Exapnding the concept of Moonsilver Tattoos.

[Cryoseraph]

If moonsilver tattoos keep Lunars safe from the Wyld and mutations, what would jade, orichalcum, starmetal, or soulsteel tattoos do for their respective types? would Sidereals be anchored back into fate despite the broken mask? Would Abyssals become immune to Oblivion, or fall straight into it with screaming souls grafted to their skin?


Everyone throw out some ideas, with or without mechanics. The more options the better!

 

[Kyeudo]

I don't think you could tatoo something other than Moonsilver. Moonsilver's protean nature makes it fluid and flexible. Orichalcum and Soulsteel are known for their unbending nature. Tatooing either to someone would be like fusing metal bands into your skin, hampering your movement.

 

[LaFreeze]

What if they ground it up into powered and placed it under the skin? I've hear similar ritual scaring being done with other substances.


Possibly they could slice it into tiny lengths and insert them under the skin. It would end up looking kind of like studs or one of those 3rd grader pasta based art projects but it could be done with minimal difficulties. (Of course I think they would be easier to damage then normal Tattoos since skin abrasions could potentially dislodge the stuff.)


I'm not an expert but I think it that could work assuming none of the other material are toxic.


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^Abyssal Soutsteel.......um.....owl tatto made from small slivers of soulsteel.

 

[Ryvaken Tadrya]

You're basically talking about biomagitech. Yes it can be done, but it would have limits like any other artifact.

 

[Cryoseraph]

Okay, so first apparently is the need to make the substances malleable for most people. Any metal can become shapeable, Moonsilver moreso of course, but then the trick to using it effectively is keeping it solid enough to function as an item vs. a puddle. Remember this took the greatest Lunar minds to figure this out , and I bet a couple nasty chimeras (living or dead) suffered earlier test runs before they perfected it. But then again, the solar trait of perfection would definitely kick in if some love-struck Lunar told their solar about it or some Eclipse Caste snatched the secret of Form-Fixing Method from the Silver Pact. And then there are the ghosts of ancient Lunars, found and tortured into releasing their secrets to the Deathlords.


According to Oadenel's Codex, to stabilize moonsilver takes Perception to make it usable, and only take mere hours. To distill Orichalcum takes Stamina to withstand the heat from the reflected sunlight and magma, and takes weeks. No one said it would be comfortable, but I could see enchanted molten orichalcum being poured just under the skin of a brave enough solar. These are the greatest of the Exalted afterall, what can't they do when they want it? A similar task for Abyssals, as it takes Manipulation to torture souls into becoming soulsteel, which takes a few days. But people put into such situations for long periods of time mentally break, thinking they must to what they are told, thinking they want to be with the Abyssal, like a supernatural stockholm syndrome. An abyssal with enough whispers might not even her their cries of anguish over the neverborn themselves, making the screams flowing across his skin that much more unsettling to opponents.


In other words, anything can happen in Exalted, don't poo-poo it when a great story can come out of it. And that's what I'm hoping for, what stories would such insane feats lead to? What powers could be gained by such artifice. Immunity to the Wyld seems like an easy plus, but the flavor of orichalcum tattoos should lend more to a solar than just immunity to shaping.


Also, to the reference about it being bio-magitech, that seems almost right, but is also simpler in a way. Moonsilver tattoos don't need such a complicated craft roll after all. They could be construed mechanically as an artifact given out at character creation for free and having no attunement cost associated with them. In fact, that is what helps make the awesome background of tattoo artifact, a more complicated design that DOES have attunement costs. But even if that were the sole purpose, more character would flood to the idea. Armor you can sleep in, bracers that can never be stolen? A replacement for Skin Mount Amulets that don't need any repair?! Sold I'd say.


Of course, everything just thought of here assumes the right Exalt type uses the right magical material. What would moonsilver tattoos do to a solar or abyssal? Would an orichalcum tattooed Lunar just be a slave to Solar dominance, or be immune to it? This is what I want to see other's opinions on more.

 

[Ryvaken Tadrya]

A replacement for Skin Mount Amulets that don't need any repair?! Sold I'd say.

It's sidetrack time!


This bugs the hell out of me, mostly because I made the same mistake until I asked the question "how often does a skin mount amulet need maintenance?" The answer is never. In all the pages of repair and maintenance, nothing comes close to providing general intervals for upkeep. Notably, all the artifacts that mention maintenance also mention the upkeep interval. The inference, then, is that a repair rating does not automatically mean that the artifact needs continual upkeep.


Now, let's take a look at Oadenol's Codex. Rules for repairing artifacts without a repair rating are comparable to building an artifact in time and difficulty.


From this we can conclude that a repair rating is a benefit to the artifact, allowing it to take damage and be repaired to full working order with a minimum of time and effort. Which, by the way, is almost exactly why replaceable parts style construction is the norm in the real world.


This sidetrack brought to you by Observation and Logic, for all your thinking needs.

 

[NateDojo]

I think that a key point to think about when making any House Rules is whether it adds to the game or takes away from it. Obviously you believe that it does, so I'll go along with that presumption.

In other words, anything can happen in Exalted, don't poo-poo it when a great story can come out of it. And that's what I'm hoping for, what stories would such insane feats lead to? What powers could be gained by such artifice. Immunity to the Wyld seems like an easy plus, but the flavor of orichalcum tattoos should lend more to a solar than just immunity to shaping.

I don't know if all magical material tattoos should even provide such basic benefits. I think that they might have other basic effects... Like maybe orichalcum ones offer the refinement of the tattooed person in such a way that specialty dots now count as natural dice for the purpose of Excellencies. Starmetal ones (terribly minimalistic in design) would allow the bearer to affect the immaterial at any time, as the magical material binds them to all possible worlds. Jade ones... I don't know about that. Perhaps environmental immunity from either the Jade-aspect Element bound into the person's skin (or bones!) or from all environmental penalties.


Soulsteel ones should be bad, though. *Bad*. Tattooing yourself with souls is nasty business. So... Maybe a ballooned Essence pool? One that works kind of like an overdrive pool? That power would make a lot of Exalts want to have them, but the consequences should be a Whispers rating equal to the artifact rating and a Resonance pool, inflicted by the tattoos themselves.


Those are my proposals.

 

[Virjigorm]

I've talked a bit with my Zenith player about tattooing prayers to the Unconquered Sun onto his body with Orichalcum and crafting these as an artifact.


As for mechanics, I'd use the usual Tattoo Artifact rules. No big deal.


As for construction, I'd want a pretty serious ritual. I picture a Lunar crafter creating an alloy of gold and Moonsilver, then drawing the actual tattoos. The Zenith himself might then perform the purification of the gold already in his body into Orichalcum through ritual prayer and enduring the intense sunlight needed to accomplish this as a type of self flagellation. I might mitigate the 1 dot surcharge on the artifact level of the tattoos if the Zenith were to dedicate himself to fulfilling the prayers contained in the tattoos in the name of the Sun (things like bringing light to the dark corners of Creation, protecting the the weak, etc.).


Note also that non-Lunar characters are going to have a very hard time hiding these tattoos, so the Solar would be accepting the fact that he is now an even bigger target than before.