Selina/Kushiel

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Angel of Wrath

Name: Kushiel
Player: Selina
Caste: Dusk
Concept: Broken Solar
Nature: Rebel
Motivation: REVENGE
Age: 27

Impression: Dusky with white hair, shapely and possessing a sensual allure that her manner often does not emphasize. Wings of the starkest white frame her form, a severe counterpoint to her southern-complexion, and a mark of her strangeness. The large blue eyes are her one feature that does not seem statuesque and out of reach, but they radiate a deep-seated and indignant rage. Kushiel is clearly one of the Chosen despite how she may otherwise appear: her carriage, her confidence – even damaged as she is – makes it clear to all that she is not to be trifled with. Often, she will flaunt herself – robbed of the dignity she possessed while golden, her deterrent is the fury she possesses in her current darkened existence.

Anima

  • Banner
    • A cold dark fire, flickering with burning white at the edges, and the ghostly shade of a great phoenix at full iconic splendor. When the anima would reach its normal full level, she grows another pair of wings, and when it reaches iconic, she gains yet another pair.
  • Powers
    • Tyranny Internalized: Last Stolen Light Truly are the lords of the fading sun masters of battle. By spending a willpower, the Dusk may use (as a non-charm action) any one charm based on a Dusk ability that they see in the very same turn they see it used. They must name which charm they are copying upon spending the willpower, must meet the ability and Essence requirements, but can copy the charms of other Exalts. Using this copy costs it's normal amount for each use.
    • Shadow's Province: Opportunistic Strike Any time that someone attacks the Abyssal in close combat and fails to achieve any successes on their dice, the Abyssal may spend 3 motes to make a reflexive full dice attack. Should the victim have actually botched, the Abyssal adds each 1 rolled as an automatic success on their attack.
    • Lord of Death: Unstoppable Force Any mortals who gather under Death's banner find themselves less under it's power... while they march. For the purposes of mass combat, double the health levels of the mortal troops under the Dusk's control. Keep track of how many should have died, for after the battle, many will find themselves falling from mortal wounds. To properly fulfill his responsibility as a general, the Dusk Caste must be a known Dusk Caste Abyssal in sole command of the army, in direct combat with his enemies, in control of his faculties and aware of his surroundings -- as long as these conditions are true, his soldiers will fight to the last man.


Facts

  • Born of a rich merchant and warrior clan in the South, Kushiel spent much of her childhood learning figures and sums, as well as being groomed for eventual marriage. The girl also learned some of the basics of combat on the side as well…though this was largely kept a secret.
  • She rebelled at the man she was to be married to – a decadent middle aged Earth Aspect Terrestrial of considerable fame about those parts – and challenged him to a duel. Incredibly, she won, but only because she Exalted to a Solar of the Dawn Caste on the spot. The man carried a grudge against her thereafter.
  • As a Chosen, Kushiel was quite precocious, often desiring to be taken more seriously than she was by her older peers. Some found it endearing as a character trait…others thought she was something of a brat. The young Solar resented the latter group, and often found the former quite overbearing. Accordingly, she did not let any of them touch her. Not ever. To be Kushiel’s friend in those times was a rarity as well, so severe was her alienation.
  • After her breaking by the older Twilight, Kushiel left the face of Creation. She left it, and entered the bleakness of the Underworld, finding comfort in its regret and its hate, the bitterness of the ghosts giving her reflection a certain perspective. She sought to leave behind her old life and find revenge upon the man and the establishment that let him so casually use her. In her state, the Shattered Sun called to the humiliated Solar, and there in the darkness of the dead-lands, ensnared her with the siren-song of revenge and transfiguration into a being that pursued that.
  • When she swore, Kushiel really had no intention of following the Sun’s dictations more than was absolutely required, and so she was made to promise something extra to impress upon her the gravity of what she was doing. The Conquered Sun did not take her soul or her drive, he did something much worse. To balance her overweening contempt and fierce wounded pride, to give pause to her arrogant self-assurance, he took from her the ability to truly give the one thing of poetic worth she still possessed: her still-extant sexual innocence. To this day she is sealed to the Void as a vestal of darkened sun, his most chaste warrior-maiden. And she detests it.

Attributes

Physical
Strength ***, Dexterity ****, Stamina ****
Social
Charisma **, Manipulation **, Appearance ****
Mental
Perception **, Intelligence ***, Wits **

Abilities

Dusk
Brawl 4, Melee 5, Thrown 4

Midnight
Endurance 1, Performance 2, Presence 5, Resistance 2, Survival 1

Daybreak
Lore 4, Occult 2

Day
Athletics 4, Awareness 1, Dodge 1

Moonshadow
Bureaucracy 2, Linguistics 4, Socialize 2

Past

Backgrounds

  • Artifact 5
    • The Abyssal possesses potent wonders…but they are less works of the underworld than perverted artifacts of Creation. Two of them were Kushiel’s when she was yet unblemished. The other is part and parcel of her new damnation.
  • Influence – 3
    • She is well known, but more for what she has done in the Underworld than above it. Kushiel has utterly destroyed several powerful spectres and driven off a dead behemoth in the time she has been an Abyssal. She is a sword saint of the dead, and at the same time deeply terrifying to many of them. But for her, that is all a prelude – her true fame waits in Creation, at the execution of her torturer. And the deaths or corruption of her torturer’s friends.
  • Resources – 4
    • Kushiel is not badly off…though she does not boast the resources some in the Underworld or Creation can manage. But that is fine, the things she cannot buy, she can take by force. And really, that is what her mood tends toward. Her holdings tend to be in banks, specifically well-to-do ones.
  • Underworld Manse - 5
    • Her biggest manse is in Stygia, though it is not the only one by far. The others are scattered about the Underworld, not nearly as personalized to her tastes as the grand affair with its soaring design that she may luxuriate in when staying at the capitol.
  • Whispers – 1 (from Obsidian Apotheosis Prana)

Merits

  • Flying Wings
    • The fallen Solar’s wings are deceiving. While she has wings, and might even be able to use them to fly, her primary method of flight is through simple willpower. She has always been able to do this, since the day she was born. It is probably an ability to do with her bloodline, some kind of fancy a Chosen once acted upon to create.

Flaws

  • Beacon of Power – 4
    • When the sorcerer changed Kushiel, he also broke something in her. Now her essence is not subtle – always when used it will move her caste mark to weep blood and trigger the faint corona of power that is the Chosens’ war-banner.
  • Wanted – 4
    • The Solar (when she was thus), did not wholly leave her tormentor unscathed when she escaped. Several of his Terrestrial servants attempted to bar her way. And several of them lost their lives. It is for this that she is officially wanted, though perhaps the man is unwilling to divulge just what he was doing to a fellow Solar and wants her back.


Charms

  • Essence
    • Eyes of the Second World - (Any (excepting Abyssals) who look into her eyes see for but a moment their own death (future or past). This results in -2 dice for all actions that scene as they are so disquieted, and Kushiel is up two dice to cause fear or otherwise cow them.)
  • Brawl
    • Dead Man’s Grasp
    • Inescapable Iron Grip
  • Melee
    • Furious Blade
    • Savage Shadow Style
    • Slashing Ghost Talon
    • Crimson Banquet Method
    • Reaper of Men
    • Five Shadow Feint
    • Blade-Summoning Gesture
    • Void Sheath Technique
    • Elegant Flowing Deflection
    • Fluttering Moth Defense
    • Hundred-Razor Circle
    • Eye of the Tempest
  • Thrown
    • Hungry Missile Technique
  • Endurance
    • Ox-Body Technique (-1x1, -2x2)
  • Performance
    • Haunting Inflection Trick
  • Presence
    • Elegant Tyrant’s Majesty
    • Irresistible Succubus Style
  • Lore
    • Crypt Bolt
    • Essence Scattering Blast
    • Wyld-Shield Meditation
    • Master the Onyx Scythe
    • Obsidian Apotheosis Prana
    • Drawing the Shattered Void
  • Occult
    • Spirit Sensing Technique
  • Athletics
    • Enhanced Strength Discipline
  • Linguistics
    • Language Absorbing Method
    • Peerless Fluency Style

Combos

God ha doh

  • Supplemental
    • Furious Blade – 1 die per mote
    • Five Shadow Feint – -1 die per mote

Winnowing the Elements

  • Supplemental
    • Crypt Bolt – 2L per mote
  • Reflexive
    • Hungry Missile Technique – -1 die per mote


Tempers

  • Virtues
    • Compassion – 2
    • Conviction – 2
    • Temperance – 3
    • Valor – 3
  • Willpower 8
  • Essence 4
    • Personal: 20
    • Peripheral: 46
    • Total: 66

Health Levels
-0x1, -1x3, -2x4, -4, incap

Soak
Bashing: 4 (stam) + 12 (armor) + 22 (strider) = 28
Lethal: 2 (stam) + 12 (armor) 22 (strider) = 26

Equipment

Noble Warstrider (Artifact 5) – “Naonhaithya”

Soak: 22L/22B
Hardness: 11L/11B
Strength: 14
No mobility penalty
Fatigue: Special (see text)

Formerly Kushiel’s white and golden warstrider, much of the armor’s orichalcum has been corrupted into soulsteel, though the white jade remains. The changes are not limited merely to material: the machine is no longer independent of Kushiel. It is now an extension of her shard, an Augoeides (luminous body) which is part of her when not in use. When in use, she is simply part of it. It has the following qualities:

  • Being an extension of Kushiel, it is no longer is subject to wear and tear, and should it be damaged, it can be innately repaired for the cost of 8 motes per point of soak. It cannot be treated as an object by charms that damage objects, even if such a charm is able to explicitly do so.
  • It can be ‘assumed’ about Kushiel, though doing so counts as a simple charm action for the turn (dismissing it works the same way). This costs 10 motes, and those motes must remain committed the entire time it is in use. Charms which de-attune artifacts only revert her to her normal form, but must pass opposed essence + willpower checks before any of their standard effects work.
  • Naonhaithya will never give standard mobility penalties due to being part of Kushiel, but because she is now an Abyssal, it is no longer properly harmonized. Kushiel takes the normal Noble warstrider fatigue penalties for using the machine when in Creation due to the strain of manifesting it in the material realm – Naonhaithya otherwise works without fatigue in the Underworld, Yu-Shan, and any other immaterial realm. In addition, assumption and repair costs are increased by two motes.
  • The above penalty may be circumvented by devouring other Chosen who are harmonized with Creation while in Naonhaithya’s form. Dragon-Blooded only last a number of weeks equal to their essence, held in torment while Kushiel’s spiritual form uses them as a buffer. Celestials will actually burn for a shorter amount of time (their essence in hours), as their inherent excellence is devoured to enhance Naonhaithya’s capabilities (the aforementioned capabilities are 2 less motes than normal, and all charms used while in Naonhaithya’s form have a discount of half the trapped celestial’s essence) till only the shard is left. This does not work on Exalted with greater essence than Kushiel. If the Exalt was to be freed, it undoubtedly would be out of sorts, and if a Celestial is reduced to its shard, the shard will leave Kushiel when she reverts to normal.
  • It does not require a hearthstone – Kushiel’s shard suffices in that area.
  • The warstrider may also fly, at Kushiel’s standard speed.

The Ninth Blasphemy (Artifact 4)

Soak: 12L/12B
Hardness: 4L/4B
No mobility or fatigue penalties
Commitment: 9 motes
Hearthstone slots: Special

Kushiel did not like armor aside from her warstrider, before she was broken. It tended to restrict her in personal combat, and she could not tolerate that. When the sorcerer broke her for his purposes, he did not entirely ignore her preferences, perhaps as a backhanded compliment. So when he slaughtered those eight subordinates she valued, bound their souls to the searing radiance of orichalcum, and poured it molten down her throat, she was not hindered by that thing he had created. Quite the opposite – when she had recovered from the agony, Kushiel found that not only was her warstrider more intimately tied to her than before, but she was also far more durable. The mass of orichalcum was armor and yet not. And when Kushiel fell and Naonhaithya no longer needed the Blasphemy to connect to its mistress, the latter gained its own unique bond to the erstwhile Solar through her hate and bitterness. Now those eight souls, and a reflection of her own as the ninth, lie within her immortal frame bound within soulsteel rather than the terrible gold they once counted as prison.

  • While the Blasphemy is no longer the necessary link between Kushiel and Naonhaithya, it still interfaces flawlessly between the two. When Kushiel dons her warstrider’s form, the Ninth Blasphemy’s soak and hardness stacks with that of Naonhaithya’s.
  • Because of the nature of the artifact, it counts as natural soak against all damage, though it also works as armor for the purposes of aggravated damage. It is in essence, a form of perfect defense similar to god armor.
  • Any hearthstone Kushiel wishes to use must be swallowed, after which it will be stored in her body. However, she may only use one at a time – the others are kept quiescent. She may freely choose which one is active, but may only switch once per turn. This also counts for essence regeneration. She may only store up to her essence in hearthstones inside of her at any one time, however.
  • The downfall of the Solar’s majesty echoes within the soulsteel inside her, and that echo returns through the Abyssal twisted into a most potent allure. Any attack on her must surmount a difficulty of her Appearance. This applies even when Kushiel has assumed Naonhaithya.

Soulsteel and Red Jade Daiklave (Artifact 4) – Sauvagine (The Relentless)

Speed: +7
Accuracy: +3
Damage: +6
Defense: +2
Rate: 5
Commitment: 3 motes

Kushiel’s weapon before her fall, it is one of the few things of hers which was relatively unaffected by her torment. It mirrors far more of her current self than a twisted reflection of what the sorcerer warped her to become. Nonetheless, some traces of that process remain, as do some of its original identity beyond the form (the script on the side of the weapon burns when it is used). Before, she smote renegade gods with the weapon – now it will find the hearts of demons.

  • When she assumes Naonhaithya, the weapon grows to match. It becomes a larger, warstrider-daiklave version of its normal self for the cost of 5 motes.
  • Against spirits, the daiklave does aggravated damage. Being slain by the weapon will not necessarily destroy the spirit forever, but if the being does return, it will bear some deformity or derangement as a mark of Sauvagine’s touch.
  • Sanctums provide no protection from Kushiel’s wrath – she may use her sword to blast them open with roll of her charisma + valor vs the spirit’s willpower + conviction. Kushiel gets her essence in automatic successes. This ability requires she know where the sanctum is, and spend 8 motes and 1 willpower.
  • The warped destiny of Kushiel’s Abyssal-state clings to Sauvagine now, hindering her foes when they require fate to smile upon them the most. Parries and dodges not directly enhanced by charms (this includes hanging defensive actions bought by Principle of Motion) are halved when used to defend against the daiklave.
  • A warrior first and foremost, Kushiel’s weapon allows her to channel, without counting as a charm action (but obeying its normal rules), one supplimental or reflexive charm a turn. Running her simple magic through Sauvagine is a bit more strenuous than not, and so it costs her 1 additional mote as a surcharge whenever the channeled charm is activated.
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