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There's a few things DAT can do to be functional against strong opponents.

• Enjoy the onslaught bonus of the attack that generated it. So you DAT against def-1 and def-2.
• The secondary attack adds damage without sacrificing the hit threshold's bonus. Could be +dex for example, which is in line with other styles' damage adders, or +charge which starts low but overtakes if you maintain pressure
• Allow you some benefit on fail, like a partial refund.
• Allow you to attack secondary targets (seriously, look at its attached art!) in a limited fashion.

Other techniques to maintain and exploit that...

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"reality itself" is a valid term, but I'd be more specific about what in reality is rejecting them. Fate is an integral part of Creation, and precedes the divine rebellion.

After the war the rules changed. Reincarnation, for example, broke. Why wouldn't Fate also break a little?

Sidereals ever since became agents of fate, and are trusted to enforce it to their best judgment. Many understand (mostly because they don't understand jack) that on some level whatever they do pushes fate forward.
BUT, no matter how much their gift is from fate, it was bestowed...

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They are fine as a concept. Sidereals have special access to the very currents of fate and can use it to make Your Mom jokes, so abusing it hurts.

This can even be how their curse manifests if playing hubris as a problem of grand overarching world schemes proves inconducive to play. They wrested Creation's fate from its creators, so it's rather sore on them. This probably shouldn't really interact with your charms though. Keep it to Astrology and some vagaries of fate that you deliberately disobey.

Resplendent Destinies, likewise, are interesting. The world forgets them...

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Who is it designed for?


No one, really.

The solar craft set has very little salvageable. Maybe 15% of it is useful and the rest is either trash, useless or bizarre.

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Having played with it a couple times, i can comfortably say even its "teamwork bonus" falls within the half-assed "winmore" continuity.

It's fun when it hits, obviously, but it's so random or dependent that half the kick you get is from the difficulty itself rather than any merit of the style. It's complaining about WoW's fatigue system just to praise it's well-rested system right after.

The "bonus" of inflicting extra onslaught is not worth the the added costs, and the gambit makes you less likely to benefit from it.

I found...

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Hmm. Hard to say. Some things have long merged into the background of how I process my characters and games.

For my heaven's reach game, The Pretty Reckless are basically living the same kind of shenanigans as the Bebop crew.
For our blessed isle game, whatever it started as we have slowly transitioned to something more akin to Akatsuki no Yona because at some point the three sidereals' shenanigans revolving around our rebellious fire aspect dynast meshed well with the couple times we snuck some sense in her cantankerous head.



And that's about it....

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It sure can.
As a matter of fact, it did! There are lunar holdings that openly defy the Realm, even today.

Why would you think a scattered lunar host would fare better than this against an organized, if wounded, power that has beaten them on better days?...

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My take is that standard demesnes are actually fairly common. Any nomadic settlement is likely to stumble on a few every decade; or their route approaches a couple. Settlements well off enough to have people traveling in and out of it probably charted a couple within reach as well.

Demesnes, being untamed magical places, are perfect for things like traditional adulthood rituals centered on survival, courage or strength. The place is probably going to be tapped in some practical but dangerous practice (even just poaching and trapping may qualify). They serve a role similar to a bordermarch...

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Geomancy is not an ever-present necessity like, say, prayer or water, but it's still pretty high up in the importance scale.

It being a complicated thing whose work is low-key terraforming, you can expect it to be expensive, and for big powers to take interest.
You can also expect any major hub to have geomancers or relatively easy access to them.

Non-Realm geomancers should be plentiful. The Guild, as mentioned, is a prime collector of those. Any city big enough to have access to a demesne should have them too. Avoiding the Realm's eyes is more an extension of...

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Eating Mental Anguish may be a little better depending how liberally you interpret the text. It puts a strong emphasis on emotions, which is not entirely covered by intimacies and limit. Inspire actions have very similar effects, are literally pure emotion overflowing, emulate intimacies for some purposes (it takes the place of a major intimacy to help/hinder persuasions) and are much easier to pull in combat.

A social character can reasonably pull this off in combat unless every party involved pays the wp (which is not a waste! especially if you combo to expect that like a Nightingale...

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In my experience such artifacts are neglected, and don't really matter for the discussion at hand. In a couple games I have seen them literally being discarded or pawned off for a political favor.


Leave it to the exalted to scoff at such precious treasures

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I'd allow both. The latter, of course, is a lot more permissive....

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You're mostly stuck with the E1-2 range.

For example, Iron Battle Focus, Ferocious Jab, Devil-Strangling Attitude, Blade-Rebuking Wrath. A onslaught defense, a damage enhancer, a grabber gets extra grabby, and anyone foolish enough to stab your cat will lose his sword and maybe his hand.

The charm that turns these on needs not be too expensive either. 4m, scene or 5m scene is plenty.

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I'd stick to a very specific list of brawl charms. Two onslaught lockers is probably too much, for example, but adding onslaught to raw damage should be fine.

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Then it's no marble and all iron, yeah. I don't imagine the gutters of malfeas are very safe. Groups that survive there long enough are probably closer to a mad max gang.

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I imagine a human settlement favored by a green sun prince or second circle demon will be quite comfortable, if still alien. Every deadly thing known to man compensated for and safeguarded. Luxuries that would never exist in Creation. An ever-present awe of the serfs and servants and guests over their patron....