Heru/NewCrafts

Heru's New Crafts

I am very big on the wonders that is the First Age. Because of that I am not satisified with forcing everything to remain static. Thus, I have made a number of new Craft Abilities taht are useful in advanced magitech cultures.

Craft (Elemental): Instead of their being five mundane crafts their is one mundane craft, Craft (Elemental). This covers all the things that mortals could do and unites Craft (Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Wood) into one. New Specialties: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, as well as things like Cooking, etc.

Craft (Magitech): Same as that described in Wonders of a Lost Age. New Specialties: Magical Materials, Crystaltech, Defensive Artifacts, Essence Engines

Craft (Genesis): Same as that described in Wonders of a Lost Age.

Craft (Reality): Use this Craft ability to design new lands and territories as well as gain an understanding of reality technologies. Unless your character has some way to actually shape Essence then this is purely theoretical. To the Exalted this covers knoweldge of how Essence flows both in Creation and the Wyld, how Wyld shaping techniques work, and how Expansion Demenses function. It can also be sued when designing new planes, if such technologies made creating them possible. Example Specialties: Reality Sculpting, Wyld Shaping, Creation Shaping, Expansion Demenses, Reality Tech

Craft (Elsewhere): This is the highly involved Craft ability that involves the understanding of what Elsewhere is, how to affect it and how to sculpt it. It is this Craft (in conjunction with others) that makes both gates of auspicious travel and planar-fabrication possible. The understanding of how Essence flows in Elsewhere needed for this skill makes it impossible for all but the Solar Exalted to learn. Example Specialties: Elsewhere Travel, Elsewhere Sculpting, Elsewhere Forging, Planar Creation

Craft (Fate): Because of the nature of the Celestial Exaltation, any Celestial Exalted can both use and learn this ability. To actually put those skills into practice one must be in the city of Yu-Shan working with the Bureau of Destiny in one of its planning boards. This is currently all Dominion Sidereals, some Twilight Solars and even fewer Lunars.

Craft (Glamour): This specialized Craft Ability allows for the shaping of Essence and dreams that exist in the Wyld and Chaos. Mortals touched by the Wyld as well as all Exalted are capable of learning this Ability though potent magics are required to actually successfully craft glamour.

Discarded Crafts

This is where I put those New Crafts that I am no longer using. I do not delete anything, even that which is not worthy, because I never know whether it might be useful to me in the future.

Craft (Permanence): This is the techniques and Essence-flow understanding for creating self-maintaining items. This is its own ability because the depth of knoweldge needed for permanence flows within each material - both magical and mundane - is different. Plus, the understanding required for combination materials is even more different than the ones in single materials. Example, making a permanent item with Jade is different than using moonsilver, and the differences for making an item with moonsilver and jade is even more different. Example Specialties: Single Materials, Combination Materials, Permanence Flows

(NOTE: This Craft Ability was subsumed into a Charm located in the DotFA.)

Craft (Material Engineering): This is the Craft ability that allows the Solar Exalted to create new materials, both magical and mundane, from nothing. It involves highly advanced theories of Essence-flows and Creation-shaping as well as an understanding of the spiritual resonance of materials. Anybody can learn the theories behind this Craft, but only the Celestial Exalted actually have the ability to channel Essence into new and unique materials. Example Specialties: New Materials, Modified Materials, Magical Materials, Mundane Materials

(NOTE: The ability to create new materials is subsumed in Craft (Elemental) for non-magical normal materials and Craft (Magitech) for those materials that resonate with magical energy - such as the Magical Materials.)

Craft (Essence): This is one of the most esoteric of all Solar Dominion Craft abilities, and the one with the most overlap. The deeper the lessons one goes in this Craft the less it actually directly affects the physical nature of Creation. Yet it is within this Craft that one learns demesnes and manses operate and flow. Example Specialties: Demesne Crafting, Manse Design, Dragon-Line Understanding, Pyramid Magic

(NOTE: Craft (Essence) was removed from active use and all that it covered was placed under Occult and Lore (depending on what it was). It can also be stated that some of the more artifact-based portions of this Craft Ability are now under Craft (Magitech).)

Permance Essence-Flow Checks

The check to understand how the Essence-flows channel through materials usually requires an Occult (for magical materials) or Lore (for mundane materials) check. This is set at Difficulty 4 for magical materials (they resonate strongly to the anima of Solars) and Difficulty 7 for mundane materials. Combination materials are usually at Difficulty 5 when the magical materials are dominant or 8 when the mundane materials are majority. It should be stated that only Celestial Exalted have the ability to comprehend Essence Flows, and out of them the Solars do it the best.

(NOTE: The rules for this have been removed due to the existence of crafting and artifice rules that supersede and remove the need for this.)

Commentary

They are all good ideas. However, I feel that afew of them fall under other things then craft. Craft (Magical Materials): I think could fall under the other crafts, other wise it gets messy. The reasone for this is that somewhere (Can't remember) it says that starmetal is as easy to work as normal iron. Also, souls stelle will likley get soul forging. Craft (Material Engineering): could easiely fit under Alchemy (a part of thaumaturgy that I have no doubt will make a reapprrance). Craft (Essence): has also been suggested as a thamuaturgical Art (the art of permanence) (to me it fits alot better under occult)

Craft (Elsewhere):</i> IMO, belongs under Lore (Lore to me is the ability that cover physics)

As a related side note: this migtintrest you http://exalted.xi.co.nz/wiki/wiki.pl?Wordman/AbilityExpansionSystem

Crafts, I think, should involve giving shape to something

New crafts are nice, but the crafts system is an Xpsik as it is, and I think you are overdoing it a bit Just my 2 Cents-Azurelight

Thanks for the pointer and the suggesstions. I appreciate it, I really do.

• I was never sure about Material Engineering. So yes, I can definitely consider that a useless field that actually fits into other Craft abilities.
• About Craft (Essence) I can definitely see that as a lore. I figured it would be a deep level of understanding about the way Essence works in both Creation and the Wyld.
• Permanence is supposed to be a mighty discipline with high levels of magic and understanding needed. Thus, I really do not think it should be in a thaumaturgical art, its mighter than that. I also don't think it should be on Magitech or any of the other fields we have. Its a physical craft, the crafting of the way Essence flows in the artifact.
• Craft (Elsewhere) is both I think. The way I saw it was that with higher levels, this is an actual Craft ability. What I mean is that by using Essence one can actually craft objects and places in Elsewhere. But yes, the theoretical understandings of what Elsewhere is would be Lore.
• Thanks for pointing me to that page. Its actually a very interesting read. Also very useful for me to try and compare thoughts.
• It is expensive, but Craft covers so much that I think it should be both broad and narrow. Plus, when Essence gets involved things become more complicated.-Heru

*Permanence is supposed to be a mighty discipline with high levels of magic and understanding needed. Thus, I really do not think it should be in a thaumaturgical art, its mighter than that. I also don't think it should be on Magitech or any of the other fields we have. Its a physical craft, the crafting of the way Essence flows in the artifact.

This is the only of your replies I have issues with, and thus I reply.

Thsis would havw made sense, it it wasnwt for the fact that 3 dots in an art costs more or less the same as crafts 5 , and is even more narrow and specialised. Also "the crafting of the way Essence flows in the artifact" is, by canon, What is Artifice, It is the central concept of making an artifact.

That said, I feel the either ability or art is to simple for such a thing. as Stephenls pointed out, I doubt ther was aloss of anytigle thin that made it. I feel tha Permanence should eiither require extensive understading of Lore, craft, and occult, or be the product of solar charms and spells, traits way more potent then an ability.

A side note: I loathe WW's system for crafts, and I think they would deserve failed brain surgery for it, were it not for the fact tha RPGs are so easy to change, and that I have an out most respect for Neph. As such, I use the ability expansion system for it. -Azurelight

• I see the way Essence flows in a normal artifact and the way it does in a permannet item to be different. And this is why the knoweldge comes up. The nature of the spirit of the mateiral, of the Essence pools and remains but must flow, of recharging Essence after use. All that is required in the crafting of Permanence.
• If I used the rules that you posted than I see no problem with it being made into a Science. That is what it is, it is a science of nature of how essence continually interacts with a subject mateiral to make it permanent.
• The ability just allows you to understand how it works, to actually craft it you need access to Charms, your Exalted banner (which states, "I am a Prince of Creation") and other more esoteric Essence-powered tools. It is definitly not as simple as placing the artifact over an open fire. It requires the existence of the very core that makes an Exalted an Exalted. - Heru

New thoughts, will edit it in more completely when I regain permanent access. Permencey is going to be a speciality of Magitech. It will only be available to Solars. The way to develop a permanent Artifact is to use a Solar Charm that burns the Solars anima into the artifact to make its magic sustain itself. A roll against a dificulty listed in the permanence section is still required. A second charm will also exist to reduce the difficulty of the roles needed to perform said act of permanence to something much more efficient (at a cost of high level of Essence). - Heru

I liked the way this looked, and decided to alter it slightly to fit my current game, please C&C at my Crafts page -grypph.