[Draken]

Originally Posted by Qwertystop

How does that work? I don't have the Alchemical book.

Adamant caste anima power makes witnesses forget they saw the adamant caste. Much like your power.

It is unnatural mental influence, and like all UMI it has a Willpower cost to resist, which yours is missing, which causes it to go to the default, of 1wp.

Hmm... Thinking about it, anima powers like that need to list their keywords too right?

And since it is rolling, I want opinions here! Also a devil-tiger for Lix' game.

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Originally Posted by Draken

Putting up the Artifex caste, and some basics of Althir, The Steel Duke!

ARTIFEX CASTE

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Caste Mark: A circle surrounded by a hexagon, each of the arms of the hexagon is the color of one of the magical materials. The uppermost arm is Orichalcum, the ones to its sides are Moonsilver and Starmetal, beneath these two are Adamant and Jade, and lastly the lowest arm is Soulsteel. The central circle is the color of common Steel.

SUBPAR PAINT SKILLS ACTIVATE

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Caste Abilities: War, Craft, Lore, Medicine, Occult.
Anima Power: By spending five motes of Essence, the character’s anima crackles out of his him with thunderous power, infusing anything in his possession. Tendrils of surging essence arc in a constant stream between the Exalt’s chakras, weapons and armor. This effect comes into play automatically once the Infernal spends 11+ motes of essence.
While this power is in effect, the character gains a number of virtual hearthstone points equal to his permanent essence. These points can be allocated into any artifacts that require a hearthstone to function, with each point so allocated counting as one hearthstone level in order to power the artifact, this ability cannot be used to acquire actual hearthstones or their powers in a temporary manner. Additionally, while this power is in effect, the Infernal’s anima feeds any lesser essence powered weapon without effort, supplying the mote cost of any weapon (such as concussive essence cannons) without pulling those from the character’s mote pools.

FIRST ALTHIR EXCELLENCY – ESSENCE OVERWHELMING

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Cost: 1m per die; Mins: Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 1 for attacker, Step 2 for defender)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Steel Duke is callous, convinced and somehow nurturing, always willing to improve creatures and objects through his own methods, through never against their will, those who thoroughly deny his grandiose design deserve only to be disassembled for parts to be used on better subjects, but he will never miss a chance to convince the wary of the sublime perfection that he offers. He holds no preference for metal or flesh, but prefers to fuse and meld these substances together into creations both animate and not, although whether these are living creatures or automata is difficult to guess. That said, he is not without emotion and truly, perhaps excessively, enjoys his craft and all steps that lead to it, going through all processes with glee much like a child playing a game.
The Seven-Metal Swarm detests to face a threat alone, to avoid this he breeds expendable hordes or overtakes the weak-willed masses to direct at his enemies, but mere wastefulness is not how he handles true threats, and his tactics are as brilliant as they are ruthless, when the immediate and utter end of the threat is not his goal, these soldiers can be spent as a mere diversion both for enemies and for himself, the success or failure of the horde is meaningless, they can always and easily be substituted.
This charm can always be used to enhance an action to create, repair or improve something or someone and can always be used in order to control and direct beings with lower essence than the Infernal. However, it can never be used in combat when the Infernal is fighting alone, such inane chevalier attitudes towards combat are nothing short of idiotic in the eyes of Althir and it can never be used to merely damage something without the intent to break it down utterly, the Forge of Flesh disdains such attitudes and would rather take what it wants intact or destroy it outright.

ALTHIR MYTHOS EXULTANT

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Cost:—; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Native
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: First Amaenon Excellency
Althir succeeds, and his glory trickles down to those who are beneath him in turn, his success is theirs because they serve him, and in serving him they are dignified beyond their capability and station. All of the Infernal’s servants within a radius of (5 * permanent essence) yards of him receive a stunt bonus on their next action equal to a stunt one dice less than the Infernal’s own, including any stunt rewards fitting a stunt of the dice received. This benefit is only gained if the servants are acting under the Infernal’s behest, if they are doing something unrelated or if the bonus would be detrimental to the infernal, no benefit is given.

Charm Concept: Servants

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Althir forges servants fit for his needs, be these craftsmanship, battle or intrigue, and often his charms affect these servants. A servant, for the Althir’s purposes is any creature with lower essence than the infernal and who must obey him, be it a bound demon, created automaton, follower, henchman, will-broken slave and similar subalterns under his command, be that command earned through loyalty or magic.

ASCENDANCY MANTLE OF ALTHIR

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Cost:—; Mins: Essence 5; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Native, Cybernetic 3
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: First Amaenon Excellency
This charm is Cybernetic, with a repair rating of 3. If the charm goes too long without being repaired, the infernal loses its benefits (like Ascendancy Mantle of Cecelyne) until repairs take place.

New Keyword: Cybernetic

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Charms with this keyword appear on the body of the infernal as visible, obvious biomechanical growths that can be noticed even when not in use. Many such charms also have a repair rating (characterized by a number next to the keyword), like Magitech artifacts, if the charm is not repaired between each 50 + 10*Essence hours of use, it shuts down and the infernal loses its benefits until repairs are made to the charm. Whenever a cybernetic charm interfaces with artifacts that have a repair rating, the charm’s repair always supersedes that of the artifact and performing repairs on the charm immediately counts as repairs for all artifacts interfacing with it.

SORCEROUS ENLIGHTENMENT OF ALTHIR

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Cost:—; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Sorcerous
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: First Amaenon Excellency

Not yet written, will improve spells that create creatures (Calling the Stalward Servitor, etc) and improve the caster somehow (Wood Dragon Claw, Invulnerable Skin of Bronze). Spells that summon things will not receive benefits. Not sure what it will deny yet, ideas? I am thinking of blocking direct offensive spells.

MACHINE-MIND TRANSCENDENCE

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Cost:1wp; Mins: Essence 4; Type: Simple
Keywords: Shaping
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Sorcerous Enlightenment of Althir

Not yet written, will unlock Man-Machine Protocols (and shut down your sorcery) and pump your brain full of clarity for its duration. A variant of Ultimate Darkness Internalization, pretty much.

THE ALTHIRIAN URGE – THE URGE TO UPGRADE

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Has not been written, but involves making things functionally better!

PRECIPITOUS FIAT – SACRIFICIAL SERVANT SOLUTION

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Not often does the Seven-Metal Swarm find himself necessary to end a problem, many nuisances are beneath his efforts, for such cases he has numerous servants. Whenever the infernal finds himself posed with a problem, be it a puzzle blocking his way, an enemy threatening his life or any situation that is not completely trifle and delegates the effort of dealing with the problem to one or more servants without providing any aid himself, he may roll his Conviction and reduce his limit pool by one point per success, greater problems left completely in the care of minions might even award stunt dice to the roll. Should the infernal actually leave his servants to deal with the issue completely unsupervised, he may roll the highest of his Conviction or Valor.

TORMENT OF THE STEEL DUKE

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Althir sees only the magnificence of his designs, that they may have flaws is beyond his imagining. In the throes of torment, his primordial essence short-circuits the channels of his body, draining all his motes and temporary willpower and preventing him from recovering motes through normal respiration for 25 hours (other means still work, however), furthermore, the lost willpower surges outwards as violent elemental essence (usually lightning essence, but sometimes fire or steam as well), creating a one-time environmental hazard with damage equal to the drained willpower and trauma equal to the Infernal’s essence (maximum 5) in a radius of [Essence] yards.

As an aside, what is the status of Autochthonia as of the start of the game? Is the seal breached, are there colonies in creation? This guy might end up being an autochthonian (*coughvoidbringercough*) settler if that is so (otherwise he will just have very old memories of Autochthon).