Character:Thelaos

Thelaos
Dawn
Deposed King

Motivation

To humble the rulers of Creation and whoever takes their place when the dust of the coming conflicts settles.

Anima

Thelaos's totemic anima banner is a great white stag with fur that moves like windswept grass, shimmering with gold. Its eyes glow bright gold.

By spending 10 motes of Essence, the character can appear huge and terrifying for the remainder of the scene (or until she chooses to let the effect dissipate). The character appears taller and fiercer, with a terrible visage, burning eyes and a deadly rending grasp. This effect comes into play automatically once the Solar spends 11-15 motes of Peripheral Essence.
Unless a creature has a Valor greater than the Ascending Sun’s Essence, he is unable to look directly at the character or strongly oppose her. The Exalt gains +2 to her DV against affected characters. Players of mortals must also make Valor rolls for their characters when they are facing one of the Bronze Tigers. Mortals (and normal animals) that fail flee in terror of the wrathful apparition that confronts them. Golems, automata, the walking dead and other creatures that do not know fear cannot be affected by this anima power.

Attributes

PHYSICAL: Strength 4, Dexterity 5, Stamina 3
SOCIAL: Charisma 3, Manipulation 2, Appearance 2
MENTAL: Perception 3, Intelligence 3, Wits 3

Abilities

Caste Abilities

Archery 3
Martial Arts 2
Melee 5 (Swords 3)
War 2

Favored Abilities

Integrity 4
Presence 3
Medicine 3
Occult 2
Dodge 3

Unfavored Abilities

Resistance 3
Lore 1
Athletics 3
Awareness 3
Ride 2
Socialize 1

Backgrounds

Influence 2

Thelaos is very well-known throughout the Hundred Kingdoms as a deposed king and a warrior of truly masterful skill and accomplishment by any mortal standard. Some admire him, some pity him, and some despise him, but many know his name and some version of his story.

Resources 3

Thelaos has neither his crown nor his band of warriors any longer, but these things left him with enough wealth to carry him through the past several years.

Artifact 3

First Blade of the Rising Sun
Stolen from the abyssal who orchestrated Thelaos's downfall. The slender Daiklave is as beautiful as the rising sun, and as awe-inspiring as those Exalted who share the morning's name. The blade is forged from enchanted glass, suffused with random arcs of sunlight, and edged in orichalcum. Orichalcum filigree also dances upon the blade and in the light of the morning this filigree forms the sword's name in Old Realm upon it.
When struck by this weapon, Thelaos's opponents are delivered a fraction of the might of the Unconquered Son. Each hit causes a cumulative -1 internal penalty on all actions, up to a maximum of -4. This manifests as physical weakness or trembling from the sheer force of the weapon's power. The effect lasts until the end of the scene.

Blue Jade Hearthstone Bracers

Manse 3

Fire Dragon's Scale
This wedge-shaped piece of cat’s eye protects its bearer with heat drawn from the Elemental Pole of Fire. The stone channels this heat into any melee weapon that strikes the bearer. Metal weapons instantly become red hot and wooden weapons catch fire. The player of the weapon’s wielder must succeed at a Willpower roll, difficulty 3, or the wielder drops the weapon. Even if this roll succeeds, however, the attacker suffers environmental damage from holding onto the burning or heated weapon (1L/action damage, trauma 1). Fire-aspected Terrestrial Exalted who have ignited their animas are immune to the effects of this hearthstone.

Mentor 2

Niasios came as close as anyone ever had to uniting the Hundred Kingdoms five hundred years ago, successfully heading a coalition of leaders bent on conquering the region. His intentions began with the greater good, but degraded into entitlement and hubris as he made concessions to other kings and warlike spirits in order to secure one victory after another. He was exalted by the Unconquered Son at the height of his power, sealing his fate. He was able to wage three more decisive and spectacularly bloody battles as one of the "forsaken," but the Wyld Hunt joined his enemies during the last of them. Niasios was destroyed and his allies crushed.
His ghost lingered. His descendants and his entire kingdom had been branded with his stigma, and his legacy in the end was only arrogance and death. He was not worshipped like his own anscestors had been - he was seen as a demon and a black mark on his family's history. His family and his people mostly recovered from the damage he had done within a few generations, but no one ever truly forgot.
Hundreds of years later, when Thelaos was near death and humbled by defeat, Niasios came to him to offer the guidance that none of his descendants would accept in the past.

Charms

Melee

First Melee Excellency
Dipping Swallow Defense
Unassailable Ward Method
Bulwark Stance
Fivefold Bulwark Stance
Heavenly Guardian Defense(Temperance)
Fire and Stones Strike
Hungry Tiger Technique
One Weapon, Two Blows
Peony Blossom Attack
Iron Whirlwind Attack

Medicine

Second Medicine Excellency
Wound-Mending Care Technique

Occult

Spirit-Detecting Glance

Presence

First Presence Excellency
Enemy-Castigating Solar Judgment

Integrity

Second Integrity Excellence

Athletics

Increasing Strength Exercise

Combos

Wrath of Heaven (First Melee Excellency, Fire and Stones Strike, Hungry Tiger Technique, Enemy-Castigating Solar Judgment, Heavenly Guardian Defense)

Intimacies

• Niasios
• The "Innocent"
• First Blade of the Rising Sun

Essence

Essence: 3
Peripheral: 27/41
Personal: 17/17
Committed: 14

Willpower

8/8

Virtues

Compassion: 2 (2)
Conviction: 2 (2)
Temperance: 4 (3)
Valor: 4 (2)

Limit Break

Righteous Humility
Overcome with comntempt for arrogance and perceived abuse of power or station, Thelaos will go to any lengths to bring the object of his frustration low. He will destroy inanimate objects and beat his target within an inch of its life, settling for nothing less than weeping, whimpering and begging for mercy. If the target will not submit, its death serves as a lesson for others. Once one is finished, Thelaos moves on to any other obvious targets in the area, including everything from exalts to those who would presume to have a beast of burden carry their weight.
Partial Control: Thelaos leaves his close allies out of it.
Duration: One scene in combat
Limit Break Condition: Thelaos is thwarted by the hubris of another.

Limit: 2/10

Equipment

Orichalcum Daiklave: Speed 5, Accuracy +4, Damage +6L, Defense +3, Rate 4
Exceptional Straight Sword of Coldness: Speed 4, Accuracy +3, Damage +4L(+2L), Defense +2, Rate 2
Fine Long Bow of Lightness: Speed 5, Accuracy +2, Rate 3, Range 200
Arrows (7 of each Broadhead, Frog Crotch and Target)

Reinforced Breastplate of Solidity: Soak 9L/8B, Mobility -2, Fatigue 1
Jade Hearthstone Bracers: -1 Speed, +3 DDV dice

Combat

Join Battle: 6

Daiklave: Speed 4, Attack 17, Damage 10(13), PDV 8, Rate 4
Sword: Speed 3, Attack 16, Damage 8(11)+2L, PDV 8, Rate 2
Long Bow: Speed 4, Attack 10, Damage 6/4/8, Range 200, Rate 3
Punch: Speed 4, Attack 8, Damage 4(7)B, PDV 5, Rate 3
Kick: Speed 4, Attack 7, Damage 7(10)B, PDV 4, Rate 2
Clinch: Speed 5, Attack 7, Damage 4(7)B, PDV -, Rate 1

Soak: 9A/10L/11B
Dodge DV: 4 (+3 dice)

HL: -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Inc

History

Thelaos was born into the royalty of a nation with a shameful legacy of terrible violence. As such, though he trained and studied all his life for battle, he, as king - like his father and his grandfather - went to war only in defense of his country. Part of him wanted glory and more of the conquest constantly attempted by others in his corner of the Scavenger Lands, and this part of him only overcame his judgement when the abyssal servant of an unknown deathlord devised a plan to create a shadowland in the heart of the Hundred Kingdoms.

Thelaos was one of many mortal pawns in the schemes of this deathknight. He was drawn into the dark plan by his own aspirations of power, joining four other kings in an effort to extend their influence more vastly than anyone in the Hundred Kingdoms had managed in centuries. The abyssal had propped up their opposition as well, and orchestrated some of the bloodiest battles ever seen in the kingdoms since the invasion of the Arczeckh Hordes. Thelaos and his allies lost, and he was exiled from his own war-ravaged lands with a few of hundred of his men - the only remainder of his influence. The deathknight's work was not yet done, and he offered Thelaos another chance. Bitter and angry, the former king took it, leading his men and an army of mercenaries supplied by the abyssal to retake his legacy. Only when he witnessed his benefactor summoning demons and undead to slaughter both sides did he understand the stranger's true nature. Thelaos took as many of his men as he could - only a dozen, in the end - and retreated from the battle as it was consumed by an ever-growing shadowland. He found some refuge in one of the Scavenger Lands' many ruins - a keep that had lain just beyond the border of his kingdom since before the contagion. His men left the keep to find their own ways and he stayed within its crumbling walls for days, the reality and gravity of his failure setting in. It was here that the ghost of Niasios materialized and confronted him. Thelaos, frustrated and angry, called Niasios a demon and accused him of the very same pride that he had allowed to conquer himself. The two fought, and the ancient ghost defeated Thelaos.

The deposed king was done. Much as his failure and the fate of his people was the work of beings far more powerful than he could ever hope to challenge, he could only blame himself for his foolishness - and he did. He had lost his taste for battle and conquest, and left his sword behind in the keep. He spent years making his way around the shadowland, not as a king or a warrior but a healer. He did what he could for those who had been displaced by the deathknight's new shadowland and those suffering from its horrors, traveling from one town or small city to the next.

On the day that he exalted, Thelaos was treating the sick of small town miles from the edges of the shadowlands when it was assaulted by a small army of mercenaries. Thelaos emerged into the street to find the town being burned to the ground and its people killed. He took a sword from a fallen mercenary and joined the fight, exalting and driving off the force that had attacked the town. Their fatally wounded leader told Thelaos that they'd been hired by a man in the shadowlands, so once Thelaos had tended the wounded he left directly for his old home. He met little resistance on his way and found the deathknight, complacent, waiting in the keep that had once been his own seat of power. The moonshadow was not a great warrior, and had not planned for a solar to exalt at the border of his domain. When he saw what he believed was a mortal trespassing in his home and possibly even coming for revenge, he did not expect to face one of the swords of heaven. Not only was the abyssal forced to flee for his life, but he lost an artifact given to him by his master - the daiklave First Blade of the Rising Sun.

Personality

Thelaos is slow to anger and very humble. He had his fill of conquest and lordship as a mortal, and makes every effort to resist the same hubris that led to his downfall and deaths of so many innocents in the past - especially now that he wields the power of the Unconquered Son.

Experience

Total: 147
Spent: 117 (Attributes 12, Abilities 15, Charms 64, Combos 11, Backgrounds 15)

Unassailable Ward Method
Cost: 3m Mins: Melee 3, Essence 2 Type: Reflexive (Step 9)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Counterattack
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dipping Swallow Defense
The solar's enemies are broken like water against the rocks. The exalt invokes this charm after using his Parry DV to defend against a melee or martial arts attack. It blocks with such power that his opponent is forced back ([Strength + Melee] x 4) yards. The attacker is also knocked down unless he succeeds at a ([Dexterity or Stamina] + [Athletics or Resistance]) roll at a difficulty equal to the exalt's Essence. This charm is treated as an unblockable, undodgeable counterattack which deals no damage, though damage taken by being knocked over the edge of a cliff or into an erupting volcano or pool of sharks with lasers on their heads may still apply.

Watchful Defender Technique
Cost: 1m Mins: Melee 3, Essence 1 Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Exalt invokes this Charm in response to an unexpected attack. The attack is no longer unexpected. This allows the character to use his Parry DV and Charms such as Heavenly Guardian Defense against the attack. The character must either have a weapon already drawn or have this Charm in a Combo with Charms such as Call the Blade or Summoning the Loyal Steel.