Crown of the Universe
New Keywords
Warlock: Yozi Charms with the Warlock keyword were born not of the inborn nature or conceptual mastery of the Yozis, but invented and introduced into their magical structure by enterprising Warlocks. Warlock Charms may indicate in parentheses the particular Infernal responsible for their genesis.
Malfeas, the Demon City
Cecelyne, the Endless Desert
Palanquin-Riding Sway
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: First Cecelyne Excellency, Hellscry Chakra
When Cecelyne chooses to go riding on the shoulders of her inferiors and exercise their use, they cannot help but move in accordance with her invisible rhythm. This Charm enhances the functionality of the First Cecelyne Excellency. When the Infernal perceives a character of lesser Essence obediently performing an action under the Infernal's command or instruction, and the initiation of that action would otherwise be valid under the strictures of the First Cecelyne Excellency, the Infernal may activate the First Cecelyne Excellency to enhance that character's action. Enhancements of other characters' actions use the Infernal's dice-adding cap (based on the Infernal's ratings in the Attribute, Ability or Essence used by the vehicle), but may not benefit from, nor do they increase, the discount offered by Effortless Cecelyne Dominance, and Cecelyne Mythos Exultant does not enhance the vehicle's stunt rewards. Exalted of lesser Essence are valid vehicles for Palanquin-Riding Sway, but their Essence possesses an impudent quality of independence that interferes with its proper operation; not only is the activation of the First Cecelyne Excellency subject to the Infernal's normal dice-adding cap, the cumulative dice added to the dice pool by both the Infernal's and the vehicle's Charms may not exceed the vehicle's normal dice-adding cap.
Inauspicious Omen Premonition
Cost: Varies; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Hellscry Chakra, Transcendent Desert Creature
Fools and rabble sometimes bring opposition to the Endless Desert, only to find that all things great and small within her wastes are only part of Cecelyne, and swarm to alert her. The Infernal may activate this Charm on its own or in response to an unexpected attack. While this Charm is active, the environment responds to her, producing inauspicious omens as a subtle non-Obvious effect which the Infernal is automatically aware of, alerting her to imminent physical danger and removing the unexpected quality from any incoming attacks. Inauspicious omens may take the form of such things as the crowing of an unseen carrion bird, a brief hush of silence in the Demon City, a gleam of unnatural color in a heavenly body, or a baleful whisper from within the trees, and may be custom-tailored to the Infernal's cultural background or current location. Cecelyne herself favors the sudden stirring of desert insects, the shadow of vultures overhead, or unnatural murmurs roiling through her own sands. This Charm may be activated for free within a blight created by Holy Land Infliction or for 3m in another place of desolation. Outside a place of desolation, Cecelyne may stretch the reach of her sands at the expense of her confoundment at not occupying these places already, activating this Charm at a cost of 3m, 1wp. She has never done this in the Underworld, and were an Infernal to make the effort, she would find the strain agonizing, raising the activation cost to 3m, 1wp, 1ahl.
Friendly Devil Revelation
Cost: Varies; Mins: Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 6 long ticks)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Sorcerous, Warlock
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Inauspicious Omen Premonition, Soul-Sand Devil Shintai
The generosity of Cecelyne preys on the needy and the unsuspecting, coming to them in quiet moments and distant places to steal their loyalty. This Charm channels her understanding of vulnerability, to summon the Soul-Sand Devil more easily into the world. In order to activate this Charm, the Infernal must be immaterial and either unmanifested or hidden from sight by any being lesser than a Primordial, Celestial Incarna, Deathlord or Third Circle Demon, excluding any familiars the Infernal may possess. The Infernal must also perceive another being within (Essence x 5) yards saying her name or outwardly expressing a feeling of vulnerability or uncertainty. An Infernal who knows Verdant Emptiness Endowment or any of that Charm's expansions may also activate Friendly Devil Revelation in response to a being within this range making any wish which she could grant through those Charms. Upon activating this Charm, the Infernal pays (Essence x 3) + Willpower motes, which must be paid as personal motes. An Infernal who is activating this Charm in response to a valid wish may also pay an additional 1wp to grant that wish as per the normal rules of Verdant Emptiness Endowment. On the first tick of this action, an inauspicious omen occurs as a subtle non-Obvious effect, as detailed in Inauspicious Omen Premonition; the Infernal's voice may also carry itself over to speak as an additional omen, if desired. Over the course of the Charm's action, the Infernal's body blows across the chasm of the material like an ill desert wind, transmuting to material form. If the Infernal had been hidden from sight, she emerges seemingly from nowhere; if she had been unmanifested, she appears wreathed in an aureole of dimming stars. If this body is disrupted by countermagic, its material component erupts into multicolored sand and falls apart, as the Soul-Sand Devil dissolves to immateriality, and an omen occurs once more; the Infernal's voice may also briefly carry itself over, such as if she wishes to curse the one responsible. Alternatively, the Infernal may disrupt this body in the same way at no cost as a miscellaneous action, ending the Charm.
Oasis-Haunting Phantasm
Cost: - (+2m); Mins: Essence 2; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Obvious, Social
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Scorpion-Tailed Mirage Technique
Cecelyne speaks with the voice of multitudes, the slavish adoration of her followers combining to sing her eternal hymn. This Charm permanently improves Scorpion-Tailed Mirage Technique, allowing it to be activated at a 2m surcharge to make a flurry of Presence-based social attacks instead of physical attacks. The Infernal acts as a multitude to accomplish this, duplicating her words, speaking with many voices, making many gestures at once, or colocating as with the normal function of this Charm. An Infernal who has made the second purchase of Scorpion-Tailed Mirage Technique may also use Oasis-Haunting Phantasm to make Performance-based attacks. Activating Scorpion-Tailed Mirage Technique in this way allows the Infernal to ignore its range limitations.
Abundant Generosity Patronage
Cost: 2m; Mins: Essence 2; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Social
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Verdant Emptiness Endowment
Cecelyne answers dissatisfaction with boundless generosity, expecting nothing in return save obedience. This Charm may enhance any mental influence exerted on character that still owes the Infernal a service as a result of having a wish granted by Verdant Emptiness Endowment. The influence is undodgeable, and becomes unnatural mental influence. Though they can still argue against or deny the Infernal, they cannot merely ignore them. Characters cannot be compelled by this Charm if they are actively working towards completing a favor owed, although they become viable targets once more if they let their duties lapse.
She Who Lives in Her Name, the Principle of Hierarchy
My Heart Over Yours
Cost: 8m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Simple (DV -2)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Emotion, Obvious, Sorcerous, Warlock (Takuma)
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Cosmic Transcendence of (Virtue)
With the cosmic power at her disposal, She Who Lives in Her Name prefers more direct methods to correct wayward inclinations away from her designs. However, the force of her feelings and her beliefs has the unrealized potential to write itself over the hearts of other beings, which may be unlocked and wielded by suitably evangelical Chosen. This Charm is activated by unveiling a sigil, which may be done by speaking a word, making a gesture, creating a visual display, or any other suitable expression. The fires of the Infernal's heart erupt to life within that sigil and sear outward at witnesses as ephemeral white fire visible only to those who can perceive the immaterial. The white fire causes no injury, but those whose Mental DV fails to defeat a roll of the Infernal's (Willpower + Charisma), with the Infernal adding an additional success per transcendent Virtue against extras, have the feelings of their heart burned away, replaced by the inhuman dedication that defines the Infernal. This mental attack costs 2wp to resist.
As the immaterial fire sears at their heart, victims find each natural Virtue rating corresponding with one of the Infernal's transcendent Virtues overwritten by a rating of 5 as a Sorcerous effect. This magical alteration also transforms each die rolled to test for suppression of that Virtue into an automatic success, though it does not render Virtue dice into automatic successes in other situations. This Sorcerous effect also contains an Emotion effect in the form of an ember of the Infernal's own imposed feelings and the meanings imparted to them. This Emotion effect inflicts a three-dice internal penalty on inappropriate actions, and prevents the Virtue from being channeled in support of an inappropriate action. Violating the Infernal's greater good is an inappropriate expression of Compassion; acting against the Infernal's Intimacies (which the victim does not intuit unless he attempts to act against one and feels the strain) is an inappropriate expression of Conviction; and acting dishonestly, showing bias or breaking one's word in any way is an inappropriate expression of Temperance. Transcendent Valor does not impose inappropriate actions, though the victim may find their pride colored by the idiosyncracies of the Infernal's.
A second purchase at Essence 3 allows this Charm to be focused at a single target, in which case the Charm's Duration changes to one day.
Still Body Relocation
Cost: 3m; Mins: Essence 2; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Essence-Dissecting Stare
Since the incipient time preceding Creation, She Who Lives in Her Name has nursed a hidden grudge against the Passes Climbing Forever. His wishes were instrumental in the construction of journeys across destinations against her suggestions, a flaw which plagues existence to this day. She has not yet been able to track the ever-climbing mountain down to interrogate him and test her hypothesis of complicity in bringing about the Fate Mercury, but her calculations indicate that Qaf nears her grasp by the day. In the meanwhile, she voices her objection quietly by declining to participate.
An Infernal may activate this Charm on her action tick to relocate herself without a conventional Move or Dash action, reconfiguring her own essence pattern to arrive at her destination without the pointless strain of passing through the space between. This Relocate action is reflexive, and other Charms treat it as a normal Move action for the purposes of enhancement, impediment or triggering other effects. Without appropriate magic, this action cannot be used to escape a clinch. The Relocate action differs from a normal Move in the following ways:
Essential Property Analysis
Cost: - (+2m/sense); Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Essence-Dissecting Stare
The emergent properties of essence congealed into coherent phenomena are evident to the Principle of Hierarchy’s careful analysis. This Charm upgrades the functionality of Essence-Dissecting Stare. When the Infernal activates that Charm, she may commit an additional 2m per stimulus unlocked through Essential Property Analysis. Stimuli may be triggered separately, but adding a stimulus requires activating Essence-Dissecting Stare again, for which purpose that Charm now bears the Stackable keyword. A stimulus and its accompanying commitment may be released as a miscellaneous action.
When Essential Property Analysis is purchased, one stimulus may be selected. Additional stimuli may then be added at a cost of 4xp each. Each stimulus, when triggered, adds the ability to derive information on the stimulus from component essential properties, While the stimulus is triggered, appropriate Awareness actions using that stimulus gain two extra successes (which do not stack through multiple stimuli). Additionally, the Infernal’s ability to sense and dissect that stimulus enhances dramatically. Some examples include:
Causal Substitution Maintenance
Cost: 3m; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 7)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Shaping, Warlock (Takuma)
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Wholeness Rightly Assumed (Bashing, Lethal)
She Who Lives in Her Name bends the orbit of causality towards the preservation of her perfect order. The Infernal activates this Charm in response to an attack of which she is aware, shifting her personal causality out of phase with the attack's introduced entropy and disconnecting cause and effect. As a result, while the attack proceeds as normal, no damage is incurred. Instead, a harmless, instant-duration effect of the Infernal's choice results. For instance, a sword slash might spray butterflies instead of blood, evoke spouts of heatless fire, or induce the enemy's blade to sing. Effects other than damage proceed normally. This Charm carries the Imperfection of the Principle of Hierarchy.
Unified Field Theory
Cost: - (1wp); Mins: Essence 4; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Warlock (Takuma)
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Mind-Hand Manipulation
She Who Lives in Her Name knows the principles on which mass can be manipulated, and the chasm of the material is only another physical state to be understood and grasped. The Infernal may exert her full Essence on immaterial objects using Mind-Hand Manipulation. Additionally, while the Infernal is immaterial, she may affect material objects with Mind-Hand Manipulation actions at her full Essence. Physical attacks made on the material in this manner impose a 1wp surcharge. Finally, the necessary countermagic to dispel Mind-Hand Manipulation is upgraded from Emerald to Sapphire if it has not been already.
Directed Thought Imposition
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Illusion, Warlock (Takuma)
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Analytical Modeling Intuition, Mind-Hand Manipulation
The Principle of Hierarchy's 99,997 crystal spheres need no mouth to speak. The creation of sound is a mechanism for beings of cruder substance; when She Who Lives in Her Name deigns to address other beings, she need only overlap her thought patterns with their own. This Charm enhances the functionality of Mind-Hand Manipulation. While the Infernal has that Charm active, she may reflexively intrude thoughts into the minds of thinking beings within ten times the Range of her telekinetic attacks, or if the Infernal knows Unseen Force Application, particular beings within that range, as an unnatural Illusion effect. Recipients intuit that the thoughts which occur to them are not their own; telltale signs include mild synaesthesia and a sense of disorientation as the Infernal's message pushes other thoughts aside to impose itself. Though every Infernal inflicts a unique 'signature' variation of this mental-vertigo, based on the base qualities of their identity and true name and which can be recognized to compare intrusive thoughts from different sources, the thought has no voice or other vocal qualities. Language-encoded thought is transmitted in Old Realm, though the Infernal may instead choose to convey images, non-linguistically-encoded sound, or abstract concepts. Immaterial Infernals may only transfer thoughts across the chasm of the material if they also know Unified Field Theory. Resisting the Illusion for one day costs one Willpower. Thought-intrusion communication cannot be overheard except by magic specifically capable of doing so.
Vahana Privilege Assumption
Cost: 5m, 1wp or 10m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Will-Crushing Force
Sometimes, even a conquered being's autonomous control is insufficient. At those times, the Principle of Hierarchy comes to dwell in their spirit, blessedly steering them as a divine vehicle for her judgment. When this Charm is activated, the user possesses any one mortal or natural animal she can perceive which she has broken with Will-Crushing Force. This costs five motes and one Willpower to possess a natural animal, or ten motes and one Willpower to possess other creatures.
While possessing a target, the Infernal suffers a -3 internal penalty to all physical actions taken by her own body. However, she may directly and completely control the body of the target, and may even use her Charms through it. The Infernal uses her own Social and Mental Attributes (save for Appearance), as well as most of her own Abilities. However, she uses the target's Physical Attributes, Appearance, Resistance, Athletics and Dodge for all actions she has its body take. Any dots the target has in these traits above her own count as dice added from Charms. The Infernal may automatically and reflexively perceive anything the target can sense.
As a side benefit, this Charm enhances its prerequisite, allowing Will-Crushing Force to substitute Willpower drain for any amount of damage when targeting natural animals, rather than 2 damage or more.
A repurchase at Essence 4 makes all Essence 1 beings whose wills the Infernal has currently broken valid targets. If the target has any Essence-based powers, the Infernal can use them, but must spend her own motes to do so, having no access to the target's motepool. Further, the duration becomes Indefinite. However, using the Charm this way gives it the Sorcerous keyword. Unlike most Sorcerous Charms, the Essence for this Charm must still be committed, but the effect may also be terminated at will by ending this commitment.
Adorjan, the Silent Wind
Amaranth Dream Lover Shintai
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Sorcerous
Duration: One dream
Prerequisite Charms: Wind-Born Stride, Tragic Love Amusement
The love of Adorjan is inescapable. When she yearns for her beloved, she flies across the border of awareness to lie with him and share grotesque delights. The Infernal activates this Charm when settling into a dreaming state, targeting an individual who is the subject of an intimacy formed by Tragic Love Amusement, or the subject of an intimacy of love whom she has heard cry the Demon-Wracking Shout. If the target of the Charm is in another plane of existence which is not the Demon Prison, or incapable of dreaming for whatever reason (including being awake at the time), this Charm immediately deactivates and the Infernal is refunded the activation cost. This effect also causes a single amaranth petal to accumulate somehow on the target's pillow or another appropriate place associated with sleep or dreaming, as a non-Obvious fate-warping Shaping effect, where it awaits him. Otherwise, the Infernal disappears into a gust of deep red wind and a scattering of amaranth flowers, her body transmuting into a dream which breezes into the sleep of the target.
If the target was already dreaming, his player defines the initial scenario of the dreamscape. This scenario may not place the arriving Infernal in immediate or imminent harm unless the Infernal is immune to that particular manner of danger or the Infernal's player consents. If the target was not dreaming, the Infernal defines the initial scenario, with the same restriction on harmful circumstances instead applying to the target, for which purpose any unusual permanent immunities of the target to relevant dangers become Obvious to her intuition. Demesnes and other magical infrastructure and resources may not be found within the dream unless the Storyteller rules otherwise; gossamer facsimiles of these things may be found, but which will not grant their real magical benefits. The target is dreaming, and begins with full motes and health, but her current Willpower and Virtue channel reserves. The Infernal has entered the dream bodily, and begins with all of her traits as they were before activating this Shintai; in the moment before she enters, she may also choose to activate a Form-Type Shintai of her choice as a non-Charm activation. She may exit this Shintai and leave the dream at any time with a miscellaneous action, dissolving into amaranthine wind and blowing back through to her own dream, thenceforth reincarnating in the physical world. She may also be expelled from the dream by the waking (or physical death) of the dreamer, or by Emerald Countermagic targeting either herself in the dream world or the lingering sorcerous effect which can be perceived with essence sight where she activated Amaranth Dream Lover Shintai, all of which also end the Charm. If she has any Form-Type Shintai Charms active when departing or being expelled from the dream, they automatically deactivate in the time between dissolving from the dream and reappearing in the physical realm where she had left. If she is forced out of the dream through the waking of the dreamer (caused by something other than killing him within the dream) or the application of Countermagic, she may not return to that target's dreams for a week, nor even leave an amaranth petal.
The Infernal is present in the dream bodily. Any loss of motes, Willpower, Virtue channels or health remains when the Infernal deactivates this Charm, as do any other effects incurred, including anima display if her banner is flaring at the time the Shintai ends. Dreamed objects may not be carried with the Infernal from the dream back to the physical world. Nonmagical items lost in the dream before dissolution do not return with the Infernal, remaining in the target's subconscious, where he may dream of them from time to time; return visits to the target's dreams permit the Infernal to recover the items, which as undreamt, real things, may then be brought back out of the dream with her. If the Infernal is slain in the dream, she truly dies, and only her panoply of artifacts returns to the waking world (and, of course, her Exaltation). The remains of the Infernal decay within the target's subconscious, causing recurring dreams of the Infernal's demise and what had been, whether the character's response is faint dread, reawakened trauma, or simply satisfaction at a job well done. The power of this Shintai over the unwaking world grants the Infernal a special privilege while in the dream, however; she receives a pool of (Compassion) stunt dice which behave like the raksha Style Background while in the Deep Wyld, and may perform (Essence ÷ 2) Wyld Stunts there if she meets the Essence prerequisites for them, ignoring the Heart prerequisites. Time spent as a living dream frees the Infernal from all fatigue and counts as genuine rest equivalent to sleep, but the Infernal rolls Compassion instead of Conviction to recover Willpower at the conclusion of the dream.
The dreamer is not present bodily. The loss of motes or health does not follow him outside the dream. Lost Willpower and Virtue channels, however, do. Other non-lethal physical and spiritual effects incurred, including impregnation, may be ignored or carried forth into the waking world at the dreamer's choice; mental effects persist. However, while physical harm does not carry over into the waking world, the ministrations of the Amaranth Dream Lover scar the mind to recall. Every new level of wound penalty reached in the dreamer's health levels by lethal or aggravated damage suffered inflicts 1 Limit upon the dreamer's waking (maximum 4 Limit cumulatively). This effect only reads the natural wound penalty rating of health levels, and ignores effects which free the dreamer from suffering wound penalties; however, a level of wound penalty which is reached once does not add additional Limit if the dreamer recovers from it and then has damage inflicted to suffer that level of wounding again. Death counts as a final, fifth point of Limit, and automatically ends the dream with a traumatic waking. Dreamers who do not possess a Limit track gain an appropriate permanent derangement, at the deficiency level for 1-2 Limit, the debility level for 3-4, or the deformity level for 5. A dreamer who suffers any points of Limit or a derangement cannot roll Conviction to recover Willpower from that night's rest.
A dreamer aware of what is happening may attempt to rouse himself from within the dream with an appropriate stunt. The difficulty for this escape attempt is the Infernal's (Compassion ÷ 2) plus the number of the dreamer's Intimacies, minus (the number of the dreamer's derangements + the dreamer's current Limit), minimum (Compassion ÷ 2). Adorjan is only ready to release when her beloved's eyes have truly started to open to her truths.
Storytellers and players alike are encouraged to treat this Charm with the same care in use as Armageddon Nightmare Duel.
The Ebon Dragon, Shadow of All Things
Kimbery, the Sea That Marched Against the Flame
Heretical Charms
Titanic Convergence Shield
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Heretical
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Two Primordial Charms with two separate Primordial Imperfections
The Infernal Princes do not hide behind a single brick wall. Binding multifarious cosmic principles together, they build themselves a mighty fortress. A Green Sun Prince who knows this Charm treats any Reflexive Primordial Charm with a Primordial Imperfection as equivalent to any other such Charm for the purposes of Combo placement. He is immediately refunded any experience points he may have spent placing such Charms in Combos except for the cheapest cost to place an individual Charm among them into each Combo. If he should later learn a Primordial perfect defense which is cheaper to place in Combos, he is again refunded the difference for any relevant Combos.
Sadistic Agony Pardon
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Heretical
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Cold Fire Desolation Brand, Great Mother's Tears (Bashing)
Students of Malfeas and Kimbery know that those who would oppose the Warlocks will sicken and fall. If death would be premature release from their suffering, then it is a Warlock's holy right to deny it. When a character with Sadistic Agony Pardon inflicts a Sickness effect through a Malfeas, Kimbery or Heretical Charm, she may choose to reduce its potency upon the body, though not the mind. The disease, which causes wracking nerve pain and involuntary tremors rather than its normal outward effects, inflicts only bashing damage rather than lethal or aggravated, and damage inflicted by this effect cannot roll the victim over past his Incapacitated health level.
Horrific Weapon Detonation
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 4; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Heretical
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Vitriolic Corona Endowment (x2), Dread Panoply of the Silent Wind, Corrosive Pattern Infliction
An Infernal Exalt does not wield simple steel. When she marches to battle, the grisly weapons of her wrath explode forth from the worthless matter of the world. The Infernal gains another function to choose when activating Vitriolic Corona Endowment: she may remove a nonmagical weapon from her Dread Panoply and salute the sun with it. The green light which shines upon the weapon sears it so hot that it develops volcanic cracks burning with primordial heat, and then erupts in a spectacular conflagration. This is a Shaping effect. What is left is a weapon of radiant green light, identical in all ways and functioning to the spear created by Vitriolic Corona Endowment's second purchase, except that the weapon is in the shape of the basic artifact equivalent to the transformed nonmagical weapon, using the base statistics of that weapon instead of a dire lance.
When the Charm is deactivated, the weapon cools and reverts back to its nonmagical form, and may be reflexively returned to the Dread Panoply for one Willpower as a Sorcerous effect, subject to the same countermagic as Dread Panoply of the Silent Wind. Each use of this Charm leaves ominous scorch marks and subtle fractures in the weapon, however. A weapon can endure (11 - Essence) scenes worth of damage, after which it reverts not back to its usable state, but into a withered, spent husk of scrap metal or unfit kindling, no longer fit for any practical purpose at all, let alone as a weapon.
If the Infernal also knows Murder Is Meat, she may sacrifice the nourishment of one meal of violence, up to once a day, to heal a weapon in her Dread Panoply of one scene's worth of damage, provided she has not detonated that weapon in the same day. She sharpens her weapons with use.
Grace Shall Abound
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 4; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Heretical
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Penitents Like Scattered Grains, Happy Realms of Light
Prayer is offered upward to the titans, who receive it, as is their power. The ascendant Warlocks will also take their due, and their numinous presence will not be held back by Cecelyne's limited vision. This Charm upgrades Penitents Like Scattered Grains, permitting that Charm to hear prayers from realms created by Happy Realms of Light, regardless of whether those realms are desolate or not. The Exalt may also answer prayers from realms of light with messages as an Obvious effect, as if the prayer had been made from a blight created by Holy Land Infliction; instead of transmuting an object, however, characters in the vicinity of the penitent witness the star of providence reaching a tongue of fire towards them, and addressing them in the Exalt's voice.
The Terrestrial Circle of Emerald
The Celestial Circle of Sapphire
Soul-Body Union Noesis
Cost: 20m
Target: One Alchemical Exalt
This spell was the first work of Trapped Fire, the hellsworn inheritor to Salina's divine essence. It requires a willing Champion, a mass of clay, salts and the mundane equivalent to the Alchemical's caste material totaling a Resources 3 value, and ten minutes of uninterrupted ritual that begin as the spell is cast. (See the attached table for material equivalences.) As the spell is cast, the mass of ingredients mixes, congeals and liquifies, forming into a free-standing prism of molten metal and clay which the Champion may immerse himself in safely. The Champion must then enter a meditative state resembling that adopted while immersed in the Vats. As the Alchemical meditates on the mantras that encode his access signature for the noetic network of Autochthonia, the material rises and forms into a glowing visualization of his iconic anima. He may requisition a new set of Charms and/or Arrays to equip, and at the completion of his meditation, his body becomes plastic and remolds itself into his newly requisitioned shape, while the glowing materials purify, sublime and dissolve, transferred as thought-code through the noetic network to resolve into the shape of the Charm equipment being replaced.MagicalMundaneOrichalcumGoldMoonsilverSilverStarmetalSteelJadeBlueSapphire WhiteOpal RedRuby BlackOnyx GreenEmeraldSoulsteelIronAdamantDiamond
The Solar Circle of Adamant
Warlock: Yozi Charms with the Warlock keyword were born not of the inborn nature or conceptual mastery of the Yozis, but invented and introduced into their magical structure by enterprising Warlocks. Warlock Charms may indicate in parentheses the particular Infernal responsible for their genesis.
Malfeas, the Demon City
Cecelyne, the Endless Desert
Palanquin-Riding Sway
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: First Cecelyne Excellency, Hellscry Chakra
When Cecelyne chooses to go riding on the shoulders of her inferiors and exercise their use, they cannot help but move in accordance with her invisible rhythm. This Charm enhances the functionality of the First Cecelyne Excellency. When the Infernal perceives a character of lesser Essence obediently performing an action under the Infernal's command or instruction, and the initiation of that action would otherwise be valid under the strictures of the First Cecelyne Excellency, the Infernal may activate the First Cecelyne Excellency to enhance that character's action. Enhancements of other characters' actions use the Infernal's dice-adding cap (based on the Infernal's ratings in the Attribute, Ability or Essence used by the vehicle), but may not benefit from, nor do they increase, the discount offered by Effortless Cecelyne Dominance, and Cecelyne Mythos Exultant does not enhance the vehicle's stunt rewards. Exalted of lesser Essence are valid vehicles for Palanquin-Riding Sway, but their Essence possesses an impudent quality of independence that interferes with its proper operation; not only is the activation of the First Cecelyne Excellency subject to the Infernal's normal dice-adding cap, the cumulative dice added to the dice pool by both the Infernal's and the vehicle's Charms may not exceed the vehicle's normal dice-adding cap.
Inauspicious Omen Premonition
Cost: Varies; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Hellscry Chakra, Transcendent Desert Creature
Fools and rabble sometimes bring opposition to the Endless Desert, only to find that all things great and small within her wastes are only part of Cecelyne, and swarm to alert her. The Infernal may activate this Charm on its own or in response to an unexpected attack. While this Charm is active, the environment responds to her, producing inauspicious omens as a subtle non-Obvious effect which the Infernal is automatically aware of, alerting her to imminent physical danger and removing the unexpected quality from any incoming attacks. Inauspicious omens may take the form of such things as the crowing of an unseen carrion bird, a brief hush of silence in the Demon City, a gleam of unnatural color in a heavenly body, or a baleful whisper from within the trees, and may be custom-tailored to the Infernal's cultural background or current location. Cecelyne herself favors the sudden stirring of desert insects, the shadow of vultures overhead, or unnatural murmurs roiling through her own sands. This Charm may be activated for free within a blight created by Holy Land Infliction or for 3m in another place of desolation. Outside a place of desolation, Cecelyne may stretch the reach of her sands at the expense of her confoundment at not occupying these places already, activating this Charm at a cost of 3m, 1wp. She has never done this in the Underworld, and were an Infernal to make the effort, she would find the strain agonizing, raising the activation cost to 3m, 1wp, 1ahl.
Friendly Devil Revelation
Cost: Varies; Mins: Essence 4; Type: Simple (Speed 6 long ticks)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Sorcerous, Warlock
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Inauspicious Omen Premonition, Soul-Sand Devil Shintai
The generosity of Cecelyne preys on the needy and the unsuspecting, coming to them in quiet moments and distant places to steal their loyalty. This Charm channels her understanding of vulnerability, to summon the Soul-Sand Devil more easily into the world. In order to activate this Charm, the Infernal must be immaterial and either unmanifested or hidden from sight by any being lesser than a Primordial, Celestial Incarna, Deathlord or Third Circle Demon, excluding any familiars the Infernal may possess. The Infernal must also perceive another being within (Essence x 5) yards saying her name or outwardly expressing a feeling of vulnerability or uncertainty. An Infernal who knows Verdant Emptiness Endowment or any of that Charm's expansions may also activate Friendly Devil Revelation in response to a being within this range making any wish which she could grant through those Charms. Upon activating this Charm, the Infernal pays (Essence x 3) + Willpower motes, which must be paid as personal motes. An Infernal who is activating this Charm in response to a valid wish may also pay an additional 1wp to grant that wish as per the normal rules of Verdant Emptiness Endowment. On the first tick of this action, an inauspicious omen occurs as a subtle non-Obvious effect, as detailed in Inauspicious Omen Premonition; the Infernal's voice may also carry itself over to speak as an additional omen, if desired. Over the course of the Charm's action, the Infernal's body blows across the chasm of the material like an ill desert wind, transmuting to material form. If the Infernal had been hidden from sight, she emerges seemingly from nowhere; if she had been unmanifested, she appears wreathed in an aureole of dimming stars. If this body is disrupted by countermagic, its material component erupts into multicolored sand and falls apart, as the Soul-Sand Devil dissolves to immateriality, and an omen occurs once more; the Infernal's voice may also briefly carry itself over, such as if she wishes to curse the one responsible. Alternatively, the Infernal may disrupt this body in the same way at no cost as a miscellaneous action, ending the Charm.
Oasis-Haunting Phantasm
Cost: - (+2m); Mins: Essence 2; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Obvious, Social
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Scorpion-Tailed Mirage Technique
Cecelyne speaks with the voice of multitudes, the slavish adoration of her followers combining to sing her eternal hymn. This Charm permanently improves Scorpion-Tailed Mirage Technique, allowing it to be activated at a 2m surcharge to make a flurry of Presence-based social attacks instead of physical attacks. The Infernal acts as a multitude to accomplish this, duplicating her words, speaking with many voices, making many gestures at once, or colocating as with the normal function of this Charm. An Infernal who has made the second purchase of Scorpion-Tailed Mirage Technique may also use Oasis-Haunting Phantasm to make Performance-based attacks. Activating Scorpion-Tailed Mirage Technique in this way allows the Infernal to ignore its range limitations.
Abundant Generosity Patronage
Cost: 2m; Mins: Essence 2; Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Social
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Verdant Emptiness Endowment
Cecelyne answers dissatisfaction with boundless generosity, expecting nothing in return save obedience. This Charm may enhance any mental influence exerted on character that still owes the Infernal a service as a result of having a wish granted by Verdant Emptiness Endowment. The influence is undodgeable, and becomes unnatural mental influence. Though they can still argue against or deny the Infernal, they cannot merely ignore them. Characters cannot be compelled by this Charm if they are actively working towards completing a favor owed, although they become viable targets once more if they let their duties lapse.
She Who Lives in Her Name, the Principle of Hierarchy
My Heart Over Yours
Cost: 8m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Simple (DV -2)
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Emotion, Obvious, Sorcerous, Warlock (Takuma)
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Cosmic Transcendence of (Virtue)
With the cosmic power at her disposal, She Who Lives in Her Name prefers more direct methods to correct wayward inclinations away from her designs. However, the force of her feelings and her beliefs has the unrealized potential to write itself over the hearts of other beings, which may be unlocked and wielded by suitably evangelical Chosen. This Charm is activated by unveiling a sigil, which may be done by speaking a word, making a gesture, creating a visual display, or any other suitable expression. The fires of the Infernal's heart erupt to life within that sigil and sear outward at witnesses as ephemeral white fire visible only to those who can perceive the immaterial. The white fire causes no injury, but those whose Mental DV fails to defeat a roll of the Infernal's (Willpower + Charisma), with the Infernal adding an additional success per transcendent Virtue against extras, have the feelings of their heart burned away, replaced by the inhuman dedication that defines the Infernal. This mental attack costs 2wp to resist.
As the immaterial fire sears at their heart, victims find each natural Virtue rating corresponding with one of the Infernal's transcendent Virtues overwritten by a rating of 5 as a Sorcerous effect. This magical alteration also transforms each die rolled to test for suppression of that Virtue into an automatic success, though it does not render Virtue dice into automatic successes in other situations. This Sorcerous effect also contains an Emotion effect in the form of an ember of the Infernal's own imposed feelings and the meanings imparted to them. This Emotion effect inflicts a three-dice internal penalty on inappropriate actions, and prevents the Virtue from being channeled in support of an inappropriate action. Violating the Infernal's greater good is an inappropriate expression of Compassion; acting against the Infernal's Intimacies (which the victim does not intuit unless he attempts to act against one and feels the strain) is an inappropriate expression of Conviction; and acting dishonestly, showing bias or breaking one's word in any way is an inappropriate expression of Temperance. Transcendent Valor does not impose inappropriate actions, though the victim may find their pride colored by the idiosyncracies of the Infernal's.
A second purchase at Essence 3 allows this Charm to be focused at a single target, in which case the Charm's Duration changes to one day.
Still Body Relocation
Cost: 3m; Mins: Essence 2; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Essence-Dissecting Stare
Since the incipient time preceding Creation, She Who Lives in Her Name has nursed a hidden grudge against the Passes Climbing Forever. His wishes were instrumental in the construction of journeys across destinations against her suggestions, a flaw which plagues existence to this day. She has not yet been able to track the ever-climbing mountain down to interrogate him and test her hypothesis of complicity in bringing about the Fate Mercury, but her calculations indicate that Qaf nears her grasp by the day. In the meanwhile, she voices her objection quietly by declining to participate.
An Infernal may activate this Charm on her action tick to relocate herself without a conventional Move or Dash action, reconfiguring her own essence pattern to arrive at her destination without the pointless strain of passing through the space between. This Relocate action is reflexive, and other Charms treat it as a normal Move action for the purposes of enhancement, impediment or triggering other effects. Without appropriate magic, this action cannot be used to escape a clinch. The Relocate action differs from a normal Move in the following ways:
- Rather than the normal Move range, the Infernal may Relocate to any space which can hold her within a sphere of (Willpower) yards radius, provided she can perceive her destination. Environmental conditions such as swimming do not reduce this movement rate, though visibility conditions may.
- Effects which depend upon transit between two points or passage through a zone, such as thaumaturgical wards against creatures or the Malfeas Charm Kneel or Be Knelt, do not trigger. Effects which respond to direct relocation without passage, such as thaumaturgical wards against teleportation, do trigger.
- There is no transit time spent during a Relocate action. The Infernal remains standing, sitting, falling, etc. where she began her action tick until her next action tick, which she begins in the exact same pose at her destination point. She may not combine Relocate with a Move or Dash action. Relocate does not alter momentum, and initiating a Relocate action does not prevent the Infernal from being moved by outside forces.
- Relocate is an Obvious effect, invoking a harsh white flash connecting the points where the Infernal departed and arrived at the beginning of her next action tick, which reveals both her former and new location. An Infernal who knows Unseen Force Application may remove the Obvious keyword at will to Relocate without visible transition.
Essential Property Analysis
Cost: - (+2m/sense); Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Essence-Dissecting Stare
The emergent properties of essence congealed into coherent phenomena are evident to the Principle of Hierarchy’s careful analysis. This Charm upgrades the functionality of Essence-Dissecting Stare. When the Infernal activates that Charm, she may commit an additional 2m per stimulus unlocked through Essential Property Analysis. Stimuli may be triggered separately, but adding a stimulus requires activating Essence-Dissecting Stare again, for which purpose that Charm now bears the Stackable keyword. A stimulus and its accompanying commitment may be released as a miscellaneous action.
When Essential Property Analysis is purchased, one stimulus may be selected. Additional stimuli may then be added at a cost of 4xp each. Each stimulus, when triggered, adds the ability to derive information on the stimulus from component essential properties, While the stimulus is triggered, appropriate Awareness actions using that stimulus gain two extra successes (which do not stack through multiple stimuli). Additionally, the Infernal’s ability to sense and dissect that stimulus enhances dramatically. Some examples include:
- Light: The Infernal may intuitively sense angles of refraction, minute differences in color, and sources of light emission. This sensitivity allows the Infernal to make out intricate details, such as the individual threads of a shirt, or to overcome the human limitations of mere sight, reading a posted message from 500 yards away.
- Sound: The Infernal may see or feel reverberations of sound. She may use this as a form of echolocation, disregarding penalties for blindness so long as there is sound to guide her, or tracking an individual target by her footsteps on the other side of a grand battlefield.
- Temperature: The Infernal can detect sources of heat. Base room temperature does not appear to this sense, but heat and cold alike both are more noticeable as their extremity increases. She can feel the pallor of a Ghost-Blooded in a crowded ballroom, or critique slight imperfections in an elaborate heating oven.
- Motion: The Infernal can feel motion as a tactile sensation, varying in intensity by distance and velocity, and in texture by shape. She may follow the ticking of a clock’s internal mechanisms, trace the flow of blood within a living human, or faithfully reproduce the gait of a stranger running across a field.
- Names: The Infernal can sense the true names of people, places and things, identifying them as synaesthetic information tagged to the entity’s presence. Knowledge of the name’s native language is still required to intuit its meaning. Abyssal Exalted, who have offered their names to Oblivion for consumption, are invisible to this sense. A name stolen by the Sidereal Charm Name-Pilfering Practice appears mixed with the Sidereal’s name, rather than tagged to the victim, who is similarly undetectable.
Causal Substitution Maintenance
Cost: 3m; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Reflexive (Step 7)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Shaping, Warlock (Takuma)
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Wholeness Rightly Assumed (Bashing, Lethal)
She Who Lives in Her Name bends the orbit of causality towards the preservation of her perfect order. The Infernal activates this Charm in response to an attack of which she is aware, shifting her personal causality out of phase with the attack's introduced entropy and disconnecting cause and effect. As a result, while the attack proceeds as normal, no damage is incurred. Instead, a harmless, instant-duration effect of the Infernal's choice results. For instance, a sword slash might spray butterflies instead of blood, evoke spouts of heatless fire, or induce the enemy's blade to sing. Effects other than damage proceed normally. This Charm carries the Imperfection of the Principle of Hierarchy.
Unified Field Theory
Cost: - (1wp); Mins: Essence 4; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Warlock (Takuma)
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Mind-Hand Manipulation
She Who Lives in Her Name knows the principles on which mass can be manipulated, and the chasm of the material is only another physical state to be understood and grasped. The Infernal may exert her full Essence on immaterial objects using Mind-Hand Manipulation. Additionally, while the Infernal is immaterial, she may affect material objects with Mind-Hand Manipulation actions at her full Essence. Physical attacks made on the material in this manner impose a 1wp surcharge. Finally, the necessary countermagic to dispel Mind-Hand Manipulation is upgraded from Emerald to Sapphire if it has not been already.
Directed Thought Imposition
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Illusion, Warlock (Takuma)
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Analytical Modeling Intuition, Mind-Hand Manipulation
The Principle of Hierarchy's 99,997 crystal spheres need no mouth to speak. The creation of sound is a mechanism for beings of cruder substance; when She Who Lives in Her Name deigns to address other beings, she need only overlap her thought patterns with their own. This Charm enhances the functionality of Mind-Hand Manipulation. While the Infernal has that Charm active, she may reflexively intrude thoughts into the minds of thinking beings within ten times the Range of her telekinetic attacks, or if the Infernal knows Unseen Force Application, particular beings within that range, as an unnatural Illusion effect. Recipients intuit that the thoughts which occur to them are not their own; telltale signs include mild synaesthesia and a sense of disorientation as the Infernal's message pushes other thoughts aside to impose itself. Though every Infernal inflicts a unique 'signature' variation of this mental-vertigo, based on the base qualities of their identity and true name and which can be recognized to compare intrusive thoughts from different sources, the thought has no voice or other vocal qualities. Language-encoded thought is transmitted in Old Realm, though the Infernal may instead choose to convey images, non-linguistically-encoded sound, or abstract concepts. Immaterial Infernals may only transfer thoughts across the chasm of the material if they also know Unified Field Theory. Resisting the Illusion for one day costs one Willpower. Thought-intrusion communication cannot be overheard except by magic specifically capable of doing so.
Vahana Privilege Assumption
Cost: 5m, 1wp or 10m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Will-Crushing Force
Sometimes, even a conquered being's autonomous control is insufficient. At those times, the Principle of Hierarchy comes to dwell in their spirit, blessedly steering them as a divine vehicle for her judgment. When this Charm is activated, the user possesses any one mortal or natural animal she can perceive which she has broken with Will-Crushing Force. This costs five motes and one Willpower to possess a natural animal, or ten motes and one Willpower to possess other creatures.
While possessing a target, the Infernal suffers a -3 internal penalty to all physical actions taken by her own body. However, she may directly and completely control the body of the target, and may even use her Charms through it. The Infernal uses her own Social and Mental Attributes (save for Appearance), as well as most of her own Abilities. However, she uses the target's Physical Attributes, Appearance, Resistance, Athletics and Dodge for all actions she has its body take. Any dots the target has in these traits above her own count as dice added from Charms. The Infernal may automatically and reflexively perceive anything the target can sense.
As a side benefit, this Charm enhances its prerequisite, allowing Will-Crushing Force to substitute Willpower drain for any amount of damage when targeting natural animals, rather than 2 damage or more.
A repurchase at Essence 4 makes all Essence 1 beings whose wills the Infernal has currently broken valid targets. If the target has any Essence-based powers, the Infernal can use them, but must spend her own motes to do so, having no access to the target's motepool. Further, the duration becomes Indefinite. However, using the Charm this way gives it the Sorcerous keyword. Unlike most Sorcerous Charms, the Essence for this Charm must still be committed, but the effect may also be terminated at will by ending this commitment.
Adorjan, the Silent Wind
Amaranth Dream Lover Shintai
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Sorcerous
Duration: One dream
Prerequisite Charms: Wind-Born Stride, Tragic Love Amusement
The love of Adorjan is inescapable. When she yearns for her beloved, she flies across the border of awareness to lie with him and share grotesque delights. The Infernal activates this Charm when settling into a dreaming state, targeting an individual who is the subject of an intimacy formed by Tragic Love Amusement, or the subject of an intimacy of love whom she has heard cry the Demon-Wracking Shout. If the target of the Charm is in another plane of existence which is not the Demon Prison, or incapable of dreaming for whatever reason (including being awake at the time), this Charm immediately deactivates and the Infernal is refunded the activation cost. This effect also causes a single amaranth petal to accumulate somehow on the target's pillow or another appropriate place associated with sleep or dreaming, as a non-Obvious fate-warping Shaping effect, where it awaits him. Otherwise, the Infernal disappears into a gust of deep red wind and a scattering of amaranth flowers, her body transmuting into a dream which breezes into the sleep of the target.
If the target was already dreaming, his player defines the initial scenario of the dreamscape. This scenario may not place the arriving Infernal in immediate or imminent harm unless the Infernal is immune to that particular manner of danger or the Infernal's player consents. If the target was not dreaming, the Infernal defines the initial scenario, with the same restriction on harmful circumstances instead applying to the target, for which purpose any unusual permanent immunities of the target to relevant dangers become Obvious to her intuition. Demesnes and other magical infrastructure and resources may not be found within the dream unless the Storyteller rules otherwise; gossamer facsimiles of these things may be found, but which will not grant their real magical benefits. The target is dreaming, and begins with full motes and health, but her current Willpower and Virtue channel reserves. The Infernal has entered the dream bodily, and begins with all of her traits as they were before activating this Shintai; in the moment before she enters, she may also choose to activate a Form-Type Shintai of her choice as a non-Charm activation. She may exit this Shintai and leave the dream at any time with a miscellaneous action, dissolving into amaranthine wind and blowing back through to her own dream, thenceforth reincarnating in the physical world. She may also be expelled from the dream by the waking (or physical death) of the dreamer, or by Emerald Countermagic targeting either herself in the dream world or the lingering sorcerous effect which can be perceived with essence sight where she activated Amaranth Dream Lover Shintai, all of which also end the Charm. If she has any Form-Type Shintai Charms active when departing or being expelled from the dream, they automatically deactivate in the time between dissolving from the dream and reappearing in the physical realm where she had left. If she is forced out of the dream through the waking of the dreamer (caused by something other than killing him within the dream) or the application of Countermagic, she may not return to that target's dreams for a week, nor even leave an amaranth petal.
The Infernal is present in the dream bodily. Any loss of motes, Willpower, Virtue channels or health remains when the Infernal deactivates this Charm, as do any other effects incurred, including anima display if her banner is flaring at the time the Shintai ends. Dreamed objects may not be carried with the Infernal from the dream back to the physical world. Nonmagical items lost in the dream before dissolution do not return with the Infernal, remaining in the target's subconscious, where he may dream of them from time to time; return visits to the target's dreams permit the Infernal to recover the items, which as undreamt, real things, may then be brought back out of the dream with her. If the Infernal is slain in the dream, she truly dies, and only her panoply of artifacts returns to the waking world (and, of course, her Exaltation). The remains of the Infernal decay within the target's subconscious, causing recurring dreams of the Infernal's demise and what had been, whether the character's response is faint dread, reawakened trauma, or simply satisfaction at a job well done. The power of this Shintai over the unwaking world grants the Infernal a special privilege while in the dream, however; she receives a pool of (Compassion) stunt dice which behave like the raksha Style Background while in the Deep Wyld, and may perform (Essence ÷ 2) Wyld Stunts there if she meets the Essence prerequisites for them, ignoring the Heart prerequisites. Time spent as a living dream frees the Infernal from all fatigue and counts as genuine rest equivalent to sleep, but the Infernal rolls Compassion instead of Conviction to recover Willpower at the conclusion of the dream.
The dreamer is not present bodily. The loss of motes or health does not follow him outside the dream. Lost Willpower and Virtue channels, however, do. Other non-lethal physical and spiritual effects incurred, including impregnation, may be ignored or carried forth into the waking world at the dreamer's choice; mental effects persist. However, while physical harm does not carry over into the waking world, the ministrations of the Amaranth Dream Lover scar the mind to recall. Every new level of wound penalty reached in the dreamer's health levels by lethal or aggravated damage suffered inflicts 1 Limit upon the dreamer's waking (maximum 4 Limit cumulatively). This effect only reads the natural wound penalty rating of health levels, and ignores effects which free the dreamer from suffering wound penalties; however, a level of wound penalty which is reached once does not add additional Limit if the dreamer recovers from it and then has damage inflicted to suffer that level of wounding again. Death counts as a final, fifth point of Limit, and automatically ends the dream with a traumatic waking. Dreamers who do not possess a Limit track gain an appropriate permanent derangement, at the deficiency level for 1-2 Limit, the debility level for 3-4, or the deformity level for 5. A dreamer who suffers any points of Limit or a derangement cannot roll Conviction to recover Willpower from that night's rest.
A dreamer aware of what is happening may attempt to rouse himself from within the dream with an appropriate stunt. The difficulty for this escape attempt is the Infernal's (Compassion ÷ 2) plus the number of the dreamer's Intimacies, minus (the number of the dreamer's derangements + the dreamer's current Limit), minimum (Compassion ÷ 2). Adorjan is only ready to release when her beloved's eyes have truly started to open to her truths.
Storytellers and players alike are encouraged to treat this Charm with the same care in use as Armageddon Nightmare Duel.
The Ebon Dragon, Shadow of All Things
Kimbery, the Sea That Marched Against the Flame
Heretical Charms
Titanic Convergence Shield
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Heretical
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Two Primordial Charms with two separate Primordial Imperfections
The Infernal Princes do not hide behind a single brick wall. Binding multifarious cosmic principles together, they build themselves a mighty fortress. A Green Sun Prince who knows this Charm treats any Reflexive Primordial Charm with a Primordial Imperfection as equivalent to any other such Charm for the purposes of Combo placement. He is immediately refunded any experience points he may have spent placing such Charms in Combos except for the cheapest cost to place an individual Charm among them into each Combo. If he should later learn a Primordial perfect defense which is cheaper to place in Combos, he is again refunded the difference for any relevant Combos.
Sadistic Agony Pardon
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Heretical
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Cold Fire Desolation Brand, Great Mother's Tears (Bashing)
Students of Malfeas and Kimbery know that those who would oppose the Warlocks will sicken and fall. If death would be premature release from their suffering, then it is a Warlock's holy right to deny it. When a character with Sadistic Agony Pardon inflicts a Sickness effect through a Malfeas, Kimbery or Heretical Charm, she may choose to reduce its potency upon the body, though not the mind. The disease, which causes wracking nerve pain and involuntary tremors rather than its normal outward effects, inflicts only bashing damage rather than lethal or aggravated, and damage inflicted by this effect cannot roll the victim over past his Incapacitated health level.
Horrific Weapon Detonation
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 4; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Heretical
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Vitriolic Corona Endowment (x2), Dread Panoply of the Silent Wind, Corrosive Pattern Infliction
An Infernal Exalt does not wield simple steel. When she marches to battle, the grisly weapons of her wrath explode forth from the worthless matter of the world. The Infernal gains another function to choose when activating Vitriolic Corona Endowment: she may remove a nonmagical weapon from her Dread Panoply and salute the sun with it. The green light which shines upon the weapon sears it so hot that it develops volcanic cracks burning with primordial heat, and then erupts in a spectacular conflagration. This is a Shaping effect. What is left is a weapon of radiant green light, identical in all ways and functioning to the spear created by Vitriolic Corona Endowment's second purchase, except that the weapon is in the shape of the basic artifact equivalent to the transformed nonmagical weapon, using the base statistics of that weapon instead of a dire lance.
When the Charm is deactivated, the weapon cools and reverts back to its nonmagical form, and may be reflexively returned to the Dread Panoply for one Willpower as a Sorcerous effect, subject to the same countermagic as Dread Panoply of the Silent Wind. Each use of this Charm leaves ominous scorch marks and subtle fractures in the weapon, however. A weapon can endure (11 - Essence) scenes worth of damage, after which it reverts not back to its usable state, but into a withered, spent husk of scrap metal or unfit kindling, no longer fit for any practical purpose at all, let alone as a weapon.
If the Infernal also knows Murder Is Meat, she may sacrifice the nourishment of one meal of violence, up to once a day, to heal a weapon in her Dread Panoply of one scene's worth of damage, provided she has not detonated that weapon in the same day. She sharpens her weapons with use.
Grace Shall Abound
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 4; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Heretical
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Penitents Like Scattered Grains, Happy Realms of Light
Prayer is offered upward to the titans, who receive it, as is their power. The ascendant Warlocks will also take their due, and their numinous presence will not be held back by Cecelyne's limited vision. This Charm upgrades Penitents Like Scattered Grains, permitting that Charm to hear prayers from realms created by Happy Realms of Light, regardless of whether those realms are desolate or not. The Exalt may also answer prayers from realms of light with messages as an Obvious effect, as if the prayer had been made from a blight created by Holy Land Infliction; instead of transmuting an object, however, characters in the vicinity of the penitent witness the star of providence reaching a tongue of fire towards them, and addressing them in the Exalt's voice.
The Terrestrial Circle of Emerald
The Celestial Circle of Sapphire
Soul-Body Union Noesis
Cost: 20m
Target: One Alchemical Exalt
This spell was the first work of Trapped Fire, the hellsworn inheritor to Salina's divine essence. It requires a willing Champion, a mass of clay, salts and the mundane equivalent to the Alchemical's caste material totaling a Resources 3 value, and ten minutes of uninterrupted ritual that begin as the spell is cast. (See the attached table for material equivalences.) As the spell is cast, the mass of ingredients mixes, congeals and liquifies, forming into a free-standing prism of molten metal and clay which the Champion may immerse himself in safely. The Champion must then enter a meditative state resembling that adopted while immersed in the Vats. As the Alchemical meditates on the mantras that encode his access signature for the noetic network of Autochthonia, the material rises and forms into a glowing visualization of his iconic anima. He may requisition a new set of Charms and/or Arrays to equip, and at the completion of his meditation, his body becomes plastic and remolds itself into his newly requisitioned shape, while the glowing materials purify, sublime and dissolve, transferred as thought-code through the noetic network to resolve into the shape of the Charm equipment being replaced.MagicalMundaneOrichalcumGoldMoonsilverSilverStarmetalSteelJadeBlueSapphire WhiteOpal RedRuby BlackOnyx GreenEmeraldSoulsteelIronAdamantDiamond
The Solar Circle of Adamant