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One of my biggest problems with Ephemeral Beings, from the perspective of someone who prefers their games much closer to the mortal power level, is that they are too heavy mechanically for something where, as far as mortals are concerned, Rank becomes a "you can only get rid of this thing with special tricks". And there's the fact that, well...
I prefer my spirits and ghosties to be a bit more of a break from reality - they're something that you drive off or propitiate in a psuedo-dream. Clearly, this means that these rules aren't going to work for, say, Werewolf or Geist. So, anyway...
My Assumptions:
1. Ephemeral Beings do not roll dice.
2. Ephemeral Beings lack a "health bar" entirely.
3. Ephemeral Beings are built entirely from Aspirations, Influences, Willpower, their Rank, and an Essence Capacity. Full stop - they can take Conditions and such, but otherwise? Nada. Tilts, especially, are entirely cosmetic on Ephemeral Beings.
4. "Kill the thing" is not a valid solution to your problems. You need to work through a Ghost's issues, starve a Spirit, or render an Angel's mission impossible.
The Basic Rules
Each Ephemeral Being possesses the following traits:
Rank: Every Ephemeral Being possesses a rank from 0 to 10; however, Ephemeral Beings with ranks beyond 5 fall entirely under the aegis of "plot device", so these rules only cover them from Rank 0 to Rank 5. They get additional benefits as given below:
*A side effect of a Rank 1 Ephemeral Being regaining Essence at an inappropriately aspected Locus; Ephemera do not normally fall this low.
Essence Capacity: All Ephemeral Beings possess an Essence Capacity, which determines how often they can throw around their spiritual weight. There are five levels of Essence Capacity, of which only three are applied to healthy Ephemeral Beings:
Alternatively, they may use a Low-Cost Influence to gain one additional Success, and can spend Willpower to add one Success to their total.
Additionally, Influences decide the supernatural powers of an Ephemeral Being - see the next post for more details.
Numinous Conditions: Some Ephemeral Beings are a bit more complex than just their Influences. As such, higher rank Ephemeral Beings possess a number of Numinous Conditions - a set of unique Persistent Conditions which define further traits of the Ephemeral Being. Due to the nature of Ephemeral Beings, Numinous Conditions rarely inflict any dice bonuses or penalties; instead, they redefine how the Ephemera gains or loses Willpower and Essence, and sometimes add additional powers not covered by their Influences.
Willpower: Ephemeral Beings all possess a number of Aspirations equal to the highest level of Influences they have (so an Angel with two Influences at High would possess three Aspirations). Upon completing an Aspiration, the Ephemeral Being gains one Willpower; additionally, Ephemera gain one Willpower whenever they would take a Beat from a Numinous Condition, as well as one Willpower when they recover from Dormant Capacity.
Bans and Banes: Ephemeral Beings possess Bans and Banes, limitations on their fundamental functionality. Ephemera cannot voluntarily take any actions that would break one of their Bans, and automatically resist any effect that would make them do so. Ephemeral Beings must spend one Willpower each turn they are in contact with their Bane or suffer the effects of spending a Scene in an area with Closed Essence.
The Essence Economy
Essence does not flow freely, and not all Essence is equally "tasty" to an Ephemeral Being. There are, effectively, four levels of appropriateness for Essence.
You have just filled your metaphorical belly with delicious, delicious Essence. It's pretty much the opposite of when a non-ephemeral being overeats. Treat your Essence Capacity as if it were one step higher; if you were already at High Capacity, you may use a High-cost Influence twice before refreshing. You may choose to forgo refreshing your Essence at the beginning of each Scene.
Beat: Spend a scene without spending any Essence.
Resolution: Refresh your Essence; you are forced to do so if you possess no more uses for your Influences.
I prefer my spirits and ghosties to be a bit more of a break from reality - they're something that you drive off or propitiate in a psuedo-dream. Clearly, this means that these rules aren't going to work for, say, Werewolf or Geist. So, anyway...
My Assumptions:
1. Ephemeral Beings do not roll dice.
2. Ephemeral Beings lack a "health bar" entirely.
3. Ephemeral Beings are built entirely from Aspirations, Influences, Willpower, their Rank, and an Essence Capacity. Full stop - they can take Conditions and such, but otherwise? Nada. Tilts, especially, are entirely cosmetic on Ephemeral Beings.
4. "Kill the thing" is not a valid solution to your problems. You need to work through a Ghost's issues, starve a Spirit, or render an Angel's mission impossible.
The Basic Rules
Each Ephemeral Being possesses the following traits:
Rank: Every Ephemeral Being possesses a rank from 0 to 10; however, Ephemeral Beings with ranks beyond 5 fall entirely under the aegis of "plot device", so these rules only cover them from Rank 0 to Rank 5. They get additional benefits as given below:
| Rank | Essence Capacity | Influences | Numinous Conditions |
| 0* | Starving | One at Low | None |
| 1 | Low | One at Low | None |
| 2 | Low | Two at Low, or One at Medium | One |
| 3 | Medium | Two at Medium | One |
| 4 | Medium | Three at Medium, or Two at High | Two |
| 5 | High | Three at High | Three |
Essence Capacity: All Ephemeral Beings possess an Essence Capacity, which determines how often they can throw around their spiritual weight. There are five levels of Essence Capacity, of which only three are applied to healthy Ephemeral Beings:
Dormant
An Ephemeral Being reduced to this Essence Capacity is forced into dormancy. Over time, they will slowly slide back Elsewhere, unless they are bound to a Vessal. A dormant Ephemeral Being may recover lost Capacity normally.
Starved
An Ephemeral Being starved of Essence is on damage control. They cannot use their Influences for anything other than spending Willpower.
Low
The weakest of "healthy" Ephemera, Ephemeral Beings with this level of Essence Capacity can use one Low-cost Influence before needing to refresh Essence.
Medium
The majority of powerful Ephemera possess Medium Capacity - this allows them to use two Low-cost Influences or one Medium-cost Influence before needing to refresh Essence.
High
Reserved for spirit lords and the higher choirs of angels, High Capacity allows an Ephemeral Being to use three Low-cost Influence, two Medium-cost Influences, or one High-cost Influence before needing to refresh Essence.
Influences: Influences come in three levels: Low, Medium, and High. Ephemera fail any action that is not at least tangentially related to their Influence. They receive one automatic Success on any action that is related to their Influences for each level they have (so a Ghost with a Medium Influence over Cats would have two Successes on any action involving cats). They lose one Success if the action is only tangentially related, but gain one Success if the action particularly resonates with their thematics.An Ephemeral Being reduced to this Essence Capacity is forced into dormancy. Over time, they will slowly slide back Elsewhere, unless they are bound to a Vessal. A dormant Ephemeral Being may recover lost Capacity normally.
Starved
An Ephemeral Being starved of Essence is on damage control. They cannot use their Influences for anything other than spending Willpower.
Low
The weakest of "healthy" Ephemera, Ephemeral Beings with this level of Essence Capacity can use one Low-cost Influence before needing to refresh Essence.
Medium
The majority of powerful Ephemera possess Medium Capacity - this allows them to use two Low-cost Influences or one Medium-cost Influence before needing to refresh Essence.
High
Reserved for spirit lords and the higher choirs of angels, High Capacity allows an Ephemeral Being to use three Low-cost Influence, two Medium-cost Influences, or one High-cost Influence before needing to refresh Essence.
Alternatively, they may use a Low-Cost Influence to gain one additional Success, and can spend Willpower to add one Success to their total.
Additionally, Influences decide the supernatural powers of an Ephemeral Being - see the next post for more details.
Numinous Conditions: Some Ephemeral Beings are a bit more complex than just their Influences. As such, higher rank Ephemeral Beings possess a number of Numinous Conditions - a set of unique Persistent Conditions which define further traits of the Ephemeral Being. Due to the nature of Ephemeral Beings, Numinous Conditions rarely inflict any dice bonuses or penalties; instead, they redefine how the Ephemera gains or loses Willpower and Essence, and sometimes add additional powers not covered by their Influences.
Willpower: Ephemeral Beings all possess a number of Aspirations equal to the highest level of Influences they have (so an Angel with two Influences at High would possess three Aspirations). Upon completing an Aspiration, the Ephemeral Being gains one Willpower; additionally, Ephemera gain one Willpower whenever they would take a Beat from a Numinous Condition, as well as one Willpower when they recover from Dormant Capacity.
Bans and Banes: Ephemeral Beings possess Bans and Banes, limitations on their fundamental functionality. Ephemera cannot voluntarily take any actions that would break one of their Bans, and automatically resist any effect that would make them do so. Ephemeral Beings must spend one Willpower each turn they are in contact with their Bane or suffer the effects of spending a Scene in an area with Closed Essence.
The Essence Economy
Essence does not flow freely, and not all Essence is equally "tasty" to an Ephemeral Being. There are, effectively, four levels of appropriateness for Essence.
Closed
If Essence is closed, it implies that the Ephemera in question is incapable of processing the resonances. At the beginning of each Scene, the Ephemeral Being either loses the Essence Glut condition or "uses" a single Low-cost Influence. This use simply drains Essence from the Being - if there are no uses left, their Essence Capacity drops by one step. In addition, reduce the number of automatic successes an Ephemeral Being gets by one for any action it attempts while in a Closed area.
Unlocked
This actually covers an umbrella of different ways an Ephemeral Being can subsist on Essence flows - each type of Ephemera having a different name for it. At the beginning of each Scene, the Ephemeral Being either refreshes their Essence or raises their Essence Capacity by one step, to a maximum of Low. In addition, Ephemeral Beings with High Capacity treat the area as Closed - the Essence simply is not rich enough to sustain them.
Open
If the Essence is open, the Ephemera can gorge themselves on. An area Open to a particular type of Essence allows appropriate Ephemera to raise their Essence Capacity all the way to the normal Capacity for the Rank - besides also being able to sustain a High Capacity Ephemeral Being, Open areas are treated as if they were Unlocked. There isn't an infinite amount of Essence to go around, however; at the end of any Scene where an Ephemeral Being raised their Essence Capacity to Medium or simply refreshed their Essence Capacity (for being with High Capacity), the area reverts to being Unlocked. If an Ephemeral Being raises their Essence Capacity to High, the area reverts immediately.
Locus
Loci are wellsprings of a particular type of Essence, and are one of the few places powerful enough to fully sustain a High Capacity Ephemeral Being. A Locus is considered to be an Open area with a rating from one to five. Over the course of a full day, an number of "packets" of excess Essence accumulate within the Locus. Whenever the area would revert to Open from refreshing Essence or raising Essence Capacity, it instead loses one of the packets. In addition, Ephemeral Beings may "eat" a packet, gaining the Essence Glut condition.
Inappropriate Loci
An Ephemeral Being may refresh or increase their Essence Capacity at a Locus that contains inappropriate Essence. If they do so, their Rank is reduced by 1, and they must replace one of their Influences with one appropriate to the Locus in question. Their lost Rank regenerates slowly over time, though the now-warped being is probably only tangentially related to what they were before.
Essence GlutIf Essence is closed, it implies that the Ephemera in question is incapable of processing the resonances. At the beginning of each Scene, the Ephemeral Being either loses the Essence Glut condition or "uses" a single Low-cost Influence. This use simply drains Essence from the Being - if there are no uses left, their Essence Capacity drops by one step. In addition, reduce the number of automatic successes an Ephemeral Being gets by one for any action it attempts while in a Closed area.
Unlocked
This actually covers an umbrella of different ways an Ephemeral Being can subsist on Essence flows - each type of Ephemera having a different name for it. At the beginning of each Scene, the Ephemeral Being either refreshes their Essence or raises their Essence Capacity by one step, to a maximum of Low. In addition, Ephemeral Beings with High Capacity treat the area as Closed - the Essence simply is not rich enough to sustain them.
Open
If the Essence is open, the Ephemera can gorge themselves on. An area Open to a particular type of Essence allows appropriate Ephemera to raise their Essence Capacity all the way to the normal Capacity for the Rank - besides also being able to sustain a High Capacity Ephemeral Being, Open areas are treated as if they were Unlocked. There isn't an infinite amount of Essence to go around, however; at the end of any Scene where an Ephemeral Being raised their Essence Capacity to Medium or simply refreshed their Essence Capacity (for being with High Capacity), the area reverts to being Unlocked. If an Ephemeral Being raises their Essence Capacity to High, the area reverts immediately.
Locus
Loci are wellsprings of a particular type of Essence, and are one of the few places powerful enough to fully sustain a High Capacity Ephemeral Being. A Locus is considered to be an Open area with a rating from one to five. Over the course of a full day, an number of "packets" of excess Essence accumulate within the Locus. Whenever the area would revert to Open from refreshing Essence or raising Essence Capacity, it instead loses one of the packets. In addition, Ephemeral Beings may "eat" a packet, gaining the Essence Glut condition.
Inappropriate Loci
An Ephemeral Being may refresh or increase their Essence Capacity at a Locus that contains inappropriate Essence. If they do so, their Rank is reduced by 1, and they must replace one of their Influences with one appropriate to the Locus in question. Their lost Rank regenerates slowly over time, though the now-warped being is probably only tangentially related to what they were before.
You have just filled your metaphorical belly with delicious, delicious Essence. It's pretty much the opposite of when a non-ephemeral being overeats. Treat your Essence Capacity as if it were one step higher; if you were already at High Capacity, you may use a High-cost Influence twice before refreshing. You may choose to forgo refreshing your Essence at the beginning of each Scene.
Beat: Spend a scene without spending any Essence.
Resolution: Refresh your Essence; you are forced to do so if you possess no more uses for your Influences.
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