The Casteless and the Chimerae

While most Lunars gratefully accept the blessing of moonsilver tattoos, not all do. Most likely, the young Lunar just never received the offer. Creation is vast, the Lunars few and the horoscopes of their astrologers are less than perfect. By the time the Silver Pact finds a novice Lunar, she might have her own ideas about castes and castelessness. A Lunar might reject the tattoos because she suspects the Silver Pact elder has some nefarious secret agenda. Other Casteless argue that their shifting nature is part of Luna's plan. Still others see advantages in a shifting caste. Whatever their reasons, these Moonchildren think they can live without a fixed caste.

The Silver Pact holds no consensus about such Casteless Lunars. A narrow majority says the Pact should leave Luna's Bastards to find their own way. Forcing a caste upon them would only mean resentful Lunars, which wouldn't help the Pact. If the Casteless know the dangers of their state, they can make their own choices and live with the consequences. Other Pact members say that all Unblooded should be tattooed whether they want it or not, to save them from becoming chimerae. Not many Pact members take action, though. The caste-fixing process requires the young Lunar's cooperation in the trials and declarations of achievement, so imposing a caste by force is rarely feasible. A very few Lunars, however, try to kill these "arrogant pups" before the Wyld has a chance to taint them and hope the Pact can get them in their next incarnation.

And then, there are the chimerae. The Silver Pact never offers them tattoos. It is far too late for such preventative measures. Each chimera, twisted and maddened by the Wyld, began as a Casteless Lunar who ignored the warning signs and plunged headlong into Wyld mutation. Silver Pact members consider it their duty to put down such creatures... if possible. Many of these beasts have lived for centuries, though, growing in power all the while. Often, only an entire pack of Lunars has any chance of killing a chimera.

The Casteless

The Silver Pact recognizes two classes of Casteless Lunars. The most common Casteless are the Unblooded, newly Exalted Lunars who have only just begun to understand what they have become. Unblooded Lunars do not yet know how to drink the heart's blood of animals or people and so are limited to their true forms. They might not have learned any Charms or Knacks. The Silver Pact regularly sends retrieval packs to rescue Unblooded when such missions seem likely to succeed. Virtually all Unblooded accept being marked with "the blood of Luna." Indeed, after listening to horror stories about chimerae from their rescuers, most Unblooded don't even consider the option of remaining Casteless.

Other Casteless Lunars Exalt far from Lunar territories but find a way to survive and learn on their own. Whether by instinct, trial and error or by vague recollections of previous lives, these young Exalts figure out how to drink heart's blood and master a number of Charms and Knacks. Most of these more experienced novice Stewards accept tattoos once they reach Lunar territory and a Silver Pact member explains the advantages of membership and the dangers of remaining Casteless. Despite the pressure to conform, however, some of these young Lunars have grown enamored of shifting caste marks and elect to remain Casteless.

Of course, this assumes that tattooing is presented as an offer instead of a demand. Some Silver Pact Lunars are so paranoid about chimerism that they try to force tattoos on all Casteless, regardless of the other Lunars' desires. This requires browbeating, threats or use of Charms to force compliance, and typically results in a very angry Lunar.

Thus, when the Silver Pact uses the term "Casteless," the word most commonly refers to Lunars who have actively rejected the opportunity to receive moonsilver tattoos and become "blooded." The Casteless are a very small subculture within Lunar society; estimates of their number range from five to a dozen or two. Given the substantial difficulties such a decision imposes on a Lunar's life, the existence of even that many Casteless surprises many other Lunars.

Disadvantages of Castelessness

From the perspective of the Silver Pact, lack of caste makes life so difficult and fraught with danger that deliberately choosing such a state is sheer madness. Indeed, one disadvantage to Castelessness is the lack of respect the Casteless receive from Silver Pact Lunars. Almost every Silver Pact Lunar accepts as an article of faith that by remaining Casteless, a Lunar places herself in constant risk of chimerism. As such, even the most open-minded Silver Pact members distrust the Casteless and constantly watch them for new Wyld mutations. Only the most trusting Lunar would not put down a Casteless who acquired a noticeable number of such mutations within a short period.

The Silver Pact has good reason for such fears. A Casteless is likely to devolve into a chimera if he does not take extraordinary care. As noted below, whenever a Casteless Lunar changes form, the Wyld spark within him tries to twist the change and create a permanent mutation. Being in the Wyld itself makes the Lunar more susceptible to these warpings of mind and body.

Perils of Shapeshifting

The most insidious danger to Casteless Lunars may come from their own shapeshifting. Whenever a Casteless Lunar changes shape, the Wyld spark within his Exaltation tries to force permanent transformation upon him—maybe something related to his previous form or the form he assumes, or maybe something utterly random. Maybe the change is all in his mind. The more times a Casteless shapeshifts within a short period, the stronger this Wyld spark grows. Shapeshifting in the Wyld itself makes the spark even stronger.

Wyld Taint Dice Pool

In rules terms, each time a Casteless Lunar takes a different shape, her player rolls a dice pool and compares the result to the character's Dodge Mental Defense Value. (As usual, a 10 counts as two successes.) If the result exceeds the character's Dodge Mental Defense Value, the character gains a Wyld mutation. The greater the roll's threshold, the more severe the mutation will be.

The dice pool starts at one die, for the first time a Lunar changes between true forms. Each subsequent shapeshift adds one die to the pool. Taking any other shape from character's library of heart's blood forms increases the dice pool by two. These accumulate.

Example: John's Casteless character, the mercenary Captain Faron, takes his spirit form—a mospid—to sneak into a fortress and open the gates. John rolls a pool of one die. Once inside, Faron takes the shape of a coral snake, one of his heart's blood forms. This adds two dice to the pool, so John rolls three dice. Since Faron has a Dodge Mental Defense Value of 5, though, the roll has little chance to succeed (and does not). After Faron-the-snake slithers into the guardhouse and bites two guards, the others run. Faron resumes human form to open the gates, and John rolls a pool of four dice... three successes, still safe. The heavy gates jam, however, so Faron shapeshifts into a bear to force them open: John rolls six dice this time, but rolls only two successes. Finally, Faron takes his human form before his troops charge inside. The dice pool rises to seven dice, and John rolls five successes—not quite enough, but Faron can feel he's pushing his luck. Faron decides not to shapeshift for a while.

A character can reduce the chance of Wyld mutation in various ways.

She can wait. Each day that passes in which the character does not shapeshift at all reduces the accumulated pool by one die, though the pool will not drop below the starting one die.

The character can spend Willpower. Instead of adding an automatic success, the Willpower cancels one success. Even though the Wyld taint pits itself against the character's Dodge Mental Defense Value, this does not count as resisting unnatural mental influence, unless the character is in the Wyld itself.

The character can channel a Willpower through a Virtue. In this case, the character subtracts dice from the pool equal to the Virtue's rating. However, this does not reduce the pool itself, whose cumulative total still increases. During such moments of heroism, however, a Casteless Lunar can shift the odds.

The character may observe taboos that help stabilize her mind and body against the Wyld within her. See "Taboo," for this Background.

Finally, suffering a mutation resets the dice pool back to one die for the next time the Casteless shapeshifts.

Mutation Points

If the player does roll more successes than the character's Dodge Mental Defense Value, count the number of extra successes. These are the mutation points that determine how severe a Wyld mutation the character suffers.

Each class of mutations has a point value: 1 for poxes and deficiencies, 2 for afflictions and debilities, 4 for blights and deformities and 6 for abominations. (These equal the bonus point costs of the mutations.) The character suffers a mutation of the highest point value the player can buy with the rolled number of mutation points. The character has no control over which mutation he suffers, though; the Storyteller decides. Any mutation points that exceed the most costly single mutation the character can buy go toward a second mutation that is always completely harmful (a deficiency or, in extraordinary cases, a deformity).

This Wyld attack occurs every time the Casteless changes shape, and any Wyld mutations gained become a part of the Lunar's true forms. If the successful attack took place after the Lunar shifted into a human form, including his own human true form, the Lunar instead gains a Wyld-based mental derangement.

Shapeshifting in the Wyld

Shapeshifting in the Wyld adds a further, but non-cumulative bonus to the mutation roll. Shapeshifting in the Bordermarches adds one die, the Middlemarches add two dice, the Deep Wyld adds four dice and Pure Chaos adds six dice.

Even worse, a Casteless Lunar in the Bordermarches must go a full week without changing shape to reduce the mutation pool by just one die, while a Lunar in the Middlemarches must go a full month. A Casteless Lunar in the Deep Wyld or in Pure Chaos can never reduce her Wyld attack dice pool while she remains there, assuming she doesn't fall to chimerism almost instantly upon entering such a mad place.

From Lunar to Chimera: Permanent Limit

A Casteless Lunar who insists on staying in the Wyld for any length of time almost certainly gains a wide variety of disturbing physical and mental characteristics. While in the Wyld, a Casteless Lunar suffers two final disabilities. First, when a Lunar in the Wyld spends Willpower in hopes of resisting his inner Wyld taint, he gains a point of Limit, as if resisting unnatural mental influence. Second, every time a Casteless Lunar's Limit breaks while in the Wyld, he gains a point of permanent Limit.

When a Casteless gains a dot of permanent Limit, the player should note the development by permanently filling in the leftmost Limit Break square on the character sheet. Each dot of permanent Limit reduces the number of Limit points needed before the next Limit Break by one. Thus, a character who has two dots of permanent Limit will suffer from her Virtue Flaw when she gains eight points of normal Limit instead of 10. Consequently, as the Lunar's permanent Limit increases, she finds it increasingly easy to enter Limit Break, and if she remains in the Wyld, gain even more permanent Limit. Permanent Limit is the mechanism by which a Casteless is transformed into a chimera.

Lunars themselves are divided on how to define a chimera, but for mechanical purposes, a Lunar becomes a chimera when he gains 10 points of permanent Limit and is therefore in a permanent Limit Break condition. At that point, the character is no longer playable. The Silver Pact, however, is ignorant of even the concept of Limit and so must judge whether a Moonchild has become a chimera based on her actions and the number of mutations and obvious derangements she carries. Thus, an individual Lunar may choose to view Casteless with significantly fewer than 10 points of permanent Limit as irretrievably lost to the Wyld. Generally, after a Casteless has gained between four and six points of permanent Limit, he finds it impossible to conceal the extent of his Wyld taint from other Lunars, who typically target him for euthanasia.

Advantages of Castelessness

In comparison to the danger of chimerism, the advantages of remaining Casteless seem slim. Nevertheless, some Lunars reject tattooing and remain Casteless despite the risks. For instance, a Casteless might know the dangers of chimerism but believes the Silver Pact exaggerates the risks. A cautious Casteless, they argue, can reduce the risk of becoming chimera simply by minimizing the use of Lunar shapeshifting and by staying out of the Wyld zones. To such Casteless, moonsilver tattoos simply represent a conscious decision to sacrifice one form of Lunar flexibility (shifting castes) in order to gain flexibility in other areas (safer shapeshifting and the freedom to enter the Wyld at will). They don't dispute the advantages of accepting tattoos; they just think the decision should remain with the individual Lunar, and that the potential advantages of a shifting caste have never been fully explored.

The chief advantage of Castelessness is that the Casteless has the potential to use the anima power of any caste so long as he does so at the proper time. As a practical matter, all Casteless are effectively Changing Moons for 11 days, Full Moons for three days, Changing Moons again for another 11 days and finally No Moons for three days before the cycle begins again. Casteless also bear the No Moon Caste during Calibration and during the rare lunar eclipses. Although Casteless gain Limit from exposure to the light of the Full Moon (as do all Lunars), the Casteless do not risk Wyld taint from gaining Limit in this way, as long as they stay out of the Wyld itself.

The Chimerae

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