How to make a Ethereal Exalted

To Be One of the Lost

STEP ONE: CHARACTER CONCEPT
A concept is the first step to making a interesting character. Who was your character before the were give Gaia’s “Gift”? Where were they born? The more you can fill out your characters history the better you can play the character.

CASTE
Cloud Walkers do not have their own castes but they do start with an acquired cast. The player may choose one acquired caste that the character may start with. The player may choose to purchase another caste instead of a charm or with freebie points.

MOTIVATION
Next, establish your character’s Motivation: a sentence describing her driving goal. Obviously, people have various goals, but this goal should be the primary one, defining how your character interacts with the world.

STEP TWO: ATTRIBUTES
An Ethereal exalt is physically, mentally and socially on par with other celestial exalted. They start with eight points to be used in the characters primary attributes, six for their secondary attributes and three for their tertiary attributes.

STEP THREE: ABILITIES
The life of an Ethereal is varied and chaotic. They have an opportunity to learn many skills for a plethora of sources. A changeling starts with twenty-five points to spread around, as the player likes. In addition a player may select two favored skills that they can advance in quicker than the others.

STEP FOUR: ADVANTAGES

BACKGROUNDS
Backgrounds measure such things as a character’s wealth, social connections and fame (or infamy). Unlike other Exalts Ethereal have only five dots to assign among their Backgrounds. Backgrounds should tie into your character concepts, as defined in Step One. No Background can be raised above three dots without the use of bonus points. Buying the fourth or fifth dot of a Background with bonus point’s costs more than buying the first, second or third dot.
Because the Ethereal are new to creation there are certain backgrounds cost more than usual. An Ethereal Exalted must pay double the normal cost for Backing, Followers, Influence, Manse and Artifact.

New Background:

Echoes
This background is almost exactly like the Sidereal Savant background but the knowledge that the Ethereal taps into does not come from the vast libraries of Yushan. It comes from the memories of the all the previous chosen ones that possessed the characters shard of power. The shards of Azure do not go to Lytek due to their damage in the wyld. Thus when a changeling dies the shard begins searching for a host almost immediately. The memories and such of the old host and all others before it are still hanging to the shard when it finds a new host. Of course the strongest of these memories are of the 1rst age. When using this background a botch means that the character is lost in a flood of past memories for one action.

Cast
Chose one cast type at character creation.

CHARMS
An Ethereal can start with 7 charms for their acquired casts.
Remember to follow the charm guidelines.

Ethereals CANNOT learn spirit charms because they do not have a shard to mimic.
Ethereals CANNOT learn Fair Folk Charms because they do not have a shard to mimic.
Ethereals CANNOT learn Lunar Knacks.
Ethereals CAN learn Solar, Abyssal, Infernal, Sidereal or Lunar charms that do not require willpower to be spent.
Ethereals CAN acquire Solar, Abyssal, Infernal, Sidereal or Lunar casts.
Ethereals CAN learn all terrestrial charms because of Azures connection to Gaia.
Ethereal CAN be taught allowable charms by God’s to as long as the charm fits the other restrictions.
PERFECT charms require willpower to be spent even if the charm description does not say so.

VIRTUES

A changeling starts with one free dot in all four Virtues and get five additional dots to assign. No Virtue may be higher than three dots unless the player spends bonus points. Choose one Virtue with at least three dots rating as your primary—this Virtue is the root of your character’s Virtue Flaw.

Wyld Kissed
Every Ethereal exalted starts the game with a mental derangement of Deficiency level and a physical mutation of Pox level. The physical mutation has its obvious pros and cons. The mental deficiency is much more vital to character development. It is their power check, much like the other exalted’s great curese.

This derangement is meant to be mostly inconvenient but there will be times when their derangement interfere with their goals. In order to over come their mental deficiency an Ethereal must succeed on a willpower roll. The difficulty depends on the situation. If they succeed they can manage their deficiency. If they fail they must indulge it on a level appropriate for the results of the roll and the situation. At anytime and only if necessary they can control their madness for a scene by spending a willpower point, but when they do so they gain limit. When this happens they must roll their essence and every success adds point of limit.
When the exalted one reaches limit break they are completely lost to their madness for 24 hours. After that the characters limit track is cleared out and it begins again.

General Mental Derangement Examples:
Obsession
Delusion
Compulsion
Addiction
Phobia
Dysfunction
Disorder

When a Ethereal Exalted is lost in a limit break they have additional risk. The loss of cotrol reduces their control the wyld energies that flow through them. When a limit break happends the player of a Wyld One must roll his essense difficulty 4. For every extra success gained the Wyld one gains one wyld mutation point that can be choosen by the player. When a mutation is gained The negative side of the mutation must be exressed and done so in a wyld, fairy like way.

Wyld mutations gained this way can be bought off with expeirence points on a two mutation points per one experience point basis.

STEP FIVE: FINISHING TOUCHES

WILLPOWER
Add your character’s two highest Virtue ratings for her initial Willpower. You can increase Willpower to no higher than 8 with bonus points. Only characters with two Virtues at 4 or higher may begin the game with Willpower above 8.

INTIMACIES
Intimacies are things that your character cares about on a meaningful level. You may choose a number of Intimacies equal to your character’s dots of Compassion.

ESSENCE
Ethereals begin with an Essence rating of 2. You can raise this value with bonus points, but characters may not start the game with an Essence above 3. A changelings Personal Essence pool equals the sum of the character’s permanent Essence, plus twice her Willpower. A Lost One’s Peripheral Essence pool equals the sum of four times the character’s Essence, plus twice her Willpower, plus four times her highest Virtue.

HEALTH LEVELS
A chosen of Azure possess seven health levels, just as any mortal: one -0 level, two -1, two -2, a -4 and one Incapacitated health level. They may gain additional health levels for every Ox-Body Technique they purchase. The amount of health levels gained depends on the type of cast the Ox-Body comes from. The effect of the chosen Ox Body only applies when the appropriate cast is being used. A character may purchase Ox-Body Technique as many times as she has dots of Stamina.

BONUS POINTS
Assign bonus points to help you fine-tune your character to fit your concept. Raising Abilities, Backgrounds or Virtues above 3, or raising Essence above 2, at character creation, requires you to use bonus points. You have 15 bonus points to spend.

BONUS POINTS
Trait Cost
Attribute 4
Ability 2 (1 if a Favored or Caste Ability)
Background 1 (2 if the Background is being raised above 3)
Specialty 1 (2 per 1 if in a Favored or Caste Ability)
Virtue 3
Willpower 2 Intimacies 3 to increase starting Intimacies to (Willpower + Compassion).
Acquired Cast 10
Essence 10
Charms 7 (4 if in a Favored or Caste Ability)

EXPERIENCE POINTS
Trait Cost Training Times
Attribute rating x 4 (rating) months
Favored Ability (rating x 2) – 1 immediate
Ability rating x 2 (rating) weeks
All Charms 10 (double normal training time)
Virtue rating x 3* immediate
Willpower rating x 2 immediate
New Ability 3 3 weeks
New Specialty 3** 3 weeks
Spell 10 (spell circle) weeks
Essence current x 9 (rating) months