Mortal Paths of the Spirit

[Obsidian Soul]

During the Primordial Age, before the Exalted were ever a gleam in Autochtons eye, the Dragon Kings ruled the Threshold.  When they were given dominion over mortals, they were at a loss at what to do with them.  Some of them developed thaumaturgy but, while effective, it was not that impressive.  The Dragon Kings wanted to have more effective servants.  Hundreds of the greatest Dragon King scholars worked on this problem for centuries and, through their efforts, they created the Mortal Paths of the Spirit.  After the Primordial War, its use was banned by the Exalted, but small numbers of mortals preserved the knowledge, passing down the secrets century after century.  The Immaculate Order resurrected the old knowledge after the Usurpation, in order to allow its mortal monks to deal with dangers either too far away or too minor for a Immaculate DB or Bronze Faction Sidereal to bother to deal with.  Over the centuries, this knowledge has trickled into the Threshold.  Now, dozens of temples, usually started by students of rogue Immaculates, teach the Mortal Paths of the Spirit.


There are five Mortal Paths of the Spirit: Valor, Temperance, Conviction, Compassion and Balance.  The Mortal Paths of Valor, Temperance, Conviction and Compassion may never exceed the associated Virtue of the practitioner while the Mortal Path of Balance may never exceed the lowest Virtue of the practitioner.  There are six levels to each Mortal Path of the Spirit but the sixth is only obtainable by a True Paragon or an elder Dragon King.  The Mortal Paths cost nine BP or XP for the first level and 6 BP or 6*the current level in XP for each additional level.


Mechanically, the Mortal Paths are simple.  The practitioner may learn one Spirit Charm of the associated Virtue per level in the appropriate Path, up to the limit of their Virtue and Essence ratings.  The Path of Balance is a little different.  The practitioner has balanced their spirit to such a degree that it may more effeciently channel Essence through each Virtue.  For each level in the Path of Balance, the practitioner reduces the mote cost of any Spirit Charm by one mote per level, before doubling if applicable, to a minimum cost of one.


Essence Channelers who learn the Spirit Paths simply increase the number of Spirit Charms they are allowed.  God-Blooded, Demon-Blooded, Spirits and Eclipse or Moonshadow Caste instead increase their effective Virtue, for the purposes of using associated Spirit Charms, by one per level they have in the associated Path.

 

[Guest]

Can't any exalt learn the paths of spirt too giving my Night a certain Valor Charm would make me very happy

 

[Obsidian Soul]

Yes, Exalts, Dragon Kings, etc can learn the Paths of the Spirit.  Only the Mountain Folk and Fair Folk cannot learn the Paths of the Spirit.  Eclipse and Moonshadow Caste have special rules because they, like God-Blooded, Demon-Blooded and Spirits, can already learn Spirit Charms.

 

[Obsidian Soul]

correction, Mountain folk can learn the Paths.  My idea is that anyone who can learn Thaumaturgy can learn the Mortal Paths of the Spirit.  Spirits will, as with thaumaturgy, be forced to spend twice BP or XP to learn the Mortal Paths of the Spirit (it is harder for them to optimize their Virtues because, to do so without changing their nature, they must also stabilize their Essence).