Ashadar Shan
Contents
Basic Info
Name: Ashadar Shan
Caste/Aspect: Eclipse caste Solar exalt
Concept: Patrician merchant prince
Motivation: To rebuild the Scarlet Empire into a once-more-Creation-spanning Shogunate
Nature: Conniver
(Natures no longer appear in Exalted Second Edition, but Shan is old school, dating back to ’01, so there it is.)
Intimacies: Cathak Yuusuka
Appearance:
XP: 24 gained / 18 spent
Current Stats
Attributes
Strength ●● Charisma ●●●● Perception ●● Dexterity ●●●●● Manipulation ●●●●● Intelligence ●●●●● Stamina ●● Appearance ●● Wits ●●
PHYSICAL:
- Strength 2 (average strength; lift 160 lbs)
- Dexterity 5 (almost inhumanly swift and graceful)
- Stamina 2 (unexceptional stamina; soak 2 bashing / 1 lethal)
SOCIAL:
- Charisma 4 (powerful, swaying almost anyone to his cause)
- Manipulation 5 (could talk his way into the halls of the Celestial Incarnae)
- Appearance 2 (fair appearance)
MENTAL:
- Perception 2 (everyday alertness to the world around him)
- Intelligence 5 (a true genius, capable of understanding the subtlest intricacies of a subject)
- Wits 2 (passable at thinking on his 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 5 (could out-compete the Guild in a local market or reform the Realm’s bureaucracy)
- Linguistics 3 (speaks High Realm, Old Realm, Flametongue and Riverspeak)
- Ride 1 (could probably jump a low stone wall or break a wild horse)
- Socialize 2 (could obtain minor favors through flattery or blackmail)
FAVORED ABILITIES
- Martial Arts 2 (able to break a stack of boards, or flawlessly perform katas in an exhibition)
- Melee 5 (could defeat a skilled soldier while blindfolded)
- Performance 5 (could start a riot with a speech or entrance a horde of demons with a song)
- Presence 5 (capable of convincing a Wyld Hunt to kneel and worship the Unconquered Sun)
- Occult 3 (able to successfully bargain with moderately powerful gods)
OTHER ABILITIES
- Archery 1
- Athletics 1
- Integrity 1
- Lore 3
- Resistance 1
- War 3
Willpower and Virtues
Willpower: 7 (extremely strong willed & determined)
Virtues:
- Compassion: 1 "Your point being?"
- Conviction: 4 "Some sacrifices are necessary."
- Temperance: 2 "Let's keep this civil, shall we?"
- Valor: 3 "Though hell itself shall set its teeth against me"
Graces:
- Sword Grace: 1
- Empyrean Judgment: a slender straight sword (Jian). The hilt is silver wire laced over with black leather for a good grip. The pommel consists of a ring, rather than the tassels more commonly found on Realm straight swords. The black lacquered ironwood scabbard is inlaid with silver and cold iron. The blade is carved from Chiaroscuran glass, beyond razor sharp, and ranges from sky blue to near transparency at the tip. Etched into the blade are passages from the Immaculate Texts, specifically a line attributed to the First Sworn to the Immaculate Dragon Mela, Petitioner of Clouds Accordant to the Call of Battle, in the war against the Anathema:
Thy Will enforced upon Creation
Though hell itself should set its teeth against me
Essence and Anima
Essence: 2
- Personal Essence: 13
- Peripheral Essence: 31
- Committed Essence: 0
Anima Banner
- Ashadar Shan’s anima starts out as a pallid ephemeral glow surrounding him like a corona. However, as he spends essence it flares larger and brighter, the mystic symbols of his power spiraling about him, slowly dissolving into a halo of power. When it becomes iconic, he is surrounded by a sinuous five-clawed golden dragon formed from pure sunlight, which continually circles about his form.
Backgrounds
Followers: 2
- Shan normally travels with a large retinue of skilled aides, guards, and servants. Treated kindly and paid well, they are extremely loyal.
- Shan currently employs several mercenary companies: the Red Clouds, the 5th Lancers, the Lark River Brotherhood, the Painted Lightning Flight, and Companions of Cypress Hill. These are paid for out of his pocket, and not quite so loyal. They are not counted as Followers.
Influence: 3
- Shan is the most important person in Heroncrest prefecture, which lies in a large valley north of Arjuf on the east bank of the Caracal river. He is reasonably well-connected throughout the Realm and in those places he extensively trades with (see below). He also maintains some connections with other alumni from the House of Bells. His trade routes garner him influence in Nexus and the cities of the South, including Chiaroscuro, Yane and Paragon.
Resources: 5
- Shan is exceedingly wealthy, one of the top few percent even in the Realm. He holds large estates in Heroncrest (he has favorable leases on the majority of the prefecture) and maintains smaller townhouses and warehouses in Paragon, Chiaroscuro, Nexus, Grey Falls, Arjuf, and Lord’s Crossing. He has a townhouse in the Imperial City. His merchandise is eclectic – gold, gems and firedust in the South, rare herbs, essences and exotica from the East. His estates on the Isle grow fruits, grapes, and tea plants. He has been attempting to introduce mulberry groves and set up silk production, but this is still in the works.
- While Shan deals with the Guild on a day-to-day basis, he does not actually hold a position of responsibility within that organization. His merchant empire was built by Ashadar Caral, his Outcaste great-grandfather, at the time when the Empress had forbidden the Guild to deal with the Realm, and Caral made his fortune playing the middleman. All subsequent members of House Ashadar have continued the separation. Shan pays funds into Guild coffers for his use of Guild caravans and the like, but neither gives nor receives orders.
Charms
ATHLETICS:
- Graceful Crane Stance: 3m; Reflexive; One Scene.
Automatically succeed on any valid Athletics action to keep balance. Moreover, keep footing on any surface at least as strong and wide as a human hair. This surface is treated as a three-footwide ledge capable of supporting a thousand pounds of weight when determining what movement and Athletics actions can be taken and what penalties to them might apply.
LINGUISTICS:
- Sagacious Reading of Intent: 3m; Reflexive; Social; Instant.
This Charm identifies the motivation behind a given statement that the Exalt reads or hears—a one-sentence summary of what the person making that statement hopes to gain. If a social attacker’s purpose is fundamentally hostile to the Exalt or the Exalt’s Motivation, this Charm perfectly negates the attack.
MELEE:
- First Melee Excellency - Essence Overwhelming: 1m per die; Reflexive; Instant.
May buy up to Melee + Ability in dice. These dice can be added to a Melee roll directly, or rolled and apply successes directly to an unrolled value such as a DV. - Dipping Swallow Defense: 2m; Reflexive; Instant.
In response to an attack, all penalties to PDV are ignored for that attack. PDV is still 0 if inapplicable, but it takes no further penalties. - Bulwark Stance
- Heavenly Guardian Defense
OCCULT:
- Spirit-Detecting Glance
- Spirit-Cutting Attack
PRESENCE:
- First Presence Excellency - Essence Overwhelming: 1m per die; Reflexive; Instant.
May buy up to Presence + Ability in dice. These dice can be added to a Presence roll directly, or rolled and apply successes directly to an unrolled value such as a DV. - Hypnotic Tongue Technique
- Irresistible Salesman Spirit
Panoply
- Empyrean Judgment is already described above.
- Shan's horse is a dapple gray Marukani stallion named Grey Rabbit. He is a well-trained warhorse, accustomed to the din of battle.
- Shan's armor is a suit of lamellar made from the same Chiaroscuran glass that forms Empyrean Judgment.
Combat Stats Block
| Speed | Accuracy | Damage | Defense | Rate | Min | Tags | |
| Empyrean Judgment | 4 | +4 | +4L | +2 | 3 | STR ● | P |
| Scabbard | 4 | +0 | +3B | +1 | 3 | STR ●● MA ● | 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
the House Ashadar mon
Ashadar Shan in Realmscript
chibi Ashadar Shan
Merits and Flaws
Unusual Appearance (Flaw -2)
- Due to his wyld barbarian heritage, Shan's skin is snow white, as is his hair. His eyes are crimson in hue. The coloring is obviously abnormal, and not a natural melanin deficiency. (As contrasted to the southern Dune People, Shan's mother's tribe hailed from the far west; other tribes were colored like tropical fish. Their people also display little to no body hair.)
Secrets (Flaw -2)
- Shan is anathema. A large chunk of his money and influences is tied up in the Realm. He'll be hurting should his secret come to light, aside from the fact that he's currently encamped a few hundred yards away from a detachment of the Wyld Hunt.
XP and Training
- XP Gained: 34
- Prelude - The Shunned Village: 10
- Episode 1 - Of Falcons & Falconers: 5
- Episode 2 - Points of Departure: 5
- Episode 3 - Convergence of the Twain: 5
- Episode 4 - Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?: 9 (including +1 Stunt XP for Shan)
- XP Spent: 18
- Stamina 2: 4 XP
- Socialize 2: 1 XP
- Strength 2: 4 XP
- Martial Arts 2: 1 XP
- Hypnotic Tongue Technique: 8 XP
- Debt XP: 0
- Unspent XP: 16
- Currently training:
Character Creation Questions
How old are you?
- Ashadar Shan was born in RY 743. He graduated from secondary school at the House of Bells in RY 764, shortly after the Mask of Winter conquered Thorns and the Bull of the North shattered the Tepet legions. As of the current year, 768, he is 25.
What was your family life like?
- Shan was born into a dysfunctional patrician family with dreams of grandeur. His great-grandfather, Ashadar Caral, was an Lost Egg who’d made his fortune in the Threshold during the Realm-Guild trade war, and whose aspirations of founding his own Great House were crushed more by the incestuous politics of the Scarlet Dynasty than by his children’s failure to exalt. As a child, Shan watched as his father squandered much of the family fortune on expensive debaucheries, such as Shan’s mother, an exotic wyld barbarian concubine, whose albino-like pallor her son shares. Shan is the last of his line; two other siblings did not survive: his older sister, a member of the Thousand Scales, perished in the Battle of Futile Blood, while his younger brother fell prey to the cannibalistic tendencies of their mother. Since his father’s overdose on narcotics four years ago, Shan has more than rebuilt his wealth.
Where are you from?
- Shan was born and raised in the Realm, spending his early childhood in the Ashadar manor in Heroncrest Prefecture, across the Caracal River from Arjuf Dominion. A small but productive agricultural prefecture, Heroncrest is three day’s ride from Yarrowstalk, the Headquarters of the Wyld Hunt. Shan attended Primary School at the Harmonious Spire Transcendent, and despite failing to exalt as a Dragon-blooded, his wealth greased the right palms to get him into the House of Bells, where after six years, he graduated – third from last in his class.
How were you Exalted?
- On a trading expedition seeking to uncover a lost First Age site in the far South, Shan Exalted in the shadowland that had overgrown the ruin. His new power allowed him to survive the hungry dead that rose from the dark sands, although it came too late to save the rest of the caravan.
When did you meet your companions?
- Shan has known Cathak Yuusuka since Primary school, although the two drifted apart after her Exaltation.
How has power changed you?
- Shan always considered Exaltation his birthright, but always expected a Terrestrial Exaltation. He believes that the duty of the Exalted is to change Creation for the better, shepherding the mortals under their care from the horrors of the Wyld, the tyranny of Lesser Gods, and the demonic predations of the Anathema. Shan has, however, given up his childhood dream of becoming a member of the Wyld Hunt.
What do you think of mortals?
- A better question might be, “what is your opinion of those around you?” for Shan is generally of the opinion that, for almost every situation, his way, his opinion, or his actions are the most correct. He judges others on their own merits, so a talented mortal may be considered more highly than a wastrel of a Dragon-Blooded. However, it should be pointed out that Shan doesn’t really consider himself much apart from mortals – at least, not much more than he always has. While he has vague memories hinting at past lives spanning many centuries, Shan is entirely uncertain that these memories are accurate or reliable, thus he continues to regularly take those few anagathics wealth can procure in this fallen age.
What motivates you to be a hero?
- The Scarlet Empress has disappeared. The Realm is crumbling. Barbarians and Anathema rise like weeds to choke the vestiges of civilization. Shan has the training, the strength, and the influence to change the course of Creation – there are others who will try, but who else could do it and do it correctly?
Who or what do you worship?
- Shan gives praise, worship and honor to Mela, the Immaculate Dragon of Air. He privately venerates the Unconquered Sun. As an experienced trader, he knows the correct rituals to propitiate local road spirits and other little gods to smooth his way. He has, upon occasion, laid bulls on the altar of Ahlat, the Southern War God – to whom, an Age and more in the past, he was among the first to dedicate a hecatomb.
What would drive you to commit murder?
- While he would prefer to utilize more subtle methods, Shan is willing to do whatever it takes to gain control of Creation, and knows it will likely require many thousands of deaths. He is entirely willing to undertake some of them personally.
