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View Full Version : The Twin Divine Daiklaives (Exalted 2e, PEACH)



Cyborg Mage
2011-01-30, 08:07 AM
Chryikan, the Blade of Death Beyond Death
Artifact N/A

The history of the Underworld is a long one. From the immemorial days of the Primordial War, the Neverborn fell into the endless darkness, their raw essence blackened and twisted into a terrible half-existence, radiating out and forming the bleak and dead landscape of the underworld. And there they remain, dreaming and anticipating the blissful peace of utter destruction. But they are not without servants. Their black essence draws the souls of mortals to join their endless unlife; immortal and tortured, but fully concious and active. And from the greatest of these souls, some still pulsing with the almighty power of Ignis Divine, each would come to pluck their champion, and they were born unto anti-life as the Deathlords, and they would serve as the Neverborn's eyes and ears in Creation-and the blade at its neck. But for all their might, the Deathlords were nigh useless outside the necrotic essence of the underworld, or where it leaked into Creation. The Deathlords acted indirectly for a time; the Great Contagion, for one, but it became clear the Neverborn needed a more direct approach; beings able to both rival the Deathlords in power and operate in both worlds.

They looked to what was once their undoing, the Solars, and saw now not the mighty champions they once were, but prisoners- their shards bound and weak, with only their own humility to remind them of the outside world. They saw an opportunity, an excrutiatingly ironic opportunity-to make Creation's doom from its saviors. And thus the Jade Prison was shattered, and from the wreckage the Neverborn clasped seven-score and ten of the Unconquered Sun's mightiest servants; fifty were claimed by their living bretheren, while those that remained were remade; where there was heroism there is now malevolence, where there was once virtue there is now hatred- the Abyssal Exalted were born.

In the earliest days of their existence, the Abyssals enjoyed a much greater degree of freedom than in modern times- they were expected to remain loyal to their Deathlord masters and the Neverborn, nothing more was truly asked of them and nothing to force their obedience. It was this true freedom, however, that would soon strike back at the Neverborn. A single power-mad Dusk Caste learned of his former Solar nature, and came under the impression that if the Solars were superior to the Primordials in Creation, the Abyssals were superior to the Neverborn in the Underworld. And so he gathered an army to seize true power; that he may rule the Underworld, Creation and Yu-Shan as his deluded birthright. Legions of ghosts unclaimed by the Deathlords, menacing and dark machines of war and several of his fellow Abyssals. They knew the Deathlords were too preoccupied, and the Neverborn too far in slumber, to notice the seemingly uncoordinated movement of small groups, of scattered battalions and disassembled weapons. It was only when they reached the gates of the Labrynth that anything was noticed.

They were terrifyingly efficient. Defeated ghosts were enslaved or forged into weapons, and the Labrynth itself was being shaped to speed their conquest and halt their masters. By the time they reached the Neverborns' palace, they were double in number and triple in armament. Here however, the Neverborn and the Void were at their apex-where they had once been powerless to stop them they now struck down entire regiments in a single movement; dropped leigons into the Void and turned Bonestriders to dust. But they pressed on, mad promise and fury in their minds. Ultimately, the rebel was reduced to his closest advisors and a handful of his elite troops. But that was all that was needed. They stood before the progenitors of existence and masters of undeath. He saw power. He seized power. When the Deathlords arrived, they found only a single daiklaive, a seemingly formless and unreal item, in a completely empty chamber. Some say that the rebels gave their own souls into this artifact; others that he dared to wield it against another Neverborn, but one thing was clear- one of their masters and been forged into this blade.

{table]Speed 4|Accuracy +6|Damage +35L/15A|Defense +7|Rate 4|Min: Str 4, Ess 5|Attune 12|Tags: P[/table]
(Does not factor material bonuses.)

Charms:
Darkness Defies Steel: Although technically Soulsteel in game mechanics, Chryikan is... different. Instead of dark metal, Chryikan is made of a quasi-solid black fog; huge ammounts of necrotic essence focused into semi-materiality. Any attempt to parry an attack made with this sword with a normal weapon automatically fails, unless wished otherwise by the wielder; even an artifact weapon requires the parrying character to spend 5 motes of essence to hold the sword in a solid form while parrying. The user cannot take damage through effects that would superheat the weapon, cause it to conduct electricity etc. It is always a strange, indefinable cold- not simply a low temperature, but a lack of any connection to heat or cold. It is like holding pure nothingness.
Birth Only Through Death: Chryikan is death essence. Even magical metal fails to compare to its power and material-and its supressed intelligence. Although the artifact's source Neverborn still exists in its dark, quasi-real core, its awareness and willpower are even further diminished by its trapping within the blade. The sword does not posses a Sapience rating, but its subconsious desire for destruction still manifests. Any non-Abyssal who attempts to attune Chryikan instantly loses 10 motes of essence (In addition to the 12 commited for attunement), rolls a d10 and subtracts the result from their willpower as the Neverborn within attempts to exert its sentience and power over the fool. The character also gains an equal ammount of Limit, if applicable. Alchemicals do not gain Clarity or Dissonance, and Infernals gain Torment only if (sucessfully) attuning the blade would have furthered their Urge in the short term. An Abyssal may spend 10 motes to inflict this upon a target as a charm effect, although this can only be used every 12 ticks. The Abyssal cannot take any other action on the tick they use this effect.
True Undeath: It is the Neverborn who pulled the first ghosts from the reincarnation system, and that holds true even while imprisioned in this Daiklaive. Any character killed by this blade rises again in 24 hours as a nephwrack, automatically given an Intimacy to serve whoever wields the sword.
Soul of The Unborn: As mentioned before, the Neverborn still exists within this blade, its dreams reverberating within while its power spills out into its edge. While attuned, the Abyssal is considered to have Whispers 5, and once per scene spend 5 motes to add (10-Resonance) dice to all attack and damage rolls made with this sword. However, if they are not carrying out orders directly from the Neverborn (Through Whispers is acceptable), they gain one point of resonance every day they remain attuned to the weapon.
Death Made Edged: A Neverborn's power simply defies life and death. They do not re-incarnate, nor do they truly die. Their necrotic essence fades life itself around it. Any target hit by the blade must roll (Essence+Resistance) or suffer an additional (Wielder's Essence) Lethal damage, or half that ammount as aggrivated damage. Additionally, every attack from this blade that hits the target permanently removes one health level, starting from the -0 levels. This effect cannot remove all health levels on a given penalty; the target always retains one health level on each penalty.
Will of the Underworld: Even when forged into a blade, the power of the Neverborn over death is undisputed. Their very presence shatters the system of reincarnation, and plucks the pieces to fill their own ranks. For a cost of 15 motes, a character may reanimate all corpses within (EssenceX20) yards until the end of the scene, at which point any corpse still animated by this charm's effect dissolves into necrotic essence and is absorbed into the underworld. A character may spend 20 motes to raise only five corpses within (EssenceX10) yards, but these corpses are considered Dusk Caste, Essence 3 Abyssals with melee 4, resistance 6, athletics and dodge 1 access to any melee and resistance charms they meet the requirement for (With the exception of Ox-Body Technique) and a Soulsteel daiklaive, which also dissolves at the end of the scene or if disarmed. These corpses cannot use the Dusk anima ability, and are still considered zombies for any charm that makes the distinction.
Black Blood: Essence is raw power, but life itself provides many metaphysical energies as well. Once per scene, an Abyssal may deal up to 5 lethal, unsoakable health levels of damage to himself, the blood falling into the blade's foggy matricies and vanishing into its heart, and spend 15 motes to deal 2.5 times that damage, still unsoakable, to all living targets (Other Abyssals are considered nonliving) within 25 yards. The damage dealt to the wielder claims not only a part of his blood but a part of his soul- the damage dealt takes twice as long to heal and cannot be healed supernaturally.

PEACH time. The second daiklaive will be up sometime in the coming week.

Primal Fury
2011-01-30, 12:51 PM
How does Darkness Defies Steel interact with perfect parries?

Cyborg Mage
2011-01-30, 01:04 PM
Still need to pay five motes, but otherwise they work normally.

Primal Fury
2011-01-30, 01:16 PM
Mmm... I don't think it's supposed to work like that. If a character being attacked by this blade pays the cost for the perfect parry, but not the cost imposed by Darkness Defies Steel (likely through ignorance), then the parry fails, thus breaking the law of UFvIO that Exalted is built upon.

Cyborg Mage
2011-01-30, 01:21 PM
For errata purposes, such an action will have its undo button pressed as not to break the universe the rules.

Arcanoi
2011-01-31, 12:57 AM
So strong it's almost pointless, really. Enemies with this weapon will kill your PCs, PCs with this weapon will kill everything.

Cyborg Mage
2011-01-31, 12:08 PM
I think this is one of those projects that will at least start out that way. Any suggestions?

Arcanoi
2011-01-31, 12:18 PM
I think this is one of those projects that will at least start out that way. Any suggestions?

Speed 6, Acc +3, Damage 25L/15A, Defense +3, Rate 3. Rest of the stats are fine.

Drop Darkness Defies Steel. It's simply broken. True Undeath should be downgraded to Hungry Ghosts as opposed to Nephwracks. Black Blood should simply be "The wielder can spend 5 motes to kill all extras within 25 yards".

Cyborg Mage
2011-01-31, 12:29 PM
Thanks. But as for DDS, how about downgrading it to simply un-parryable by non-artifact weapons and still unaffected by effects causing damage through the blade? And should we apply True Undeath to targets killed by Black Blood?