White Wolf Publishing

As for Bennu, I like the idea that they are basically a Helion choir moved up to become, essentially, Helios' new Phoenixes. this makes sense that there are not only a limited number of them, but their powers, while similar to Firbara, are more powerful. they are truly immortal, having unlimited rebirths, but that can be bypassed, probably with Blessed Weapons. They would even reluctantly team up with Firbara when Naga are around.

Epimetheans are like Prometheans studying the Refinement of Flux; Hated and even feared by other Firbara, but not entirely opposed to teaming up with them when Naga are around.

And, of course, WyldFyres and the Roost of the Firebird. Just to add some chaos to the Firbara's already F****ed up life.

Maybe in current mythology, but, keep in mind, this isn't really true mythology here.

Yes, Naga don't really want anyone knowing they exist, but that doesn't mean that they aren't enemies of the Firbara. Perhaps it's because the Firbara are the only ones that can "see" them for what they really are. Instinctive enemies just know each other, you know.

Just had another idea, one that allows us to use the Bennu as my wife described, and it won't eff up our history. 300 Firbara were in the Material when Helios withdrew his Blessings. That doesn't mean all the Firbara in existence. A few were in Shadow at the time. So, after stripping the Firbara in Material of their blessings, he reduces the remaining Firbara in Shadow to a glimmer of their former selves. They are true Spirits, who can take Material Form with powers similar to the Phoenixes. They, unlike Phoenixes, have Influence Ratings. They can still be permanently killed by Blessed Weapons, or by stronger Spirits, etc., but their new name is Bennu in order to separate themselves from Firbara. Heliopolis is in Shadow, and always has been.

Turns out, that's what she was trying to say, so she was a little upset about our misinterpretations. But doing it this way makes sense, and we can keep it.

sorry, Wife. We didn't mean to upset you. I love you.

That's an assumption based on the existing concept of Naga which I would like to alter for purposes of this game. I was simply using the name as a placeholder for the concept of a snake themed antagonist for the Firbara, not suggesting we replicate the oWoD Nagah. Infact I actively discourage we do that because the Nagah as presented in oWoD where not a compelling set of individuals. They were reactive instead of active and their depiction as exceptional killers who kept secrets was bland.

The snake enemies of the Firbara would be well known to them, at least in general terms.

Heliopolis is actually a real place as well, it was an ancient city in Egypt. Legends talk about Phoenixes flying their nests or the ashes of their parent to the Temple of the Sun there. The city doesn't exist anymore having been largely paved over but there would still be a version of it in the Shadow since things linger there longer, especially if they have powerful connections.

Making the Benna former Firbara doesn't alter their position much but it does change how they'll related to the Firbara of modern times. Spirits are unable to act outside of their nature until they achive a certain strength and even then they are limited. For Benna to be true spirits their natures will need to be fully defined. This will determine how they respond to the current Firbara.

Yeah, I know that. This is the home of the Bennu.

As for defining the Bennu's natures, that's easy. Their task to guide humanity was altered slightly with the fall. Instead of simply teaching Humans, now they whisper doom and destruction. When ever a Fibara is in their area, they can manifest in Material to deal with them, and Helios has told them to deal with them with extreme prejudice. Of course this is merely a suggestion on Helios' part, not a true order, which leaves room for interpretation on the part of the individual Bennu. Could it use some more refining? Yeah. But we shouldn't rule it out entirely. It's still a good idea.

My wife was telling me about her ideas for that, actually. She mentioned the destruction of Sodom and Gamorrah. The first WyldFyre was in Gamorrah. He destroyed it. The other Firbara in both the Material and Shadow Heliopolis went to stop him, and Sodom was taken out as well. Than the Fall happened when others went the same route the WyldFyre did, and you know the rest there. Helios didn't want his leftover Firbara, the Bennu, to destroy entire cities just for one monster. So, their mandate was changed. One Bennu per problem. Most of the time, they are supposed to f*** with people in power, getting them to make bad business choices, stab people in the back, etc, in order to undermine the Firbara, who still take it upon themselves to help people. Helios made the suggestion of killing Firbara before they go WyldFyre, but the individual Bennu still must use their own judgment. Most like to wait until the Firbara becomes Roost of the Firebird. Some don't care, all Firbara can become that, so all Firbara must die.

I like the biblical reference. That was impressive.

art linky

bit of insperation

found it on reddit and reminded me of phoenix.

I'm Holding the Creator of Phoenix: the Risen hostage. I'm restricting his Internets. You CAN'T HAVE HIM!!!!! muhhaaahahahah. Okay, now that I've gotten the evil out of the way, just so you're all aware, We're going to be away from the internet for a while. It's not a permanent situation, but it may be a few weeks before I let him play on the site (or any other) for several reasons. (Moving sucks)

Found the time to finish off Aegis and Resurrection. All of the Common Flares are now completed!


Common Flare #4: Aegis
Though Helios blessings are largely withdrawn from the Firbara their purpose remains the same: to safeguard the world.


Dawn Flare of the Ward
A human guard might shield someone with their body, if the need was dire. The Firbara are not limited to such crude, if well intended methods of the flesh, for they can protect others with their soul. This Flare allows a Firbara to transfer their Corona to someone else.
Dice Pool: Stamina + Empathy + Prominence
Cost: 1 Essence
Action: Instant
Duration: One Scene
Upon activation of this Flare, the Firbara’s Corona shifts and spins, whirling away from them in a blur of color and settling onto the target. For the duration of the scene any Flares the Firbara can normally use are emparted to the target as is their Prominence, for purposes of resisting harmful effects. The Firbara must initiate these effects (either before transfering the Corona or afterwards from nearby) and the Firbara pays the Essence cost of any Flares used. Once the transfer is complete, the Firbara can not access any supernatural powers for herself and is left to mortal devices.
This Flare calls upon the selfless nature of the Firbara and can not be used to attempt to move negative effects onto a target or to manipulate the use of Flares to achive an end apart from the defense of the target. What constitutes “defense” is left up to the Storyteller; generally only effects that protect the target from direct or indirect physical or mental harm qualify as do efforts to aid the target in leaving the area of threat.
At the end of the scene the Corona whirls again and returns to the Firbara. In the event that the target somehow became greatly distanced from the Firbara herself (greater than 1 mile per dot of Prominence) the Corona whirls away into the enemy air, vanishing completely. It takes the Corona an additional hour to locate its other half, during which time the Firbara is effectively reduced to a normal mortal. Additionally, the Corona will not leave if the target is still in active danger and only the Corona is keeping them safe. Once past the duration the Corona will return as soon as the target is acceptable safe from harm.
This Flare may be used on other Firbara but only if the user is of a higher Prominence than the receiver. Redundant Flares (such as other Aegis Flares) do not stack, the Flare with the most activation successes is the active one; the other Flare simply fizzles out.
Note: This Flare has no effects upon Facets, the Firbara may use them as normal during the Flare’s duration.

Dusk Flare of Haven
A home is sacred, a nest must be protected. By placing a burn mark upon a structure a Firbara can link it with her own Corona, allowing them to keep intruders out with their force of will.
Dice Pool: Presence + Athletics + Prominence
Cost: 1 Essence to place plus 1 per use
Action: Instant
Duration: Lasting
When the Corona Flares, it scorches a mark, unique to each Firbara, upon a place of shelter. The Firbara can be inside or outside when using this Flare, the location is unimportant. Once the mark is placed, it is lasting unless it is removed by the Firbara, another supernatural force, or simply cleaned away by those who dwell in the home (most Firbara place their marks in out of the way places to prevent this).
As long as the mark is in place the Firbara is automatically aware whenever someone enters or leaves the structure and whether that person is known or unknown to them (not who they are, just if they are known or not). At the moment of this awareness the Firbara can choose to seal the passage, preventing the individual from passing into (or out of) the shelter by spending a point of essence. This causes an image of the mark to flare in colored fire in the space infront of the subject, blocking their path. The mark fades after a few seconds but the subject is now prevented from passing. This barracade lasts for the duration of the scene with no additional expendature of essence but fades once the subject leaves the area of the shelter. Each individual requires a separate point of essence to be spent (i.e. blocking 3 people costs 3 essence) and once established the barrier can not be forced physically without supernatural ability. If contested with a supernatural ability the ability must achieve more successes than (the Firbara’s activation successes + Prominence) on their effort. Once the barrier has absorbed an attempt to break it down it becomes immune to repeated efforts from that same method. If the barrier is broken is it broken only for that individual but it can not be reformed in the same scene.
That a structure can serve as a shelter is the only requirement of this Flare, it does not require an actual living space. An apartment, a home, a warehouse, or a tent can all be effective shelters but a bench in the park, This Flare does not require a doorway or other sealable pathway, an open archway can be barricaded just as easily as a bank vault (though the vault offers better security in the event the Flare fails).
Unethical Firbara have been known to use this Flare to trap people inside of buildings or even prevent people from being able to enter their own homes.

Facet of the Porcupine
It is a fool who attacks the porcupine head on and a fool who directly assaults a Firbara who has learned to emulate one. This Facet changes who a Firbara’s spirit reacts to physical harm, using pain to forge spines of essence and disfuse the attack, returning some of the harm to the aggressor.
Dice Pool: None
Cost: 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
To use this ability the Firbara must be able to present the proper face to the assault, meaning she must be able to see it coming. If she is so aware, the Firbara can choose to delay her action in the initative order and prepare to reply to the attack. The attack is resolved as normal for whatever method of attack is being used but before damage is applied to the Firbara mark off a number of “points” using the following values system: bashing equals 1 point, lethal equals 2 points, and aggravated eqauls 4 points. Once the total number of points is calculated make a roll using the total points as the pool. Successes are points against the attacker and failures are points against the defender. After the roll use the same system as above to convert the points back into damage levels as desired by the one taking individual damage.
Each point is actually a spine of essence, forged by the force of the attack. The greater the incoming force, the greater the likely bite back will be to the attacker. Distance and form of attack are not of concern for this Facet, magical spells from distant places and gun shots from across a room are countered just as effectively as punches and kicks.
As a reminder, the Firbara must hold her turn to use this ability and can take no other action apart from moving her speed in the round of conflict in which this occurs.

Common Flare #5: Resurrection
The power to return from beyond death is inherent to all of Helios Chosen. With practice this mighty gift can be applied, in reduced form, to things apart from the Firbara themselves.


Dusk Flare of Penitence
The flesh is not the only thing which can be harmed. The mind and spirit are frail as well and require equally tender care. The Firbara understand this well, and use this Flare to smooth the scars of the soul for a time.
Dice Pool: Presence + Empathy + Prominence vs. Resolve + Prominence
Cost: 1 Essence
Action: Instant
Duration: Concentration (One Scene)
Upon activation the Corona dissolves into energy and infiltrating the mind of the target. Once inside the Firbara can see any damage done to the mind or spirit of the target, represented by lost dots of willpower and Morality score. Using this knowledge the Firbara can bring memories of previous times and emotions to the here and now, causing the target to remember anything they have experience, even repressed memories.
This Flare has three mechanical effects.
Firstly, the Firbara can cause whatever emotional response they desire in the subject in whatever degree of extremity they subject has personally experienced. So while one could force a subject to feel happy, they can only be made as happy as they ever remember being. The Firbara has no control over how the target reacts to this emotional shift, only the emotion they feel. This costs no additional essence and can be altered by an Instant action as long as the Firbara concentrates.
Secondly, the Firbara can attempt to counter act outside alterations to the mind. Whenever the Firbara enters the mind of someone who has had their memories supernaturally altered or is under the effect of external supernatural control, they are automatically aware of it. The expendature of another point of essence and another activation roll (still opposed, the target’s mind will automatically fight against the intrusion). If the successes achived by the Firbara exceed those of the altering effect, that effect is removed. Each alteration must be removed seperately.
Finally, the Firbara can return a target to a previous state of morality by triggering the proper memories. This raises the target’s Morality rating by 1 per success achives to a maximum of (7 + ½ Prominence). How this alters the behavior of the target is left to the Storyteller but the effects are likely to be dramatic and emotionally powerful. By spending a point of willpower, the Firbara can enforce the new Morality score on the target, forcing them to succeed (not fail) on a degeneration roll in order to perfrom an immoral action.
Once the Firbara has completed her work she can either continue Concentrating to keep the effects going, cut the connection and let normalcy return, or spend a point of willpower (in addition to any spent above) to allow her to drop the connection while ensuring the changes last the entire scene before fading. Firbara generally agree that use of this Flare is ethical because it isn’t forcing the target to act against their nature: it is reinforcing their nature.
An unethical Firbara, however, could do the reverse of any of the above: repress emotions, repress memories, and lower Morality. When so used, this Flare is referred to as the Flare of Profaning and is a Sin against Responcibility (exact level of sin determin by what one forces the target to do).

Dusk Flare of Old Life
Firbara understand that even after death, parts of the old life are carried on. By examining a piece of a larger object, a Firbara can learn about the moments of its seperation, the small death of a whole creation.
Dice Pool: Wits + Expression + Prominence vs. Composure + Prominence (if applicable)
Cost: 1 Essence
Action: Instant
Duration: Instant
This Flare can be used for two very different purposes. Used on a whole object this Flare reveals when and where it was created, its “birth”. Used on a piece of an object this Flare reveals how the piece came to be seperated from the whole and allows the Firbara to track the location of the whole using the normal rules for tracking (this can take an exceptionally long time in some cases). Used on organic matter, such as a piece from an animal or plant, the Flare simply reveals the place and time of their birth if they are alive or the place and time of their death if they are not. If used on a human being, however, this Flare reveals their last “small” death or birth, which is the most recent major life change they have undergone, something that has altered the kind of person they are.
Sensory information is not provided by the Flare; the Firbara simply knows the facts regarding what and who and is not provided with context. For example, if the target was recently fired from his job, the Firbara would know he had been fired, the date it occurred, and the exact location but not what he did to get fired or what his job specifically was. Each success on the activation roll goes back to the next oldest small birth or death.


Facet of the Moth
By taking on this Facet the Firbara internalizes and understanding the ways in which life continues, the ability to see how it will end, and to encounter those who have experienced lasting death.
Dice Pool: None
Cost: None, 1 Willpower
This Facet lets a Firbara see and speak with ghosts by focusing on them. While the Facte is constantly active an amount of focus is required to spot the etheral beings. The Firbara must actually declare that she is looking for ghosts in order to find them. Once one has been found the Firbara has the option of spending a point of willpower to be able to physically interact with the spirit for the duration of the scene. As an additional ability, she can tell how a given mortal being will die by observing them for only a few seconds, at the end of which she will receive the answer in a simple flash of insight. This ability can not predict violence death, which includes accidents such as car wrecks and gas explosions as well as stabbings or shootings; only the cause of death should things continue on as normal for the person. This ability can even be used on the dead, showing the Firbara how someone should have died.

Thanks. I figured I'd post it and see if Vigo was back yet. I'll collect the Flares into a single document and put it up as an attachment so, hopefully, we can get some folks to spot check me and catch errors or breaks.

They'll need to be balanced at least, I'm sure, as well, to make sure that we don't have any dead weight on the system.

I would like to apologize for not being around as much; our internet has been wonky, and our laptop destroyed, so I'm having to check up from the library for the time being.

Tadanori, thank you for keeping it going like this, and I like the way the common flares work. Thank you so much, my friend.

I'll start working out the political stuff a bit more with my wife in between checking up here, and post something when I've got it. (Have ADD, working on novel as well as games, Phoenix is my only WoD project, however)

Also, if you'd like to help out with some of my other ideas for WoD once we have Phoenix just about done, I'd appreciate the help there as well.

First Draft of a concept for snake based enemies:



Iacchians (classical); Earthbound (common use); Old Snakes; Trust Funds (modern)

Iacchians are essentially snake spirits. However, their analog with terrestrial snakes is by design only and they are unconnected as far as the Shadow and Material worlds are concerned. The creator of these entities, known as Iacchus, was a powerful spirit alien to the world. He was one among many and by no means the greatest. While his fellows where industrious in their desire to invade the world of Gaia, Iacchus only desired to be left alone and enjoy existence as he saw fit. The last of his kind to be struck down, Iacchus refused to turn himself away from drink and pleasures of the flesh even as he was killed.

It was from this strange self destructive pacifism, and its own alien nature, that Iacchus birthed his children. While the bodies of the others where destroyed, such effort for the sedentary Iacchus was deemed unnecessary. And while no one watched, the being’s bones, and hair, and veins all slowly slithered away, leaving only a pile of wasted and useless flesh and fat; so where created the Iacchians, born of spirit but physical in the material world.

Exemplars of self interest, Iacchians seldom do nothing that is not directly motivated by their own comfort. They enjoy the best in life and of the flesh and are willing to manipulate others into achieving their desires for them. The average Iacchian is not particularly bright, barely more intelligent than a normal snake, with desires to match. It wants to eat and it wants to lie in the heat of the sun. In this simplicity also lies their weakness. An Iacchus requires energy to function, the essence of heat and motion, which it can only acquire from others by theft or consumption. They most desire the energy of the sun because acquiring such essence frees the Iacchian from the need to hunt additional essence for the greatest amount of time.

There are only two such sources available on Gaia: Helions, the spirits of Helios, and the Firbara.

Types

Iacchians are divided into three broad groups, which liken themselves to their origin from Iacchus. Gorgons claim to descend from Iacchus’ hair and are vainest among their kind who refuse to fight prey directly. Septus rose from the veins and carry the hatred of Gaia for rejecting Iacchus in the form of venom. Typhons, grown from the bones, are the largest and strongest, crushing their prey and enemies within their coils.

I can definitely see the Iacchian starting the downfall of Sodom and Gomorrah.

I like it all so far. My wife really loves the idea of the Iacchians, btw.

So I'll take this mulling over of concept, which is pretty accurate to what I had in mind, and begin working on the five Roosts and the Roostless. We'll take care of the Flare of the WyldFyre later when we take care of the individual Roost Flares, and deal more with WyldFyres themselves then as well. I'll get back to you in about a week or so about the Roosts.

That would up the suspicion of the Dragons who took the Serpentine Aspect. I like it.

It should be that only certain Dragons the Phoenixes are gonna suspect. Depends on certain Aspects like Serpentine. The friendship should still be there. But with Serpentine Dragons like the Rainbow Crest Dynasty or the Wyrms (still working on that one) would be an uneasy one, like that one guy you won't normally hang out with but the main reason you would hang out with him is a person you both know and hang out.

First draft of Responsibility is complete. You can see it here on Google Docs.

Some more Flares, loosely tied to Roosts but open for interpretation.


Dawn Flare of Winds (Likely Avian Flare)

Summoning the heat of the Corona and shaping it into the image of two grand wings, the Firbara flaps downwards, sending a roaring torrent of heated air directly out ahead of herself.

Dice Pool: Strength + Athletics + Prominence
Cost: 1 Essence
Action: Instant
Duration: Instant (see description)

This Flare creates a cone of violent wind that begins at the Firbara and extends outwards to the edge of her Corona radius at which point they lose their mystical intensity, though the wind continues to blow. These winds lift people off of the ground, send objects flying about, and in general cause a great deal of havoc. Living things in the cone may make a Dexterity + Athletics (supernatural reisstances do not apply) rolls to keep their footing with a penalty equal to the activation successes of the Firbara. Failure means they are knocked down by the force of the winds (and count as objects when determining if they are blown about). People not lifted move at ½ their speed when moving into the wind and double speed moving with it. An object caught in the wind is blown (Prominence + Activation Successes) yards from where it started. Living things and objects caught in the cone may be subject to dice of bashing or lethal damage depending on the objects. Armor protects as normal but Defense does not apply.
The winds can lift objects up to size (Prominence + Activation Successes). Especially light or heavy objects or objects secured to the ground are up to the Storyteller to determin. In general an especially heavy object should use its full Structure rating not only its size and an object that is secured should double its size for purposes of resistance.
At the end of the Firbara’s action the winds end unless she spends another point of essence to keep them going in which case objects caught continue to be blown farther and farther away (until they are outside of the Corona radius). This can continue as long as the Firbara has essence to spend.


Dawn Flare of Wrath (Possible Roc Roost Flare)

The shield of the gods rests in the hands of the Firbara, the power to call upon the wrath of the heavens: lightning itself.

Dice Pool: Stamina + Science + Prominence
Cost: 3 Essence
Action: Instant
Duration: One Scene

Upon activating this Flare the Corona swirls tightly around the Firbara, forming a brilliant dome for a moment before its light fades and leaves behind the crackling of electric energy. Though the dome is invisible it is still present as an extremely powerful electromagetic field. While active this dome carries a charge of electric power equal to a powerline and anyone who comes within a yard of the Firbara will be affected by it.
While the dome is active the Firbara’s speed is reduced to a quarter normal value because both feet must remain on the ground at all times. Conductive surfaces will carry a charge and the dome will also deflect any incoming energy away, protecting the Firbara from other sources of electrical, fire, or radioactive damage.
The Firbara herself can not be shocked by the dome and the Flare will end itself to prevent that happening (say if the Firbara where thrown into the water or was forced to raise her foot).


Dust Flare of the Gremlin (Possible Roc Roost Flare)

Using the same principles as the Flare of Wrath, this Flare focuses powerful magnetic forces through the Corona for a fraction of a second to distruct electronics.

Dice Pool:
Cost: 3 Essence
Action: Instant
Duration: Instant

This Flare can target any electroical device within Corona radius of the Firbara. Focusing a powerful stream of magnetic power through the Corona causes the device to stop functioning either by overpowering its systems or by forcing a short circuit.


Dawn Flare of Inverse Flight (Oozlum Roost Flare)

The legendary Oozlum bird is said to have flown backwards. Most legends attribute this to vanity but the Roost which bears the name in modern times considers it a matter of pragmatism. This Flare has nothing to do with actual flight but it does involve looking backwards, into the past.

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Intimidation + Prominence minus Resolve + Prominence
Cost: 3 Essence
Action: Extended (one action for each roll)
Duration: Extended

By looking into the eyes of another, a Firbara can see into their past. On activation the eyes of the Firbara and the target glow with brilliant light reflecting the color of the Firbara’s gem. For this Flare to be effective either eye or physical contact must be maintained for the duration of the action. Once contact is made the subject is compelled to remain still unless the Firbara fails a roll, in which case the target can attempt to break a physical hold or look away.
This Flare causes the target’s life to move backwards, allowing the Firbara to see and hear whatever the target did at specific times. It does not confer understanding, only raw information and only from the eye sight of the target. Prior to beginning the Firbara must either have some idea of what to look for or be willing to watch a human’s life on rewind looking for the correct images. While searching the Firbara is completely unaware of realtime events unless the connection is broken by an outside force. In the event that the connection is broken before the memory is discovered than the Firbara loses any accumulated successes.
Knowledge of the experience sought determins the target number. A specific time is generally 5 while only a date is 15. Searching though a lifetime for a moment with no reference point would be 50 (making success extremely unlikely given limitations on Extended rolls).

Excellent. If you have any ideas or questions or pics or movie/book/song lyric quotes to use in the individual chapters, or even more inspiration ideas for me to put down in the playtest draft our current ideas will go into, by all means, let fly!

As for Mandate XP and the other stuff, Tadanori, I love it. Mandate sounds better than what I had in mind, anyway (Fuel. I know, stupid, but my laptop is gone, so I'm working by what's in this thread right now). I did have an idea for Prominence progression, as well. Since Flares and Facets depend entirely on Prominence for how many you can have, and is part of the Flare Dice Pools, this might cause issues, seeing as how other supernaturals only limit max rating of a power based on Power Stat. So here's how I balance it out a bit:

Most Power Stats are New Rating times 7 XP.

Prominence is New Rating times 10 instead.

New Flares are 10 XP apiece.

New Facets are 6.

Gem Rating, which should also limit the number of Facets by making it to where your Max Gem Rating is equal to the Max Number of Facets on your chart there, but you can still only gain a new Facet if you increase Gem Rating, would have an EXP cost of New Rating times 6.

Mandate XP can be used in conjunction with normal XP to build up Prominence (already stated this). Perhaps it could be used to build up Gem as well........?

Everyone starts with three Flares: Two from the Common Lists, and One from your Roost (Roostless still get Three, but they're ALL from Common Lists).

Everyone starts with two Facets: One Common and One Roost (Two Common if Roostless).

The Blessings of each Gem (Diamond/white, Ruby/red, Amethyst/violet, Sapphire/blue, and Obsidian/black) are basically +1 to three skills that fit the Phoenix's Gem.

The Flaw of each Gem is a cost you can take that is more RP in nature in lieu of paying the Essence or Willpower costs of Flares or Facets. Also unique to each Gem. Perhaps we give options for each Gem, and you pick one......?

I'm working on a Tier Three Conspiracy called The Gem Cutters. Gem Cutters are afraid of the Firbara mostly because of the damaging nature of the Corona, but also because they are, essentially, inhuman, and therefore, monsters (in the eyes of the less enlightened and fanatical Hunter: the Vigil, of course).

Gem Cutters were also at some point known as The Illuminati, and used Shards, fractures from a Firbara's Gem, to gain power. As a result, they use Shard Artifacts, a magical item system for Phoenix: the Risen, as their Endowment system.

Shard Artifacts are normal items like swords or rings that have a Shard in them. This Shard provides the user with the Blessing of the Gem at one dot, plus a single Facet per additional dot in the Merit. Number of dots also limits the size of the Artifact to a minimum size of a small ring at one or two dots, a larger piece of jewelry like an amulet at three dots, a small weapon like a dagger at four dots, and a large weapon like a sword or staff at 5. of course, those are minimum sizes, so you cannot have a ring with five dots, but you can have a sword at one. The book will include example Shard Artifacts of at least one for each Gem (since they have different Blessings) for each dot in the Merit.

Quick thought after skimming this briefly- sorry if I missed a deeper discussion elsewhere.


Instead of madness leading to the cover of the phoenix, what if the phoenix tend to induce "Aversion" - where people who are not capable of looking at their power directly find themselves metaphorically looking away. I see their hidden nature, then, being more in tune with vampires, but instead of fading out of focus, they literally are overexposed or just missed.

The phoenix are memorable, but their details are often so hazy, or, alternately, overly detailed that the memories are not necessarily useful. Witnesses might tend to focus in on some feature or features, and completely memorize them, but every other detail is made up by the unconscious mind. The result would be very prone to witness errors, and could even appear as lies. If you go with something like that, comparing Willpower to Corona (Glory?) makes some sense, and use differences to set the effects. (Composure + Power Stat would also make some sense.)



Themes for their powers: Fortune telling, Purification (physical, removing poisons and disease; mental, removing addictions or perversion, etc.), Inspiration, Change through a crucible (material, mental), "Banking the Fires" to store effects for later use, which should still cost, but much less; "Stoking the fires" to get extra effect for extra effort, Flare (which should always require extra input) to represent powers going particularly strong, but burning out faster, and preparation and tending to an effect should be able to be used to prolong them.
Unlike any others I can think of, this splat should be able to adjust parameters of their active powers without having to recast them, to better manage their power resources and effect durations.

I rather like the notion of an uncut gem as the lowest level, and each Facet learned refining it further. Focus and control increase, so the benefit from improving abilities would be in being able to reduce the scope of an effect. Merely learning a gem would grant vast unfocused power immediately. (A youngster attempts to destroy an elder with a conflagration, but the elder refines the blast to move around him and the innocent bystanders. Raw potential of both is similar, but the elder can make the effects more useful by sheer control. This means that a raging phoenix is always something to fear, yet provoking your foe is a great idea if you're outclassed. I like that.)

Geist's two track thing seems like a neat way to go, but so would a semi-permanent choice of "cuts" in a gem... but on rebirth, these could be shifted around. Actually, that could be what the nesting is for- redefining the gems selected. Without a proper rebirth pyre ritual, it could be up to chance which cuts and facets reform, or even which gems.

Come to think of it, entirely new gems could require vast effort to gain. Some gems could be available to any phoenix, while others would be available to certain subtypes only, both without a major life change, while others would always require a major event to be able to gain, like a good death or fulfilling some major destined event.

Okay, I can agree with that, Tadanori. Originally, Gem Rating was the sole power other than Prominence for Firbara, and each Facet was supposed to have a dice pool based off of Gem Rating, making it akin to Mage Arcana.

As for Gem rating, you put down in flare of Grand Wings that Gem rating helps determine the speed at which the Phoenix can fly, so that would have to be changed. Perhaps replace it with (Resolve + Dexterity + 20) x Prominence, or ([Dexterity x 2] + 20) x Prominence. Or, even better, (Dexterity + Athletics + 20) x Prominence.

flyboy254, go right ahead with that general Hunter write up. And, if you have any more ideas about the Illuminati (Gem Cutters), be my guest and make them known.

TheNate, while you make some good points, most of those power themes we've already in use, and others are in the works for Roost-specific Flares and Facets. Also, the Phoenix's Gem is akin to a Vampire's Clan; you have certain advantages (Blessing for Gem, Strength for Clan) and certain limitations (Flaw for Gem, Weakness for Clan) that go hand in hand with the Gem, which is why there are only Five. Though I can see coloring your Gem with a new color (one not used, like Green, or Orange, or Yellow) as kind of like Vampire Bloodlines or Werewolf Lodges, in order to add new powers at the risk of greater Flaw. As for Aversion, that's not entirely a bad idea, but I think it should work in conjunction with what we have for the Corona, rather than instead of. Keep the heat stroke memory lapse for the Corona, but add Aversion so that they simply become over developed on camera in terms of pictures and video and mirrors. That makes sense, and is a good compromise.