Building a Character: Exalted Essence (Another Alchemical!)

Hey there, back again with another magical robot Exalt for the blog. In case you missed it, the Alchemicals Backerkit is running and going into its last week. Here's a second Essence Alchemical character, and as soon as I can swing it I'll post a core system version using the crowdfunding manuscript preview material.

In case you missed it, I've already posted an Adamant Caste Alchemical based in Creation, and you can follow that link for the basic gist of what the Alchemical Exalted are and where they come from. (Also, there's a bunch of fluff from that write-up that's relevant to this one but for the sake of brevity I'll just refer back to it rather than repeat myself more than necessary.) But now I'm going to do an Alchemical based in Autochthonia itself -- a Jade Caste, this time.

So let's get into it.

Step 0: Session Zero

Okay, so again, I'm doing these without a group, and while I am picking a 'default' nation for this character, I imagine conceptually she could probably be transplanted into most of the other nations of the Octet with little difficulty.

Actually, y'know what, I'll take a moment here to talk about Autochthonia as a setting. As one of the Titans, Autochthon the Great Maker's body is a world all its own, though a little more limited in scope than the warped body of Malfeas. Autochthonia itself is the Realm of Brass and Shadows, a mechanical world where nothing green grows and the sun has never been seen. It's a harsh existence, and the people of the Eight Nations -- the Octet -- work to maintain the mechanisms of the Great Maker's god-body, to help him sustain them.

I'm not doing a deep dive into the setting here, for the record, just very broad surface-level stuff. The character I've got in mind here could potentially fit into any of the Eight Nations, or with a little adjustment areas outside them -- like the independent city-states of Loran and Xexas. Each city in Autochthonia is an Alchemical that refined their Essence and grew to a level of power that they 'installed' themselves into the god-body's structure to take care of the mortals and maintain the infrastructure. Each of the Nations was founded by one of the groups of mortals brought into Autochthonia by the Great Maker, whose leaders' souls were incorporated into some of the earliest Alchemical Champions.

I mean, for the sake of argument, we'll say she's from Claslat, the largest of the Eight Nations and known for their dabbling with capitalism as a concept (which is not normally a thing in the Octet as we understand it). But anyhow, I'm gonna stop a setting ramble there because we've got a character to make.

Step 1: Concept

Unlike Clear Thought, my Adamant Caste, this character's going to be much more physical, a Jade Caste whose primary purpose and drive is to protect workers in dangerous areas (which you kinda have to grade on a curve). Jade Castes tend to be heroes of the people and the closest to the common people of Autochthonia, and this character -- Enduring Rampart -- will be no exception. Her structure is going to be a combination of white and black jade, reflecting strength and resilience (among other things), with panels patterned in a vaguely-striped pattern like a hazard sign. I imagine her physical form is going to be muscular and bulky, perhaps to the point of being over-developed on the shoulders and arms -- not freakishly so, but she definitely looks like she skips leg day.

So as with before, I note the three Advantages of the Alchemical Exalted: Living Artifact, which lets them copy Artifact Evocations. Next, there's Community Spirit, reflecting the bonds they form with their communities, which in this case is going to be the workers of Claslat (or whatever nation she winds up in). She gets a special ability from this, and I'm honestly just going to use one of the examples from the book -- Her Defense increases by 2 when using defend other on a community member. I could alternately go with an attack bonus, but I like the idea of her being more of a defensive figure. And finally, she has Resonance with jade.

So now we get into the Jade Caste advantages. Her passive anima ability is going to be Friendly Face. She can befriend trivial characters without a roll, and they feel immediately inclined to do a favor for her. Her active anima ability, which kicks in when her banner's high enough, is Hard as Jade: She can spend anima to increase her Soak for the turn. And when she hits iconic, she can spend 5 anima to activate Stalwart Rock for the scene. When it's active, she and any of her allies within short range add half her Essence, rounded up, to Soak. As long she's physically present and conscious, Followers and trivial targets under her protection cannot be harmed.

Actually, while I'm on the subject, I should describe her anima banner -- I'm thinking a framework of interlocking armored plates sweeping out like protective arms or forming a shield to defend her charges from danger.

Step 2: Attributes

Okay, you should know the drill by now. Attributes, three of them. Force 3, Finesse 2, and Fortitude 4. She's meant to reflect endurance and solidity. She takes hits and pushes back. Boom. Done.

Step 3: Abilities

And now we get into the things she's good at. As a reminder, ExEss characters start with one Ability at 5, one at 4, three at 3, two at 2, and then one 1. 

So let's just lean into the archetype we've been building, which means her rating of 5 is going to go into Physique and 4 into Close Combat. Why this order? Because while she protects her people from monsters and spirits out in the Reaches, I think of her as being less about fighting skill and more about holding up the falling ceiling, or shielding a worker from an explosion.

The 3's are going into Integrity, Craft, and Navigate. She can stand up to mental duress, build/repair things, and well-versed in survival skills. She's gonna have a 2 in Presence, so she can get peoples' attention and give orders, and, hm... oh, Awareness. Actually, y'know what, I'm gonna swap Awareness and Navigate to be 3 and 2 respectively, that makes more sense in retrospect. And that leaves a single dot, which is going to go into... hm, let's go with Athletics, so she's at least vaguely capable of speed and grace in the moment.

Obviously this is gonna leave some gaps in terms of social skills, learning, and worst of all ranged combat, but nobody can be good at everything. Like I said, there's an archetype here, and right now that archetype is reflected with Athletics 1, Awareness 3, Close Combat 4, Craft 3, Integrity 3, Navigate 2, Physique 5, Presence 2.

Step 4: Charms

Here's where the magic happens. There's a 'Stalwart Defender' sample Charm layout in the book, and I'm inclined to crib heavily off of that.

So I start with an Excellency or Ox Body Technique, and for once I'm gonna go with Ox Body Technique. Ox Body is a long-time staple of Exalted, a Charm so standardized that every Exalt has always a version of it under that name (though sometimes renamed for Alchemicals, as Autochthonia doesn't have oxen). ExEss handles this by having it as a Universal Charm with Modes reflecting individual Exalts' capabilities. So by default, this increases her base Soak by one and gives her an additional -1 Health level, and as an Alchemical she gets an additional -0 Health level and she can repurchase it a number of times equal to her Fortitude.

Next, getting into other Charms, we're gonna start with Loyal Guardian Approach, which lets her commit a mote to take reflexive 'defend other' actions for the scene for anyone within close range. And as an Alchemical, she gets the Essence Shield Mode, which increases her Defense and Soak by 1 when she does so. Perfect. Iron Kettle Body feels like a natural fit as well, as it lets her crank up her Soak against threats and use her Soak against environmental damage if it comes from a magical source.

Two Charms left, and let's see here... well, first, let's go with Power Gathering Temper, a Physique Charm that lets her gain Power from successful attacks on her. And now I'll pick something offensive... Guard-Breaking Technique sounds good. It lets her reduce an enemy's Defense or Soak depending on the type of attack she's making, and it has an Alchemical Mode (Efficient Strike Calibration) that lets her increase the damage roll of a decisive attack.

You may notice that these are all Universal Charms, and that's because I just didn't see any Alchemical-exclusive Charms that really fit what I was going for, though a couple were close.

Speaking of which, to describe how the Charms 'fit' in, the Ox Body Technique is going to be represented by armored plates and reinforcing struts within her structure. Essence Shield/Loyal Guardian Approach is going to appear as crystalline lattices among the plates meant to project a protective energy barrier. Patches of metal mesh among the armored plates will move and adjust to damage to increase her soak with Iron Kettle Body, perhaps supplemented by the energy shield mechanisms for use against environmental damage. That'll be supplemented nicely by kinetic energy collectors, which is where the boost from Power-Gathering Temper comes from. Specially-altered joints will allow for better disabling attacks with Efficient Strike Calibration/Guard-Breaking Technique.

Again, I don't have to go out of the way to describe all this, but I wanted to get it down for description's sake if Enduring Rampart changes anything via the Rite of Reconfiguration. I forgot to note this on Clear Thought (because I kept missing the text referencing it before), but once per story, an Alchemical can use the Rite to swap out a Charm for one with similar prerequisites -- for instance, if impending circumstances would mean that Spirit Strengthens the Skin, Malady-Resisting Meditation, or Material Resistance Procedure (from the Alchemical list) would be more useful than Iron Kettle Body, she could have parts swapped out and reconfigured to do that.

Step 5: Merits

So for Merits, I'm either gonna go with the 'one of each tier' as per normal, or might go with two secondary instead of one primary and one secondary, because I don't know what I'd pick for a primary. So we'll start from the ground up.

The Tertiary Merit is going to be Resources. Autochthonia provides for its Champions, and I could probably justify this at a higher level, but it's a matter of priorities. And that means having Influence as the Secondary Merit: Enduring Rampart is a hero of the people, and loved and respected by many. Such is the way of the Jade Caste.

Now we get to the third, and I'm not sure what I want here. I'm tempted to go with either a Secondary Ally (possibly a spirit of some sort) or maybe a Primary Artifact, possibly a weapon to better reflect her protective role. I could also just go with a Secondary Artifact, and just might, though I feel like at that point I may as well go for broke. Like... oh, I know.

I've got a mental image of an Artifact weapon, a grand goremaul -- a warhammer so stupidly big that most Exalts can't lift it without attuning to it. The mental image that comes to mind is something like the Hastening Hammer from Octopath Traveler 2. (Apologies for the video link, for the life of me I couldn't find a simple image of the damn thing.) Maybe its structure shifts as it moves around, so its balance can be maintained -- there might even be some tech similar to gyroscopic throwing weapons in there. Not that you could throw this thing.

I dunno exactly what powers it'd have off-hand, and I'm sure what I come up with on the fly already exists somewhere in some version of the system (not that that's a problem, as it makes writing up Evocations easier), but I'm imagining something that builds up momentum as it's used, maybe even capable of storing it for massive bursts of power or something. I'm admittedly taking a little inspiration from the Titan Weapons power set from City of Heroes.

On reflection, I'm tempted to at least rework the presentation as a mace, the 'ball and chain' sort that was probably never actually used in battle outside of fiction. This wouldn't be flexible enough to be mechanically different from the 'standard' grand goremaul, but I'm imagining something a character could at least whirl around and build up speed. Maybe at first it looks like just a giant ball of metal chunks stuck together, until you pick it up by the handle and start swinging it and a haft forms. Regardless, I think I'll call it the Orbital Impactor until/unless I come up with something better later.

It needs an ability, as well, and... y'know, looking at the sample goremaul in the ExEss book (the Fist of Titans, which also has a write-up in Arms of the Chosen) for inspiration, I think I'll just swipe that basic ability and reskin it. Without copypasting the mechanics here, it lets you charge up the hammer by taking aim actions, which according to Arms represents drawing power from dragon lines but this version will be swinging it around to build up momentum. Nice, I like that. I'll have to take a closer look at how Autochthonian hearthstones work and see if I need to change the part of it that involves socketed Earth hearthstones -- though I do imagine this probably being primarily made of white jade as well, so maybe that'll be fine.

Anyhow, I've spent far too long worrying about an artifact hammer for a hypothetical character.

Step 6: Virtues and Intimacies

Okay, now let's build Enduring Rampart's moral/philosophical framework. I pick a Major and Minor Virtue, and we're gonna go with, in this order, Compassion and Courage. She puts herself out there for her people, tries to do right by those she's protecting, and won't balk at danger. Maybe she puts herself at risk a little more than she should, and/or perhaps is willing to stand between the workers and a difficult boss (which is an awkward position for Alchemicals to be in, though more common for Jade Castes than most).

So let's narrow this down with intimacies. I choose at least one Major and two Minors (and tie each to a Virtue), and if any more occur to me I'm gonna keep going with it.

So as a Major Intimacy, we're going to have a principle tied to Compassion: "Everyone deserves to be protected behind a fortress wall." Kind of leaning into the 'rampart' theme, this character believes everyone deserves safety and security, and she sees it as her goal to provide that. Though the fact that my instinctive phrasing focuses on her charges and not her immediate duty makes me wonder how she'd react to the Tunnel Folk who live outside traditional Octet society.

So let's actually make that a Minor Intimacy: "Tunnel Folk (Fascination)", also tied to Compassion. She doesn't know much about the Tunnel Folk, not having had much time to get to know them, but there's a part of her that wants to learn about how they survive, and perhaps whether or not they need their own protectors. 

(She might also come to the conclusion that maybe they need to be brought into the cities, and I'm fully aware there's a lot of potential thorny moral and political issues there, as there are parallels with how Western cultures often address indigenous societies. And maybe that would be an interesting element to explore in play via this character, if the group and themes of the game are up for it.)

The other Minor Intimacy is going to be tied to Courage, and it's going to be another principle: "I must be the wall that never crumbles." This also goes back to the fact that maybe she puts herself out a little more than she should, and perhaps might even push herself a little too hard to be stoic in the face of adversity. She might have trouble making friends among the mortals she protects, because she doesn't want them to see her moments of weakness. (And now that I type this out, I'm imagining my therapist giving me a 'listening intently' look as she gets ready to say something, and anyone who knows me likely knows why I say that.)

I think I'm going to leave the Intimacies there, as I can't think of anything that needs to be strictly codified at the moment and I'm worried about getting into too deep of a rabbit hole on this character. But if I got into a game, there'd probably be Intimacies tied to NPCs, other PCs, etc. I'm thinking there'd definitely be a Minor Intimacy tied to whatever workers she's protecting, and... y'know, I'll at least write up a placeholder Minor Intimacy one: Workers, TBD (Protective), we'll say tied to Compassion.

Oh, right, I just remembered that I should mention the Alchemical Great Curse. As with Clear Thought (whose post has a more-detailed explanation of this phenomenon), Enduring Rampart runs the risk of succumbing to Crisis Behavior if she acts against her Major Virtue or Intimacies, or if a community she has an Intimacy towards is threatened, ignores her advice, or openly disdains her help. When that happens, she's likely to mute her emotions and perhaps go too far to protect 'her people.'

Step 7: Finishing Touches

And here's where we fill in blank spots, derived values, etc.

Her Essence rating starts at 1. Check.

Because I actually took Ox Body Technique on a character for once, Enduring Rampart starts with nine health levels instead of seven: three 0, three -1, two -2, and Incapacitated.

Her Parry is her highest Attribute (4) + Close Combat (4), divided by two and rounded up. Which means... 4. Her Evasion is the same Attribute + Athletics (1), divided and rounded up to 3. Unless something says makes her use the Evasion or otherwise changes things, she'll have a default of Defense 4.

Next is Soak. It starts at 1, gains an additional 1 because her Physique is above 3, and another 1 from Ox Body Technique. She's probably gonna have armor in the field, and she's got Soak-increasing Charms, but she's gonna start at Soak 3, which is pretty decent for a starting character. Her Hardness starts at 2 plus any applicable armor bonuses, plus her Essence, for a total of Hardness 3.

Next is her Resolve, which starts at 2 and gets bumped up to Resolve 4 because of her Integrity rating (+1 at 1, and another +1 at 3), and in social situations her Virtues and Intimacies can alter it.

Now we do equipment, and I don't normally assume equipment for characters beyond artifacts, but it's probably a safe bet that Enduring Rampart wears light armor, so I'll go ahead and factor that in (it just increases her Soak by 1). She could wear heavy, but that has a mobility penalty that can apply to enduring the environment and I can see that being an issue in Autochthonia.

But anyhow, I think that covers things, so now we get the part you've probably just skipped to...