Exalted

[marsh garden]

Sun's Brush in arms

and that's the list!

grand grimcleavers are Horizon Cleaver (blue jade, dbs); Threnody Engine (soulsteel, alchs); Death at the Root (moonsilver, lunars); Soulfarer (soulsteel, AotC); and i think one i'm missing

[prisma sun]

Abyssals have one

Infernals too I think

[marsh garden]

nope

to both

if you're looking at the Everything Spreadsheet, the listed non-grand grimcleavers are all unstatted npc weapons

sun's brush isn't actually on the spreadsheet

Considered Restraint (abyssals) is benny's personal axe, probably because she's a walker stan and has good taste

it has no listed attunement effect or evocations

Hesiesh's Crucible (HttS, red jade) is Cathak Urima's personal axe, and also has no attunement benefit or evocations

Opens-the-Mind (MFS) is Skathra Venomchild's personal axe, and also has no attunement benefit or evocations

i like axes

i have looked for axes

unforchies, there are no axes

[chilly sluice]

There's not a lot of axe-ok martial arts either, right?

[marsh garden]

nope!

that's what sparked this

it's Hungry Ghost and Devil-Prince Sword

and of course thousand blades

[marsh garden]

i wish i had any good ideas for martial arts, because i'd love to fix that

[wise ocean]

it is kind of funny that combining axe and spear MAs is like

if you don't do DP+WR it's completely balanced because they're all tech

[marsh garden]

i think it's incredibly funny that dp is called devil-prince sword style, because you can tell your buddy you studied it or the enemy shikari can go "be careful, she practices the devil-prince sword"

and then you fucking huck a tomahawk

"what part of that looks like a sword to you, asshole?"

"the killing edge."

[mighty rover]

devil prince swordsman who whacks you with bows for some reason

[marsh garden]

nah it's just two types of swords and handaxes

[wise ocean]

speaking of,

Artifact Name
Material River-Fork Spear

5* Heavy Artifact Melee
Two-Handed, Lethal, Melee, Reaching

When attuned, this weapon has two ways in which it can be used to strike; this weapon can only use one trait in a given tick, either piercing with the sharpened point or hacking with the axe-edge. In the former case, it gains the Piercing tag and compatibility with Martial Arts as if it were a spear, while in the latter, it gains the Chopping tag and compatibility with Martial Arts as if it were an axe. When the wielder rolls Join Battle, they may pay a 5m surcharge to harmonize their Essence with this weapon, allowing them to treat it as both a spear and an axe for Martial Arts compatibility for the rest of the scene (it still may not be treated as having both Chopping and Piercing in the same tick)

[limpid badge]

everyone loves the solar fishman i made as a babyface

mission fuckin accomplished now crush his dreams my infernal shitheads

[marsh garden]

is this supposed to be compatible with [all axe] martial arts, the theoretical greataxe martial art, or hatchet martial arts?

i like the stance switch either way, i think it's fun in a very monhun way

[wise ocean]

all axe, except you can't ever throw it because it's not got Thrown

[marsh garden]

yeah neither do grimcleavers

or wait, sorry

[limpid badge]

oh its a bec-de-corbain

[marsh garden]

yes they do, they just don't return

[wise ocean]

exactly

[marsh garden]

oh!

i see

i thought it was switching around because of the surcharge

[wise ocean]

stance switch is for tags, if you pay money at the start of the scene you can get double compat outside of stance switching

so effectively you pay extra at the start of combat if you think you want to do one-tick multi-MA combos

[marsh garden]

sick, we could use more polearms

[wise ocean]

but if you don't pay, no throwing WR and HG supplementaries onto the same attack

[marsh garden]

the fact that there isn't a unique artifact polearm is rough

they're just

either grimcleavers or direlances

[wise ocean]

[marsh garden]

8 swords tho

[wise ocean]

that said now I have to figure out what vibes drive someone to Make Polearm

for materials+evo tree

[marsh garden]

make it adamant

i don't know why, but that harmonizing part just feels like it should be adamant

[wise ocean]

mmmmm

not sure about a multi-MA weapon going to alchs (and idk what's going on with sovs)

my shortlist was sids, abyssals, or deebs

[marsh garden]

i mean

why not?

alchs get everything

either by caste or with their one charm

[wise ocean]

🤔

[bleak hazel]

starmetal likes "turning one kind of power into another kind of power" so this kind of works

black jade also good

[wise ocean]

neither axe or spear can be used with SMAs until you enlighten into it through sid melee, so black jade may be the best fit

(then again nor can any IMAs, so lol, lmao)

hmm. designing 5*s kind of hard since their evocations have to naturally build towards a whole Theme that basically dictates your whole playstyle. damn

[buoyant summit]

I wonder what music genres have been invented in autochthon

Jazz seems at least vibe-appropriate

[marsh garden]

i think elementals are a bit easier there because you can do Whole Vibes with your evoking element

if you're doing black jade, which of its big one-to-two-letter themes do you want to cover?

i think for a five-dot, deception/illusion, corrosion/dissolution, [body of water theme], and water + resilience would probably be the easiest to make a whole playstyle?

[wise ocean]

📝

[marsh garden]

...huh

do we have any corrosion black jade artifacts?

[wise ocean]

I don't believe so...?

[errant knot]

dreamed last night that I was in the back seat of a jeep that two guys were joyriding in. they were harassing geese. I got sick of this so naturally I reached down and grabbed the wheel myself to stop the car, revealing I was a Lunar, and they revealed that they were two abyssals.

and then my alarm woke me up

[wise ocean]

abyssals would absolutely harass geese for recreation. thank you for this

[errant knot]

it was my duty

[limpid badge]

liminal is getting dogwalked yaaay

[marsh garden]

:(

poor baby

[merry arch]

exploded the fuck out of a liminal and i feel bad about it

[wise ocean]

it's alright! they get better!

[stage whisper] no they don't

[bleak hazel]

no no this one does in fact get better

[marsh garden]

didn't blow up their head?

[merry arch]

no because Lilah made a very kind request not to explode her brain and I'm a good sport so I didn't

[marsh garden]

lmao

[merry arch]

I rolled so bad on my big fucking attack but it made the fight more dramatic

5 decisive damage on 23 dice

[chilly sluice]

damn

[lament owl]

Alright chat
New Sidereal Plan that will surely make everyone in Heaven happy

Sidereal with the following scheme

• Kill All The Death Lords
• Steal All The Monsterances and place them under the control of heaven
• Use the monsterances and the powers of the abyssals that control them to weave undead into fate
• Place the abyssals heaven now has leverage over as the rulers of creation, since abyssal curse is actually easier to manage than the solar one

calling it "The Steel Faction"

anyone down to sign my petition

[wise ocean]

I think abyssals trying to actually rule over the living in a way compatible with the living remaining such would just trigger the most insane great curse rupture known to man

[lament owl]

so I have a potential fix for this, but its in the scroll of swallowed darkness

[wise ocean]

https://tenor.com/view/javier-bardem-anton-got-it-think-about-it-ok-gif-17428218

[marsh garden]

i'm dubious yet interested

[limpid badge]

the porno april fools book

the answer is in the april fools porno book

[lament owl]

yes of course it is

where else would it be

[lament owl]

To clarify this is a bit
I am on the sidereal limit break juice

[wise ocean]

oh I know
but I'm curious how long the bit can last in practical terms before it breaks

[lament owl]

so actually I reread dancing in the darkest cage

this might not actually help that much

still would help

but only a bit

Gettimg Perfect Social Defenses against Neverborn and Neverborn loyalists is good

but I could have sworn it made you lose limit

instead it makes you gain limit

[wise ocean]

... honestly, not surprised

[velvet raft]

Robin has joined the chat

[lament owl]

So true

[fierce star]

i love sidereal limit breaks

I should update Swallowed Darkness Style, what of it we have, to ex3
no, no I will not

i have to finish seafaring hero style first

[limpid badge]

the lintha thinblood shrine maiden i gave the party is the most protected girl in the west now

[velvet raft]

Players and adopting things, name a more iconic combination

[limpid badge]

Lalah Vae’s proven her worth with 8 dice to compose music and her willingness to sleep with her bosses and gotten her SO far

Also that she can Read

[velvet raft]

I'm trying to think if we've only adopted one person in mortalgame so far

[coral wraith]

I love Lalah

[velvet raft]

Illiterate party?

[merry arch]

no but her sugarmommy is dumb as rocks and is very illiterate

(my character, daring monsoon)

[fierce star]

I'm pondering how many 'that's a lot of dots' are too much on a mortal.

[limpid badge]

Lalah needs the cash sooooo bad she’s rapidly becoming more okay with working for Obvious Anathema

[wise ocean]

mortals are out there with 5* resources canonically, you're set

[velvet raft]

2 dots is Average Professional Competence, but there's a lot of space above that

[limpid badge]

I figure Lalah being 4/4 on her cha + perform is okay because she’s the kind of mortal who gets screen times with solaroids

[velvet raft]

Ye

[limpid badge]

And the rest of her pools have trouble cresting 4

[velvet raft]

Like, among the teeming masses, there are people with 4s and 5s, Exalts tend to be drawn from among them

[fierce star]

right now I'm looking at wits 5, integrity 5, willpower 10, lore 4, occult 4, smattering of social skills at 3-4, resistance 5 but offensive capability being a couple dots of brawl and mid dex, but this is a Campaign Important NPC who's going to be consistently surrounded by 3-5 celestial+ exalts

really the wits/integ/wp are not negotiable

[wise ocean]

ah

[fierce star]

but I wonder if thaat plus other stuff is too much for a mortal

[limpid badge]

Heroic mortal old Conan would fit it up

[wise ocean]

i'm ngl that's better stats than a fair number of exalted

[velvet raft]

They're still gonna be extremely overshadowed by the people with Actual Mystical Powers, tho

[limpid badge]

But yeah you gotta have years on folks to get that way

[fierce star]

oh yeah dude is old

like, mid 50s

(which for a mortal in creation that did not live a cushy life is pretty old, y'know?)

[coral wraith]

Willpower 10 I'm super sceptical on to be real

That's not even something high ranking gods have

Why does some random mortal have it

[lament owl]

Built different

[velvet raft]

I guess the question is, what role do these high dots play?

[fierce star]

Well, he's not 'some random mortal', he's kind of the reason the campaign is running. In universe I want it as a reason behind (spoilered becuase I have a couple of my players in here) ||him surviving refusing the Bleak Exaltation when he was bleeding out and dying from being backstabbed by his former best friend and the Lover coming to offer him a chance to drag all Creation down with him, and him being SO PISSED OFF at the audacity he willed himself to survive until he got back to civilization.||

[merry arch]

i need to play her dumber cos i have a big vocab and she absoluuuutely does not

her two infernal friends are very mentally inclined and are using big words so she's gotta be like the fuck does that mean

[velvet raft]

Yeah I mean he's an important coolguy, he can have the good numbers, I think

[bleak hazel]

Tepet Telek is normally like, dickhead demonic cultivator

[coral wraith]

I mean that's pretty rad but even then I think you're looking at WP 8 or something

[prisma sun]

I hate this problem, as someone that shares it lmao

[bleak hazel]

but at night he's moonlighting as Saigon Batman, which is very funny

[velvet raft]

He's still gonna run into the fact that He is A Mortal

[bleak hazel]

to the people of the city he looks like a deeb nobly striking demons from the air with a blazing spear of fire

but the demon got there because he summoned it, didn't bind it and then released it so he could count to 20 and then go chasing it over the rooftops as training

[fierce star]

his Magic Power is knowing to surround himself with competent people with Actual Magic Powers, and being too stubborn to let death take him when there is still duty to be done.

[prisma sun]

Me trying to play an Australian cowboy who grew up in the mountains who somehow knows ancient Egyptian history and knows the correct usage of the word loquacious

[bleak hazel]

also Telek using ISOB plus Wind-Borne Stride is very fun because he's heavy enough to shatter anything he stands on but cannot fall until he stops moving

[coral wraith]

awww yeah m8

[velvet raft]

But I guess repeating the question, what function does him having all these numbers play in the intersection of mechanics and narrative? Is it just for establishing that he has good resolve and guile and whatnot?

[bleak hazel]

so he's just tearing over the city shattering roof tiles and splintering railings as he goes

shonen impact physics

[prisma sun]

We need more shonen impact physics in Exalted

[fierce star]

Not just 'good', but as superhuman as a normal mortal can. Like. One of myf avorite mortal archeytpes in exalted is like... someone who should be exalted. But there's not 'enough' to go around, and some of these potential exalts go their whole life with only the hand that mortality gave them.

[bleak hazel]

exalted is generally quite tight with "I punched someone kind of hard so they flew through a solid stone wall and scattered it everywhere, but are totally fine" mechanics despite the Feats of Demolition part saying "only roll if narratively relevant"

possibly because the Feats table is honestly a bit miserly so even if you scale normal Exalted mojo to it you don't break that many objects

[limpid badge]

that ape did swallow a cat before it got got

[bleak hazel]

he had a good ten minute summoning

being a 1CD in malfeas kind of sucks so at least he had fun

[fierce star]

also like, there's a mechanical thing. Though.

I guess even the ||Lover|| isn't immuen to the rules about unacceptable influence.

[bleak hazel]

you don't need to max out the willpower

slightly above chargen 5 is plenty

which makes him a lot less implausible

5 is already above human normal

[wise ocean]

not even above human normal, it's like double human normal

[velvet raft]

Since this is an NPC, it only really matters insofar as the mechanics are going to interact with it, is I guess what I'm getting at

[fierce star]

fair

[velvet raft]

Like, you can just say, "dude's weird and has 5-6 resolve and will have XYZ willpower's worth of resistance to social influence" and that's fine, that'll cover your actual needs

[fierce star]

fair

I can also like

just trust my players to be willing to buy-in

given I don't have shitty players anymore

I do have a real problem as a GM of believing I have to prove everything with stats instead of just having 'good enough' stats and trusting my players to be willing to buy-in on it

stemming from bad players double and triple checking my math and recreating character sheets and then getting mad when ti didn't add up to what feats I proscribed to them in character

early on in my GMing career

[prisma sun]

I do think Exalted does skew your brain on what a good dicepool is

Like "oh im bad if I dont start with a dicepool of 10"

[fierce star]

J. Village Professional Blacksmith rolls a dicepool of 5 for his full-time, trained-from-childhood career

[bleak hazel]

I make the fairly straightforward choice to separate mortal and Exalt dice pool meanings

a mortal swordsman with 8 dice dex + melee is an exceptional swordsman, an exalted swordsman with 8 dice dex + melee is lower side of average at best

(assuming equal dedication to swording)

[velvet raft]

I hear you. Just remember, the whole point of QCs is that the system really doesn’t demand that sort of full stat sheet. Especially for a mortal who isn’t a combatant, you can really just have a few relevant numbers and dice pools and call it there

[fierce star]

--wait am I not supposed to only use QCs for mooks and single-scene characters

[velvet raft]

They’ve done multiple bosses as QCs :P

[tulip folio]

BRB, targeting with inner Devils Unchained

[fierce star]

well yes but that's to save on dev time I thought

and you know, GM headspace

a mortal even with a full sheet takes up basically nothing in the brain

[velvet raft]

It’s both things, imo

It’s presenting relevant information with the explicit carve out that there’s implicitly space for other stuff

Should it be needed

[fierce star]

very softly stares at the stacked pile of full sheets.

well, I always had a habit of making things harder for myself

[bleak hazel]

I do serious bosses and recurring NPCs as PCs personally

and all Exalts unless they are deliberately chumps I don't expect to get a proper workout

[velvet raft]

It's certainly not bad to have the full sheets

[bleak hazel]

I don't keep them to PC XP spending or anything, I just give them all the stuff I want them to have

but QC exalts are just so puny

[velvet raft]

Yeah, PC XP is in-universe really weird and fast

[bleak hazel]

this, at least in my book, is the one asymmetry between PCs and most NPC exalts, yes

PCs are all prodigies

(but they are not all the prodigies)

[velvet raft]

Even as exalts go you are getting strong extremely fast because you have Protagonist Power

Design-wise, Ex3 occupies an interesting space in the spectrum of "narrative generator to universe simulator"

It has characteristics of both, rather than occupying a set point on the spectrum

Which I think is probably for the best!

[bleak hazel]

I admit I like its genuine attempts at integrating mechanics and narrative without being precious about keeping every single thing simulationist

I have always bounced off anything that gets too abstract about its gameplay and story segregation

FabU did not hold my interest

[limpid badge]

I’m building the next round of characters proper at least

JERUN THE MIGHTY will be a shithead e1 zenith

https://tenor.com/view/sting-wrestler-face-facepaint-champion-gif-16602793

[wise ocean]

top of the tournament: e2 brawl dawn. faceclaim: ric flair

actually wait is that ref already why my brain pinged that pro wrestler in specific

I may be stupid.

[limpid badge]

that’s classic sting

who fueded with flair constantly

[wise ocean]

thank you brain your subconscious autocomplete has functioned more or less right

[bleak hazel]

Jerun is easily the scariest guy in Round 1 other than perhaps Monsoon and it is very possible he throws Telek around the room quite easily since I am not super combat invested

this will be fun

[prisma sun]

https://youtu.be/wLjvmc-2A_4?si=UwgneT9JkG9_SVsB

[merry arch]

extremely love him from the limited glimpses i've gotten of him

[limpid badge]

made a dynast forget to be racist by being just a Bro

[merry arch]

;LADNFNHDFHN

THAT WAS SO FUCKING FUNNY

[limpid badge]

telek: [says some self-depricating cultivator shit about purging his weakness]
jerun: hey man. don't talk about yourself that way.

[bleak hazel]

he's great, Telek was so shocked he forgot to be domineering

there's a script for "rough tough beastfolk rebel comes after a Dynast about the local slave trade" and Jerun didn't follow it

[limpid badge]

because jerun hates the guild specificially and also saw telek killsteal the ape from him

[bleak hazel]

I will have to go spear some guildsmen before we leave

only right before we leave, because that would be a fuss, but it's no skin off Telek's nose at that point

[coral wraith]

i love killing capitalists

[wise ocean]

why would you do that to those innocent guildsmen? do they not deserve the sweat of their brow??

[merry arch]

their bootstraps.... woefully unpulled...

[bleak hazel]

you see, Telek is also a social darwinist

which means if I spear them and take their cool exotic materials, that means I deserve them

[limpid badge]

meeting a fishman you don't know is a solar: you seem to have will to power. we can be chums.

[bleak hazel]

wait fuck I just realised

Telek's boss dialogue is fucking Max0r's version of Morgott

as is some of his moveset

https://youtu.be/JlCiYJm9x94?si=GyLz_S9sBpZc2fEl&t=870

[wise ocean]

is graves a social darwinist, forum thread locked after 40000 posts

[bleak hazel]

(well, also Messmer but that's less funny)

[wise ocean]

believe it or not, multiple spears attack

[bleak hazel]

one spear right now

but it does set itself on fire

[limpid badge]

you're gonna have the rain of bone-swords aoe attack i just knows it

[bleak hazel]

that's Crimson, actually, it's shadow circle, but he is definitely going to have a bunch of AOEs since they're in Thousand Blades

[wise ocean]

(for the record: the answer is no since he doesn't believe in society)

[bleak hazel]

for what it's worth both Rival and Graves would put Telek in the ground in approximately fifteen seconds

he's not very killy yet and even at his peak he'd only have one (very strong) martial art, a bunch of miscellaneous evocations and a good chunk of resistance

he's far more craft-focused

[wise ocean]

oh absolutely, he's a normal exalt going through his tournament arc, rival and graves are authentic freaks

(no, you can't be that level of combat monster as an exalt and not be a freak in some respect. this is a fact)

[coral wraith]

freak is correct

[bleak hazel]

(basically no exalts are quite as strong relative to the world they're in as these two, but the rough position of "some of the strongest of the junior generation" fits)

[wise ocean]

I mean

hollow purple fits with his color scheme yeah

[bleak hazel]

Telek is going to become far more of a space alien than Rival at least, probably in line with Graves and Gleam

Infernals have an unfair advantage here due to various space alienification charms

like the one that removes the ability to physically feel fear

[limpid badge]

I need to have Lalah try and force him to be more human

She already has a crest of his sect and doesn’t get why he gave it to her

[bleak hazel]

dynasts do raise their kids by not interacting with them in any way, so even if he was struck by more than the once-per-episode moment of humanity against his extremely traumatised wishes then proper practice here for children/servants/clients is "here you go, take a token representing me, goodbye"

[wise ocean]

I love that mini charm-tree, it's delightfully evocative

[limpid badge]

ah i see this is his way of making sure those in the know don’t fuck around with your ring announcer

[bleak hazel]

yes

this is a town full of gangs and rogue enlightened individuals here for the tournament and it would be annoying if he had to get a new shrine maiden

also he makes stuff constantly, it's literally the only vaguely healthy outlet he has for anything

[prisma sun]

I wonder if there is a rescaled FoS table

[bleak hazel]

his bag contains food, a tea set, tools and a malfean alchemy set and that's kind of it

vitriol, agata chitin, brass ingots, etc.

[coral wraith]

oh damn vitriol? make some yozi poison outta that

[bleak hazel]

you can get vitriol out of random metody

theoretically he could do it but not in his random hotel room

Infernals have no "skip need for tools" ability and as such he needs actual serious gear

would be handy for the later rounds though

if we ever get two weeks mid-tourney to round trip to malfeas it'll be on his list

a) talk to alveua about learning Craft 5
b) make yozi venom for spear
c) remember not to turn fire spear on

the remaining elemental interaction with wood in it in his reverse elemental cycle is "wood rots and returns to the earth" and that means it would be his white jade weapon

honestly a white jade weapon that weeps yozi venom is pretty sick

(probably with a nerfed statline because shit's cracked, some kind of essence-based poison derived from Qafian stone-of-enlightenment)

[coral wraith]

could use the uh, Anuhle venom statline

3i/round or L in crash, 5 round duration, -4 penalty

[merry arch]

ough yeah that's nasty

[bleak hazel]

I was thinking of stealing Maw of Dripping Venom's poison at higher essence

where it burns your motes

[coral wraith]

oh that's fun

[bleak hazel]

without any of the other clauses, of course

[wise ocean]

on the poisons note - I have been considering the halberd 5* more

and settled on its main theme being about the Flow of Time

thus I have decided it appropriate to do fun things like corroding armor, poisoning you for init steal, maintaining onslaught penalty, and so on

but I can't get the capstone to gel quite right other than stealing something from EGOA, which feels uninspired

[prisma sun]

EGOA?

https://bsky.app/profile/maxkayart.bsky.social/post/3mioneafg2c2i

Max Kay (@maxkayart.bsky.social)

Chozo 'steed' concept.

After their species lost their wings, Chozo explorers discovered great winged beasts that they were able to tame.

#samus #metroid #raisedbybirds

Reposts

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Bluesky · Apr 4, 2026, 4:21 PM

also Sky Titan mount

[wise ocean]

emerald gyre of aeons, time SMA

[prisma sun]

Ah right

I do think the problem with doing the Flow of Time is a way to make Time Control not an absolute fuckheadache to deal with

[wise ocean]

that's why I was focusing on Manipulating Time™ being via init, entropy, onslaught, so on, but none of that stuff has the pizzazz of a 5* capstone

[prisma sun]

I mean "age everything around you to dust, turn a huge chunk of the battlefield into a dead wasteland where nothing will ever grow again because it has been aged to the end of Creation" is an option

For a 5 dot capstone I'd imagine something like that

Actually

A desert seems sauceless

The Flow of Time

[bleak hazel]

once you're done with the flow of time?

salt flat

the end of the ocean

[wise ocean]

other thing I want to tie in: the other charms work when you're in either stance, using the halberd as a spear or an axe

so that'll have to fit into the capstone somehow. much to think about

[prisma sun]

Can we reference clocks

does that fit

or do we need to use sundials

[limpid badge]

Celestial mechanisms perhaps

Clocks might exist in the realm as Big Things

[bleak hazel]

clockwork doesn't seem like it has the right vibe

this is a water weapon

use a water clock

[prisma sun]

Honestly I always think Domain Expansions are good capstones

[bleak hazel]

I have considered trying to figure out a 5* reforging of Rival's swords that would have one attached

but I genuinely could not think of a good one

and his swords already have a perfectly good scholarship-focused evo tree that ends naturally

Telek has one at base, Crimson has Void Circle once he's that strong

[prisma sun]

I would say a 5* Rival Artifact is Infinite Blade Works The Sword

[bleak hazel]

his artifacts are a good encapsulation of him already I think, his swords break when he fights and as he reforges them he incorporates lessons from others to embed new techniques into them to fix his mistakes

[wise ocean]

oh, hm

[bleak hazel]

the current capstone is "sideboard a charm"

[wise ocean]

I HAVE IT

while in stance 1, the sea
in stance 2, the place where the sea once lay

enlightenment upgrade that, when you pay to harmonize essence with the weapon, hit them with both

getting freaky with the black jade/starmetal alloy

[bleak hazel]

I think Rival actually works without Domain Expansion, awesome as they are

he has a very personal powerset and focus, he doesn't go "fuck you everything is MINE" and instead just stands in your domain and beats you up anyway

[wise ocean]

which also gives me the lore

sidereal weapon from the Usurpation using all the wonders of First Age artifice that was supposed to be given to a favored deeb when Everything Was Settled

unfortunately, arcane fate + L + ratio

[coral wraith]

it happens

[prisma sun]

I need to redraw the 5 Fingers of the Maidens

Need to figure out the way to make "Makes all 5 Maidens domains work good or bad" into a full artifact

I will admit that when it comes to this kinda homebrew, I'm terrible

it's so much Math

[coral wraith]

you have more leeway to do weird shit with Starsteel artifacts, tbf

especially Sid focused ones

[prisma sun]

Yeah but doing that involves doing math is the problem lmao

[bleak hazel]

well, make some vague gestures at it and I can template a bunch of charms

Iki's also good at this and much more prolific than I am, I'm sure it wouldn't take us long to throw vaguely plausible numbers at anything you write

[wise ocean]

speaking of, does anyone have a good template I can copy

[bleak hazel]

I just write them out manually

Exalted is not big on fancy formatting

Inconstant Student's Brushes
Starmetal Hook Daiklaves, Artifact •••

Attunement: 5m
Type: Medium (+3 ACC, +12 DMG, +1 DEF, OVW 4)
Tags: Lethal, Melee, Disarming
Hearthstone slot(s): 2

lorelorelore

The wielder of the Brushes must shatter one of their twin weapons in order to use several of their Evocations. A shattered Brush can be reforged via a superior repair project (Exalted, p. 242) with a goal number of 25. When undertaken by the artifact's attuned wielder, these projects do not require the expenditure of craft experience or a project slot.

A shattered Brush is wielded as a light mundane weapon with the Martial Arts, Lethal and Thrown (Short) tags, but otherwise retains the characteristics of its intact form.

Attuning to the Inconstant Student's Brushes awakens Broken Blade Salvation at no cost.

Broken Blade Salvation
Cost: 1wp; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Resonant, Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None

When the wielder accepts a crippling injury (Exalted, p. 201) to reduce a decisive attack's damage, she may use this evocation to shatter one of the Brushes instead of suffering maiming. This negates (Essence, maximum 5) levels of damage.

Resonant: Use of this evocation does not count towards the once-per-story limit on crippling injuries.

you can copy and replace here if you want, speeds it up slightly

[wise ocean]

ah, excellent, thank you

[bleak hazel]

(I need to replace the repair rules on those because I should steal the templating from Sekhem instead)

[coral wraith]

i put mine in a google doc

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r48UxKRakOXzrvXNk7mgOkXAemkRVaf2hbdiMX6lUDI/edit?usp=sharing

[wise ocean]

it begins.

(also to be clear I have no idea how to price things, so those'll be tentative at best)

[merry arch]

yippee

[coral wraith]

lets fucking gooooooooooo

[bleak hazel]

I am, as usual, deeply sceptical about anything that lets you bodge compatibility that isn't integrated at the splat level

but the basics of "two mode weapon" is totally fine, and since the MA compatibility is not required for that there's always the possibility of swapping it out for some other buff for the 5m surcharge

[wise ocean]

I simply wish for it to be so

if it breaks, well, so it goes

[fierce star]

hey, question.

If you wanted a permanent upgrade charm that turns off when a user's crashed, woudl it sitll be Permanent and just have that in the rules text, with maybe the Perilous tag?

or, hrm.

[wise ocean]

Cost: 6m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Supplementary
Keywords: Resonant, Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None
… Who saw that everything must one day disappear,
 
When the wielder deals 3+ levels of damage with a Decisive attack, they may forgo a level of damage to pull forward the weight of years from fate and the corrosion of metal-in-water from jade. Apply one of the following poisons:
Spear Stance - Damage 3i/round (L in crash), Duration (1 + Essence + enemy’s mobility penalty), -2 penalty
Axe Stance - Damage 2m/round, Duration (1 + Essence + enemy’s Evasion/2), -1 penalty; this poison applies not to the target’s mote pool, but to the motes committed to an artifact to maintain its attunement (artifact chosen on use of Charm). When the poison saps all of these motes, it immediately ends and the chosen artifact’s attunement is broken. It cannot be re-attuned until the end of the target’s next turn.

Resonant: Under the effects of Spear Stance's poison, crashed targets cannot take movement actions until they leave crash. For Axe Stance's poison, the applied poison does not immediately end if Duration remains; instead, the wielder may select a different artifact on the same target.```
this is probably stupid but lol lmao

[fierce star]

I think I have this wording right

The Hand That Holds The Box Sealed
Cost: NA; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Perilous
Duration: Permanent (See Rules)
Prerequisite Charms: mind hand manipulation
The wearer's Mind Hand Manipulation charm becomes Indefinite, however it turns off if the user is Crashed, requiring them to reactivate it to gain the benefits again.
Resonant: Resonant wearers unlock this evocation for free upon attuning to Elpis.

[tulip folio]

Fun

[coral wraith]

Axe Stance's Poison is nutso for E1, don't think that can be done

[wise ocean]

I'll toss the entire thing up to E2 and shove something less wild into the tree then

[coral wraith]

@bleak hazel thoughts on this?

gotta get the don in

[wise ocean]

oh, wait. motherfucker I'm doing a maiden scripture

okay I'm going to have to nerf it

no idea how though

[bleak hazel]

yeah, way too strong for E1, but E1 poisons tend to be fairly small things so I am, not sure how you'd deploy two of the things in one charm

possibly withering and decisive options on the same reasonably weak poison and then the resonant is "spend WP to damage both health and init" or something

[wise ocean]

are you allowed to make an artifact that starts at E2

[tulip folio]

The general touchstone for an E1 poison is 'Arrow Frog Venom'.

[wise ocean]

oh. well if arrow frog venom is fine, that's... what I based the first one on

[chilly sluice]

there's no real hard rules for Evocations, so it's definitely doable

[limpid badge]

Gorgon basically does idk probably fine

[wise ocean]

the mysteries of time will begin at e2

(considering that deebs start at e2, that's also a nice thematic point in favor)

[coral wraith]

in terms of Abyssal sobriquet drip, how do we feel about Ebon Fulgur Flays Bare Truth

[fierce star]

that is a drippy sobriquet, I like it

Elpis, Malfean Bronze Harness (Artifact ***)
Malfeas does many things. One of the things he does is hate. The Elpisi were a species of first-circle demons of Cytherea. They were in many ways counterparts to Mafleas' own Metody; elemental creatures embodying a physical substance. What that substance is is no longer known; Malfeas and She Who Lives In Her Name put forth a pogrom of them, binding the vile demons in skeletal harnesses made of Malfean bronze and imbued with Vitriol. Most of these harnesses have been destroyed over the years, but some remain; they inflict great injury onto their wearers, but enhance their mental abilities. Some, it is whispered, still have some of that secret material hidden deep inside them, waiting to be unleashed on the world again.

Attunement: 4m
Rules: So long as the bearer remains attuned to this artifact, they cannot have their crippling injuries healed through any means. Removing this artifact inflicts four levels of aggravated damage to the attuned exalt.

Evocations of Elpis focus on Malfeas' paranoia, SWLIHN's need for order, and, as it progresses, towards unleashing that most secret and horrible element held so dear by Cytherea--Hope.

Evocations:
The Hand That Holds The Box Sealed
Cost: NA; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Perilous
Duration: Permanent (See Rules)
Prerequisite Charms: mind hand manipulation
The wearer's Mind Hand Manipulation charm becomes Indefinite, however it turns off if the user is Crashed, requiring them to reactivate it to gain the benefits again.
Resonant: Resonant wearers unlock this evocation for free upon attuning to Elpis.

chat is this a thing or do I need to cook again

[tulip folio]

Honestly, it kinda feels like the cost to have this is a bit much.

[wise ocean]

alright this is where I'm leaving my notes for the night and possibly for awhile

Cost: 4m; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Supplementary
Keywords: Perilous
Duration: Instant
Prerequisites: None
The light of stars,
 
When the wielder takes a Full Defense, they may receive one of the following benefits:
Spear Stance - When an enemy misses an attack against their Parry by 3+ successes, the wielder may pay an additional 2m to mire them in the space between seconds. The enemy’s onslaught penalty does not refresh until the end of their next turn.
Axe Stance - Attacks made against them until the Full Defense ends take a -2 visual penalty to hit from the lightless depths which well up in the wielder’s wake.

Hope Dies In The Heart
Cost: 2m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Psyche
Duration: One scene
Prerequisites: Future Hour Introduction
Life and love,
 
When the wielder discovers a hopeful intimacy, they may activate this Charm; for the rest of the scene, the intimacy’s bearer must roll Integrity+Wits against a difficulty of their Willpower whenever they would use that intimacy to strengthen their Resolve against an influence or in a Decision Point. On a failure, that Intimacy is suppressed for the rest of the scene, and the intimacy’s bearer is given a momentary prophetic vision of a future which could come to pass - one in which the hope that intimacy embodied is gone beyond all dream of recovery.```

Blows up manse with mind, e3

“Is this all there is?” she asked,
Question asker about future intentions or past actions depending on stance, e3

And placed one eye at the beginning of the world,
Join Battle booster based on opponent’s highest hopeful intimacy that boosts your own hopeful intimacies, e4

And the other at its end, that she might know.
Dramatic Last Stand when you’d be incapacitated based on your highest hopeful intimacy, either dragging an opponent down with you or with recovery depending on stance, e4

Seeing all things, she was content,
1/story prophetic vision; if resonant, big Sid prophecy boost or deeb ancestral wisdom insight, e5

Because the end of all things meant nothing from the start.
Can’t be awakened unless resonant, depending on stance get salt flats domain expansion at the end of time or endless ocean domain expansion at its beginning, e5```

also, expanded lore since I realized most artifacts actually have quite long loreblocks

Braided helices of starmetal and jade make up its long haft, capped at one end with a hearthstone socket, while the two materials laminated together compose its lethally sharp conical tip and the crescent-moon arc of the heavy axehead below. In the weapon lay a fond wish for unity through a time of impossible strife, and a mark of future elevation when plans in the dark had come to fruition.

Then they won.
Then the Mask shattered.
Then there was no way to go back.

That promise has been lost for an age beyond reckoning - through yet more revolution, strife, and horror. So too has the weapon which symbolized it, though She Clad in Raiment of Tears has long coveted it for her personal collection based off of rumor and myth, while enduring records entice the Bureau of Destiny to ensure it does not fall into the wrong hands. What those who live on above the ruins of the Shogunate have to say about their half is unknown; time has drowned even the name of they for whom the weapon was once made, just as it took their lover’s face and the sound of their laugh.

But nothing only goes in one direction.
There has already been a maiden…

[coral wraith]

Alright, Abyssal charm time, Day Caste Athletics Apoc c:

imagine doomguy was very smart, philosophical and sad, and also had a giant chainaxe

thats him

[velvet raft]

Ooh, Threnody Engine is the 4-dot chainaxe from alchemicals, right?

[coral wraith]

yeah, it has the Carnage mechanic

its Evo tree is basically a mini-MA

which is neato

it hits really hard

with 5 Strength, Industrial Violence Engine and even 1 stack of Carnage, you're doing 23 raw damage +1 post soak base on a Chopping attack

[marsh garden]

it's a scary beast

[tulip folio]

Wailing Dreadnought Orison is just 'Let Me Fight The Lover' as a charm.

Any Intimacies she has that might distract from her violent purpose in the current scene are suppressed.

[coral wraith]

the name also goes insanely hard

probably my favourite evo name period

[tulip folio]

I should go through the artifacts and find one that makes for a decent 'change name/weapon type' for this Lunar. If Threnody Engine wasn't a chainaxe it would honestly be perfect but yeah, trying to find a good one for a 'I am powered by desperation and hunger and anger' Lunar.

[coral wraith]

You could probably use Scar Upon Creation?

From Infernals

er

Scar Upon Perfection, rather

[tulip folio]

Ah, the other 'slap the shit out of the lover' artifact.

The wielder adds dice equal to her target’s Appearance on a decisive attack roll. Dealing damage inflicts
a gruesome wound as a crippling effect. The target’s wound penalty subtracts successes instead of dice on
Appearance rolls and is subtracted from his Appearance when determining how many bonus dice it adds
on influence rolls. It’s impossible to conceal the wound with mundane means: bandages dissolve,
cosmetics melt off skin, and clothing placed over it yellows, fades, and frays. This crippling effect lasts
until the target has healed all damage in his health track.

Not a bad idea though

[coral wraith]

[tulip folio]

Hmm...working out a good essence for a charm that is like an existing infernal one but rather degraded.

Basicly: You join with a battlegroup, possessing it. While you're joined with it, it's got perfect morale and you can only be hit by things that hit demat beings.

Infernals have a version of it at E5 but that possesses every single battle group and gives you double 8s on all rolls with those battle groups.

This being focused on a single battle group means you're a lot more vulnerable and a lot less supportive.

[marsh garden]

perfect morale is e3 or e4 on both other solaroids, demat protections are other charms that are basically all e3

so e3 charm + rare and expensive e3 charm

[tulip folio]

I'm pondering going all the way down to E3 but with a limitation that you can only possess battlegroups up to size (Essence). So rather than getting 'all battlegroups', you get 'one battlegroup of size 3 or less'.

Voice of the Crowd
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Charisma 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Some Command Charms
The Wanderer understands that not every tale is about her. She takes on the role of stage director, helping guide lesser actors in their moment of glory.

The Wanderer becomes a disembodied presence, merging with a battle group within long range. 

This has the following effects:
• She has no body or physical existence, though her disembodied presence is visible to those who can see dematerialized beings in the form of phantasmal anima playing across the battlegroup. To the extent her location is relevant, she’s considered to share the location the affected battle group.
• She acts independently of the guided battle groups, but can choose to use a group’s Initiative instead of her own to determine when she takes her turn in a round. She does not need to make this choice until the tick she takes her turn on.
• The Wanderer's range of action is limited. She can take command actions targeting the battle groups. She can use their senses to make Perception-based rolls and can make influence rolls by speaking through them. Other than that, she can’t take any actions unless the Storyteller deems them compatible with her disembodied form.
• Guided battle groups gain perfect morale and treat any influence that would cause them to disobey her as unacceptable.
• She can’t be harmed directly by attacks unless they target an area and are capable of striking dematerialized foes. The same is true for similar harmful effects, like poison or environmental hazards, but doesn’t apply against influence rolls.
• When the guided battle group loses a dot of Size, she suffers one level of unavoidable lethal damage and must make a (Charisma + [Integrity, Performance or War]) to sustain this Charm. The difficulty is the same as the rout check faced by the damaged battle group, with +1 difficulty for each such roll she’s made previously during the scene. On a failed roll, this Charm ends and she reforms within close range of the damaged battle group. She automatically fails this roll if the battle group loses its last dot of size.

Keys:

Deus Ex Machina: The Wanderer can take Shape Sorcery and Countermagic actions while guiding.

Diamonds Found In Darkness: A guided battlegroup can use the traits of Grizzled Mercenaries (Core, Page 496) or Assassins (Core, Page 499), chosen when this charm is used, instead of its normal ones.

A Dream To Create The Future(Diamonds Found In Darkness): A guided battlegroup can use the traits of Elite Troops (Page 497, Exalted Core), chosen when this charm is used, instead of its normal ones.

Much less powerful than the Infernal version (No free charms, no double 8s, only affects a single battle group instead of all of them) but it turns up a lot earlier than a non-primordial infernal can get it.

The vibe also goes from 'Darksied's Justifers' to 'Do you hear the people sing?'

[fierce star]

It'll also get you torn up by AoE spells targetting the battlegroup, een if normally they couldn't effect demat--so your doobs, your brilliant raptors, your flesh-sloughing waves, etc, right?

[tulip folio]

Yeah. AOE that blasts the battlegroup will knock you out of the charm fast and do some unsoakable damage.

[fierce star]

which is something other assuming direct control charms don't have, iirc, right?

[tulip folio]

Some do, some don't.

[wise ocean]

Thoughts on any of this stuff?

[tulip folio]

Spear Stance feels a bit awkward being 'pay 4 motes to do nothing but have the option to pay more motes later'

[wise ocean]

Gotcha - I could probably shift the costs around somewhat to make that less jank, but I didn't want an up-front cost for any amount of enemies to get continuing onslaughted, but I did want it to potentially scale if you get jumped by multiple dudes

that said I can probably drop the latter and just have it 1/round

[fierce star]

query, does Cytherea have any presence in the Infernal charmset?

[bleak hazel]

There's Intolerable Burning Truths, as usual

I can't recall anything else though

also, Anys Syn when someone uses some highly obscure kung fu nonsense

[tulip folio]

Anys Syn turning up to the Alchemicals ariving in creation just to see what sort of cool robot kung fu they've invented

[fierce star]

gets disappointed when canonically they all exist in creation too

[tulip folio]

That's where the Colossus Martial Arts need to wow her.

Alchemical getting really confused when he looks over his Colossus-only martial art and wonders why it's got a mastery tag on some of the charms.

[bleak hazel]

I do wonder how that one's going to work considering if you calibrate it for Colossi it starts at Essence 5

[tulip folio]

Yeah, my guestimate is maybe SMA-like, where it starts at E3?

[velvet raft]

Colossus Martial Arts sound fun

[wise ocean]

Oh?

[velvet raft]

Just conceptually

[fierce star]

Elpis, Malfean Bronze Harness (Artifact ****)
Malfeas does many things. One of the things he does is hate. The Elpisi were a species of first-circle demons of Cytherea. They were in many ways counterparts to Mafleas' own Metody; elemental creatures embodying a physical substance. What that substance is is no longer known; Malfeas and She Who Lives In Her Name put forth a pogrom of them, binding the vile demons in skeletal harnesses made of Malfean bronze and imbued with Vitriol. Most of these harnesses have been destroyed over the years, but some remain; they inflict great injury onto their wearers, but enhance their mental abilities, attaching to their wearers with long, spined needles of over-ordered bronze. Some, it is whispered, still have some of that secret material hidden deep inside them, waiting to be unleashed on the world again.

Attunement: 4m
Rules: So long as the bearer remains attuned to this artifact, they cannot have any pre-existing crippling injuries healed by any means, but they are immune to Shaping (Body) effects performed by creatures with lesser or equal Essence as long as they are wearing it. Removing this artifact increases the exalt's wound penalty by 1 for the next scene.

Evocations of Elpis focus on Malfeas' paranoia, SWLIHN's need for order, and, as it progresses, towards unleashing that most secret and horrible element held so dear by Cytherea--Hope.

Evocations:
The Hand That Holds The Box Sealed
Cost: NA; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Perilous
Duration: Permanent (See Rules)
Prerequisite Charms: mind hand manipulation
The wearer's Mind Hand Manipulation charm becomes Indefinite, however it turns off if the user is Crashed, requiring them to reactivate it to gain the benefits again.
Resonant: Resonant wearers unlock this evocation for free upon attuning to Elpis.

Does this seem better/more worth it?

[tulip folio]

I'd maybe give them a bonus vs shaping body effects rather than 'immune to lower or equal, unprotected otherwise'.

+1-2 non-charm success/diff mod or something.

As player characters tend to mostly encounter shaping from People Bigger Than Them.

And I worry 'vs shaping but only vs smaller people' will run into 'Okay, who is that?'

[fierce star]

That's fair, and prevents my issue of 'if I just make it lunar tattoos then that's stealing a lunar schtick and I don't want tod o that'

[mighty rover]

https://toskarin.tumblr.com/post/813093049779601408/after-receiving-six-years-of-warrior-training

Slouchy Beast and Spiritus Mundi

[after receiving six years of warrior training with the strongest lizard] oh, no, none of that applies to humans

Tumblr · Apr 5, 2026, 9:52 PM

[bleak hazel]

[Real Snake] Cool! Lemme try! *wiggle wiggle, wiggle wiggle* Hm, I don't have arms.```

[velvet raft]

Centipede stylists, however, can be automatically knocked down by asking how they can walk with so many legs

Unrelated: it is pleasing to me that the artist who I've tapped for my mortalgame character has drawn the OC I'm repurposing for her several times, in paying-attention-mode, slightly-distracted-mode, and impending-violence-mode

[bleak hazel]

Centipede stylists evidently need to move on to CMOS, where you can extend another four metaphorical limbs to take the knockdowns for you

[lunar magnet]

Centipede combos with anything technique

[fierce star]

Hmm. Pondering the right way to stat up this essence 4 capstone evocation for a 4-dot artifact. I have the shape of it in my head, but not sure about the specifics

but basically, like... a psyche effect that inverts intimacies related to hopelessness, nihilism, and despair into hopeful intimaces of a higher strength (maximum defining)

[tulip folio]

...it's weird working out the essence for an effect and having two examples for it but both of them are the base effects of artifacts so they're theoretically available E1 but that essence feels a bit weird.

[marsh garden]

v late, but have you stolen from crane stance and maybe alch charisma? (i think they have done intimacy conversion tech)

[velvet raft]

Thinking if I become a sid in mortalgame the most likely castes for me are battles or journeys

[lament owl]

Ooo

[velvet raft]

Otherwise probably one of the fighty castes

Becoming a Sid in-game would be weird because of arcane fate, though

[fierce star]

hmm, I don't see any intimacy conversion tech in crane, but there is some intimacy manipulation. Lemme check alch charisma

[bleak hazel]

"flip intimacy" is significantly stronger than just giving them a new one, because you're also stripping them of their ability to use existing intimacies that would resist

I think it's only in fairly narrow areas of Solaroid socialise trees

(maybe Lunars too, my eyes glaze over whenever I try to read all the Lunar social effects because there are so many similar ones piled up next to each other)

[fierce star]

yeah, this is like I said an E4 capstone for a four dot artifact, probably resonant only, definitely 'Reset: 1/story unless legendary social goal', maybe not even then, maybe just flat 1/story

also probably makes the intimacies temporarily flipped for, you know, people that matter, obviously

[marsh garden]

afaik most of the high-end tech like that goes something like "non-trivial characters can pay [X] WP to resist for a scene, the effect ends after [they've resisted N times/they've spent N WP]"

[fierce star]

yeah

I do want to add some sort of Temptation Mechanic to make them want to keep the flipped intimacies, but

that maybe defeats teh purpose of being an optimist during the age fo sorrows lmao

[marsh garden]

hm?

plenty of people are optimists

the Realm is dying

to the millions of people that, rather than benefiting from it, suffer under the yoke of a genocidal, fascist slave-state ruled by superhumans that claim to be Ontologically More Worthy Of Life and their literal mandate of heaven, that is cause for rapturous joy

today is a good day to be an optimist

the world is in a time of tumult, it's true

but for the first time in millennia, there exists the hope of getting better

(or worse)

[velvet raft]

In mortalgame the last few years have been pretty good in the Lap because the Realm has been so distracted that they haven't been able to enforce Mandated Tyranny Hours

[marsh garden]

(jesus christ could it get worse)

[velvet raft]

(At present, we represent the Realm in this matter)

[marsh garden]

lmao

[fierce star]

I'm just saying it's called the Age of Sorrows for a reason and loyalist abyssals have arguably an easier time than anyone actively tyring to save anything from 'their little corner' fo creation to the whole shebang fo it.

[marsh garden]

it's true

[velvet raft]

It's definitely a very good time to be a very bad person

[fierce star]

there's plenty of apocalypses currently ongoing and it is very easy for people to fall to despair compared to being willing to buck up and believe the world can be a better place

there's plenty of 'fuck you, got mine' but that's a very different approach to 'we can pull through'.

[wise ocean]

people keep calling my exalts of great and noble intent "enemies of fate" and "creatures of darkness". truly disappointing.

[marsh garden]

[fierce star]

and like... the theme of the artifact is pandora's box, in a way. And there's multiple interpretations of why Hope was kept in the box, and what freeing it might have done. Hope is freedom. hope is chains. hope is courage. Hope is fear.

[marsh garden]

all of the creative energy leaving my body as soon as i get home from work + walk:

i had ideas

now i don't

i had motivation

alas, now i don't

[marsh garden]

hmmm

okay, badly lacking energy now, so my motivation petered out a bit at the end, but

dinkling around with the next couple artifacts i want to try writing, and i'd like a vibe check on the one i'm looking at now

[velvet raft]

One of the players in mortal game just pointed out that all of the cooking another’s PC has done should be getting him craft points

:D

Craft points for making soup

[marsh garden]

which is, tentatively, Etude of Earth-and-Sea, the alchemical project of a young First Age Solar to combine magical materials in a...taiji? is that the right word? harmony

a white-and-black jade crossbow, stringed with moonsilver, made with the intent of alchemically turning things its bolts hit into (white-tipped bolts) salt or (black-tipped bolts) seawater

[velvet raft]

Taiji is the yin-yang, yeah

Well, the symbol is technically the taiji disk

Taiji is yin and yang

[marsh garden]

it failed, and it came out with a pure moonsilver resonance, so he gave it to a Terrestrial retainer as a gift

and was killed by her with it during the Usurpation, turned into a pillar-and-star of salt as he was channeling total annihilation

decent narrative/mechanical hook for a crossbow, or nah?

[marsh garden]

oh damn, i'll need to start collecting craft points for doing that on my dusk as well

[bleak hazel]

if you're rolling craft projects for it it works, yeah

[velvet raft]

As long as you’re making craft checks and they are useful in some way, yeah

[bleak hazel]

you then just need to figure out what to spend them on

technically there can be craft rolls that aren't projects and don't give you juice but realistically just be spamming basics whenever you can

[marsh garden]

okay, i'm getting a blistering "it's shit", so back to something else for crossbows

crossbow ideas are hard

[velvet raft]

Steal from AK

[marsh garden]

most of those are just like

greeblied out regular weapons

[velvet raft]

Do Typhon’s bow as a crossbow?

Crossbow that is a demon

[marsh garden]

hmm, feels too close to emerald sunset

as a bow that is a demon-blood and shoots demons

[tulip folio]

Chimerical Reality
Cost: 1m; Mins: Charisma 3, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: Stackable
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: None
The nature of an object exists in how it is viewed by an audience. In the hands of a child, a stick may be a great sword and a pot a shield that can stop the most terrifying of foes. Calling upon this chimerical nature, she makes an object two things in one.

The Wanderer blesses an item light enough to hold in her hands or wear with a dual nature. Artifacts can only be blessed if she’s attuned. She chooses a mundane object of vaguely comparable form: A Daiklaive may be a ladle, a suit of armour a ball gown etc. As long as she maintains this charm, the object appears to all as the mundane object and may be used as such (A Daiklaive turned into a ladle may serve soup without issue).

Beings that can see dematerialized characters may identify the hidden nature of the object with a difficulty (Awareness + Occult) roll with a difficulty of (Wanderer's Essence +2). The object's hidden nature still remains and the object may still be used as such without penalty.

This charm automatically ends if the Wanderer travels more than Long Range from the blessed object.

Keys:

Blade-Deflecting Ballgown (+4m): For a surcharge of four motes, the Wanderer can reduce the mobility penalty of armour or clothing blessed this way by 1. If the penalty of armour is already zero, it’s reinforced by the blessing, increasing its soak by one. 

Silk Steel Invocation(Blade-Deflecting Ballgown): Armour enhanced by Blade-Defelcting Ballgown is treated as one one step lighter to determine its compatibility with Martial Arts styles. Light armor doesn’t count as armor at all for compatibility.

Stick-as-Sword Tale: A mundane object can be reflexively blessed to function as a weapon or armour, its unseen nature becoming that of any mundane weapon or armour that it plausibly could be used as, while still visibly being the mundane object.

Treasures Found Amid Dross (+4m, 1wp, Essence 2, Stick-As-Sword Tale): For 4 motes and 1 willpower, the Wanderer may reflexively empower an object blessed with Stick-As-Sword Tale. It gains the traits of an artifact of its unseen nature until the end of the scene. While empowered this way, the previously unseen nature becomes revealed for all to see.

A variant of the 'banish an object Elsewhere' that doesn't banish the object but does hide it.

[fierce star]

hmm, remind me what wanderer's martial arts compatibility are?

[tulip folio]

No terrestial, no mastery. They get SMA for Quicksilver Hand of Dreams (And the new one that might also be fey if it turns out to be fae) but notably can't combine it with Wanderer charms like they can normal martial arts.

[fierce star]

and if QHOD follows from ex2 it'll let you use dream-made armor as compatibility

but I don't think you could probably use this on that, so should be fine

looks fun!

[velvet raft]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DZiaXEIQgkE&pp=ygUdc2FsdmF0b3JlIGdhbmFjY2kgZmlnaHQgZGlydHk%3D This close to adding the girl from Fight Dirty to my character inspirations sheet

[mighty rover]

https://www.storytellersvault.com/en/product/561463/long-awaited-miracles
heart-eater content and also the other apocryphals i guess

[marsh garden]

only review i've seen on it so far on excord

[wise ocean]

that's... odd

just straight-up shadowdropping random exalts that weren't even on the roadmap

[fierce star]

it's storyteller's vault

third party

[mighty rover]

yeah this is homebrew

[tulip folio]

I'd check it out if I wasn't worried about the dream-souled stuff getting stuck in my head while working on Wanderers.

[prisma sun]

I might buy it tbh

[marsh garden]

these also aren't new exalts

this is expansion content for the apocryphal exalts in Exigents, which just got design seeds

[prisma sun]

Yeah

They're in core even

[marsh garden]

nah

they're in Essence

not 3e core

[mighty rover]

they have art in core iirc

[prisma sun]

Yes they are in core

[mighty rover]

but didn't follow through

[marsh garden]

they're not mentioned by name, though

zero instances of umbral (exalt), dream-souled, or heart-eater

[bleak hazel]

deploying a heavily social-specced sid for my next campaign and man, this social kit is so cool

I know I've sung its praises before but it's great spy stuff

[prisma sun]

I do think out of all the books

[bleak hazel]

I am reminded of the BZRK books, which presumably about four people read because only I seem to ever bring 'em up but have some superb wireheading scenes

[prisma sun]

Sids just generally have the coolest charmlist

I also did buy the apocrypha book

however I am writing stuff and can't read it for now

[bleak hazel]

highest juice density, certainly

honourable mention Alchs if only because they keep the formatting really neat so it's a lot easier to read

[tulip folio]

Sids baked the Dice Trick into their base stuff so they have so many less charms for 'I dunno, if you get a royal flush and it's tuesday, +1 non-charm success'

[bleak hazel]

instead the conditions are more "here's a really good charm, if you get them into bed first you get the big social effect for way cheaper"

which is much better at encouraging you to act like a morally dubious superspy

[fierce star]

BZRK... that sounds familiar...

wait, michael grant, right?

[bleak hazel]

metal nanobot vs biotech nanobot spy wars

yeah

[fierce star]

never read 'em but had them on the list when they were coming out

[bleak hazel]

the first one is genuinely great, they fall off a bit as you go as the plot gets less and less coherent but I still finished the trilogy and was satisfied

admittedly I liked them because they have lots of fucked up nanotech-assisted brain hacking and people struggling against what they've been reprogrammed to feel to varying extents, but I feel this is on theme for when a Sid is slinging Cash and Murder Games and Favourable Inflection Procedure around

also sometimes a tiny bug gets in a kung fu duel with a bunch of wheeled nanobots on the surface of someone's eye and that's awesome

[fierce star]

I'll admit I am mostly famiilar with the author due to him ghost writing for some of his wife's serieses, but that sounds on brand

[bleak hazel]

Animorphs is also not known for wearing thick kid gloves, is it

[prisma sun]

Absolutely not

[tulip folio]

Only if you make the gloves out of a kid first

[bleak hazel]

also socialize contains combat charms for my build

I can make bedroom eyes at people and then grab 'em while they're distracted

which is especially funny when used with Speared Boar Struggle because you're doing that as they lunge at you with a daiklave

[prisma sun]

https://tenor.com/view/street-fighter-mika-ryu-headbutt-rainbow-mika-gif-17374737

[tulip folio]

'yes, this headlock is a very convincing argument'

[bleak hazel]

my guy looks more like the fellow on the right, since he's Sidereal Rubinsky and I dumped App for more Strongth

but yes, broadly

[prisma sun]

"the fellow on the right"

misc that's ryu

[tulip folio]

Sid just absolutely bodying the silver prince because he's so colonialist he can't resist sid grapples.

[bleak hazel]

I don't know a single fighting game character and I refuse to learn

my bluesid, practicing the art of hating in a nuanced and multifaceted way

the character I'm referencing is one of those villains that is so one-dimensional in his antagonism that you kind of have to respect the hustle

my guy linked a bunch of bombs to his heartbeat while dying of a brain tumour and then had them planted all over the city roughly where the people he didn't like hung out just so he would get one last dice roll at them when he died

but the scheming and outfits are all pretty decent

[fierce star]

My god

that's a level of hate Ih ave to respect, honestly

[lament owl]

Yea they just show up alongside alchemicals and Infernals in that big two page spreadsheet

Of a bunch of “other exalts…”

[bleak hazel]

yeah, I was thinking "you know this guy's not the most interesting bad guy in the show, he's kind of one-note and his associates are all tied up with the worst plotline" and then he started doing shit like that and I swapped to "man, if only this guy was attached to a good plotline because his hatred is magnificent"

[tulip folio]

Here's an odd pondering: What sort of scary wyld creatures would people like statted up/restatted if they already exist but are not great.

[tulip folio]

...actually, idea for a wyld creature. Drakes. Make them misshapen scaled creatures that draw from the stories of dragons but are more in the realm of Lindworm. Elemental Dragons loathe them as sick parodies of themselves.

[lament owl]

Ooooo I like that

[spring lynx]

aren't the only elemental dragons the children of gaia (and thus unlikely to care) and the kukla (who loathes everything)

[prisma sun]

No

[tulip folio]

Lesser Elemental Dragons are a designation of Big Elemental

[prisma sun]

Any elemental eventually turns into a dragon

[spring lynx]

i thought that was a Bad Thing because they can't handle it and go mad

[tulip folio]

The Kukla is a Greater elemental dragon and the reason Lesser Elemental Dragons stay lesser.

[prisma sun]

The 5 elemental dragons are also not elementals

[spring lynx]

is this a change from 2e

[prisma sun]

Non

[tulip folio]

Nah, it's just a case of 'the game calls a lot of things elemental dragons'

And not all of those things are the same thing

See: The 5 Elemental Dragons not being Elementals and elementals becoming a type of elemental dragon that isn't one of the Elemental Dragons.

[spring lynx]

i'm probably just misremembering then

[tulip folio]

To make them a bit more interesting I might draw on the idea that there were both good and bad lindwurms. So like, they're ugly snake dragons but they're not mindless monsters.

With their poison able to cure and break curses, not just hurt

[spring lynx]

yeearp i was misremembering. i been out of the exalted mines too long, i'm forgetting my lore.

[tulip folio]

I do like when wyld creatures are not just like...Inherantly Bad, after all.

[spring lynx]

isn't their whole thing that they aren't inherently anything

[lament owl]

God I should stat up that creature idea I had one day

Social specced behemoth who is a giant slime that communicates through taste

[tulip folio]

Yeah but wyld stuff in exalted has a tendency to be treated as 'and here there's this asshole'

[lament owl]

… I feel like a lot of stuff for exalted often manifests as “behold! This complete dick who exists”

Random ghost blooded who became an assassin or something

(This isn’t meant to counteract you, just a general observation)

(Lots of example creatures are kinda jerks)

[spring lynx]

kind of a genre problem, that

[tulip folio]

3e's tried a lot harder to push back towards 'yeah, everything is still people'

[limpid badge]

hellooo im taking suggestions on what kind of artifacts i should get my awful cannibal princess infernal for her birthday

[tulip folio]

Like the Capitalism Ghost isn't like because he was Born A Dick. He's a dick because he's a ghost who replaced his heart with money. XD

[tulip folio]

Those being carried by tasty people.

[limpid badge]

bc i like having her birthday be In The Future and i have to pick a stupid (wonderful) exalted date to be her birthday

[limpid badge]

she's not gonna steal she's royalty

she took it as a trophy in legitimate combat and she shouldn't fight with trophies

[spring lynx]

that just means she steals and calls it tribute tho

[tulip folio]

On a more serious level: Have you considered a Pretty Dress Silk Armour?

[spring lynx]

does exalted even have a proper calendar

[mighty rover]

yeah

months and seasons at least

[tulip folio]

...wait, I can borrow a charm I invented for a machine spirit for these lindwurms.

[prisma sun]

Royalty can't steal becayse everything by rights belongs to them and you are just gracefully being let to have it for a moment

[tulip folio]

Purifying Venom (3m; Reflexive; Instant; Essence 1) One willing character in Close Range of the Drake that is not immune to Poison can suffer up to 3 automatic health levels of lethal damage to add the same number of successes to resist or recover from a Shaping Effect, Poison, Disease or Sorcerous Curse, as toxic fumes burn lesser illnesses away. These count as bonuses granted by charms.

The poisons will fuck you up but if you're trying to recover from a horrible disease you're otherwise unable to shake, it might save your life.

[limpid badge]

i do think something nice from the atelier of bergerine would be fun wouldn't it

but also given her soak is already kinda bonkers and she's doing infernal brawl and resistance why not get her some actual war armor to hide in if im spendin 4 dots

[tulip folio]

That's fair! Armoured Dress 😛

Could give her some nice artifact cutlery.

Something to eat with that improves social situations

Gives her a version of Wearing Red To A Wedding where people don't consider anything she's eating 'odd'

[limpid badge]

honestly that would be a cute effect

as long as she maintains her queenly decorum, people just look on in silent horror, unable to speak against her feasts

[limpid badge]

battle dress......

[tulip folio]

Poison is in Dosage (5m; Simple; Instant; Essence 3): The Drake makes a roll to treat Poison or Disease instantly, adding 3 automatic successes. The scouring power of the Drake's venom however causes the target to suffer 2 dice of aggravated damage. Characters that are immune to poison cannot be treated this way.

The Drake can also treat Shaping effects and Sorcerous Curses this way as an extended action. The extended action has a difficulty equal to (the Essence of the character that imposed the effect), a goal number of (that character’s Essence x10), terminus 10, and an interval of one month. The patient suffers the aggravated damage each interval and is unable to heal aggravated damage as long as the extended action is ongoing.

Updated idea

Seem interesting on a wyld creature?

[marsh garden]

i think this is very cool for a faerie-monster dragon of some sort, but the presentation doesn't resonate with me

like...hm

there are stories of like, the blood of dragons doing Weird Shit to people

there are stories of the blood of dragons and serpents being poisonous and killing a hero or making them weirder

but it's never "the dragon bleeds on you"

there are other ways a dragon would give a boon, in a story

in my eyes, this is more the kind of thing that happens when you murder one

so i think the framing needs to be more draconic humanoid than dragon to make it a willing gift of blood in the way Lunars have their assorted blood-feeding boons and curses

or something that is done to a drake by another faerie, like a dragon-rider or the dark lord to its shackled monster

either of those perspectives would square it better for me

[tulip folio]

Then you're really not going to like it's mobility charm. XD

[marsh garden]

i think it would make total sense on something other than a "draws from [irl] stories" guy, where this just doesn't correctly fit any of the archetypes that are expected

[coral wraith]

Does it have to?

[marsh garden]

i think this is the only place in the setting where i'd expect it to, yeah

but taste is taste

[tulip folio]

Ouroboros Wheel (6m, 1wp; Reflexive; One scene; Essence 1): Taking its tail in it's mouth, the Drake becomes a living wheel. For the rest of the scene, the Drake gains 1 initiative at the start of its turn, ignores penalties from difficult terrain and adds 3 dice to all movement actions. This charm ends if the Drake is knocked prone or crashed. Once per scene.

Said movement charm

Lindworm eggs are said to be laid under the bark of linden trees (Swedish: lind). Once hatched, lindworms slither away and make a home in a pile of rocks. When fully grown, they can become extremely long. To counter this, during hunting they swallow their own tails to become a wheel and roll at extremely high speeds to pursue prey. This practice earned them the nickname "wheel snake"

Actual Mythology

[marsh garden]

no i think that's v neat

[tulip folio]

But, yeah I'll ponder things. The basis was the idea that poisons are also medicine in the right doses.

[velvet raft]

Mortalgame today

[tulip folio]

Enjoy your best mortal life

Go find yourself a cool talking belt that turns you into an Alchemical

[velvet raft]

But then how will I get the mastery effects on centipede style

[tulip folio]

By Walking the path of heaven, the man who will rule everything!

||I have no clue if my Kamen Rider jokes are actually landing or not||

[velvet raft]

Tragic misses

We have one PC who imo is such a shoe-in for becoming an Infernal it’s unbelievable

And I am making it worse :D

[tulip folio]

Enjoy your complimentary shirt

https://i.etsystatic.com/40924422/r/il/979465/5671038220/il_fullxfull.5671038220_2mlc.jpg

[velvet raft]

We’ve been doing some pbp stuff in between sessions, and as our characters knew each other in high school and have hated each other that entire time, mine finally blew the fuck up

Quite a bit of this is probably unfair of Lanying to say but it’s laser-targeted

[velvet raft]

Vailo’s deal is that she was the golden child, the talent who showed every sign that she would exalt and then didn’t

As compared to Lanying, who as a Nellens always operated under the assumption that no one had any particular expectations of her as an individual

[marsh garden]

love me a good furious diatribe

[velvet raft]

(Vailo is now a sorcerer but doesn’t want her family to know for Psychological Reasons)

[marsh garden]

does lanying know it's sorcery or does she suspect she's a warlock or something?

[velvet raft]

Lanying does not know or super care

[marsh garden]

makes sense

[velvet raft]

But Vailo’s control spell is Stormwind Rider

Hence the emotional weather effects

She’s normally very good at hiding them

But the player decided to have her lose control here

[velvet raft]

Atreus is a Devil Prince user, hence the fingers comment

[marsh garden]

i forget, can devil-prince be used unarmed or is it purely with swords & hatchets?

i assume no unarmed because it wants your fingies

[velvet raft]

No unarmed

[fierce star]

I mean y9ou can always just bite someone's fingers off

I see it happen all the time

[marsh garden]

yeah, but it's a lot riskier to lean into the enemy's weapon-hand with your whole-ass exposed face and go for a finger-eating chomp than it is to steal fingies with a knife

so the imagery of what's happening there changes a lot

[bleak hazel]

found some of my old epidemiological modelling software while clearing out an old backup hard drive and I could use this to make Exalt Simulator

it might strain my PC a bit since it's not incredibly optimised and 800 celestials is a lot

but it would be perfectly reasonable to have 800 sparks bouncing around essencing up and getting into fights when they collide

[wise ocean]

lunar evo sim

[velvet raft]

Well that’s Infernal Brawl tho

Not Devil Prince :D

[merry arch]

wife badgering success it is now drawing Reveler wahoo

plied the doll with drinks and help around the house and now she's drawing blorbo bleepus

[wise ocean]

the doll... isn't in the maid outfit?

https://tenor.com/view/chad-nothing-ever-happens-something-happened-soyjack-gif-9925755955535741761

[merry arch]

LMAO

[velvet raft]

Alright so

Infernal, then give them a string of custom spells related to summoning giant hands

And a sorcerous martial art related to fighting alongside one’s giant magic hands

Name them Bigby for good measure

[marsh garden]

i gotta make field of fell dreams style

[velvet raft]

?

Baseball?

[marsh garden]

?

my apolocheese, i do not get the joke

the baseball one, at least

[velvet raft]

Field of Dreams

[marsh garden]

i know bigby's big hands

[velvet raft]

It’s a baseball movie

[marsh garden]

oh

[velvet raft]

Alternately, do this as some kind of merger of Mind-Hand Method and Infernal Brawl

[velvet raft]

I assumed the reference was intentional

[marsh garden]

oh

field of fell dreams is a magic death hands c1 necro spell

the reference may be intentional

i just have it on my dusk, who has a big hands theme

and i wish to get even handsier

[fierce star]

reminds me of a pf1e build a friend of mine made named Handy Manny, a halfling who detached his own hand to ride it around as a steed in battle.

[velvet raft]

I mean ... this is coming from a place of me being slightly fixated on https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DZiaXEIQgkE&pp=ygUdc2FsdmF0b3JlIGdhbmFjY2kgZmlnaHQgZGlydHk%3D

So

Yes

[velvet raft]

Looking at White Reaper again, it's better than I remembered even without halos

[wise ocean]

yep, the halos are nice to have (esp. once you hit the capstone) but its non-fighting-BGs power is pretty concentrated in RCD and the damage-boosting dice tricks

RCD + corona mastery is the nah actually I've decided not to be hit today button, which is cute

otherwise it's just spamming FSF, preferably with another martial art that shares compatibility if you're not fighting battlegroups

[velvet raft]

Bleeding Crescent and Greatest Killer also look solid for general use

[wise ocean]

indeed, but they're priced up pretty fairly to account for how good they are against BGs

FSF is just you see it, you get it

[velvet raft]

Yeah

Very nice dip

[fierce star]

I do ponder my lunar who's a former immacualte exorcist. I'd like for her to start with golden janissary and move to white reaper, but, uh. the difference between those two is quite wide. OTOH she does have the basic lunar combat suite to fall back on regardless

[bleak hazel]

white reaper has quite broad compatibilities and if you are a mastery exalt martial artist you really want Revolving Crescent because it's one of few good onslaught negators in martial arts

so it's dip city

not personally a huge fan of maxing it, mostly because I don't think it's particularly stylish

also just going to post these homebrew adamant and soulsteel charms for PAOC here because something brewed by the actual devs but not included in the book for other reasons is a pretty good pedigree if anyone wants to lift them

[velvet raft]

oooo

[merry arch]

it gave me a sketch and they're so soggy....

I love this fucking pathetic rail thin beanpole

[marsh garden]

they're my favorite

[bleak hazel]

the wyld hunt looking for Solars

[wise ocean]

yeah, it turns out Solar Sail doesn't actually have any minefield mechanics

[tulip folio]

Solar Sail being made up of roughly 50 'In this very specific situation you autowin' charm lacks a lot of things

[prisma sun]

"We have Gorrig the Mine-Thrower sitting in reserve just in case they auto-dodge the first mine."

[bleak hazel]

I'm pretty sure it can dodge minefields but then the mote tapped solar needs to deal with deeb frogmen

[fierce star]

hmm

would you do up HUNK from resident evil as a solar, abyssal, or other

[wise ocean]

HUNK feels like he'd be a Janest-type celestial exigent

Only One, Accept No Substitutes

[fierce star]

I could see it

[wise ocean]

resonant with soulsteel, gets mastery on knife MAs

possibly also firewand but there's only one of those for now, so

(if you want to stat him up without resorting to exigent brewing, Abyssal or high-essence deeb)

[prisma sun]

Mortal in experimental gunzhoa armor

inexplicable Essence 10

fuck you

[limpid badge]

HUMAN UNIT NEVER KILLED

just give him a hand crossbow it'll be fine

[limpid badge]

80th Divine Weapon, Heavenly Enforcer, some shit the celestial bureaucracy uses as a strikebreaker- this freak ass exigent of Soldiering we keep on ice

[wise ocean]

oh yeah back in the First Age there was a god of covert operations. they don't exist anymore. just the Human Unit

[bleak hazel]

going through the silos at the Crimson Panoply and it's empty, empty, empty, thousand-forged dragon, thousand-forged dragon, winter soldier, resident evil boss 6-pack, thousand-forged dragon.....

[fierce star]

okay I am absolutely going to have to pitch HUNK-exigent-of-dead-god-of-covert-ops as a rival if Ie ver get into a game with my secrets sid

[prisma sun]

Give him an actual gun

[chilly sluice]

bring back prayer pieces

[bleak hazel]

giving him a prayer piece powered by the shreds of his dead patron sounds fun

[prisma sun]

We have actual guns in 3e

they're called Devil-casters

They're pistols

[bleak hazel]

aren't those just smaller firewands

[marsh garden]

yeah

[prisma sun]

Yeah but it's also just like

a gun

https://i.imgur.com/uVX07ff.png

[marsh garden]

unforchies it only goes out to short range

[prisma sun]

Just make it not do that

Who's gonna call the cops on you for it

[bleak hazel]

firewands also fine but I think in this one case a prayer piece is funnier

[fierce star]

Have to agree, having The One The Only with an actual prayer piece that's powered by the bitter remnants of a dead god is metal as hell

[limpid badge]

writing a solar qc who hopefully won't paste my infernal craftsman come saturday

[bleak hazel]

My infernal might be about to get launched through the nearest building but that Solar is pretty chill so it'll be fun regardless

I'll probably even keep all my limbs

[spiral cosmos]

word of advice, ||cap ox-stunning blow penalty at -4 or so if ur gonna use it. it can really ruin a fight||

[limpid badge]

hiiii there's a reason i used a spoiler box if you don't mind

thank you for your advice tho

[spiral cosmos]

can delete if desired

[bleak hazel]

I will be good and not click on the tempting spoilers, fear not

[limpid badge]

thank u misccc

[spiral cosmos]

i just joined the server bc i got my hands on the outer rim ngl 💀 didnt intend on immediately talking exalted here

[prisma sun]

You should maybe tone it down to 3 tyrant lizards, Del.

[bleak hazel]

over the last year or so this thread has become amazingly active honestly, it's probably >50% of my pilotnet posting since I don't even play much Lancer anymore

[spiral cosmos]

wow who's this loser you're quoting

[bleak hazel]

lots of Exalting here

[spiral cosmos]

thats so crazy

[limpid badge]

yaaaaay

im running exalted and prepping to play more

[prisma sun]

Gasp a dev

[bleak hazel]

everyone salute, yeah

borb, did you do Ludall? Voy is our resident Ludall fanboy

[limpid badge]

hence working on the solar who is not supposed to paste the worst dynast in the west

just supposed to be Strenous

[prisma sun]

Hello I am waiting very patiently to have a deployable Gojo

[bleak hazel]

surely my Arsenal 1 thousand blades will protect me

(my infernal is a total dipshit and should absolutely get smacked around in round 1 of tournament arc)

[spiral cosmos]

o

yes i did

really need to give credit to the writer who did the first sketch of ludall in cfc first but yeah I decided to lean into him being a fuckboy with an ego only rivaled in size by his daddy issues

solidly in the quadrant of canonical sidereals labeled bad decision but you probably Would

[prisma sun]

I am really surprised how much I have taken to Sids

[spiral cosmos]

they're my favorite with abyssals

[prisma sun]

Sids are my clear favorite with Lunars and Deebs tied for 2nd

Unfortunately for Solaroids I am meant to think they are cooler than other people and thus my contrarian nature kicks in

[spiral cosmos]

since he's your favorite if you had any questions about ludall i wouldn't mind answering them for you, he's probably my favorite of the qcs i wrote front to back

[prisma sun]

I dont have too many at the moment though I would probably have way more if I saw his companion piece

[tulip folio]

I am doing of course, the most normal thing when you play an Alchemical - Going through Megaman spin-off games looking for outfits for my Alch.

[bleak hazel]

I have exactly one, which is what SMAs does he use if any

[limpid badge]

Look at Zero/X reploids im telling you

[prisma sun]

I do actually run a play by post server with a bunch of people in here that has a big secondary plot of Hell showing up to do a battle Royale in the River Province

[spiral cosmos]

if memory serves, ludall uses a mix of sidereal melee, golden janissary, and white reaper

[tulip folio]

Guess what I've got open right now XD

[wise ocean]

GOLDEN JANISSARY + WHITE REAPER MY MAN

[prisma sun]

So I am hoping to portray Ludall at some point

[spiral cosmos]

i made him so he could beat the shit out of one to three moderately well made infernals

[prisma sun]

BASED

[wise ocean]

I've been trying to make GJ relevant for (checks notes) Some Time

[spiral cosmos]

infernals just get The Business

[wise ocean]

so any time I see GJ being used I'm obligated to go 🫵

[prisma sun]

One of the antagonists I am running is actually a horrid infernal

Named The Supreme Creature of All Creation

[bleak hazel]

I see Rival will have encountered Falling Scythe Flash to the face at some point before he ends up fighting Graves

[prisma sun]

I feel like an e4 infernal is a decently charged threat when most of the cast is e2

[spiral cosmos]

ultimately it's like, you want sidereals to be useful for any kind of game, or at least more than one kind of game, but you still have specific guys, right? like, the guy who chairs heaven's convention on hell should be someone who's a good foil for especially infernals. that was my thinking

[prisma sun]

Def

[bleak hazel]

one of the great things about Sids all knowing each other is that you can just pick a QC out of the book and go "yeah I know that guy, he broke my nose three years ago" whenever you make one

[prisma sun]

Actually borb you will probably find this funny

[bleak hazel]

I find their QCs get a lot more use than, say, Lunars

[prisma sun]

Sids are actually like our most populous splat

In the server

[bleak hazel]

we have so many sids

we have like a whole Bleach faction worth of Sids

[spiral cosmos]

i'll give you this

Ashen-Eyed Ludall is tall, strong, and handsome, white-haired and impeccably dressed in the trendiest celestial fashions. The whites of his eyes and surrounding skin are a cindering, unearthly gray. He alternates between effortless charm and being brash, entitled and obdurate — gods and Sidereals fall into his bed as often as they enter shouting matches with the man, albeit these relationships never last. Some remark that his uncanny intensity and magnetism resemble a demon’s singular nature, but never where he can hear.

As chair of the Convention on Hell, Ludall prioritizes high-risk, high-reward missions he can claim credit and disclaim responsibility for. He often accompanies junior members into the field to take advantage of their successes, or takes solo missions to win glory himself, wearing resplendent destinies of warriors, awesome sorcerers or gods, or folk heroes. Much of the Convention’s work is facilitated by cooperation with his father Verumipra (p. XX); yet, he opposes the Ambassador to Hell’s approach to his job, and sometimes deliberately acts to undermine the god’s delicate schemes.```

ludall has a very, very, very low opinion of humans because he is a misanthropic god-blood who basically grew up in hell and has [BACKSTORY TRAUMA]. but he actually just hates hell

[prisma sun]

Oh daddy issues and he has uncanny eyes and intense emotional bouts gee

[wise ocean]

it is critically important for aura farming purposes that Duel Abyssal can say Please do not bore me. before hitting the FSF+GKA+Form combo on someone just to test if they can dodge

[spiral cosmos]

hes just boyfriend material ngl

Bad Decision

[wise ocean]

(if they don't they explode)

[limpid badge]

speaking of awful infernals that should get punched.

my girl who will hopefully be getting a game soon

[bleak hazel]

well he has absolutely stolen credit from my own Battles with huge daddy issues before, that'll be fun

[spiral cosmos]

one of ludall's big Ws he wants right now is to personally beat an Infernal in combat and drag them back to Heaven in chains basically just to flex on all his elder haters on the convention

[prisma sun]

Borb I will also introduce you to this thread where everyone will chime in about their ocs regardless of topic (endearing)

It is a cycle

[spiral cosmos]

oh noooo mr shieldbearer please don't kidnap me and drag me before the tyrant heavens... ahahaha that'd be so fucked up....

[limpid badge]

yapping about ocs is fun. its important.

[wise ocean]

we have too many OCs to carry and thus they keep randomly spilling out before we catch them

[limpid badge]

its maybe the most important

[prisma sun]

I am going to load his stats into a gun

[bleak hazel]

an exalt takes up so much brain space compared to all my other OCs because you get to give them a whole battle manga fight suite

half my lancers are just in Generic Mech

[spiral cosmos]

i gave him the spear not held + rotten leaf arrest as a combo

[limpid badge]

and telek is a Potential Man!!!

[bleak hazel]

ooof

[spiral cosmos]

he just stares at you with his hands in his pockets and you go fucking flying prone

[tulip folio]

I am currently working on more OCs for an upcoming game and have too many options ;-;

[limpid badge]

misc you've said this about him before. bro has 1 arsenal.

[prisma sun]

Good good good good

[wise ocean]

nah, the giga prone is oof

telek is definitively potential exalt

[bleak hazel]

honestly even if Telek fully achieves his potential and builds his arsenal of blasphemous elemental spears Rival is putting him on his ass in about 0.2 seconds, he is simply not That Guy

(because he has a ton of craft investment instead)

[prisma sun]

Considering this setting we have to assume Ludall invented the concept of swagging on em

[spiral cosmos]

i wanted ludall to actually just maul the shit out of people

infernals at least

realistically a fully opped murder monkey is going to be beyond almost any qc that doesn't commit to it fully but he makes a good go at it

[prisma sun]

Does Ludall have beef with Anys or does she think hes fun

[wise ocean]

good. my perspective as a GM is "fuck them players" and that goes double for exalted when I know how these mfs build

[bleak hazel]

these mfs being you

(and me)

[wise ocean]

yes

[spiral cosmos]

this is just speculative but, hm

[limpid badge]

hahah yah i don't know what im doing i made my baby unkillable

[prisma sun]

Anys is also my favorite canon Sid if only because I enjoy her being the supreme ass kicker alive

[wise ocean]

once I was taught how exalted actually worked my charop brain ticked into place and now I start getting twitchy when my combat suite is missing an instakill combo

[bleak hazel]

putting my official Battles Enjoyer vote in for Red-Handed Kijamano because I love a freaky demon arm and Crane Style

[spiral cosmos]

I think Anys Syn would think he's kind of funny because he's so self-serious and but mostly just be tired by how much he's on all the time, Ludall would respect Syn for her skills if find her sense of responsibility deeply tedious and somewhat bemusing

[spiral cosmos]

kijamano is basically if the firebombing-a-walmart tweet was a person who would literally beat the principle of firebombing walmarts into you

biggest lunatic in the entire fellowship. my baby girl. i love her

[bleak hazel]

I had pencilled her in as my current sid's physical-combat-training mentor since his mentor 3 is the collected legacy of his dead predecessor and as such cannot do kung fu, and I see in this case mum and dad would definitely have philosophical differences

Division of Battles easily my favourite division

[spiral cosmos]

kijamano is a deontological absolutist, which makes her an extreme rarity among sidereals

there is good and there is bad and you must only do good, not bad. there is no such thing as a lesser evil or a greater good

i would describe her as hypermoral in contrast to most sidereal elders

[tulip folio]

I think for the game coming up I'm likely to go with my Sid. Who is a Bad Sid but a relatively moral person.

Her primary method of stealth is 'it doesn't matter how obvious I am because arcane fate exists'

[prisma sun]

I feel like she would dislike or love my Sid and I am not sure which

[coral wraith]

grinning mask is a pretty severe pragmatist, she'd hate them lmao

[spiral cosmos]

excellent

[coral wraith]

its real blorbo hours out here!!

[wise ocean]

I'm not sure if Crystal has a moral code other than I love my job :)

[bleak hazel]

that'll be a problem, because Grinning Mask is buddy cop partners with my Sid and my sid gets crane style lessons from Kijamano

[dense verge]

my sid i have around has been exalted for like a year, and she is extremely naive about the whole deal. surely, ensuring the stability of creation and such means you're the good guy. she is very much not one of the combat beast exalts, she's an intrepid detective and got punched through a brick wall.

[prisma sun]

Drifts is only concerned with saving Creation as it is, for the most part. He hasn't seen all of it, and he thinks that changing it entirely is an evil action because humanity already has infinite potential without reshaping the laws of reality

[bleak hazel]

hey she's alive, Rival just needs to put her in the heavenbulance and take her to see Iselsi Dogara

who I'm sure is also very normal

[wise ocean]

ayesa surviving the brick wall was her Big Test

congration

[spiral cosmos]

there is no such thing as a normal sidereal and doubly no such thing as a normal sidereal elder

[coral wraith]

no that's awesome actually. GM goes to pick up Rival from Kung Fu School and Kijamano talks mad shit the entire time

[dense verge]

ayesa's combat suite is her heaven's dragon. good ol' watson. if watson was a street brawling butch that knew toad style.

[limpid badge]

talking mad shit is how you do kung fu stuff its fiiiine

[prisma sun]

Every single sid in the game is a freak

[coral wraith]

its true GM is very good at that

[prisma sun]

Its really funny

[spiral cosmos]

these conversations make me wish so much the book was out already so people could have these weirdos to bounce their blorbos off of and work to hype them up. good npcs are good on their own terms but also make player characters look better by comparison

[bleak hazel]

I genuinely think Drifts and Rival are the two most normal guys here and Rival managed to turn arriving at the meeting into a five minute improv comedy set

[limpid badge]

always be fuckin weirdos. paloma is here to bluesid

[dense verge]

ayesa's previous incarnation accidentally invented the stereotype of the hard-boiled noir detective by wandering around creation as a non-bureau sid for a few centuries and left a vague impression on people

[prisma sun]

Drifts is the adult in the room and he barely exists in his body

[coral wraith]

dont worry gm is soooo normal

[marsh garden]

i loved the Go My Chudlings crow swarm necro spell you previewed

black ice shadow has excellent taste in dumbass magic

[prisma sun]

That shit ruled yeah

[wise ocean]

Go My Stupid Chud Birds is an incredible spell and I will be taking it

[spiral cosmos]

thanks

[bleak hazel]

oh yeah huge fan of that one, my next sid is absolutely getting Field Mouse Rider so they can fly themselves around with their tattoo

[spiral cosmos]

be nice to my stupid chud bird sons

[coral wraith]

chud birds fucks its true

the control being a crow familiar is

[marsh garden]

it's peam

[wise ocean]

does it count as being nice to adding them to the massive spycam constellation orbiting thorns 24/7

[prisma sun]

Borb have you played FFXIV

[spiral cosmos]

if you tell them you love them more than the White Moth Talismans

and yes but i haven't finished dawntrail main patch msq

[prisma sun]

Understood neither have I

[marsh garden]

i don't have any sids to yap about but here's my son, he's stupid and he sucks

this is my dusk, he makes dinner and cries about it and then accidentally kills people trying to ask them simple questions

[prisma sun]

However my Joruneys, Drifts in Gossamer has a moral compass best described with the Venat "from henceforth he shall walk" cutscene

[spiral cosmos]

good hunter, where is the fucking sriracha sauce. oh. oh you're dead again. okay sorry

[buoyant summit]

White Mask Varre on the list sent a shiver up my spine you shit >XD

[coral wraith]

[prisma sun]

"Bitchless, are you?"

[buoyant summit]

Why must you inflict this enby on me, your girlfriend's headmate

[fierce star]

I could yap about my faeblood sid but I'm going to bed. But she is very knife happy and lives like a metal gear character and thinks raksha have a point about interesting stories

[coral wraith]

varre is mostly for the aesthetics but also the pure snark

[coral wraith]

im evil

:D

[tulip folio]

I'm still super happy with the one of these I made for my Alch.