FourWillowsWeeping/CasteMarks

Caste Marks and Animae

I think that these are sort of boring; these house rules attempt to capture a more expressive aesthetic with them, instead of using them as a convenient cipher by which Exalts can be identified.

Solars

Solar castemarks are a result of natural Essence processes. They are the least apparent of the anima manifestations of the Exalted, even though their animas are known to be the most spectacular.

• Dawn Caste: The castemark is a circle of ruddy light. If one looks at it, its radiance seems to be ever-increasing. In a Dawn's anima, shadows lengthen toward the west.
• Zenith Caste: The castemark is a circle of white light; in a Zenith anima, shadows shrink as though in the noonday sun.
• Twilight Caste: The castemark glows red-violet, occasionally flashing gold. Shadows blur into bewitching half-light in a Twilight anima.
• Night Caste: The castemark is a dark circle filled with stars and ringed with gold.
• Eclipse Caste: The castemark is a corona of pale light surrounding a circle of darkness. In an Eclipse anima, all shadows have this luminous outline.

Abyssals

Abyssal castemarks are graven images, icons; they are artificial Essence constructs that help regulate the Abyssal anima. They generally first appear to be tattooed, then become bleeding stigmata. They always appear at exactly three points on the Exalt's body, with one at the forehead. Deathknights have been seen with stigmata at their wrists, scarred on their throats and backs, and marked in all manner of other places.

• Dusk Caste: The Dusk mark is a hollow circle with rays fanning out from it. Shadows lengthen and point to the deathknight when his anima flares.
• Midnight Caste: The Midnight mark is a filled circle; some Midnights have deep holes bored into their foreheads from the mark. A Midnight anima causes shadows to spread like blots of ink, making all nearby knee-deep in night.
• Daybreak Caste: The Daybreak mark is a circle, the lower half filled with darkness. In a Daybreak anima, light sources seem to flicker uncertainly.
• Day Caste: The Day mark is a hollow dark ring; Day animas cause lights to grow harsh, blinding instead of illuminating.
• Moonshadow Caste: The Moonshadow mark is a small circle within a ring; Moonshadow animas leach the colour out of the worls, making it seem dingy and dull.

Sidereals

Sidereal Castemarks are a simple point of light in the planetary colour for those not initiated in any astrological Colleges. For those with maximized ratings in all Colleges, or those displaying the Lesser Sign, the mark is the sign of the appropriate Maiden. The World-Shaping Artistic Vision will sometimes change the Castemark in a subtle way; Elemental Vision will infuse it with an elemental flair, and Auspicious Prospects makes a Sidereal's Castemark have a distinctive metallic appearance. In all other cases the rules below apply.

• Chosen of Journeys: Displays the sign of the Exalt's highest-rated Golden Barque of the Heavens College.
• Chosen of Battles: Displays the sign of the Exalt's highest-rated Crimson Panoply of Victory College.
• Chosen of Serenity: Displays the sign of the Exalt's highest-rated Cerulean Lute of Harmony College.
• Chosen of Secrets: Displays the sign of the Exalt's highest-rated Forbidden Manse of Ivy College.
• Chosen of Endings: Displays the sign of the Exalt's highest-rated Violet Bier of Sorrows College.

Lunars

Lunars do not have Castemarks. Untattooed Lunars sometimes manifest luminous currents of light twining over their bodies, roughly concurrent with their blood vessels.

• Full Moon: Tattoos and visible Tells glow white.
• Changing Moon: Tattoos and visible Tells glow bluish.
• No Moon: The Lunar seems as though he is standing in darkness, regardless of the conditions of light around him.

Dragon-Blooded

The Dragon-Blooded do not have Castemarks. The rules for Aspect Markings are unchanged.

Comments

This may be a little nitpicky... but what happen when a Sidereal has two Colleges tied for the highest rating? IE Winter Melon, Chosen of Endings, has both The Sword and The Haywain at 4 dots. What happens?

- Damarus

You pick based on which the Sidereal best embodies at the moment. - willows

Ah, makes sense. And I take it that when donning a resplendent destiny, if you let the Caste Mark shine, it'll probably be glowing in the shape of the college of that destiny for a brief moment before switching to the highest-rated college, if the college of the destiny isn't the highest already, no?

- Damarus

*shrugs* These are pretty sketched-out rules, even the elaborate Sidereal ones. I'm tempted to think that you can construct a resplendent identity with a defined Castemark manifestation (in fact, the college of the Sorceror makes this nearly explicit), so I'd probably respond, in my own game, "Describe it how you think is appropriate." - willows

If I'm not mistaken, Willows, you can't technically have an alternate caste mark under the Sorcerer resplendent destiny ((the destiny, NOT if the college was the highest college of a chosen of Secrets)), since flaring your anima banner destroys the resplendent destiny and forces you to roll paradox dice. I'm not sure if this relates to using peripheral at all or not. As a result, the only way to have a visible caste mark as a Sorcerer destiny would be if one either had a permenant caste mark as part of the destiny, wore the symbol on their clothing, or used the effect of Prince of the Earth in order to impress people with the caste mark. - Doorman

There is a state of castemark display, iirc, that does not shatter the RD--only strains it. - willows