Ex3 Miracles Of The Solar Exalted

John Mørke
M I R A C L E S O F T H E S O L A R E X A LT E D
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Six months ago, when we were asked
to come up with a charm for the writers
of Exalted to develop, we were too busy,
and too sad, to make a reply. Some
years are simply too difficult to leave
much of a place for the imagination.
And so, in lieu of a unique charm, I’ve
asked Rich to allow me this space to
thank my family for their perseverance,
their love, and their ceaseless devotion
to moving forward.
Most of all, I want to thank my wife,
Ester, for being so amazingly strong
through all of these many trials. She’s
all the magic I ever needed.
- Jeremiah Pina
© 2016 White Wolf Publishing AB. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of White Wolf Publishing AB. Reproduction prohibitions do not apply to
the character sheets contained in this book when reproduced for personal use. White Wolf, Exalted, and Exalted 3rd
Edition are trademarks of White Wolf Publishing AB. All rights reserved. All characters, names, places and text herein
are copyrighted by White Wolf Publishing AB.
The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright
concerned
This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are fiction
and intended for entertainment purposes only. Reader discretion is advised.
Check out White Wolf online at http://www.white-wolf.com
Check out the Onyx Path at http://www.theonyxpath.com
Writer: John Mørke
Editor: Holden Shearer
Developer: John Mørke
Artists: Hive Studio
Art Director: Maria Cabardo
Creative Director: Richard Thomas
Layout & Cover Design: Mike Chaney
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Past Lives of the Exalted 4
Keywords 5
New Solar Charms 5
Archery 5
Hanging Judgment Arc 5
Nova Arrow Attack 6
Hell-Heeling Arrow 6
Solar Judgment Flare 6
Athletics 7
Strength-Hying Heave 7
Faster than Self Technique 8
Brawl 8
Swift Strike Prana 8
Heart-Eating Fist 8
Burning Sky Apocalypse Strike 9
Bureaucracy 9
Honor-Instilling Mantra 9
Pattern-Exploiting Commerce Spirit 9
Creation of Adamant Specie 10
Spectacle-Inciting Order 11
Craft 11
Ever-Ready Innovation Discipline 11
Integrity 12
Empathic Aegis Discipline 12
Strength from Conviction Stance 13
Investigation 14
Fetich-Tracing Eye 14
Truth-Rendering Attitude 14
Larceny 14
Criminal Seduction Method 14
Sun-Stealing Shadow Spirit 15
Linguistics 15
Soul-Drawing Pattern 15
Indelible Spoken Script 15
Lore 16
Soul-Light Spreading Discipline 16
Cloud-Wreathed Scholar 16
Hundred Sages Focus 16
Legend-Spirit Convocation 17
All-Knowing Enlightened Sovereign 17
Medicine 18
Time-Halting Flow 18
Melee 18
Nimble Reaving Wind 18
Arc Shedding Rain Technique 18
Gleaming Sever 19
Stark Truth of Steel Method 19
Victorious Wreath
(Against the World Stance) 19
Whirlwind-Tempest Deflection 19
Shattering Clash 20
Omniscient Focus Attack 21
All-Sundering Strike 21
Divine Executioner Stance 21
Occult 22
Six Eternities’ Travail 22
Anima-Suffused Spirit 22
What Light Reveals
(Living Specter’s Flame) 22
Performance 23
Music and Singing 23
Divine Instrument 23
Seventeen Cycles Symphony 23
Acting 24
Drama-Fueling Ardor 24
Divinely-Inspired Performance 24
Oratory 24
Seven Thunders Voice 24
Presence 25
Poised Lion Attitude 25
Holy Touch 25
God-Heeling Gesture 25
Unnerving Solar Presence 26
Voice-Empowering Aspect
(Aspect-Imbued Voice) 26
Divinity-Conferring Touch
(Celestial Exaltation Method) 27
Resistance 27
Armed and Ready Discipline 27
Fortress-Body Discipline 28
Ride 28
Storm-Racing Destrier 28
Sail 28
Skiff-to-Scow Method 28
Ash and Storm Aegis 28
Perfect Reckoning Technique 29
Mast of Everything Situation 29
Death-Daring Maneuver 29
Master and Commander Method 30
Socialize 30
Viper-Scenting Method 30
Energic Influence Technique 31
Rancor-Raising Spirit 31
Soul-Testing Method 32
Stealth 32
Stalking Shadow Spirit 32
Killing Shroud Technique 32
Shadow-Striking Way 33
Survival 34
Harmony with Nature Approach 34
Elements-Sculpted Avatar 34
Riotous Cry of the Beast 34
Colossal Rampaging Beast 35
Baara-Unleashing Technique 35
Thrown 36
Spitting Hand Technique 36
Diving Hawk Discipline 36
Thunder-Quelling Gesture 36
Death-Dealing Diffusion 36
Whirlwind Hand of the Striker 37
Dancing Steel Symphony 37
War 38
Unstoppable Solar Conqueror 38
One With Five Forces 38
??? 38
Hallowed Bond of Night and Flame
(Hallowed Soul and Flesh Merging) 38
As the Tale of Exalted Continues... 39
M I R A C L E S O F T H E S O L A R E X A LT E D
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hen looking at the backer Charm requests, I saw
a need that has been mirrored elsewhere in the
Exalted community — an underlying desire to
see more overt supernatural power in the fabric of Solar
Charms. This need was not verbalized by a single backer,
but it came across through the things they had asked for.
In this tome you will find the power to tame a raging
inferno with a song, to blow an airship out of the sky
with a single shot from your bow, and to sense whenever
your allies are in danger. You will find the skill to strike
from the shadows unnoticed, or the power to blaze your
aspect from the words and face of another, and Charms
so sharp they can “cut god.”
Oh, and Survival Charms, Survival Charms, Survival
Charms. Everyone asked for Survival Charms.
I also threw in a few bonus Charms and the section below as my way of saying thanks.
— Ø January 14, 2016
Past Lives of the Exalted
The Celestial Exalted often experience past lives.
When a Solar dies, the Exaltation unbinds itself from the
soul and flows back into the cycles of heaven. From there
it is directed by the Essence of the Unconquered Sun —
which carries his energic will — to seek out a new hero.
A newly-Exalted Solar is the inheritor of a legacy. Her
Exaltation has passed through the lives of many heroes to
reach her, and it is often touched by those who once bore it.
Past lives manifest to the Solar in various ways. One
might have strange, unexplainable dreams. Another
might experience a flood of emotions while standing in
a place that was sacred to one of her past incarnations.
Some Solars experience such strong dejà vu that it triggers a waking dream.
Nor are all such traces internal — the world responds
to the Solar’s past. The magic of old will seek her anew.
Upon taking up a daiklave, she might swell with the
memory of having wielded it in a past life. Upon entering
an ancient ruin, she might recognize her own hand in
its hieroglyphs. On stepping into a burial chamber, she
might find its sorcerous defenses have been lowered in
recognition of who she once was.
More a whisper than an echo, the old legends still resonate. The new Solar is also the return of the old. She
is an incarnate shard of the Unconquered Sun. The
Unconquered Sun is the avatar of all heroism, and so it
is in the nature of Solar Essence to carry the Essence of
heroes — both the heroes she once was, and the hero she
aspires to be. The new-found Solar is a singular being,
a new beginning for this epic prime motion. But she is
also the link in a chain that stretches back into the dawn.
The Solar’s ancient nature shines forth, even if she herself is not aware of it. Spirits — immortal purveyors of
the soul — will often recognize the Solar for who she
once was. A spirit who was the ancient enemy of one
of the Solar’s former incarnations may well be the new
Solar’s bane. Similarly, a spirit might feel compelled to
make good on a debt owed to the former Solar by aiding
the current one.
VERY SPECIAL THANKS
In 2013 we ran a Kickstarter for Exalted: Third Edition. Our project raised $684,755 — the highest amount for any
tabletop RPG Kickstarter in the world. It held that exalted position through the time this book was written (January 2016), but after three years was finally surpassed by the Kickstarter for 7th Sea.
The book you are now reading is the fulfillment of a stretch goal from that Kickstarter. It is a book of Solar Charms
requested by backers of that Kickstarter who were lucky and swift enough to capture the instantly-vanishing
reward tiers. Their ideas have herein been struck into the fabric of Exalted canon for all time.
This book serves not only as a record of what was accomplished in the past, but also, much as the Kickstarter, it is
proof of the larger-than-life nature of the Exalted community, always looking to the future and passing on the lore of
Exalted with the fervor of evangelism. This book is the product of your continued support. Without you, there is no
Exalted.
The Charms of Solar Exalted are mighty and fierce — much as the support of our Kickstarter backers. Those of
us behind the development and writing of Exalted: Third Edition would like to take this opportunity to say a huge
thank you to everyone who backed the Kickstarter, and to all the fans of Exalted whose continued support has
made this edition — as well this book — possible.
N E W S O L A R C H A R M S
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The Lunar Exalted are often compelled by the return
of the Solar to whom they were once bonded. A Lunar
is keenly sensitive to the Exaltation of his former mate,
and has the power to seek her out if he so chooses. Some
ancient and numinous Lunar Exalted look upon the
new-found Solars with dreadful ambivalence. For them,
the Solar’s legacy is not a matter of past lives, but of their
own personal history.
By dint of who she was, the Solar may find that she has
great enemies and allies awaiting her the moment she
takes her Second Breath.
Keywords
New Keyword: Apocryphal: A Charm with this keyword is non-canonical and not considered to be an actual Charm of the Solar Exalted.
On the Apocryphal Keyword
The apocryphal keyword is handed out to Charms that
are narratively unbalanced or outside the functional capacity of Solar powers. This does not discount them for
your individual games; you may use or discard an apocryphal Charm just as easily as you may discard or use
any standard Exalted Charm as it fits your game.
The main limitation of Solar Charms is that they require
a very standard method and approach, springing from
knowably human actions. But Solar Charms are by no
means hidebound; the Charms of the social Solar and the
occult Solar show some of the strange and interesting
conversions possible for those with Solar Essence.
However, you will also notice that such Charms take
a tremendous amount of buy-in and cultivation, and
a strange Ability such as Occult slips into the uncanny
much more easily than Socialize. The strangest Solar
Charms build out of a valid demonstration of the Solar’s
capacity with any certain Ability before becoming deviant in any way — and even then, the most eclectic Solar
Charms are still anchored heavily within the limitations
of human technique and myth-hero logic. Which is to
say, a Solar Charm will never involve taking your eye out
and hurling it over the rooftops so you can spy on the
streets below.
So apocryphal Charms are thus because they violate
the tenets of skill or technique that make Solar Charms
allowable. Just be aware that if you allow apocryphal
Charms without discernment, you will find it harder to
discern Solars from some of the stranger Exalted that
appear later in the edition.
New Solar Charms
Archery
Hanging Judgment Arc
Cost: 6m
Mins: Archery 4, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Fiery Arrow Attack
The Lawgiver’s divine judgment pours down on the heads
of the wicked. Immediately upon joining battle, the Solar
may target a specific bit of scenery that is not occupied
by an enemy combatant. Naming it off limits, she fires a
scintillating shot high into the air. Her arrow flies up and
up and does not come down unless the opponent crosses
through, over, or into the designated position, at which
point they become subject to a decisive attack with the
Solar’s unmodified attack pool, and with damage equal to
the Initiative she had the moment she fired the shot. In addition, this shot is enhanced by the prerequisite at no extra
charge. If Hanging Judgment Arc succeeds at damaging
the target, the Solar’s Initiative does not return to base.
If the Exalt is crashed, slain, or the scene ends without the attack being triggered, the arrow comes down
and will set fire to any flammable thing it touches.
Any use of this Charm must occur in places with enough vertical space to fire an arrow upward without it getting lodged
in the ceiling. The player can’t threat-mark an area inside an
enclosed building or chamber while standing outside.
Special activation rules: If the Lawgiver threatens a
specific character with this attack, (ie “Winglord Kvetu
may not retreat across that bridge”) the attack gains
(Essence) automatic successes, (Essence) bonus dice,
and (Essence) automatic damage successes.
At Archery 5+, Essence 3+, the Lawgiver may use this
Charm out of combat for eight motes, setting the Charm’s
duration to Indefinite, and giving it a base damage of 17.
With Archery 5+ Essence 4+, the out-of-combat use becomes Stackable up to (Essence) times. These bans do
not end if the Solar is crashed or slain, only if the threat
is triggered or the Lawgiver ends her commitment.
On Hanging Judgment Arc
The backer had a really awesome name and idea for
an Archery Charm, but execution was trickier than it
looked. In case you are wondering, if you mark an area
where your ally is standing when an enemy triggers the
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attack, the attack is precise enough to only hit the enemy. But whether or not they both catch on fire is a totally
different issue.
Backer: Andrew Bartkus
Nova Arrow Attack
Cost: 6m, 1wp
Mins: Archery 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dazzling Flare Attack
The Solar channels her fiery Essence into an arrow that
explodes on impact. This is a non-standard decisive attack that targets no particular character directly, but the
range band they’re standing in. The shot lands without
a roll, and everything at close range to the arrow is subject to an explosion that can’t be parried, only dodged.
The explosion has an attack pool of the Solar’s Initiative
(maximum 10 dice), and rolls decisive damage equal to
the Solar’s Initiative. If this attack is successful against
at least one enemy, then it resets the Solar’s Initiative
to base. It can expressly be used to blow up inanimate
objects, scenery, and siege weaponry without affecting
the Solar’s Initiative.
All characters struck by this attack are knocked out of the
exploded range band and land prone, losing one Initiative
each, not transferred to the Solar. Characters blown down
by this Charm have no control over where they land; characters who dodge this explosion are automatically knocked
to the next range band, but they do not lose Initiative nor
do they fall to prone, simply rolling to their feet or skidding
along on their heels without losing balance.
If used to damage a battle group, Nova Arrow Attack
causes disarray and panic, applying a -2 success penalty
to its next attack.
On Nova Arrow Attack
The natural evolution of Fiery Arrow Attack, I wanted
to do this Charm originally, but was too pressed for
time to come up with a balanced explosion mechanic.
Fortunately as I was rounding out the Archery section
of this book one came to me, partly inspired by one of
the new Brawl Charm mechanics below. (Guess which.)
Hell-Heeling Arrow
Cost: 13m, 1wp
Mins: Archery 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Nova Arrow Attack, Searing
Sunfire Interdiction
The Exalt gives her enemies a taste of her wrathful Essence.
As with Nova Arrow Attack, she fires an explosive arrow
into a range band at close range with an enemy. But instead
of exploding on contact, the arrow sits and smokes and
rumbles. Characters within short range of this arrow can
feel their slightest movement causing it to agitate and surge
with Solar anima; their barest shifts in posture threaten to
cause an explosion. If it explodes, Hell-Heeling Arrow will
hit everything in short range, and the only way to escape it
is to successfully disengage — once if at short range, twice
if at close. The difficulty of this roll is 5.
If any character simply moves a range band (or gets
moved), the arrow explodes, doing a non-standard decisive attack to all targets with an attack pool of (Essence
+ Initiative) dice (maximum 12), with a damage pool of
(Initiative) dice. The blast from this explosion can only
be dodged, and has the same knockdown rules as Nova
Arrow Attack. In addition, characters knocked down by
this attack are automatically lit on fire, suffering bonfire
(4L/round) damage until they can put it out.
Hell-Heeling Arrow does not reset the Solar’s Initiative
to base. It can only be used once per battle, but may be
reset by joining battle.
On Hell-Heeling Arrow
Continuing to play up Archery’s theme of range band
domination, a (sort of) converse of Searing Sunfire
Interdiction.
Solar Judgment Flare
Cost: 3m, 1wp and 1m per damage die
Mins: Archery 5, Essence 5
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Heart-Eating Incineration, Nova
Arrow Attack
The Exalt pours incandescent Solar Essence through her
bow, firing a streaking shot of immolating flame. If the
Solar has 15+ Initiative then she may use this Charm to
unleash a horrific attack against opponents a minimum
of three range bands away. If successful, this attack does
(greater of Essence or three) automatic damage, and dice
on the damage roll may be augmented at a rate of one mote
per die, to a limit of (half current Initiative rounded up).
Where this arrow strikes, it will send out a line of burning
destruction, one range band for every five Initiative (rounded
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up). Everything caught in this burning nova swath takes
damage; characters are subject to a high intensity (6L/round)
bonfire, while scenery takes fiat levels of damage. A character
struck with this attack is likewise flung backwards one range
band for every three health levels lost from the attack.
If a Solar uses this Charm against a ship made of natural
materials, every three damage successes equals a point of
hull damage. If she uses it against a battle group, they are
automatically at -2 successes from their next rout check.
Solar Judgment Flare can be used without an aim action.
On Solar Judgment Flare
The backer is brand new to Exalted, so I had to help
him find the exact right Charm. The first couple of
Resistance Charms we worked on didn’t feel right to his
personality, so we scrapped them. Finally I asked him
what characters he likes most, and he started to talk
about an overpowered archer from Fate Stay/Night. I
had known since the beginning that Archery yet needed
an overpowered Charm, so I worked out this incredibly
powerful mechanic. There may be yet be another upgrade to this Charm, one of unfathomable power.
Backer: Maha
Athletics
Strength-Hying Heave
Cost: 4m
Mins: Athletics 4, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Increasing Strength Exercise
A Solar who has used the prerequisite to increase her
Strength to the limit is sufficiently strong enough to hurl a
human-sized ally forward or up one range band. This Charm
uses the Solar’s own movement action for the round.
If the Solar has learned Power Suffusing Form Technique
(see Exalted, p. 266), she can combine that Charm with
this to hurl an ally the size of a horse and rider safely up
or forward one range band, or she may toss a human-sized
ally forward two range bands. This use adds one Willpower
to the cost of this Charm, but drops the mote cost to two.
On Strength-Hying Heave
The backer wanted something like the “Fastball Special”
from Claremont’s run on the Uncanny X-Men, where
Colossus hurls Wolverine at a target. I figured, why not
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let someone with superhuman strength throw a very
heavy ally as well? I can already see a player writing in
to tell me how their Zenith stood at the end of a dock
as the Night rode up on an armored destrier, and they
hurled horse and rider onto the deck of a retreating ship.
That said, a Solar using Nine Aeons Thew and other
Charms might be able to throw an ally three or more
range bands, but they will take falling damage unless
they have Charms such as Soaring Crane Leap that will
help them land safely. This is a good example of how
Solar Charms can and do work together in ways that
aren’t expressly outlined in the rules.
Backer: Mike Gill
Faster than Self Technique
Cost: 10m, 1wp (+1m per round)
Mins: Athletics 5, Essence 5
Type: Simple
Keywords: Perilous
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Living Wind Approach, Hurricane Spirit Speed
Like the Unconquered Sun, the Solar is everywhere and
nowhere at once. Moving at impossible, Essence-fueled
speeds, the Solar becomes multiple copies of herself.
As long as she keeps moving, she is each of her copies
and none of them at the same time. The Lawgiver becomes a battle group having Size (Essence / 2 rounded
up), Magnitude 10 (regardless of her maximum Health
Levels), and no bonuses from Drill or Might — simply
use the Solar’s normal combat pool.
This Charm is incompatible with heavy armor, and incompatible with all Resistance Charms except those
which are Permanent-type or Simple-type Charms which
were activated before using Faster than Self Technique.
Nor can the Solar benefit from giving her “battle group
self” enhanced abilities through the use of War Charms.
Each round this Charm is active costs the Solar an additional mote of Essence to keep active. In addition, when the
Solar’s Magnitude track fills up with damage and she loses
a point of Size, instead of a rout check she is subject to a
difficulty 3 Stamina + Athletics roll to maintain the Charm.
Ending this Charm gives the Exalt a -1 success fatigue penalty to all of her Athletics rolls for the next three rounds. Faster
than Self Technique can only be activated once per scene.
On Faster than Self Technique
The backer’s friend, Koray Bilgin, is the genius behind
this Charm. He came up with the name, the concept,
and the framework of the mechanics. I just took care of
balancing issues and placement in the tree. It’s a really
fantastic idea!
Backer: U. Kaya YAVUZ
Brawl
Swift Strike Prana
Cost: 3m, 1wp
Mins: Brawl 4, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Ferocious Jab, Thunderbolt Rush
Attack
Sensing an opening, the Solar launches a vicious blow with
any part of her body. When the Exalt successfully disarms
a close range opponent by any means, then she may use
this Charm to launch an immediate decisive attack against
them. If the opponent is trivial, ignore the Willpower cost.
On Swift Strike Prana
This Charm will help those of you who like your disarm
gambits, and especially those of you who like to antagonize the entire city guard.
Heart-Eating Fist
Cost: 3a, 1wp
Mins: Brawl 5, Essence 5
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Ascendant Battle Visage
Fist swirling with molten fury, the Lawgiver punches her
enemy in the heart, rips it out of his chest, and offers it
up as a prayer to the divine force that flows through her.
This Charm is a decisive gambit with a difficulty of the
target’s remaining health levels. If successful, it does exactly enough damage to kill that opponent. The Solar rips
her victim’s heart out, then she lifts it to the sky. The last
thing they see is their heart going up in a gout of flames
as the Solar’s fist closes around it. When the Solar kills
a trivial opponent with this Charm, she gains a point of
Willpower and automatically terrifies all other trivial
opponents. When she kills a non-trivial opponent with
Heart-Eating Fist, she gains no Willpower, but is suffused
with a sudden surge of storming transformative anima.
As the power of the Unconquered Sun flows through her,
she automatically heals (half Essence rounded up) health
levels and may reflexively trigger Ascendant Battle Visage
or Burning Sky Apocalypse Strike at no cost.
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On Heart-Eating Fist
The Dragon Kings of old, prehuman worshipers of the
Unconquered Sun, used to offer up sacrificial hearts to
the Most High. Held aloft against the sunlight, these
hearts would burn, signaling the Unconquered Sun’s acceptance of the offering. With this Charm, the Lawgiver
offers up the heart to herself. As her fires consume it, she
gains a surge of incredible power.
Burning Sky Apocalypse Strike
Cost: 15m, 1wp
Mins: Brawl 5, Essence 5
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Heart-Eating Fist
Drawing in tremendous spirit energy, the Solar launches an explosive attack that carries her skyward with the
force of the rising sun. This Charm can only be triggered
at 20+ Initiative. It unleashes a massive decisive attack
to everything within short range of the Lawgiver. The
Exalt’s form is suffused with burning Solar Essence that
fires straight up in a column that can be seen for miles.
This is a non-standard decisive attack; roll the Solar’s
Dexterity + Brawl once and apply the result to the entire
group. This attack can hit allies. Targets struck by this
attack are carried upward on a column of destructive
force, one range band for every ten Initiative the Solar
possesses. For every range band the targets are lifted,
they are subject to three dice of hardness-ignoring decisive bashing damage and must then contend with falling
damage. This portion of the attack does not reset the
Solar’s Initiative.
The Solar is also carried up to the same height as her
enemies, but at the apex she pauses, Essence and anima
swirling around her like a second sun. Then she plummets at an angle in any chosen direction, falling half the
range bands she rose (rounded up). There she comes
down like a falling star, hammering a crater into the
earth and striking all opponents at close range with her
explosive fury. This is a normal decisive attack that, if
successful, does half her Initiative (rounded up) in hardness-ignoring decisive damage dice to all opponents at
close range. This calamitous falling strike does no harm
to the Solar.
On Burning Sky Apocalypse Strike
*John lowers an LP of smooth slow “doo-wop” onto the
spindle and swishes his brandy around in a shot glass
while staring out the window at the setting sun.*
Bureaucracy
Honor-Instilling Mantra
Cost: 6m
Mins: Bureaucracy 5, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Enigmatic Bureau Understanding
By spending an hour meditating on a charter of an organization she owns or leads, the Lawgiver may instill
that charter with Intimacies that she feels are essential
to running her business. This code of honor must be
reflected in the writing of the charter, and the charter
itself must be made available to every member the Solar
wishes to effect with this Charm. Members who read
the charter, or have had it read to them by a superior,
become aware of the imbued Intimacies and can choose
to act as the Solar would, taking advantage of those
Intimacies as if they possessed them. Such a member
can, for example, cite the Solar’s Intimacy in a decision
point when someone is trying to promote corruption in
the ranks of the Exalt’s subordinates. The effects of this
Charm last until the Solar alters the charter, and may
even continue beyond her death.
On Honor-Instilling Mantra
The backer wanted a Bureaucracy Charm that would
allow him to instill the organization’s members such
that they would always act as the Solar would. I felt that
was way too powerful. Mind-controlling hundreds of
people with a single Charm defeats the purpose of social
influence. Instead we came up with a Charm that allows
members of an organization to consult the Solar’s vision of honor and leadership, creating a communal well
of ethical and moral action to draw strength from. No
one under the effect of this Charm is forced to abide by
it, but there are undeniable benefits for those who do.
Couple that with the power of the prerequisite and the
Solar gains a very sharp understanding of what goes on
in her offices while she is not there. Special thanks goes
to Holden for the core mechanic of this Charm.
Backer: J Walker
Pattern-Exploiting Commerce Spirit
Cost: 5m
Mins: Bureaucracy 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Ungoverned Market Awareness
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It often isn’t safe for a Lawgiver to hang out her shingle.
Meditating on the business she seeks, the Solar expands her
Essence outward so that it may guide troubled customers
to her door. This Charm covers a city block from the Solar’s
position, and will guide customers with financial or mercantile problems to the Exalt’s location, even going so far as
to lead them through hidden alleys and secret doors to do
so. When activating the Charm, the Solar must be very specific about which kind of customers she will attract based
on their Resources rating. The player can specify customers with “financial problems and Resources 5”, “multiple
Resources 5 who need to deposit vast sums of money”, “a
valuation inquiry and any Resources rating”, and so on. As
long as the Solar’s net isn’t cast extremely wide, as soon as
a person with the designated problem steps into the area
affected by her Essence they will be drawn to her. Note
that an arriving customer won’t exactly understand why
they’ve been drawn to the Solar or how it was done. It’s
up to the Solar to recognize the customer, figure out what
their problem is, and impress them with her expertise and
preeminence in all things commercial.
Special activation rules: If the Solar knows the
Larceny Charm Seasoned Criminal Method, the player
may use this Charm to specify targets with “Larceny
problems difficulty 1-5” or of one specific difficulty. The
player may also combine specifications: “a subject with
Resources 5 that has a difficulty 5 Larceny problem.”
On Pattern-Exploiting Commerce Spirit
The backer’s favorite Caste is Eclipse, and their favorite Ability is Bureaucracy, so I decided to make them a
very mystical, extremely useful Charm for Solars trying
to operate in the shadow economy or who are simply
trying to be very exclusive. Readers might be interested
to know that the J.P. Morgan banking dynasty began
with banking services catering only to the ultra rich,
usually exclusively to trade organizations. They never
advertised, and never opened up more than a single office in one country, and that exclusivity elevated them to
a nigh-mythic stature. A Solar dealing in gigantic sums
of capital, troubleshooting economic problems and providing legal services can become an even greater subject
of myth, and even more sought after. This Charm also
helps the Solar to protect herself, since direct advertisement or street-side storefronts aren’t always safe.
Players should note that this Charm is bound to be more
effective in busy trade districts of bustling cities. If you
use this Charm in the dusty village of some half-dry desert watering hole, you might not have much luck attracting customers.
Backer: Jordan Neal
Creation of Adamant Specie
Cost: 5m
Mins: Bureaucracy 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms:Pattern-Exploiting Commerce Spirit
Taking a coin of natural metal in her hand, the Solar
infuses it with her Essence, transforming it. In the moment the Exalt uses this Charm, an obscuring shadow
slowly passes over her face. When it has passed, the coin
between her fingers has become a coin of pure adamant,
with the Unconquered Sun’s emblem on one side and
the Solar’s sigil on the other. This coin has a number of
properties and abilities.
The Solar may give this coin to another, authorizing
them to use it in the Solar’s name. Any ghost, god, or
raksha who sees the coin will automatically recognize the bearer as a business agent of one of the Solar
Exalted. Such beings gain automatic knowledge of the
Solar’s full Resources rating, allowing the bearer to settle accounts and make purchases without an exchange
of wealth. When the bearer makes such purchases on
the Lawgiver’s behalf, the Adamant Specie represents a
heavenly oath on the Solar’s behalf to pay the debt out
of her standing Resources within a year and a day. If the
target in this transaction is destroyed or makes it deliberately impossible for the Exalt to settle her account, the
heavenly oath — but perhaps not the debt — is nullified.
Mortal merchants have no power to recognize the accounts of the Solar Exalted at a glance, and Guildsmen
are particularly well-trained in not accepting magicked
coins. Demons, as participants in deliberately insurgent
economies, recognize the Solar’s accounts but may always refuse to confer them credit. Ergo, neither demons
nor Guildsmen honor such trade.
Such a coin also has a number of other strange effects.
For one, the bearer can travel through the bordermarches of the Wyld and as long as they are holding the coin,
neither they nor the things they are wearing or carrying
can be warped by the Wyld.
The coin also evinces personal agency. If it is stolen, it
can cause sudden cases of bad luck — 9s and 10s turned
to 1s. To some it appears to give off a cursed silvery glow
and they refuse to touch it. Others try to lift it and find
that it is far beyond mortal strength to lift.
In the open market, it has a way of getting mixed into
local tender, riding commerce to the edges of the Solar’s
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reach. If taken up by someone who fits one of the specified criteria of Pattern-Exploiting Commerce Spirit, the
coin will lead that person to the Solar, even if they are at
the far end of the city.
Note that characters who are not authorized cannot use
the coin to make purchases on the Solar’s account.
Special activation rules: The Solar may only create one
such coin per day, but may have up to (Essence) coins in
circulation. She may at any time pay one mote reflexively
to cause the magic to flee a coin, causing it to transform instantly into a dull lead coin with faded inscription. She may
also will a coin back to herself, causing it to travel from person to person, riding transactions and turns of luck to make
itself known to her so that she can reclaim it. This process
usually takes five or six hours to complete. Less, if the Solar
goes looking for it. If the Solar is slain, all of her adamant
coins immediately lose their magic and turn to lead.
On Creation of Adamant Specie
A very strange and interesting Charm, particularly apt
as it sits inside the Eclipse wheelhouse. This Charm
also demonstrates how Solar Charms sometimes get a
little inventive and outside-the-box at higher Essence,
something I was hard-pressed to show while writing the
framework of the design. The reason ghosts are an applicable target for this Charm is because ghosts are often
fettered to the living world, and concerned with trade
and transaction. Gods, as natural bureaucrats, also quite
often find it very natural to wheel and deal. Both types of
spirits adore worship, and so the loftier ideal of “credit”
is something they can easily and very naturally grasp
and work with. Demons are excluded from this triad for
a number of reasons, from insurgent economy to slave
caveat. What it boils down to is that a Yozi wants a Solar
to conduct her business in person. The Lords of Chaos
are however included because their existence is so often
defined by relational trade with Creation. Raksha are
simply “in the know” when it comes to doing business
with their Solar enemies, and Solar magic accounts for
them. And for those who are wondering, magical materials do not count as natural metals.
Spectacle-Inciting Order
Cost: 8m
Mins: Bureaucracy 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Infinitely-Efficient Register
If the Solar has established herself as a person of business
renown in an area and has a practice or organization that
is currently functioning, then she may use this Charm once
per season to call a prestigious and strange package to be
delivered to a local market or other place of public commerce. This delivery comes to Creation through a spirit
court, a raksha court, or from the court of the ancestors,
and what is inside will be strange, ethereal, or morbid as
matches its source. In any case, the package is wrapped
in glorious, scintillating, luminously textured paper, but is
magically bound by a ribbon and can be opened by none
other than the Solar. The package draws fascinated crowds
and it is automatically perceived as something wondrous,
a gift from the gods, or something strange and exciting.
Roll the Solar’s unmodified Intelligence + Bureaucracy
against a difficulty of 2 to determine the package’s Resources
value. The Solar does not know what is in the box before
she opens it, but she does know its exact value the moment
it is delivered, and may trade on the expectation of what
might be inside. Through repeated use of this Charm, and
the eventual delivery of goods which are nigh priceless, the
Solar can drive up speculation on the mysterious delivery
and, on the fiction of never knowing the value of what’s
inside, she can sell away something utterly worthless for
a fortune, and can keep something priceless for herself, or
use high Resources packages to entice future prospects into
bigger gambling, business partnerships, and so on.
On Spectacle-Inciting Order
The backer wanted a Charm that would allow him to
make money in a crazy, unexpected way.
Backer: Greg Link
Craft
Ever-Ready Innovation Discipline
Cost: 15m, 1wp
Mins: Craft 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Thousand-Forge Hands
Through prolific work in her chosen discipline, the Solar
shows incomparable foresight. A Solar with this Charm
may retroactively complete a major project she never officially began in order to even the odds against a threat,
dangerous obstacle, or critical conflict that has arisen.
Upon using the Charm, the Solar’s player describes a
retroactive continuity in which their Solar planned and
built — or in some cases destroyed — the thing for just
such an occasion. The sole limitation is that this plot device cannot simply resolve the conflict on its own. It can
only be something that helps to make an unfair situation
less inequitable.
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Special activation rules: The Solar must have at least
15+ silver points on hand to use this Charm. However,
using this Charm requires no expenditure of craft experience. The finished project must reflect the Exalt’s
chosen Craft Ability as well; a Solar with no skill as a
seamstress cannot produce a ballgown to help an urchin
look like a princess, nor can a Solar with no engineering
skill reveal the location of a secret earthwork and palisade she built as a fallback position against the advancing Wyld Hunt. This Charm may only be used (Essence /
2 round up) times per story.
Lastly, if the player shows ingenuity or cleverness in
their Solar’s invention, award them one silver and two
gold points. If they devise something very witty, funny,
or interesting — especially if it helps drive conflict —
grant the Solar three gold and one white point.
On Ever-Ready Innovation Discipline
The backer requested a Charm for his Twilight mastermind, that would allow him to build a contingency plan
through a flashback retcon. I decided to put it in Craft
to help players insert a fresh opportunity to describe
their character’s crafting efforts over time in a moment
relevant to the scene at hand, essentially allowing them
to bring their craftsmanship center stage. I stipulated
that their labor couldn’t completely resolve the conflict
because it made it easier to appreciate an act of Deus
ex Anathema if the other players were allowed to get
in on the action, as with a Solar who presents the Night
Caste with a rickety hang-glider built from coastal
ship-wreckage when she needs over the walls of Ostagul
without actually touching them. Or the Solar who has
revealed she’s dismantled three of the nine ballistae being wheeled up to the city gates — snapping her fingers
and causing them to fall apart completely — so that the
Dawn Caste can hold off the rest.
Storytellers, if you feel like the plot device the player describes would resolve the conflict, feel free to reduce, alter,
or damage it in some way to bring the conflict back into
question. In addition, if you feel like there was absolutely
no behind-the-scenes opportunity for the Exalt to finish
the project they are describing, you can veto a use of this
Charm. However, try to avoid doing this; if you can fathom
the Exalt working into the wee hours working on her craft
between all the other events in your story, allow it! Players
need every opportunity to bring the long term (and therefore
background) fruits of their labors into live, ongoing scenes.
Examples in play:
• As the Eclipse returns to port in her trireme, she
is set upon by a number of enemy ships which
lay ambush to her in the bay. As her Circle contemplates its options, the Twilight reveals a small
ship — swift, sleek, and able — that will carry
them to their comrade’s side.
• An earthquake causes damage to thousands of
expensive wheels of cheese, which will go bad if
they are not used immediately, causing the economic collapse of an entire industry. The Solar
chef produces a recipe for cheese soup that allows restaurateurs to buy the damaged wheels in
increased volume, to attempt to save the industry
from total collapse. See Projects on page 226 of
Exalted.
• A Lunar warlord-queen is sweet on the Dawn
Caste, but if he makes an ass of himself at her feast
the entire Circle is going to be kicked out of her
dominion, and they badly need to remain there
until their work is finished. Rather than trusting
him to dress himself, the Zenith tailor presents a
highly-stylized garment fit for royalty, so that the
Circle’s fashion victim doesn’t get them exiled.
• “What can be done about the Ten Thousand
Wooden Soldiers of Andus Gouch? These thousand fire arrows I batched up are a start. Now let’s
hope the winds are in our favor.”
Backer: Meridian
Integrity
Empathic Aegis Discipline
Cost: 5m
Mins: Integrity 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Watchful Eyes of Heaven
The Solar might grow to consider her allies to be an extension of her self. With a touch, the Lawgiver may use
Empathic Aegis Discipline to deepen this connection. If
the Solar has a Major or Defining Tie for a character who
shares one of her Defining Principles, when the subject
feels physical or emotional agony the Solar senses it and
understands the context of their suffering. This is not a
debilitating experience — a subject losing a hand does
not have the same impact on the Solar. But she does
understand that he’s been caught thieving and is being
punished. If the subject is somewhere the Lawgiver
has been, this Charm makes her aware of the subject’s
whereabouts. If not, she gets a general sense of direction
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and (greater of Essence or three) non-Charm successes
to Awareness, Investigation, or Survival to find them.
At Essence 4+, the cost of this Charm drops to three motes.
Special activation rules: As long as the Solar has committed this Charm to at least one character, it automatically applies to every character that is bound to her
through a magically powerful oath such as one produced
through sorcery or the Eclipse anima power.
On Empathic Aegis Discipline
The backer asked for a Charm that would let him sense
when his closest allies were in peril. For those of you
who are wondering which Ability to use in order to
find someone with this Charm, think of Awareness,
Investigation, and Survival in terms of distances. If your
friend has been tied, weighted, and thrown into a canal
running through a busy city, you might be close enough
— say, inside a nearby building — that upon emerging,
you use Awareness Charms to hear their heartbeat at
the bottom of the river, applying this Charm’s bonus
to your attempt. But say they’re across the city, in a
warehouse you’ve never seen, and someone is torturing
them to reveal a secret. In that case, you would want to
use Investigation Charms to try to find evidence of the
abduction. But over a much larger distance, like a vast
woodland, you would use Survival to track someone.
Note that Awareness based Solar Charms are always
helpful in noticing clues with Investigation or using
Survival to see the minutest traces of a presence that has
disturbed a natural environment.
Backer: Alexandre Tiv
Strength from Conviction Stance
Cost: 4m
Mins: Integrity 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Bridge
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Steel Heart Stance or any five
Ability Charms
The Lawgiver wears her scars like armor. In a decision
point she may cite something precious that she lost in
defense of a Principle she still holds. Perhaps she lost an
eye or a limb, or had to let go of someone she loved in
order to pursue the path she’s now on. In doing so, she
can resolve the decision point without paying a point of
Willpower, and without tapping a relevant Intimacy (if
any even exist). This Charm can only be used once per
story, but can be reset by successfully resisting influence
regarding the defended Principle twice more.
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On Strength from Conviction Stance
The backer wanted something weighty and emotionally
charged — a Charm to help demonstrate the strength
and courage of a tremendously dedicated individual who
has endured suffering in the pursuit of their cause. This
Charm is uncanny, because at a glance it appears simple,
but it is a little more complicated than it seems, yet at the
same time it’s very easy to grasp when looking backward
from the social influence system. If you’re a little fuzzy
on decision points, this Charm functions by modifying
the rule on Exalted page 221, third paragraph under the
“Overturning Influence” header, about overturning influence by citing what has come before. Only it expands
the definition of what you are allowed to cite, and doesn’t
require an Intimacy. (You might have lost a Tie when a
loved one died, but did you have an Intimacy for your
lost eye? Probably not.) It also doesn’t require that you be
under the effect of an ongoing persuade action; it simply
treats your Principle as if it has the weight of a legendary
quest. It’s also recursive; by waiving your need to tap an
Intimacy, you can cite the very same reasons the next
time you fall into a decision point. You’ll have to pay the
Willpower and come up with a new Intimacy if you fall
into a third decision point, but I feel the second repetition
helps it feel like the Solar’s Conviction is profound.
Backer: Sean Mattox
Investigation
Fetich-Tracing Eye
Cost: 1m
Mins: Investigation 3, Essence 1, Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Crafty Observation Method
When the Solar is tracking something that was taken
from her, she can see lines and traces of that object’s
Essence. This Charm supplements a case scene action
to locate stolen items belonging to the Lawgiver, giving
her one automatic success to find evidence leading her
back to what she has lost. This Charm can also be used
in Survival-based tracking rolls.
On Fetich-Tracing Eye
The backer wanted a Charm that would help him locate
items that were stolen from his Solar.
Backer: Bryan Buschmann
Truth-Rendering Attitude
Cost: 3m
Mins: Investigation 4, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Mute
Duration: One action
Prerequisite Charms: Judge’s Ear Technique
The Lawgiver can reconstruct the statements of a witness so perfectly that the Solar gains a psychic vision
of any case scene (Exalted p. 224) or profile character
(Exalted p. 225) action the character describes. So
long as that character has undertaken such an action,
the Exalt can analyze the evidence or the profiled
character as if she were there, adding her own Wits
or Perception + Investigation roll to the witness’s own
result and making an even more profound or clear
reading of the situation. The Lawgiver may use Judge’s
Ear Technique to evaluate any statements heard by the
witness during this psychic vision, and she may use the
Investigation Excellency to amplify her roll, but she
may not use any Simple-type Charms or Charms which
would require her to handle evidence in order to fill out
the witness’s testimony.
On Truth-Rendering Attitude
The backer wanted me to create a Charm for his Solar
“Gavin of Nighthammer,” that would allow him to make
a remote investigation through the eyes of a familiar or
a subordinate. I decided to go with an approach that allows you to finish an action started by another, to model
a great detective who can hear someone’s analysis of a
crime scene and solve it instantly, or who can take their
incomplete read on a particularly inscrutable or mysterious person, and give a full composite of that person and
their most probable identity. Note that if someone tries
to describe an event they did not witness, this Charm
simply reveals nothing to the Solar. She should probably
use the prerequisite to evaluate what she’s hearing. Also
I decided to make it Mute to offset the weighty price.
Backer: Ryan “Galby” Galbraith
Larceny
Criminal Seduction Method
Cost: —
Mins: Larceny 3, Essence 2;
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Spurious Presence
Speaking of treasure halls and harems’ jewels, easy money and ecstatic murder, the Solar can persuade almost
anyone to break the law. If the Lawgiver is aware of an
Intimacy which would allow her to persuade someone
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to commit a crime, this Charm gives her (Essence) bonus
dice to a Presence- or Socialize-based attempt to do so.
On Criminal Seduction Method
The backer was interested in a Larceny Charm to help
him convince other characters to join him on heists and
other criminal activities.
Backer: Silent Winters Sun
Sun-Stealing Shadow Spirit
Cost: 7m
Mins: Larceny 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Master Plan Meditation
No fortress is impregnable to one of the Solar Exalted.
Through continuous observation of movement and interactions around a specific location, the Solar becomes
supernaturally aware of flaws in a pattern of security.
She might notice an unlocked window or door, a guard
who leaves his post at a certain time every night, a secret
entrance, a pattern in security patrols, and so on. She can
complete (Essence) weeks of observation in (difficulty x
10) minutes; flows of Essence show her snarls in the order
of day to day operations, such that she can know a daily
pattern after only having been present for just minutes.
Roll the Solar’s Perception + Larceny with a difficulty based on the size and tightness of security, with an
undefended shop rating difficulty 1, a merchant prince’s
mansion rating difficulty 3, and the Imperial Treasury
rating difficulty 6. The difficulty of this roll can be lowered with appropriately stunted Awareness Charms.
If successful, the Lawgiver can introduce one fact about
a weakness in the location’s security, and for every additional two successes she may name another factual security weakness, place of concealment, or other means of
gaining surreptitious access to a place. Unlike introducing
a fact with Lore, if the Solar beats the set difficulty, the
Storyteller should always allow whatever fact the player
introduces. If the Storyteller deems there are absolutely
no flaws, the difficulty should be set to 10 and if the Solar
jumps this hurdle then they still find at least one flaw.
Special activation rules: By spending six points accrued by Master Plan Meditation, this Charm may be
used retroactively, without a roll and for free, allowing
the Solar to declare away a guard that’s just caught her, a
trap that’s just sprung on her, a hiding place that wasn’t
there before, and so on. She may only introduce a single
fact in this fashion.
On Sun-Stealing Shadow Spirit
I badly wanted to do a Charm that would allow the Solar to
effectively case a location using Larceny, but my initial try at
it way back in 2013 was unworkable. Conversely, I came up
with this mechanic as an afterthought while putting in bonus
Charms. Oh the changes wrought by time and experience.
Linguistics
Soul-Drawing Pattern
Cost: 8m, 1wp
Mins: Linguistics 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Stolen Voice Technique
The Lawgiver settles down for a minimum of one minute,
writing a description of a person with certain character
traits the Exalt requires. In a single minute she can describe
a character’s specific appearance (“a man with an islander’s cast”), skill set (“good at being discrete, fully literate
in Seatongue and skilled in Azurite legal writ”), social Ties
(or lack thereof), and a Major or Defining Principle. Then
the Solar waits. If a mortal who matches the description of
the character is within a day’s travel, they will arrive at the
place where the Solar wrote the description within the day.
If the Solar is in an unreachable or foreboding place the
character will only go as far as they are comfortable before
returning to their regular course.
Characters drawn by this Charm are not aware of any
overt magic that has drawn them to the place of writing.
It is up to the Exalt to identify the character, and then
to do with them as she wishes. This Charm provides no
guarantee that the subject will cooperate, or that they
will appreciate being set on by the Solar. It gives her no
control over them whatsoever, only a chance to compel
them to her purposes. It may also come to pass that no
character in range perfectly matches the Solar’s bequest.
In that case, the nearest match to the description will be
drawn instead.
On Soul-Drawing Pattern
A neat little power, giving you anything from a helpful
lawyer to a hot date.
Indelible Spoken Script
Cost: 5m (+1wp)
Mins: Linguistics: 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Written-only
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Twisted Words Technique
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The Lawgiver’s words emblazon a solid surface in the
vibrant, multi-hued colors of Solar anima. This creates
a message no longer than two breaths in spoken length,
and lays it over a space up to (Essence x 3) yards wide
or (x 5) high. This message appears in the runes, pictograms, or letters of the language the Exalt is speaking.
If she wishes to infuse this message with Written-only
Linguistics magic, she may pay to do so at this time,
treating Simple-type Linguistic Charms as if they were
Reflexive. The Solar must be within fifty yards of the
surface she is speaking words onto.
Anyone who reads this message is subject to any social
influence entailed in the script — usually modeled as a
typical contest of Linguistics vs. Resolve — but only the
first time they read it.
As long as the Solar keeps motes committed to this effect,
the script cannot be scrubbed from the surface of the wall,
and any attempt to write over it fails. If the script it painted over, it bleeds through. Any attempt to otherwise cover
it ends in horrific botches. The only way to remove the
Lawgiver’s words are to kill her, destroy the surface her
words are written on, or use a special sorcerous working
(Terrestrial Circle, Ambition 2, Finesse 1, Terminus 3).
This sorcerous working costs no experience points, but
requires one point of temporary Willpower on each one
week interval. Failing to reach the goal by the terminus
makes this effect immune to any sorcerous tampering by
any sorcerer for two weeks. This failure can be noticed
by a character using All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight
(Exalted p. 356) or similar magic.
By paying one Willpower when activating this Charm,
the Lawgiver raises the difficulty of removing her
words with a sorcerous working to (Terrestrial Circle,
Ambition 2, Finesse 3, Terminus 1) and can choose to
gouge her words into a surface as hard as granite.
On Indelible Spoken Script
When I note that the failure can be noticed with AllEncompassing Sorcerer’s Sight, I am not only referring
to the temporary invincibility of the effect, but also the
sorcerer who failed the working. A sorcerer who looks
into the world of Essence will see the failed sorcerer
emblazoned with the Solar’s message.
Lore
Soul-Light Spreading Discipline
Cost: —
Mins: Lore 5, Essence 2
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Flowing Mind Prana
Over time, the Solar’s wisdom becomes the foundation
of empires. Whenever students of the Solar — characters
significantly educated or trained by the Solar — pass on
her knowledge in turn, the act of following her teachings
becomes a kind of worship. Conceptualizing the Solar’s
teachings themselves as a character, for every dot of
Followers her teachings might accrue, the Solar may count
half those (rounded down, minimum one) as a dot of Cult.
On Soul-Light Spreading Discipline
The backer requested a Lore Charm that would create
a circular flow of benefit from the Solar teacher to their
students, allowing the system to interpret the Solar’s
students as her cult. A very cool concept indeed! In case
you are wondering, for the hypothetical purposes of
this Charm, Followers 4 reflects 1000+ followers, while
Followers 5 reflects 5000+.
Backer: Matt Rock
Cloud-Wreathed Scholar
Cost: 1m
Mins: Lore 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Bottomless Wellspring Approach
The Solar is a bottomless font of knowledge, renewed by
any source of true intrigue. While pursuing the goals of
her Circle or the goals of someone for whom she holds
a Major or Defining Tie, the Solar may use this Charm
to roll to introduce a fact, even if she has already introduced a fact that scene. The Solar may only use this
Charm when she perceives a need for her expertise, and
only if it pertains to the events at hand.
On Cloud-Wreathed Scholar
When I wrote the Lore rules, I limited players to one
introduced fact per scene. I was wary of clogging one
scene with too many lore-based revelations. But I think
this Charm is significantly limited enough to prevent
such abuse, while allowing the Solar savant to tackle a
continuous flow of puzzles, riddles, and historical mysteries to aid her allies in advancement.
Hundred Sages Focus
Cost: 6m
Mins: Lore 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Mute
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Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Truth-Rendering Gaze
With the wisdom of the ages flowing through her mind,
the Solar’s concentration can induce an epiphany. With
a moment of intense observation of practically anything
— a natural phenomena, geographical feature, architectural feature, riddle, puzzle, and so on — the Lawgiver
can name the Lore difficulty to introduce a fact about
what she is observing, and the Lore background needed
in order to make that roll. This Charm does not give the
Solar knowledge she doesn’t have — it can’t turn a geologist into a student of ancient histories — but it does tell
her where to begin her studies anew.
On Hundred Sages Focus
I came up with this Charm while preparing to run my
own personal game of Exalted. As I was seeding the
environment with deeply-seated lore and “unsolvable”
mysteries, I started looking at the hidden histories of my
game and deciding what it would take for our group’s
Lore Solar to crack those mysteries wide open. In my
game notes I started tagging environmental features
thusly: “geological formation: geology difficulty 3”, “colossal arm of blue stone sticking out of the mountain:
‘biography of the Celestial Incarnae’ difficulty 10” and
so on. In the former case, geology is the needed background or “Lore topic.” The latter refers to a book in a
library in Yu-Shan, of which there is no other copy, and
which has never been to Creation.
Whenever I contemplate running an Exalted game, I
always consider which Charms my players are using and
which Abilities they are going to be rolling, and then I
fill out the structure of every night’s gaming with a list of
interesting Ability checks and opportunities to use said
Charms. I seed the environment with difficult challenges. For my friend the investigator, I create mysteries and
leave evidence. For the Solar savant, I fill the game with
wondrous lore. For the occult specialist, strange and uncanny mysteries that are outside Lore’s purview.
In essence, I build my personal games of Exalted around
my players. This Charm is an outgrowth of that, allowing a player to mine the hidden secrets from the setting,
to find the presents I have buried for the whole Circle to
stare at — in wonder, in horror.
One last thing: Harmonious Academic Methodology
increases the gamut of your Solar’s knowledge. So if
you find your Storyteller has placed a mystery in front
of you that is outside your Solar’s background, hit the
library, conduct interviews at the local academy, quiz a
Sidereal, put a spirit in a headlock and make them teach
you — whatever it takes to expand your Solar’s mind —
and use that Charm whenever you can, so your Solar’s
knowledge grows voluminously.
Legend-Spirit Convocation
Cost: –
Mins: Lore 5, Essence 3
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Wake the Sleeper
This Charm upgrades the prerequisite, allowing it to
be used on weapons and armor forged of natural metals such as brass, iron, and steel. As the Solar clasps a
weapon, she speaks her legend into it, and the whispers
of mysterious spirits flow into it, filling it with tales of
her past incarnations. The empowering effect of Wake
the Sleeper is less profound on such mortal panoplies:
the roll is always difficulty 2, and the weapon gains a single Instant-duration Evocation whether it is successful
or not. If the roll succeeds, the weapon may (optionally)
become visually transformed by the Solar’s anima, taking on elements of her iconic form, and gains a passive
or Permanent-duration Evocation that enhances the
weapon or armor in question.
Special activation rules: In order to enhance mortal
gear, it must be a favored and select weapon or armor
of the character in question. The Solar may explicitly
use this Charm to enhance the weaponry of someone for
whom she holds a Major or greater Intimacy, positive
or negative, so long as they join the Lawgiver in holding
the object aloft as she channels the Essence of legend
through its form.
On Legend-Spirit Convocation
The backer asked for a Charm that would expand what
Wake the Sleeper could do, so I wrote this.
Backer: Nick Khorlin
All-Knowing Enlightened Sovereign
Cost: 7m, 1wp
Mins: Lore 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Hundred Sages Focus
By expanding her mind, the Lawgiver can consult an
Essence that touches the ends of the universe to find the answer. This Charm allows the Solar to attempt to challenge
a Lore difficulty that is outside the background reflected by
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her Lore rating. With especially difficult challenges, such
a roll is not even possible, but the Lawgiver may challenge
any difficulty and any topic with her Lore by using this
Charm. This Charm confers no knowledge of the required
difficulty, though the Solar becomes aware of the topic the
moment she uses this Charm, if she doesn’t know already.
This Charm can be used once per story, but can be reset by
a scene in which the Solar spends time studying the Lore
topic she last challenged with this Charm.
On All-Knowing Enlightened Sovereign
Seems like a no-brainer. Or should we say all-brainer?
Medicine
Time-Halting Flow
Cost: 15m, 1wp
Mins: Medicine 5, Essence 5
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Anondyne of Celestial Dreaming
The Lawgiver can hold back the hands of time. The Exalt
channels her Essence and strikes the soul of a terminally
ill, comatose, or mortally wounded patient, flooding their
chakras with sustaining Solar Essence. For as long as this
Charm is committed, any disease or poison interval is permanently halted, and unless done direct harm by external
forces, the patient’s physical injuries cannot drive them
into a worse condition. While under the effect of this
Charm, the patient’s vital signs drop to virtually nothing,
and they stop aging entirely. This Charm allows the Solar
the time she needs to devise an effective treatment or to
handle threats to life and limb without losing her patient.
Healing the patient does not automatically restore them
to consciousness. This Charm can be disrupted by an
attack on the patient, or by an impassioned plea for them
to wake up, if it is coming from someone for whom they
hold a Major or Defining Tie. It automatically ends if the
Exalt dies or ends her commitment.
On Time-Halting Flow
In case your Solar should need to postpone treatment, or the
character has an ailment she hasn’t figured out how to deal
with yet. The Abyssal version of this is bound to be nasty.
Melee
Nimble Reaving Wind
Cost: 1m
Mins: Melee 1, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Dual
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Solar moves across the battlefield like an implacable
force. She may use this Charm on her turn to move away
from a target without using a disengage action, so long as she
uses her movement to enter into close range with another
target and uses her attack action against that target. Though
it is learned through Melee, this Charm is expressly allowed
to aid in close range Brawl and Martial Arts attacks.
On Nimble Reaving Wind
A simple yet delicious effect. Enjoy!
Arc Shedding Rain Technique
Cost: 3m
Mins: Melee 3, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Uniform
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dipping Swallow Defense
The Solar strikes away lesser attacks with speed that can
stop the falling rain. Upon successfully parrying a trivial
opponent, the Solar may use this Charm to strike their
weapon away from herself, automatically disarming
them. If she has any Charms which allow her to attack
an opponent she has disarmed she may then do so, even
if she has already attacked for the round. This Charm explicitly allows the Exalt to switch to a Brawl or Martial
Arts based attack, provided that she makes the attack
unarmed or with a legal weapon. This Charm confers no
ability to draw such a weapon instantly, however.
Arc Shedding Rain Technique can only be used once per
round, but may be reset during the round by successfully parrying any attack while suffering an onslaught penalty of -2 or
greater, or by parrying the attack of a dangerous opponent, or
by killing any opponent with a Counterattack Charm.
On Arc Shedding Rain Technique
The backer’s favorite anime is Moribito, so she wanted a Melee
Charm that would help her fight like Balsa. This was a tricky
Charm to write, as Melee Charms have to work not only with
spears, but with axes, swords, claymores, etc. After watching
Balsa fight, I decided to make the Charm a very solid defense
against greater numbers that would allow the Solar to create
openings for Charms such as Savage Wolf Attack (Exalted
p. 419), or yet-unwritten Martial Arts or Brawl Charms. The
Solar parries away an enemy attack and then spin kicks them
face down in a rice paddy. Go Balsa or go home.
Backer: Lindsay Steussy
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Gleaming Sever
Cost: 1m, 1i
Mins: Melee 4, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Uniform
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Fire and Stones Strike
In the moment before she strikes, the Solar focuses her
Essence along the edge of her blade, making it infinitely
sharp. Fueling an attack with this Charm guarantees it
one automatic success, and grants it one bonus die of
damage, guaranteeing that die gets rolled regardless of
the target’s soak or hardness. If she is using this Charm
in combination with the Clash keyword to destroy rubble or other heavy scenery that has been hurled at her
with a decisive gambit, this Charm grants three automatic successes to the Initiative roll.
On Gleaming Sever
A nice little boost of power to help round out Essence
1 Melee. This Charm’s effect has been balanced against
narrative, owing to the dramatic effect a powerful blow
has on an object in motion. Storytellers should be wary
about allowing it to easily cut down stationary objects
like massive fortress gates or thick castle walls.
Stark Truth of Steel Method
Cost: 2m, 1i
Mins: Melee 4, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Uniform
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Fire and Stones Strike
Through combat the Solar sees all things truly. When
she witnesses an opponent successfully apply their
Parry or Evasion with the aid of Charms or magic, the
Exalt is able to understand the principle behind their
defense and may strike through it. This Charm adds
an automatic non-Charm success to an attack after the
opponent has applied their Defense, if and only if they
are using a defensive magic the Solar has seen them use
previously in the battle. The insight the Solar gains is
fleeting and momentary; this advantage fades after the
Solar has used this Charm, and she must witness or experience her opponent’s defense again in one round in
order to use this Charm in the round that follows.
On Stark Truth of Steel Method
The backer wanted a Melee Charm that would allow
him to exploit a flaw in his opponent’s defense to land
an attack. I felt that a Charm that magnified wound
or onslaught penalties was a bit too divorced from an
expression of Melee skill, so I went with this Charm,
which would reveal a weakness or flaw in an opponent
through a mystical insight. This Charm neither requires
nor conveys inherit knowledge of magic; the Solar can
simply analyze tactical magic as if it were any other
technique and find a way around it.
Backer: John Esslinger
Victorious Wreath
(Against the World Stance)
Cost: 6m, 1wp (+1i per round)
Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Perilous
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Fivefold Bulwark Stance, Ready
in Eight Directions Stance
The Lawgiver sees every angle for attack and counterattack, her every parry and strike building on one another to
make her unassailable. While using this Charm, every time
the Exalt successfully parries, she gains a number of motes
equal to the difference between her Parry and the attack’s
successes plus one. These motes can only be used to fuel
Melee Charms, and vanish at the end of her next action.
Victorious Wreath has a one Initiative per round upkeep,
and if the Solar is crashed, the Charm is broken and the full
cost must be paid again if she wishes to reinstate it.
A repurchase of this Charm allows an Exalt using Ready
in Eight Directions Stance to keep their Initiative from
returning to base at the end of the round, so long as they
successfully parry every attack launched at them during
the round while using Victorious Wreath.
On Victorious Wreath (Against the World Stance)
The backer wanted a Melee Charm for use by his Solar,
the Invincible Sword Princess. He wanted Princess to
have a Charm that would help her deal with focus fire
from a group of opponents, so I came up with an effect
that would defray the cost of continual use of Dipping
Swallow Defense or Ready in Eight Directions Stance.
I imagine fighting the Invincible Sword Princess to be
like trying to fight someone who is wreathed in Essence
and steel and able to move faster than light. Thus you
have Victorious Wreath, or the more narrative Against
the World Stance.
Backer: Jye Nicolson
Whirlwind-Tempest Deflection
Cost: 6m, 1wp
Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
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Keywords: Counterattack, Decisive-only, Perilous
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Flashing Edge of Dawn, Heavenly
Guardian Defense
Even a world-consuming maelstrom is driven aside by a
Solar’s defense. Brandishing her Essence-laden weapon,
when the Solar successfully parries a decisive attack of
17+ base damage, she may use this Charm to redirect the
damage in a shockwave that cuts a circle of destruction
around herself.
This attack automatically damages or destroys any
non-magical scenery in range, doing automatic damage
equal to half the decisive attack (rounded down). Done in
a temple, pillars will begin to slide off of their bases. Done
in a forest, trees will begin to topple all around the Solar.
This attack also automatically hits every trivial opponent in close range, and (greater of Essence or three)
dangerous opponents in close range. Roll decisive damage equal to half the attack’s Initiative (round down)
against the dangerous opponents. Trivial opponents
take automatic decisive damage equal to the dangerous
opponent who takes the most damage plus three. This
attack does not use the Solar’s Initiative and does not reset her to base Initiative. The Solar may use this Charm
once per battle, but may reset it by raising her Initiative
to 20+ and then landing a decisive attack, or by rolling
Join Battle.
If the Solar knows Sandstorm-Wind Attack, WhirlwindTempest Deflection can be increased to short range by
paying three extra motes.
On Whirlwind-Tempest Deflection
The backer wanted a Charm that would allow him to
block an attack and redirect a destructive shockwave
around himself from parrying the force of the blow. A
decidedly simple request that ended up being a fairly
complicated Charm! I tried to make it as roll-free as possible while retaining its balance. Thus the limitation to
how often you can use it and the similarly high cost.
Backer: Scott Ryder
Shattering Clash
Cost: 5m
Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Fervent Blow
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The Solar’s interdicting strike lays waste to her opponent. Upon a successful decisive attack, but before
damage is rolled, the Lawgiver channels the fury of her
Essence through the strike. If the attack does at least
six health levels of damage to the target, three of that
damage can be traded to destroy the target’s weapon,
provided that weapon is made of natural (non-magical)
materials such as steel.
On Shattering Clash
This Charm is risky because of the cost and the fact
that you have to throw it before you see the damage
roll. Because 10s are not doubled on the damage roll of
a decisive attack you want to use this Charm with 14+
Initiative for the best chance to do the required damage.
Omniscient Focus Attack
Cost: 6m, 1wp
Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Clash, Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Fervent Blow
Even gods may be cut by the sharp light of Solar fury. As
long as she is gripping her weapon, the Solar feels the
slightest movement in the air around her and may react
with impossible speed. The Solar may use Fervent Blow
to clash an attack she is not aware of; she becomes aware
of the attack at the last moment. This Charm also allows
her to strike immaterial opponents with a clash. This
Charm does not force spirits to materialize, even if the
Solar’s attack manages to wound them.
On Omniscient Focus Attack
I wrote this bonus Charm to give Solar Melee a little
more overt supernatural capacity. The Solar can clash
an opponent with the hypothetical ability to strike while
immaterial. The ability to attack while immaterial is
typically a power belonging only to spirits. Omniscient
Focus Attack will work on concealed foes as well. For
the most part, attacking from concealment reveals the
attacker’s location, but if they are using magic to keep
this from happening and yet the Solar does a lot of damage or kills them with her clash, the Storyteller should
consider them revealed anyway, as the Solar slashes
through a grate and blood pours from the place of concealment, or a dead body tumbles down out of a well of
perfect shadows.
All-Sundering Strike
Cost: 3m, 1wp
Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Clash
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Fervent Blow, Hail-Shattering
Practice
The Solar meets an attack with a strike that can cut
through the heavens. This Charm supplements a clash
attack, allowing the Solar to roll her clash twice and take
the higher of two results. In addition, any Charms she
uses on the first roll enhance the second roll for free.
New Charms may not be added to the rerolled clash.
On All-Sundering Strike
The backer requested a Charm for his Solar who he described as a “master of clashes.” One of the most incomparably strong mechanics in the game is the free “mimic” reroll that copies your Charms. This Supplemental
clash enhancer is limited by its high price point.
Backer: Matthew McGuire
Divine Executioner Stance
Cost: 6m (+1m)
Mins: Melee 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Uniform
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Rising Sun Slash
When her sense of justice or righteousness is offended,
the Solar’s wrath suffuses her blades, making her attacks swing faster and bite harder. When she first uses
this Charm, she grips her weapon tightly and makes a
vow based on a Principle or Tie that she holds, to use
her every means to defend or protect that Intimacy. This
act has great mystical significance, recorded in the celestial registers of Heaven, as the Lawgiver swears on her
weapon and her skill to protect what is most dear.
Thenceforth, whenever the Exalt makes a Melee attack
in defense of the attached Intimacy and pays one mote,
she gains bonus dice equal to (Intensity). In addition, if
her target has acted to harm one of her Ties or threaten
one of her Principles, a successful attack adds damage
equal to the target’s strongest opposed Intimacy to the
Solar or her protected Tie or Principle. In simple terms,
the Lawgiver may not know her opponent’s Intimacies,
but the Storyteller does, and can select the most appropriate Intimacy on the damage roll. If the Solar has
vowed to protect the street urchins of Nighthammer,
she may not realize that her target despises children, but
the damage of her attack rips through his corrosive spirit and wounds him that much more deeply. This Charm
confers no knowledge of Intimacies to the Solar.
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In addition, if the target is a cursed, blighted creature,
such as a ghost or a demon, or one of the Abyssal Exalted,
the damage on this attack is increased by one, gains one
automatic success, and the damage is aggravated.
On Divine Executioner Stance
The backer wanted a Melee Charm that would give him
some added whomp from drawing on his Intimacies
for an attack. A critical read on this Charm reveals that
Solar Essence rips through and obliterates beings that
are antithetical to the Solar’s spirit, ideals, and personal
character. Intimacies are important to the formulation
of a character’s identity, and a character’s identity is the
foundation of their Essence, their total being. Thus the
Divine Executioner is poised to strike down those who
stand against her and the things she represents.
Backer: Patrick “Ash” Colford
Occult
Six Eternities’ Travail
Cost: —(1wp)
Mins: Occult 5, Essence 2
Type: Permanent
Keywords: None
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Ancient Tongue Understanding
In becoming one with strange forces, the Solar experiences the hardships of the infinite. Through their suffering she is enlightened. This Charm upgrades Ancient
Tongue Understanding, bringing the Solar’s Essence
closer to true embodiment of the spirit of the Old Realm
language. If she adds a point of Willpower to the cost
of the prerequisite, then any Occult roll she makes is
enhanced while it is active, rolling additional dice for
(Essence) 10s that appear in the result. If any 10s appear
in these bonus dice, they are also rolled again.
On Six Eternities’ Travail
The backer wanted a Charm that would help him as
a sorcerer. I decided to bring it in line with the Solar
Charm set by making it applicable to any Occult roll.
Backer: Alec Humphrey
Anima-Suffused Spirit
Cost: 1m + 2m, 1a per health level
Mins: Occult 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Material Exegesis Prana
Focusing her Essence into the corporeal form of a spirit familiar, a summoned elemental, or sorcerously-bound demon,
the Solar may pour her anima into such a creature to heal its
wounds. The Exalt pays one mote to activate the Charm, and
for every two motes and one level of anima she spends, one of
the spirit’s damaged health levels is instantly healed.
On Anima-Suffused Spirit
The backer asked for a Charm that would allow him to
heal his spirit familiar in combat.
Backer: Brian Rivers
What Light Reveals (Living Specter’s Flame)
Cost: 6m, 1wp
Mins: Occult 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Burning Exorcism Technique
The Solar occultist’s burning anima is alive with the
Essence of the strange. When the Lawgiver’s anima is
visible, it brings her spirit familiar into sharper relief,
amplifying their power. The Solar may temporarily impart spirit Charms to her familiar that belong to spirits
whose Essence patterns she has captured with Burning
Exorcism Technique.
• At the dim level, the spirit gains no benefit.
• At the glowing level, she can impart (Essence / 2,
rounded up) minor Charms.
• At the burning level, she can impart an additional
major Charm.
• At the iconic level, she can add yet another minor
and major Charm.
As long as the Solar’s anima is visible, the familiar gains
the imparted Charms automatically. If it drops a level
the Charms it can use are likewise reduced.
If the Solar has learned any spirit Charms through the use
of Carnal Spirit Rending, Gloaming Eye Understanding,
or Divine Mantle, she may choose to impart such Charms
to her familiar as well.
On What Light Reveals (Living Specter’s Flame)
The backer wanted a Charm that would power up their
spirit familiar based on the intensity of their anima. I
decided it would be an Occult Charm, because the uncanny nature of Occult Charms allows for strangeness
in the method. This Charm demonstrates the nature of
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Essence to be the whole or sum of the being. Therefore,
if a Solar is absorbing the Essence of spirits, her own
Essence is affected. For more on conceptualizing spirit
Charms, read Divine Mantle on page 310 of Exalted.
Backer: M.C.G.
Performance
Music and Singing
Divine Instrument
Cost: 1m or 2m
Mins: Performance 4, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Mood-Inducing Music
With but a gesture, the Solar dismisses her instrument.
Be it a sanxian or a lyre, she sends it Elsewhere for one
mote. The Solar may only draw it back with a flourish,
often a swipe of her hand that causes it to materialize
from a glimmer, or from a gout of Solar flame. This
flourish costs two motes, and all who witness it become
immediately aware of the Solar’s divinity. Any relevant
Intimacies they have for “divine beings” or “spirits” or
“holiness” automatically qualify as Resolve modifiers for
the Solar’s music, regardless of what she intends by it.
On Divine Instrument
I deliberated for a long time about whether to include
this in the effect in the core book. I even wrote it as a
different Charm, but decided to cut it for space. This
Charm is actually a much better version with a more
interesting name and mechanic.
For those who are interested, the Abyssal version is very
similar, and has you drawing a musician’s bow across
the Shroud, eliciting a screech as it passes over invisible
strings into your hand. Then as you flourish and bow in
introduction, your instrument appears in a gout of black
flame. But don’t worry; if you don’t use a bow, plectrum,
baton, et al, you’ll still be covered.
Another kind of Exalt has their own version called Oud
Flying Elsewhere; they hold their instrument high, let
go, and it falls into the sky. When they need it back they
reach up and it falls back down into their hand. Even in a
completely enclosed space, it comes right down.
Seventeen Cycles Symphony
Cost: 5m, 1wp
Mins: Performance 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Heart-Compelling Method, Plectral Harbinger’s Approach
The Solar becomes a conduit of divine music; beautiful
unnatural melodies flow through her. When confronted
with a natural environmental hazard such as a forest
fire, a driving blizzard, a hurricane, and so on, the Solar
may dispel nature’s fury with overriding music. Roll the
Lawgiver’s Charisma + Performance with Essence automatic successes against the difficulty of the hazard. If
successful, she creates a safe path for a group of followers
(Essence + [one per two extra successes]) in Size. A raging inferno that covers a hundred miles will snuff out in
a path large enough for her party to pass safely through,
a river of magma becomes cool enough to cross barefoot,
and a hurricane may be diverted narrowly from its course.
The Solar’s music need only contend with elemental
forces for a handful of seconds in order to dispel them,
but this effect lasts (Essence x 30) minutes, despite the
listed duration. Lastly, the effect is centered around
the Solar, and if she is still in a state of danger from the
environmental hazard when this Charm’s time is up,
she becomes aware of her need to re-use the Charm at
least five minutes in advance. In that case, waive the
Willpower cost to reactivate the Charm.
A repurchase of this Charm allows the Exalt to deal with
supernatural environmental hazards and unusual hazards
such as acid baths. She can turn a cauldron of boiling oil
into a warm bath or ward off the demon winds of Malfeas.
After a repurchase, at Essence 4+, the Solar can use this
Charm to destroy a sorcerous working that is barring her
in the pursuit of a Defining Intimacy, rolling Charisma or
Manipulation + Performance against the Resolve of the
sorcerer who placed it, even if they are dead. A success
allows her to shatter a minor working, or undo a major
working until she has safely passed through it. Such a
working is typically never an environmental hazard. It
might be a massive seam where two mountains were
fused to seal a path, an immovable capstone over a cave
of lost dreams, a mind-worm whose screams force your
best friend to fight you to the death, and so on.
On Seventeen Cycles Symphony
The backer wanted a Charm that would allow him to
play a Solar Orpheus, able to quell nature’s wrath. I liked
the idea so much I decided to expand it to make it a real
homage to the mythical hero, who would stop at nothing
in his quest.
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Storytellers should allow some creative latitude in basic
interpretation of this Charm. A bank of thick fog over a
rocky bay might not count as an environmental hazard in
the strictest terms, but you should let a Solar dispel the
fog so her captain can steer a safer course. Her song can’t
get rid of the rocks, but perhaps it can calm the tides. You
also might note that using this to cut a swath through a
blizzard won’t make it magically warm and sunny. It will
just get rid of the worst, most dangerous and threatening
conditions of the blizzard, allowing your group to pass.
Backer: Nathan Henderson
Acting
Drama-Fueling Ardor
Cost: 1m
Mins: Performance 4, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Master Thespian Style
When acting in a play, the Solar’s energetic charisma and
sexual energy is almost palpable. This Charm supplements
a Performance roll when play-acting, adding one automatic success. In addition, this Charm mutes the (highest
of [Essence] or three) peripheral motes used on that tick,
while taking any successes over the average audience member’s Resolve (or Guile if applicable) and awarding them
to the person acting opposite the Solar, to be used as nonCharm dice for their next Performance roll. Characters
thus enhanced feed off the Solar’s energy, enhancing their
own acting. The Solar’s fellow actors experience this not
as an infusion of “good acting magic” but rather feel the
Solar inhabits the soul of the character she is playing, reads
the audience perfectly, and puts on a performance of such
magnitude that they themselves are elevated.
If such a character’s acting is particularly well received
after critics review their performance, they will generate an appropriate Intimacy for the Solar, such as awed
respect for her talent, or adoration for the Solar herself.
Lastly, any 9s or 10s on the enhanced roll by the actor
opposite the Solar restore an equal number of motes to
the Solar.
On Drama-Fueling Ardor
Another case of not having enough room in the core
book. I really wanted to explore the thespian arm of the
Performance tree, but there was simply no room. Here
we have a Charm that starts gets something interesting
started, and helps ingratiate you to your acting troupe.
The muting effect helps the Solar pour everything into
her performance. A Solar who uses this Charm leaves
her heart on the stage.
Divinely-Inspired Performance
Cost: 5m
Mins: Performance 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Drama-Fueling Ardor
By attuning herself to the Essence flowing between
stage, actors, and audience, the Solar can inhabit a
role completely. Upon activating this Charm, the Solar
knows every line of a play she is acting in, without having read the script. She can divine the correct line and
which character must speak it, just from listening to the
dialogue. She also understands the exact emotion that
needs to be evoked from any one response.
On Divinely-Inspired Performance
This Charm models a Solar whose genius is so profound
that she seems almost to be possessed by the author. She
can fashion the perfect line — the exact correct line —
just from listening to dialogue and interpreting cues.
It’s not as if she has a magic teleprompter reading her
the script, but rather that she becomes so completely
immersed in the world of the play that she becomes the
perfect avatar of her character.
Oratory
Seven Thunders Voice
Cost: 5m, 1wp (6m, 1wp)
Mins: Performance 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Impassioned Orator Technique
The Solar’s voice is mighty and can be heard for long
distances. This Charm allows the Lawgiver’s speech to
be heard up to extreme long range. Even in a city riot,
the Solar’s voice can be heard above the din. While her
mighty voice reverberates, she is only capable of inspire
and threaten actions, but ignores all penalties from environment, distance, or group influence to do so. She may
always choose to lower her voice and speak normally
while using this Charm, and must do so in order to use
other forms of social influence.
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This Charm may also be used shape the Lawgiver’s voice
into a weapon, blasting into the target of her ire with a
single explosive utterance. This use of the Charm costs
six motes, one Willpower, and has a duration of Instant.
Roll a full free Charisma + Performance excellency decisive attack with (Essence) automatic successes. This
attack can only be parried or dodged with magic. If it
hits, the target is flung wildly backwards one range band
and lands prone, taking one automatic bashing damage.
For every three extra successes on the attack, the target
is flung an extra range band up or backwards, taking one
automatic bashing damage for every level they are flung.
If they impact with a solid surface they do so explosively, taking falling damage equal to number of range bands
they were thrown minus one. This attack does not use
the Solar’s Initiative for damage, but resets the Solar’s
Initiative to base.
On Seven Thunders Voice
Ever wanted to blow the doors off a courtroom with a
spoken word, or shout from the rooftops of Nexus and
be heard across the city? Now you can.
Presence
Poised Lion Attitude
Cost: 3m
Mins: Presence 4, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Harmonious Presence Meditation
The Solar’s presence is such that she affects unnatural
ease, even on the battlefield. This Charm allows the Exalt
to engage in Presence or Socialize-based social influence
on her turn during combat without the use of a flurry.
On Poised Lion Attitude
The backer asked for a Charm that would aid him in banter on a battlefield. I felt like this would be a good start.
Backer: Nathan Henderson
Holy Touch
Cost: 6m, 1wp
Mins: Presence 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Enemy-Castigating Solar Judgment
The Solar drives the fullness of her presence into her hand
and touches someone, connecting them to the current of
power that runs through her. Such a character is blasted
away from her and lands prone. This Charm is a decisive
gambit using (Charisma or Appearance) + Presence, with
a difficulty of 3. On a success, the Exalt lays a hand on the
target, her palm surges with Solar Essence, and the target
is blasted back one range band and is knocked down, taking a single range band of falling damage. This Charm can
be used to instantly break free of a grapple.
On Holy Touch
This Charm can also be used socially if combat wouldn’t
make sense — generally against characters the Storyteller
wouldn’t have you Join Battle to defeat with a regular
attack. In this case, the Solar can trigger the Charm
without a gambit; roleplaying and social influence determines whether she makes the appropriate contact. I’d
also like to note that a Solar who has the power of Holy
Touch can gather her Essence, condensing her anima
into a visible sphere in her palms. This has no cost or
overt social influence, but characters who see it will certainly have some reaction to it.
God-Heeling Gesture
Cost: 4m
Mins: Presence 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Majestic Radiant Presence
Presence suffused with the Essence of divinity, the Solar
wields her charisma to restore order. The Exalt may use
this Charm once per round on her turn to make a sudden gesture or action that completely reverses a lesser
miracle. Generally this works without a roll, but if the
Storyteller deems it necessary, roll a clash between the
Charisma + Presence of the two characters.
Thus with a clap of her hands, the Solar can cause a withered flower to stand back up and bloom brightly. With a
stomp of her foot she can cause a spring that dried out
centuries ago to well up with fresh water. Altering a
spirit’s dominion in this fashion automatically informs
the spirit of the presence of one of the Solar Exalted. No
other being could so casually gainsay a god.
On God-Heeling Gesture
This Charm cannot be used to counter the effects of
magic that supplements or creates an attack. Use your
noggin when adjudicating where and when to allow this
Charm in play. If “winter thaw” cruelly kills a random
sparrow, the Solar can make a mudra to restore the bird
to life. If the Solar’s sparrow familiar is killed by a lightning bolt hurled by a god, nothing can restore it to life.
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Unnerving Solar Presence
Cost: 6m
Mins: Socialize 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Threefold Magnetic Ardor
The Solar magnifies her presence to overwhelm a supplicant’s senses. The Solar may use this Charm in response to
social influence being initiated by someone who desires her
sexually or who is intimidated by her, amplifying their desire
or unease to such a degree that they lose their social ease and
become flustered. This Charm removes (Solar’s Essence)
dice from an initiate’s attempt at social influence. The Solar’s
fearsome aspect becomes momentarily more terrifying or
her best features become ethereally pronounced. This effect
is experienced subjectively and only by the initiate. To observers, the Solar merely inclines to listen.
On Unnerving Solar Presence
The backer asked for a perfect defense in social influence,
and I wasn’t able to write one that was balanced. So instead we settled for a less top-heavy effect that felt nevertheless appropriate to Solars and to the Presence Ability.
Backer: Tom Huber
Voice-Empowering Aspect
(Aspect-Imbued Voice)
Cost: 6m (1m, 1wp)
Mins: Presence 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Prophet-Uplifting Evocation
Channeling the fullness of her presence briefly, the
Lawgiver passes her divine aspect into another. The Exalt
may only use this Charm on a character enhanced by the
prerequisite. The enhanced character must also possess
Charisma 3+ and Presence 3+ to receive this power. This
Charm adds three motes to the prophet’s mote pool and
grants them a Charm called Divine Aspect, a one mote
reflexive Charm that grants them one automatic success
to a Presence roll to social influence that is an accordance
with one of the Solar’s Defining Principles. This Charm
confers knowledge of a single such Intimacy; if the
Intimacy is already known, this Charm confirms it as the
Solar commands her prophet to go forth and be righteous
and just according to her wishes. Divine Aspect may also
be used to reflexively raise the prophet’s Resolve by one.
Lastly, whenever the prophet uses Divine Aspect to rebuke or command one who has transgressed against the
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Solar, the Lawgiver senses it and may pay one mote, one
Willpower to cause the prophet to blaze with her glory,
lit up with Solar anima. Wreathed in flame, the prophet’s
mien appears as the Solar’s, and the prophet speaks with
the Solar’s voice, and the Solar may inhabit her prophet’s
form, using them as a vessel for her own Presence and
Integrity Charms for (Essence) rounds. The Solar can use
her prophet’s senses and can control their gestures, but
this does not confer the Solar sensory control necessary for
Awareness or Investigation, or the ability to fight using her
prophet’s body. The Solar pays the cost of any Presence or
Integrity Charms used on her prophet’s behalf.
On Voice-Empowering Aspect
(Aspect-Imbued Voice)
The backer requested a Charm that would allow a Solar
to suffuse a follower with her sacred and divine presence so that they might go forth in the Solar’s name like
a prophet of old and do battle with evil. He specifically
mentioned the conferring of power from Elijah to Elisha
and gave the sense that he wanted to confront evil ideas
through social influence rather than through violence.
Backer: Nathan Colon
Divinity-Conferring Touch
(Celestial Exaltation Method)
Cost: 10m
Mins: Presence 5, Essence 5
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Favor-Conferring Prana
The Lawgiver may confer the power of divinity upon a
mortal subordinate, allowing them to taste the power
of the Exalted. The Solar touches the subject and uses
this Charm. They feel the charge of Solar Essence, and
their mind is spiritually opened for just a moment, long
enough for them to hear the prayers of the Solar’s cult,
like the flutterings of moths. As long as the Exalt keeps
this Charm committed, the target may draw Willpower
from the Solar’s cult. The subject also gains three specific spirit Charms — two minor miracles, and one major
miracle — that fit their most significant Principles. Any
time they use the cult-derived point of Willpower to enhance one of their dice rolls to uphold or defend one of
their Intimacies, the prayers of the cult are channeled
into them for a moment, giving them the Essence they
need to perform the Charm for the Charm’s duration.
This does not grant the mortal an Essence pool, but
allows them to sustain divine, transformative power in
accordance with the divinity conferred to them by the
Solar and the mystic power generated by her worshipers. The subject loses access to these miracles if the
Solar ends her commitment to this Charm.
As long as the Solar is continually expanding her cult through
overt and subtle miracles, the Willpower her subject draws
from the Solar’s cult does not diminish the reservoir of worship (Willpower) the Solar herself draws upon.
On Divinity-Conferring Touch
(Celestial Exaltation Method)
The backer wanted a Charm to uplift his mortal followers with divine status and power. It should be noted that
players and Storytellers should work out the details of
what kind of spirit Charms should be conferred to the
subject in advance. For one who wishes to spy on the
Solar’s enemies, thereby upholding a Principle of belief
in the Solar’s right to rule, the subject’s major miracle
could be something like “Creeping Willow Meditation”
in which her flesh becomes as bark and gnarled wood
and she winds herself around a tree, melding with it so
that she goes completely unnoticed in the forest where
conspirators are known to meet. A minor miracle called
“Sweet Ivy’s Bliss” would allow her to inflict sudden
plant-based toxic necrosis in the skin of someone she
touched — for example, if one of the conspirators confronted her as she was leaving the woods.
Backer: Ross Ramsay
Resistance
Armed and Ready Discipline
Cost: 3m
Mins: Resistance 2, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Whirlwind Armor-Donning Prana
On each round of donning armor with the prerequisite,
the Lawgiver can attack without a flurry by doing a stunt
in which she attacks while putting on a piece of armor. If
she knows Call the Blade or Summoning the Loyal Steel,
she may use either Charm reflexively for free while
Armed and Ready Discipline is active.
On Armed and Ready Discipline
The backer wanted a Charm that would let him use
Whirlwind Armor-Donning Prana and Summoning the
Loyal Steel at the same time, and I thought “why stop there?”
It was actually a tricky Charm to work out, since those other
Charms are about as efficient as you can possibly get. In the
end I decided to value-add this Charm by allowing you to
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arm yourself while attacking, punching through vambraces
to snap them on, clapping on a breastplate while delivering
a spinning slash, drop-kicking into your greaves, and so on.
Backer: Johan Westberg
Fortress-Body Discipline
Cost: 3m, 1wp
Mins: Resistance 5, Essence 4
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Dual
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Ruin-Abasing Shrug
The Exalt exudes toughness; every fiber of her being
is solid steel. Upon using this Charm, the Exalt gains
(Essence) soak and (half Essence, rounded up) hardness
for the rest of the scene. Unlike most forms of hardness, this bonus explicitly stacks with that offered by
Diamond-Body Prana and Durability of Oak Meditation,
but reduces the benefit of the latter to +2 rather than +4.
Fortress-Body Discipline is incompatible with armor.
On Fortress-Body Discipline
The backer wanted extra umph for his Resistance based
shirtless (his word) Solar, so I decided to give him a
much-coveted Reflexive that can be stacked with the
awesome power of Diamond-Body Prana.
Backer: Matt Palsson
Ride
Storm-Racing Destrier
Cost: 2m
Mins: Ride 3, Survival 3, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: One day
Prerequisite Charms: Flashing Thunderbolt Steed,
Hardship-Surviving Mendicant Spirit
The Lawgiver can ride her mount into the teeth of the
storm. If the Solar uses Hardship-Surviving Mendicant
Spirit, she may commit two additional motes to extend
the power of that Charm to her mount. The Solar can
dismount without losing commitment to the Charm,
but the protection only functions to protect her mount
while the Solar is riding it. If the Solar knows ElementResisting Prana, extend the effect of that Charm to her
mount as well, using the Solar’s Resistance.
On Storm-Racing Destrier
This is one of four ultra-rare Charms with a dual prerequisite. Two are in the core book, and another is below,
under Sail. For those who are wondering, the Ability listed first in the “Mins” is the Ability the Charm belongs to.
Sail
Skiff-to-Scow Method
Cost: 5m
Mins: Sail 4, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Ship-Claiming Stance
By disguising her ship’s sail, rigging style, ornamentation, and crew uniform, the Solar may use this Charm
to complete the illusion. After a process of disguising
the ship that takes one hour, this Charm completes the
disguise, making it look like a vessel of slightly smaller or
slightly larger build, going so far as to change the hull’s
construction so that it appears as a completely different
type of boat, and giving it the telltale ornamentation,
flag, and name appropriate to the style of vessel the Solar
intends. As long as the ship is not behaving suspiciously,
the disguise is perfect, allowing a pirate vessel to slip
into a harbor disguised as a coastal merchant. This effect
becomes uncertain when suspicious characters come
within three range bands of the ship. Such characters
can attempt to pierce this Charm by rolling Perception
+ Sail or Perception + Lore against the Lawgiver’s
Manipulation + Sail. If successful, the suspicious character sees some flaw that collapses the whole illusion.
What constitutes “suspicious behavior” is up to the dramatic whim of the Storyteller.
On Skiff-to-Scow Method
The backer wanted a Charm that would help disguise
his ship on pirate raids.
Backer: Legion over Midnight water
Ash and Storm Aegis
Cost: 8m, 1wp
Mins: Sail 5, Survival 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: One hour
Prerequisite Charms: Hull-Preserving Technique, Element-Resisting Prana
While using Hardship-Surviving Mendicant Spirit,
the Lawgiver pours her Essence into the ship’s hull,
merging with the ship’s anima and extending her protection over vessel and crew. This extends lesser but
significant defenses against environmental hazards as
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Element-Resisting Prana; the ship and crew take three
less damage per interval, but only a single member of the
crew or the ship can be harmed per round, and none can
be affected twice in a row.
On Ash and Storm Aegis
The backer wanted a Charm that would let him fly into
a storm, sail into a volcanic eruption, or ride a sand-sea
barge through a sandstorm without losing his entire
crew. This Charm largely immunizes the crew to toxic
fumes, severe heat, and violent winds, though it can’t
make them as tough as the Solar. The limited resistance
guarantees someone will eventually take some damage,
but the number of characters taking damage has been
reduced exponentially, so it becomes easily manageable.
Backer: Andrew Stephens
Perfect Reckoning Technique
Cost: 4m
Mins: Sail 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
Feeling the pulse of energy that moves through the
world, the Solar can sense her exact position on any
body of water. As long as she is on the deck of a ship,
and that ship is touching a body of water, the Exalt can
sense both the direction of the Pole of Earth and the
North Star, even in broad daylight. The moment she uses
this Charm, she knows her exact latitude, longitude, and
bearing, and can plot an accurate course without a roll.
On Perfect Reckoning Technique
Originally this Charm was in the core rules, but I
changed that Charm’s name to Safe Bearing Technique
in order to have a more powerful version of this classic
Solar Charm. Because Creation is flat, getting latitude
and longitude works differently. It requires charts that
map the course of the sun at certain dates and times of
the day, and the use of a backstaff to measure the sun’s
angle and distance from the horizon. This is a difficulty 3 roll for those who have been trained (Celestial
Navigation specialty in Sail), difficulty 4 for those who
have not. Without charts and a backstaff, the difficulty
is raised by 2. A Solar with this Charm always knows
her position relevant to the sun’s arc even at night, and
she can see through sunlight to the North Star even by
day. The reason this Charm requires her to be on a ship
atop a body of water is because she is “feeling” along the
greater surface area of her submerged hull to sense the
flow of Water Essence. All bodies of water in Creation,
even the Dreaming Sea, are resonant with the Pole of
Earth — if one can feel along the Essence that flows
through oceans and rivers, one’s sense will inevitably be
pulled toward the Pole of Earth. Thus a Solar standing
on a ship, floating on water, needs no jade magnet needle
to know the direction of the Imperial Mountain in relation to the North.
Mast of Everything Situation
Cost: 10m, 1wp
Mins: Sail 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Apocryphal
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: None
Sometimes your ship’s mast suddenly explodes. Not a
problem if you are one of the Solar Exalted! With this
Charm you can quickly build a ship’s mast out of whatever is lying around. Cook-pots, old shoes, the ship’s cat,
jewelry, loose weapons, and other contraband will interlock tighter than the chains that hold up the walls of
Pale Dominion. Building this mast is an action that takes
the Solar just a handful of seconds, though that doesn’t
account for gathering the materials. At the end of the
scene, when the Charm ends, the magic holding up the
mast fails and it all comes tumbling down.
Disclaimer: Ship’s cat was not harmed in the writing of
this Charm.
On Mast of Everything Situation
The backer describes opening a fortune cookie with
a hilarious typo that has become a running joke in his
Exalted games ever since, and so we were quite pleased
to write a Sail Charm per his request.
Backer: Alex Richetta
Death-Daring Maneuver
Cost: 6m
Mins: Sail 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Apocryphal, Pilot
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Any five Sail Charms
They say a sailor’s mistress is the sea. Well, the Solar captain’s only true mistress is death. But not even death would
try the crazy shit a Lawgiver captain is liable to pull. When
the Solar uses this Charm, her player may introduce a hazard that imperils her ship and one other, that may only be
avoided through incredible sailing. Roll the Solar’s Wits
+ Sail against that of her adversary. If the Solar has the
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greater result, her maneuvering not only allows her ship to
skate through unscathed, but also causes the other ship to
wreck spectacularly. This might involve the Solar sailing to
the edge of a waterfall and pulling an impossible u-turn as
her adversary sails right over the edge, or it might describe
a Solar pushing her skyship into a steep descent, so the sun
blinds her pursuer and causes them to wreck on a high cliff.
However, if the Solar loses the clash of sail, her opponent
not only escapes the trap, but it also backfires, doing two
damage to the hull of the Solar’s ship.
This Charm can be used once per story, but may be reset
by using Sail to overcome a distinct disadvantage that
threatens your crew or your ship. This Charm can in fact
reset itself. Repeatedly, if needs be.
On Death-Daring Manuever
This Charm is chiefly apocryphal because it is really
powerful. The backer wanted a Charm to help him create dangerous hazards he could sail around while other
players wreck their shit. If you like it, use it anyway.
Without a Willpower cost, you can technically use it
repeatedly, provided your ship is damaged or you are
suffering wound penalties, or have some other distinct
disadvantage. Use it to force a bunch of ships to follow
you down a whirlpool and laugh maniacally as you are
the only one that sails back out again.
Backer: Clear Frozen Skies
Master and Commander Method
Cost: 10m, 1wp
Mins: Sail 5, Essence 3
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Apocryphal, Pilot
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Implacable Sea Wolf Spirit
During a pitched naval battle, the Solar’s skills are tested to their utmost. Her sense of her ship and the flow
of battle become the avenue for a critical apotheosis of
Solar, ship, and skill. In a single moment of transfiguring brilliance, the Lawgiver merges with her vessel and
crew, moving them through open air, phasing them from
one position to another in order to escape destruction
and to unleash an attack of their own.
To use this Charm, the Exalt activates it and becomes keenly aware of every flaw in her opponents’ movements. The
Solar’s player begins to track all 1s and 2s rolled by enemy
captains in the scene. When 15 of these have been accrued,
they can be “spent” as special momentum to trigger this
Charm’s unique stratagem, in which the ship teleports out of
the way of a broadside maneuver (Exalted, p. 245) or other
successful attack, phasing her ship out and in at a new position at the same relative distance from the enemy vessel. This
counts as an uncontested positioning stratagem (Exalted, p.
245) — roll the Solar’s Wits + Sail and convert the result to
momentum. In addition, this momentum can be paid to roll
an immediate Broadside attack against the attacking enemy.
Master and Commander Method can be used in one
scene per story, and within that scene as many times as
the Solar can charge it. An Essence 4+ repurchase also
allows the Solar to count her enemy’s 3s in order to use
it. It can be reset by overcoming a major enemy while
sailing under some penalty that cannot be easily rectified through the use of the Solar’s current Sail Charms.
On Master and Commander Method
The backer wanted a Charm that was as close as possible
to the Picard Maneuver from Star Trek, which involves
flying your starship at an attacking starship using warp
speed to confuse ship sensors and create an illusion of
being in two places at once, allowing the phasing ship
to launch an unexpected salvo against the confused vessel. The main reason this is apocryphal is because Solar
Charms tend to depict one single action and this depicts
several. The Solar teleporting her ship and crew over a
short distance is a legal effect if it is reasonably hard to
do, but this Charm requires the completion of multiple
actions that stretches the limits of how Solar magic functions, and it might make the Charm feel like more of an
actor than the Solar.
As stated in the core rules on page 250, Charms don’t
“do” anything. Charms reflect the actions of the Solar. A
Solar’s action can entail wholly supernatural expansions
of the Ability, but their skill must always be present.
Like all other characters in Exalted, Solars are limited
to specific actions per round. When a Charm depicts
multiple complicated actions being completed that are
usually left as round to round interactions of the rules
and Storytelling, it starts to mark out the Charm as more
of an actor than the Solar. Just remember this is a very
apocryphal Charm and you should be wary of treating
Solar mechanics this way.
Backer: Scott “The Hanged Man” McNabb Corpany
Socialize
Viper-Scenting Method
Cost: 3m
Mins: Socialize 4, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
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Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Motive-Discerning Technique
While using Mastery of Small Manners, the Lawgiver
has a perfect intuition for social mores. While under its
effects, the Lawgiver can use Viper-Scenting Method
to augment her sense of social harmonics, such that
she automatically notices when a character expresses
disfavor toward her, even if they express it indirectly
through a gesture, facial expression, disinterest in the
Solar’s words, or whispered comments to someone else.
The Lawgiver need not be watching or listening for such
cues; this Charm points them out to her. Since Mastery
of Small Manners makes it impossible to impugn her etiquette, the Solar understands by process of elimination
that xenophobic or other personal attitudes make the
initiate distrust or dislike her. Still, the Lawgiver does
not know the exact context of any Intimacies the character might hold. However, this Charm grants one automatic non-Charm success to reveal such an Intimacy
with a read intentions action.
On Viper-Scenting Method
The backer wanted a Charm to amp up the power of
Mastery of Small Manners, helping him to establish
himself in a lasting role within a culture. The biggest
obstacle to foreign inclusion are the prohibitive biases of
members of that culture. This Charm helps the Solar figure out the exact context of those attitudes by aiding her
in revealing related Intimacies. By gathering social intelligence, the Solar can work to defeat those who might
seek to undermine her position in a foreign society.
Backer: Matthew Pascal
Energic Influence Technique
Cost: 3m
Mins: Socialize 4, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Motive-Discerning Technique
The Lawgiver can seed the minds of others with resounding goodwill or disfavor. This Charm supplements
an instill action in which the Solar attempts to raise a
target’s Minor Intimacy to Major, or a Major Intimacy to
Defining. If the instill action is successful, the target also
gains a new Minor Intimacy that reflects the one being
increased. Thus a Solar could link “duty to one’s nation”
to “appreciation for the captain of the guard.” This Charm
fails if the target has Major or Defining Intimacies that directly contradict the proposed Minor Intimacy.
Special activation rules: The player must declare what
Minor Intimacy they plan to tack on before using this
Charm. During the instill action, the declared Intimacy
must be a part of the Solar’s pitch.
On Energic Influence Technique
The backer asked for a Charm that would allow him to
take the Defining Principle of a character and turn it
into a Defining Tie for a related character. For example,
if you love your nation, that Charm could automatically make you love your nation’s leader. We deemed this
far too powerful effect, and decided to instead go with
something a little more hands-on, that allows a Solar to
increase favor with someone by using their goodwill,
seeding them with an Intimacy for future use. Note
that this Charm can also be used to increase and introduce negative Intimacies. This Charm only moves in
one direction, though. You can’t use it to decrease one
Intimacy and raise another.
Backer: Dan Sanford
Rancor-Raising Spirit
Cost: 3m
Mins: Socialize 5, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Energic Influence Technique
Sometimes the Lawgiver must tear down in order to build
up. This Charm supplements an instill action to erode an
Intimacy. If successful, the target also gains a new negative
Minor Intimacy that reflects the one that has been eroded.
Thus a Solar’s arguments could work to sow disfavor for the
Guild, while also instilling a negative view of slavery. This
Charm fails if the target has Major or Defining Intimacies
that directly contradict the proposed Minor Intimacy.
Special activation rules: The player must declare what
Minor Intimacy they plan to tack on before using this
Charm. During the instill action, the declared Intimacy
must be a part of the Solar’s pitch.
On Rancor-Raising Spirit
I wrote this Charm to demonstrate a more powerful converse of the prerequisite. The Solar can use this to defeat
the iniquities that plague her lands, by coupling negative viewpoints onto vehement or convincing obloquy.
Some of you might think this Charm doesn’t work by its
example, because someone with a positive view of the
Guild would have to have a positive view of slavery. But
that’s not actually true — the Guild deals in a number of
vast enterprises, and this can work to conceal the effects
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of slave labor. Moreover, it is human nature to overlook
or to refuse to see the moral or ethical contradictions in
every day life. Evil flourishes thusly. Indeed, there is no
other way that it flourishes.
Soul-Testing Method
Cost: 1m, 1wp
Mins: Socialize 5, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Umbral Eyes Focus
The Solar can draw on a mutual history or shared experience in order to make a powerful appeal. If the Solar shares
a deep emotional connection to a specific society or culture
with another character — as represented by an identical
Major or Defining Intimacy they both hold — then the
Lawgiver may use that bond to convince a target not to take
an action the Solar disapproves of. This puts the character
in a decision point immediately, without a roll, allowing
them to evaluate whether the connection they share with
the Solar outweighs the decision they have made. This
Charm ignores restrictions on Intimacy use in decision
points — the Exalt may use this Charm even if the target
has already cited the shared Intimacy in a decision point.
Nor does it count as exploiting a Tie to the Solar directly.
With a stunt, the Solar can also use a shared experience
(such as serving in the same mercenary company during
a legendary battle) as a reason for persuasion, even if
there is no actual clear Intimacy being shared.
This powerful social influence Charm can be used once
per story.
On Soul-Testing Method
The backer wanted a Socialize Charm that would exploit cultural ties to allow him to reason with his enemies. I expanded it so that it would be effective for a
much broader set of characters. This Charm augments
social bonds and ties that exist between people, basically
using the Solar’s legendary reputation and the target’s
emotional connection to an event to make them stop and
think about what they’re doing.
Backer: Jeroboam “Fist of God” Sneerly
Stealth
Stalking Shadow Spirit
Cost: 5m
Mins: Stealth 4, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Perfect Shadow Stillness
Upon using this Charm, the Exalt patrols an area for
an hour, studying its shadows and learning its secrets.
During this time, the Solar examines boltholes, discovers
blind-spots and sight-lines, and prepares hiding places.
At the end of the hour, roll the Solar’s Wits + Stealth,
adding (Essence) automatic successes. Successes on this
roll are available to the Lawgiver as long as the Charm is
committed or until spent entirely. These successes can
only be used on Stealth attempts within the specific location the Solar patrolled, but the player can parcel them
out across multiple attempts, deciding when to use them,
and how many to use. The Solar is expressly allowed to
use these successes after making the Stealth roll.
Special activation rules: Typically this Charm allows
the Lawgiver to cover an area the size of a large warehouse or small park. This area can be slightly increased,
but the Storyteller should apply a difficulty of 1 or 2 to
the roll if the player wants to extend the range of the
effect. By spending five points accrued by the Larceny
Charm Master Plan Meditation (see Exalted, p. 318),
this Charm may be used retroactively, as long as the
Solar has the motes.
On Stalking Shadow Spirit
The backer wanted a Charm that would help him feel like
he has Matrix-level knowledge of his surroundings, able to
anticipate where others will be looking or standing to simply
not be there. Players are encouraged, while spending the
successes to augment concealment, to describe their Solar’s
manipulation of sight-lines and blindspots, to stand to the
left when a guard is facing right, and so on. As a side-note, all
Charms that accrue successes for you to use later treat those
as “non-Charm” successes unless otherwise stated.
Backer: Clete D. Collum
Killing Shroud Technique
Cost: 5m, 1wp
Mins: Stealth 5, Essence 2
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Stalking Wolf Attitude
While concealed, the Lawgiver may grapple an opponent
who has failed their Awareness check without taking a
penalty to her concealment, gaining one non-Charm
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automatic success in the attempt, and one automatic
success in the Initiative roll. If successful, the Exalt pulls
her victim into the shadows.
This is completely impossible to notice. The grabbed
opponent seems simply to vanish. While the Lawgiver is
still concealed, her victim is hidden for (control) rounds,
unless the Solar’s Stealth check fails. The grapple is
automatically released; though she is still thought to be
holding the opponent in concealment, combat between
the Lawgiver and her victim proceeds as if there was
no grapple occurring. During this time, the Solar may
attack her hidden foe without breaking concealment,
but takes a -1 die penalty to her Stealth check for doing
so. Victims killed during this attack die in an unnoticeable fashion and their bodies cannot be discovered
for (Solar’s Essence) rounds, and then not without a
difficulty 3 Awareness check that explicitly ignores the
Solar’s whereabouts, regardless of its result.
On Killing Shroud Technique
The backer said their favorite Caste is Night, and their
favorite Ability is Stealth, so I wrote them a Charm
that makes a Solar a terrifying opponent to take on in a
poorly-lit space with plenty of hiding places, like a shadowy warehouse or the docks of Nighthammer in Nexus.
Backer: Silent Shadow
Shadow-Striking Way
Cost: 4m
Mins: Stealth 5, Essence 3
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Decisive-only, Mute
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Hidden Snake Recoil, Killing
Shroud Technique
The Lawgiver strikes from the shadows and is gone
again. This Charm supplements a decisive attack made
from concealment, and uses extra successes from the
attack as automatic non-Charm successes on a Stealth
roll for the Solar to re-enter concealment, ignoring the
penalty for attempting concealment during combat. If
the roll for concealment is successful, the Lawgiver
moves to a new hiding place within one range band. As
her old location is discovered, the Lawgiver must move
in order to use this Charm. If the Storyteller deems
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there are no other places of cover or concealment
within one range band, this Charm can’t be used. Extra
decisive attack successes used by Shadow-Striking
Way cannot be used by hypothetical other Charms that
might use them.
If the Solar combines this Charm with Shadow-Crossing
Leap Technique (Exalted p. 408) lower the cost of that
Charm to one mote, one Willpower, and double the automatic successes granted to the Lawgiver’s Stealth attempt.
On Shadow-Striking Way
The backer wanted a way to attack from concealment and
immediately disappear like a deadly shadow. I could tell
from his description that he wanted something a little
more versatile than Hidden Snake Recoil. The problem
with this effect has always been balancing it. Fighting
from a state of concealment is prohibitive on purpose.
Thus, I balanced this Charm against the significant advantage it confers. Charms that follow Shadow-Striking Way
will only enhance it in very gradual ways. Like many Solar
Charms, Shadow-Striking Way is a central effect from
which small upgrade Charms might radiate outward.
Backer: Kalzera of Nugasya
Survival
Harmony with Nature Approach
Cost: –
Mins: Survival 3, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Food-Gathering Exercise, Friendship with Animals Approach, Hardship-Surviving Mendicant Spirit
Sitting in quiet meditation, the Solar centers herself within
the cycle of the elements and the forces of nature. Once per
day, the Solar may use this Charm to generate motes that
may only be used for activating Survival Charms, and which
vanish at the end of the day if they aren’t used. Roll the
Exalt’s Charisma or Wits + Survival and add one to the result
to determine how many motes the Solar is able to accrue.
On Harmony with Nature Approach
Free motes to fuel your familiar’s Donkey Kong Rampage?
Love me. Gotta learn Food-Gathering Exercise first?
Curse me. Such is the life of the Exalted Developer.
Elements-Sculpted Avatar
Cost: 6m
Mins: Survival 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Food-Gathering Exercise, Friendship with Animals Approach, Element-Resisting Prana
The Solar communes with the elements and with
the beasts of nature, gaining harmonious elements of
both. This Charm requires use of Hardship-Surviving
Mendicant Spirit and is completed by a Simple action
in which the Lawgiver spends an hour meditating in a
place where the elements are strong and fierce, such as
the center of a sandstorm or beneath a massive waterfall.
Over the course of the hour, the Solar’s physical appearance becomes shaped by the surrounding elements. She
gains distinct elemental and / or bestial features, though
not the benefits associated with true mutations. This
ethereal transformation raises her Appearance by one,
even if this raises her Appearance above five. In addition, she gains one non-Charm bonus die to soothe or
comfort any elemental, beast, or Lunar Exalted through
the use of social influence.
On Elements-Sculpted Avatar
For those of you who love your Appearance cap-breakers — but only if you are willing to take the side trip into
Survival. Also, just a friendly reminder that someone who
wants to play a terrifying character with the Hideous
Merit can benefit from Appearance magnifying Charms.
Just give them a bunch of threatening or strange markings. This voids the Charm’s ability to soothe aforementioned characters, and does not conversely give them a
bonus to social influence to horrify such creatures.
Riotous Cry of the Beast
Cost: 8m, 1wp
Mins: Survival 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Red-Toothed Execution Order
In a moment of desperation, the Solar may call upon the
fury of nature. Focusing her primal Essence through a
mighty shout or the cry of her familiar, the Solar calls
upon all natural animals within (Essence) miles that
match the species of her familiar. These animals assemble into a Size 2 battle group (see Exalted p. 205) with
average Drill — elite if they are pack hunters such as
wolves or Lions — and Might 0 unless they are diminutive creatures such as rabbits or squirrels, in which case
the amplitude of Solar Essence increases their Might
to 2. Outside of combat, this battle group takes around
ten minutes to assemble unless the assembled beasts are
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particularly slow. Battle groups of incredibly fast creatures such as hawks can assemble in less than a minute,
as can battle groups composed as creatures who are
in the immediate vicinity. In combat, assembly takes a
number of rounds equal to eight minus the Dexterity of
the average member of the battle group, or a single round
if the subjects are all nearby or are incredibly swift.
The battle group is led by the Solar’s familiar. If the familiar is not present, the battle group will still instinctively
attack targets on the Solar’s behalf, and will attempt to
follow her if she moves or attempts to flee or indicates a
new target for them to savage. War Charms that directly
control battle groups are ineffective at leading such a
mob, but Survival Charms that enhance the familiar’s own
actions allow it to pass on orders and bonuses from the
Solar’s War Charms, such as it is able to understand them.
Lastly, at Essence 4+, all successful withering attacks made
by this battle group award half the Initiative (rounded up)
to the Solar’s familiar, if it is present on the battlefield.
This Charm has no effect on the familiars of other characters, spirit animals, or an animal that has a Major or
Defining Intimacy of hatred for the Solar.
On Riotous Cry of the Beast
The backer wanted to use his Survival to call up an army
of forest creatures to aid him in battle. I expanded the
concept to any creature matching the Exalt’s familiar,
and conceptualized it as a battle group and tertiary buff
for your familiar. This Charm also allows rather “weak”
animals to remain valid choices for a familiar. Players
are encouraged to conceptualize a Might 2 animal as
moving at tremendous speeds, leaping through the air,
and fighting with unusual bravery, just like a Solar.
Backer: Kristopher Todd
Colossal Rampaging Beast
Cost: 7m, 3a, 1wp
Mins: Survival 5, Essence 4
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Deadly Predator Method
While her familiar is under the effects of the prerequisite,
the Solar may infuse it with a surge of anima-laden Essence,
magnifying its strength and size to a frightening degree.
Using this Charm automatically triggers Saga Beast Virtue,
replacing the cost of that Charm entirely. It also makes
the size bonuses from all familiar-enhancing Charms
non-optional; all take effect while this Charm is active.
In addition, the familiar grows massively large. Large
creatures grow exponentially; a bull grows larger than
a war elephant, while already gigantic creatures grow
slightly less, a war elephant growing large enough to peer
into a second story window. Smaller familiars become
large enough to ride, reaching excesses of 1000 pounds.
In addition to the benefits of the prerequisite and Saga
Beast Virtue, familiars gain an additional three mutations.
The largest familiars (tyrant lizards, mammoths, giant
snakes) gain three automatic non-Charm successes to
their feats of strength, and may reach into the short range
band to attack targets. In addition, targets at short range
must roll disengage to move away from such a massive
opponent. As targets at close range must also disengage to
escape, a target who starts at close range must disengage
twice to get away. Such familiars double the hardness from
any purchases of Hide-Hardening Practice and gain two
additional -4 health levels and three additional -0health
levels while this Charm is active.
The smaller familiars compensate by gaining three automatic non-Charm successes to rush and disengage, and
one automatic success to each of their attacks. They gain
two -0 health levels.
On Colossal Rampaging Beast
The backer wanted another size booster for his familiar,
one that would let his smaller creature get large enough
to ride. I decided “why stop there?” and made it so your
pet tyrant lizard becomes a fortress-busting tank.
Backer: Michael Brewer
Baara-Unleashing Technique
Cost: —
Mins: Survival 5, Essence 5
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Colossal Rampaging Beast
The Solar calls the inmost soul of her familiar outward,
transforming it into a divine and terrible creature of wrath.
This Charm can only be used on a familiar enhanced by
Spirit-Tied Pet, and the Solar must take a moment to sense
ride the animal before using this Charm. When in this state,
she can trigger Saga Beast Virtue, Deadly Predator Method,
Colossal Rampaging Beast, and Ambush Predator Style
simultaneously and for free, across any plane of existence.
The Solar need not continue to sense ride her familiar after
using this Charm, unless she wishes to augment its actions
with Survival Charms across extreme long distances.
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On Baara-Unleashing Technique
The backer wanted a Charm that would allow his familiar to get powered up while he is not there to protect it.
Thus Baara-Unleashing Technique. A “baara” in Exalted
context is a divine creature, usually a gigantic beast.
Backer: Trey Mason
Thrown
Spitting Hand Technique
Cost: 1m
Mins: Thrown 3, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Solar draws her weapon and hurls it with blazing
speed. This Charm allows the Exalt to switch weapons
reflexively, without a draw/ready weapon action. This
includes hurling improvised weapons. If she can reach it
and she can lift it, then it’s fair game.
On Spitting Hand Technique
Novia drunkenly tangled her bandoliers on a chair and
instead hurled every bottle and glass off the bar at her
assailant, whirling, spinning, making blind around-theback throws, every glass arcing and connecting until her
attacker fled.
Diving Hawk Discipline
Cost: 3m
Mins: Thrown 4, Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Spitting Hand Technique
When she sees the perfect moment to act, the Lawgiver
strikes with unthinkable speed. This Charm supplements a Thrown Disarm, Distract, or Unhorse Gambit,
allowing it to be made without needing an aim action.
On Diving Hawk Discipline
Thrown is about versatility, utility, and quick bursts of
damage. The more versatile it becomes, the better it gets
at the other two.
Thunder-Quelling Gesture
Cost: 3m, 2i
Mins: Thrown 5, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Angle-Tracing Edge
With a quick eye and lightning movement, the Solar may
reflexively hurl a Thrown-based decisive attack at an opponent who takes an aim action, without needing to aim
herself. If her attack does at least one health level of damage, the aim action is interrupted. This Charm allows the
Exalt to attack ahead of her actual turn, so long as she can
perceive the aim action being readied. Using this Charm
uses the Exalt’s combat action, and therefore cannot
be used if the Exalt has already attacked on that round.
Lastly, this Charm allows the Solar to use the prerequisite
reflexively in combination with itself.
At Thrown 5+ Essence 3+, the Solar may use this Charm
without using her combat action once per round.
On Thunder-Quelling Gesture
The Exalt needs to be aware of her target taking aim
in order to use this Charm. This Charm does not confer knowledge of whether or not this is happening, so
if it is not clearly apparent, the player should consider
using Awareness Charms and the prerequisite, AngleTracing Edge. With Awareness Charms dedicated to
hearing, the Solar could commit herself to listening for
the nigh-inaudible pull of a bowstring, and with the
appropriate Awareness roll (difficulty or Stealth contest determined by the Storyteller) she could pinpoint
the exact position of an archer hiding out of sight, and
bounce her missile off a wall or a parapet (via prerequisite) to strike her target and stop them from taking aim.
Note that this Charm does not specify who the target is
aiming at. Use this Charm to judiciously intercept the
slings and arrows that will no doubt be hurled at your
Solar’s friends and allies.
This Charm was written in response to a backer’s desire to
have some defense within the Thrown ability from formidable ranged attacks. It was structured as it is in order to meet
that demand without violating the tactical limits of Thrown.
Backer: Robert-Sean Harley
Death-Dealing Diffusion
Cost: 1m, 1wp
Mins: Thrown 5, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Diving Hawk Discipline
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With this Charm, the Lawgiver whips out two missiles
in succession. Whirling in at blinding speed, her attacks
may confuse and disarm her opponents. This Charm allows the Solar to complete two eligible gambits at once,
with a single difficulty 5 gambit. The eligible gambits are
disarm, distract, and unhorse.
On Death-Dealing Diffusion
Don’t mistake this for a pure utility mechanic. This
Charm is a signature trick that sets a Thrown Solar apart
from her contemporaries.
Whirlwind Hand of the Striker
Cost: 4m, 1wp
Mins: Thrown 5, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Diving Hawk Discipline
The Solar makes an Essence-infused throw that strikes her
opponent to the ground. This Charm is a difficulty 4 Thrown
gambit that, if successful, will knock down an opponent.
Alternately, if the Solar hurls a bola, net, or other snare,
then she makes a difficulty 4 Thrown-based grapple
gambit against her target. If successful, roll (Strength +
Thrown) to establish clinch control, with a number of
automatic successes equal to extra successes on the initial
attack roll plus one. The control roll cannot be modified
by Thrown or other Ability Charms.
If successful the target is snared for the number of control
rounds plus one. If the number of control rounds exceeds
their Strength, they also fall to the ground. A snared character can attempt to struggle free by spending a complete
action without a flurry to remove two rounds of control
each turn. They can also instantly break free from snares
made of non-magical materials (cords, cables, etc) with a
Strength 5+ difficulty 5 feat of strength.
Lastly, if the Lawgiver has the other end of a line, rope,
or other tether hooked to the snare, then if she knows
the Brawl Charm Crashing Wave Throw (Exalted
p. 275) then she can use it to sling her opponent violently into scenery with a decisive throw. The Solar is
considered to have (Essence + 1) more Strength than
her actual rating for the purpose of this stunt. Damage
on this attack resets the Solar to base Initiative.
Lastly, unassisted characters must struggle at least one
round to remove this snare, even if the control rounds
have been completely expended. A net won’t just fall
off on its own, and a character bound by the legs and
hurled with Crashing Wave Throw isn’t set free by
smashing into scenery, even though this forfeits all
rounds of control.
This gambit can be supplemented by Diving Hawk
Discipline.
On Whirlwind Hand of the Striker
I know it is a complex Charm. Just make sure to record extra successes on the attack roll to apply to the control roll.
The Crashing Wave Throw tie-in can be ignored if you don’t
have Brawl, but if you want to play a character who hooks
people by the legs with a weighted line and then hurls them
to a dangle over the rooftops, this is the Charm for you.
As an aside, if you want to free a snared character, there
are a couple of ways you might do it. A Storyteller should
require a character to use their action without a flurry
and an appropriate stunt to try to help a friend get free,
removing an additional -2 rounds of control. Alternately
you might have them try a difficulty 3 gambit to cut the
snare loose with an edged, lethal weapon. A botch on the
Initiative roll should be rather spectacular.
Dancing Steel Symphony
Cost: 9m, 1wp
Mins: Thrown 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Death-Dealing Diffusion, Shower
of Deadly Blades
The Solar whirls like a mad conductor, hurling precision strikes in every direction. The Solar targets up to
(Dexterity + 2) enemies out to short range with a barrage
of Thrown disarm, distract, or unhorse gambits. Each
attack is rolled separately, and each gambit is difficulty
1. The Solar need not aim to use this Charm. While this
Charm is in effect, Spitting Hand Technique costs zero
motes, and if she knows Whirlwind Hand of the Striker
she may also throw snaring grapple gambits.
At Essence 4+, the Lawgiver may activate Death-Dealing
Diffusion as if it were a Supplemental-type Charm
while under the effect of Dancing Steel Symphony. This
raises the difficulty of each gambit to 2, but drops the
Willpower cost from that Charm, requiring the Solar
to instead pay one mote for each gambit she wishes to
double.
On Dancing Steel Symphony
Sometimes a Night Caste needs to knock down, unhorse,
and snare an entire warehouse full of thugs as she passes
casually through their attempted ambush.
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War
Unstoppable Solar Conqueror
Cost: 5m
Mins: War 3, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Holistic Battle Understanding
When the Exalt’s Initiative is higher than the enemy
general’s, her order actions gain a dice bonus equal to
the Size difference between her battle group and the enemy forces. If the enemy general is not rolled into battle,
this Charm doesn’t work, nor does it work if there is no
opposed battle group.
On Unstoppable Solar Conqueror
Just a bonus Charm for all you players of strategists and
generals. Something to help you round out your basic
power structure.
One With Five Forces
Cost: 5m
Mins: War 5, Essence 4
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Four Glories Meditation
The Solar general, having made many calculations and
knowing her enemy as well as herself, is at one with
the five forces. At harmony with the universe, the Solar
cannot be defeated. This is the Charm of the Dawn Caste
generals who tore apart and routed the invincible armies
of the Great Masters in the Time Before. When the Exalt’s
battle group makes a successful attack against another
battle group augmented by an order action, the Solar may
use this Charm to take further control of the battle, forfeiting damage and using extra successes on the attack roll
to place the enemy under the effects of a new stratagem.
In literal terms, the Solar uses her superior knowledge
and tactics to control the enemy army, forcing it into
a disadvantageous state for the rest of the battle. The
Exalt may instead use this Charm to erase a stratagem of
equal or lesser value that has been used against her own
forces, allowing them to escape from the most harrowing of disadvantages through her military genius.
The Solar may deploy up to (Essence) additional stratagems with repeated use of this Charm. If any stratagems
the Solar deploys seem incompatible, void the incompatible one and increase the severity of disadvantage in a
pre-existing penalty. For example, an army trapped in a
desert canyon is suffering from lack of water normally,
but the compounded stratagem reveals that they are also
sinking in quicksand. Increase penalties accordingly.
On One With Five Forces
The backer wanted to expand the order action to make it
more interesting and tactical from round to round. The
backer also wanted the Charm to be Essence 4. His request
led to the creation of this balanced but tremendously powerful Charm that will greatly reward supernal War characters.
Backer: Brent A. Nellis
???
Hallowed Bond of Night and Flame
(Hallowed Soul and Flesh Merging)
Cost: 10m, 3a, 1wp
Mins: Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: Apocryphal
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: ???
When a Solar has a deeply physical and spiritual bond
with one of the Lunar Exalted, that Lunar is said to be her
bond mate — a tradition going back thousands of years.
This Charm is occluded, hidden from the normal roll of
Solar Abilities, and only becomes available to the Solar
to learn if she has a Defining Tie for her Lunar and vice
versa, and if their bond has been deeply established according to the Storyteller. Then, in circumstances where
they are touching each other — sparring, one holding the
other’s wrist to keep them from going over a cliff, sharing
a kiss, etc — the Storyteller may deem that the Solar feels
a sudden oneness with her Lunar. The Lunar will feel this
same oneness in turn. Roll their combined Essence scores,
and if the result is one or greater, the Storyteller describes
a numinous moment in which the Solar and Lunar touch
mind and soul and become as one. This can be a completely disassociated stream of consciousness event, or it can
be a series of images from their past lives. The end of this
sequence leaves the Solar capable of learning this Charm.
This Charm allows the Solar to physically merge with
her Lunar mate, becoming a single entity of divine wrath
and living flame for one scene. The combined being resembles a fusion of the Solar’s physical form with her
iconic anima, and the spirit-animal of her Lunar mate.
This form usually has four arms, has bestial and ethereal
traits, such as horns, hair that floats and crackles with
lightning, gale force-winds that whip around in her vicinity, and so on. The mote pool for the merged being
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is the Solar’s current pool + 25, and the health levels of
the combined being are equal to the Lunar’s undamaged
health levels. As a quick character, the fusion has all of
the traits of the Solar, but the players may do the work to
assign the merged character its own sheet, giving it the
Lunar’s Attributes and the Solar’s Abilities.
In any case, the merged Exalt uses all of the Solar’s Charms
for actions, but its Attributes on any roll can be enhanced
by any Attribute-boosting Charms the Lunar has learned.
In addition, the form gains horns, fangs, claws, wings, and
other mutations applicable to the Lunar’s spirit form and
the Solar’s iconic manifestation, a number equal to the
Lunar’s Appearance or Stamina +1. These natural weapons can be used to use animal attacks such as Bite, Gore,
and so on, listed in the antagonists chapter of Exalted.
To use this Charm, the Exalts must share a Defining
Principle that they are merging in order to defend. If
they are killed while in this form, they both die. Once
they have used this Charm, they may not end their
merged form until the end of the scene, though they may
choose to end it if they fall into Initiative Crash.
On Hallowed Bond of Night and Flame
This Charm was written in response to a backer’s desire
to see a Charm that uses the Solar / Lunar bond to make
a merged being with some combination of Solar and
Lunar Charms and appearance. This Charm is hugely
apocryphal. If we were to allow something like this to
happen normally, we’d require a deeper buildup with a
number of requisite Charms and story events. However,
it is a delightful Charm and if you really want to use
it we hope the Apocryphal keyword won’t get in your
way. According to the backer, this Charm was used by
her Lunar, Scarlet-Wings-Over-The-Mountain and her
Solar lover, Brass Storm Spirit. Storytellers beware, this
Charm is mechanically overpowered. Use with caution.
Backer: Jennifer Alyxendra Barron
As the Tale of Exalted Continues...
This concludes our presentation of the “Backer Charms
of the Solar Exalted.” We hope you thoroughly enjoyed
reading this supplement and that it gave you many new
Charms to consider, discuss, and add to your Solar’s
awesome repertoire. If you like this book and would
like to see more products like this one, be sure to back
the next Exalted Kickstarter, and watch those reward
tiers! We are certain to be doing more books like this in
the future. Thank you for your continued support, and
we’ll see you again in Dragon-Blooded: What Fire Has
Wrought.
The blessing of the Unconquered Sun
unlocks the potential within each of his
Chosen, allowing their heroic skills to
become expressions of divinity. More
than any other Exalted, the Charms of a
Solar express who she is and what shape
her legend will burn into the world.
This book contains over 80 new
Solar Charms embodying a range of
concepts and stories dreamed up by
players of Exalted and meticulously
crafted and balanced for inclusion at
any and all tables. Fire an arrow and let
it become a waiting judgment upon the
wicked. Unleash a sword stroke that can
overwhelm the blade of Heaven itself.
Train your loyal beast companion into
an unstoppable colossus. Effortlessly
seed the battlefield with inspiring words
alongside arrows and blades. Empower
your spirit familiar with the light of your
anima. Tame a hurricane with your
music. These miracles and more may be
found within.
This product requires the use of the
Exalted Third Edition Rulebook