Shataina/MercysFury

The Blade of Compassion

This sword has a soul of her own, and takes umbrage at those who have no sympathy for others. Her wrath is terrible and can change lives forever -- though whether the change is for ruin or good can be hard to say.

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Mercy's Fury

Artifact •••••
Katana that appears to be made of faintly coppery light
Speed +9, Accuracy +3, Damage +5, Defense +3 (unattuned: Speed +4, Accuracy +2, Damage +2, Defense +2)
Commitment: 10 -- no magical material.
Requires: Strength 2, Compassion 3

---

Mercy's Fury is an incredible work of art, the hilt seeming woven of the most delicate and elaborate spiralling copper filigree, the katana's blade appearing as solid light edged in rainbows. It was created by Makarios, the Sigil's Dreamer, for his daughter Ishira -- drawn from her own dreams. One could say that the blade was forged from Ishira's heart and soul. But neither she nor her father really expected the sword to be what it is.

Mercy's Fury has a limited intelligence -- although calling its values and emotions an "intelligence" is, perhaps, overstating the case. If it is left unattuned, this "intelligence" will lie dormant, the light-filled blade seeming dull and opaque, till it is awakened by an attempt to attune. If a character with 2 Compassion attempts to attune to Mercy's Fury, she will find that she simply cannot force the blade to harmonize, and it will serve as nothing more than an excellent slashing sword. If the character has 1 Compassion, then Mercy's Fury will burn her fiercely as she tries to attune, inflicting one level of lethal damage. If, somehow, the character has 0 Compassion, this damage will be aggravated. (Note: if Ishira, from whose dreams the blade was made, should somehow manage to lose Compassion dots, and then attempt to attune to Mercy's Fury, then it is likely that the blade will recognize her and allow it anyway. This is the only possible way in which a character with less than 3 Compassion may attune to Mercy's Fury.) Those with less than 3 Compassion who try to touch Mercy's Fury when she is active (that is, attuned to someone else) will be seared (the burn's harshness being in inverse proportion to how low their Compassion is), but won't take damage.

The blade "wishes" to help people, and "likes" people it "thinks" are "good" (Compassion 3+), "disliking" people it "thinks" are "evil" * (Compassion 1 or less). Its harmony (or disharmony) with such people allows it to sense whether they're "good" or "evil", and the bearer can tell whether Mercy's Fury "likes" someone or not. In general, the higher someone's Compassion, the more Mercy's Fury will "like" her; if her Compassion is 2, Mercy's Fury will evince no opinion, and if her Compassion is less than 2, the blade will radiate "dislike" to its owner. Although Mercy's Fury really likes fighting "evil" people, it will not act against its owner or anything if it is used to fight someone it "likes"; it will function as well as ever, trusting its owner's judgment, though perhaps a little sad at the necessity.

Mercy's Fury can also tell if someone genuinely needs help, by his or her definition. Thus, if a young girl honestly thinks herself in danger from a large (but tame) dog, then Mercy's Fury will "wish" to help her. But if a man comes to the bearer of Mercy's Fury, asking for help for a village under attack, and he's trying to manipulate the bearer somehow by pretending to need help when he doesn't, then Mercy's Fury will not actively "wish" to help him, although it will not object. This will be true even if the village that was mentioned is under attack and does need help.

When attacking "evil" people, Mercy's Fury sears with all its strength. If the bearer of Mercy's Fury strikes a character with Compassion 1 or less using the katana, then she will inflict aggravated damage.

Alternatively, before making her attack roll, the bearer may decide to activate the blade's greatest power. In this case, Mercy's Fury inflicts only lethal damage. However, the character who has been hit must immediately roll Conviction. If she scores a number of successes equal to or greater than the number of health levels of damage she took, then there is no other effect (but she still takes the damage). If she scores fewer successes than the number of health levels of damage she took, then the difference between her successes and the health levels is immediately added to her Compassion, just as if she had raised it that far with Experience. Note that this only works on the same people Mercy's Fury can inflict aggravated damage on: people with Compassion 1 or less. Mercy's Fury cannot raise anyone's Compassion past 5.

Example: Ishira is fighting an Abyssal Exalt with 1 Compassion and 3 Conviction. Previous to attacking, Ishira chooses whether she'd prefer to inflict aggravated damage, or to inflict lethal damage but have a chance to raise his Compassion. Slicing the Abyssal directly across his unarmoured chest, Ishira scores 10 base damage dice. The Abyssal has 2 lethal soak and 0 aggravated soak. If Ishira opted to do aggravated damage previous to attacking, she gets 10 dice of damage and no extra effect; if she decided to activate the Compassion-raising power, she gets 8 dice of lethal damage and the chance to raise the Abyssal's Compassion. Turns out she chose the latter option, so she rolls 8 dice, scoring 5 damage successes. The Abyssal now takes 5 levels of lethal damage and rolls Conviction, scoring 1 success and therefore gaining +4 to his Compassion; it is raised instantly to 5.

The Storyteller may wish to force a character whose Compassion has been forcibly raised to immediately put enough Experience towards the Virtue to pay for the raise.

* Note on "evil" usage: I deliberately used quote marks around the word "evil" to demonstrate that it is Mercy's Fury which considers people with Compassion 1 to be evil and that they are not necessarily "evil" per se, whatever that means. Please don't ream me for it.

Comments

I like most of Mercy's Fury, though I think the end power is a bit extreme, especially since this effect can be benificial in all respects. I don't think that the power should raise their compassion above three in any case, especially since this can drastically change things other than the virtue itself, such as the essence pools of the victim. The theme of the weapon is pretty nice though. Oh, the other thing I see is that though the blade is semi-inteligent towards the reactions of others, it doesn't give any bonus or penalty for the decision that the weilder makes. I'm not going to give any suggestions here, I just think it feels incomplete like this, especially with all the empasis that you put on this aspect of the blade. -EndlessChase

Hmm. I've heard before that Mercy's Fury is overpowered what with the "forcibly raising Compassion" thing, but I'm still not sure I buy it. I mean, level 5 superweapons can do things like destroy someone's soul permanently, or lower other people's Essence permanently, etc .... I try to address the "possibly beneficial" aspect of the weapon by suggesting that Storytellers who prefer it may force the person whose Compassion was raised to immediately spend enough Experience to raise it, sort of like when someone uses that Terrestrial Circle Spell, Disguise of the New Face, to raise their Appearance. So that way people won't be using it to make their characters super-awesome without paying for it.
I think it's also worth noting that most people with 1 Compassion probably don't really want high Compassion -- so it could be seen as a drawback to have their Compassion raised. I mean, seriously. Imagine someone who's spent his entire life doing things eating babies before their parents' horrified eyes for fun, and committing similar terrible acts. All of a sudden, he has 5 Compassion. This is not a small change. If this guy doesn't commit suicide out of remorse, then he's definitely going to do something pretty drastic. I wouldn't call that a beneficial change in all respects. And keep in mind that the final power only works on people like that -- heartless people who don't care about others. There may be such a thing as a heartless person who isn't cruel and bastardly, but he's still probably not going to take his new change of heart too well.
The thing about Mercy's Fury and its intelligence is that I don't want to make it too smart -- as I said, it doesn't "think" so much as instinctively "like" compassionate people. But I can still see your point about the incompleteness thing ... hmm ... I'll think about it.
Thanks much,
~ Shataina

Mercy's Fury is great, but I also would not use the final power as listed. I'd probably have it give temporary Compassion which fades at a rate of one per day. I'd also be tempted to have someone who just got a load of compassion dumped on them make a roll not to be overcome with guilt if they've done lots of bad things. I would not force people to spend their xp on the compassion as I dislike forcing people to spend xp at all.

Just my $0.02 - CorlanDashiva

I rarely play in games with XP, so I understand your dislike of forcing XP expenditure, but I still have a hard time understanding why Mercy's Fury is any more overpowered than a comparable artifact which could lower someone's Essence permanently, etc. I mean ... <searches around her room for "The Book of Three Circles" only to find that a friend filched it> drat, I have no citations. But the passage that describes level 5 artifacts in that book does say that level 5s ought to be able to alter the course of nations, destroy continents, etc, and I just don't think Mercy's Fury is on that level unless the Compassion raise is permanent. I mean, if it only grants temporary Compassion, then all it does it make an evil bastard feel bad for a couple days, and also sense evil bastards, which in my opinion is nowhere near level 5. As opposed to allowing the bearer to conquer the world with relative ease (like the Daiklave of Conquest) ... etc.
And also, when Mercy's Fury is raising someone's Compassion, it could very well kill them at the same time ... so it has to be used very carefully anyway.
~ Shataina

I like the Artifact too, and I also don't see it as being world shaking. I mean there are many examples of just plain.. "wrongness" with level 5 artifacts. I don't see that here. Good job!! - Issaru Thinks that knowing someone is not so nice shouldn't cause a fuss for a level 5 artifact

Aww, thank you. <grin> I'm not sure if I wouldn't call Mercy's Fury just plain wrong, but I definitely think that there are just plain wronger things in canon. Golden Viper, anyone?
~ Shataina

No problem. I agree!! - Issaru Soul Mirror comes to mind

Cool artifact.  :) Contrary to what other people have commented on, the thing that I find to be possibly overpowered is the ability to inflict agg damage against Compassion 1- characters. Agg damage is pretty rare, and the ability to inflict it without cost even more rare. If I were the storyteller, I'd probably at least require the expenditure of 1 mote of Essence to do that. Also, I would definitely say that you have to make the decision whether to do agg damage or activate its special ability before the attack and defense rolls are made.

The special ability itself is pretty neat, though I'd like to see some in-game reason behind the mechanic. Also, that it can read people's emotions without any sort of a roll or possibility for them to conceal said emotions (in reference to the "do you really need help?" power) is a bit iffy. But it's a level 5 Artifact, so I could easily let that slip if I were the storyteller.

The only other note that I'd make is remember that an Abyssal can have high Compassion and still be what most people (and probably the sword) would consider "evil". Remember, to an Abyssal it's compassionate to kill someone, since death is a relief from the suffering that is life.

Okay, and one side note too: the "some level 5 artifacts are much worse than this!" philosophy is a bad defense. Just because some canonical artifacts aren't balanced, doesn't make it okay for other artifacts to be that way. As the saying goes, two wrongs don't make a right -- or perhaps, one wrong doesn't mitigate another. (Not saying that this artifact is unbalanced, just that I tend to despise that argument in general ;) ~Ghost 2005-11-07 22:04:13

I do believe that my Storyteller does require that the agg damage decision be made previous to the attack roll; I just apparently decided to have that wrong here. Thanks for getting me to clarify. I'm not sure I understand what you think is unsatisfactory about the in-game reasoning behind the mechanic; I thought I made that pretty clear. As for sensing Compassion, I suppose someone could try to conceal their Compassion score (or need for help) from Mercy's Fury -- but it's not like the sword has a Socialize score; the way it works isn't through reading their expressions or whatever, it's through whether or not it harmonizes with their aura. Note that it won't even attune to someone it finds lacking; the sword "feels" emotions like that directly from a person's Essence or whatever. So if someone had a Charm or something that allowed them to fool magical swords that harmonize with their Essence, sure, I guess they could try to fool it, but nobody does. And frankly, even if someone did have an ability that allowed them to try and mask or change their Essence signature in the subtle and specific ways that would be required to fool Mercy's Fury, I have no problem saying that a level 5 artifact sees past pretty much anything (except maybe the equivalent of a "perfect defense"). And: bottom line, it's not that powerful an ability, really, considering, as you said, that it belongs to a level 5. The capacity exists for drama more than for power, and hamstringing already-weak, dramatic powers because there might be a way to get past them always struck me as misguided.

Re: the contrived different kinds of Compassion thing, yes, that's an angle that's come up in Ishira's game a number of times. :)

Frankly, I think the balancing-against-canonical-artifacts philosophy is the only good one. It's White Wolf's job to balance existent artifacts. We both know that they don't always, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be trying to use the existent artifacts as a yardstick. And even if there are exceptions to WW's artifact balance -- well, enough exceptions make a new rule. Sure, maybe if WW published one overpowered level 2, I shouldn't use that one level 2 as an example. But if WW publishes six newly-powerful level 2s, then it's obvious that the yardstick has moved up, and trying to balance my level 2s against the old measure is pointless. So, to sum up: "There exists a level 5 artifact that is worse than this" is a bad argument, I agree. However, "I can think of at least five level 5 artifacts that are worse than this" is an excellent argument. See what I mean?
~ Shataina

Just in case it needs saying, I do think this is a pretty cool artifact as-is. Sure, if I were the ST I'd require a few minor tweaks, but it's not really overpowered by any means.

Regarding the in-game reasoning, I should have specified -- I meant in-game reasoning for the raising of an opponent's Compassion (how does it do that, and why?). Unless that's already in there and I just completely skipped over it. Regarding the sensing thing, I meant sensing whether they're deceiving you as to whether they're actually in danger or not -- I've no issue with the sensing of their Compassion rating. I suppose this would basically be like a Charm that the spirit inhabiting the sword uses, so I could buy that no mundane means could deceive it. Though I'd say any magical means that someone uses to cover their emotions might possibly work (with some sort of roll, probably at an absurd difficulty because this is a level 5 artifact) -- I don't see why it would require a Charm that specifically protects against magical swords sensing their emotions, any more than you would need a Charm that specifically parries chopping swords striking you at a downward angle.

And I wasn't referring to balancing against canonical artifacts in general, but rather choosing some of the least balanced canonical artifacts and saying, "It's no worse than these, so it must be okay." If you told me that you could think of at least 5 level 5 artifacts that are worse than this, I would counter that I can think of 5 that are less powerful. In a nutshell: though it's natural to choose the examples that back you up, it's generally a better practice to choose more representative/average samples. ~Ghost 2005-11-08 20:41:37

Didn't need saying, your praise was implied by my awesomeness.  :clears throat: Ahem, right, bear with my arrogance. :grin: Re: the raising of Compassion, my idea behind that was that Mercy's Fury is powerful enough to force things to harmonize with her -- sort of like an Exalt forcing the wrong material to harmonize with him; so Mercy's Fury can force people to gain Compassion. Or something.

For a Charm that would deceive the sword, I guess I overstated my case with the whole "only magic sword-fooling charms can deceive it", but my point was that the sword doesn't sense emotions, so why would an emotion-concealing Charm fool it? Like, such a Charm would probably be, say, Socialize ... but it's not like Mercy's Fury even has any Socialize, or needs it. Fooling it would require a Charm, not that concealed emotions, but that concealed ... oh, harmonics of Essence maybe? Not that such a Charm would be necessarily impossible, but I'd think it would be at least rare, since there are so few situations in which it's useful!

I think your point on the representative / average samples was exactly the same as mine and we were just talking at cross-purposes, so I'll leave that bit.
~ Shataina

It reads Essence to figure out whether someone really needs help or not by that person's own definition? Well, I guess maybe I could see that, if Essence in the Exalted world is like Quintessence in old Mage (with thoughts themselves being composed of some form of ethereal Essence). Fair enough then. Though I'd still argue that Charms that cloak one's emotions would inherently alter this Essence flow.  ;)  ~Ghost 2005-11-17 14:13:15