Braydz/SleepoftheAges

Sleep of the Ages
Artifact ••••
Orichalcum daiklave
Speed +3, Accuracy +4, Damage +6L, Defense +3
Requires: Strength 3, Compassion 3; Commitment: 10 (Orichalcum)

Made for and wielded by Ovark the Crystal Heart, a First Age Zenith, Sleep of the Ages was intended to be a paladin's weapon against the armies of Darkness. It was lost in the Usurpation. The island manse where it was rumored to rest erupted about fifty years ago.

• Sleep of the Ages gains an additional Acc. +2 against Demons and the Undead, including Deathknights and Deathlords. It also deals Aggravated damage to these creatures.
• When drawn, Sleep of the Ages grants its wielder the fear-instilling ability of the Zenith cast. Solars pay 6 motes, and all other Exalted pay 10. Actual members of the Zenith caste pay 3 motes to invoke this terror, regardless of whether or not Sleep of the Ages is drawn.
• Sleep of the Ages also adds to the effectiveness of a Zenith's caste abilities, adding the Zenith's Valor to the dice of damage inflicted with their anima and the dice subtracted from attacks made on the Zenith. Also, the difficulty of the Valor check to oppose the Zenith is increased by their Essence.
• Any mortal or once mortal creature slain by Sleep of the Ages immediately and automatically has its soul sent to Lethe to be reincorporated into the Cycle, including Ghosts and Abyssals. It is possible that a Death Lord slain with Sleep of the Ages would have their soul returned to the Cycle (ST's discretion), but no one's ever killed a Death Lord so this is pure conjecture.
• Sleep of the Ages has settings for two Hearthstones.
• The statistics given do not include the Orichalcum FMM bonus.

Comments

FWIW, I think this is a high 2 or mid-3, not by any means an Artifact 4. But it's some dip at umass who's stealth-changing your Artifact rating. - willows

I think it's 4. It does aggravated damage to deathknights and deathlords and third circle demons. Nuff said.
~ Shataina

Agg is just lethal to something that can't heal in the first place, so it doesn't impress me much for the dead. Orichalque weapons should do agg to demons as part of their material bonus, if you ask me. - willows

Willows,
'Taina's point, I think, is that is does Agg. to things that are normally excluded from Demons/Undead for purposes of magical effects. That's kinda why I think so too, though I totally understand why you think all Orichalcum weapons should do Agg. to such things. It's the metal of those diametrically opposed to such things, and is the metal of the Sun when they are creatures of the Night.
It's got good stats for a stright-up Daiklave (which is Artifact 2 anyways), but really the only thing about it other than that that warrants more Artifact points is the stuff against Demons/Undead, and I get what you're saying about Agg. barely being a cut above Lethal. If you were to make this a lvl 4 Artifact, keeping with the "paladin" motif I'm using, what else would you have it do?
~*~Braydz~*~

Basically, I would make it more cool. When I read this weapon, I was like, "I see where he's going with this, but it honestly looks like a D&D weapon that got ported into Exalted...where is the wuxia cool?"

We have a name, Sleep of the Ages. First thing: Make a power out of the name.

The wielder of the weapon can enter the Manse of a Hearthstone set into it and enter a timeless slumber with it; while in this slumber he is affected as though by (that spell that coats something in adamant), and he neither ages not dies, but is unaware. There is a Celestial spell keyed to the weapon that will awaken the wielder and release him. This is a setting power, really; I'm not going to really count it as adding to the weapon's effectiveness.

Second task: Make the weapon look exciting.

Sleep of the Ages burns impurities out of the user's anima banner, making its manifestations pure white. Similarly, the Castemark shines like a prismatic crystal, and even Lunar tattoos glow with whiteness, not the silvery gleam of the moon. Again, not really a power. The weapon's wielder has access to the Zenith anima effect if he is of the Solar Exalted, and if he is a Zenith he can use it at half cost. This is a real ability.

Final task: Give the weapon something Really Awesome.

The Solar Exalted have one last ability that they can draw upon through this sword. This costs 1 Willpower and a dot of Virtue, which is permanently lost and can only be regained throu expenditure of experience; all (undead, fae, demons) within (Essence) miles of the user suffer (highest Virtue) levels of aggravated damage as the user utters a terrifying battlecry. This automatically flares the user's anima as though he were using Solar Circle Sorcery; it is visible to ten miles times the radius of the effect and attracts the attention of friendly gods and elementals, who rush to the spot. Obviously this is a last-resort tool, much like the Greater Signs of Astrology.

And that's still Art 4 in my book.

- willows

While I would probably disagree with willows' Really Awesome scale, I'm in his camp on everything else this time. It's weak for an Art. 4 - give it something that makes the movie slow time so the character can tell the bad guy exactly how he went wrong, leaving that piece of thread on the dead body for those darned kids to find.
~LorienFeanturi~

It's supposed to be something of a D&D weapon, actually. The name Sleep of the Ages is a reference to death is the thing. It puts things to rest, it grants the sleep of the ages to restless souls. So while the sleep idea is cool, no.
I don't like items that verbatim copy Caste abilities so I was trying to avoid that, but it might be the way to go to knock the item up a level. I like the smite idea, though.
Thanks everyone for your feedback; I'll come up with a revision and throw it up.
~*~Braydz~*~

I think that in its current form it is a good Artifact 3, something that I'd use for an appropriate character. - willows