Occult Charms

 Demon-Binding Redemption 

Cost: —; Mins: Occult 5, Essence 5 Type: Permanent Keywords: Mirror, Obvious, Servitude Duration: Instant Prerequisite Charms: Ghost-Eating Technique

The Champions of the Unconquered Sun may forgo the immediate necessity of annihilating one of the servants of the surrendered Primordials in order to enslave it to the cause of Creation. This Charm expands the capabilities of Ghost-Eating Technique, giving the Solar the option to bind a slain demon spirit with an unnatural Servitude effect rather than unmake it. At the moment when the spirit would fade away completely, it instead heals back to its lowest -4 health level with no Willpower points remaining and must obey its killer’s orders without the possibility of resistance for a year and a day. Demons enslaved thus must obey normally unacceptable orders, but they need follow only the wording of commands and not their spirit. Storytellers should keep this clause firmly in mind as a legitimate and intended means of reigning in abuses of this Charm.

Actual sorcerous or necromantic binding trumps this Charm and prematurely ends its effects.

 Black Mirror Revelation 

Cost: —; Mins: Occult 5, Essence 4; Type: Permanent Keywords: Mirror Duration: Permanent Prerequisite Charms: Labyrinth Circle Necromancy or Occult Excellency - Occult Mastery

This grim Charm was originally developed by ambitious Solars in the final years of the First Age. Frustrated by dead-ending in their study of necromancy at the Labyrinth Circle, they recklessly attempted to forge onward. Those researchers never did break through to the Void Circle. Instead, they found… something else.

This Charm permits a Solar to learn and use Abyssal Charms as though she were an Eclipse Caste. Additionally she may accept a point of Limit to activate the Abyssal Mirror of a Solar Charm she knows with the same limitations as Unconquered Hero’s Faith (see The Manual of Exalted Power: The Abyssals, pp. 140-141). As a final side effect, she is guaranteed to linger as a ghost after death, rather than passing on into Lethe.

The Charm’s Avatar keyword indicatesthat the character must possess the Whispers Background at a rating of at least one dot to learn this Charm. Black Mirror Revelation may be learned only through meditation within the depths of the Labyrinth. In the First Age, its only acceptable prerequisite was Labyrinth Circle Necromancy. In the Second Age, perhaps due to the actualization of the Abyssal Exalted, Solars find it easier to let the whispers of the Neverborn guide them to a core of dark power nestled within themselves, and may also use Occult Excellency - Occult Mastery as an alternate prerequisite. This Charm may never be learned by non-Solar Exalted under any circumstances. As a point of clarification, its Abyssal Mirror, Unconquered Hero’s Faith, may never be learned or used by any character who possesses Immortal Malevolence Enslavement.

Furthermore, Deathlords are incapable of learning Unconquered Hero’s Faith or any other Charm based upon fundamental elements of Abyssal Exaltation.

Primordial Principle Emulation

Cost: —; Mins: Occult 6, Essence 6; Type: Permanent Keywords: None Duration: Permanent Prerequisite Charms: Solar Circle Sorcery

This bizarre Charm was innovated in the High First Age by the Solar Queen K’tula. After warping her body into a cephalopod horror through sorcerous manipulation, she found that she could not innovate new Solar Charms that acknowledged the terrible, inhuman capabilities of her new form. Pressing at the outer boundaries of sorcerous understanding, however, she was able to discern a set of cosmological principles more amenable to the thing she had become: the acrid Essence-flows of Kimbery.

Upon learning this Charm, the character namesa single Yozi. She can henceforth learn and use that Yozi’s Charms as though she were a member of the Eclipse Caste, save that she needs no tutor. Primordial Principle Emulation may be purchased a total number of times equal to (Essence – 5), with each purchase covering a different Yozi. The character gains a point of Limit the first time she invokes any Yozi Charm within the scope of a scene. The Yozis are aware of this Charm, having used certain of its principles to help guide the formation of their Green Sun Princes. It has historically pleased them to dispatch their Solar akuma to suppress knowledge of the Charm. The Ebon Dragon especially enjoys the bitter regret ofhis gilded slaves when they realize they bartered away their souls needlessly.

Thanks to the taint of the Great Curse upon their Exaltation, Solars may use this Charm only to unlock the secrets of the mutilated lords of Malfeas. It is possible that a Solar who was somehow cleansed of the Great Curse could also unlock the principles of non-Yozi Primordials. Thankfully, theAbyssal Exalted and their Deathlord masters have never discovered a Charm building off Void Circle Necromancy to gain access to the magics of the slumbering Neverborn. The most well-informed gods of the Division of Secrets hope such a thing proves impossible.

This Charm may never be learned by non-Solar Exalted under any circumstances.

Eclipsing the Sun

Cost: — (3m, 1wp or 3m, 1wp, 1 Limit) Mins: Occult 6, Essence 6; Type: Permanent Keywords: Native Duration: Permanent Prerequisite Charms: Ghost-Eating Technique

It is the duty of the son to surpass his father. The Exalt may pay three motes and one point of Willpower whenever he activates a Charm with the Holy keyword. Doing so allows the Solar to treat the target of the Charm as if it were a creature of darkness. When using Eclipsing the Sun, the Lawgiver manipulates his instinctual understanding of Holy to supersede—if only for an instant—the will of Ignis Divine. Doing so against another Solar Exalted incurs the additional cost of one point of Limit, as the Exalt’s will strains against the authority of the Most High.

The Time is Now

Cost: — (+10m, 1wp); Mins: Occult 6, Essence 6 Type: Permanent Keywords: Native, Obvious Duration: Permanent Prerequisite Charms: Solar Circle Sorcery

When the Solars graciously accepted the surrender of the vanquished Primordials, they gained authority over their numerous souls and mimetic races, including the power to summon and bind them into service. Sometimes waiting for Calibration—or even sundown—is an affront to the Lawgivers, as if to mock them for the mercies they once accorded. This Charm enhances the spells Demon of the First Circle and Demon of the Second Circle. At Essence 7+, this Charm’s power expands to encompass Demons of the Third Circle as well.

When casting one of these spells, the Solar may spend an extra 10 motes and one Willpower to gain the following benefits:

The casting time of the spell is reduced to a single hour, and the dramatic action used to shape this spell may begin at any hour of the day and on any day of the year. The concentrated power of the Solar’s will visibly strains the boundaries of existence, causing a localized Calibration more ominous and bizarre than the natural fixing of Creation that marks the beginning and end of each year. For an area of (100 yards for a First Circle demon, 500 for Second Circle demon, and one mile for a Third Circle demon) around her, sunlight bleeds away as surely as the coming of midnight, and sounds somewhere between great hollow wails of torment and the grating of brass echoes out from her location. The Bureau of Destiny is made explicitly aware every time this Charm is used to enhance a summoning, and knows where it was used.

Whenever this Charm is used to summon a demon of the Third Circle outside of Calibration, the Solar must reflexively make a contested roll of his (Intelligence + Occult) against the Dodge MDV of each Third Circle demon he has currently bound. Failing this roll for a single demon permits all currently bound demons to slip free of their bindings.

Magic-Shattering Strike

Cost: 15m; Mins: Occult 5, Essence 4 New Keywords: Mirror Prerequisite Charms: Spirit-Detecting Glance

Before Brigid discovered sorcery, the Solar Exalted had to counter the world-twisting powers of the Primordials through other means. Magic-Shattering Strike permits the Solar’s attack to disrupt sorcery, necromancy, and Sorcerous-keyword Charms. The Lawgiver targets a spell or appropriate Charm and spends fifteen motes. The Charm or spell must be Obvious to the Lawgiver’s senses to be a valid target for Magic-Shattering Strike. If the attack (which may use any combat Ability) successfully strikes the beneficiary of the spell, then the spell is broken as though targeted by the weakest level of countermagic capable of affecting it. If the spell creates or summons an automaton or spirit, the Lawgiver’s attack must target that automaton or spirit. If the spell is a free-standing effect, such as Rain of Doom, then the attack must be generally aimed at the center of the spell’s area of effect, and the effect is considered to have a Parry DV of (Circle x 3) for spells, or (Minimum Essence + 2) for Sorcerous Charms. Should the Solar successfully shatter a spell or Charm in this fashion, he gains (Spell’s Circle x 4) or (Charm’s Minimum Essence + 2) motes for doing so. Magic-Shattering Strike may explicitly be placed in a Combo with Charms of other Abilities.

Power From Darkness

Cost: 3m per Charm, 1wp. Mins: Occult 7, Essence 7; Type: Simple Duration: Indefinite Prerequisite Charms: All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight, Solar Circle Sorcery

Veiling her nature in the essence of the eclipse, the Solar reaches through the cracks in the universe the Primordials forged to rip forth power hidden from lesser minds. This Charm allows the character to instantly learn one Charm per three motes committed to Power From Darkness. The only limit on this number is the amount of Essence the Lawgiver is willing to commit. These do not have to be Solar Charms, but they must be Charms a character of the Eclipse Caste could potentially learn through the Eclipse anima power.

Power From Darkness is subject to the following limitations:The character must satisfy the trait minimums and prerequisites of all Charms bestowed by Power From Darkness. The character must have not only personally witnessed all bestowed Charms in use, but must have analyzed them with All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight. Power From Darkness may not bestow spells or Combos, nor may Charms acquired through Power From Darkness be placed into Combos. The Solar activates bestowed Charms as though they had been learned with the Eclipse anima power. Finally, Power From Darkness may only be activated during Calibration, though it may be sustained normally with committed Essence through-out the year.

Whenever the character gains Limit while using Power From Darkness, she gains one extra point of Limit on top of whatever amount she would have normally accumulated. The Solar Exalted remain unaware of this flaw in the Charm. A second purchase of this Charm, at Occult 10, Essence 10, reduces its cost to 2m per Charm, 1wp and upgrades the character’s Limit gain from +1 to +2.