Unicorn

Unicorn

White as Northern snow with eyes that glow an unearthly blue, bearing an iridescent horn that glitters in cold sunlight, graceful beyond the finest poetry — a unicorn seems like a dream given life. Unicorns have served as war mounts for raksha nobles for ages, and as the subjects of stories and nightmares for many a mortal. A unicorn’s horn, while lovely, is a deadly weapon, and those who approach unwisely find their blood staining the snow. Masterless unicorns run solo or gather in groups of three to ten in the northern Wyld’s bordermarches, defending fantastical lands of pristine allure from any who would despoil or reshape them. Some unicorns boast glorious wings, with massive spans and feathers as pure white as their coats. Unicorns are highly intelligent, and happily converse with those who don’t offend them; but they’re Wyld creatures, not animals, with alien drives that make them highly unpredictable.

Unicorns obsess over harmony and pleasing aesthetics. Unity, symmetry, and wholehearted dedication — to anything, be it love, wealth, or the basest cruelty — attract them. By contrast, contradiction and turmoil are unspeakably ugly to them. Beauty, too, draws a unicorn, but its idea of beauty is as strange and ever-shifting as the Wyld itself. A unicorn smiles upon a blood-spattered battlefield as often as a sublime flower arrangement, as long as the latter doesn’t mar the former; it would stamp the flowers into pulp to keep them from spoiling war’s gruesome elegance. Unicorns are proud, haughty beings who spare no mercy for any who insult or mistreat them; they view captivity as the worst offense of all, and those held against their will sicken and die quickly. But unicorns don’t stay dead: They rise again from the ice in Wyld lands after a year and a day, and hold grudges that last centuries.

Essence: 3, Willpower: 8, Join Battle: 8 dice
Health Levels: −0x2/−1x2/−2x3/−4x2/Incap.
Intimacies: Defining: “I must preserve perfection in all its forms.”; Major: “Insults are forever.”; Myself and My Kind (Pride)
Speed Bonus: +5
Actions: Feats of Strength: 8 dice (may attempt
Strength 3 feats); Fly: 10 dice (winged only); Inspire: 9 dice; Northern Navigation and Survival: 7 dice; Occult Knowledge: 12 dice; Persuade: 6 dice; Read Intentions: 5 dice; Resist Disease/Poison: 10 dice; Senses: 8 dice; Threaten: 8 dice; Tracking: 5 dice
Appearance 5, Resolve 5, Guile 5

COMBAT
Attack (Horn): 12 dice (Damage 16)
Attack (Kick/Stomp): 9 dice (Damage 13)
Combat Movement: 10 dice
Evasion 4, Parry 3
Soak/Harness: 7/0

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Gore: Decisive horn attacks add extra successes to damage against enemies with lower Initiative, as long as the unicorn hasn’t taken any other actions (including reflexive movement actions) that turn.
Sky Runner: In Creation, unicorns can run across the surface of snow or water without sinking in. In the Wyld, they can take to the sky, galloping over clouds and mist as though they were solid ground. Winged unicorns can fly normally in any environment.

MERITS
Cold Iron Bane: Weapons of iron deal aggravated damage to unicorns.
Glorious Aura: A character must pay one Willpower to attack the unicorn as long as it hasn’t attacked her yet this scene; once she spends a Willpower, she may attack at will for the scene. The unicorn’s Inspire rolls have a target number of 5, as long as the emotion it’s inspiring aligns with its Intimacies in context.
Hearts Unmasked: Unicorns can sniff out the stench of dissonance and asymmetry. The unicorn may use its Senses and Tracking pools to detect conflict of any kind, including physical combat, arguments, or internal turmoil such as clashing Intimacies. They can also sense magical conflicts, such as the use of Wyld-Shaping Technique (Exalted, p. 335) to carve reality out of chaos.
Oaths Eternal: A unicorn cannot go back on its word once given; its pride is a magical force that prevents it from doing so. However, it doubles 8s on non-attack actions to uphold a promise or agreement.

Storyteller Tactics
Unicorns are quick to slay those who offend them, and focus single-mindedly on destroying these offenders before moving on to other targets, regardless of relative danger. They leave injured kin to die if the wounded can’t recover quickly — to see their perfection marred thus is disgusting to them. Many unicorns now serving as mounts for the Chosen were abandoned this way, only for an Exalted champion to rescue them. Such acts win the fae creatures’ undying loyalty, as long as their masters live up to their high expectations.

A unicorn is a 3-dot familiar.