Wyld-Shaping Technique
Template:Cost 15m, 1wp, 2xp; Mins: Lore 5, Essence 3
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Chaos-Repelling Pattern, Order-Affirming Blow, Truth-Rendering Gaze
Of all the Chosen, the Solar Exalted alone have the power to stem the tides of chaos with their force of will. This Charm represents a Solar whose mind flows with a command of knowledge so potent it can reverse the decay of Creation. Channeling endless lore through unsurpassed Essence, the Solar stands at the edge of the world and forces shape into the howling teeth of the storm.
System: Through use of this Charm, the Solar can fashion the raw forces of chaos into practically anything—so long as her mind is able to conceptualize the reality of her desire and force it to take shape. This Charm occurs in and depends on phases to accomplish such a feat. Wyld-Shaping Technique consists of a dramatic action lasting about a minute, in which the Solar forces her will upon the Wyld, pays the cost of the Charm, and makes an (Intelligence + Lore) roll against a specified difficulty. Each time she succeeds at this roll, a phase is completed. Some things can be shaped in a single phase. Others require that the Solar continue to use Wyld-Shaping Technique, phase after phase, in order to reach an appropriate phase on which to accomplish her goal. Each time she reaches a new phase and repays the cost of the Charm, her results from the previous phase are dissolved and reshaped. Essentially, the Solar must shape and reshape the Wyld in order to create larger, more powerful, or more specific results. The base difficulty of using Wyld-Shaping Technique is 5. At each new phase, the difficulty increases by one. Therefore, at phase three the difficulty would be 7, and phase six would require overcoming a difficulty of 10. During each phase, the Solar must remain near the relative epicenter of her shaping action. She can defend and attack, and she can move in response to her own environmental shaping, but she cannot engage in other extended actions such as sorcery. If she is incapacitated or fails the difficulty roll, the consequences are severe. She loses the cost of her Charm, including any invested experience points, and the shaping action fails completely. Moreover, she will experience a backlash if she botches, provoking an immune response from the Wyld—whatever she was trying to shape will turn against her and try to strike her down. The higher the phase at which this occurs, the more powerful the Wyld's response will be.
Considerations: In order to activate this Charm, the Solar must be standing at the absolute border of the middlemarches, facing the deep Wyld, or must otherwise be within the deep Wyld itself. Wyld-Shaping Technique requires the pure, inchoate resonance of chaos to work; the bordermarches and middlemarches of Creation are too solid to shape. Therefore, the more complex or large a thing the Solar wishes to shape, the deeper into the deep Wyld she needs to go. It would suffice for her to shape a gold ingot at Creation's rim, but to raise an island of Creation from the Wyld, she would need to travel several miles into chaos.
Use of Wyld-Shaping Technique automatically ends use of Chaos-Repelling Pattern in every direction around the Solar for three range bands. While the Exalt is employing this Charm, the Wyld is suborned by her supernal will. As with Chaos-Repelling Pattern, her immediate atmosphere will remain stable, and will adhere to the laws of physics for the Charm's duration. Unlike Chaos-Repelling Pattern, the Lawgiver can be affected by body- and soul-shaping magic while working this Charm, unless she is under the aegis of Charms such as Integrity-Protecting Prana or Wyld-Dispelling Prana. As with Chaos-Repelling Pattern, the Solar can still be attacked by Wyld-spawned denizens while using Wyld-Shaping Technique. In fact, use of this Charm almost certainly guarantees that she will be.
Encounter Roll: At the start of each phase, after the Charm's cost has been paid but before the player has made the Charm's roll, there is an encounter roll to determine whether the Solar is challenged by denizens of the Wyld. Roll a single die and add the Solar's Essence to the result to determine the outcome. At each subsequent phase, remove 1 from the roll result. 8+: No encounter. 7: A small group (3-5) of weak enemies such as hobgoblins or pumpkin- men attacks. 6: A more powerful Fair Folk appears with a number of weaker minions. 5: A raksha hunting party (3-5 members) with a number of hunting beasts and minions appear. 4: As 5, but the force is slightly larger and led by a raksha noble. Alternately, a powerful Wyldspawned monster appears. 3: A number of powerful Fair Folk (hannya, noble raksha or otherwise) or other Wyld denizens emerge. Alternately, multiple Wyld-spawned monsters emerge. 2: The Solar is swarmed by hundreds of weaker Fair Folk or other Wyld denizens, joined by a number of powerful fae creatures; alternately, a dozen monsters are shaped by the Wyld to go on the attack. 1-0: A behemoth stirs from its slumber to attack the Solar.
Phases: The Solar must reach a certain phase of Wyld- Shaping Technique in order to raise substance from chaos. For example, if a shaping project must be completed on phase two, the phase is successfully completed after the Exalt succeeds at the Charm's roll.
Land: The Solar can create non-specific land much more easily than she can raise very specific tracts. It is much easier for her to call forth massive amounts of general land than it is for her induct very specific geography, and smaller, more specific geography is much more difficult than larger masses of land simply exuded from her formidable unconscious. For non-specific land, she can create (Essence x10) square miles of land in the first phase, and every successive phase multiplies this by three until phase eight. From phase eight and onward, each successive phase adds (Essence x1000) square miles.
Additionally, the Solar can spend extra successes in each phase to add ten square miles to the land's area at a rate of two successes per ten square miles. After phase seven, the cost decreases to one success per one hundred square miles.
With non-specific land, the climate, geography, wildlife, spirits, and sentient beings that exist there will correlate with the nearest Pole. Until phase three, no demesnes are guaranteed to form, though previously generated land can still be geomantically sculpted to produce demesnes. After phase three, non-specific land will generate at least one additional minor demesne each phase, and any non-specific land created at phase six or beyond is guaranteed to have a number of major and minor demesnes. The Solar may spend three successes in any phase to roll a single die; success guarantee a demesne forms, with 7s and 8s equaling a minor demesne of appropriate aspect, 9s equaling a major demesne of appropriate aspect, and a 10 equaling a major demesne with an aspect specified by the Solar. The Solar may not add more demesnes to a created landmass than she has spent on upgrades to its area (ie, she must spend two extra successes on increasing land size in order to add an extra demesne). The larger a landmass the Solar is able to create, the more natural resources it will have. The more demesnes it has, the greater the chance it will contain veins of the five magical materials.
The Lawgiver may not begin to create very specific land until phase four; she must first generate three phases of non-specific land in order to generate specific land, at which point she starts completely over, losing all generated land, creatures, and demesnes, generating (Essence x5) square miles in the first phase, and multiplying the preceding area by five in each successive phase until phase seven. In phase seven the area increases as above, at a rate of (Essence x1000) square miles per phase. Increasing square miles in this calculation costs three successes per ten square miles, and the cost of demesne generation is four successes per demesne. With specific land, the Solar can designate the kind of terrain, resources or lack of them, the kind of climate and the kind of denizens. The Solar may specify the aspect of all minor demesnes created by rolls or those that naturally occur at later phases. At phase six, she can designate the kinds of sentient creatures living in her world, and such creatures will have both positive and negative Intimacies toward her. She has no control over the spirits inducted into her reality, but each that intrudes on her domain at this phase or beyond will automatically have an Intimacy centered on her of the Storyteller's choosing.
Legendary Demesne: Without Charms specifically dedicated to the creation of legendary demesnes, a Solar must succeed at a phase seven or higher roll for specific land to create a legendary demesne, and she must have at least five major, roll-generated demesnes to do so. If successful, she loses all of her roll-generated demesnes and all minor demesnes, and half her land's area, to shape a legendary demesne. She may then start building land mass again at phase one, using the above rules.
Mundane Wealth: Creating wealth is a process similar to creating land. Each resources value increase requires that the Solar reach a certain phase by synthesizing appropriate precursor materials. For example, a silver dirham (worth a bit over Resources 2) is required in order to make five silver talents (Resources 3).
At phase one, the Solar can make wealth in excess of Resources 2. Examples of such wealth include a silver dirham, a single well-cut diamond, or half a dozen gold ingots. Extra successes can be used to personalize or specialize such material wealth, giving exquisite, exotic shape and cut to a single diamond or fashioning a number of ingots into jewelry at a rate of two successes per transformation. At phase two, Resources 3 mundane wealth can be created at phase three, materials in excess ofResources 3 can be created; at phase four, Resources 4 wealth can be created, and at phase five, wealth in excess of Resources 4 but below Resources 5 can be created. A phase six transformation of materials is required to create Resources 5 wealth. Phases in excess of six do not greatly increase the wealth generated by Wyld-Shaping Technique.
Five Magical Materials: In order to create an instance of one of the five magical materials, the Solar must create a minor demesne of the appropriate aspect using the rules above. She may then completely obliviate the land and attached demesnes in order to create enough ore to process it into a single mina in phase one. A phase two synthesis lets her turn the approximated magical material into a single bar of the same type of material; a phase three synthesis allows her to create as much as a talent, while a phase four synthesis allows her to create two talents, and so on. It takes approximately five talents of a magical material to build a grand daiklave.
Artifacts and Manses: Artifacts, manses, and certain other wonders require special Charms in order to create with Wyld-Shaping Technique.
Everything Else: Wyld-Shaping Technique works through a process of conceptual graduation. In order to raise a fortress, the Solar must first create land to stand it on. The Solar may create anything within the realm of possibility, her logic, or her know-how by following these basic rules. To create a mighty warship, she must raise a cradle to set it on in phase one, or otherwise must have created a body of water to float it in using specific land. The boat is then created in phase two. The deeper into the phases of specific land she goes, the more warships she is able to raise in a single phase, so long as she continues to grow the body of water with each successive phase. A Solar who spends the effort and experience points to create an ocean can also raise up an armada on its waters. The creation of land can be foregone in instances where the Solar can conceptualize some other base for beginning her project, such as the cradle for a ship, but the most powerful expressions of Wyld-Shaping Technique work by way of graduating from one concept to the next. It is much easier to create a number of warships by first creating the waters they sail upon. This process is reversed in order to build even more insane constructs. To raise up marvels such as golem manufactories, the Solar must catabolize something much more powerful, such as a legendary demesne.