CharmRelay/Ascetic
Charm Relay
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The Thirty-seventh Theme is Ascetic Mysticism
These are Solar Charms centered around self denial and ascetism as ascribed to apocryphal Christian or Buddhist saints.
Thousand-Year Chrysanthemum Vow - willows
- Permanent
- Keywords: Obvious
- Minima: i'll look them up later
- Prerequisite Charms: Phoenix Renewal Tactic
It is said that when the ancient ekashi-khan Iyomante Bear Flooding Joy opened his eyes, they never closed again, and everything his gaze fell upon shone thereafter as if it was set in the noonday sun. This Charm allows a young Solar to partake in a little of Iyomante's brilliance. When the Solar learns this Charm, he selects a Virtue, and a Need from below.
When the Solar channels the chosen Virtue, his anima blooms in a thousand spikes of light, each framing a tiny figure in a different posture of meditation. This sight creates an Emotion in all witnesses, indicating that the Solar is a great leader of that Virtue. This is an unnatural mental influence costing 2 Willpower to resist.
When the Solar refreshes that Virtue (via the Phoenix Renewal Tactic or other means) he may describe it as a flash of meditative inspiration, and if he does so the strength of his heart sustains him. There is a brief moment of silence as the earth bears witness to his wisdom. His action satisfies the chosen Need for a number of subsequent days equal to his Essence.
The Needs are:
- Jade: The Need to eat and drink.
- Iron: The Need to breathe.
- Silver: The Need to sleep.
- Gold: The Need to eventually die. This Need differs from the others slightly; 'satisfying the Golden Need' means that the Solar does not die by causes internal to him for the appropriate number of days. This protects him from illness, old age, heartbreak, and so on, but is no safeguard against assassination or suicide.
This Charm may be learned multiple times, each time selecting a different Virtue and a different Need. The Golden Need may not be selected until all others have been. Each time the Solar changes Motivations, he may exchange Virtue and Need among those that he has already learned, in order to form new combinations.
Primacy-Subjugating Covenant - DeathBySurfeit
- Cost: 10m, 2wp
- Simple
- Keywords: None
- Minima: Integrity 5, Essence 4
- Prerequisite Charms: Thousand-Year Chrysanthemum Vow (in relevant virtue), Righteous Lion Defence
It is said that when the ancient ekashi-khan Iyomante Bear Flooding Joy turned his back on temptation, temptation turned his back on him. The Solar selects a Virtue when learning this Charm; they must possess a Thousand-Year Chrysanthemum Vow for this Virtue. Upon activation, the character's anima appears as five points of brilliant glory and salience, spinning forth a tapestry of golden light between them. At the tapestry's core, a beast writhes and flickers, soon subsumed into the display. It corresponds to the antithesis of the relevant virtue:
- Compassion: The beast is Oneikha One-And-Nothing, a serpent that knots endlessly into itself, never revealing its eyes to the world.
- Conviction: The beast is Uaon, a ruddy-carapaced scorpion whose barbed stinger stabs into its own flesh.
- Temperence: The beast is Shong Uel Aeit, a cockroach that gains limbs and appendages as quickly as it consumes them.
- Valor: The beast is Thousand Times Taken, a skinless rabbit that does nothing but writhe in unending pain.
All present gain a sense that the Lawgiver has subsumed their weakness and acts true to that ideal (an unnatural mental influence, requiring 2 Willpower to resist). This is partially true as, once activated, the Solar is immune to all mental influence that would force them to act against the chosen Virtue. This effect persists until they intentionally act contrary to that Virtue, at which point the Charm's effect ends and it cannot be re-activated until Calibration.
This Charm may be learned multiple times, each time selecting a different Virtue.
Wisdom River and Irresistible Crescent - willows
- 10m 1+w, Instant, Simple
- Keywords: Obvious
- Minima: i'll look them up later
- Prerequisite Charms: something in presence?
This Charm recalls the two kami servants of Iyomante's mate, the inau-beki Umoshmatek Owl, who lived in her hair, entangled in her glory.
To invoke this Charm, the Solar must spend one or more days in intense moving meditation, in which she continuously and unswervingly practices a particular Ability. Users of this Charm have been known to chase a rainstorm to dodge its drops, fall into week-long battle trances where they do nothing but kill, build mansions out of salt and sand, and so on. She benefits from at most as many days of meditation as her permanent Essence; this quantity of days is equal to the Charm's Willpower cost.
During this time, the Solar names an austerity; she will avoid doing some particular thing. This thing must be at minimum socially significant, such as wearing matted hair, if not physically uncomfortable. As long as she continues performing her austerity, she radiates an aura of sage intensity.
This aura is an unnatural compulsion, costing Willpower points to resist equal to the number of days spent in meditation. Should a being fall under the compulsion's sway, he is compelled to heed the Solar's counsel in all matters, doubling the Willpower cost to resist her persuasions.
Blossoming Passion Root - Ambisinister
- Cost: 10m, 1wp
- Simple
- Keywords: None
- Minima: Integrity 5, Essence 4
- Prerequisite Charms: Primacy-Subjugating Covenant
It is said that the ancient ekashi-khan Iyomante Bear Flooding Joy witnessed many events over the course of his life that filled him with such joy that the lynchpins of his being burst open with sublimating vigor. It is also said that Iyomante witnessed events that caused him such despair that he walled off the roots of his passion in dismay. Lawgivers which follow in Iyomante's path have developed a technique to emulate what came so natural to the ekashi-khan.
A character who activates this charm may choose to open one of his virtues. Doing so raises the virtue's rating by 1 and causes all rolled instances of that virtues to result as if every die came up a success. If the chosen virtue is the character's primary virtue, increase the rating by 2 instead of one. Instead of opening a virtue, a character may instead close it. This is sometimes known as the Passion Swallowing Defense. Closed virutes may not be channeled, and any rolls involving that virtue will always fail. A side effect of this is that the character is immune effects or abilities which target the closed virtue. If a character closes his primary virtue, he automatically gains a number of points of limit equal to the virtue's rating when the charm's effect ends. Regardless of effect the charm lasts for a number of days equal to the character's essence and may not be used on the same virtue again until a like amount of time has passed.
Ashes and Dust Sacrifice - Kukla
- Cost: None
- Permanent
- Keywords: None
- Minima: Integrity 5, Essence 2
- Prerequisite Charms: Righteous Lion Defence
When Brigid scaled the Omphalos of Creation and gazed in to the eyes of the Unconquered Sun, she was prepared to sacrifice anything, and so she sacrificed herself. Through this charm, the Solar can purify himself in the eyes of the gods through self-degradation - sacrificing his almighty prestige as Prince of the Earth on the altar of heaven, in lieu of gems or incense or blood.
When securing the attention of a god through prayer, as described on page 132 of the corebook, the Solar may reduce the difficulty through self-degradation in addition to physical sacrifice. Merely learning this Charm is an exercise in flagellation, hair shirts, and humility sufficient to permanently reduce the difficulty of prayer by 1. If the Solar performs acts of symbolic self-abuse, such as eating a meal of ashes and dust, that lowers the difficulty by 1 as well. If the Solar causes harm to himself such that he requires more than a week of non-magical healing to recover, or requires magical healing to recover at all, such as immolating himself beneath a vast magnifying glass, that reduces the difficulty by 2. All of these effects stack with each other and with traditional material sacrifice measured by Resources.
Comments
Cool, what a sweet theme! I'm all over this. - willows
- I agree! ...DeathBySurfeit
Sweet Charm, dude! What's the duration? - willows
- I am assuming something fairly long, since otherwise it seems weak/overcosted. 5WP? - LeumasWhite
- Thanks, willows! I assumed it would be indefinate, and have clarified accordingly. There's an integrity charm in the core book that costs 4 Willpower to activate - I was inferring from those kind of circumstances, but it's clear now that the Calibration restriction discourages re-activation by itself. I've dropped it...DeathBySurfeit
What, no more challengers? Chickens. - willows
- You've gotta admit, you've raised the bar a little. I'm trying to think of a good response to yours. You have two that build off of Virtues and one that builds off an Ability (kinda) to improve your aura. A Sorcerous one based off the five trials... That might work. - Kukla
- Dude, raised the bar? CharmRelay is not about bars, it's about writing Charms and offering critique to each other if we see something to critique. It's about momentum. You do not need to feel a lack of confidence in your craft; we're here to share our skills and insight. - willows
I feel like the charm is...almost but not quite complete. Since no one has posted for a bit I decided to go for it and see what you folks thought.-Ambisinister
Okay, my charm is finally up. Ambisinister, your charm looks excellent, really. -Kukla
That's five charms, so, next theme... Economantic Charms, which allow you to shape the wealth of a society like craftsmen shape stone.
I am all over Economancy. Will it be for a particular sort of being? -mUrielw
Solars, if possible, but I'd be dishonest if I didn't say that was because I'm playing an Eclipse Bureaucracy twink Guildsman. -Kukla
