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| | === Onyx Circle === | | === Onyx Circle === |
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| − | '''Mask of {Monarch}'''<br>'''Cost:''' 40 motes.<br>
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| − | The Dual Monarchs stand at the heart of Stygia - and indeed of all the Underworld. The Monarchs are ''idea'' more than ''creature'', four archetypes that are given with a mask and whose role and life are taken by ghost after ghost with the passing of the previous one. Ideas so powerful they transcend lives. With this Spell the Necromancer rises this idea from the very fabric of the Underworld and creates a mask of perfect Alabaster or Obsidian for her face, donning the legend but not the identity of the Monarch for the remainder of the moment this Spell is used until the moment the Calendar of Setesh marks dawn in the Underworld. This is in fact four different Spells, each of which follows the legend of a Monarch...
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| − | * '''Eset''' The Female Aspect of the White Monarch, Eset is the strangest of them. Some believe that she was the first, that she crawled from the Abyss and was taken up by a ghost, the senseless whispers of Oblivion given a mind and a voice. The Underworld depends on her to control the nephwracks and their servants. It is she that calms the great storms that, let lose, call the mortwights from the Labyrinth. Donning the mask of Eset the Necromancer is wreathed on the anti-light of the Void and the prayers to Eset like an anima about her, drawing all shadows to herself with whispers of the Void dripping quicksilver about her form.<br><br>While in the role of Eset the Necromancer receives the benefits of the Eclipse Caste Diplomatic Immunity towards all beings that draw power or worship Oblivion: Nephwracks, Spectres, Hekatonkires, Deathlords and others. She adds an ammount of dice equal to her Temperance score to all rolls to interact with such beings. She can calm any weather condition in the Underworld - even those created by external forces - with a single success in an Essence roll (or an Essence contest with the creators of deliberate effects.)<br><br>The Necromancer's Virtue dice come as successes when channeling Temperance and she receives the Nature ''Judge'' in addition to her own.
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| − | * '''Usine''' The Male Aspect of the White Monarch, Usine is the stone fist of the Monarchy. He holds the key that controls the golem army of Stygia. In the past, he traveled outside Stygia, and his bright panoply gave the stagnant ghosts of the Underworld the strength to continue clinging to existence. Donning the mask of Usine makes the Necromancer's skin palest pearlescent white, his features becoming as if carved and violent, the sound of clarions following on his steps and white flames and banners shining about him like an anima.<br><br>While in the role of Usine he steels all ghosts who follow him or to whom he gives his favor to always suceed in Valor rolls and ignore all the effects of fear, doubt, and Lethe. He adds his Presence to his Bashing and Lethal Soak and Hardness scores and to his damage which is now Lethal even if unarmed. A number of Automaton equal to his Essence rating come to him, all of which having the same statistics as Denandsor's guardians and will follow all of his commands - they walk into the shadows of the Underworld at the end of the Spell.<br><br>The Necromancer's Virtue dice come as successes when channeling Valor and he receives the Nature ''Paragon'' in addition to his own.
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| − | * '''Setesh''' is the Monarch of Efficacious Prayers, and he oversees the propitiatory rituals and rites that insure the stability of the Underworld. His is the office that ghosts petition when they seek to place a mausoleum in Stygia, allowing them to gain Essence from the gathered prayers the dead offer to the dead. Setesh also maintains the Great Calendar of the Underworld, without which the cycle of rites would fall into catastrophic disarray. Mastery of the Calendar gives Setesh the talent of prophecy, at least as it bears on the future of the Underworld. Donning the Mask of Setesh makes the Necromancer darker, forming robes of pure incense and pyre-flames that flow about him and fall to the ground only to be put off in their unreality, with timing seem to flow in strange ways, leaving pyre-filled afterimages with every step.<Br><br>While in the role of Setesh the Necromancer always suceeds in Prayer rolls with a single success and can cause anyone he blesses to do the same. He doubles the rewards of any Cult rating he might have. He always gets where he needs to be (following the edicts of his Fate in the Calendar and barred by all manner of obstructions - this speeds travel in a dreamlike fashion, but does not allow the character to cross oceans, chasms, or get into locked places) on time with a single success on an Essence roll as long as he travels in part through the Underworld, and can cause anyone he knows to do the same he if he scores as many successes on the same roll as their Essence. He knows the Destiny of a being of the Underworld on sight as long as it is not obscured with magic.<br><br>The Necromancer's Virtue dice come as successes when channeling Conviction and he receives the Nature ''Architect'' in addition to his own.
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| − | * '''Nebthys''' Nebthys has always been the ruler most interested in the living world. She hears the last whispers of the dying, and many secrets have found their way into her dark mind. She has never been generous with her knowledge. She may whisper a single word into the proper ear or direct the Silver Observances to pass a quiet message into the living world, but she does not make proclamations or revelations. Donning the mask of Nebthys makes the Necromancer's skin turn into a dark hue of azure, little prayer strips hanging from beads around her and holding secrets written with ink that smear when looked upon, floating in prayer that coats her like an anima.<br><br>While in the role of Nebthys the Necromancer hears the dying words of all within ten times her Essence in miles as well as their meaning and situation in detail. She rolls Essence when meeting a being of the Underworld to learn as many of the being's secrets as she scores successes. She can breathe Essence normally in the living worlds.<br><br>The Necromancer's Virtue dice come as successes when channeling Compassion and she receives the Nature ''Explorer'' in addition to her own.
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| − | '''Master the Calendar'''<br>'''Cost:''' 30 motes.<br>
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| − | The Calendar of Setesh is more than just the proper regulator of time and space upon the Underworld: it defines the Fate of all creatures under its purview. Understanding its endless tics of the Calendar the Necromancer falls in contemplation of the Calendar, turning the ebb and flow of his mind into its endless gears. This spell must be used in the night the Calendar marks the 13th of a month. It begins at sundown when the Necromancer starts his meditation and contemplation of the gears and reaches its climax at midnight, when the understanding of the Calendar's workings is perfected!
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| − | In that moment the Necromancer has a vision of the Underworld's Fate! The image is of a great event to happen in the Underworld in the following month until the next 13th. If there are many events of great importance the character will learn of the one with the most connection to him and receive a vague inkling of the others. The vision is vague and full of metaphors and allegories, open to interpretation, but it should give some concrete information and a number of direct, hard clues to the event that the Necromancer would be unable to(or at least, hard-pressed) discover in any other manner equal to his Essence score.
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| − | This Spell is a treasured secret of Setesh and embodies his mastery of the Calendar's workings and the Underworld's fate - it is normally taught only by the Monarch to those who have earned his favor. It takes twice the usual time to be researched by a Necromancer alone and without such a ghost tutor.
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| − | '''Call the Colossus'''<br>'''Cost:''' 30+ motes.<br>
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| − | Protecting hallowed Stygia, the center of the Underworld, stand an army of unliving titans a match to a Deathlord's. Most of those automatons are strong like those of Creation, similar to Denandsor's guards and Brass Legionnaires. But 77 of them are the Colossi of Stygia - masterpieces whose craft is legend and the origins mystery - great works of Magical Materials and stranger elements still, the pride and joy of Dual Monarch Usine. With this ritual the Necromancer can call upon one of the Colossi to serve him. The Colossus walks into the passageways of Stygia, losing itself on the labyrinthine streets until it finds itself nowhere but before the Necromancer.
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| − | The Necromancer must know the name of the Colossus he wishes to summon. The actual spell itself costs 30 motes. Once a Colossus is summoned the necromancer must overpower its Stygian will with an opposed Willpower + Essence test. For every 5 additional motes the Exalt spends during casting, the Colossus' pool decreases by one die. This struggle continues with rolls made each turn, until one character accumulates three more successes than the other. If the Colossus wins it turns around and walks away without enmity and without care, and cannot be recalled by the necromancer for a Year and a Day. If the necromancer wins the Colossus must obey him for a Year and a Day or fulfill a single task that can have infinite duration. Once the Colossus fulfills its obligation it begins the walk towards Stygia, turning impossible corners to always appear before Usine once again in the space of a day. Should they be destroyed the remains will return to Usine to be rebuilt unless the Colossus was brought low by effects that could damage the Five Magical Materials.
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| − | Colossi are as strong as Second Circle Demons - and although their portifolio is more limited to the mysticism of Artifacts rather than the wonders of the Yozi they tend to be more resilient than their demon counterparts. They are automata in all respects. Those who use this Spell to take away from the Stygian army during wartime or use them to strike against the city they have sworn to protect earn the eternal enmity of Usine. It is not hard to learn their names - although all of their capabilities are close secrets of Usine, all have great legends as protectors of Stygia - legends that have spread far and wide in the Underworld.
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| − | '''Eternal Echoes'''<br>'''Cost:''' 25 motes.<br>
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| − | There are many was in which Necromancy can rise the dead. Much like in bodies that attempt to act when alive or the Hekatonkires that cling to a long-gone existence or are created out of memories and nightmares of dead titans a Necromancer can drag a memory of the dead back to the living! This Spell allows the Necromancer to view a single scene of the past wherein blood was spilled, an event that may last up to one hour. This allows one to view wars and assassinations, ceremonies and blood oaths long gone.
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| − | The spill of blood lasts a long time in the memory of Creation and the Underworld - even a cut to the finger will last at least a few decades, a simple murder a few centuries, and the bloodbaths of the Primordial War, Blood Oaths that changed countries and slaughters of surprise and betrayal last forever. Those can be seen as long as the Necromancer stands in the same place and can call back to it in some way - ''the assassination that ocurred here last night'' is valid, as well as ''the ceremony in which Yyee was initiated in the cult of the Bull.'' When the definition would call forth many images - such as ''the death of a Demon in the Primordial War'' asked in a site of many such battles - then it will call forth the most intense and bloody of them all.
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| − | Such haunts appear as one hour of phantom images in the air, doing the things they did when alive. All scents and sounds of the past will manifest, although they will be harmless in the case of killing gases and sounds. Those images are not in any way subtle and can be seen by all: drawing images of the Primordial War or the duels of Exalted will create phantom images that can be seen from miles away.
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| − | '''Threefold Regret Visitation'''<br>'''Cost:''' 40 motes.<br>''Requires an Arcane Link.''<br>
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| − | Guilt is a most powerful force. It can can crush the most powerful man with the weight of past failures - and memory of a tragic and terrible is a great part of the very nature of the Underworld. With this Spell the Necromancer can overwhelm a man's soul with the weight of all the lives he has taken. In a great ritual stretching from dusk to midnight the Necromancer drowns a figurine of his victim in blood and calls to the souls of those he has wronged: the victim will have a terrible nightmare or daydream of drowning in blood he has spilled before the next dawn, and thereafter is plagued by whispers, flashbacks, hands of the dead crawling from the earth, the vision of the eyes of his dead peering at him from thing air and even the visit of particularly important dead to talk to him. The guilt materializes no more than three of the last type of phantasm. Those are not actual ghosts, and no wards or attacks are effective against them.
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| − | The victim of this spell cannot regain Willpower with rest and must roll Willpower at the beggining of each Scene - at a Difficulty 1 if they have only taken a few lives when forced and with ample justification, Difficulty 3 if they have killed as many as a common soldier during a war, Difficulty 5 if they have taken lives in a routine manner like a serial killer, paid torturer or iron-fisted despot, and Difficulty 10 if they have performed acts of mass genocide. Lives ruined count as taken for the purpose of this Difficulty, especially if such ruin has led to insanity and death. Should this roll fail the victim increases the Difficulty of all actions performed during the Scene by the ammount by which he failed the Willpower roll - this penalty can be ignored for a single action with the expenditure of 1 willpower or a single temporary Virtue dot (for actions where that Virtue could have been channelled.)
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| − | This spell ends after seven days or on the eventuality the victim accomplishes a deed (or series of deeds) that appease the dead in some manner. Those dead cannot lay their guilt upon the victim ever again - although this Spell can be cast again with the same or reduced potence if some of a victim's guilts have not been appeased. For instance, should a despot appease the dead of his one act of genocide by releasing the slaves taken on a razed country, instituting a memorial day for their tragedy and starting reconstruction efforts in the country he has razed and salted, he can still be targeted with this Spell again to deal with the Difficulty 5 class of dead coming from the political malcontents and revolutionaries he routinely puts to the sword - and even after those have been appeased, to those killed in the less genocidal wars he has started, as well as his own violent ascent to power.
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| − | Some victims may change their entire outlook in life due to this Spell and its reward for charity and appeasement.
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| | === Obsidian Circle === | | === Obsidian Circle === |
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| − | '''Ebony Illumination'''<br>'''Cost:''' 60 motes.<br> | + | '''Ebony Illumination'''<br>''Void Circle Spell''<br>'''Cost:''' 60 motes.<br><br>The soul of a Nephwrack becomes a chandelier. That of three destroyed Chosen or Gods become the candles. They burn around the Ghost targeted by Ebony Illumination, within the great chandelier that burns like the candles for Five Days and Five Nights in the calendar of Setesh, internalizing the Numbers and Lessons of power. The candles burn to the end, until only a flickering spark remains, and a misma of power covers the ghost. As Setesh marks the Fifth Day, Ebony Illumination is cast. Void opens around the ghost, and all the miasma, all the power and the souls are infused on him... and then there is nothing. Within this void, he sees them all, and conquers them all. Within this void, the Ghost tames power and souls and walks away reborn. Illuminated.<br><br>Illuminated Ghosts become proficient at the use of Essence. That grants them the ability to... |
| − | Apotheosis to the unliving. Within the Underworld there are wonders - the single living flower that blooms in an immense bone garden in the Labyrinth; the remains of a prophet consumed by his own void-wrought prophecies; the manifested true face of a ghost before he was born; the tears of Pluto, the Incarna forever locked away; a masterpiece crafted by the Dual Monarchy. In those there are the myriad possibilities even the shadow of Creation possesses. Within the Underworld there are great Spirits of elsewhere whose light has been changed to the monochrome wonder of Netheos. The Necromancer takes both of those and brings a ghost to become Illuminated!
| + | *... make Combos as Exalted. They can mix Martial Arts and Arcanoi as if they were the same Ability. |
| − | | + | *... add dice up to their their highest Passion+Essence. |
| − | The Ghost's heart is ripped apart and replaced with the Underworld Wonder that begins to consume his very soul as he walks in a sacred circle drawn in painstaking detail accross a mile and filled with bones and incense. In this circle the ghost fights the Spirit in a duel that always lasts from dusk until dawn - the Spirit can be weakened by the Necromancer, but if it defeats the Ghost it receives the right to go free and the ghost is consumed by the grandeur of the Underworld Wonder as it burns both to nothingness. Neither Ghost nor wonder will recompose - they are lost forever. If the Ghost wins he and the Spirit become one in glorious fires of apotheosis! For one hour the ghost burns to be reborn as an Illuminated being. The Illuminated's appearance changes to incorporate designs of the Spirit and the Wonder that have aided in their rebirth.
| + | *... attain the Bulb of the Perfected Lotus the manner of the Dragon-Blooded. |
| − | | + | *... learn Shadowlands Circle Necromancy. |
| − | Illuminated Ghosts become proficient at the use of Essence. That grants them the ability to... | + | *... receive Magical Material Bonus from artifacts by forcing attunement. Their 'natural' material comprises all Grave Goods. |
| − | *... make Combos as Exalted. Arcanoi can be Comboed with themselves and other kinds of Charms without restrictions. | + | *... the ability to manifest something akin to an anima, a power that fits their soul, their identity. They receive twice their Essence in ''Ebony Bleesings''. One ''Ebony Blessing'' is equivalent to one dot of a Hearthstone as a power innate to the Illuminated, and he may divide those between as many of them as he wishes, or one great Hearthstone-power. Hearthstones whose power include their breaking are powers that take one month to recharge. Hearthstones that affect the items they are socketed in instead affect items attunned to the Ghost. Those Hearthstones are tipically Underworld ones, but they do not have to be - they may be of any Aspect, even Celestial ones through a lens of shadow. |
| − | *... add dice with Charms up to their their highest Passion+Essence. | |
| − | *... attain the Bulb of the Perfected Lotus in the manner of the Dragon-Blooded. | |
| − | *... learn Necromancy of up to Labyrinth Circle. | |
| − | *... learn up to their Essence score in Spirit Charms once possessed by the Spirit whose Essence now belongs to the Illuminated.
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| − | *... receive Magical Material Bonus from artifacts by forcing attunement. Their 'natural' material comprises all Grave Goods. A Grave Good attuned to a Illuminated can enter Creation without becoming dust at sunlight if the Ghost commits twice the required motes to it - this is counted after the double ammount of motes required to enact a Greater Alchemy. | |
| − | *... master two ''Illuminations'' - Transcendent and Transient. Those are akin to Hearthstone abilities of level four that fit the theme of the Illuminated's Wonder and Spirit. Hearthstones whose power include their breaking are powers that take one month to recharge. Hearthstones that affect the items they are socketed in instead affect all items attunned to the Ghost. Those Hearthstones tend to be Underworld ones but do not have to be - they may be of any Aspect (even Celestial ones warped with the effects of the Underworld.)
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| − | The Illumination is a permanent change to the Ghost and changes his very nature by chaining it to Spirit and Wonder. It cannot be undone by any means known to man or God. The Illuminated remains a Ghost to all effects that would target target him as one - most Illuminated learn Necromancy if only to be able to Countermagic certain effects that would mean their iminent end in the hands of a Necromancer.
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| − | (''Relentless Revenant Spirit, the Abyssal Charm that enhances the Abyssal's Ghost after his death now grants the ability to make Combos, the dice-adding Limits and Martial Arts access of the Illuminated plus access to natural attunement of Soulsteel and Void Circle Necromancy. All that on top of doubling its number of starting Arcanoi. If there is to be a Charm that allows an Abyssal to reign as a king in the Underworld it should have considerable power!'') | + | (''Relentless Revenant Spirit, the Abyssal Charm that enhances the Abyssal's Ghost after his death now grants all those abilities, plus access to natural attunement of Soulsteel and access to Labyrinth Circle Necromancy. All that on top of doubling its number of starting Arcanoi. It is already bad enough for an Abyssal to lose all of his Charms, flexibility, and access to the higher circles.'') |
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