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Achromatic Lexicon Of Creation Style

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This martial arts Style is part of the Ascendant Quill Cascade.

“What sane man would confront one versed in the ancient techniques of the Achromatic Lexicon Of Creation Style? All the world is a stage to them, and by challenging them you put yourself forward as an actor – one under their own control.”

A perfectly honed discipline lost even to memory itself, Achromatic Lexicon Of Creation Style persists only in the tools of its foundation – the precepts of Worldly-Canvassed Calligrapher Style through which the artistry of Essence this Style represents can be reforged. In battle, it is subtle and oblique in its tactics, but nevertheless brutally effective.

Celestial Exalts who have mastered Worldly Canvassed Calligrapher Style may begin to learn Achromatic Lexicon Of Creation Style without tuition, despite the latter being a Sidereal level martial art.

Worldly Canvassed Calligrapher Style treats attacks with quills and feathers as unarmed attacks. In the hands of a practitioner of the Style, they possess the statistics of throwing knives when used in combat (both in melee and at range). This Style is incompatible with armour.

Achromatic Lexicon Of Creation Style once possessed Sutras, but with the Style’s fall into obscurity it has since been lost. A master of this Style could, with sufficient study, meditation and a challenging spiritual quest, piece it back together from the methodologies inherent in the Charms used.

Thrice Shadowed Narrator Stance

• Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: One scene
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Martial Arts: 5
• Minimum Essence: 4
• Prerequisite Charms: None

One can dictate the flow of a plot away from the stage, and thus practitioners of Achromatic Lexicon Of Creation Style learn to separate themselves from the riotous melees they control. Shifting through the steps of an intricate kata, wrist twirling to leave complex patterns glowing softly in the air, the character writes herself out of the perception of others.

Once activated, the Charm renders the character silent, invisible, scentless but not impalpable. The only means she can be detected is during her own actions; the person in question must then stunt the means by which he is inferring her location, or the attempt fails. Finally, he makes a non-reflexive Perception + Investigation check against a difficulty equal to the martial artist’s Essence. If successful, she has been noticed and may be targeted normally by him for the remainder of the scene.

It is possible for someone who has spotted the character to state her position to others; this removes the need to stunt, and detection checks may be made at any time, rather than just during her action. In the meantime, area effect attacks and environmental hazards affect her normally.

Illumination In Histories Untold

• Cost: 8 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Supplemental
• Minimum Martial Arts: 5
• Minimum Essence: 4
• Prerequisite Charms: Thrice Shadowed Narrator Stance

A skilled writer is fluid in adapting not only events, but characters to better form his tale. As the martial artist lands his blow on another, she makes a series of taps and strokes upon their skin, annotating them.

When an attack enhanced by this Charm deals damage to an opponent, the martial artist may reduce that damage by as many health levels as she wishes. Each level removed this way allows her to ‘write’ a memory into her foe, which he will believe fervently unless evidence is overwhelmingly against it. Some possible forms that this memory may take and consequent effects include:

• “You love Helia more than anything else in this world.” All people whom the character believes he loves receive a bonus to social rolls made against him equal to his Compassion. He may become protective or amorous in his attitude, depending on his nature. Attacking the subject of his love requires him to fail a Compassion check.
• “You hate Josenphal with a passion.” All people whom the character believes he hates receive a penalty to social rolls made against him equal to his Conviction. He may become spiteful or simply cold, depending on his nature. Defending the subject of his hate requires him to fail a Conviction check.
• “You are afraid of sharp blades.” The character must make a successful Valour check to approach, confront or attack the subject of his fear. A botch results in an undignified retreat.
• “You find dancing abhorrent.” The character must make a successful Temperance check to approach or engage with the subject of his disgust. A botch results in a violent reaction instead.
• “Your arms are frail and shaky.” Any physical disability imposes a -1 penalty on all relevant actions; this is cumulative, should multiple memories of the sort be used.
• “You died a year ago.” Although the character is clearly conscious, he will believe he died and is consequently a ghost, adopting whatever behaviour he believes is fit for one.
• “You were in Chiaroscuro last month, and killed Dalphen J’hal.” Factual information is believed to have occurred by the character, unless it is a confirmed impossibility.

Other possible applications of the Charm may be used at Storyteller discretion. The Charm’s effects are permanent, although a reapplication to remove the memories on a one-for-one basis or the use of a sufficiently powerful mind-cleansing effect will dispel the beliefs.

Mastery Of Dynamic Elements

• Cost: 9 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Martial Arts: 5
• Minimum Essence: 5
• Prerequisite Charms: Illumination In Histories Untold

When writing a narrative, characters within can seem to have such force that the writer cannot fully control them; the circumstances in which they are placed, however, are entirely under the writer’s control. The martial artist constructs a perfect concept through the sequence of her movements, and reality cannot help but attempt to comply.

Usage of this Charm allows the martial artist to change the elements of the battle, sculpting the weather, terrain and even mortal combatants closer to her idealised design. An element of battle is defined rather nebulously as ‘something in the background’; the sky, a mountain, or a mortal legion, for example. When activating this Charm, the character makes an Essence + Martial Arts roll, and notes the number of successes. These she may spend on different effects, as follows:

Making an element do something typical and likely of it requires a single success. Examples would be for an overcast sky to begin raining, a shale mountainside to begin a landslide, or a mortal army to fall back in fear from a superior foe.

Making an element do something that is within the limits of its nature, but unlikely or very strenuous, requires three successes. Examples would be for a thundercloud to form from a clear sky, a dormant volcano to begin erupting, or a mortal legion to get butchered by opposition they outnumber.

Making an element do something that is outside of its nature but feasibly possible requires five successes. Examples would be for a thundercloud to shed tears, a perfectly normal mountain to reveal itself to be a formerly-dormant volcano, or a legion to lay down their arms and dance in an impromptu celebration of the joy of war instead.

Any manifestly impossible effects cannot be done with the use of this Charm, nor can enchanted terrain or magical creatures be controlled in any fashion. The Storyteller remains the arbiter of which effects are and aren’t possible, and at what expense.

Valiant Atmospheric Focus

• Cost: 8 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: One scene
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Martial Arts: 5
• Minimum Essence: 5
• Prerequisite Charms: Thrice Shadowed Narrator Stance

The heroes of any story prove themselves when the time is right – and that time is within the hands of those telling the story. Activating this Charm, the martial artist consecrates her surroundings to the precepts of a Virtue of her choice, and an accordant sense of motive and purpose settles over the battlefield. For the remainder of the scene, whenever that Virtue is channelled, those dice provide automatic successes equal to their number rather than being rolled normally. Whenever the opposing Virtue to that chosen (Compassion opposes Conviction, Temperance opposes Valour) is channelled, it produces no dice instead.

Triumphant Protagonist’s Impetus

• Cost: 5 motes
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Reflexive
• Minimum Martial Arts: 5
• Minimum Essence: 5
• Prerequisite Charms: Valiant Atmospheric Focus

It is those characters with spiritual depth that triumph in a narrative; other obstacles exist to be overcome. Fuelled by essence, the practitioner exerts her natural prerogative to persist and to prevail, marking herself as the victor. This Charm may be activated to nullify any attack against the character launched by a creature with an Essence less than her own. Artificial creatures are taken as having an Essence equal to that of their creator for the purposes of this Charm. The character does not suffer any environmental damage in the turn in which this Charm is activated. This is a perfect effect.

Achromatic Lexicon Of Creation Form

• Cost: 15 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: One scene
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Martial Arts: 5
• Minimum Essence: 6
• Prerequisite Charms: Mastery Of Dynamic Elements, Triumphant Protagonist’s Impetus

The martial artist ceases to perceive and interact with the actualities of combat; only concepts are important to her, and as she inscribes the air with glowing lines, body forming precise patterns of light and shadow, lit by precisely timed bursts of essence, it is these concepts she controls.

Able to record an attack rather than make one, she has unlimited range and may target anything she is aware of. Her attacks have effectively no physical component, for the purposes of those defences that require one. Able to record a deflection rather than block an attack, all those with an Essence lower than her own must spend a point of temporary Willpower to roll an attack against her.

The martial artist may make Essence + Martial Arts checks to sculpt the battlefield as though by Mastery Of Dynamic Elements at any point by spending an action in order to do so; she may split her action in turns in which she does this.

Indefatigable Expression Of Being

• Cost: 3 motes
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Martial Arts: 6
• Minimum Essence: 6
• Prerequisite Charms: Achromatic Lexicon Of Creation Form

The movements, signals and sigils inherent to Achromatic Lexicon Of Creation Style are an emulation of the true expression of concepts; the meaning behind each Charm is evident to all those who look upon it. As the martial artist hones her prowess, she begins to understand how to tailor these movements to communicate precisely what she wishes.

By activating this Charm and making a series of complicated gestures, the character can silently communicate a message of no more than (her Essence x 5) words to all those within sight of her, regardless of native tongues. Even witnesses insufficiently intelligent to appreciate the concepts in question approximate them to the limits of their nature and intellect. When used to communicate with animals, this Charm reduces the difficulty by an amount equal to the martial artist’s Essence.

Secret Of Indelible Patterns

• Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: Varies
• Type: Supplemental
• Minimum Martial Arts: 6
• Minimum Essence: 6
• Prerequisite Charms: Achromatic Lexicon Of Creation Form

Within the arrangement of Creation, patterns recur again and again, an initial design repeated indefinitely; heartbeats, Exalt-shards, and seasons are all imbued with this quality. Learning the secret of this unwritten code, the Exalt imbues her own actions with persistence.

A roll supplemented by this Charm is worked out normally; however, if it fails, it will repeat itself on the same initiative pass the next turn. All modifiers that applied to the initial attempt, effects of Charms and so forth are also applied to the next attempt, without additional expenditure, effort, or act on the part of the pattern’s creator. The roll continues to repeat itself until it succeeds, or else is repeated a number of times equal to the martial artist’s Essence.

For the purposes of this Charm, a roll is judged to have ‘failed’ if it hasn’t succeeded at its express objective – in the case of an attack, this is to strike an opponent. A parried or dodged attack has not succeeded, although a perfectly soaked one has. Likewise, a bureaucratic manoeuvre, if foiled by another, has not succeeded, and so on. The Storyteller’s discretion is final on determining whether a roll has ‘failed’ or not in this context.

This Charm may be freely used to augment rolls other than martial arts, and Comboed with Charms from other abilities. In the case of rolls taking longer than one turn, the reattempts have the same duration, starting the turn after the last one completes. Where a roll requires physical materials or conditions, reattempts require the same. This Charm may be Comboed as though it had an Instant duration.

Inexorable Lucid Continuation

• Cost: 15 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: One scene
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Martial Arts: 6
• Minimum Essence: 6
• Prerequisite Charms: Indefatigable Expression Of Being, Secret Of Indelible Patterns

Whilst a person’s actions write themselves on the world about them, when they pass from the waking world their only canvass is themselves. A martial artist of this degree of finesse learns to blur the boundary and exert herself on the real world from the threshold of sleep.

When activating this Charm, the character chooses a person she knows into whose dreams she writes herself; if that person is presently awake or does not dream, the attempt fails. She is explicitly allowed to journey into her own dreams. The character drifts to sleep, and the Charm begins.

The world of dream, having had the structures of reality imposed upon it, follows the same fundamental rules as reality around it. One key difference is that any use of Mastery Of Dynamic Elements or similar effects treat –all- behaviour of an element as being common and typical for the purposes of successes required, regardless of how unusual or improbable it is.

Whilst this Charm holds, damage taken in the dream is damage taken in reality; curative effects used by either sleeper are equally substantial. Loss or gain of material possessions is not. The martial artist may cease the scene at any point with a nonreflexive Essence + Occult roll at standard difficulty. The subject of the dream, if another, finds it harder to awaken naturally or wilfully, requiring a nonreflexive Essence + Occult roll at a difficulty equal to the martial artist’s Essence.

Ascendant Quill Mastery

• Cost: 12 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: One scene
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Martial Arts: 6
• Minimum Essence: 7
• Prerequisite Charms: Inexorable Lucid Continuation

Reaching the conclusion of her studies, the martial artist is blessed with perfect understanding of her endeavours so far. When this Charm is activated, she may assume Tranquil Scholar Form, Worldly Canvassed Calligrapher Form and Achromatic Lexicon Of Creation Form at the same time and without additional expenditure, provided she has learnt each of these Charms.

For the remainder of the scene, she may freely Combo Charms of Tranquil Scholar Style, Worldly Canvassed Calligrapher Style and Achromatic Lexicon Of Creation Style with one another, without spending Willpower or developing the Combo beforehand.

As a final benefit, the character with knowledge of this Charm gains the ability to learn Air-aspected Terrestrial Charms for twice the experience cost and training time of those typically available to her. If already able to learn those Charms in this fashion (being an Eclipse Caste Solar, for example), she no longer has to spend double the experience or training time in order to do so.

Feedback

Uh. I am not even going to try to assess whether these Charms are "balanced." They're certainly evocative. I would suggest, however, that Secret of Indelible Patterns should have a duration of "Varies" instead of "Instant," requiring the Essence to remain committed as long as repeat rolls are being made. --MF

Thanks! Evocative was a priority of mine, although I like to think they're equally imbalanced when compared to other Sidereal martial arts Charms. The modification to Secret Of Indelible Patterns makes an awful lot of sense, so I've added it alongside a safeguard stating the Charm's ability to be Comboed despite it...DeathBySurfeit

Mastery of Dynamic Elements is not an appropriate martial arts charm. This is most definitely a Sorcery effect. Try to picture in your head the Sidereal or Solar martial artist performing a kata and causing volcanoes to erupt, or soldiers to dance. How is the martial focus of these movements helping this to occur? My answer: it isn't, he's just performing fancy sorcery motions. All of the other charms, I can see (though Indefatigable Expression of Being is at the very outside limit). Being related to the concept of the style just isn't enough; you also have to make sure that the effects relate somehow to actually doing martial arts.

• Prismatic Arrangement of Creation bends this rule heavily, but only with effects centered on the Exalt (such as having a Hearthstone in one's forehead).
• Dynamic Elements does not stem from a modification to the Exalt, it is a grand-scale use of Essence to reshape the surroundings.
  Therefore, I think you should rethink this charm. Of course, this also means rethinking all the charms which you have dependent on it.
  - IanPrice

If you find the premise of the Style incompatible with your view of Sidereal martial arts in Exalted (and Mastery Of Dynamic Elements is a common theme throughout), I can't think of anything less than a total redesign to assuade your concerns. Whilst you're very welcome to do such, I hope you understand that I'd pass up the chance myself. |Your objections are welcome regardless, though...DeathBySurfeit

Quick fix to some typos, and an update: I believe Border of Kaleidoscopic Logic (specifically Meditative Battlefield Escalation) and Quicksilver Hand of Dreams Styles provide canon precedent for effects such as Mastery of Dynamic Elements at a Sidereal level...DeathBySurfeit

The scope of your charm has been validated by canon (actually, it's the army-rearranging charm from Scarlet-Patterned Battlefield style that convinces me most), but I do have a small objection still. Specifically, I think Essence 4 is too low for it. Essence 5 would probably fit better, as I believe that's where the charms of this scope from Scroll of the Monk are. (I may be mistaken, since the book isn't with me - if I am, then I can without reservation say that this style is complete and nifty) - IanPrice, actually kind of happy he was proven wrong by canon.

I agree. Done'd!