CallMeCanon/Gaians - Revision history

CallMeCal: /* Step 0: Terrestrial */

2015-06-08T21:57:28Z

‎Step 0: Terrestrial

CallMeCal: /* Step 1: Enlightened */

2015-04-20T04:22:38Z

‎Step 1: Enlightened

CallMeCal: Fixing grammar/spelling errors

2014-12-12T06:59:47Z

Fixing grammar/spelling errors

CallMeCal: /* Changes */

2012-04-18T08:17:54Z

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CallMeCal: /* Changes */

2012-04-18T08:15:31Z

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2012-04-18T08:14:09Z

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2012-04-18T08:12:04Z

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2012-04-18T08:09:43Z

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2012-04-18T08:06:53Z

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CallMeCal: /* Step 1: Enlightened */

2012-04-18T06:20:21Z

‎Step 1: Enlightened

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 The line between a Terrestrial and a Gaian is not quite as solid as the line between, for example, a Solar and an Abyssal. One does not simply <i>become</i> a Gaian. It is a process, a path, and it takes near half of the Dragon-Blooded's life to complete. There are five steps along this path, as the Dragon-Blooded transitions from Terrestrial to Gaian Exaltation. <br>
 === Step 0: Terrestrial ===
-At this stage she is simply Dragon-Blooded, slow growing, monoaspected, bound to the Dragon-Blooded Host. However, if she attunes herself to an Emerald Artifact, something inside her begins to change. Most Artifacts bind themselves to an Exalt's First Chakra (Glory, Shift, Mystery, Synergy, or Logic), while those of the Yozis, Neverborn, and Fae bind themselves to their respective Exalted's Second Chakra (Penitence, Jhor, or Plot), but Emerald works differently. Emerald binds itself to the Third Chakra. It will only do so in the presence of a Synergy Chakra (i.e. only Dragon-Blooded and their other templates can attune to it), but it binds instead to her Quintessence. Because of this, the Dragon-Blooded is able to increase her Permanent Essence more quickly. As long as she remains attuned to the Emerald Artifact, the minimum age for increasing Permanent Essence is halved. <br>
+At this stage she is simply Dragon-Blooded, slow growing, monoaspected, bound to the Dragon-Blooded Host. However, if she attunes herself to an Emerald Artifact, something inside her begins to change. Most Artifacts bind themselves to an Exalt's First Chakra (Glory, Shift, Mystery, Synergy, or Logic), while those of the Yozis, Neverborn, and Fae bind themselves to their respective Exalted's Second Chakra (Penitence, Jhor, or Plot), but Emerald works differently. Emerald binds itself to the Third Chakra. It will only do so in the presence of a Synergy Chakra (i.e. only Dragon-Blooded and their other templates can attune to it), but it binds instead to her Apotheos. Because of this, the Dragon-Blooded is able to increase her Permanent Essence more quickly. As long as she remains attuned to the Emerald Artifact, the minimum age for increasing Permanent Essence is halved. <br>
 Additionally, since a good deal of Synergy was folded into the Emerald during its forging, it attracts Synergy Chi to itself. Any Synergy that she earns while she is attuned to the Emerald Artifact is channeled through the Artifact before it reaches her Chakra, and is altered slightly by it, as iron scraped by a magnet, receiving the "Gaian" trait. Any Temporary Synergy she has stored also feels the pull of the Emerald, and at the end of each session one of her Temporary "Pure" Synergy gains the "Gaian" trait as well. (Permanent Synergy is unaffected.) If her Temporary Synergy is a mix of pure and Gaian, she cannot convert it to Permanent. Once she has ten Temporary "Gaian" Synergy, however, she may convert them to one <i>Permanent</i> "Gaian" Synergy. And this is when things start to get interesting... <br>

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 If a Dragon-Blooded with one or more Permanent "Gaian" Synergy increases her Permanent Essence rating, she immediately becomes Enlightened. Her eyes are opened, and she realizes how disconnected the Dragon-Blooded are, how disconnected <i>she</i> is. She feels a distance from her fellows that she never felt before, but more than that she feels a distance from Creation that she never <i>noticed</i> before. She is overcome with the astounding notion that all things are connected, all things are one, but that Creation is broken, it has become separated, divided. The factional infighting between Houses suddenly seems pointless and self-destructive, the hunting of Anathema feels disjointed and counterproductive, and most of all the division of the Elements into five Aspects seems arbitrary and unnecessary.<br>
-And then the vision is gone. Her old feelings and opinions, whatever they were before this moment, come rushing back over her. What will she do with this vision? Such is the power of it that she canot remain unchanged by it. Will she be repulsed by it, rejecting its message and diving even more strongly into traditional Dragon-Blooded philosophy? Will she embrace it, rejecting her old life and beliefs in pursuit of holistic interconnectedness? Or will it be somewhere in between? This is, in the end, up to her to decide. If she chooses to reject it entirely, feeling repulsed by the vision and its message, that feeling of revulsion will extend to the Emerald Artifact as well, as she instinctively realizes that its very substance is the embodiment of that message and the source of that vision. She will most likely choose to discard or destroy it, or otherwise de-attune herself from it, at which point she may again begin to gain "Pure" Synergy. But the one thing she cannot do is go back to the way she was. She is now, and will forevermore be, Enlightened.
+And then the vision is gone. Her old feelings and opinions, whatever they were before this moment, come rushing back over her. What will she do with this vision? Such is the power of it that she cannot remain unchanged by it. Will she be repulsed by it, rejecting its message and diving even more strongly into traditional Dragon-Blooded philosophy? Will she embrace it, rejecting her old life and beliefs in pursuit of holistic interconnectedness? Or will it be somewhere in between? This is, in the end, up to her to decide. If she chooses to reject it entirely, feeling repulsed by the vision and its message, that feeling of revulsion will extend to the Emerald Artifact as well, as she instinctively realizes that its very substance is the embodiment of that message and the source of that vision. She will most likely choose to discard or destroy it, or otherwise de-attune herself from it, at which point she may again begin to gain "Pure" Synergy. But the one thing she cannot do is go back to the way she was. She is now, and will forevermore be, Enlightened.
 ==== Changes ====
 An Enlightened Terrestrial has one Permanent "Gaian" Synergy locked into her Exaltation by her Permanent Essence, and she can never quite shake the memory of the vision it brought with it. As such, she receives a -1 Internal Penalty on all cooperative rolls, and must spend a point of Willpower to convert Temporary Synergy to Permanent. This tends to be the most difficult time for her, as she has had her eyes opened to the brokenness around and within her but has not yet begun the process of healing. In all other ways, she remains simply a Terrestrial. <br>

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 It is up to the Storyteller how to decide which new Aspect she gains at each step; he could choose, he could let the player choose, he could randomize it somehow, etc. For Charms and other effects that only affect — or do not affect — a certain Aspect, she is considered to be wholly each of her multiple Aspects. In cases where two (or more) effects would affect her, roll a d10 for each one. On a success, that effect happens; on a failure, it does not. (This could mean all of them take effect, or none of them, or any combination in between. Also note that chances are tilted slightly towards her being unaffected. This is intentional.) In cases where two contradictory effects roll successes, the higher die result wins. If the die results are equal, roll a d10 for each one, and the higher result succeeds. <br>
-It may happen that she chooses (or is forced) to de-attune from her Emerald Artifact. If this happens before Ascension, Synergy she gains no longer has the "Gaian" trait (if after Ascension, she may longer gain Synergy at all), and any Temporary "Gaian" Chi she has stored starts going back to "pure" at the same rate it became "Gaian" during Stage 0. She may convert pure Synergy to Permanent as normal, and may increase her Permanent Essence rating as normal, however the steps to Ascension only count Permanent "Gaian" Synergy, so she may progress only as many steps down the path total as total Permanent "Gaian" Synergy she has stored. Of course, if she later attunes to another (or the same) Emerald Artifact, she begins gaining and shifting to "Gaian" Synergy again, exactly as she did in Step 0, and may thus continue along the Path again. However, each Step only occurs <i>at the moment of Essencing up</i>; under no circumstances may she gain a Step retroactively. <br>
+It may happen that she chooses (or is forced) to de-attune from her Emerald Artifact. If this happens before Ascension, Synergy she gains no longer has the "Gaian" trait (if after Ascension, she may no longer gain Synergy at all), and any Temporary "Gaian" Chi she has stored starts going back to "pure" at the same rate it became "Gaian" during Stage 0. She may convert pure Synergy to Permanent as normal, and may increase her Permanent Essence rating as normal, however the steps to Ascension only count Permanent "Gaian" Synergy, so she may progress only as many steps down the path total as total Permanent "Gaian" Synergy she has stored. Of course, if she later attunes to another (or the same) Emerald Artifact, she begins gaining and shifting to "Gaian" Synergy again, exactly as she did in Step 0, and may thus continue along the Path again. However, each Step only occurs <i>at the moment of Essencing up</i>; under no circumstances may she gain a Step retroactively. <br>
 In case something somehow lowers her Permanent Essence or her Permanent Chi, it is important to keep track of <i>which</i> Permanent Synergy are "Gaian" and which are "Pure". Anytime Permanent Chi is lost for any reason (most likely due to her splitting it into Temporary Chi for use in Charms or other effects), it is <i>always</i> the most recent Chi that is used. <i>(I will be providing on the Chakras page a secondary Character Sheet for keeping track of Chakras and Chi. On the Synergy Chakra will be a way to denote which Chi are "Gaian" and which are "Pure".)</i> An especially desperate Dragon-Blooded, if revolted by Enlightening, may seek drastic measures. She may try to find a way to damage her newly-gained Permanent Essence rating, to lower it by a dot, thus unlocking her most recent Permanent Synergy (which would almost certainly be the Gaian one). If she succeeds, she may then convert the Permanent "Gaian" Synergy into ten Temporary "Gaian" Synergy and spend or vent them as she wishes. This requires an act of quite literal self-destruction, maiming her own Permanent Essence, not to mention the release of <i>ten</i> Temporary Chi at once could go off like a Tactical Essence Nuke. (If she has the patience for it, she can simply wait ten sessions; as long as she is not attuned to any Emerald, the "Gaian" Synergy will revert to "Pure" in that time.) If she succeeds, and survives, then she will have successfully returned to Step 0, and be simply a Terrestrial again, and so long as she never again attunes to Emerald, she can gain "Pure" Synergy and Essence up like a normal Dragon-Blooded. It is difficult to imagine the type of personality that would be driven to such desperate action merely to remove the "taint" of <i>harmony</i> from her soul. Maybe she simply cherishes the Dragon-Blooded Host and is more perceptive than her peers...<br>

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 It is up to the Storyteller how to decide which new Aspect she gains at each step; he could choose, he could let the player choose, he could randomize it somehow, etc. For Charms and other effects that only affect — or do not affect — a certain Aspect, she is considered to be wholly each of her multiple Aspects. In cases where two (or more) effects would affect her, roll a d10 for each one. On a success, that effect happens; on a failure, it does not. (This could mean all of them take effect, or none of them, or any combination in between. Also note that chances are tilted slightly towards her being unaffected. This is intentional.) In cases where two contradictory effects roll successes, the higher die result wins. If the die results are equal, roll a d10 for each one, and the higher result succeeds. <br>
-It may happen that she chooses (or is forced) to de-attune from her Emerald Artifact. If this happens before Ascension, Synergy she gains no longer has the "Gaian" trait, and any Temporary "Gaian" Chi she has stored starts going back to "pure" at the same rate it became "Gaian" during Stage 0. She may convert pure Synergy to Permanent as normal, and may increase her Permanent Essence rating as normal, however the steps to Ascension only count Permanent "Gaian" Synergy, so she may progress only as many steps down the path total as total Permanent "Gaian" Synergy she has stored. Of course, if she later attunes to another (or the same) Emerald Artifact, she begins gaining and shifting to "Gaian" Synergy again, exactly as she did in Step 0, and may thus continue along the Path again. However, each Step only occurs <i>at the moment of Essencing up</i>; under no circumstances may she gain a Step retroactively. <br>
+It may happen that she chooses (or is forced) to de-attune from her Emerald Artifact. If this happens before Ascension, Synergy she gains no longer has the "Gaian" trait (if after Ascension, she may longer gain Synergy at all), and any Temporary "Gaian" Chi she has stored starts going back to "pure" at the same rate it became "Gaian" during Stage 0. She may convert pure Synergy to Permanent as normal, and may increase her Permanent Essence rating as normal, however the steps to Ascension only count Permanent "Gaian" Synergy, so she may progress only as many steps down the path total as total Permanent "Gaian" Synergy she has stored. Of course, if she later attunes to another (or the same) Emerald Artifact, she begins gaining and shifting to "Gaian" Synergy again, exactly as she did in Step 0, and may thus continue along the Path again. However, each Step only occurs <i>at the moment of Essencing up</i>; under no circumstances may she gain a Step retroactively. <br>
 In case something somehow lowers her Permanent Essence or her Permanent Chi, it is important to keep track of <i>which</i> Permanent Synergy are "Gaian" and which are "Pure". Anytime Permanent Chi is lost for any reason (most likely due to her splitting it into Temporary Chi for use in Charms or other effects), it is <i>always</i> the most recent Chi that is used. <i>(I will be providing on the Chakras page a secondary Character Sheet for keeping track of Chakras and Chi. On the Synergy Chakra will be a way to denote which Chi are "Gaian" and which are "Pure".)</i> An especially desperate Dragon-Blooded, if revolted by Enlightening, may seek drastic measures. She may try to find a way to damage her newly-gained Permanent Essence rating, to lower it by a dot, thus unlocking her most recent Permanent Synergy (which would almost certainly be the Gaian one). If she succeeds, she may then convert the Permanent "Gaian" Synergy into ten Temporary "Gaian" Synergy and spend or vent them as she wishes. This requires an act of quite literal self-destruction, maiming her own Permanent Essence, not to mention the release of <i>ten</i> Temporary Chi at once could go off like a Tactical Essence Nuke. (If she has the patience for it, she can simply wait ten sessions; as long as she is not attuned to any Emerald, the "Gaian" Synergy will revert to "Pure" in that time.) If she succeeds, and survives, then she will have successfully returned to Step 0, and be simply a Terrestrial again, and so long as she never again attunes to Emerald, she can gain "Pure" Synergy and Essence up like a normal Dragon-Blooded. It is difficult to imagine the type of personality that would be driven to such desperate action merely to remove the "taint" of <i>harmony</i> from her soul. Maybe she simply cherishes the Dragon-Blooded Host and is more perceptive than her peers...<br>

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 As she is now a full Celestial Exalt, her Emerald Artifact no longer halves the minimum age for increasing Permanent Essence; its purpose in doing so was to ensure the Gaian Exaltation reached full maturity before the death of the Exalt. However, the minimum ages for Essencing up are now lowered by the number of years she spent on the Path (her age upon Ascension minus her age upon Enlightenment). She now has a lifespan nearly equivalent to that of any other Celestial Exalt, minus the years the spent on the Path. She may attune to any color of Jade, and to any Terrestrial Hearthstones, <i>and</i> any Emerald Artifact she is attuned to now acts as a Gaian Hearthstone, drawing essence not from any one demesne but from the very patterns of crossing ley lines all across Creation. She may convert any Terrestrial Manse into an "Emerald Manse", which will produce Emerald spheres of Artifact rating equal to the Manse rating the way other Manses create Hearthstones. Such a feat is an equivalent task to building an entire new Manse, and follows the rules for doing so as laid out on page 133 of the Exalted Core Book. Such a Manse and Emerald Artifact may be attuned to by any Terrestrial as though they were a Manse and Hearthstone of her own Aspect, as well as by any Gaian. Emerald Manses cannot be built from scratch; to put an Emerald Manse on a Terrestrial demesne requires first building the equivalent Terrestrial Manse, <i>then</i> converting it to Emerald. <br>
-She may no longer use "Pure" Synergy; the two (or more) Permanent "Pure" Synergy she has leftover from before her Ascension no longer count towards her Chakra, <i>except</i> for determining her maximum Permanent Essence rating. She must always be attuned to at least one Emerald Artifact, thus gaining Temporary "Gaian" Synergy, if she wishes to continue to grow in Chi, Chakra, and Permanent Essence rating. Fortunately, any Terrestrial with one or more Permanent "Gaian" Synergy may, while smelting or experimenting with Jade, roll Permanent "Gaian" Synergy, with difficulty of the Artifact or Resource rating of the Jade she is producing or working with, to determine if Yellow Jade is produced instead. She may also choose not to do this, if she wishes to keep the Jade the way it is.<br>
+She may no longer use "Pure" Synergy; the two (or more) Permanent "Pure" Synergy she has leftover from before her Ascension no longer count towards her Chakra, <i>except</i> for determining her maximum Permanent Essence rating. She must always be attuned to at least one Emerald Artifact, thus gaining Temporary "Gaian" Synergy, if she wishes to continue to grow in Chi, Chakra, and Permanent Essence rating. Fortunately, any Terrestrial with one or more Permanent "Gaian" Synergy may, while smelting or experimenting with Jade, roll Permanent "Gaian" Synergy, with difficulty of the Artifact or Resource rating of the Jade she is producing or working with, to determine if Yellow Jade is produced instead. She may also choose not to do this, if she wishes to keep the Jade the way it is. (The Storyteller can still decide that Yellow Jade appears anyway, just as with any other instance of working with Jade.) <br>
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 A true Gaian is all Aspects, and none of them. She has transcended the Elemental Dragons and her own Dragon blood, and become an Exalted of Gaia. For her own Charms and actions and effects, she is considered to be all Aspects. For others' Charms and actions and effects, she is considered to be no Aspect, nor even Terrestrial. Charms that assume cooperation between Terrestrials can no longer involve her, whether she is the active party or not (unless all parties involved are Gaians; then the charm treats all of them like Terrestrials). However, she may participate in cooperative actions with Terrestrials as though she were any other Celestial Exalt, with no special penalty. Charms and other effects that specifically target Gaians now affect her in full. She may also buy Gaian Charms at normal price, and any she already has may now be used at base mote cost. <br>
-As she is now a full Celestial Exalt, her Emerald Artifact no longer halves the minimum age for increasing Permanent Essence; its purpose in doing so was to ensure the Gaian Exaltation reached full maturity before the death of the Exalt. However, the minimum ages for Essencing up are now lowered by the number of years she spent on the Path (her age upon Ascension minus her age upon Enlightenment). She now has a lifespan nearly equivalent to that of any other Celestial Exalt, minus the years the spent on the Path. She may attune to any color of Jade, and to any Terrestrial Hearthstones, <i>and</i> any Emerald Artifact she is attuned to now acts as a Gaian Hearthstone, drawing essence not from any one demesne but from the very patterns of crossing ley lines all across Creation. She may convert any Terrestrial Manse into an "Emerald Manse", which will produce Emerald spheres of Artifact rating equal to the Manse rating the way other Manses create Hearthstones. Such a feat is an equivalent task to building an entire new Manse, and follows the rules for doing so as laid out on page 133 of the Exalted Core Book. Such a Manse and Emerald Artifact may be attuned to by any Terrestrial as though they were a Manse and Hearthstone of her own Aspect, as well as by any Gaian. <br>
+As she is now a full Celestial Exalt, her Emerald Artifact no longer halves the minimum age for increasing Permanent Essence; its purpose in doing so was to ensure the Gaian Exaltation reached full maturity before the death of the Exalt. However, the minimum ages for Essencing up are now lowered by the number of years she spent on the Path (her age upon Ascension minus her age upon Enlightenment). She now has a lifespan nearly equivalent to that of any other Celestial Exalt, minus the years the spent on the Path. She may attune to any color of Jade, and to any Terrestrial Hearthstones, <i>and</i> any Emerald Artifact she is attuned to now acts as a Gaian Hearthstone, drawing essence not from any one demesne but from the very patterns of crossing ley lines all across Creation. She may convert any Terrestrial Manse into an "Emerald Manse", which will produce Emerald spheres of Artifact rating equal to the Manse rating the way other Manses create Hearthstones. Such a feat is an equivalent task to building an entire new Manse, and follows the rules for doing so as laid out on page 133 of the Exalted Core Book. Such a Manse and Emerald Artifact may be attuned to by any Terrestrial as though they were a Manse and Hearthstone of her own Aspect, as well as by any Gaian. Emerald Manses cannot be built from scratch; to put an Emerald Manse on a Terrestrial demesne requires first building the equivalent Terrestrial Manse, <i>then</i> converting it to Emerald. <br>
 She may no longer use "Pure" Synergy; the two (or more) Permanent "Pure" Synergy she has leftover from before her Ascension no longer count towards her Chakra, <i>except</i> for determining her maximum Permanent Essence rating. Thus she must always be attuned to at least one Emerald Artifact if she wishes to continue to grow in Chi, Chakra, and Permanent Essence rating. Fortunately, any Terrestrial with one or more Permanent "Gaian" Synergy may, while smelting or experimenting with Jade, roll Permanent "Gaian" Synergy, with difficulty of the Artifact or Resource rating of the Jade she is producing or working with, to determine if Yellow Jade is produced instead. She may also choose not to do this, if she wishes to keep the Jade the way it is.<br>

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 If an Unsealed Dragon-Blooded with five or more Permanent "Gaian" Synergy increases her Permanent Essence, she immediately Ascends to Celestial status. She receives a vision of the great body of Gaia, teeming with life, wrought from the elements, but all one organism, the living body of the Great Mother. When her vision is complete, she has become a True Gaian.
 ==== Changes ====
-A true Gaian is all Aspects, and none of them. She has transcended the Elemental Dragons and her own Dragon blood, and become an Exalted of Gaia. For her own Charms and actions and effects, she is considered to be all Aspects. For others' Charms and actions and effects, she is considered to be no Aspect, nor even Terrestrial. Charms that assume cooperation between Terrestrials can no longer involve her, whether she is the active party or not. However, she may participate in cooperative actions with Terrestrials as though she were any other Celestial Exalt, with no special penalty. Charms and other effects that specifically target Gaians now affect her in full. She may also buy Gaian Charms at normal price, and any she already has may now be used at base mote cost. <br>
+A true Gaian is all Aspects, and none of them. She has transcended the Elemental Dragons and her own Dragon blood, and become an Exalted of Gaia. For her own Charms and actions and effects, she is considered to be all Aspects. For others' Charms and actions and effects, she is considered to be no Aspect, nor even Terrestrial. Charms that assume cooperation between Terrestrials can no longer involve her, whether she is the active party or not (unless all parties involved are Gaians; then the charm treats all of them like Terrestrials). However, she may participate in cooperative actions with Terrestrials as though she were any other Celestial Exalt, with no special penalty. Charms and other effects that specifically target Gaians now affect her in full. She may also buy Gaian Charms at normal price, and any she already has may now be used at base mote cost. <br>
 As she is now a full Celestial Exalt, her Emerald Artifact no longer halves the minimum age for increasing Permanent Essence; its purpose in doing so was to ensure the Gaian Exaltation reached full maturity before the death of the Exalt. However, the minimum ages for Essencing up are lowered by her age upon Ascension. She now has a lifespan nearly equivalent to that of any other Celestial Exalt, minus her age upon Ascension. She may attune to any color of Jade, and to any Terrestrial Hearthstones, <i>and</i> any Emerald Artifact she is attuned to now acts as a Gaian Hearthstone, drawing essence not from any one demesne but from the very patterns of crossing ley lines all across Creation. She may convert any Terrestrial Manse into an "Emerald Manse", which will produce Emerald spheres of Artifact rating equal to the Manse rating the way other Manses create Hearthstones. Such a feat is an equivalent task to building an entire new Manse, and follows the rules for doing so as laid out on page 133 of the Exalted Core Book. Such a Manse and Emerald Artifact may be attuned to by any Terrestrial as though they were a Manse and Hearthstone of her own Aspect, as well as by any Gaian. <br>