MartialArts/MonochromeDiamondStyle

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Monochrome Diamond Style

Created by Greymane and GoldenCat

This Style was one of the four treasures brought by the Nephwrack Chimes-of-Nothing from his apotheosis within the depths of the Forbidden Labyrinth of Sajuuk. In an strange astrolabe that was able to show the soul instead of the sky were the secrets for using the lifeblood of the Underworld, Prayer, as a weapon.

The Charms of this Style cannot be practiced while in armor.

The Charms of this style treat attacks made with Seven-Section Staves as unarmed. Adepts tend to segment them with prayer beads.

Whenever this Style mentions Cult it refers to all of Cult and Ancestor Cult backgrounds, as well as any other which gives the character motes of Essence or a measure of willpower due to the worship of other creatures. The number to be used is always that of the highest rating between Cult or Ancestor Cult backgrounds (or any other sort), although if the motes or willpower regained by them are mentioned those are typically the sum of all such backgrounds.

Student Charms

Singular Facet of Obscurity Stance
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None
Faith denies comprehension. The adept crystallizes the adoration of others into a figure-warping shell around her. Her body seems to be flat and one dimensional to all who look upon her and her movements merely shifts along this singular plane. For the remainder of the adept may add her permanent Essence + Cult to the difficulty of all attempts to read her style or movements and adds a single automatic success to all Dodge attempts.

Bastion of Belief
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Singular Facet of Obscurity Stance
Faith is a shield. The Adept crystallizes the adoration of others into monochrome words of light about herself, receiving her Cult rating as Cover difficulty against a single incoming attack! This Charm strains belief - every use of it reduces the ammount of Essence or Willpower received from worship for the next hour by one, to a minimum of 0.

Diamond Eyes
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None
Faith shines like a beacon. The adept performs a kata that opens her mind and soul to the belief all around her, shattering her eyes in a lattice of monochrome diamond! For the remainder of the scene the adept may perceive the Essence, Cult and Ancestor Cult rating (if any) of all those she lays her eyes upon. The belief crystallized in their movements makes them predictable, allowing the adept to add one success in all defense attempts against enemies possessing any sort of Cult.

Bleak World Apparition
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Diamond Eyes
Faith blinds. Faced with the overwhelming, the terrifying, and the unnaturally alluring, and adept calls upon the worship of those below her and forces it outward. For an instant, the world around them is stripped of all color and falsehoods, save those held by the adept herself. For the purpose of a single action, she ignores any magical vision-based penalties or difficulty modifiers (such as those caused by the Dawn Caste anima or Phantom-Fire Warrior Horde).

Sanctimonious Offering of Alms
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: Bastion of Belief, Bleak World Apparition
Faith demands. The adept strikes at her foe, manifesting the belief around her hands as flowing bundles of prayer strips whose characters are formed from fragments of diamond. The prayer strips vanish in a puff of crumbling paper, yet the words upon them endure and adhere to the flesh of her foe, anchored to their spirit. The adept rolls her damage as normal, but deals no damage. Instead, each success upon the roll forces the commitment of a single mote upon her foe, leaving it untouchable for the remainder of the scene. The adept can cause no more motes to commit in this fashion than her Cult background + the Cult background of her foe.

The Form

Monochrome Diamond Form
Cost: 7 motes
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 3
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Sanctimonious Offering of Alms
Faith is all. Assuming the posture of the monochrome diamond the adept crystallizes the Essence of adoration around her like a weave of diamonds, her every movement and every strike punctuated with the cries of worship! For the remainder of the Scene the adept increases her rating in the Cult background by half her Essence (rounded up) and adds the Essence of her highest-Essence worshiper to her Initiative and unarmed damage. Those who behold the spectacular displays of Essence brought about by this Form can divine the adept's Essence and Cult ratings by watching her for one turn and succeeding in a Wits + Occult roll (difficulty 10 - the Adept's Essence). Should they succeed they are capable of ignoring the Initiative and Damage enhancements of the Form.

For the purposes of this Form an Worshipper is one who has made prayer to the adept in the past day.

This is a Terrestrial-level Martial Arts Form-type Charm. This Charm is incompatible with armor.

Mastery Charms

Infinite Shards of Grace
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Monochrome Diamond Form
Faith destroys reason. The adept manifests a thousand prayers into cinereal clouds of diamond dust. The force of her blow wafts them over her foe and opens a thousand tiny cuts both upon their flesh and within their body, adding a the adept’s Cult rating to her pre-soak damage.

However, if the target already has diamonds fixed to their flesh by Sanctimonious Offering of Alms, the adept can choose instead to channel the cloud into the gem stones. The power of the prayers overwhelms the gem stones and causes them to burst apart, converting one die the extra damage normally caused by this Charm into an automatic success. Each time she does this, she must spend 1 Willpower and strains belief, reducing the amount of Essence or Willpower received from worship for the next hour by one, to a minimum of 0.

Faith Outpouring Atemi
Cost: 2 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Infinite Shards of Grace
Faith cannot be countained! Striking an opponent whose essence was committed in prayer-diamonds with the use of Sanctimonious Offering of Alms the adept causes the crystallized Essence to burst in a brilliant display of diamond dust and broken icons, damaging her opponent's self-image! For every 3 motes released from Sanctimonious Offering of Alms the adept's opponent loses 1 point of temporary willpower and reduces its Cult rating by one for the adept's Essence in days.

Shield of Faith
Cost: 4 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Monochrome Diamond Form
Faith is a bullwark. Manifesting the worship of her followers as a halo about her the adept fashions it in burning pyres of prayer holding luminous prayer strips, continually glowing with supplication! This eerie glow is daunting to attackers, who become all too aware they are attempting to strike a great god, and allows the adept to roll her Cult score as a defense against any attacks for the remainder of the scene. As long as this Charm is mantained the adept can use the light of the prayer-pyres to enhance the effect of Bastion of Belief, allowing the adept to spend 2 motes to enhance the Cover granted by it by 1.

Thousand-Faced Cathedral Contemplation
Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Shield of Faith
Faith is vigilant. Her hands clasped in a prayer-like kata, the adept builds a cathedral around herself, enclosing her form within a diamond of a thousand facets, each one baring the fevered and terrified face of a worshiper. Their warped faces gnash and tear at anyone who dares assault the focus of their worship, the bleed of their prayer harrowing the mind even as the bite of their mouths consumes the flesh. In response to an assault, the adept converts the difficulty penalty provided by shield or cover into a counter-attack. Each die of penalty becomes a single die her player rolls. If the attack strikes, it deals damage equal to the adepts Essence + Cult background which is counted triple for the purpose of knock-back as the unbeliever is hurled violently from the house of worship.

Pinnacle Charm

Hollow Prism
Cost: 6 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Martial Arts in Turns
Type: Simple
Minimum Martial Arts: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Thousand-Faced Cathedral Contemplation, Faith Outpouring Atemi
Faith is works in mysterious ways. It cannot be seen, cannot be touched, and cannot be escaped. The adept pulls her body apart with the strands of belief that ties her to her worshipers, their disparate expectations pulling her in a hundred directions at once. Body splitting apart in a fountain of scripture pages and monochrome diamonds that swirl around the battlefield. At whim and will, the adept may reappear or dissolve away anywhere within an Essence x 15 yard sphere from where she activates this Charm. It is nearly impossible to track her within this area, as she literally seems to be both everywhere and nowhere at once. Even those with Charms to see dematerialized spirits must struggle to locate the adept among the nebulous haze of essence swirling around them, requiring a successful Perception + Awareness roll to track the adepts movements. For a number of turns equal to her Martial Arts, the adept may make a single ambush attempt per round and multiplies all successes on her Dodge attempts by her Cult background.

This Charm strains faith until it snaps, placing disillusionment into the hearts of the adept's worshipers. It permanently reduced the adept's Cult backgrounds by one dot.

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