Creation of Adamant Specie

Cost: 5m; Mins: Bureaucracy 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Mute
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Pattern-Exploiting Commerce Spirit

Taking a coin of natural metal in her hand, the Solar infuses it with her Essence, transforming it. In the mo¬ment the Exalt uses this Charm, an obscuring shadow slowly passes over her face. When it has passed, the coin between her fingers has become a coin of pure adamant, with the Unconquered Sun's emblem on one side and the Solar's sigil on the other. This coin has a number of properties and abilities. The Solar may give this coin to another, authorizing them to use it in the Solar's name. Any ghost, god, or raksha who sees the coin will automatically recog¬nize the bearer as a business agent of one of the Solar Exalted. Such beings gain automatic knowledge of the Solar's full Resources rating, allowing the bearer to set¬tle accounts and make purchases without an exchange of wealth. When the bearer makes such purchases on the Lawgiver's behalf, the Adamant Specie represents a heavenly oath on the Solar's behalf to pay the debt out of her standing Resources within a year and a day. If the target in this transaction is destroyed or makes it delib¬erately impossible for the Exalt to settle her account, the heavenly oath — but perhaps not the debt — is nullified. Mortal merchants have no power to recognize the ac¬counts of the Solar Exalted at a glance, and Guildsmen are particularly well-trained in not accepting magicked coins. Demons, as participants in deliberately insurgent economies, recognize the Solar's accounts but may al¬ways refuse to confer them credit. Ergo, neither demons nor Guildsmen honor such trade. Such a coin also has a number of other strange effects. For one, the bearer can travel through the bordermarch¬es of the Wyld and as long as they are holding the coin, neither they nor the things they are wearing or carrying can be warped by the Wyld. The coin also evinces personal agency. If it is stolen, it can cause sudden cases of bad luck — 9s and 10s turned to 1s. To some it appears to give off a cursed silvery glow and they refuse to touch it. Others try to lift it and find that it is far beyond mortal strength to lift. In the open market, it has a way of getting mixed into local tender, riding commerce to the edges of the Solar's reach. If taken up by someone who fits one of the speci¬fied criteria of Pattern-Exploiting Commerce Spirit, the coin will lead that person to the Solar, even if they are at the far end of the city. Note that characters who are not authorized cannot use the coin to make purchases on the Solar's account. Special activation rules: The Solar may only create one such coin per day, but may have up to (Essence) coins in circulation. She may at any time pay one mote reflexively to cause the magic to flee a coin, causing it to transform in¬stantly into a dull lead coin with faded inscription. She may also will a coin back to herself, causing it to travel from per¬son to person, riding transactions and turns of luck to make itself known to her so that she can reclaim it. This process usually takes five or six hours to complete. Less, if the Solar goes looking for it. If the Solar is slain, all of her adamant coins immediately lose their magic and turn to lead. On Creation of Adamant Specie A very strange and interesting Charm, particularly apt as it sits inside the Eclipse wheelhouse. This Charm also demonstrates how Solar Charms sometimes get a little inventive and outside-the-box at higher Essence, something I was hard-pressed to show while writing the framework of the design. The reason ghosts are an ap¬plicable target for this Charm is because ghosts are often fettered to the living world, and concerned with trade and transaction. Gods, as natural bureaucrats, also quite often find it very natural to wheel and deal. Both types of spirits adore worship, and so the loftier ideal of "credit" is something they can easily and very naturally grasp and work with. Demons are excluded from this triad for a number of reasons, from insurgent economy to slave caveat. What it boils down to is that a Yozi wants a Solar to conduct her business in person. The Lords of Chaos are however included because their existence is so often defined by relational trade with Creation. Raksha are simply "in the know" when it comes to doing business with their Solar enemies, and Solar magic accounts for them. And for those who are wondering, magical mate¬rials do not count as natural metals.