DarkheartOne/MirrorGrace

Once there was a god
Who was pretty certain that she knew what lay within her
But, nonetheless, she stuck her head inside her chest to make sure
She found many things there that she could not, or would not, see
These things made her cry, and her tears washed away her flaws
Her twin was not there
And did not even try

Niratisaya, the Infinite Mirror: The Mirror Grace

The Mirror Grace channels a Raksha's Compassion, warring against and feeding on Conviction, as the willingness to grasp at the truth rises against and defeats the willingness to remain blinded. It represents Understanding, and allows the raksha to grasp at and comprehend the many truths, flaws and realities that they, and even those within Creation, overlook in the name of protecting their Heart or soul, respectively.

As the Mirror grows larger and more lucid, the raksha can grow from being able to perceieve and mildy alter these discerned truths and flaws to bending them in dynamic and grotesque ways, even going so far as to inserting and removing some truths and flaws as the raksha sees fit.

X - You have yet to form a Mirror Grace, and your Heart continues to gloss over even the most glaring imperfections within yourself, as well as others.

• - You can come to accept that, perhaps, there are things about your self-wrought nature that could use a bit of fixing... eventually.

•• - You can look within with clear eyes, and not flinch at what you see. You also can glimpse at others, raksha and Creation-born, and feel the imperfections in their own patterns, lightly

••• - You, at this point, you have come to grips with the fact that the errors that lay within your very pattern and the pattern of other raksha cannot all be undone, for to do so is to undo one's very Heart. At this point, the weakness within those who lie in the world of the Created become comprehendable as well, albeit dimly.

•••• - While you cannot truly master your flawed nature yet, you have become adept at shaping it, and can even reach forth into others, bending as you see fit to achieve either an approach to perfection or a magnification of the cracks that lay within one's self.

••••• - You are, in a way, somewhat alien to other raksha, for not only can you comprehend the inherent failing of the very reasons that the Fair Folk exist, but you can also grasp the cold and dull (albeit beautifully flawed, as real things are) work of art that is Man. This truth may break you, or it may only make you all the more stronger.

The Curse of Ignorance

Raksha with Mirror Graces that fall into Bedlam due to a Mirror-related lure, have their Mirror Grace broken, or are stripped to Mirror 0 by someone attuned to the Grace suffer the Curse of Ignorance. For all intents and purposes, the raksha acts and appears as normal. However, they become completely unable to realize when their own actions, along with the actions of others, are detrimental to their own goals and well-being. They will readily betray their own desires and plans alongside their enemies, blissfully unaware that they've done so until the broken mess that is left behind lies around them.

This self-destructive cycle will continue until it has occured a number of times equal to the raksha's Compassion. The betrayal can occur swiftly and in rapid succession, or drag on for decades.

Mirror Shaping

Mirror Shaping opens wide the Hearts and minds of the raksha participating, baring their innermost selves in all their glory and squalor. It does not use the secrets and lies brought forth to crush or confine the target, but instead presents them as powerful challenges and tests that the raksha much endure or overcome to withstand.

The Mirror is made from the stuff of Compassion, polished to a reflective sheen to allow the raksha to see themselves clearly. Its Attribute associations are Stamina, Manipulation and Perception, while its Ability associations are Awareness, Lore, Socialize, Investigation, and Presence. The Mirror is often seen as having all colors, but often is simply protrayed as reflective silver. Its direction is, if one can call it such, the direction of self, as the mirror reflects what is before it. Raksha who quest in the name of the Mirror often seek other raksha throughout Rakshastan, but it is said that the slim few true masters reside not in the Wyld, but hide within Creation itself, too changed by their association with this unusual Grace to ever return.

Mirror contests are battles of guilt, shame, inner discovery and frightening revelation. While the weapons of Mirror combat are often nothing more than lies, sometimes raksha dig up things in Mirror contests that they could never guess their opponent felt; such realizations are massively powerful things, and often change the relationships between the Wyld-born engaged in such duels. Nonetheless, the ultimate goal is to create (or even discover) a truth, secret or fault that the raksha cannot stand up to (or is too weak to stand against), forcing them to bow in defeat; such raksha are distressed, and are forced to do penance for their perceived or real transgression. This is often combined with incumberances, to force the beaten raksha to work through his victor in order to complete his contrition.

Mirror Combat

The weapons of Mirror shaping are the stuff of nightmares; things that haunt, that daunt, that frighten and unsettle. The ultimate goal, as stated, is to make the target surrender on their own by presenting them with false (and sometimes real) matters that weigh heavily on them throughout the duration of the shaping battle. Fear of rejection, a truly traitorous act, unexpected and unwelcome dealings with the enemies of the raksha... these things can be built into towering, horror-invoking walls that only the strong can overcome.

The dice pool for Mirror shaping actions is selected from the most appropriate definition set below. An effect that crosses multiple means allows for the player to selects the most likely one, subject to ST approval. The Mirror relies on clear sight and clear thoughts to observe, build and utilize the trial-weapons of the contest, so the primary Attribute happens to be Perception.

Perception + Awareness: The raksha builds possible trials and obstacles from how his opponent may have reacted to previous shaping attacks (especially Investigation-based attacks), as well as what clues the raksha may have picked up in whatever witty banter had occurred before the battle took place or from other social interactions and discoveries. This is usually the method that true trials are built from, and is often the most overpowering.

Perception + Lore: The raksha draws from the tales of both the Wyld-born and those of Creation, molding them into grueling, spirit-sapping gauntlets of the will that the target must overcome. The victim suddenly finds themselves thrust into epic matters, where they must overcome some terrible, fatal flaw created by the raksha.

Perception + Socialize: The raksha uses a much more personal method of assault; instead of forging nightmares and waking horrors, he creates rumor-mongering shades of both raksha and mortals, their whispers and quiet words assaulting the target like a spiritual rain of arrows as many little matters come crashing down upon them.

Perception + Investigation: In order to feel out his opponent and determine a suitable means of direct attack, the raksha bombards the target with a sea of various, generic fears and flaws, literally throwing a handful of dung at a wall and watching to see what, if anything, sticks. This can be a series of quick, terrible images and flashbacks, or a sudden rush of multiple, clashing depictions of the misdeeds the raksha wishes to crush his target's self with.

Perception + Presence: The raksha shapes a trial that is less direct, but far more oppressive and stifling than usual Mirror attacks. Instead of a roaring sea of blood representing those the target slew in their madness, they may simply find that, in a seemingly normal dream, everything they touch bears bloody fingerprints that moan their name damningly.

Mirror Damage

The way Mirror combat 'hurts' its target is simple; instead of a single crushing impact, it's a series of battering waves, beating upon the target over and over until he cannot stand to even the weakest of the lot. To win a Mirror contest, the raksha simply must whittle down their opponent's strength of self; as the battle wears on, emotional weariness and sheer dread of what is to come can stop the raksha who was a mere plot twist away from victory, forcing them into distress. The base damage of an attack is the raksha's Manipulation, plus additional successes on the attack roll. The target, trying their hardest to remain strong in the face of such an attack, receives a shaping soak equal to their Conviction + Willpower, functioning much like normal soak in that it cannot reduce damage dice to zero.

Weapons of the Mirror

• Stumbling Block
• Tribulation Doll
• Gossamer Frame
• Observation
• Shining Shards
• False Trial
• True Trial
• Entanglement

Effects of Damage

Raksha with a Mirror Grace mark Mirror damage off against their Conviction + Mirror. When they have taken more Mirror damage than this total, they lose the shaping combat and are distressed.

Distressed characters are consumed with feelings of guilt, shame and inner hatred for some imagined or very real fault or flaw within their selves that the raksha distressing them chooses. The victim can do nothing more than seek to atone for their flaws; those inflicted with the need to atone for betraying friends may devote themselves mindlessly to them or shower their allies with gossamer and gifts, while those who are forced to dwell on some flaw in their capabilities will train obsessively to better themselves, often begging others for help. While the matter of distress cannot be something that would blatantly cause the raksha to harm themselves, a clever distressing that may bring great discomfort and even some injury is possible, and often the norm. Also, some Mirror-users will also incumber the target, forcing the victim to work towards their repentance only when they see fit.

Distressed characters who forego penance lose a point of Willpower per scene of neglect, and incur a two-die penalty to all actions until they resume fulfilling the requirements of their distress. If the distress trigger is a true fault in the raksha's Heart, both penalties double.

Should the raksha who inflicted the distress withdraw the trigger, or if the victim resists for a number of scenes equal to the victor's (Heart x 2), the distress lifts completely.

Distressing Places

Distressing a waypoint poisons the airs of Virtue there with a penance 'trigger'; anyone who remains in the waypoint long enough to take in this poisoned essence is suddenly wracked with a lesser form of distress. Unless the poisoned raksha can succeed in a Willpower roll with a difficulty equal to the Compassion of the raksha that distressed the waypoint, they succumb to the chosen trigger whenever possible and do not shake off the effects until a full scene passes. This poisoning remains until the waypoint is somehow destroyed; not even the raksha who distressed the area can lift this curse, and they themselves can succumb to it.

Distressing the Unshaped

Even the terrifying Unshaped retain some concept of fear, and defeating them makes the victorious raksha the target of their unusual means of repentance. The unshaped will give forth some gift (usually a three-dot Wyld Artifact, spell, adjuration or behemoth) forged from their own non-body that has a connection, in capability and appearance, to the way the raksha defeated them.

Distressing Creatures of Creation

Beings of Creation (and raksha without a Mirror Grace) can be distressed, but do not have a Mirror damage track. Instead, the victim's player rolls Willpower + Essence against a difficulty of the raksha's damage successes, with exaltation conferring bonus dice as stated in the standard Grace examples. A character that succeeds shrugs off the effect, while failure inflicts distress. Not even the Creation-born can be subjected to blatantly harmful flaw-triggers. All charms and effects that reduce shaping soak lower the target's Willpower + Essence pool as normal.

Mirror Charm Idea Splatter

• Forging the Mirror Grace: DUH.
• Spiritual Diagnosis: Learn Nature, present Grace damage tracks, hints at oaths at higher Essence
• Fierce Rejection: Battle through or completely reject spiritual damage, at a high price
• Mending the Broken Vessel: Special charm for speeding along Grace repair.
• Madness In One's Grasp: Lessening or even completely removing active Bedlam, with possibly horrid drawbacks
• Cabinet of Broken Dreams: Multi-purchase charm that allows raksha to store removed flaws, truths, Lures, Bedlam and so on in their own essence pattern for later use
• Stolen Sweetness: Lure removal!... at a price
• Myself In You: Body-swapping fun!
• Flaw Injection / Expulsion / Dispersal: Taking a flaw stored in the Cabinet and inserting it in another, firing it into them at range, or creating a 'flaw grenade' out of it
• Bitter Waters of Epiphany: Final Mirror charm that either completely alienates a raksha from Creation, or allows them to wrap themselves in the stuff of Creation, to an extent. Mind-altering in either case
• The Invasion Within: Mirror trickery to engage in compressed-time shaping combat in a dreamscape that can contain multiple raksha and mortals.

• Unflagging Inquisitor Style: Holy crap, a shaping art! Main hook is 'unavoidabiiity'.

Comments

TIGHT. My shinma-sutras are catching on. Rock. Anyway, this looks really cool and now I wanna get in on the new Grace train. But... I should probably finish up my shaping comabt example and my roster of shinma aspects... le sigh. The curse of an overactive imagination coupled with a short attention span. Um. Usually, to my knowledge, raksha without a [Grace] track are treated as Creation-born. -- OhJames

Duly noted. And thanks! :D (will probably fix when my brain's working.)-- DarkheartOne

Very cool - I designed a Mirror Grace as a minor Grace, similar to the Way, but this is a much more in-depth Major Grace-style thing. Love it. :) - FrivYeti

Well, thanks! This is big-mojo, but it's also pretty specialized. So... um. We'll see what happens with it!