MartialArts/MonochromeStormofButterflies

Still under construction. In fact, this is just random idea repository until I start hammering out solid effects.

Transience: Monochrome Storm of Butterflies Style

Fiction: Cultivating Cherry Blossoms

<fiction: short piece about ritual murder as yuko watches. outline:>

• <1: Banquet, Tahn talking with Yuko>
• <2: Taln gets poisoned, Juervo attacks Astol>
• <3: Astol kills Juervo>
• <4: Yuko sleeps with Astol>

The three brothers had been seated nearest the Ecclessiastic Butterflies that Call the Soul to Nihility, an honor befitting the sole living celebrants at a banquet of the dead. Furtherest from her sat Astol, a dark young man whose eyes moved quickly amongst the ghosts who spoke with him, seeking his opinion of the maladies of the body as well as the soul; he listened carefully and spoke softly, so softly that those listening leaned in, trying to seperate his soft but clear voice from the din. To her left sat Juervo, the eldest of the three and already red-faced from the potent wine served. He faced a group of three beautiful women, their complexions purest porcelian and their eyes black as the night sky. They too leaned forward towards him, as he spoke loudly of the tribesmen he had killed on the river, before they'd sailed into the Shadowland unknown. And to her right sat Taln, his green-upon-green vest bringing out the sharp emerald of his eyes. He spoke to the lady herself, of the wonders he had seen in his brief trip through the Underworld, and of other relics and mysteries the three had navigated. The lady listened demurely, sipping her wine only as he paused in his tales.

Though the brothers had thought the feast grand, with foods both foreign and recognizable, but before they had more than sampled a few of the platters, ghostly servants quickly came and whisked away the platters, filling wine glasses discreetly as they did. The brothers had barely the time to blink before a loud voice came from the other end of the table:

"Now that our appetites have been whet, let the feast begin in earnest!" a pale rotund man boomed. Picking up a wine glass filled with dark red liquid, he continuted, "But first, a toast! To our guests of honor, the three young heroes who traversed the dangers of the wild woods above, and the darker wilds below!"

Raising his glass to Astol, he said, "To Astol, whose medicinal expertise both cured the deadly poisons of the wild woodmen tribes above, and found sustenance suitable for mortals in the cold jungles to our west, which," he added, "despite the plenty seen at our Lady Yuko's table, is no easy thing to muster." A few chuckles were heard from around the room, as Astol smiled unsteadily, touching his lips to his wine only briefly as the others drank deeply.

The rotund man lowered his glass and wiped the red stains from his lips before continuing, "And to Juervo! Strongman, warrior, and object of desire for all women," he said, the porcelain ladies around Juervo tittering in crystaline voices, "who single-handedly paddled UP our very own River of Weeping Rage, the Sarna, while fighting off the spider-fish who hunt there! Not an enviable position to be in, as many of us can attest!" Juervo held his glass out proudly, draining it completely before setting it down.

"And to our third guest of honor, Taln! For, my friends, it is Taln who remembered the ancient and honored ways of our cold realm, who negotiated his way through that veritable labyrinth of intrigue which is the Forest Court, and made his way to our humble abode. Few may boast the wits, guile, and," the ghost grinned conspiratorily, "merchandise necessary to navigate such a trial." Taln smiled back at the man, raising his glass and drinking it with the others.

"And finally, to our honored Lady Yuko, without whom we would have no reason to celebrate! Let us drink to her and be merry! After all, it is a rule that we may not feast without at least one toast to our Lady!" Laughter echoed around the table, and the lady at the head of the table smiled, raising her glass to a loud cheer. She sipped lightly, putting the glass down before saying:

"Sintarin, have I not told you before that is not my name?" she chastised lightly, the large man wincing in response.

"Ah, I must have forgotten in the excitement," he said, bowing low but keeping the large grin on his face, "Do forgive me, oh Ecclessiastic Butterflies that Call the Soul to Nihility, my Lady."

Juervo, looking a little confused, turned to right and asked thickly, "Lady Ecclastic Butterflies that Call the Soul to Nullity? So does that mean your real name is Yuko?" he asked. The lady did not answer, instead hiding her smile behind a fan and looking on coyly. There was a moment of silence before the three ghostly women by Juervo burst into chimes of laughter, which spread around the table like a roaring flame. The laughter had barely begun to subside when an urgent voice cut in through the noise: "My lady! Get away from the table!"

A young pale girl with somber features roughly pulled the Lady Ecclessiastic out of her chair and away from the table, interposing herself between the lady and the chair of Taln. The chair was now empty, and its previous occupant was now toppled over and convulsing on the floor, red and green liquid dripping from his open mouth to the floor. Astol stood up immediately, eyes wide, looking immediately at his fallen brother, then to Juervo, then to the collected room of ghosts, then back to Taln. The room was completely silent. He swallowed, looking around again at the expression on the Lady Ecclessiastic's face.

Juervo pounded his fist on the table, causing Astol to visibly jump, and shouted, "Don't just stand there Astol! Do something, damn it!"

A thin voice came from the girl guarding the lady: "Approach and die, mortal. There is treachery here, and any attempts on the Lady will be met with harshly." The girl's eyes moved around the room smoothly, and her hand rested lightly on her hilt.

"But my brother is DYING!" Juervo shouted, slamming his fist on the table again rattling the glasses on the table. "It's just like the last time! If Astol doesn't fix it now, Taln's gonna DIE!" Juervo looked at his fallen brother, and Astol, and between the two frantically. "Astol! Move! It's just like last time! Why aren't you helping him!?" Astol swallowed again, looking at Taln and the young expressionless girl returning his gaze coldly.

"...just like last time." Juervo muttered again "...last time those damn natives shot him." Juervo looked at Astol, his eyes narrowing. Juervo then looked down at the table, still empty except for the glasses of wine. Glasses of wine, all emptied in the toasting. All emptied except for one. Astol's glass.

Realization spread Juervo's face, contorting it into a parody of rage and sorrow. "...you!" he choked out, "You did this! You killed your own brother!" Astol went pale, eyes flickering around the room, searching, but he said nothing. "How could you!? You killed him, and you've killed me too!" he said thickly. His expression darkened as a second realization spread across his face. "...but not fast enough, brother, not fast enough." And with a flash of steel, Juervo's long hunting knife was out and he had launched himself across the table towards Astol.

Astol shook his head in denial as he backed away from his brother, but tripped on his chair and fell in a heap not far from the table. Juervo was on him in an instant, driving the blade clumsily through his brother's shoulder, other hand around his neck. Astol tried to push him off, but it was obvious that the elder brother was much stronger. The two writhed around on the floor as the assembled ghosts watched, silence broken by the sounds of struggle and steel crashing into the jade floor.

Then, Astol broke free, scrambling away from his brother, who crawled after him only a few steps before he slowly stopped. Juervo pounded on the white floors of the hall once, twice, three times. Then the action lost cohesion and his entire body began to shake uncontrollably. Astol, blood from multiple holes soaking through much of his upper vest, stood up facing his convulsing brother, with a small bloody knife in his shaking hands.

The girl guarding the Lady Ecclessiastic closed her eyes and turned away for a moment, before returning her cold glare to the young man trembling before her, and said, "Filth. You will not desecrate my Lady with your presence any more, mortal." Her grip on her sword tightened and she took a single step towards Astol before a single hand restrained her sword arm.

"That's enough, Youmu," Ecclessiastic Butterflies that Call the Soul to Nihility said calmly, "There's no need to overdo it. The danger has passed."

"But! My Lady--" the girl sputtered.

"Youmu, see to our other guests and to the cleanup of this hall. I will look after our young guest."

"But--" the girl started after the Lady Eclessiastic, who was already kneeling by the young mortal. The girl stopped mid-stride, and closed her eyes. Opening them again, all hint of expression had vanished, and she turned around, calmly giving out orders to the ghostly servants as she walked down the hall.

Astol knelt on the floor, not fifteen feet from the still-shaking body of his brother, staring at his shaking hands and the tiny knife, slick with blood. He gripped the knife tighter and closed his eyes, envisioning himself convulsing on the floor with his two brothers. There was probably still enough poison on the blade.

But before he could act, he felt a soft body moving in underneath his. He opened his eyes to see the Lady Ecclessiastic putting his arm across her shoulder, supporting him as she coaxed into standing. Before he knew what had happened, she had gently taken the knife from his hands. She looked into his brown-tinged eyes, and smiled.

Later that night, Astol found himself awake in bed, staring at the cieling of the topmost chamber of the Tower of White Jade. He sat up gingerly, wincing in pain as the still-wet wound from his shoulder pulled away from the silk sheets. The dressings must have come off during the night's exertions, he thought to himself dimly. Sitting on the edge of the vast bed, Astol looked down at his hands again, trembling once again.

"Juervo, Taln, my brothers," he said, sobs creeping into his voice, "My brothers...." The young man wept in near silence as the cold stars of the underwold watched.

Then he felt something soft and cool press against his bare back. He could feel her head leaning into the small of his neck, and her cool hands wrap around his chest.

"I should have tried to calm him, he's senseless when he drinks! If only he'd waited a moment I could have done it, if only that girl hadn't been there, if only I hadn't brought that damned dagger, if only..." his voice trailed off for a moment.

"...if only! Gods! What have I done!" he sobbed, "My brother, Juervo. My brother... what have I done. oh what have I done? what have I done? my brother, my brothers, Lexis, my love, my betrothed, oh what have I done? my brothers, my love...." the young man cried as the cool arms entwined around him. She held him gently, painlessly.

And whispered, "Look to the future, mortal. Nothing lasts forever."

Overview

<overview: explanation and clarification of maiden versus butterfly aspects of charm tree>

Stylistically, this charmset is based around butterflies, undead hordes, and, uh, curtain fire shooters. Mechanically, this charmest is based around mote commitment and stacking of multiple effects. So while most of the charms are not that great individually, their ability (and expectation) to be stacked on top of each other makes up for it. Oh, there are also lots of Mail and Steel effects.

A distinctive quality of this charmset is all charms except the form charm are supplemental with a duration of 5 rounds, and no charms require Dex + MA, instead typically using a social attribute in place of dexterity. Furthermore, every charm has three distinct effects:

• one effect occurs when the charm is invoked, like a normal charm.
• another, totally seperate effect is invoked when motes are decommitted from a charm.
• the third effect is that by decomitting motes, it is possible generate reflexive MA + <attribute> dice actions. These dice actions are usually something fairly useless like Appearance + MA or Essence + MA that don't serve any purpose outside this charm tree.

The first effect, gained when the charm is invoked, is called the maiden aspect of that charm. The second effect, gained when motes are decommitted from the charm, is called the butterfly aspect.

Additionally, motes committed by charms of this style are very visible. All motes committed by any charm of this style counts towards the anima banner of your character as if it had been spent that round, with one difference: the normal theme of that character's anima is replaced with a butterfly motif. The portion butterfly of a character's anima banner depends on the number of motes committed as well as motes spent on other charms. When very large numbers of motes are committed, use the following guidelines for anima size:

• 18-30 motes: Banner size equal to Terrestrial Sorcery display
• 30-50 motes: Banner size equal to Celestial Sorcery display
• 50-70 motes: Banner size equal to Solar Sorcery display
• 70+ motes: Butterfly Banner level.

Charms

Student's Sutra of Transience: Once, there was a maiden...

<charm list:>

Lost Soul's Village

Cost: 2 motes
Duration: 5 rounds
Type: Supplemental
Min MA: 5
Min Essence: 4
Prereqs: none

who dreamt she was a butterfly, flying in a sunlit garden.

The maiden aspect of this charm, invoked with a Wits + MA dice action, sets the user spinning into a graceful and elusive dance, difficult to strike and frequently just out of reach. Every two motes committed to this charm gives an extra success on all dodge rolls, up to a maximum bonus of (full dodge pool)/3, rounded up. Further committed motes have no effect.

The butterfly aspect of this charm grants the user sudden and erratic bursts of movement, mimicing the butterflies' bobbing flight. Invoked by decommitting 2 motes from this charm accompanied with a Wits + MA dice action, this allows the user to move up to MA x Essence yards reflexively. Total distance from the character's starting point that turn (ie, where the character was at the beginning of initiative) by use of this charm may never exceed Ess x 10 yards. Furthermore, if the character is part of a complementary unit, this reflexive movement cannot be taken and instead translates into a full pool dodge, usable only when the martial artist is specifically targetted.

Decommitting one mote from this charm grants a Perception + MA dice action.

Sins of Times Past

Cost: 1+ motes
Duration: 5 rounds
Type: Supplemental
Min MA: 5
Min Essence: 4
Prereqs: Lost Soul's Village

She drank freely from all the flowers of the garden:

The maiden aspect of this charm, invoked with a Wits + MA, starts an inverted spinning dance, with movements within movements and attacks coming unexpected, almost too complex to see. The martial artist may commit motes equal to the number of successes on the Wits + MA roll. Those who wish to figure out the intracies of the martial artist's dance may take Perception + MA dice actions at a difficulty of one for every two motes the martial artist has committed to this charm; this difficulty may never exceed 10. The Perception + MA roll may be an extended action and may be split normally. However, until this action has succeeded all attacks from the martial artist count as surprise attacks. Once an opponent has successfully made a perception + MA roll, this charm has no effect until all motes have been decommitted and the charm is re-invoked, or additional motes are committed, surpassing the number of accumulated successes on the opponent's Perception + MA roll.

The butterfly aspect of this charm, invoked with a Manipulation + MA dice action, releases the essence built up in a torrent of butterflies, obscuring vision. Every success on the Manipulation + MA dice action allows one mote to be decomitted, granting visual conditions equivalent to a fog at a radius of Ess X 5 yards per mote decommitted. As the effect becomes larger, the darkness increases, becoming equivalent to fog at night once a depth of 70 yards has been reached. This not a physical fog, but rather an essence manifestation, and as such affects essence-driven sight methods as well as physical ones. Furthermore, all units within the fog suffer a visual difficulty to target any specific person (be it commander, relay, or sorceror) equal to +3. If the effect is at fog at night level, this difficulty increases to +6.

A single mote decommitted from this charm grants a reflexive Charisma + MA action.

Axiom of Mortality

Cost: 3 motes
Duration: 5 rounds
Type: Supplemental
Min MA: 5
Min Essence: 4
Prereqs: none

the lilly, the iris

Poisonous Moth

Flowered Soul's Butterfly Delusion

Monochrome Storm of Butteflies Form

Sign of Spirit: Ageless Dream

Glass Phantasia's Ascent to Hell

Perfect Cherry Blossom

Fatal Light Trap

Dead Butterfly, Floating Moon

Butterflies of Returning Souls

Comments

The very thoughtful and highly appreciated comments by sezzy and Issaru have been coldly and rudely removed; the various thematic problems I had with this style are largely gone. ~Capric