Thus Spake Zaraborgstrom/MutationCannotBeEscaped

Mutations Cannot Be Escaped

Can a raksha who has an Assumption Charm for a mutation shape his body away? Is there a textual example of this?

There is an explicit example of a raksha dropping a body not purchased as a mutation. That may be what you're thinking of, particularly if you missed the word "not". It's in the generic text for Assumption-type Charms.

On the other aspect of the debate:

If you've mutated yourself a shape, you're stuck with it. You have a shape and there is element stuff in it, just like if you refuse to turn off the Charm when you reenter the Wyld.

You can think of mutations as a kind of Tell. It's a pretty blatant Tell, for Assumption Charms. But it's still just a Tell. You can do whatever you like, shaping-wise, except actually denying that you have that shape and that element. If you want to be a mouse, be a mouse, but you're still shaped like, I dunno, a woman made of fire or whatever. If you want to keep your shaped body in a tomb somewhere, or hidden in a mecha, that's fine.

If you want to be a gigantic crocodile and keep your real shape in your pocket; if you want to be an immaterial ghost of yourself; if you want to be a hundred million flowers each shaped like a little you; if you want to be "a woman made of fire, that is not here" -- those are stunts.

If you want to stop being a woman made of fire, too bad---it's like having a fur pox and wanting to not have fur, or a tail Tell and not wanting to have a tail.

Summary

The least intrusive interpretation of what I've just said: yes, other raksha know that you have shape. Yes, if a Creation-born is looking at you, they can defy the shaping and realize, "Why, this isn't a mirror—this is a woman made out of fire!" Otherwise, it doesn't constrain your shaping at all.

The most intrusive interpretation: sorry, but you voluntarily took on shape. You voluntarily decided to be "five Graces, plus a shape and element." Your Heart shows a person with a shape and element. It's only a one-point mutation, but you know that point in the invasion storyline where the princes of chaos realize that they can't go back unless they win? I think of that as just one point of mutation. Banality sucks, even though the Banality of the Age of Sorrows is a lot like the Terror and Adventure of later eras.

(The difference between these interpretations: pretty much, how far you can ignore the fact of having a shape without a stunt.)

Comments

So...Creation-dwellers think of mutations as the result of the Wyld, but that's not true (otherwise the raksha would be able to shape them away as easily as they can shape away having been killed by a Wyld hazard). Mutations are caused by Nirakara--and while the raksha talk about "passing through the gateway Nirakara" in order to assume a form that can enter Creation, it's equally true that when Creation-dwellers wander into Rakshastan, they risk passing through the gateway Nirakara in the other direction. Either way, permanent mutation is the result. --MF