Black Mirror Shintai
Cost: 5m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 4; Type: Simple
Keywords: Shaping, Sorcerous
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Shadow Spite Curse, Seeing Is Blindness, Soul Crack Exploitation, Puissance Mimicry Intuition (x3)
The Ebon Dragon is not the mightiest Yozi, nor the most brilliant. Neither is he the most creative or cunning of the titans. However, no other Primordial approaches his skill at cheating. Among the Exalted, the Sidereals have come the closest to understanding his principle of antagonistic cheating and fashioned Obsidian Shards of Infinity Style in the likeness of his unfairness, but how well they succeeded remains as unclear to the art's masters as those unfortunate enough to encounter them. The Shadow of All Things disdains their unintended offering as unworthy, but gratitude must never be his nature. Purer understanding of the Yozi reveals that the mirror of adversity does not exist outside the self, but pretends to exist within.
Black Mirror Shintai may only be activated if Nemesis Self Imagined Anew is active and its target is of equal or lesser Essence (and not, at the Storyteller's discretion, significantly more powerful than its Essence indicates, like many behemoths). Wherever that target is, her shadow flickers and vanishes, reappearing as a second skin of liquid darkness that envelops the Infernal in the span of a heartbeat. Within this chrysalis, the Infernal's flesh, soul and Essence undergo an agonizing metamorphosis that leaves the Exalt paralyzed and unable to defend until his next action. The cocoon bursts when his DV refreshes, revealing that the character has been changed into an exact replica of the target, though the target still doesn't cast a shadow while this Charm remains active.
While duplicating another character, the Infernal loses all traits of his own and gains all the target's traits, as if he swapped out his character sheet for a copy of the target's. Equipment and clothing does not change with him, with all artifacts losing attunement as a result of the change. All ongoing Charm and spell effects applying to him end as though negated and/or dispelled as appropriate, releasing all relevant mote commitments with no refund. Black Mirror Shintai doesn't break its own effects, though it does cloak itself from all known forms of Essence sight.
Backgrounds do not copy unless they represent an internal quality of the character rather than an external socioeconomic advantage, such as Breeding, Heart's Blood, Savant, Solar Bond, Whispers, etc. While artifacts do not copy, the panoply of a demon or god does. The character retains his memories and sense of self except to the degree that shifts in Virtues, Intimacies and Motivation adjust his behavior. Mimicking a god makes that god's sanctum the character's own sanctum for the duration; the Storyteller may confer other such perks as appropriate to the target.
The mirroring provided by this Charm stays up-to-date with the target's permanent trait shifts. The Infernal cannot modify his stolen traits in any permanent fashion. This includes spending experience or permanent traits to pay costs, like a spirit's Endowment.
Although the transformed Infernal remains a creature of darkness and native of Malfeas, he is not actually an Infernal for the duration, but is instead whatever he mimics. Thus, in copying a Dragon-Blood, he is temporarily a Terrestrial Exalt and may do things such as use Reflexive Charms at will. Becoming a Sidereal lets him use astrology and Sidereal Martial arts, etc. The character's Motivation and Intimacies are antithetical to the target's goals rather than being exact duplicates, as per traits conferred by Nemesis Self Imagined Anew. Temporary traits remain as they are (health, Willpower points, motes, Virtue channels) but adjust to fit the new pool sizes allowed for them. For health, apply current damage to the new health level track (this can kill a character who changes to a form with fewer health levels). For other temporary traits, if the character shifts to a form that has smaller pools, he retains his current value, but once this excess is spent, it is gone, and the character remains limited by the current form. This conversion also applies when changing back to normal.
Because the character is an exact duplicate of his enemy, he perfectly succeeds on all attempts to impersonate that character. His fate is the fate of the enemy he mirrors, save that any divination of location reveals the target to be in two locations at once. Due to the entanglement of fate, the target's Cult rating also copies like an internal Background, as prayers do not know where to go and thus empower the original and copy alike. Arcane links to the copied character transmit both. Attempts to divine the Infernal's existence or location with any magic while he is someone else fail, revealing that he does not exist.
The Shaping transformation wrought by this Charm lasts only one day by default, though it can be terminated as a reflexive action. All ongoing Charm, astrology and spell effects applying to him end as though negated and/or dispelled as appropriate, releasing all relevant mote commitments. Impossible states also terminate, so if sorcerously bound as a demon, the binding ends when the Infernal becomes himself once more. Adamant or Obsidian Circle Countermagic also returns him to normal against his will. The death of the target does not terminate the effect. If the Infernal dies, he chooses whether his corpse reverts back to its true form or not.
A second purchase of this Charm at Essence 6+ extends its duration to Indefinite, allowing the transformation to last until deliberately revoked or dispelled.