The Ghost/Viridium

Viridium is an idea I came up with one sleepless night several years ago. From antiquity there have been considered to be three precious metals: Gold, Silver, and Copper. In exalted we have Magical Materials for Gold and Silver: but not Copper. So I resolved to deal with this issue: I would create a Magical Material for Copper. Viridium is the result of that resolution: enjoy.

Warning!

The Content of this page is purely an exorcize in theoretical mechanics and hypothetical uses: It should be included in actual games with utmost caution and complete awareness that it will be disruptive to established content.

You have been warned.

The Nature of Viridium

Scholars have long theorized based on the presence of Orichalcum and Moonsilver as magical Gold and Silver that there must be another Magical Material for the third precious metal: Copper. They are correct, but the process of making it is fiendishly complex and has only been successfully carried out once, mere days before the Usurpation, and the knowledge of how to do it was lost with the potent solar craftswoman who discovered it. Viridium's powers are not as great as the other magical materials, at least not at first blush. It loses strength in key areas such as damage, distance, and soak, but it's advantages can be great as well. Key among these is it's ability to take on a spiritually solid state, allowing it to strike dematerialized spirits and block shaping attacks.

The Mechanics of Viridium

Viridium is a weak material, not as strong as those of most other kinds of being, however, it is DANGEROUS because the distinction between material and immaterial almost does not exist to the substance.

Weapons: Weapons made from viridium gain a +1 bonus to rate and however they inflict 50% (Round to the next lower number) less levels of damage than similar weapons made from other materials. (This cannot make the weapon cause negative damage, as always the lower limit is +0 levels of damage. However if a weapon normally inflicts +0 lethal or aggravated it will instead inflict +0 bashing.)

Armor: Armor made from Viridium Gains a 1 point bonus to it's mobility penalty due to the matiral's flexibility, but loses 1 level from lethal and bashing soak.

Those who have not harmonized their animas with Viridium artifacts do not gain the above bonuses but DO still suffer the listed penalties.

Why would you use such a weak material you ask?

Anyone attuned to a Viridium weapon may pay a 5 mote and 1 willpower surcharge on any attack they make with the weapon or when defending against an attack with the armor. When this is done the artifact becomes 'Spiritually Solid' and for the rest of the SCENE makes no distinction between materialized and dematerialized spirits of any kind. This effect SPECIFICALLY may be applied by characters who do not gain MM bonuses due to not fully harmonizing their animas with an artifact and does not count as charm use. While in this spiritually solid state armor made from Viridium also blocks any shaping attacks directed against the wearer from an external source which do not either deal enough damage to pierce the armor or bypass the armor somehow. (How exactly an attack could 'bypass' the armor is up to individual STs to decide but as a guideline assume that if the person leaves any significant part of their body unarmored that individual part is vulnerable, such as not wearing a helmet making their head and mind subject to shaping attacks, but something such as having a slotted helm with an open eye slit still protecting them from attack.)

Creating Viridium

Where most people trying to craft Viridium go wrong is trying to use pristine shiny copper. This is incorrect. To Create Viridium you need to use copper Verdigris, the green tarnish that accumulates on exposed copper. Once you have enough of it, and it will take several hundred pounds to yield one pound of Viridium, you must feed it through a complex series of alchemical treatments to extract the Viridium. Even then the process is not done, the Viridium will simply recombine with the copper unless you bathe it in the appropriate wavelength of Green Light. How you do that is unknown: the simplest method would be to reflect the light off of Viridium Mirrors, but that would require you to already have Veridium to make them from. Other methods exist, such as domes of charged essence, capturing the light of a green star, or gaining the assistance of Ligure, though that last method is dangerous for obvious reasons. The exact details of the process to create Viridium are up to the ST and the player to work out, but if the ST is willing to include it int their games at all they should make the process of learning the secret arduous but not impossible.

A Heresy Before Autochthon

It may come to pass, under the right conditions, that an attempt will be made to create an Alchemical out of Viridium. It is possible, but the hurdles are many. First you would need about 50 pounds of Viridium, just to create the Alchemical's body, and even more for their charms. Secondly you would need to deduce the nature of the animating spirit that will empower the Chosen: which more than likely will involve many failed attempts, wasting a lot of Viridium and other components with each failure. Thirdly you would first need to have gathered a group of Demiurges willing to make this attempt, which would be seen as a heresy against the great maker.

Should all of those Hurdles Be overcome the following is the information needed to create an Alchemical character of the Viridium Caste.

Viridium is weak but flexible, has powers to compel honesty, and allows people to work on a more equal footing with spirits and machines, as such it's caste attributes are Dexterity, Charisma, and Perception.

To catalyze a Viridium Caste Alchemical you require a soul that in lifetime after lifetime has displayed an obsessive streak which got results: the researcher who took their work home with them, the drill sergeant who demanded perfection, the factory worker who constantly looked for ways to refine the process, the celebrant who drilled their choir until they were uncanny in their skill, these are the lives that create a Viridium Caste.

The anima power of the Viridium caste is to force a solid state on all spiritual beings in the area: including but not limited to Ghosts, Demons, Gods, and Elementals. By paying five motes and one willpower all immaterial beings within (Essence) Yards of the alchemical are forced into a corporeal state and may not resume immaterial status for (Essence) minutes after they leave the area of the effect. This effect comes into play at no cost as usual when the exalt's anima reaches the 11-15 mote level. This effect does not cost spirits so forced into corporeal status the normal motes to materialize and does not count as charm use.