PowerfulArtifacts
My Thoughts
I think it was GCG who said in the Errata that most daiklaves, being made for the most powerful men and women in Creation, would have been serious weapons of ass- kicking. Artifact 4 or 5, presumably, enchanted to all-git-out. But obviously, if you want to give your characters some of their "grave goods" without dropping a kingdom-shattering weapon in their laps, you have a problem.
Here's my thought: the weapon, when the character finds it, has a few (three or four) large runes carved into its surface, in addition to whatever embellishment they want. When they pick it up, the first rune begins glowing, but the rest remain the same color as the metal. The weapon recognizes its owner.
Specific conditions are set, determined by the unique nature of the weapon, which is in turn determined by the nature of the First Age Solar who owned it, which is tied to the Second Age player character. A daiklave based around exceptional Valor in single combat might need to be bathed in the blood of a fallen Dragon-Blooded enemy. A grand goremaul with incredible power against inanimate objects might need to be used against the walls of an unjust ruler's castle. A smashfist of spirit-stompin' might need the blessing of a censor of the Celestial Hierarchy. When a condition is met, another rune is lit up, and another facet of the weapon's full power is restored.
Story hooks, a gradual and satisfying increase in power, and cool-looking runes: how can it go wrong?
Why are the runes unlit? Perhaps being away from Solar
Essence for so long has made the weapons "forget" their
unique purposes. Or perhaps the Usurpers, fearing the
consequences of grave-robbing as much as they feared the
Solars' ghosts, sealed the power of the weapons with
sorcery.
Perhaps the weapon for a given Caste should tie in to the particular associations for that Caste (Spring, saffron and lavender, East: for Dawn).
DaveFayram's and Mailanka's Thoughts, Pilfered Without Permission from Mailanka
Mailanka, on the subject of Orichalcum items, especially weapons and armor, at a lower rating than 4: I am in agreement with you in that the Solar wouldn't tend to make trinket items except in very special situations. I still think that players deserve to be able to get a daiklave of their own material early on, they really can help! So I came up with an idea on how it could work.
When the Sidereals and Immaculates slew the Anathema kings and queens long ago, they had a problem. They didn't want to anger the ghosts of the fallen by taking their tresured weapons, armor and possessions, but at the same time they didn't want to just leave weapons of such crushing power just "lying around". Thus sorcery and ritual was designed to "seal" in most of the potential of a weapon, without destroying it. This accomplished both goals.
The Immaculates, with an elaborate ritual (or terrestrial circle sorcery) can do an elaborate series of knots in bright red cord, with several jade implements in the image of old realm words associated with sealing evil (and sutras from the immaculate text). Once completed, these seals become part of the daiklave, and only the proper (and extremely secret) technique for untying them can remove them (they are otherwise indestrutable). Celestial circle sorcery can also destroy such a seal, but terrestrial cannot. This technqiue can seal an artifact of up to rating 4 down to a base type or rating 1 or 2, whichever is appropriate.
The Sidereals developed a similar system, but far more power, involving an elaborate inking of runes in a starmetal based ink, celestial circle sorcery, and astrology. They paint elaborate runes all over the item, in an ink only visible in bright starlight at the same time of the year as when the seal was made. The unsealing procedure involves painting a rune in a magical-material-based ink (any will do) in the proper place on the item. Most sidereals with occult 5 will know how to deduce such runes, but almost no one else will. Solar circle sorcery can also dispel this, but good luck finding someone to do that for you. This can seal an artifact five down to a rating 2 or 3.
Countermagic is, in my rules, the way to dispel it, but custom spells sure are an option too.
What do you think of this idea? -- DaveFayram
That's a TOP NOTCH way of eliminating the need to POUR lots of points into an artifact, but still have a legendarily powerful Daiklave. Of course, the players can dispel them, or possibly (and more interestingly) complete quests to "unlock" parts of their blades. What I would do is define a power sealed away by each seperate seal. For example, if your player took a "standard" orichalcum daiklave (artifact 2) You could have 2-3 seals on it. Each seal, when broken, opened up a new power for the character. This is fun, and hearkens back to video games that often do the same thing. Plus you could work out your powers later.
I have, in mind, a soul steel blade that is similar, but operates completely differently. It's sealed away because no being can wield its full, open might, so they close most of it away, and you can open up what you need, struggle with the weapon as you slay your foe, and then seal the power back up again.
I thought it was a really cool idea, and I still do. So I say go for it. Obviously, not ALL blades must work like this. If a player wants to pour the points into an artifact 4 blade right off the bat, I'd let him. The Usurpers had their hands full, and so couldn't seal away EVERYTHING, so it's possible his blade, however he got it, escaped the sealing.
But this option allows players that wanted an artifact, but didn't have the points for a cool one, to eventually be as nifty as the other weapons...
~Mailanka
Yeah, some items won't have it (some might even be resistant to it!). The reason I developed that system was to add some story hooks to a game I was working on. I wasn't thinking of allowing partial unsealing, since I'm unsure how I would rule that (although now that you mention it, I might just). I especially like the sealing method I devised for the immaculates. Some of the knots will be common knowledge, and some will be relatively unusual immaculate koan-style knots designed to increase inner reflection and higher-thought. Thus, you might be able to con a monk out of the instructions for one knot. I was going to put several old, mortal monks all over threshold in retreat whom know one or two of the knots involved. Most of them won't come undone unless a certain sutra is being chanted while the final step is being taken (otherwise at the last step, the knot just "falls back" into place).
One game we playtested this metric in, someone found a really neat way to defeat the seal. The powerbow in question was originally designed for fair folk combat, so it was very resistant to the wyld. The character threw the bow into a deep wyld zone and watched the seal melt off and become a bunch of scaly doves with wagon weels for feet, then jumped in and grabbed it. :)
Exalted is a rough game to GM since the games are SO damn character driven. You can't lead people around by the nose like you can in D&D, people really need to make choices on their own, especially when playing Solar. I think this sort of thing helps GMs add questions without seeming too obvious ;) -- DaveFayram
Comments
I've posted this before, and I suspect it's been thought of by other people before and since, but I thought I'd put it up as I had it written down in my own notes. And of course, I was reminded of my own idea by the discussion between DaveFayram and Mailanka reprinted above - DigitalSentience
