Heartless v0

[Lestat]

Homebrew Exaltation - Heartless

Born without a heart, or driven to throw theirs away, they are the Heartless: beings doomed to wander the Wheel without emotion, beings empowered with the ability to manipulate the very same emotions they can no longer partake in, that is the curse of the Heartless. Mortals who somehow live on despite losing what makes them truly living beings become Heartless, immortal beings who feed on emotion. While they are denied emotion themselves they still obsess over them, and refuse to give up searching for what they've lost. As a Heartless grows in power so too may their heart grow back given nurturing, and time. Other Heartless however become too far gone to ever be treated as mortal again.

Powers:

Emotional Artery: The way to someone's heart isn't closed when weapons are drawn. At times that is when it is most vulnerable. You may take social combat actions in standard combat, and your social attacks can be Refuted. These actions provoke Opportunity Attacks on both sides.

Morality Deficiency: Your connection to the gods are as weak as your convictions. You start at 4 Devotion with no Degenerations, and you never suffer Degeneration from failing an Alignment Check. You may spend 1 Emotion to ignore an Alignment Check. You can change your Alignment any number of times without Degeneration, but your Devotion can never be raised above 6.

Apathy: You have lost your natural ability to emote leaving you cold and distant. For every point you are below your maximum Emotion you suffer a penalty to Charm and Scrutiny tests. Take this penalty as a bonus to Intimidate tests, and as a bonus to Mental Defense.

Broken Heart: You cannot tell the difference between right and wrong innately, the philosophical ground you stand on is always shaking. You never become jaded to the social attacks of others. You can never benefit from the Armor of Contempt feat. Additionally you can never benefit from a Bionic Heart. It may be installed, but it always refuses to function.

Power Stat: Sentimentality
A Heartless can feel the echoes of emotions that have already been expressed. They use these emotions to feel alive briefly, and to fuel their powers. A Heartless' sensitivity, and ability to seize these emotions for themselves is referred to as their Sentimentality. As a Heartless' Sentimentality grows they might begin to feel emotions all their own once again.

Resource Stat: Emotion. Heartless have an amount of Emotion equal to half their total combined Mental Characteristics + Social Characteristics plus an additional amount equal to their Sentimentality. You regain 1 Emotion per Resolve you would regain even if you already have full Resolve.

Sentimentality	Power Gained
★	Trust - You gain an extra raise to all non-hostile skill and characteristic tests that are supportive or beneficial to an ally. In addition you give the recipient of your Aid Another action an extra raise on their test, and can make Aid Another actions from any distance as long as you can communicate with the target. or Contempt - You gain a static bonus to damage rolls equal to half the amount your current Emotion is below your maximum Emotion.
★★	Optimism - You are immune to fear, and pinning. If you start a day with full Emotion you gain a temporary hero point for the rest of the day that may be spent, but not burned. or  Enmity - You may spend an Emotion to gain a Fear rating equal to (Sentimentality - 1) for the rest of the scene.
★★★	Admiration - Whenever a non-minion ally in the same scene as you stunts, or gets an explosion on their dice you get a cumulative +1 bonus to a test of your choice on your next turn for each stunt die rolled and each die exploded, to a maximum bonus equal to your maximum Emotion. You may apply this bonus at any time, even after a failure. or Envy - Whenever a target you are able to observe has a die explode on a roll you may spend an Emotion to cause a given die to count as not having exploded, simply giving the result on the die. This is done after the would-be result of the exploded die is rolled. You may also spend an Emotion to prevent a stunt from counting as a stunt, and giving any dice to a roll before the result is rolled.
★★★★	Love - While you are at your maximum Emotion gain 10 Mental Defense, two raises to Charm tests, and you ignore the Broken Heart power. or Depression - While you have no Emotion you may spend Resolve as if it was Emotion.
★★★★★	Joy - Your dice explode on 9s as well as 10s. or Remorse - You may spend an Emotion to reroll a single die of yours. You may spend Emotion up to your limit rerolling dice. You may do this after the roll has failed.

Heartless Assets

Altruism
You feel at peace when you help others. It costs no Emotion for you to pay the resource point cost of healing, curing, or resurrection powers, feats, or spells you use on others. This ignored cost is counted as if you paid the Emotion for your resource point spending limit. If the damage you are attempting to heal was intentionally self inflicted its cost can't be ignored and costs twice as much Emotion.

Coldness In My Heart
Out of combat instead of spending Emotion to restore wounds you may take wounds to restore Emotion.

Empath
You gain a level in the Enchantment spell school, and you may cast it with Fellowship, or Sentimentality in place of Charisma. You may purchase additional ranks in it as if it appeared on any of your class progressions. You may cast spells with the Social keyword in standard combat.

Kingdom Within The Heart
Your words are the key to opening other's hearts. Your social attacks can cause a being to go against their Alignment even if they have not been kept at 0 Resolve for a number of days equal to their Devotion.

Schadenfreude
Do you like hurting other people? You cannot gain Emotion outside of a combat scene, and when a combat scene ends you lose all Emotion. You gain one Emotion for every wound you inflict on others.

[Lestat]

Heartless:
Nature of a Soul

Heartless Physical Features
Most Heartless are scarred by their curse in one way or another. The manner in which it manifests differs from Heartless to Heartless. Some have a hole in their chest where their heart ought to be, others sport mystic iconography related to the heart, and soul as a kind of living reminder of what they've lost. Others appear outwardly as normal, but have a distinct lack of life when looked at in the eye.
Not all Heartless actually lack a physical heart, it is simply the most common form their curse expresses itself in. For those that do lack a heart though it appears as if lacking one truly is the cause of their misery. No matter how hard they attempt to graft, or install some kind of replacement they wither and die within seconds. Some Heartless say that the moment they consume a heart they can feel again, if only ever so briefly.

Heartless Tells
As a Heartless spends Emotion a creeping feeling of dread, and emptiness fills those in the scene. At one Emotion spent those nearby can make a TN 20 Perception test to determine where the awful feeling emanates as the Heartless' eyes become cold and dead like a fish. With two to three Emotion spent it becomes apparent that the Heartless is the source of the disturbance as the emotions of others begin to manifest themselves in different ways, some crying, some laughing, others watching in dead silence. At four to five Emotion spent it appears to others as if the very color is draining from the world and any displays of emotion are highly subdued. At six Emotion and beyond people struggle to even feel alive, their actions being dictated by opinion and observation alone like an automaton made of flesh.

Becoming Heartless
There are those who are born without hearts, and those who lose theirs somewhere along the way. For the case of the former individuals might be born under the sign of a hollow emotionless god, or at times even be the living manifestation of nihilism. Others however become Heartless through a number or rituals meant to strip the mortality from a mortal through the extraction of a living heart. Whether this is done to attain power, to bury one's feelings away, or as some cruel punishment the result is the same, each of these three things beset a mortal stripped of their mortality.
For those who are born without the capability to feel in the same manner as others feelings remain a mystery. For those who once felt them the memories live on, but the emotions they once had become foreign to them, as if they are not their own. In time a Heartless might regain some of their lost feelings, but they will never be made whole once again.

Playing a Heartless
Heartless may have lost their feelings, but in doing so they have learned of their true value. As a Heartless learns more about people, and how their feelings intertwine a Heartless can slowly piece together replacement emotions for themselves forged purely out of determination, and force of will. These new feelings might be positive, and they might be negative, but no matter their form they belong to the Heartless as the ultimate prize.
Strangely though a Heartless can not innately mingle with the realm of emotions like others they do not disassociate themselves from it entirely. The emotions of others become simple playthings for a Heartless as the chords one must pluck become almost visible to the naked eye. A Heartless can make great waves in the hearts of others, and can decide for themselves how the world will view them.

Heartless in Game
Heartless show two clear thematic paths to play across: positive, and negative emotions. Positive emotions refuse to spend Emotion while negative emotions wish to become devoid of Emotion. However a mixture of both is also viable allowing a mostly friendly Heartless to 'turn up the heat' when necessary. All Heartless have bonuses to social combat, and can increase their Emotion pool partially through Social Characteristics, though it is not vital for a Heartless to pigeonhole themselves into the role of the party face.
A Heartless can fulfill all roles as many of their powers are generic, and useful for multiple purposes. They can change their Alignment post character creation multiple times in order to better fit in with the party. Whether a Heartless chooses to focus on one particular role, or branches out into several any kind of character can be fulfilled under the umbrella of its themes of emotion.

Heartless Culture
Heartless often are at the heart of many calamitous events within the Great Wheel. Their lack of morals combined with the power to warp the hearts of others means they can easily find themselves in strange places doing awful things. Despite this there are still Heartless that stay near the company of mortals so that they might better understand their emotions, and affirm their commitment to reject the darkness they can so easily find themselves slipping into. Heartless believe feelings are the core of the Great Wheel, causing it to in effect 'spin' as the Warp is believed to be made of the feelings of others, and connects Crystal Spheres in the same manner that feelings connect individuals. Pondering, and philosophizing the nature of these connections often wander into the speech and dialogue of Heartless, causing them to be viewed as more aloof than normal by others. 

Adapting Heartless
Heartless have many generic powers potentially featured in other Exaltations, and can range anywhere from good to evil, or lawful to chaotic, shifting personality multiple times across an individual campaign. A Heartless can represent a negotiation master with a shifting morality base, a truly heartless monster who seeks only to kill, a kind magician who looks after their allies, or any number of other things. Some examples for replacement themes can include: artificial living beings, mentally scarred victims, or completely emotion filled regular Exalted who get a bit scarier when they spend resource points.

[Lestat]

Trust no longer has various stages of benefit depending on disposition. It now gives a raise to any non-hostile support acts taken, and gives extended range and an extra raise to Aid Another. Love no longer gives a scaling benefit depending on how much Emotion you have. As long as you are at full Emotion you gain various social combat benefits, and can 'regain' your heart just like the fluff implies.
Renamed for the Heartless that is to come.

Chatter Casting no longer exists, so Empath no longer needs to mention it.
Simplified some stuff. Might never get this one a full rework with the other Heartless being a thing.