Sz/PMEInfernal

I am the God of Hellfire, and I bring you---!!!

The Infernal origin, of sorts

They say that, if the Loom of Fate was completed as designed, Creation would have been completely sealed off from the caustic touches of the Pure Chaos. If that were to happen, nothing would have eroded and Creation would have lasted forever. Yet, as one could easily imagine, that was not what the Primordials desired from Creation. If eternal stability was what they wanted, they could have simply chose not to exist. Therefore, the Primordials made the choice of loosening the Loom.

Though they wouldn't say it, some knows that it was Malfeas who convinced his siblings to make this decision. He was youngest of the Primordials, and compared to Autochthon or Gaia, Malfeas was manifold more Wyld-like. Fluctuating, spontaneous, creative, never the same... It was him who created artists, lovers, murderers and visionaries. He shaped the four Virtues. He gave birth to flowers, butterflies, worms, parasites and snakes. When the Primordials created humanity, it was Malfeas who gave humanity heart to feel and will to desire.

When Malfeas was defeated by Gaia's children and their Exalted soldiers, he suffered his existence and identity flayed away. His carapace was cracked open enough to let Deep Chaos flood in, but not enough to kill him. Malfeas was then turned inside out and cast into the furthest depth of the Wyld.

Since his imprisonment millennia ago, the Yozi went mad.

The Yozi enjoyed a moment of clarity when a circle of Sidereals--the Exalts who devoted themselves to purifying Creation of Malfeas' touch during the Primordial War, assumably out of disgust and hate--had come to him. He learned that they have come to demand the Yozi's world-making power to assist Creation's well-being as part of his oath. Apparently, they had expected the Yozi to rebel--they were the greatest demon killers and martial artists of the Viziers, after all. Their assumption could not be any further from the truth! Malfeas was overjoyed. Creation has finally forgiven him of his madness! In the prison of his own body, he has realized the errors of his youth and sought for a chance to atone for his sin. Now the time has come. Creation is ready to offer their embrace and the Yozi will gladly help his beloved world. So to the Sidereal couriers, Malfeas gave his most powerful gift--shards of his own selfhood.

The Sidereals were bathed in a torrent of raw, Primordial Essence. They were ancient and venerable, and they were knowledgable in techniques against the demons. But the Great Curse in them has eroded their Shards for too long. Soon, one by one, their Shard cracked open and the Yozi's Essence filled the entirety of their being. Just as Malfeas' touch weakened the power of the Loom of Fate, the Yozi's mad Essence easily snapped the Sidereal's rigid Essence and warped them. Soon the ancient Exalts were consumed with infinite passion and madness.

When the newborn Infernals returned to Creation, they vanquished the armies of the Fair Folk with fiery heroism and selfless devotion. Certainly, they seemed to have... changed somewhat. But without a doubt, that must be a side-effect from being exposed to the forces of Wyld for so long. If they are strong and brave enough to beat these majestic powers out of Malfeas, they are strong and brave enough to recuperate from these mutations when Creation is safe once again. Many were too blinded by their hubris to accept this infernalistic powers. Some saw through this, though, in their own ways, there were too confident and believed that this hellish touch will fade away after a reincarnation. The desperation of the Fair Folk invasion and the Sidereal hubris, combined together, ultimately prevented them from taking action when the polluted Sidereal Shards could have been repaired.

Now, the elder Sidereals who know of this blunder refuse to recognize it. The shattering of the Mask affected the Infernals just as much as the Sidereals. When a Hellion's presence causes trouble to the Loom, it is often shoehorned as a Fair Folk incursion. Those who are aware put just as much effort on concealing the existence of the Infernals as they do themselves. When a young Sidereal becomes aware of this, they are often taught to put their effort elsewhere for there are secrets that even the Exalted may and should not understand without proper experience.

The Infernal condition, of sorts

On Exaltation -

Malfeas has little more than passions left to him. Intelligence, motivation, spite and even personality have been sucked away by the Deep Chaos through the chink in his existence the gods and their Exalted champions created. Though, how deleterious Chaos may be, it was unable to drain the Yozi of his emotions... His pure, undirected and undefined willpower.

The Infernal Exaltation channels this unique property of Malfeas and bonds well with those who exemplify the virtues of passions. An Infernal shard is not guided by anyone once it leaves an Exalted soul. It simply wanders around Creation or Malfeas, blazing its path with incomprehensible sense of excitement and youth, and searches for a suitable soul to Exalt. The only condition it seeks in a candidate is that it is capable of heroic and extraordinarry passion. When a mortal hero taps into the very depths of his soul, his willpower grows in such a manner it disturbs the orderly Essence matrices and tangles the Loom of Fate, allowing, albeit miniscule compared to the feats of the Exalted host, him to supercede the laws of nature. When such an experience is felt by the wandering shard, it travels to the candidate as quickly as it can. Then it lodges itself into the mortal's soul, intimately interconnecting it with the Yozi's Essence, bathing him with world-shaping passion and power.

An Infernal shard does not discriminate whether or not the Exalt is capable of sharp intellect, physical excellence or amiable leadership. All an Infernal Exaltation requires is raw, powerful and unfiltered emotion, and those who are capable of expressing it shall be blessed with infernal glory even if he is an idiot or a cripple.

On states of being -

When a mortal Exalts as an Infernal, he will soon learn that his senses have become more vibrant. Colors of the world are stronger and more innocent, voices of people clear and majestic, the cool touch of the breeze crystalline, et cetera. Not only that, their own body soon become more... more than real for others to behold. Their eyes nobly glow with the colors of their Graces, their hair flow in wind as if it were a part of the wind itself, the movement of their body silent and gentle to an unnatural degree, and so on.

As all Exaltations, Infernal Essence significantly extends the Exalt's age and improves her overall health and well-being. However, an Infernal may grow to develop an esoteric physiological complications, such as a dependency on starlights or an inability to breathe the same air with an old man. Malfean Essence is not meant to be channeled by a mortal and the innate incompatibility of an Infernal Exalt manifests in weird ways. But, as long as ordinary human physiology is concerned, an Infernal becomes a picture of health.

However, the change caused by the Infernal Exaltation is more drastic to the Exalt's mind and soul than to her body. The Infernal's higher soul and Virtues are touched by the infinite passions of Malfeas and become warped to an incomprehensible degree. As a result, she gains a widened perception of things. This new mutable sanity allows her to comprehend unreal horrors of the Wyld with cool intellect or hot curiousity. A madman now comes off as a lost friend to the Exalt, who share their own language nobody else can undersatnd. Such a rupture in perception disallows her from keeping to old attachments and obsessions. Now, with a manifold-expanded vision, she is capable of redefining her world. Her desires and attachments become exaggerated and obscured, which are only marvelous and alien to mortal eyes. Infernals are creatures of outlandish passion.

On Essence -

Even if the mortal originally comes from Creation or Autochthonia, an Infernal Exaltation reshapes their Essence to such a fundamental degree, they are ejected from the geomancies of their homeworlds--but not only that. When exposed to the geomancies of these worlds, Infernals feel an overwhelming sense of wrongness, this feeling that the flow of Essence is so... rigid and soulless. To avert this unplesantness, many Infernals attempt to free the flow of Essence. One way to achieve this is to ignite the fire in all human hearts. By inciting excitement and sublimity in others, Infernals can shatter the rigidity of Essence flow, allowing them to respire it more comfortably.

Also, an Infernal may draw Essence from the mindless chaos of the Wyld. From Malfeas, they have learned that anarchistic chaos may be leashed and controlled with a strong resolve and willpower, and on this principle, they draw in the stuff of the Fair Folk and make it their own.

The Infernal traits, of sorts

The Infernals are immune to any negative effects of the Wyld wholesale. How could they become more warped, by anything? In fact, some Infernal Charms manipulate the forces of the Wyld for their own use, allowing them to mutate their own body for their taste or inflict terrible madness in those who they see deserving.

As they inherit the Essence of Malfeas, the Demon God, Infernals are considered Creatures of Darkness against powers with the keyword Holy. Furthermore, their tremendous intention to act and to change simply shatters the scale of astrology, rendering them immune to any mortal astrology. Though they are not out of fate per se, they can easily step outside if they wish.

In places where the natural flow of Essence is rigid and systematic, such as Creation, Autochthonia or the Underworld, the Infernal suffers -2 internal penalty to all of his actions, as he devotes his attention on reorienting himself from the spiritual confusion. This penalty may be bypassed with an element of stark irregularity, be it a piece of the Wyld, a sublime work of art or an atmosphere of street riot, or by spending a point of Willpower, committing his spirit to resist the ordinariness, for a day.

An Infernal regains Essence in Malfeas and beyond the Middlemarches as a Solar does in Creation.