DBSInfernalExalted/Backgrounds

Backgrounds

Infernal Exalted were mortals of the cruellest calibre in their mundane life, and often amassed followers, influence, renown and wealth. When they are taken by the Yozis, they suffer months or even years of torture, returning to a world that has mostly forgotten them. Typically, the Infernal uses his newfound abilities to reforge their reputation and holding in Creation stronger and more fearsome than before. Infernal Exalted purchase their Backgrounds as Solars do, with the following exceptions:

Voices

The Solar shards the Yozis use in the creation of their servants is corrupted by its time in Malfeas, bloated green pulses of sickly light. Horrific truths and maddening thoughts of the Demon Princes buffet them, encroaching ever further upon their mind. Wherever the Infernals go, this inner profanity haunts them and distorts their perceptions.

Some, rather than seeking to drown out these profane voices, open their mind to the screaming voices embedded within it and seek to unravel some wisdom from the broken shrieks and utterances. Once per day, an Infernal with this background may spend a point of temporary Willpower and reflexively roll Perception + Voices to perform one of the following actions:

Listening to the silver-tongued words of rumour and gossip, the Infernal may seek to hear of an event of agony or corruption relating to their present company, frequently used to manipulate the people they deal with. The higher the number of successes, the more hurtful or shameful the memory.

Submitting to the hysteric commands of Malfeas, the Infernal can allow herself to be buffeted along by the Yozis’ will, ordered to wherever or whatever act would be in the Demon Princes’ purpose. The greater the number of successes rolled, the clearer the suggestions.

By unhinging all of her mental defences, the Infernal can surrender her actions to her inner corruption, withdrawing as her body takes on a life of its own. She may substitute her Voices rating for that of any other Ability. However, she is not in control of what she is doing at the time, and may say or do things she wouldn’t otherwise do.

1. You hear the discordant words of the Demon Princes, but have difficulty pulling insight from the mad cacophony.
2. Your mind is opened to the twisted perceptions of your patrons.
3. The Yozis have a strong influence over your soul, their insinuations, suggestions and demands buffeting you along a thousand mazy paths.
4. You shall never know silence, or logical reflection; the maddening words from within assault you every second, imparting horrible and seductive wisdom to your addled mind.
5. Mortals may consider you irredeemably insane, but you know better. The Yozis’ voices are inextricable from your own thoughts. Their will is your own.

Sorcery

Primal forces of Creation, countless millennia old, the Yozis are masters of its secrets. They gleefully impart this knowledge to their servants, secure in the fact that its power will be used to inflict havoc and suffering upon the world. Taking this Charm allows a character, tutored by demons of higher Circles, to begin the game with knowledge of a certain number of sorcerous spells without having to swap out Charms for the privilege. These spells cannot be necromantic, for the mastery of the patterns of death arose with the downfall and entrapment of the Demon Princes.

1. You have basic instruction in sorcery. Your character begins with knowledge of one spell of the Terrestrial Circle.
2. You have a strong understanding of the core principles of magic. Your character starts with knowledge of two spells of the Terrestrial Circle.
3. You have received extensive training in the arts of sorcery. Your character starts with knowledge of three spells of the Terrestrial Circle.
4. You have advanced understanding of how the laws of Creation can be undermined with Essence. Your character starts with knowledge of five spells of the Terrestrial or Celestial Circle.
5. You are a prodigy of the arcane arts. Your character starts with knowledge of seven spells of the Terrestrial or Celestial Circle.

Infernal Command

As the perpertrators of the Yozis' will upon Creation, the Infernal Exalted are often deigned the custodians of their perverted faith also. Where so blessed, an Infernal is elevated as a profane champion over the multitudes of dishevelled fanatics and demonic soldiers. These are not necessarily under the Infernal's direct control - Yozi cultists often have agendas of their own, twisted doctrine and self-imposed taboos that restrict the influence Infernals have over them. At the word of the greater demons, their support can be withdrawn. Every two mortal cultists gifted by this Background may be exchanged for one demonblooded cultist, and every five mortals may be exchanged for one First Circle demon.

1. A splinter cell of five cultists, hiding within a single village or city block.
2. A small following of twenty-five men and women, present across a small town or city district.
3. An established cult of a hundred in number, scattered across a small rural region or large city.
4. A network of five hundred affiliated cultists and infernalists, spread across a large region of land.
5. The most fearsome alliance of Yozi-worshippers ever amassed, a thousand cultists present across an entire cardinal direction.

This Background represents raw manpower alone; other priveliges the cult may grant are purchased as additional Backgrounds. If the cult pays a tithe to the Infernal, it is represented as Resources; if it has been influenced to worship her as well as her masters, it is a form of Cult; if it is talented at espionage, it is bought as Spies; if it has inflitrated a legitimate organisation, it is considered Contacts in that field.

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Feedback

Something I did with my own Sorcery background (for Sidereals): Same number of spells, but instead of saying "all of them can conceivably be Celestial Circle spells" for the four- and five-dot levels, give them the ability to have a number of Celestial Circle spells equal to the number of dots above three (ie. one or two). Just a thought, would make things more balanced. -- Will

A very nice idea, but I'd rather keep it as a houserule (albeit one I'll implement myself) than deviate from the spirit of canon when writing rules for others to implement...DeathBySurfeit

As for my opinion on that, it really isn't particularly necessary. Terrestial circle spells are good enough that people will take them even if given the option to go with all celestial level. When it comes down to it, the higher levels of sorcery are certainly more powerful, but they never really invalidate the use of terrestial circle. - Jaelra

also shouldn't there be a background for demonic worshippers and allies for example if you follow kimberry shouldn't you be able to command the lintha pirates (suggestion) - neo gavillian

Voices - I like the idea and the first 2 abilities of the background, but I dislike the thought of giving a character instant access at level 4 or 5 to an ability they have invested nothing in. It just makes a mockery of players who have invested heavily in a skill. Even more so with players who started with 1 or 2 points in a skill and then scrimped and saved up 16 xp (or 20xp if not favoured) to raise a skill they didnt realise would be critical to their character during creation. And as much as it can be fun occassionally grabing control of a PC, having yet more characters to RP is really just a pain for the ST.

Sorcery - I agree this is neccesary to some extent, buying spells at creation is much to pricey. However, why no use the rules set out in Cult of the Illuminated? Maybe stick with 7 @ rank5 if you're reducing the cost of learning spells in game.

Infernal Command - I know first circle daemons are not that powerful, but allowing any starting char to have command over 200 of them is just a disaster waiting to happen. Shining Mongoose

A disaster waiting to happen... Infernal starting character... No, I see no problem there ^_^
-- Darloth

Quite so! Consider that a starting Abyssal can amass 500 more-or-less fully loyal war ghosts in a single location for the same cost; put in perspective, it doesn't seem so bad...DeathBySurfeit

Well, I'm pretty sure that 200 Blood Apes, or Clamorous Cloud Arsenals would be far more frightening (to me, at any rate) than a load of warghosts. Warghosts aren't really that buff. Of course, the real potential here is for 200 neomah... - Scrollreader Who would love to play that infernal

War-ghosts... a typical war-ghost can attune jade artifacts, knows a couple of arcanoi, and may turn into a spiked monstrosity of nastiness (ghost-devil form)... Am I missing something? Sure, they're not AS good as a demon... but you get over twice as many. And if you have enough daiklaves... that's a whole lotta choppy.
-- Darloth

Well, a Clamorous Cloud Arcenal gets /either/ free counters or parries AND can kill spirits,and doesn't need to be supplied with weapons. While you can make a case for normal gear for warghosts, I'd say a Daiklave for each of them is on the far outside edge of feasability. Especially since, IIRC, they use the 'typical' war ghost profile. Certainly, a smaller number of elite war ghosts would be scarier. Especially with enough paths. But Tomescu are plenty stompy right out of the bow, and I remian pretty sure that a defalt tomescu can handle 2.5 typical war ghosts without breaking a sweat. - Scrollreader

True, but have you any idea how hard it is to HIDE 200 tomescu? Those things are loud, and if you have 200, everyone gets to know exactly where your army is every 12 hours. Even typical warghosts are stealthy, extremely so. Also, ghosts are easier to give essence to and thus keep material in creation, wheras demons need charms or other methods. Any mortal can be taught how to gift essence to ghosts, or you can just maintain a herd.
-- Darloth plays undead's advocate

Perhaps it should also be noted that any reasonably competent sorceror should be able to summon a 200-strong demon horde in half a year, maybe less. Still, if you consider the background too powerful, change it to one demon per ten men, or else overrule it altogether...DeathBySurfeit

Nah, not too powerful. More raw power, but all that limit is a pain. Of course, now I want a Neomah information network, in combination with Spies 5.  :P Scrollreader

Sorcery: In the same way that Abyssals have Necromancy, Infernals need their own magic. In the Abyssal book, the Dowager has discovered that these circles of magic exist and is intent on studying it. In the same way the Solars and Abyssals can learn the first two circles of the other's magic, so can they learn the first two circles of Infernal magic and Infernals learn the first two circles of their enemies. What it should be called, I don't know. Sorcery, Necromancy, and .... a third is escaping me. As Necromancy is more powerful then Sorcery but narrower in scope (causing death), Infernal magic should be more powerful then Sorcery but focus maybe on controlling it's target. Dmccoy1693

I don't see why it needs to any different than regular sorcery. Exalts did learn sorcery from the Yozis after all so why wouldn't Infernal Exalts have access to that same magic. Following that I don't see why they couldn't use the Solar Circle. The only thing I would have against that is that it might unbalance things and step on the Solars special toy. apeman

Frankly, I'd have to agree with the development of different magic dealing with Infernals. Infernals are inferently quite different from any form of Exalted, even the alien Alchemical. Thus they would, in theory be incapable of understanding the upper echelons of either Celestial or Necromatic Sorcery. I am actually in development of spells for the antagonists in my current roleplay. Their magics do not enfore the user such as the Solars, nor do they weaken the attacker, such as the Abyssals, instead, they turn the own targets body, items, allies, upon her. Such are usually perversions of forms of other sorceries. Prevalent among the spells are also those corrupt the very terrain and climate of an area as well as magics that concentrate on the use of demons and their powers. --Strikes-in-Madness

Sorcery is separate to Exalt type. Charms are not Sorcery. With regards to Sorcery, Infernals are Solar-level in power, and have the direct backing of the Primoridals, creators of Sorcery. They use the same source for it as Solar Sorcerors, Terrestrial Sorcerors, Even Abyssals or Sidereals that have learnt Sorcery. They should have access to the Adamant Circle, because it just makes sense. And as for stepping on the Solar's precious toy, bah. About time it happened. I've never liked there being a circle of Sorcery only Solars can use. -- Trithne

On what Dmccoy1693 said: I have an idea for what this Infernal sorcery stuff should be called. Ma. According to Dragon Ball, that's Japanese for demon and magic. I trust I don't have to explain my reasoning. Just a suggestion. - Han'ya