Revision as of 13:27, 23 October 2004

The Wretched

In the beginning, the Night Caste were created as the agents of the Unconquered Sun. Their prowess was unrivalled, and they acted as the explorers of the wilderness; their abilities were exercised, and the people disregarded them. They acted as the investigators of the Realm; their abilities were tested, and the people avoided them. They acted as the spies of the Solars; their abilities were challenged, and the people feared them.

This was insufficient for the Night Caste; seeking greater tests of their prowess, and taking increasing revelry in the terror they endengered, they became assassins for themselves. Striking wherever they could inflict fear, they predated upon their kin to delight in the panic they caused. Denounced as the wretched fiends that they had become, there were none to aid them in the Usurpation. These befouled Solar Essences, ripe with the darkness of the sun's shadow, fell into the Yozis hands.

In this time of fear, there are those possessed of the same hunter's talent as those old spies, but with all of their failings. Selfish thieves, vicious assassins, twisted stalkers and other servants of shadow are far from the standards of the Celestial Incarna, but can be lured into the service of those darker and more adept than they.

And so the Yozi's newfound slaves are crippled, their flesh rendered invalid by agonies, their mind dulled by narcotics, their soul blunted by a thousand failures. Left bereft of ability and mocked by feeble spirits, the mortals are suddenly given the chance to draw one of their tormentors into darkness and kill them. The rush of the challenge and the disarray of its foes awakens the feral pleasure deep beneath the captives' skin far stronger than any physical ecstasy.

The Yozis offer them unbound prowess, and the change to sow terror and discord as forbidden agents of the darkest powers in Creation. Inevitably, the offer is taken. The prisoner becomes an Infernal Exalted as a Solar shard of divine darkness and the worst of mortal predation combine as one nightmarish being. Now, they find and explore Creation's hidden places and shadow or hunt those incurring the Yozi's wrath.

Anima Banner: Wretched Infernals are marked by a single ring of mouldering green upon their brows. Their animas are translucent veils of shimmering dark colour, lines of faint green light tracing throughout.

Anima Effects: The Wretched have superior control over their animas than other Infernals; they may invert their animas to exert their powers without any visual display to others. When an Wretched spends Peripheral Essence, he may spend twice as many motes in order to prevent the expenditure from adding to her anima banner. This ability does not allow the character to remove Essence displays caused by the use of sorcery.

The character may also extend her inverted anima like an veil around her, severing the geometry that links her and her surrounds. This extended anima lasts for an entire scene and costs 10 motes to evoke. Anyone attempting to perceive the Wretched find their senses confounded by skips of vision and distorted hearing, and their attempts to trail her are thrown by the disparate and conflicting trails left behind by the anima's strange interaction with Creation. In game mechanic terms, this distortion increases the difficulty of all rolls to detect or track the Exalted by 1, so long as the muted anima is in effect.

Caste Abilities: Members of the Wretched excel at noticing the slightest clues, and striking where people expect least. They have a natural affinity for the Abilities of Athletics, Awareness, Dodge, Larceny and Stealth.

Associations: The season of winter, the colours of venal blood and oil, the northern direction and the cult of The Silent Wind

Sobriquets: Hidden Madness, Children of Night, Fearbringers, Verdigris Pupils, Eyes of Malfeas, the Wretched

Concepts: Deluded stalker, remorseless turncoat, backstabbing assistant, cold assassin, insane bandit, unseen slayer

Once

A godling was born

And shadow was his birthright

He had to shine

No more

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