Isidoros, Nemesis of Destiny! [Exalted][Yozi+Infernal Charms]

[The Demented One]

Isidoros, The Black Boar That Twists The Skies

Isidoros embodies the defiance of Fate, the absence of causation and reason. The knowledge that the Loom of Fate now presides over all of Creation, the world which he helped create, burns away at his infinitely vast hear, stoking his futile rage. Some believe that his rampage through the Silver Forest, Szorney, is an outpouring of this pent-up wrath. Ceaselessly, he devours the trees and life of the Silver Forest, seeking to transform it into something that it is not–a futile task, as Isidoros must know, but the only thing he has done since being banished to Malfeas.

Isidoros’s nature is that of a whirling black maelstrom, an irresistible, all-consuming force. He is called the Black Boar for he is always shrouded in darkness, as not even light itself can escape from his devouring maw. Isidoros’s futile labor has thus far kept him from turning his mind to the Reclamation, although the Ebon Dragon wonders what might be achieved if he could win over the Black Boar. Though he has no Green Sun Princes to call his own, a handful of Akuma serve him, and some Princes have learned to channel his destiny-defying power.

Urges and Torment

None of the Green Sun Princes bear the Urge of Isidoros, nor do they risk his Torment. However, the Ebon Dragon more and more considers stealing shards anew to be warped by the Black Boar, and has pondered what their nature might be.

Isidoros’ Urge is that of defiance. It calls to upset established order, throw hierarchy into disarray, and cast the world into chaos. He sees any attempt at creating law or justice as an echo of the tyranny of fate, and hungers to see all such mandates overthrown.

Isidorian Princes, were they to be fashioned, would blaze with revolutionary passion. High-Compassion Princes would seek to overthrow tyranny, freeing the common folk from the oppression of the elites (if only to lead them under the rightful rule of the Primordials, the one order that Isidoros can tolerate). High-Conviction Princes would seek to overthrow the establishment wherever it contradicts the vagaries of their personal morality. High-Temperance Princes would seek out and destroy hierarchies that enable the hypocrisy or indulgence of the elite. High-Valor Princes would seek to lead direct armed conflict with military hierarchies, challenging their leaders to single combat.

Isidoros’s Torment, were any Green Sun Prince to feel it, would prove itself much more strange and terrible than that of his fellows. When an Infernal with an Isidorian Urge accumulates 10 points of Limit, they suffer the Torment of Isidoros. For the next day, their life is strange and surreal, as if Fate itself were shattered by their very presence. This is identical to the side effects of the Sidereal Wrapped Fly Ritual (Manual of Exalted Power: The Sidereals, page 209). In addition, any individuals that represent intimacies of the Infernal of which the Yozi disapproves also suffer these reality-warping effects.

Act of Villainy

Isidoros’s act of villainy is the True Chaos Stratagem. Whenever an Infernal devises a plan purely by random chance–deciding whether to kill or spare a foe with a flip of a coin, for example–the Prince’s player may roll the character’s Valor, reducing the character’s Limit by one point per success. A player may only do so once per session. However, if an Infernal devises a plan by random chance but then does not follow through with it, or does the alternative, then he instead gains one Limit.

Isidoros’s Excellencies
Isidoros possess all the standard Yozi excellencies: 1st (Yozi) Excellency, 2nd (Yozi) Excellency, (Yozi) Mythos Exultant, (Yozi) Inevitability Technique, Effortless (Yozi) Dominance, and So Speaks (Yozi). His 1st Excellency and Mythos Exultant Charms work as follows:

1st Isidoros Excellency

Isidoros is reckless, implacable, and never changes from his course. He exults in undoing well-laid plans and besting enemies who rely on tactical brilliance. He despises Fate and the Sidereal Exalted, and values his freedom above all else. He attacks with overwhelming strength in one-on-one combat, always thinking only of the present.

Characters may apply this Charm to actions in which they act without planning or against the expectations of others–save for when he forms plans by random chance. Actions that defy established order or seem to have no logical cause benefit from it. Any extended forethought or well-reasoned tactical planning beyond the present moment negates the opportunity for enhancement.

Isidoros Mythos Exultant

Isidoros defies the odds, seizing victory from the jaws of defeat. Whenever the Infernal succeeds on a stunt, they may forgo the mote or willpower reward. If they do so, they may bank a single use of Mythos Fate, representative of Isidoros' reality-warping power. After rolling any dice pool, they may expend a point of willpower and a banked use of Mythos Fate in order to warp reality, turning every failure they rolled into a success, and vice versa. 1's become 10's, granting two successes, and 10's become 1's. This can only affect dice pools that they actually roll; it cannot enhance static values such as DVs. If used to invert successes on an attack roll, the use of Mythos Fate occurs during step 4, as if it were a reroll.

Isidoros Charms

Reckless Devastation
Cost: 1m per die
Mins: Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None

Isidoros cultivates no notion of strategy; reckless brutality is his only tactic. This Charm may enhance any Melee or Martial Arts attack. The Infernal may forgo a number of dice from the attack roll up to his Essence, spending one mote for every die given up. If the attack hits, he gains one automatic success on the damage roll for every die given up.

Brutality of the Unmatched Beast
Cost: – (+3m)
Mins: Essence 2
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Reckless Devastation

The Black Boar has no notion of restraint or mercy–he deals out only fatal wounds. This Charm permanently enhances Reckless Devastation, allowing the Infernal to spend an additional three motes whenever he uses it. If he does, then the bonus successes on his damage roll cannot be soaked by natural soak or armor (although soak from Charms can still negate them). In addition, a character damaged by the attack is automatically knocked down. If an attack enhanced by this Charm hits an Extra, do not roll damage–instead, the Extra automatically dies in a grotesque display of the Infernal’s choosing.

Unlimbered Tusks of Adamant
Cost: 5m, 1wp
Mins: Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Brutality of the Unmatched Beast

With a surge of Primordial essence, an Infernal can sheathe an arm in living adamant, granting him the unholy strength of Isidoros. The Infernal no longer needs to spend Essence in order to use Reckless Devastation, although he can still only forgo a number of dice equal to his Essence, and doing so counts as Charm use. In addition, whenever he does forgo dice with Reckless Devastation, he may also gain the added effect of Brutality of the Unmatched Beast for only one mote.

Battle Maiden’s Downfall
Cost: 2m
Mins: Essence 2
Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Reckless Devastation

Even the mightiest of the Exalted find themselves powerless against Isidoros. His all-devouring hunger drains away even the very Essence from their attacks. This Charm negates any dice added by Charms to an attack roll against the Infernal.

Sky-Twisting Geometries
Cost: 3m
Mins: Essence 2
Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Battle Maiden’s Downfall

The Black Boar Who Twists The Skies is unassailable by any mortal arms–his majesty shatters space itself, making it impossible for any weapon to strike him. This Charm allows the Infernal to dodge any attack, even a normally undodgeable one, as long as it is not unexpected. This Charm suffers from the Imperfection of the Unstable Vortex: Every time an Infernal invokes it, he suffers a single level of unsoakable bludgeoning damage.

Who Dares Defy Me?
Cost: – (1m)
Mins: Essence 2
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Counterattack
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Sky-Twisting Geometries

Isidoros cannot conceive that a mere mortal might dare to attack him. His disbelief is so powerful that weapons shatter against its force. This Charm permanently enhances Sky-Twisting Geometries. Whenever he invokes it, the Infernal may spend an extra mote to not only shatter space around him, but to create a whirling vortex. If the attack was made with a mundane weapon, it is drawn into the vortex and destroyed. Artifact weapons are not destroyed, but take a penalty to their base damage equal to half the Infernal’s Essence. This penalty is cumulative, but cannot reduce an artifact weapon’s base damage below 1.

When used to block an unarmed attack, this Charm instead damages the attacker. Mortals are mutilated, the limb they used to make the attack absorbed into the vortex, permanently lost. Exalted combatants instead take a single level of unsoakable lethal damage, only wounded by the vortex.

Bow Before Isidoros
Cost: 4m
Mins: Essence 3
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Sorcerous
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Reckless Devastation

Isidoros’s presence draws all things to him, and nothing can escape his irresistible force–not even the light of the Unconquered Sun. This Charm enhances a single Melee or Martial Arts attack, allowing the Infernal to draw distant foes to himself with invisible force. The Infernal may make the attack against any enemy within (Essence x 8) yards. That enemy is drawn by an irresistible force to the Infernal’s location, after which the Infernal makes the attack. If the enemy has an Essence equal to or greater than the Infernals, they may attempt a (Strength + Athletics) check, at a difficulty of the Infernal’s Essence, to resist being pulled.

All Things End In Blood
Cost: 12m, 1wp
Mins: Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: One Scene
Prerequisite Charms: Bow Before Isidoros

Saturn, the Maiden of Endings, sees to it that all things die in their divinely ordained time–but none shall know the hour of Isidoros’ wrath, and those who fall beneath his wrath are lost to Saturn. Of such slaughter she may know nothing, save for one inevitability–all who stand against Isidoros die. When an Infernal uses this Charm, he designates a single enemy he can see as his nemesis. For the duration of the scene, any time he attacks this chosen enemy with a Melee or Martial Arts attack, he may spend three motes. If the attack would miss, it instead hits, and is treated as having 0 additional successes (this does not bypass perfect defenses). However, if you enhance an attack with this Charm, then any reflexive charm you activate until your next action tick costs an additional point of Willpower–the Infernal must actively resist the urge for all-out massacre that using this Charm entails. An Infernal may designate only one chosen nemesis at a time with this Charm.

Inevitable Confrontation Kata
Cost: –
Mins: Essence 4
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: All Things End In Blood

When the children of Isidoros wish for bloodshed, none can escape them. Like nightmares, they pursue their victims to the very ends of Creation. This Charm permanently enhances All Things In Blood. While they have it invoked, the Infernal may spend a single mote as a simple action (speed 5, DV -0) to teleport to the side of their chosen nemesis, as long as he is within (8 x Essence) yards of them. In addition, if the chosen enemy ever uses a Charm or other ability that allows them to teleport or otherwise supernaturally travel (such as Avoidance Kata), the Infernal may reflexively spend at least 5 motes, up to a total of (5 x Essence) motes, to negate that Charm. The enemy may still use that Charm unhindered if they spend one willpower for every 5 motes the Infernal spent (but not any smaller fraction).

Unyielding Siege of Steel
Cost: 8m
Mins: Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Reckless Devastation

No wall or fortification offers refuge when the Black Boar rampages across the world, nor can any armor preserve its bearer from the wrath of the Green Sun Princes. The Infernal makes an attack that targets both an enemy and his armor. For every level of damage dealt to the enemy, the bashing and lethal soak (but not hardness) of their armor is reduced by one (this reduction occurs in step 10 of attack resolution, so the armor uses its full soak value against the attack). Mundane armor remains damaged until it is repaired; artifact armors regain their full soak values at the end of the scene. The reduction in soak from this Charm is cumulative, and a mundane armor whose soak is reduced to 0 is destroyed (although artifact armors cannot be destroyed by it). This Charm cannot reduce natural soak.

Unbinding the Black Boar’s Heart
Cost: 3m, 1wp
Mins: Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Obvious, Sorcerous
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: None

Creation’s mundane gravity is a mere echo of the all-powerful aura of Isidoros, a feeble attempt at mimicking his grandeur. His children defy this mere imitation, known as they are to the true force that it is but a shadow of. The Infernal treats the direction of “down” as subjective to his own orientation, allowing him to walk up walls or across ceilings as if they were level ground. This does not let the Infernal levitate or otherwise ignore difficult terrain, but they can perform all manner of gravity-defying stunts.

Shattered Constellation Horoscope
Cost: 10m, 1wp
Mins: Essence 2
Type: Simple (Dramatic Action)
Keywords: Shaping, Sorcerous
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: None

Isidoros gloried in the breaking of the Mask, watching as Fate began to unravel and twist in Creation. His Infernal children can take advantage of Creation’s damaged Fate to conceal themselves from mortal memory. This Charm grants the Infernal the effects of the Sidereal’s Arcane Fate. This grants him immunity to the Arcane Fate of other Sidereals–but they are not immune to his.

At Essence 3, this Charm can be used to affect another character, in which case it gains the Touch keyword. The character cannot have an Essence greater than that of the Infernal, and if they are unwilling, the Infernal must roll (Intelligence + Occult), at a difficulty of the character’s Essence.

At Essence 4, this Charm can extend the Arcane Fate to an entire social unit, at a cost of an additional 15 motes. He must either lead the social group of successfully touch the group’s leader. The leader cannot have an Essence greater than that of the Infernal, and if they are unwilling, the Infernal must roll (Intelligence + Occult), at a difficulty of the unit’s Magnitude plus the leader’s Essence. If used on a social unit, each member must have the Charm dispelled individually; dispelling it from one member does not affect any others.

Threads On Another Loom
Cost: –
Mins: Essence 3
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Shattered Constellation Horoscope

Within the infinitely vast heart of Isidoros, their lies a dark twin to the Loom of Fate, upon which every being that dwells outside of Fate is marked by a single strand. However, the Black Boar despises the tyranny of predestination, and thus all strands upon his Loom are spun, measured, and cut only by their own volition. His favored Infernals are marked on this dark Loom by threads of glistening Malfean brass, and only they have authority to have new threads fashioned for the Creation-born. This Charm permanently enhances the Infernal’s Shattered Horoscope Constellation Charm. Whenever they use it, they may spend an additional 10 motes and 1 willpower to instead remove the Charm’s target from Fate. The Sidereal Exalted alone are immune to this effect.

No More Heroes
Cost: 10m, 1wp
Mins: Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Fate, Obvious, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Shattered Constellation Horoscope

It is the nature of Isidoros to unravel fates, to undo destiny. With but a touch, he can strip a glorious destiny from a hero, leaving him barely a man. This Charm allows an Infernal to unravel a mortal or Exalt’s destiny. If used against an Extra, it automatically kills them, the thread of their destiny irrevocably snapping. If used against a Heroic Mortal, they become an Extra, their heroic fate stripped away (however, they cannot be killed by a futher use of this Charm). The Exalted are only partially hindered by this Charm–even Isidoros cannot destroy their shards of exaltation. However, they lose the ability to use excellencies or to regain willpower (but not motes) from stunts for the rest of the scene.

Ravishing the Maidens
Cost: 5m, 1wp
Mins: Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Obvious, Touch
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Shattered Constellation Horoscope

Isidoros both hates and lusts for the Maidens–if he had his druthers, he would consume them utterly, at once annihilating them and becoming one with them. For now, he satisfies himself with the masturbatory pleasure of corrupting their work,undoing what Fate has wrought. With this Charm, the Infernal touches a single character, and learns all ascending or descending destinies that have been laid on them (though not any resplendent destinies). They may then choose one and attempt to negate it, rolling (Intelligence + Occult) at a difficult of the (Essence + College) of the destiny’s creator. If the Infernal succeeds, then that destiny’s effects are negated for as long as the Infernal keeps the Essence committed.

A second purchase at Essence 4 allows the Infernal to grant this Charm the Sorcerous keyword, at the cost of 5 additional motes. He does not have to commit the Essence spent, and the destiny is negated until the Charm is dispelled (the countermagic must be cast on the target of the destiny).

Forceful Seduction of the Stars
Cost: –
Mins: Essence 4
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Ravishing the Maidens

Isidoros does not merely unravel the strands of Fate–he twists and reweaves them, warping the nature of cause and effect to destroy all reason and purpose of the world. This Charm permanently enhances Ravishing the Maidens. Whenever the Infernal uses it, he may spend an additional willpower to subvert the destiny, rather than simply negating it. A subverted destiny has its providence reversed for the duration: an Artless Prodigy Blessing becomes a Sloped-Floor Curse; a Blissful Idiot Blessing becomes a Ruin Without Failure Curse; a Hound-Chases-Rabbit Blessing becomes a Heart-Piercing Curse; a Fortified Spirit Blessing becomes a Name-Destroying Curse; and vice versa.

Ten Thousand Faces
Cost: 5m
Mins: Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Fate, Sorcerous, Touch
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Ravishing the Maidens

Just as Isidoros consumes all things, so do his children consume the selves and destinies of Creation’s lowly mortals to conceal themselves. By using this Charm on another character, the Infernal can consume and devour their name. Only the Infernal can speak, think, or write that person’s name with specific reference to them, although the victim, any character who had an intimacy (whether positive or negative), or any character whose Essence is greater than yours can spend one point of Willpower to ignore this restriction for one scene.

In addition, an Infernal has consumed a mortal’s identity, he can forge it into a resplendent destiny. The Storyteller determines which colleges the stolen identity corresponds to enough to be made into a resplendent destiny of, and the Infernal chooses which college to use. They do not make a prayer roll or effect roll to create the resplendency; instead, the Infernal rolls their (Essence + Occult); the number of successes is the Endurance of the resplendent destiny, minimum one. The duration of the resplendent destiny is indefinite, ending only if its Endurance is exhausted or if this Charm is dispelled. The resplendent destiny functions as a perfect disguise of the victim of this Charm.

The victim’s name is only regained once this Charm is dispelled, or once the resplendency’s Endurance is exhausted. While an Infernal can steal the identity of any number of victims at one time with this Charm, they may only ever have a single resplendent destiny gained through it.

Ultimately Bombastic Villainous Monologue
Cost: 5m
Mins: Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Compulsion, Social
Duration: (Essence) actions
Prerequisite Charms: None

Isidoros’s arrogance is legendary, for his infinite nature leaves him incapable of conceiving of anything greater than he. His children embody this ego, commanding awe-struck silence from your foes. The Infernal rolls (Charisma + Presence) as a social attack against one foe, declaiming a arrogant exclamation that brooks no response. If the attack beats the enemy’s highest MDV, then they are shaken by the Infernal’s majesty, and can take only guard actions for the next (Essence) actions. Spending a point of willpower allows them to ignore this compulsion for a single action.

[The Demented One]

Green Sun Bump!

[The Tygre]

Shining Review of Fan-Boy Drooling!

Seriously, is there nothing you can make that is not inherently -awesome-?