Latest revision as of 23:28, 8 June 2010

Betrayal: The Cinereous Weave of Lies

A Sidereal Martial Art by DeadManSeven.

Introduction

Not much to say here; the Charms mostly speak for themselves as to how this style works. There's lots of influence here from the music of The Smashing Pumpkins, so if you're a fan, look for song titles and lyrics and whatnot.

Background

There are as many origins told for the Cinereous Weave of Lies as there are there are practitioners. Whether this is because the founder of the style invented many of them himself in the spirit of the confusion the style creates, it is part of the initiation to invent an origin, or the style simply attracts a wide array of liars is uncertain. What is well known is that those who use this style - often called Grey Liars, or Betrayers - are amazingly brutal and ruthless in combat. It is a favoured style of assassins who wish their victims to know they are about to die, and particularly jaded Chosen of Venus.

This style treats knives of all types (and any Artifact counterparts) as unarmed attacks. None of its Charms may be used while wearing armour.

Charms

                                                    True
                                                    Love
                                                   Gambit
                                                  /      \`
Through  One-And-Only  June's  Third  Broken-  Heart-  Disarm
  Ruby      Stance      Wire    Man    Down   Chasing  With A
  Eyes          \      /       Dance  Defence  Kata    Smile
     \           Heart-         \        /       \        /
      Cruel     Cutting         The Final         Infinite
     Lover's     Strike           Coda            Sadness
      Taunt            \         /                  Pose
           \            Cinereous                  /
            --------- Weave of Lies ---------------
                     /    Form     \      \`
                    /       |       \      [one complete]
                  Knife   Knife    Knife   [Martial Arts]
                  Cuts    Stands  Poisons  [   style    ]
                 Partner  Alone    Heart
                    \       |       /
                     \    Empty    /
                      --- Heart ---
                        Meditation
                            |
                       Nothing And
                    Everything Stance

(For a non-ASCII Charm tree, click here.)

Through Ruby Eyes

Cost: 4 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 4

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisites: none

with a well-matched suitor

The wise lover knows every thought that passes through her partner's mind. She can predict his every motion before he makes it, complete his sentences, know his reactions. In the faithful lover, this is a sign of a long-lasting partnership; to the Betrayer, it is a list of potential weaknesses.

When activating this Charm, the martial artist selects a single target. She learns how many times he has split his action for the turn, his initiative, and any deleterious effects he is currently suffering from (wound penalties, poisons, hostile Charm effects, etc.).

Cost: 6 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 4

Prerequisites: Through Ruby Eyes

that she hated.

With a word, the cruel lover can wound deeper than any physical blow. After successfully defending against an attack, the character may activate this Charm. The martial artist utters a taunt that is so enraging to her attacker, he can think of nothing but trying to harm her again. The target must succeed on a Virtue roll (selected by the martial artist's player) at a difficulty of 3; if he fails, he cannot split his next actions next turn (although he may still use extra or independent actions), and must attack the martial artist. The target must have some way of perceiving the character for this Charm to be used.

Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 4

Prerequisites: none

Destiny did not connect them;

From across a room, two lovers lock eyes in a seemingly-everlasting gaze, and all else is irrelevant. The world around them ceases to be for a moment in time, as they stand alone despite the crowd around them. Through this Charm, the martial artist learns to tap this effect and twist it to sinister means, entrancing enemies by disrupting their connection to the Loom of Fate momentarily.

The character selects a single target, and the colour of her anima banner obscures his vision. For the duration of the turn this Charm is used, he cannot defend against attacks that do not come from the character without reflexive or persistent effects. Also, any magical effects that aid anyone but himself are disrupted; continuous effects like hearthstones resume giving their benefit on the following turn, but group benefits that must be activated in order to function (such as many Dragon-Blooded Charms, or Sidereal anima powers) cease working, and must be reapplied.

Cost: 6 motes

Duration: Five Turns

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 3

Prerequisites: none

though the Maiden was in love,

Channelling and altering the natural patterns of love, the Betrayer can beguile her opponents, making it difficult for them to summon the resolve to attack her. The character becomes aware of all attacks made against her, and subtracts [Essence] successes from any incoming attacks.

Cost: 8 motes

Duration: Instant

Type: Supplemental

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 4

Prerequisites: One-And-Only Stance, June's Wire

her suitor meant nothing to her.

This is widely known as the signature attack of a Betrayer, the technique that symbolises them and their methods. Dashing forward, the martial artist tosses a knife from her left hand at the heart of her target, and drives it home with the palm of her right. This attack may be performed unarmed, in which case a knife composed of essence appears in the character's hand; this knife will appear magical to essence sight and other means of magic detection, and uses the character's statistics for punching instead of using a knife. The Heart-Cutting Strike cannot be dodged, and completely bypasses armour. If the attack is successful, the target loses a point of Willpower as a deep sense of loss washes over him.

Cost: 8 motes, 2 Willpower

Duration: One Scene

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 4

Prerequisites: none

In her dreams she saw the Other

Emulating the intricate dance of the unfaithful, the martial artist moves in the steps of both the betrayer and her lover to confuse and overwhelm her partner. While this Charm is active, the character has access to a second action each turn. She is still subject to only activating a single Charm each turn without a Combo, but she is free to build Combos that can take advantage of a second dice action (for example, including both offensive and defensive Supplemental Charms that are used to aid an attack from one action and a defence from the other). Simple and Extra Action Charms do not affect the additional action provided by Third Man Dance; the character could, for example, use a Simple Martial Arts Charm with her main action, and still use her additional action for a dodge. The second action cannot be split, although it may be used for a full dodge or parry. The character's features change subtly while using the extra action; often the change is between feminine and masculine, although this is not always the case.

Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower, 1 aggravated health level

Duration: Instant

Type: Supplemental

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 4

Prerequisites: none

and prayed to find him,

The martial artist draws strength from the astrological sign of the Lovers, symbolic of uneven and unequal relationships, and raises her hands to protect herself from an incoming blow. Using this Charm allows the character to parry a single attack perfectly and prevent any of its secondary effects from harming her, provided the attack has a physical component.

Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower

Duration: Instant

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 4

Prerequisites: Third Man Dance, Broken-Down Defence

for her need was dire.

The wronged lover will brook no more offences. The sign of the Lovers appears mingled in the character's anima banner as this Charm is activated, and quickly reverses to become inverted. The character may make a counter-attack against anyone attempting to attack her who is in range at her full attack pool, adding her Essence to raw damage.

Cost: 5 motes, 2 Willpower

Duration: One Turn

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 4

Prerequisites: none

She scattered her caution on the wind

The innocent lover stands in the thrall of true first love, where love is novel and unique. But a maiden's first love is dangerous, for it can so easily be broken, and leave her jaded. With this Charm, a Betrayer can recall the memories of her first love, and use them to rise above her treachery.

The character rolls a Virtue of her choice; each success restores a point of Willpower. A Virtue cannot be used with this Charm more than once in a day. On a botch, the character loses a Willpower point, filled with cynicism and doubt at the point of love.

Cost: 10 motes

Duration: One Scene

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 4

Prerequisites: True Love Gambit

and followed her heart,

Surrounded by lies, the only truth the Betrayer can believe is within her heart. Swiftly tapping a series of chakra points, she channels inner reserves rarely seen from deep within her soul. While this Charm is active, the character receives the following benefits:

• she receives a number of health levels equal to her Compassion, with wound penalties of [11 - Essence]
• her Conviction is added to her Stamina for the purposes of natural soak and knockdown/knockback
• her Temperance is subtracted from wound penalties
• her Valor is added in automatic successes to any Willpower roll.

Cost: 6 motes, 1 Willpower

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 4

Prerequisites: True Love Gambit

convinced the Other wanted her

The martial artist uses her looks to discompose her opponent, feigning innocence to catch him unguarded. She adds the highest of her Social Attributes to a single parry. These dice are not considered to count against the character's maximum dice-adding cap. Also, if the parry is successful, the target acts on the initiative tick one below the martial artist in the next turn, regardless of any initiative modifiers (excluding initiative-winning Charms).

Cost: 15 motes, 1 Willpower

Duration: Indefinite

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 5

Prerequisites: Heart-Chasing Kata, Disarm With A Smile

and needed her,

Through this Charm, the Betrayer is able to cripple her opponents through dreams of obsession. She must first have engaged the target in some physical interaction to have been able to align his chakras correctly; combat is the most obvious method, thought other activities such as dancing or sex would work equally well. After the martial artist has left the target's presence, she strikes the Infinite Sadness Pose, and that night, the target begins to dream of her. Whether the dreams are of revenge, lust, or some other intense emotion, it matters not; the obsession is equally strong. The dreams return every night, driving the Betrayer's opponent to madness, until he finally succumbs to hunting her down, believing they must never be apart.

Each night the target is plagued by dreams of the character, roll his Willpower; success indicates the target is able to continue his business the following day, while failure means he begins searching for the character. However, succeeding the nightly Willpower roll effectively reduces the target's permanent Willpower by 1 for the duration of the Charm: eventually, he must confront the character. While tracking her, he is able to know the exact path she took to flee from him, and he is able to follow it; wards will not bar his path, sanctums open as he passes, and any magical transportation used by the martial artist has its benefits bestowed on the target at the appropriate points in his journey. (Sidereals using this Charm are often heavily reprimanded if this Charm causes unauthorised beings access into Yu-Shan.) Until the target arrives in the presence of the character, she knows his exact location while he follows her backtrail. When he faces her, he has a few options to break the effect of the Charm; killing the character will cease its effects, as will convincing her to stop the maddening dreams. He can also attempt to just walk away from the character, and thus breaking the enthrallment, but this involves taking a dice action and success on a Willpower roll. It is, of course, very rare that anyone is able to turn their back on a Betrayer in the Infinite Sadness Pose.

Cost: 15 motes

Duration: One Scene

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 5

Prerequisites: One complete martial art (all Charms), Cruel Lover's Taunt, Heart-Cutting Strike, The Final Coda, Infinite Sadness Pose

because.

The Betrayer closes her eyes, and her form begins to blur. The blur sharpens and clarifies, and four identical figures step away from the martial artist. These figures all look like exact replicas of her, save for their blank featureless faces and faintly translucent skin; upon close inspection, what looks like shimmering shards of glass can be seen in place of blood and organs. They swiftly move to occupy one space, their movements slightly unsynchronised, giving the overlapping figures an eerie flickering appearance. Some Sidereal scholars of the martial arts consider this Form to be symbolic of the Betrayer divorcing herself from her Virtues; others believe it is a technique in the art of lying that allows her to fight without being present. In either case, it is often agreed that this is one of the stranger Forms currently known; one of the rumours surrounding the style is that its creator was amazingly happy he was able to stump his peers as they puzzled over the motivations behind his signature technique.

The replicas will fight as one being, independent of the martial artist's actions. Their dice pools are generated according to the martial artist's Virtues, and cannot be split: the replicas may attack a number of times equal to her Valor with her full pool each turn, dodge a number of times equal to her Compassion, and parry a number of times equal to her Conviction. The replicas also add double the martial artist's Temperance in bashing and lethal hardness. Watching the replicas fight can often be very disturbing; one will always stand completely still and absorb attacks, while one parries, another dodges, and the last attacks, often all at the same time. The replicas have relevant combat statistics identical to the martial artist, including soak and health levels; if they are destroyed, they disappear in a blaze of essence, and the martial artist takes a single lethal health level of damage.

The replicas can be used to channel Charms through, but they must have a duration of no longer than a turn, and they cannot be Extra Action Charms. Also, the martial artist cannot use a Charm herself and through the replicas in the same turn, unless it is Reflexive. This exception also applies to Combos; she could, for example, channel a powerful attack Combo through the replicas, and use any reflexive defences in the Combo for herself and the replicas. The replicas can range up to [Essence] miles away from the martial artist, and she has a vague sense of their actions for as long as they exist.

This is a Martial Arts Form Charm, and cannot be used in conjunction with any other Form Charms.

Knife Cuts Partner

Cost: Varies

Duration: Instant

Type: Reflexive

Minimum Martial Arts: 6

Minimum Essence: 6

Prerequisites: Cinereous Weave of Lies Form

to be empty is to be alone;

Drawing on the most basic ideas of betrayal, the martial artist can redirect the blows of her enemies so they land among his allies. After the character has been struck by an attack and damage has been determined, she may activate this Charm, paying a variable cost based off the damage she would have suffered, as well as any additional effects. Activating the Charm costs a point of Willpower, and damage is paid for based on what type it is: each level of bashing damage cancelled costs 1 mote, a lethal level costs 2 motes, and any aggravated levels cost 4 motes. All the damage must be paid for to redirect the attack. The martial artist may also optionally redirect any additional effects (such as knockback, mote draining, stat decreases, etc.) for a flat cost of 3 motes per effect; if an effect is not paid for, it isn't redirected, and strikes the martial artist instead. Many Betrayers perfect elaborate death feints, varying their reactions based upon the attack used, to fool their enemies into thinking they have scored a killing blow. As her action the next turn, she releases the attack against an enemy (she is unable to target her initial attacker), completely unharmed; if the attack was augmented by Charms, they do not count against the character's Charm use for the turn the attack is released. Effects that specify where an attack originated from in order to defend against it count the redirected strike to be from the opponent, not the character. The attack is rerolled against the new target, using the same dice pool the target used to strike the martial artist.

Cost: none

Duration: Special

Type: Permanent

Minimum Martial Arts: 5

Minimum Essence: 6

Prerequisites: Cinereous Weave of Lies Form

to be alone is to be clean;

A life of betrayal ensures that, in the end, the Betrayer must act alone, with all the forces of the world converging against her. To face this inevitability, the martial artist hones her skill against multiple assailants. She reduces her multiple action penalties and increases her base damage by one for each enemy beyond the first she engages in personal combat with.

Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower, (2 experience points)

Duration: Instant

Type: Supplemental

Minimum Martial Arts: 6

Minimum Essence: 6

Prerequisites: Cinereous Weave of Lies Form

to be clean is to be pure;

At this level of mastery, the Betrayer can use her skills to poison her enemies against themselves, attacking the very values they hold close to destroy them. Executing a lightning-fast strike, the martial artist targets an opponent's Virtues. For attacks augmented by this Charm, roll damage and divide the number of successes in half (rounding down). The attack does no damage; instead, the character may remove this many points from a single Virtue of the target for a scene. Temporary points in Virtues are lost first; if a Virtue's temporary rating is reduced below zero, subtract the remaining successes from the permanent rating (to a minimum of one). Loss of permanent Virtues does not affect essence pools, and will fully return after a full night's rest. Alternatively, she may strike with such ferocity that what is lost cannot be saved; by spending two experience points, the character may remove one of the target's Virtue points permanently.

Cost: 3 Willpower

Duration: One Scene

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 7

Minimum Essence: 7

Prerequisites: Knife Cuts Partner, Knife Stands Alone, Knife Poisons Heart

purity is empty,

A life of lies leaves the Betrayer hollow within. She may draw upon that callousness, using it to unlock greater power than those living by conventional morality could think is possible.

The martial artist meditates upon the nature of her role as a betrayer, justifying the need to forsake her righteousness. For every ten minutes she spends in meditation, she is able to use a permanent Virtue point in the place of essence she has committed to power Charms. Each Virtue point sacrificed yields [Martial Arts] motes, and is considered to no longer be part of the character's permanent rating in that Virtue for as long as the Empty Heart Meditation is active; when the Charm ends, the points return at a rate of one per Virtue each day. Virtue depletion does not affect the character's Essence pool, although it will alter her behaviour based on her lowered Virtues. The martial artist is unable to use her last point in any Virtue for the Empty Heart Meditation.

Cost: 20 motes, 2 Willpower

Duration: One Scene

Type: Simple

Minimum Martial Arts: 8

Minimum Essence: 8

Prerequisites: Empty Heart Meditation

as am I."

The ultimate technique from the mastery of lies, the martial artist learns to cause the very spot where she stands at any given moment to be a matter of interpretation. Space refuses to remain constant around her, and time is not time at all. She does not fade away or display any signs of moving; in one second, she is somewhere, and in the next, she is not.

While in the Nothing And Everything Stance, the character may instantly move anywhere within a radius of [Martial Arts*10] yards for the cost of a single mote (which does not count towards Charm use, nor can benefit from sutra discounts), provided she is not restrained in any way. This can be used to avoid attacks (save those that are perfect, or target a specific individual regardless of location). The character can also be struck on the initiative tick she chooses to attack without her being able to change her location, although this does not apply to any counter-attacks she makes.

Comments

A good concept, and well executed. One thing plagues me, though; for a Style designed around the concept of betrayal and designed for manipulators and jaded socialites, why do the Form mechanics revolve around the character's Virtues? It seems rather out-of-place to have the most brave, compassionate, calm and driven people the most effective at such an ignobly-themed Style...DeathBySurfeit

Mostly, it was to make the weakening part of Empty Heart Meditation more dehabilitating. Thematically, the form and EHM about about being separate from your virtues (maybe there should be something about the form that makes Virtue rolls harder?), and True Love Gambit can still backfire even if you're of the highest moral calibre that there ever was, so that only really leaves Heart-Chasing Kata as being strange. I guess I saw using Virtues for mechanics as, it's not just corrupt soulless bastards who betray people. Sometimes the worst betrayal comes from someone you trust (Compassion: "I'm doing this for your own good." Conviction: "This is what has to be done."). - DeadManSeven

Lesse... what songs, what songs... Thru the Eyes of Ruby, Lily (My One and Only), Disarm, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (an album, of course), maybe 1979? (Junebug / skippin' like a stone) -- OhJames

That's most of the titles, I think. There's still a few lyrics buried in the text. Off the top of my head, I remember Bullet With Butterfly Wings, The End Is The Beginning Is The End, and Glass And The Ghost Children. - DeadManSeven, likes Easter eggs.