AliasiSudonomo/AwakenedDragonBlooded

When the Incarna sought to overthrow the Primordials and created the Exalted with the aid of Autocthon, each god bestowed a portion of its nature; the Solar Exalted shone over all, supreme in power, the Lunars masters of trickery and mutable of form, the Sidereals bound tightly to the mechanications of fate. Below them all were the Terrestrial Exalted, weak due to their relatively weaker patrons, yet omnipresent in Creation thanks to their inheritible birthright.

When the war was over, Autocthon retreated from the world, fearful that he too would be killed when the gods tired of him. Gaia did not, by choice or by inability, and so she remains an honorary yet distant member of the Incarna.

What she was not was stupid, and laid plans to protect herself if the need arose, however unlikely it might be. She instructed Autocthon to modify the exaltation process of the Elemental Dragons, before he left for Elsewhere; as the Dragons were her creations she had this right. Should the gods seek to attack their remaining ally they would find themselves set upon by the "weakest" of the Exalted, empowered by Gaia herself.

The gods lost themselves in the Games of Divinity instead, and quickly put all doubt of the last unaltered Primordial out of their minds. So the First Age passed, and the Dragon-Blooded had no need of additional power when they ursurped the thrones of the Solar Exalted; the trigger hidden within them slept on.

When the Great Contagion and the following hordes of Fair Folk threatened to unmake Creation, Gaia was moved to act; certain of the Dragon-Blooded found themselves bestowed with strange powers just as the Fae were scattering armies to the wind. Most of these awakened Terrestrials did not survive the Scarlet Empress-to-be's activation of the defense grid, or the troubles thereafter. But what happens once will often happen again, and in the times since then a small number of the Dragon-Blooded have managed to trigger this; recalling the legendary abilities of the Immaculate Dragons rumors of the "Ultimate Exaltation" live on, however heretical the Immaculate Order decrees them.

OOC

It is possible for some Dragon-Blooded to "exalt again". In truth, this involves opening a channel for Essence from Gaia herself through the "back door" she placed in the Terrestrial exaltation. While it is possible for a Dragon-Blood to awaken this channel on his own, there is no clearly defined method for doing so. Some who have done nothing to trigger this awakening have received it - a fact that, if any knew of Gaia's role in the matter, would do much to confirm her fabled sense of humor.

A savant of sufficent skill and ability who could study the overall essence pattern of an awakened Dragon-Blood and a numina of the mist would note a similarity between them - it is likely the mist of the Forest Witches has learned to subvert this channel for its own ends, explaining why it prefers to reshape Dragon-Bloods.

Mechanics

An awakened Dragon-Blood's elemental aspect is greatly increased and deepened by the process. To create one as a character, follow the normal process for creating a Dragon-Blooded character with the following additions:

• The character MUST have Breeding 5; the character does not literally have to have had a good parentage but the process of awakening grants the character this level of the Background. In an all-awakened game, or one mixed with Celestial Exalted, the Storyteller may choose to freely give this background to the awakened Dragon-Blood.

• The character may learn elementally-aspected martial arts (i.e., the Immaculate styles) as if she was Celestial Exalted. No initiation is required, and the character may freely mix her learning from each style without requiring mastery.

• One charm must be the Dematerialize spirit charm, with a cost of one-half of her total Essence Pool.

• For each dot of Essence the character has, she obtains an elemental ability comparable to a Terrestrial Circle spell that may be activated by spending a temporary point of one of her Virtues; which Virtue powers these abilities is chosen when the first one is granted. For two points of the relevant Virtue, the elemental ability can be as powerful as a Celestial Circle spell. In all cases, the ability must be directly related to the elements in some way; conjuring fire or icy crystal, granting the character skin of rock (similar to the Invulnerable Skin of Bronze spell) and so forth.

• The character may take up to one blight, one affliction and three poxes to reflect a changed appearance due to their close connection to their element; such mutations should be natural to that element (an Earth aspect would not grow wings to fly) and do not count against the character's maximum Essence as true Wyld mutations do.

• The character's lifespan increases to one similar to that enjoyed by Celestial Exalted; exactly how long is unknown, no awakened having lived that long, but certainly in the multiple thousands of years.

• Finally, the character is considered an elemental for most purposes. Charms and spells effective against elementals are effective against the character, save that the character cannot be summoned against her will through Summon Elemental, although she may willingly answer the summons. This does not give the character any sort of increased status in the Celestial Order or force the character to take the form of a dragon at high levels of Essence, although it does allow the character to effectively pretend that such is true.

Notes

A reworking of the numina of the mist from The Outcaste. Instead of a nullified connection to the elements, an INCREASED one. - AliasiSudonomo