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The Other Pillar: Falcon's Sidereal Linguistics Charms

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The Scripture of The Speaker
Once, there was a maiden...
...who really loved to talk.
She would speak to anyone
And anything
And the world would tell her things she liked to hear.
So she tore out her voice and cast it away.
"Love communicates," said the world.

Questions Without Words</b>

<b>Cost: 4 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Scene
Type: Simple
Min. Linguistics: 3
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs: None

Sometimes it becomes necessary to ask difficult questions, but undesirable for people to know you have asked them. The true master of fate never faces this quandary - people simply choose to say things that he wants to hear.

To activate this charm, roll Manipulation + Linguistics against a difficulty of a single target's Essence. With success, the Exalt twists fate so that the target will, before the end of the scene, answer a question he has. The question need never actually be vocalised. The answer is always true as far as the target knows, but not necessarily complete and while the question is always answered, the answer may come in an oblique or confusing manner.

At the end of the scene, the target will remember giving away the information, although not to who and not why. Depending on the nature of the information, they may not care.

Answers Without Meaning</b>

<b>Cost: 2 motes per question, per target
Duration: Variable
Type: Reflexive
Min. Linguistics: 5
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs: Questions Without Words

As a further refinement of the 'coincidental linguistics' developed in Questions Without Words, someone who knows how to manipulate fate may change the meaning of what he says to best suit what his audience wants to hear.

If you succeed in a Manipulation + Linguistics roll with a difficulty of the target's Essence, whatever you say - even utter gibberish - in answer to a question will satisfy the questioner as if you said whatever they wanted to hear. You gain no special insight into what they think you said. The delusion that you gave a meaningful answer will persist for one hour per success you score over the difficulty.

As experts in what is real and what is not, Fair Folk are specifically immune to this charm.

Fortunate Communication Epiphany</b>

<b>Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Min. Linguistics: 2
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs: None

Linguistics is about communication, and the student of communication realises that everyone and everything has something to tell him. All it takes is a fortunate insight, and the true meaning of anything becomes clear.

This charm allows the user to immediately understand a single sigil, simple phrase, or other form of communication. While the translation is based on intent and therefore perfect, it only works on basic messages.

Example: Kestrel is poking around some ruins in the jungle when she comes across some ancient script in the language of the dragon kings. Not knowing this language, she uses Fortunate Communication Epiphany. The script details the creature imprisoned here, its name, history and nature, and the fact that should the ruins be breached the creature will be freed. Kestrel gets 'if you can read this, the monster has escaped'.

Kestrel leaves and enters the jungle, where she finds a skull on a stick, decorated with feathers and detached rabbit parts. This is a form of communication, so she uses FCE again and realises that it is a tribal territory marker, communicating 'keep out'.

Kestrel ignores it and enters the tribal village. She is greeted by a naked shaman shouting at her. Out comes Fortunate Communication Epiphany again. The shaman is explaining that Kestrel must leave or the tribal totem, the shapeshifting war beast, will come along and kill everything in sight because he thinks green clothes are unlucky. Kestrel gets 'leave, or we're all in deep shit'.

Sum Of All Knowledge Coincidence</b>

<b>Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Min. Linguistics: 3
Min. Lore: 1
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs: Fortunate Communication Epiphany

Listening to the world is a spiritually rewarding process, but can also be a directly rewarding one as well. Fate has ways of putting knowledge in the path of those who would use it, if you only know how to hear it.

To activate this charm, the Exalt must open a book (or unfurl a scroll, or access some other form of written media) to a random page and read the first line his eyes fall on. That line will contain a wisdom that can aid him in his current task. Many Exalts who know this charm are in the habit of carrying around small books of aphorisms and words of wisdom, as written material is not always directly to hand.

World-Speaking Voice</b>

<b>Cost: 20 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Scene
Type: Simple
Min. Linguistics: 5
Min. Essence: 4
Prereqs: Sum Of All Knowledge Coincidence, Answers Without Meaning

This charm uses a prayer strip marked with the scripture of the Speaker. With an ancient invocation the Exalt casts the strip into the air, where it extends to a great length and rapidly traces shimmering sigils of shining blue aroud him. It is said that studying the patterns the strip weaves can bring great wisdom, but the charm's primary use is to enter into a state of communication with everything in the immediate area.

While under the effects of this charm, the user can speak to and understand any being with a language, even one he has never heard before or that is derived from completely alien concepts. He gains his Essence in automatic successes on any Linguistics roll to do with speaking or comprehension.

In addition, animals are predisposed to obey anyone who can speak directly to them in their own language, and if they do not obey the Exalt their reasons for doing so are immediately made clear to him.

The earth and plants that grow from it are even more responsive, as few deign to speak to them, let alone in a language they can understand. The Exalt is immediately made aware of local gods active in the area, and both how diligently and in what manner they carry out their duties. He counts as having supernatural tracking ability for the purposes of following recent trails, and undergrowth will part to let him through without trouble. At the Storyteller's discretion, plants and stones may do the character favours in exchange for minor services like being moved to a more pleasant location.

Finally, the character is considered to be aware of any attack made on him while under the influence of this charm and will always be made aware of traps or natural hazards well before they endanger him.

Comments

I like Questions Without Words.

I would really like if you were to post whole Scriptures and canon-style trees up to the pinnacle for any Ability you're writing Charms for. That would rock. - willows

Falcon - You're right. It would. I'll go do it now... well, I'll do the scripture thing. Trees are a little more work, so I'll do them in my lunch hour. To know the bank is to wish you didn't, etc...

I love these. A lot. A whole fucking ton :) New stars may alight in the night sky of Creation to allow for these :) DS

I'm generally against the idea of giving Sidereals new charms, especially new /trees/ that start from nothing. However, these are cool charms and I might adapt them into Solar Charms. Not a bad job:D
-- CrownedSun

Falcon - Man, I love praise. :) There will be more, in all sorts of abilities, so feel free to add them to sidereals or convert them to solar or whatever.

Sum of All Knowledge is also excellent :) But I'm a little more meh about FCE and WSV. Can't really say why though... they don't feel out of line for Siderealish abilities... DS

Right then. I haven't read all of the Sidereal Charms yet (though I have read most of them), and I don't have the book, so apologies if I say anything that's blatantly untrue; this is all just what I've noted from what little I've read.
That having been said, I'm really not comfortable with Questions Without Words. As I recall, Sidereal Charms which directly control other people in ways such as this require a roll, generally against the target's Essence. (Force Decision; that damned Bureaucracy or is it Occult Charm which gives spirits no free will; etc.) I think this Charm is and will be unbalanced and, moreover, inconsistent, unless you make it (a) require some sort of roll vs the target's Essence or (b) make it not work on targets with Essence lower than the Sidereal's. The only Charm I can think of that contradicts this even a little is Shun the Smiling Lady (man I hate that Charm), and you'll note that that Charm isn't mind control -- and, most importantly, the aspect of it that is mind control (the aspect that makes people fall out of love with the target) doesn't work on people whose Essence is higher than the Sidereal's.
Re: Answers Without Meaning -- Intelligence doesn't feel right here. I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure opposed Sidereal Charms basically always require either an Attribute + Ability roll, or a direct Essence opposition. So, I'd make this Essence vs. Essence, not Intelligence vs. Essence.
~ Shataina

I would make AWM a proper opposed roll, and QWW follow the usual mind control metarules for Sidereals. I think Sum of All Knowledge Coincidence is boring. World-Speaking Voice seems kind of... unfocused, somehow; I think its effects can be boiled down to a much simpler statement, like, "The Exalted is perfectly aware of the intentions and actions of every being within (space), and can communicate perfectly with them all." - willows

What's a "proper opposed roll"? And what are the usual mind control metarules for Sidereals? Are these set down anywhere that I've missed?

~ Shataina

No, that's my shorthand for "figure out the patterns among established Charms and apply them." - w

Falcon - Okay, I changed QWW and AWM to opposed rolls, but I'm not sure about these mind control meta-rules. I mean, Cash And Murder Games doesn't have any mention of essence in it. What it does have is a mechanism for (mostly) ending the effects of the charm. QWW has a similar-ish system built in, in that what a player receives from the charm is mostly at the discretion of the GM - a theme which I put into the whole tree. This means that if it's liable to be a problem, I can just throw the player something horribly cryptic that they can handily misinterpret.

And QWW isn't really mind control. It's fate control, which is a lot harder to avoid. Sure, high-essence beings are more difficult to manipulate that way, but that's what the opposed roll is for. I'm not sure this is important.

As for WSV... the problem is that I'm writing these charms from a GM point of view, and that means I'm trying to make them powerful, but without utterly crippling any plot the GM might have intended. The sidereal can't be allowed to communicate perfectly with everything, because then the GM can't craft any mysteries ever again. He can't just be able to communicate perfectly with all thinking beings, because, well... it's not enough, not for a prayer strip charm - especially since with Ling 5, he's already able to speak most languages (or in my house rules, all languages). Hence he's just got a variety of things based on communication.

Quite apart from that, there's already an Awareness charm that lets you know everything within (area), so I wanted to avoid duplication.

Maybe some oversoul form of QWW that works on stones and trees and animals and things?

Ideas?

I don't know how Cash and Murder Games works, so I can't really comment on that until someone tells me. <shrug>

I will say that I think that the difference between so-called "fate manipulation" and "mind control" is a matter of semantics in this case, and that regardless, both should require an Essence roll. When I find out what Cash and Murder Games does, it may contradict me, but from what I know of Sidereal charms currently, anything which attempts to control someone else's actions or feelings or thoughts or decisions or whatever requires an opposed roll or for the target's Essence to be lower ... but charms which control the target's circumstances have no such requirement. This is why Shun the Smiling Lady works automatically on the first part (lowering someone's Appearance changes their circumstances, not their mind or their actions) but not on the second (because making someone fall out of love with someone else is controlling their mind or actions).
In other words, Sidereals don't have ways to make you do something without a roll. They have ways to make your life suck without a roll, but not to force you to feel or think or believe or do something.
~ Shataina

Shataina's right; the restriction is predicated on effect, not cause. - willows

Falcon - I know. It was a bit of rambling. CaMG works by making you spend Willpower to avoid the effect for a scene, and when you've spent as many Willpower as the number of successes the sid rolled, the effect ends. Except it doesn't end, it just drops to non-supernatural levels.