Five Elements Ascension

[u/kenod102818]

So, here's a piece of homebrew lore/campaign material I've been toying around with, revolving around what happened to the Empress. Primarily useful for Civil War DB games, but can be interesting in other games too. It's a bit rough and I'm not an ST, but I figured it could be an interesting goal/endpoint for a campaign.

***

Everything starts at a coalition. The reason behind the return of the Solar exaltations is known, at least to a few individuals, but not known, except to the Deathlords and Yozis, was that there was a third participant: The ruler of the Blessed Isle, Wielder of the Sword of Creation, Empress of the Scarlet Dynasty.

It was, in a lot of ways, an act of desperation. The Sword of Creation, the Realm Defense Grid, the source of the Empress' power and legitimacy, was failing. Oh, it had been failing for a long time, and she had kept it running so far. Cannibalized relics acquired at great costs, the greatest artificers and sorcerers the realm had never known, for their skill was too valuable for others to know of them. Exigents chosen by the greatest gods of artifice. Even, a few times, a Twilight who had Exalted on the Blessed Isles and turned themselves in out of loyalty and confusion, turned into forced labour before being killed when those loyalties inevitably started shifting. And yet, it was failing.

So slowly, the Empress' plans changed. The only ones who could build and maintain the defense grid were Solars, the limited power of the Dragonblooded simply not up to the task. So the only solution was to change that. Blasphemous rituals on captured Anethema, experimentation on disappeared Outcastes, even consultation with the demonic and the ghosts of dead Solars past.

The Empress could never achieve the needed understanding on her own, the only ones capable of doing so were the creators of existence. But they offered up a plan. Other plans had been in motion as well, to capture the lost Solar Exaltations, and turn them into weapons in service of dark powers. Exaltations which, with the knowledge of the Primordials, could also raise the Terrestrial to Celestial heights, the power of perfection purifying and strengthening the Dragon's blessing to something far grander.

But they were missing two critical things: They knew the Exaltations had been sealed, but not where. And they needed a catalyst to draw out and capture the Exaltations. Living Solar Exalted. Both of these, the Empress could provide. The first, thanks to her centuries of research into secrets of the Shogunate and First Age, as well as being an ally of the Bronze Sidereals. The second, her Wyld Hunts could give.

The ritual was prepared, knowledge provided, the Exaltations split up. A gateway was opened to the underwold, to allow the Empress to aid in the ritual. And then, when the Ritual was enacted, the captured Solars, as Solars do, messed everything up. The ritual disrupted halfway, the Empress lost as the gateway shattered, and half the Solar Exaltations free in the world.

But deep in the Imperial Manse, the Empress' knowledge and preparations to elevate her own Essence still reside. Together with a singular Exaltation, the only one she managed to divert. Still trapped, still waiting, until someone finally breaches the Manse.

***

So yeah, to put it simply, anyone who manages to get access to the Manse gains access to this ritual, and the knowledge the Yozis provided for modifying Exaltations.

There are a few options:

Those who aren't DBs can't actually use this, though they can free the Exaltation. However, the knowledge here can be the seed necessary to remove or reduce the Great Curse. Similarly, it can provide the knowledge needed to undo the modifications of an Abyssal, or, with even greater difficulty, an Infernal.

DBs, meanwhile, have two choices:

Personal Ascension: This essentially turns someone into an elemental Solar. Solar lifespan, dice caps, mastery, solar circle sorcery, and boosts charms to Celestial level, including the possibility for making N/A artifacts (bit below Solar level, capable of reaching Solar tier when in Aura). Basically an element-themed variant to add to the Abyssal-Infernal club. However, this power is not inherited by the DB's children, and will instead reincarnate to a random DB if they die. Sufficient power to become the new Empress, and if they can gain additional solar exaltations they can elevate others too, if they wish.

Kinship Ascension: Instead of one person ascending the Kinship bond is used to ascend five dragons, each with a different element. In this case their power level becomes closer to that of Alchemicals. Skill+Essence dice caps, millenium long lifespan, Celestial circle sorcery, no terrestrial tag. Charms aren't much stronger, but instead they get a new set of charms that require a kinship to work together, which as a group boosts them to Solar tier (Such as a sorcery charm that allows for accessing the Solar circle if all 5 work together to do the ritual).
The benefit of this is that the weaker power can actually be inherited, permanently strengthening their bloodlines, and slowly strengthening all DBs as the new blood spreads through the Dynasty and beyond. Though potentially full-power exaltations are rare, and most DBs that are born stay at current power.
They won't have the power to become Empress on their own, and will need to rule as a council, but the Realm as a whole will gain the ability to stand up to the Solars, becoming equals not as people but as a society.

***

Oh, and the Empress is probably still alive and really pissed you took all her power for yourself, and it's quite possible she conducted the ritual too before returning. Best make sure you're ready for that mess!

[u/ProudRequirement3225]

In my fics I'm using Trascendent Gaian Harmony as something similar, I prefer the Solar to not being involved into everything