Endurance,
The Mast
Once there was a maiden…
…made from a lump of iron, shaped by
wind, sea and fire.
Fearing how wood might shape her, she
ran, and did not look back.
One day, she forgot what she ran from.
So, she pulled out her heart to ask it.
“Why don’t you look back and see?” it
said.
So, she sighed and threw her heart away.
“I have no use for beginnings,” said
she.
Ox-Body Technique
Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Minimum Endurance: Varies
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None
The bodies of the Exalted are
more durable than those of mere mortals. To help simulate this, an Exalt may
buy extra health levels as if they were a Charm. A player may purchase this
Charm up to once per dot of the Endurance Ability her character possesses. Each
provides one -0 health level.
Unswerving Juggernaut Principle
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: Indefinite
Type: Simple
Minimum Endurance: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: None
The stars bathe the character in
yellow stardust. It suffuses her, glittering beneath her skin, hair, clothing
and eyes. She begins to run. She must keep her eyes focused straight forward,
keep her course within 10 degrees of its original heading and can take no other
actions save walk, sprint, run, jump, ride, use a mobility-enhancing Charm or
invoke the Lesser Sign of Mercury. Violating these strictures ends the Charm’s
effects. In exchange, for the duration of the Charm, the character receives an
additional 5L/5B soak, needs no sleep, suffers no fatigue and adds her Essence
to all Endurance rolls. Fatigue rolls do not need to be made for her wearing
armor, regardless of environmental conditions. These benefits also apply to any
horse she rides.
The character’s journey is a
thing of fate and not chance, interwoven with her reasons for traveling. If
something renders her journey irrelevant or alter its appropriate destination,
her player automatically makes a reflexive Perception + Awareness check for the
Sidereal. Even on failure, she senses a change in the situation. Success gives
her a hint of what it might be. Exalted who invoke this Charm while fleeing
pursuit often know when it is safe to stop their
flight.
Forward-Thinking Technique
Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Indefinite
Type: Simple
Minimum Endurance: 3
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Unswerving
Juggernaut Principle
The character’s world narrows to
his journey. The strands of fate that bind him to things behind him loosen.
This Charm includes all of the benefits of the Unswerving Juggernaut Principle.
In addition, it grants an increased (10L/10B) soak bonus against attacks the
character cannot see coming. He can dodge any attack reflexively with a dice
pool of 0 and his permanent Essence in automatic successes. He can evade
pursuit and cover his tracks without slowing down, deviating from his course or
ending the Charm. This requires the normal Wits + Survival roll. This Charm
does not defeat supernatural tracking such as Inevitable Pursuit. It explicitly
prevents trackers from noticing the straight-line travel the Forward-Thinking
Technique enforces unless they succeed at the tracking contest.
Optimistic Security Practice
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Endurance: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None
Reflecting on the great
sacrifices she might someday make for others, the character passes her hand
over the weave of fate and imbues events with her own generosity of spirit.
Weapons and other damage sources turn aside from her skin. She adds her
permanent Essence to her lethal and bashing soak. This soak specifically
applies even to aggravated damage sources. Creatures with Essence lower than
her Compassion must spend one Willpower point each time they attempt to damage
or disable her, or the attack automatically fails. This Charm is incompatible
with the use of armor.
Unwavering Well-Being Meditation
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Endurance: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: None
The character’s calm certainty
in his own destiny turns aside a single event that might otherwise do him harm. Players of attackers with an Essence lower than the
Sidereal’s Temperance must succeed at a Willpower roll, or the attackers
falter, and their attacks automatically fail. Even if they succeed, the
character adds his permanent Essence to his lethal and bashing soak. This soak
specifically applies even to aggravated damage sources.
Heartless Maiden Trance
Cost: 8 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Indefinite
Type: Simple
Minimum Endurance: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Optimistic
Security Practice, Unwavering Well-Being Meditation
The character’s chest convulses
as she swallows her heart. This suspends the normal functioning of her body.
The Exalt no longer suffers nor accumulates penalties from disease, poison,
degenerative effects, hunger, thirst, fatigue, exhaustion, cold, heat, wounds
or blood loss. She does not need to breathe. She emerges from this Charm in the
exact physical state she entered it, save for any new wounds taken and any
poisons or diseases she contracted while under the effect ― which,
effectively, enter her system at that point. While this Charm lasts, the Exalt
ignores all accrued penalties from debilitating conditions and wounds and is unaware
of their existence. Sufficient injury yields a nagging tactical distress that
encourages her to withdraw from combat, but she otherwise cannot accept
the notion that she is sick, poisoned, hungry, cold, wounded or otherwise
impaired. She does not regain Essence except through the use of Charms. She
functions normally when Incapacitated and cannot be knocked unconscious, but
she can be killed by doing more than her Stamina health levels beyond Incapacitated.
One Direction Invocation
Cost: 16 motes, 1 Willpower, 1
health level
Duration: Indefinite
Type: Simple
Minimum Endurance: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Forward-Thinking
Technique, Heartless Maiden Trance
This Charm uses a prayer strip
marked with the scripture of the Eternal Maiden. The character releases it into
the air, where it darts and dances randomly about, staying within 100 yards of
him, trailing vivid afterimages of yellow light. The character names a goal,
which can be as grandiose or minor as he chooses, and geases
himself to fulfill it.
A character under the influence
of this Charm forsakes his name and his identity. Rolls to remember the
character suffer a -3 die penalty (in addition to the normal penalty for
remembering a Sidereal). The Exalt cannot focus on any goal save the one he
named in the Charm. Irrelevant actions are forbidden. He suffers a three die
penalty on all rolls that ― while helping him toward his goal ―
have another primary purpose. However, any non-aggravated injury or impairment
the character receives while the Charm is active heals at the rate of one
lethal health level or all bashing health levels per turn. Aggravated damage
taken under the Charm’s effects heals at one level per hour. The character
heals preexisting conditions at the normal rate.
The character can end the Charm
at any time but cannot reclaim his name and identity until he achieves his
goal. If his goal becomes impossible to achieve, these things are forever lost.
He cannot personally establish a new identity or name, and all attempts to do
so fail, but high-ranking members of his division can issue replacements.