Warstriders

While the legendary artifacts of the Exalted are many and varied, few hark back to the glories now lost as keenly as the warstrider. Be it a single orichalcum relic in the hands of a rampaging Anathema or an entire fang of jade-encased giants leading the Dragon-Blooded legions into battle, a warstrider invariably fills onlookers with awe. And while a Realm peasant might go a lifetime without ever seeing a First Age sailing ship, let alone a flying craft, these priceless titans often lead victory processions in major cities throughout the Realm, visible and unmistakable symbols of the Scarlet Empire's power and glory. Yet the awe that such observers feel is also tinged with dread, for these potent artifacts were fashioned for one purpose: destruction. Like all giants, warstriders seldom pay attention to the ants at their feet.

Warstrider Classification

Warstrider Aesthetics

Every warstrider is ultimately a unique artifact. While all warstriders have certain similarities, especially within the same class, each has its own flourishes and ornamentations incorporated into the design in accordance with the artistry of the designer, the desires of the patron who commissioned the work, and the latest fashion in warstrider design of that era. Most warstriders have at least a vaguely humanoid appearance, with two arms, two legs and a head. There are exceptions, though, most notably Lunars who commissioned warstriders with distinctly non-humanoid designs in keeping with their favored animal form. Such warstriders might have a humanoid torso attached to a large, six-legged arachnoid body or take the form of quadrupeds such as wolves or big cats. These rare alternative designs often required the Lunar to either assume an animal form and be strapped into his warstrider by an aide or else to strap himself in normally and then shapeshift once inside.

In the First Age, most Solars and Lunars incorporated elements from their iconic anima banners into the design of their warstriders, and most noble and royal warstriders dating from that period have animalistic features, particularly in the design of the helm. Even those warstriders built for First Age Dragon-Blooded often had reptilian features in veneration of the Elemental Dragons. After the Usurpation, the nascent Immaculate Philosophy condemned such iconography, and most Shogunate-era warstriders were quite austere by modern standards. In fact, the most common design was to base the exterior of the warstrider on whatever Shogunate military uniform was in vogue at the time. That aesthetic approach remains the practice in modern Lookshy, and one can trace the evolution of the Seventh Legion dress uniform over the last 1,000 years by comparing warstriders of different eras.

The warstriders of the Blessed Isle took a different path after the ascension of the Scarlet Empress. Most warstriders forged over the past seven centuries were either commissioned directly by the Empress for the use of the Imperial Army or else by one of the Great Houses. Regardless, Imperial warstriders have always been as much walking propaganda as military hardware. Imperial warstriders most commonly sport abstract depictions of the element associated with the jade from which they are constructed. A warstrider forged of red jade might feature tiny intricate flame patterns delicately carved into the exterior of the jade plates chased with gold fi ligree, while a similar warstrider of black jade might have swirling patterns of silver meant to evoke the sea. Warstriders commissioned by one of the Great Houses will also prominently display the house crest, while those commissioned by the Empress display the Empress's seal and usually the symbol of the legion to which the warstrider would be assigned.

Savants in the Age of Sorrows typically classify warstriders into five categories: common, scout, noble, royal and colossus. These classifi cations are largely artificial, based on an imperfect understanding of both the design elements of these wondrous artifacts and the purposes for which they were conceived. In fact, the peculiarities of warstrider design and construction made sure that each warstrider was virtually unique. While warstriders constructed at the same factory-cathedral during the same general time frame share a number of commonalities, not only in fundamental design but in surface aesthetics, no two warstriders are exactly the same. The five previously noted categories are a useful tool for understanding the function and purpose of a warstrider, however. Regardless of whether the First Age Dawn Caste Surin of Justice was piloting his Peregrine-class aerial warstrider, Lightning of Heaven, or his Annihilator-class combat warstrider, Implacable Seven-Fold Fury, forged 600 years later, both would be classified as royal warstriders by the modern taxonomy.

Common Warstriders: The Basic Package

The common warstrider is simply a basic warstrider stripped of all the extra design features that might otherwise elevate it into one of the other categories. Such design features generally required an advanced comprehension of Essence manipulation, access to Celestial and Solar Circle sorcery and, in some cases, the favor of high-Essence gods who personally blessed the creation of warstriders forged during the First Age. The fact that contemporary Dragon-Blooded lack all three of these requirements explains why only a few noble warstriders were forged even at the height of the Shogunate and why only one royal warstrider, Unyielding Fury of Righteousness, was ever forged by the Scarlet Empire. Some suspicious minds even wonder about the Fury, which features a number of design modifications clearly beyond the construction capabilities of the Realm or even Lookshy.

The common warstrider traces its design principles back to the dawn of the Primordial War and represents the original conception of the artifact: a large suit of nigh-indestructible, strength-augmenting armor. Subsequent innovations that led to the other major warstrider designs did not come until after the War. In fact, the noble, royal and colossus designs were conceived not as a response to the Primordials but to the Fair Folk, as common warstriders were inadequate for the purpose of striding boldly into the Wyld and grappling with behemoths in order to expand the frontiers of Creation. As the Great Curse began to take hold of the Solars, the advanced warstrider designs also became more ostentatious to reflect their creators' growing hubris.

Shorn of all artistic flourishes, a common warstrider is essentially an oversized suit of armor standing about 18 feet tall. At its core is a large metallic skeleton called the frame, which is typically made of steel magically treated to resist rust and decay. A system of coils, gears, springs and pulleys called the musculature is attached to the frame. The chest contains an open cavity called the fuselage, which contains dozens of straps, usually made of thick leather, that plug into the frame. The pilot attaches the straps to himself at different points all over his body so that all of his major muscle groups are covered, and he doesn't actually sit in the fuselage but instead hangs somewhat loosely by the harness. Most pilots initially find this arrangement disorienting and uncomfortable, but the harness is designed to hold the pilot fairly steady and to prevent him from banging into the sides of the fuselage.

In addition to the harness, the pilot also dons special leather gloves that are also connected to the frame by tiny copper wires. The harness and gloves are collectively referred to as the control interface. This interface allows the pilot to control the musculature through sympathetic magic, with each movement of the pilot's body transmitted by the interface to the musculature, where the pulleys and springs act to mimic the pilot's actions. A pilot typically requires about five minutes to properly attach all the pieces of the control interface. The fuselage of a common warstrider is usually insufferably hot and has very poor ventilation, inflicting a normal fatigue value of 6. The fuselage is also typically rather cramped, and individuals who are bigger than the average human (including characters with the Large Size Merit) will not fit unless the warstrider is custom designed for someone of their size. Similarly, the pieces of the control interface will not easily fit over armor or even thick clothing. Pilots typically wear minimal clothing while operating warstriders, both to maximize the efficiency of the interface and to help with the oppressive heat of the fuselage.

Operating a warstrider is physically demanding, as every movement it makes requires the pilot to pull against heavy leather straps and metal wires. While the sympathetic enchantments built into the interface and the musculature give the pilot some degree of kinesthetic feedback, warstriders are invariably clumsy compared to a normal human, which is reflected in a six-die mobility penalty for common warstriders. This clumsiness is even more pronounced in the warstrider's hands. While the pilot's gloves allow her to manipulate the warstrider's massive fingers in order to grasp or crush objects easily, any fine manipulation is out of the question. Any action requiring fine motor control (assuming it is possible at all with fingers the width of a man's forearm) increases the difficulty by two, as does any attempt to use weapons or tools not specifically scaled for warstrider use. Simply learning to pilot a warstrider is a difficult and exhausting procedure. Pilots must have at a minimum Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Wits 2, Athletics 2 and Lore 1 in order to operate a warstrider with basic proficiency. For each dot a pilot lacks, he suffers a cumulative -1 internal penalty to all movement- and combat-related activities in addition to normal mobility penalties.

While the frame and musculature of common warstriders are usually fashioned from mundane metals, the true power of the warstrider comes from its exoskeleton, which is invariably made of one of the five magical materials. The vast majority of common warstriders constructed since the Usurpation have jade exoskeletons. For the Dragon-Blooded, the other magical materials are too rare and difficult to forge, and in any case, their attunement costs are too great for the benefits gained. The Deathlords have abundant access to soulsteel, of course, but they rarely waste such a resource on common warstriders when they retain the knowledge to forge far greater wonders. The common warstrider's exoskeleton typically contains just under a talent of jade, carefully fashioned into decorative plates that are fitted onto the frame over the musculature, totally covering it. Each plate must be crafted separately, while all of the plates must ultimately fit together seamlessly in order for the magical processes of the warstrider to function.

The primary benefits of the common warstrider spring from the magical exoskeleton. Those benefits include astounding strength and damage resistance, the power to focus Charms through the warstrider as if it were mundane armor (see "Warstriders and Charms"), the ability to use massive artifact weapons and a long stride that allows it to rapidly cover ground. Common warstriders have a Strength of 12, which replaces the pilot's Strength for determining damage inflicted by the warstrider in combat, determining how much the warstrider can lift or carry, determining whether the warstrider can break or destroy something and determining jumping distances. Additionally, while operating a warstrider is tiring, actual endurance is not a problem. While the pilot is not actively manipulating the control interface, the warstrider is essentially an enormous immobile statue. Therefore, once the warstrider assumes a position, be it a relaxed pose, a defensive posture or holding up a collapsing roof with one hand, it can do so indefinitely while the pilot relaxes inside. All warstriders have a powerful soak against all forms of damage and also a Hardness rating equal to half their soak.

In the most common designs, the pilot's head sticks up out of the fuselage and into a large helm that fits over the chest into a circular grove. The helm is typically forged entirely from the same magical material that comprises the exoskeleton, although in the Age of Sorrows, some jadestrapped engineers have resorted to steel helms coated with jade plates. Such cheapness results in a helm that is slightly more likely to dent or stick than a completely jade version, adding one dot to the Repair rating (see Maintenance and Repair"). The musculature includes a neck harness that allows the pilot to rotate the helm to look side to side up to about 60 degrees in either direction, but the pilot is still limited to looking through a narrow slot that does not permit peripheral vision. Also, modern design offers the pilot no aid at all in hearing sounds outside the massive armored helm. As a result, limited vision and hearing remain among the chief design flaws of modern warstriders, and pilots suffer a -4 external penalty on all rolls relating to Perception or Awareness or that require a clear perception of their surroundings. Some warstrider designs overcome this flaw in a number of ingenious ways, however. The most common modification in the modern age is to replace the face of the helm with an adamant plate, which reduces the Perception penalties to only -1. Such a helm is only available for common and scout warstriders and adds one dot to the Artifact cost of the warstrider. The pilot is, however, vulnerable to mystical attacks that require eye contact to which he would be immune with a conventional helm.

The warstrider's great size can be a curse as well as a blessing. The artifact's enormous gait allows it to cover normal terrain with astonishing swiftness, multiplying the pilot's normal movement rate by 10. On the other hand, a warstrider cannot easily fit in many places, such as through city gates or in dense forest, without inflicting considerable structural damage on its surroundings. Simply brushing up against a building or a tree will inflict damage on the object as if the character had exerted half the warstrider's Strength on the Feats of Strength table in an effort to break the object. Consequently, warstriders are used for urban combat only when the attacking force plans to raze the city anyway.

A warstrider's size also disadvantages it in combat with smaller opponents, as artifact warstrider weapons are so massive and slow that they are fairly easy for a human-sized target to dodge. When attacking any target less than 10 feet tall, subtract three successes from the warstrider's attack to reflect the difficulty of hitting such a (relatively) small target. If this penalty reduces the attack to negative successes, then assume that the attack misses the target and instead damages some nearby structure, kicks up enormous clods of earth or otherwise inflicts some localized environmental damage.

Finally, it is impossible for a large warstrider to conceal its movements absent the use of Charms, and even when such Charms are used, the difficulty of all rolls to conceal the character's movements increases by three. While it is stationary, the warstrider can be camouflaged normally and suffers no particular stealth penalty. Such camouflage efforts usually involve a Stealth (for urban areas) or Survival (for natural areas) roll, combining Wits + the appropriate Ability. The successes rolled represent the difficulty for attempts to spot the concealed warstrider (typically Perception + Awareness for casual looks or Perception + Investigation for active searches).

The Essence costs of any warstrider are considerable. All warstriders require a hearthstone from at least a level-3 manse. The pilot derives no special benefits from this hearthstone, the Essence of which is totally devoted to regulating the warstrider's enchantments. Some warstriders are designed with additional hearthstone sockets, though, and any hearthstones inserted into ancillary sockets are treated as if they had been placed into any other artifact. Common warstriders also have an attunement cost of 10 motes. On the positive side, warstriders are specifically designed to permit rapid attunement and deattunement. Any Essence-user can attune a warstrider in about five minutes, which is approximately how long it takes to properly attach the control interface to the pilot's body. Likewise, the pilot's connection to the warstrider is broken about five minutes after he exits, at which point he can regain the committed motes. Charms that allow a pilot to don armor quickly can reduce the time needed to attach the control interface but cannot reduce the attunement time. If a level-3 hearthstone is unavailable, the pilot can power the warstrider himself for brief periods, but at a prodigious cost: five motes of Essence and one Willpower per action, plus one mote per extra action taken as part of a flurry.

In the First Age, a factory-cathedral dedicated to the manufacture of common warstriders would typically produce one per month. In times of higher demand, such as when incursions from the Wyld caused the Solar Deliberative to move to a long-term war footing, these factory-cathedrals could produce two common warstriders in a month with double shifts. After the Usurpation, the Shogunate unwisely attempted to maintain that higher level of production for years in an effort to replace the many warstriders destroyed in combat with the Anathema. Over time, this round-the-clock production schedule, combined with the total loss of many Celestial techniques, led to degradation of the factory-cathedral facilities, severely cutting into the rate of production. By the end of the Shogunate era, only 60 percent of the First Age factory-cathedrals were still functional, and even they could produce common warstriders at the rate of only one every six months. The Contagion brought warstrider production to a complete standstill for decades and almost ended it permanently. Currently, the Realm has only two functioning warstrider manufacturing centers, while Lookshy has three. Each is capable of producing one common warstrider a year under ideal conditions, assuming jade is available in sufficient quantities. Lookshy also has a number of small factory complexes that produce common warstriders without any First Age tools at a rate of one every three to five years. Several of the Dynastic Houses also have similar factory complexes, which are carefully concealed from their rivals—and sometimes from the government as well.

Basic Warstrider Designs

Type	Soak	Strength	Mobility	Fatigue	Attune	Cost
Common	20	12	-6	6	10	•••
Scout	16	10	-3	4	10	•••
Noble	22	14	-4	4	12	••••
Colossus	30	20	-10	8	14	•••••
Royal	24	16	-2	2	15	•••••

Soak: Warstriders apply their soak value equally to bashing, lethal and aggravated damage. All warstriders have a Hardness rating equal to half their soak.

Strength: The effective Strength of the pilot while operating the warstrider for the following purposes: (1) determining damage inflicted by the warstrider in combat, (2) determining how much the warstrider can lift or carry, (3) determining whether the warstrider can break or destroy something, and (4) determining jumping distances.

Mobility: The pilot applies this penalty to all Dexterity-related dice pools and subtracts half the penalty from his Dodge DV (but not Parry DV).

Fatigue: The number of successes the player must roll on a periodic (Stamina + Resistance) roll after extended usage. The frequency with which the player must make fatigue rolls is determined by environmental and situational conditions (see Armor Fatigue).

Attune: The number of motes that must be spent to attune the warstrider.

Cost: The Artifact Background rating of the warstrider.