God-King's Shrike

Template:Cost 30m, 1wp; Mins: Lore 5, Essence 5
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Prophet of Seventeen Cycles + any three Lore Charms

Sage-emperors returned from their long slumber, the Solars' great beards have shattered their stone tables. In their great and terrible throes, they may call upon the forces of doom in order to save their world. The Solar must spend a full week contemplating and researching a region's history, climate, geography, etc. before using this Charm. Casting her gaze toward a foe, the Solar draws deep from the well of her experience, her knowledge of this life connecting to her knowledge of lives before. Through this Charm she reaches realization of a certain calamity that must happen, and her consciousness is recognized, in turn, by the universe. In this instance, what the Solar realizes she causes to happen. Roll the Solar's (Intelligence + Lore) against difficulty 5. A basic success is tantamount to the Solar predicting a natural disaster that has relatively damning effects: flash floods ruin roads, a drought destroys crops, an earthquake disables a vitally important manse, and so on. Two to four extra successes results in a more devastating cataclysm: a tsunami wipes out a fleet of battleships; a series of earthquakes devastate the infrastructures of several cities and roads; a volcano detonates and wipes a city entirely off the map, etc. Five or more extra successes equates to the Solar predicting one of the seven great dooms: a star falls and annihilates a region; a behemoth rises from its slumber and plows through a number of predicted cities; an army of the dead spills from its Shadowland during Calibration to wreak havoc, and so on.

The Solar decides what region to research and pronounce doom upon, but the Storyteller decides the nature of the doom she divines based on the result of the roll. The Solar may show mercy by repudiating her pronouncement of devastation at any point before the cataclysm manifests itself, thereby negating her dread prophecy. Though this Charm's duration is instant, the motes spent activating it are committed for one week if a pronouncement of doom is uttered and allowed to manifest. This Charm may only be used once per year, though it can be reset as often as once per season by paying 12 experience points.