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The Veil of Fate's Faltering

Breastplate, Artifact 4, Commitment 7

Soak: 8L/7B, Hardness 3, Mobility -0, Fatigue 0. May provide orichalcum or starmetal bonus, depending on what it was attuned as.

In the first age, there was a Solar craftsman named Cianan, who made many great works for her friends and allies, as well as for herself. Among her most fabled creations, the Veil of Fate's Faltering was made after a conversation with another friend, the Secrets Caste Sidereal Hallin Vosh. Vosh claimed that no force could escape the power of the Tapestry; Cianan argued that such would not be necessary for a truly dedicated servant of Heaven, and that destiny could never anticipate the Solar Exalted. To drive home her point, she crafted this armour, among her finest creations. Ironically, this occured as the preparations for the Usurpation were underway, and in creating the Veil Shogar convinced Vosh that fate could not restrain the Solars, causing him to shift his support from the Gold Faction to the Bronze. Cianan never cared to wear the Veil, and it vanished during the Usurpation - although the simple knowledge of its possibility led to the development of the Crimson Armour Of The Unseen Assasin. Its current location is unknown.

In appearance, the Veil is a simple starmetal breastplate with orichalcum inlays, glimmering and reflecting a thousand colours that have never been seen. Behind it trails a cloak as black as night, which seems to twist as people observe it. No one can see the Veil as anything but magical.

The Veil must be fully harmonized to function - Solars who do so receive the orichalcum magical material bonuses, while Sidereals receive the starmetal bonus. Anyone cross-harmonizing may choose which bonus to receive when attunement takes place. In addition to its relatively weak powers as armour, the Veil imposes its will upon Destiny. While attuned to the armour, the wearer is reflexively aware whenever she is in the presence of an Astrological effect, and may destroy it with a touch. She need not do so, but is not automatically aware of the effects of each astrological effect upon a target. In addition, the target's actions cannot be foreseen by fate; the ease with which the character bends the Pattern make this impossible. The character may reflexively choose, when targeted by any Essence-driven effect that distinguishes between creatures inside of or outside of fate, whether or not she is outside of Fate with regards to it. Finally, the character may declare herself more important than Fate at the cost of 5 motes. Until her next action, she adds her Essence as an external penalty to all actions that target her, regardless of what their source or intent is - this is a Shaping effect.

Comments

It's cool armor, I really like it. The concept is neat, and I'm a big fan of artifacts with non-standard effects. Obviously everyone scales artifacts differently, but if you were a player in one of my games and presented this to me, I'd say it would be artifact 4 rather than 5. Good job.One question, you say it gives the starmetal bonus, does that mean all exalt types other then SM caste alchies and sidereals pay doube motes to attune?-Ambisinister

Excellent catch. I had changed the attunement rules for it, but forgot to upload them - it was supposed to say that Solars can attune and gain the Orichalcum bonus, Sidereals can attune and gain the Starmetal bonus, and anyone needing to cross-harmonize gets either bonus. Oops. As far as ratings, I kept looking at that 5 mote power, but reviewing the Crimson Armor, I would say that you're right. I'll revise that. :) - FrivYeti

Also noting how nice this is. I like both the story and the implementation. Not for me personally, as I'm a huge fan of non-obvious artifacts, but that's only because the Wyld Hunt in my games tends to be a real nightmare. -- GreenLantern