding
  
  +Performance+
  *Easygoing Friend Approach
  **Bring-and-Carouser Attracting Style
  
  +Investigation+
  *Efficient Secretary Technique
  
  +Lore+
  Avoiding-the-Truth Technique
  
  +Stealth+
  *Soft Presence Practice
  
  +Endings+
  *Superior-Entreating Memorial Style
  
  +Awareness+
  *Feathered Cloak Trick
  
  +Bureaucracy+
  *Terminal Sanction
  
  +Medicine+
  *Smooth Transition
  **Peacable Conclusion
  *Deferred Wounds
  
  +Violet Bier of Sorrows+
  *Secrets of Future Strife
  **Blade of the Battle Maiden
  **Flight of Mercury
  **Joy-in-Adversity Stance
  ***Violet Bier of Sorrows Form
  
  
• 
  Anima Effect: For one mote, a Sidereal can manifest her Caste Mark for as long as she wants or sense the approximate location of any nearby heavenly gates.
  Auspicious Prospects for Endings: The Reckoner may pay one mote to determine whether an ending would align with destiny and any relevant details of a destined ending, like how someone’s supposed to die.
  Fulfilling an auspicious prospect grants one Willpower, subtracts one Limit, and grants a Role Bonus.
  Lesser Sign of Saturn: The Reckoner may pay five motes to reflexively make Saturn’s lesser sign, trailing violet stardust from her fingertips. Until her next turn, she and all allies within close range add (Sidereal's Essence, maximum 5) Overwhelming on withering attacks and add an automatic success on decisive
  damage rolls. This is free at bonfire.
  Greater Sign of Saturn: Once per story, the Reckoner may pay twenty and one Willpower to make Saturn’s greater sign, shining brilliant violet in the sky above. This takes her entire turn. She and her allies gain −1 target number on damage rolls, or −2 against enemies of fate, and ignore Hardness. Un-Exalted enemies can’t take crippling injuries (Exalted, p. 201) and automatically fail rolls against poison, disease, and crippling effects. Medicine rolls to treat their ailments likewise fail. Those slain in battle pass unto Lethe, though powerful Exalted still require proper burial rituals to ensure they won’t linger as hungry ghosts.
  
  Arcane Fate
  When someone leaves a Sidereal’s presence (or vice versa), he forgets her completely. He remembers the results of her actions, but attributes them to someone or something else. This doesn’t apply to knowledge of the Sidereal Exalted as a whole, only to individual Sidereals. Nontrivial characters can roll (Wits + Integrity) at difficulty 7 to resist a Sidereal’s arcane fate. Quick Characters without an applicable pool roll (base Resolve x2). Ties to the Sidereal add (Intimacy) non-Charm dice on this roll, and a character’s history with an existing Sidereal, knowledge of Sidereals in general, and other circumstances may grant similar bonuses. Arcane fate is a mind-altering Shaping effect (p. XX). Magic that specifically protects against memory-altering Psyche effects can also be used against it.
  
  Additionally, a nontrivial character with a Tie to a Sidereal can roll as above if he later encounters her again to regain any memories of her that he’s lost to arcane fate. At the Storyteller’s discretion, something that reminds him of the Sidereal or that gives him reason to suspect his memories have altered may also let him roll.
  
  Some characters are immune to arcane fate. Other Sidereals and gods in the Bureau of Destiny are immune, as are powerful enemies of fate (p. XX) — those who’re Exalted or have Essence 5+ — are likewise immune to arcane fate. Familiars, sorcerously-bound spirits, and beings she’s created, animated, or summoned with magic are also immune. A Sidereal player character’s Circlemates are immune to her arcane fate.
  
  Documents and other recorded information about Sidereals — either individually or a whole — are also subject to arcane fate. They’re lost, destroyed, or otherwise rendered inaccessible through subtle manipulations of fate. This doesn’t apply to records that maintained by characters immune to arcane fate, nor to those that contain only minimal detail or that describe Sidereals with vague, indirect, or symbolic language, like the Immaculate Texts.
  
  There aren’t specific rules for arcane fate’s applicability to records. The Storyteller can invoke it when dramatically appropriate. Such records might still be retrieved or reconstructed; rolls to do so have a minimum difficulty of 7.
  
  Resplendent Destinies
  Sidereals shield themselves from arcane fate with resplendent destinies, mystical “cover identities” drawn from the themes and archetypes of the constellations. Wearing a resplendent destiny doesn’t change a Sidereal’s appearance; those who interact with her mentally “fill in” details that cause her to seem like a soldier, a tax collector, an arrogant Dynast, etc.
  
  Creating a resplendent destiny is a miscellaneous action that costs one Willpower. People perceive and treat each resplendent destiny as a different person, though it’s still possible to draw connections between them and make deductions. While wearing a resplendent destiny, characters don’t need to roll against a Sidereal’s arcane fate, though they may still forget small or superficial details about her. If she disguises herself in a way that fits her destiny, opposing rolls suffer a −3 penalty. This doesn’t apply to disguises impersonating specific individuals.
  
  The Sidereal can have up to (Essence + 3) resplendent destinies, although only one can be active at a time. She can reflexively don a new resplendent destiny or slough off her old one once per scene. If the Sidereal’s anima reaches bonfire, her resplendent destiny recedes, and she can’t don new ones until it dims.
  
  Resplendent destinies don’t last forever. At each story’s end, the Sidereal rolls (Willpower) at difficulty (Essence) — the more powerful she becomes, the harder it is to maintain false identities. If she fails, she permanently loses a resplendent destiny chosen by her player. She can still create resplendent destinies of the same role, but not that specific cover identity. Memories of the lost destiny are erased by arcane fate.
• 
  Defining tie: House Ledaal (hate)
  Major principle: Those who keep others in bondage should be destroyed
  Major tie: Her fellow partisans (camraderie)
  Major tie: Her family's ancestral brooch (want)
  Minor tie: Underdogs (positive)
  Minor tie: Poets (filial love)
  
  Limit Trigger: The Sidereal succeeds despite overwhelming odds or having been discouraged by others.
  Celestial Hubris: Foreseen Threat Elimination
  The Sidereal has no time for delay. If she’s aware of an enemy or threat, she’ll take immediate and decisive action to deal with it using the most extreme measures possible. She can choose what methods she employs, but can’t take any half measures. She need not commit her every waking hour to this, but must make it her utmost priority. When facing multiple threats, she may choose whether to prioritize the most imminent problem or the most severe one.
  Duration: Session. This ends if the Sidereal loses a battle she initiated because of this Hubris.
  Treated as a Defining Intimacy, lasts one scene or one session, resets Limit to 0 and refills temporary Willpower.
  
• 
  Bonus points: 15
  7 Favored Abilities
  8 Favored Charms
  
  Experience:
  0 experience
  0 Sidereal experience
  
  Flags:
  To see a stranger wearing her family heirloom brooch.
  To be confronted with a wholly admirable member of House Ledaal she can't immidiately kill.
  To participate in a rap battle style poetry-off.
  To encounter time-manipulating magic.
  

 

[Rykon]

• Profile
• Stats
• Merits
• Sidereal Charms
• Martial Arts
• Sorcery
• Panoply
• Conflict Stats
• Character Advancement
• Wishlist

• 
  Name: Tien
  Caste: Battles
  Age: 27
  Limit Trigger: The Sidereal succeeds despite overwhelming odds or having been discouraged by others.
  
  Flags
  -Become embroiled in a dispute between political actors that leads to physical altercation
  -Overcome a significant obstacle to the mission through the threat of violence
  -Leverage pre-existing hostilities to advance the circle's agenda
  -Produce a positive change in the life of a named character as the consequence of a conflict provoked by Tien
  -Provide instruction or training to a named character in martial arts
  
  History Overview
  Few realms of men reflect the turning of the heavens like An-Teng. In one hand shines justice and mercy where the other veils crime and cruelty. To the east lie the domains of The Golden Lord and Ahlat, to the west The Pale Mistress and Siakal. What better place to test one's mettle than a crucible equal parts honor and savagery? Nothing less could forge one ready or worthy to shoulder a mark of Mars.
  
  Like most Tengese, Tien grew up honoring the Golden Lord, appeasing the Pale Mistress, and pretending their entire society wouldn't drown their Dynastic overseers in their sleep if they could get away with it. With his family even in remote proximity of The City of the Steel Lotus it didn't take long before the "Immaculate Placation" took its toll.
  
  His house was led by his father, a prospector given leave to work among the foothills of the Fire Mountains and supported by Tien's mother, a sculptor often commissioned for statues accompanying the various shrines dotting both urban and rural locales. Though their lifestyle was a comfortable one, he was constantly at odds with the other kids in his classes. Not poor enough to be welcomed by the lower class kids, nor wealthy enough to mingle with the progeny of aristocrats. Yet, all noses bleed the same even if they don't heal the same. By the time primary school neared its end it was clear struggle would remain a close companion never much further away than arm's length.
  
  At the dawn of adolescence, it was time to commit to his profession. Tien's resting state at the heart of turmoil closed many doors he could have otherwise found appealing, such as artisanal trades. Yet, there's always hope to turn fate's course for the better, especially when one journey ends to make way for another. For all the disdain those tied to the distant Scarlet Realm unwittingly bore, Tien found wisdom from the hand of a passing monk in the wake of yet another quarrel upon the cobbled stone streets. "If one must walk the warrior's way, one ought to ponder... what purpose is most worthy?"
  
  With his ancestors carving their lot in steel and stone, Tien never gave much thought to the suggestion his fate might lie elsewhere. Until that moment at least. His gaze shied for a moment, somewhat self-conscious that an oppressor of all things might have done something he appreciated for once. He snapped his gaze back up to the eyes of the itinerant Immaculate with determination. "Depends. What purpose is there?" The man smiled and offered a small scroll unfurling into little more of a flyer. "Go and see for yourself."
  
  Years passed and the heavens turned as they always had, each one finding a way to leave a new scar even if not all were visible. Between prize fights and security contracts to fund a modest lifestyle, Tien had taken to investigating leads of demon cult activity as the Satrap's administration grew more interested in the prospect of Lintha activity. Eventually, Tien crossed paths with what was later described to him as a "Brass Dragon", a loose phrase for Dragon-Blooded somehow entangled in demonic activities, hierarchies, or even lineages. Though the ensuing altercation led to Tien's exaltation, Lintha Lagyris remains at large.
  
• 
  Attributes
  Strength ●●●●●
  Dexterity ●●●●●
  Stamina ●●
  
  Charisma ●●●
  Manipulation ●●
  Appearance ●●
  
  Perception ●●
  Intelligence ●●
  Wits ●●●●●
  
  Abilities
  
  -Martial Arts
  Tiger Style ●●●●●
  
  -Journeys
  Resistance -The Mast ●
  Ride-The Messenger
  Sail-The Captain
  Survival-The Ship's Wheel
  Thrown-The Gull
  
  -Serenity
  Craft-The Peacock
  Dodge-The Ewer ●●
  Linguistics-The Pillar ●
  Performance-The Musician ●●●
  Socialize-The Lovers ●● +Guile
  
  -Battles
  Archery-The Quiver ●
  Brawl-The Gauntlet ●●●●●
  Melee-The Spear ●
  Presence-The Shield ●●● +Intimidation
  War-The Banner ●●● +Assessing Opponents
  
  -Secrets
  Investigation-The Key ●●
  Larceny-The Guardians
  Lore-The Treasure Trove ●●● +Martial Arts Dojos
  Occult-The Sorcerer ●●●
  Stealth-The Mask ●●●
  
  -Endings
  Athletics-The Rising Smoke ●●●●
  Awareness-The Crow ●●
  Bureaucracy-The Haywain ●●●
  Integrity-The Sword ●
  Medicine-The Corpse
  
• 
  Martial Artist ●●●●
  Languages ●●●● Native: Flametongue, Seatongue, Old Realm, High Realm, Riverspeak
  Resources ●●● Salary
  Backing ●● Crimson Panoply of Victory
  
  Artifact ●●●● Starmetal Smashfists and God-Kicking Boots
  Artifact ●●●● Silk Armor
  Manse ●●● Jewel of the Celestial Mandarin
  
• 
  Sidereal Excellencies
  Archery, Athletics, Awareness, Brawl, Integrity, Investigation, Lore, Melee, Occult, Performance, Presence, Stealth, Resistance, War
  
  Resistance-The Mast
  
  Spoiler: Ox-Body Technique

  Cost: —; Mins: Resistance 1, Essence 1
  Type: Permanent
  Keywords: None
  Duration: Permanent
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Sidereal has cultivated great inner discipline, suffusing her with supernal vitality.
  
  The Sidereal gains additional health levels based on her Stamina rating:
  Stamina 1-2: One −0 level.
  Stamina 3-4: One −0 level and one −1 level.
  Stamina 5: Two −0 levels.
  
  This Charm may be purchased (Resistance) times. If the Sidereal’s Stamina increases, her health levels change to reflect her new rating.
  
  Performance-The Musician
  
  Spoiler: Easygoing Friend Approach

  Cost: —; Mins: Performance 3, Essence 1
  Type: Permanent
  Keywords: None
  Duration: Permanent
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Sidereal moves and speaks in harmony with the fates of those around her, smoothing over hostility, mistrust, and awkwardness.
  
  People meeting the Sidereal (or her current resplendent destiny) for the first time count as having a Minor Tie of friendship toward her, as do those who share in food, drugs, music, or other sensual pleasures with her. Characters with negative Ties toward her treat them as one step weaker instead.
  
  Brawl-The Gauntlet
  
  Spoiler: Hostility Acceptance Technique

  Cost: 4m;Mins: Brawl 2, Essence 1
  Type: Reflexive
  Keywords: Versatile, Withering-only
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  Having resigned herself to conflict’s inevitability, the Sidereal rolls with the punches as if it were second nature.
  
  The Sidereal can use this Charm after being hit by a withering attack, before the damage roll. The amount of Initiative she loses from the attack is reduced by (higher of Essence or 3), although her attacker still receives the full amount. If this prevents the Sidereal from losing any Initiative, she gains one Initiative.
  Spoiler: Tolerant Strife

  Cost: 2m; Mins: Brawl 2, Essence 1
  Type: Reflexive
  Keywords: Uniform, Versatile
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Sidereal takes the battlefield as she finds it, coming to an accommodation with the world.
  
  The Sidereal ignores onslaught penalties and environmental penalties to her Parry. If she blocks an attack, it doesn’t inflict an onslaught penalty.
  
  Investigation-The Key
  
  Spoiler: Efficient Secretary Technique

  Cost: 5m; Mins: Investigation 1, Essence 1
  Type: Simple
  Keywords: Divination, Mute
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  Upon learning this Charm, the Sidereal spits up a small spider of living emerald, a jubilant assistant that skitters into the strands of her fate until she beckons it forth. The Sidereal’s spider emerges so that she may ask it a single factual question, to which it provides an accurate answer. It can’t answer questions involving speculation, matters of opinion,
  or subjective judgments, nor does it have any insight into supernatural powers or people’s thoughts, plans, and emotions. It also can’t reveal any information that anyone’s taken efforts to conceal, nor can it reveal information if it’s not known to anyone in existence.
  
  Examples of information the secretary can provide straightforwardly include the name of the local carpenter, how long ago a widow’s wife died, how many oxen an old friend owns, or the temperature of in Nexus. A question like “what’s the Bull of the North doing?” will typically give an accurate but not useful result, as the secretary can’t ascertain the Solar’s intentions or speculate as to the purpose of his current activities. Questions like “who’s winning this war?” or “which of these two men is more beautiful” are too speculative or subjective for the secretary to answer; it can only chitter its apologies.
  
  This Charm may be repurchased any number of times, each repurchase adding an Evocation to the Sidereal’s secretary that can expand the range of its information gathering and talent as an assistant. These Evocations’ themes and functions derive from the secretary’s established personality, the Sidereal’s Caste, and the themes of the constellation of the Key and the Scripture of That Old Thing. If the Sidereal has a pattern spider familiar, she can also use these Evocations through it.
  
  Special activation rolls: This Charm can be flurried with Stealth rolls.
  
  Lore-The Treasure Trove
  
  Spoiler: Systematic Understanding of Everything

  Cost: 1m; Mins: Lore 1, Essence 1
  Type: Simple
  Keywords: Stackable
  Duration: Indefinite
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Sidereal has glimpsed hints of a grand design in dreams and half-remembered visions and gained certain insights thereby.
  
  After a night’s sleep, the Sidereal gains a temporary Lore specialty in a topic of her choice. It must be related or thematically relevant to the current story’s events, the Five Maidens, or the Celestial Bureaucracy. She can stack up to (higher of Essence or 3) uses of this Charm. Once per story, the Sidereal may permanently purchase a specialty gained with this Charm for one experience point as a training effect (p. XX).
  
  Occult-The Sorcerer
  
  Spoiler: Incite Decorum

  Cost: 5m; Mins: Occult 1, Essence 1
  Type: Reflexive
  Keywords: Mute
  Duration: One scene
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Sidereal invokes her intrinsic authority as one of the Maidens’ Chosen to facilitate smooth dealings with the spirit world.
  
  Gods and elementals count as having Minor Ties of professional respect to the Sidereal; spirits who are enemies of fate count as having one of fear. So long as she and her allies give such spirits no reason to take offense, they must hear her out when she speaks. The imposed Tie always penalizes summoned spirits’ Resolve against the Sidereal’s rolls to bind them with magic like Summon Elemental.
  
  A spirit may pay one Willpower to ignore or interrupt the Sidereal or two Willpower to initiate hostilities, but still retains the Tie of respect. If the Sidereal or any of her companions engage in combat, even in self-defense, further spirits may attack without spending Willpower.
  Spoiler: Terrestrial Circle Sorcery

  Cost: —; Mins: Occult 3, Essence 1
  Type: Permanent
  Keywords: None
  Duration: Permanent
  Prerequisite Charms: Any four Secrets Charms
  Steeped in ancient wisdom and the secrets of the stars, the Sidereal masters the Emerald Circle’s secrets.
  
  The Sidereal can use Terrestrial Circle sorcery. She learns one Terrestrial spell — her control spell — and one shaping ritual for free.
  
  Athletics-The Rising Smoke
  
  Spoiler: Inexorable Advance

  Cost: 3m; Mins: Athletics 3, Essence 1
  Type: Supplemental
  Keywords: Mute
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  Eliding the moments between her footsteps, the Sidereal acts without motion.
  
  The Sidereal ignores wound penalties and mobility penalties on a movement action with any Ability. Alternatively, she can negate the penalty on a Stealth roll from moving in wide open terrain (Exalted, p. 204), flashing instantly between hiding places.
  
  Awareness-The Crow
  
  Spoiler: Prior Warning

  Cost: —; Mins: Awareness 1, Essence 1
  Type: Permanent
  Keywords: Divination
  Duration: Permanent
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Sidereal’s senses extend into her immediate future, probing for anything that could cause her harm.
  
  The Sidereal can roll to detect an immediate threat in advance of when she would be able to detect it normally. This roll uses whatever dice pool and difficulty would be used to detect the threat; if that’s not clear, the Sidereal rolls (Perception + Awareness) against difficulty 1-5. Success doesn’t reveal the threat but gives the Sidereal a feeling of unease that lets her know there is some form of impending danger. This foreboding adds (Essence) dice on her roll to actually detect the threat.
  
  This Charm’s premonitions typically occur a few minutes in advance, but if this isn’t feasible, the Storyteller should ensure the warning comes in time to be potentially useful to the Sidereal. She can’t sense dangers that only threaten her in the long run, like a slow-acting poison or a courtier planning to frame her.
  
  Bureaucracy-The Haywain
  
  Spoiler: Icy Hand

  Cost: 1m, 1wp; Mins: Bureaucracy 3, Essence 1
  Type: Simple
  Keywords: Psyche
  Duration: Indefinite
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Sidereal’s hand is wreathed with purifying cold, driving away bureaucratic corruption.
  
  Touching a character — a difficulty 1 unarmed gambit in combat — the Sidereal makes a special (Strength + Bureaucracy) instill roll against him. Success causes him to gain a Defining Principle of “I must perform my official duties diligently and refrain from all corruption.” He can’t voluntarily erode that Principle while this Charm remains active.
  
  Integrity-The Sword
  
  Spoiler: Until Hope's End

  Cost: —; Mins: Integrity 1, Essence 1
  Type: Supplemental
  Keywords: None
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  All hopes must end, but until they do, the Sidereals clings fiercely to hers.
  The Sidereal gains the following:
  • Her hopeful Intimacies increase their Resolve bonus by one.
  • Once per day, she can lower the Willpower cost to resist an inspire roll to create despair by one.
  • While acting in accordance with a hopeful Intimacy, she adds (Intimacy) to her Stamina to determine how long she can go without food, air, and water.
  • If a hope expressed by one of her Intimacies is decisively thawarted, it counts as fulfilling an auspicious prospect (p. XX).
• 
  Tiger Style
  Tiger style emulates the ferocious strength and swift, pouncing strikes of the predatory cats. A Tiger stylist treat combat as a dance between predator and prey, pursuing her foe with unmatched speed and unrelenting patience. Once she closes in on her victim, she brings him down like a tiger fells its prey—knocking him to the ground, crippling his limbs, and moving in for the killing strike. Many who follow the path of Tiger style become arrogant, impatient, or cruel, as their trust in their killing power becomes absolute. Others learn different lessons, adapting the patient bearing of a cat stalking its prey through the jungle.
  
  Weapons
  Tiger style uses unarmed attacks— generally raking claws strikes—or tiger claws to slash the flesh of enemies. Any unarmed attack that is enhanced by a Tiger Charm can always be stunted to deal lethal damage.
  
  Armor
  Tiger style is compatible with light armor
  
  Complementary Abilities
  Tiger stylists make great use of the Athletics Ability to move across the battlefield and chase down their foes. Some also use Stealth, ambushing enemies to end fights before they have even begun.
  
  
  Spoiler: Crimson Leaping Cat Technique

  Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
  Type: Supplemental
  Keywords: Uniform
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  Moving with the speed and agility of a leaping tiger, the martial artist closes the distance to her prey. Crimson Leaping Cat Technique steals a point of Initiative from an enemy upon successfully rushing him. If the martial artist makes an attack against that enemy before the end of the next round, any extra successes on the rush are added as bonus dice to her attack roll.
  Spoiler: Striking Fury Claws

  Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
  Type: Supplemental
  Keywords: Mastery, Withering-only
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  Rigorous training, intense discipline, and the suffusing Essence of the tiger gives the martial artist’s claw strikes the force to rend flesh and disembowel fallen enemies, making her a bare-handed killer. Striking Fury Claws converts up to (Strength) extra successes that would be added to the raw damage of a withering attack to post-soak dice of damage instead. Against an enemy who took a disengage or withdraw action on his last turn, these post-soak dice are instead converted to successes added to the damage roll.
  
  Mastery: Extra successes converted by this Charm add both to the raw damage of the attack and to post-soak damage (or successes against fleeing enemies).
  Spoiler: Tiger Form

  Cost: 10m, Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 1
  Type: Simple
  Keywords: Form, Terrestrial
  Duration: One scene
  Prerequisite Charms: Crimson Leaping Cat Technique, Striking Fury Claws
  Dropped into the crouched, predatory pose of a tiger preparing to pounce, the martial artist’s Essence comes to embody the pinnacle of predatory grace. Her fingers seem like claws as they move through their strikes, and her eyes narrow to cat-like slits. While Tiger Form is active, the martial artist may double up to (Strength) extra successes when calculating the raw damage of withering attacks, and takes no penalties for fighting while prone.
  
  She also adds (Essence) dice to rush actions and all rolls to contest a disengage. She gains any Initiative spent by an enemy attempting to disengage from within range of him.
  
  Special activation rules: Whenever the martial artist lands a decisive attack that deals 3+ levels of damage, she may reflexively activate Tiger Form.
  
  Terrestrial: A Dragon-Blood may double up to the lowest of Strength, Dexterity, and Wits extra successes when calculating the raw damage of withering attacks.
• 
  Sidereals trained in sorcery by the Bureau commonly seek initiation through the Path of the Celestial Design, a meditation upon the numinous pattern that undergirds the Celestial Bureaucracy. This pattern is the divine order by which the Celestial Bureaucracy binds Heaven to Creation and gods to their purviews, forged by the Ancients and reforged by the Incarnae. Through meditation upon it, sorcerers draw on Heaven’s power to work miracles of sorcery.
  
  This initiation is also common among gods who are sorcerers, as well as some elementals, Heaven’s Dragons, and others in the Celestial Bureaucracy’s employ
  
  Shaping Ritual-Arbiter of Harmonious Balance
  Once per scene, when the sorcerer creates, strengthens, or facilitates a bureaucratic process, cooperative relationship, negotiation, business deal, or similar arrangement, she gains (Bureaucracy + extra successes) sorcerous motes, which last until the story ends. If the arrangement was between gods, she gains additional sorcerous motes equal to the (highest god’s Essence/2, round up).If her achievement wasn’t rolled, she rolls (Charisma + Bureaucracy) for this. She can only have sorcerous motes from one use of this ritual at a time; gaining more replaces any previous uses.
  
  Terrestrial Spells
  
  Spoiler: Cirrus Skiff-Control

  Cost: 15sm, 1wp
  Keywords: None
  Duration: Until ended
  The sorcerer calls down a Cirrus Skiff to bear her skyward, a small white puffy cloud just large enough for her and one other passenger to ride upon. The cloud descends from the sky and hovers near the sorcerer like a faithful puppy until she steps on, at which point it rises into the air, obeying her mental commands. It is slow-moving, managing a pace of only (Essence x 6) miles per hour, but is virtually unlimited in its flight capability, able to rise upward with no limit other than the ability of its caster to endure the rarefied air of the upper atmosphere. In combat, the sorcerer rolls (Wits + Occult) in place of standard movement rolls to mentally direct the cloud, but otherwise faces no complications or penalties.
  
  If the sorcerer wishes to sleep, study, or otherwise rest on the Cirrus Skiff without having to give it constant instructions, she may give it a set command, such as “Fly a mile up into the air and stay there” or “Circle around the satrap’s palace,” which it will obey until she gives it new orders. The sorcerer may disembark from the skiff for up to one scene without ending this spell, but any absence beyond that ends the spell, sending the cloud flying back up into the stratosphere.
  
  A character who knows Cirrus Skiff as her control spell may cast it with an Indefinite duration. Her conjured cloud will follow after her after she disembarks, eagerly awaiting her return without ever leaving. It will follow simple instructions from the sorcerer, even when she’s not riding it, and can be summoned by the sorcerer’s call from anywhere in Creation, proceeding to her side at the best speed it can manage.
  
  Distortion (Goal Number: 7): Distorting a Cirrus Skiff weighs it down, turning the cloud into a heavy, dense fog for a scene. The sorcerer suffers a -3 penalty on the (Wits + Occult) rolls to control the distorted skiff’s movement, and it cannot fly above long range from the ground. If it is already higher than that, it begins dropping at a rate of two range bands per round, in addition to any other movement the sorcerer takes.
• 
  Starmetal Smashfists and God Kicking Boots (●●●●)
  Light Weapons
  Acc: +5 Dam: +10 Def: +0 Ovw: 3 Atn: 5
  Tags: Bashing, Brawl, Grappling, Smashing, Worn, Special
  
  Starmetal Silk Armor (●●●●)
  Light Armor
  Soak: 5, Hardness: 4, MP: -0, Atn: 4
  Tags: Silent, Special
  
  Jewel of the Celestial Mandarin (Standard)
  Keywords: Manse-born
  This transparent, faceted square stone glows with a violet light. Any individual bearing it in an attuned hearthstone socket may glimpse the abodes of spirits—the doors of the sanctums where gods dwell become visible to her eyes. Although this hearthstone doesn’t grant the power to enter such sanctums, she can speak and her voice will be heard within, booming with celestial authority—any command to come forth is treated as though it aligns with a Minor Intimacy.
  
• 
  Health Levels
  -0x2
  -1x2
  -2x2
  -4x1
  Ix1
  
  Essence: ●
  Personal: 11
  Peripheral: 31
  Committed: 9
  Willpower: ●●●●●
  
  Join Battle 7
  
  Parry 5
  Evasion 4
  
  Total Soak 7
  Hardness 4
  
  Guile 3
  Resolve 3
  
  Intimacies
  Defining Principle - I will forge a better way forward for Creation, by force if I must.
  Major Tie - The Pale Mistress (Vendetta)
  Major Tie - The Golden Lord (Pious Respect)
  Major Principle - Even though the solar purge was earned, the new generation deserves a chance to choose.
  Minor Tie - The Fivescore Fellowship (Comradery)
  Minor Tie - Solar Exalted (Cautious Optimism)
  Minor Tie - The Realm (Disdain)
  Minor Principle - The truth will always come out. All lies expire.
  
• 
  BP 15
  Abilities 9pts.
  Attributes 4pts.
  Merits 2pts.
  
  
  Spoiler: XP

  --Essence 1-- (0+)
  Horrific Wreath, 8xp
  Speared Boar Struggle, 8xp 16 spent
  Ox-Body Technique, 8xp 24 spent
  Sheathing the Crimson Blade, 8xp 32 spent
  Knuckle-Cracking Stance, 8xp 40 spent
  Ascending Battles Horoscope, 8xp 48 spent
  Descending Battles Horoscope, 8xp 56 spent
  --Essence 2-- (50+)
  Unobstructed Blow, 8xp 64 spent
  Ox-Body Technique, 8xp 72 spent
  Forgotten Earth, 8xp 80 spent
  Ox-Body Technique, 8xp 88 spent
  Ox-Body Technique, 8xp 96 spent
  Distance-Severing Stride, 8xp 104 spent
  Optimistic Security Practice, 8xp 112 spent
  Unwavering Well-Being Meditation, 8xp 120 spent
  Graceful Crane Stance, 8xp 128 spent
  --Essence 3-- (125+)
  Crimson Palm Counterstrike, 8xp 136 spent
  --Essence 4-- (200+)
  
  --Essence 5-- (300+)
  
  
  Spoiler: Sidereal XP

  --Purchased Above, Planned Below--
  Stamina 3, 8sxp
  Resistance 2, 1sxp
  Resistance 3, 3sxp
  Integrity 2, 2sxp
  Resistance 4, 5sxp
  Resistance 5, 7sxp
  TCS Spell: Flight of the Brilliant Raptor 8sxp
  TCS Spell: Infallible Messenger 8sxp
  MA-Tiger: Celestial Tiger Hide 8sxp
  MA-Tiger: Iron Claw Grip 8sxp
  MA-Tiger: Raging Tiger Pounce 8sxp
  MA-Tiger: Stalking Cat Movement Meditation 8sxp
  MA-Tiger: Prey-Maiming Frenzy 8sxp
  MA-Tiger: Spine-Shattering Bite 8sxp
  MA-Tiger: Leap From Cloaking Shadows 8sxp
  MA-Tiger: Angry Predator Frenzy 8sxp
  MA-Snake 1-5, [3,1,3,5,7] 19sxp total
  MA-Snake: Serpentine Evasion 8sxp
  MA-Snake: Striking Cobra Technique 8sxp
  MA-Snake: Snake Form 8sxp
  MA-Snake: Armor-Penetrating Fang Strike 8sxp
  MA-Snake: Crippling Pressure-Point Strike 8sxp
  MA-Snake: Essence Fangs and Scales Technique 8sxp
  MA-Snake: Uncoiling Serpeant Prana 8sxp
  MA-Snake: Snake Strikes the Heel 8sxp
  MA-Snake: Countless Coils Evasion 8sxp
  MA-Snake: Essence Venom Strike 8sxp
  Dodge 3-5, [3,5,7] 15sxp total
  Survival 1-3 [3,2,4] 9sxp total
  Sail 1-3 [3,2,4] 9sxp total
  Ride 1-3 [3,2,4] 9sxp total
  Stamina 4, 12sxp
  Stamina 5, 16sxp
  
  Role Bonus
  Inciting violent conflicts in furtherance of her or her Circle’s goals; gaining a tactical advantage that can benefit a Strategic Maneuver roll (Exalted, p. 212); training soldiers or stockpiling materiel in preparation for significant battles; inspiring others to uphold Major or Defining Intimacies through violence or forceful argument.
  
• 
  Martial Arts [A5,A5]
  Tiger Style - Completion [E3]
  Snake Style - Completion [A5, E3]
  White Reaper Style - Completion [A5, E3]
  
  Resistance [A5]
  Ox-Body Technique x 4
  Optimistic Security Practice
  Unwavering Well-Being Meditation
  
  Ride [A3]
  Yellow Path
  
  Sail [A3]
  Certain Peril Preparation [A1]
  Serendipitous Voyage [A3]
  
  Survival [A3]
  Adopting the Untamed Face [A1]
  Becoming the Wilderness [A1]
  World-Witness Concentration [A3]
  
  Dodge [A5]
  Absent Self [A1]
  Avoidance [A5]
  Graceful Crane Stance [A1]
  Duck Fate [A4, E2]
  
  Socialize [A2]
  Follow the Blue String
  
  Battles
  Sheathing the Crimson Blade
  Knuckle-Cracking Stance
  Ascending Battles Horoscope
  Descending Battles Horoscope
  
  Brawl
  Horrific Wreath
  Speared Boar Struggle
  Unobstructed Blow [E2]
  Crimson Palm Counterstrike [E3]
  
  Presence
  Heroic Essence Replenishment
  
  Athletics
  Forgotten Earth
  Distance-Severing Stride
  ...
  Invisible Motion
  
  Spells
  Flight of the Brilliant Raptor
  Infallible Messenger
  Floral Ferry
  Corrupted Words
  

 

[jaydude]

[Placeholder]

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• 
  
  Name: Shi-Vash
  Age: Late 20's/early 30's
  Caste: Chosen of Secrets
  Concept: Future Spidery Spymaster
  Anima Banner:
  
  Birth Sign:
  Exaltation Sign:
  
  Caste Effects:
  
  • Auspicious Prospects for Secrets: The Oracles may pay one mote to learn whether concealing or revealing a piece of information would align with destiny.
  • Lesser Sign of Jupiter: The Oracle may pay five motes to reflexively make Jupiter’s lesser sign, drawing it in emerald stardust. Until her next turn, she and allies within close range gain +1 non-Charm Guile and add (her Essence, maximum 5) non-Charm dice on Manipulation, Larceny, and Stealth rolls.
  • Greater Sign of Jupiter: Once per story, the Oracle may pay twenty motes and one Willpower to reflexively make Jupiter’s greater sign, traced across the sky in emerald radiance. She, her allies, and up to (Essence x2) other characters are immune to effects opposing their Guile and add (her Essence) to their Resolve. Un-Exalted characters can’t lie to them or refuse to answer their questions they unless theyspend one Willpower per lie or refusal; characters with Essence less than the Sidereal’s can’t resist. This lasts one scene. Additionally, for that scene and the next (Essence) days, Investigation rolls against theblessed characters fail automatically and they’re immune to magic that would scry on them or divine their future.
  Flags:
  
  • Discover a piece of history or truth that could shake the foundations of Creation's societies.
  • Explore a great repository of lost knowledge.
  • Spend time within a long abandoned ruin.
  
  Backstory:
  
  • Prior to her Exaltation, Shi-Vash was raised and educated as a patrician on the Blessed Isle. After her Exaltation, she generally ended up working both there and in the West.
  • As she learned of both Creation's history and the ways of the Sidereals, she started leaning towards the Gold Faction in terms of views. In her words, "A glass cover over a flame might prevent it from being snuffed out by the wind, but it could also suffocate it."
  
  
• 
  Essence: 1
  Personal Essence: 13/13
  Peripheral Essence: 23/33
  
  Committed Essence:
  
  Willpower: 6
  Join Battle:
  Health Levels: -0, -1, -1, -2, -2, -4, Incapacitated
  Resolve , Guile
  
  Attacks
  
  
  Actions
  Rush:
  Disengage:
  
  Evasion , Parry
  Soak/Hardness: / ()
  
• 
  Attributes
  Strength: 2
  Dexterity: 5
  Stamina: 2
  
  Perception: 3
  Intelligence: 2
  Wits: 2
  
  Charisma: 2
  Manipulation: 5
  Appearance: 4
  
  Abilities
  Archery:
  Athletics: 2
  Awareness: 2
  Brawl:
  Bureaucracy: 2
  Craft:
  Dodge: 4
  Integrity: 2
  Investigation: 3
  Larceny: 3
  Linguistics: 1
  Lore: 3
  Medicine:
  Melee:
  Martial Arts: 5 (Ebon Shadow Style)
  Occult: 1
  Performance: 2
  Presence:
  Resistance: 2
  Ride: 2
  Sail:
  Socialize: 2
  Stealth: 5
  Survival: 1
  Thrown:
  War:
  
• 
  Merits
  Artifact: 3 (Conspirator's Glint, Starmetal Switchklaive)
  Backing: 2 (Bureau of Destiny)
  Familiar: 3 (Zhīzhū, Tiny Pattern Spider)
  Languages: High Realm (native), Old Realm, Seatongue
  Martial Art: Ebon Shadow Style
  Mentor: 3 (Yangmei, Senior Sidereal within the Division of Secrets)
  Resources: 3 (Salary)
  
  
  Spoiler: Yangmei

  Yangmei is a woman who looks to be in her mid-thirties, with long black hair that she wears back, exposing her forehead. She typically wears plain green robes made from the finest material she can get in Heaven.
  
  Yangmei exudes an air of cool professionalism, and expects to see dedication to improving oneself from any Sidereal newly recruited to the Bureau of Destiny, especially if she's taken them under her wing. Once a mentee proves to her that they have such commitment, she's plenty willing to open up to them. Skilled at martial arts, sneaking around and learning things through any means, she's currently in the process of teaching Shi-Vash everything she knows.
  
  Panoply
  
  
  Spoiler: Conspirator's Glint

  The god Yindao, who once served the Bureau of Humanity as Minister of Knives centuries ago, took great pride in both his position in the Celestial Bureaucracy, and his unsurpassed skill as a knife fighter and assassin. One day he was discovered to be part of one of heaven's many conspiracies; much to the surprise of many, he claimed full responsibility for everything, before requesting that he be forged into a Switchklaive after his execution. A lot of his fellow gods came to suspect that this had been his intention all along.
  
  At first glance, Conspirator's Glint appears to be little more than a Starmetal curio bearing some resemblance to a knife handle, allowing it to be displayed in public without arousing suspicion. A user who has attuned to it however can - with the press of a hidden button - cause a thin, double-sided blade of Starmetal to extend out of the handle. Pressing the button again will cause the handle to retract.
  
  Tags: Lethal, Melee, Concealable
  
  
• 
  

  Excellencies​

  Serenity​

  Socialize​

  Follow the Blue String
  Hot-Eyed Snake Whispering
  
  

  Secrets​

  Investigation​

  Marvelous Inclusion of Details
  Unwritten Words Revelation
  

  Larceny​

  Honorable Thief Spirit
  

  Lore​

  Systematic Understanding of Everything
  

  Occult​

  Terrestrial Circle Sorcery
  

  Stealth​

  Soft Presence Practice
  
  

  Endings​

  Athletics​

  Forgotten Earth
  
  
• 
  _
  
• 
  

  Ebon Shadow Style​

  Nothing But Shadows
  Seven Points of Weakness
  Ebon Shadow Form
  
• 
  Corrupted Words (Control Spell)
  
• 
  
  Defining Principle - "With my gift of Exaltation, I will make sure that Creation continues to exist."
  
  Major Principle - "I get a thrill out of obtaining knowledge during dicey situations"
  Major Tie - Sidereal Fellowship Members (Friendship)
  Major Tie - Yangmei (Respect)
  
  Minor Principle - "The Lunars should keep to Creation"
  Minor Tie - Fellow Sidereals (Professional Respect)
  Minor Tie - Zhīzhū (Affection)
  Minor Tie - Garret (Wary Trust)
  
  
• 
  One free dot in Bureaucracy, Lore, Occult, a Martial Art, and Linguistics to represent baseline Sidereal education.
  
  Bonus points:
  13 on Abilities
  2 on additional Willpower point
  
  Experience:
  0 experience
  0 Sidereal experience
  
• 
  _
  

 

[Epiphany]

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• 
  
  
  Name: Amahle Wind-Listener
  Age: 30s
  Caste: Chosen of Journeys
  Concept: Explorer who wants to rebuild the First Age
  Anima Banner: Bright goldenrod, accompanied by the scent and sensation of sand.
  Iconic Anima: An endlessly unfurling scroll displaying a map of where she's been and where she's going.
  
  Birth Sign: The Treasure Trove
  Exaltation Sign: The Gull
  
  Backstory: The history of the Moontrack tribe has a hole in it. A dozen years ago, the Ayouda Cacti which provided much of the water for the Dune People began to die. Learned shamans discovered that spirits of water had overthrown the spirits of the cacti, and were hoarding moisture for themselves. One of the shamans made an unfathomable trip across the Burning Sands to the legendary Gates of Al-Rishou. Beyond lay the precious Cocytus Plateau, from which all underground streams were said to emerge. That shaman brought a flask of the source water back to the Moontrack tribe, whereupon the shamans negotiated its trade with the water spirits in exchange for the release of the cacti spirits, thus returning the balance of life.
  
  But none know who the shaman was that made the trip.
  
  Amahle's Exaltation saved her people but also opened her eyes to a wider Creation. With yellow stars in her eyes, she traversed much of the South, winding her way eastward until she reached the Threshold. There, she stole her way into Lookshy's Ten Thousand Tome Repository, to study much of the ancient lore that remained under the guise of a Resplendent Destiny of a librarian. It was under these circumstances that she first met Garret. The two hit it off immediately and enjoyed a rather passionate love affair, until duty called him away, and Amahle chose to leave Lookshy to continue her wanderings of the East.
  
  It was several years later that she adopted the guise of a Marukani scholar in need of protection on the road. She was astonished when the Lookshyan soldier she arranged to lead a trio of bodyguards turned out to be Garret, yet again. Despite the different in time and Resplendent Destiny, Amahle found it easy to fall in love with him again, and he with her. When a band of bandits set upon them, far more than her Charms or her bodyguards' blades could stop, the Harbinger was forced to let the man she loved presumably perish while buying her life with his blood. Shamed by her initial cowardice, she returned and slaughtered all she could with her Unweaving Method. With her Resplendent Destiny receded due to the bonfire of her anima, it was impossible to conceal her nature from the newly Exalted Lunar, just as it was equally unmistakable what happened to him.
  
  Somehow, in the moment, Garret saw Amahle for who she really was. The librarian he'd loved, the Marukani scholar he'd just been in love with, and beneath both guises the Chosen of Journeys she really was. She told him everything about herself, what little she understood, but both learned more when a No-Moon Caste Lunar found the pair and attempted to murder the Harbinger. Garret received his instruction on Lunars and the Silver Pact while Amahle took what she'd learned and researched the location of a Gate to Yu-Shan. Presenting herself to the Bureau of Destiny by walking into Heaven itself, Amahle received her Year and a Day training on the condition that the man she loved could join her in her responsibilities after it was finished. Her teachers, confident that Arcane Fate would erase nearly all such relationships, agreed.
  
  When she finished, they met back at an agreed-upon spot. And while Arcane Fate had indeed eroded most of her identity from Garret's mind, he remembered enough of the woman-sized hole in his memories to recognize her...and within days, she'd reawoken all his memories of her. They married.
  
  And then they got to work.
  
  
• 
  Attributes
  Strength: 2
  Dexterity: 3
  Stamina: 2
  
  Charisma: 4
  Manipulation: 2
  Appearance: 3
  
  Perception: 4
  Intelligence: 5
  Wits: 2
  
  Abilities
  Archery:
  Athletics: 1
  Awareness: 3
  Brawl:
  Bureaucracy: 1
  Craft: 5
  Dodge: 3
  Integrity: 1
  Investigation: 2
  Larceny:
  Linguistics: 1
  Lore: 5
  Martial Arts: 4
  Medicine:
  Melee:
  Occult: 5
  Performance: 3
  Presence: 3
  Resistance: 1
  Ride:
  Sail: 3
  Socialize: 1
  Stealth: 3
  Survival: 3
  Thrown:
  War:
  
• 
  Merits
  Artifact 5
  Backing 1 - Division of Journeys
  Language 1:
  Native: Flametongue
  Bonus: Old Realm, High Realm, Seatongue
  Extra: Rivertongue
  Manse 3
  Night Vision 2 - Halve penalties or increased difficulties, rounded down, from darkness or low-light environments.
  Resources 3 - Sidereal Salary
  
  Panoply
  Manse 3 -
  Artifact 5 - The Book of Days
  
• 
  Essence: 1
  Personal Essence: 13/13
  Peripheral Essence: 23/33
  
  Committed Essence:
  
  Willpower:
  Join Battle:
  Health Levels: -0, -1, -1, -2, -2, -4, Incapacitated
  Resolve , Guile
  
  Attacks
  
  
  Actions
  Rush:
  Disengage:
  
  Evasion , Parry
  Soak/Hardness: / ()
  
• 
  Excellencies
  
  Survival
  
  Spoiler: Becoming the Wilderness

  Becoming the Wilderness
  Cost: 4m; Mins: Survival 1, Essence 1
  Type: Simple
  Keywords: None
  Duration: One day
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  Weaving a cat’s cradle from the fate of the land around her, the Sidereal makes the world a mirror of her soul. The Sidereal gains the following benefits:
  • She adds (Essence) dice on Awareness and Survival rolls.
  • She reduces environmental penalties on actions with all Abilities by one.
  • Environmental hazards’ damage rolls suffer +1 target number against her.
  • When she forages for food, she finds enough to feed (extra successes) additional characters for a day.
  Spoiler: World-Witness Concentration

  World-Witness Concentration
  Cost: 5m; Mins: Survival 3, Essence 1
  Type: Supplemental
  Keywords: Mute
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: Becoming the Wilderness
  The Sidereal’s piercing scrutiny discerns the subtle tracks left by thoughts, words, and abstract qualia. On a successful tracking roll, the Sidereal also learns a relevant and useful fact about her quarry, plus an additional such fact for every three extra successes: his intended destination, his emotional state when he left the tracks, his physical appearance, etc. She can oppose magical concealment that’s otherwise perfect, like a Solar’s Traceless Passage.
  
  Craft
  
  Spoiler: Elegant Patterns of Fate

  Elegant Patterns of Fate
  Cost: —; Mins: Craft 1, Essence 1
  Type: Permanent
  Keywords: None
  Duration: Permanent
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  Creation’s destiny is the Sidereal’s greatest masterpiece; sustaining the cosmic order renews her creative energies. The Sidereal gains the following benefits:
  • She adds (Craft) dice on Lore and Occult rolls involving knowledge of fate, destiny, and enemies of fate.
  • Fulfilling an auspicious prospect or using an Ascending (Caste) Horoscope or Descending (Caste) Horoscope Charm awards craft points as per a basic project (Exalted, p. 240).
  • Successfully enacting a prophecy awards gold points equal to its highest Ambition Factor.
  • She can pay the experience point cost of prophecies with white points, paying five white points per experience point.
  Spoiler: Excellent Implementation of Objectives

  Excellent Implementation of Objectives
  Cost: 8m; Mins: Craft 3, Essence 1
  Type: Simple
  Keywords: Mute
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Sidereal weaves her blueprints into the pattern of fate, ensuring her project’s swift completion. The Sidereal undertakes a basic or major project, completing most such tasks in a matter of minutes as long as she has all necessary tools and materials. The most arduous, work-intensive projects can be completed in an hour if basic or a day if major. A Craft 5, Essence 3 repurchase lets the Sidereal pay a two-mote, one-Willpower surcharge to undertake superior projects with this Charm. Creating artifacts require (Artifact – 1) months, or half that for repairs; the time to complete a manse is halved; mundane large-scale projects can be completed in no more than (10 – Essence) weeks. She can’t use this Charm to create N/A artifacts or First Age artifice.
  
  Performance
  
  Spoiler: Easygoing Friend Approach

  Easygoing Friend Approach
  Cost: —; Mins: Performance 3, Essence 1
  Type: Permanent
  Keywords: None
  Duration: Permanent
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Sidereal moves and speaks in harmony with the fates of those around her, smoothing over hostility, mistrust, and awkwardness. People meeting the Sidereal (or her current resplendent destiny) for the first time count as having a Minor Tie of friendship toward her, as do those who share in food, drugs, music, or other sensual pleasures with her. Characters with negative Ties toward her treat them as one step weaker instead.
  
  Secrets
  
  Spoiler: Ascending Destiny Mien

  Ascending Destiny Mien
  Cost: —; Mins: Any Secrets Ability 1, Essence 1
  Type: Permanent
  Keywords: None
  Duration: Permanent
  Prerequisite Charms: Any Secrets Charm
  The Sidereal gets on her formidable intellect in delicate negotiations and clandestine intrigues, employing deductive reasoning to plot out a path through a conversation.
  When calculating Guile and Resolve, the Sidereal can use a Secrets Caste Ability instead of Integrity or Socialize. She may also use Intelligence instead of Appearance to add bonus dice on influence rolls (Exalted, p. 218).
  
  Investigation
  
  Spoiler: Efficient Secretary Technique

  Efficient Secretary Technique
  Cost: 5m; Mins: Investigation 1, Essence 1
  Type: Simple
  Keywords: Divination, Mute
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  Upon learning this Charm, the Sidereal spits up a small spider of living emerald, a jubilant assistant that skitters into the strands of her fate until she beckons it forth.
  The Sidereal’s spider emerges so that she may ask it a single factual question, to which it provides an accurate answer. It can’t answer questions involving speculation, matters of opinion, or subjective judgments, nor does it have any insight into supernatural powers or people’s thoughts, plans, and emotions. It also can’t reveal any information that anyone’s taken efforts to conceal, nor can it reveal information if it’s not known to anyone in existence.
  Examples of information the secretary can provide straightforwardly include the name of the local carpenter, how long ago a widow’s wife died, how many oxen an old friend owns, or the temperature of in Nexus. A question like “what’s the Bull of the North doing?” will typically give an accurate but not useful result, as the secretary can’t ascertain the Solar’s intentions or speculate as to the purpose of his current activities. Questions like “who’s winning this war?” or “which of these two men is more beautiful” are too speculative or subjective for the secretary to answer; it can only chitter its apologies.
  This Charm may be repurchased any number of times, each repurchase adding an Evocation to the Sidereal’s secretary that can expand the range of its information gathering and talent as an assistant. These Evocations’ themes and functions derive from the secretary’s established personality, the Sidereal’s Caste, and the themes of the constellation of the Key and the Scripture of That Old Thing. If the Sidereal has a pattern spider familiar, she can also use these Evocations through it.
  
  Lore
  
  Spoiler: Systematic Understanding of Everything

  Systematic Understanding of Everything
  Cost: 1m; Mins: Lore 1, Essence 1
  Type: Simple
  Keywords: Stackable
  Duration: Indefinite
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Sidereal has glimpsed hints of a grand design in dreams and half-remembered visions and gained certain insights thereby.
  After a night’s sleep, the Sidereal gains a temporary Lore specialty in a topic of her choice. It must be related or thematically relevant to the current story’s events, the Five Maidens, or the Celestial Bureaucracy. She can stack up to (higher of Essence or 3) uses of this Charm.
  Once per story, the Sidereal may permanently purchase a specialty gained with this Charm for one experience point as a training effect (p. XX).
  
  
  Spoiler: Professional Mien

  Professorial Mien
  Cost: —; Mins: Lore 1, Essence 1
  Type: Permanent
  Keywords: None
  Duration: Permanent
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Sidereal need not go to great lengths to establish her scholarly credentials; her sagacity is a self-evident fact.
  The Sidereal gains the following benefits:
  • She may reflexively make her scholarly eminence known to all who see her. Anyone who can perceive her becomes intuitively aware of all Lore backgrounds she possesses and regards her as the perfect expert to consult on matters involving them, treating this as a Minor Tie.
  • When she successfully reads a character’s intentions or profiles him, she also learns one of his Lore backgrounds.
  • Characters she teaches halve training times.
  • At the end of each story, she gains a new Lore background based on that story’s events.
  
  Occult
  
  Spoiler: Unweaving Method

  Unweaving Method
  Cost: 3m; Mins: Occult 3, Essence 1
  Type: Simple
  Keywords: Dual
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Sidereal uses her understanding of the Wyld’s chaotic energies and the Underworld’s deathly stillness to corrupt the pattern of an enemy’s fate.
  The Sidereal rolls a withering or decisive (Wits + Occult) attack against an enemy within medium range with this baleful energy. A withering attack uses the Accuracy of an artifact Archery weapon (Close −1; Short +5; Medium +3; Long +1; Extreme −1). It ignores armored soak, with (Intelligence + 3 + extra successes) raw damage and Overwhelming (Essence + 1). Decisive attacks ignore Hardness from armor. She can enhance this attack with Archery Charms, Thrown Charms, or Martial Arts Charms that are compatible with any ranged weapons, but can’t combine Charms from multiple such Abilities unless they’re explicitly compatible with other Abilities.
  Enemies who’re immune to exposure to the Wyld, like a Solar using Integrity-Protecting Prana (Exalted, p. 303), are also protected from this attack, receiving +5 soak and Hardness 5 against it. The undead likewise receive this benefit.
  
  Awareness
  
  Spoiler: Inevitable Pursuit

  Inevitable Pursuit
  Cost: 4m; Mins: Awareness 3, Essence 1
  Type: Simple
  Keywords: None
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The Sidereal senses the subtle impressions left by her quarry on the fates of everything around him, tracing his past back to him. The Sidereal makes a (Perception + Awareness) tracking roll, ignoring penalties from the age or condition of the tracks she follows. She can track characters even if there is no physical trace of their passage whatsoever, so long as the trail is no more than (Essence) weeks old. In sparsely populated areas, where there are fewer people to leave their mark on fate, this increases to (Essence) months. This can contest Traceless Passage (Exalted, p. 412) and similar magic.
  
  Throne Shadow Style
  
  Spoiler: Lion Mouse Stratagem

  Lion Mouse Stratagem
  Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
  Type: Reflexive
  Keywords: Mute
  Duration: One scene
  Prerequisite Charms: None
  The vizier affects the unassuming air of the neophyte and the hanger on, presenting herself as something less than she is.
  The stylist gains +1 Guile. When characters roll against her Guile to reveal her hostile intentions or pierce a disguise that makes her seem less dangerous than she is, they reroll a successful die for each 1 (maximum stylist’s Essence), starting with the lowest number and going up.
  In combat, the stylist instead gains +2 Guile and 1s on opposing rolls subtract successes in addition to rerolling dice.
  Spoiler: Lotus Eye Tactics

  Lotus Eye Tactics
  Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1
  Type: Reflexive
  Keywords: None
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: Lion Mouse Stratagem
  The vizier’s learned eye discerns peers and worthy foes from the masses.
  The stylist makes a special (Perception + Martial Arts) read intentions roll. Success lets her
  player ask the Storyteller one of the following questions about her target plus an additional
  question for every three extra successes.
  • How significant a threat would he pose to me in combat?
  • What should I watch out for in a fight with him?
  • Does he have any weapons, armor, or nearby allies I don’t know about?
  • Who’s someone he learned to fight from?
  If the Storyteller doesn’t have an answer in mind for a question, the stylist’s player should provide one, as if introducing a fact. This Charm can only be used once per scene.
  Spoiler: Master's Useful Fingers

  Master’s Useful Fingers
  Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 1
  Type: Simple
  Keywords: Mastery, Mute, Terrestrial
  Duration: Instant
  Prerequisite Charms: Lotus Eye Tactics
  Disdaining such crude implements as blades, fists, and appropriated barstools, the vizier turns others into her weapons.
  The stylist can train another character over a scene of conversation, sparring, or combat, letting him go into experience debt (p. XX) to purchase either the Martial Artist Merit, a single dot in a Martial Arts Ability, or a Martial Arts specialty. He can’t purchase dots in Martial Arts the stylist doesn’t know and can’t raise his rating above the stylist’s.
  If the character chooses to go into experience debt, he becomes one of the stylist’s shadow fingers, students and disciples who benefit from other Throne Shadow Charms. The stylist can have up to (Essence x2) shadow fingers at a time; claiming more requires revoking an existing shadow finger’s status.
  Mastery: The stylist can train her student in up to (higher of Essence or 3) dots in Martial Arts Abilities and/or specialties with a single use of this Charm. With Martial Arts 5, Essence 3, she can instead teach him any Martial Arts Charm she knows whose prerequisites he meets; Sidereals may teach Sidereal Martial Arts Charms this way.
  
  
  Spoiler: Throne Shadow Form

  Throne Shadow Form
  Cost: 10m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 1
  Type: Simple
  Keywords: Form
  Duration: One scene
  Prerequisite Charms: Master’s Useful Fingers
  Bending her knees low to sink into a stance that minimizes her profile, the vizier recedes from the front lines to guide her shadow fingers in battle.
  The stylist gains the following benefits:
  • When she’s attacked, the stylist may treat a shadow finger within close range as protecting her with a defend other action.
  • She can make a distract gambit to benefit all her shadow fingers. She divides Initiative equal to twice the gambit’s cost among all shadow fingers, rounding up.
  • She reduces the −3 penalty for Stealth in combat by the number of shadow fingers within short range.
  • She adds (higher of Essence or 3) dice on rolls to introduce facts and may do so reflexively.
  Special activation rules: When one of the stylist’s shadow fingers wins Join Battle, she may reflexively enter this Form.
  
  
• 
  A Sidereal prophesy can be thought of as a prediction that fate works to fulfill: “The city will fall to an army bearing red banners.” “None who keep or trade slaves shall prosper here.” “You and your descendants shall have good health unto the seventh generation.” It exerts a subtle influence on fate, tweaking probabilities and nudging the odds to help make that prediction a reality.
  
  
  Spoiler: Making a Prophecy

  Making a Prophecy
  Making a prophecy uses the rules for sorcerous workings (Exalted, p. 483), with the following changes:
  1. The Sidereal rolls ([Charisma, Intelligence, or Manipulation] + [Bureaucracy, Linguistics, Lore, Occult, or Performance]). Different Sidereals might make their propheices in very different ways: calculating horoscopes, meditating on the stars, impressing pattern spiders with the quality of one’s calligraphy.
  2. Instead of an Ambition rating, prophecies have four Ambition Factors: Duration, Frequency, Power, and Scope. Their goal number is ([total Ambition Factors] x5).
  3. Prophecies don’t have Finesse. Each interval’s roll is at difficulty 3.
  4. Prophecies don’t have Circles.
  5. Prophecies suffer complications on any failure, not just botches.
  6. Prophecies cost four experience points. They’re refunded when the prophecy ends or becomes narratively irrelevant, as usual.
  
  Effect
  A prophesy lets a Sidereal’s player impose −1 or +1 target number (p. XX) on a roll made by a prophecy’s target or in a targeted location if doing so helps fulfill her prediction. How often she can do so depends on the prophesy’s Frequency.
  
  Target
  Prophesies typically affect a person, group, community, or location, although the Storyteller may allow
  other targets if it makes sense. The number of characters or size of location a prophesy can target is
  determined by its Scope.
  Note that prophesies may affect characters who don’t exist at the time of their utterance, like blessing
  someone and all her daughters unto the seventh generation. If the number of targets ultimately exceeds
  what the prophecy’s Scope allows, any new targets beyond the limit aren’t affected.
  To speak a prophecy, the Sidereal must have substantial interactions with its targets over the course of the
  extended action. She need not deal extensively with every target but must meaningfully engage with a
  group or location.
  
  
  Spoiler: Ambition Factors

  Ambition Factors
  Prophesies have four Ambition Factors: Duration, how long they last; Frequency, how often their effect
  manifests; Power, how strong of a character it can affect; and Scope, how many targets it can affect.
  Ordinary, no Ambition Factor can exceed (higher of Essence or 3) and the total can’t exceed ([Essence
  x2] + 5). The Sidereal adds +1 to the maximum rating of individual Ambition Factors and +5 to the
  maximum total rating for prophesies of her birth sign of Exaltation sign (p. XX).
  
  Duration
  A prophesy’s Duration determines how long it lasts. Note that when the duration elapses, its experience
  point cost is refunded.
  1 One month
  2 One season
  3 One year
  4 Ten years
  5 One hundred years
  
  Frequency
  A prophesy’s Frequency determines how often its target number reduction applies. It also makes the
  destiny’s narrative effects more common, as adjudicated by the Storyteller.
  1 Once per story.
  2 Once per week.
  3 Once per day.
  4 Once per scene.
  5 Whenever appropriate.
  
  Power
  The higher a prophesy’s Power, the more puissant of characters it’s capable of affecting.
  1 The prophesy can only affect mortals and trivial characters.
  2 The prophesy can affect un-Exalted characters with Essence 1.
  3 The prophesy can affect un-Exalted characters with Essence equal to or less than the Sidereal’s (higher of Essence or 3).
  4 The prophesy can affect all characters with Essence equal to or less than the Sidereal’s (higher of Essence or 3).
  5 The prophesy can affect all characters.
  
  Scope
  A prophesy’s Scope determines how many people or how large a region it can affect.
  1 A group of up to ten people, a single household.
  2 A group of up to twenty-five people, a small hamlet, a few households.
  3 A group of up to one hundred people, a village.
  4 A group of up to one thousand people, a town, a neighborhood of a city.
  5 A group of up to ten thousand people, a small city, a district of a large city.
  
  
  Spoiler: Means

  Means
  Prophesies use the following Means rather than those available for sorcerous workings.
  Cooperation: The assistance of fellow Sidereal or of a supernatural being whose powers are thematically related to the prophesy adds +1 terminus. A larger group of cooperating Sidereals — more than a single Circle — add +2 terminus.
  Cosignatories: The signature of another Sidereal or a god of the Bureau of Destiny on a memorandum notifying the Bureau of the prophecy adds +1 terminus. This differs from Cooperation in that a cosignatory lends political influence to smooth out bureaucratic complications to a prophecy, rather than aiding in making the prophesy itself. An Essence 6+ cosignatory adds +2 terminus.
  Extra Time: Increasing the prophesy’s interval to one month adds +1 terminus. Increasing it to three months adds +2 terminus. A one-year interval adds +3 terminus.
  Trappings: If the Sidereal wears or displays at least three of the appropriate constellation’s trappings for the entirety of making the prophecy, she adds +1 terminus.
  
  Birth Constellation:
  The Treasure Trove
  The Treasure Trove rules revealed wisdom, shared knowledge, and divination. It also encompasses ordeals overcome through personal prowess and rewards won thereby. It’s the sign of savants, teachers, fortune-tellers, and revolutionaries seeking popular support. In its positive aspect, education flourishes, intellectuals turn their erudition to the betterment of society, and new ideas change the world. In its negative aspect, intellectual life is choked by elitism and pointless cerebration, trivia is prized over wisdom, and intellectuals pursue petty, self-gratifying goals without any sense of duty to others.
  Themes: Crop blights, education, fortune-telling, inflexibility, intellectual vanity, logic, revolution, scholarship, secret societies, stinging insects, willful ignorance, the written word.
  Resplendent Destinies: Astrologers, authors, ideologues, know-it-alls, librarians, prophets, revolutionaries, savants, scavenger princes, spies, teachers, translators.
  Trappings: A book, educated, impractical, impoverished, a scholar’s robes. Ability: Lore.
  
  Exaltation Constellation:
  The Gull
  The Gull rules journeys made for their own sake and unmotivated by desire for profit, except perhaps a day’s wage. It’s the sign of stray dogs, homeless people, and itinerant monks. The Gull encompasses journeys of self-examination and change as well as literal travel. In its positive aspect, travel bring the freedom of the road, opportunities to share outsiders’ perspectives, and unexpected rewards, while self-examination leads to growth, self-understanding, and the resolution of inner turmoil. In its negative aspect, travelers are thoughtlessly irresponsible or go without the respite of home, while introspection proves shallow and self-serving or simply isn’t done.
  Themes: Fish, homeless people, introspection, irresponsibility, itinerant monks, migrant laborers, migratory birds, rakish charisma, stray dogs, thoughtlessness, wandering, wind.
  Resplendent Destinies: Drifters, fugitives, foreigners, homeless people, itinerant monks, layabouts, migrant laborers, philosophers, rakes, refugees, runaways, vacationers.
  Trappings: Dirty, happy, hungry, a staff, a traveler’s cape.
  Ability: Thrown.
  
  
• 
  Anima Effect: For one mote, a Sidereal can manifest her Caste Mark for as long as she wants or sense the approximate location of any nearby heavenly gates.
  Auspicious Prospects for Journeys: The Harbinger may pay one mote to learn whether a journey would align with destiny and any relevant details about the journey’s circumstances, like what time the travelers should set out.
  Fulfilling an auspicious prospect grants one Willpower, subtracts one Limit, and grants a Role Bonus.
  Lesser Sign of Mercury: The Harbinger may pay five motes to reflexively make Mercury’s lesser sign, tracing it in yellow stardust. Until her next turn, she and all allies within close range add (her Essence, maximum 5) non-Charm dice on movement actions. This is free at bonfire.
  Greater Sign of Mercury: Once per story, the Harbinger may pay twenty motes and one Willpower to make Mercury’s greater sign, shining golden in the sky. She transports herself, her Circlemates, and up to (Essence x2) others to anywhere she’s familiar with in Creation or Heaven. Rolls she makes to overcome wards against such travel gain −2 target number. In combat, this takes her entire turn and she must wait until the start of her next turn for this effect to take place. If she moves or is moved before her next turn, this power fails, refunding its cost and resetting it. Characters she brings with her must remain within long range until this is completed.
  
  Arcane Fate
  When someone leaves a Sidereal’s presence (or vice versa), he forgets her completely. He remembers the results of her actions, but attributes them to someone or something else. This doesn’t apply to knowledge of the Sidereal Exalted as a whole, only to individual Sidereals. Nontrivial characters can roll (Wits + Integrity) at difficulty 7 to resist a Sidereal’s arcane fate. Quick Characters without an applicable pool roll (base Resolve x2). Ties to the Sidereal add (Intimacy) non-Charm dice on this roll, and a character’s history with an existing Sidereal, knowledge of Sidereals in general, and other circumstances may grant similar bonuses. Arcane fate is a mind-altering Shaping effect (p. XX). Magic that specifically protects against memory-altering Psyche effects can also be used against it.
  
  Additionally, a nontrivial character with a Tie to a Sidereal can roll as above if he later encounters her again to regain any memories of her that he’s lost to arcane fate. At the Storyteller’s discretion, something that reminds him of the Sidereal or that gives him reason to suspect his memories have altered may also let him roll.
  
  Some characters are immune to arcane fate. Other Sidereals and gods in the Bureau of Destiny are immune, as are powerful enemies of fate (p. XX) — those who’re Exalted or have Essence 5+ — are likewise immune to arcane fate. Familiars, sorcerously-bound spirits, and beings she’s created, animated, or summoned with magic are also immune. A Sidereal player character’s Circlemates are immune to her arcane fate.
  
  Documents and other recorded information about Sidereals — either individually or a whole — are also subject to arcane fate. They’re lost, destroyed, or otherwise rendered inaccessible through subtle manipulations of fate. This doesn’t apply to records that maintained by characters immune to arcane fate, nor to those that contain only minimal detail or that describe Sidereals with vague, indirect, or symbolic language, like the Immaculate Texts.
  
  There aren’t specific rules for arcane fate’s applicability to records. The Storyteller can invoke it when dramatically appropriate. Such records might still be retrieved or reconstructed; rolls to do so have a minimum difficulty of 7.
  
  Resplendent Destinies
  Sidereals shield themselves from arcane fate with resplendent destinies, mystical “cover identities” drawn from the themes and archetypes of the constellations. Wearing a resplendent destiny doesn’t change a Sidereal’s appearance; those who interact with her mentally “fill in” details that cause her to seem like a soldier, a tax collector, an arrogant Dynast, etc.
  
  Creating a resplendent destiny is a miscellaneous action that costs one Willpower. People perceive and treat each resplendent destiny as a different person, though it’s still possible to draw connections between them and make deductions. While wearing a resplendent destiny, characters don’t need to roll against a Sidereal’s arcane fate, though they may still forget small or superficial details about her. If she disguises herself in a way that fits her destiny, opposing rolls suffer a −3 penalty. This doesn’t apply to disguises impersonating specific individuals.
  
  The Sidereal can have up to (Essence + 3) resplendent destinies, although only one can be active at a time. She can reflexively don a new resplendent destiny or slough off her old one once per scene. If the Sidereal’s anima reaches bonfire, her resplendent destiny recedes, and she can’t don new ones until it dims.
  
  Resplendent destinies don’t last forever. At each story’s end, the Sidereal rolls (Willpower) at difficulty (Essence) — the more powerful she becomes, the harder it is to maintain false identities. If she fails, she permanently loses a resplendent destiny chosen by her player. She can still create resplendent destinies of the same role, but not that specific cover identity. Memories of the lost destiny are erased by arcane fate.
• 
  Defining Ties:
  Garret (Love and Devotion)
  Defining Principles:
  "There's a great, big, wide Creation out there and I just want to see it all!"
  Major Ties:
  Making Things (Joyful Passion)
  The Bureau of Destiny (Wary Respect)
  Her Fellowship (Best Friends Squad!)
  Major Principles:
  "Someday, I'm going to figure out how to build a Dragon Line Rail so I can take a train to the Moon and maybe see if my people can colonize it."
  "Mortals aren't toys to play with."
  Minor Ties:
  The Dune People (Familial Affection)
  Wanderers (Kindred Spirits)
  Crafters/Engineers (Kindred Spirits)
  Sidereals (Camaraderie)
  Lunars (Wary Respect)
  Luna (Nostalgic Devotion)
  The Maiden of Journeys (Fond Affection)
  The Realm (Disinterested Dislike)
  Minor Principles:
  "Sidereals and Lunars could be on the same side again, if we can just find a way past our differences."
  
  Limit Trigger: The Sidereal is praised by someone for whom she has a positive Tie.
  Celestial Hubris: Infallible Seer Arrogance
  The Sidereal is convinced that she has foreseen every possibility and planned for every contingency, unwilling to believe that she’s capable of making mistakes or errors in judgment. She rationalizes away failures and mistakes and refuses to accept any occurrence she hasn’t anticipated, dismissing it as something other than what it seems. She also exhibits a selective memory, remembering the past in a self-serving fashion that omits any errors on her part.
  Duration: Session. This ends if someone for whom the Sidereal has a positive Major or Defining Tie succeeds on an influence roll to show the Sidereal how her decisions have harmed him.
  Treated as a Defining Intimacy, lasts one scene or one session, resets Limit to 0 and refills temporary Willpower.
  
• 
  Bonus points: 15
  Bonus points spent: All 15 on dots of Abilities.
  
  Experience:
  0 experience
  0 Solar experience
  0 Silver experience
  0 Gold experience
  0 White experience
  
• 
  _
  

 

[Empyreal1]

Cinerea, The Peerless Diamond | Lot-Casting Atemi