FrivYeti/HeroicLimit

Heroic Limit: The Imposition of Autochthon

Autochthon needed the Heroic Exalted to keep the world intact and lead it forwards; however, he understood the innate danger of placing an entirely new group of Exalted in charge of Creation. At the same time, he did not want the possibility that his Exalts would turn on him. To this end, he created a system inside Heroic Shards to use their inherent Virtues to control them. He left the system vague enough that humanity's champions would not be enslaved by their strengths, only guided by them.

It is worth remembering that, while Autochthon is a benign Primordial, he is still a Primordial, and his opinions about what is justifiable and what is not sometimes leave something to be desired. The Impositions act by restricting a heroic Exalt's access to her powers when she is failing to live up to her responsibilities as a Prince of the Earth.

Gaining Imposition

In essence, the Imposition of Autochthon works similarly to the Great Geas of the Mountain Folk. Whenever a Heroic Exalt takes an action or fails to take an action in a way that violates one of the Precepts of Heroism, listed below, her Imposition track automatically increases. The violations, and what they entail, are listed below:

Surpressing a Virtue: +1 Imposition
Failure to act to right a wrong which the character is aware of and which preventing would be difficult: +1 Imposition. The character need not act physically to prevent this gain, but must take concrete steps to solving the problem. (If the character attempts to solve the problem and fails, no Imposition is gained.)
Failure to act to right a wrong which the character is aware of and which could be easily prevented: +2 Imposition.
Deliberately attacking a fellow Heroic Exalt: +1 Imposition
Deliberately and directly acting against an agent of Autocthon, except in self-defense: +3 Imposition. If the character believes that the agent of Autochthon is corrupt or not working for Autochthon, no Imposition is gained.
Deliberately and directly acting against Autochthon himself, except in self-defense: +10 Imposition.

Autochthon included the last two safeguards in case of betrayal by his Exalted; although he does not believe that they will be necessary, he is inclined towards caution. It is notable that he does not require obediance, only a lack of opposition - he has no particular interest in ruling the Exalted, and plans to use variations on the Impositions to repair the other Exalted. He has no desire to have the Incarnae believe that he is trying to take over the world again.

A character cannot gain Imposition more than once per scene; if she would gain more Imposition, apply only the highest Imposition gain for the scene. Once the character reaches 10 Imposition, she cannot gain further Imposition.

Effects of Imposition

A character with Imposition finds their pathways to their Charms blocked, and that they cannot easily use their magical might. The exact effect depends on how much Imposition the character has:

At 0-2 points of Imposition, there are no ill effects.

At 3-5 points of Imposition, the character finds that a veil has drawn across their Essence Shard, impeding their powers. The character must spend 1 extra mote on every Charm activation.

At 6-7 points of Imposition, the character's Essence Shard pulls in on itself, weakening its connection to the character. Treat the character's Essence as one point lower than it actually is for the purpose of all Charm effects and for prerequisites to Charms (that is, the character loses access to some of her Charms).

At 8-9 points of Imposition, the character's Essence Shard is nearly completely dissociated from her. All Essence and Willpower Charm costs are doubled, and the character's Essence is still one point lower for Charm effects and prerequisites.

At 10 points of Imposition, the character loses access to all of her Charms, including permanent Charms, until she loses Imposition. She may not purchase new Charms with experience or increase her Essence.

Losing Imposition

Characters may lose Imposition in a number of ways, based around atoning for their misdeeds. There are three ways to lose Imposition:

If a character goes a full month without attempting to surpress her Virtues, her Imposition drops by a point.

If a character succeeds at an act of great heroism and justice, such as defending a town from the Fair Folk or freeing a caravan full of Guild slaves, her Imposition drops by one point.

A character may attempt to reconnect to her inner self to burn off Imposition. Doing so is dangerous, but sometimes required. The character chooses a Virtue, which must be rated 3 or higher, to channel the Imposition and spends a point of Willpower. Roll the character's Imposition rating. For each success, up to a maximum of three successes, reduce the character's Imposition rating by 1. For a number of weeks equal to the points reduced, the character must spend a point of Willpower to attempt to surpress that Virtue; this increases the character's Imposition by 1. If the character fails the surpression check, another Willpower must be spent normally to surpress the Virtue anyway, and Imposition will increase by one more. Characters may channel Imposition through any or all of their virtues.

Comments

Over all, I think this is an interesting idea, though it may be a bit draconic in outcome. Messing with Charms can really hurt a player's enjoyment of the game. Also, I'm concerned about the "problem the character is aware of" aspect of gaining Imposition. This goes straight to the heart of what is known in ethics circles as "the proximity problem." To provide a compltely continuity-violating example, if a Heroic Exalt is in Wavecrest and rumor reaches her that the Mask of Winters has taken Thorns, what will happen to her Imposition rating? She is not likely to have a meaningful way to affect the situation, and may have other responsibilities that tie her attentions to Wavecrest anyway. Guess she just has to eat that Imposition, eh?

Actually, it seems in general that ethical dilemmas are deadly dangerous to the Heroic Exalts under this system... - Hapushet

Hmm... well, ethical dilemmas are meant to be painful to the Heroic Exalted. I don't think messing with Charms is worse than the social penalties Abyssals get, or the Alchemicals gradual inability to do anything, and I tried to make it fairly easy to get rid of Imposition. You are right, though - I'll have to play with this so that it only applies to situations the character can directly affect. *goes off to ponder* - FrivYeti

A mild non-mechanical effect for feeling uncomfortable at imposition 0-2 would make sense, but I like it. -TheHoverpope