Latest revision as of 16:12, 8 June 2010

Verdant Breath of Seasons Style

Time

By AlecAustin

This is my attempt to come up with a Sidereal Martial Art on par with those presented in the Sidereals book. I haven't come up with a Student's Sutra yet, but there is a Elder Sutra. No doubt many people will be able to discern its origins.

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Bounteous Renewal</b>

<b>Cost: 12 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min Essence: 4
Prereqs: None

By focusing the renewing warmth of spring into their hand, the character touches one of the target’s chakras and fills them with unbounded energy. This removes any fatigue penalties the character may be suffering, and they do not need to sleep or make fatigue checks for the next 24 hours, unless compelled to do so by a magical effect. The martial artist may use this charm on themselves.

<b>Cost:  12 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min Essence: 4
Prereqs: None

By using the flows of Essence underlying the paths of watercourses, the character is able to travel miles in a single instant. So long as they are within (Essence x 5) yards of a river, stream, or other body of running water, the character may activate this charm and travel up to (Essence x 5) miles downstream from where they are. Initiates of the Verdant Breath of Seasons often use this method to escape from pursuit.

<b>Cost: 10 motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min Essence: 5
Prereqs: Bounteous Renewal, Flow of Stream and River, 
mastery of one complete martial arts style.

Assuming the posture and generosity appropriate to the season of spring, the character becomes beloved by the natural world. Dew and the tiniest blades of grass support them, and animals, plants, and even the earth itself move to defend her. The character gains the effects of Graceful Crane Stance and Feather-foot Style, and any environmental, positioning, or wound penalties her opponents suffer are doubled in effect, as the world and small animals move to keep the character from harm and harm those who would attack her. At the storyteller’s discretion, this form may also call nearby animals to defend the character from harm, and cause the mounts of their opponents to balk and become uncooperative.

A character cannot usually gain the benefits of more than one Form charm at a time. This charm is incompatible with armor, and cannot be activated during autumn or calibration.

<b>Cost: 7 motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min Essence: 4
Prereqs: None

By using the heat of Summer to distort the vision of her foes, the character appears to waver back and forth, occupying several places at once. Opponents who are relying on sight to target their attacks subtract the character’s Essence + Martial Arts in dice from their attack pools. This effect may be counteracted by relying on other senses, incurring the usual penalties for fighting blind, or by using attacks that affect an area.

<b>Cost: 8 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: 5 turns
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min Essence: 4
Prereqs: None

Striking with the intensity of the inescapable sun, the character’s unarmed attacks become all but impossible to avoid. The defensive pools of those attempting to dodge or parry their attacks are reduced by the character’s Essence (to a minimum of the target’s Essence), and their Martial Arts in dice penalties or difficulty modifiers to each of their attacks are negated (dice penalties are cancelled before difficulty modifiers). This is a semi-perfect effect, and removes the benefits of shields and charms as easily as those of superior positioning.

<b>Cost: 12 motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min Essence: 5
Prereqs: Shimmering Mirage Technique, World Without Shadow, 
mastery of one complete martial arts style.

Having mastered the power of summer, the character shimmers when they move and radiates oppressive heat. In addition to gaining the benefits of both Shimmering Mirage Technique and World Without Shadow, any living opponent attempting to attack the character must make a fatigue check as if their fatigue rating was one higher than it is. The difficulty of this roll cannot be reduced below 1, and in addition to the usual effects of a failed fatigue check, the attack is negated if the roll fails.

A character cannot usually gain the benefits of more than one Form charm at a time. This charm is incompatible with armor, and cannot be activated during winter or calibration.

<b>Cost: 8 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min Essence: 4
Prereqs: None

Blown by the winds of autumn, the character can make prodigious leaps that carry her as far as an arrow. Leaping up to (Essence x 100) yards to reach their opponent, the damage of the unarmed strike the character enhances with this charm is doubled before soak is applied to it. The character must be able to see their target when they activate this charm.

<b>Cost: 9 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: 5 turns
Type: Reflexive
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min Essence: 4
Prereqs: None

Taking on the stance of a peasant harvesting grain, the character becomes a reaper of men, cutting down their foes in smooth, practiced motions. The character adds their Essence in damage to their unarmed attacks, and any character struck by them must make a difficulty 4 Stamina + Resistance roll to avoid knockdown. In addition, whenever the character knocks an opponent prone or incapacitates them, they immediately gain an optional reflexive unarmed Martial Arts attack which must be directed at a different target.

<b>Cost: 12 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min Essence: 5
Prereqs: Carried by the Wind, Reaper in the Field, 
mastery of one complete martial arts style.

Channeling the Essence of autumn, the character becomes a harbinger of death, like the chill wind that carries the year from summer into winter. In addition to the effects of Reaper in the Field, the character gains their Essence in reflexive dodge dice against all attacks made against her, as well as half her Martial Arts score in reflexive Martial Arts actions each round.

A character cannot usually gain the benefits of more than one Form charm at a time. This charm is incompatible with armor, and cannot be activated during spring or calibration.

<b>Cost: 10 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min Essence: 4
Prereqs: None

By enshrouding themselves with the Essence of air, the character may snuff out fires with a touch and kill vegetation by mere proximity. Plants with an Essence score less than the character’s freeze and die if the character is adjacent to them and wills them to. The character’s unarmed attacks deal their Essence in lethal damage that can only be soaked with stamina, and their pre-soak damage is doubled against fire-aspected Dragon-bloods, fire elementals, and other creatures composed of flame. This charm is explicitly incompatible with weapons not allowed by Verdant Breath of Seasons style.

<b>Cost: 15 motes
Duration: Varies, but no more than an hour
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min Essence: 4
Prereqs: Touch of Frost

By calling on the freezing touch of winter, the character renders those around them unable to move or act. Players must roll willpower against a difficulty of the character’s Essence to have their characters avoid this effect, and all within (Essence x 100 yards) of the character are affected. So long as the character remains within the area of effect, takes no violent action, does not attempt to cast a spell, the charm persists, but if they leave or if anyone directs violence against those still affected, the charm ends, and characters may respond as if they had held their actions. This charm cannot affect characters with a higher Essence than its user, and its user may choose to exempt specific individuals from its effects.

<b>Cost: 12 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min Essence: 5
Prereqs: Walking the Frozen World, mastery of one complete martial arts style.

By taking on the stillness and bottomless cold of winter, the character makes themselves all but invincible against mortal foes. In addition to the effects of Touch of Frost, the character adds their Martial Arts + Essence to both their lethal and Bashing soak, and may parry and inflict lethal damage while unarmed. In addition, the aura of bone-numbing cold that surrounds the character doubles the mobility penalties of metal armor for those within 5 yards of them. This effect overcomes the effects of lesser charms, sorcery, and the magical material benefit of Moonsilver armor, inflicting the normal mobility penalty on those relying on such effects. Characters whose modified mobility penalty exceeds their Stamina + Athletics cannot act, as their armor freezes solid around them.

A character cannot usually gain the benefits of more than one Form charm at a time. This charm is incompatible with armor, and cannot be activated during summer or calibration.

<b>Cost: 18 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 5
Min Essence: 5
Prereqs: Blessed Dew of Spring Form, Blistering Heat of Summer Form, 
Falling Leaves of Autumn Form, Crystalline Perfection of Winter Form

By activating this form, the character calls upon the power of the ever-changing seasons, flowing from one stance to another with the fluidity of the year. Upon activating this form, character gains the benefits of any two of the prerequisite form charms they desire, and at the beginning of each turn, they may choose a different pair of form charms as a free reflexive action. In addition, the character’s base initiative is doubled, charms such as Thunderclap Rush Attack do not automatically win initiative over them, and they are immune to elemental damage from fire and cold.

A character cannot usually gain the benefits of more than one Form charm at a time. This charm is incompatible with armor, and while it is not subject to the seasonal restrictions of the forms preceding it, it cannot be used during calibration.

<b>Cost: 15 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 6
Min Essence: 6
Prereqs: Verdant Breath of Seasons Form
The Elder Sutra of Time:  Once there was a Maiden with black eyes...

By coming to grips with the power of Calibration and how one year flows into the next, the character gains the power to use time as her ally. The unarmed strike enhanced by Turning of the Years deals no damage, but the character rolls their Essence against a difficulty of their victim’s Essence, and if they score even one success, the target ages a decade. For every two successes beyond the first, the number of years the target is aged is multiplied by 10, and if a single success remains after the rest have been paired off, the total is multiplied by three, so 3 successes would age a target 100 years, while 4 would age them 300 years, and 6 would age them 3000 years, annihilating any mortal except possibly a very young Sidereal Exalted.

Turning of the Years may also be used on inanimate objects, with the size and power of the object influencing the difficulty of the roll. Aging a letter into dust would be a difficulty 1 roll, while aging a first age warship would be difficulty 8 or higher.

<b>Cost: 18 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 6
Min Essence: 6
Prereqs: Turning of the Years
...who smiled and said, "The years are neither kind or unkind, they just are,"

Through an enhanced understanding of the dark power of Calibration, the character may curse an individual to fail at the worst possible moment. The unarmed strike enhanced by Five-Fold Darkness Strike deals no damage, but the character rolls their Essence against a difficulty of their victim’s Essence, and if they succeed, each success they score curses the victim to horribly botch a roll at the worst possible moment, as per the Eclipse Caste anima ability. Wielding the power of Calibration is perilous, however; a botch on this roll curses the character instead, with a number of ‘successes’ equal to the number of 1s they rolled.

Five-Fold Darkness Strike can be used surreptitiously, as the ‘unarmed attack’ it enhances could take the form of a handshake or caress, so those who have mastered this technique are often feared and distrusted by those who know of its power.

<b>Cost: 20 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Min. Martial Arts: 7
Min Essence: 7
Prereqs: Five-Fold Darkness Strike, 
mastery of another sidereal martial arts style.
...as she wiped her parents' blood from her lips.

The ultimate technique of the Verdant Breath of Seasons style incorporates the darkness of Calibration into the perfect balance of the year, allowing the character to wield the power of all seasons combined. The character is completely immune to dice penalties, and gains the effects of all the individual season forms as well as that of Verdant Breath of Seasons Form. It is customary for those learning Five-Fold Darkness form to have mastered Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Style as well, so that they can join the power of the Seasons with that of Creation itself.

A character cannot usually gain the benefits of more than one Form charm at a time. This charm is incompatible with armor, and its cost in motes is halved during calibration.

Comments

I would really like to see a master of this and Roiling Vernal Tempest Style in action. Very interesting Charms, and intriguing structure! - FourWillowsWeeping

Dare I mention that Creation has five seasons rather than four?  :) - Quendalon

Dude has a point, Alec. Seasons in Creations are elemental, just like everything else in the game. Grr. - hplovescats

no there are 5 Elemental periods , each split into 3 months, but there are still only 4 seasons. Depending on where u are in creation each type of season lasts longer/shorter (i woudl assume winter is short in Fire, adn Summer short in Air). The seasons last 3.5 to 4 months each. Thsi was mentioned by GCG, but i can't find the qoute right now... grr. ~Sabis

No, Grabowski at one point mentioned that there was a long growing period, sometimes allowing for three or four harvests, before descending into effectively winter months. There were other things mentioned that I don't recall, but that should be enough. While the four seasons are effectively represented, they don't each have equal represenative time. The style's mechanically fairly nice, but not necessarily represented in-setting. ~Jabberwocky

Which I don't think is necessarily problematic; my own favorite style (out of those I wrote) is based on (inspired by) real-world imagery that has no reflection in Exalted. It's cool. - FourWillowsWeeping

Yeah, I personally wouldn't change it. There's enough elementally-attuned Styles already, and I wouldn't want to have to deal with adding another branch. When I said it's "mechanically fairly nice," I probably should have said that I like it quite a bit as it stands. ~Jabberwocky