Greater Arts
Of Glamour
Forging The Heart Grace
Cost: 20 motes, 1 gossamer, plus 1
gossamer per
mutation point
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ring: 0
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: Shape-Forged
Servant
Many noble raksha
perform this Charm at the moment of their own birth.
They literally shape themselves from the substance of the Wyld.
Raksha without this Charm were created as property,
finding freedom at the sufferance of their masters or upon their owners’
deaths. This Charm functions as Shape-Forged Servant, but in addition to crafting
a creature, this Charm creates an artifact. The two are inextricably bound — to
own one is to own the other. This artifact is the Heart Grace, and it has the
following specific properties:
• It is unbreakable.
• It cannot be stolen, save through
shaping combat.
• It contains a miniature reflection of
the creature that mimics the creature’s activities. This serves as a one-way
magical link between Heart Grace and creature. Others can use the Heart to
observe the creature.
If the Heart Grace is something that
opens and closes, then others can use Charms and effects on the creature via
this reflection.
• It contains the creature’s Willpower.
The Heart Grace gives the creature a Willpower Trait, a Nature, volition and a
Heart Trait of 1.
To attune to the Heart Grace, one must
own it. Since it cannot be stolen, one must create, purchase or win a Heart
Grace before attuning to it. Attuning to a Heart Grace requires six scenes of
handling and a 1-mote commitment, which erases any previous raksha’s
attunement.
This attunement buys the utter and
absolute loyalty and service of the creature associated with that Heart. This loyalty
fades if someone else attunes the Heart or if the Heart remains unattuned for a year and a day.
Forging The Cup Grace
Cost: 10 motes, 1
gossamer
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ring: 0
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: Forging the Heart
Grace
Crafting the Cup Grace for a consenting
creature, the raksha teaches the target to please
others in the manner of the Fair Folk. This Charm consumes a supply of gossamer
and creates an artifact. This artifact has the normal qualities of a finely
crafted weapon, suit of armor or tool, in addition to the standard Grace
qualities.
Raksha and other Essence users can attune to a
creature’s Cup Grace. This attunement process requires six scenes of handling
and a 1-mote commitment, which erases any previous raksha’s
attunement. Characters attuned to a creature’s Cup Grace can reflexively strip
away the creature’s comprehensible façade. This lowers the creature’s Cup to 0
and imposes the Curse of Alienation. Breaking or destroying someone’s Cup Grace
also inflicts these effects.
The raksha who
creates a Cup Grace is its initial owner.
Forging The Ring Grace
Cost: 10 motes, 1
gossamer
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ring: 0
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: Forging the Heart
Grace
The raksha
teaches the target to see itself as the Fair Folk do. This Charm consumes a
supply of gossamer and creates an artifact. This artifact has the normal
qualities of a finely crafted weapon, suit of armor or tool, in addition to the
standard Grace qualities.
Raksha and other Essence users can attune to a
creature’s Ring Grace. The attunement process requires six scenes of handling
and a 1-mote commitment, which erases any previous raksha’s
attunement. Characters attuned to a creature’s Ring Grace can reflexively strip
away the creature’s sense of self. This lowers the creature’s Ring to 0 and
imposes the Curse of Meekness. Breaking or destroying someone’s Ring Grace also
inflicts these effects.
The raksha who
creates a Ring Grace is its initial owner.
Forging The Staff Grace
Cost: 10 motes, 1
gossamer
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ring: 0
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: Forging the Heart
Grace
The raksha
teaches the target the ways of Fair Folk diplomacy. This Charm consumes a
supply of gossamer and creates an artifact. This artifact has the normal
qualities of a finely crafted weapon, suit of armor or tool, in addition to the
standard Grace qualities.
Raksha and other Essence users can attune to a
creature’s Staff Grace. This attunement requires six scenes of handling and a
1-mote commitment, which erases any previous raksha’s
attunement. Characters attuned to a creature’s Staff Grace can reflexively
strip away the creature’s understanding of others. This lowers the creature’s
Staff to 0 and imposes the Curse of Hubris. Breaking or destroying someone’s
Staff Grace
also inflicts these effects.
The raksha who
creates a Staff Grace is its initial owner.
Forging The Sword Grace
Cost: 10 motes, 1
gossamer
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ring: 0
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: Forging the Heart
Grace
The character makes the target as
terrifying as the raksha themselves.
This Charm consumes a supply of gossamer and creates an artifact. This artifact
has the normal qualities of a finely crafted weapon, suit of armor or tool, in
addition to the normal Grace qualities.
Raksha and other Essence users can attune to a
creature’s Sword Grace. The attunement requires six scenes of handling and a
1-mote commitment, which erases any previous raksha’s
attunement. Characters attuned to a creature’s Sword Grace can reflexively
strip the creature of its epic mien. This lowers the creature’s Sword to 0 and
imposes the Curse of Namelessness. Breaking or destroying someone’s Sword Grace
also inflicts these effects.
A Sword Grace protects a raksha from enslavement to a certain extent. While it
exists, the character’s Heart Grace cannot be broken or stolen by anyone who
does not own the character’s Sword Grace, whether through shaping combat or by
mortal theft. Raksha sometimes give their Sword Grace
to others to safeguard, ensuring that no creature can steal their Heart without
first discovering who holds their Sword. Others hesitate, understandably, to
give such power to another.
The raksha who
creates a Sword Grace is its initial owner.
Gaping Virtue Mouth
Cost: 20 motes, 1
gossamer, 1 experience point
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ring: 1
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: Forging the Cup
Grace, Forging the Ring Grace, Forging the Staff Grace, Forging the Sword Grace
The raksha
interacts with a character and pries open one of that character’s Graces,
transforming it into a fanged feeding maw that hungers for the emanations of
its Virtue. The mouth and its teeth exist in an abstract sense, typically only
visible to effects such as All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight and in the anima banner
of Exalted who acquire a feeding Grace. Characters with a feeding Grace have
access to the feeding Charms of the Cup and can regain Essence naturally in the
Wyld or a Freehold. In addition, feeding Graces are
treated as Major Graces for the purposes of Charm experience costs. The maximum
number of feeding Graces that a character can possess equals her Heart rating
minus one.
Iron Nightmare Muzzle
Cost: 5 motes, 1
gossamer
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ring: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Gaping Virtue Mouth
The raksha
seals over a Grace, closing an enemy’s Virtue mouth. The raksha’s
player makes a Ring-shaping attack against a target no more than one waypoint
away. On a success, instead of the normal damage, this Charm seals one of the
target’s Major Graces so that he can no longer feed from it. This doubles the
mote cost for all the Charms of that Grace until the target can reopen the Virtue
maw (for example, with Gaping Virtue Mouth).
The Grace is still a feeding Grace — it’s
just not usable.
Ecstatic Reproduction
Style
Cost: 20 motes, 5
gossamer
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ring: 1
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Gaping Virtue Mouth
The raksha
performs an act of communion with the mad, amorphous desires and substance of
the Wyld. From the delicate shaping of the raksha and the blind primordial urges of chaos a child is
made — a raksha, prince or servant of the Wyld, born into servitude with the child’s Heart Grace in
the Charm-user’s hand.
To use this Charm, the raksha’s player rolls Intelligence + Craft (Glamour).
Creating a common raksha is difficulty 5. Heroic
commoners are difficulty 7. Nobles are difficulty 9. This roll is not an
extended one. On a success, this Charm creates the desired raksha.
The creation has all five Graces, an appropriate number of them feeding Graces,
and the Charm user owns and is attuned to all of them. Botching produces a
deformed or suboptimal child — often, an enemy raksha
or monster who owns his own Graces.
Akshata Sexual Methodology
Cost: 40 motes, 5 gossamer, 2 experience
points
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Staff: 2
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Gaping Virtue Mouth
This Charm evokes the aspect of the
Staff shinma, Nirvikalpa.
This Charm lets the raksha draw the Essence of two
consenting Fair Folk into himself and manipulate it to create a child. Each
parent makes an oath to the other, and the Akshata
makes a third oath in the child’s name.
The child is bound by the Akshata’s oath; the parents’ oaths are sacrosanct only as
long as the child exists. Many treaties in the Wyld
are sealed by such oath-children. The parents can contribute motes, gossamer
and experience points to the cost of this Charm. Each parent holds one of the
child’s Graces, and the child possesses its own Heart, Ring and Sword.
If one of the parents is raksha, the child is raksha. If one
is noble, the child is noble. The children of the unshaped are often prodigies.
This is a Staff-shaping Charm.
Forging The Arcane Redoubt
Cost: 25 motes, 3
gossamer
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ring: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Forging the Heart
Grace
The raksha
embeds a consenting creature’s Heart Grace in the center of an uncapped
Demesne. Over the course of a story, it begins to burn, until,
finally, the Heart immolates and becomes a pillar of silver heatless bonefire. The creature associated with that Heart then
turns to dust and ash. It ceases to exist until such a time as the bonefire dies, at which point the immolated creature
returns to life. Building the bonefire turns the
Demesne into a Freehold.
It creates a Cyst or a set of pennants.
The Freehold fills with Wyld taint, and the Demesne
becomes part of the Middlemarches of Rakshastan. The bonefire must be
fed with dross, a mix of Essence and gossamer — if not fed 20 motes and 1 gossamer per story, the bonefire
dies, and all its effects fail.
To attune to a bonefire,
a character must cast her own Heart into the bonefire. If she does not own her Heart, she must have the
owner’s consent. For the next six scenes, the Heart is vulnerable — it can be
stolen or stolen back with normal dice actions or vexation, although reaching
into the fire to claim it inflicts one level of aggravated damage. Once the
Heart has spent six scenes in the fire, the character is attuned. Attunement
gives three benefits:
• The attuned character can enflesh herself within the
Freehold as a whole. She is reflexively aware of all things that transpire
there, interacts with the whole Freehold at once and can use shaping actions as
if present in any of the Freehold’s waypoints.
• The attuned character receives her
Essence in automatic successes on all shaping rolls within the Freehold.
• The character can reflexively spy on
any of the creatures carrying a pennant or Cyst for the Freehold, looking in on
them as if present. She can also wither any of the Freehold’s pennants or
Cysts, wheresoever it might be, and grow it again
over the course of a story in the Freehold’s heart.
Raksha outside the Freehold must hold a
pennant or a Cyst to realize these benefits.
Multiple raksha
can place their Hearts in the bonefire. The benefits
of attunement divide among them. Each holds power in turn, for a duration set
by the raksha who makes the bonefire
— a day, a week, a month, a season, a year or a story. The raksha
track all of these on the moon’s face, even the last. Luna hangs lowest in the
sky when a story nears its ending.
Forging The Stronghold
Cost: 20 motes, 2
gossamer
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ring: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Forging the Sword
Grace, Forging the Arcane Redoubt
The raksha
embeds a Sword Grace in the spiritual structure of a Freehold waypoint. That
Sword Grace and waypoint transform. The waypoint becomes a “Stronghold” — the
center of and focus for that Freehold’s active, aggressive strength. It always
has masculine or martial symbolism — examples include a fortress, a marshalling
yard, a maypole or a mountain peak. Its existence protects the Freehold against
physical invasion. The Freehold gains a Sword Trait (or Stronghold Trait) with
a rating equal to the creature’s Sword Trait.
A Freehold with a Stronghold can claim
possession of additional waypoints. The Freehold can directly control a number
of waypoints equal to 10 times its Stronghold Trait.
Attuning to a Stronghold requires six
scenes of effort and a 1-mote commitment, which erases any previous raksha’s attunement. The character attuning must have
undisputed physical control over the territory — he must drive anyone who might
object out of the Stronghold waypoint.
The attuned character controls the
physical territory of the Freehold. He can rearrange any number of the journeys
between the Freehold’s waypoints with a difficulty 3 Sword-shaping action. He
cannot completely isolate any given waypoint or reduce the total number of journeys.
He can also enflesh himself
in the physical structure of the Freehold. This effect makes him aware of all Sword shaping within the Freehold, lets him use applicable
Sword defenses against shaping attacks made against the Freehold’s waypoints
and permits him to make Sword-shaping actions as if present in any of the Freehold’s
waypoints.
The Stronghold remains a specific
creature’s Sword Grace. The character attuned to the Stronghold can reflexively
inflict the Curse of Namelessness on that creature.
Forging The Glory
Cost: 20 motes, 2
gossamer
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ring: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Forging the Cup
Grace, Forging the Arcane Redoubt
The raksha
embeds a Cup Grace in the spiritual structure of a Freehold waypoint. That Cup
Grace and waypoint transform. The waypoint becomes a “Glory” — the center of
and focus for that Freehold’s majesty. It emits a subtle radiance of the Cup
that makes the Freehold a magical and wondrous place. Even for the mortals
tortured and mutilated in the lightless, stinking sewers beneath the Freehold Segneri, the place has a certain numinous beauty that part
of them will long for forever. The Freehold gains a Cup Trait (or Glory Trait)
with a rating equal to the creature’s Cup Trait.
A Freehold with a Glory radiates
beguilement and glamour. Player of characters who relax their mental defenses
against the Freehold’s beauty and accept its hospitality must make a Willpower
roll — the difficulty is 1 for the raksha, 2 for the
Creation-born and 3 for Creation-born prisoners. Those characters whose players
fail suffer a beguilement effect directing them to linger in the Freehold, to
show no resistance to the raksha and to consent to
the raksha’s Charms.
This effect is a work of glamour, and it
has no effect on characters with a Wits + Essence of 7 or higher.
Attuning to a Glory requires an
uninterrupted performance six scenes long and a 1-mote commitment, which erases
any previous raksha’s attunement. The process fails if
someone drives away the attuning character or successfully interrupts the
performance.
The attuned character controls the
emotional ambience of the Freehold. He can selectively prevent raksha from regaining Essence naturally in the Freehold
with a difficulty 3 Cup-shaping action. He can enflesh himself in the spiritual structure of the Freehold.
This effect makes him aware of all Cup shaping within
the Freehold, lets him use applicable Cup defenses against shaping attacks made
against the Freehold’s waypoints and permits him to make Cup-shaping actions as
if present in any of the Freehold’s waypoints.
The Glory remains a specific creature’s
Cup Grace. The character attuned to the Glory can reflexively inflict the Curse
of Alienation on that creature.
Forging The Fountainhead
Cost: 20 motes, 2
gossamer
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ring: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Forging the Ring
Grace, Forging the Arcane Redoubt
The raksha
embeds a Ring Grace in the spiritual structure of a Freehold waypoint. That
Ring Grace and waypoint transform. They become a “Fountainhead” — the center
and focus for that Freehold’s definition. It has feminine or passive symbolism —
examples include a well, a lake, a garden, a grotto, a mosaic, a room-sized mirror
or a hollow. Its existence gives the Freehold self-awareness and identity. The
Freehold gains a Ring Trait (or Fountainhead Trait) with a rating equal to the creature’s
Ring Trait.
A Freehold with a Fountainhead is a
living creature. Its consciousness is abstract and distant, but it’s able to witness
everything that transpires within the Freehold. Attuning to a Fountainhead
requires six scenes of effort and a 1-mote commitment. The majority of the Worker
raksha in the Freehold must participate, giving their
strength to the project. This attunement erases any previous raksha’s attunement.
The attuned character defines the
Freehold and commands its awareness. She can reflexively sense everything that
happens anywhere in the Freehold or near any of its pennants or Cysts. She can
use applicable Ring defenses against shaping attacks made against the Freehold’s
waypoints and can make Ring-shaping actions as if present in any of the
Freehold’s waypoints.
The Fountainhead remains a specific
creature’s Ring Grace. The character attuned to the Fountainhead can reflexively
inflict the Curse of Meekness on that creature.
Forging The Throne Room
Cost: 20 motes, 2
gossamer
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ring: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Forging the Staff
Grace, Forging the Arcane Redoubt
The raksha
embeds a Staff Grace in the spiritual structure of a Freehold waypoint. That
Staff Grace and waypoint transform. The waypoint becomes a “Throne Room” — a
place of court and deliberations and the central focus for the Freehold’s
society. Its existence gives the Freehold the ability to marshal and shape the convictions
of others. The Freehold gains a Staff Trait (or Throne Room Trait) with a
rating equal to the creature’s Staff Trait.
A Freehold’s Throne Room allows raksha to bind themselves in fealty to the Freehold and its
lord. The oaths binding the Freehold apply to all such characters until they or
the current lord rejects that fealty.
Attuning to a Throne Room requires six
scenes of effort and a 1-mote commitment, which erases any previous raksha’s attunement. The character attuning must have a
certain level of cooperation — during the story in which he attempts to attune,
the character must meaningfully interact with every noble sworn to the
Freehold.
Meaningful interactions include gift
exchanges, sexual liaisons and plotting together, but not casual conversation or
strictly hostile encounters.
The attuning character controls the
social fabric of the Freehold. She can take one oath or adjuration per story on
the Freehold’s behalf. She can also enflesh herself in the social structure of the Freehold.
This effect makes her aware of all Staff shaping within the Freehold, lets her
use applicable Staff defenses against shaping attacks made against the Freehold’s
territory and permits her to make Staff-shaping actions as if present in any of
the Freehold’s waypoints.
The Throne Room remains a specific
creature’s Staff Grace. The character attuned to the Throne Room can reflexively
inflict the Curse of Hubris on that creature.
Great Works Of The (Grace)
Cost: 20 motes, 3
gossamer
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ring: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Forging the Heart
Grace
The raksha
engages in the Ring’s mightiest art: forging artifacts from the Graces of
fellow raksha. This is actually four separate Charms.
Each forges a specific type of artifact from a specific Grace.
• Great Works of the Cup — the raksha forges a glamour sorcery spell from a Cup Grace.
• Great Works of the Ring — the raksha forges a Wyld artifact from
a Ring Grace.
• Great Works of the Staff — the raksha forges an adjuration from a Staff Grace.
• Great Works of the Sword — the raksha forges a behemoth from a Sword Grace.
A common raksha’s
Grace becomes a one-dot artifact. Noble Graces can become two- or three-dot artifacts.
The artifact remains the raksha’s Grace; it just gains
new potence. Characters attuned to the item can reflexive
exert the appropriate Curse on the character.
The raksha
chooses the nature, power level and properties of the artifact he wishes to
create and acquires a suitable Grace, and his player rolls Intelligence + Craft
(Glamour) as a Ring-shaping action. An Artifact • has difficulty 3; an Artifact
•• has difficulty 4; An artifact ••• has difficulty 5.
This roll is an extended one. To gain the benefits of a single roll, the raksha must leave the motes committed for a full story.
When the raksha
accumulates 10 successes for an Artifact •, 30 for an Artifact •• or 60 for an
Artifact •••, this Charm transforms the Grace into the desired artifact as a
work of permanent glamour.
Unshaped (Grace)
Transformation
Cost: 20 motes, 3
gossamer
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ring: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Great Works of the
(Matching Grace)
Molding the Essence and gossamer of an
artifact as if it were fine clay, the Fair Folk can reshape existing artifacts to
their whims. This is actually four Charms:
• Unshaped Cup Transformation — the raksha changes the nature of a glamour sorcery spell.
• Unshaped Ring Transformation — the raksha changes the nature of a Wyld
artifact.
• Unshaped Staff Transformation — the raksha changes the nature of an inactive adjuration.
• Unshaped Sword Transformation — the raksha redefines a behemoth.
The raksha
chooses the nature, power level and properties of the artifact she wishes to
create and acquires a suitable artifact of the same level, and her player rolls
Intelligence + Craft (Glamour) as a Ring-shaping action. The difficulty of the
roll equals the level of the artifact — a one-dot artifact gives difficulty 1,
a two-dot artifact difficulty 2, and so forth. This Charm can manipulate Wyld-forged artifacts up to level 5. As with Great Works of
the (Grace), this roll is an extended one. To gain the benefits of a single
roll, the raksha must leave the motes committed for a
full story.
When the raksha
accumulates 3 successes for an Artifact •, 5 successes for an Artifact ••, 10
successes for an Artifact •••, 30 successes for an Artifact •••• or 60 successes
for an Artifact •••••, this Charm reshapes the artifact into a
Storyteller-authorized artifact of the raksha’s own
design.
This Charm can also be used to repair
damaged artifacts or slain behemoths. If the raksha
only seeks to repair damage, reduce the difficulty of each roll by one.
Behemoth-Forging Meditation
Cost: 20 motes, 3
gossamer
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ring: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Shape-Forged
Servant, Unshaped Sword Transformation
Twisting the nature of a visiting
Creation-born creature, the raksha imposes one or more
mutations. The raksha rolls Intelligence + Craft
(Glamour). This Charm changes the target’s cosmetic appearance and adds 1 mutation
point to the target for each two successes rolled. Essence 1 targets affected
by this Charm become minor behemoths — raksha can
attune to them and control them as Sword-shaping weapons. Most of these have
the weapon qualities of basic non-artifact weapons (horrors, mutant warleaders and so forth) and require only a 1-mote attunement
to command. Mutants with 10 or more points of mutation qualify as one-dot fey
beasts.
This Charm is a work of glamour and does
not affect creatures whose Stamina + Essence exceeds the raksha’s
Intelligence. Tattooed Lunar Exalted are also immune.
Extinction Of Desire
Cost: 1 mutation point
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Ring: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Unshaped Ring
Transformation
The raksha
achieves the enlightenment of Nirvishesha and remakes
herself as an artifact. Her Heart and Ring Graces turn
to dust, and her reflection in her Heart screams in endless agony before fading
into foul smoke. This Charm extinguishes the raksha’s
volition and awareness of self. She can no longer spend Willpower or use the
Charms of the Ring. She does not suffer the Curse of Meekness and does not
cease to exist. Instead, she delivers her will utterly into the hands of the
first raksha to attune to her. Attunement requires a
1-mote commitment and six scenes of interaction, and it only functions if no
other character is attuned. The attuned character can command the raksha as if in possession of her Heart Grace — her loyalty
is absolute.
Raksha influenced by this Charm receive the
following benefits:
• They ignore the effects of shaping
damage.
• They have an additional 6L/6B soak
against mortal attacks.
• They become unbreakable. This means
that they automatically convert any lethal damage received to bashing damage,
before soak, unless the attack could damage one of the Five Magical Materials.
• If killed in Creation, they can be
repaired as a damaged three-dot artifact.
• They gain the benefits of Mad God Mien.