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[Sunder the Gold]

But is that worth the cost? Blow out all your motes at once....

[Sunder the Gold]

What do you mean?

Though speaking of Dragon Kin Empowerment, that would definitely be one way for a Lore specialist (usually an Air Aspect using Air Charms for an Air Aura) to allow their Resistance specialist ally to actually use RHFD by handing over an Air Aura.

It would likewise empower a Melee specialist who wants to use Mela’s Forking Tongue at full power, but there aren’t a bunch of other out-of-place Air elemental pinnacle Charms to make me think this is a deliberate trend....

[Sunder the Gold]

Good riddance to shaping combat, and the people who wrote the Echo Charmset should have been paid for it.

[Sunder the Gold]

I'm still stuck on Terrestrial Resistance.


Resistance is the Earth Aspect's defensive Ability. They don't have Dodge, Ride, or Melee, and the Earth-aspected Charms in Brawl don't include any parrying Charms. But Resistance seems reluctant to serve the Earth Aspect.

What good does an Earth Aura do for you, with this Ability's Charms? It's great with Impervious Skin of Stone, especially if you want to use Balanced Dodge Charms and keep ISoS in reserve in case you fail to evade. It lets you use the basic Earth version of Earth Bears Witness. It lets you use Perfected...

[Sunder the Gold]

Zeniths aren’t the only ones who can be priests of the Sun. They are simply the ones who are the Sun’s priests automatically, even if they don’t want to be.

[Sunder the Gold]

And I'm not about to say that the Terrestrial Charmset is perfect.

I have no idea why the pinnacle Resistance Charm is Air-aspected and requires an Air Aura, when the only Resistance Charms for building an Air Aura is a specific application of Body-Cleansing Prana.

Now, it makes sense that the Air Signature Resistance Charm requires an Air Aura, because plenty of Signatures are useful (or accessible) only for Dragon-Blooded of the same Aspect, and anyone can grab a Signature Charm without buying any other Charm from the same Ability.

But how many Air Aspects...

[Sunder the Gold]

Thrown (Air) and Archery (Wood) depend on distance for defense. Thrown also has defensive Air Charms, and Archery has defensive Wood Charms.

Stealth Charms offer another form of defense for Thrown specialists, and most of its Charms are also Air-aspected. Ride Charms offer another form of defense for Archery specialists, and most of its Charms are also Wood-aspected.

Brawl (Water) has Water Charms for parrying and for grappling (which hinders or outright prevents the target from attacking).

Elusive Crosswind Defense is an Air Dodge Charm that works best at...

[Sunder the Gold]

Also, gods and Sidereals can't spend ambrosia in place of motes, Willpower points, health levels, Initiative, or anything else they might need to spend on Charms.

Ambrosia is a material resource not unlike firedust or a magical material. You can spend firedust to discharge a flame weapon, but anyone can do that, and it's ultimately no different from arrows or other forms of ammunition. You can use starmetal to forge artifacts, but raw starmetal does you no good in battle, you can only have so many artifacts attuned at once, and you have limited time too make starmetal artifacts or...

[Sunder the Gold]

If gossamer is a resource like motes or Willpower points, how should Raksha generate it?

Keeping in mind the very important detail that motes and Willpower are limited by an individual’s capacity for both, and no one can simply stockpile more over time.

So alternatively, gossamer might be a magical material used like metal or cloth, rather than fuel.

[Sunder the Gold]

Commoners aren’t Raksha; they’re Wyld creatures enslaved by Raksha.

Raksha are the PC splat.

[Sunder the Gold]

Should a Solar PC be able to become Queen Merela, or Desus, or Eternal Nova the Sword-Saint?

The only kind of characters that PCs shouldn't get support for becoming are Yozis and Metropoli....

[Sunder the Gold]

Age and experience.

You need to establish two power-levels: The PC starting floor level, and the ceiling where a PC's power should stop.

Another thing you need to establish is how MANY Raksha there are, and how likely you are to find multiple Raksha together.

There are vastly more Terrestrial Exalted than Celestial Exalted, and the Terrestrial Exaltation's hereditary nature means you're almost always going to encounter multiple Terrestrials together, and they're very likely to have built a power-base to assist them.

Raksha should likewise outnumber...

[Sunder the Gold]

I know, right?



I think it can work with Shou being a different sort of servant god to Bishamonten than the kind of role Nazrin plays.



I forget what the thing even does.



Ironically, elementals are the ONLY spirit in Exalted that permanently dies when you kill them the normal way, while Touhou fairies are supposed to be virtually impossible to permanently kill to remove the guilt of blowing them out of the sky in droves. But then, Touhou is supposed to be the sort of "kinder and softer" franchise which sweeps...

[Sunder the Gold]

I could also see her being a ghost possessed by envy.



Both of them could actually be Fire Elementals, with Utsuho having gained power by eating the corpse of a Greater Fire Elemental.



Could be a Celestial god servant of Bishamonten, which is pretty much what she is in Touhou; a divine mouse-person sent by her god to advise Shou and judge her worthiness. Like Jimminy Cricket, for becoming a Real War-God.


Byakuren might have used Solar Lore Charms to transform a tiger-themed Raksha into a god, whom Byakuren then introduced...

[Sunder the Gold]

Touhou Possibilities (not exhaustive)

Hakurei Reimu: Fire Aspect; Dawn Caste; Chosen of Battles; Exigent of the Hakurei Shrine's God
Kirisame Marisa: Fire Aspect; Twilight Caste; mortal sorceress, possible Exigent of Mima, or otherwise bestowed with power by whatever Mima was

Rumia: Wyld creature, possible newborn Raksha
Cirno: Air Elemental (possibly the strange reincarnation of a Greater Air Elemental, to explain her curious strength)
Meiling: ???
Patchouli Knowledge: Air Aspect; Chosen of Secrets; Exigent of some god of sorcery, knowledge, books,...

[Sunder the Gold]

I think this is great, but it does raise the question of whether there are warstriders that Lunars could not develop such an Evocation, thus making Relentless Lunar Fury inaccessible without one of the upgrades that allows you to activate it with other triggers....

[Sunder the Gold]

You either become a Dragon-Blood or you don’t. If you don’t, you’re better breeding stock than a random mortal but still not as good as a Dragon-Blood....

[Sunder the Gold]

Should beginner PC Raksha characters be balanced like Dragon-Blooded or Lunar Exalted?

Dragon-Blooded find it much more difficult to defend themselves against multiple attackers, and virtually impossible to attack multiple times or multiple targets in a single round, because they are meant to work in teams to fight the kind of battles that Celestial Exalted warriors can solo.

Should Raksha be at a similar level, with a greater assumption that they will be fighting with familiars or battle groups?

[Sunder the Gold]

I'm not sure what your point is.

There's nothing said about Maja's mirror that makes it out to be anything but mirror that was important to her, personally. Maybe it had powers, maybe it was a Treasure or an Oneiromancy, but that wouldn't make it a Freehold like Adeimantus's city appears to be. Not an invasive, parasitic disease upon the world.



Adeimantus' special bane is particular to him; his successor could have a different bane as well as a different vision for what kind of place the city should be.

Adeimantus' Charms are particular to him;...

[Sunder the Gold]

I wouldn’t be opposed to future Raksha having the power to eat parts of people they don’t care for in order to shape those people into something more interesting, with the consumption of those final interesting elements being a powerful harvest enjoyed only by Raksha in need of an immediate boost, or hedonists who have no care for regular retainers.

Raksha living on mortal worship through the Cult background also makes sense. Cultivate and breathe in adoration and/or fear....