Puppet
Aug 9, 2018 13:21:27 GMT -6
Post by Lestat on Aug 9, 2018 13:21:27 GMT -6
Homebrew Race: Puppet
A forgotten child's plaything. A tool for scholars and psykers. A vessel for malicious spirits. There are many tales of dolls coming to life. Some hold a grudge against the living, some live to serve their creator, and others sit in eerie silence without purpose. Though many so-called living dolls are either superstition run amok, or wraiths playing with the minds of the living, they do exist. They are even capable of becoming Exalted in extraordinary circumstances. It is additionaly possible for the soul of a deceased Exalted to be reincarnated through a cherished doll.
Puppets are mystical beings with as colored origins as distinct personalities. While there are many stoic and silent puppets that conjure images of knife wielding dolls with sudden robotic movements there are just as many that hold personalities the same as any mortal. As they are sentient they project an image into the warp, though none so strong as to have daemons and gods shaped after them. While inanimate dolls are prime targets for possession by a daemon, or wraith, a doll already given life by magic or spirit is already too full to easily assail.
Physical Characteristics
Average Height: 0.5m-1.2m
Average Weight: 1.5-10kg
Languages: Trade, any one extra
Common Personality Traits: Refined, stoic, old-fashioned, naive, cordial
Common Physical Traits: Cold eyes, stiff bodies, clear skin, exposed joints, false hair
Example Names: Alice, Ann, Barbie, Chucky, Pinocchio
Racial Statistics
Characteristic Bonus: +1 to Charisma or Fellowship
Skill Bonus: +1 to Charm and Deceive
Power - Magical Construct: Puppets have no need to eat, sleep, drink or breathe, and they are healed with Crafts instead of Medicae. You gain the Trance feat, which can be maintained indefinitely and does not require rest to re-use. In this state skill tests made to discern your true nature take a check.
Size: 1-2
Racial Feats
Beautiful Bewitchment [Puppet]
Choose a spell school you already have at least one rank in. You may use Charisma or Fellowship in place of the normal characteristic for that spell school.
Creeping Doll [Puppet]
As long as you are not being observed you may spend a resource point to double the distance any movement action would let you travel. If you begin to become observed at any point in that movement you become immobilized until the beginning of your next turn.
Hearthstone Mystica [Puppet, Gravelborn]
As a magical object it is possible for you to harness the power of hearthstone gems. You gain a hearthstone slot.
Mannequin [Puppet]
You are molded after a particular species, and take on a hollow reflection of their form. Choose any race to emulate, and gain their general looks, stature (but not size, you remain hollow and frail), and a Language most closely associated with them you don't already know. Also choose one of their racial feats that doesn't reference a racial power you lack. Once per session you may benefit from that feat until the end of the scene.
Rozen Maid [Puppet]
You gain the Protocol, and At Your Service feats.
Paragon Racial Assets
Marionette [Puppet, Paragon]
Thin strings hold your body in place from far above. You gain a flying speed equal to your speed, and you suffer no penalties and move at your full speed while prone. Mutually exclusive with the No Strings on Me asset.
No Strings on Me [Puppet, Paragon]
Despite being a puppet, you're no one's pawn. You may spend an Action Point to ignore or end an effect that would cause an outside entity to dictate your actions for you such as a spell or social attack. Mutually exclusive with the Marionette asset.
Physical Qualities
When you think of a Puppet or doll, you think of stuffy clothes, hollow eyes, and a flat expression. This isn't far from the truth, although once given life the emotions of a Puppet can take on a wider range of emotions than expected. Their bodies are still frail, and unaccustomed for rigorous activity. Their insides hollow and lightweight, with at most a wire frame keeping them solid. Their form is eternal, but extremely delicate, and prone to cracks and scratches requiring constant repair.
A Puppet without someone to maintain them is often even more unnerving to behold with missing eyes, ripped out limbs, and pulled out hair giving a haunting image. There is little way to tell the difference between a living Puppet and an unmoving one. Some Puppets paranoid of being discovered surround themselves in rooms full of dolls, hiding away like a tree in a forest. Similarly their appearance can vary wildly from expectation. A mannequin from a store window, or a small wooden carving or statue can come to life in the same way.
Playing a Puppet
Puppets run the gambit of personality from childish fairylike spirits to serious mentors. As most puppets are frail in form they make up for their shortcoming in discourse. While they are created as playthings or servants for others a Puppet must turn the tables and turn a master into a slave if they wish to be free. This can usually happen without the person in question ever realizing what is happening as their motives and emotions are twisted to suit the doll's goals. Taking a Puppet lightly can be exactly what they desire as an unguarded mind is the easiest to assault.
There are however Puppets that have no interest in talking things out. Dolls lost, abandoned, and turned aside can return with malevolent intent to seek revenge against their owners, or even society as a whole. Born eternal, yet lifeless, sympathy doesn't come naturally to Puppets, needing to be taught the value of life firsthand. These Puppets are the ones that make imaginations stir, and skin crawl with their cold lifeless eyes. Sometimes these murderous dolls are merely reacting to the emotions of their owner, seeking out vengeance against those that would wrong them.
Most Puppets have one overarching struggle, and conflict, that of their mockery of life. A Puppet is born with a mortal mind in an immortal but imperfect body, with no way to reconcile the two. Alchemists, Wizards, and Daemons alike offer no true salvation for their plights, doomed to forever be imperfect in their design. Puppets have an innate belief that there is hope somewhere in the Great Wheel, that somewhere there is some way to become truly alive. Those who are brave enough to explore the Wheel on such a wild hunt are the most likely to turn Exalted, as their desire burns without end. These are tragic figures that other Exalted lack hope for. Still, hope springs eternal, and even in the darkest of times they cling to their dream.
Puppet Heroes
Sakura was a one of seven dolls crafted by the master doll maker Rosemary. Powered and brought to life by a magical hearthstone located on the back of each doll they grew up as sisters in Rosemary's workshop. They helped make and sell dolls for several decades until the doll maker eventually passed away. In the course of splitting and dividing the possessions of their creator a small wooden box with six hearthstone slots appeared. No matter what they tried nothing would pry it open, or even scratch the surface. It was agreed to keep the box in the possession of the bank until something could be done with it. After several years, however it had come to light that two of the seven sisters were found with their hearthstones plucked out, leaving them lifeless. Visiting each sister she could find no answers, yet the murders continued. Sakura eventually hid herself away until many years later the murderer had finally come for her, slipping through her window in the night. It was the face of the youngest sister, Karin, ready to end her life as she slept. Forced into conflict Sakura had to destroy Karin, and soon found the box and the remaining five gems outside. Some say she put the gems back in their proper place, restoring her family, while others say she used them to open the box, which granted her wish to be human. To this day the myth of the seven dolls serves as as both a beacon of hope, and a cautionary tale to all Puppets.
The Nogrobber was a terrifying boogeyman that haunted the denizens of a backwater Crystal Sphere. It slipped through the night taking away children into its forest never to be seen again. The adults that tried to head into the woods would be found strangled, and mutilated, fixed on pikes in odd poses like a rotting scarecrow, or statue. Eventually the town was full of nothing but the old and elderly, left to die without a future for their hamlet. However, on one afternoon all of the children had spontaneously returned without even a word. The people were overjoyed at their fortunes, and welcomed them with open arms. However once each summer the Nogrobber returns to the town to claim a sacrifice. Its body was a simple man sized wooden carving with no facial features of any kind. When it appears the children it had once taken away pick one of the elderly to be dragged into the forest. Once the last of the original town had died or been sacrificed the forest had disappeared, left with an empty field in its place. Some say the Nogrobber is still out there preying on a new Crystal Sphere each time it runs out of pawns.
Alison was a Puppet who served under a grand puppet master, a sorcerer skilled in the art of puppetry. Whenever her master would need something a simple tug of her strings was all she needed to carry the task out. In this period there was no time to think, and no time to feel. While out completing another chore for her master she met a talking cat. It asked her if she was happy being led around on a leash, and she replied that she didn't know. The cat offered to let her see what it was like to live without strings, and cut her down with its claw. The puppet fell limp to the floor and was unable to stand up. Carrying her on its back, the cat offered to let her give orders for once instead of taking them. Asking what she wanted, she said to stand up, so it held her dangling from its mouth. Next she said she wanted to go home, so the cat brought her back to the puppet master. Furious at the cat for severing her doll's string, the puppet master shoo'd it away. Placing Alison down to have a new string attached she had finally said that she wanted to be free. Laughing at the idea of a puppet being free, the sorcerer said that puppets aren't meant to be free, that they aren't alive. Screaming that she wanted to be alive the cat leaped through the window, and clawed the spool of wire along with the Puppet from the puppet master's hands. Dragging the doll away out of the house the cat said that if you want to live by your own rules you should take the string by your own hand, and become your own puppet master. Little by little, the Puppet began to move, and for once was no longer burdened by the strings that bound it.