Exalted – Solar World-Body Charms, Part I

Charles developed the first couple of charms in this sequence mostly so as to have somewhere to keep manses, then started working on ways to impersonate a Primordial as a cover / distraction from his actual activities. Of course, given how little information there is available on Primordials in the first place, and the level of variation that might be expected in unique beings born of the Wyld, after a hundred session of tinkering… it’s becoming really hard to tell the difference.

The first two charms have been presented before, but it’s easiest to include them here than to refer back to them. 

Gate of Dreams:

• Cost: -; Minimum Lore 4, Essence 3, Type: Permanent.
• Duration: Permanent.
• Keywords: None.
• Prerequisite Charms: Chaos Repelling Pattern, Dreaming Narrative Conquest.

The user transforms a bit of his soul into a Chancel of rating (Essence + 1); if this takes it above five, simply square the rating to determine the number of waypoints it contains. Of those, one is always pure chaos, surrounded by six deep wyld waypoints, with the rest being middlemarches. The Chancel has no attunement cost.

The Chancel has no “main entrance” normally, although the user can spend three motes to open one wherever he is, and even enter it – although the main portal is always stationary while it exists (and so it does not matter if the interior is shaped or not). Destroying the main gate does not destroy the Chancel; instead it inflicts two levels of aggravated damage on the user.

The user may purchase this charm again to expand his or her internal world at a cost of 4 XP up to (Conviction) times; each time will also provide him or her with one bonus charm for which he or she is otherwise qualified that will only operate within the Chancel. These are fixed once chosen unless the user actually learns one, in which case a new bonus charm may be chosen.

The user may also wish to invest in some internal guardians; after all, other people can get inside his or her little world by sneaking through the secondary entrances as they could any other Chancel. It can be really embarrassing to open the gate to your secret castle only to find a swarm of assassins waiting for you.

Warden of the Marches:

• Cost: -; Minimum Lore 4, Essence 4, Type: Permanent.
• Duration: Permanent.
• Keywords: None
• Prerequisite Charms: Chaos Repelling Pattern, Dreaming Narrative Conquest, Gate of Dreams.

Once the user has established a personal world and forged his or her imagination into reality, it has become a real place – and one that it can be quite annoying to have trespassers in. Fortunately, a landlord with this charm finds his or her internal world far easier to survey. Once this charm is purchased, the users senses are all considered to extend throughout the internal world normally. While stealth, evasion, and other distractions may help, those inside will never quite know when the user will become aware of their presence and activities.

The Pillars Of The Temple:

• Cost: -; Minimum Lore 5, Essence 4, Type: Permanent.
• Duration: Permanent.
• Keywords: None
• Prerequisites: Chaos Repelling Pattern, Dreaming Narrative Conquest, Gate of Dreams. Warden of the Marches.

With the user’s essence extended throughout his or her inner world, he or she can now channel geomantic energies into it, giving it strange and wonderful properties. The user gains the Network Node and Geomantic Nexus manse powers, and may accept geomantic relay points to add up to (Willpower + Essence) points worth of additional manse powers to his or her inner world – but activating those powers requires the commitment of three points worth of geomantic relays per point of manse powers activated. Worse, the list of powers is virtually fixed once chosen; revising it will require at least two months of work adjusting the geomancy of the user’s personal chancel.

Yes, if you want to start adding things Malfeas’s smashing layers (“Ultra-Deadly Traps), Szoreny’s mirror-mazes (“Puzzle Manse”), control of the passage of time within your inner world (Wyld Revocation), or similar exotic properties… here’s your chance.

Primordial Grace of the (Grace):

• Cost: -; Minimum Lore 5, Essence 5, Type: Permanent.
• Duration: Permanent.
• Keywords: None
• Prerequisites: Chaos Repelling Pattern, Dreaming Narrative Conquest, Gate of Dreams. Warden of the Marches, The Pillars Of The Temple, Possession of the relevant Grace and a World-Body.

The user may funnel the energies of the Wyld through one of his or her convictions, making a principle truly a part of his or her self – and creating an “elemental pole” related to his or her own nature. The user’s inner world will shift slightly, becoming less a thing of Creation’s elements and more a thing unique onto itself. The user may apply (Grace Rating) points worth of supernatural tweaks to his or her inner world and/or those within it.

Possible “tweaks” include the equivalent of mutations (one point per two points worth of mutations), adding the equivalent of thaumaturgic effects cost 1-4 points (for Basic / Initiate / Adept / Master effects), higher-order sorceries cost 5/7/10 points for Terrestrial / Celestial / Solar circle effects (and require that the user be capable of enacting such effects normally), and adding the equivalent of manse powers costs one point per point and cannot exceed the level of the highest level demesne added. If a manse power has a variable cost, always use the lowest. If a manse power has a variable effect based on the manse level, use the level of the highest level manse or demesne included in the waypoint.

Each pole forges a permanent intimacy to the appropriate principle and – to some extent – colors how the associated grace/virtue is expressed. If you go and turn your Cup Grace into the Pole of Death you’re likely to go in for promoting euthanasia, destroying intrusive species, and similar acts of compassion-by-death. Use your Sword Grace, and the effect will be a lot less pronounced – but you’re still likely to resolve a lot more conflicts by death then you might have previously. A pole represents a major drive.

As a nascent primordial grows, and resolves individual drives, the principles of it’s poles tend to unify – gradually defining the nature of it’s first Excellency, it’s individual essence type, and of it’s Feitch Soul as the nascent one visits the Wyld and forges it’s poles into a central core. Of course, that’s the “normal” way to go about it; it may or may not wind up working that way for someone who’s doing things their own way.

Optionally, the user may now take charms that require (Pole) (X) rather than ability or attribute prerequisites.

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