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Zenith Charms

Zenith Caste Anima Effects

Cleansing of the Wicked (Anima Flare)
The Lawgiver fills himself with the righteous cleansing wrath of the Unconquered Sun, becoming a bane against all creatures of darkness. The Resplendent Sun illuminates the area immediately around her as if it were noon, the light extending out to (Permanent Essence x 10) yards. Any creature of darkness in the radius of this light suffers an internal penalty to all attacks equal to the Zenith's Essence. For so long as she burns with this righteous fire, the Pillar of the Sun subtracts her Essence from the raw damage of any attack caused by a creature of darkness (minimum 0). The Zenith's damage is also enhanced, adding her Essence to the minimum damage inflicted upon any creature of darkness and increasing by a like amount the raw damage inflicted upon any such creature her anima's light touches. The Solar gains this ability for one scene by spending 10 motes of Essence, or automatically once the solar has spent 11-15 motes of Peripheral Essence.

Speakers to Heaven (Relic Ability)
The members of the Zenith Caste are considered to be Priests to each and every God in the Celestial and Terrestrial Bureaucracy, but their Authority goes significantly further than this. The Solar Thunder were given the Authority to represent Humanity to the Gods of Yu-Shan in the First Age, and this privilege was never revoked after the Usurpation. Each Zenith has a free outstanding invitation to Yu Shan, and has a dedicated God among the Gold Star Signatories of the Sun's Favor whose sole purpose is to convey that Zenith's prayers to the rest of Heaven. This is handled by a normal Prayer roll, except that the difficulty is lowered not via burnt offering or other sacrifice, but by the sincerity of the Zenith's need for aid from Heaven. This ranges from a difficulty of 5 for trivial personal matters, difficulty 3 for matters of some importance, and difficulty 1 for matters affecting all of Creation.

As a matter of Bureaucratic fiction leftover from the First Age, any Prayer relating to the fate of the Righteous Dead is considered a matter of vast importance. The associated Prayer roll is thus against a difficulty of 2, and and the paperwork involved is greatly sped through the Bureaucracy allowing immediate responce. This allows the Zenith to ensure a favorable reincarnation for those that fell in her service or burn the dead with a touch so that their souls may be safeguarded. In order to make use of their position as Speakers to Heaven, a Zenith must ritualistically show her Caste Mark, which costs a single point of Essence.

In the First Age, this was mostly a communication ability, as the Solar Delberative held the Creation-Ruling Mandate and had merely to speak their wishes to gain the cooperation of Heaven. Yet, in the Second Age, most of the Gods representing the individual members of the Zenith Caste have been on the verge of unemployment for the past 2,000 years and have been sidelined by the other members of their informal committee. While most of the God's are more than willing to push the Agenda of their Zenith, their practical influence is greatly curtailed by their relative powerlessness in the Celestial Bureaucracy and their complete lack of effectiveness with any god within the Terrestrial Bureaucracy. Still, with their jobs relevant for the first time in millennia, the star of these divinities could be on the rise.

Zeal (Innate Ability)
The Golden Bulls are naturally passionate and are able to channel their virtues without the expenditure of a Willpower point, gaining extra dice to important rolls. This still requires the use of a Virtue Channel, and the guidelines for using a Virtue Channel must be met normally, as appropriate. Whenever a Zenith has a Virtue Channel at 0, she can regain 1 channel in that Virtue in lieu of regaining Willpower after a night's rest.

Zenith Errata

Integrity

  • Stubborn Boar Defense (page 199). A second purchase of this Charm also allows the Solar to, optionally, treat all directives gained from natural mental influence as an unacceptable orders while in Limit Break. The Solar decides rather or not to so defend himself when he falls into Limit Break.
  • Integrity-Protecting Prana (page 199) doesn't protect against Environmental effects created by Shaping effects, unless no roll is allowed to resist the effects, such as a sheet of immaterial shards that damages ones soul rather than ones body. For other Environmental effects, use a Perfect Defense or Element-Resisting Prana or simply make the provided resistance roll.
  • Temptation-Resisting Stance (page 200) changes its duration to One Day. The Charm adds (Temperance x 2) dice to your Dodge MDV pool, subject to normal dice pool limitations imposed by Charms. If a single application doesn't already put you at your dice cap, the effects of multiple invocations stack.
  • Elusive Dream Defense (page 200), for clarification, does not require any committed Essence.
  • Sun King Radiance (page 201) also has no effect on Infernal Exalted.

Performance

  • Respect Commanding Attitude (page 202). At Essence 3, anyone affected by this charm must spend 1 willpower to avoid hushing or otherwise opposing someone that attempts to interrupt the Solar's Performance. This compulsion will not rise to the level of a Join Battle roll (that would disturb the Solar's Performance), and all those involved will try to avoid causing much commotion.
  • Memory-Reweaving Discipline (page 202) creates a Temperance-based "Illusion" Intimacy, with a Strength of 2. Resisting this effect with Willpower allows the affected character to remember that the memory is false for a scene, and behave accordingly.
  • Husband-Seducing Demon Dance (page 203) creates either a Compassion-based "Emotion" Intimacy (if the character falls in love with the Solar), or a Conviction-based "Servitude" Intimacy (if she develops dedication to a Solar's cause), both Strength 2. The type of performance used must in some way match the type of intimacy given; dances and singing for Love, while rousing speeches and passionate poems for Dedication.

Presence

  • Hypnotic Tongue Technique (page 203) has the Compulsion Keyword.
  • Majestic Radiant Presence (page 204) changes its Minimum Requirements to Presence 4, Essence 2.
  • Terrifying Apparition of Glory (page 204) can also raise the difficulty of Majestic Radiant Presence's reflexive resistance roll by 2. This requires a charm activation, the normal 2m cost and is an instant effect that affects one Attack or Flurry.
  • Authority-Radiating Stance (page 204) can be purchased a second time at Essence 5. The Solar doubles his effective Presence Rating before comparing it to another character's MDV, and raises the cost to resist the charm to four Willpower. A third purchase, at Essence 7, renders Dodge MDV an inapplicable defense and raises the cost to resist this charm to five Willpower. In addition, the influence lingers with the subject until he spends the willpower to overcome the effect. While he will not necessarily continue to carry out the Solar's commands outside the Exalts presence, he will consider them legitimate.

Resistance

  • Whirlwind Armor-Donning Prana (page 205) changes its Type to Simple (Speed 3). All effort must be uninterrupted, unless the character also has Hauberk-Lightening Gesture in which case the character's armor fades in and out of Elsewhere until it's been fully donned. The character is considered unarmored until the end of the last action in any case. At Essence 3, a second purchase changes the charms Type to Simple (Speed 1, DV -0).
  • Glorious Solar Plate (page 205) has Whirlwind Armor-Donning Prana as its prerequisite. It's duration is One Day.
  • Armored Scout's Invigoration (page 205) changes its prerequisite set to None.
Soak & Damage Avoidance
  • Durability of Oak Meditation (page 206) changes its cost to 1m.
  • Spirit Strengthens the Skin (page 207) changes its cost to 1m per four raw damage dice removed. This takes place on Step 7 of Attack Resolution, before Hardness or Soak is applied to the roll, and can reduce the damage of an attack to Zero or lower it below Hardness, both of which defend against all damage from that attack. This is slightly more efficient than removing one level of post-roll damage, but less useful.
  • Iron Skin Concentration (page 207 has been completely redesigned, pending Player Approval; see above.
  • Iron Kettle Body (page 207) changes its Duration to One Day, and adds the following Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious.
  • Adamant Skin Technique (page 207). As a point of clarification, this Charm (and its Abyssal mirror Wounds Mean Nothing) reduces the raw and final damage of an incoming attack or similar phenomenon to zero after all other modifiers and effects. Damage added to an attack after soak is applied, such as by Fire and Stones Strike, cannot harm a character who activates Adamant Skin Technique.
Regeneration, Healing and 'Tough Badass' charms.
  • Essence-Gathering Temper (page 207) has the War keyword. In addition, this charm has no cap on the number of successes that can be rolled but is still restricted to gaining no more than 20 motes per action from any combination of Charms that includes Essence-Gathering Temper.
  • Unbreakable Warrior's Mastery (page 208) has been completely redesigned; see above.

Survival

  • Friendship with Animals Approach (page 209) changes its duration to One Day, and its prerequisites to None. Lower it's cost to 2m.
  • Spirit-Tied Pet (page 210) lowers its cost to 10m, 1wp. This charm raises the number of Familiars a Solar can have to 2, allows the Solar to gain a Familiar if he has a slot available or replace one of his currently extent Familiars. Any former Familiar's "abandoned" with this Charm remain well disposed to the character, and retain any bonuses they might have gained from the Familiar Bond (including the ability to talk to the Solar without the use of Friendship with Animals Approach) but are not generally willing to freely accompany the character.
  • Bestial Traits Technique (page 210) changes its Minimum Requirements to Survival 4, Essence 2. At Essence 3, this charm allows you to train (Essence) animals at once, though they must all be the same type of animal (Horses + Simhata, for instance). At Essence 6, the Solar can spend 10 additional motes when activating the charm and make the changes hereditary.
Wilderness & Travel
  • Hardship-Surviving Mendicant Spirit (page 210). This charm can serve as an Alternative Prequisite for any charm that requires a Survival Excellency.
  • Element-Resisting Prana (page 210). This charm makes the character immune to charms with the Environmental Keyword. It will only protect against suitable effects provided they offer some way of defense, normally a Withstanding Hardships roll involving the Character's Survival or Resistance. Such effects might instead require Integrity Protecting Prana (for a region where to Life and Death are reversed) or Adamant Skin Technique (for Falling damage).
  • Food-Gathering Exercise (page 210), as a clarification, takes 5 minutes of foraging per "small meal for everyone in the group". It thus takes 25 minutes, and 15 motes of Essence, to keep a group with a Magnitude equal to your Essence well-fed. If the a significant portion (half or more) of the Group is waiting on the Solar to bring back food rather than help, double the times listed above. A survival roll to gather food must be a valid action to use this charm.
  • Trackless Region Navigation (page 211). When using the Travel rules on page 263-267, this charm reduces the Terrain Type by one type (Extreme to Difficult, and Difficult to Open, and Open Terrain gives a +1/4 movement bonus). In addition, the Solar gains a base +1/4 movement bonus which supplants and replaces any bonus the Solar might instead gain from following a Trail or Highway. This charm only works for Land-based movement, but can take the Solar anywhere. A Solar with Ride 4+ can also enhance base mounted movement rates if he and any group he leads are mounted.