Jai/AotS

Avatar of the Sun (working title) | Solar Circle | Status: Still Working On It

Cost: 50 motes

• This spell was just an experiment to complete the circle that was started with Invulnerable Skin of Bronze (Terrestrial Circle) and Incomparable Body Arsenal (Celestial Circle). This is meant to be the Solar Circle piece of that 'set'. This spell was inspired in part by FourWillowsWeeping and his Amber Hawk in Flames ma style.

For a number of hours equal to her Essence score, the Solar turns her body into a living embodiment of the majesty and power of the living Sun. Her soul expands and it’s potency burns away her physical mass, for a time she becomes nothing more then a silhouette of burning essence. She becomes a living extension of the will of the Unconquered Sun. All her virtues are raised to five.

For the duration of the spell, any and all foes who regard the caster are suddenly brought to face with their lack of faith and devotion to the Unconquered Sun, their callow and empty souls are scorched by the immaculate truth of His virtue and majesty. For every attack made against the caster, the attacker rolls her highest virtue against a difficulty rating equal to the caster’s Conviction, if she fails, she loses 5 motes of peripheral essence, if she has no peripheral essence she loses 5 motes of personal essence. This expenditure of motes leaves the attacker’s body in a painful way, wounding and scarring her spiritually as it flees, she temporarily loses a dot from her highest virtue. If her essence pool gets reduced to zero or her highest virtue gets reduced to 1, she falls to the ground in a waking coma, unable to regain essence, virtue points or move beyond blinking her eyes. This condition lasts for a number of hours equal to the caster’s Temperance.

The false truths of the blasphemous are clever and convincing, the multitudes of the deceived are overwhelming. But the flame of the Sun shields her, it’s truth strengthens her and she is afraid no longer. The caster’s hand-to-hand attacks can only be blocked by defenses designed to guard against spiritual attacks. The caster adds her Valor to her attack rolls.

The deceived resist her, they cry out, she is touched and she cries, but then she remembers and her heart opens to them and she yearns to make them see the majesty of His splendor, one way or another. Since the caster is essentially a manifestation of living faith, she can only be affected by attacks which are designed to affect dematerialized spirits or gods. All such attack rolls are reduced by her Compassion.

Comments

Since the Avatar form raises all virtues to five, don't all the Virtue-based powers have fixed effects? No matter how much of a hero or coward you usually are, your Valor is raised to five and hence you have a bonus of five on all attack rolls, and five for all the other virtue "variables" in this spell's powers. -Ben-San

I'm just getting into this whole sorcery thing, not really sure what you mean, could you exaggerate a bit more Ben? What "variables" are you refering to? Thanks. - Jai

For example, during this spell the caster receives a bonus to his attack rolls equal to his Valor. This is what I mean by a virtue "variable": a part of the spell whose effects depend on the caster's Virtue ratings. However, since all Virtues are raised to 5 by this spell, doesn't this just mean "a bonus of 5 to his attack rolls"? And the same for the Compassion, Temperance, and Conviction-based effects. They're all effectively just 5, so they might as well not be Virtue-based at all. -Ben-San

It does actually have a different effect in some cases. Strikes from a Violet Bier of Sorrows Stylist could reduce virtues. Other Charms may have similar effects. Sorcery and Hearthstones or Artifacts can impose virtue-based penalties. There's all kinds of reasons the bonus wouldnt automatically mean that their Virtue IS five. - Telgar

This is true and I had not considered it. With that in mind, though, I still think that the combination of Virtue-based bonuses and "automatically raise Virtues to 5" is kind of self-undermining in stylistic terms even though it's powerful. -Ben-San

Hrm, how would you go about remedying that then, Ben? - Jai