Dice Sidereals in Creation - Characters

Sherwood · Jul 6, 2017

Post your sheets here.

Rewrite of the SMAs that we are using can be found here:
http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/...2397-sgambit-s-sidereal-martial-arts-rewrites

JayTee · Jul 6, 2017

Name: Ironhand Hui
Caste: Zenith

Appearance

Attributes
Str: 5 / Dex: 5 / Stam: 3
Cha: 5 / Man: 1 / App: 4
Per: 3 / Int: 3 / Wits: 3

Abilities
Caste / Favored
Martial Arts 5
Integrity 5
Presence 5
Resistance 5
Survival 5
Lore 5
Occult 5
Athletics 5
Dodge 5

Other
Awareness 5
Medicine 2

Essence 3
Willpower 10
Essence 3
Comp 2 / Conv 3 / Val 3 / Temp 3
19/19 Personal Motes
41/41 Peripheral Motes

Manse 3
Cult 3 (Cult of Illuminated / assorted prayers)
Artifact 3 (Hearthstone Bracers)
Influence 3 (Elemental Courts)
Familiar 3 (Falcon)

Join Battle 8
Dodge DV 7
Soak: 3B / 1L + 16B / 16 L (Armored In Righteousness) = 19B / 16L
Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 11, Damage 6B, Defense 6, Rate 3
Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 10, Damage 9B, Defense 4, Rate 2
Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 10, Damage 6B, Defense 5, Rate 1

Health:
-0 O
-1 OOOOO
-2 OOOOOOOO
-4 O
Incap/Dying: OOO

Martial Arts
All of Solar Hero Style

Dodge
Shadow Over Water
Severn Shadow Evasion
Refinement of Flowing Shadows
Flow Like Blood
Leaping Dodge Method
Reflexive Sidestep Technique
Night Avenger's Lunge

Resistance
Ox Body Technique x3
Durability of Oak
Spirit Strengthens the Skin
Iron Kettle Body
Armored in Righteousness Stance
Adamant Skin Technique
Immunity to Everything
Unbreakable Warrior's Mastery

Awareness
Keen Sight Technique
Surprise Anticipation Technique
Panoptic Fusion Discipline

Athletics
Increasing Strength Exercise
Monkey Leap Technique
Gracer Crane Stance
Lightning Speed
Glorious Temple Body

Integrity
Temptation Resisting Stance
Elusive Dream Defense
Integrity Protecting Prana

Occult
Spirit Detecting Glance
Spirit Cutting Attack
Ghost Eating Technique
Magic Shattering Strike
All Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight

Presence
Irresistible Salesmen Spirit
Hypnotic Tongue Technique

Psychie · Jul 6, 2017

Name: Valeren Drommond
Caste: Serenity

Str: 3
Dex: 6
Sta: 3

Cha: 5
Man: 3
App: 5

Per: 3
Int: 5
Wits: 3

Journeys
Resistance: 3
Ride: 3
Sail: 2
Survival
Thrown: 1

Secrets
Investigation: 2
Larceny: 1
Lore: 3
*Occult: 4
*Stealth: 2

Serenity
*Craft
*Dodge: 6
*Linguistics: 3 - Old Realm, Riverspeak, High Realm, Firetongue
*Performance: 5 - Dance: 2
*Socialize: 4

Endings
*Awareness: 2
Bureaucracy: 5
Integrity: 3
*Martial Arts: 6 - Floating Ribbon: 2
Medicine: 2

Battles
Archery
Athletics: 1
Melee
Presence: 2
War
Backgrounds
Acquaintances: 3
Artifact - Infinite Resplendence Amulet of Starmetal and Moonsilver: 4
Artifact - Floating Ribbon: 2
Artifact - Paired Seven Jeweled Peacock Fans: 2
Artifact - Unsurpassed Sanxian: 2
Artifact - Perfected Kata Bracers: 4
Artifact - Skin Mount Amulet: 2
Celestial Manse - Precision of Form Gemstone: 3
Connections - The Threshold: 3
Connections - The Guild: 2
Connections - The Cult of the Illuminated: 2
Connections - Dragon Blooded: 1
Salary: 2

Virtues
Compassion: 4
Conviction: 3
Temperance: 2
Valor: 2

Willpower: 10

Anima Effect: A Chosen of Serenity reflexively makes the Lesser Sign of Venus for 10 motes. The Chosen’s anima billows outward in a brilliant blue that embraces all those affected. For one scene, the Sidereal and all her allies within (her Essence x 10) yards add (her Essence) successes to all Performance rolls. Allies enjoy this advantage only as long as they remain within range. With the Sidereal’s anima banner in the 11 to 15 mote range, this costs only five motes. If the banner is fully manifest (16+), this costs only one.

Essence: 6
Personal: 22
Peripheral: 57 +8 from Skin Mount Amulet (65 total)
First (Ability) Excellency
Fateful (Ability) Excellency

Cost: 1m+; Mins: (Ability) 4, Essence 3; Type: Reflexive
(Step 1 for attacker, Step 2 for defender)
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Any (Ability) Excellency
The target number of any dice roll using the chosen Ability decreases by one for every mote the player spends. For one mote, any roll of 6 or higher becomes a success; two motes grant success on rolls of 5 or higher. This Excellency cannot reduce a target number below 4.
Alternatively, the player can spend one Willpower point and enough Essence to reduce the target number to 3. This grants an “auspicious success”: the player forgoes the actual roll but transforms every die in the dice pool into an automatic success instead.
If the player declares in Step 2 of attack resolution that he wants to purchase an auspicious success for a defensive Ability, the expenditure of one Willpower and enough Essence to lower the target number to 3 doubles his appropriate Defense Value against that attack.

Propitious (Ability) Excellency

Cost: 2m+, 1wp; Mins: (Ability) 4, Essence 3;
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Any (Ability) Excellency
By tuning her Essence to resonate with one of the 25 constellations and its corresponding astrological college, a Sidereal can attune herself to a particular Ability and use its first three Excellencies with greater efficiency. Each two motes committed to this Charm reduce the mote cost for the first three Excellencies, to a minimum of zero. A character may never spend more than twice her permanent Essence on this Charm; and an Exalt may employ only one Propitious (Ability) Alignment at a time.
Propitious (Ability) Alignment is incompatible with the Fateful Excellency: while employing this Charm, one cannot apply Essence Auspicious to any dice pool involving that Ability. If a character does so, the Propitious Alignment immediately ends. On the other hand, every dot a character has in an Ability’s corresponding astrological college reduces the cost of Propitious (Ability) Alignment by one mote, to a minimum of 1. Thus, a Sidereal with Essence 3 and four levels of the Mask could spend two motes, and get the same results as if she spent six motes on Propitious Stealth Alignment.
In every other way, Propitious (Ability) Alignment follows the same rules as Infinite (Ability) Mastery.

Resistance - The Mast
Ox Body Technique x6
Optimistic Security Practice

Cost: 5m; Mins: Resistance 3, Essence 2; Type: Simple
(Speed 5, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Sidereal catches the destinies of weapons or other sources of damage in a net of Essence. This Charm raises her bashing, lethal and aggravated soak by an amount equal to her Essence. In addition, opponents whose Essence is lower than the Sidereal’s Compassion must spend one Willpower point any time they take an action intended to damage or disable her. (This expenditure must be separate from Willpower spent for bonus successes or to channel Virtues.) If an opponent does not do so, the action fails automatically.
The Sidereal cannot benefit from this Charm while she is wearing armor.

Ride - The Messenger
Ordained Bridle of Mercury

Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Ride 2, Essence 2; Type: Simple
(Speed 6, DV -2)
Keywords: Obvious, Touch
Duration: Until character applies the bridle
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Sidereal evokes a luminous bridle of golden stardust. Fitting the bridle to a chosen mount or animal companion ties that animal’s destiny together with the Sidereal’s. The bridle automatically sizes and shapes itself to fit the animal in question, then fades away. That animal becomes a new familiar for the Vizier. If the Sidereal has no appropriate animal at hand, he can ask Mercury to lead him to a worthy specimen of a species he designates. The character gains an innate sense of the direction to an appropriate animal. The bridle remains solid and whole until he reaches his new familiar. The chosen animal allows him to approach and place the bridle upon it, already feeling the gravity of fate pulling its simple soul.
If the Sidereal selects his own animal, the Charm costs an additional Willpower point. The animal remains a familiar, with appropriate benefits to the Sidereal, for the rest of the story. Whether the animal stays a familiar afterward depends on how the character treated the animal. If the player wants to spend experience points on the Background, the character can certainly keep the animal as a familiar (see “Backgrounds Gained Through Charms,” p. 126).

Spirit-Shape Companion

Cost: 10m, 1wp, 3xp; Mins: Ride 3, Essence 3; Type: Simple
(Speed 6, DV -2)
Keywords: Servitude, Shaping, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Ordained Bridle of Mercury
When a Sidereal uses this Charm on a beloved—or, at least, long-suffering—familiar, she transforms that animal into a small god whose only duty is to serve that character. Should the Sidereal release the familiar from her service or die in the line of duty, though, the Celestial Bureaucracy might assign the small god to some other duty. An uplifted familiar adds one dot to its Background rating. The familiar gains new scores of Essence 2 and minima of Compassion 2, Conviction 3, Temperance 1 and Valor 2. The familiar’s Intelligence also increases to 2 (if it was lower) and becomes more humanlike in order to facilitate communication. The familiar’s health levels rise to a number at least equal to its (Willpower + Conviction), adding equal numbers of -1 and -2 health levels to make up any shortfall. The former animal’s Essence pool equals (Essence x 10) + (Willpower x 5). Just as any familiar, if the small god’s Background rating is three dots or higher, the familiar has an additional pool of five motes that only its master can use. As a spirit, the familiar’s natural state is now dematerialized. The familiar no longer needs to eat or drink as a normal animal (though the habits remain). The familiar automatically learns the Materialize Charm (see Exalted, p. 295), but can manifest itself visually for only a single mote of Essence. A divine familiar worth three or more
dots also learns one additional universal spirit Charm of the Storyteller’s choosing. Finally, the familiar gains the ability to assume an alternative appearance that blends humanoid characteristics with the creature’s own animal form. Changing from one form to another is a miscellaneous action with no cost or dice roll.
A Sidereal can use this Charm only on his own familiars.

Sail - The Captain
Serendipitous Voyage

Cost: 3m; Mins: Sail 2, Essence 1;
Type: Simple (dramatic action)
Keywords: None
Duration: Special
Prerequisite Charms: None
When the Viziers must travel, destiny helps them along. The character may use this Charm at any port. Within a day, the character absolutely definitely finds a vessel about to leave for her destination and willing to take her aboard. The ship’s captain might not intend to go exactly where the Sidereal intends... but the Sidereal knows the ship will end up there anyway. Viziers should keep in mind that some destinations carry intrinsic dangers: the only way to reach Bluehaven, for instance, is to board a vessel destined for capture by the Lintha pirates. The Charm arranges transportation; safety is the Sidereal’s own problem.
This Charm’s effects extend beyond ships that sail rivers and seas. A Sidereal can find equally fortuitous transport on the sand-ships of the Southern deserts, caravans, stagecoaches or any other form of group conveyance. This Charm does not help with personal transport such as riding beasts, and will not work in locations where vehicles do not regularly arrive and depart.

Stone Skipping Spirit

Cost: 5m; Mins: Sail 2, Essence 1;
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
When the Sidereal uses this Charm, he exhales a long, silent breath that slips between the threads of the Tapestry of Creation and clears a space around the strand that represents the ship on which he sails. For the next scene, the ship sails smoothly regardless of fierce weather or high waves, moving as effortlessly as a toy ship across a map.
As a result, environmental penalties no longer affect the pilot’s Sail rolls, and the ship takes no further damage from the harsh conditions for the rest of the scene.

Linguistics - The Pillar
Favorable Inflection Procedure

Cost: 5m; Mins: Linguistics 3, Essence 2;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Emotion, Virtue (Compassion)
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Chosen of the Gods honor mere mortals just by acknowledging their existence. A Sidereal can forge a powerful connection to another person just by saying his name in his presence. The Seer’s player then rolls her (Charisma + Linguistics) against the target’s Dodge Mental Defense Value and adds her Essence in automatic successes. If the roll succeeds while the target is calm, the target feels more connected to and enriched by the Sidereal. He gains a single Intimacy toward the Sidereal for the rest of the scene. If the target is upset or hostile toward the Sidereal, the character can use this Charm to calm him. If the roll succeeds, the target’s hostility and its cause evaporate from his mind, giving the Sidereal a chance to change the subject or hide whatever set the target off in the first place. Physical evidence of the trigger (seeing a Sidereal climbing out the window while holding the target’s newborn infant, for instance) will rekindle the passion in the target. However, this Charm cannot affect an Exalt in Limit Break.

Blue Vervain Binding

Cost: 5m, 1xp; Mins: Linguistics 3, Essence 1;
Type: Simple (1 long tick, DV -2)
Keywords: None
Duration: One minute
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Sidereal recites a minute-long blessing in the Old Realm’s tongue. (The Charm absolutely requires knowledge of that language.) If his player succeeds at an (Intelligence + Linguistics) roll at difficulty 5, the blessing binds together the fates of two creatures (one of whom may be the Seer himself) such that those two creatures can understand each other’s speech forever after. This understanding goes only so far as each creature’s respective intellect allows, of course. A Sidereal could no more explain the nuances of motonic physics to a Haltan san-monkey than that Sidereal could understand the san-monkey’s description of the pheromones that attracted him to his san-monkey mate.

Performance - The Musician
Perfection in Life

Cost: 5m; Mins: Performance 2, Essence 2;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Fate, Virtue (Compassion)
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
Not every person in Creation has a glorious destiny, but every person can live up to his destiny with grace. One of the duties of the Chosen of Venus, then, is to see that mortals and Exalted all live up to their potential. A Sidereal uses this Charm while he gives a performance of some kind, such as singing, dancing, reciting an epic poem or the like. Audience members feel the sense of completion, triumph and peace—the exaltation—that comes from knowing you are exactly where you should be, doing what you should do. The Seer’s player rolls (Charisma + Performance) against the highest Dodge Mental Defense Value of his assembled audience. If the roll succeeds, everyone who witnessed the Exalt’s entire performance (and is not a creature outside fate) gains a temporary Willpower point. A person can receive this bonus from the same Exalt only once per day, but the extra point can put the person over his Willpower maximum for the scene.

Song of Spirit Persuasion

Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Performance 3, Essence 2;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Servitude
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Perfection in Life
By singing to a god or elemental in the sacred language of the Old Realm, the Sidereal can remove any stress of confusion or fear, putting the spirit into a calm, cooperative frame of mind.
To instill this agreeable demeanor, the Sidereal’s player rolls (Manipulation + Performance) against the spirit’s Dodge Mental Defense Value while the Vizier sings to the spirit. If the roll succeeds, the spirit becomes an ally of the Sidereal, per the Background, and gains an Intimacy to that effect. This alliance lasts until the end of the current story, at which point the spirit resumes its normal feelings for the Sidereal. If the Sidereal treats the spirit especially well during the story and the alliance worked out especially well for the spirit, the alliance could become permanent.

Investigation - The Key
Efficient Secretary Technique

Cost: 2m; Mins: Investigation 1, Essence 2;
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: One miscellaneous action
Prerequisite Charms: None
When the character first learns this Charm, a measure of his Essence crystallizes in his mouth in the form of a small emerald pattern spider. The character spits out this indestructible construct, whereupon it immediately dematerializes and attaches itself to a part of his body. Thereafter, the character may spend two motes of Essence to instruct the spirit to fetch some particular piece of information for him. If the information is available and not actively concealed, the spider scuttles away along the weave of fate. The spider returns in the space of a miscellaneous action and whispers the information to the Sidereal.
The pattern spider can only retrieve simple, objective facts. It can answer questions such as, “What is that shopkeeper’s name?” or “When did it last rain in Nexus?” or even “Who stabbed Sesus Lahor?” It cannot answer questions such as, “Does the shopkeeper hate me?” (the spider doesn’t read minds), “Who’s winning the battle?” (the spider has no strategic sense) or “Who murdered Sesus Lahor?” (murder, unlike stabbing, is a matter of intent). Questions such as, “What is the Bull of the North up to?” usually give unhelpful answers, such as, “Eating lunch.” The pattern spider cannot retrieve information that is actively hidden or innately esoteric, such as spells, and the spider does not function in regions where fate’s influence is weak, such as the Wyld, shadowlands or Malfeas.
As an alternative to pulling such answers from the Loom of Fate, the Sidereal can send the spider with a query to her own library, in Creation or Yu-Shan, for her assistants to look up. The answer falls within the spider’s purview because the answer is objective information—what the Sidereal’s staff can locate in books—rather than anything so nebulous as truth. Such answers take longer to retrieve, of course.

Occult - The Sorcerer
Mark of Exaltation

Cost: 3m; Mins: Occult 2, Essence 2;
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Virtue (Compassion)
The Mark of Exaltation shines out to (Essence x 50) yards, not (Essence x 5). Instead of adding an automatic success to the Sidereal’s social rolls, it adds one to her effective Appearance rating when interacting with spirits in social combat. It is Obvious only to characters capable of seeing the Mark’s light.

Telltale Symphony

Cost: 5m; Mins: Occult 3, Essence 2;
Type: Simple (Speed 5, DV -0)
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Mark of Exaltation
Patterns of Essence become music to the Sidereal’s ears, untangling the mysterious threads of fate with the revelation of their song. Charms, sorcery, and other magic give off a strange music that is nevertheless fitting to their aspect and nature. Spirits ring with the soft tintinnabulation of bells, while artifacts hum in low tones. Other than its purely auditory nature, this Charm functions as All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight (Exalted, p. 222).

Terrestrial Circle Sorcery
Celestial Circle Sorcery

Bureaucracy - The Haywain
Icy Hand

Cost: 1m; Mins: Bureaucracy 2, Essence 2;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Compulsion, Fate, Touch
Duration: Five days
Prerequisite Charms: None
Not only do inefficiency and corruption undermine a bureaucracy’s authority, they inject chaos and decay into a society for the benefit of an amoral few. These failings are bad enough in mortal bureaucracies, but when the bureaucracies of Yu-Shan grow lazy or corrupt, all of Creation can suffer. This Charm, then, helps a Sidereal ensure the proper behavior of a social unit’s member for the benefit of everyone who relies on the organization. (This does not need to be a literal bureaucracy: any social group that has definable leaders, followers and procedures, no matter how informal, falls under the Charm’s purview.) The Sidereal activates the Charm as he touches a bureaucrat—which might require a Martial Arts roll if the target is unwilling. As a bright spark flashes from deep within the Sidereal’s eyes, his player rolls (Charisma + Bureaucracy) against the target’s Dodge Mental Defense Value. If the roll succeeds, the victim is compelled to perform his duties honestly and to the best of his abilities for five days.

Terminal Sanction x2

Cost: 8m, 1wp; Mins: Bureaucracy 4, Essence 3;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Maiden, Servitude, Virtue
(Temperance)
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Icy Hand
The Maidens gave their Chosen a frightening authority over spirits. When a Sidereal activates Terminal Sanction against a present god or elemental, the player rolls (Charisma + Bureaucracy) against a difficulty of the targeted spirit’s Essence. Whether this roll succeeds or fails, the spirit must materialize before the Sidereal and remain solid until the end of the scene. If the roll does succeed, the spirit has even more reason to fear the Sidereal. Should the spirit “die” in that scene, the Sidereal has four choices:
• The Sidereal can destroy the spirit.
• He could bind the spirit to his service—either one task of indefinite duration or general obedience for one year and one day.
• He can bind the spirit’s Essence into an object, creating an artifact rated at half the spirit’s Essence (round up). The Storyteller designs the artifact, based on the powers of the spirit. The artifact lasts only a year and a day, however, before the spirit goes free.
• If nothing else, the Sidereal can simply let the spirit reform in its sanctum, knowing full well what the Sidereal could have done to it.
Thanks to the terms of the Yozis’ surrender, this Charm also works against demons of every Circle and adds a number of automatic successes on the (Charisma + Bureaucracy) roll against them equal to the Sidereal’s Essence. This gives Sidereals a second chance to control demons that escape control.
This Charm has a range of (Essence x 10) yards. Activation of this Charm inflicts an unblockable and undodgeable unnatural Compulsion to materialize. The target is made aware of the Exalt’s presence and distance when affected by this Charm. Binding spirits with it is an irresistible unnatural Servitude. When used to bind demons, it is identical to sorcerous binding, preventing other bindings of the same demon.
Add the following to this Charm:
With a Bureaucracy 5+, Essence 4+ repurchase, a Sidereal may use this Charm to target multiple spirits at once. By adding +4m to its Cost, the Exalt may compel up to 10 spirits of a certain kind to materialize, and if the roll is successful doom them in the event of their defeat. “Kinds” of spirits are delineated by the usual types (elemental, god, demon), as well as whether or not they are officially employed by Heaven. An Exalt could compel all Celestial censor elemental dragons to appear, or all unaffiliated elemental dragons, but not both at once. A third purchase at Bureaucracy and Essence 6+ allows the Sidereal to add another +4m to sanction up to (Essence ÷ 2) Magnitude spirits at once.

Underlying Invisibility Practice

Cost: 4m; Mins: Bureaucracy 3, Essence 2;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Illusion
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: None
The more important someone is, the more people he has scurrying to do his will. The more such people he has under him, the less distinct they all become, until he barely notices any individual one of them. By internalizing the underlying concept, a Sidereal can wrap himself in that same anonymity and invisibility... but only against people who consider themselves better than the Sidereal—or at least better than the type of person the Sidereal pretends to be. A person might consider himself personally better than the Sidereal, of higher social class, higher in an organization, or just generally better than everyone.
When a Sidereal encounters such a person while using this Charm, that person cannot notice the Sidereal. The person might notice signs of the Sidereal’s passing, such as footprints, but not while the Sidereal is present. It doesn’t help if other people, who can see the Sidereal, point her out; the arrogant victim just doesn’t pay attention. At most, the Sidereal leaves a faint impression based on her caste. Chosen of Journeys give the victim a sense that he needs to be someplace else. Chosen of Serenity make the victim feel happy or peaceful. Chosen of Battles make the victim tense and wary. Chosen of Secrets give the victim a sense of déjà vu. Chosen of Endings leave a vague sense of anxiety and futility.
Effects that grant a perfect counter to invisibility pierce this effect. This Charm’s glaring flaw—although Sidereals don’t consider it such—is that it does not affect other Sidereals. A Vizier in the guise of a Guild merchant could follow the barbarian Bull of the North unnoticed from hell to breakfast, but any effort to sneak past his Sidereal field supervisor in Yu-Shan to drop off a late report would be doomed to failure.

Martial Arts - The Sword
Disguise of the New Face

Cost: 15m
Target: Creature
This spell weaves an illusion that makes the target look like someone else. It transforms not just the
person’s appearance, but her voice, mannerisms and even anima. Sidereal Exalted favor this spell for its ability to make them appear as someone else entirely. It perfectly complements the false identities they create through resplendent destinies. The sorcerer ties threads of Essence around the target in the occult knot-pattern of the Hidden Self. The process takes 10 minutes to complete. It’s easy if the target remains standing and immobile, but impossible if she does not.
The sorcerer’s player rolls (Intelligence + Craft [Fate]) or (Intelligence + Larceny). This roll is not part of the spell casting, so the character may augment it with Excellencies or other Charms. The number of successes indicates the detail of the disguise and its ability to fool observers. (See Exalted p. 128 for details on creating disguises, though the spell does grant mannerisms as well and may be used to mimic someone of much higher Appearance.)
Once the persona-tapestry is woven, it flares briefly with Essence light before it fades, completely remaking the subject’s appearance. The spell lasts until the imposture is somehow revealed, the target chooses to remove it (by spending a single mote, or a Willpower point for mortals) or when the caster dispels it, requiring line of sight and a reflexive action.

Infallible Messenger

Cost: 10m
Target: Summoned cherub
the sorcerer conjures up a minor spirit from Essence. This spirit is called a Cherub. Cherubim are multicolored humanoid figures only a few feet tall with six glittering blue-chrome wings. The sorcerer whispers his message, which can be no more than five minutes in length, into the cherub's ear. The sorcerer then names and describes a target. The cherub is able to travel from one point to another in Creation or Yu-Shan nearly instantly. It travels hundreds of miles an hour and can traverse the world in less than a day. Unless the target's location is mystically obscured, the cherub will find the recipient, deliver the message perfectly to his ear (even using the original sender's voice) and then dissipate.

Stormwind Rider

The sorcerer calls up a mighty wind and wraps herself in it. The result is a dust devil - a tornado-like vortex that's smaller and less devastating to the landscape. The dust devil flies low, usually just touching the ground. The vortex can jump obstacles 50 feet wide or 30 feet high but cannot actually fly.
The dust devil carries the sorcerer and (Essence x 200) pounds of passengers or cargo at speeds of 45 yards per tick - roughly 100 miles per hour. The vortex is immensely maneuverable.

Theft of Memory

Cost: 15m
Target: Person
The Theft of Memory spell permits the sorcerer to snatch a memory from his victim, though it acts
subtly—a rarity among spells. The sorcerer must bear an emerald (of at least Resources 2 value) in his hand and touch it to his target. He makes the Mudra of Remembrance and Forgetting with his other hand and releases the Essence of the spell. The spell’s Essence display can manifest as any number of noticeable phenomena—simple alchemical pyrotechnics from a street performer, weather effects or the light of the sun playing across the area. In order to conceal the casting of this spell, the caster’s player must succeed at a (Wits + Larceny) roll. People watching the scene realize the character just cast a spell if their players gain more successes on a (Perception + Occult) roll than the sorcerer’s roll to conceal the spell.
Moreover, all the legerdemain in the world will not conceal this spell from creatures able to view the flows of Essence. To Essence sight or Charms such as All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight, it is very clear that the sorcerer just cast a spell. The sorcerer must know what memory he wants to steal. When he touches his victim, his player rolls (Charisma + Occult) as a social attack against the target’s Dodge MDV. If the attack succeeds, the target relives the memory for a moment and then it is gone, trapped in the gemstone. Failure indicates that the sorcerer does not steal that memory, cannot steal any other memory from that victim and suffers a -2 internal penalty on all Mental Attribute-based rolls for the rest of the scene. Theft of Memory cannot be cast in combat. Memories are either buried beneath the disciplined mind of a warrior or lost amid the fear most other creatures feel in such situations.
Once the gem contains a memory, any creature may clasp the gem to its forehead and concentrate to relive the memory. During this time, the creature can perform no other action and is unaware of sights and sounds around it, though physical contact can break the experience.

The Titan's Icy Breath

Cost: 10m
Target: Area
The sorcerer calls up the head and shoulders of an icy giant, which rises from the ground before her
and exhales a stream of freezing air that solidifies into an icy shell around anyone caught within an area 10 yards wide and high, extending 100 yards from the caster. The titan bellows a second after the exhalation, shattering the ice, and then vanishes. Roll the sorcerer’s (Wits + Occult) and add a number of automatic successes equal to her Essence, as an attack against everyone in the spell’s area. Characters cannot block this attack, though they may dodge it. The spell has a raw (lethal) damage of six dice plus attack successes. Anyone who suffers even a single level of damage from this spell has his movement rates halved and the Speed of all his actions increased by one for the remainder of the scene. Multiple applications of this spell cannot add more than one, total, to the Speed of a character’s actions or reduce his movement rate to less than half its normal value.

Summon the Heavenly Portal

Cost: 35m
Target: Summoned Calibration Gate
Once a year, on the third night of Calibration, the Celestial City of Yu-Shan revels in the Carnival of Meeting. In ages past, mortal and Exalted dignitaries would be invited to Heaven to join the festival, but in these debased times, the gods of Yu-Shan neglect the world. The starmetal Calibration Gate still appears in Creation once a year to admit mortals to the Carnival, though the gods send out no invitations. During that night, it cannot be summoned. For the rest of the year, though, a sorcerer may call it with this spell.
The sorcerer evokes a foot-wide patch of rippling gold, like sunlight on water, He reaches into it, feels for a handle, and pulls. A celestial bell chimes. A minute later, the Calibration Gate appears. It materializes with equal aplomb outside, indoors, underwater or even in midair. It remains open for five minutes before vanishing again, and it cannot be re-summoned to any place within a mile of that location until a day and night have passed. No known force can damage the gate. Any number of characters can pass through the Calibration Gate, although they cannot leave Heaven by the same route.
What’s more, if they have no official place or legitimate business in the Celestial City, they need quite an argument to persuade the three giant orichalcum lions on the near side to let them pass. These celestial lions respect honor and justice but are nigh-undefeatable in battle and immune to mind-affecting magic. (And there are six more waiting on the other side of the door.)
Many of the Sidereal Exalted know this spell and use it to return from their assignments within Creation. A few Lunar sorcerers know it too and use it to confer with allies in the celestial Bureau of Nature. Sidereal leaders worry what Solar sorcerers might learn if they obtain access to Yu-Shan. Any Abyssal Exalt who tried using the Calibration Gate would likely regret it in very short order—nine orichalcum lions notwithstanding.

Travel Without Distance

The character gathers a blazing corona of Essence around him and shapes it through a complex series of finger and hand gestures. When he releases the magic, he is wrapped in whirling clouds of Essence. When the clouds dissipate, he is gone. The character can choose to reappear in any location he has seen before, either with his own eyes or through magic, so long as the destination is within 10 miles per point of the character's permanent Essence and is not warded against magical travel.
Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style

Martial artists who learn the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style become consummate performers with charisma and grace to spare, and they can be as elusive as dreams. They wield desires like swords, and the masters can become things out of nightmare. The style emphasizes finesse and subtle
manipulation rather than brute power, and it might have inspired the White Veil Style. (That Terrestrial martial art is much weaker, though.)
Weapons and Armor: Charms in the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style treat attacks made with a whip, weighted rope or rope dart as unarmed attacks. (See the Appendix, pp. 156-157, for the game statistics of rope weapons.) Sashes, capes and ball gown trains can be given the properties of
weighted ropes through the judicious addition of lead weights concealed in the layers of fabric. Directly examining such items to determine if they are weapons requires a (Perception + Investigation) roll. Doing so while simply looking at the character over requires a (Perception + Awareness) roll, difficulty 3, instead. War fans are also form weapons for the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style. Several Charms of this style also enable practitioners to attack using the long, flowing sleeves of their robes or ordinary gown trains, cloaks or sashes, without any preparation. Others permit attacks using ordinary paper fans and similar props. In such cases the martial artist empowers these “weapons” with her Essence. All the damage comes from the Charm. Characters cannot use this style while wearing armor. Complementary Skills: A prospective Dreaming Pearl Courtesan must have at least two dots in Performance, Presence or Socialize before she can learn this style.

Demure Carp Feint

Cost: 4m (1m); Mins: Martial Arts 2, Essence 1;
Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: None
The character opens a fan, twirling it and waving it in a distracting way. (This does not need to be a war fan as long as it is used only for distraction.) The Exalt’s movements become as graceful and unpredictable as cherry blossoms in a gust of wind. While using this Charm, the Exalt adds either her Essence or +2 (whichever is greater) to her DVs.

Pearlescent Filigree Defense

Cost: 1m per 1L/2B soak; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Exalt channels her Essence into his robes, making his clothing and accouterments take on an iridescent sheen as shimmering golden motes of Essence waft and rise from him. Each mote spent adds one to the character’s lethal soak and two to the character’s bashing soak. (This bonus does not count as armor, but as a form of natural soak.) The character cannot spend more motes of Essence to fuel this Charm than he has dots of Essence.

Lethal Paper Fan Attack

Cost: 3m (1m); Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 1;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Obvious, Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
In the hands of a martial artist using this Charm, a delicate paper fan can be infused with Essence that makes it cut like a razor. The character treats all paper fans (or other similar props such as brushes or mirrors) as wind-fire wheels. She treats all sashes, long hems, sleeves and so on as seven section staves. The damage these weapons inflict is lethal, though their appearance does not change. In addition, if the character uses an actual war fan or other accouterments that has been properly constructed for use in the martial arts, the character may enhance the weapon’s Speed, Accuracy, Damage or Defense by an amount equal to her Essence. (Pick any one value upon activating the Charm.) If the player picks Speed, a value equal to the character’s Essence is subtracted from the weapon’s Speed rating. The result of doing so can be no less than 1, however. Sashes, cloak-hems and other clothing turned into weighted ropes and then enhanced by this Charm deal less damage than they would if empowered by the Charm alone—but the character can wield them with much greater Speed, Accuracy or Defense.

Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form

Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2;
Type: Simple (Speed 3)
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious, Social
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Demure Carp Feint, Pearlescent Filigree Defense, Lethal Paper Fan Attack
The sensual martial artist’s props and robes take on a life of their own, enhancing and complementing her movements. At her command, her fans open and swirl enticingly about her body like butterflies. Her sashes tease and coil around her like a lover’s hands, and her flowing sleeves and robes writhe and twist at her whim. The Exalt does not have to physically manipulate these props in order to create this effect.
The martial artist controls one prop per dot of Essence she has (deciding which props to animate when she activates the Charm). For example, an Exalt with an Essence score of 4 could control one fan, one sash, one of her flowing sleeves and the hem of her cloak, or she could control four fans at once. If the martial artist wishes to add or change a prop, she must drop the present invocation of this Charm and reactivate it.
Objects the martial artist wishes to command must be in her possession, and she cannot make an attack with these props unless she is manually controlling them. To attack with them yet still leave her hands free requires her to use the Flurry of August Leaves Concentration Charm. While her character uses this Charm, the Exalt’s player adds her character’s Martial Arts score to all Presence and Socialize rolls, including those required for social combat and the activation of Charms.

Flurry of August Leaves Concentration

Cost: 2m per weapon (1m); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 2;
Type: Simple (DV -2)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form
The martial artist with this Charm casts her fans or sashes into the air, making them swoop and slash out at an opponent before obediently returning to her. If she activates this Charm while using the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form, the martial artist can have as many props as that Charm allows make multiple attacks against one target. This Charm allows the martial artist to strike a target up to (Martial Arts x 5) yards away.
The Exalt’s player rolls a single normal Martial Arts attack, regardless of how many weapons the character controls. Successes from the roll, penalized by the target’s DV, apply to all weapons simultaneously, and the damage is calculated normally as if she had performed the attack manually. The opponent does suffer an onslaught penalty to his DV for being attacked by multiple props, but each prop applies its damage separately.
Botched attacks can result in broken or lost props, if not injury to the martial artist who cast them. Also, this Charm can be used only on props that can be separated from the Exalt’s body. (She can’t lash out at a target 25 yards away with the hem of her ball gown, for instance, unless she’s wearing one damn long train.)

Resplendent Sash Grapple Technique

Cost: 3m per action (1m); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 2;
Type: Reflexive (Step 9)
Keywords: Counterattack, Obvious
Duration: Varies
Prerequisite Charms: Flurry of August Leaves Concentration
The Exalt’s flowing sashes, hems, sleeves or what have you act with an uncanny dexterity to grapple opponents and their weapons. After successfully dodging or otherwise negating an enemy’s attack, the Exalt’s player may make a reflexive (Dexterity + Martial Arts) roll to have his character’s cloak
or flowing sleeves snare her opponent’s attacking weapon or appendage.
In order to make a successful retaliatory grapple, the martial artist must score as many successes as his opponent did on her attack. The defender may evade this attack only with Charms or as part of a flurry on her same action. (An opponent is unlikely to call for such a flurry unless she has already seen the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan use this Charm in a previous action, however.) If the martial artist’s opponent uses a weapon and the martial artist scores three more successes than his opponent’s relevant weapon Ability, the martial artist may disarm the target rather than clinching her.
After successfully clinching his enemy, the martial artist’s player attempts a resisted roll of (Dexterity + Martial Arts) against the opponent’s (Strength + [Melee or Martial Arts]). The normal grappling rules still apply. If the Exalt uses the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form when activating this Charm, he may attempt as many of these reflexive grapples with animated sashes or trailing robe hems as that Charm allows him to animate. If the martial artist grapples his opponent with a prop animated by that Form-type Charm, turning the tables on the grapple in the subsequent resisted roll does not grant the opponent any control over the martial artist. Instead, she’ll just be left holding a limp sash or a ripped-off piece of a loose sleeve. The cost of this Charm must be spent for each reflexive grapple the Exalt attempts.

Vindictive Concubine's Pillow Book Understanding

Cost: 3m (1m); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 2;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Form
An uncomfortable truth written down by a vindictive concubine can wound a person more deeply than any weapon. It slips past his defenses and cuts him where it can deal the most damage. As is true in social situations, so also in the martial arts. Even the heaviest of superheavy plate armor has thin seams where the pieces join. A skilled craftsman will minimize the width of these seams so that no blade or arrowhead can pierce them, but even such seams are chasms to the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan who employs paper and silk—thinner than even the sharpest blade. Upon activating this Charm, the Exalt negates an amount of her opponent’s armor soak equal to her (Essence + Martial Arts) as her unconventional weapons capitalize on the armor’s nigh-invisible chinks. This effect does not affect the armor’s Hardness value or negate her target’s natural soak or any bonuses gained through the use of Charms.

Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata

Cost: 10m (6m), 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Compulsion, Obvious
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Flurry of August Leaves Concentration
As the Exalt performs the sultry, languid moves of this Charm, ethereal music whispers in the air, and flower petals flow from her sleeves and the folds of her robes to swirl around her. The martial artist’s player rolls (Charisma + Martial Arts), and the players of all those within a number of yards equal to the Exalt’s Essence must compare the result to their characters’ Dodge MDV. Those whose MDVs do not negate the successes on the martial artist’s player’s roll find their characters transfixed in place, enraptured by the beauty of the kata and perfume of the petals. Even those in range of this Charm who are not entranced experience a hallucinogenic vertigo, suffering an internal penalty equal to the Exalt’s Essence to all dice pools.
Targets who are entranced believe whatever the Exalt tells them. The Exalt can issue commands to those enraptured and expect them to be followed, regardless of the victim’s Intimacies or Motivation. (The victim safely ignores suicidal orders.) This Charm does not affect characters with a higher permanent Essence than the martial artist, though. If the Exalt halts her kata for any reason, or if the scene ends, the fascination slowly wears off. In ongoing combat, the effects linger for a number of actions equal to the martial artist’s Essence. During this waning period, the victims suffer an internal penalty equal to the Exalt’s Essence to all dice pools. Enraptured victims retain vague memories of what they did under the effects of this Charm and suffer a strange melancholy afterward, imposing a -1 internal penalty to Conviction rolls for a number of days equal to the Exalt’s Essence.

Seven Storms Escape Prana

Cost: 8m (4m), 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4;
Type: Simple (DV -2)
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Fragrant Petal Fascination Kata
The martial artist centers himself, breathing in ambient Essence. When he exhales, sweet tendrils of pastel fumes escape his lips, and eerie electricity prickles the hair on the back of bystanders’ necks. The Exalt’s clothes and hair whip around him, and he becomes a vortex of swirling light and vapor.
That vortex disappears in a flash, only to reappear a distance of (Martial Arts x 5) yards away, where the Exalt emerges.

Invoking the Chimera's Coils

Cost: 15m (11m), 1wp + 1wp to end the Charm; Mins: Martial
Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: Varies
Prerequisite Charms: Resplendent Sash Grapple Technique, Vindictive Concubine’s Pillow Book Understanding, Seven Storms Escape Prana
Masters of this style achieve a perfect waking and lucid union of timeless dream and finite self. With this Charm, the martial artist opens herself to Creation’s collective dreaming consciousness and assumes the form of the fell and beautiful Chimera. Swirling light shines down upon the Exalt. Her clothes and accouterments merge with her body as her form extends to five times her normal height. Her neck grows up to four feet in length and supports a delicate and golden beaked foal’s head. Four sets of spiraling gazelle’s horns adorn her head, reshaping themselves like tendrils of smoke. Many eyes line either side of her narrow snout and continue down her back—ranging from the size of small pearls to the size of goose eggs. They alternately blaze like sapphires in the noonday sun and blink demurely. Gold-veined pearl scales cover the Exalt’s entire form, providing an additional 6L/12B armor. Instead of arms or legs, the martial artist fl oats just above the ground on a pair of four-foot-wide carp fins for every dot of Essence she has. These fins enable her to hover in or swim through the air with serpentine grace at 45 miles per hour. (These fins also provide a +3 bonus to Damage.) While using this Charm, the Exalt cannot be surprised or lied to, as secrets echo on the wind for her alone and others’ intentions play out like uncoiling prayer strips in her mind’s eye. Also, the Exalt can perform a number of actions per “actual” action equal to her Essence. (Each “actual” action taken thus is Speed 6.) These granted actions are full extra actions, not parts of a flurry, though any of them can also be subdivided into a flurry. This Charm is incompatible with other extra-action Charms. This Charm lasts for as long as the Exalt wishes, and she must spend a point of temporary Willpower to end it. Invoking it is risky, however. A martial artist who learns this Charm comes dangerously close to the Blossom of the Perfected Lotus, without necessarily the wisdom to control such esoteric forces. The Exalt thrills to an ecstatic bliss in this form, and many who have done so forgot they were once mortal. For every additional scene her character remains in this form, the player must make a Willpower roll with a cumulative +1 difficulty modifier. If she fails this roll at any time, the character disappears in a blinding flash of pearlescent light, never to be seen again except in fragmentary, half remembered dreams.
Sapphire Veil of Passion Style

This ancient Sidereal martial art is popularly known among the Viziers as “the twice-mastered art.” The less crude interpretation of this moniker refers to the style‟s history. Legend has it that Sapphire Veil of Passion style was originally invented by Entwined in Night‟s Shadows, a Chosen of Secrets. But he was selfish and proud, and refused to teach the style he had invented. He never took a student or produced any records, and its mysteries died with him. Centuries later, it was re-created from second- hand accounts and first-hand insights by an ambitious Joybringer to settle a bet with Ma-Ha-Suchi, and has remained a favored possession of the Chosen of Serenity ever since.
Sapphire Veil of Passion was derived from extensive first-hand study of that most ancient and enduring fascination of the human race—sex. Its masters weather the ribald jokes and off-color commentary of their younger contemporaries with patience and good humor. Those who face them in battle discover that these martial artists have turned their focus inward upon the hottest of flames and have tempered it into an exceedingly fine weapon. They do not jest about the style afterward. For more information on Sidereal martial arts, see Scroll of the Monk.
Weapons and Armor: Charms of this style treat attacks made with the urumi and its artifact equivalent, the floating ribbon, as unarmed attacks. This style is not compatible with armor, but is traditionally used with a buckler.

Into Infinite Depths

Cost: 6m (2m); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4;
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
Clearing her mind of all but the sensation of the moment, the martial artist cuts her gaze across an opponent. In so doing she sees him anew, with unsurpassed clarity. The character immediately gains the following knowledge about one individual: what manner of being the target is (Solar Exalt, god, raksha, etc), which martial arts styles he knows at least one Charm from, which martial arts styles he knows up to the Form-type Charm, which martial arts styles he has mastered, whether he has any Intimacies toward the martial artist, and the nature of those Intimacies, if they exist. For the rest of the scene, the martial artist gains a +2 bonus to her DVs and MDVs against any opponent she has evaluated in this manner. Into Infinite Depths may be activated as an innate power, which does not count as a Charm activation if Sapphire Veil of Passion Form is active.

Eternal Infatuation Dance

Cost: 8m (4m); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4;
Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack, Obvious
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: None
Taking attention to imply invitation, the character is able to quickly close with those who draw her notice. This Charm may be activated in response to any social or physical attack. The martial artist vanishes in a swirl of collapsing sapphire ribbons, appearing one yard away from her attacker. In the case of long-range social attacks (such as those delivered through sorcery), the Charm‟s maximum allowable range of movement is (Essence x 20) miles. This action incidentally acts as a perfect dodge upon activation against physical ranged attacks of which the martial artist is aware, assuming the attack can be dodged. Subsequent ranged attacks during the remainder of the Charm‟s duration must be defended against normally.
As long as the martial artist does not voluntarily move away from the individual whom she activated Eternal Infatuation Dance to approach, she may stay within one yard of him at all times, regardless of his movement rate or any exotic movement abilities employed. The initial movement granted by this Charm is considered a counterattack. This Charm may not be invoked more than once per action.

Yellow Dragon Flight

Cost: 13m (9m), 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
Wild ribbons of yellow and scarlet power blaze around the character‟s attacking limb. Channeling her understanding of the male principle of Essence, the martial artist enchants an unarmed attack with aggressive, penetrating power. The attack is considered unblockable, ignores soak derived from armor, and in addition to inflicting standard damage, ignites a number of the target‟s motes equal to the martial artist‟s (Essence x 2). These motes are not only lost, but also immediately applied as raw lethal damage which ignores armor, but is soaked separately from the original attack. If the target lacks sufficient Essence, or lacks Essence at all, this aspect of the attack is wasted.

Black Dragon Coils

Cost: 5m (1m), 3wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4;
Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Yellow Dragon Flight
Stepping back from determined opposition, the martial artist swirls with onyx ribbons. Channeling her understanding of the female principle of Essence, she enhances an unarmed parry against any attack she can perceive, even unblockable attacks, rendering the defense it provides perfect. Additionally, the martial artist regains one channel of any Virtue of her choice for every five motes or fraction thereof the opponent spent on the blocked attack. For example, if an opponent spends one to five motes, the martial artist regains one channel. If an opponent spends six to 10 motes, the martial artist regains two channels (one for the first set of five motes, and another for the remainder in the second set of five motes).

Dissolution of Value

Cost: 15m (11m); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4;
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Eternal Infatuation Dance, Into Infinite Depths
Rooting herself in the midst of her opponents, the martial artist's anima erupts into a series of spiraling ribbons that brush aside the attacks of her foes. While this Charm persists, no penalties of any kind may reduce her DVs. (As always, inapplicability is not a penalty.) Characters attacking her from behind in a press also do not gain a free unexpected attack. Dissolution of Value automatically ends if the martial artist moves more than one yard from the point where she activated this Charm.

Satisfying Idle Fantasy

Cost: 10m (6m); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4;
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Dissolution of Value
Wrapping herself in self-indulgent dreams of her own triumph, the martial artist denies opponents the ability to hold themselves superior to her. No penalties may apply to her dice pools when she attacks any character she has evaluated with Into Infinite Depths during the course of the scene, save for multiple action penalties. Additionally, when any of her attacks inflict damage, the target must pay one Willpower or accept an Intimacy toward the Sidereal. (This Intimacy represents lust if appropriate to the character‟s gender preferences, uneasy fascination otherwise.)

Sapphire Veil of Passion Form

Cost: 13m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5;
Type: Simple
Keywords: Crippling, Form-type, Emotion, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Black Dragon Coils, Satisfying Idle Fantasy, One complete Celestial martial art
The martial artist executes a languid kata, hesitates a moment, and then erupts into a shuddering battle pattern. Her anima unfolds into a towering, shifting array of cerulean and sapphire ribbons, which twine about her body even as they strain for the sky. She levitates a finger‟s length above the ground as she moves, incidentally gaining perfect balance and the ability to move safely over hazardous terrain. Players of all characters who possess any sort of Intimacy toward her, positive or negative, must fail a Compassion roll or pay one Willpower per attack made against her. If she manages to strike any character who possesses no Essence or Willpower (non-Essence users are not evaluated for current Essence, only Willpower) with an unarmed attack, that character is immediately rendered unconscious for (attacker‟s Martial Arts) hours as a Crippling effect. Finally, she gains five motes whenever her DV refreshes.

Someone Else's Consequence

Cost: 15m (11m); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5;
Type: Reflexive (Step 10)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Shaping Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Sapphire Veil of Passion Form
Advanced students of the Sapphire Veil of Passion are among Creation‟s more careless fighters (and lovers), unconcerned with the consequences of their actions. This Charm may be activated when the martial artist successfully strikes an opponent with an unarmed attack, levying one of the following effects:
• The martial artist immediately terminates the effects of all unnatural mental influence from which she suffers, transferring them to her target, who must then deal with them as he is best able.
• The martial artist immediately terminates the effects of all Poison and Sickness effects from which she suffers, transferring them to her target.

Silken Rope Trick

Cost: 15m (11m), 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Emotion, Obvious Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Sapphire Veil of Passion Form
Moving through a swift kata, the martial artist weaves sapphire threads out of her own Essence, which quickly knot around her. She is unable to take Dash or Jump actions while this Charm is in effect. More beneficially, she adds her Martial Arts rating in successes to all rolls to establish or control a grapple. Any character who enters a grapple with her (even one who initiated the grapple by attacking the martial artist) automatically gains an Intimacy of lust toward her, regardless of standard sexual preferences. This unnatural Emotion effect costs three Willpower to resist, or two if the character is not of the sex to which the target is normally attracted. Finally, all rolls by opponents to establish control of a grapple suffer an external penalty equal to the martial artist‟s Appearance if her last action was to hold an opponent.

Joy in Ownership

Cost: 20m (16m), 2wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Illusion, Servitude, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Silken Rope Trick, Someone Else‟s Consequence
The martial artist gently touches a target she has rendered unconscious during the scene, manipulating the flow of his Essence through the chakra points known as the gates of desire. Upon awakening, the target gains a second Motivation to “Love and obey (the martial artist).” Her memories are also altered so that she believes the martial artist is an old friend or lover (whichever is appropriate to her normal sexual preferences). Memories that might contradict this belief are suppressed.
Resisting this unnatural mental influence requires that the target spend three Willpower within the space of a scene, over a number of scenes equal to (10 - target‟s Essence). While Joy in Ownership remains in effect, the target is metaphysically considered to be the martial artist‟s property.

Sapphire Binding Pattern

Cost: 16m (12m), 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5;
Type: Reflexive (Step 10)
Keywords: Combo-basic, Obvious, Shaping, Stackable
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Joy in Ownership
This Charm may be invoked to enhance a hold during a grapple. Spinning ribbons of sapphire Essence around her target, the martial artist impedes her Essence flows for the rest of the scene. One of the following effects is applied:
• All of the target‟s actions are reduced to 0 dice if not supplemented by a Charm or stunt.
• A mote surcharge equal to half the martial artist‟s Appearance is added to all of the target‟s Charms. This effect may be applied only to targets of lower Essence.
• The target‟s Dexterity is considered to be 0 for the purpose of calculating Move and Dash actions, and his Strength to be 0 for the purpose of calculating Jump actions.
These effects last until the end of the scene, and this Charm may be re-applied to the same target over the course of repeated hold actions in order to inflict additional effects.

Memories of Intimacy

Cost: 15m (11m); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Joy in Ownership
Try as they might, the martial artist‟s former conquests cannot shake that status. This Charm supplements an unarmed attack, rendering it unblockable and undodgeable if any of the following criteria apply to the target:
• The martial artist has defeated the target in combat at some point in the past (defined as having rendered the target unconscious, or the target having voluntarily admitted defeat or surrendered
to the martial artist on the field of battle, even if only in a sparring match).
• The target carries an Intimacy of any sort for the martial artist.
• The martial artist owns the target.
• The target suffers from any Crippling effect inflicted by the martial artist.
If two or more of these criteria apply to the target, the attack is also considered unexpected.

Thousand Desire Ribbons

Cost: — (+10m (6m), 1wp); Mins: Martial Arts 6,
Essence 6; Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Memories of Intimacy, Sapphire Binding Pattern
Coming to understand the pinnacle of desire, the martial artist steeps himself in the inconsequential motives that shift the world. This Charm allows the martial artist to pay a (+10m, 1wp) surcharge when activating Sapphire Veil of Passion Form, upgrading it with the following capabilities:
• The martial artist gains the ability to solidify and control the sapphire ribbons of her anima, treating them as starmetal floating ribbons. Each time her DV refreshes, she gains a pool (equal to half her Essence) of reflexive martial arts attacks with these ribbons, which she may unleash at any time using her full dice pool. This pool refreshes along with her DV, and may not exceed (Essence/2) actions.
• The range on all urumi or floating ribbons the martial artist employs extends to (Essence x 10) yards. No motes need be paid for this benefit.
• Any character wounded by an urumi or floating ribbon wielded by the martial artist feels the pain transformed and transported into a kind of transcendent ecstasy. The distraction from this overwhelming sensation changes all wound penalties from internal to external until the end of the scene, as a Crippling effect.
Floating Ribbon - Speed 5, Accuracy +4 (+10), Damage +8L (+14L), Defense 0 (+6), Rate 2, Reach 10 yards
Dual Seven Jeweled Peacock Fans - Speed 5, Accuracy +4 (+10), Damage +8B/4L (+14B/10L), Defense +3 (+9)

Perfected Kata Bracers

Perfected kata bracers are prayer strips crafted of a single magical material and curled into bracers.
The strips’ sutras are starmetal engravings, except in starmetal bracers—they use orichalcum. Attunement costs eight motes. When the character activates a Form-type Charm, the sutras inscribed on the bracers glow and lift from the artifact to engulf the character in light for a brief moment. For the rest of the scene, she gains several benefits.
She adds her Essence to the accuracy, damage and defense of her unarmed attacks and of attacks made with the active Form-type Charm’s particular weapons. She may choose to inflict bashing or lethal damage at will and she may parry lethal attacks unarmed. In addition:
Starmetal eases the flow of martial Essence for Sidereals, reducing the cost of activating Charms of
the same style by two motes (minimum 1).

Unsurpassed Sanxian

This sanxian is made of polished kauri wood and strung with silver and gold. The snakeskin covering
its soundbox came from a serpent-god. The soul of an old master performer is bound into the strings, which never break or need tuning, and aids performances. When attuned for three motes, playing this sanxian adds two successes to Performance rolls. These add to whatever bonus an Exalted player can add through Charms. Any duffer can sound good playing this sanxian; a Solar musician could make Deathlords weep or call stars from the skies.

Infinite Resplendence Amulet of Moonsilver and Starmetal

This artifact is a set of modular attire made from a blend of the various Magical Materials. The amulet can generate any form of outfit the wearer can imagine, however grand or humble. Changing the clothing is a diceless miscellaneous action. Repairing or cleaning a worn outfit takes the same action as creating a new one. Protection: The Amulet provides the wearer with a soak of 5L/5B that does not count as armor for the purposes of Charms, plus an extra success to all Resistance or Survival rolls to reduce or avoid the effects of deleterious environmental conditions, toxins or disease. In addition, it gives a +2 bonus dice to all Stealth rolls and to Larceny to assume a disguise. Finally, the Amulet possesses many pockets into Elsewhere, capable of carrying up to 2,000 pounds of equipment, so long as it can fit through the opening of the pocket.

Precision of Form Gemstone

This brilliantly iridescent, egg-shaped opal reduces the Essence cost to use all Martial Arts Charms of a particular style by 2 motes after the character activates that style’s Form-type Charm. This effect cannot reduce the mote cost of a Charm to less than half its original value. The bearer also cannot activate any Charms of another martial arts style until she abandons the Form she has already chosen. A character could abandon one Form, however, and then activate the Form-type Charm of another martial arts style, gaining the mote discount for all Charms of that style.

Skin Mount Amulet

Appearing as a large rivet-style body piercing made of one of the magical materials with an indented
disk-shaped socket, skin mount amulets are nothing more than implanted hearthstone amulets (see Exalted, p. 380) that require no attunement. The design of these amulets also confers an additional number of motes of Peripheral Essence to the wearer’s maximum Essence pool equal to twice the rating of any hearthstone placed in the socket. Mountain Folk, God-Blooded and other non-Exalted Essence channelers instead add these motes to their singular Essence pools. Mortals normally incapable of channeling Essence may attune to manses if they have one of these devices installed, gaining the usual benefits of any hearthstone from an attuned manse installed in the stone. Mortals also gain the aforementioned bonus motes as a meager Essence pool that they can recharge only through the inset stone but may otherwise use as if they were Exalted. Any commitments using Essence from the amulet (such as to other artifacts) immediately end if the hearthstone leaves its socket. At the height of the First Age, skin mount amulets were a popular form of jewelry among the Chosen. Hearthstones can be removed or replaced in a skin mount amulet as readily as any other type of hearthstone amulet. Only the socket itself is actually riveted to the body.
Dodge DV: 9
Parry DV - Floating Ribbon: 6
Parry DV - War Fans: 8

Dodge MDV: 9
Parry MDV:

Join Battle: 5

Health Levels
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] -0
[ ][ ] -1
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] -2
[ ] -4
[ ] I

Soak: 3B/2L
With Optimistic Security Practice and Artifacts: 14B/13L/6A
The Musician: 2
The Peacock: 3
The Lovers: 2
The Shield: 3
The Mask: 2
The Sword: 3

THE MUSICIAN

The Musician embodies contentment in the act of living. It is joy-in-plenty and enjoyment of the finer things. In the ascending aspect, those under its domain are gourmets and poets. In the descending aspect, they engage in hollow avarice, blind materialism and scandalous excess. Under Sidereal influence, this constellation is called the Painted Boy in Immaculate practice, for it is also the constellation of homosexual couplings. It is the sign of herbivores that travel in small family groups.
Trappings: The Musician wears facial makeup, dresses outlandishly and always carries a musical instrument. He is cynically wise and uninhibited.
Correlations: Excess, laughter, hedonism, music, homosexuality, drug use, finery, greed, extramarital pairings, contentment in living, theater
Resplendencies
• Strange Days, one Endurance: The character may force the player of a being presented with a possible source of gratification or intoxication to make a Temperance roll or succumb, even if the target would never normally consider the possibility. This is a Compulsion effect.
• Impossible-to-Remember Party Approach, one Endurance per night: While the character performs, either by being the center of attention, laying down a line of conversation or performing some sort of music or dance, the difficulty of all Temperance rolls for everyone in the vicinity increases by 1.
• Brigand-and-Carouser Attracting Style, one Endurance, one Paradox die per week: By going home with a waitress or going to a party with someone the Sidereal meets in a teahouse or tavern in a populated area, the character may attach herself to a family or friendship group of marginal personalities. They may be actual brigands, or they may just be louts or rejects. The character will quickly find a place amongst these addled personalities and eccentrics. By the end of the day, they will have accepted her as one of their own. By wasting her days living large with the maniacs of her new troupe, she avoids all legal, bureaucratic and official scrutiny. Those attempting to deliver summonses to her are powerless without supernatural tracking, and those attempting to find her must beat her player’s Stamina + Presence roll, with her Essence added in automatic successes. The marginal life is a full-time endeavor—she has but seven free hours per week.

THE PEACOCK

The Peacock governs practical alliance, thoughtful breeding and considered partnership. In the ascending aspect, those under its domain look carefully at the advantages of prospective mates. In the descending aspect, they are trapped in loveless marriages, forced alliances and other half-functional partnerships. The Peacock constellation governs the courtesan, the goodwife, the thoughtful matriarch, the established Dragon-Blooded household and predators who hunt in packs.
Trappings: The Peacock struts his magnificent finery, be it gang stylings, armor or court clothing. He is proud and has excellent bearing. He shows discerning taste, and is obviously sexually available.
Correlations: Greed, love for wealth’s sake, procreation, dualities, alliances, bright colors, necessity, traps, distraction
Resplendencies
• Proper Plumage, one Endurance, one Paradox die: As long as the character has access to a large closet, second-hand clothing store, pile of cloth scraps and so on, she can always look good enough
to gain +1 Appearance for the duration of a social event, regardless of the event’s dress code.
• Spouse-Saving Grace, one Endurance: Whenever the Sidereal is present with her mate and his player fails a Bureaucracy roll or succumbs to a social attack, her player may channel Conviction or Temperance once to reroll or re-apply Defense Value based on the Sidereal’s traits.
• Wife-Procuring Tailfeathers, one Endurance, one Paradox die per week: The character is an
obvious catch. Within a day of wandering in any populated area, the character will find herself married and managing a large and prosperous household. The character may not marry on the first day, but the tumultuous course of events will immediately begin to occupy all the character’s time and result in marriage within the week. So long as the character lives as the full-time manager of the family’s affairs, she avoids all legal,bureaucratic and official scrutiny. Those attempting to deliver summonses to her are powerless without supernatural tracking, and those attempting to follow her must beat her player’s (Charisma + Bureaucracy) roll, with her Essence added as automatic successes. She must live for the job and has but seven free hours per week.

THE LOVERS

The Lovers represent physical lust, carnal indulgence and uneven relationships. In the ascending aspect,
those under its domain engage in relationships that are symbolically or situationally uneven, such as sex acts. In the descending aspect, they engage in sexual depravity and sexual or social rape. This is the constellation of the fixed-price prostitute, the slave, the debtor, the beggar, the pedophile, all individuals engaged in sex acts, vermin, rodents and Ravagers and other victims of the Fair Folk. Sidereals generally take this constellation to explain a great deal about the outlook of the Maidens.
Trappings: The lover is dressed in silk robes, and his hair is rumpled. He is superficially friendly and attractive but betrays some sign of violence and restraint, though it may only be in the form of love bites.
Correlations: Service, submission, slaves, lust, the sex act, rape, abuse
Resplendencies
• Handsome Boy Eyes, one Endurance: The Sidereal may make Presence-based social attacks with intent to seduce using nothing more than eye contact with her target. These are not Resplendency social attacks.
• Celestial Bliss Trick, one Endurance per performance: With this simple trick, the Sidereal may bring about
total sexual ecstasy in her target in just three minutes (or three long ticks). This requires physical contact but works on either gender. Once she finishes, her target immediately develops an Intimacy phrased to put him under the Sidereal’s sway. This is a Servitude effect.
• Whore-and-Virgin Stance, one Endurance, one Paradox die per week: According to the character’s tastes, she becomes a god to be worshipped or an object to be possessed. By spending a day out and about in any
populated area, she can become a kept courtesan or a pimped prostitute. So long as she lives an empty life of sex and submission, she will avoid all legal, bureaucratic and official scrutiny. Those attempting to deliver summonses to her are powerless without supernatural tracking, and those attempting to find her must beat her player’s (Manipulation + Presence) roll, with the Exalt’s Essence added as automatic successes. She
must be in a state of virtually mindless self-indulgence, and has only seven free hours per week.

THE SHIELD

The Shield is the ecstatic warrior, who seeks battle without regard for victory. In the ascending aspect, those under its domain possess courage and heroism without regard for consequences. In the descending aspect, they battle without thought and display sadism, masochism, and suicidal bravery. This constellation governs scouts, assassins, heroic warriors, those who fight and die for their peers without regard for consequences and lone predators who hunt with claws and teeth.
Trappings: The Shield always carries a shield or a leather strap for biting. He is always armed and always eager for battle. He carries trophies of his kills.
Correlations: Barbarians and the barbarian code, fearlessness, protection, bragging, pain, heroism, heroic suicide, wrath, the Lunar Exalted
Resplendencies
• Wounded Lion Strength, two Endurance: During Step 7 of an attack’s resolution, the Sidereal may add damage dice equal to the number of wound levels she currently suffers.
• Hero’s Iron Skin, three Endurance per scene: So long as the Sidereal wears no armor, she has the effect of +9L/+9B armor. This is treated as natural soak.
• Aspect of the Bear, two Endurance, one Paradox die per scene: The character’s anima banner is transformed into the shape of a great bear. Whenever the character’s anima banner is visible, the players of all those who see it must make Valor rolls at difficulty 1 to face the Sidereal. This is a Compulsion effect. While in this state, the Sidereal cannot suffer Fatigue penalties, and her player can’t fail Valor rolls.

THE MASK

The Mask is secret wisdom and things known but concealed. In the ascending aspect, those under its domain know of religious wisdom, rites of passage and the secrets of the bed. In the descending aspect, they obfuscate deliberately. The Mask is the constellation of the spy, the priest and the librarian. The Mask is damaged. The Sidereals twisted it shortly after the Solar Purge to create the Arcane Fate and protect themselves from the scrying eyes of the Dragon-Blooded and the Lunars. Sidereals cannot create for themselves ascending or descending destinies of the Mask, though they can create these destinies for others and benefit from resplendent destinies as normal.
Trappings: The Mask wears clothes of soft fabric and a mask to conceal his face. He is quiet, and he does not announce himself. The Mask clings to sacred places and lingers around manses and demesnes.
Correlations: Secrets, lies, security services, guarded individuals, religious worship, extortion, trickery
Resplendencies
• Privacy-Enhancing Gesture, one Endurance: The area within (Essence x10) yards of the character becomes proof against supernatural scrying, teleportation and other forms of intrusion. This includes observation using the Everywhere and Nowhere Technique.
• Foot Treads No Twig, one Endurance, one Paradox die: The Sidereal’s player may reroll a single (Dexterity + Stealth) roll before it’s compared to an enemy’s roll.
• Everywhere and Nowhere Technique, one Endurance, three Paradox dice per week: The character can conceal herself in the most unlikely of places—between raindrops, between the moments of the hour and behind the curtains on a dusty stair in a faraway town. The character eats by dining on the food of others when they look away, and sleeps only in the secret places that the Division of Secrets salts across the Tapestry as safe houses. None can see her, but she sees much. In any place where there are shadows and she is unobserved, the character can instantly disappear. So long as the character persists in this furtive existence, she avoids all legal, bureaucratic and official scrutiny. Those attempting to deliver summonses to her are powerless without supernatural tracking, and those attempting to find her must beat her player’s (Intelligence + Occult) roll, with her (college + Essence) added as automatic successes. This existence of supernatural occultation is demanding, and she has just seven free hours per week to spy and observe on those within a number of miles equal to her Essence, so long as those places are not proof against scrying and supernatural intrusion.

THE SWORD

The Sword brings the end of hope. In the ascending aspect, those under its domain find their hopes realized, but must then continue without the assistance and inspiration those hopes provided. In the descending aspect, their dreams wither and die. This is the constellation of the broken, the crushed, the worn down, the salesman, the has-been, the virgin, the ghost, the pregnant woman and death after prolonged suffering and illness.
Trappings: The Sword is worn out. She carries or wears a withered flower, and she dresses in burial cerements. She weeps but cannot be consoled, and is unshod.
Correlations: Slow and painful deaths, perseverance, failure, illness, tribulation, inheritance, resignation, the vanquished, Sijan
Resplendencies
• Style-Discerning Eye, one Endurance, one Paradox die: The Sidereal no longer merely hopes to study under a particular tutor, but can realize that dream. Activating this effect reflexively whenever she observes clearly as another individual activates a Martial Arts Charm, the Sidereal may realize the Charm’s trick. Thereafter, she may learn it without a tutor provided she possesses its prerequisites—normal experience point cost and doubled training time applies. If the Seer doesn’t learn the Charm within a year and a day, the realization fades.
• Minimum Legal Defense Competence, one Endurance: The Sidereal may apply her full Defense Value to any incoming attack, ignoring all penalties, effects that set the Defense Value to zero and other negative effects, provided she uses no Charm, Virtue, Willpower or similar effect to enhance her defense further.
• Tears of the Blade, three Endurance, one Paradox die: The Sidereal makes the Superior Sign of the Sword at a target. If mortal, the target is slain instantly or dies horribly within five days (the Sidereal’s choice). If Exalted, the target is irrevocably slain when next any form of damage reduces
him to Incapacitated or below. For Terrestrial Exalted, this curse lasts until the end of their lives, but for Celestial Exalted, it lasts but a year and a day. This Resplendency has no effect on gods, elementals or those outside of fate.
Attribute Rating x4
Favored or Caste Ability (Current Rating x2) -1
Out of Caste Ability Current Rating x2
Essence Rating x9
Virtue Rating x3
Willpower Rating x2
New Ability 3
New Specialty 3
Caste/Favored Charm 10
Out of Caste Charm 12
Martial Arts Charm 10
New Spell 10
New Astrological College 5
Increase Astrological College Rating x3

Xp Earned: 3
Xp Banked: 3

1416274889642

Psychie
Jul 4, 2017

Blackadder · Jul 6, 2017

Meno, Chosen of Endings

History and Nature

Name: Meno
Chosen of Endings
Motivation: Defend Creation from the forces that would consume it.

Intimacies:

Nazri (Friendship)
Bronze & Gold Factions (Dislike)
Deathlords and their Forces (Obsessive Suspicion)
Bureau of Destiny (Dutiful Respect)

Meno was born over 460 years ago in the Scavenger Lands in a large town among the Hundred Kingdoms region that long since disappeared, the very day the Scarlet Empress declared House Iselsi null. Creation being the size it is, many children were born on that day, but in Meno's case it was auspicious in the eyes of Sidereal astrology. They didn't come until he was a teenager, at the instructions gleaned from the Loom. While young, Meno learned a trade from his father, the butcher. Animals, often live, were slaughtered so that their meat (and other products) could help people live.

This was what made his indoctrination as a Chosen of Endings remarkably easy - when brought up to the next level. Lives for Creation. It did not however, incline him towards either faction, seeing his duty to the Bureau and Creation and not to any prophecy. After a couple decades of low-level work in the East, he finally found his own when transferred to the South. Nazri, Independent in Chief and by then Chair of the Convention of Fire, found a fellow Endings and kindred spirit.

As Nazri's protege, Meno advanced in the ranks and honed his abilities and philosophy. Behind the calm, even blase exterior of the Reckoner that he'd become, was a keen mind. Repeatedly in office politics, Ayesha Ura and Cheops Kejak arranged his removal from the Convention of Fire in their tug of war with his mentor, but somehow Meno always wound up back in the Vermillion Tower before long.

The Time of Tumult has tightened Meno's focus to a particular point - one different than Nazri's. Meno sees the Dragonblooded's limitation and the clearly evident weakness of the Realm once the head was removed. Yet the Solars are still untested and not worth putting all the eggs in. It doesn't matter. The threat to Creation is coming from foes outside of Fate; and it's obvious whom. The appearance of Abyssals - just as the Solars return in lessened numbers? No coincidence. The destroyed Jade Prison and the disappearance of the Scarlet Empress? It can't be a coincidence, not all at the same time. Meno knows the Deathlords are involved in this all. There's a scheme afoot...

Attributes
Intelligence ••, Wits •••••, Perception ••••
Strength •••, Dexterity •••••, Stamina •••••
Charisma •••, Manipulation ••••, Appearance •••

Abilities
Auspicious
Awareness •••••
Bureaucracy ••
Integrity •••••
Martial Arts ••••• (Unarmed +2)
Medicine •••

Favored
Athletics •••••
Dodge ••••• (Unarmored +2)
Larceny •••••
Stealth •••••

Non-Favored
Investigation •••
Linguistics ••• (Native: Riverspeak, Old Realm, Flametongue, High Realm)
Lore •••
Occult •••
Presence ••
Resistance •••
Sail •
Socialize ••

Backgrounds
Artifact (Starmetal Hearthstone Bracers) ••
Backing (Bureau of Destiny) •••••
Celestial Manse (Gem of Deep Drink Hearthstone) ••
Connections (All Seeing Eye) •••••
Connections (Chiaroscuro) ••
Connections (Gem) ••
Connections (Outlaws - South) ••
Salary ••

[8 background dots left]

Mundane Traits
Virtues
Compassion ••
Conviction ••••
Temperance ••
Valor •••

Willpower ••••• •••

Health: [-0 x 7] [-1 x 2] [-2 x 8] [-4 x 1] (INC)

Soak: 5B/3L
w/Orichalcum Sheathing Stance: 17B/15L/12A (Hardness 10)

Dodge MDV: 9
Parry MDV (Man + Presence): 3
Dodge DV: 9 (10 w/out armor)

Attacks:

Unarmed (Basic): Speed 5, Accuracy 14, Damage 3B, Parry DV 8, Rate 3, Tags: N
Blade of the Battle Maiden: Speed 5, Accuracy 15, Damage 8L/2, Defense 8, Rate 3, Tags: O
Four Magical Materials Bonuses: Overwhelming 3, -2 to enemy PDV, ignores Cover, -1 Speed, +1 Rate, +2 Accuracy, +2 Defense, +3 Damage, Tag: Piercing

Essence Traits
Essence ••••• •

Personal Pool: 20
Peripheral Pool: 51 (55)

Anima Effect: The Chosen of Endings reflexively makes the Lesser Sign of Saturn for 10 motes. The Chosen’s anima billows outward in a brilliant violet that clings to all those affected. For one scene, the Sidereal and all his allies within (his Essence x 10) yards add (Essence) to the raw damage of all attacks they make. Allies enjoy this advantage only as long as they remain within range. With the Sidereal’s anima banner in the 11 to 15 mote range, this costs only five motes. If the banner is fully manifest (16+), this costs only one.

Limit: Reckoner's Flawed Fate

Sidereal Charms
ALL EXCELLENCIES FOR BELOW

UNSWERVING JUGGERNAUT PRINCIPLE
Cost: 5m; Mins: Athletics 2, Essence 2;
Type: Simple (Speed 6, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious
Duration: Indefinite

Ruby stardust falls from the sky and covers the Sidereal for a moment—and she takes off running. Her eyes focus straight ahead, and her feet keep her course within 10 degrees of her initial heading. While she moves, her soak increases by +5L/+5B, she suffers no fatigue penalties, she needs no sleep and she adds a number of dice equal to her Essence to any Athletics rolls required to make forward progress. (These benefits likewise apply to the character’s mount if the character is riding.) The character must continue to make forward progress, though, lest the Charm end suddenly. She can only run, sprint, jump, swim, ride, use a mobility-enhancing Charm or use the Lesser Sign of Mercury. If the reason for the character’s journey changes—if she uses this Charm to flee, for instance, and her pursuers give up the chase—the player receives a reflexive (Perception + Awareness) roll to notice that circumstances have changed enough that she can end the Charm.

FORWARD THINKING TECHNIQUE
Cost: —(+5m); Mins: Athletics 3, Essence 3
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: Permanent

By adding +5m to the Cost of Unswerving Juggernaut Principle, the destiny of the Sidereal’s journey enmeshes him, pulling him ever forward and shielding him from hindrances to his progress. This provides the following benefits:

• The Sidereal ignores penalties to his Dodge DV.
• The character can Dash reflexively, though this still makes it impossible to block attacks normally.
• The Exalt gains an additional +10L/10B soak against any unexpected attacks.
• The Seer adds (Athletics) extra successes to rolls to give or evade pursuit during chase scenes, as well as dramatic tracking/evasion scenarios.

PRIOR WARNING
Cost: 6m; Mins: Awareness 2, Essence 1
Type: Simple (Speed 4, DV -0)
Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: Five hours

Casting her perception into the near future, the Sidereal senses the presence of imminent danger. The Storyteller should have the Sidereal’s player roll any Awareness rolls that she is allowed to notice a threat (Essence x 2) minutes before she would normally be able to roll. When the Storyteller cannot determine the difficulty of the roll beforehand, use the highest ([Intelligence + Larceny] ÷ 2) of any character involved in
the threat–or difficulty 1 if the Sidereal could notice the threat automatically. On a success, she receives a vague premonition of harm, putting her on guard without actually revealing the nature of the threat. Such forewarning adds one automatic success to her actual roll to notice the threat when it finally arrives.

EXPECTED PAIN
Cost: 2m (+2m); Mins: Awareness 3, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant

Vague premonitions of future sorrow drift through the mind of a Sidereal who has mastered this Charm. As her fated suffering impends, these visions crystallize into awareness. Expected Pain cancels the unexpected quality of any physical or social attack against the Sidereal. It costs an additional two motes when used to defend against creatures outside of fate.

With Awareness 5+, this Charm can be activated to enhance any Awareness roll to notice a concealed threat to the Sidereal or her allies—a hidden assailant, a drop of poisonous lotus extract dissolved in a cup of tea, a venereal disease on a concubine. Doing so converts all dice on the roll to automatic successes.

ABSENCE
Cost: 2m; Mins: Dodge 2, Essence 2;
Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant

Viziers anticipate attacks upon them, and avoid them. Apart from the name and Essence cost, this Charm duplicates Shadow Over Water (see Exalted, p. 227).

DUCK FATE
Cost: 10m; Mins: Dodge 3, Essence 2;
Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: Instant

Vibrations in the strands of fate alert a Sidereal to imminent danger. Her player rolls (Dexterity + Dodge) against a difficulty equal to the permanent Essence of the foe responsible for the trouble. (Environmental dangers are difficulty 1.) If the roll succeeds, the Exalt avoids the harmful effect. This Charm may be employed to avoid any harmful effect (including all undesired physical, social, mental and spiritual influence), regardless of applicability or the scope of the attack, so long as the Sidereal succeeds on the Charm’s activation roll. It fails only against unexpected attacks, Limit Break and Pattern Bite. Duck Fate’s fallible activation roll is considered a unique Flaw of Invulnerability. This Charm protects the person of the Exalt, including his possessions. It does not protect allies or distant estates just because they may be represented as Background traits on the Sidereal’s character sheet.

AVOIDANCE KATA
Cost: 2m; Mins: Dodge 3, Essence 3;
Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Illusion, Shaping
Duration: Instant

The character wasn’t actually there when the trouble began. That’s his story, and the Loom of Fate backs it up. If—within his first two actions after Join Battle or Join Debate—the Sidereal decides he would rather have been somewhere else, he can activate this Charm. Having done so, he vanishes from his current location and reappears in another location. The Sidereal cannot control his new location, but it’s someplace plausible for him to be if he’d decided to take a different course a few minutes before. Simultaneously, an Illusion effect blurs the memories of other people so they don’t remember the Sidereal’s presence. Wounds still bleed, traps remain sprung, Essence remains spent. However, other people in the aborted encounter receive vague notions of an alternate series of events to explain any evidence of the Sidereal’s presence, which they soon confabulate into a detailed scenario that they believe completely. This Charm’s unnatural Illusion is irresistible by mortals and gods, while others may ignore it for 3wp. The Illusion does not apply against creatures outside of fate. The Shaping effect of this Charm targets the Sidereal, not any other characters.

PRESERVATION OF RESOLVE
Cost: 2m; Mins: Integrity 2, Essence 2;
Type: Simple (dramatic action)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Social
Duration: One scene

Corruption and vice beset companies of righteous heroes on all sides, but the tricks of Kapula from the far reaches of Chaos or the lies of the Ebon Dragon himself are no match for the many reassurances of a Sidereal advisor. This Charm enhances a social group of which the Exalt is a part, as long as he is not the leader. Social attacks targeting the group suffer a -3 external penalty. The Sidereal, acting in his capacity as a Vizier, may perform appropriate stunts to speak out against the offending influence, increasing the penalty by an amount equal to the rating of the stunt. Multiple Sidereals may better bolster the resolve of a group. Each extra Vizier that activates this Charm increases the base penalty by one, to a maximum additional penalty equal to the lowest permanent Essence among them.

UNWAVERING WELL-BEING MEDITATION
Cost: 5m; Mins: Integrity 3, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Social
Duration: Instant

With unflappable dedication to his destiny beyond the trials that face him, the Sidereal becomes untouchable. This Charm imposes an external penalty on a physical or social attack equal to the Exalt’s Temperance. Against a physical attack that still hits despite this penalty, he also gains (Essence) bashing and lethal soak.

CREATION-PRESERVING WILL
Cost: —; Mins: Integrity 4, Essence 3
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent

The Sidereal determination to see the Ending allotted to them by Saturn is so strong, they are empowered to eschew the trials of worlds beyond Creation. This Charm enhances its prerequisite, so that in addition to penalizing any attack it is applied against, it negates undesired Shaping that accompanies it. It may also be applied against effects that are not character driven attacks, such as Wyld mutation. Against Shaping from sources outside of fate, the Charm’s cost is reduced by 1m; against the Shaping of Sidereal Charms and astrology, it is increased by 1m. This cost variance is considered a special Flaw of Invulnerability.

AVOIDING THE TRUTH TECHNIQUE
Cost: 3m; Mins: Larceny 2, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Fate, Illusion, Virtue (Compassion)
Duration: Instant

Through subtle adjustments to her manner of speaking, the Sidereal makes her statements seem laden with implications that listeners find too horrible or absurd to believe. This Charm enhances social attacks to encourage beliefs. It adds (Essence) successes to the attack, which is compared against the target’s Parry or Dodge MDV normally. Success imposes the unnatural Illusion that what the Exalt said is untrue, even if the target would normally believe otherwise. It costs 3wp to ignore this influence. The Charm can also be employed to enhance truths and lies outside of social combat. When someone attempts to tell if the character is lying or not, the difficulty to do so is raised by the Exalt’s Essence. Failure to see through the Sidereal’s facade imposes this Charm’s influence on the observer. This may cause the victim to discount other people who sincerely make similar claims; or when the victim discovers that the Sidereal’s “unbelievable” statement was true after all, he might be inclined to believe a genuine whopper from the Sidereal.

OX-BODY TECHNIQUE x6 [FREE]

SOMEONE ELSE’S DESTINY
Cost: 4m; Mins: Resistance 3, Essence 2;
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Indefinite

When the Sidereal is exposed to a drug or poison, intentionally or unawares, she can lock it away as a memorandum attached to her fate and pass that memorandum off on someone else. At the drug or poison’s first damage interval the Sidereal can reflexively activate this Charm instead of trying to resist the poison. Her player rolls (Stamina+ Resistance). If the roll succeeds, the effect of the substance separates entirely from the Sidereal’s fate but remains in orbit around it. The substance remains suspended thus until the next time the Sidereal successfully attacks someone in close combat and her player rolls at least one die of lethal or aggravated damage. Whether the damage roll succeeds or not, the orbiting memorandum transfers to the victim of the attack, whereupon the substance’s effects kick in immediately as if the victim had originally ingested the poison or drug himself. This Charm can capture Poison and Sickness effects, as well as influences that cause Derangements or other effects that can reasonably be called ‘madness’. There is no roll to activate the Charm, and the Sidereal may keep up to (Essence) suspended maladies at once. Applying the effect to an attack is done in Step 1 of combat resolution and is voluntary.

SOFT PRESENCE PRACTICE
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Stealth 2, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: One scene

With this Charm, the Sidereal steps lightly around the bonfires of heroes and dampens her own, moving to disturb none so that she may work in peace. While this Charm is active, motes spent on the Sidereal’s non-Obvious Stealth Charms (including Excellencies) do not contribute to anima flare, and she may spend up to (Essence) peripheral motes on other non-Obvious Charms each tick without them counting for anima flare. In addition, she adds an extra success to her Larceny and Stealth rolls during the scene.

WALKING OUTSIDE FATE
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Stealth 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Fate
Duration: Indefinite

A Sidereal who uses this Charm can part the strands of the weave of fate, stepping between them and outside fate altogether. The character still physically exists in Creation, but her new condition makes her almost impossible to perceive. While the character remains outside fate, creatures whose Essence ratings do not exceed hers cannot detect her. If such creatures succeed on a reflexive (Perception + Awareness) roll, they might realize that some sort of presence has come among them, but affecting that presence or attacking it incurs a -2 external penalty on any related roll. The character is effectively invisible, and can be targeted like other invisible characters. She is perfectly immune to long-term tracking. Only characters with supernatural tracking abilities can attempt to track the hidden character and he adds (Essence)dice to any roll-off. The character remains outside fate for as long as she commits the Essence to the Charm, but causing her anima banner to flare such that it causes Stealth Charms to fail also ends this effect. If two characters walk outside fate in the same location, they cannot automatically sense one another. Whether or not one sees or becomes aware of the other depends on the characters’ relative Essence ratings.

Colleges
The Corpse •••
The Crow •••
The Haywain ••
The Rising Smoke •••
The Sword •••

Martial Arts Styles

Form Weapons and Armor: Charms of this style treat attacks with knives, swords, staves and seven-section staves (and all their artifact versions) as unarmed attacks. These Charms do not function if the character wears armor.

SECRETS OF FUTURE STRIFE
Cost: 3m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant

Accepting the twists and turns circumstance with instant determination, the Sidereal is never caught off guard. A Join Battle roll supplemented by this Charm converts up to (Martial Arts) dice to automatic successes. As part of the roll, the martial artist may reflexively draw any form weapon of this style.

FLIGHT OF MERCURY
Cost: 2m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant

Moving with the swift precision of one who knows her destiny, the Sidereal strikes without hesitation or remorse. An unarmed attack supplemented by this Charm reduces its Speed by one point. The martial artist can also move up to (Essence) yards before making the attack if needed to close range with her opponent.

BLADE OF THE BATTLE MAIDEN
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2;
Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: One scene

Crimson ribbons of Essence trail from the Sidereal’s hands, the strands of a martial destiny waiting to be seized. This crimson nimbus allows the martial artist to both deal lethal damage and parry lethal attacks while unarmed, and enchants her natural attacks with the traits of a stametal daiklave (except for clinches).

Alternatively, the martial artist may invoke this Charm to invoke a form weapon she wields, granting it the magical material bonus of starmetal and rendering it as indestructible as an attuned artifact.

JOY IN ADVERSITY STANCE
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 3, Essence 2;
Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: One scene

Each moment’s survival is a small happiness to one who walks constantly with peril and misfortune. While Joy in Adversity Stance is active, the martial artist gains one bonus die on her next unarmed Martial Arts attack every time she successfully dodges an attack. Attacks with the Overwhelming tag instead confer two dice when dodged. These bonus dice count as dice added by a Charm, and are discharged at when the martial artist next attacks.

VIOLET BIER OF SORROWS FORM
Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3;
Type: Simple (Speed 6, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Form-Type, Emotion, Obvious
Duration: One scene

The martial artist takes on the same cold detachment with which Saturn makes her Sign against those things whose time has passed. She is reckoning and destruction, a peerless bringer of endings, and all the princes and kingdoms of the world tremble before her. While Violet Bier of Sorrows Form is active, the martial artist gains the following benefits:
• All enemies see their own end in her, doubling any wound penalties they take on actions to oppose her in combat. Resisting this unnatural Emotion for one scene costs two Willpower.
• Any unarmed attack she makes against a spirit consumes one of the spirit’s motes for every level of damage dealt.
• The character’s unarmed martial arts attacks gain an Overwhelming value of (the lower of her Essence or Martial Arts rating).

LIFE SEVERING BLOW
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3;
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant

Sighting a violet glimmer of the Essence of Endings in her enemy’s soul, the Sidereal strikes through it to bring them closer to their death. Add (Essence) to the raw damage of an unarmed attack supplemented by this Charm. The same amount is also added to the minimum damage of the attack, granting it the Overwhelming tag.

A character reduced to their Incapacitated level by an attack supplemented with Life-Severing Blow can be unmade as a Shaping effect, killing them instantly and reducing their corpse to ash. Against mortals, even a single level of damage is sufficient to shape them dead.

DEATH-PARRYING STROKE
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 3;
Type: Reflexive (Step 7)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious

The Sidereal’s blade becomes a blur of violet Essence, catching fatal blows a split-second before they can touch her. These defensive maneuvers subtract the martial artist’s Parry DV from the raw damage of an attack, and reduces its minimum damage by one die (minimum one). Death-Parrying Stroke offers no defense against unblockable or unexpected attacks.

METAL STORM
Cost: 7m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3;
Type: Extra Action
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant

The Sidereal hits his victim with such skilled ferocity that the weave of fate around the target reverberates several times, replaying the moment of the attack several different ways in quick succession. The Sidereal may attempt extra Martial Arts attacks on the same target at his full dice pool. The Sidereal can make no more attacks than he has dots of Martial Arts, and he cannot split his original or extra actions into a flurry.

CONCLUSION-PURSUING APPROACH
Cost: --- (+10m, 1wp); Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4;
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Prayer Strip
Duration: Permanent

At the pinnacle of the Violet Bier of Sorrows, the martial artist learns to draw strength from the pain of others. As her enemies falter before her before her blows, her resolve only increases.

This Charm upgrades Violet Bier of Sorrows Form. As the character invokes it, she may pay a surcharge of ten motes and a point of Willpower to add the following effects to the form:
• The martial artist’s unarmed attacks deal aggravated damage to creatures outside of fate and consume their motes as though they were spirits.
• Wound penalties are tripled by the unnatural mental influence of Violet Bier of Sorrows Form instead of just double. The cost to resist rises to five Willpower.

A Sidereal may affix a prayer strip marked with the Scripture of the Expectant Maiden to her weapon with her own blood as she invokes this Charm, causing the blade to glow with a radiant burgundy light. Doing so grants additional benefits as a Prayer Strip effect: Whenever the Sidereal damages a character with an unarmed attack, they lose a point of Willpower. Characters without remaining Willpower instead lose ten motes, and can be shaped dead as per Life-Severing Blow if they have no motes remaining.

Deadly Starmetal Offensive
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: None

...and their names were JI

The character infuses her fingernails with Essence, hardening them, sharpening them, lengthening them into bweapons - and, most importantly, causing them to bend, influence and predict the path of fate in the manner of starmetal. While this Charm is active, the character’s unarmed attacks gain a minimum damage of 3 and the O tag, may parry lethal attacks without a stunt, and may re-roll the the damage roll in step 8 whenever she attacks, taking the higher of the two results.

Orichalcum Sheathing Stance
Cost: 5m; Mins:Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type:Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords:Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: None

and PENG

The character wraps her body in a sheath of Essence, mirroring in its interaction with her own anima the link between Solar Exalted and orichalcum. While this Charm is active, the character is considered to be wearing orichalcum armor with the martial artist’s (Essence + Martial Arts+2) Bashing and Lethal Soak, (Stamina+Martial Arts)/2+5 Hardness, a -0 Mobility Penalty, and a 0 Fatigue Penalty. Further, the martial artist subtracts 1 from any attack’s minimum damage (minimum of 1) and 2 from the damage of any environmental effect (minimum of 0). The armor provided by this charm is compatible with all martial arts, even those normally not compatible with armor. However, the benefits of this charm count as equipment and the rules for stacking equipment apply to it..

Flickering Moonsilver Approach
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: None

and LU

The character traces patterns through the air that echo the slippery, mutable ways in which moonsilver twists the flows of Essence around it. Opponents cannot precisely determine the character's location: she may cause her attacks to originate from any point within (her Essence x5) yards. Such attacks impose a -2 penalty to the defender's PDV, on top of ignoring all cover bonuses to DV.

Five Jade Fury
Cost: 5m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: None

and ZHOU

The character binds the substance of Creation to her Essence, shifting into a pattern of attacks that radiates the elemental authority of jade. Each gives a gift, which applies only to unarmed Martial Arts attacks. Her blows can be bashing or lethal, as she chooses, reflecting the compassion and conviction of green jade. The grace of black jade steers her attacks well: she adds 2 to the Accuracy and Defense values. The reliability of white jade ensures reasonable damage: she adds 3 to her Damage value. The force of blue jade grants her weapon the Piercing tag. Finally, the swiftness of red jade adds 1 to her weapon's Rate and -1 to its Speed. The benefits of this charm count as a Magical Material bonus and the appropriate rules for stacking apply.

Four Magical Materials Form
Cost: 15m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple (Speed 6, DV -1)
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious, Combo-Basic
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: Deadly Starmetal Offensive, Orichalcum Sheathing Stance, Flickering Moonsilver Approach, Five Jade Fury

and HOU TUI

The character attunes herself to the Essence of the world, drawing on the flows of interwoven fates, raw power, progressive change and elemental stability that play out all around her. In this fashion, while she maintains the Form, she becomes a living artifact. This Form does not mimic the Essence of soulsteel.

When using this Form, the character automatically and reflexively activates all four prerequisite stances as part of the Form activation for no cost. In addition, she becomes unbreakable, becoming immune to Crippling effects, unless the effect could damage the Five Magical Materials.

Charm Redirection Technique
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None

and AN

The character learns to catch, tangle and throw the Essence flows of Charms as if they were the flailing limbs of her hapless flows. This Charm may be invoked in Step 2 in response to a Charm-enhanced attack. The martial artist immediately rolls their (Essence + Martial Arts) against a difficulty of the attacker’s Essence. If successful, they perfectly parry the attack and another character in range of the attack is immediately made the new target for the attack, starting in Step 2. The activation roll for this charm is considered a unique Flaw of Invulnerability.

Sequential Charm Disruption
Cost: 4m, 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: Charm Redirection Technique

and CAI

This Charm expands on the principle of Charm Redirection Technique. Rather than redirecting the essence flows, this charm instead disrupts them. The martial artist may immediately cancel one or more charms used on the attack against them for the duration of that attack. If more than one offensive charm is canceled, add a +2m, +1wp surcharge to this charm. If an Excellency is canceled, add a +5m surcharge to the charm. Rather than cancel a charm with a duration longer than instant for just one attack, a charm may be completely canceled as a shaping effect by adding the cost of the canceled charm as a surcharge to this one. The cost of canceled charms is still paid. This effect may not cancel Form-type Charms, Extra Action charms or charms with a minimum essence higher than the martial artist’s permanent Essence.

Spell-Shattering Palm
Cost: 5m per Circle or (Minimum Essence of a Sorcerous Charm)*3m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 1 for attacker, Step 2 for defender)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None

and LI

The character uses martial arts to yank the threads of a delicate construct of sorcery out of place. This charm allows the character to make Martial Arts attacks or defenses against sorcery, similar to countermagic. Used on the offense this modifies an unarmed strike, you must target the manifestation or center of the spell—such as the character benefiting, the spirit summoned, or the approximate center for spells like Rain of Doom. Spells that do not otherwise have a stated DV have a DV of (Circle)*4 or (Minimum Essence)*2 for Sorcerous Charms. If you defeat the DV by at least the Sorcerer’s (Essence)/2 than the effect is shattered as though struck by the appropriate level of countermagic.

Used defensively, this charms functions as defensive countermagic of the spell’s circle if the character’s PDV exceeds the caster’s Essence + Twice the Spell’s Circle or the caster’s Essence + The Sorcerous Charm’s Minimum Essence. This requirement is considered a unique Flaw of Invulnerability when used defensively.

Astrology Interruption Method
Cost: 4m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Reflexive (Step 1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None

and HUA JI

The character uses her education in the nature of fate in conjunction with her martial skill to disjoint, snarl and otherwise tangle the fates the spiders weave. By lightly striking the target in the five points where the threads of the Loom of Fate attach, the character can negate Sidereal astrological effects. She must make a successful Martial Arts attack against the target. If she succeeds with threshold successes exceeding the Essence + College of the Sidereal that created the effect, the effect is dangerously torn or frayed, and the pattern spiders abandon it.

Soul Fire Shaper Form
Cost: 15m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple (Speed 6, DV -1)
Keywords: Form-type, Overdrive, Combo-Basic
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: Charm Disruption Technique, Sequential Charm Disruption, Spell-Shattering Palm, Astrology Interruption Method

and QIAN JING

The character balances her actions so perfectly to the local flow of Essence that the world around her cannot help but support her victory, regardless of whether she stands in Creation, Malfeas or the Underworld.

While using the Soul Fire Shaper Form, consider the Exalt's permanent Essence to be five higher than her current Essence for the purposes of resolving Charm conflicts and interacting with her enemy’s charm effects. She is unaffected by any condition or effect that would negatively impact her Essence pool or recovery, including but not limited to environmental factors such as being in the Underworld as a native of Creation, or hostile effects such as Charms that would prevent her from regaining motes in combat.

In addition, the character gains an Overdrive Pool of 10 motes while this charm is active. Every time your DV refreshes while using this form, roll a number of dice equal to the highest minimum essence of any non-Sidereal Martial Art charm used by another character since the last time your DV refreshed and gain 1 offensive mote per success.

Finally, the martial artist also gains one free use of Sequential Charm Disruption, Spell-Shattering Palm, or Astrology Interruption Method every time his DV refreshes. Any effects, including surcharges that increase the cost of those charms increases it from a base cost of 0m, 0wp.

God Ways
Cost: 10m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Shaping
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisites: None

and ZUO GU

The character steps into an object or person, displacing its natural spirit with his Essence manipulations as easily as a master of legermain might steal a mortal's coat. The character's player rolls Charisma + Martial Arts against a difficulty equal to the Essence of the Exalt's target - the body he wants to steal or the god or least god of the thing he wishes to possess. The target's player can spend a point of willpower to make a willpower roll difficulty equal to the martial artist's Essence once on each of the martial artist's action ticks to regain control over her body. As a restriction, the character may not possess any entity with a size greater than her Essence in yards in its largest dimension.

In the meantime, the character's body dematerializes and fades into her stolen form. She may move and take Martial Arts actions through her stolen flesh, using her own Physical Attributes or those of her stolen form, if they are higher (inanimate objects usually have 0s in all Physical Attributes). This Charm imbues any stolen form with supernatural flexibility and mobility - possessed trees can attack and unattended ox-carts can charge. Attacks that strike dematerialized entities damage the character's dematerialized self as well as her stolen form. Otherwise, she suffers no ill effects from having her possessed body damaged or destroyed.

The character cannot possess soulsteel. She can only possess objects made of other Magical Materials if she knows the style's Charm for emulating that Magical Material.

[Exalt] [Caste: Water] Ways
Cost: 5m, 1hl; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisites: None

and YOU PAN

The character strikes his throat, abdomen, spine, brow and crown chakras, forcibly reshaping his Essence and altering how his anima interacts with this world. This Charm allows the character to mimic the anima banner and anima effects of one other type and caste of Exalted. This Charm temporarily replaces the character's anima banner. This charm can never allow the character to learn charms she otherwise could not, for instance by mimicking the Eclipse Caste’s anima. Select one Caste when you first purchase this charm, and other castes may be added at the cost of 4xp each but you may only activate one [Exalt] [Caste] Ways at a time.

Games of Divinity Form
Cost: 10m 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple (Speed 6, DV -1)
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious, Emotion, Combo-Basic
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: God Ways, Exalt Ways

and WU JI

The character adopts the attitude and posture of the spirit courts, moving with the infinite baroque complexity necessary to the management of Creation. Directed by the four powers of her mind - aspiration, effort, intention and analysis - the whole of her Essence flows as one. Simultaneously, even the smallest mote of her being directs itself toward managing its own affairs.

Though no imperfect creature can truly master it, this Form has a perfect beauty to it. Anyone who does not know this charm immediately forms an unnatural, inviolable positive intimacy of addiction towards it unless they spend a number of points of willpower equal to half the character’s Essence, to a maximum of 5. If this intimacy is eroded, it attempts to re-assert itself every time the character sleeps—the perfect beauty dominating their dreams.

A character with the intimacy of addiction cannot harm someone using this Form-Type charm unless they fail a compassion roll. Once they fail a number of such compassion rolls equal to the martial artist’s permanent Essence they may attack the martial artist freely. The long-term addiction effect can be broken by Charms such as Transcendent Hero Meditation or other effects that shatter long-term Compulsions or by, of course, learning this charm herself.

Demesne Emulation Practice
Cost: 7m, 1w, 1hl; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV -1)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: None

and KAO

Tugging gently on the flows of Essence around him, the character forms herself into a nexus, a convergence point through which power pours. While this Charm is active, each of the character's successful unarmed attacks that would apply at least one level of damage in step 10 convert one of those levels of damage to aggravated. The character's hand upon an enemy's chest burns him with raw Essence, her elbow in his ear fills her head with Essence lightning, and her foot against his knee is as terribly cold as the Essence of a saltwater siren's heart.

Demesne and Manse Form
Cost: 6m; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple (Speed 6, DV -1)
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious, Combo-Basic
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: Demesne Emulation Practice

and CHUNG TING!

The character adopts the stately grandeur of a temple and radiates the ancient power of a Manse. She can now properly channel and constrain the raw Essence flow that the Demesne Emulation Practice feeds into her, coalescing it around her Caste Mark into a level 5 hearthstone set in her brow. This hearthstone only exists while the character is using Demesne and Manse Form. While using this Form, the character receives the hearthstone's benefits, as if it were set into an artifact. Treat major changes to the character's personality (on the same magnitude as changing her Motivation) as architectural alterations to a Manse for the purposes of altering the hearthstone, adjusting hearthstone abilities appropriately.

As a final benefit, upon activating this form the martial artist gains (Essence x10) attunement motes as her hearthstone serves to power her artifacts. She may substitute motes from this surge to substitute a Hearthstone required to power an artifact on a 10 per 1-dot basis. Upon de-activating this charm all attunement motes are lost as though the scene had ended.

Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form
Cost: 10m 1wp; Mins: Martial Arts 5, Essence 5; Type: Simple (Speed 6, DV -1)
Keywords: Form-type, Obvious, Combo-Basic
Duration: Scene
Prerequisites: Four Magical Materials Form, Soul Fire Shaper Form, Games of Divinity Form, Demesne and Manse Form

The Elder Sutra of Essence: The last maiden's name was TAO. These were their names, but they knew them not.

As she assumes this Form, the character vanishes into the flows of Essence around her. For a long moment, she is nowhere and everywhere, embodied in the dance of all things. Then, she manifests again, in every movement consummately aware of everything around her, reacting to intentions before they are formed, actions before they are taken and to the battle as a whole as easily as to a single blow.

Activating this Charm causes the character to vanish until her DV refreshes. While in this state, she may not be affected by any externally applied effect that requires her to be present. While the Charm remains active, the character is automatically aware of every attack against her and is immune to sensory penalties. She can sense every effect, object and creature within (Essence x10) yards, and adds her Essence in automatic successes to rolls to reveal hidden things within this radius.

The Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form is transcendent and accepts other Forms as lesser parts of itself. While the Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form is active, the character may have more than one Form-type Charm active, as an exception to the rules governing Form-type Charms, detailed as follows: All four of this Form's prerequisite Forms may remain active along with the main Form. Form-type Charms not part of this Style may also benefit, but any use of out of style Forms limits the character to two total Form-type Charms in addition to Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form. While multiple Form-type Charms are active, any form weapons of any of the Forms' styles are considered form weapons for all of them. This is a specific benefit of the Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form and not a general rule.

In addition, the character may choose to reflexively activate allowed sub-Forms as part of the activation of Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Form.

Essence +2 - 20
Auspicious/Favored Abilities +12 - 12
Willpower +3 - 3

7/21/17: +3 XP

BALANCE: 3 XP

Sherwood · Jul 8, 2017

For

Red Shadow Claws .
You can polish your sheet up and make it nice and pretty when you have time.

Victorious Monsoon
Caste: Battles

Str: 4
Dex: 5
Sta: 4

Cha: 5
Man: 2
App: 3

Per: 4
Int: 3
Wits: 4

Auspicious
Archery: 5 Longbow: +2
Athletics: 5 Jumping: +2
Melee: 2
Presence: 3
War: 5 Small Units: +3

Favored
Martial Arts: 5 Punching: +3
Dodge: 5
Resistance: 5
Ride: 4 My Familiar: +2

Other Abilities
Bureaucracy: 2
Linguistics: 3 Old Realm, Riverspeak, Firetongue
Lore: 3
Occult: 2
Socialize: 1
Stealth: 1
Awareness: 3
Craft (Fate): 2
Performance: 3 (can't make it out) +2
Integrity: 2

Essene: 5
Personal: 18
Peripheral: 47

Willpower: 8

Valor: 5
Conviction: 2
Compassion: 3
Temperance: 3

Health Levels
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] -0
[ ][ ] -1
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] -2
[ ] -4
[ ] I

Backgrounds
Backing - Crimson Panoply of Victory: 2
Backing - Convention of War: 2
Manse - Seven Leaping Dragon Stone: 4
Connections - Cult of the Illuminated: 2
Salary: 3
Familiar - Sabertooth: 3
Artifact - Starmetal Perfected Kata Bracers: 4

Colleges
The Banner: 4
The Shield: 3
The Quiver: 3
The Sorcerer: 4

Dodge MDV: 8
Dodge DV: 7
Parry DV: 6 or 8

Soak: 4B/2L Natural

Charms
Archery
Generalized Ammunition Technique
Any Direction Arrow
Every Direction Arrow
Opportune Shot
Five Seasons Response

Athletics
Forgotten Earth
Unswerving Juggernaut Principle

Awareness
Prior Warning

Dodge
Absence
Duck Fate
Avoidance Kata
Trouble Reduction Strategy

Integrity
Unhearing Dedication

Linguistics
Favorable Inflection Procedure

Resistance
Ox-Body Technique x4
Someone Else's Destiny
Shield of Destiny
Optimistic Security Practice

Ride
Ordained Bridle of Mercury
Spirit-Shape Companion
Godly Companion

War
Training Mandate of Auspicious Battle
Auspicious Recruitment Drive
Predestined Triumph Practice

MA - Throne Shadow
Lotus Eye Tactics
Lion Mouse Stratagem
Sifu's Useful Fingers
Throne Shadow Form
Shadow Lost in Court
Pneuma-Stealing Handshake
Deadliest of All Weapons
Clear Eyes Defense
Welcoming the Uninvited Guest
Finger-Stealing Handshake
World as Weapon Mastery
Flow-Breaking Strike
Secret Lesson Revelation
Eyes Toward an Ending
Unobstructed Blow
Horrific Wreath
Crimson Palm Counterstrike

MA - Scarlet Patterned Battlefield
Unassailable Rebuff Position
Implacable Patterned Deployment
Grace and Stride
Without Strategy Arrangement
Fallen Ivory Defense
Scarlet Patterned Battlefield Form
The Lotus Blossoms
Showing the Secret Hand

Dice Sidereals in Creation - Characters

Sherwood

Luna's Concubine

JayTee

Eight Thousand Club

Psychie

Princess Psychie

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Blackadder

Inquisitor Ordo Hereticus

Sherwood

Luna's Concubine

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