Sidereal Charm Rewrite Project c. 1/09
By John Frazer

Table of Contents

Golden Barque of Heaven
Resistance – pg 6
Ride – pg 10
Sail – pg 14
Survival – pg 19
Thrown – pg 23

Cerulean Lute of Harmony
Craft – pg 26
Dodge – pg 30
Linguistics – pg 33
Performance – pg 37
Socialize – pg 41

Crimson Panoply of Victory
Archery – pg 46
Athletics – pg 50
Melee – pg 54
Presence – pg 57
War – pg 62

Forbidding Manse of Ivy
Investigation – pg 67
Larceny – pg 71
Lore – pg 75
Occult – pg 78
Stealth – pg 82

Violet Bier of Sorrows
Awareness – pg 86
Bureaucracy – pg 89
Integrity – pg 93
Martial Arts – pg 96
Medicine – pg 100
Violet Bier of Sorrows Style – pg 104

Primordial Charms 

It is said that Sidereals once had the ability to manipulate fate directly. Created as weapons to fight the Primordials, they could not be bound by Creation's laws, for the beings they fought violated, transcended, and mutilated those laws. But when the creators of the world were cast down, the Maiden's began to fear their Chosen's limitless potential, and so created new Sidereal Charms, to guide the Viziers down the paths they thought proper. 

Whether this is true history or the wishful thinking of a few ambitious Seers, none living can say. But the Primordial Charms do give many Sidereals reason to believe. Sidereal Exalted cannot create new charms, but they can create new applications of their basic techniques. What's more, the Primordial Charms feel different, less intellectual and more intuitive, like many Solars and Lunars describe their magic. Some wonder whether they 
are the residue of a greater, world-shaping power.

When creating new techniques for a Primordial Charm, players are encouraged to bend the rules. Primordial Charms work through the direct manipulation of fate, and their limits are hard to predict. Yet Primordial Charms are not all-powerful, and in some cases are extremely limited. As much as the rules can be bent in creating new techniques, they can never be outright broken. The descriptions will list guidelines for creating new effects. These guidelines must be followed to the letter.

Primordial Charms and Combos

When a Sidereal learns a combo with a Primordial charm, she must select which technique the combo draws upon. Accessing a different technique than the one originally chosen requires the expenditure of 3 xp to “extend” the combo. The Sidereal may still only access one technique per activation of the charm. The Sidereal may not place the same charm in a combo more than once to activate multiple techniques, but for most Primordial charms, the combination of two lower level techniques is an appropriate higher-level technique.

Primordial Charms and Eclipses

When an Eclipse or Moonshadow caste learns a Primordial charm, they gain a single technique, chosen by their tutor, regardless of how many the Sidereal knows. New techniques cost double their normal price for such characters.

Ascending Charms 

The defeat of the Primordials was a cause for celebration. Despite all that was lost, there was great hope for the future. Though there was much work left to be done, it was, for the first time in history, work that had the potential to create something lasting and meaningful. And it was in that spirit that the Maidens created the Ascending Charms. 

As a constellation comes into influence, it brings with it fortuitous omens. Those professions, activities, and events that are ruled by the constellation experience minor bouts of good luck. Everything under the constellation's purview runs smoothly, as fate conspires to bring a new power into the ruling position. Ascending Charms mimic these energies, allowing the Sidereal to work powerful beneficial influences into the destiny of the charm's target (this is similar to, but more specific and more locally powerful than 
laying an Ascending destiny on someone using Sidereal Astrology). 

Ascending Charms only function on targets inside fate, and, along with Descending Charms, are the primary tools the Sidereals use to carry out the orders of the Bureau of Destiny.

Descending Charms 

The beginning of the First Age was a heady, optimistic time, but it wasn't peaceful, and it wasn't pleasant. Though the Primordials were defeated, they left much behind that could not coexist with the new order. While some of it was beautiful, none of it could be spared. The Maidens created the Descending Charms with determination and with sadness, that their Chosen might help suppress that which must be suppressed. 

As a constellation leaves influence, it lets go of power reluctantly. Fate can be spiteful, and that which was formerly favored is cruelly cast aside. Bad fortune plagues those things under the constellation's rule, as the mechanism of fate withdraws its energy to make room for the new constellation's ascent. Descending Charms mimic these energies, allowing the Sidereal to work powerful harmful influences into the destiny of the charm's target (this is similar to, but more specific and more locally powerful than laying an 
Descending destiny on someone using Sidereal Astrology). 

Descending Charms only function on targets inside fate.

Resplendent Charms 

Though they are often aloof and inscrutable patrons, the Five Maidens are not unfond of their Chosen. They may not demonstrate the bombastic pride of the Unconquered Sun or the playfully adversarial flirtation of Luna, but they are confident their Chosen are above the need for such petty validation. Nonetheless, the Maidens do take note of their Exalted's deeds. The Resplendent Charms were created as a reward for a job well done – 
and as a tool for jobs yet to be assigned. 

When a constellation is in its Resplendent phase, it is at the height of its power. Apprentice astronomers often look at the good luck of the Ascending phase or the bad luck of the Descending phase and assume that the Resplendent phase is the least important. The most knowledgeable know that this isn't the case. A Resplendent constellation offers something more valuable than luck -- it offers reliability, stability, and continuity. When a constellation is Resplendent, those things under its influence work as they should. Resplendent Charms rarely have the same devastating impact as Ascending and Descending Charms, but they are often among the most potent tools in a 
Sidereal's arsenal. 

It is difficult to generalize about Resplendent Charms, except to say that they universally benefit only the Sidereal, whether through a temporary enhancement of his abilities or through directly supplementing an action relating to the constellation's sphere of influence.

Inauspicious Charms 

The last Charms to be created, they were given to the Sidereals in what would one day be known as the closing days of the First Age. Younger Sidereals speculate that they were intended to challenge the inflexible dogmatism of the elders. The Bronze Faction maintains that they were intended to be weapons in the Usurpation. Gold Faction innuendo suggests that they were intended for enemies outside fate, made more dangerous by the absence of the Solars. But these claims are all revisionist history. At the time, they were quite mysterious, and the Maidens have refused to illuminate the issue. 

Inauspicious Charms are not right. They seem to draw their power not from the stars of a constellation, but from the darkness between them. They create snarls in fate whenever they're used, snarls that tend to rebound messily on the Sidereal. The Bureau of Destiny hates them, and though it cannot gainsay a Sidereal's right to such powers, vindictive audits have been known to plague those who make extensive use of Inauspicious Charms. 
They're almost not worth the trouble. Almost. 

Inauspicious Charms create powerful effects that outright flaunt the laws of fate. They are often perversions or Inversions of the constellation's normal effects, though just as often, they are the constellation's powers seen in the most vicious and cynical light. Inauspicious Charms affect creatures outside fate as easily as they affect anyone else. 

Charm Prerequisites 

Primordial Charms require an Ability of 2 and an Essence of 2. (Some techniques may require higher values). 

Ascending and Descending Charms require knowledge of the Ability's Primordial Charm and an Ability and Essence of 3 each. They can be learned in either order. 

Resplendent Charms require the character know both the Ascending and Descending Charms, and have an Ability and Essence of 4 each. 

Inauspicious Charms require the character know the Ability's Resplendent Charm and have an Ability and Essence of 5 each.

Charms Not Listed

The Sidereals’ four Excellencies, Propitous (Ability) Alignment, Ox-Body Technique, and Terrestrial and Celestial Circle Sorcery are considered unchanged from the Manual of Exalted Power: the Sidereals.

Resistance: The Mast 

The Mast is a Sign of strength, of the fortitude that allows a journey to continue forward. Some consider this a Sign of ill omen, for when a ship's mast fails, disaster often follows. The Sidereal Exalted find in the Mast the insight that strength is never isolated. It is
always connected to a larger world or a greater purpose. 

Primordial Mast: Someone Else's Destiny 
Once there was a maiden made from a lump of iron, shaped by wind, sea, and fire. 
Cost: 4m, 1w Type: Reflexive 
Duration: Instant 
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Counterattack

In the Primordial war, the Sidereals could not afford the luxury of injury, and quickly mastered the art of expelling harmful influences from the pattern of their fates. But though their hearts were as unyielding as iron, the fires of the world did not disappear because they were denied entrance. Something always burns.

This charm allows the Sidereal to shunt a harmful effect from his fate into someone else's. This requires a Stamina + Resistance roll with a difficulty that varies depending on the specific harm being moved. If the harm is successfully averted, the character immediately makes a Charisma + Resistance roll (in combat, this counts as a counterattack) at a difficulty equal to the new target's permanent essence. If that roll succeeds, the target is subject to the effect instead of the Sidereal. Only a perfect defense 
against that specific type of harm will stop this from occurring. 

The effect must always go somewhere. If the target activates a perfect defense, or the Charisma + Resistance roll fails to achieve the requisite number of successes, the sidereal must choose a new target with a permanent essence less than or equal to the successes on the roll. If no valid target exists within (essence x 2) yards or the character rolls 0 successes on the Charisma + Resistance roll, the effect rebounds to the Sidereal once more. As a special exemption to the normal counterattack rules, the Sidereal can invoke 
Someone Else's Destiny in response to Someone Else's Destiny. 

When the Sidereal first learns this charm, he selects one of the following types of harm. He can purchase other types of harm at the cost of 8 experience points or 3 bonus points. 

Poison/Drugs: The difficulty of the Stamina + Resistance roll is the substance's toxicity. When used in this way, this Charm has the Poison keyword. 

Environmental Damage: The difficulty of the Stamina + Resistance roll is the effect's trauma rating. 

Disease: The difficulty of the Stamina + Resistance roll is the disease's virulence. When used in this way, this charm has the Sickness Keyword. 

Crippling Effects: The difficulty of the Stamina + Resistance roll is equal to the permanent essence of the effect's initiator (or 2, whichever is greater). When used in this way, this charm has the Crippling keyword. 

Attack Damage: This charm transfers one health level of damage per two successes on the Stamina + Resistance roll. 

Sidereals may develop new techniques for this charm. Someone Else's Destiny always transfers only directly harmful effects and it always transfers them only to those that can be meaningfully harmed by them. New techniques can protect against other types of harm. These tend to be quite specific (for example, many elder Sidereals know a technique that will protect them from the spell Threefold Binding of the Heart). New techniques can also affect the specifics of how the harm is transferred (one Sidereal knows a version that allows him to attune to a specific individual and always send harm to that person, regardless of distance. Needless to say, he reserves its use for especially hated enemies.)

Ascending Mast: Water and Fire Legion 
Fearing how wood might shape her, she ran, and did not look back. 
Cost: 6m, 1w, 1hL Type: Simple 
Duration: Indefinite 
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Compulsion, Virtue (Conviction) 

A ship's mast is driven ever forward by the wind. The Chosen of Journeys seek always the next destination. Though they move always to the next adventure, they sometimes, rarely, spare a thought for that which was left behind. They may never return, but they can delegate. 

This charm binds an elemental to protect a favored target (this is usually a fixed location, but it can be a person, even the Sidereal herself). The character offers her flesh to the elemental, and if the elemental finds the offering pleasing, it immediately gains an intimacy towards the target and is subject to a compulsion to protect it. Usually, the Sidereal gains the elemental's favor by beating its Dodge MDV with a Charisma + Resistance roll, but even if the roll fails, the elemental might decide to help the Sidereal 
for inscrutable reasons of its own. 

There is no limit in size to the area an elemental can be bound to protect, though there is very little a weak elemental can do to defend a large area. At the very least, all but the weakest elementals can protect a single individual from harmful environmental effects stemming from their element. A single target can have only one elemental protector at a time, but the Sidereal may protect as many targets as she likes with multiple applications 
of this charm. 

This charm's duration is indefinite, but its health level cost must be paid every Calibration, either by the Sidereal, or by one of its beneficiaries. Despite this charm's name, it can bind any type of elemental.
Descending Mast: Careless Traveler's Consequence 
One day, she forgot what she ran from. 
Cost: 10m, 1w Type: Simple 
Duration: Indefinite 
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Illusion 

When a ship's mast breaks, it often spells the doom of a ship. Many find the wanderer's life romantic until they hear about the broken hearts and shattered lives his absence leaves behind. The charm infuses an area with the essence of Mercury, filling visitors 
with the most harmful variety of wanderlust. 

When activating this charm, the Sidereal targets an area no more than (Essence) miles in radius and rolls Manipulation + Resistance. From that point on, until the Sidereal releases the charm's commitment, every visitor to the area with a dodge MDV less than the rolled successes suffers from an illusion effect. They believe the targeted area is dull, uninteresting, and ugly, and that they will never have cause great enough to return. They will stop in the area only if they are subject to severe hunger, thirst, or exhaustion. In addition all rolls to resist such hardships made by people subject to this illusion add the 
Sidereal's (Essence) in dice. Resisting this Illusion costs 1 willpower per visit.

People who consider the area their home are immune to this effect, though those with intimacies or motivations related to travel, adventure, or excitement find their MDVs 
reduced by the Sidereal's (Essence) when others try to persuade them to leave.

Resplendent Mast: A Tower Stands Itself 
So she pulled out her heart to ask it. 
"Why don't you look back and see?" it said. 
Cost: 8m Type: Simple 
Duration: 1 scene 
Keywords: None 

The constellations from which the Sidereals draw their power represent supernal ideals. The Mast is mighty. The Mast resists storms and waves and the axes of its enemies. The Mast endures. By activating this charm, the Sidereal assumes that quality into himself. 

While this charm is in effect, any attack that fails to kill the Sidereal outright does no damage (though it still might have other effects). The Exalt is unbreakable, like the Mast. Of course, in the real world, masts do break sometimes, so if the damage would be sufficient to kill the Sidereal (it does more damage than he has remaining health levels), this charm offers no protection. A Tower Stands Itself is incompatible with armor. 

Inauspicious Mast: Heartless Maiden Trance 
So she sighed and threw her heart away. 
Cost: 5m, 1w per day Type: Simple 
Duration: Indefinite 
Keywords: None 

The Mast represents power with consequences, power that is connected to the world. The Mast is strong, but its strength moves a ship. The Mast does not exist in isolation. If it did, it would no longer be a mast. This Charm takes that vital occult principle and twists it. The Sidereal removes her heart, and with it her fate and her life, and places it Elsewhere. What's left of her remains in Creation, a mast without a ship, disconnected 
from the normal rules of causality. 

While this charm is in effect, the Sidereal need not breathe, eat, drink or rest, and is immune to disease and poison. She suffers no penalties from any of those conditions, nor from any environmental condition, wound, inherent frailty, fatigue, or as a result of any bodily function. She cannot be knocked unconscious, and couldn't sleep even if she wanted to. She still takes damage, but as long as her heart is Elsewhere, she will not die. 

Beneficial bodily functions cease as well. She will not heal naturally, regain motes through respiration (though she can still restore motes through other means), or restore willpower through any means. She can be targeted by healing magic, but if she's taken more damage than she has health levels, only a solar with Wholeness Restoring Mediation (or some other similarly potent healing magic) can hope to help her. This requires the same difficulty 5 roll that that charm reserves for the most severe crippling injuries. 

When this charm ends (whether through the character's choice, because she can no longer afford the WP cost, or through some other means) all effects suspended by its power take place immediately. The Sidereal is considered outside fate while this charm is in effect.

Ride: The Messenger 

The Messenger is a Sign of service and duty. The Messenger braves dangerous terrain and treacherous foes to bring his master's words to their destination. Yet the Messenger's service is not itself blameless. The Messenger is also the Sign of amoral vassals who surrender their wills to their sovereigns and those whose neutrality stems from apathy. Wise Sidereals take from this Sign the insight that unrighteous orders are never an excuse 
for unrighteous deeds. 

Primordial Messenger: The Golden Road 
Once there was a Maiden, whom many men wanted for their own. 
Cost: 1m Type: Simple 
Duration: Instant 
Keywords: None 

In the Primordial War, the Exalted fought multidimensional entities who were worlds folded into themselves and the societies who inhabited those worlds. Though it was the Solars' and the Lunars' task to destroy the hearts of those worlds, it was often the Sidereals' task to find them. The Golden Road leads unerringly to that which the Sidereal 
wishes to find, though many find the route not to their liking. 

The Golden Road finds the quickest safe route to any destination the Sidereal desires. The destination can be anywhere, even places intentionally hidden or outside fate, though if the Sidereal must pass through somewhere inherently dangerous (like the Wyld or the 
Labyrinth), this charm is of limited use. 

No roll is required, but when this charm is first purchased, it finds only safe, unobstructed paths suitable to the character's current mode of travel. Paths can be as circuitous and illogical as necessary, however. The Golden Road will detour around the cannibal tribe and to the only man-sized hole in the castle wall. If no safe, unobstructed path exists, or if it is impossible to get to the destination with the Sidereal's current mode of travel (you can't ride to a sky city on a horse), the charm tells him so, and leads only to the obstacle 
(it can be activated again when the obstacle is bypassed). 

Additional techniques expedite travel, allowing the Sidereal to get by certain barriers. The Sidereal need not consciously activate the them. Whenever he uses this charm, every technique relevant to the character’s current journey acts automatically. Each of the following techniques costs 5 experience points or 2 bonus points, if purchased during 
character creation. 

Reasonable Official Sympathy: If the way is blocked or made dangerous by official red tape (like the need for travel papers), the Golden Road will lead to an official that will provide them, a corrupt bureaucrat willing to accept bribes, a criminal who will provide 
forgeries, or some other way through. 

Key and Password Intuition: If the way is blocked by a security measure that can be automatically deactivated (for example, the guards allow anyone who knows the password in without verifying their identities), the Golden Road will lead to some way to 
learn the password, unlock the doors, or shut down the traps. 

Toll Finding Serendipity: If the way is blocked by a need for a physical or monetary sacrifice and the character lacks the means to pay, the Golden Road will lead to enough lost or unattended valuable items to pay the fee (this technique can find any sort of bribe or toll, even those esoteric ones demanded by rebellious Terrestrial Gods). 

Mount and Ship Intuition: If there is an unsecured alternate mode of travel (anything from a lost horse to an unattended skyship) that will make the journey faster or safer, the Golden Road will lead to it. If the ride is secured, this technique will find it if the character has another technique that allows him to bypass that type of security (for example, Toll Finding Serendipity will find just enough money for the Sidereal to find 
passage aboard a ship). 

Stranger Shortcuts Still (requires Essence 3): If a temporary fluctuation in the Wyld would shorten the travel distance, the Golden Road leads to it. As long as the Sidereal and his travel companions (up to Essence x 2) stay on the path, they need not fear Wyld mutation. 

The character can invent new techniques for this Charm. The Golden Road always leads to a place, and never to a person, object, or idea (unless it also happens to be a place). Additional techniques can improve the quality of the travel experience (one hedonistic Sidereal knows a version that will find him a willing companion at each night's stop in civilized lands, many more practical Sidereals know a version that will lead to food and shelter), help bypass obstacles of increasing difficulty (a high essence technique can temporarily disable defensive charms and sorcery around the destination), or lead to a specific destination with impossible speed (an elder Sidereal knows a version that exploits flaws in fate to allow him to return to his Manse from anywhere in Creation in a day and a night).

Ascending Messenger: Ordained Vassal Blessing 
She stepped as softly as starlight. She shone with glory. 
Cost: 15m, 1w, 1xp Type: Simple (Dramatic Action) 
Duration: Instant 
Keywords: Obvious, Training, Stackable 

The Messenger is the Sign of service with humility. Everyone might remember the general who won the battle, but few remember the messenger who brought her the king's orders. Such is the way of life. Yet wise rulers reward loyalty. This charm is a ritual of gratitude performed by the Sidereal for a faithful animal or Familiar. For a day and a night, the two commune in silence, surrounded by the soft yellow light of Mercury. At the end of that time, the Sidereal's loyal companion gains access to new skills or abilities, 
made possible by the beneficence of its master. 

Each time this charm is used, the animal is provided with the equivalent of two bonus points worth of traits. If the charm is used on a normal animal, the first applications always buy the Familiar background (even though that is technically a trait of the Sidereal). After that, the Sidereal can improve the Familiar's other statistics. The character can save bonus points across multiple applications of this charm in order to purchase more expensive traits, but the charm must be used sequentially without a break (the energy of Mercury obviates the need for Resistance rolls against fatigue). 

If the Familiar has an Intelligence of 2 or greater, the Sidereal can buy for it permanent essence. Upon attaining Essence 2, the Familiar transforms into a small god, gaining an alternate form and becoming naturally immaterial. It also gains the Materialize charm and a number of other charms equal to its highest Virtue. The Familiar gains a second alternate form and a number of charms equal to its lowest virtue at Essence 3. The Sidereal can raise a Familiar's essence no higher than 3, though the Bureau of Destiny (to which the new god reports) can. Many elder Sidereals have Familiars who are powerful 
gods in their own right. 

Familiars improve according to the Sidereal Character Creation chart (MoEP:S pg 97). They consider no charms or abilities favored. No single statistic may be raised by more points than the Sidereal has dots in permanent Essence, regardless of how many times 
Ordained Vassal Blessing is applied.

Descending Messenger: Breaking the Wild Mortal 
And one by one, they came to claim her. 
Cost: 8m, 1w Type: Simple (5 long ticks) 
Duration: Indefinite 
Keywords: Emotion, Combo-Ok, Virtue (Compassion) 

The Messenger is the Sign of natural followers, people who are content to let their betters do their thinking for them, people with the mentality of beasts. The Sidereal Exalted can call upon the energies of the Messenger to instill those qualities into a mortal, to make a 
human being into a beast of burden. 

When activating this charm, the character rolls Manipulation + Ride against a difficulty equal to the target's Dodge MDV. If the roll succeeds, the target is considered an Acquaintance (as per the Background). That same target immediately gains an intimacy of loyalty to the Sidereal. Finally, he is subject to an unnatural Emotion effect, becoming docile, subservient, and unwilling to disobey orders from any even halfway legitimate authority. For the duration of the effect, the target's MDVs are reduced by the Sidereal's Essence whenever he is confronted by any sort of mental influence from a perceived 
superior (this includes unnatural mental influence). 

Resisting this charm costs 1 willpower per scene. When the target has spent a number of willpower points equal to the Sidereal's Compassion, the effect ends in its entirety. This charm affects only mortals.
Resplendent Messenger: Heavenly Circuit Rider Protocol 
She fled by the quickest route she found. 
Cost: 15m Type: Simple 
Duration: 1 trip 
Keywords: Obvious 

The Messenger braces the dangers she does because her job is important. She allows enemies to speak to each other without fear of betrayal. She allows generals to talk to their lieutenants and subjects to petition their king. All but the most foolish of rulers see the value in maintaining the strict neutrality of official messengers. This charm calls upon the ideal Messenger, and bestows some of her sacrosanct power on the Sidereal. 

The Sidereal uses this charm while mounted. Doing so makes the Sidereal and her mount immaterial, rendering most obstacles irrelevant. Additionally, the mount becomes immune to fatigue and its speed is multiplied by the Sidereal's Essence. Finally, as long as the Sidereal is delivering a message or returning from delivering a message, she enjoys the benefits of the Eclipse caste's diplomatic immunity.

Inauspicious Messenger: Riding the Dragon 
"Why do you run?" the storm clouds said. 
Cost: 15m, 1wp, 1hl Type: Simple (speed 8, DV -3) 
Duration: 5 days 
Keywords: Obvious, Shaping, Touch, Virtue (Conviction) 

The Messenger is loyal. The Messenger obeys without question, and allows no danger or obstacle to prevent him from carrying out his master's wishes. This loyalty is the Messenger's most fundamental trait, but what is a virtue in service to a righteous master is a terrible weakness in service to an unrighteous one. With this Inauspicious Charm, the sidereal betrays the loyalty of his Familiar or of one of his Acquaintances, demanding 
from it the ultimate sacrifice. 

Aside from the altered traits above (cost, duration, and keywords) this charm is identical to the one in MoEP:S (pg 132).

Sail: The Captain 

The Captain is a Sign of direct leadership. The Captain does not rule the aloof attentions of an Emperor, nor the inflexible legalisms of a magistrate. Instead, it governs those leaders who are intimately familiar with and concerned about the lives of their followers. More darkly, it is the Sign of the tyrant or the police state. The Sidereal Exalted gain from this constellation insight into the value of professional detachment. 

Primordial Captain: Salt and Ash Protocols 
Once there was a maiden who set sail with a captain she did not know. 
Cost: 6m Type: Reflexive 
Duration: 1 scene 
Keywords: Obvious, Compulsion 

The Sidereal Exalted were created to assist the Maidens. That’s what the Incarnae told the Primordials, but it was also the truth. More than any other type of Exalted, the Sidereals have access to the fundamental machinery of the world. In the War, they used this knowledge to great effect, sometimes even managing to turn Creation itself against 
its architects. 

This charm targets a single being of water- or air- aspected essence (which can include not just elementals, but gods, demons, and fair folk as well) within earshot with a Dodge MDV less than the Sidereal’s Sail + Essence. It imposes an unnatural mental influence, compelling the being to follow a single order issued by the Sidereal. Targets are normally unable to resist, though if they have charms that raise their MDVs or protect them from unnatural mental influence, they can use them. Only if the command goes against the creature’s Motivation will it spend the single willpower point necessary to ignore the command. The Sidereal must be standing on the deck of a ship (or other vessel) to use 
this charm. 

This charm works by manipulating the fundamental properties of water and air essence the Primordials encoded into the natural laws of Creation. As such, it bypasses the normal Celestial hierarchy. That still doesn’t make it wise to antagonize influential Terrestrial gods. 

When the Sidereal first learns Salt and Ash Protocols, he knows only one command from the following list. He can learn additional commands at the cost of 8 experience points or 
3 bonus points. 

Leave in Peace: The creature departs from the immediate area around the Sidereal’s vessel. It must stay away for the rest of the scene, but it can send underlings or plot 
revenge if it desires. 

Favorable Winds and Currents: The creature must use its powers to increase the ship’s speed for the scene. 

Pearl Diver’s Union: The creature must seek out and return a valuable undersea treasure. It gets to choose what it retrieves, and though it must be something the creature genuinely considers valuable, a sufficiently inhuman creature may return very strange treasure indeed. 

Who Needs a Net: The creature must seek out and return edible food for the ship’s crew. The creature has much less discretion than with the previous technique. It will always return something safe and nutritious, but there’s no guarantee the food will be appetizing. 

Despite their elemental affinity, Dragon-Blooded are not subject to this charm. Water and Air Aspects do, however, find the character oddly persuasive, subtracting 1 from their MDVs whenever the Sidereal tries to persuade them to perform a task that is covered by 
one of his techniques. 

The character can invent new techniques for this charm. Salt and Ash Protocols always commands only air- and water-aspected creatures, and it only commands them to perform tasks that will make travel over or through Creation’s oceans safer, faster, or more pleasant. New techniques can extend the duration or range of this charm, allow the Sidereal to affect multiple creatures at once, or allow the Sidereal to issue new and more complex commands (many Sidereals find it useful to develop a command that will allow them to escape a sinking ship, for instance).

Ascending Captain: Charting the Narrowest Passage 
She noticed the ship was crushing the waves and told the Captain to steer the ship higher so that it could be above them. “But not too high,” she said. “I’d hate to crush the clouds.” 
Cost: 10m, 1w Type: Simple 
Duration: 5 days 
Keywords: none

The Captain is an expert navigator. She can pilot a ship through rough seas, treacherous shallows, and ferocious storms. She has the sense to avoid pirates and the diplomacy to appease little gods. She may be stern, but so long as she’s in charge, she will guide her ship to safety. With this charm, the Sidereal calls upon those occult associations to bless a ship. By laying her hands on the ship’s wheel and uttering a short invocation, she insures 
that the ship will reach its destination intact. 

The sidereal need not accompany the ship on its voyage, but the ship and everyone aboard it must be inside fate. It must depart from a port and arrive at a port, but the departure and destination points need not be connected by a contiguous body of water, be inside fate, or even service seagoing vessels (the ship can arrive at a skyship dock or an iceship haven, but it must be a place where such vessels can reasonably be expected to 
arrive or depart). 

The journey takes exactly five days. During that time, the ship is surrounded by a gray, fog-like mist, through which the shapes of waves, mountains, and other, often stranger landmarks appear. If someone leaves the ship mid-voyage, or if the Sidereal releases the commitment before the journey is complete, the ship (or the person) finds itself at a random point between the departure point and destination. No one has ever been known to be attacked during the voyage, but this charm offers no protection once the ship has reached its destination.

Descending Captain: Endless Ordeal Exile 
The sea came over the side as a creature with teeth. 
Cost: 5m, 2w Type: Simple 
Duration: Indefinite 
Keywords: Obvious, Touch, Shaping

At sea, the captain’s word is law. Sometimes, that law is temperate and just. More frequently, it is harsh and unforgiving. The gruesome, inventive punishments, devised by pirate and legitimate sailor alike, are the stuff of prurient landside legend. With this charm, the Sidereal calls upon the Captain’s pitiless authority. Much as a thief or a card cheat will be thrown overboard, the victim of this charm is cast out of his home, never to 
find rest until the Chosen’s fury relents. 

To activate this charm, the Sidereal must touch the victim’s forehead and succeed at a Charisma + Sail roll, at a difficulty equal to the target’s Essence. If the roll succeeds, a black mark, the inverted Sign of Mercury, appears on the victim’s forehead. Because, when a ship sinks or a storm strikes an isolated village the target rarely suffers alone, the mark produced by this charm is recognized by skilled occultists. Most people need 3 successes on an Intelligence + Occult roll to identify the mark. Those from a seafaring 
culture need only one. 

The victim of this charm is plagued by bad luck. When he’s around, small, valuable items go missing. Bad weather strikes with astonishing frequency. Harvests and catches are poor and livestock takes sick. These disasters make it difficult for the character to stay in one place. So long as the character goes to sleep in a different place from when he woke up (for the purposes of this charm, a single town or ship at sea is considered a “place,”) these disasters are avoided. For each day beyond the first that the character stays in the same place, the character rolls one cumulative die. If the roll succeeds, a disaster occurs to the character that day. To find the severity of the disaster, compare the successes to the 
following chart: 

0-1: Nothing happens 
2-3: The character is falsely accused of a non-capital crime or correctly accused of any crime he might have committed in that location. 
4-5: A natural phenomenon (usually bad weather) causes moderate property damage. 
6-7: The character is falsely accused of a capital crime. 
8+: A natural phenomenon causes severe property damage. 

This charm does not directly harm any sentient creature, though it can place them in dangerous situations (a sinking ship is usually a death sentence). Endless Ordeal Exile also adds the Sidereal’s Essence in successes to any roll the victim makes to survive a seafaring disaster. If the victim ever finds himself locked in prison, stranded on a deserted island, or in any other situation where he can be expected to languish for years, this charm automatically ends

Resplendent Captain: Goes Down With the Ship 
So, she set it on fire, until only the teeth were left. It wasn't expecting that to happen. 
Cost: 10m Type: Reflexive 
Duration: Until the Sidereal makes landfall 
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Virtue (Valor)

The Captain leads from the front. She faces danger alongside her men, and she gladly carries more than her share of the burden. If the situation seems lost, her first concern is the safety of her crew. She retreats only when the last man is safely away. With this charm, the Sidereal becomes the ideal Captain, assuming her strength to allow her and 
her friends to escape a disastrous situation. 

This charm is activated when the character's ship has taken critical damage and must be abandoned. The Sidereal declares her intent to stay behind and urges the other travelers to escape. If they take her at her word, they add the Sidereal's Essence in automatic successes to any rolls that will help them survive and make it back to land (this includes 
attack rolls, damage rolls, and all types of DV). 

Though it seems like a suicidal sacrifice, Sidereals who use this charm have a surprising habit of surviving. The character gains a number of Incapacitated Health Levels equal to her (Essence x 3) and becomes immune to all ocean-based environmental damage 
(including drowning). 

The Sidereal need not be the captain of the ship to use this charm, but this charm can only be activated if she is (or is about to become) the only person left on board the ship. This charm's effects end prematurely if the Sidereal leaves the ship under her own power before it is fully submerged.

Inauspicious Captain: Mutiny Breaking Preparation 
A face in the depths glared at the Captain. The maiden got angry. She broke the face and broke the depths and broke the sea, leaving only the white caps of water. "Why did you do that?" asked the face. 
Cost: 10m Type: Simple (speed 5 long ticks) 
Duration: Indefinite 
Keywords: Emotion, Virtue (Conviction)

The Captain is close to his men, but he's not their friend. He wields near-absolute power over them, but not always for their benefit. Sometimes the men get resentful. Sometimes they want a new captain. The worst captains are paranoid, possessive, and prideful despots who have good reason to fear for their lives. With this charm, the Sidereal learns 
from their example. He will never have cause to fear his crew.

The character uses this charm on a ship he owns. As part of its activation, he gives a speech to his assembled crew. At the end of this speech, he asks everyone to swear an oath of loyalty to him. Those that so swear (even insincerely) are automatically affected by this charm. Those that do not are not (although who refused to swear is obvious to the Sidereal). This charm does not compel anyone to swear if they don't wish to, although the Sidereal can incorporate natural mental influence into his speech (this is a standard 
Performance attack).

Everyone who swore the oath is subject to an unnatural emotion effect - they are mortally afraid of the Sidereal and of the consequences of incurring his wrath. These fears are well justified. The sidereal is automatically aware any attempt by any sworn crewman to go against his wishes. Furthermore, all of his attacks against sworn crewman are perfect attacks and all of his defenses against sworn crewman are perfect defenses. 

An affected character can spend 1 willpower point to resist the emotion effect for one scene. During this time, the Sidereal no longer has a perfect defense against the character's attacks. Instead, he "merely" has a DV equal to the attacker's dice pool + 1. No amount of willpower expenditures will end this charm's effect. The only way to end it is to involuntarily separate the captain from the ship.

Survival: The Ship's Wheel 

The Ship's Wheel is the Sign of stubborn obstinacy. Much as a ship's helmsman will turn the wheel against the current, the power of this constellation aids those who struggle against predestination. Yet the Ship's Wheel can turn too far. Those who follow their obsessions to the point of their own destruction are also governed by this Sign. The Ship's Wheel teaches the Sidereals that sometimes a cheap failure is better than a costly success. 

Primordial Ship's Wheel: Becoming the Wilderness 
Once there was a maiden who lived in a tomb, and the tomb was made in her image. 
Cost: 5m Type: Simple 
Duration: 1 scene 
Keywords: Illusion

One of the Sidereals' many jobs was that of advisor. Though they lacked the fierce adaptability of the Lunars or the boundless perfection of the Solars, they were often expected to follow them to the front lines, and share their insights in places where no mortal could survive. As a result, the earliest Sidereals learned to tie their fates to others, 
and to survive in the same environments as those around them.

The Sidereal uses this charm on another creature to gain the benefits its environmental adaptations, unique diet, and resistance to various poisons and pathogens. For example, if the Sidereal targets a wolf, he gains the benefit of the wolf's thick fur coat and the ability to digest raw meat. The Sidereal doesn't actually change shape or gain any physiological adaptations, though if the target has an MDV less than the Sidereal's Survival + Essence, it accepts the Vizier as one of its own (this does not guarantee a positive reaction, some 
animals attack members of their own species on sight).

If the target uses an essence-based power to enhance its survival abilities, the Sidereal can pay an identical price to gain the charm's or the power's benefit. She at no point learns or knows the power, but as long as she is attuned to the target, and as long as the target maintains the power, she too can maintain it (for example, if the Sidereal followed a Solar into a plague zone, and the Solar activated Immunity to Everything technique, the Sidereal could too, but if the Solar left this charm's range, or decided to release the 
commitment to his charm, the Sidereal's protection would end as well).

This charm must be directed at a creature within (Essence x 10) yards. The target need not be willing, but if it ever leaves the charm's range, the charm automatically ends. Becoming the wilderness can defend against a wide variety of effects, but it never 
protects against a directed attack. 

When the Sidereal first learns this charm, she can gain either two natural techniques or a single supernatural technique. Natural techniques cost 3 xp or 1 bonus point to learn. 
Supernatural techniques cost 8xp or 3 bonus points to learn. 

Natural Techniques: (Directional) Wildlife Attunement - this technique can be purchased once per terrestrial direction. It allows the Sidereal to target all natural wildlife 
in that direction. 

Supernatural Techniques 

Solar Attunement - the character can mimic the survival techniques of the solar exalted. 

Lunar Attunement - the character can mimic the survival techniques of the lunar exalted. If the character also possesses the appropriate (Directional) Wildlife Attunement, the Sidereal can spend motes when the Lunar transforms to gain the survival adaptations of whatever form the Lunar adopts. If the Lunar is tattooed, the Sidereal gains his resistance 
to shaping. 

(Elemental) Attunement - the character can mimic elementals and Dragon-Blooded of the appropriate aspect. 

Demonic Attunement - the character can mimic the survival techniques of demons.

The Sidereal can invent new techniques for this charm. Becoming the Wilderness always allows the character to mimic other creatures and survive on their terms. New techniques can allow the character to mimic new supernatural creatures (Autocthonian Elementals, for example), extend the range or duration of the charm, or to take on other defensive characteristics of a natural animal (gaining a mouse's size bonus to Stealth, for instance). This charm is never aggressive, and it never allows the Sidereal to access essence effects that don't protect from an ambient danger.
		
Ascending Ship's Wheel: Steering Against the Tide 
Because she lived in a tomb, she became like the dead. 
Cost: 4m Type: Simple 
Duration: Indefinite 
Keywords: Emotion, Combo-OK, Virtue (Conviction) 

The Ship's Wheel is not a Sign of despair. No matter how dire the situation gets, those influenced by its power maintain an optimistic (some would say foolish) attitude. As long as life remains, there is a chance to beat the odds and defy fate. The Sidereal uses this charm to give someone (including himself) hope when hope seems meritless. 

As long as the Sidereal maintains this charm, the beneficiary gains a secondary motivation - to survive. This grants all the standard benefits of having a motivation. Furthermore, fulfilling one's motivation (whether the new or the old) while under the effect of this charm gives the character either two willpower points or restores one of the character's virtue channels (instead of the normal benefit of fulfilling a motivation). If the beneficiary of this charm dies while under its effects, he automatically becomes a ghost. 

If for some reason a character wished to refuse this charm, he need spend only a single willpower point.

Descending Ship's Wheel: Dreaming the Wild Lands 
She slept and dreamed. 
Cost: 15m Type: Simple (Dramatic Action) 
Duration: Instant 
Keywords: Shaping, Virtue (Compassion), Combo-Ok 

The greatest weakness of those ruled by the Ship's Wheel is their inability to accept reality as it is. They always dream of reality as something other than it is. With this charm, the Sidereal weaves this attitude into the threads of fate, changing the world in 
often dramatic ways. 

Activating this charm is a dramatic action that takes 5 hours. At the end of that time, the character rolls Perception + Survival. Every success on this roll represents one week of work for (essence x 10) mortals. The character can shape an area up to (Essence) miles across in any way that that number of mortals, using nothing but basic tools and muscle power could accomplish in that amount of time. The landscaping accomplished by this charm need not be pretty or functional, although defacing large areas of wilderness is a surefire way to offend the local terrestrial gods. 

This charm can also benefit certain disciplines of thaumaturgy, notably geomancy, husbandry, and weather working (although other arts may be subject to this charm if they affect the natural world on a wide scale). This charm's dramatic action replaces the thaumaturgy's normal action (the Sidereal will still need to pay any resource or mote cost associated with the ritual, in addition to the cost of this charm). At the end of the time period, the Sidereal makes the normal thaumaturgy roll and multiplies the successes by her permanent Essence. Thaumaturgy enhanced by this charm cannot be part of an extended roll.

Resplendent Ship's Wheel: Wilderness Commanding Practice 
And sometimes woke, and walked within the confines of her tomb. 

The Ship's Wheel is the Sign of obsession. There is danger in that, but there is also power. The obsessed often know the object of their interest better than anyone. With this charm, the Sidereal cultivates a metaphysical obsession with an area, and comes to know 
it better than it knows itself. 

This charm is identical to the charm in the Sidereals book (page 138) except for the following two changes: 

The Sidereal gains an intimacy towards the area for the duration. 

Instead of using Adopting the Untamed face on any animal, he can use Becoming the Wilderness on any subject for which he knows the appropriate technique.

Inauspicious Ship’s Wheel: Monomaniacal Pursuit Concentration 
“Why do you move?” her own ghost asked. “Why walk at all?” 
Cost: 5m, 1w, 1 hl per (essence/2) successes Type: Simple 
Duration: Indefinite 
Keywords: Virtue (Conviction), Emotion 

Those souls ruled by the Ship’s Wheel do not know when to quit, do not know when to cut their losses and admit defeat. Even when continuing would endanger those people and values they hold dear, they refuse to stop. Even when a meaningless death is the most likely outcome, and the price of success far eclipses any benefit success might bring, they persist. With this charm, the Sidereal takes on some of that reckless devotion to achieve 
his own ends. 

When activating Monomaniacal Pursuit Concentration, the Sidereal declares a goal. He immediately gains an intimacy to that goal, and while this charm lasts, violating that intimacy becomes an Unacceptable Order. The goal can be anything, although the frightening intensity of the Sidereal’s obsession makes social goals inadvisable (add the number of health levels spent on this charm as an external penalty to the difficulty of any social roll that does not involve intimidation and outright demands).

For each health level spent on this charm, the Sidereal adds (essence/2) successes (round up) to all rolls made in pursuit of the character’s goal. The Sidereal need not spend all the desired health levels when this charm is activated. If, at any time during the charm’s duration, the character needs more successes, he can spend additional health levels. These health levels are considered “committed” and cannot be healed while this charm is active. 

As an added benefit, all tracking rolls made while under the effect of this charm are considered supernatural. If an object of the Sidereal’s goal uses magic to make itself untraceable, a normal contested Survival roll is made, with the character adding the 
bonus successes provided by this charm. 

It is difficult to end Monomaniacal Pursuit Concentration voluntarily. The Sidereal can release the commitment to this charm if his motivation is broken while under its effects, or if, while the character has 0 temporary Willpower, he succeeds at a Temperance roll.

Thrown: The Gull

The Gull takes joy in travel. It is the Sign of wanderers, vacationers, and all those who travel for pleasure. Yet the Gull is not always a welcome guest. The Gull is irresponsible. The Gull eats much, but returns little. And when a place isn’t fun anymore, the Gull moves on. Sidereals learn from the Gull that life can be enjoyable without being worthwhile. 

Primordial Gull: Life Gets Worse Approach 
Once there was a maiden whose shadow fled from her. She chased it over fire and stone. 
Cost: Varies, usually 4m Type: Supplemental 
Duration: Instant 
Keywords: Combo-Ok

Every Exalt was created to be a weapon, but not all of them were warriors. The greatest fighters among the Chosen of the Maidens could stand side-by-side with the mighty among the Solars and Lunars, but more frequently, the Seers of Heaven preferred murder to combat. During the war, the Sidereals bent much effort towards developing attacks that 
didn’t require their physical presence.

Life Gets Worse Approach alters the flight pattern of a Sidereal’s thrown weapon. Impossible curves, angles, and ricochets are just the beginning of this charm’s effect. Weapons enchanted with this charm have been known to follow targets for weeks, wait outside closed windows until someone carelessly opens them, and generally act more like 
opportunistic birds than inanimate objects.

When this charm is first purchased, the Sidereal knows one of the following techniques. Further techniques cost 8 experience points or 3 bonus points to learn.

Wing Cuts the Air: The Sidereal’s weapon will bend around corners. She can target enemies without needing a line of sight. Such enemies lose all cover and shield bonuses 
to DV. 

Don’t Touch the Nest (requires essence 3): Like an angry mother bird, the Sidereal’s weapon crowds the target with unexpected savagery. The attack cannot be parried.

Looming Albatross Method (requires essence 3): The weapon does not fly towards the target. Instead, it circles over the target’s head, waiting for an opportunity to strike. The next time the target makes an attack, the weapon swoops down, attacking the target with the Sidereal’s original attack roll. This attack is automatically considered unexpected. In the meantime, the weapon stays as close as possible to 10 yards away from the target, has a DV of three times the Sidereal’s Essence, and can be knocked down by any successful 
attack. The weapons stay in the air until they’re knocked down. 

Bird Returns to Nest (1 m): The Sidereal’s weapon will return to her after the attack. 

Birds of a Feather (2m per attack): The character supplements 2 or more attacks in a single flurry. All supplemented attacks impose a coordinated attack penalty equal to the 
number of attacks supplemented. This replaces the normal onslaught penalty. 

The Sidereal can invent new techniques for this charm. Life Gets Worse Approach always alters the flight path of a thrown weapon. It never affects anything other than a thrown weapon (even a throw-able weapon used in melee), and it never changes the properties of the weapon itself. New techniques can increase the range of a weapon, allow a weapon to hit multiple enemies in succession, or allow the Sidereal to hit normally invalid targets (like the infamously untouchable “gap in the armor.”) 

Ascending Gull: Safety in Numbers Stratagem 
She chased her shadow to a monster’s mouth. Her shadow went right in. It didn’t know how to stop. 
Cost: 6m, 1w Type: Simple 
Duration: Indefinite 
Keywords: None

The Gull need not worry about the future, because the Gull has friends willing to shoulder his share of the work. With this potent defensive charm, the Sidereal calls upon 
the Sign’s carefree energies to protect against ranged attacks.

This charm targets up to (Essence) people, which need not include the Sidereal, but which must include at least two targets. As long as every member of the group is no more than three yards away from at least one other member of the group, all of them are perfectly protected from physical, ranged attacks. Projectiles will swerve away from group members at the last possible second and orbit the group lazily for the duration of 
the charm.

If any member of the group is targeted by a non-physical projectile or hand-to-hand attack while one or more projectiles orbits the group, a projectile will swoop down and try to intercept the attack, adding +3 to the character’s DV. A projectile that intercepts an attack is knocked from the air.

Descending Gull: Pain Amplification Stratagem 
The maiden caught her shadow in a deep cave full of ghosts. Her shadow turned into a ball of thorns that wrapped around her. 

The Gull is a drifter and a mooch. Charity seems wasted on him, and his friendship can be more of a burden than a boon. With this charm, the Sidereal's weapon takes more from his enemies than is usually offered. 

Pain Amplification Stratagem is identical to the charm on MoEP:S pg 139.

Resplendent Gull: Friend in Need Kata 
When the ghosts pricked their fingers on the thorns, they came to life. This didn't make anyone very happy. 
Keywords: Compulsion, Obvious, Combo-OK

The Gull is without worry. Whatever she needs, the world will supply. Troubles are for people who let their past burden them. With this charm, the Sidereal adopts the attitude of 
the Gull, and passes his troubles onto an enemy.

Aside from the different name and keywords, this charm is identical to Unrelenting Torment Technique, MoEP:S pg 140.

Inauspicious Gull: More Like a Locust 
The maiden made a ladder from the ghosts' bones, but it only pointed downward. "Why go on?" her shadow asked. 
Cost: 10m, 1w +1m (committed) Type: Reflexive 
Duration: Instant 
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Virtue (Temperance)

The Gull hates it when things get serious. Hardship and sacrifice are foreign concepts. Suffering and work are what settled people do. When things stop being easy and fun, it's time to move on. Someone else can clean up the mess. With this charm, the Sidereal adopts a similar attitude, throwing a random Acquaintance into danger to save his own hide. 

To use this charm, the Sidereal must first touch one of his Acquaintances (as per the background) and commit one mote. Then, any time in the future, in response to an attack, 
the Sidereal may activate More Like a Locust.

To use this charm successfully, the Sidereal must roll Dexterity + Thrown against a difficulty equal to the attacker's Essence. If the roll is successful, the Sidereal teleports to the Acquaintance's location and the Acquaintance teleports to the Sidereal's location, immediately suffering the effects of the attack. 

This charm confuses the records of the Bureau of Destiny. As an added side effect of using this charm, the Sidereal instantly adopts an Endurance 1 Resplendent Destiny appropriate to the Acquaintance's identity (even if the Sidereal lacks the appropriate College). This Destiny lasts a single season.

Craft: The Peacock 

Many dismiss the Peacock as vain and frivolous, but they’re missing the big picture. The Peacock’s finery serves a purpose. With its extravagant plumage, the Peacock finds a mate and thrives. Yet much can be lost when those ruled by this Sign allow their pragmatism to become their ruling passion. Though it is rarely accepted by the overworked, modern Sidereals, this Sign offers the insight that it’s possible to be too practical. 

Primordial Peacock: Immaculate Spirit of Husbandry 
Once there was a maiden who met a thing that lived outside the world, and there was a beauty to it. 
Cost: - Type: Permanent 
Duration: Permanent 
Keywords: None

It’s uncertain how much time separated the creation of the Exalted and the start of the Primordial War. What is known is that much happened in that time. Weapons were forged, alliances were sealed, and generations of Dragon-Blooded and mortal soldiers were bred. The Chosen of Serenity lent their wisdom to all these activities, insuring that 
only the strongest unions occurred.

This charm is a collection of techniques that allow the Sidereal to gain extra benefit from hybrids. Alloyed metals, composite bows, and breeding lineages are all subject to its power. This usually benefits only the Craft ability, though in certain circumstances, it might benefit Bureaucracy, Performance, Socialize or War –– anything in which two or 
more distinct, disparate parts come together to create a whole.

To gain this charm’s benefit, the Sidereal normally must either be doing the work himself or supervising the work as it occurs. The character can spend 3 xp or 1 bonus point to improve a technique, allowing him to create a plan that others may use. When this charm is first purchased, the character gains one of the following techniques. He can purchase 
others at the cost of 8 xp or 3 bonus points.

Alloy of Unusual Strength (Fire): The character is an expert at choosing materials for his projects. The character can create mundane items one step higher (normal becomes fine, fine becomes exceptional, exceptional becomes perfect) than the Craft roll’s difficulty 
and resource cost would indicate. 

Heavenly Alloy Understanding (requires Essence 4): If the character makes an artifact out of alloyed materials (usually Starmetal or Soulsteel, although Jade is alloyed with steel for artifact weapons and armor), that artifact is considered one dot lower in rating in terms of difficulty, creation time, and materials cost (Artifact 1 items are considered perfect equipment). This does not allow the Sidereal to make items of higher rating than 
his Abilities or Essence would permit. 

Matchmaker’s Eye (Wood): The character can influence the offspring of any mortal or animal pairing (although not a mortal and animal pairing). Each success on a Perception + Craft (wood) roll allows the character to determine whether a single heritable trait (attributes are all heritable) a)favors the mother, b)favors the father, or c)is an average of the mother’s and father’s. A single success can also be spent to determine the sex of the 
child or insure that the child is free from the effects of inbreeding.

Heavenly Matchmaker Understanding (Wood, requires Essence 3): The character can extend the benefits of Matchmaker’s Eye to supernatural pairings if he possesses that technique. He can increase the permanent essence of a supernatural being by one for the purposes of siring or bearing god-blooded offspring. He can also allow two god-blooded 
to breed true, even if neither is individually capable of doing so. 
								
Sorting the Dragon’s Seed (Wood, Fate, requires Essence 4): The character adds 1 to the roll to see if the child of a Terrestrial exalts. He can also choose the aspect of the child (this requires a Perception + Craft (wood) roll at a difficulty equal to the highest Breeding rating of either parent if the Sidereal chooses an aspect different from either parent’s). A separate, similarly difficult roll can be made to set the child’s breeding rating at any number equal to or lower than that of the highest parent (if both parents have the same Breeding rating, this technique can automatically improve the child’s rating by 1). 

Sagacious Alchemist’s Admixture (Water): Decrease the Resource cost of Alchemy by 
one and the difficulty by 2.

Sidereal Exalted can create new techniques for this charm. Immaculate Spirit of Husbandry always improves the ability of the Sidereal to combine raw materials. New techniques might allow the character to combine incompatible materials (such as Orichalcum and Soulsteel, or a human and an animal), allow for the inheritance of esoteric or acquired traits (like Abilities, Sidereal Astrology effects, or the Destiny background), or allow the exalt to more easily combine things not normally covered by the Craft Ability (for example, use Bureaucracy to merge two businesses). 

Ascending Peacock: Mending Warped Designs 
It burned with an unholy wrath that could destroy creation. It hated her as much as it loved her.
			
Everyone knows the Peacock is adorned with finery. But, as with many things in life, what everyone knows isn’t always true. This charm restores things to the way they should be.

Mending Warped Designs is identical to the charm in MoEP:S pg. 142. 

Descending Peacock: Destiny-Knitting Entanglement 
Its kiss was blood and perfection, for its teeth were sharp. 
Cost: 5m Type: Simple (Dramatic Action) 
Duration: Indefinite 
Keywords: Shaping

The Peacock is the Sign of those caught in loveless marriages and unbreakable partnerships. As much as they might like to, those ruled by it cannot get rid of their spouses, allies, or families. This charm borrows the energy of that unshakable commitment to tie an object to a couple’s fate.

This charm targets an object weighing no more than (Essence x 25) lbs and two people (one of them may be the Sidereal, and only one needs to be present at the activation of the charm). After a ten-minute ritual, the subjects’ fates are bound. From that point on, either person may spend 1 mote (or 1 WP, for those subjects without access to an essence pool) to either send or call the object.

The object can be any distance from its destination. A series of improbable coincidences will insure that it makes it to its target intact. Travel in this way is not fast. Initially, and for every month that passes, the person who initiated the transport rolls Wits + Craft (fate), the number of successes indicating the items progress. The total number of successes varies based on the distance the character is from the item (needing only 1 to move across a village and 20 or more to move all the way across Creation). If any roll botches, the item was destroyed, or otherwise made unable to continue its journey. The Sidereal automatically knows when this occurs, but other participants do not.

If both partners give an object contradictory orders, their Wits + Craft (Fate) rolls are opposed. If one partner is the Sidereal who initiated this charm, the other subtracts the Sidereal’s Essence from the number of successes she rolls.

Resplendent Peacock: World-Shaping Artistic Vision 
It offered her power, and with it, hooks to tear her soul. 
Cost: - Type: Permanent 
Duration: Permanent 
Keywords: None

With this charm, the Sidereal’s soul becomes like the Peacock, peerlessly beautiful and eternally committed.

When the character purchases this charm, he chooses 3 “specialties.” These can be as broad as a single Ability, or they can be as broad as a typical Specialty, but cross abilities (for example “swords” would improve the character’s strikes in melee, skill at crafting a sword, and occult knowledge of magical swords). Each specialty permanently reduces the target number of appropriate rolls by one. Every specialty granted by this charm must be different, but if more than one applies, the character can reduce a target number by up to 3 points.
Once chosen, the character cannot change the specialties provided by this charm. Target number reductions benefit the Sidereal’s College rolls, if appropriate.

Inauspicious Peacock: Implicit Construction Methodology 
With care not to burn her fingers, she took it into her life. 
Cost: 10m, 2w, 1hl Type: Simple (Dramatic Action) 
Duration: Instant 
Keywords: Obvious, Shaping, Virtue (Temperance)

The Peacock is the Sign of those who make pleasure subordinate to profit, those who would take something as incalculably valuable as love, and trade it away for strategic advantage. With this charm, the Sidereal arranges a marriage between his dreams and a construction project, putting his nighttime hours to good use instead of “pointlessly laying around.”

To use Implicit Construction Methodology, the Sidereal must first prepare a ritual area, no larger than (essence x 100) yards across by circling it on foot and uttering a prayer to the Maiden of Serenity. This charm can make anything that can fit in that area, provided the Sidereal knows how to build it. For the duration of the charm, the area will be filled with an eerie blue glow, as the individual components of whatever the Sidereal is building float through the air, assembling themselves. The parts of the object need not be in the ritual area when the charm begins, but it’s a good idea to make sure they are.

Every morning, when the Sidereal wakes, instead of rolling Conviction to regain Willpower, the Sidereal rolls Intelligence + Craft(Fate) (this roll can be supplemented with Excellencies or willpower expenditures, if so desired). Successes on that roll contribute to the crafting of the object, doing up to two weeks’ work in a single day (if the character is creating an Artifact with this charm, she rolls Craft once per week –– this still denies her the daily Conviction roll to regain willpower, though).

If any component of the object’s manufacture is missing (and indeed, the Sidereal can begin construction with no materials at all), this charm calls to it, as if using Destiny-Knitting Entanglement. The Sidereal rolls Wits + Craft once every three days until the object is acquired. If the component does not exist, Implicit Construction Methodology will wait until it’s created.

Until the object is finished, the Sidereal dreams only of the building process, and does not regain willpower through sleep. Because this charm’s duration is instant, it cannot be voluntarily halted by the Sidereal. Only countermagic of the Sapphire Circle or higher, cast by someone other than the character, can end this charm.

Dodge: The Ewer

The Ewer is the Sign of romance, and the first stages of falling in love. Like an overfull pitcher, the heart of one under its influence spills forth longing and excitement. But the Ewer can be cruel. Not every infatuation is requited, and not every object of desire is worthy of it. Sidereals gain from this Sign the insight that there is joy in bringing others joy.

Primordial Ewer: Flows Downhill Protection
Once there was a maiden who was driven from her land.
Cost: 3m Type: Reflexive (step 2)
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Ok

As any Chosen of Serenity will tell you, the best way to avoid being attacked is to be somewhere else. During the Primordial War, the Sidereal Exalted explored the techniques of this charm to ensure that wherever danger was, they weren’t.
	
Flows Downhill Protection moves the Sidereal out of the way of danger, at least one foot for every mote spent on its activation. It can move the Chosen more than that, but never less. If the Sidereal does not have the room to move the minimum distance, away from (or at least no closer to) every immediate known threat, she cannot activate this charm.

When the Sidereal first learns Flows Downhill Protection, she gains one of the following techniques. Additional techniques cost 10 xp, or 4 bonus points.

Absence: The Sidereal suffers no penalty to Dodge DV against a single attack.

Like an Unblocked Stream: The Sidereal may reduce the post-soak damage of an attack by one level, in return for suffering yard of knockback. The Chosen can trade as many levels as she likes, but cannot change direction mid-flight, and must stop trading health levels if she encounters an obstacle that she cannot fly through. The character is not knocked prone at the end of this flight.

Flowing Dodge Method: This technique is identical to the Solar Charm, Leaping Dodge Method. The character need not be able to move the whole distance provided by this charm, but must be able to move at least 3 feet.

The Sidereal can create new techniques for this charm. Flows Down Hill Protection always moves the character at least one foot for every mote spent, never works if that distance cannot be moved, and never does harm to other creatures. New techniques can provide more powerful defensive benefits, move the character farther than the minimum, or allow the Sidereal to use more than one technique at once.

Ascending Ewer: Trouble-Reduction Strategy 
Great black stags chased her, and their eyes shone blue. 
Cost: 9m Type: Simple 
Duration: Indefinite 
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Virtue (Compassion)

Those blessed by the Ewer care for their beloved. The Sidereal Exalted are no different. By calling upon the power of the Ewer, they can use this charm to protect those they hold dear.

Upon activating Trouble-Reduction Strategy, the Sidereal selects up to (Essence) allies, each with an essence score at least one lower than the character’s. Once per tick, one of the allies may call upon any technique of Flows Downhill Protection known by the Sidereal for free. If, on the same tick, another ally needs protecting, or the first ally needs protecting a second time, either they (if they have access to their essence pools) or the character must pay the technique’s cost.

Trouble-Reduction Strategy will protect characters no matter how far they get from the Sidereal, but if they leave the Exalt’s sight, he cannot spend motes to protect them (the 1 free activation per tick still occurs, and they can still access the Sidereal’s techniques with their own motes).

Descending Ewer: Neighborhood Relocation Scheme 
Monsters scrambled after her through the bush, though they found her not. 
Keywords: Illusion, Obvious

Sometimes, love is not enough. Sometimes, a lover’s affection turns dark, and instead of open acceptance, he feels a desire to “improve” his mate. With this charm, the Sidereal reflects that desire, reflects Heaven’s desire to “improve” Creation.

Aside from the keywords, this charm is identical to the one on MoEP:S pg 144

Resplendent Ewer: Sweet Surrender Sacrifice 
Stumbling on a log, she fell; and thought to surrender, and end the torment of the hunt. 
Cost: 4m Type: Reflexive 
Duration: Instant 
Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion, Virtue (Compassion)

Those under the sway of the Ewer easily fall in love, and thus become loveable. Only the most coldly heartless and inhuman soul can bring themselves to harm such a person.

This charm is actually two separate effects. The first is an unblockable, undodgeable, social attack against someone who's attacking the Sidereal. That person gains a positive intimacy towards the exalt (the exact intimacy depends on their prior interactions). If the attacker does not resist the influence, or spend a number of willpower points equal to the Sidereal's Compassion, the Exalt also gains an intimacy of infatuation with the attacker.
The second effect is a perfect dodge that can dodge even undodgeable attacks. This charm technically has the Compassion Flaw of Invulnerability, but since it creates something for the Sidereal to care about, that flaw never applies.

If the Sidereal uses this charm against an inanimate threat, someone completely immune to social influence, or incapable of positive intimacies, this charm provides a flat +5 to DV that ignores the normal cap.

Inauspicious Ewer: Duck Fate 
But then, she stood, and stuck out her tongue at the dark woods behind her. Cost: (1m, 1w, 1xp) per use Type: Permanent 
Duration: Permanent 
Keywords: None

The opposite of love is not hate, it's apathy. You cannot love if you have nothing you could not bear to lose. With this charm, the Sidereal takes that understanding to heart, doing the unthinkable and actually defacing her own fate, rewriting her past in order to avoid a current danger.

This charm will help the Sidereal avoid any negative effect. Undodgeable, area, and unexpected attacks are just the beginning. This charm can end poison and disease, unwanted mental influence, and even unwelcome social obligations (like a celestial audit). As long as the Sidereal has the ability to pay the cost and is not actually dead, she can always use this charm. It does not count as a charm activation and can be used when the sidereal is inactive or mind-controlled.

But such power is not without its price. To achieve this mighty protective power, Duck Fate teleports the Sidereal to a random location and rewrites her history. She rolls her highest background. The number of successes rolled (on this roll, 10s do not count as 2) indicates the highest Background rating possessed by the Sidereal's new identity. The Storyteller redistributes the character's Background dots, respecting the new cap. The Sidereal's personal history changes to match the redistributed backgrounds.

The Sidereal herself has no memory of this new past, but a minor illusion effect causes those who meet her to remember it. They can spend 1 WP to remember the "real" events if so desired. Because this charm causes absolute havoc to the Bureau of Destiny's records, the new fate created by it is rarely favorable to the Sidereal.

Linguistics: The Pillar

The Pillar is the Sign of strong, protective, and familial love. The mother that will brave anything to protect her child, the husband who forgives his wife’s adultery, and the sergeant who is like a father to his men are all ruled by the Pillar. But the powerful love of the Pillar can also be stifling and restrictive. Wise Sidereals take from this Sign the insight that stability can hinder growth.

Primordial Pillar: Always Coming Home 
Once there was a maiden who fled a shadow. 
Cost: 1m per technique Type: Reflexive 
Duration: 1 Scene 
Keywords: Combo-OK, Stackable

The Primordials ruled the entirety of Creation. The Celestial Exalted were drawn from the heroes of every Direction. While it was the job of the Eclipse to get them to cooperate harmoniously, it fell to the Chosen of Serenity to understand them. By developing the techniques of this charm, the Sidereals were able to overcome their upbringings and become natives of every land.

Always Coming Home allows the Sidereal to erase the distinctions between native and foreigner, effortlessly learning the eccentricities, idioms, and shared cultural experiences of a new land. When Always Coming home is first purchased, the Sidereal gains one of the following techniques. He can buy others at the cost of 5 xp or 2 bonus points each.

Inconspicuous Accent Mastery: The character gains a 3pt Linguistics specialty. The character need not speak the language to gain the specialty, allowing him to, for example, speak Sky Tongue with a Nexus accent.

Faultless Ceremony: The character can perform any formal or religious ceremony without error or embarrassment, even if he’s never heard of it or doesn’t speak the local language. This technique also allows the Sidereal to act as a priest of any god (whether the god becomes offended when it discovers the character’s presumption depends on the individual temperament of the god).

Favored Features Disguise: The character’s appearance changes to match the typical appearance of the most common nearby residents. This usually alters hair, skin, and eye color, but if the residents have a universal, conspicuous feature (abnormally large ears, for example), the Sidereal gains that as well. This technique can imitate features of a supernatural origin, but only superficially. This is an Illusion effect that costs 1wp to resist.

A Peer of the Realm: The Sidereal gains one temporary dot in Influence or Backing in the local region. This bonus dot can raise the character’s rating to no higher than one.

The character can activate more than one technique at once.
The Sidereal can invent new techniques for this charm. Always Coming Home always removes barriers to interacting with the natives of an area. New techniques can overcome idiosyncratic local preferences (for example, many Sidereals know a technique that will change their apparent gender, to allow them to operate more freely in areas like the Realm or the West), allow the Sidereal to adopt a formal title or apparent social standing (although this power always falls short of granting the Sidereal outright sovereignty over an area), or exploit local superstitions (by adopting the appearance of a local hostile spirit, for example).

Ascending Pillar: Blue Vervain Binding 
In the company of a friend. 
Cost: 1m, 1w Type: Simple (speed 1, DV ––0) 
Duration: Instant 
Keywords: Social, Obvious, Emotion, Combo-OK, Virtue (Compassion), Stackable

The Pillar is the Sign of friendship. True friendship stems from respect and understanding. With this charm, the Sidereal calls upon the power of the Pillar to accelerate both.

The Sidereal utters a minute long prayer in Old Realm (knowledge of that tongue is a prerequisite to using this charm), invoking the blessing of the Maiden of Serenity for the benefit of two people (who must be present, one of whom may be the Sidereal herself). At the end of that prayer, she rolls Charisma + Linguistics, comparing the successes to the MDVs of both targets (the targets may voluntarily choose not to resist). If the roll exceeds both, this charm takes effect. Each subject gains an intimacy of friendship towards the other. For as long as that intimacy lasts, the subjects may understand each other, regardless of which languages they speak.

This charm costs a number of willpower points equal to the Sidereal’s Compassion to resist at the time of its use, but the intimacy created by this charm is otherwise natural, and may be broken normally.

Descending Pillar: Abandoned Words Curse 
They traveled through strange places, and among strange people. 
Keywords: Combo-OK, Stackable, Illusion, Virtue (Conviction)

There is a dark side to a parent’s love. If it is too strong, too insistent, it can make a child dependent, stunt their emotional, moral, and intellectual growth; it can cause an adult to regress to a state of helplessness. With the dreaded Abandoned Words Curse, the sidereal calls upon the Pillar’s power to impose such a state on his enemies.

This charm functions identically to the one on MoEP: S pg. 145, except for the addition of the following text:

Resisting this curse costs a number of willpower points equal to the Sidereal’s Conviction. These points must be spent at the time of the charm’s activation. If the victim allows the curse to take root, the only way to shake it is to laboriously relearn his languages.

Resplendent Pillar: Lover’s Oath 
“How can you trust me?” he asked.

The Pillar is the Sign of marriage. And though the Lover’s Oath is not necessarily a marital contract, it draws upon the hopes and expectations of newlyweds and the wistful remembrances of widows and widowers, to create a bond that only exists in ideals and dreams.

This charm is identical to the one on MoEP:S pg 146

Inauspicious Pillar: Let’s Not Stay Friends 
“ . . . with such horrors behind you.” 
Cost: 20m, 1w (+3xp to break a magical oath) Type: Simple (Dramatic Action) 
Duration: Instant 
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Shaping

The Pillar promises a love as solid as the foundations of the earth. It promises steadfast devotion and loyalty that lasts long after the first blush of passion has faded away. It’s a nice promise, but in reality, sometimes love ends, feelings of affection sour into resentment, and loyalty turns to hatred. With this charm, the Sidereal breaks the Pillar, severing a partnership and ensuring a favorable settlement in the process.

This charm ends partnerships. If used to end a relationship with a mortal, or with someone who lacks magic to influence legal relationships, it automatically ensures the Sidereal receives the most favorable settlement possible (He takes complete ownership of the business, receives full custody of the children, suffers no withdrawal fees or cancellation penalties, etc). If the partner does possess magic to counter this, it is treated as a charm conflict and the Sidereal receives (Essence) bonus successes to the opposed roll.
							
Let’s Not Stay Friends’ more potent ability is to allow for the dissolution of magical oaths. If both parties agree, the oath is canceled without consequence, even if neither party had the power to voluntarily end the oath. If the Sidereal wants to unilaterally cancel a magical oath, he must spend 3xp and make a Manipulation + Linguistics roll against a difficulty equal to the essence score of the effect’s originator. He can only unilaterally end oaths to which he is a party.

Surprisingly, this does not rain disaster down on the Sidereal. Instead, the Sidereal is rewarded for his treachery. The betrayed party rolls a dice pool equal to ½ (the sum of her Backgrounds). Each success on this roll indicates a single Background point that is transferred from the partner to the Sidereal. These appear gradually, over the course of the next year, as the partner experiences a string of terrible luck and the Sidereal receives phenomenal good fortune.

Using this charm to break a magical oath has no negative consequence other than being flagged as a flagrant oath-breaker in the records of the Bureau of Destiny and earning the antipathy of a potentially very powerful supernatural being.

Performance: The Musician

The Musician appreciates life as it is meant to be lived. He is an epicurean, a sensualist, and a lover of fine art. He brings joy to life by creating beauty. But he is also a decadent, a glutton, and a frivolous person. Sidereals learn from the Musician that pleasure is most exquisite when it takes work to achieve.

Primordial Musician: The 10,001 Dances 
Once there was a maiden who stood at the center of every dance. Back then, she knew all the dances. 
Cost: - Type: Permanent 
Duration: Permanent 
Keywords: None

The Sidereals were the first Exalted introduced to the Primordials, and the only ones to interact with them peacefully. Little is known about the habits of those inhuman beings, and much of what was known is forgotten, but the one trait every Primordial shared, and which the Yozis continue to share, is a love of music and, especially, dance. The Sidereals, tasked as they were with spying on the Primordials, would make themselves seem harmless and useful through a mastery of the Primordials’ great passion.

This charm allows the Sidereal to purchase supernatural dances. Any magic that works explicitly and only through the power of dance is available for purchase, including the charms of gods, demons, and the exalted. If the power is equivalent to a terrestrial charm, it costs 8 xp or three bonus points. If it is equivalent to a celestial charm, it costs 10 xp or 4 bonus points. If it equivalent to a solar charm or the unique abilities of a greater god, it costs 15 xp or 5 bonus points. The Sidereal must meet the standard trait minimums to purchase a dance, but need buy the power’s prerequisites only if they too are dances (the Sidereal can purchase no other powers with this charm, even those that are sometimes used for dance).

Purchasing this charm provides one of the following dances commonly known to the Sidereals. The others may be purchased for 10xp or 4 bonus points.

Dance of Spirit Persuasion (5m, 1w, Speed: 5 long ticks): The character rolls Dexterity + Performance against a spirit’s Dodge MDV. If the roll succeeds, the spirit becomes an Ally (as per the Background) of the Sidereal, gaining an intimacy to that effect. This is a Servitude effect that costs 1 WP to resist. Though it is rarely spoken of, this dance gains 3 bonus dice when used against demons.

Dance of Perfection in Life (5m, Speed: 5 long ticks): The character rolls (Charisma + Performance) against the highest MDV of anyone in her audience. If the roll succeeds, everyone in the audience regains 1 spent willpower point. This is an Emotion effect.

Dance of Shining Joy (5m, 1w Speed 5, DV –0): For the rest of the scene, as long as the character dances as a diceless miscellaneous action (speed 5, DV –0, may be part of a flurry), the Sidereal’s DV is increased by her Performance Ability, she does not suffer DV penalties from her actions, and she is immune to coordinated attack and onslaught penalties. She may also use her Performance Excellencies to increase her Dodge DV. This technique ends if she fails to dance.

The Sidereal may create new supernatural dances, but doing so is a difficult and time-consuming process, akin to inventing a new spell from scratch. Most new techniques will be dances learned from other supernatural creatures such as the Spirit Charms of the Gilmyne (Book of Sorcery Vol. 5, pg 79). 

Ascending Musician: Heart-Brightening Presentation Style 
She never missed a step. 
Cost: 6m Type: Simple 
Duration: Indefinite 
Keywords: Touch

The Musician is a joy to have around. His presence brings beauty and his simple lust for life is a balm to soothe the stress of a painful world. This charm distills the essence of the Musician, allowing the Sidereal to bless a target with the ability to spread joy wherever he goes.

For as long as the Sidereal commits motes to this charm, whenever the beneficiary (which can be the Sidereal himself) attempts natural social influence, whether it be a Performance attack, or based off the Presence, Socialize, Bureaucracy, or Investigation abilities, the result of that roll is compared to the target’s MDV as a separate, unnatural mental influence. This mental influence, which costs 1 willpower to resist, creates an Emotion effect, causing the target to feel happy, relaxed, and carefree. This effect is in addition to whatever natural influence the character was initially trying to cause and is resisted separately.

Descending Musician: Dissonant Harmonies Influence 
One day, she heard something in the music, as a singer dropped the beat. 
Cost: 6m Type: Simple (5 long ticks, DV –3) 
Duration: Indefinite 
Keywords: Compulsion, Combo-Basic, Obvious, Emotion, Social, Virtue (Temperance)

The Musician lives for pleasure. Those who put faith in him would be wise to remember this. The pursuit of excellence is always subordinate. Such a soul is the most pathetic of creatures, for when the music stops, nothing of value is left. Dissonant Harmonies Influence allows the Sidereal to call this energy down on a person, filling her with despair.

The Sidereal activates this charm by singing or playing a bland, tuneless dirge and rolling Manipulation + Performance. If the roll exceeds the target’s MDV, she become subject to two unnatural mental influences. The first is an Emotion effect that fills the victim with frustration and despair. She feels unappreciated in her social life, thwarted in her ambitions, and unsatisfied with her work. The target can end this effect at any time by spending a number of willpower points equal to the Sidereal’s Temperance.

The second effect is a Compulsion effect that prevents the target from attempting any natural or unnatural mental influence. The target can spend one willpower to ignore this compulsion long enough to make a single social attack, but the effect will not end until the victim resists the Emotion effect (at which time the Compulsion fades instantly).

Resplendent Musician: Harmonic Completion 
It taught her the joy of dancing poorly.

Many people misapprehend the Musician. He is not a seeker after idle sensation. That is a distraction, albeit a pleasant one. No, the Musician seeks purity. He cares not for the food or the wine or the sex or even the music. He loves those things for the joy they bring. With this charm, the Sidereal dedicates himself to the Maiden of Serenity, and becomes the ideal Musician.

This charm is identical to the one on MoEP:S pg 148.

Inauspicious Musician: Ecstatic Communion Orgy 
She started dancing more and more awry. 
Cost: 20m, 1w Type: Simple (Dramatic Action) 
Duration: instant 
Keywords: Emotion, Compulsion, Training

Music can uplift and delight, but it can also inflame. Responsibility, reason, regret; these are the concerns of the morning after. While the night lasts, only the moment exists. With this charm, the Sidereal lets the Musician loose into the softest, most vulnerable part of the soul. What emerges is never the same.

To use this charm, the Sidereal must provide food and intoxicants of extravagant quality, enough for every person to receive its effect. This has a Resources cost equal to the magnitude of the "unit" of be affected (this charm never works on just one person). After the preparations are made, and the guests are assembled, the ritual can begin.

The character begins to sing, chant, and produce hypnotic music as part of a five-day, no-holds-barred orgy of binge drinking, uninhibited sexual exhibition, and ecstatic dancing. Every participant (which can, but need not include the Sidereal) rolls Stamina + Performance (take the average for extras). Each success represents one person that character "connected" with.

Connecting with another person has two effects:

1)The character acquires that person's most important intimacy, as if it were their own.

and

2)The character gains 1 dot in an Ability which that person possesses at a higher rating.

Using this charm repeatedly on the same group of people tends to make them homogenous and cult-like (enough so to allow the Sidereal to purchase the Background), but in ways that even the Sidereals find hard to predict and control.

If a character gains more intimacies than his Compassion + Willpower through the use of this charm, the excess will fade normally. Unfortunately for those who would use this charm purely to gain power, the character's newest intimacies aren't necessarily the excess.

And, needless to say, the hangovers that result from this charm are EPIC.

Socialize: The Lovers

The Lovers represent the powerful urges and imperatives that make life possible. More than mere infatuation, irrespective of affection, the power of this Sign rules pure, insatiable need. Many fear the darkness of this Sign, which inspires souls to resign themselves to slavery. Sidereals learn from the Lovers that what people want isn't always the same as what they need.

Primordial Lovers: Cash and Murder Games 
Once there was a maiden and things didn't go so well for her. 
Cost: 5m Type: Reflexive 
Duration: Instant 
Keywords: Combo-Ok

The Primordial War was a great crime. During the First Age, Solar and Heavenly propaganda made it seem as if enjoyed unanimous acclaim, but that was not the case. Many gods retained their loyalties, and even some of those who despised the Primordials were outraged that mere mortals would dare raise a hand against the creators of all. To navigate this impenetrable maze or mutual accusation and shared guilt, the Sidereals developed the techniques of Cash and Murder Games, so they at least would seem blameless.

This charm allows the Sidereal to avoid the consequences of her actions, regardless of what they might be. It's power can be quite potent, but only if it is used at an opportune moment. It can only prevent consequences from occurring. It does nothing to defend against or mitigate consequences that have already occurred.

When the Sidereal first learns this charm, she gains one of the following techniques. New techniques cost 8 xp or 3 bonus points to learn.

(Virtue) Soothing Gesture: If the Sidereal's actions provoke a Virtue roll of the appropriate type from someone within her line of sight, she may use this technique to decide whether the roll succeeds or fails. This is an emotion effect that costs 1 WP to resist.

No Retribution Possible: The character perfectly dodges any charm or effect with the counterattack keyword, even if the effect is normally undodgeable.

Life Without Compunction: This creates an Illusion effect that automatically influences those with a dodge MDV less than the Sidereal's Socialize + Essence. One crime committed by the Sidereal seems less serious than it really is. Heinous crimes (mass crucifixions) seem merely infamous. Infamous crimes (murder) seem like violations of taboo. Violations of taboo (like an Immaculate Monk having sex) seem like harmless eccentricities. The motes for this technique must be spent when the crime is committed. This costs 1 Willpower to resist.

The Sidereal can create new techniques for this charm. Cash and Murder Games always insulates the character from the negative consequences of her own actions. It never protects against any other effect and it never works retroactively. If a consequence has already occurred, this charm has no power to stop it. New techniques can prevent new consequences (hangover cures are popular) or render even severe consequences harmless (Kejack massacred that anathema-sponsored village single handedly? Well, it is his job).

Ascending Lovers: Wanting and Fearing Prayer 
It was just the way of the world, you know? 
Cost: 6m, 1w Type: Simple 
Duration: Indefinite 
Keywords: Illusion, Combo-Ok, Virtue (Compassion), Emotion

There is an energy to life that yearns to find expression. An acorn dreams of becoming an oak. Bees dream of spring. There are great, passionate romances that are destined to burn hot and bright. But sometimes destiny needs a little push. The Sidereals use this charm to call upon the power of the Lovers, to give clueless souls a nudge in the right direction.

Wanting and Fearing Prayer crafts a relationship between two people (one of whom may be the Sidereal himself). Each person must be within (essence x 10) miles of the Sidereal, but they need not know each other, or even have met. The Sidereal rolls Manipulation + Socialize. If the successes on the roll exceed both parties' MDV (if aware of this charm, they may choose not to resist), the subjects fall under this charm's effect.

The Sidereal may craft any relationship he desires with two limitations. First, the relationship can be as positive or negative as the character wishes, but it must be "attractive." This charm draws people together (for example, the character can make the subjects believe they are bitter rivals, bound together by sacred oaths, but not that they are family members with a pleasant, but distant relationship). The charm automatically creates up to (essence) intimacies in each target (which need not be the same) to reinforce this relationship. This is an illusion effect.

The second limitation is that this charm always creates in each target a powerful desire for passionate sex with the other target. The subjects may never act on that desire, but it is always there. This is an emotion effect.

Resisting this charm costs 1 WP per scene. It automatically ends for both targets when they have spent, between the two of them, a number of willpower points equal to the Sidereal's (Compassion x 2). If the charm ends because the Sidereal stops committing the mote cost, the intimacies persist, but are otherwise natural.

Descending Socialize: Shun the Smiling Maiden 
She had to give up power to get it, and she didn't get much. 
Cost: 3m, 1w Type: Simple 
Duration: Indefinite 
Keywords: Obvious, Shaping, Emotion, Touch

There are few things more painful than unrequited passion. To feel for another person an intense, physical need, and to have that need met with indifference - it is a common thread of suffering that runs from the most backwater, illiterate goatherd to the Unconquered Sun himself. With this terrible curse, the Sidereal can inflict that fate on those who displease her.

To use this charm, the Sidereal touches the victim and makes an Appearance + Socialize roll, against a difficulty equal to the target's Essence. If the roll succeeds, the inverted mark of Venus appears somewhere on the victim's body (usually in a delicate or hard to see location). From that point on, the victim is stricken from the rolls of those destined to find love.

Every scene spent with the target counts as an attempt to erode a positive intimacy with her. This is an Emotion effect that costs 2 willpower to resist. Furthermore, all mental influence (including natural influence) that makes a subject less likely to love the target costs one more willpower than usual to resist. Mental influence that would make a subject more likely to love the target costs one less willpower to resist. Not only is natural mental influence on behalf of the target free to resist, but those who wish to be persuaded to love the target must spend a willpower point to make it happen.

Though the use of this charm is Obvious, its effects become apparent only gradually. A skilled occultist who sees the mark produced by the charm can identify it with a difficulty 3 Intelligence + Occult roll. This charm ends if someone who understands the victim is cursed commits suicide to preserve his love for her. Otherwise, it ends only when the Sidereal's wrath is abated (i.e. she releases the commitment).

Resplendent Lovers: You and Yours Stance 
Some people hated her for getting any power at all. 
Cost: 15m, 1w Type: Simple (Dramatic Action) 
Duration: Instant 
Keywords: Compulsion, Virtue (Compassion)

The Lovers are irresistible. It is their nature to be so, because they represent that aspect of the soul that wants to give in to temptation, that wants to find limitless, ecstatic pleasure in submitting oneself to the desires of others. With this charm, the Sidereal takes on the aspect of the Lovers, and becomes irresistible.

This charm is a dramatic action that takes one week to complete. During that time, the Sidereal circulates in an area, just generally being as visible, attractive and sexually unavailable as possible. At the end of that time, he rolls Appearance + Socialize. Every character in the target area (up to a mass combat Magnitude equal to the Sidereal's Essence) with a Dodge MDV less than the roll's successes must either spend a number of willpower points equal to the character's Compassion score or change their motivation to "Have sex with the Sidereal."

Characters who change their motivation do not love, or even necessarily like, the Sidereal, but they are pathetically craven in their desire to bed him. Until their motivation changes, they must spend a willpower point every time they do anything that they think will displease the character or make themselves less attractive to him. Supernatural creatures can change their motivation according to the standard rules and those with magically protected motivations are immune to this charm, but everyone else finds it impossible to change their motivation until they actually fulfill it or it becomes impossible to do so (i.e. if the Sidereal dies or "disappears").

In the First Age, this charm could easily get out of hand if a Sidereal used it while wearing his true identity, but since the imposition of the Arcane Fate, the Sidereals have found it impossible to use without first adopting a Resplendent Destiny.

Inauspicious Lovers: Master Wouldn't Like It Refutation 
She needed a protector, so she gave herself to a man named Necessity 
Cost: 5m, 2w Type: Simple 
Duration: Indefinite 
Keywords: Servitude

The Lovers are the Sign of slavery. Whether it is the literal slavery of the common laborer or the metaphorical slavery of a drug addict or whore, the power of the Lovers binds people to those who would exploit them. With this charm, the Sidereal creates for the target the kind of luxurious, gilded slavery that exists only in soft-core "romance" novels.

This charm strikes a bargain between two willing subjects. One of the subjects becomes the "master" and one becomes the "slave." The Sidereal may adopt either role, if desired, but does not necessarily become party to the bargain.

The master gains the slave's service. The slave is subject to a Servitude effect. He must do anything the master desires without hesitation or complaint. Because he entered into this bargain willingly, he may not spend willpower to resist.

The slave, as compensation, gains perfect protection. Whenever the slave is targeted by a physical or social attack, either he or the master may spend 2 motes to allow the slave to dodge it, even if the attack is normally undodgeable. This does not count as a charm activation. The master has the power to command the slave to accept an attack. 

Someone who is a master may not benefit from this charm a second time to become a slave. Someone who is a slave may not benefit from this charm a second time to become a master.
There are only three ways to end this charm. If the sidereal is not party to the agreement, he may end the commitment at any time. Otherwise, this charm ends when either the master releases the slave from service or one of the parties dies. Orders that would prevent the slave from killing the master are the only ones the slave may spend willpower to disobey (at a cost of 1 willpower each).

Archery: The Quiver

The Quiver is the sign of flexibility, adaptability, and quick thought. It is the Sign of the dashing hero or the swashbuckling rogue. But the Quiver also rules the shallow thinker, the manipulative sophist, and those that allow conventional wisdom to replace rational thought. The Sidereals learn from this sign that while it's usually better to be right than be fast, sometimes it's better to be fast than be dead.

Primordial Quiver: Generalized Ammunition Method 
Once there was a maiden who made herself from the substance of the world. 
Cost: Varies Type: Supplemental 
Duration: Instant 
Keywords: Obvious, Combo-OK

The Primordials were unique beings, to say the least. Only rarely would ordinary steel do significant harm to their alien physiologies. By necessity, the Sidereals learned to improvise. Rewriting the fates of their arrows, the Chosen of the Maidens wielded terrible energies, and the unique dooms of their inhuman foes.

Generalized Ammunition Method transforms the ammunition of ranged weapons. The transformed ammunition flies as accurately and as far as anything shot from the weapon properly, no matter how aerodynamically improbable that may seem. Though the magic of this charm protects the object in flight, it does nothing to mitigate impact, so it's unwise to create anything that the Sidereal does not wish to fling several hundred yards through the air.

When Generalized Ammunition Method is first learned, the Sidereal selects one of the following techniques. The others may be purchased for 5 xp or 2 bonus points.

Improvised Arrow (1m): The character can shoot any single, vaguely arrow-sized object, treating it as a broadhead arrow. Objects shot with this technique tend to follow eccentric flight paths, penalizing the target's DV by one.

Dubious Alchemy (2m): The character can transform a handful of liquid or dust into a single shot for a flamepiece or other alchemical weapon.

Salvaging Detritus (0m): If an object was originally intended to be ammunition for a weapon the character wields (whether it is a bow, firewand, or something else), it is treated as new and well-made, regardless of how warped, rotten, damaged, or tainted it might be.

Spontaneous Volley (3m per extra shot): The character's shot splits, adding up to (essence) extra attacks. The character makes only one attack roll, but applies the damage separately. The target does not suffer any onslaught penalties from this attack.

Boulder (6m, requires essence 3): The character's shot transforms into a boulder, becoming unblockable, doubling its raw damage, and becoming piercing.

Curtain of Fire (6m, requires essence 4): Everything within 5 yards of the target suffers one action's worth of environmental damage, as if from a bonfire.

Flowers (1m): A trail of flower petals showers down along the shot's flight path. This attack does no damage, but it is obvious to all who see it whether it would have hit.

The Sidereal can invent new techniques for this charm. Generalized Ammunition Method always changes ammunition in flight. Nearly anything material is possible, but this charm never changes anything unless it is shot from a weapon.

Ascending Quiver: Refreshing Wind Arrow 
She knew how to eat an owl's heart and gain its insight. 
Cost: 5m, 1 hl Type: Simple 
Duration: Instant 
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Virtue (Valor)

The Quiver is the sign of improvisation, of using the materials at hand and making them work. Refreshing Wind Arrow allows the Sidereal to repurpose his own life energy, changing an arrow from a tool of harm into a tool of healing.

The character makes an archery attack. Whatever damage the Sidereal's arrow would have done is healed from the target instead. The energy of life is hard to contain, however. If the target is healed of more health levels than he has suffered damage, he suffers a number of unsoakable levels of bashing damage equal to the difference.

At essence 4, this charm will heal aggravated damage, but the Sidereal must spend 1wp to do so.

Descending Quiver: Ill-Favored Pressure Point Binding 
She knew how to bake herself in the sun and melt herself in the rain. 
Cost: 3m Type: Supplemental 
Duration: Indefinite 
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Crippling

Those ruled by the Quiver often lack critical faculties. They are so willing to go where the wind blows that they become unable to distinguish the good changes from the bad. Everything is taken at face value and the world is accepted for what it is. This charm infuses an arrow with stabilizing energy, ensuring that change never results in progress.

As long as the motes for this charm remain committed, the Sidereal's arrow remains lodged in the target's wound. Only magic that heals crippling effects will allow it to be removed. So long as the arrow remains, any effects caused by the Sidereal's attack persist.
Usually, this means that the damage dealt by the arrow cannot be healed and any motes or willpower spent defending against the arrow cannot be regained. If the arrow had special properties that affected the victim (it was poisoned or burning, for instance), those conditions remain as well and cannot be cured or diminished until someone removes the arrow. This stasis works both ways, however. While any penalties from a poisoned arrow will persist, ongoing damage is suspended at the instant of impact.

The Sidereal's attack must deal at least one level of post-soak damage for this charm to endure beyond an instant.

Resplendent Quiver: Action Without Thought 
She knew how to mess up wisdom. 
Cost: 12m, 1w Type: Simple 
Duration: 1 Scene 
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Obvious, Virtue (Valor)

Ideally, the Quiver contains every tool the archer might ever need. Ideally, these tools would leap to the archer's hand without hesitation, allowing her to act without hesitation. With this charm, the Sidereal's mind becomes like the Quiver, continually ready for each moment.

So long as the character wields an Archery weapon, her weapon's speed becomes 3, its rate increases by one, and she adds (essence) dice to all attacks. Furthermore, she ignores all attack penalties based on visibility or cover of 50% or less.

Inauspicious Quiver: Predestined Outcome Concentration 
She knew how to love, and how to hate. 
Cost: 3m Type: Reflexive 
Duration: Indefinite 
Keywords: Combo-Basic

The opposite of the Quiver is a plan that never changes. Those who persist, regardless of circumstances, defy the Quiver. Often, this leads to their doom, but the insight of the Sidereal Exalted makes inflexible plans less foolish than they seem.

The Sidereal activates this charm on the third tick of an Aim action. The character's next attack becomes unblockable. If the character chooses to take a second aim action instead of making an attack, he can commit the motes and activate this charm on the third tick of the second Aim action. The accuracy bonuses from the two Aim actions stack and the character's next attack becomes unblockable and undodgeable.

If the Sidereal so wishes, the character can commit the 6 motes and take another Aim action. The Accuracy bonus from all three Aim actions stacks and the character's next attack is unblockable, undodgeable, and converts all its damage dice to automatic successes.

If at any point while motes are committed to this charm, the character aborts an Aim or a Guard, or takes any action other than Aim, Guard, or a single attack, the commitment is released and the motes spent are wasted. The attack enhanced by Predestined Outcome Concentration must be able to benefit from an Aim action, but it need not be an Archery attack.

Athletics: The Banner

The Banner is a Sign of glory. Much as a victorious army will raise its flag over a defeated territory, those ruled by this Sign find triumph sweeter for having overcome obstacles. Yet this is also the Sign of vanity, and those who would destroy what they cannot possess. From the Banner, the Sidereals gain the insight that public acclaim often conceals private iniquities.

Primordial Banner: Properly Following Orders Attitude
Once there was a maiden who struck an iron wall.
Cost: 2m Type: Reflexive
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-OK

The Primordial War was not fought in safe places or accessible regions. Often, it was fought in or on the Primordials themselves. Though hardship was the defining characteristic of their battlefields, the Sidereals grew stronger for being tested. They developed the techniques of this charm to allow themselves to press the attack, no matter what stood in the way.

Properly Following Orders Attitude allows the Sidereal to ignore penalties and restrictions to her Athletics actions. While it does not make the Seer stronger or faster, it does enable her to maintain a peak level of performance, regardless of the circumstances.

When the Sidereal first learns this charm, she gains one of the following techniques. New techniques cost 8 xp or 3 bonus points.

Flies in the Wind: The Sidereal ignores worn armor and carried items when calculating her jumping distance. As long as she can lift her burden on her own, she can leap her full (Strength + Athletics) yards.

Before the Legion: Against a single attack, the Sidereal ignores all DV penalties imposed by Jump or Dash actions.

Heavy Infantry March: For a single tick, the character ignores all mobility penalties to movement rate or Athletics actions.

Ram Pounds the Gate: Reduce the soak of an inanimate object by the Sidereal’s (Essence).

For the Sergeant: The character can ignore a single mental influence that would prevent her from taking an Athletics action.

The Sidereal can invent new techniques for this charm. Properly Following Orders Attitude always removes penalties from Athletics rolls. It never improves  base athletic ability. New techniques can allow the Sidereal to ignore new, more potent penalties (acting normally under water, for instance), extend the benefits of this charm to others, or improve the duration of its effects.

Ascending Banner: Under Godly Standards Method
Until it shattered her hand.
Cost: 6m, 1w Type: Simple (Dramatic Action)
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Shaping

The Banner is a Sign of respect for something greater than oneself. A legion’s standard or a country’s flag are symbols of the grand ideals to which the soldiers and citizens aspire. With this charm, the Sidereal strikes a bargain with a god. The beneficiary will consecrate his actions to the god, and the god will bless the subject with divine skill.

To create the bond formed by this charm, the Sidereal performs a five hour long prayer, asking, by name, for the aid of a patron deity. The beneficiary (which can be the Sidereal) must be present, but the god can be anywhere. Because of the Sidereals’ position in the Bureau of Destiny, this prayer is usually a formality, but if, for some reason, the Sidereal wanted to strike a bargain with a recalcitrant god, he would have to roll Charisma + Performance at a difficulty equal to the god’s dodge MDV.

If the prayer is successful, the beneficiary may, from that point on, spend 3m (or 1w, if he lacks access to an essence pool) to replace one of his physical attributes with the god’s for a single action. Any attribute points above the character’s normal rating count as bonus dice from charms, though the character always gains the god’s full rating, even if that would put him over the maximum dice limit. Gaining the benefits of this charm is a reflexive action that does not count as a charm activation.

Calling on this charm’s benefits is a form of prayer that generates a minuscule amount of Ambrosia for the patron deity. By order of the Maidens, this is considered a legitimate transaction when performed by a Sidereal under heavenly employ. Though there is little to no downside to accepting this bargain, many Celestial gods choose to treat it as a favor they perform for the Exalted.

Descending Banner: It’s All Materiel Stratagem
She did not stop, though cracks spread throughout her bones.
Cost: 10m, 1w Type: Simple
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Shaping, Touch, Combo-Basic, Virtue (Conviction)

Some think of the Banner as a Sign of leadership, and it is, but it is the leadership a Gateway player gives his pieces. Victory for the general is the only objective that matters. Everything else, including the lives of the followers, is a secondary concern. With this charm, the Sidereal calls upon the energies of a thousand generations of pragmatic monarchs and ruthless generals to turn a living creature into an object to be manipulated.

To use this charm, the Sidereal must touch the subject and roll Manipulation + Athletics against a difficulty equal to the target’s essence. If the roll succeeds, the target changes subtly, becoming harder, but more brittle. A target of this charm gains hardness equal to his soak and becomes immune to wound penalties and any crippling, poison, or sickness effects that do not explicitly say they work against inanimate objects. Unfortunately, this strength comes at a price. Every damage die rolled against the target is converted to an automatic success and charms and powers that have special effects against inanimate targets treat him as inanimate for as long as this charm remains committed.

Though it is primarily of use against the living, this charm can be used on First Age vehicles and other inanimate objects that are not normally treated as such. They are considered to have an essence between 1 and 3, depending on the quality of their manufacture.

Resplendent Banner: Glorious Uphill Charge
She did not stop, though blood sprayed her eyes.
Cost: 10m Type: Reflexive
Duration: 1 scene
Keywords: Virtue (Valor)

The Banner is glory. Since the dawn of Creation, a million desperate last stands and foolishly valiant sacrifices have been ruled by its power. The Banner is the Sign of those who charge headfirst into the storm, knowing that if they die, at least their deeds will be immortal. With this charm, the Sidereal becomes the Banner, letting nothing stop her from achieving greatness.

Glorious Uphill Charge multiplies the Sidereal’s movement rate and jumping distance by her permanent Essence. It also allows her to activate any technique of Properly Following Orders Attitude at half cost (usually 1m) as a reflexive action that does not count as a charm activation.

Inauspicious Banner: Discarded Colors Insinuation
She did not stop until she shattered the wall.
Cost: 8m Type: Reflexive
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Obvious

The Banner is the Sign of deeds done publicly and without shame. The deserter, the backroom manipulator, and the thief in the night are anathema to it. Yet some deeds must be performed in darkness. With this charm, the Sidereal avoids notice, slips between the cracks of reality, and intrudes in places he was not meant to go.

Activating Discarded Colors Insinuation allows the Sidereal to teleport to any location he can see, within (essence x 100) yards, provided he is unobserved at both the destination and the departure point. Any unwanted possessions (shackles and the like) are left behind, and if used to affect an escape, this charm ignores wards against teleportation.

The Sidereal needs only the briefest of moments to use this charm, so it can be used, even among witnesses, with an appropriately stunted bluff or attempt to reestablish surprise. If used to gain a tactically advantageous position for an unexpected attack, this charm doubles the attack’s raw damage.

Melee: The Spear

The Spear is the Sign of the professional soldier. Those ruled by its influence might (and often do) complain and demand payment, but they get the job done. It is the Sign of those who fight implacably, but without grudges or anger. Yet the Spear is also among the darkest of the Signs, for it rules those who care not what harm their actions cause, so long as they get paid. The Sidereals learn from the Spear that individual skill is often less important than the will to succeed.

Primordial Spear: Raw Recruit’s Fortune
Once there was a maiden who sat on a child’s shelf and watched the entire world. Her eyes were made of glass.
Cost: Varies Type: Reflexive
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Ok

The Sidereal Exalted were drafted into a war whose scope they couldn’t possibly have imagined. Theirs was the Ordained Exaltation. Unlike the heroic Solars or the willful Lunars, they did not reject the peaceful life – they were never offered the choice. Many Seers, probably more than the survivors would have liked to admit, wanted nothing more than to survive.

Raw Recruit’s Fortune represents the most potent and versatile of the Sidereal’s defensive techniques. With this charm, the character manipulates the strands of fate that make an attack possible, making it impossible. To the unlearned, this often appears as if blind chance saves the Sidereal from harm. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. The Sidereals know that fortune favors the bold. Raw Recruit’s Fortune is a soldier’s art, and will never benefit a character who does not wield a martial weapon (though unlike most Melee charms, it will function if the character wields a weapon from an ability other than Melee).

When the Sidereal first learns this charm, he knows one of the following techniques. New techniques cost 8xp or 3 bonus points.

Impeding the Flow (3m): This technique reduces a blockable physical attack’s successes to 0. Some attacks can succeed despite having 0 successes.

Serenity in Blood (5m, 1w): This technique parries any attack, even those considered unblockable. If the attack is unexpected, the Sidereal must make a difficulty 3 (Perception + Melee) roll. This technique has one of the Four Flaws of Invulnerability.

Tangled Weapon Mishap (4m): An accident causes the opponent to become disarmed. The enemy may abort his current action to make an unarmed attack, recover his weapon, or draw another weapon. If used against part of a flurry, the future actions in the flurry may be rendered invalid (depending on what the target does). This technique has the counterattack keyword, and may not be activated in response to a counterattack.
Orchestration of Reflected Fate (4m): The Sidereal may activate this technique only in response to a failed attack. The Sidereal makes a Melee counterattack against the opponent. This technique has the counterattack keyword and may not be activated in response to a counterattack.

The Sidereal may invent new techniques for this charm. Raw Recruit’s Fortune always either causes an enemy’s attack to fail or changes the consequences of an enemy’s attack failing. This charm never increases the Sidereal’s defense. New techniques for this charm have been known to protect the Sidereal’s allies, cause more than one attack to fail (a high essence technique can apply Impeding the Flow to every enemy attack made on a single tick), or impose significant misfortune on those who fail attacks (knockdown, destroying weapons, and crippling effects are popular).

Ascending Spear: Sharply Appointed Uniform Method
And their pupils were red.
Cost: 15m, 1w Type: Simple (5 long ticks, -1DV)
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Combo-Basic, War

The Spear rules those who fight in formation, who use tactics to replace individual valor. It is the Sign of those who are part of a unit, and take strength from their comrades. With Sharply Appointed Uniform Method, the Sidereal takes the lessons of the Spear to heart, and calls upon the Panoply of the Maiden of Battles to empower and embolden a small group of people.

If used on a small unit of no less than two and no more than (Essence) people (one of whom may be the Sidereal), this charm conjures weapons and armor of red Sidereal-aspected essence. The weapons and armor are always the same, regardless of the Chosen’s power or personal culture: one short spear, one breastplate, and one shield.

The short spear has the following statistics:
Speed: 5 Accuracy: +3 Damage: +(essence + 4)L Defense +1 Rate: 2

The breastplate has the following statistics:
Soak: (Essence + 2)L/(Essence)B, Mobility –1 Fatigue 1
It also has hardness equal to half its soak (round up) and reduces the damage the wearer takes by 1 level.

The shield has the following statistics:
It adds one to both of the bearer’s DVs without mobility or fatigue, and subtracts one from post-soak damage before it is rolled.

As a final benefit, if more than one person who bears this equipment attacks the same target on the same tick, their attacks are automatically considered perfectly coordinated, imposing a –1 DV penalty per attacker. The equipment created by this charm lasts for as long as the Sidereal commits the essence or until one member of the “unit” fails to don the armor after waking in the morning.

If used in War, the Sidereal affects a mass combat unit of a Magnitude no greater than his permanent Essence. Their weapons and armor become surrounded by a red light, adding one to their Close Combat rating, Close Combat damage, Soak, Drill, and Morale. Sharply Appointed Uniform Method can raise none of those values higher than 5.

Descending Spear: Smiling at the Damned
Her mouth was sewn on.
Cost: (2m) Type: Permanent
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Crippling

The legacy of war is suffering. As much as heroism and bravery, the Spear represents the amoral cruelty of the soldier. Her job is to kill, so she kills. Yet often, the survivors are to be pitied more than the dead. Only survivors can live to be maimed. With this charm, the Sidereal invokes the energies of the Spear to spare a defeated foe, sending her home with wounds that will last a lifetime.

Whenever a Sidereal’s blow would be sufficient to kill an adversary, she may invoke this charm as a reflexive action. The target is reduced to no lower than Incapacitated and suffers one of the following effects:

A small, visible scar will endure despite all attempts to heal it cleanly, an eternal reminder of the Sidereal’s prowess.

All of the target’s wounds become Aggravated.

The target suffers any single amputation effect the Sidereal desires (see Exalted, pg 152).

Resplendent Spear: Perfection of the Visionary Warrior
For years and years she didn’t move
Cost: 12m, 1w Type: Simple
Duration: 1 scene
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Virtue (Valor)

The truth of the Spear is that there is strength in numbers. By relying on one’s friends and allies, a single person’s force is multiplied a thousand-fold. With this charm, the Sidereal internalizes the ideal of the Spear, becoming an army unto himself.

Perfection of the Visionary warrior automatically makes the Sidereal aware of all incoming attacks. While under its effects, the Sidereal never suffers an unexpected attack, not even the automatic one that occurs from being surrounded. Furthermore, the Sidereal no longer takes coordinated attack penalties, instead increasing his parry DV by an amount equal to the penalty he would have suffered. Finally, every time he makes an attack, he may apply the result of the roll to up to (Essence) additional targets. Only one roll is made, but it is compared separately to each target’s defense. The sidereal may not use this power to attack the same target more than once at a time, although he can continue to flurry normally.

If used in war, the normal benefits of this charm are replaced. Instead, the Sidereal fights as a mass combat unit with a Magnitude, Close Combat rating, and Close Combat damage equal to his (Essence/2). This “phantom unit” is always treated as if it were organized in Close formation.

Inauspicious Spear: Meditation on War
Then, when necessary, she was gone, and the head of that child with her.
Cost: 5m, 1w Type: Reflexive
Duration: 1 Scene
Keywords: Combo-OK, Shaping, Virtue (Compassion)

The opposite of the Spear is the philosophical warrior, the soldier who looks inward and questions the necessity of her deeds. Often, as the constellation’s energies reach a nadir of influence, those who are normally ruled by it begin to doubt the sense of war. Why does one person live and another die? What force decides who gets to walk away from a battle? With the power of this charm, the Sidereal internalizes those doubts, and defiantly resists the impersonal machinations of fate.

The Chosen activates Meditation on War whenever someone within (Essence) x 25 yards receives a fatal wound (this can include herself). Instead of dying, that person is merely Incapacitated. But the fates cannot be cheated. The victim of the next attack that does at least one level of post-soak damage suffers an unblockable, undodgeable shaping attack one tick later. The attack rolls the Sidereal’s Melee + Essence to hit. If it is successful, the target dies. If for some reason the target does not die, the curse goes into dormancy, waiting for its next chance to strike. 

The Sidereal may activate Mediation on War to save someone who would be killed by Meditation on War. This does not create a second curse. If the Sidereal releases the commitment to this charm before someone is killed by it, she must roll her Stamina + Melee against a difficulty equal to her Essence. If the roll succeeds, the curse dissipates harmlessly. If not, she dies.

Surprisingly, the Bureau of Battles does not have a problem with this charm. Tangles in destiny from comrades saving each others’ lives are common in war. The Bureau of Endings is another issue entirely.

Presence: The Gauntlet

The Gauntlet is the Sign of the rock and the hard place, and those souls brave enough to choose the lesser of two necessary evils. It is also the Sign of those who gladly choose unnecessary evils, and those who mistake brutality for conviction. From this Sign, the Sidereals gain the insight that sometimes it’s more difficult to not take extreme action.

Primordial Gauntlet: With Us or Against Us Attitude
Once there was a maiden falling forever in the water.
Cost: 5m, 1w Type: Reflexive
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-OK, Compulsion, Social, Virtue (Conviction)

The Primordial War was not a time that was friendly to doubt. The leaders of the rebellion felt that the enemy was too great to allow for anything other than a singular vision, and most of the Exalted agreed. Precision was sacrificed to expediency. Nuance was sacrificed to unity. The Lawgivers’ great charisma inspired fanaticism, and the Viziers’ discipline kept it from wavering.

With Us or Against Us Attitude removes uncertainty. The techniques of this charm supplement or defend against social attacks, depending on whether the attack reinforces or challenges an already held belief. With Us or Against Us Attitude can affect any social attack the Sidereal witnesses, not just those that include him as a target or instigator.

When the Sidereal first learns With Us Or Against Us Attitude, he knows one of the following techniques. New techniques cost 8xp or 3 bonus points to learn.

Force Decision: This technique supplements any social attack meant to provoke an immediate decision. It makes the attack unblockable and undodgeable.

Everybody Listen: This technique supplements an unblockable social attack. It makes it undodgeable as well.

Do Your Duty: This technique supplements any mental influence that plays off a target’s highest Virtue. It makes the attempt into unnatural mental influence that costs one willpower more than usual to resist.

Aren’t We Comrades: This technique is activated in response to any successful social attack. It applies that attack to any other person present who shares an intimacy or motivation with the original target (be it identical, reciprocal, or sufficiently similar).

Rude Dismissal: This technique blocks any blockable social attack witnessed by the Sidereal. The original target must spend a willpower point if he wishes to be affected by the attack.

The Sidereal can invent new techniques for this charm. With Us or Against Us Attitude always makes existing and/or common beliefs stronger and more common or new and/or unpopular beliefs weaker and rarer. This charm never actually forces an individual to adopt a particular belief, though socially canny Sidereals can do much by strengthening their allies’ unity and orthodoxy. New techniques can spread beliefs farther (turning a witnessed Presence attack into a Performance attack, for instance) or make even fleeting beliefs profoundly strong (transforming an intimacy into a motivation).

Ascending Gauntlet: Protected Core Blessing
She reached for purchase, but found nothing; her arms swung through the sea.
Cost: 10m, 1w Type: Simple (speed: 1 long tick, DV –0)
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Emotion, Compulsion, Combo-Ok, Virtue (Special)

Those blessed by the Gauntlet are strong and decisive. When others are panicking, flailing around uselessly, and drowning in moral uncertainty, they are the ones making decisions, acting to preserve the present, so the future will have the luxury of questioning the past. Protected Core Blessing calls upon the power of the Gauntlet to remove doubt and indecision from the recipient’s soul.

This charm makes broad categories of mental influence into unacceptable orders to the beneficiary (which can be the Sidereal herself). The Sidereal need merely speak a short prayer and roll Charisma + Presence against a difficulty equal to the target’s Parry MDV (this attack is undodgeable). If the roll succeeds, any suggestion that goes against the target’s Motivation or against a Virtue she has rated 4 or higher is automatically resisted. Any virtue roll made with a virtue of 3 or higher automatically succeeds. This is an Emotion effect.

This devotion comes at a price. The recipient cannot voluntarily choose to be persuaded by unacceptable orders. Nor can she spend a willpower point to voluntarily fail a virtue roll. Furthermore, she must decide without hesitation. If two or more of her protected categories come into conflict (Example: The Sidereal must choose between fulfilling her Motivation to slay an Abyssal or her Compassion to rescue his human sacrifices), a Compulsion effect forces her to immediately choose between them. The character may spend 1 wp to listen to a single alternate plan.

Protected Core Blessing is considered to have the Virtue keywords of every Virtue the target possesses at 3 or higher. While under its effects, the recipient can channel those virtues on any and all rolls. This charm ends if the recipient spends a number of willpower points equal to the Sidereal’s Conviction to resist or if the target is ever reduced to 0 temporary willpower.

Descending Gauntlet: Soul of Iron Technique
The water did not slow her, nor did the chill.
Cost: 5m Type: Simple (speed: 5 long ticks, -1DV)
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Social, Emotion, Virtue (Conviction)

The Gauntlet rules more than just heroes. It also rules those ruthless and cowardly souls who know no morality beyond the expediency of the moment, those for whom strength is more important than those things strength was meant to protect. With this charm, the Sidereal can infuse a victim with the darkest energies of the Gauntlet, making him twisted and cruel.

To use this charm, the Sidereal must speak to the target for 5 minutes and roll Manipulation + Presence against his MDV. If the roll succeeds, the target gains a second motivation “rid myself of all weakness,” with all the benefits and drawbacks that implies. An Emotion effect requires the target to spend a willpower point in order to resist this new Motivation for a single day. How this new motivation affects the target’s life is left as an exercise in roleplaying, but it rarely wins him any friends.

Soul of Iron Technique ends when the target has spent a number of willpower points on a number of separate days equal to the Sidereal’s Conviction to resist the new motivation.

Resplendent Gauntlet: Presence in Absence Technique
But she could not breathe.
Cost: 3m, 1w Type: Simple
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Shaping, Touch

The Gauntlet is an advisor’s Sign. Those who counsel immediate action and necessary sacrifice are ruled by its power. The Sidereals especially find its energies useful in their role as Viziers, encouraging those they advise to follow their own highest ideals (ideals often shaped by the Sidereals themselves). With this charm, the Gauntlet’s might ensures the Sidereal’s advice always finds its target.

To use Presence in Absence Technique, the Sidereal touches the target and rolls Manipulation + Presence at a difficulty equal to the target’s Essence. If the roll succeeds, the target’s fate is bound to the Seer’s. From that point on, the Sidereal may spend 1 mote to use social influence (including social charms with the touch keyword) on the target, regardless of distance. This is not actual communication. Only the effect of the influence is felt. Usually, the target dismisses it as an old memory or strange thought (even if it is successful).

This charm also alerts the Sidereal if the target is acting contrary to her interests. Whenever the target openly acts in a way that would violate the Sidereal’s Motivation, one her intimacies, or a virtue she possesses at three dots or higher, the Sidereal’s player may spend a mote to be aware of it (see Surprise Anticipation Method, Exalted pg 226).

The target of this charm can end its effects with any power that explicitly works against astrological shaping (although this is not technically an Astrology effect and it does work against creatures outside fate). Otherwise, the only way to end this charm is to remain silent for one month.

Inauspicious Gauntlet: Easily Accepted Proposition Stance
Each time she gasped and found no breath, a human child died; and thus, she lived.
Cost: 25m, 2w Type: Supplemental
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Shaping, Combo-OK, Obvious, Mandate

Not every decision is difficult. Sometimes, choices are easy. Many others would be easy, were it not for virtue. Those Sidereals who study the Gauntlet eventually come to understand that many people want decisions to be difficult, so they can blame their shortcomings on necessity. Easily Accepted Proposition Stance calls upon this insight, allowing those the Sidereal wishes to persuade to follow him with clear conscience, knowing that they averted disaster by doing so.

This charm supplements any attempt at social influence made by the Sidereal (even those made with Abilities other than Presence). If the target resists the mental influence they (or the Dominion or organization they represent) suffer a number of catastrophic botches equal to the Sidereal’s permanent Essence, as if they had violated an Eclipse caste oath.

The target only suffers if he resists at the moment of persuasion. If he later violates the agreement or shakes off the mental influence, he suffers no ill effects. This is not a fact the Sidereals openly advertise. Like most Inauspicious charms, Easily Accepted Proposition Stance mangles the Bureau of Destiny’s paperwork, even if its curse is never activated.

War: the Shield

The Shield is the Sign of warriors who fight for the love of battle. Those under its influence are often refreshingly unpretentious. They know what they like and they aren’t shy about going for it. Unfortunately, what they like is slaughter and chaos, meaning most civilized people consider the Shield among the most ill-favored of Signs. Sidereals gain from the Shield the insight that when something’s enjoyable, it has a slim chance of being good.

Primordial Shield: Elegant Battle Pattern Aptitude
Once there was a maiden whose battles called her far from home. She slew the thing she feared the most, and conquered the land that feared her.
Cost: Varies Type: Simple
Duration: Until the end of Battle
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Virtue (Valor), War

During the Primordial War, the Solar Exalted may have been the greatest leaders, and the Lunar Exalted may have been the fiercest warriors, but the Chosen of Battles were the greatest strategists. Their miraculously prescient way of organizing troops, represented by the techniques of this charm, won battles that should, by all rights, have been impossible.

Imposing a battle pattern on a mass combat unit requires the cooperation of the unit’s leader (although not necessarily her approval). If the Sidereal is attached to a unit as a commander or special character, she can activate this charm in the midst of battle. If not, she can prepare a single use of this charm for a unit, which will last until the unit loses a point of Magnitude (the Sidereal can increase the activation roll’s difficulty to increase the plan’s durability).

Using Elegant Battle Pattern Aptitude requires an Intelligence + War roll. Each success achieved on that roll gives the Sidereal’s strategy one point of “Pattern.” The precise effects of Pattern will vary depending on the technique used. 

The difficulty of the activation roll increases by one if the character is attached to, but not leading, a unit and by 3 if the Sidereal is not attached to the unit at all. It increases by an additional 2 if the unit commander is skeptical about the Sidereal’s strategy and by 4 if the commander is hostile to the Sidereal’s strategy. 

Finally, the difficulty increases by one for every point of Magnitude loss the Sidereal wants the plan to survive (this is necessary only for plans intended for units to which the Sidereal is not attached).

Any particular unit can benefit from only one battle pattern at a time, but if the Sidereal is attached to a unit, she may activate this charm a second time in combat to change a unit’s active pattern (add +1 to the difficulty of the activation roll for every battle pattern beyond the first).

When Elegant Battle Pattern Aptitude is first learned, the Sidereal knows one of the following techniques. New techniques cost 8xp or 2 bonus points.

Volley Defying (5m): A single unit, no larger in Magnitude than the plan’s Pattern rating, suffers no ill effects from being in Close Formation.

Infantry Harassing (6m): A single unit, no larger in Magnitude than the plan’s Pattern rating, suffers no ill effects from being in Skirmish Formation.

Bound by Oaths (6m): A single unit, no larger in Magnitude than the plan’s Pattern rating, gains one automatic success to all Morale checks.

Essence Draining (8m, requires essence 3): This technique affects up to one unit commander or special character per point of Pattern. Each affected character regains one mote per action and any charms or sorcery used by the opposing army have their cost increased by (the Sidereal’s Essence x the number of affected characters), or doubled, whichever is less.

Dynamic Onslaught (10m, 1w, requires essence 4): Every hero character attached to a single unit is treated as leading a mass combat unit with a Magnitude equal to the plan’s Pattern (or equal to the unit’s total Magnitude – 1, whichever is less) when making attacks in Mass Combat. The other traits of the unit are identical to the main unit’s.

The Sidereal may invent new techniques for this charm. As master strategists, there is very little the Chosen of Battles cannot do with enough troops and essence, though Elegant Battle Pattern always affects only Mass Combat, and never individual-scale combat or single characters (unless those characters are fighting as solo units – this charm will explicitly never aid in any attempt to target a unit leader or special character).

Ascending Shield: Prayer for Victory Practice
As she fought, far away, she knew her children needed guidance
Cost: 10m, 1w Type: Simple (Dramatic Action)
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Emotion, Training, Obvious, Stackable

In many ways, those ruled by the Shield are simple creatures. They need nothing more than a bed to sleep in, camp followers to waste their pay on, and good friends to fight beside. But even those with simple needs find reason to pray to the gods. With this charm, the Sidereal does the praying for them, asking for heaven’s blessing to fall upon a Mass Combat Unit.

This charm takes the form of a prayer, lasting roughly 30 minutes. The prayer must take place before a battle for the listeners to gain the benefits permanently. If the battle does not occur, the traits granted by this charm (including the Intimacies) fade after a single scene. The prayer may benefit a unit of any size, but any single unit or individual may benefit from this charm only once per battle.

A unit affected by this charm gains one point of Drill. Every individual member of the unit gains a point of Valor and a positive Intimacy towards the Sidereal, the unit commander, and the unit as a whole. Every member of the unit (including special characters and the unit commander) also regains all spent willpower points and a single virtue channel.

If, for some reason, an individual wanted to resist the effects of this charm, he would have to spend 1 willpower point.

Descending Shield: Unfaithful Squire’s Curse
She knew they faced tyrants.
Cost: 8m, 1w Type: Simple
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Shaping, Emotion, Obvious, Touch

The Shield is a warrior’s Sign, and though the barbarians, sadists, and berserkers under its influence rarely give it a thought, warriors are generally despicable people who are tolerated only so long as they win. This dreaded curse does nothing to weaken the target personally. Rather, it destroys the one thing of value he has to offer – victory.

To use this charm, the Sidereal must touch the victim and roll Manipulation + War against a difficulty equal to the target’s permanent Essence. If the roll succeeds, the inverted Sign of Mars appears over the target’s heart, marking him as one doomed to be betrayed by those he considers allies.

Whenever someone who considers himself a friend, ally, or follower of the curse’s victim must make a Valor roll in the course of aiding the target, that Valor roll is considered to have achieved the least advantageous result possible (mostly, this means the roll fails automatically, though if a friend’s berserk rage would harm the character or his interests, that’s what happens). This is an emotion effect that costs one willpower to resist (the Valor roll is then made normally). If the character is leading a Mass Combat unit, he may spend a willpower point to allow his unit to make a single Morale check normally.

If the Sidereal’s fury relents, he may release the commitment to end this charm. Otherwise, the curse will end only when no living person considers the victim an ally, leader, or friend. The mark produced by this charm is identifiable with a difficulty 3 Intelligence + Occult roll (the difficulty is only one for someone from a martial culture).

Resplendent Shield: The Fearless Are Immortal
She knew they faced fear.
Cost: 15m, 2w Type: Simple
Duration: 1 battle
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Virtue (Valor), War

The Shield is a paradoxical Sign. War is the among the worst disasters a society or a soldier can face, but there are those who love it. Perhaps there are some with no native fear of death. With this charm, the Sidereal embraces the paradox, bites the ideal Shield, and becomes a soul enamored with battle.

Only a Sidereal who personally leads a unit with a Magnitude no larger than her permanent Essence may use this charm. As long as the opposing army does not defeat the Sidereal’s unit and systematically slaughter the wounded, no member of the unit dies. The unit loses Magnitude from attacks normally, but this represents the wounded, the disoriented, and the temporarily stunned, and never an individual fatality (special characters are the exception, but only if they are targeted individually). 

This immunity to death adds the Sidereal’s permanent essence in automatic successes to all Morale rolls and all attempts to rally for numbers. The Sidereal may always attempt to rally for numbers if the unit’s current Magnitude is less than its starting Magnitude. Each rally attempt beyond the first cumulatively increases the difficulty by one (alive or not, a legless berserker is not going to be much help).

Inauspicious Shield: Drumbeats in the Distance Rumor
In her homeland, things were broken. So she held up her hand before the sun, cast a shadow on the world, and drowned the troubles of her home in darkness.
Cost: 40m, 3w Type: Simple (Dramatic Action)
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Emotion, Mandate, Virtue (Compassion)

Every sane person despises war. It destroys wealth, tears apart families, and ruins lives. They brave may fight from necessity, but only the cruel enjoy it. With this terrible charm, the Sidereal calls upon the darkness behind the Shield to remind a nation of this lesson.

Activating Drumbeats in the Distance Rumor is a dramatic action that takes 1 year. For at least 5 hours a day during that time, the Sidereal must circulate among the populace of the target area (which must be a Dominion with a Magnitude no greater than the Sidereal’s Essence –1), speaking of war and rumors of war. At the end of that time, the Sidereal rolls Manipulation + War, subtracting from the successes the Magnitude of the area and the Parry MDV of any Savant or Sorcerer who might have opposed the character’s actions (heaven help the country without one). Every individual in the area with a Dodge MDV less than the remaining successes is affected.

All affected individuals gain a single positive intimacy towards either battle in general or a specific military force in particular and a single negative intimacy towards a perceived threat or enemy. These intimacies are not chosen by the Sidereal and can be wildly different. They are magically reinforced intimacies that cost one willpower point per scene to erode

Every affected individual with a Valor of 3 or 4 changes their motivation to “become a great warrior.” Every affected individual with a Valor of 5 changes their motivation to “become Creation’s greatest warrior.” Only those characters with an Essence of 2 or greater may spend experience points to change their Motivation.
			
This charm is an Emotion effect that costs a number of willpower points equal to the Sidereal’s Compassion to resist. If successful, it will usually destroy the target area within a few years. A sufficiently ruthless and skilled leader (like a Lawgiver with a fascistic streak) could potentially weld the area into a force to make Creation tremble. 

Investigation: The Key

The Key is the Sign of cleverness and intellectual understanding. Those under its influence are curious, creative, and resourceful. They are also meddlesome busybodies who don’t know how to leave well enough alone. Sidereals learn from the key that many things worth knowing can only be learned the hard way.

Primordial Key: Auspicious Prospects
Once there was that old thing that wasn’t like a shadow, because you could see it too well.
Cost: 1m Type: Reflexive
Duration: Instant
Keywords: None

During the War, the Seers were valued most for their ability to know the impossible. By reading the omens coded into Creation by the Primordials, the Chosen of the Maidens could tell the Exalted when it was wisest to fight and when it was wisest to make peace, when it was wisest to retreat and when it was wisest to make a stand. Though their magics were many and varied, this humble charm may have seen more use than all of the rest combined.

Auspicious Prospects reveals the future, vaguely. The subject of the prognostication varies with the technique, but regardless of what the Sidereal attempts to see, it always answers the same three questions: How soon? How close? And how much? It never sees farther in the future than the next Calibration, farther away than (Essence x 50) miles, and in more detail than a relative magnitude (for instance, Auspicious Prospects for Endings is incapable of distinguishing a wedding from a divorce, but is capable of distinguishing the death of an Exalt from the death of a pet mouse). The Sidereal must specify when activating this charm whether he wants to know about the soonest, the nearest, or the biggest phenomenon revealed by the charm.

Using this charm points the character in a vague direction, but narrowing the revelation down to a specific point and figuring out what precisely needs to be done is a matter for the Sidereal’s personal ingenuity and insight.

Despite these limitations, Auspicious Prospects can be a potent divinatory tool in the hands of someone who has taken the effort to master a wide variety of techniques. When the Sidereal first learns this charm, he automatically begins with the technique belonging to his Maiden, and one other technique. New techniques cost 3 xp or 1 bonus point.

Journeys: Reveals significant arrivals and departures, unique vehicles, major trade routes, people thinking about traveling, and people who really should be thinking about traveling.

Serenity: Reveals marriages, births, love affairs, great works of art, happiness, harmony, peace, and great potential matches (whether romantic or business, human or otherwise).

Battles: Reveals war and the shadow of war, fist fights, duels, arguments, and when and where it would be a good idea for such things to take place.

Secrets: Reveals secrets being concealed, things that would be a good idea to keep secret and secrets it would be a good idea to reveal.

Endings: Reveals when ideas, people, relationships, or states of affairs are about to come to an end, or when and where it would be a good idea for them to do so.

The Sidereal can create new techniques for this charm. New techniques are always new phenomena to be revealed by its power (things like storms, harvests, exaltations, etc). They can never be more general than the Maidens’ purviews (and the five Maiden’s purviews should be considered comprehensive, everything falls under at least one), but they can be as specific as the Sidereal likes.

Ascending Key: Embracing Life Method
And that wasn’t like a light.
Cost: 10m, 1w, 1hl Type: Simple
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Obvious, Combo-Ok, Virtue (Compassion)

With the blessing of the Key, nascent ideas gain life, vague intuitions gain cohesion, and mad, glorious ideas gain possibility. With this charm, the Sidereal concentrates the exciting potential of the constellation’s energy into a seed made from his own blood. In five days, the seed grows into a tree that gives insight into a question asked by the creature that plants it.

This charm functions identically to the one on MoEP:S pg 163, except that it may function for anyone the Sidereal gives the seed to. Regardless of who the intended beneficiary is, the Sidereal makes the Charisma + Investigation roll.

Descending Key: Alone on the Mountaintop
Because it didn’t make the flowers grow.
Cost: 4m, 1w Type: Simple
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Shaping, Obvious, Touch

The Key is the Sign of the obsessive scholar, the friendless, loveless nobody who cares more for books than for people. While the stereotype is rarely true, the power of the constellation is real, and the Sidereals can call upon it to make a person utterly alone.

To use this charm, the Sidereal must touch the victim and roll Manipulation + Investigation against a difficulty equal to the target’s permanent Essence. If the roll succeeds, the inverted Sign of Jupiter appears on one of the target’s eyelids, marking him as someone destined to have no secrets.
One month after the curse is laid, choose one of the target’s intimacies at random and roll one die. If the die comes up a success, the object of the intimacy will learn something the target doesn’t want it to know. If it’s a friend or a follower, it might learn about one of the character’s unworthy deeds. If it’s an enemy, it might learn one of the character’s weaknesses. Every month after that, add one additional die until either the target breaks the intimacy or the object of the intimacy learns all the target’s harmful secrets. Then choose a new intimacy and start the process over again.

The severity of the secret determines how many successes need be rolled to reveal it. Something only slightly embarrassing or harmful requires a single success. Something that could erode a positive intimacy or build a negative one requires 3 successes. Something that could ruin a friend’s life or give an enemy a lethal advantage requires 5 successes. The least serious secrets are revealed first, but successes carry over from month to month, so when the target runs out of minor secrets, the major ones are revealed quite quickly.

The mark created by this charm is identifiable with a difficulty 3 Intelligence + Occult roll. If the Sidereal does not release the motes committed to it, this charm ends only when someone the target currently holds a positive intimacy towards attempts to kill him either because of or by means of a secret revealed by this curse.

Resplendent Key: Efficient Secretary Technique
So, it had to be a maiden.
Cost: - Type: Permanent
Duration: Permanent
Keywords: None

With the power of the Key, knowledge is efficiently recorded, stored, transmitted, and deciphered. It is the Sign of knowledge passed on along proper channels and with proper foresight. It is the Sign of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. With this charm, the Sidereal becomes a part of this eternal chain, gaining an assistant with whom to trade knowledge.

When the Sidereal first learns Efficient Secretary Technique, her most private and intense sexual fantasy manifests as a brand new spirit (which can be embarrassing for those Seers with . . . unique proclivities). The spirt has physical attributes of 1, social and mental attributes of 5, and the following skills at a rating equal to the Sidereal’s (Essence + 1): Awareness, Investigation, Lore, Occult, and Bureaucracy. The spirit also has a Linguistics rating equal to the Sidereal’s (Linguistics + Essence). The spirit has an essence of 2, virtues and willpower equal to the Sidereal’s, and knows the charms Measure the Wind and Hurry Home (Libraries).

This spirit can serve the Sidereal in two ways. First, it may act as a second set of eyes and ears and offer basic knowledge, translation services, and advice as would. Secondly, it may retrieve any information the Sidereal desires. It can travel instantly to any library in Creation or Yu-Shan (though there are many where it would not be welcome) and from there fly (at about 25 miles per hour) to any location the Sidereal orders it to.

The spirit created by this charm is more of an automaton than a living creature, and tends to mirror the Sidereal’s personality, beliefs, and attitude. The only exception to this it that the spirit is always chaste, virginal, and demure. The spirit cannot be permanently destroyed so long as the Sidereal lives (even if attacked with a charm like Ghost-eating technique, it will reform near the Exalt, in time).

Inauspicious Key: Who Needs Books Concentration
But she didn’t mind.
Cost: 6m Type: Reflexive
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Ok

The Key is the Sign of those who possess a genuine desire to learn and those who take pleasure in study. Over the years, it has been the bane of a billion callow schoolchildren. With this charm, the Sidereal petitions the Bureau of Destiny with a student’s impertinence, asking them to simply give him the answer.

When the Sidereal activates this charm, he can instantly gain the answer to any single question, so long as the answer is in the Bureau of Destiny’s records and has not been explicitly classified by the Maidens (although the Maidens sometimes do release classified information, for inscrutable reasons of their own).

But someone who refuses to study can never be said to truly learn. At the end of the scene, the Sidereal forgets the information, and from that point on can never learn it. Even if someone shouts it into his ear, he will hear nothing but unintelligible noise.

Larceny: The Guardians

The Guardians are the Sign of practical wisdom. The elderly, the well-traveled, and the streetwise orphan are all ruled by its influence. It is also the Sign of willful ignorance, and those who prefer tradition to knowledge. The Guardians provide the Sidereals with the insight that things “everybody knows” often turn out to be untrue.

Primordial Charm: Sidereal Shell Games
Once there was a maiden who ate 236 leaves. She had to, because otherwise she’d forget where she came from, and that would make everyone very sad or, possibly, very happy.
Cost: 5m, 1w Type: Simple
Duration: Varies
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Shaping

The Primordials possessed much that the Exalted could use to defeat them, but only rarely were these possessions objects. Hidden plans, secret weaknesses, and those things they would die to protect – all were locked away inside their inscrutable alien minds. Early on, the Sidereals learned to identify the patterns these secrets created in fate, and to pluck the strands that would transfer possession to the Vizier.

Sidereal Shell Games is a series of techniques that allow the Sidereal to steal nonphysical “possessions.” Knowledge, memories, and spiritual qualities are all valid targets for this charm. The Sidereal need merely roll Perception + Larceny, adding her Essence as automatic successes, against a difficulty equal to the target’s (Essence + Integrity).

When the Sidereal first learns this charm, she selects one of the following techniques. New techniques cost 8xp or 3 bonus points.

Thoughts (instant): The Sidereal learns what the target is currently thinking. The sudden blank in thoughts is quite distracting to the target. Until its DV next refreshes, it suffers a penalty to all dice pools equal to the Sidereal’s (Essence).

Memories (instant): The target loses a memory and the Sidereal gains it. The threshold successes determine the importance of the memory. The Sidereal does not choose the memory stolen.

(Caste) Ability (scene, requires essence 3): This is actually five techniques, one for each Sidereal caste. Each threshold success represents one caste ability that is exchanged. The target gets the Sidereal’s rating and the Sidereal gains the target’s rating.

Name (indefinite): For as long as the motes remain committed, only the sidereal can speak, write, or think the target’s name.

The Sidereal can create new techniques for this charm. Sidereal Shell games always steals qualities, abilities, or ideas, and never physical objects. Sidereal Shell games always transfers qualities and never destroys them. If the Sidereal is unwilling or unable to accept the stolen quality, the target does not lose it. New techniques can steal more esoteric qualities (the target’s ability to dream), more powerful knowledge (like spells or charms, though the Sidereal must be able to use it to steal it), or steal from more than one person at a time.

Ascending Guardians: Masque of the Uncanny
She found herself in a woods full of monsters, impelled toward their cook pot. “Do you want to cook me?” she asked. “Or do you just think that’s where maidens belong?”
Cost: 7m, 1w Type: Simple
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Illusion, Virtue (Temperance)

Those ruled by the Guardians know how to live. Though they are not considered learned, their wisdom is adapted to the world. They know the customs, the taboos, the gossip, and the latest news. They fit in. With this charm, the Sidereal calls upon the power of the Guardians to allow a subject to fit into the most esoteric company imaginable.

This charm functions like the one on MoEP: S pg 165, except for the following modifications: The Sidereal can disguise another person; a single purchase of this charm allows the Sidereal to disguise a subject as a member of any class of creature that can sometimes appear human-like; the Sidereal adds his Essence in automatic successes to the Manipulation + Larceny roll; and the illusion effect created by this charm costs a number of willpower points equal to the Sidereal’s Temperance to resist.

Descending Guardians: Avoiding the Truth Technique
There was a crack in the cook pot’s bottom that let in the sky.
Cost: 6m, 1w Type: Simple (5 long ticks, DV-2)
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Illusion, Social, Virtue (Valor)

The Guardians are a Sign of wisdom, but it is a wisdom that is rigid and inflexible, prone to superstition, and all too willing to believe rumor as fact. With Avoiding the Truth Technique, the Sidereal uses the power of the Guardians to attack a victim’s discernment, making it difficult for her to separate truth from falsehood.

To use this charm, the Sidereal must talk to the target for 5 minutes, telling her a series of outrageous lies. At the end of this time, the Sidereal rolls Manipulation + Larceny, against the target’s MDV. If the roll succeeds, the victim becomes subject to an Illusion effect. Anyone attempting to tell her the truth must beat her MDV to be believed, unless the evidence of the person’s honesty is both immediately present and stupidly obvious (i.e. “the sun’s coming up,” if the victim is outdoors), and even then it will only be grudgingly and suspiciously admitted.

The victim cannot voluntarily lower her mental resistance to the truth without spending a point of willpower. If she does, she’ll function normally for one scene. Avoiding the truth technique ends when the target resists a number of times equal to the Sidereal’s Valor.

Resplendent Guardians: Stealing Yourself Away Method
She started to squirm through the crack, but then, she saw that the clouds carried chains and the wind was their manacles.
Cost: 15m, 1w Type: Simple
Duration: 1 day
Keywords: Obvious, Touch

The Guardians know many secrets and old stories. They know tricks that the young have never heard of and cons the punters have never imagined. And the Guardians know when it is time to cut their losses and move on. With this charm, the Sidereal becomes like the Guardians, slippery and wise.

To use Stealing Yourself Away Method, the Sidereal need merely touch a mortal and spend the motes (this charm never works on supernatural creatures). When he does, he dematerializes and his mind takes possession of the mortal’s body. Until he next sleeps (or until the Sidereal decides to leave), the Sidereal uses the mortal’s physical attributes and Appearance in place of his own. The mortal body possesses the standard seven health levels (even if the Chosen claims an extra). All of the Sidereal’s other traits (including charms and other magic) remain as normal.

If the mortal dies while the Sidereal is in control, the Sidereal is forcibly ejected, automatically suffering a number of levels of Aggravated damage equal to half his total health levels and losing half his current temporary willpower.

If the mortal survives the Exalt’s possession, he emerges relatively unscathed, with only vague memories of the experience. Especially sensitive mortals have been known to experience prophetic dreams for several days afterwards, and it is not uncommon for extras to become heroic mortals after being possessed.

Inauspicious Guardians: Conning Chaos Technique
As the monsters pulled her back, she called to the stones and she called to the sky, but it was the night that came to her aid; and, in the night, fire and pain. “Why should you help me?” she asked.
Keywords: Obvious, Shaping

The Guardians are wary of change, averse to risk, and protective of the young. To sacrifice someone under their protection in order to facilitate a risky new venture would be the most unthinkable of deeds. Except for going into business with a foreigner, of course. With Conning Chaos Technique, the Sidereal does all of the above, calling upon the weakness of the Guardians to strike a deal with those outside Creation.

This charm functions exactly like the one on MoEP:S pg 165, except that it does not function with a prayer strip. Instead, the victim will eventually realize the magical connection with the Sidereal. The charm lasts until the Sidereal releases the commitment, the victim hunts down and kills the Sidereal, or the victim dies.

Lore: The Treasure Trove

The Treasure Trove is the Sign of knowledge that enlightens and uplifts. Those under its influence understand the connection between metaphysics, ethics, and good living. But the Treasure Trove is also the Sign of impractically complicated plans and good intentions that lead to bad ends. The Sidereals learn from this Sign that it is often not enough to be knowledgeable and mean well; sometimes it is more important to succeed.

Primordial Treasure Trove: Of the Shape of the World
Once there was a maiden who knew some things about a man. He didn’t like that, but he kissed her anyway. She told him everything in her heart.
Cost: 5m Type: Reflexive
Duration: Until the character next sleeps
Keywords: None

The Sidereals have a power that frightens all thinking souls. After the War, the Maidens tried to control it, and claim it for their own, but the control is weak and the claim is a lie. If the Maidens truly owned the Sidereals’ power, the War would have failed. That power, forever beyond the reach of the glorious Solars, eternally unknowable to the many-faced Lunars, is the power to see what will come to pass.

To use this charm, the Sidereal spends five motes when he goes to sleep and rolls Perception + Lore. Though this charm lacks the virtue keyword, the Sidereal may always channel his highest virtue on this roll. The successes on the roll represent the clarity and usefulness of the character’s dream. This represented by spending successes on the charm’s techniques. The character may “buy” special abilities and knowledge from any technique or combination of techniques whose “cost” he can afford.

Since the beginning of the First Age, the dreams provided by this charm have come from the Maidens personally, but those Sidereals who have used it while cut off from fate (or those who remembered the Primordial War) have found the dreams stranger, but no less powerful.

When the Sidereal first learns Of the Shape of the World, he knows one of the following techniques. New techniques cost 5xp or 2 bonus points.

Prepared for the Challenge (1 success per point): Each success spent on this technique gives the character one specialty point. These specialties can exceed the limit of 3 specialties per Ability, but the character can benefit from no more than 3 bonus specialty dice on any single roll.

Spontaneous Outburst (1+ success per “outburst”): One or more times per day, the Sidereal says something surprising about the future. The player decides when and why it happens, and the storyteller decides what he says, but the character is completely in the dark about this power. The number of successes devoted to a single revelation determines its immediate relevance. One success reveals something that will be important in the next year, three successes reveals something that will become important in the next month, and five successes will reveal something that could potentially change the outcome of the current scene.

Ominous Portent (varies): The character gains a glimpse of an important, era changing tragedy. Multiple successes increase the clarity of the vision.

Lucky Break (1 success per tn reduction, maximum –3 tn to any single roll): The character learns a piece of incidental information that may come in handy later in the day, reducing the target number of a single roll (chosen by the player).

The Sidereal may invent new techniques for this charm. Of the Shape of the World always reveals the future in a dream, and never reveals anything else under any other circumstances. New techniques can grant visions of new phenomenon, offering bonuses in exchange for successes on the activation roll (one common technique, popular with Ronin, leads to lost or hidden money).

Ascending Treasure Chest: Of Secrets Yet Untold
She whispered truths to him, but he didn’t care

The knowledge ruled by the Treasure Chest is a welcome gift to those who receive it. By manipulating the strands of fate, the Sidereal can spread the blessings of enlightenment, even if he doesn’t precisely understand how.

This charm functions exactly as the one in MoEP: S pg 167, except that the recipient of the spirit’s favor can be anyone the Sidereal designates.

Descending Treasure Chest: Of Horrors Best Unknown
She whispered hopes to him, but he didn’t care.
Cost: 10m, 1w Type: Simple (5 long ticks, DV -2)
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Illusion, Virtue (Valor)

Education has its drawbacks. Often, those who learn of the world learn things they wish they hadn’t. The march towards knowledge moves inexorably forward, but sometimes the destination is unhappiness. Calling upon the power of the Treasure Trove, the Sidereal uses this charm to impart a grim truth.

To activate Of Horrors Best Unknown, the Sidereal need only look at the target and roll Manipulation + Lore, against the target’s Dodge MDV (this attack is unblockable). If the roll is successful, the target gains one (seemingly random) negative intimacy for each threshold success. These usually take the form of phobias or irrational hatreds. The intimacies cannot be broken until the charm is resisted.

The precise knowledge imparted by this charm is, thankfully, unknown to the Sidereal, but it is universally so horrible the target cannot speak of it (coming to grips with the horror enough to speak of it constitutes resisting the charm and resisting the charm removes the memory of the knowledge from the target’s mind). Resisting this charm costs a number of willpower points equal to the Sidereal’s Valor. When the charm is resisted, or when the Sidereal stops committing motes to it, the intimacies created fade at a rate of one per month.

Resplendent Treasure Trove: Of the Space Inside the Heart
She whispered her prayers, but heard only silence.
Cost: 4m Type: Simple
Duration: 1 Scene
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Compulsion, Obvious, Virtue (Compassion), Stackable

Those ruled by the Treasure Trove are idealists. They believe that people are basically good, and that knowledge, once revealed, will inevitably serve the cause of justice. Of the Space Inside the Heart makes that view less foolish than it might seem.

When the Sidereal activates this charm, she names something she cares about or a cause she considers just. For the duration of the scene any mental influence that occurs in the Sidereal’s presence that is hostile to the named target automatically fails. Furthermore, a Compulsion effect causes those who possess information the Sidereal could use to benefit the named target to confess that information openly, provided that confession would not constitute a restricted form of mental influence.

The defense provided by this charm is perfect and automatic, but the Compulsion can be resisted by spending willpower equal to the Sidereal’s Compassion. The Sidereal may activate Of the Space Inside the Heart as many times, for as many different targets, as the Sidereal is willing to pay for. Any given character need resist the Compulsion effect only once per scene, however.

Inauspicious Treasure Trove: And Of Things Desired and Feared
And she whispered her fear to him, but he didn’t care. He looked upon her inner self, and the void met his eyes.

The Treasure Trove is the Sign of the lifelong pursuit of wisdom, of the endless climb out of ignorance, of knowledge in service to virtue and to knowledge itself. Ambition is foreign to it. Ambition that would sacrifice honor is its antithesis. With this sinister (some would say blasphemous) charm, the Sidereal discards the notion that some things are priceless. The darkness behind the Treasure Trove proves that idea false.

This charm functions exactly like the one on MoEP:S pg 168, except that it requires one Sidereal of each caste.

Occult: The Sorcerer

Even the mighty Exalted are subject to fate. The power of essence can thwart the designs of destiny, but, ultimately, when the dust clears, destiny resumes, the engine of the world turns forward, and the great settle into the daily pattern of their lives. The Sorcerer is the Sign of such lives. Many consider it ill-omened, because the power wielded by those under the Sign’s influence knows no conscience. From the Sorcerer the Sidereals gain (hopefully) the insight that having the strength to rule does not automatically confer the wisdom to rule well.

Primordial Sorcerer: Native of Heaven Perquisites
Once there was a maiden and before her came all the nations of Creation, and knelt.
Cost: - Type: Permanent
Duration: Permanent
Keywords: None

The Sidereals were always intended to live and work alongside the gods - first in their role as spies, and later, as a condition of their employment in the Bureau of Destiny. But the ways of the gods are not the same as the ways of men. The Sidereals developed the techniques of this charm to make their lives on the Blessed Isle, and later, Yu-Shan, more bearable.

Native of Heaven Perquisites allows a Sidereal to interact with spirits on their own terms. The changes wrought by this charm are permanent, and while they rarely result in overt physical changes, can make the Sidereal seem strange and otherworldly. When the character first learns this charm, he gains one of the following techniques. New techniques cost 8 xp or 3 bonus points to learn.

Nod to the Neighbors: The Sidereal can perceive immaterial spirits.

Friendly Knock Practice: If the character is invited into a spirit's sanctum, he can spend 1m to enter without having to dematerialize.

Incite Decorum: Any spirit with an Essence less than the Sidereal's must act calm and reasonable in his presence. This is a compulsion effect that costs 1 wp per scene to resist.

Corner Grocer's Digestion: The Sidereal may work with Quintessence without the need for further magic.

Settling-in Attitude: If no one opposes the attempt, the Sidereal may attune to a manse or demesne without a roll. He may roll Perception + Occult, at a difficulty equal to the area's rating, to determine any special essence powers of the area (including a hearthstone's effect).

Incidental Brush Protection: The Sidereal is not harmed by mere physical contact with a spirit. If the spirit is using a deliberate touch-based attack, the Sidereal adds his (Essence) to his soak.

The Sidereal may invent new techniques for this charm. Native of Heaven Perquisites always provides permanent effects that allow the Sidereal to cope with the powers, habits, or quirks of the gods. It rarely improves the ability of a Sidereal to fight spirits, and then only as an incidental benefit of a peaceful power. New techniques can help the Sidereal resist certain divine charms (many Exalts cherish the ability to ignore their co-workers mental influence) or provide benefits for living and working in heaven.

Ascending Sorcerer: Willing Assumption of Chains
They set aside their petty squabbles in her name.
Cost: 10m, 1w, 1xp Type: Simple (Dramatic Action)
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Shaping, Training, Virtue (Conviction), Touch

The Sorcerer rules with knowledge. Her power comes from her understanding of the world, and her ability to change it to serve her aims. Though many gods resent their authority, the Sidereals are Exalted. The Sorcerer is their Sign, the Sign of people who have the power to change the world.

Willing Assumption of Chains changes a god's nature. With a successful Intelligence + Occult roll at a difficulty equal to the target's (Essence + 2), the Sidereal can send any sort of spirit (short of beings like second and third circle demons, who are tied into a greater entity's power) into a transformative fugue, allowing it to emerge, five hours later, as a fundamentally different being.

A god transformed by this charm has the same total number of bonus points, plus or minus the Sidereal's (Essence x 2). Its permanent Essence can change by no more than one in either direction. Within those limits, the Exalt can make any change she desires. Traits can move between categories (Attributes can change into Virtues, charms can change into Abilities, etc) and the spirit's Motivation can change to anything suitable to the creature's new statistics.

By longstanding agreement, the Bureau of Destiny will try and find new employment for any god affected by this charm, but such employment is not technically a power of Willing Assumption of Chains.

Descending Sorcerer: Unweaving Method
They acclaimed her with many shouts.

The Sorcerer's power is used at his own discretion. It can be intensely creative, but often it's not. The power of the strong to destroy the weak with neither resistance nor remorse is also a function of this Sign's purview. By calling upon the Sorcerer's power, the Sidereal can tweak the strands of fate to remove that which displeases him.

This charm functions as the one on MoEP: pg 170, with the following modification: If Unweaving Method is used against an inanimate object, the Exalt has the option to forgo the willpower and health level cost and measure the charm's speed in long ticks.

Resplendent Sorcerer: Thousand Voices Thronging
They prayed for her safety and her weal.
Cost: 5m Type: Reflexive
Duration: 1 day
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Obvious

The Sorcerer is not a great leader of men, but he is a ruler of multitudes. The ideal represented by that Sign is one of dominance over the world and submission to a power greater than oneself. With this charm, the Sidereal subsumes the ideal, becoming the Sorcerer and receiving the worship of thousands.

Thousand Voices Thronging gives the Sidereal a Cult rating equal to the highest of the following: his Backing from his employing Bureau, his heavenly Salary, or 3. The prayers that power this Cult rating are skimmed from general prayers to "the gods of fate" or for heavenly aid. Even though every Sidereal simultaneously using this charm would make scarcely a dent in Heaven's budget, overuse is frowned upon, and can result in a garnishment of the Sidereal's wages.

Inauspicious Sorcerer: It's Never Too Far Away Concentration
Not one of them struck free her chains
Cost: 10m, 1w Type: Reflexive
Duration: up to five days
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Obvious

The Sorcerer may be arbitrarily cruel, or at least indifferent to the suffering of others, but no one could accuse her of being a coward. She owns up to her debts, doesn't back down from a challenge, and never lets others do her share of the work. But the Sorcerer is also cunning, and fond of taking words at their literal meaning. Owning up to ones debts doesn't mean they'll be paid, going around a challenge isn't backing down, and "her share" of the work is so vague as to be meaningless. With this charm, the Sidereal adopts the attitude of the Sorcerer at her most slippery, deflecting magic until it would be "more convenient" for it to occur.

In the short term, It's Never Too Far Away Concentration acts as countermagic. It will stop even spells of the Solar Circle without apparent side effects. But the spells are not canceled, merely suspended. When the Sidereal releases the commitment to this charm, the spell's effect takes place.

This can give the Sidereal time to vacate the area of a powerful mass-destruction spell, prepare defenses against the spell's effect, or, if the spell has special conditions (such as only affecting women, or those inside fate), making sure those conditions no longer apply. If the spell, after this time, has no valid target, it explodes at the point of casting, as if canceled by countermagic of an equal circle.

Stealth: The Mask

Some secrets derive their power from being hidden. Assignations are sweeter, business deals are more profitable, and martial techniques offer unexpected advantage. The Mask is the Sign of those secrets, but it is also the Sign of darker secrets, pacts struck in darkness and crimes kept hidden. The Sidereals learn from the mask that humility conceals virtue and shame conceals iniquity.

Primordial Mask: Soft Presence Practice
Once there were shadows in the window.
Cost: 4m Type: Simple (speed 3, DV –0)
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Illusion, Virtue (Temperance)

Behind the glory of the Solars, the ever-shifting threat of the Lunars, and the elemental fury of the Terrestrials, the quiet intellectualism of the Sidereals seems unimportant, almost harmless. Or at least, that’s what the Seers wanted the Primordials to believe. During the War, the Sidereals did all their deadliest work behind the scenes. They developed the techniques of this charm to make sure it stayed behind the scenes.

Soft Presence Practice creates distractions. An Illusion effect makes the Sidereal seem insignificant and unworthy of notice, while simultaneously making something else seem of urgent importance. When activating this charm, the Sidereal rolls Manipulation + Stealth. Every creature in the immediate area with a Dodge MDV less than the successes rolled is subject to an Illusion effect, unless they spend 1 wp to resist.

When the Sidereal first learns Soft Presence Practice, she gains one of the following techniques. New techniques cost 5 xp or 2 bonus points to learn.

You Look Suspicious: A person in the Sidereal’s vicinity looks like she is about to commit a crime or is in the process of illegal activity. Most people will avoid her, but any law enforcement officials present will probably want to investigate her.

Look Out Below: An inanimate object in the vicinity looks like it is about to break in the most disastrous way possible.

It’s Gotten Loose: A living creature in the vicinity is perceived by onlookers to be a deadly threat.

Nothing to See Here: The Sidereal may spend an extra 2m on any technique of this charm to prevent the mote expenditure from contributing to her anima banner.

You’re Not Real Approach (requires essence 3): A single person present will perceive the Sidereal clearly, but mistake her for a dangerous hallucination. So long as the target does not resist this charm’s mental influence, no other person affected by this charm can perceive the Sidereal at all.

Elder’s Discretion (requires essence 4): By spending an extra 3m on the activation of this charm, the willpower cost to resist increases to the Sidereal’s Temperance.

The Sidereal may invent new techniques for this charm. Soft Presence Practice always conceals the Sidereal’s presence by making something else seem more significant. It can never make the character truly invisible, but it can create illusions so compelling that no one wants to see her. New techniques can create new illusions (like making a nearby person seem famous and important). Elder techniques can move beyond illusions to create real distractions (like fires and earthquakes).

Ascending Mask: Blinding the Boar
. . .footsteps at the gate of life.
Cost: 5m, 1w Type: Simple
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Combo-Basic

Perhaps the Mask’s greatest blessing to mortal races is the power to forget. By allowing the present to fade away into the past, the mind heals itself, achieving a peace it could never have gained under the terrible burden of memory. This charm surrounds a target with an aura of forgetfulness, blessing those affected by his actions with the peace of ignorance.

This charm’s effects are automatic. The beneficiary of this charm, who must be willing, but not necessarily aware of the charm’s full effects (this can include the Sidereal) becomes impossible to identify and difficult to remember (requiring a difficulty 3 Wits + Integrity roll) for the charm’s duration. When the target is no longer in their presence (see Arcane fate MoEP:S pg 120) people remember only vague generalities about the target’s appearance and deeds, regardless of how flamboyantly spectacular they might have seemed at the time. If the target is a mortal, he also gains the benefits and drawbacks of the Arcane Fate during this time.

Descending Mask: Deeds Performed In Shadow
Whispering at the door:
Cost: 10m, 1w Type: Simple (5 long ticks, -1 DV)
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Emotion, Illusion

The lies that pave the way for betrayal, the rationalizations that pave the way for sin, the compromises that pave the way for decadence – the Mask rules them all. Those under its influence have friendly faces, but treacherous hearts. With this charm, the Sidereal can call upon the Mask’s power to transform a target into a sociopath.

To use this charm, the character must roll Manipulation + Stealth against a target’s MDV. If the roll succeeds, the target becomes detached and unemotional, automatically failing all virtue rolls. This is an emotion effect that costs one willpower per scene to resist. The target also becomes preternaturally skilled at justifying her actions. Any social influence attempted to explain or mitigate the actions caused by a failed virtue roll automatically becomes an unnatural Illusion effect that costs 1 wp to resist.

This charm ends when the target has resisted its effects in a number of scenes equal to the Sidereal’s lowest virtue. Some ruthless Seers have been known to use this charm on themselves. Those that do discover they cannot voluntarily lower their mental defense against its activation or end the charm until they resist its effects. A character may never channel a Virtue as part of Deeds Performed In Shadow’s activation.

Resplendent Mask: Walking Between Fates
”Should I live or die?”
Cost: 12m, 1w Type: Simple
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Shaping, Virtue (Temperance)

The shadows ruled by the Mask are protective shadows. They conceal those things too precious to share. With this charm, the Sidereal buries herself deep in the Mask, allowing the shadows it rules to protect her from the scrutiny of the world.

When the Sidereal first activates Walking Outside Fate, she rolls Charisma + Stealth. For the duration of the charm, no creature with a permanent Essence equal to or less than the successes rolled can perceive the Vizier, unless she wants to be seen. If a charm opposes this effect, add the Sidereal’s (Essence) to the opposed roll to resolve the conflict.

Walking Between Fates does more than conceal the character, however. If, at any time, the Sidereal feels it would be convenient to adopt a temporary identity, she may trade successes from the activation roll for background dots on a one-for-one basis (backgrounds of 4 or 5 cost 2 successes per level). These new connections appear over the course of a day and a night, and everyone in the area with a permanent Essence equal to or less than the new, lower activation roll, accepts the new identity as genuine, rationalizing it in whatever way they feel most comfortable with (treat all social rolls made to defend a new identity as achieving a number of successes equal to the Sidereal’s dice pool).

The Sidereal may dismiss the new identity whenever she no longer needs it, but does not convert the Background points back into successes. While under the influence of this charm, the Sidereal may create as many new identities as she can afford, but only one at a time. Walking Between Fates ends when the character releases the committed motes, uses up all the successes on the activation roll, or spends more than 11 motes of peripheral essence in a single scene.

Inauspicious Mask: Gift of the Broken Mask
”Am I living or dead?”
Cost: 20m, 1w Type: Simple
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Shaping, Touch

Those touched by the Mask walk in darkness. Exposure, notoriety, the empathy of other living souls; these things are not merely undesired, they are dangerous. It is no way for a human being to live, something quickly discovered by the victims of this charm.

Gift of the Broken Mask shatters a creature’s fate. The Sidereal must touch the victim and roll Charisma + Stealth against a difficulty equal to the target’s Essence. The Solar Charm Destiny Manifesting Method makes a character completely immune to Gift of the Broken Mask. The Lunar Knack Flickering Star Infusion allows the target to reflexively sacrifice one of his stolen destinies to resist this charm’s effects.

While there are certain advantages to being fateless (becoming immune to Sidereal Astrology and all Ascending and Descending charms and instantly ending any such effects currently active), the disadvantages far outweigh them. 

First, no creature ruled by the same fate as the victim (usually Creation’s Loom of Fate) with an Essence score of 1 can perceive the victim, at all. Nothing the victim can do, up to and including physical assault will cause such a native to acknowledge his existence. Over a number of weeks equal to the target’s permanent Essence, those so affected forget the target ever lived at all. Any evidence to the contrary is perceived as gibberish, a glitch in the programming of the world.

Secondly, the natural laws of the world no longer take notice of the character. The biggest ones continue to function, most of the time, but subtle effects will gradually make themselves known (storytellers are encouraged to be creative and mean). Elementals and gods loyal to the Celestial Bureaucracy (or whatever the local equivalent) will pretend not to see the character. Food will taste blander, soft beds will offer scant comfort, and sleep will be fitful and troubled. Any effect (including respiration) that restores motes or willpower works at half effectiveness (round down) and the target’s healing times are doubled.

Gift of the Broken Mask usually sends ghosts directly into Oblivion. The effects of the charm on demons are strictly classified.

Repairing the damage dealt by this charm is difficult, but not impossible. Petitioning the Bureau of Destiny is a start, but getting that petition processed in a timely manner is a task of epic difficulty.

Awareness: The Crow

The Crow is the Sign of those who face the end with good humor. The outnumbered soldiers, terminally ill philosophers, and luckless businessmen ruled by the Crow allow nothing to dent their cheerful pessimism. But the Crow is also the Sign of the truly desperate, of those who have nothing left to lose and know it. From this Sign, the Sidereals gain the insight that loss is impossible without love.

Primordial Crow: Wise Choice
Once there was a maiden who was born, and told her mom, “I know how I’m gonna die.”
Cost: 6m Type: Simple (Dramatic Action)
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Ok

The Sidereal Exalted were created to be planners and schemers, the Seers of Heaven. But the future is fickle, and many consequences are difficult to foresee. The Viziers explored the techniques of this to better take chance out of the equation, so they could plan with the assurance of the best possibility of success.

Wise Choice evaluates plans. When the Sidereal activates this charm, his player states a plan, and the character spends roughly twenty minutes contemplation the plan, scanning the strands of fate to sort out the myriad probabilities, assessing all the various ways it could go wrong. Each success achieved on a Perception + Awareness roll reveals one previously unknown circumstance that could cause the plan to fail (but only if that circumstance is likely to occur) or one event that will result from enacting the plan, if that consequence would occur within one day.

A new plan, developed as a result of this charm’s revelations, can be analyzed by Wise Choice, but only by another Sidereal. The Great Prophecy that led to the Usurpation came about in part from Sidereals comparing notes and analyzing each others’ plans.

Precisely what circumstances and consequences this charm will detect depends on the techniques known by the character. When this charm is first learned, the Sidereal knows one of the following techniques. New techniques cost 3 xp or 1 bonus point to learn.

Danger: If unexpected, physical danger would disrupt the plan, or the plan would set events into motion that would lead to physical danger, the character knows it.

Expense: If an unexpected expense would threaten the plan, or if the plan would generate an expense, the character knows when the expense will occur, what it will pay for, and how much it will cost. This technique also reveals any unexpected financial windfalls.

Friends and Enemies: If an enemy would disrupt the plan out of spite or a friend out of misplaced good intentions, the character knows when and how those events will occur. He also knows if the plan will generate friends or enemies.

Delay: The character knows when and where an obstacle that would cause a plan to run out of time will occur. He also knows if the plan will lead to him being stranded, imprisoned, or forced to wait around.

Immediate Intuition (requires essence 3): The character may enact the charm as a speed 5 action, but foresee no more than one scene into the future.

Longer Vision (requires essence 3): The character may enact the charm as a dramatic action taking one full day, and discern consequences up to one season in the future.

The Sidereal may invent new techniques for this charm. Wise Choice always analyzes only one plan at a time. It never reveals more than one problem per success and it never allows the Sidereal to analyze the same plan more than once. New techniques can allow the character to gaze even farther into the future (up to an Age, with a month’s worth of work), or discern new problems or consequences (a popular one among Sidereal matchmakers is to look for the health and number of children that will result from a particular match).

Ascending Crow: Expected Pain
”It’s gonna hurt bad.”
Cost: 3m Type: Simple (Speed 3, DV –0)
Duration: Until Discharged
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Virtue (Temperance)

The Crow can be cheerful because she is the consummate pessimist. She always expects the worst and is gratified when she’s proven right. While mere mortals are rarely pleased by disaster, the energies of the Crow can be harnessed to simulate the Sign’s unshakable equanimity.

Expected Pain provides advanced warning of one event in the future that the recipient (which can be the Sidereal) would consider “bad.” This can be as blunt as a physical attack or as subtle as a friend succumbing to addiction. Upon activating this charm, the Sidereal rolls Charisma + Awareness. Each success provides the beneficiary two minutes advanced warning of the next “bad” event to occur (this automatically negates any unexpected attack) as well as one bonus success on the first roll made to prevent it (this can include a DV in combat). If the next bad event occurs less than two minutes in the future (a common occurrence in combat), this charm functions even with 0 successes.

The Sidereal may bless as many people with this charm as she cares to pay for, but any single character can benefit from only one application of Expected Pain at a time.

Descending Crow: Conclusive Wisdom
”And I ain’t coming back.”

The Crow is aware of the inevitability of death. He doesn’t always take joy in the fact, but he never tries to deny it. At worst, he becomes drunk on despair, and withholds no emotion, leaves no thought unspoken. This charm grants the Crow’s foresight – it’s up to the victim to supply the wisdom.

Conclusive Wisdom functions exactly as the charm of the same name on pg 175 of MoEP:S

Resplendent Crow: Unflappable Equilibrium Method
”I could avoid it, but I won’t.”
Cost: 6m, 1w Type: Simple
Duration: 1 scene
Keywords: Combo-Ok

The Crow makes the most of a bad situation. Even the worst of battles is still a feast for the carrion birds. Adopting this ideal into her heart, the Sidereal becomes like the Crow, eternally able to turn disaster into advantage.

While this charm is active the character is able to respond to any unexpected physical or social  attack with an unblockable, undodgeable physical or social counterattack. This need not be the same type as the attack the Sidereal’s responding to. Unflappable Equilibrium Method explicitly allows the Sidereal to make a social attack in combat or a physical attack in social combat. This counterattack imposes the standard DV penalty.

Inauspicious Crow: Fated Hour Passes
”’Cause one day, death’d come to me and say, ‘Baby, don’t you know?’”
Cost: (1m, 1hl {agg}) Type: Permanent
Duration: Instant
Keywords: None

The Crow is the Sign of those who can accept the inevitable. Not everyone can. Some people go into hysterics, curse the heavens, or beg for mercy. This charm calls upon the power of a billion undignified last minute prayers to save the Sidereal’s worthless hide.

If, after the effects of an attack have been applied (step 10), the attack would result in the Sidereal’s death, the character may spend one mote and one aggravated health level to retroactively defend against it. In character, it seems as if a vision saved the character’s life at the last possible minute. The character may activate this charm under no other circumstances (even to avoid a fate worse than death).

Bureaucracy: The Haywain

The Haywain is the Sign of things passing away gradually and without glory. It is the Sign of the old who fade away to make room for the young and the land that is cleared to make room for a new planting. But the Haywain also represents the terrors of old age, the bitter memories of once great men and women whose best days are long behind them. From this Sign, the Sidereals gain the insight that life without passion is barely life at all.

Primordial Haywain: Terminal Sanction
Once there was a maiden who learned the faster she ran, the faster she could run.
Cost: 8m Type: Simple
Duration: 1 scene
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Compulsion, Virtue (Temperance)

The Exalted were created to defeat the Primordials, but not every Exalt was meant to fight them. Some were commissioned to look inwards, to root out corruption among the allies of the gods. The Reckoners were especially suited to the task, given the gods’ dread of the Maiden of Endings.

This charm allows the Sidereal to punish spirits. When it is first learned, it affects only gods and demons, but techniques can extend its power to elementals and ghosts. The Sidereal rolls Charisma + Bureaucracy against the target’s MDV. If the roll is successful, the target is subject to a Compulsion effect. It must materialize and stay material for the duration of the scene. If the target is already material or naturally material, it may call upon no effect that renders it even temporarily immaterial during that time. 

The target may spend a number of willpower equal to the Sidereal’s Temperance to resist this effect, but Terminal Sanction must be resisted when it is first used. The target cannot change its mind when things start to look bad.

If the target of this charm is killed while under its effect, the Sidereal may apply a punishment. The specific punishments available to choose from depend on the techniques known by the character. When the Sidereal first learns Terminal Sanction, he selects one of the following techniques. New techniques cost 8 xp or 3 bonus points.

Destruction: The spirit targeted by this charm is permanently destroyed upon death.

Task: The spirit targeted by this charm must perform a single task of the Sidereal’s choosing. This is a Compulsion effect that costs one willpower per scene to resist.

Service: The spirit must serve the Sidereal in a general capacity for a year and a day. This is a Servitude effect. The spirit may spend a willpower point to disobey or distort a single order.

Artifact (requires Essence 3): The spirit is transformed into an artifact with a rating equal to the spirit’s (Essence / 2). The exact powers of the artifact depend on the nature and temperament of the particular spirit. Gods produce artifacts of starmetal, ghosts soulsteel, elementals jade (of the appropriate color), and demons of materials best left to the imagination. The spirit remains trapped in the artifact for a year and a day.

Official Proclamation of Sentence (requires Essence 3): If the target is a god nominally loyal to the Celestial Bureaucracy, and the Sidereal bears orders from a legitimate authority (which may well be the Sidereal himself), the cost to resist Terminal Sanction’s effects is doubled.

The Sidereal may invent new techniques for this charm. Terminal Sanction always replaces the normal effects of disrupting the spirit. New techniques can impose any punishment the Sidereal cares to imagine (reassigning it to an undesirable position, rendering it unable to work with quintessence and ambrosia, and wracking it with pain are all common). New techniques can also improve the charm’s effectiveness and scope (a technique that makes it harder for demons to resist is popular, as are those that extend it to elementals and ghosts; one rumored technique would allow it to be used on even the mightiest of the exalted, but if such a technique exists, no one has seen its use in more than an age).

Ascending Haywain: End Debate
Thus, running consumed her.
Cost: 10m, 1w Type: Simple
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Compulsion, Obvious, Virtue (Conviction)

Often, when things persist beyond their time, they become a burden. The pressing concerns of the present are lost beneath the irrelevant conflicts of the past. With this charm, the Sidereal calls upon the power of the Haywain to clear away these conflicts, making room for progress.

When the Sidereal activates End Debate, she rolls Charisma + Bureaucracy. Everyone with a dodge MDV less than the rolled successes is subject to a Compulsion effect. They must immediately cease all arguing and come to an agreement. What agreement they come to depends on the circumstances, but the parties generally agree to whatever compromise they would have eventually reached had the Sidereal not interfered. End Debate costs a number of willpower points equal to the Sidereal’s Conviction to resist.

Descending Haywain: Unshakeable Authority Gambit
Until one day, she flew beyond the ending of her life.
Cost: 6m, 1w Type: Simple
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Illusion, Touch, Virtue (Temperance)

The power of an organization is often a direct result of the energy and talent of its leader. The Haywain is the Sign of leaders who cling to power, despite fading powers and cooling drive. With this charm, the Sidereal strikes at an organization through its leader, imparting to him some of the weaknesses of age.

To use Unshakeable Authority Gambit, the Sidereal must touch the leader of an organization or social group and make a Manipulation + Bureaucracy roll against the leader’s MDV. If the roll succeeds, the target is subject to an Illusion effect. He comes to believe that the organization is his personal property, and that he has the right to use it in whatever way he sees fit. Any goals the organization may have had become subordinate to perfecting his control over every aspect of the organization’s function.
		
Any intimacies the target may have had towards the organization or its goals change subtly (for example “make the kingdom’s tax gathering efficient” changes to “make the kingdom’s tax gathering conform exactly to my design”). If the character’s Motivation is bound up with the organization, and is not magically protected, it too will change, but slowly (after a number of months equal to the target’s Conviction).

This charm grants the target no special power to influence or control an organization, so if the leader is politically unskilled, the dissolution of the social group may be the most likely result. Other organizations are already so corrupt that the leader’s subversion makes no noticeable difference.

Resisting Unshakeable Authority Gambit costs a number of willpower points equal to the Sidereal’s Conviction.

Resplendent Haywain: An Heir Always Appears
”And here I thought it’d last forever,” she said.
Cost: Varies Type: Reflexive
Duration: Instant
Keywords: None

Ideally, the Haywain represents the continuity between generations, the past gradually making way for the present, sharing its wisdom and experiences before passing away. Though life often falls short of the ideal, with the power of this charm, the Sidereal need not.

An Heir Always Appears allows the Sidereal to maintain continuity between the identities created by her Resplendent Destinies. Each mote spent on the activation of this charm transfers one Background dot possessed by an identity to another of the Sidereal’s identities (ratings of 4 and 5 cost two motes per dot to transfer). In addition, the character may spend 2m to transfer one point of Endurance from one destiny to another. The Sidereal may not spend so many motes on this charm that it would suppress the character’s current Resplendent Destiny.

Transferring Backgrounds or Endurance in this way prematurely and permanently ends a Resplendent Destiny, but as an added benefit, the normal forgetfulness that accompanies the end of an identity is averted. People believe instead that the identity died, and that the Sidereal’s new identity is a friend or relative who has inherited the old identity’s position. If the Destiny possessed no Backgrounds, the Sidereal may still spend 1m to gain this benefit.

If the Sidereal ends the new Resplendent Destiny without using this charm, both identities are eventually forgotten, but there is no theoretical limit to the number of generations the Sidereal can preserve with An Heir Always Appears. Like the great chain of life, the continuity of the Sidereal’s Destinies endures beyond the death of any single individual.

Inauspicious Haywain: Squandered In the Dispute
”But –“
Cost: 20m, 1w Type: Simple (Dramatic Action)
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Shaping

For all the ignominy and messiness associated with those that pass away under the influence of the Haywain, they can usually draw comfort from the knowledge that some small part of their legacy will endure. The Sidereal who uses this charm mocks that comfort, calling upon the darkness behind the Haywain to eliminate any benefit that may have mitigated the tragedy of the target’s death.

Squandered in the Dispute targets the possessions or position of any person who is either still living or recently dead (so long as the heirs have not yet settled the question of inheritance). Anything that is theoretically transferable and able to be represented by a Background is fair game. As part of a dramatic action that takes one day, the character rolls Intelligence + Bureaucracy, against a difficulty equal to the target’s Background rating (or notional Background rating) + the permanent Essence of the target’s owner.

If the roll succeeds, the Sidereal tangles the Background’s fate, insuring that the target will not survive its owner’s death long enough to pass into the heir’s possession. Within 3 months of the owner’s death (or the use of this charm, if the owner is already dead), it will be destroyed. Artifacts will be mangled or lost forever, Cults will disperse, and Resources will be wasted on pointless lawsuits. A character may target a single Background only once. If the roll fails, it may never again be subject to this effect. The Sidereal may target his own possessions with this charm. 

The Bronze Faction keeps careful watch over those known or suspected to have mastered Squandered in the Dispute, vigilant against the possibility that they might interfere with the Realm’s succession.

Integrity: The Rising Smoke

The Rising Smoke is the Sign of endings that bring with them new promise. Adolescents leaving school, mothers giving birth, and souls moving on to glorious new lives are all ruled by it. But it can also portend ill fortune, for the Rising Smoke is also the Sign of promise squandered and potential cut short by pointless accidents. From this Sign, the Sidereals gain the insight that the future is a resource which is wasted by inaction.

Primordial Rising Smoke: Idealism of Youth Attitude
Once there was a maiden who was a living embodiment of everything that was right in the world.
Cost: - Type: Permanent
Duration: Permanent
Keywords: None

When the Sidereal Exalted fought the Primordials, they faced enemies of  inhuman cunning, beings who could weave words and illusions to muddle even the simplest of concepts. In the end, they had to reach deep into the core of their selves to find what was real. The touchstones provided by the four Virtues saved many of the Seers’ minds from dissolution. The techniques of this charm allowed them to catch hold.

Idealism of Youth Attitude improves the benefits of possessing high virtues. When this charm is first learned, the Sidereal gains one of the following techniques. New techniques cost 8 xp or 3 bonus points to learn. In addition to the normal prerequisites, the Sidereal must possess a rating of at least 3 in the appropriate Virtue to purchase a technique based on it.

(Virtue) Essence Replenishment: Whenever the character channels the selected Virtue and succeeds at the action as a result, he regains a number of motes equal to the (Virtue) x 2

Heroic Expression of (Virtue): Whenever the character performs a stunt that is thematically related to the selected Virtue, that Virtue is considered one level higher. A “4-die” stunt can restore 1 willpower point and 1 Virtue channel.

Steely (Virtuous) Resolve (requires essence 3): Whenever the character is subject to a mental influence that would go against the selected Virtue, he may expend one Virtue channel in the place of up to 3 points of willpower.

The Sidereal can create new techniques for this charm. Idealism of Youth Attitude always improves the benefits of possessing or channeling a virtue. New techniques can change the conditions under which a Sidereal can channel a Virtue (replacing the willpower cost with a health level cost, or allowing the sidereal to channel a Virtue for a damage roll, for example) or the consequences of doing so (channeling a Virtue automatically causes the Sidereal’s anima to flare at its highest level).

Ascending Rising Smoke: Creation-Preserving Will
While she lived, no harm could come to anyone.

The Rising Smoke is the Sign of the apprentice striking his way out into the world. It is an optimistic Sign, the Sign of those who are unmoved by tales of danger. By calling upon its power, the Sidereal can remain unmoved herself.

Creation-Preserving Will functions identically to the charm on pg 179 of MoEP:S.

Descending Rising Smoke: Eager Conscript Legion
Oh, wounds, disease, even death, sure. But she stood between the world and anything worse.
Cost: 15m, 2w Type: Simple (Dramatic Action)
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Emotion, Training, Virtue (valor)

Those ruled by the Rising Smoke are eager to prove themselves, a trait which can lead to ruin as easily as to glory. The Sidereal uses this charm to call upon the power of a hundred generations of youth misspent and causes recklessly pledged, thrusting a group of mortals irrevocably into adulthood.

Eager Conscript Legion targets a military or social unit. The Sidereal spends two weeks propagandizing to the assembled group, telling them stories of glory and honor. At the end of that time, he rolls Charisma + Integrity against a difficulty equal to the highest MDV of the group + the group’s Magnitude, adding his Essence in automatic successes. If the roll succeeds, the Motivation of every group member changes to “Protect Creation from all External Enemies,” they each gain 1 point of Valor, and they learn the charm Righteous Lion Defense. The trainees’ new charm always protects their new Motivation, and never anything else.

Resisting this charm costs a number of willpower points equal to the Sidereal’s Valor. If a target resists Eager Conscript Legion, she gains no benefit from its use.

Resplendent Rising Smoke: Smoothing the Path Ahead
“Except,”  she said, “I’m going to die.” And no one listened.
Cost: 5m Type: Reflexive
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Shaping, Touch

The endings ruled by the Rising Smoke are gladly embraced. When a burden is lifted, an obligation fulfilled, or a promotion vacated, the power of this Sign is at work. With this charm, the Sidereal can clear away obstacles in fate, leaving an open path to an optimistic future.

This charm will perfectly defend against or bring to an end any astrological shaping effect (including any Sidereal charm with the Shaping keyword). If the Sidereal uses this charm on himself, it works automatically. Attempting to end an effect on another requires a Charisma + Integrity roll against a difficulty equal to the Essence of the effect’s originator + the Magnitude of the target affected.

Smoothing the Path Ahead is often used by agents of the Bureau of Destiny to clean up the astrological workings of dead or rogue Sidereals.

Inauspicious Rising Smoke: Servant Becomes the Master Proposition
”I’m going to die tomorrow,” she said. And no one heard.
Cost: 3m Type: Supplemental
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Ok

The power of the Rising Smoke is that of hope and expectation. But hope is not always warranted. Often, the eager young apprentice will emerge into the world and find it a duller, meaner, more expensive version of the one she left behind. By calling upon the power of dashed dreams and “temporarily” compromised principles, the Sidereal may eke out for herself an advantageous position in another’s service.

Servant Becomes the Master Proposition supplements an attempt at mental influence. If the Sidereal is currently subject to any unnatural mental influence effect originated by the target, the Sidereal’s attempt automatically becomes unnatural. Furthermore, the target’s MDV is reduced by one and the willpower cost to resist is increased by one for every such effect currently active upon the Sidereal. No combination of effects including this charm can raise the cost of resisting the Sidereal’s mental influence to greater than 10.

During the First Age, many Sidereals willingly resigned themselves to the Solars’ social charms in order to have more influence among the Lawgivers. Few in the current age, even among the Gold Faction, would be so trusting.

Martial Arts: The Sword

The Sword is the Sign of endings long feared. At best, these are endings that bring new responsibilities and opportunities for growth. The addict who beats an addiction, the priest who renounces a false religion, and the virgin on her wedding night are all ruled by this Sign. So are the amputee, the disgraced politician, and the torture victim. From this Sign the Sidereals gain the insight that fear is the ruler of a weak spirit.

Primordial Sword: Peerless Style Mastery
Once there was a maiden who was always looking forward to the way things would be.
Cost: - Type: Permanent
Duration: Permanent
Keywords: None

The Sidereal Exalted are Creation’s foremost martial artists. Though they lacked the awesome power of the native charms of the other celestial exalted, these charms allowed the Seers of Heaven to strike fear into the demonic souls of the Primordials. In later years, they would be come to be seen more as a spiritual than a combative art, but the Sidereals never lost their aptitude for getting the most out of these “common” charms.

Peerless Style Mastery allows the character to improve a martial arts style. Each technique applies to a single style, and the Sidereal may possess up to (Essence / 2) improvements per style. When this charm is first learned, the Sidereal gains one of the following techniques. New techniques cost 8 xp or 3 bonus points.

Intuitive (Style) Specialty: The character possesses a +3 specialty in the style. This specialty applies to any action enhanced by the style’s charms, any martial arts action taken while under the effect of the style’s form, or any action undertaken with the style’s form weapons. The effects of this technique are an exception to the normal limitations on specialties per ability, but no single roll can benefit from more than 3 specialty dice at a time. Specialty dice do not count as a bonus from charms.

Fluid (Style) Economy: Reduce the cost of all the style’s charms by 1m. (minimum 1m)

(Style)’s Hidden Corners: Reduce the effective Ability Minimum of the style’s charms to one half (rounded down) for the purposes of determining a combo’s xp cost and training time.

(Style)’s Second Skin (requires Essence 3 or 4): If the style is a terrestrial or celestial (at Essence 4) style that doesn’t normally allow armor, this technique allows the style to be performed in armor.

Effortless Practice of (Style) (requires essence 4): If the style is a terrestrial or celestial style, its form charm is now Combo-Ok.

The Sidereal may invent new techniques for this charm. The benefits provided by Peerless Style Mastery always improve the style as a whole or the style’s form charm. It never alters a style in any other way. The techniques provided by this charm should make a Sidereal martial artist competitive with, but not superior to, a Solar or Lunar using their native charms. Thus, not every technique is appropriate to every style.

Ascending Sword: Master on the Mountaintop
She said, “Someday I’m going to get out of this place.”
Cost: 15m, 2w Type: Simple (Dramatic Action)
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Training

The Sidereal Exalted are not only Creation’s greatest martial artists, they are also Creation’s greatest martial arts instructors. By calling upon the power of the Sword to cut away a student’s comforting weaknesses and protective excuses, the Vizier can instruct awaken his power in record time.

To use this charm, the Sidereal puts the target through a rigorous day-long training regimen. At the end of that time, the target learns one Martial Arts charm known by the Sidereal, to which he has the prerequisites. If the target cannot afford the charm, he goes into experience point debt as normal. This charm cannot be used on a target with more experience point debt (from any source) than the Sidereal’s (Essence x 5).

Descending Sword: Power Sealing Kata
”Someday, I’m going to kill that boy that put me here.”
Cost: 3m, 1w per essence point sealed Type: Simple (5 long ticks)
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Obvious, Shaping

The study of martial arts is the study of essence, how it flows from the soul to the body, the body to the world, and the world to the soul. The Sword, as the symbol of a future without hope, can sever these connections, allowing the Sidereal to keep a defeated foe alive, but helpless.

This charm can only be used on an enemy who has been reduced to her Incapacitated health level by Lethal damage. Bashing damage does not leave the target’s essence flows open enough, aggravated damage leaves them too mangled to alter. Over the body, the Sidereal performs a precise kata, rolling Martial Arts + Essence at a difficulty equal to the target’s Essence. 

For every threshold success achieved, the Sidereal may reduce the target’s essence by one point, provided she is willing to spend 3m and 1w per dot (the character need not seal the maximum result possible). The target’s essence is not destroyed, merely suppressed. So long as the Sidereal keeps the motes committed to this charm, the target treats her essence as being reduced for all purposes (this includes determining what charms the target may use). If the target would have an effective Essence score of zero, he can use no charms or magic, but is treated as having an essence of 1 for all other purposes.

If the Sidereal does not wish to keep the motes committed, she may spend 1xp per sealed essence dot and name a condition in the presence of the target (such as “Ascend the slopes of Mount Meru”). Fulfilling the condition will restore the target’s essence. Otherwise the target will then regain access to her essence at a rate of one dot per decade.

Resplendent Sword: Practiced Master’s Adaptation
”And while I wait, I don’t much mind, ‘cause it’s better to dream tomorrow than to be there.”
Cost: (Form Cost) + 1m Type: Reflexive
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Basic

The Sword is a weapon. That is its essential, inalienable nature. The Sidereal, too, is a weapon, more elegant and deadly than any sword. This charm allows the Sidereal to internalize the power of the ideal Sword, becoming an instrument aimed towards the destruction of hope.

If the Sidereal has a form-type charm active, he may activate this charm to switch his active martial arts form to any other form-type charm known by the character. He need only pay the new form’s cost plus a one mote surcharge and he will adopt the new form, as if he had been in it all along.

Inauspicious Sword: At the Last Breath
”I’m holding at bay,” she said,
“what I know to be true.
“That I’ll never get out.
“I won’t let my dreams die!
“I’ll hang on to hope,” she said,
“until Time itself ends. But –“
Cost: - Type: Permanent
Duration: Permanent
Keywords: None

The Sword is a Sign of perverse strength. Those ruled by its influence are the abused, the defeated, and the forlorn of hope. They are wretched souls, but they persist. And because they never lose the entirety of their primal survival instinct, they maintain a certain dignity, even in death. Not so the Sidereal who learns this charm. Those who study this distasteful and dishonorable magic plot for triumph even after all rational hope is lost.

Buying this charm changes the number of Dying Health levels possessed by the Sidereal from (Stamina) to (Stamina /2). In return, the Sidereal gains a limited form of immortality. When the Sidereal dies, the final act of his living spirit will alter the fate of his Exaltation’s next bearer. No change is made to the Exaltation itself, but the person who receives it will develop along lines the Sidereal chooses. This is a very difficult thing to notice. Someone skilled in the crafting of fate must look for it specifically, and succeed at an Intelligence + Craft (Fate) roll at a difficulty equal to twice the dying Seer’s Essence.

For every form charm the character possesses at his dying moment, his next incarnation will gain once Martial Arts charm (the first charm of that form’s tree, so long as its Essence minimum is 3 or less) and one intimacy. Martial Arts will automatically be favored ability for that person, and he will develop whatever traits necessary to learn the granted charms.

The intimacies provided by At Last Breath are not necessarily those possessed by the Sidereal. Rather, they are whatever intimacies would serve best to shape the target into a copy of the character. The new Exalt gains one intimacy and one charm per month, every month, following his Exaltation. These are unnatural illusion effects that cost 1 wp per scene to erode, but most people are so confused by the process of Exaltation that they are unaware this charm’s effects do not come as a natural part of it.

Lytek in particular resents the use of this charm. If he suspects its use in time, he will do an especially thorough job cleansing the Exaltation of memories (nothing illegal, but on the near side of inappropriate).

Medicine: The Corpse

The Corpse is the Sign of natural deaths. Though it is much feared, the endings it offers are clean, and come only in the fullness of time. Yet a clean death is not the same as a pleasant one, and those events ruled by the Corpse tend to leave people grieving and unhappy. Sidereals gain from the Corpse the insight that facing the inevitable with grace and dignity is a form of spiritual strength.

Primordial Corpse: Smooth Transition
Once there was a maiden who found herself climbing up an earthen path
Cost: Varies Type: Simple (speed 4, DV-1)
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Obvious, Touch

The Primordials wielded attacks that would make death seem like a blessing. Poisons that would shrivel limbs, diseases that could plunge the mind into madness, spiritual attacks that tangled the past with the future, forcing the victim to live all the years of his life in a single moment of excruciating agony. The superlative healing magic of the Twilights could do only so much against these threats. And even when it could heal them, there wasn’t always time. On those occasions, it was up to the triage specialists among the Chosen of Endings to do what had to be done.

Smooth Transition ends lives. Specifically, it ends the lives of those who have been stricken with wounds, poison, or disease. It will never function on a target who does not suffer from a –1 or greater internal penalty from at least one of the following: wounds, crippling, poison, or sickness. These penalties need not be permanent, and can be imposed by charms or other magic for the express purpose of enabling this charm.

Though the Reckoners would not discover it until after the War, the souls of those killed by this charm immediately enter the cycle of reincarnation and their bodies cannot be animated by any necromancy short of the Void Circle.

When the Sidereal learns Smooth Transition, she gains one of the following techniques. New techniques cost 5xp or 2 bonus points to learn.

Peaceable Conclusion (2m): If the target truly wishes to die, this technique will kill her instantly and painlessly.

Hasten to the Grave (2m): If the target is at the Incapacitated wound level or a mindless undead, this technique will kill her.

Back into Shadow (4m): The Sidereal may target a ghost or other form of spiritual undead, rolling Charisma + Medicine, opposed by the target’s Essence + Willpower. If the roll succeeds, the ghost is forced into the Underworld and cannot leave for one day.

Invocation of the Storm-Following Silence (requires Essence 3) (5m, 1w): The Sidereal may apply any single technique of Smooth Transition to every valid target within (Essence x 10) yards. If the technique requires an activation roll, the Sidereal rolls once and applies the result to all targets.

The Sidereal may invent new techniques for this charm. Smooth Transition always kills a living target or harms an undead target. It never functions on a healthy living target (one who is not yet damaged enough to suffer penalties). New techniques can kill the unwilling, extend the area affected (but not the range), or inflict greater harm on the undead.

Ascending Corpse: Terminate Illness
Her footsteps made no sound. There was a silence in the air.
Cost: 10m Type: Simple
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Touch, Virtue (Conviction)

When the aged sicken, they are under the influence of the Corpse, but the Corpse is not the Sign of disease. The Corpse is the Sign of those things that have run their natural course. Even plagues end, eventually. With this charm, the Sidereal separates the fate of an illness from the fate of its sufferer, insuring that the disease will fade in the fullness of time.

To use Terminate Illness, the Sidereal touches the target (which can be himself) and rolls Intelligence + Medicine against its magical treatment difficulty. If the roll succeeds, the target will not be killed by the illness. The victim will simply continue to make Morbidity rolls until the disease fades on its own. Even diseases that do not normally go away are subject this charm’s power. The victim makes a difficulty 3 Morbidity roll once per month until he succeeds three times.

Descending Corpse: Curse of the Unmarred Survivor
She walked for years and then, came to a cliff.
Cost: 6m, 1w Type: Simple
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Obvious, Shaping, Touch

The Corpse destroys beauty. That it is a necessary destruction offers scant comfort to those ruined by the Sign’s power. Curse of the Unmarred Survivor calls upon the Corpse, directing its destructive energies at the fate of the victim, ensuring that she will experience ugliness wherever she goes.

To use this charm, the Sidereal must touch the victim and roll Manipulation + Medicine at a difficulty equal to the target’s permanent Essence. If the roll succeeds, a black mark appears on the victim’s tongue, the inverted Sign of Saturn, forever identifying her as one who is cursed to ruin lives.

For the duration of the charm, the target is immune to all diseases and Sickness effects with a Virulence (or difficulty to resist) no greater than the Sidereal’s Essence. For those in the same community as the target (defined as the smallest Magnitude Dominion that includes the target’s location), the Virulence and Morbidity of all diseases increases by 1. Those values increase by 3 for anyone for whom the victim holds a positive intimacy.

The mark produced by this charm is identifiable with a difficulty 3 Intelligence + Occult roll. If the occultist is also a skilled physician (possessing Medicine 3 or higher), the difficulty is only 1. This charm will end if the members of the victim’s community offer her as a human sacrifice in response to a plague (whether the victim survives the sacrifice or not). Otherwise, only the abatement of the Sidereal’s wrath can end the curse.

Resplendent Corpse: Earth and Sky Bargain
The road gave way to clouds.
Cost: 10m Type: Simple
Duration: until fully healed
Keywords: Obvious

The Corpse is a Sign of peace. Though it is often not the peace that people wish for, it is frequently the peace that people need. With this charm, the Sidereal makes peace with the world, becoming a conduit for the energy that flows between the earth and the sky.

To use Earth and Sky bargain, the Sidereal must lay on natural earth, beneath an open sky (many Seers prefer to be naked for this, but that is not strictly necessary). For each minute the Sidereal lays thus, he heals one health level. Earth and Sky Bargain will heal Bashing, Lethal, and Aggravated damage with equal ease, but will do nothing against Poison, Sickness, or Crippling effects unless they would naturally fade with time. Earth and Sky Bargain will heal one such effect per minute in place of a health level.

Inauspicious Corpse: Tomb Outside Time
And she could go no farther
Cost: 20m, 1w Type: Simple
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Shaping, Touch, Virtue (Compassion)

The Corpse’s power reveals a fundamental truth: to live is to die. Hidden within that revelation is a truth many find more disturbing: that which does not die cannot live. When a child is Chosen by the Maiden of Endings, she grows to understand these truths instinctively. But as an Exalt comes to learn the depths of the Corpse’s power, she comes to a new understanding. The rules are more like guidelines. Tomb Outside Time exploits a loophole in the working of the Corpse to save a target’s life – by killing her.

To use this charm, the Sidereal rolls Wits + Medicine at a difficulty equal to the target’s (Essence + Remaining Health Levels). Filled-in Dying health levels reduce the difficulty. If the roll succeeds, the target is placed in a deep slumber and shunted Elsewhere. As far as the records of the Bureau of Destiny are concerned, she’s dead.

After a number of years equal to the target’s (Essence x 5), she returns. For anyone besides the Sidereal Exalted (who cannot delay their fated hour), aging does not occur during this time. The Bureau of Destiny registers this event as the birth of a new child. The target is completely healed of all wounds, sickness, poison, crippling effects, inimical shaping, mental illness short of the Great Curse, and long-term hostile mental influence. The target is as perfectly healthy as her natural constitution will allow.

Any effects that rely on a target’s specific identity end with the “death” supplied by this charm. Sidereal Astrology passes on to the target’s heir, as is typical, but if the effect would last longer than the suspension, a target is automatically considered her own heir, and may be subject to the effect again.

Violet Bier of Sorrows Style

The House of Endings is grim, but not humorless; bleak, but not hopeless; barren, but not without warmth. It is the House of the harvest as well as the funeral. When the gods rose up against the Primordials, the Maiden of Endings created for her Chosen an art that would allow them to face their deaths without regret, secure in the knowledge that they had done everything possible to aid the cause.

Violet Bier of Sorrows Style cannot be performed in armor. It treats attacks and blocks made with swords and agricultural implements (scythe, sickle, seven-section staff) as unarmed.

Death-Parrying Stroke
Cost: 2m per level Mins: MA 3 Ess 2
Type: Reflexive (step 8)
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Obvious
Prerequisites: None

The Sword rules wounds that linger and deaths that take longer than they should. By activating this charm after damage is rolled, the Sidereal may eliminate one health level of damage for every 2m spent. The attack appears as if it were going to deal the Sidereal a grievous wound, but was averted at the last moment.

Life-Severing Blow
Cost: 3m per level Mins: MA 3 Ess 2
Type: Reflexive (step 8)
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Obvious
Prerequisites: None

The Sword is relentlessly cruel. Activating Life-Severing Blow surrounds the character’s fist or weapon with the purple light of Saturn. After the damage of an attack is rolled, the character may increase the health levels dealt by one for every 3m spent. The character can not add more levels of damage than the attack inflicted prior to the use of this charm.

Metal Storm
Cost: 3m per attack Mins: MA 3 Ess 2
Type: Extra Action
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Ok
Prerequisites: Death-Parrying Stroke, Life-Severing Blow

The Sword always cuts. Even after you think it should have stopped, it cuts. Metal storm creates a magical flurry with up to (Martial Arts) attacks. Each attack beyond the first costs 3 motes. All the attacks must be directed against the same target.

Violet Bier of Sorrows Form
Cost: 5m Mins: MA 4 Ess 2
Type: Simple
Duration: Scene
Keywords: Form-Type
Prerequisites: Metal Storm

The House of Endings brings all things to their proper conclusion. Not even the greatest of heroes can defy its power. When the Sidereal makes an attack under the effect of Violet Bier of Sorrows Form, she adds the target’s highest Virtue in dice to her damage rolls, after soak is applied. If the attack does at least one level of damage, that Virtue is reduced by 1. Damaged Virtues “heal” at a rate of one dot per day. The Exalted may not have a primary Virtue lower than 3.

Unobstructed Blow
Cost: 6m, 1w Mins: MA 4 Ess 3
Type: Supplemental
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Obvious
Prerequisites: Violet Bier of Sorrows Form

The Rising Smoke seeks an end to all restrictions, advancing past any barrier in the furtherance of its glorious destiny. An attack supplemented by this charm becomes unblockable and ignores the soak and hardness of the target’s armor.

Carried Away in Autumn
Cost: 5m Mins: MA 4 Ess 3
Type: Reflexive (step 10)
Duration: 1 tick
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Obvious
Prerequisites: Violet Bier of Sorrows Form

The Haywain presides over the decline of youthful power. The Sidereal may activate this charm whenever he is the target of an attack that, for whatever reason, fails to do damage. Until the end of the tick, all further attacks from the same source have their raw damage reduced to 0, whether they are directed at the Sidereal or not.

Joy in Adversity Stance
Cost: 8m Mins: MA 5 Ess 4
Type: Simple (speed 3, DV –0)
Duration: scene
Keywords: none
Prerequisites: Carried Away in Autumn

The Crow sees opportunity where others see disaster. Until the end of the scene, the Sidereal regains (Essence) motes for every level of damage she suffers and one mote for every level of damage she inflicts with her attacks. The motes restored by Joy in Adversity Stance are added to the Sidereal’s pool in step 10.

Death-Parrying Stroke and Life-Severing Blow do not count as charm activations while Joy in Adversity stance is active.

They All Fall Down
Cost: 12m, 1w Mins: MA 5 Ess 4
Type: Simple
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Sickness, Touch
Prerequisites: Unobstructed Blow

The Corpse lies in wait at the end of every human life. When the Sidereal uses They All Fall Down, he makes a Dexterity + Martial Arts attack. If the attack succeeds, it does no damage. Instead, the target is subject to a sickness effect. The next time the target sleeps, he will die. This sickness effect is incurable. It has an untreated morbidity of the Sidereal’s (Essence x 2), rolled when the victim sleeps. Creatures with no physiological need to sleep suffer 1 level of aggravated damage instead.

Conclusion-Pursuing Approach
Cost: 10m, 1w Mins: MA 5 Ess 5
Type: Simple
Duration: scene
Keywords: Combo-Ok, Obvious
Prerequisites: Joy in Adversity Stance

The Violet Bier of Sorrows bears witness to the end of all things. That is the source of its strength. Until the end of the scene, every successful attack made by the character depletes one of the target’s willpower points, restoring one of the character’s own. If the target has no willpower remaining, all of the attack’s damage dice are converted to automatic successes instead.

The Sidereal Exalted may gain an additional benefit from this charm. If they make an attack against a creature that is currently outside fate, Conclusion-Pursuing Approach’s effects are doubled. The target loses 2 wp and the Sidereal gains 2, or the attack’s damage is converted to automatic successes, then doubled. To gain the additional benefit, the Sidereal must wrap his fist or weapon in a prayer strip (see MoEP:S pg 125) containing the scriptures of the five Endings constellations. This has the side effect of making the character’s weapon unbreakable