New Idigam

[Acrozatarim]

I'm very interested what would Liberator do with mages in his nearby? In the end, those are people seeking transcendence, liberation from worlds limitation.

I suspect that an unwise Mage would initially think the Liberator could be a great help, then very rapidly realise how badly things are going to go wrong.

However, as a freestanding entity, the Liberator would certainly be hostile to the Seers if it found out about the whole idea of keeping the world quiescent for the Exarchs. Werewolves are bad enough as the self-appointed wardens of the prisons of Flesh and Shadow, the Exarchs are doubleplus bad.

Can Rank 4 Spirit have an Influence on 5?

Not normally. However, idigam can through the Dread Power Elemental Fury.

[nofather]

I'm getting a flying spaghetti monster vibe from it.

[ZealousChristian24]

However, as a freestanding entity, the Liberator would certainly be hostile to the Seers if it found out about the whole idea of keeping the world quiescent for the Exarchs. Werewolves are bad enough as the self-appointed wardens of the prisons of Flesh and Shadow, the Exarchs are doubleplus bad.

"Alright, so all we have to do is shove the Liberator into this "Supernal" place and our enemies will take care of themselves!"

"My people may be known for our hubris, but even I don't have words for how bad an idea that is!"

[YeOfLittleFaith]

Well, the Liberator is fun. I'm fond of monstrous, alien beings that pursue vague ideals or platonic perfections as a goal (sometimes because of an arbitrary understanding that the world should be a certain way, or a specific idea is a strange objective truth that is being violated by the current state of things).

[Acrozatarim]

I'm getting a flying spaghetti monster vibe from it.

Think less flying spaghetti monster, more like



But more serpentine and tendrilled.

[YeOfLittleFaith]

Chris, that makes me think far too much of the Guild Wars elder dragons as idigam, for some reason.

... Specifically, Kralkatorrik as he was originally seen in concept art - a long, massive serpentine body of spikes and crystalline armor, leaving a glassed, twisted scar on the earth where it passes.

Damn, it kinda fits. Especially considering it was said to create sandstorms too.

[Acrozatarim]

The Serene

A bloated, chitinous body. A threshing mass of long, spindly legs and limbs, some ending in pincers, some in splaying claws, some in sensory organs. The stone-set, cherubic face of a statue's head, mouth creaking open to speak, veins of black meat threading through the marble. The voice that issues from the tottering horror is calm, placid, monotone. The words deliver utter certainty, utter truth, unshrouded by the niceties of human discourse or even the sanity of the human mind. Passions chill and emotions run cold. You are in the presence of the Serene.

The Serene fell into half-slumber on the dark side of the moon during its long captivity, and there heard the sweet song-whispers of the void. This dark lullaby carried it through the millenia, contented and still, without motion or thought. When mankind's visitations brought new Essence to the lunar prison, the Serene was woken in a state of confusion and madness; it had tasted the very edge of oblivion, the release of the void, but its trance had been shattered. Gross, intrusive things forced their way into its near-dead awareness; concepts, entities, perceptions, thoughts. Driven to berserk panic, the Serene fought amidst the thrashing, squirming battles that erupted between the idigam as their containment was first breached.

How long that bout of madness held it, the Serene does not know. When it became something close to lucid again, it lay in the world that had sparkled like a gem beneath it for so long. With no will to resist, it had Coalesced, and now dug itself from rubble in a desolate place that it could not comprehend. It had a body now, anchored around the ancient stone of the remnants of a statue. It had feelings and sensations. It had a drive.

The Serene simply wants peace – utter peace, the peace of oblivion and the void, where there are no sensations, no concepts, no thoughts. It wants the boundary between the ego and the empty to dissolve and leave nothing behind. This mad world is caught up in so many distractions, though. Not so much the light and colour and action, though those are troublesome. No, it is the distractions within the minds of humanity that are the true barrier. They simply bleed their emotions everywhere. They are caught in passions. They must be calmed, emptied of such hampering thoughts. Only by bringing peaceful serenity, a void of emotion and feeling, can the idigam establish a pool of calm nothing for it to fade away into.

Werewolves are the worst of all. Their rage burns within like fierce candles, crude souls easily sensed by the Serene. Their flame casts light into the idigam's shadowed existence, a hated intrusion. For the Serene's own protection, it must gut the Uratha of their burning passions so that their presence ceases to burn and sear its mind. Then, empty and undistracted, it can fall into dissolution.

Where the Serene goes, it cultivates a following. Humans that encounter it are 'gifted' by the idigam, their passions and emotions excised from their minds. They organise to do what they can to serve their master/mistress's needs further; triggers for deep emotions are opposed across the region. Cultural centres, sports, places of revelry and debauchery; anything that is a centre of emotions, passions and the like must be shut down. Initially, the cult of serenity acts covertly, but once it has enough power and converts it will move into open acts. Cultists practice extreme brutality when necessary, utterly calm and detached from the horrors they inflict. Excesses of emotion are suppressed, their sources destroyed, and a pall of quiet falls across the region – enforced serenity, inflicted peace.

As soon as it has any servants, the Serene sets about hunting werewolves. It works through its minions as much as it can, preferring to create a lair where it can prepare itself for dispassionate oblivion, but where servants fail – or where Uratha seek to hunt it in its own domain – the Serene will act with psychotic and merciless efficiency. It prefers brief and extreme periods of activity rather than long, drawn-out efforts that draw it away from its meditation. Above all, it prefers Uratha to be captured and brought to it so that it can tear out their anger and passion, leaving them as calm vassals that can be studied. Every Uratha that passes beneath its slicing pincers is another step towards a total, peaceful solution to the rage that plagues their species. Every werewolf brings it closer to understanding and dousing their passions through the link that Luna itself bears with them.

If the idigam were able to sedate an entire small country's worth of territory, it might finally find the peace it requires to achieve its desired oblivion – an entire country of empty, serene people bereft of their passions. Then it would at last achieve dissolution – and the song of the void and the distant stars would take root in its spot, finally granted a breach and beach-head into the world beyond Luna's guardian path.

[nofather]

Think less flying spaghetti monster, more like

That was a great game. I really want to make an idigam now, but I haven't read their section and can't decide if what they want is to become something specific or to create a 'real world' version of what they are or what. I'll need to do some reading. I keep thinking of alternate universes.

[BigDamnHero]

I've got a great space for creating two idigam in the werewolf games I'll be running.

One will have Coalesced around the chaos in Seattle created by vampires warring for Princedom, and the flames of that conflict being fanned by a small parliament of Strix.

The other I'm thinking will be an Earth-Bound who was living in the Big Thicket of North America, and I want to tie it into the fact that at some point in the past you could find every North American megafauna in the Big Thicket.

[Acrozatarim]

The Serene

Rank 4
Attributes: Power 11 Finesse 9 Resistance 12
Willpower: 10 Essence: 50 Initiative: 21
Defence: 12 Speed: 25 Size: 12
Corpus: 24 Armour: 0
Influences: Ruin 3, Silence 4
Numina: Awe, Drain, Implant Mission, Mortal Mask, Regenerate, Stalwart, 3 Numina slots exchanged for Influence dots
Manifestations: Gauntlet Breach, Image, Materialise, Reaching, Twilight Form
Essence Shaping: Essence Void, Forge Claimed, Forge Empty Wolf, Thief of Gifts, Serene Essence*
Dread Powers: Aura of Serenity*, Call Void Spirit, Excise Emotions*, Pierce Mind, Reality Stutter
Ban: The Serene cannot enter any building that is currently serving as a home to a human who has not had their emotions excised without spending a point of Willpower.
Bane: The thistly leaves of a strain of wild plant that grows around the ruin where the Serene Coalesced.

New Powers:
Essence Shaping – Serene Essence: This Essence Shaping works the same way as Locus Manipulation. However, any being that takes Essence from a corrupted Locus does not suffer the usual effects. Instead, they lose the ability to suffer extremes of emotions of any kind unless they spend a Willpower point (which overcomes the effects for a scene). An Uratha affected by serene Essence is no longer subject to the worst of their current Kuruth triggers, instead suffering a point of Aggravated damage instead of entering Wasu-Im or Basu-Im. Additionally, they must expend a Willpower point whenever they wish to enter Gauru, and the time that they may remain in Gauru is halved.

Dread Power – Aura of Serenity: All attack rolls made in the presence of the Serene, apart from those made by the idigam itself, suffer a -3 penalty. If a werewolf would enter Death Rage in the presence of the Serene, it instead suffers two points of Aggravated damage. Entering Gauru in the presence of the Serene inflicts one point of Aggravated damage.

Dread Power – Excise Emotions: Following the same rules as for Forging a servant, the Serene may excise the emotions from a human or Uratha that it is able to perform the transformation upon for 10 rounds. The idigam rolls Power + Finesse opposed by the victim's Resolve + Composure + Primal Urge. If successful, the victim loses the capacity to feel any sort of emotion beyond the most vague and basic levels. They are no longer able to expend Willpower or fulfil their Virtue or Vice (or Blood or Bone). They cannot feel fear, cannot be intimidated or seduced or subjected to any other emotional coercion by anyone other than the Serene, and no longer suffer wound penalties. The Serene achieves an exceptional success on any social interactions with an emotionless if it achieves a success at all, and emotionless gain the 8-again property on teamwork rolls when working alongside other emotionless. A victim's emotions are stored on the Serene as a patch of flayed leather or tattered cloth smeared with abstract patterns of colour that hang from amidst its limbs; over the course of a week, the colours fade until the emotions finally dissolve in the wind.

[YeOfLittleFaith]

Wow, that's nasty.

[BigDamnHero]

The Serene

A bloated, chitinous body. A threshing mass of long, spindly legs and limbs, some ending in pincers, some in splaying claws, some in sensory organs. The stone-set, cherubic face of a statue's head, mouth creaking open to speak, veins of black meat threading through the marble. The voice that issues from the tottering horror is calm, placid, monotone. The words deliver utter certainty, utter truth, unshrouded by the niceties of human discourse or even the sanity of the human mind. Passions chill and emotions run cold. You are in the presence of the Serene.

Pictured Iustitia, from Bayonetta:

[Thorbes]

I don't know, the first thing that came to mind was a Silt Strider with a stone querubs' face.

[Korogra]

I don't know, the first thing that came to mind was a Silt Strider with a stone querubs' face.

so much more terrifying than any Bayonetta angel XD

[Aiden]

Here is one I made for funsies. Thank you, Chris, for things like Forge Fastness and related powers from the High Cromlech.

CTHULHU

Rank: 5
Attributes: Power 15, Finesse 10, Resistance 15
Willpower: 10
Essence: 100
Initiative: 25
Defense: 15
Speed: 35 (29)
Size: 15 (60)
Corpus: 30 (135)
Armor: 15
Influences: Madness 5, Storms 5, Water 3
Numina: Awe, Dement, Hallucination, Implant Mission, Omen Trance, Regenerate, Stalwart, Telekinesis
Manifestations: Gauntlet Breach, Materialize, Reaching, R'lyeh Gateway, Shadow Gateway, Twilight Form
Essence Shaping: Forge Fastness, Forge Servant (Claimed, Spawn), Locus Manipulation, Shadow Warp
Dread Powers: Call Void Spirit, (Colossus), Crazed Evolution, Dead but Dreaming, Elemental Fury (Storms), Nightmare Plague
Ban: Must slumber until star configurations humans have deemed auspicious come to pass.
Bane: Human naval vessels.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn