Empress Upon a Throne of Ravens

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Basic Info

Title: Empress Upon a Throne of Ravens
Caste/Aspect: Moonshadow caste Abyssal exalt
Concept: Autumn Person
Motivation: Tear down any emotion in those around her that stands higher than their love for her
Themesong: Evil Walks - AC/DC

Intimacies:

• The Coral Archipelago (Disdainful scorn)
• Her family (Rebellious hatred)
• The Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible (Gratitude)
• The Neverborn (Awe and Terror)
• Penelope Gijagu (Warm affection)
• Enyo (Annoyed fascination)
• Kama Dandi (Lascivious interest)

Appearance:
There she sees a damsel bright,
Drest in a silken robe of white,
That shadowy in the moonlight shone:
The neck that made that white robe wan,
Her stately neck, and arms were bare;
Her blue-veined feet unsandal'd were,
And wildly glittered here and there
The gems entangled in her hair.
--Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Christabel

Empress has the purple hair of a Coral native, and generally twines burgundy, maroon or indigo ribbons into it in complex weaves. Her eyes are deep pools of gleaming gold. She is short of stature and slender of form, but favors complicated robes that obscure as much as they accent. Her movements are languid, subtle, and graceful, as if but for her fatigue she is perpetually on the cusp of dancing. She appears to be in her mid- or late teenage years.

XP: 13 gained / 11 spent

Attributes

Strength	●	Charisma	●	Perception	●●●
Dexterity	●●●●●	Manipulation	●●●●●	Intelligence	●●●●
Stamina	●	Appearance	●●●●●	Wits	●●

PHYSICAL:

• Strength 1 (relatively weak; lift 80 lbs with difficulty)
• Dexterity 5 (almost inhumanly swift and graceful)
• Stamina 1 (often in poor health; soak 1 bashing / 1 lethal)

SOCIAL:

• Charisma 1 (subtly unlikable)
• Manipulation 5 (could talk her way into the halls of Yu-Shan itself)
• Appearance 5 (beauty that could launch a thousand ships)

MENTAL:

• Perception 3 (keeps careful track of what transpires around her)
• Intelligence 4 (exceeding brilliance)
• Wits 2 (passable at thinking on her feet)

Abilities

Archery		Integrity	●●	Craft		Athletics	●	Bureaucracy	●
Martial Arts	●●●●●	Performance	●●●●●	Investigation	●●●●●	Awareness	●	Linguistics	●●
Melee		Presence	●●●●●	Lore	●	Dodge	●●●●●	Ride
Thrown	●	Resistance	●	Medicine		Larceny	●	Sail	●
War		Survival		Occult	●	Stealth	●	Socialize	●●●●●

CASTE ABILITIES

• Bureaucracy 1 (could bribe a slightly corrupt official or oversell aging horses)
• Linguistics 2 (speaks three languages: Seatongue, High Realm and Riverspeak)
• Sail 1 (could probably sail past a breakwater during a mild storm)
• Socialize 5 (could topple a popular ruler by starting rumors of her misdeeds; completely understand the motivations of someone she has just met)

FAVORED ABILITIES

• Martial Arts 5 (fight a dozen thugs simultaneously while showing off)
  • Specialty: "Razor claws" +3
• Thrown 1 (can hit a stationary target with a thrown knife)
• Performance 5 (could start a riot with a speech or entrance a horde of demons with a song)
  • Specialty: "Solo performances" +2
  • Specialty: "Dancing" +1
• Presence 5 (capable of convincing a Wyld Hunt to kneel and worship the Unconquered Sun)
  • Specialty: "Seduction" +3
• Occult 1 (able to appease a minor spirit or recognize a spell being cast)
  • Specialty: "The Underworld" +1

OTHER ABILITIES

• Athletics 1 (can keep her balance on treacherous ice)
• Awareness 1 (can usually overhear a conversation in a quiet restaurant)
• Dodge 5 (can avoid the blows of an inhumanly skilled cataphract)
  • Specialty: "While unarmed" +1
• Integrity 2 (can resist having her emotions manipulated by a skilled artist)
  • Specialty: "People who are prettier than me" +3
• Investigation 5 (can accurately describe a criminal based upon seeing only a footprint in the mud and a fragment of clothing caught on a branch)
• Larceny 1 (can get away with pinching a mango from a shopkeeper)
• Lore 1 (literate, and can find most large nations on a map of Creation)
• Resistance 1 (can keep her head after a night of hard drinking)
• Stealth 1 (avoid pursuit by remaining motionless in a deep shadow)

Willpower and Virtues

Willpower: 8 (unwavering & resolute)
Virtues:

• Compassion: 2
• Conviction: 3
• Temperance: 1 (flawed virtue)
• Valor: 3

Essence and Anima

Essence: 2

• Personal Essence: 14
• Peripheral Essence: 31 (25 uncommitted)
• Committed Essence: 6

Anima Banner

• When her anima becomes iconic, Empress' brow is surmounted by a tiara crystallized from blood and shadows. Spectral carrion birds swoop around her, their charnel forms unwholesome to the eye – among other things they have far too many teeth. Shadows spiral out from her every step, twining up walls and uprights like climbing vines, stringing between treelimbs like vast spiderwebs, and dripping from overhangs.

Backgrounds

Allies: 1

• Deliberate Architect Constructing Nets of Intrigue

Artifact: 5

• Caliginous Spinners of Poisoned Webs

Whispers: 3

• Chthonic nightmares of the Neverborn

Charms

ATHLETICS:

• Raiton's Nimble Perch:3m; Reflexive; One Scene.
  Automatically keep balance on any surface at least as strong and wide as a human hair. This surface is treated as a 3 ft wide ledge capable of supporting 1000 lbs. when determining what movement and Athletics actions can be taken and what penalties to them might apply.

DODGE:

• Flitting Shadow Form: 1m; Reflexive (Step 2); Instant
  Ignore all penalties to Dodge DV when resolving an attack. Still 0 DV vs. undodgeable attacks.
• Uncanny Impulse Evasion: 1 Resonance; Reflexive (Step 2); Instant
  Invoked against an unexpected attack, removes the unexpected quality.
• Flickering Wisp Technique: 3m; Reflexive (Step 2); Instant; Spectral
  Perfectly dodge an attack.

INVESTIGATION:

• Spider in Society's Web: 3m; Simple
  PER+Investigation, adding Essence in auto successes to gain an idea of another's wealth, power and immediate allies.

LINGUISTICS:

• Scathing Cynic Attitude:3m; Reflexive (Step 2); Social; Instant.
  Receive a one-sentence summary of what the person making a statement hopes to gain. Perfect Defense vs social attacks hostile to the Exalt or her Motivation.

MARTIAL ARTS:

• First Martial Arts Excellency - Essence Overwhelming: 1m per die; Reflexive; Instant.
  May buy up to Martial Arts + Ability in dice that can be added to a Martial Arts roll or rolled with successes applied directly to an unrolled value.

PRESENCE:

• Second Presence Excellency - Essence Triumphant: 2m per success; Reflexive; Instant.
  May spend up to Presence + Ability motes; This charm addes one success to a roll or unrolled value for each two motes spent.

RESISTANCE:

• Injury-Absorbing Discipline:10m; Supplemental; Until the day ends.
  Roll STA+Resistance; success speeds healing rate by a factor of 10.

SOCIALIZE:

• Exquisite Etiquette Style: 1m; Reflexive (Step 1 for attacker, Step 2 for defender); Until next action
  Treat all enemy groups as one Magnitude smaller than they are; increases Appearance by one; understand basic motivations of everyone present, per rolling 3 successes on investigation.

Panoply

Combat Stats Block

	Speed	Accuracy	Damage	Defense	Rate	Min	Tags
Caliginous Spinners of Poisoned Webs	5	+6	+6L	+2	3	STR ●, DEX ●●	M
Punch	5	+1	+0B	+2	3	STR ●	N
Kick	5	+0	+3B	-2	2	STR ● DEX ●●	N
Clinch	6	+0	+0B	+0	1	STR ●	C, N, P

Extras

Images

• 

  chibi Empress

XP and Training

• XP Gained: 13
  • Post 61: 6
  • Post 78: 4
  • Post 86: 1
  • Post 210: 1
  • Post 311: 1

• XP Spent: 11
  • Essence 2: 8
  • Upgrade from Glories: 2 (Treats Flitting Shadow Form and Flickering Wisp Technique as the same Charm for purposes of Charm activation and Combos.)
  • Linguistics 2: 1

• Debt XP: 0
• Unspent XP: 2
• Currently training:

Character Creation Questions

How old are you?

• The girl who would become Empress Upon a Throne of Ravens was born in RY 752. She fled Coral in 765 and accepted the Black Exaltation shortly thereafter. She has recently turned sixteen.

What was your family life like?

• The girl was born into a middle-class merchant family in the Coral Archipelago, and chafed under the restrictions her culture put upon women. Her male relatives could take advantage of their wealth – travel, gamble, see the world – while she was less free than the meanest shop clerk, who at least was allowed outside her house to tend shop. While her brothers trained at diplomacy, sailing and fighting, she received tutoring in the barest necessities to ensure the accountants were not skimming profit. While her elder sister accepted her place, and cheerfully became a dutiful housewife, and her younger sister displayed a remarkable talent for numbers, earning praise and admiration for her bookkeeping and profit-maximization, the girl could stand her life no longer, and fled.

Where are you from?

• The girl was born in the Coral Archipelago, and received her initial training in the houses of the dead beneath the Hidden Tabernacle.

How were you Exalted?

• When the girl fled from Coral, she bribed a sailor to take her on his ship. Jealous Storm Mothers drove the ship off course to the north, where all aboard were enslaved by a Rajtali raider tribe. The girl’s machinations set her captors against two neighboring tribes (and each against the other) in a three-way conflict that nearly annihilated all involved. The Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible noted the growing influx of ghosts and turned his attention to its source, visiting the girl in her dreams and discoursing upon the philosophy of vengeance, power and life. He was intrigued enough to offer her the Black Exaltation when she died in the aftermath of her tripartite war.

When did you meet your companions?

• When Empress fled the tombs of the Neverborn, she eventually emerged into Creation through a newly formed shadowland and made the acquaintance of Enyo, who was in the process of eating the serial killer who’d created the shadowland. She has recently seen, though not yet made the acquaintance of, Eight Treasures.

How has power changed you?

• Power allows Empress to do all the things her family and culture have prevented her from experiencing. She still prefers subtlety, but her goals and desires are now unfettered by mortal limits.

What do you think of mortals?

• Empress cares as little for the concerns of others now as she ever did. Mortals, god-blooded, Chosen, spirits – all are there to contribute to her gratification.

What motivates you to be a hero?

• Empress is determined that she will outstrip her old family’s desires and expectations, and surpass the deeds of anyone who hails from the wretched archipelago known as Coral.

Who or what do you worship?

• While Empress has a perhaps-more-than-healthy respect for the Neverborn, she truly worships only her boundless ambition. She pays lip service to the dead gods to ward off their displeasure.

What would drive you to commit murder?

• Convenience, or whim.

Accounting

Freebies: 18 (+9 from flaws=27)

• Artifact +2 (to 5) = 4
• Willpower +3 (to 8) = 3
• Skills +15 = 15
• Specialties +10 = 5
• Total: 27

CASTE ABILITIES (5) +3

• Bureaucracy 1
• Linguistics 1
• Sail 1
• Socialize 2 (+3)

FAVORED ABILITIES (5) +12

• Martial Arts 1 (+4)
• Thrown 0 (+1)
• Performance 2 (+3)
• Presence 2 (+3)
• Occult 0 (+1)

OTHER ABILITIES (18)

• Athletics 1
• Awareness 1
• Dodge 5
• Integrity 2
• Investigation 5
• Larceny 1
• Lore 1
• Resistance 1
• Stealth 1