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Eternal Material Style

By Wordman

Submitted on 14 Mar 2007 at 09:44:54 AM EDT
Last updated on 04 May 2007 at 08:51:01 AM EDT

Charm Tree graph

Category: Celestial Martial Arts

Default Trait: Martial Arts

Eternal Material Style is an esoteric style based on the five magical materials. It begins as a terrestrial level martial art, eventually bridging into celestial martial arts via its own enlightening path. (Note, Lore 5 can’t really handle this, only allowing a tree to be in one category. Initially I chose terrestrial as that category, but this appears to have confused some reviewers.) It contains multiple forms and both enhances and is limited by items of the five magical materials. Portions of this page make use of certain terminology refinements and use a reference standard for page references.

History

Coincident with the solar Wyr’palja’s experiments with advanced circles of magical alchemy, was her acquisition of a retinue of young terrestrials, anxious to learn the ways of her power. While she was primarily interested in teaching them the ways of alchemy, they were anxious to learn more practical magic, particularly the higher martial arts. Knowing the best student is a self-motivated one, Wyr’palja decided the challenge of incorporating both studies at once was a worthy one and together, she and her students spent the next few decades studying various materials and alchemical lessons and how to internalize them into a martial art. Though this taught the terrestrials a great deal of alchemy, its martial arts enlightenment was limited until they began to focus on the five magical materials themselves, particularly how they interacted with essence and with each other. Progress came quickly then, mostly with the realization that the materials acted in a progression up to the celestial sphere, just as they were attempting to do with their martial arts style.

Wyr’palja referred to the magical materials collectively as the “eterna”. The style based on their study became known as the Eternal Material Style. While never hugely popular in the First Age, it was well documented and knowledge of it was widely distributed, particularly among alchemists and artificers. Many of its practitioners were killed during the Usurpation and, afterwards, a schism developed between those that remained. Much of this was ultimately caused by political divisions in the scramble for power in building the Shogunate, but it was justified as a philosophical split, though little knowledge remains of its particulars. One side, largely made up those swayed by contemporary research into alchemy, considered the style to be somehow incomplete. The other side, largely made of of artificers, rejected this claim, as to do so was to admit their knowledge of the Eterna was incomplete.

The chaos following the Great Contagion obliterated this schism, as it did most everything else, but ultimately saw it resolved as well. As knowledge of the Eternal Material Style reached the Underworld, those who studied it there knew the alchemists to be correct: the style lacked the knowledge of soulsteel. Though it is unclear exactly where the knowledge of how to integrate the dark metal into the style originated (most suspect one Deathlord or another), minions of the underworld tracked down those who practiced the style in creation, and saw to it that they knew how to do so, though the motivation for this is as mysterious as the origin of the charms.

As this was occurring, the tenants of the Immaculate Philosophy were being codified. Unaware of the developments of soulsteel charms, an terrestrial whose name has been lost to history made a compelling argument that the Eternal Material Style fit into the Immaculate Philosophy, largely by playing up the idea of a progression to enlightenment and connecting the eterna with the Immaculate Dragons and the gods, rather than the anathema. Though many remained unconvinced, this argument allowed the style to avoid being declared heretical for nearly two centuries. At that point, however, the style’s connection to soulsteel became known and, combined with a different political climate, the style was banned from the Empire.

Presently, the style is largely forgotten in Creation, practiced only by a handful of outcaste artificers. It is referenced in a number of alchemical texts, so even mortal alchemists have heard of it, some have even managed to learn part of the style. Outside of Creation, a small subculture of Fair Folk know the style, experimenting with how gossamer plays into it. At least one abyssal alchemist is a master. A number of spirits know the style as well, mostly gods related to alchemy, artificing or the magical materials themselves.

Mechanics

Charms of this style begin as terrestrial martial arts charms. They eventually progress into celestial martial arts, providing an enlightening path along the way. The style features many interlocking charm effects, so many of the charms, taken individually, are weaker than typical for their essence level, particularly some of the early charms. More complete than most, the style contains enhancement for all five of the main combat categories (attack, damage, defense, mobility, soak); however, it has unusual interactions with gear selection, where the materials of the gear you choose create limitations as well as bonuses. In particular, while the style supplies many options, the gear you select commits and, in some ways, limits you to choosing one set of options over another before the fight begins.

Weapons and Armor: Unsurprisingly for a style based on magical materials, weapons and armor play a significant role in this art. As a general rule, charms of this style may be used with up to and including medium armor and with any one-handed close-combat weapons. In practice, this style is more concerned with the material of the weapon or armor than its shape and many charms offer restrictions or bonuses based on the material of the weapon or armor being used. In the descriptions below, phrases talking about an item “made from”, “fashioned from”, “of” or otherwise constructed of some magical material act as a shorthand for the following requirements:

Complementary Abilities: Being based on the magical materials, this style requires a great deal of knowledge of these metals, their use and their properties. Mechanically, this requires that students of this style have Lore 2, Occult 2 and Craft (Fire) at least as high as their Martial Arts rating.

Path of Study

Students of this style start by studying exceptional, yet mundane, materials found in Creation, an applying lessons learned from them to their fighting technique. The charms based on these materials are terrestrial martial arts charms that are elementally neutral. Terrestrial exalts of any aspect may cast them without paying a surcharge.

Having mastered the lesser exotic materials, the student graduates to true magic, delving into the mysteries of jade. Lessons learned from this material are considered terrestrial martial arts, each with their own elemental aspect.

Demonstrating their understanding of jade prepares the martial artist for ascension into the Bulb of the Perfected Lotus, which this style equates with the celestial metals. Charms at this level are celestial martial arts charms and are elementally neutral.

Ratings
Submission Rating: Description: -1 | Rules: -1 | Originality: +0

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Description: -1 | Rules: -1 | Originality: +0 - Ledaal Kajiri (about 1 year)

The style is definatelly creative, I'll give it that. On the otherhand, Terrestrial styles generally do not focus on metaphysical or magical concepts, and even Celestial styles generally focus on a single idea or ideal, and not all the magical materials. If anything, thematically this would be a Sidereal style, which some charms approach or exceed the power level of, while other are useless in the extreme. This style is poorly thought out, and mechanically broken, both being too strong, and too weak simulataneously, while ignoring the general benchmarks for what makes a Terrestrial or Celestial style.

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Copyright White Wolf Publishing, Inc.

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