Soulsteel
Caste
Befitting their patron’s nature, the
five castes of Alchemicals work together like the components
of a single machine. The Orichalcum and Starmetal Castes create plans of varying boldness and
guile, which the Jade and Moonsilver Castes then put into
action with their distinctive forthrightness or subtle finesse. And yet, even the
best of plans fall apart. When order breaks down, when dissidents and monsters threaten
the cities, the Tripartite calls in the Soulsteel
Caste. The so-called Grim Watch are the problem solvers
and enforcers of Autochthonia, and their methods range
from brutal simplicity to excruciating intricacy.
In the field, Soulsteel
Caste Exalted dress in distinctive and unadorned black, typically concealing their
implanted arsenals and interrogation devices beneath oil-dark buff jackets of
artificial leather. As experts on psychological warfare, they know full well that
the suggestive bulges and grinding of unseen mechanisms evoke more terror than
any open display of weapons. In battle as in all else, the caste is relentless.
They do not slow. They do not stop. Like the risen dead, their persistence is
the stuff of legend and nightmare. Their elders consider it a point of pride
that no quarry has ever escaped the caste in recorded history except through death,
though that truth is somewhat misleading. Not every hunt ends in victory, even
with such hunters, and the caste certainly takes its share of casualties from
gremlins and rogue Exalted. However, one or another Sentinel eventually
succeeds where predecessors failed. Such is the fate of those hunted by the Soulsteel Caste. They can run, and they can hide, but they
cannot escape.
Unsurprisingly, Sentinels are the most
alien of the five castes and the most likely to cultivate Clarity in the name
of professional detachment. Yet, for all their inhumanity and predilection for violence,
Soulsteel Alchemicals are
not raving psychopaths or monsters. They police their own ranks with as much
fervor as they police others, if not more so. Those suspected of developing Gremlin
Syndrome or even showing sympathy for the forces of the Void face grueling
batteries of Charm-aided interrogations. Any deemed traitors or heretics suffer
horribly, as they are summarily vivisected for spare parts in front of the
assembled members of their caste. Audience participation at such gruesome
spectacles is expected and contributes to the overall horror of the occasion.
These events are not celebrations, but sorrowful executions, in which it is
hoped that the pain and fire will cleanse the tainted soul for another life and
prevent others from succumbing to the temptations of chaos and entropy. The Sentinels
know too well that they are the caste most like their enemies in their
necessary violence; those who listen too closely to the whispers of the souls
trapped in their Charms or allow their faint disdain for mortal frailty to
fester into hatred do not have far to fall. Yet, only at the razor’s edge of
damnation can they understand the enemy, and only with such understanding can
they obtain victory.
When they are not scrutinizing one
another or engaging in active missions hunting gremlins or criminals, members
of the Soulsteel Caste watch over Autochthonia.
They observe citizens at work and at play, looking down from factory catwalks
and striding as ghosts over the streets. Members of the Populat,
and especially the Lumpen, dutifully avoid eye contact
and go about their lives as best they can, inwardly praying that the Sentinels
find no cause to notice them. For their part, the Sentinels know that their
roaming presence discourages dissidence. Some watch less openly, equipped with
Charms to extend the range and scope of their senses. Instead of physically
patrolling, these gifted agents pry through walls and minds in search of
enemies. When any members of the caste find problems, they try to report the
matters to superiors so that the best solution may be decided upon. However,
each Sentinel has the standing authority to deal with problems requiring an
immediate resolution, since enforcement is the very reason the Soulsteel Caste exists. Unless a suspect’s guilt is
incontrovertible, even the most brutal members of the Grim Watch give their
suspects an opportunity to surrender peacefully and face the justice of the Tripartite.
On the other hand, resisting arrest is itself a crime, and resisting a Sentinel
is very often a capital crime.
The eldest members of this caste
typically evolve into industrial prison camps, serving as both jails and
wardens for those consigned to live in the bleak settlements. Such communities
also provide rehabilitation and education for the uncivilized descendents of
exiled criminals, which the Eight Nations have taken to capturing in raids on
the outlying colonies in recent years. Other patropoli
restrain their brutal inclinations, cultivating settlements of perfect order
using omnipresent surveillance Charms to concurrently watch the entire
population. Outwardly, these communities are pristine places, though the
inescapable eye of their city invariably erodes morale.
Caste Markings: Given the caste’s fondness for Clarity and
the dehumanizing isolation imposed by their duties, few Sentinels show any
restraint in modifying their bodies. Form follows function, and the frightening
Charms of the Soulsteel Caste appear roughly hammered
in black alloys with ugly, primitive lines. The artifacts are typically held together
with crude-looking rivets and pins and are perpetually stained with soot and
grease that bleeds from underneath. Sentinel animas appear as shadowy clouds of
smoke streaked with black and blue lightning.
Anima Effect: By reflexively spending 5 motes, a member
of this caste may stir the souls trapped in his frame. Outlines and faint
imprints of distended faces and hands appear in every black-metal surface,
their moans and whispers escaping in a hushed cacophony. The futile struggles
of the tormented generate an aura of numbing dread for a scene, adding (the Exalt’s Essence ÷ 2, rounded up) to the difficulty of all
attacks targeting the Alchemical. Even automatons, walking dead and other
beings that do not know fear still suffer this penalty, as the aura’s Essence
slows their attacks. Only living beings granted perfect immunity to fear by
Charms or other magic can ignore the penalty.
Caste Attributes: As the enforcers and hunters of the Alchemical
Exalted, members of the Soulsteel Caste are as tough
as they are frightening. Nothing slows them down once they set their minds to a
task, not pain and certainly not the impediments of mercy. They know how to
make people do what they want them to do and what degree of force is required
to extract compliance. Yet, the defining characteristic of these
grim Exalted is their unceasing vigilance. Ever watchful for threats within and
without, they stand poised to unleash their signature brutality on any who
threaten their civilization. Their Caste Attributes are Stamina, Manipulation
and Perception.
Associations: The color black, iron, soulsteel, the element of smoke, violence, callousness,
enforcement
Sobriquets: Grim Watch, Sentinels, Scourges of Autochthon,
Blessed of Ku
Concepts: Gremlin killer, problem solver, torture expert,
motivator, dissident recycler
You are in
violation of thought
crimes
against state and god.
Surrender
now.