Szilard/ThreeAshenPillars

Name:    Three Ashen Pillars\\ Caste:   Zenith\\ Nature:  Paragon\\ Anima:   Phoenix Warrior\\ Concept: Warrior-Priest\\ Chronicle: The Ball of the Wyld\\ XP: Left/Total: 8/133

Attributes

Strength: 3 (8 w/obsidian sheath), Dexterity: 5, Stamina: 3

Charisma: 4, Manipulation: 2, Appearance: 3

Perception: 2, Intelligence: 2, Wits: 3

Abilities

Archery: 0, Athletics:</b> 3, <b>Awareness: 3, Brawl: 2, Bureaucracy: 0, Craft: 0, Dodge: 3,

Endurance: 2, Investigation: 0,Larceny: 0, Linguistics: 1, Lore: 1, Martial Arts: 0,

Medicine: 1, Melee: 5, Occult: 2, Performance: 4, Presence: 5, Resistance: 3,

Ride: 2, Sail: 0, Socialise: 1, Stealth: 0, Survival: 1, Thrown: 0.

Ability Specialties Melee: formal duels, Lore: death rites, Occult: ghosts

Backgrounds

Artifact: 4 (Obsidian Sheath), Artifact: 3 (Suncleaver),

Manse: 4 (Gem of Adamant Skin), Manse: 1 (Gem of Water Walking)

Virtues

Compassion: 2, Conviction: 4, Temperance: 1, Valor 3.

Compassion Vice: Callousness toward the death of others (-2 dice)

Virtue Flaw: Inescapable Guilt(Trigger: The character performs some atrocity, necessary or not.)

Willpower: 7\\ Essence: 3\\ Essence pool: 16 Personal / 37 Peripheral

Health Levels -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap

Flaws Permanent Castemark (2), Known Anathema (2), Vice: Compassion - callousness toward the death of others (1), Throwback (2)

Charms

Athletics

Graceful Crane Stance

Lightning Speed

Medicine

Body-Mending Meditation

Melee

Excellent Strike

Hungry Tiger Technique

Golden Essence Block

Dipping Swallow Defence

Bulwark Stance

Fivefold Bulwark Stance

Retrieve the Fallen Weapon

Call the Blade

Iron Raptor Techique

Edge of Morning Sunlight

Corona of Radiance

Performance

Masterful Performance Exercise

Respect Commanding Attitude

Unruly Mob Dispersing Rebuke

Fury Inciting Presence

Presence

Harmonious Presence Meditation

Majestic Radiant Presence

Resistance

Whirlwind Armor Donning Prana

Hauberk-Summoning Gesture

Durability of Oak Meditation

Equipment

Obsidian Sheath

Grimcleaver

Combat

Base init: 8

Soak: 13B/13L/10A

Dodge: 8

Attacks:

Punch

Grimcleaver Spd 13, acc 13, d 11L (16L), def 10, rate 5)

---

Character Backstory

Yeldt

Yeldt's father had been dying for as long as he could remember. He'd never known his mother, and only had half-remembered visions of her. They were fleeting. Like a ghost. His father said that she was a ghost now. That wasn't too strange. There were many ghosts in Sijan, and Yeldt's father planned on becoming one too, before long.

Dying in Sijan was an elaborate affair, though, and Yeldt's father was too poor (and spent too much of his meager wealth on alchohol and drugs) to afford an appropriate death rite that would allow him to continue existing in the Underworld, where he could rejoin his wife.

When Yeldt was eight, his father sold him to the Cult of the Three Radiant Pillars. The next day, Yeldt watched as his father received the death that Yeldt's slavery had bought him. The Cult's Pillar wore the black and gold armor that had once belonged to the Solar Exalted, the lost champions of the Unconquered Sun, whom the Cult venerated. He subdued Yeldt's father in honorable armed combat, cut out his still-beating heart, and set it afire to the glory of the Unconquered Sun. Yeldt wept with tears of joy with the knowledge that his father had finally acheived his desire.

The Cult of Three Radiant Pillars

Yeldt grew up in slavery to the Cult of the Three Radiant Pillars. His youth was not a pleasant one. For the two years he spent as the cult's youngest slave, he was given the most menial and unpleasant of tasks. Eventually, his dedication to the Cult and its patron (and, perhaps, his burgeoning physical gifts) brought him to the notice of the priests, who assigned him to assist the cult's Pillar, Khoret.

Khoret served as the Pillar, the knight-champion of the Cult and the representation of the Solar Exalted who were his last great servants. He was a master duelist, and found Yeldt to be a willing and unusually gifted pupil. When Yeldt was sixteen, Khoret disappeared. The priests said that he had been taken by the Sun, and that Yeldt was to be the new Pillar.

The priests annointed his body with strange rituals and tattooed an orichalcum disk upon his brow so as to permit him to wear the obsidian armor that would mark him as the Pillar and give him the strength of the Sun.

Yeldt served well as the Pillar. He slew many, and dedicated their hearts to the Unconquered Sun.

Exaltation

As Pillar, Yeldt was technically a slave, but he lived a life separate from both the slaves and the priests of the cult. In his fourth year as Pillar, Yeldt began to notice that the practices of the cult were beginning to change. Slaves no longer bore the bodies of those he slew off of the dueling field to be burned in a pyre atop the ever-blazing pillars from which the cult gained its name. Instead the priests themselves took the bodies for dedication to the Unconquered Sun in private ceremonies within the temple. This change coincided with the arrival of pilgrims from another temple and the departure of some of the long-time members of the priesthood.

It was months later, that Yeldt found himself rushed onto the dueling field in an inappropriately hurried manner. Something was wrong. The priests had not provided him with the time to properly dedicate his blade to the Unconquered Sun. When he reached the dueling field, he found that the manner in which he reached it was far from the only thing wrong. There was a man on the field, armed and armored, standing before the three pillars. That was correct. That was the man whom he was to duel. What was incorrect, was that the man was one of the Dragonblooded who bore the symbols of the Immaculate Order and that the edges of the killing field weren filled with onlookers to what had always been a sacred, private affair.

The Dragonblood turned toward him. He had obviously been speaking to the onlookers. "This thing," he said, "plays at being Anathema. Demon spawn. I will slay it and show you all the corruption that lies within this place." With that, he launched himself at Yeldt.

The two fought mightily. For all the Dragonblood's prowess, Yeldt was both his match with a blade and the stronger of the two in the artifact armor he wore. Yeldt fought defensively, though. Without having dedicated his blade, it would be improper for him to cut into the flesh of another, even one who blasphemed against the Unconquered Sun. Through clenched teeth, he asked the Sun to bless his blade and give him the strength to defeat his foe.

His prayer was answered.

Three Ashen Pillars

Yeldt stood, blazing, on the deuling field. The Dragonblood lay before him, in pieces. Those who had watched had scattered and fled... or died. He looked past his fallen foe to the Three Blazing Pillars to which he had devoted his life. It was then that his god spoke to him. 'I am the Unconquered Sun,' it said, 'and I have called you to serve me. Too long have I turned my back upon mankind. They have turned from me and made blasphemy of my worship. See the lie that is beyond the pillars, and bring the truth to the world.'

Yeldt struck down the pillars, and saw the altars to dark gods that they hid. In his anger, he reduced them to ashes and ruins. He entered the bowels of the temple, where none save the priests had been permitted to tread, and saw the depravities that the priests hav wreaked upon the bodies of those he had slain in honorable combat. The priests who had not fled trembled in his wake, and he slew them.

Yeldt burned the temple to the ground. He gazed across the dueling field at the remains of the pillars, to which he had dedicated himself, and he took upon himself a new name.

Notes:

After the events recorded above, he fled from Sijan and travelled with a caravan headed to Nexus. In Nexus, he gained employment as a caravan guard on a caravan bound for Chiaroscuro. Though he'd heard little of the city of Chiaroscuro, he had a strange urge to head there. When he arrived in Chiaroscuro, he saw a man who he believed to be Khoret who disappeared into a crowd. He attempted to follow, but soon became lost and found himself heading out of the city into the hills... where he discovered the Inviolate Keep and, within it, The Righteous Prism.

Expanded Backgrounds

Artifact 4: Obsidian Sheath

10B/10L, Increases Strength to 8, no mobility penalty, Fatigue 1

Artifact 3: Suncleaver, The Righteous Prism

Grimcleaver of Orichalcum and Chiaroscuran glass Spd 5, acc 3, d 8L, def 0, rate 5

When the Unconquered Sun rules the sky, the Righteous Prism focuses his light upon his foes, revealing their true worth and forcing them to abase themselves in his glory. When this great axe's blade is exposed to the light of the Unconquered Sun, an attuned wielder may spend two motes of essence to focus the light of the sun through his weapon. The blade acts like a prism, splitting the light into separate rays which unerringly seek out enemies of the sun - the undead, abyssals, Deathlords, and demons. Those struck by the light must succeed in a Conviction roll or be forced to their knees. Undead or demons without conviction are simply forced to their knees. Undead or demons without knees will abase themselves in an otherwise appropriate manner.

Manse 4: The Inviolate Keep

Hearthstone: Gem of Adamant Skin

Two days ride east of Chiaroscuro lies a small round hill, covered in earth. If one were to clear away the dirt, rocks, grasses, and shrubs that are now there, it would be revealed as it was in the First Age - a dome of stone, covered in Chiaroscuran glass. Inside, the manse descends into the earth. Its exterior walls are glass, and look out into an enormous, and unreachable, cavern filled with delicate crystalline growths. Some of these are softly luminescent, and provide light to the manse. The gateway to the manse opens onto a labyrinth that circles around the manse's lower exterior. The glass on the labyrinth walls has strange optical properties that, when combined with the light from the crystals and the vastness of the cavern, induce vertigo into those who traverse the labyrinth. The labyrinth itself is easily avoidable by those attuned to the manse, and such individuals are immune to the vertigo effect.

Roleplaying Notes

As Pillar, Yeldt was used to a station high above the other slaves. The only other people he had regular contact with were the priests, to whom he always showed respect. Now, he knows that those priests were false and unworthy. While he is personally impressive and has a tremendous force of personality, he has few developed social skills and little to no subtlety.

As Three Ashen Pillars, he is free for the first time in his life, possessed of tremendous power, and a mandate from his god to do as he will. While he is extremely devout and honorable, he knows little in the way of self-control outside of these domains.

Having spent a great deal of time employed in the ritualized killing of others, Three Ashen Pillars has a somewhat distorted view of the nature and morality of death. He would never consider killing someone without first dedicating their death to the Unconquered Sun, but he does not otherwise hesitate to kill for a good cause. While he does not believe in pointless death, glory and the furthering of the goals of the Unconquered Sun are, in his experience, clearly valid reasons to kill. He is not, however, without compassion. While he believes that death may be necessary in many cases, pain and suffering are very different matters.

Three Ashen Pillars sees himself as a force for good. He sees the Unconquered Sun as a great benefactor, and wholeheartedly believes that his worship is deserved. While he may not, in every case, perform the most moral act, he will try to do so to the best of his ability and understanding.

Not fully known to him, he harbors a rather strong echo of his First Age self's personality. In the First Age, the Solar Exalt who would become Three Ashen Pillars was a god-king who ruled over an agressively expansionist empire that was devoted to fueling his not-incosiderable desires and hubris.

He is rather likely to either have to grow up quickly or go down in a rather large blaze of glory...

Image

Three Ashen Pillars has dusky skin that contrasts sharply with his strikingly golden hair and Orichalcum castemark-tattoo. When travelling and attempting to be inconspicuous, he wears drab clothng, wraps his head in a bandana, wears a wide-brimmed hat, carries his armor in a backpack, and his grimcleaver wrapped in cloths tied to his back. In this guise, he usually carries a simple slashing sword at his side.

Decked out in armor and such... well... playing with Heromachine, some stock photos, and an image editor, I came up with this (which isn't that great, but ::shrug::):

http://szilard.freeshell.org/exalted/images/3AP.png

Anima

Three Ashen Pillars has an anima banner that begins as three fiery pillars. The flames join together at the apex, and the side pillars begin to rise out to the sides, becoming flaming wings as the central pillar takes the shape of a blazing warrior-phoenix with eight arms holding swords and the head of an eagle.

Plot Hooks

Just what was the Cult of Three Blazing Pillars? Was it a corruption of a religion honoring the Unconquered Sun? Was it a Yozi Cult using the Unconquered Sun as a cover? Was it a straw man set up for a fall by the Dragonblooded?

What was going on with the Cult? Did it actually change shortly before Yeldt exalted or had it always been as it was when he uncovered their secret practices?

Who was Khoret and what happened to him? How did he use the Obsidian Sheath without being forcibly attuned? Was he a God-blood or Dragon-touched? Was he a plant from the Dragonblooded? Why did he leave? Does he know what the truth behind the Cult was?

What was that Dragonblooded doing there, anyway? Was he working on his own or was he part of the Wyld Hunt or the Immaculate Order? Did he know the Cult's secrets?

Character Creation Notes and Comments

Thanks to Nikink for inspiration on the Grimcleaver.

Other Comments

Just wanted to say that I really like your backstory. Very cool. -- JesseLowe

Thanks. Second game is tonight. -szilard

Last two lines of last nights game:

Dragonblood NPC: "Give us the ball and we may let you keep your lives."

Dawn Caste PC: "Leave now and we may let you keep your balls."

XP is slow in this game and I don't know what direction to build him in - what Charms to buy...

Options:

1. Champion of the Sun: Edge of Morning Sunlight, Corona of Radiance

pros: fits with the image, lots of Abyssal (and Yozi-spawned) antagonists in the game

cons: already fairly focused upon this stuff, very focused

2. Combat Wonk: Bulwark Stance, Fivefold Bulwark Stance

pros: generally useful

cons: makes me feel dirty

3. God-King in Training: Presence 5, Terrifying Apparition of Glory

pros: fits with the image

cons: Circle-mates would get upset, as 3AP is already about as subtle as an avalanche

4. Something else (I was toying with Respect Commanding Attitude, Unruly Mob Dispersing Technique, etc... but then I'd also need to buy my Performance up and the usefulness seems limited for now.)

Thoughts? Suggestions? - szilard

Hmm. I think they're all viable directions, but I really think it depends on the current campaign trajectory. How important is combat going to be, and how is 3AP faring in combat thus far? If you're having defense problems, Fivefold Bulwark will solve them; as cheesy as it is, it makes a huge difference. That said -- the Champion and God-King paths also have some good combat benefits and feel a lot more character-appropriate unless the rest of the Circle is really breathing down your neck about the whole "blazing champion of the Unconquered Sun" thing. If that's a serious problem, I'd avoid them, but as stands I think one of those two options would be your best bet. (I've always enjoyed TAoG, but it takes a really non-subtlety-focused group and scenario.) -- AntiVehicleRocket

Yeah, the rest of the Circle tends to want me to be a bit more, ummm, subtle. I think I'm going with the Champion route, though. In the cases where I'd use it, sublety is really going to be a secondary concern. -szilard

I need to update this page to reflect changes to the character. I've taken to rolling his Throwback whenever I want to spend xp to help me decide what direction to take him in... -szilard