Presence, The Banner
Once, there was a maiden…
…whose battles called her far from home.
She slew the thing she feared most, and
conquered the land that feared her.
As she fought, far away, she knew her
children needed guidance.
She knew they faced tyrants.
She knew they faced fear.
In her homeland, things were broken.
So, she held up her hand before the sun,
and cast a shadow on the world, and drowned the troubles of her home in
darkness.
“Survival’s a long reach,” she said.
Heroic Essence Replenishment
Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Minimum Presence: 1
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: None
In her moments of greatest
accomplishment, the force of an exultant Sidereal’s will allows her to siphon
Essence from the world. This Charm draws on her ability to single-handedly
remake the world in the shape she favors and dominate those hostile to herself
and her cause. Immediately after a successful roll using Valor her immediately
after a Presence roll that bent an enemy to her will, the Exalt regains twice
her Valor in motes of Essence, up to her normal maximum. There is no cost to
use this Charm’s effects ― learning this Charm simply enhances the
Exalt’s capabilities.
Presence In Absence Technique
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Presence: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None
The character impresses the
fervent force of his personality on another person’s future. When next the
target finds himself in a specified circumstance, the
Sidereal can use Performance, Presence or Socialize as if the Exalt were there.
His player makes a single Ability roll, which Charms cannot augment. This uses
the target’s actions as a medium but does not change those actions ― rather, it gives them an unexpected emotional resonance and
unusual connotations. For example, the target could enter the court of a king
of thieves and discover that her actions inadvertently comprise a Presence roll
to convince the court that she must die. Using this Charm voids any previous
Presence in Absence Technique effects on the target. The Sidereals cannot
annotate a single person’s destiny with dozens of future rolls.
Impose Nature
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Indefinite
Type: Simple
Minimum Presence: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: None
The character blesses a single
creature with her personal sign, making a ghostly imprint of the character’s
Caste Mark on the target’s left palm. The target gains the Sidereal’s Nature in addition to his own. Both Natures are equally strong, and
both help the target regain Willpower. The target proceeds normally, given that
he has discovered an entirely new kind of joy/self-satisfaction, and while
generally inclined to follow both Natures, does not need to give either
precedence.
Force Decision
Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Presence: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Impose
Nature
This Charm allows the Sidereal
to channel Essence into another being briefly, forcing him to make the decision
the Sidereal desires. The Sidereal’s player makes a Manipulation + Presence
roll with a difficulty equal to the target’s Essence. Success indicates that
the target will make the decision the Sidereal desires.
Predestined Triumph Practice
Cost: 8 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One battle
Type: Simple
Minimum Presence: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: None
This Charm gives the character
supernatural acumen and insight when planning a battle. It functions
automatically when the Sidereal commands the troops herself. Otherwise, it
requires a Charisma + Presence roll to properly convey the Sidereal’s ideas to
the leader of the side she favors. This roll has difficulty 1 for a cooperative
leader, difficulty 3 for a leader who does not trust the Sidereal and
difficulty 5 if the leader is actively unwilling the accept the Sidereal’s
advice.
Fighting those blessed by a
Sidereal’s insight is difficult. If the Exalt succeeds, opponents suffer a
one-die penalty to their dice pools for both attacking and defending against
the troops. Sidereal Exalted can always use their Compassion with this Charm.
Essence-Draining
Cost: 8 motes
Duration: Until the relevant
battle ends
Type: Simple
Minimum Presence: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Predestined
Triumph Practice
Having applied the Predestined
Triumph Practice, the character may encourage his troops to fight in the
Essence-Draining Battle Pattern. Their elegant maneuvering dams, blocks and
diverts the flows of Essence that oppose them.
At any time while planning an
impending battle, the character can elect to use this Charm. When the battle
begins, the player rolls the Sidereal’s Intelligence + Presence to measure the
character’s efficiency in designing the pattern and the troops’ ability to
follow it. The maximum number of successes achievable equals the Exalt’s
permanent Essence. Any further successes are lost. The pattern has a Perfection
rating equal to this final number of successes.
One Exalt or 20 unExalted
warriors can spend an action to enact part of the Sidereal’s battle plan. The
altered Essence flows of the battlefield pour 1 mote of temporary Essence into
each character enacting the plan. In addition, they each add the pattern’s
Perfection to the Essence cost of Charms and sorcery used by their opponents.
Any number of characters can take this action in a given turn, each further
increasing the difficulty of hostile magic. However, this cannot more than
double the cost for a Charm or spell. The Essence-Draining Battle Pattern affects
any hostile Charm or sorcery that either originates upon the battlefield or has
direct effects there.
For example, if the character
has Essence 5, and his player rolls five or more successes, and six
Dragon-Blooded under his command fight in the Essence-Draining Battle Pattern,
Charms and sorcery used against the character’s forces cost up to 30 motes
extra. Sledgehammer Fist Punch costs 8 motes instead of 3. Rain of Doom costs
90 motes instead of 60. Once upon a time, legions of well-advised Dragon-Blooded
used this power to constrain even the horrible power of the Primordials.
Any army may only enact one
Demon-Blocking
Cost: 8 motes
Duration: Until the relevant
battle ends
Type: Simple
Minimum Presence: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Predestined
Triumph Practice
Having applied the Predestined
Triumph Practice, the character may encourage her troops to fight in the
Demon-Blocking Battle Pattern. Their formations are attuned to the disruptions
in fate that the creatures of Malfeas and the Underworld embody, and by mirroring
and twisting that disruption, the warriors can keep the threads of fate running
straight and true.
The character invokes this Charm
exactly as with the Essence-Draining Battle Pattern. One Exalt or 20 unExalted
warriors can spend an action to enact part of the pattern, imposing a general
dice-pool penalty on an inhabitant of Malfeas or the Underworld equal to the pattern’s
Perfection. This cannot reduce the victim’s pool below 0 before the use of
Charms.
An army may only enact one
Spirit-Binding
Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower, 1
health level
Duration: Until the relevant
battle ends
Type: Simple
Minimum Presence: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Presence in
Absence Technique, Force Decision, Essence-Draining
This Charm uses a prayer strip
marked with the scripture of the Maiden at War. The character first applies the
Predestined Triumph Practice and then burns the prayer strip. Only the symbols
on it remain, drifting on the wind as letters of blood and smoke.
The Charm takes effect once the
battle begins. The Sidereal names a spirit or elemental she hopes to call and
bind. The Sidereal’s location and invocation immediately becomes obvious to the
spirit, wherever it may be. If the Sidereal uses this Charm unassisted, the
spirit’s maximum Essence is 5. However, up to one Sidereal of each other caste
can support her, participating in the planning. They need not have the Charm
themselves. Each adds 1 to the maximum summonable
Essence.
The dice pool for summoning and
binding the spirit starts at 0. The death of one Exalted or 20 unExalted
warriors on the Sidereal’s side adds one die to this pool. Whenever the Exalt
finds this dice pool satisfactory, the player rolls against the spirit’s Essence.
Success binds the spirit to grant whatsoever favor the character demands and
exact no retribution ― or to serve her for a year and a day, later taking
whatever revenge it chooses. (Elder spirits often consider killing the Sidereal
Exalted too crude a revenge, instead seeking to impose an equally demeaning
slavery upon them.) Suicide and favors tantamount to it are outside the limits
of this agreement.
An army may only enact one