Scrollreader/FirstAgeLunars
First Age Lunars 1.1
First Age Lunars are not tattoed. Their caste is determined, and rituals handed down by Luna fix them in their respective castes. This removes their perfect defense against shapechanging magics and effects. They /do/ however, still have the tell. And, presumably, some resistance to the Wyld, since they ran there. I'm pondering giving them a flat +essence in extra sucesses to resist shapechanging effects, or raising the difficulty of an oppnents attempt by the same amount, if the Lunar wouldn't get a roll to resist. Also, the tell means that all Lunars still have a 'favored' shape. I think I'm going to say that anima flare triggers Lunar shapechanging back to their human form, unless they're in their favored shape. If I do shapechanging as I'm considering doing it, inScrollreader/TheBackBurner their favored totem would have to be the highest of all their totems. Without DBT, should I tie the Tell to their Totem Rank? Or perhaps essence? Something to think about.
COMMENTS
Alright. Bear in mind that this is both first draft, and the product of having nothing but a notebook, my copy of Lunars, and a pen to distract me on a thiry-seven hour bus trip. Still, I think the idea is sound.
- Quote: "Charms work by channeling essence through skills"
- Fact: All known incarna-created exalted except Lunars use skill based charms.
- Fact: Alchemical charms, which /are/ attribute based, are also wierd as hell and, in the words of Neph "like nothing you've sen before". But they're primordial spawn, so they break all the rules anyhow.
- Posit: Lunars are an abberation among exalts.
- Fact We know that Lunars states that many of the castes were lost, and the very essence shard of Lunars have been twisted, both by the Wyld, and the No Moon's amateurish meddling.
- Fact: Lunars charms are the most expensive in the game.
- Posit: This last fact makes some in game sense, to the inhabitants of Creation wise enough to divine it.
- Fact: The five original castes of Lunars, if each had five favord skills, would cover the entire spectrum.
- Fact: The three extant castes cannot do this. Only by favoring attributes, can the three castes be stretched to cover all of a Lunar's action with which he might want to use essence.
- Posit: The No Moons are less skilled at manipulating essence than Malfeans, Yozi's, and Incarna.
- Big Posit</b>: Once Lunars favored abilities. The No Moon manipulation and the Wyld have corrupted them into the form we see today. Because this essence flow is un-natural, Lunars cannot use charms as freely as other celestial exalts. (invoking a reflexive defense after an attack, the initiative limit on extra attack charms, etc) and have a harder time learning them.
So. My reasoning concluded, I present ...
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<B>First Age Lunars 1.0
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- Full Moon
- First Age Survivor: Leviathan
- Anima Ability (per Lunars, but also applies to swimming, climbing, gliding, flying)
- Athletics / Dodge / Endurance / Martial Arts / Resistance
- The Full Moons are the unfettered and most physcially daunting of the Lunars. Perfection of the body is their realm, and they are athletes and martial artists of great note. They rejoice in the perfecion of their forms, and accomplish great feats of physicallity.
- Waxing Moon
- First Age Survivor: Ma-Ha-Suchi
- Anima Ability (may spend 10 motes to weave a glamour around themselves, subtracting 2 from the difficulty of a social interaction, including opposed rolls.)
- Archery / Linguistics / Medicine / Performance/ Socialize
- The Waxing Moons are the silver tongued princes of the moon. Incredibly beautiful, when they choose, the Waxing Moons are subtle negotiators and the beloved of many solar exalted, as well as Priests of their goddess.
- Half Moon
- First Age Survivor: Tamuz?
- Anima Ability (As his dice action for the turn, the half moon may spend 5 motes of essence to 'hang' a charm on his anima for a scene. This counts as charm use for that turn. By paying the cost of the charm on a later turn, the Lunar may invoke it without counting against his charm allowed for the turn, or requiring a combo, though the hung charm may complement a combo)
- Bureaucracy / Investigation / Lore / Melee / Presence
- Tacticians and leaders of the Fickle Maiden, Half Moons general the legions of the Solar Deliberative beside the dawn caste, and their legend as tacticians and observers is unmatched.
- I tried to clarify the wording of this anima power. When hanging a Charm on your anima, do you get to use it as well, or are you just weaving it into your Essence framework, for no immediate effect? - willows
- You don't get to use it on the run you 'hang' it, no. (unless it's reflexive, and somebody catches you on that turn. :P) The intent is to allow a Half Moon to have something 'just in case', making them look like they always have exactly the right combo (those clever tacticans!). It also allows for some nifty tricks that are limited enough you might not want to spend XP on a combo all the time. I'm not sure if I want to explictly forbid using it on the same turn you wing loose with Sorcery yet or not. It wouldn't be terribly overpowering to let a Half Moon have a single reflexive defense, considering Solars have persistants. Also, it might make people making a Lunar Sorceror think twice before diving for the New Moon.
- Waning Moon
- First Age Survivor: Lillith
- Anima (May spend 10 motes to harmonize their fluid natures with their animas, allowing them change shapes without essence cost, once per turn, as a dice action.)
- Awareness / Brawl / Larceny / Stealth / Survival
- The Waning Moons are Luna's prying eyes and fingers. They go where they will, unseen in the sity, unfindable in the wilderness, and with as many shapes as the shades of the moonlight.
- New Moons
- First Age Survivor: Raksi, Queen of Fangs
- Anima Power (As the No Moon power from the Lunar book.)
- Craft / Occult / Ride / Sail / Thrown
- The New Moons represent potential. They are the tireless explorers and messengers of Luna's will, and readily experiment with both the mundane and the magical, in search of new secrets to share.
So. There it is. I'm going to eventually shift many of the Lunar charms to an ability, and assign them, here. I'll also be writing quite a few new ones. (Ride or Sail, for Example). For the moment, your comments on the Castes, their anima powers, and the way in which skills were divided are welcome.
Scrollreader/Comments1.0
Great work. The only major change I'd make (besides perhaps rearranging the Abilities here & there) is the No Moon anima power. They had to have had something different back in the early First Age before Brighid "discovered" Sorcery. Perhaps something regarding interaction with Spirits? - Glamourweaver
- Yes, in the EARLY first age, the No-Moons might have had a different anima power, probably something that made charms cheaper, as they were essence manipulators, but the First Age lasted for a real long time, and I think Scrollreader's project is the heart of the first age and/or a possible recovery of the lost castes. - Seraph
I'm personally not that fond of your Half Moon anima power. It's too... odd and too unprecedented. Too metamagic for a caste of tacticians, possibly too metamagic for Exalted, which I see as trying to steer away from that stuff. Also, I think the no moons should have Lore. Just my opinion. -Seraph
I agree that the No Moons should have Lore. If you wanted to give Lore to Half-Moons because they are the tacticians, I would instead give them Craft, considering that in Outcaste, war tactics is derived from Craft (War Craft). I hate that, too, but if you're trying to stick to canon as much as possible, that would be my suggestion. Otherwise, nice work. Keep it up. - Seiraryu
- I'd personally recommend giving Full Moons Brawl, and Waning Moons Martial Arts; it seems as though the Full Moons should be the ones to wield brute crushing power, and the Waning Moons be the caste which focuses on subtler techniques. Also, given the sample characters; Lilith is much more of a martial artist than is Leviathan. Vargo Teras
Shapeshifting
Shapeshifting for my First Age Lunars. I don't just want to stick DBT in there, because the fit isn't quite right, and it then makes that ability a /requirement/ for any Lunar (nearly, if not always). Finding the Spirit's Shape is equally difficult. I'm currently pondering something based off of the sidereal system of astrology, making it not related to charms at all. Perhaps 'colleges' would be based off of totem animals? One dot in a Totem would give you mundane shapes of that animal, within the size of Finding the Spirit's Shape. Two Dots would give you Humble Mouse Form OR Towering Beast Form for that animal type. Three dots would give you your battle hybrid. Four dots improves the hybrid, and gives you which ever Size you don't already have. Five dots is scary, scary stuff. I don't see this as being much more powerful than resplendent destiny is, and would, in my mind, make Animal shapechanging distinct from Charm stuff. Stuff to think on.
I like this Lunars idea, but I challenge you to find 25 distinct and interesting phyla, examples of which range from large to small, and match at all comfortably the Abilities; here I suggest that you be conservative and go with Attributes, because not only will it save on subcategorization but also take a step away from making Lunars "Sidereals with fur". (One feature of the Astrology system that I think is useful to retain is this tie to Traits (whether Attribute or Ability makes no difference), as they help make sure you cover all the ground that the game is concerned with.)
Alternatively, you could have each "college" provide you with a palette of features which you could apply to your shapechanging; here, the first dot might give you Heart's Blood capability within the "standard" size range, or allow you to take arbitrary forms in that range, and additional dots give you access to powers like these:
- Chimerically mix features of the college's archetype form with your trueforms, rather than taking the college forms outright.
- Take forms of unusual sizes.
- Incorporate features of the college forms into your combat form, allowing for precise and unusual benefits.
- Take on highly unusual examples of the college, such as the forms of furnace rhinos and Garda birds.
- Arbitrarily take college forms with no HB requirement)
If you can come up with 8 of these, then each dot can provide you with two, in a fairly freeform order; this could be used to further define the Castes (the second college dot always provides the "large size" feature for Full Moons, for instance). - willows
Something to think about. I was considering something like, say, a dozen phyla, with more added as needed. But to tie them to attributes is a much better idea. I was, generally, thinking that rare/odd/unusual forms would be somewhere around the fifth dot, yes. I needed something different, though. I might use/adapt the chimera idea into something more along th lines of allowing a single gift from that totem to be gained in any form, like the Luna's Favor charm. Now, I just need nine phyla to cover all the ground of Lunar Shapeshifting.
- Bears & Wolves - Sta
- Felines - Dex
- Rodents - Wits
- Birds - App
- Strong Herbivores (elephant, yeddim, oxen, etc) - Str
- Snakes & Reptiles - Man
- Fish, Whales, & Porpoises - Int
- Insects - Per
- Monkeys & Apes - Cha
- Not sure if I'm totally happy with these. For example, would a tyrant lizard fall under Bear and Wolves due to hunting style? Or under reptiles for type? But they work as a rough draft. Any suggestions on what I've forgotten, or a better arrangement of things is welcomed.
So... why do you need to organize these by attribute (or ability)? Why not just have Totems? There can still be a parallel to the Colleges... insofar as they are used for Resplendent Destinies, the Colleges really don't have much (if anything) to do with the abilities that they are associated with... - Szilard
I dunno if I agree with you on that. The symbolic associations of Colleges are clearly arbitrary, but their mechanical ability to affect the world - particularly in the realm of Resplendent effects - is clearly bound by their associated Ability. Also, my logis for suggesting typing them to Attributes is above. - willows
This sounds very cool. I have to ask, though... why just animals? Perhaps each group of 5 Abilities could be represented by a different set of things. For example... Animals, Plants, Terrain, Objects, People. You could even use it to mandate the different caste roles. Something like that would probably help in coming up with Ability associations, too :-) I dunno. Just always wondered why Lunars were only good at becoming animals. Balthasar
Some of those are too elemental, I think, for Lunars to take their forms with their innate shapechanging powers - plants, terrain, and objects - and "people" seems to be a very narrow category indeed.
But I really, really like the idea of Caste roles being enforced by the shapechanging colleges they have available - I'm going to call them Phyla from now on - with perhaps there being nine "general" Phyla, and then fifteen narrower Phyla, three per Caste, that grant them a characteristic and proprietary palette of shapechanging options. So, the Waning Moons might get the Caste Phyla of arachnids, antelope (&c.), and ...something...that no one else can have. - willows
- I like the idea of Phyla, but have a minor quibble with the arrangement; it seems that oxen, yeddim, and such are much more characteristic of Stamina than of Strength, and that bears should be strong more than tough. Vargo Teras
