Exalted: Mysteries of the Dreaming Sea

[Krul]

Setting Details - The Sorcerer's of Ysyr (Taken from Across Eight Directions setting book)

Spoiler

The Dreaming Sea

               A realm of wonder and terror, the Dreaming Sea touches upon the Wyld and brings strange prodigies back to creation.  Here, far beyond the Realm’s reach, mighty supernatural powers move openly upon the world, their empires rising and falling across centuries.

               The Fair Folk of the Orchid Court rove these waters in glass ships, raiding coastal settlements.  Prehuman peoples dwell in isolation upon lost islands and forgotten coves.  The Dragon-Blooded lords of Prasad carve out a mighty nation upon its western coast; the sorcerer-princes extend their reach across its southern shores.  Today these empires clash, as others in the region have clashed before, leaving weird and haunted ruins scattered in their wake.

               A tropical region, the Dreaming Sea’s coast remains warm year-round, with a dry season midyear.  The rainy season occupies the rest, occasionally bringing with it Wyld-spawned weather like rains of fish, frogs or flowers.  Father inland, such as on the great steppes of southern Prasad, the climate grows dryer overall, with more temperature variations – hotter in the dry season, colder in the wet.

 

YSYR

Amid the Chalcedon Mountains on the vast island of Gralon rises the cyclopean city-state of Ysyr.  Gleaming columns of basalt and crystal encircle the city, soaring towers climb higher than any mortal art could achieve.  Pleasure-gardens and orchids cascade down the flanks of terraced plazas; wide avenues lead into the mountain’s heart, revealing vaulted chambers with jewel-dusted domes.

And the city breathes.  Deep below, ancient engines from the First Age still turn, though their architects are long dead, and their purpose has faded into obscurity.  Their steady hum vibrates throughout Ysyr, low and ever-present.

Atop this ancient machinery stands a city shaped by its sorcerer-princes’ caprice.  By their art, they have made Ysyr a city of rampant magic.  Baked-mud automata haul heavy goods to market and raise up stone houses; airy constructs of rainbow glass deliver messages.  Ever-burning braziers of turquoise line the halls hollowed into the mountain; underground gardens of jasmine and lily bloom without seeing the sun.  Life in Ysyr – however bitter it may be – always shines with wonder.

This opulent city of excess is among Creation’s greatest concentrations of sorcerous power, albeit built on a dangerous and delicate foundation; the engines below fail by the century.  Within, an underclass of slave’s dreams of broken chains.  Beyond its walls, it spreads its forces thin in its hunger for conquest.  Pull in all directions by its sorcerer-princes’ contradictory fancies, Ysyr must strengthen its grip on the Dreaming Sea or fall into ruin.

Culture

               Sorcerer-Princes and their households feast on banquets unmatched throughout Creation, from exotic dishes prepared by demon chefs from ingredients grown by magic or gathered by elementals.  Presentations emphasize art and spectacle as much as nourishment: roasted peacocks surrounded by a court of smaller birds; towers of pale crustaceans fished from the Underworld’s Sea of Shadows; edible Wyld grown flowers whose consumption sparks strange visions.  Overseers, clerks, and sorcerer-princes’ servants though rarely invited to such feasts, receive bonuses in the form of rare ingredients, and may dine on leftovers once the sorcerer-princes’ have their fill.

               Ordinary Ys live on a dole of bread supplemented by other prepared foods.   Common stables include wheaten bread, dried fruit, hard cheese, smoked mutton, and salted fish, along with assorted vegetables, beans, lentils, red wines, poppy-seed oil, and fish sauce.  Most means take the form of porridges, soups and stews.

               Due to the sorcerer-princes’ dominance over sprits, the Ysyri have little in the way of religion.  Some cults devote themselves to various sorcerer-princes’ both living and dead – a practice officially frowned upon, though a few quietly encourage such behavior.  Other underground religions include thirdhand Pure Way offshoots, ancestor cults, and cults to secretive, dead or long-departed gods.  Many of the sorcerer-princes themselves indulged in abstruse occult philosophies invented whole cloth by local thinkers.

Languages and Terminology

               Ysyri natives speak an offshoot of the ancient Ys tongue.  Gralon’s other peoples have their own languages.  Sorcerer-princes, Ysyri administraators, Gralon nobles, and the empire’s merchants also typically know Firetongue, Forest-tongue, or both

               Ysyr is pronounced “ih-SEAR” “Ys” refers to the people of Ysyr; it’s pronounced like “east” without the “t”.  “Ysyri” refers to things produced by or owned by Ysyr and the Ys; its pronounced “ih-SEAR-ee”.

Society

               Miasmic Essence billowing from the engines transfigures the Ys.  Most children don’t change until they reach critical saturation in early adolescence.  The changes are unpredictable: some might find themselves with too many hands at the end of their wrists, or rippling silver skin, or many-colored spit that sizzles with acid.  These traits aren’t hereditary; Ys children don’t inherit their parents transformations.

               The suffusion of Essence has another effect, one that elevated the Ys from a seafaring tribe into one of the greatest powers on the Dreaming Sea: within some, it quickens the ineffable spark required to initiate into sorcery.  Few actually become sorcerers – initiation still requires prodigious effort, talent, and more than a little luck.  Still, the potential exists.

               However, Ysyr is a city not only of sorcerers but of slaves.  When the Ys founders first found the ruins and devoted themselves to its engines, they laid down the Rule of Chains: that all Ys were slaves to the city itself.  This sentiment, yoking highborn and lowborn alike to the common good, is a vaulted ideal, the foundation of Ys rhetoric, and a convenient fiction.

               Well over a hundred sorcerer-princes rule over Ysyr, each claiming a considerable allowed from the city’s coffers.  Personal entourages of servants, retainers, and apprentices attend their towers.  While ostensibly they’re slaves to Ysyr just as their own attendants are slaves to them, the magocracy’s princes serve themselves above all others, eagerly indulging in luxury, theatrics, politics and pleasure.  It’s a rite of passage for each newly risen prince to strip away her engine-inflicted mutations and remake her flesh into her own ideal of beauty and perfection

               For Ysyr’s common folk – if any can be called common given their many and myriad forms – life is far different.  Some are handpicked by a sorcerer-prince to join her retinue and enterprises who has all but complete control over every aspect of their life.  Many princes select and clothe their slaves to match their own aesthetic, accessories to their glory.  Some even inflict or remove certain mutations on their retainers, as much for fashion as function.

               All other slaves are held in common by Ysyr itself, assigned work, goods, and quarters by the city bureaucracy according to the city’s needs.  This insulates them from both the generosity and caprice of the sorcerer-princes, guaranteeing them a relatively stable life.  Those who display keen minds or special talents receive the opportunity to learn various skills and trades; while this rarely leads to any material improved in their circumstances, it gives many a precious opportunity to exercise what little agency they can.

               Children live with their parents until the city’s engines change them.  During their youth, children are afforded considerable freedom, with the state providing resources and education.  The moment of transformation is the best opportunity for the sorcerer-princes and their functionaries to measure a child’s potential for eventual initiation and so the young of Ysyr are prepared one and all for the possibility of ascending to the magocracy.  Every child – even one born to the sorcerous elite – lives in anticipation and fear, knowing that the odds of awakening to sorcerous power are razor-thin.  But the rewards are incalculable.

The Magocracy

               At the top of Ysyr, both politically and literally, the sorcerer-princes rule from their towers of agate, marble and quartz.   By right of sorcerous enlightenment, they lead Ysyr and its fledgling empire into an age of power and prominence.  At last, that’s the tale they tell.

               The reality is less glamorous, but no less grand.  Collectively, the princes form the magocracy – a belligerent and mercurial government drawn in all direction by its fiercely independent members obsessions.  They would have destroyed Ysyr centuries ago if left to their infighting and galling shows of one-upmanship, that they’ve not only survived but also managed to present the illusion of cooperation to the outside world (aside from a few dramatic civil wars) is an achievement to match even the most masterful spellcraft.

               The main instrument of this cooperation is a bureaucracy of slaves, the Clerks of Working Order.  The magocracy typically meets once a year, with little on the agenda beyond boasting, scheming and reauthorizing the clerks to continue governing the city.  Each prince selects three slaves from her own retinue; these comprise half the Clerks’ governing council.  The remaining seats are filled by lottery from among the city’s commonly held slaves.  Together, the Clerks of Working Order maintain the city’s literal and metaphorical mechanisms, assigning work, negotiating trade, and enforcing laws.

               Thes laws don’t extend the sorcerer-princes.  When using their own resources, each prince is free to trade, war, and treat with whoever they wish.  Abuse of this prerogative is one of the few issues that’s reliably rallied the magocracy to collective action, censuring those who endanger the fragile political ecosystem they all enjoy.

               It takes time for Ys sorcerers to rise to the level of sorcerer- prince.  New will workers spend years as apprentices to those at the top, demonstrating their dedication to their craft and lack of sedition, and reshaping themselves until they achieve physical perfection.  All spend a stint on the front lines of the empire’s wars, honing their spellcraft in battle.

               Ys sorcerers tread non-Ys sorcerers with respect and even encourage them to apprentice themselves to the sorcerer-princes, though no foreign spellworker has been elevated to their ranks in centuries.  Instead they’re granted other prestigious and useful positions: named sorcerer-admirals or governors, but never prince.  Loyal service grants them ongoing opportunities to refine their arts and secure their authority, but they’ll never join the Ysyri inner circle.

The Gathering of Princes

               Held beneath the luminous gold-and-carnelian domes of the Pavilion of Power Perfect, the magocracy’s annual meeting outshines the empires lesser galas.  It’s prescinded by grand entertainments – displays of spellcraft and artifice, many-limbed musicians and dancers, and more – and followed by a sumptuous feast of cuisines and delicacies from across the Dreaming Sea.  While many sorcerer-princes participate in the flesh, others attend remotely via occult means such as simulacra or magic mirrors.  For some, business at the edges of the empire prevents personal attendance.  But for most, this is merely a caution; the gathering has seen violent disruptions before, from magical accidents to assassinations to coup attempts.

By Stone and Spell

               Magic and enchantment pervade Ysyr, the produce of centuries of savants imposing their philosophies and aesthetics.  Perhaps the most visible sign of sorcery is the city’s dependence on bound spirits: demons and elementals are everywhere from the poison-eating sesselgae who hive and throng in Ysyr’s infirmaries, to the flame-wisps who attend the ever-burning braziers of the Shadow Quarter.

               Ysyr also count raksha among their slaves, captured during daring raids into the territory of the nearby courts.  While relatively uncommon compared to bound spirits, the Ysyr value these raksha slaves for their unique skills and captivating features.

               Beyond servitors, the city is resplendent with strange enchantments – floating towers left to crumble by their forgotten architects, gardens where fruit from distant realms ripens daily, fountains whose waters wash away unwanted memories.  The greatest concentration of such wonders is found In the Thousand-Year Archive, a stair-lined shaft bored through the heart of the Chalcedon Mountains.  Inside, a veritable army of archivists and occultists study, catalog and store the collected treasures of generations of sorcerer-princes, preserving their notes and experiments against the ravages of time.

Visitors from Afar

               One of the few laws binding even the sorcerer-princes forbids mortal foreigners form setting foot in the city proper.  To do so would expose them to the ancient engines’ transformative Essence, a blessing and sacrament meant for the Ysyri alone.  Instead, foreign dignitaries, merchants, and petitioners dwell at the foot of the Chalcedon Mountains.  This is Humility, the closet any foreigner comes to the city of Sorcerers – a sprawling, manicured outpost protected by wards and weapons alike.

               Humility is a closely curated experience overseen by the Clerks of Working Order.  Markets are flush with such Ysyri products as precious ores from the mountain’s heart, delicate and puissant hers, and minor talismans, both legitimate and otherwise.  The Ysyri slaves working the teahouses and markets – their mutations concealed behind aesthetically pleasing masks, robes and gloves – are the very picture of hospitality, presenting an immaculate image of bliss while collecting whatever information they can glean from foreigners that may be of worth to their handlers.

               When a sorcerer-prince deigns to descend to Humility, they do so like a hurricane, upending the town’s carefully regimented life.  In a fit of pique, an errant prince may bend the outpost around her own celebrity, entertaining foreign dignitaries with lavish displays of wealth and extravagate games of chance.  These visits are mercifully brief and infrequent, but often require considerable repairs.

Slavery: Dreams of Broken Chains

               The slaves of Ysyr – which is to say, all of the Ys except their rulers – enjoy comforts and opportunities unusual in Creation, but they are slaves nonetheless.  Most live and die without ever leaving the city, and while they can better themselves to pursue more satisfying work, their lives are ultimately subject to the clerks’ judgements and sorcerer-princes’ whims.

               City-slaves are allotted berths near their places of work, as well as clothing, food, medicine, and other essentials.  Overseers award skillful and efficient work with gifts of excess goods, forming the basis of a barter economy that measures itself in food, cloth, tools and palimpsest.  Slaves enjoy freedom of movement within the city as long as they execute their responsibilities faithfully; many take advantage of this and the cities sorcerous wonders, spending an evening entranced by demon-harpists or roaming glowblossom gardens before readying themselves for the next morning’s drudgery.

               Slave rebellions, though infrequent, seem an inevitable part of Ys life.  The clerks operate networks of informants and seek to break up incipient plots by appeasing rebels or reassigning them to difficult faraway duties – often sending them and their families elsewhere in Gralon, where their mutations isolate them.  The greatest, most terrible thread a rebellion might pose is damaged to the sorcerous engines turning below the city; indeed, several sub-engines have been ruined during major uprisings over the centuries.  Those who endanger the engines or conspire to do so endure the cruelest punishments devised by the sorcerer-princes, such as being granted immortality only to be cast in molten gold to ponder one’s crimes for centuries.          

               Many Ys seek to rise within the system rather than overthrow it.  A sorcerer-prince’s entourage, though more directly exposed to their master’s whims, also enjoys her personal favor.  The princes largely distain foreign servants, who are forbidden to enter Ysyr and know nothing of Ysyri culture.  They perforce bring their slaves when traveling, relying on them as intermediaries with the foreigners they walk among.  The sorcerer-princes also emancipate reliable Ys to place them in positions of authority elsewhere in the empire.  Distrusted and feared by the people they oversee, most such Ys feel the serving the magocracy remains a better options then fleeing to go it alone,.

Ruling the Dreaming Sea

               Before they were conquerors, before they were sorcerers, the Ys were mariners, and they haven’t forgotten their love of the sea.  At any time, a hundred ships flying the Ysyri flag’s bronze flame lie anchored at the harbor-city of Kyn.  The city-slaves operate a vast fleet of fishing vessels, and days catch can be found on the plates of slaves and princes alike, sped up the mountain on carts of never-melting ice.

               The Ys navy is well-supplied with labor and resources it requires to project power to Palanquin and beyond.  It’s command structure resembles other sea powers, with ranks range form ordinary mariners to admirals; in fact, the admiralty is among the most powerful ranks a city-slave can aspire to, standing parallel to the Clerks of Working Order.  While assignment to a battle-ready frigate is dangerous, it’s nevertheless a coveted position for the sense of freedom it affords.

               Many sorcerer-princes revel in the opportunity to lead a trade expedition or naval campaign because it affords them a chance to ply their spellcraft under real-world circumstances.  They sail aboard flagships designed to their exacting aesthetics, stocked with alchemically preserved supplies and the finest crews.  Apprentice sorcerers after often attached  to missions to season them; it’s rare for any significant military action to be taken without at least one sorcerer’s personal support.

               And their support is truly invaluable.  Those who sail against the Ys find that forked lightning cleaves their masts in twain; obsidian butterflies shred their sails, and spirits of water, air and flame harry their crews.  When the Ys lay siege, sorcerer-princes shatter walls with sundering blasts and unleash demon raiders, not settling for anything less that unconditional surrender.  Whatever else they may be, the princes of Ysyr are rarely subtle.

Territories: Gralon and Beyond

               Attacking Ysyr is a fool’s errand.  Girded by mountains and warded by sorcery, the city is all but impregnable.  This safety emboldens the Ys to pursue aggressive expansion, brining the Dreaming Sea to heel by sail and spell alike.  When Palanquin finally bowed a century ago, Ysyre began suzerain fo the southern sea.  Now the sorcerer-princes set their sights on the rest, putting them in contention with other mighty stats like Volivat, Y’danna and Prasad.

               Ysyr and the magocracy have precious little interest in the affairs of backwater vassals, demanding tribute in exchange for relative autonomy.  This tribute is paid in goods and services alike, especially in contributing ships and sailors to the Ysyri navy.  In return, Ysyr provides protection and access to its markets and specialists, dispatching skilled slaves and clerks as consultants, problem-solvers or tutors.

               One prerogative the sorcerer-princes hold absolute over their vassals is the right to purchase any child who shows sorcerous potential.  While primarily to recruit promising apprentices, it also helps to keep vassals dependent on Ysyr for sorcerous power and serves as a convenient pretext for hostage-taking.  The errant Spear-Queen of Johhadim discovered this to her deep misfortune – six of her seven children were taken, though only one shows even the barest glimmer of sorcerous potential.

               While their primary concern is for the costal powers of the Dreaming Sea, Ysyr also exercises dominion for Gralon’s other peoples, most notably the walled city of Nysh, silk-draped Quru, and forested sister-kingdoms of Osamune and Osamitir.  All four – and a handful other minor powers besides – have pledged themselves to Ysyr.  While some rulers consider the relationship a uniquely warm one, others fume over tribute demands, wartime losses in military service to the empire, and reckless sorcerer-princes’ abuses.  They’re cousins to the Ys, sharing the same fair skin, ice-colored eyes, and love the sea.  Osa timber feeds Gralon’s shipyards; sailors from Nysh and Quru trade far and wide, flying Ysyr’s flag above their own.

               In addition to residences in Ysyr, most sorcerer-princes also raise palaces elsewhere in Gralon – on dizzying peaks, amid shadowy forests, and specially overlooking the sea.  Settlements quickly spring up nearby to supply them and their retinues – though not too near, especially for the more capricious and temperamental princes.

               Still, the island isn’t totally subjugated.  Defeated peoples retreated long ago into Gralon’s mountains, hills, swamps and forests.  There they eke out a living and raid settled lands, their old gods and ancestors battling demons and elementals that he sorcerer-princes raise against them.

 

NOTES: The island of Gralon is in the center of the Dreaming Sea, and in terms of area, is larger then the state of California.  Ysyr is in the center of it, in the heart of the Chalcedon Mountain range, with the town of Humility at the base of the mountain and the harbor-city of Kyn is the closest bay west from Ysyr.

Sorcery

Spoiler

               Sorcery is the art of shaping the Essence of the world itself, willing it into accordance with the sorcerer’s whims. To work sorcery is to command essential forces, consort with strange spirits, and call up impossible wonders.

               Sorcery is a mountaintop of enlightenment to which many paths lead. Most sorcerers are guided along their path by an instructor—promising young talents receive instruction from master sorcerers of the Realm at the Heptagram Academy, while others are taught by demons, elementals, or stranger things yet. A few sorcerers forge their own path—following contemplative or meditative disciplines that purify and enlighten the mind, mastering relics or domains of power, or seeking out lost libraries and ancient grimoires. All paths demand effort, dedication, and the willingness to abandon old views and deeply-held beliefs. Those who attain sorcerous enlightenment see the world through new eyes, gaining a deeper insight into the nature of all things.

Initiation

               While there is a common initiation for most Sorcerer’s of Ysyr, for any of the Ys, initiating to sorcery by their late teens or early twenties is enough to reach the ranks of Sorcerer-Prince, you managed it and are now one of the elites of your people.  The following are all acceptable paths.

Secrets of Ysyr Sorcery (from Across the Eight Directions)

• Many residents of Ysyr hold the spark of sorcerous potential – a blessing from the ancient engines of the Pinnacle.  That power thrums in their bones and their blood, waiting to be quickened into understanding.  Their sorcerous initiations reflect their sacred engines, the mutagenic Essence they absorb from birth, and their philosophy towards summoning and abjuration.
  • Sacred Core Concentration: The sorcerer condenses her Essence into a core — a supernatural organ that cycles power throughout her spirit, usually taking the form of a glowing mandala or gem over a major chakra. When she stunts her shape sorcery actions to highlight her core, she gains (stunt rating + 1) sorcerous motes. Foes can attack the core as a difficulty 4 gambit with (Wits + an appropriate combat ability); if they succeed, the sorcerer loses access to this ritual for the rest of the scene.
  • Twisting Form Trance: Harnessing dangerous mutagenic power, the sorcerer may add (Appearance+ Integrity) non-Charm dice to a shape sorcery action. In return, she suffers a gruesome but cosmetic transformation of the ST’s choice, inflicting a −3 penalty on social influence and disguise rolls.  She can’t use this shaping ritual again until after a night spent meditating, during which the sorcerer renews her body-perfecting workings to remove the transformation.
  • Soul-Slaking Transference: Tugging on the sorcerous tether that connects her to a bound demon, elemental, or raksha, the sorcerer gorges herself on her servant’s Essence. Once per scene, she may drain up to (her Willpower x 5) motes from a bound character who’s both materialized and at up to short range; she gains one sorcerous mote per five motes drained. The target is left enervated for the rest of the day, suffering a −2 exhaustion penalty and recovering Essence at half the normal rate.
• Beyond this,  the following are also acceptable
  • Main Book – Bargain with Mara, Pact with an Ifrit Lord, Scarred by Nightmares, Soul-Perfecting Elixir, The Talisman of Ten Thousand Eye
  • Fangs at the Gate – The Jasmine Gems of Mishiko, Root-Lore
  • Many Faced Strangers – Witch-Beast Pact, The Cloak of Forgotten Moonlight
  • Sorcerous Initiations / Itzhak Even (online collected player works generally considered accepted by many in the  online Exalted community, including game creators) - The Five Station Path, Past Life, Song of Creation, Covenant with the Sun (Solar only), Lunar Initiation (Lunar only), Battleforged Ascension, Enlightenment of the Imperfect Lotus (Martial Arts merit needed), Arms of the Chosen, The Salinan Working, etc.
  • NOTE: If you have an idea of your own, such as a Bargain with a different 2nd Circle Demon, God or Spirit, I will entertain whatever idea you have in mind, if it's suitably epic and fits your character.

 

House Rules

Spoiler

• Craft – There is only one Craft ability, specialties cover the details, when you first gain any dots in craft you get one specialty to represent your initial chosen craft for free.  A specialty in ‘artifacts’ is needed to create artifacts, and a second specialty fitting to the creation (such as ‘smith’ or ‘weaver’ or ‘glassblower’; or ‘jewel craft’) is needed in the type of artifact created.
• Experience – Players will gain 2 XP a week for regular posting, plus another 2 (Solar/Lunar/Exigent/Dragon-Blooded) XP by acting in a manner that would normally grant such for their Exalt type.  Another 4 is granted to all participating player characters with a completed thread/chapter. 
• To encourage your actions as Sorcerer-Princes, I will occasionally grant Sorcerous XP in addition to the above, this XP can only be used for Sorcerous Workings, developing Sorcerous Merits or learning Spells.  It will be earned by stunting spellcasting, spell workings, teaching apprentices, and basically acting as a Sorcerer-Prince.
• Merits and Flaws – Purchased Merits are sacrosanct, meaning that you can’t lose them, though story merits can be gained and lost based on your actions.
• Virtues – Together with intimacies, to better shape your character, select one major and one minor virtue from the list of; Ambition, Compassion, Courage, Discipline, Justice, Loyalty and Wonder
• Player Freedom – You are welcome and even encouraged to begin and run threads involving your character and other invited player characters, such threads gain the above XP when completed and should be something that further develops your story.  I reserve the right to intrude with interesting events within them, though I will discuss it with you privately first, but others should only do so on with an invitation.  Setting wide changes, such as becoming the such as  becoming Supreme God-Emperor of Ysyr or conquering part of Dreaming Sea, destroying a enemy fleet, for example, should only occur within main threads I have started, not a personal one, but this is where artifact crafting, downtime, spending XP and the like are encouraged to happen.
• Battlefield Growth – Exalted are exceptional, in combat, if you need a charm in a favored/caste ability/attribute that you don’t have but have met the prerequisites for you may develop it on the spot.  Celestial Exalts should draw on past live memories while Terrestrial Exalts should draw on elemental or divine based associations.   I expect stunting and a memory or association in italics for such things, you may go into experience dept if it’s an action taken to save a life, including your own.
• Missing Storyteller (or Players)  – As the Storyteller, I am committing to post at least once a week, hopefully more, though I will give all players a chance to respond to a thread before I continue it.  Presently my work week is off on Sundays and Mondays, though I do occasionally get called in those days.  If I am going to be unavailable for a period of time due to real life events I will let folks know, should it be a significant length of time, I grant the players the right to continue the story, by selecting a new temporary storyteller, though I might also grant someone secondary ST statis if I am going to be significantly busy.   I ask players who are unable to post to extend the same courtesy. 

Character Creation

Spoiler

You are a Sorcerer-Prince of Ysyr, meaning you were born in the city and gained sorcerous initiation at some point in your life, as a result all characters regardless of exalt type or cast gain the following for free, above and beyond whatever you normally ibn character creation.

• Terrestrial Circle Sorcery
  • The type of initiation is up to you, what fits your character path and description the best, you also gain the following spells as part of your apprenticeship - Demon of the First Circle, Summon Elemental, Infallible Messenger 
  • Plus one of the following – Death of Obsidian Butterflies, Flight of the Brilliant Raptor, Mists of Eventide, Wood Dragon’s Claw, Blood Lash, Thunder-Wolf’s Howl, Unslakable Thirst of the Devil-Man, The Violent Opening of Closed Portals 
  • And of course, your control spell (If your control spell is one of the above, then you may pick an additional spell.) 
• You will note this means you have at least five spells, Sorcery is heavily encouraged in Ysyr, you should have several more, but I am willing to discuss the details with the player.  
• You also get the following merits for free, since I am requiring you to be one of the sorcerer-princes of Ysyr.  You may, and even are encouraged to increase these, but these are the minimum to match your status, having just this makes you a very minor sorcerer-prince, so you will want to add a few things.  
  • Influence 2 (Ysyr Sorcerer-Prince), Followers 1 (Ysyr Sorcerer-Prince Retainers), Resources 3 (Ysyr Sorcerer-Prince), Languages 2 (Native: Ys) [Old Realm + Flametongue or Forest-tongue]

Requirements

• Minimums
  • Occult 3, Linguistics 1, Lore 3, Sail 1, Intelligence 3, Appearance 3 (all Ysyr Sorcerers use sorcerous Workings to perfect their appearance) & Willpower of at least 7,, this you have to spend your starting points in.
  • Occult must be one of your caste or favored abilities for ability focused exalts, Intelligence must be one of your caste or favored for attribute focused exalts.
• Links – Solar and Lunar players are encouraged to have their characters have a bond between them, consider how you want this to work.  Ysyr is extremely insular, they haven’t accepted an outsider sorcerer into the ranks of princes in centuries, though they have appointed them to other lesser posts, but marriage to a Sorcerer-Prince (or Princess) is one way around that if both players are willing.  Beyond that, the others should be related in some way or another, half-siblings, cousins, etc. 
• Please read the above details about Ysyr before submitting a character, you will find justification for just about any merit, even mutations, though as a Sorcerer-Prince any mutations you kept should be altered to be subtle
• If a caste or aspect is favored below, that means I will not entertain any other exalt caste or aspect until those are filled.
• Creation NOTES: The Ys are fair skinned with ice-colored eyes, but mutations mean they have more variety a dalliance in Humility with a diplomat might produce a different appearance, and Sorcerer-Princes use workings to change their appearance to suit their ideas of beauty, so ebony skin with golden eyes and emerald colored hair is not impossible. 

Available Characters

• Solar (Twilight & Eclipse favored) – You exalted due to some heroic action, as a twilight perhaps you manage to repair one of the sorcerous engines under the city, uncovered a sorcerous mystery, or you managed a amazing diplomatic act involving spirits of one kind or another, in essence a greatly heroic acti of some kind,  Use the Experienced Solar (Essence 2, 13 dots of merits, 20 charms, 18 bonus points).  A chosen of the Unconquered Sun, a hero reborn, you have potential far beyond the other Sorcerer-Princes, were will you lead them?
  • NOTE: Solar’s automatically gain an Excellency for each Caste and Favored Ability in which they possess at least one dot, as well as any Ability for which they have learned at least one Charm. This costs no experience points during play and does not count against starting Charms at character creation.  Since Occult is a caste ability for Eclipses and Twilights, it can also be supernal, which is best for a sorcerer, but several other abilities are also good as supernal for a Sorcerer-Prince of Ysyr (Bureaucracy, Craft, Linguistics, Lore, Presence, Sail & Socialize), though Medicine, Investigation,
  • I will allow an Eclipse to swap out up to 2 of your starting charms with the Eclipse keyword from the Main Book or Adversaries of the Righteous or Hundred Devil’s Night Parage, & Many Faced Strangers has several under Invoking the Animal Avatar celestial circle spell that Eclipses can learn.  Ask for details if you want to do this.  The most useful from the main book Is likely Seductive Shapechange, though there are quite a few more within those three books.
  • Twilights may start with elemental familiars per the Twilight anima power, up to 2 due to having Essence 2. Such Familiars exist by virtue of your caste and are not protected by the sanctity of merits, but is something happens to the, since you have summon elemental, they are easily replaced.  Buying the Familiar merit can be used to have more (or other kinds of) such familiars, or to have a more permanent relationship with an elemental familiar.  Merit purchased familiars don’t count against your limit.
• Lunar (no Moon favored) – You were chosen by Luna, she came to you in the dark of night, questioned you and tested you, then left you as your spirit shape came to you and you shapeshifted.   Another lunar was guided to meet you and you pasted the tests which ended with your moonsilver tattoos.  You have learned more forms and returned to Ysyr with capabilities that outshine the other Sorcerer-Princes, what will you do with it?
  • NOTE: Lunars automatically gain the Excellency of each of their Caste and Favored Attributes they have at 3+, or for which they know at least one Charm. For each other Attribute, they must either have it rated at 5 or know two Charms to unlock its Excellency.
  • You should consider multiple forms, your shapeshifting is one thing that greatly differentiates you from other Sorcerer-Princes, and offers a lot of options, both beast and humanoid.  A flying form, a swimming form and a mountain climbing form are the least you may want.
• Exigent (Architect of Ysyr favored) – You were chosen by the city god of Ysyr and by Wun Ja, Goddess of the Shinning Metropolis, She Who Hath Laid Ten Thousand Bricks.  Why you were chosen for this, only you and the gods know what actions you took that were needed to protect your city, but you love Ysyr (must take that as one of your intimacies).  How will you watch over your chosen city?
  •  Foundation Attributes of Ysyr: Appearance, Intelligence, Stamina
  • Merit: Architect of the Tower Arcane – Innate (0) – gain Terrestrial Circle Sorcery for free and can take Celestial Circle Sorcery at Essence 3 (NOTE: I am already granting TCS for free, so gain an extra spell)
    • NOTE: You must sacrifice one of the above Foundational Attributes to take the Architect of the Tower Arcane, but it can’t be Intelligence. You still get all 3 anima powers regardless of which one you sacrificed, select 2 caste attributes and 1 favored attribute (so you still might still end up with all  3), you get 2 excellencies from your caste/favored attributes for free, all others must be purchased normally.
  • Magical Material: Adamant 
  • You start with Essence 2, 13  merits, 20 charms, and 18 freebies.  As a further note, Architects don’t age at all within the boundaries of their home city, and age about a  1/3 human rate otherwise, even without further sorcerous workings to extend your lifespan.  The town of Humility below, the vast regions under the citie, the broken towers, they all count as part of the city
    • NOTE: Architects are terrestrial exalts, though Architect of the Tower Arcane straddles the border, and even if you don't buy it, the City God will be an ally, though without the merit he/she won't be all that involved with you.
• Dragon Blooded Outcast (Air Aspect favored) – Your mother was once one of the attendants within Humility that dallied with one of the diplomates within the town at the base of Ysyr, who was one of the Dragon-Blooded, you exalted as a teen, and your teachers trained you to your present standing.  You were born to power, what new dynastic bloodline will you bring to Ysyr?
  • NOTE: Unlike the Solar Exalted, the Dragon-Blooded don’t have generic Excellencies. Instead, each Ability has its own Excellency Charm. At character creation, a Dragon-Blood gains five Excellencies from any of her Aspect or Favored Abilities for free; the rest must be purchased normally.
  • You start with Essence 2, 13 merits, 20 charms, and 18 freebies.
  • NOTE: As a terrestrial among celestials Exalts, your not quite as powerful as some of the others, I am also willing to allow you to take Allies to represent other Dragon-Blooded born from the same situation you did, they would all be younger apprentices, and might even be siblings or half-siblings, you still have to spend the point for the merits.  A five dot jade artifact which you are resonant to can also mitigate this in some ways, I will discuss it with the player if they are interested.

 

 

There you have it, the books for all fo the above are out and I have them as pdf files, I imagine so do others, if I get at least 2-3 players, I will run this, so we shall see.

Edited Monday at 07:41 AM by Krul

[Nina]

Which version are you using?

 

[Krul]

Full version of 3E, though the house rules shift it somewhat, though I may simplify combat and crafting if it becomes too cumbersome.  

[Shameless]

Twilight Caste Solar for me.

[Krul]

I know Nina is looking at the options still, but that's 2 so it's enough run the game, maybe will get a few more, but will start the club in the next few days.

Edited Monday at 02:29 PM by Krul

[Nina]

hmmm getting a strong Melnibone vibe here or maybe the Vadragh/Nadragh from the first corum series. regarless defeinatly getting a Morrcock kind of vibe.  I think i am getting some inspiration...

 

If I can figure out CC I will go with the architect.

 

[Krul]

The Architect is yours then, provisionally.  As to the Michael Moorcock vibe, yes, very much so, it was part of the reason I was inspired to run a game here.  

Also, I should likely include this Terrestial Circle Spell as it's unique to Ysyr

 

Binding of Encircling Iron
Cost: 12sm, 2wp
Duration: Special
Keywords: Psyche
Devised fifty years ago by a rare coalition of Ys sorcerers,

this spell has allowed Ysyr’s princes to add Fair
Folk slaves to the demons and elementals who toil in
their city. The air vibrates with the song of hammer on
anvil as blazing Essence condenses around the target.
With a forceful gesture, the sorcerer wills the Essence
to condense, becoming molten iron. This spell can be
cast on a raksha or other creature of the Wyld at up
to medium range, rolling (Wits + Occult) against (the
higher of the target’s Resolve or Essence).

If she succeeds, the iron band condenses around the
raksha, becoming a crown, collar, or other ring of
her choice; these bindings are unique to the sorcer-
er, covered in symbols that resonate with her soul. The
bindings are completely indestructible to the captured
creature, but others may damage them as if they were
artifacts.

A bound creature develops a Defining Tie of loyalty
to the sorcerer for a year and a day; this tie cannot
be weakened or altered by any means. At the end
of this term, the iron binding falls off and the raksha
disappears, reappearing in the nearest place of
safety at some point in the next three days.

Sorcerers who know Binding of Encircling Iron as their
control spell can cause their Wyld servants to demate-
rialize into their own bindings. Sorcerer-princes in Ysyr
use these as a way of counting coup, ornamenting
themselves with ogre-torques and lorelei-bangles. In
this state, the target has only a dim awareness of the
outside world, but can still be influenced by the sor-
cerer, reducing his Resolve by 2. With a thought, the
sorcerer may force a raksha to materialize from within
the binding, which reappears on the servant’s form.

Distortion (Goal Number: 9): A rival sorcerer
may loosen the binding, reducing the target’s Tie
towards the sorcerer to Minor for (Essence) minutes.

 

The following is included in terms of mechanics for the ST to consider, and there are Fair Folk in the Dreaming Sea, so the prevalence is significant, if you have this spell, I would allow what is below.

• The Storyteller can allow a binding to happen offscreen, requiring several hours or days of work, depending on the local prevalence of Wyld creatures. Targets with high Essence, bodyguards, or other forms of protection always require on-screen capture. Powerful creatures (Essence 4+) cannot be bound unless the characters undertake a suitably arduous quest to discover some hither-to unknown weakness or some other suitably difficult task at the Storyteller’s discretion.

Edited Monday at 10:53 PM by Krul

[Veral]

Color me intrigued. Looks and sounds interesting, but I haven't done Exalted before. I'll look at the system and decide if I want to take the challenge/chance up.

[Krul]

Your welcome to put your hat into the ring, feel free message me for anything extra you want ot know.