DualMegami/CelestialFuryStyle

Celestial Fury Style

This style is attributed to Lunars at the end of the Primordial War and the beginning of the First Age who trained themselves to fly into a controlled rage and use such power to inflict devastating blows against opponents who would dare test their anger. Lunar bodyguards often used this style to tear apart those who harmed their Solar mates. Its ability to deal raw, crushing blows made it popular with many Exalted warriors, and so the style has been adapted slightly over millennia so that other Celestial Exalted could use it. It would be a huge offense to ancient Full Moon Lunars (who may remember back to a time when the style was fairly new) if they discovered Abyssal Exalted using these charms. This does not mean, however, that Abyssal Exalted are forbidden access.

Complementary Abilities: There are no complementary Abilities required for this style, but most Celestial Fury sifus insist that their students have a minimum of Strength 3 Dex 3 and Stamina 3.

Weapons and Armor: This style considers any Natural weapons, claws, teeth, tails, talons, etc to be form weapons. Lunar Exalted or Wyld mutants with deadly Natural Weapons treat them as though they had +1 Accuracy, Defense and Rate. For Celestial Exalted not so inclined, they may use the sai, the tiger claw, the baneclaw or the razor claws. Celestial Fury Style may be practiced in any kind of armor.

Sky-Rending Swipe
1 mote
Martial Arts 2 Essence 1
Instant, Reflexive
Combo-Ok
None

The Martial Artist extends her claws (or draws her weapon) and strikes with voracious fury. When she makes a Fierce Blow, instead of losing a die for accuracy, she may convert it to an automatic success.

Weapon-Tempering Concentration
3 motes
Martial Arts 3 Essence 2
Scene, Simple (Speed 4, DV 0)
Combo-Ok
None

Practitioners of this style strike with their entire being, pouring everything they have behind each blow. While this was intended for Lunars who can shape their own fingers into Moonsilver claws, this is not always the case for their students. As long as the Martial Artist maintains three motes committed to her weapon, it cannot break by any means.

Unleashing Singular Anger
3 motes
Martial Arts 3 Essence 2
One Flurry, Supplemental
Combo-Ok
Sky-Rending Strike

Focusing one’s rage on a single foe is much more efficient than trying to lash out at many foes. As long as the Martial Artist chooses to focus on a single opponent, for one flurry she may spend two motes to make it cascade.
Thousandfold Soldier, a Chosen of Battles student of this style, flies into a rage at the sight of his circlemate being attacked by a Deathknight. He focuses his attention on the Deathknight and his player splits his action 3 ways. When the player rolls, his flurrying dice penalty goes –1,-2,-3.

Celestial Fury Form
5 motes
Martial Arts 4, Essence 2
Scene, Simple (Spd 4)
Combo-Ok, Form-Type
Unleashing Singular Anger, Weapon Tempering Concentration

The Martial Artist channels the madness within her, controlling her rage and anger and turning it into pure, raw power. All her attacks are considered Fierce Blows and gain an automatic success when they lose a die of accuracy. If the Martial Artist then invokes Sky-Rending Strike, the attack gains two automatic successes. The lucid, limber fluidity granted by tempered fury grants her the ability to strike in a thousand places at once. Increase the Rate of all her actions by two.

Understanding of Natural Armaments
7 motes, 1 willpower
Martial Arts 5, Essence 3
Scene, Simple
Combo-Basic, Obvious
Celestial Fury Form

Once a non-Lunar student has mastered the Form, they are then taught how to truly fight like a Lunar. Learning this Charm requires work and concentration, as the Lunar sifu forces the Essence of another Celestial to learn to shapechange. This charm permits the Martial Artist to grow a set of claws, or meat-ripping fangs, or a sweeping tail, as they see fit. The Lunar masters who designed this charm used the trait that all Exalts have in common to shape its effects. All Natural Armaments have Speed 5 and [Essence] to Accuracy, Damage, Defense and [half Essence, round up] Rate, the N and MA tags. Damage is always Lethal. The Natural Armament is always considered a Form weapon, and appears however the Martial Artist sees fit. Lunars do not need to learn this Charm in order to finish the style. If the Martial Artist activates Weapon-Tempering Concentration, add +1 to Damage and Defense and add an automatic success to all rolls to avoid Crippling effects. A Martial Artist must chose between using her Natural Weapon and a Martial Arts weapon, the Natural Weapon bonuses do not stack with a held weapon.

Guard-Crushing Blow
5 or 6 motes
Martial Arts 5, Essence 2
Instant, Supplemental
Combo-Ok
Celestial Fury Form

Infusing her strikes with Essence, the Martial Artist batters through the strongest of parries, wears down the slipperiest opponent and even strikes away the aegis of soak. An attack supplemented by Guard Crushing blow removes [half the Martial Artist’s MA rating, round up] from the target’s relevant DV and armor-provided soak. For an additional mote, the Martial Artist flows past the cover of a shield, and may ignore any DV bonus provided by one, and then apply the DV decrease this charm normally provides.

Inescapable Grasp
4 motes
Martial Arts 5, Essence 3
Instant, Supplemental
Combo-Ok, Obvious
Guard-Crushing Blow

There is no escaping an enraged opponent and Heaven help those who attempt to harm one of the Martial Artists’s beloved and get away. If anyone within [Essence x 2 yards] radius of the character has made an attack against something to which the Martial Artist has a desire to protect, she may leap, run, fly, etc that full distance to tackle the target and ensnare it in a crushing grasp. She makes a Martial Arts Clinch attack, adding her Essence in automatic successes. The target must succeed at a Wits + Awareness roll, difficulty 1, or be taken completely by surprise. A target that fails this roll is considered Unaware of the attack. The distance she can move to leap upon her opponents explicitly stacks with the Full Moon anima effect.

Claws Seek Heart
4 motes
Martial Arts 5, Essence 3
Instant, Reflexive
Combo-Ok
Guard-Crushing Blow

Those that know how Celestial Fury style works fear the practitioner’s deadly prowess. This Charm is activated after a successful attack (Step 7), allowing all damage remaining to bypass Armor-provided soak. The target’s natural soak and soak provided by Charms still apply—unless the Charm grants a form of armor.

Purity of Rage Attack
5 motes
Martial Arts 5, Essence 3
Instant, Supplemental
Combo-Ok, Crippling
Inescapable Grasp

The Martial Artist roars and charges her target. Upon a successful attack, if she deals a single health level of damage, her weapon sinks into the target’s flesh (or armor) and tears a deep, furrowed wound. The force behind it usually tears off most limbs, leaving the target staring in disbelief at a bleeding stump. Mechanically, this imposes and automatic –2 internal penalty. If the target was already suffering wound penalties, these penalties stack. The trauma from such attacks is great, and targets of Purity of Rage attack must make a Stamina + Resistance roll at difficulty 3 or be rendered Inactive for the user’s [Martial Arts] actions.

Whirling Nightmare Stance
4 motes, 1 willpower
Martial Arts 5 Essence 3
Scene, Simple
Combo-Ok
Claws Seek Heart

The Martial Artist whirls around, weapons and claws spinning in a dervish of rage and passion. Her eyes glow with inner fury and her blows are devastating and terrible. For the rest of the scene, whenever the Martial Artist successfully lands an attack, the damage is piercing and the 10s she rolls on damage count as two successes.

Ascendant Fury
10 motes, 1 willpower
Martial Arts 5, Essence 4
Scene, Simple
Combo-Ok, Obvious
Whirling Nightmare Stance, Purity of Rage Attack.

The Martial Artist howls, flooding her limbs with the Essence of anger. Her stature increases by a foot, proportionally as muscles bulge and limbs extend. Increase all her physical attributes by two and add +2 to the difficulty of all rolls to resist Knockback and Knockdown. She adds two to her effective Appearance when intimidating opponents. She automatically succeeds at all Valor rolls but loses 1 MDV to resist Compulsion effects that would drive the character to attacking something. She ignores all wound penalties, and can ignore up to her Martial Arts in additional penalties to either Attacks or DV. Her anger is transcendent; this is not a blind, foaming-at-the-mouth state of madness. She can coherently obey orders and perform simple tasks. She will not lash out foolishly or attack friends.

comments

I really like this MA style. It is stylistically awesome for lunars (and does great for a brawlish style) and works for others as well (very cool for an Abyssal, ancient lunars be damned). Just a few things. For the charms that let a non-Lunar be more lunar like, lunars should be given the option to learn the charm (instead of skipping) and get a benefit from it. For example, Understanding of Natural Armaments could refine the lunar's claws/teeth/whatever even more, with bonuses and stuff. Also, there are a lot of scene longs. While I have nothing against them, stacking all five in the style gets a bit over the edge. Perhaps two or so could be cheapened and turned into supplementals? -- Overshee's two cents.