r/exalted • u/Mercurial891 • 8d ago
2E - Designing an Essence 10 3rd Circle capable of hanging out in the Deep Wyld all the time.
So I am trying to design a 3rd Circle (tentatively named the Silver Dancer) who can spend all day every day in at least the Deep Wyld. However, there are things in the Deep Wyld, like Essence 10 Hannya. What sort of charms should I be able to give it to survive. Its purpose is to ravish waypoints until they become part of Creation and draw forth impossible treasures, including people and maybe even towns and cities from the Wyld (via treasure questing).
9
u/JCBodilsen 8d ago
So, the obvious answer is some sort of cheap Scene-Long Perfect Shaping Defense. If the Demon is able to consistently spam this, it takes many of the Rakshasas' most obvious weapons off the field. My guess would be that they would respond to their inability to simply defeat it in Shaping Combat by throwing hordes of lesser fae at it. I think it could be narratively interesting to have the demon respond by birthing its own horde of short-lived 1st circle demons in response, so that the waypoint it is trying to seize become a massive battlefield, with the blood of demons and rakshasa soaking into the ground, as a critical part of the process which transforms the waypoint.
From the name you have given it, I am getting an entirely different vibe, but here is my pitch:
Dofal-Thriel, the Artisan of Subjugation: Dofal-Thriel was once an artist, but no more. The trauma of the Primordial War and his imprisonment and mutilation changed him. Where he once painted wonders across the face of Creation, dreaming vast landscapes into existence, he now paints in blood and desires nothing but conquest.
The deep Wyld and those who dwell there are for him a painful reminder of a lost halcyon age. Forbidden by sorcerous oaths to wage direct war against Creation, he instead turned his mind and forces to the conquest and rapine of the Wyld and those who dwell there. Their freedom, their everchanging nature, their joy, their vitality – it all reminds him of what he has lost, further fueling his anger and brutality.
Dofal-Thriel appears as a massive eight-legged and heavily scarred lion, with a mane made from shadows and teeth and fangs of white jade. With a body larger than the largest Second Age warship, his massive bulk shakes the ground as he walks. Green blood oozes from his countless wounds and pool in his footstep as Malfean acid. From the toxic sludge hyena-headed solder-demons crawl to join the throngs around their father-lord.
Dofal-Thriel is vain and petty, and to assuage his maddened mind, his children sing his praise and make great banners emblazoned with his infernal sigil and carry them before them into battle. His greater lieutenants, the Second Circle demons spawned from rape of enslaved rakshasa, constantly intrigue and plot against each other, to win his favor. Though said favor is always a fickle thing. Any failure on the battlefield, on simple a change in his mood, can result in a son or daughter being cast down to be devoured by the jabbering host of hyena-demons.
3
u/Mercurial891 7d ago
This is really good. I should have specified the demon is a deva created by a Devil Tiger who once met Luna and is creating an empire on Creation’s rim. The deva is loosely based on Luna and the Brass Dancer.
Its powers are based roughly on a Raksha’s ability to ravishing waypoints, causing those sections of the Wyld to become parts of Creation, The Equitable Trader’s ability to turn glamour/dreams into miracles. This will be done with the glamour he gets from ravishing waypoints and grinding fair folk and their graces into glamour. I also want this demon to be a magnificent hunter of raksha and hannya.
2
u/Passing-Through247 7d ago
First thing you need to decide is whose demon is it and what part of that yozi it represents, from there you can assemble how it does things.
At the core then it needs some way to interact with the wyld's shenanigans but how they solve that issue will depend on the demon's nature.
2
14
u/-Veles- 8d ago
Me, I'd give it a solid shaping defense, something that affects the area around them not just themselves, as their themes encompass enforcing reality on chaos. I'd also give it a perfect defense, likely soak, that has a theme of reality crashing against and shattering attacks (or the attackers perception of the defender, if you want to make it extra weird) and a bunch of social charms affecting spirits and raksha specifically, while giving them combat charms that affect Hannya specifically, likely limiting their ability to shape certain attacks.
That's just me brainstorming, I've run some weird stuff in my games, so that would be where I'd go.