CHAPTER EIGHT: ANTAGONISTS
many things: courage, martial skill, and the knowledge that
MORTAL ANTAGONISTS
Scavenger Lord
Adventurers who seek wealth in the ruins of the past are
known as scavenger lords. Theirs is a dangerous profession, for
the relics of the First Age are often guarded by traps and
monsters, or by mundane dangers—wild animals, cave-ins, bad
air. Surviving this gauntlet requires a good mix of courage,
caution, and cunning.
Kurokami is a small, spare man whose pouches and pockets
bristle with a multitude of obscure tools. His dark eyes are as
opaque as his past. If pressed regarding his history, he regales
listeners in his soft voice with anecdotes encompassing a range
of contradictory backgrounds—mudlark, second-story man,
adventurous merchant, dilettante aristocrat or disgraced
thaumaturge.
Acquaintances suspect a more common and prosaic
background as another scavenger’s apprentice.
Though he prefers to avoid confrontation and hires
bodyguards whenever he has valuable cargo or sizable wealth,
Kurokami stays prepared for unexpected attack. He wears a
short sword on his belt, a chain shirt under his tunic and several
protective talismans around his neck. His final defense is
information: he can offer secret knowledge of ancient caches—
including the tomb of a First Age Solar—and how to bypass
some of their defenses. In all cases he negotiates bluntly but
with full awareness of the values of his skills and his wares.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 4; Join Battle: 5 dice
Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x2/-4/Incap.
Actions: Ancient History: 5 dice; Assess Goods: 9 dice;
Avoid Traps: 9 dice; Read Intentions: 7 dice; Senses: 7 dice;
Social Influence: 6 dice
Appearance 2, Resolve 3, Guile 4
Combat
Attack (Short sword): 5 dice (Damage 10, minimum 2)
Combat Movement: 4 dice (6 dice to disengage or
withdraw)
Evasion 2, Parry 3
Soak/Hardness: 6/0 (Chain shirt)
Merits
A scavenger lord may have access to weakened or damaged
artifacts plundered from ruins of the ancient past. These are
generally useful—a full-sized clay horse that moves with the
speed of a living stallion but never tires, a daiklave scabbard
that can sheathe a blade of any size, a black pearl ring that can
make its wearer’s hand invisible—but not comparable to those
of a fully- functional artifact, unless repaired by an
extraordinarily skilled craftsman.
Guru / Lama / Martial High Priest
Through decades of austerities, elder monks hone both body
and mind. Princes and heroes seek them out for training;
acolytes call upon them for insight; peasants beg their aid in
dealing with the ravages of bandits and spirits alike.
When Deepali was but a novice, her guru sought to temper
her gentle, acquiescent nature through nivedana—the traditional
year of service to a god—by assigning her to the minor war
deity Blind Sword. Her time in the god’s sanctum taught her
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even gods are imperfect and fallible.
Decades have passed since she left Blind Sword’s fortress.
Now Deepali is a guru herself, one of many at the Gaharai
Monastery, where she instructs monks and warriors in
philosophical and martial techniques. But she must occasionally
absent herself to serve in the Prasadi Wyld Hunt, battling rogue
gods, Fair Folk, and other supernatural entities that refuse to
submit to the Pure Way’s strictures.
On the Hunt, Deepali bears a composite bow and bronze-
shod staff. The two fingers missing from her left hand—lost
fighting the elemental Frost Cracking White—impair her skills
not a whit. Her mastery of mortal martial arts makes her no less
deadly unarmed, but conflicts at the monastery are typically
social or intellectual in nature.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 7; Join Battle: 10 dice
Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x2/-4/Incap.
Actions: Knowledge of Spirits: 6 dice; Prayer: 6 dice; Read
Intentions: 7 dice; Senses: 8 dice; Social Influence: 7 dice
Appearance 2, Resolve 5, Guile 3
Combat
Attack (Staff): 8 dice (Damage 12)
Attack (Unarmed): 10 dice (Damage 10)
Attack (Self bow): 8 dice at short range (Damage 10)
Attack (Grapple): 10 dice (10 dice to control)
Combat Movement: 9 dice
Evasion 4, Parry 6
Soak/Hardness: 9/0 (Reinforced buff jacket)
General / Admiral / Staff Officer
At the highest ranks, military officers rarely involve
themselves directly in battle if they don’t wish it. Instead, they
dedicate themselves to leadership, strategy, and logistics. Some
are promoted through the ranks. Others gain their posts through
bribery, nepotism, or repayment of political favors.
Whelk the Younger has been elected to Brightwork’s
council of strategoi on several occasions. He lacks the political
ambitions of his peers, seeing the role as a distraction from his
genealogical research tracing the descent of his city’s leading
families from the hero-admiral Tetram and the god-kings of the
First Age. Still, he dare not ignore his duties—training,
logistics, commanding Brightwork auxiliaries on Azurite
military campaigns—lest he suffer exile.
At least two loyal bodyguards—all cousins, nieces, or
nephews—always accompany Whelk in public. His battlefield
panoply includes a short sword, reinforced breastplate and
masked helm. He relies on elaborate fortifications when
defending and makes good strategic use of terrain on the attack.
Whelk bears no love for the Azurites; he’s far more likely to
surrender when fighting under their banner than when
defending his homeland.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 4; Join Battle: 6 dice
Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x2/-4/Incap.
Actions: Command: 7 dice; Read Intentions: 5 dice; Sailing:
8 dice (Admirals only); Senses: 5 dice; Social Influence: 6 dice;
Strategy: 7 dice
Appearance 2, Resolve 4, Guile 3
Combat
 Attack (Short sword): 8 dice (Damage 11, minimum 2)
Combat Movement: 5 dice (8 dice while mounted, generals
and staff officers only)
Evasion 2, Parry 4
Soak/Hardness: 8/0 (Reinforced Breastplate)
Prince / Oligarch / Minister
From town elders to empresses, officials of the highest rank
typically have decades of experience with politics. While they
have some use for skill at governance, affairs of state can be
handled by subordinates; the prince’s primary tools are bribery,
image, and ruthlessness.
Lapis of Rake started her reign by slaying her elder brother
on the battlefield. She has since dedicated herself to expanding
her domain through marriage alliances, espionage, and war. A
large, strong woman, she holds a reputation for powerful
appetites, personal dynamism, and a hot temper. Her generosity
toward loyal servants is matched only by her merciless
treatment of rebels and personal enemies.
Her battle regalia—mace, target shield, articulated plate, and
slotted helm—are all of the finest quality, inscribed by priests
and savants with blessings and purportedly puissant runes. Even
in her palace, she always keeps a sword at her hip, a breastplate
beneath her shirt and a dagger up her sleeve, for while she
retains a host of guards, she does not rely wholly on their skill
or loyalty.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 4; Join Battle: 5 dice
Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x2/-4/Incap.
Actions: Command: 7 dice; Read Intentions: 7 dice; Senses:
6 dice; Social Influence: 8 dice; Strategy: 5 dice
Appearance 3, Resolve 5, Guile 3
Combat
Attack (Mace): 7 dice (Damage 12)
Attack (Short sword): 6 dice (Damage 12, minimum 2)
Attack (Knife): 8 dice (Damage 10)
Combat Movement: 3 dice
Evasion 1, Parry 4
Soak/Hardness: 10/0 (Articulated plate)
Merits
Princes of great power and wealth sometimes retain the
services of rare mortal sorcerers or local gods as allies, thus
obtaining enchanted or blessed arms, armor, or other
appurtenances. While not comparable to the artifacts forged by
the Exalted, such wonders might include a flaming sword,
warding talismans, or gemstones that warn against poison or
betrayers.
STRANGE FOLK AND
MONSTERS
Wyld Barbarian
Survival on the fringes of the Wyld is a constant struggle.
Not only do mortals risk being warped by chaos, they’re
constantly threatened by mutated beasts, labyrinthine mirages,
unwholesome foodstuffs, and Fair Folk or other chaos-kind.
Tribes survive here only through strict loyalty to kin, ready
violence against outsiders, and aid from local supernatural
powers—gods, elementals, ancestors, renegade Fair Folk, or
idiosyncratic entities. By civilized standards, Wyld barbarians
are all somewhat mad. Even those whose minds aren’t broken
by chaos are off-kilter; they expect treachery not merely from
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outsiders, but from reality itself.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 5; Join Battle: 5 dice
Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x2/-4/Incap.
Actions: Feats of Strength: 6 dice (may attempt Strength 3
feats); Senses: 5 dice; Tracking: 6 dice
Appearance 2, Resolve 3, Guile 1
Combat
Attack (Axe): 7 dice (Damage 13)
Attack (Javelin): 8 dice at close range (Damage 13)
Attack (Shield bash): 5 dice (Damage 13)
Attack (Grapple): 5 dice (8 dice to control)
Combat Movement: 4 dice
Evasion 2, Parry 3
Soak/Hardness: 7/0 (Studded hide armor)
Merits
Exposure to the warping energies of the Wyld gives some
borderland barbarians strange mutations (pp. XX-XX). These
can be a considerable advantage in battle, but inevitably alienate
them even further from civilized society, and sometimes even
their own clan. Common mutations include claws, extra limbs,
or an unusual hide.
Aquatic Beastfolk
Gentle has lived her whole life in the Greenfin Shallows
among the Seven Meyu Tribes. While her elder sisters hunted
sharks and rays, or accompanied the occasional raid on the
surface people, she remained in her family’s coral-encrusted
dolmen-house to perform domestic tasks— harvesting kelp,
weaving baskets, knapping flint. But a legion of crustacean folk
has swarmed up out of the deep to seize the Greenfin Shallows,
their hard-shelled soldiers outmatching the Meyu warriors.
When all the neighboring sea peoples—from the city-dwellers
of Cavort Reef to the peripatetic Dolphin Tribes—refused to
help the Meyu, Gentle set off to seek aid from the air- breathing
folk of the surface realm.
Though her features are those of the tribal peoples of the
southern Caul, Gentle has rubbery magenta skin, an elongated
skull, gill-slits along her neck and suction cups on her palms,
fingertips and the soles of her feet. She carries a spear but wears
no armor. Other than a pouch- laden belt, her only garment is a
cloak to ward off the sun and to soak so as to remain
comfortable out of the water. Though her reflexes have yet to
fully adjust to moving about on land, a life spent underwater has
left her far stronger than most surface-dwellers.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 4; Join Battle: 3 dice
Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x2/-4/Incap.
Actions: Feats of Strength: 8 dice (may attempt Strength 3
feats); Social Influence: 4 dice; Senses: 5 dice; Swimming: 7
dice
Appearance 2, Resolve 4, Guile 1
Combat
Attack (Long spear): 4 dice (Damage 14)
Attack (Unarmed): 8 dice (Damage 12)
Attack (Grapple): 4 dice (5 dice to control)
Combat Movement: 5 dice
Evasion 2, Parry 1
Soak/Hardness: 4/0
Merits
Benthic Expertise: Aquatic beastfolk add two bonus dice
on Join Battle, attack, and movement rolls while underwater.
Gills: Aquatic beastfolk can breathe both underwater and in
air.
 Zicnal of the Asmani
According to legend, when the elder powers first shaped
Creation, they set the asmani to hold up the four corners of the
sky. When the Contagion came and the Fair Folk poured over
the edges of the world in an unstoppable tide, the asmani were
swallowed up by the Wyld. Warped and reshaped almost
beyond recognition, they wander as vast protean colossi through
the shallows of chaos.
Zicnal appears as a titanic man fifty feet high. His three
faces are white-haired and bushy- bearded; his many hands hold
parchment and brush, plumb line and measuring cord, scepter
and sword. Where most of his kin remain in the deepest Wyld,
meandering mindlessly or making war against things of chaos,
Zicnal dwells upon an island of stability beyond the world’s
edge. There he rules the demented city of Marakanda, home to
ten thousand mutated mortals and an endless variety of
inscrutable goblin-things.
Essence: 5; Willpower: 7; Join Battle: 10 dice
Personal Motes: 50
Health Levels: -0x10/-1x20/-2x20/-4x10/Incap.
Sample Intimacies
• Defining Principle: “Though I am fallen from my
former state, I still deserve respect from the powers of
Creation.”
• Major Tie: The Fair Folk (Wary Resentment)
• Major Tie: Marakanda (Exasperated Responsibility)
• Minor Tie: Other Asmani (Disappointment)
Actions: Command: 8 dice; Feats of Strength: 15 dice (may
attempt Strength 10 feats); Knowledge of the Wyld: 6 dice;
Long Memory: 8 dice; Read Motives: 7 dice; Senses: 10 dice;
Social Influence: 10 dice
Appearance 3, Resolve 5, Guile 3
Combat
Attack (Colossal sword): 11 dice (Damage 24, minimum 5)
Attack (Giant’s scepter): 11 dice (Damage 24, minimum 4)
Attack (Plumb line): 9 dice (Damage 23, minimum 5)
Attack (Unarmed): 8 dice (13 dice to control). Asmani
automatically win control of grapples against enemies of
smaller size, and roll unopposed to determine how many rounds
of control they establish, unless their victims use magic that
allows them to clinch larger enemies, such as Dragon Coil
Technique.
Combat Movement: 10 dice
Evasion 1, Parry 5
Soak/Hardness: 15/5
Merits
Legendary Size: Asmani take no onslaught penalties from
attacks made by smaller opponent, unless magically inflicted.
Withering attacks made by smaller enemies cannot drop
asmani below 1 Initiative unless the attack has a post-soak
damage of 10 dice (although attackers can still gain the full
amount of Initiative damage dealt). Decisive attacks made by
smaller enemies cannot deal more than (3 + attacker’s Strength)
levels of damage against asmani, not counting any levels of
damage added by Charms or other magic.
Threefold Focus: Whenever Zicnal spends a Willpower to
enhance a dice roll, instead of gaining an automatic success, he
adds three dice to his pool.
Wyld Resistance: Asmani are immune to the warping and
addictive properties of ambient Wyld energies, save for when
they enter Pure Chaos at the outermost edges of the Wyld. They
double 9s on rolls to resist shaping inflicted by creatures of the
Wyld.
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Offensive Charms
Limb-Wrenching Grasp (10m, 2i; Simple; Instant;
Decisive-only): When an asman throws a grappled enemy, it
may first tear them asunder, doubling the bonus dice of damage
it receives from forfeited rounds of control. If the rolled damage
exceeds the victim’s (Stamina x 2), double the total levels of
damage unless the victim accepts a crippling injury, which does
not count against the once per story limit. Dead or alive, the
victim is flung aside afterwards, ending the grapple.
Scything Blow (5m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Decisive-only):
With one blow of its weapons, the asman makes a decisive
attack against two enemies, dividing its Initiative evenly
between both to determine the raw damage of the attack. Once
per fight, unless reset by building up to Initiative 20+.
Triple Threat (15m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Withering-only):
Zicnal makes three separate withering attacks, each of which
must use a different weapon and be directed against a unique
target. He gains Initiative as normal from the attack that dealt
the highest amount of damage, but the other two attacks cannot
award more than 5 Initiative each (not counting Initiative
Breaks). Once per fight, unless reset making three separate
decisive attacks over the course of the scene.
Social Charms
Elegant Goblin-King Brushstrokes (20m, 1wp; Simple;
Instant; Written-only): When Zicnal writes an edict of law into
the code of Marakanda, his persuade roll is applied against the
Resolve of all Wyld mutants and creatures who inhabit the city
without them needing to read it. Those who are convinced to
follow his dictates act as though the law had always been in
place. Once per story.
Miscellaneous Charms
Sky-Shouldering Exertion (20m, 1wp or 4i, Supplemental,
Instant): The asmani doubles 7s on the roll for a feat of strength.
Other Asmani
Zicnal’s traits are representative of the asmani in general,
although the warping power of the Wyld may cause others to
have mutations, Charms, panoplies, or domains far different
from his own. The twelve-armed asman Sanek, for instance,
lacks Zicnal’s three faces, but instead has the lower body of an
immense scarlet worm, her underbelly lined with unblinking
faces, and wears an armored raiment woven from honeybees.
She wanders the Wyld as a penitent, hoping to reclaim her
former glory through deeds of what she perceives as virtue.
Mouse of the Sun
The Mice of the Sun appear similar to ordinary mice—they
have stark white fur and bright golden eyes. Though they live
and breed like normal animals, they bear the blessing of the
Unconquered Sun, and have an affinity for the returned Solar
Exalted. A Lawgiver who bonds with one of the mice will have
a companion for life. These tiny creatures are clever,
inconspicuous, and loyal to a fault—more than capable of
slipping into a prison cell with a lockpick, or spotting an
assassin that their master has missed. The mice also serve as a
vector for the Unconquered Sun’s divine judgment: the Plague
of the Sun, a disease that falls upon those who have displeased
him.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 8; Join Battle: 7 dice
Health Levels: -0/-1/-2/-4/Incap. Mice of the sun are
fearless in battle, no matter how badly injured they are.
Actions: Complex Thought: 4 dice; Gnaw Through Things:
4 dice; Scurry Through Tight Spaces: 7 dice; Senses: 6 dice (see
Keen Nose); Stealth: 9 dice (see Slink Away and Tiny Creature)
Resolve: 4, Guile: 1
Combat
Attack (Gnaw): 5 dice (Damage 2). Damage increases to 5
against any enemy housecat-sized or smaller.
Combat Movement: 7 dice
Evasion 3; Parry 1 (see Tiny Creature)
Soak/Hardness: 1/0
Special Attacks
Distracting Scurry: The mouse of the sun can attempt a
distract gambit, adding two automatic successes to the attack
roll against an enemy who is larger than a housecat. An enemy
who is successfully distracted by the gambit also suffers the
penalties of being blinded until their onslaught penalty has
refreshed, as his attentions are so thoroughly focused on the
small pest assailing him that he cannot notice anything else in
his immediate surroundings.
Plague of the Sun: An enemy damaged by a decisive gnaw
attack must also roll for exposure to the Plague of the Sun if
they have offended the Unconquered Sun with prayers
unworthy of the Most High or wicked deeds committed in his
name. This is generally an issue of Storyteller discretion, rather
than something the mouse’s master can decide.
Scampering Misdirection: Scampering across the enemy’s
body, the mouse of the sun frustrates him into striking at
himself. After successfully executing a distract gambit against
an enemy, the mouse of the sun may redirect any attack made
by that enemy that it successfully evades back at its attacker
until its next turn. The mouse must remain within close range of
the distracted enemy to use this special attack.
Flashing Sun Clash (Latent): By paying 1 Willpower, the
mouse of the sun moves at the speed of sound to clash an attack.
The mouse may move anywhere in her master’s line of sight to
make this attack, even over air. This clash is decisive and adds
her master’s Initiative to her own for the purposes of ignoring
hardness, though only the mouse’s damage is rolled. If the
mouse fails, she is struck by the attack instead of the original
target.
Orichalcum Fang Strike (Latent): When the mouse of the
sun attacks demons, undead, or other creatures of the night with
its gnaw attack, its withering attacks have a base damage of 5
regardless of the enemy’s size, and its decisive attacks deal
aggravated damage. If the mouse spends Willpower to enhance
the attack, it may apply the double 10s rule to the damage roll.
Paw of Judgment (Magical): When the mouse of the sun’s
master successfully damages an enemy with a decisive attack
after receiving Initiative from a distract gambit made by the
mouse against that enemy, the damaged character must roll
against contracting the Plague of the Sun.
Merits
Faithful Servant: All mice of the sun have a Defining Tie
of loyalty to the Unconquered Sun, which cannot be weakened
or altered by any influence rolls or magic.
Fed by Virtue: The mouse of the sun does not sleep, but
she does tire. She may sate hunger and thirst by normal means,
eliminating any fatigue penalties, but she may also feed and
quench her thirst by acting compassionately or courageously to
aid another. Additionally, her hunger pains may be allayed by
witnessing her master do the same. In times of trouble, an
Exalted master may also feed her a single mote of Essence to
restore her vigor for a single day.
Keen Nose: The mouse of the sun applies the double 9s rule
on Perception-based rolls made using scent.
Slink Away: When the mouse of the sun attempts to go to
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ground in combat, the penalty for doing so begins at -0, instead
of -3.
Sunlit Fur Warmth: Once per story in which he somehow
upholds the principles or virtues of the Unconquered Sun, the
player of the master of a mouse of the sun who spends a scene
petting and playing with his familiar may roll a single die,
removing one point of Limit for each success.
Tiny Creature: The mouse of the sun adds +2 Evasion
against any attack made by any foe larger than a housecat. In
addition, characters of that size subtract two successes from any
Awareness- based roll made to notice the mouse.
Dancing Mouse Fury (Latent): If her master is one of the
Solar Exalted, when both she and her master roll Join Battle,
she gains two Initiative for each 10 in her master’s Join Battle
roll.
Resplendent Solar Avatar (Magical): The Solar may grant
the mouse any of the benefits of his anima banner for free when
he uses them himself, or may pay separately to activate them on
the mouse’s behalf. This is not compatible with anima effects
that allow characters to acquire permanent traits, such as an
Eclipse’s ability to learn certain spirit Charms or a Twilight’s
ability to bind spirits as familiars. In addition, the mouse may
reflexively surround itself with radiance emulating its master’s
anima banner at the burning level.
Sun’s Shadow Companion (Magical, 1wp): The mouse can
learn to use effects equivalent to the Solar Charms Invisible
Statue Spirit, Lock-Opening Touch, and Stealing from Plain
Sight Spirit, paying a point of Willpower in lieu of the mote
cost of these Charms. Each Charm the Solar wishes to teach to
his familiar requires a separate use of Beast-Mastering
Behavior.
Vanishing Flare (Magical): The mouse of the sun has the
Essence of Solar flame. It may unknit its physical substance to
vanish into a curl of Solar flame until its master calls it back. In
addition, if the mouse would be killed, it instead vanishes into
the fires of its anima, slowly reforming over the course of the
story. Once the next story has begun, the mouse emerges at an
unforeseen moment to aid its Solar master.
The Plague of the Sun
The Plague of the Sun is a supernatural disease with
virulence 4, morbidity 4, and an interval of one week. In
addition to the usual traits of a disease, it has the following
effects:
• Minor Symptom: The victim is haunted by a sense of
judgment as the sun rises into the sky, causing him to lose a
point of Willpower every day when the sun reaches its noonday
zenith unless he is totally cut off from all natural light at the
time. In addition, once a character has contracted the Plague of
the Sun, even the most powerful healing magic cannot reduce it
below the level of a minor symptom. A sincere prayer made to
the Unconquered Sun asking for forgiveness can lower the
intensity of the disease by one step or cure it entirely for those
who have it at a minor symptom, but only for those who have
committed sufficient atonement for whatever sin originally
drew down the Sun’s wrath. Such prayers can be made no more
than once per interval of the sickness.
• Major Symptom: In addition to the above effects, the
victim takes a -2 penalty on all actions when exposed to
daylight. This penalty is decreased to -1 if he wears thick,
concealing clothing or uses other similar means to keep the sun
off the flesh.
• Defining Symptom: In addition to the above effects, the
victim is considered a creature of darkness for the purposes of
Charms that have additional effects against them, such as Edge
of Morning Sunlight or Fiery Solar Chakram.

THE DEAD
Doppelgänger
Long ago, the sea lords of Azure conquered the Auspice
Isles and claimed the people as chattel. One enslaved Auspicene
priest used curses, trickery, and poison to work such subtle
revenge on his new masters that many died before he was
discovered and executed in the Kraken’s Pool. He continued his
revenge even after death until the Azurite ancestors drove him
from their shores.
Western mortals call him the Blue Shadow. He has mastered
the art of moliation—the shaping of ghostly flesh—to copy
others’ countenances. Making himself visible to mortals, he
uses false faces to gain their confidence and plays on their
passions with clever lies. Murder alone no longer satisfies him;
he relies on seduction, treachery and deceit to induce his
victims to destroy themselves and those around them. He also
practices the nemissary arts, stealing the bodies of the freshly
dead for more tangible charades.
His name is lost to history, as is his old shape. Should magic
tear his false faces from him, his visage is as blank and
featureless as the moon.
Essence: 2; Willpower: 5; Join Battle: 6 dice
Personal Motes: 70
Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x2/-4/Incap.
Actions: Disguise: 8 dice; Lockpicking/Pickpocketing: 6
dice; Read Intentions: 8 dice; Senses: 5 dice; Social Influence:
10 dice
Appearance 3, Resolve 3, Guile 6
Combat
Attack (Unarmed): 7 dice (Damage 10)
Attack (Grapple): 3 dice (4 dice to control)
Combat Movement: 5 dice
Evasion 4, Parry 2
Soak/Hardness: 5/0 (or 11/0; see Monstrous Mein)
Merits
Cult 0-2: Doppelgängers and other actively malicious
ghosts are often propitiated by mortals who fear the ghost’s
depredations.
Offensive Charms
Monstrous Mien (8m, 1wp; Simple; One scene; Essence 2):
In an instant, the doppelgänger’s body expands into a horrid
shape. His skin grows scaly, his visage bestial, his limbs long
and bandy and tipped by vicious claws. This transformation
grants the ghost the Hideous Merit for its duration, doubles 8s
on unarmed attack rolls and threaten rolls, and adds six points to
the ghost’s soak.
Soul-Thieving Method (1wp; Supplemental; Instant;
Withering-only; Essence 2): Stealing his victim’s Essence, the
doppelgänger does not receive any Initiative from a withering
attack, but instead converts each point into a mote stolen from
his enemy’s Essence pools and added to his own.
Miscellaneous Charms
Apparition (1m; Simple; One scene; Essence 1): A
doppelgänger may become visible, but not corporeal, for one
scene with this Charm.
False Face (8m; Simple; Instant, Essence 2): Ghostly flesh
flows beneath his fingers like clay as the doppelgänger alters his
appearance to assume the guise of another ghost or mortal,
negating all penalties for imitating a specific character and
doubling 9s. False Face doesn’t work on dead flesh possessed
5
via Nemissary’s Ride, and its Disguise bonus is only compatible
with Monstrous Mien if the doppelgänger is imitating a
similarly monstrous creature.
Nemissary’s Ride (20m, 1wp; Simple; Indefinite; Essence
1): The doppelgänger moves into a human corpse, animating it.
He uses the physical Attributes, soak, and health track of the
corpse’s former life in place of his own, but otherwise retains
his own statistics. If the body is freshly dead or expertly
embalmed, this imposes a -1 die penalty to disguise actions;
more advanced decay increases the penalty or make disguise
impossible. The possessor is ejected if the animated corpse runs
out of health levels. Attacks capable of striking the immaterial
damage both the corpse’s health track and the possessing
ghost’s.
Echo / Haunt
Merchants cross Harden Ford only when the sun is high in
the sky, and make sure to camp far from the site. Hundreds have
died here over the centuries in wars and raids—soldiers, traders,
herders, pilgrims. Each night, their ghosts rise to re-enact the
battles and the slaughter.
Haunts—also called “Echoes” or “Drones”—are as shadows
even among ghosts. Lost in death, they can do nothing but
repeat their last moments over and over. Only those things that
were important to them in life will stir a spark of awareness.
Confronted by the face of a lover or the banner of a hated foe, a
haunt may turn its attention from the recurring tableau of its
death to act in the living world.
Sadly, all too many of those slain at Harden Ford defined
themselves through bloodshed. The passage of the living draws
their eyes and their ire. Taking on substance and solidity, these
haunts eagerly turn their spectral blades on passers-by,
darkening the ford’s waters with blood.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 1; Join Battle: 4 dice
Personal Motes: 60
Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x2/-4/Incap.
Actions: Senses: 4 dice
Appearance 1, Resolve 5, Guile 1
Combat
Attack (Short sword): 6 dice (Damage 12, minimum 2)
Attack (Shield bash): 5 dice (Damage 12)
Combat Movement: 4 dice
Evasion 2, Parry 3
Soak/Hardness: 8/0 (Ghostly hauberk)
Note: Echoes usually have some other dice pools relating to
their actions at the time of their death. The highest of these dice
pools are generally six dice, while others are four or five dice.
These combat traits assume an echo that died in battle or by
violence. Those who did not are generally incapable of
deviating from their morbid routine to engage in combat.
Merits
One-Track Mind: A haunt treats all influence unrelated to
its dying moments or its perpetual labor as unacceptable. It can
be made to realize that it is dead with an instill roll that must
contend against the +4 Resolve bonus it receives from its
Defining Principle of belief to the contrary. Such a haunt
typically then passes into Lethe, the cycle of reincarnation.
Miscellaneous Charms
Apparition (1m; Simple; One scene; Essence 1): Haunts
may use this Charm to become visible, but not corporeal, for
one scene. They are not generally capable of materialization,
but a few haunts have been known to do so if it is necessary to
act out their post-mortem “script.”
 Susurrus
Ghosts are not immortal. Some surrender to Lethe and
rebirth, while others are consumed by oblivion or forged into
soulsteel. And then there are those subjected to such terrible
forces, from earth-shattering sorcery to a hekatonkhire’s jaws,
that they are torn asunder. Most such ghosts are too badly
dismembered to recover, but when many are riven apart at once,
their surviving fragments can come together to form a
patchwork whole—a susurrus.
A susurrus at rest spreads itself thinly across its haunting-
place, manifesting as whispering voices and a chill in the air. If
provoked, it coheres into a tattered mass of shadows, faces, and
wisps of spectral flesh fluttering like banners in the wind.
Hungry to be whole, a susurrus will thrust its sprawling
piecemeal bulk into a human body as a possessing spirit, its
fractured mind driving the victim to erratic bouts of elation,
sorrow, lust, shame, homicidal rage, and suicidal melancholy.
The dead have more to fear from the susurrus than the
living. It rips ghosts to fragments that it incorporates into its
own piebald frame. The more ghosts a susurrus consumes in
this manner, the larger and more powerful it becomes. More
than once, ancestral spirits have begged an Exalted descendant
to free a shadowland from a susurrus’s hunger.
Essence: 2; Willpower: 3; Join Battle: 6 dice
Personal Motes: 70
Health Levels: -0/-1x5/-2x5/-4/Incap.
Actions: Read Intentions: 5 dice; Senses: 6 dice; Social
Influence: 5 dice; Stealth: 8 dice; Tracking: 7 dice
Appearance 5 (Hideous), Resolve 5, Guile 2
Combat
Attack (Rend): 12 dice (Damage 17, minimum 3)
Combat Movement: 6 dice
Evasion 1, Parry 4
Soak/Hardness: 10/3
Offensive Charms
Patchwork Possession (30m, 1wp, Simple, Indefinite;
Decisive-only; Essence 2): A susurrus cannot materialize, but it
may attempt to possess a living character, pouring itself through
his orifices and overwhelming his mind to take control of his
body. This is a gambit with a difficulty equal to the higher of
the target’s Resolve or Willpower. Success allows the susurrus
to take over the victim’s body, using his physical Attributes and
health track in place of its own for the duration of the
possession. Attacks capable of striking the immaterial damage
both the victim’s health track and the possessing ghost’s. The
susurrus cannot take advantage of any of the possessed
character’s magic, but it may pull knowledge from his mind
with a read intentions action rolled against his Guile. Possession
victims may roll (Wits + Integrity) at difficulty 3 at the end of
each scene as an extended action to force out the possessing
ghost, doing so upon attaining a goal number of 10. The host
may make an additional roll whenever the susurrus tries to force
him to act in opposition to any of his Intimacies, adding that
Intimacy’s rating in dice to his roll.
Defensive Charms
Devour the Dead (1m, 1wp; Reflexive; Instant; Essence 2):
When a ghost is destroyed or discorporated within short range,
the susurrus uses this Charm to absorb the disintegrating
remnants of the ghost’s corpus, rolling dice equal to the ghost’s
Essence and healing one level of damage per success. Damage
dealt to a battle group made of ghosts also allows this Charm to
be used, rolling dice equal to (the points of Magnitude lost + the
6
group’s Might).
Gorging on Ghosts
A susurrus that devours large numbers of ghosts will grow
in size and gain additional health levels. This typically occurs
over long periods of time, but a susurrus that tears into a ghostly
battle group may grow amidst combat, gaining a new -1 or -2
health level (whichever it has fewer of) whenever it uses
Devour the Dead in response to major losses to the battle group.
Upon obtaining ten additional health levels, a susurrus generally
gains a dot of Essence and the Legendary Size Merit possessed
by tyrant lizards and other large monsters A susurrus of
legendary size may use Patchwork Possession to take control of
a human’s body via an ectoplasmic pseudopod without having
to physically merge with them. The number of humans it may
control this way is limited only by the cost of the Charm.
Bonesider
Mortals eschew the meat of animals that have feasted on
human flesh, for tainted animals may carry the puppeteer’s
plague. The disease and the creatures it creates have been used
as terror weapons throughout this fallen age. In the modern day,
warlords from the Bull of the North to the Mask of Winters
have driven infected cattle to the gates of besieged cities, using
starving citizens’ hunger to bring about their doom.
The bones of an infected victim die, taking on an evil
existence of their own as a skeletal creature still clothed in their
host’s living flesh. Soon the skeleton begins to move, dragging
the body along with it to commit mayhem—a struggle the host
inevitably loses, as muscles tire but the bones do not. Insanity
born from atrocity and the endless maddening itch of unliving
bones is a blessing; it spares the victim from full awareness of
the disease’s final stage, when the skeleton tears free from its
husk of meat to continue its wicked work.
Fleshless, these coal-black skeletons creep through thinly
populated regions in the North and East, haunting small villages
and isolated farmsteads. They feed on fear and pain, horror and
madness—cravings they satiate by stalking, torturing and
slowly slaying helpless mortals.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 5; Join Battle: 6 dice
Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x2/-4/Incap.
Actions: Stealth: 7 dice; Tracking: 5 dice; Threaten: 6 dice
Appearance 3 (Hideous), Resolve 2, Guile 1
Combat
Attack (Claw): 6 dice (Damage 11, see Osseous Contagion)
Combat Movement: 6 dice
Evasion 4, Parry 1
Soak/Hardness: 4/0
Special Attacks
Osseous Contagion: Living characters that take damage
from a decisive claw attack are exposed to the puppeteer’s
plague.
Walkure
Born of death-dreams on Northern battlefields, the walkuren
appear as ghastly, majestic syntheses of divine warrior and
carrion bird. Some manifest as winged and clawed avatars of
battle; others are terrible men and women soaring astride black-
plumed hippogriffs, their swords bright as pain, their hauberks
red as blood. All dwell at the borderlands between life and
death, prowling battlefields and shadowlands—alone or in
flocks—in search of ghostly prey. And if all they find are the
living, new ghosts can always be made.
Frarithi strikes more subtly than many of its ilk. Tall and
gaunt, swathed in furled black wings resembling a hooded
feather cloak, it leans on its spear like an old man with a staff.
But it moves swift as death on its stilt-like bird’s legs, while its
horrid, shifting face is that of a killer seen through the eyes of a
fever-struck child.
Most walkuren bring captured ghosts to their larders to
assuage their own weird hungers. But Frarithi is bound to the
service of a mighty master, and it carries its victims aloft to that
dark monarch’s citadel.
Essence: 2; Willpower: 5; Join Battle: 9 dice
Personal Motes: 70
Health Levels: -0/-1x3/-2x3/-4/Incap.
Actions: Fly: 9 dice; Senses: 8 dice; Tracking: 6 dice;
Threaten: 7 dice
Appearance 4 (Hideous), Resolve 4, Guile 2
Combat
Attack (Long spear): 9 dice (Damage 14)
Combat Movement: 9 dice (11 dice while mounted)
Evasion 2, Parry 3
Soak/Hardness: 9/0 (Spectral hauberk)
Offensive Charms
Horrific Wail (5m; Supplemental; Instant; Essence 1): If a
walkure successfully threatens an enemy, it drains three points
of Initiative from him as terror overwhelms even the steeliest
nerves. One use per fight, unless reset by crashing an enemy or
landing a decisive attack.
Sky-Catch Talons (6m, 4i; Simple; Instant; Perilous;
Essence 2): The walkure may flurry a rush to swoop down on
an enemy from above with a grapple against that enemy,
without the usual flurry penalties, adding any extra successes on
the rush roll as bonus dice to the roll to establish control over
the grapple. If it successfully establishes the clinch, its first
action must be to drag the target into the air, carrying them in its
own talons or those of its mount, depending on its form. If it
fails to establish control, it reflexively moves one range band
away from the target in any direction. One use per fight, unless
reset by spending two consecutive turns moving upwards to
build altitude.
Defensive Charms
Shadow-Veiled Stroke (3m, 1i; Reflexive; Instant;
Perilous; Essence 1): Streaming shadows behind its spear, the
walkure adds +1 Parry against an attack. Against attacks made
from close range, the bonus increases to +2.
Rantai
From a distance, a rantai resembles a tangle of red ribbon or
scarlet thread drifting on the breeze. Then it comes closer,
moaning as it moves against the wind, and its true shape is
revealed—an airborne mass of blood-drenched chains, each link
a barbed loop of bone. Dozens of ghosts writhe on these hooks,
their shrieks blending into a cacophony of woe.
The rantai collect ghosts for no discernible reason and put
them to no visible use. Hundreds or even thousands dangle from
the barbs of the most ancient of their breed. The agony of these
fettered spirits only ends if some lesser Underworld predator
snatches them, shrike-like, off the hooks and devours them—or
if they should somehow be freed, either through violence or
parlay.
Centuries of carrying screaming ghosts have taught the
rantai most of Creation’s tongues. Though they cannot speak,
they compel the ghosts bound to them to give word to their
wishes. But their desires are as alien as their natures, and they
may demand peculiar terms to release a prisoner—a test of skill
7
that pits the petitioner against the ghost to be freed, the planting
of a living tree in Underworld soil, the right to name a first-born
child.
Though rantai most often trouble the dead, they can also
imperil the living. A wounded rantai seeks out a shadowland
inhabited by mortals and strips out their skeletons, which it
reshapes into new rings of bloody bone to replace those it has
lost.
Essence: 3; Willpower: 6; Join Battle: 10 dice
Personal Motes: 80
Health Levels: -0x3/-1x6/-2x6/-4/Incap.
Actions: Feats of Strength: 7 dice (may attempt Strength 3
feats); Fly: 8 dice; Senses: 7 dice; Social Influence: 8 dice;
Underworld Lore: 8 dice
Appearance 5 (Hideous), Resolve 5, Guile 6
Combat
Attack (Chain lash): 11 dice (Damage 12)
Attack (Grapple): 9 dice (8 dice to control)
Combat Movement: 8 dice
Evasion 2, Parry 5
Soak/Hardness: 11/3
Offensive Charms
Cascade of Chains (10m, 1wp; Simple; Withering-only;
Instant; Essence 2): The rantai makes a single withering attack
against any number of enemies in close range. It gains Initiative
as normal from the damage roll that inflicted the highest amount
of damage, but the total Initiative it receives from all other
damage rolls cannot raise the total award above 10 (not
counting Initiative breaks). Against a battle group, this doubles
7s on the damage roll of an attack. Once per fight, unless reset
by incapacitating an enemy.
Ghost-Gaoler’s Leash (3m per ghost; Simple; Instant;
Essence 2): The rantai unspools the lengths of chain that bind
ghosts to it, sending them forth to fight on its behalf. Each ghost
rolled into battle with this Charm has the traits of a war-ghost
unless the rantai uses a specific ghost it has bound. It cannot
send out more chained ghosts than it has points of temporary
Willpower, although if its Willpower falls below the current
number of ghosts it does not have to retract any. A character
capable of striking dematerialized enemies may attempt a
difficulty 4 gambit against a ghost that has been sent out with
this Charm to sever the chain. Success frees the ghost, which
may either flee or fight alongside its liberator, and deals one
level of damage to the rantai.
Impaling Barbs (4m, 1wp; Supplemental; Until released;
Essence 2): On a successful grapple, the rantai doubles its extra
successes to determine how many rounds of control it
establishes, and takes no Defense penalties for clinching.
Attacks that fail to damage it do not cause it lose any rounds of
control. If it savages a clinched character, it adds +2 damage to
a decisive attack or +5 damage to a withering attack. A ghost
that is Incapacitated or crashed while grappled is imprisoned on
the rantai’s hooks, becoming a slave to the rantai.
Skeletonize (3m; Reflexive; Instant; Essence 3): As the
rantai kills a living creature with a decisive attack, it strips out
the victims’ skeleton in a shower of gore. The bones crack and
writhe as they reshape themselves into new barbed links to
repair the rantai’s blood-drenched chains, healing a single
health level. Any decisive attack against a battle group made up
of living characters offers the opportunity to use this Charm,
healing one level of damage per point of Magnitude lost.
Symphony of Woe: (5m, 1wp; Supplemental; Instant;
Essence 3): The rantai may treat its Join Battle roll as an inspire
roll against all enemies to fill them with sadness, terror, or
dread.
Characters who pay Willpower to resist this influence lose
three Initiative. Those who don’t pay lose two Initiative at the
start of each round as they succumb to their dark emotions.
Ghostfisher
Out in the gray wilds of the Underworld, travelers may
encounter a seemingly benign ghost requesting aid, such as a
maiden chained to a stone or an old man trapped beneath a
fallen log. This ghost is merely a simulacrum, a lure maintained
by the dreaded ghostfisher. Come too close, and the monster’s
true form—an enormous worm as massive as a redwood, its
striated flesh gleaming fish-belly white—bursts from the barren
Underworld soil to feed. The ghost lure, now shriveled as a
prune, dangles above an enormous many-fanged maw.
Ghostfisher burrows form vast three-dimensional labyrinths.
Ghosts occasionally use these tunnel networks—which intersect
with other corridors and chambers of diverse origins—as
shortcuts to other Underworld realms. Such journeys are
perilous, as the traveler risks encountering ghostfishers or even
worse creatures down below.
Essence: 2; Willpower: 4; Join Battle: 4 dice
Personal Motes: 70
Health Levels: -0/-1x5/-2x10/-4x15/Incap.
Actions: Feats of Strength: 11 dice (may attempt Strength
7+ feats); Disguise: 8 dice; Read Motives: 5 dice; Senses: 5
dice; Social Influence: 6 dice (lure only)
Appearance 2 for lure, 4 (Hideous) for the ghostfisher;
Resolve 4; Guile 4
Combat
Attack (Bash): 8 dice (Damage 18)
Attack (Grapple): 8 dice (12 dice to control)
Combat Movement: 7 dice
Evasion 2, Parry 1
Soak/Hardness: 16/4
Merits
Tunneling: The ghostfisher can burrow through earth and
stone alike. It can establish stealth in combat by rolling its
combat movement pool to dig down into the earth, and does not
need to make new rolls to remain concealed while moving
underground.
Offensive Charms
Spectral Lure (1m; Simple; Indefinite; Essence 1): Like an
anglerfish, the ghostfisher extends an alluring organ from its
snout to attract prey while the rest of its body remains
concealed. The lure, which takes the form of any ghost the
monster has ever consumed, is only semi-intelligent; it becomes
confused if conversation diverges from a simple script. If a
character touches the spectral lure, the ghostfisher may pay a
point of Willpower to emerge from the ground and ambush him
with a grapple attack. The ghostfisher makes a disguise roll
when it creates the lure to determine the quality of the
simulacrum. Any character who overcomes the roll notices
something strange about the lure without spotting the
submerged monster; three extra successes makes the
ghostfisher’s subterranean presence apparent.
Swallow Whole (15; Reflexive; Decisive-only; Instant):
After dealing 3+ levels of damage to a grappled enemy by
savaging it with a decisive attack, the ghostfisher may use this
Charm to swallow them alive. Within the beast’s gullet, they
must contend with its digestive acids, an environmental hazard
with the traits of an acid bath. A swallowed enemy may attempt
to cut his way free with a difficulty 5 gambit rolled against the
ghostfisher’s Defense, but cannot otherwise attack it while
8
inside unless the Storyteller allows them to with a stunt. Even
then, they must contend with its full Defense and soak. The
ghostfisher is not large enough to swallow more than one
human-sized character at a time.
Quaking Slam (10m, 1wp; Simple; Withering-only; Instant;
Essence 1): With its massive bulk, the ghostfisher slams itself
downward with such force that the earth trembles and shakes. It
makes an unblockable withering slam against each earthbound
character within medium range. It does not roll damage;
instead, each character struck is knocked to their feet and loses
Initiative equal to (3 + extra successes). Once per fight, unless
reset by going three turns above ground without taking a
movement action or taking damage from a decisive attack.
Enemies that lose more Initiative than their (Stamina +
Resistance) tumble towards the ghostfisher as the earth cracks
beneath their feet, causing them to move a range band forward.
GODS
MARKET GOD
Gods of marketplaces and bazaars are among the more
puissant gods of city, town, and village. Each market is a
crossroads for all manner of goods and currencies, and these
gods bear witness to each transaction. It’s said that in the First
Age, the patterns formed by money flowing across Creation
helped hold back the Wyld. Today, these gods’ reports to
Heaven gather dust, and they attend more to offerings and
prayer than any higher concern. Merchants who fail to tithe at
the god’s shrine—sheaves of paper money to burn at the altar,
or silver coins to be forged into sacred emblems—soon go out
of business as customers unaccountably reject their wares.
Pickpockets who fail to make a similar tithe suffer more
tangible agonies.
These gods typically resemble the merchants attending their
domains. Spirits of dynamic markets look fat and happy, their
round bodies richly clothed and ornamented, while gods of
impoverished markets appear ill-clad, bony, and skittish. All
carry some sort of salable goods, from bolts of silk to trays of
dried fish, and wear purses of coin—some bulging with jade,
others with only two copper bits to clink together. These things
convey their divine magic, inspiring wonder or greed in
customers and merchants, or blessing the bargains of wandering
peddlers and Guild factors.
Essence: 3; Willpower: 7; Join Battle: 6 dice
Personal Motes: 80
Health Levels: -0/-1x3/-2x3/-4/Incap.
Actions: Knowledge of Markets: 12 dice; Read Intentions:
10 dice; Senses: 7 dice; Social Influence: 10 dice; Stealth: 6
dice
Appearance 3, Resolve 4, Guile 5
Combat
Attack (Blackjack): 9 dice (Damage 10)
Combat Movement: 5 dice
Evasion 4, Parry 3
Soak/Hardness: 5/0
Merits
Cult 2: Market spirits are worshipped throughout the
villages and cities that are home to their domains, but lack the
regional significance to attain higher levels of Cult. However,
they are canny bargainers, and some have managed to convince
a more powerful spirit to share a portion of its worship with
them in exchange for some gift or service.
Social Charms
 Bazaar of Wonders (8m, 1wp; Supplemental; Instant;
Essence 2): Market spirits may inflame greed or awe-struck
wonder in a crowd, making an inspire roll without speaking and
even while dematerialized. Inspired characters take a -1 Resolve
penalty against bargain rolls to sell them goods and services on
top of the usual effects of an inspire action.
Enticing Offer (10m, 1wp; Supplemental; Instant; Essence
3): Market spirits are themselves master merchants, adding two
bonus successes to any bargain roll they make to sell a good or
service. The cost to resist a successful offer in a Decision Point
equals (4 - chosen Intimacy) points of Willpower.
Riotous Avarice Incitement (15m, 1wp; Simple; Instant;
Essence 3): A market spirit may abide dishonest merchants,
pickpockets, and all manner of unfair trades, but should anyone
try to shut down trade, they will face its full fury. If an attempt
is made to forcibly close or shut down the market, the spirit
may use this Charm to rouse a mob intent on keeping it open,
uniting all merchants and customers present who are not
significant characters into a battle group to fight off the
opposing force. They almost always have poor Drill, but fight
with the traits of battle- ready troops and gain Might 1 under the
spirit’s blessing for the duration of the scene. The god may also
automatically employ a stratagem of up to threshold 3 based on
the location or set-up of the market.
Miscellaneous Charms
Hurry Home (10m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 1): The
spirit fades away and vanishes on its next turn, drawn instantly
back to its sanctum.
Materialize (40m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 1): The
market god appears in a swirl of paper money or minor
knickknacks.
Measure the Wind (5m; Simple; Instant; Essence 1): The
market god can assess the nature of anyone who barters with it.
Spinning Coin Decree (5m, 1wp; Simple; Indefinite;
Essence 3): The market god may place its blessing on a
character, granting them one bonus success on any bargain roll
to sell goods or services as well as on any Perception-based roll
to notice theft of their wares. An aura of divine favor makes the
merchant seem trustworthy to potential customers while
frightening off thieves or cheats, which acts like a Minor
Intimacy. Alternatively, market gods may curse those who earn
their ire with an inverted effect, subtracting successes rather
than adding them, while making customers distrust the
merchant and marking him as easy prey for theft.
Straw-to-Silk Deceit (1m per object, 1wp; Simple;
Indefinite; Eclipse; Essence 1): The market god may place an
illusion on an object or collection of similar objects it sees,
making them seem more valuable. Rotten fish appear fresh, iron
resembles steel, and a ragged robe seems fit for an emperor.
Onlookers must succeed on a (Perception + [Awareness or
Bureaucracy]) roll at difficulty (5 or the Eclipse’s
Manipulation) to see through this illusion, although it may
become obvious to them in certain cases, such as tasting a rotten
fish.
NINEGALA, SMITH-GODDESS OF
MAKELO
This ancient goddess once labored at the forge of one of the
makers of the world. When the Exalted cast the ancients down,
she exiled herself to Creation, using the panoply she brought
with her to raise a sanctum on the distant Western isle of Sinti.
Eventually an enterprising mortal hero persuaded her to forge
him a weapon in exchange for a year of service; once word
spread of that exploit, others trickled in over the centuries.
9
During the Contagion, she opened her doors to an entire tribe of
survivors. In gratitude, when they founded the city of Makelo,
they took her as their sovereign god.
Other than some affection for her adopted people and an
ancient loathing of the Fair Folk, Ninegala has little interest in
the outside world. She seeks only to be permitted to craft
wonders in peace, aided by those Makeloans who devote
themselves to her personal service. When petitioners come
seeking to purchase her impossible marvels, she sends them on
long, weird, and often dangerous quests—partially to obtain
rare materials to use in her craft, partially in hopes that they will
give up and leave her alone.
Ninegala has charcoal-black skin, ash-gray hair, and fiery
eyes that blaze up when her passions are aroused. She wears
little in the heat of the forge, but when she travels abroad, she
arrays herself in arms and armor of her own devising as she
takes up the reins of her flying bronze chariot.
Essence: 5; Willpower: 8; Join Battle: 8 dice
Personal Motes: 100
Health Levels: -0/-1x7/-2x7/-4/Incap.
Sample Intimacies
• Defining Principle: “Only in shaping metal can one
find true meaning.”
• Major Principle: “I do not care to be disturbed while at
my work.”
• Major Tie: The Fair Folk (Antipathy)
• Minor Tie: The Makeloans (Fondness)
Actions: Crafting Wonders: 14 dice; Feats of Strength: 10
dice (may attempt Strength 5 feats); Knowledge of Crafting and
Exotic Reagents: 10 dice; Senses: 7 dice; Social Influence: 7
dice
Appearance 3, Resolve 4, Guile 2
Combat
Attack (Forge-Mother’s hammer): 9 dice (Damage 19,
minimum 5)
Attack (Boundless javelin): 10 dice at short range (Damage
17, minimum 4)
Combat Movement: 6 dice (11 dice while riding the flying
bronze chariot)
Evasion 2, Parry 4
Soak/Hardness: 16/10 (Ur-Golem armor)
Merit
Artifacts: Ninegala has a panoply of artifacts that spans
thousands of years at the forge. This includes the forge-
mother’s hammer, boundless javelin quiver, and ur-golem
armor listed in her traits above, as well as her flying bronze
chariot, which is capable of traveling at one hundred miles an
hour. The Storyteller may also provide her with unlimited
access to any number of two- dot artifacts as he sees fit. To
produce greater artifacts from her extensive collection, she uses
her Five-Thousand-Year Panoply Charm.
Cult 4: The worship of Ninegala spans not just the city of
Makelo, but the outlying Makeloan clans and the peoples they
have conquered, providing her with tens of thousands of
cultists.
Legendary Craftsman: Ninegala is one of the greatest
craftsmen in all Creation, with millenia of experience working
the forge. As a Storyteller character, she does not track or gain
crafting experience—she has sufficient experience when it
serves the story, and is taking time to gather more when it
doesn’t. She has ten major project slots and five superior project
slots.
Offensive Charms
 Smouldering Metal Offensive (10m, 1wp; Simple; One
scene; Essence 3): The heat of the forge radiates from
Ninegala’s hands to superheat any weapon she wields, adding
+4 to the raw
damage of both withering and decisive attacks. Mundane
weapons burn to ashes or melt to slag at the end of the scene if
wielded with this Charm.
Defensive Charms
Fire Knows the Forger (5m; Reflexive; Instant; Essence
3): Having weathered the fires of her forge for millenia,
Ninegala may shrug off flame, adding successes equal to her
Essence on a roll to resist an environmental hazard based on
flame or heat and subtracting that many dice from its damage.
Against attacks such as firewands or the breath of an elemental
dragon of fire, this Charm instead halves their final damage.
Steel Knows the Shaper (5m, 2i; Reflexive; Until next
turn; Essence 3): Any weapon forged knows better than to strike
its patron mistress. Invoking this authority, Ninegala gains a +1
bonus to Defense against all attacks made with weapons until
her next turn. If a character attacks her and fails, he is
automatically disarmed, as the weapon flies from his hand lest it
strike the forge- goddess again. Unarmed attacks and
improvised weapons are immune to this Charm.
Miscellaneous Charms
Forge-Mother’s Grace (1m+; Reflexive; Instant; Essence
4): Whenever Ninegala uses an item that she has made herself,
she may add bonus dice to the roll as with a Solar Excellency.
The amount of dice she may add is based on the level of project
used to create the item:
• +2 dice for 2m with mundane tools and weapons created as
a basic project.
• +4 dice for 4m with mundane items created as a major
project.
• +6 dice for 6m for artifacts created as a superior project.
• +8 dice for 8m for any wonder she might create as a
legendary project.
Hammer-and-Anvil Genesis (25m, 1wp; Simple; One
project; Stackable; Essence 5): Ninegala is one of Creation’s
greatest craftsmen, capable of producing wonders that even the
Exalted seek out. On a basic or major project, this Charm
allows her to automatically succeed on the roll to complete it.
Superior and legendary projects instead benefit from double 7s,
and double the extra successes received at each interval.
Ninegala adds two rolls to their terminus. This Charm can be
stacked to benefit multiple projects.
Hurry Home (10m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 1):
Ninegala fades away and vanishes on her next turn, drawn
instantly back to the sanctum within her forge.
Materialize (50m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 1):
Ninegala appears as a white-hot statue of iron, which quickly
cools into the form of the goddess.
Measure the Wind (5m; Simple; Instant; Essence 1):
Ninegala can discern the nature of anyone setting foot in her
forge, or who touches one of her creations.
Scripture of the Forge (10m, 1wp; Simple; One month;
Essence 3): Ninegala’s apprentices learn from one of Creation’s
greatest smiths. This Charm grants a group of un-Exalted
disciples trained by Ninegala over the course of a month a
rating of 4 in a Craft of her choice as a training effect, along
with with 10 silver experience points to spend on crafting
projects. They also gain a resistance to flame, becoming
immune to minor burns and adding +2 soak and hardness
against attacks based on fire for one year. Exalted characters
gain only 10 silver experience points and resistance to flame. A
10
character cannot benefit from this training more than once per
story.
Students who train under Ninegala repeatedly over a course
of years take on fiery eyes and charcoal-dark skin, marking
them as masters of the forge.
Five-Thousand-Year Panoply (—; Reflexive; Instant;
Essence 5): Ninegala has crafted countless artifacts and exotic
devices over the centuries, most of which linger in her vaults.
Once per story, if she has need for an artifact with specific
powers, or if someone wishes to procure one from her, she may
roll her Essence against that artifact’s rating. Success allows her
to find it amid her vaults; failure turns up an artifact of similar
function, but whose rating is only equal to her successes on the
roll.
Steal This Charm
Why do these Charms list a minimum Essence? While it’s
useful to know for the Eclipse anima power and Charms like
Carnal Spirit Rending, the real reason is to provide guidance to
Storytellers when designing Charms for spirits of their own
creation. All these Charms can be reskinned or altered to suit
another god’s portfolio, or simply serve as a benchmark for the
power of effects at each level of Essence. Keep in mind, though,
that the nature of a god influences their Charms as much as their
Essence. The patron god of fertility might equal or exceed Ahlat
in Essence, but they are unlikely to have combat Charms as
formidable as his own.
ELEMENTALS
CLOUD PERSON
Hedonistic and aloof, the cloud people spend their ageless
lives in aerial cities—masses of filmy structures built upon the
largest clouds. There they indulge in all manner of airy luxuries,
while away the hours amid philosophy and revelry, and study
the movements of the upper air and the stars. Concerning
oneself with the lands beneath—or with the affairs of the spirit
courts of air— is deemed gauche.
But for all their condescension toward the mortal world,
cloud people feel a strong pull toward the evanescent beauty of
Creation. Lovely youths, freshly blooming flowers, opulent
jewels, and the clamor of battle can all draw them down to the
earth below. Though they quickly tire of mortal affairs, more
often than not they bring home keepsakes or guests, infusing
them with airy Essence that they may hover with the cloud
people in their gauzy cities. Sadly, anything—or anyone—
infused thus for more than one month per year will dissolve into
dust.
Cloud people resemble slender mortals made of white
cloudstuff, such that they are often mistaken for patches of mist.
Their eyes are large and bright, their nebulous hair dozens of
feet long, their voices faint and bemused. With their impalpable
bodies, a cloud person can assume any form (though they
always remain diaphanous and cloud-pale) or ride effortlessly
on the wind. Their foodstuffs are equally insubstantial,
consisting of scents, breezes, and flickers of color.
Essence: 2; Willpower: 5; Join Battle: 5 dice
Personal Motes: 70
Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x2/-4/Incap.
Actions: Fly: 6 dice; Philosophical and Astrological
Knowledge: 7 dice; Read Intentions: 6 dice; Senses: 6 dice;
Social Influence: 6 dice; Stealth: 5 dice; Writing: 7 dice
Appearance 4, Resolve 3, Guile 3
Combat
 Attack (Unarmed): 7 dice (Damage 8)
Combat Movement: 5 dice
Evasion 3, Parry 2
Soak/Hardness: 1/0
Merits
Libraries of the Cloud Cities: The aerial cities of the cloud
people hold libraries of countless books and star charts written
on pages of mist, unreadable to all but the eyes of these air
elementals. As long as the cloud person has access to such a
library, she adds three dice on Philosophical and Astrological
Knowledge rolls she makes to introduce a fact, including
through the use of the Sky-Hidden Secrets Charm.
Offensive Charms
Wind-Whistling Trick (5m; Simple; Instant; Eclipse,
Essence 2): Cloud people may call up small breezes or even
powerful gusts of wind to do their bidding. In combat, this can
be used to attack out to medium range, rolling the cloud
person’s (Intelligence + Occult) pool of eight dice with a base
withering damage of (10 + Essence). Conjured winds cannot be
used to execute damaging decisive attacks, but they can be used
for all manner of gambits. This Charm can also be used outside
of combat to perform feats such as lifting small objects with a
pillar of air, blowing a scholar’s books from their shelves, or
blowing over a table at a banquet. The dice pool for these
actions is still (Intelligence + Occult), with a difficulty set by
the Storyteller. When used by an Eclipse, this Charm’s cost
becomes 5m, 1wp.
Defensive Charms
Dissolving Mist Body (10m, 4i; Reflexive; Instant; Essence
2): A cloud person may dissolve and reform her body around an
attack with a physical weapon or projectile, adding +2 to her
Evasion. Even if she is hit, subtract two dice from the post-soak
damage of a withering attack or the raw damage of a decisive
attack. Against a grapple, she instead subtracts five successes
from her enemy’s roll to establish control, flowing out of his
grasp and denying him the opportunity to take any grappling
action against her if this reduces him to 0 successes.
Miscellaneous Charms
Cloud-Body Shapeshifting (10m, 1wp; Simple; Instant;
Essence 2): A cloud person can transform their vaporous body
into any number of shapes. She can seep under a door as a thin
sheet of mist, hang in the sky as a cloud to spy on those below
her, or expand her body into a fog bank that conceals her
summoner. Supernatural senses are required to discern a
transformed cloud person for what it truly is, requiring the aid
of a Charm such as Keen Sight Technique and a difficulty 5
(Perception + Awareness) roll. This Charm is not intended for
defensive use; such shapeshifting is covered by Dissolving Mist
Body. Reverting back to her humanoid form is free and
reflexive.
Cloud Feather Blessing (1m per person or object, 1wp;
Simple; One month; Essence 2): Cloud people may enchant
willing people or human-sized objects with the Essence of air,
making them light enough for a cloud person to carry them in
flight or for them to walk in the aerial cities of the air
elementals. This enhancement makes the person almost
weightless, which has no intrinsic mechanical effects but can be
exploited through stunts. However, this blessing can only be
endured for one month out of every year—if the cloud person
attempts to maintain it longer than that, the recipient crumbles
to dust.
Downward Glance (5m; Supplemental; Instant; Essence 2):
Cloud people can make out the details on the ground of
11
Creation from miles above, taking no penalties on Awareness
rolls to do so. Additionally, add one bonus success on rolls to
make out minute details, such as identifying the individual
meeting with a courtier behind a teahouse, or three successes on
rolls to make out large-scale details, such as the movement of
an army on the ground or an oncoming hurricane churning
beneath the cloud person’s aerial city.
Sky-Hidden Secrets (30m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence
2): Through a combination of natural prescient gifts and the
immaculately kept star charts of their aerial cities, the cloud
people are adept at prophecy. Using this Charm works like
rolling the cloud person’s Philosophical and Astrological
Knowledge pool to introduce a relevant fact, but is used to
introduce a fact about something that will happen up to a season
in the future, rather than something about the present or past.
The Storyteller should treat the introduced fact as something
that is likely to happen if the roll achieves enough successes to
meet whatever difficulty he sets, but the oracles of the cloud
people are not infallible, due to the intrinsic instability of
prophecy, the inescapable minor errors in their star charts, and
their unfamiliarity with the ways of the world outside their
cloud cities. Once per story.
DEMONS
FULOPE, THE CHORAL
EQUESTRIAN, DEMON OF THE
FIRST CIRCLE
A fulope’s body is a mass of flexible, shifting fibers like
spun glass, each strand aglow with tawny fire, flexing like a
luminous horse’s mane adrift underwater. When calm, it swims
through the air like an eel. But fits of passion drive it to tangle
itself into knots, with each snarl blistering into a burning eye
with a lamprey-like maw as its pupil.
Like many demons descended from Adorjan—that dreadful
demon queen called the Silent Wind—the choral equestrian
brims with music and the urge to sing. But as its own voice is a
harsh buzz, it prefers to employ the bodies of others to make
music. Fastening itself to the nape of another creature’s neck, it
sends its nerve-fibers winding through skin and flesh into the
victim’s brain and larynx, seizing control of body and senses.
This possession is painless, but the host cannot escape the
throbbing heat of the fulope’s nerves running through his
tissues.
Each fulope loves to sing and to prove its mastery of music.
Confronted with another singer— whether a skilled minstrel, a
mother’s lullaby, or the aimless meanderings of a child—it
sings at them until they give way. Two fulope encountering one
another engage in hours-long duels of song, leaving their hosts’
throats bloody and raw.
It’s not uncommon for a fulope to find itself obsessed with
some creature, object, or place that serves as its muse. The most
enticing—and regrettably common—subject for such passion is
the demon realm’s green sun. Left to itself, a choral equestrian
seizes a flying demon’s body and soars into Hell’s sky, singing
to the sun for days at a stretch. Those that fly too high are
immolated; their stolen bodies plummet, blackened and blazing,
to burst like meteors upon the city below.
Essence: 2; Willpower: 6; Join Battle: 2 dice
Personal Motes: 70
Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x4/-4/Incap.
Actions: Beautiful Song: 10 dice (3 dice if the demon must
use its own voice); Fly: 5 dice; Read Intentions: 6 dice; Senses:
4 dice; Social Influence: 6 dice
Appearance 3, Resolve 5, Guile 2
Combat
Attack (Bite): 6 dice (Damage 10)
Attack (Tendril slash): 10 dice (Damage 8)
Attack (Scream): 9 dice (Damage 11, minimum 2). The
fulope can make scream attacks out to short range.
Attack (Grapple): 5 dice (4 dice to control)
Combat Movement: 5 dice
Evasion 3, Parry 2
Soak/Hardness: 4/0
Offensive Charms
Withering Scream (10m, 1wp; Simple; Withering-only;
Instant; Essence 2): The fulope emits a hideous wail, making a
withering scream attack against every enemy within close
range. It gains Initiative as normal from the damage roll that
inflicted the highest amount of damage, but the total Initiative it
receives from all other damage rolls cannot raise the total award
above 10 (not counting Initiative Breaks). Alternatively, it may
direct the withering scream against a battle group, doubling 7s
on the damage roll. Once per fight, unless reset by
incapacitating an enemy with a decisive attack.
Neural Reins (20m 1wp, Simple, Indefinite; Decisive-only;
Essence 2): The fulope makes a decisive savaging attack
against a grappled enemy, expending all rounds of control over
the clinch to add that many dice of raw damage. This attack
does not deal damage—instead, if the demon’s successes
exceed the higher of the victim’s Resolve or Willpower, it
possesses the target, merging with his body. It gains total
control over the victim, using his physical Attributes and health
track in place of its own for the duration of the possession. It
also gains the benefit of the victim’s voice. It is visible only as a
small glassy lump embedded in the nape of a victim’s neck,
noticeable with a (Perception + Awareness) or Medicine roll at
difficulty 3. Possession victims may roll (Wits + Integrity) at
difficulty 3 at the end of each scene as an extended action to
force out the fulope, doing so upon attaining a goal number of
10 (terminus 3, interval one minute). The host may make an
additional roll whenever the demon tries to force him to act in
opposition to any of his Intimacies, adding that Intimacy’s
rating in dice to his roll. It is also possible, but extraordinarily
difficult, to extract an embedded fulope surgically if its host is
restrained or subdued, an extended (Intelligence + Medicine)
roll with difficulty 5, goal number 10, and an interval of one
hour. The patient suffers two levels of lethal damage per roll.
Uncoiling Glassy Thread (10m; Supplemental; Instant;
Essence 1): The fulope’s strands momentarily elongate to
grapple a human-sized enemy at short range, adding three bonus
successes on both the attack roll and the roll to establish control.
A successful clinch drags the target to close range with the
demon.
Miscellaneous Charms
Hurry Home (10m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 1): The
demon fades away and vanishes on its next turn, drawn
instantly to its summoner’s side. This Charm is unavailable
when the demon is unbound.
Materialize (35m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 1): The
demon weaves itself into being from stolen snatches of song in
a hundred foreign voices.
Measure the Wind (5m; Simple; Instant; Essence 1): The
fulope can discern the nature of anyone it possesses.
CREATURES OF THE
12
WYLD
RAKSHA NOBLE
Raksha nobles are princes among the chaos, rulers of the
Fair Folk. They preside over eerie courts called freeholds,
reigning from thrones carved of translucent poetry amid the
decadent ruins of fallen amethyst towers or holding debauched
revels in flame-lit caverns beneath enchanted hills. Cataphracts
lead gibbering armies against Creation or rival faerie courts at a
noble’s command, while loreleis sing their most heart-breaking
melodies for its pleasure. The raksha take to intrigue like sharks
to water, and those who rise to prominence are those who prove
themselves more cunning, more powerful, and more charismatic
than all rivals for the throne. The raksha noble traits presented
below represent a mix of combat and social prowess along with
potent reality-warping curses; the Storyteller can customize for
a more martially- focused noble by adding Charms from the
cataphract’s list or use the lorelei’s Charms for a noble more
skilled in intrigue.
One such noble, the warrior-princess Moriamh of the
Wildflower Court, rides across the Threshold in search of
heroes. She tells the tale of her mother’s murder at the hands of
Queen Nathair, and of her own subsequent flight into exile. She
seeks to return home, overthrow Nathair, and free the
Wildflower Court from tyranny, but she cannot do it alone.
Over the years Moriamh has gathered many bands of heroes for
this game between herself and Nathair. All have perished.
Moriamh bears all the trappings of a Chosen One. She is
inhumanly beautiful and well formed, her lean limbs sheathed
in glittering golden armor filigreed with diamonds and dreams.
There is a birthmark on her neck in the shape of a crown,
though as one of the Fair Folk she was never truly born. Against
meaningful opposition, she attempts to instill a Tie of respect or
admiration to her, then persuade foes to join her quest—or, if all
else fails, to accept her surrender.
Essence: 4; Willpower: 9; Join Battle: 10 dice
Personal Motes: 40
Health Levels: -0x6/-1x8/-2x8/-4/Incap.
Actions: Command: 11 dice; Feats of Strength: 10 dice
(may attempt Strength 5 feats); Instill: 12 dice; Persuade: 14
dice; Read Intentions: 8 dice; Senses: 12 dice; Stealth: 7 dice;
Strategy: 9 dice
Appearance 6, Resolve 5, Guile 4
Combat
Attack (Behemoth-fang direlance): 15 dice (Damage 19,
minimum 5)
Combat Movement: 11 dice (13 dice while mounted)
Evasion 3, Parry 7
Soak/Hardness: 14/7 (Oath-sworn raiment)
Merits
Cold Iron Bane: Weapons made of iron deal aggravated
damage to the raksha, but most armies in Creation use bronze or
steel weaponry.
Fae Nature: As a raksha, the noble is ageless and need not
eat or drink. Its body heals as one of the Exalted and cannot die
from mundane disease, but does need to breathe and sleep as
mortals do. In Creation, it slowly withers and calcifies to death,
but can stave off this fate indefinitely by feeding on mortal
souls. It is incapable of breaking the letter of a sworn promise.
Offensive Charms
Impinging Web of Dream (8m, 1wp; Simple; Instant;
Essence 4): While at Initiative 20+, the noble may speak a dire
curse against an enemy in combat, rolling 12 dice against the
Resolve of an enemy within short range. On a success, it rolls
(Essence + Initiative), with every two successes subtracting a
point of Willpower from that enemy. If the noble successfully
reduces an enemy to zero Willpower, it may twist that enemy in
mind or body. It might inflict a Defining Derangement (and
possibly other Minor Derangements to taste), transform the
enemy into a small animal, marble caryatid, or similarly
demeaning form, or impose another Storyteller- defined curse
of similar potency. Trivial opponents lose all Willpower and are
cursed without requiring an Initiative roll. Using this Charm
resets the raksha to base Initiative. Once per fight.
Defensive Charms
Sapphire Emptiness Kata (—; Reflexive; Instant; Perilous;
Essence 4): When an attack would check off the noble’s
Incapacitated health level, it may use this Charm to reveal that
what was being attacked was nothing more than an illusion,
negating all damage dealt by that attack. The noble steps out
from concealment or throws off its disguise as a trivial character
within medium range of its location, and resets to base
Initiative. Once per story.
Tension-Building Warrior’s Advance (6m; Reflexive;
Instant; Perilous; Essence 2): The noble forges its martial
legend through the strength of its foes. After a withering or
decisive damage roll against the raksha, it may use this Charm
to gain one point of Initiative for every 9 or 10 rolled. It may
exchange five points of Initiative reaped from a single use of
this Charm to heal a level of damage.
Social Charms
Crippling Destiny Burden (1m, 1wp; Reflexive, Indefinite;
Essence 3): After persuading a character to undertake a task, the
noble may use Crippling Destiny Burden to bless them with
glorious purpose. They add bonus dice on all actions taken to
complete that task equal to the
Intimacy that supported the persuasion. The raksha may also
grant up to (Intimacy x 2) mutations to aid the vassal in its
quest, which remain even after this Charm ends.
Mind’s Grip Rigor (10m, 1wp; Supplemental; Instant;
Psyche; Essence 3): When the noble instills a character with a
Tie towards itself, it may use this Charm to make it a
Derangement. While this carries no intrinsic harmful effects, it
makes it impossible for the Tie to be weakened or removed by
ordinary social influence. Its intensity can still be increased by
social influence. Once per scene.
MATA-YADH, THE CONGERIES
OF OBSIDIAN AND AURORA
The Wyld births countless strange monsters and freakish
prodigies, great terrors that the Fair Folk hunt and tame. Mata-
Yadh is a young monstrosity, freshly born and broken to a
raksha’s will, representative of the low end of the unique beasts
that the Fair Folk might send to head their armies or ride into
battle. Its body is a swirling congeries of many-colored aurora
large enough to engulf a house, with a ridge of calcified
obsidian at the top, where a daring cataphract might stand to
ride. It has twelve clawed feet, each one sculpted from obsidian
and standing high as a man, but not joined to the monster’s
body by any physical limb—only a few wisps of aurora fire at
its uppermost edge. While the eyeless beast is blind, it may
sense the shadows cast by its own light, allowing it to perceive
the world unimpeded except in conditions of total darkness or
such complete illumination that no shadows can exist.
13
Essence: 3; Willpower: 7; Join Battle: 10 dice
Personal Motes: 30
Health Levels: -0x25/Incap (see Obsidian Body)
Speed Bonus: +2
Actions: Feats of Strength: 15 dice (may attempt Strength
10 feats); Senses: 8 dice; Threaten: 6 dice
Appearance 3, Resolve 4, Guile 1
Combat
Attack (Obsidian claws): 13 dice (Damage 22, minimum 5)
Attack (Grapple): 9 dice (15 dice to control). Mata-Yadh
makes unopposed control rolls against enemies of smaller size,
unless its victims use magic that allows them to clinch larger
enemies, such as Dragon Coil Technique.
Combat Movement: 10 dice
Evasion 4, Parry 6
Soak/Hardness: 25/10
Merits
Cold Iron Bane: Weapons made of iron deal aggravated
damage to Mata-Yadh.
Legendary Size: Mata-Yadh’s immense size makes it
extraordinarily difficult for human-scale enemies to engage it in
combat. Attacks from smaller enemies do not impose onslaught
penalties. Withering attacks from smaller enemies cannot drop
it below 1 Initiative unless they have a post-soak damage of 10
dice (although attackers can still gain the full amount of
Initiative damage dealt). Decisive attacks made by smaller
enemies cannot deal more than (3 + attacker’s Strength) levels
of damage to it, not counting any levels of damage added by
Charms or other magic.
Obsidian Body: As a being of living glass, Mata-Yadh
lacks the anatomy to make it susceptible to mundane poison and
disease, deprivation, and conventional wound penalties.
However, heroes may attempt to cripple the beast by shattering
one of its twelve limbs, a difficulty 5 gambit. Each time a limb
is shattered, Mata-Yadh loses 3 points of Initiative from the
sudden shock of amputation. Every two limbs destroyed this
way impose a -1 wound penalty, up to a maximum of -4, at
which point the behemoth will attempt to flee to heal. If all of
its limbs are destroyed, Mata-Yadh is immobilized, unable to
attack as well as effectively prone and unable to right itself.
Offensive Charms
Prismatic Pyre Immolation (15m; Simple; Until grapple is
released; Essence 3): When Mata- Yadh successfully grapples
an enemy, it may throw him into the central aurora of its body,
where he hangs suspended in mid-air. The behemoth suffers no
disadvantages for such a grapple, and while it cannot attack or
throw a suspended enemy, its aurora imposes an environmental
hazard with difficulty 3 and damage 4L each turn. The
behemoth’s Defense is 0 against attacks made by grappled
enemies, as it has no way to stop them from hacking away at its
obsidian carapace, but the attack penalties they take for being
grappled subtract successes rather than dice when they attack it.
Raking Obsidian Shards (10m; Simple; Instant; Decisive-
only; Essence 3): Mata-Yadh’s claws whirl around it in a vortex
of razor-sharp obsidian, a decisive attack applied against all
enemies in short range. The behemoth may divide its Initiative
among enemies as it chooses when calculating raw damage. If it
is suffering any wound penalties from having legs destroyed,
then these also subtract from the raw damage of each attack
made with Raking Obsidian Shards. Once the penalty has
reached -2, this attack only covers close enemies.
Mobility Charms
Unstoppable Many-Legged Pursuit (6m; Supplemental;
Instant; Essence 3): Mata-Yadh may rush an enemy with lower Double 9s on a roll to disengage or control roll against a hostile
Initiative from medium range, automatically moving one range grapple. Double 8s if opposing a character with lower Initiative.
band closer on each of its target’s next two turns in addition to
any other movement it takes. This Charm cannot be used if the Immaculate of Wood
behemoth has a wound penalty of -2 or higher from having its
Essence: 2; Willpower: 8; Join Battle: 9 dice (+4 for 4m)
legs destroyed.
Personal Motes: 13; Peripheral Motes: 31
Miscellaneous Charms Health Levels: -0/-1x3/-2x3/-4/Incap.
Wall-Rending Claws (15m; Supplemental; Instant; Essence Actions: Feats of Strength: 6 dice (+2 for 2m, may attempt
3): When Mata-Yadh attempts a feat of strength to destroy Strength 3 feats); Senses: 11 dice (+6 for 6m); Tracking: 11
something, it rolls its dice pool twice and adds the successes dice (+6 for 6m)
from both rolls together. Appearance 3, Resolve 4 (+1 for 2m), Guile 1
Combat
THE DRAGON-BLOODED Attack (Unarmed): 12 dice (+6 for 6m; damage 10)
Attack (Jade staff): 14 dice (+6 for 6m; damage 14,
minimum 4)
Immaculate of Water Attack (Grapple): 9 dice (+4 for 4m; 7 dice to control, +4 for
Essence: 2; Willpower: 5; Join Battle: 7 dice (+4 for 4m) 4m)
Personal Motes: 13; Peripheral Motes: 31 Combat Movement: 7 dice (+4 for 4m)
Health Levels: -0/-1x3/-2x3/-4/Incap. Evasion 2 (+1 for 2m), Parry 7 (+3 for 6m)
Soak/Hardness: 8/4 (Jade breastplate)
Actions: Investigation: 6 dice (+2 for 2m); Persuasion: 7 Offensive Charms
dice (+4 for 4m); Senses: 8 dice (+4 for 4m)
Appearance 2, Resolve 2 (+1 for 2m), Guile 3 (+1 for 2m) Eyes of the Wood Dragon (5m; Supplemental; Instant;
Combat Withering-only): Add three dice to raw withering damage and
Attack (Unarmed): 14 dice (+6 for 6m; damage 9) ignore natural soak from Stamina.
Attack (Jade dragon claws): 14 dice (+6 for 6m; damage 14,
Soul-Marking Style (5m; Supplemental; Instant; Decisive-
minimum 4)
only, Stackable): An attack that deals 3+ levels of damage
Attack (Grapple): 10 dice (+4 for 4m; 8 dice to control, +4
leaves a spiritual mark that adds one success on the
for 4m)
Immaculate’s rolls to attack, notice, or track the enemy for the
Combat Movement: 8 dice (+4 for 4m)
rest of the fight.
Evasion 2 (+1 for 2m), Parry 7 (+3 for 6m)
Spirit-Wracking Method (3m; Supplemental; Instant;
Soak/Hardness: 12/7 (Jade lamellar)
Withering-only): Dealing 5+ withering damage inflicts a -2
Offensive Charms
penalty from spiritual pain, which falls by one point at the end
Drowning-in-Blood Technique (3m, 1wp; Supplemental;
of each of the victim’s turns. Using Spirit-Wracking Method
Instant; Decisive-only): Add up to five extra successes to raw
against a character still suffering this penalty instead adds three
damage. Dealing 3+ levels of damage doubles the victim’s
dice to the damage of the attack after soak.
wound penalties for the rest of the fight.
Unbreakable Fascination Kata (1m, 1wp; Simple;
Flow Reversal Strike (6m, 1wp; Supplemental; Instant;
Instant): Roll 8 dice + 2 successes against the Resolve of all
Decisive-only): Add one success to a decisive damage roll. If
enemies with lower Initiative who can see the Immaculate.
total damage exceeds victim’s Stamina, they take a penalty
Overcome enemies have their next turn delayed by (1 + extra
equal to the difference for the next three rounds and lose that
successes) ticks, and lose their turn if reduced to a tick of 0 or
much Initiative.
less. A character must enter a Decision Point and call on an
Rippling Water Strike (3m; Supplemental; Instant; Dual):
Intimacy to pay one Willpower to become immune to this
Add one die of post-soak withering damage or decisive raw
Charm for the rest of the scene.
damage. If 5+ points of withering damage or 1+ levels of
Wood Dragon Form (8m; Simple; One scene): Gain two
decisive damage are dealt, the attack’s onslaught penalty
temporary -0 health levels that last until the end of the fight.
applies against all enemies in close range of both the
Gain a point of Initiative at the end of every round no decisive
Immaculate and her target.
damage is taken; while Initiative is at 20+, heal a level of
Theft-of-Essence Method (1wp; Reflexive; Instant): After
bashing damage or convert a level of lethal damage to bashing
crashing an enemy, steal (5 + his wound penalty) motes from
at the end of each round.
his pool and add it to the Immaculate’s own.
Water Dragon Form (10m; Simple; One scene): Up to two Defensive Charms
1s on damage rolled against the Immaculate each subtract a
Death-Pattern Sensing Attitude (2m; Reflexive; Instant):
single success and grant her a point of Initiative. She may pay
Negate all penalties to Parry against an attack made by a living
Initiative to add successes to attack rolls, two points of Initiative
or undead enemy. Any soul marks on the attacker add +1 Parry
per added success.
each.
Defensive Charms
Mind-Over-Body Meditation (4m; Reflexive; Instant;
Bottomless Depths Defense (1m, 1wp; Reflexive; Instant; Dual): Add +7 soak against a withering attack, or subtract two
Decisive-only, Perilous): Roll (Initiative + 4) dice and subtract dice from the raw damage of a decisive attack.
the result from the successes of a decisive damage roll. Once
Wood Dragon Succor (2i per level; Reflexive; Instant;
per fight unless reset by recovering from being crashed.
Perilous): When an ally in short range would take non-
Flowing Water Defense (1m, 2i; Reflexive; Instant):
aggravated damage, the Immaculate may redirect it to his own
Impose a -2 penalty on an attack roll or rush against the
health track at a cost of two Initiative per level transferred.
Immaculate, or a roll opposing her disengagement.
Wood Dragon Vitality (1wp; Reflexive; Instant): After
Shrugging Water Dragon Escape (4m; Reflexive; Instant):
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crashing an enemy, roll two dice and heal a health level for
every success. Once per fight unless reset by taking damage to a
-4 health level.
THE LUNAR EXALTED
WANDERING SHAMAN
These traits are for an experienced Lunar mystic, versed
both in sorcery and in the ways of spirits. She may use them to
oppose the Realm and its Immaculate Order, strengthen ties
between tribal peoples and indigenous nature spirits, or simply
to gain potent supernatural allies for whatever agenda she
pursues.
Essence: 3; Willpower: 8; Join Battle: 6 dice (+2 for 2m,
+4 for 4m)
Personal Motes: 18; Peripheral Motes: 46
Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x4/-4x3/Incap.
Actions: Read Intentions: 6 dice (+2 for 2m, +4 for 4m);
Shape Sorcery: 11 dice (+5 for 5m, +10 for 10m); Senses: 8
dice (+4 for 4m, +7 for 7m); Social Influence: 6 dice (+2 for
2m, +4 for 4m); Tracking: 5 dice (+2 for 2m, +4 for 4m)
Appearance 2, Resolve 3 (+1 for 2m, +2 for 4m), Guile 3
(+1 for 2m, +2 for 4m)
Combat
Attack (Staff): 7 dice (+4 for 4m, +7 for 7m; damage 12)
Combat Movement: 5 dice (+2 for 2m, +4 for 4m)
Evasion 4 (+2 for 4m, +4 for 8m), Parry 4 (+2 for 4m, +4
for 8m) Soak/Hardness: 3/0
Powers
Shapeshifting: This Lunar takes the shape of a strix for
both combat and winged travel, and has acquired numerous
other animal forms in traveling the wilderness, ranging from
humble squirrels to fearsome predators such as wolves or great
cats. She has enough human forms to seem like a native in
almost any quarter of Creation, and may have stolen the shape
of a god’s priest in a bid for that spirit’s favor.
Sorcery: This Lunar is initiated into the Celestial Circle of
sorcery, and knows the spells Death of Obsidian Butterflies,
Demon of the First Circle, Magma Kraken, Shadows of the
Ancient Past, and Silent Words of Dreams and Nightmares (see
Chapter Seven).
Shamanism Charms
Secret Sense Intuition (1m, 1wp; Reflexive; Instant):
Whenever a dematerialized spirit or a hidden character comes
within short range of the Lunar, she may use Secret Sense
Intuition to reflexively read their intentions, detecting their
presence on a successful roll. She may also make a reflexive
influence roll addressing the hidden character, which imposes a
-2 penalty to their Resolve. Once per scene.
Two Worlds Penumbra (6m; Simple; One scene): While
the Lunar’s anima is at the glowing level or higher, all
dematerialized spirits within long range become visible as
shadowy figures against the silver aura. At bonfire, these
shadows solidify to the point that material characters may
physically interact with them, and vice versa.
Sorcery Charms
Waking Nightmare Invocation (5m; Supplemental;
Instant): When the Lunar takes the first shape sorcery action to
begin casting a spell, she may roll her temporary Willpower,
with each success converting one die on the shaping roll to an
automatic success. Additionally, if the spell targets a character
15
who has a Tie of fear to the Lunar or her current form, she may
convert (Intimacy) additional dice to successes. Once per scene,
unless reset by changing into a form that an enemy or relevant
bystander fears.
Shadow Walker’s Revelation (10m, 1wp; Simple; Instant):
If the Lunar has been in another shape for at least an hour, she
may use Shadow Walker’s Revelation to return to her true form
and cast off the umbra of that shape through sorcery, instantly
casting any non-ritual spell she knows without needing to shape
it. Once per day.
THE SIDEREAL EXALTED
GOLD FACTION BENEFACTOR
This is a young Sidereal who might help arrange to put
Solars in contact with the Cult of the Illuminated or provide
them with counterintelligence against the Wyld Hunt.
Essence: 2; Willpower: 5; Join Battle: 6 dice
Personal Motes: 13; Peripheral Motes: 37
Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x2/-4/Incap.
Actions: Investigation: 8 dice; Recall Knowledge: 8 dice;
Senses: 5 dice; Social Influence: 7 dice; Stealth: 5 dice
Appearance 2, Resolve 3, Guile 2
Combat
Attack (Staff): 8 dice (Damage 10)
Combat Movement: 8 dice
Evasion 4, Parry 4
Soak/Hardness: 4/0
Defensive Charms
Avoidance Kata (2m; Simple; Instant; Psyche): Roll 8 dice
against a difficulty of 5 + turns already taken in the scene.
Success causes the Sidereal to vanish, reappearing somewhere
else she might have plausibly gone today instead. Witnesses
remember the Sidereal being present, but also remember that
she was never present at all, and find this contradiction
unremarkable. Once per scene.
Trouble Reduction Strategy (5m; Reflexive; One scene):
Reflexively protect all allies in close range with Evasion, as
with a Defend Other action. Allows them to be included in
withdrawal via Avoidance Kata, but each individual carried
along raises the difficulty by 1.
Information Charms
Efficient Secretary Technique (2m; Simple; Instant): Call
up an emerald spider that retrieves any objective fact or piece of
information that is publicly available and known.
Of Truths Best Unspoken (5m, 1wp; Simple; Instant):
Spend three hours in meditation to make a recall knowledge roll
about any topic to learn what its importance will be in the
future, from the perspective of the end of the Second Age. Once
per story.
THE ABYSSAL EXALTED
MASTER NECROMANCER
This is an Abyssal necromancer, raising armies of the dead
to ravage the land. These traits are not for a formidable personal
combatant, but for a character who lets his hordes of undead
minions fight for him.
Essence: 3; Willpower: 8; Join Battle: 6 dice (+5 for 5m)
Personal Motes: 19; Peripheral Motes: 47
 Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x2/-4/Incap.
Actions: Command Undead: 9 dice (+7 for 7m);
Intimidation: 7 dice (+7 for 7m); Medical Treatment: 9 dice (+7
for 7m); Senses: 6 dice (+5 for 5m)
Appearance 1, Resolve 3 (+1 for 2m), Guile 3 (+1 for 2m)
Combat
Attack (Scalpel): 7 dice (+7 for 7m; damage 8)
Combat Movement: 5 dice (+5 for 5m)
Evasion 3 (+1 for 2m), Parry 2 (+1 for 2m)
Soak/Hardness: 12/7 (Soulsteel lamellar)
Defensive Charms
Flickering Wisp Technique (7m, 1wp; Reflexive; Instant):
Perfectly dodge any attack or source of harm by dissolving into
formless mist and reforming one range band away. Once per
fight, unless reset by dodging three decisive attacks without
using other Charms or Excellencies.
Flitting Shadow Form (2m; Reflexive; Instant): Negate all
penalties to Evasion against a single attack.
Necromancy Charms
Life-Mocking Assembly (5m, 1wp; Simple; Touch): The
Abyssal makes a medical treatment roll, and is able to
reanimate a collection of corpses to form a battle group of loyal
zombies with one point of Size for every two successes. He
must have access to sufficient corpses, and the process
generally takes (Size x 2) days of work.
The Risen Hunger (3m, 1wp; Supplemental; Instant): The
necromancer doubles 9s on a roll to command an undead battle
group to attack another group. A successful attack restores two
points of Magnitude to the undead group, as slain enemies are
reanimated as makeshift zombies to restock the ranks. A
command to slaughter a retreating group instead restores
Magnitude equal to the successes rolled, although this cannot
increase the group’s size.
Hope-Rending Teeth (6m; Reflexive; Instant): Whenever
an undead battle group under the Abyssal’s command empties
another battle group’s Magnitude track with an attack, he may
use this Charm to receive an Initiative Break bonus of 5 points,
and to immediately employ the demoralized stratagem against
opposing forces, who falter before the horror of his undead
force. When used together with The Risen Hunger, he may
combine the demoralized with the pincer attack stratagem, as
the survivors find themselves with the reanimated corpses of
former friends at their backs.
ANIMALS
AUSTRECH
The austrech is one of the largest predators in the
Southeastern deserts—the average specimen stands just over
nine feet tall, and bears talons that put fine knives to shame.
Though well- adapted to its arid home, these flightless birds are
equally at home in plains, scrublands, and forests. Relatives of
the desert austrech are common along the southern coast of the
Inland Sea, even ranging as far as An-Teng. In addition to
hunting their own prey, they’ve been known to squabble with
lions and claw striders over kills. Wherever they’re found, these
territorial beasts are an important natural resource for
neighboring human tribes. They can make an abundant source
of food or leather for tribes that can feasibly hunt them, while
any hero brave enough to tame the so-called “Terror bird” will
earn a fiercely loyal mount.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 4; Join Battle: 4 dice
Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x2/-4/Incap. Austreches will
16
generally flee after taking five levels of damage.
Speed Bonus: +2
Actions: Endure Arid Conditions: 7 dice; Feats of Strength:
5 dice (may attempt Strength 3 feats); Find Water: 5 dice;
Senses: 5 dice
Resolve 2, Guile 1
Combat
Attack (Peck): 6 dice (Damage 14)
Attack (Talon kick): 8 dice (Damage 10)
Attack (Grapple): 6 dice (6 dice to control)
Combat Movement: 8 dice
Evasion 3, Parry 2
Soak/Hardness: 4/0
Special Attacks
Brutal Kick: Enemies smaller than human size that take 5+
damage from the austrech’s withering talon kicks are knocked
back one range band and fall prone.
Flesh-Rending Beak (Latent): Austreches hunt large prey
animals, such as camels and wild dogs, by kicking them
savagely with their taloned feet to weaken them before finishing
them with their huge beak. Once the austrech has crashed an
enemy with a withering talon kick attack, it adds two automatic
successes on any decisive peck attacks it makes against them
until they recover from being crashed.
Swift Advance: Whenever the austrech moves to keep pace
with an enemy it has successfully rushed, it may pay a point of
Willpower to reflexively make a decisive attack against that
enemy.
Iron Talon Stomp (Magical, 6m): The austrech’s master
may pay six motes to allow it to use its brutal kick special
attack against enemies of human or near-human size.
Additionally, if the austrech successfully knocks an enemy
prone, it may reflexively move one range band closer to it and
make a grapple gambit against it. The austrech can only take
restrain or savage actions against the clinched enemy, and
cannot move without ending the grapple.
Aspect of the Garda (Magical, 5m): The austrech’s master
may pay five motes to imbue it with the fiery-winged aspect of
the garda, causing its feathers to become dancing sprays of
flame. The garuda may use its movement action to fly through
the air, and its fiery glory adds one automatic success to all
attack rolls and one die to all damage rolls. These benefits last
for one round. If the austrech does not end its movement on the
ground, its master may activate Aspect of the Garda again on
the next round, or else the bird falls.
Merits
Desert Endurance: An austrech is adapted for survival in
deserts where water can be a scarce commodity, allowing it to
survive for a week without water. Even in its final hours, it
ignores the usual -3 penalty for dehydration, allowing it one last
chance to make it to a water source.
Oasis Rider (Latent): An austrech whose master succumbs
to dehydration will take him to the nearest source of water it can
find—carrying him on its back if he fainted on the saddle, or
dragging him with its beak if not.
ELEPHANT/MAMMOTH
Elephants and mammoths are respected and revered as
totems of strength and power throughout all Creation, from the
savannas of the south to the arctic wastes of the far North. Full-
grown bulls, who typically travel alone or in loose groups, stand
twice the height of a mortal and weigh up to seven tons.
Females gather in intimate family groups with one another and
their young; they have two-thirds of a male’s height and mass.
Tusks—found on male Southwestern elephants, or both genders
elsewhere—are used to guard against predators, engage in
mating battles, and tear up roots and bark for fodder. They
gather near rivers, lakes, and other water sources.
Elephants live for decades, and their intelligence, memory,
and emotional sophistication are akin to a human’s. They gather
food and use tools with their prehensile trunks, and though they
cannot speak, they exhibit love and grief, generosity and humor.
Many are kept in captivity to haul goods, transport passengers,
or trample foes in war. Hunters kill wild elephants for their
valuable ivory. Many northern tribes also use the mammoth as a
valuable meat source.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 5; Join Battle: 4 dice
Health Levels: -0x3/-1x6/-2x6/-4x6/Incap. Elephants or
mammoths will flee after taking 4+ levels of damage, unless
protecting their young.
Speed Bonus: +1
Actions: Feats of Strength: 13 dice (may attempt Strength 7
feats); Find Water: 13 dice; Intimidate: 5 dice; Senses: 5 dice;
Endure Arctic/Desert Conditions: 7 dice
Resolve 2, Guile 1
Combat
Attack (Stomp): 10 dice (Damage 16, minimum 4)
Attack (Tusks): 7 dice (Damage 20, minimum 5)
Attack (Trunk): 8 dice (Damage 15). An elephant’s trunk
can be used to make smashing attacks.
Attack (Grapple): 6 dice (9 dice to control). The elephant
makes unopposed control rolls against enemies of smaller size,
unless its victims use magic that allows them to clinch larger
enemies, such as Dragon Coil Technique.
Combat Movement: 7 dice
Evasion 2, Parry 4
Soak/Hardness: 16/6
Special Attacks
Gore: The elephant’s decisive tusk attacks add extra
successes to damage against enemies with lower Initiative, as
long as the elephant has not taken any other actions (including
reflexive movement actions) that turn.
Rampaging Stampede: The elephant may pay a point of
Willpower to flurry a withering stomp attack followed by a
decisive tusk or trunk attack. Each attack must have a different
target.
Trample: When the elephant closes in on a rushed enemy
and makes a stomp attack on the same turn, a successful hit
knocks that enemy prone. The penalties for being prone are
applied to that character’s Defenses retroactively when
calculating extra successes on the attack.
Trunk Grapple (Latent): An elephant can be trained to
clinch enemies with its trunk. It does not take a Defense penalty
for grappling an enemy held in its trunk, but cannot make
savaging attacks against them—it can only hold or throw them.
Merits
Keen Nose: Elephants double 9s on scent-based Perception
rolls.
Legendary Size: Elephants’ and mammoths’ size makes it
extraordinarily difficult for human- scale enemies to engage
them in combat. They do not take onslaught penalties from any
attack made by a smaller opponent, although magically-inflicted
onslaught penalties still apply.
Withering attacks made by smaller enemies cannot drop
them below 1 Initiative unless they have a post-soak damage of
10 dice (although attackers can still gain the full amount of
Initiative damage dealt). Decisive attacks made by smaller
17
enemies cannot deal more than (3 + attacker’s Strength) levels
of damage to an elephant or mammoth with a single attack, not
counting any levels of damage added by Charms or other
magic.
GIANT CONSTRICTOR
Legendary terrors of the Eastern jungles and Western bogs,
giant constrictors refer to any variety of constricting snakes
such as the anaconda or boa that can grow to monstrous sizes in
Creation, reaching extremes of fifty or sixty feet in isolated
ecosystems. They use their massive coils to crush the breath out
of prey such as deer, capybaras, and unfortunate humans, while
swallowing smaller animals like fish or birds whole. Some
make their home among the treetops, blending in with foliage
before falling onto an unsuspecting victim, while others hunt in
rivers, swimming under the surface of water before lunging out
to claim a hapless animal that stopped for a drink.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 4; Join Battle: 4 dice
Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x3/-4x3/Incap. Giant constrictors
will flee after taking 6+ levels of damage, unless they are in the
middle of crushing their prey to death.
Actions: Climbing: 6 dice; Feats of Strength: 7 dice (may
attempt Strength 3 feats); Senses: 5 dice (see Thermal Sense);
Stealth: 5 dice
Resolve 2, Guile 2
Combat
Attack (Bite): 8 dice (Damage 15)
Attack (Grapple): 10 dice (14 dice to control)
Combat Movement: 6 dice
Evasion 3, Parry 1
Soak/Hardness: 8/0
Special Attacks
Crushing Coils: Giant constrictors take no Defense
penalties from grappling, and can drag an enemy on the same
turn it makes a savaging attack against it.
Uncoiling Serpent Rush: Every turn the constrictor does
not take a movement action, it stocks a single success, up to a
maximum of three. Each successes it has stocked adds +1
Evasion. If it rushes an enemy, it adds all stocked successes to
the roll, and to the roll of any grapple attack it makes on the
same turn in a flurry. If it received the maximum bonus of three
successes, it may also reflexively move one range band closer
to an enemy without it counting as its movement action for the
turn. Any other movement actions waste all stocked successes.
Merits
Camouflage: Giant constrictors double 9s on Stealth rolls
while hidden amid treetops or dense foliage. Aquatic variants of
the species gain this benefit while swimming or slithering
through mud.
Thermal Sense: Giant constrictors may sense the body heat
of their prey, doubling 9s on any Perception-based roll to notice
a warm-blooded character and allowing them to ignore penalties
for visual obstacles such as darkness or mist.
ICHNEUMON HUNTER
The terrifying ichneumon hunter is the scourge of Southern
herders. While the male of the species is a harmless fly, the
female is a flying wasp the size of a small dog, with an
ovipositor as long and sharp as a dagger. It uses this to puncture
the flesh of sheep, goats, cattle, or whatever warm-blooded
hosts are common throughout the region, and implant its eggs to
grow, hatch, and eventually feed on their unwilling host. While
it is not common for them to implant their brood in a human
host, the agonizing deaths of those who suffer this fate are more
than horrific enough to make up for this. Herders protect their
flocks (and children) from the ichneumon by burning foul-
smelling herbs in huge firepots day and night, while physicians
and medicine men prescribe infusions of wormwood to kill off
implanted eggs before they have a chance to hatch.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 2; Join Battle: 4 dice
Health Levels: -0/-1/-2/-4/Incap. Ichneumon hunters will
not flee from a chance to implant their eggs, mindlessly putting
the propagation of the species above their own lives, but will
otherwise retreat after taking any damage.
Actions: Fly: 7 dice; Senses: 4 dice (see Host Scent);
Stealth: 9 dice; Tracking: 3 dice (see Host Scent)
Resolve 1, Guile 1
Combat
Attack (Sting): 8 dice (Damage 10)
Combat Movement: 7 dice
Evasion 5, Parry 2
Soak: 1/0
Special Attacks
Ambush Hunter: The ichneumon hunter adds three dice on
all attack rolls made from stealth.
Buzzing Advance: The ichneumon hunter adds one
automatic success on any rush against a warm-blooded mammal
that could host its eggs, and does not take penalties for flurrying
a rush and a sting attack on the same turn against such prey.
Infestation: A living enemy damaged by a decisive sting
attack must roll to resist having the ichneumon hunter’s eggs
implanted in its body, a parasitic infestation modeled as a
disease with virulence 4, morbidity 2, and an interval of one
month. Fully-grown ichneumon hunters emerge from the corpse
of anyone who dies of the infestation.
Corpse-Hive Prana (Magical, 1m): When the ichneumon
hunter makes a decisive sting attack against an undead creature
with flesh such as a zombie (but not a materialized ghost or
Abyssal Exalt), its master may pay one mote to quicken the
hunter’s eggs as they are implanted in dead flesh, causing them
to quickly hatch and devour the creature alive. In addition to the
damage of the attack, the undead is filled with flesh-eating
wasps, dealing one die of lethal damage (which ignores
hardness) to it every time it takes a turn. Fire will drive the
wasplings away from the afflicted undead, allowing a zombie’s
master to drive them away by spending a miscellaneous action
to brandish a torch or similar source of flame if it is available.
Merits
Host Scent: Ichneumon hunters are keenly attuned to the
scent of warm-blooded prey that can host their eggs, adding
three automatic successes on any Perception-based roll to notice
or track them. This does not apply to rolls opposing stealth
attempts.
Brood-Sense Meditation (Magical): The ichneumon hunter
is conjoined to the Essence of its parasitic brood, and can sense
their emerging lives as they grow within its prey. Against any
character infested with the hunter’s eggs, the bonus granted by
Host Scent increases to five automatic successes, and allows its
tracking to contest even perfect track-covering magic such as
the Charm Traceless Passage.
MOSPID
This flying, feathered lizard is smaller than an eagle, but far
more nimble, with a two-foot wingspan and feathered tufts on
its tail and thumb that allow for precise maneuvering. They are
18
fearsome nocturnal hunters in their native forests, swooping
down to catch prey and savaging it to death with their sharp
claws. While they are far more difficult to tame than any falcon,
they are favored as hunting animals by the Dragon-Blooded
nobles of the Realm, both for their killing prowess and as a
symbol of their master’s own might.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 4; Join Battle: 4 dice
Health Levels: -0/-1/-2x2/-4/Incap. Mospids will usually
flee after taking any damage, even those that have been trained
as hunting beasts.
Actions: Fly: 8 dice; Senses: 5 dice (see Eagle Eye and
Night Vision); Tracking: 5 dice (see Eagle Eye and Night
Vision)
Resolve 2, Guile 1
Combat
Attack (Claw): 9 dice (Damage 9)
Attack (Grapple): 5 dice (5 dice to control). A mospid can
carry seized enemies the size of a housecat, rodent, small
monkey, or similar prey indefinitely. They can grapple enemies
up to the size of a dog, but only for an instant, relinquishing the
grapple at the end of their turn (which may cause falling
damage if the mospid ascends). Mospids cannot slam or throw
clinched enemies.
Combat Movement: 8 dice
Evasion 4, Parry 3
Soak/Hardness: 4/0
Special Attacks
Death Dive: As long as the mospid is able to soar up to long
range from the ground, it may dive down at an enemy with
devastating force. The first time it moves down into close range
with an enemy while airborne and makes a decisive attack, it
may add four dice to the attack roll and apply the double 10s
rule on the damage roll. Once it has used this special attack, it
must regain altitude, returning back to vertical long range
before it can do so again.
Harry: Mospids hunt aerial prey by denying them any
chance of escape. On the turn that a mospid moves into close
range of an enemy, if it deals 5+ damage to them with a
withering attack, that enemy cannot disengage or withdraw on
their next turn.
Dread Clutches (Latent): When the mospid savages a
clinched enemy with an attack, it may also choose to drag him
along with any movement actions it takes.
Hold at Bay (Latent): After successfully impeding a foe’s
movement with its harry attack, a mospid may pay a point of
Willpower to reflexively attempt to clinch them, converting
extra successes on the attack roll to bonus dice on the clinch
roll. The mospid can only hold or savage an enemy clinched
this way—it cannot drag them, unless it knows and uses Dread
Clutches.
Merits
Eagle Eye: Mospids receive five bonus dice on any visual
Perception-based rolls made to notice something while soaring
high in the air, and can make out the fine details of far-off
objects even when flying miles above them. They also
automatically succeed on rolls to track a character while
airborne, unless that character is employing perfect track-
covering magic.
Eagle Wing Rush: An eagle may dive to rush enemies from
above at long range, provided the horizontal distance between
them is still short range.
Night Vision: Mospids can see in dim conditions as though
they were in broad daylight, and reduce the difficulty of
Perception-based checks made in deeper darkness by one.
 Precise Maneuvering: Mospids apply double 9s on all
movement actions made while in flight. If they are in an
environment where they must maneuver around obstacles or
tight passages, such as a heavily forested area, apply double 8s
instead.
SIAKA
Gigantic sharks that grow up to fifty feet in length, the siaka
is the apex predator of much of Creation’s oceans, hunting
whales and giant squid in deep water. Their massive, man-sized
mouth has five rows of dagger-like teeth, which they often
plunge into the unprotected underbellies of their prey as they
swim up from below them. They can scent even a few drops of
blood in water from hundreds of miles away, and will swim up
from the deep if incensed by its tantalizing scent, making them
a dreaded sight in the aftermath of great sea battles.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 5; Join Battle: 6 dice
Health Levels: -0x4/-1x8/-2x8/-4x4/Incap. Siaka will flee
upon suffering 15+ levels of damage unless enraged by the
smell of blood in the water.
Actions: Feats of Strength: 13 dice (may attempt Strength 7
feats, see Sundering Bite); Senses: 6 dice (see Blood Scent);
Stealth: 2 dice; Swim: 7 dice; Tracking: 3 dice (see Blood
Scent)
Resolve 3, Guile 1
Combat
Attack (Bite): 10 dice (Damage 22, minimum 5)
Attack (Grapple): 8 dice (10 dice to control). The siaka
makes unopposed control rolls against targets of smaller size,
unless its victims use magic that allows them to clinch larger
enemies, such as Dragon Coil Technique.
Combat Movement: 7 dice
Evasion 3, Parry 3
Soak/Hardness: 10/5
Special Attacks
Blood Frenzy: The siaka is driven to the point of near-
madness by the smell of blood. Whenever it makes a decisive
attack against a bleeding enemy, it adds a number of automatic
successes to the roll equal to that character’s current wound
penalty. The same bonus applies on its rolls to gain control of a
clinch.
Death From Below: When the siaka makes a surprise
attack, it adds extra successes on the attack roll to the raw
damage of the attack. On a clinch, these are instead added as
bonus dice on the roll to gain control. This cannot add more
than five dice to the raw damage of a decisive attack.
Killing Surge: Whenever the siaka joins battle, if any of its
enemies are bleeding, it may convert one die to an automatic
success for each point of wound penalty suffered by its
enemies, and treat the roll as a reflexive rush attempt against a
bleeding enemy.
Massive Fangs: Whenever the siaka deals 5+ damage to
any enemy with a withering attack, it may pay a point of
Willpower to roll one die of lethal damage against its victim as
well. This damage ignores hardness.
Rip to Shreds: When the siaka makes a savaging attack
against a clinched enemy, it may expend rounds of control to
add that many dice to the damage roll.
Crew-Devouring Rampage (Latent): A siaka that has been
trained to fight against large numbers of organized enemies
treats all battle groups as having a wound penalty equal to their
Size for the purposes of its abilities.
Thrashing Predator Aggression (Latent): The siaka may
spend a point of Willpower to reflexively make a clash attack
against any attack made at close range. If it deals 5+ damage
19
with a withering clash attack, it may use Massive Fangs at no
cost, and it rolls three dice of lethal damage instead of one.
Merits
Blood Scent: The siaka adds three automatic successes on
any Perception-based roll to sense the presence of blood in the
water, and can smell even a drop of blood from hundreds of
miles away. If it is specifically attempting to track or detect a
character who is bleeding, it adds an additional automatic
success for each point of wound penalty that character is
suffering.
Depth Lurker: While the siaka is unskilled in stealth, any
character attempting to notice it while it is deep below them
subtracts three success from any Perception-based rolls they
make to do so. In combat, this applies as long as the siaka is at
long range under the water relative to the character, or if it is
moving up from long range while already hidden. It may also
rush enemies from long range beneath them underwater, as long
as the horizontal distance between the two is no more than one
range band.
Legendary Size: The siaka’s size makes it extraordinarily
difficult for human-scale enemies to engage it in combat. It
does not take onslaught penalties from any attack made by a
smaller opponent, although magically-inflicted onslaught
penalties still apply against it. Withering attacks made by
smaller enemies cannot drop it below 1 Initiative unless they
have a post-soak damage of 10 dice (although attackers can still
gain the full amount of Initiative damage dealt). Decisive
attacks made by smaller enemies cannot deal more than (3 +
attacker’s Strength) levels of damage to the siaka with a single
attack, not counting any levels of damage added by Charms or
other magic.
Shark Sleep: Siaka do not every truly sleep, remaining
constantly active. Instead, they may enter a resting phase,
during which they remain conscious and can still move, but
cannot attack or take other involved physical actions without
disrupting their rest. Eight hours spent in this resting phase is
equivalent to a night’s sleep for the siaka.
Sundering Bite: The siaka applies double 8s on all feats of
strength to destroy something between its crushing jaws.
SIMHATA
The simhata is a proud and majestic creature, combining the
best aspects of lion and horse in its build, with vicious tempers
and a predatory gaze. They roam Southern savannas and
Eastern grasslands, disemboweling prey with powerful claws
before moving in for the killing bite. While they are fearsome
predators, they have an uneasy relationship with nearby
humans—though a simhata is by no means averse to preying on
human flesh, they can also be tamed to serve as ferociously
loyal mounts. The affinity between human and simhata goes
back to their origins in distant prehistory as the war-mounts of
the Exalted, and even in the Time of Tumult, the lion-horse
seems to have an inborn desire to serve any of the Chosen who
prove themselves worthy of it.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 6; Join Battle: 6 dice
Health Levels: -0x3/-1x3/-2x3/-4/Incap. A simhata will flee
after taking 7+ levels of damage, but will never abandon a
bonded rider, even if it must sacrifice its own life to save his.
Speed Bonus: +4
Actions: Feats of Strength: 9 dice (may attempt Strength 5
feats); Intimidate: 10 dice; Senses: 5 dice (see Keen Nose);
Tracking: 4 dice (see Keen Nose)
Resolve 4, Guile 1
Combat
 Attack (Bite): 8 dice (Damage 17)
Attack (Claws): 10 dice (Damage 14)
Attack (Grapple): 7 dice (8 dice to control)
Combat Movement: 13 dice
Evasion 5, Parry 3
Soak/Hardness: 6/0
Special Attacks
Brutal Kick: Smaller enemies that take 5+ damage from the
simhata’s withering claw attacks are knocked back one range
band and fall prone.
Savaging Maw: Any decisive bite attack that the simhata
makes against an enemy who is prone or in Initiative Crash
adds extra successes to the damage roll.
Swift Advance: Whenever the simhata moves to keep pace
with an enemy it has successfully rushed, it may pay a point of
Willpower to reflexively make a decisive attack against that
enemy.
Raging Lion-Horse Fury: Whenever damage fills one of
the simhata’s -2 or lower health levels, it enters a state of
frenzy. A simhata who witnesses its bonded rider being killed
(see below) also enters this berserker state. It ignores wound
penalties and gains a point of Willpower on each turn, which
must be spent before its next turn to add a success to a combat-
related action or to resist influence that would cause it to cease
fighting or impede its ability to fight. An enraged simhata will
not flee from even the most desperately impossible battles.
However, a rider who has bonded to the simhata may attempt to
calm its rage with a (Charisma + Ride) roll at difficulty 4,
which cannot be placed in a flurry.
Foe-Maiming Guardian’s Fangs (Magical, 1m): Whenever
the simhata makes a decisive bite attack against an enemy who
has attacked or threatened its bonded rider, the Exalt may pay
one mote to apply the double 10s rule to the damage roll. If he
is currently suffering any wound penalties due to a
confrontation involving that enemy, then the amount of his
wound penalties are added as bonus dice to the hound’s attack
roll.
Merits
Keen Nose: Simhata double 9s on scent-based Perception
rolls.
Predator’s Hunger: Whenever a simhata rolls Join Battle
against an enemy it could conceivably eat, if it has not eaten
within the last day or more, it may reroll any 1s until they fail to
appear. A simhata’s master can train it to apply this Merit to all
Join Battle rolls as a latent ability by conditioning it to associate
battle with being given free rein to devour his enemies.
Bonding (Latent): A wild simhata that is successfully
tamed—a task that involves a great deal of hard effort and raw
meat—bonds to its rider, forming a Major Tie of loyalty to
them. While it may not be well-tempered or easy to handle, its
devotion is unwavering, it will accept no other rider, and
anyone foolish enough to attack its master will answer to its
claws. However, the simhata were bred in the ancient past as
war-steeds of the Exalted. Even a bonded simhata will allow an
Exalt to ride it if his anima is flaring, and when bonded to an
Exalt, the Tie they form is Defining and overrides any existing
bonds to un-Exalted riders.
Cloud-Crossing Leap (Latent): A simhata that has been
trained to jump can achieve incredible heights. As long as it has
two effective range bands of movement prior to a jump to build
up speed, it may pay a point of Willpower to leap a distance
comparable to what a Solar can achieve with Monkey Leap
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Technique.
STRIX
Giant forest owls with fifteen-foot wingspans, strix hunt
simply by diving down from the skies and carrying their prey
aloft with them—prey that can range from deer, to wolves, to
isolated travelers. Mottled dark-brown feathers that make no
sound in flight and large, round eyes that see clearly in the dark
make them deadly nocturnal ambush predators, while their
wicked claws have more than enough strength to seize and
savage prey.
Essence: 1; Willpower: 5; Join Battle: 7 dice
Health Levels: -0/-1x3/-2x3/-4/Incap. A strix will attempt
to flee upon suffering 5+ levels of damage, carrying away
anything still caught in its claws.
Actions: Feats of Strength: 6 dice (may attempt Strength 3
feats); Fly: 8 dice; Intimidate: 5 dice; Senses: 5 dice (see Eagle
Eye and Night Vision); Stealth: 7 dice; Tracking: 6 dice
Resolve 2, Guile 2
Combat
Attack (Peck): 7 dice (Damage 15)
Attack (Talons): 11 dice (Damage 11)
Attack (Grapple): 8 dice (7 dice to control). A strix cannot
throw or slam grappled enemies, but may instead release them
from a great height to cause falling damage.
Combat Movement: 8 dice
Evasion 5, Parry 3
Soak/Hardness: 3/0
Special Attacks
Carried Away: When a strix deals 5+ damage with a
withering talon attack, it may choose to forgo receiving any
Initiative it would normally receive from the attack and instead
make a reflexive clinch attack against that enemy. Each point of
Initiative it would have gained instead adds one die to the
control roll if the clinch attack successfully hits.
Dread Clutches: When the strix savages a clinched enemy
with an attack, it may also choose to drag him along with any
movement actions it takes.
Swooping Descent: A strix that flies downward to make a
decisive surprise attack or ambush against an enemy adds two
automatic successes to the attack roll. Note that a strix soaring
high in the sky is generally beyond the range of sensory
detection for characters who lack superhuman sight, ensuring an
ambush on first strike and providing the possibility of
reestablishing stealth in combat by simply flying higher than
their enemies can see.
Merits
Eagle Eye: A strix receives five bonus dice on any visual
Perception-based rolls made to notice something while it is
soaring high in the air, and can make out the fine details of far-
off objects even when it is flying potentially miles above them.
It also automatically succeeds on any roll to track a character
while airborne, unless that character is employing perfect track-
covering magic.
Eagle Wing Rush: A strix may rush enemies from long
range above them, as long as the horizontal distance between
them is still at short range.
Night Vision: A strix can see in dim conditions as though
they were in broad daylight, and reduces the difficulty of
Perception-based checks made in deeper darkness by one.