Arsenal (Background)

Arsenal is a background representing assets allocated from an organization to a character, and still controlled by that organization. The organizations represented by arsenal are all limited in scope, a single ministry or Legion or business, and have a very direct level of control over the assets allocated. This is different from other backgrounds taken by Dynastic characters, even though a large number of those also represent assets that are allocated and may be stripped. For example:

Resources: The Scarlet Empress is personal owner of all land and businesses on the Blessed Isle, while the Great Houses control the disbursement of Dynastic stipends. Thus even a wealthy Dynast does not actually OWN the sources of their wealth, and a word from the Empress or House leadership could see these stripped immediately.

Manse: The Scarlet Empress also owns all manses on the Blessed Isle. These she allocates to the Great Houses, who maintain and administer them. The Great Houses in turn (sometimes ordered by the Empress) allocate manses and hearthstones to various institutions such as the Immaculate Order, Imperial Navy, Imperial Legions, Bureau of Climatic Deliberations, as well as to individual Dragonblooded. As they are ultimately controlled by Empress and House leadership, hearthstones and manses may be stripped or reassigned as those powers see fit.

This is discomforting to some Dynasts, who seek Threshold manses... these they may control directly, as represented by the Manse background in the core rules, though in exchange such manses are distant and far more difficult to defend.

Artifact: Personal ownership of artifacts is common in the Dynasty, but in the case of larger artifacts such as warstriders the Throne or a Great House may have ultimate ownership even when the artifact is allocated for personal use by a particular Dragonblooded character.

The major difference between these Backgrounds and Arsenal is that the managers of an organization providing Arsenal are likely to make changes on a weekly or monthly basis, rather than merely in response to crises or as punishment for politically undesirable actions.

Each dot of Arsenal provides a number of dots of Assets. Asset dots may be spent on a dot-for-dot basis to obtain hearthstones and artifacts, though the number of dots of Arsenal is a cap on the dot-rating of hearthstone or artifact that can be purchased. Each Asset dot may purchase a total of 8 Resource dots of equipment, though the Resource cost of an individual piece of equipment is capped by Arsenal rating. Any mundane personal equipment (armour, weapons, tools) purchased in this way is of Exceptional quality.

A character need not exchange all Asset dots for Resources, so a character with Arsenal •• could choose to have a Hearthstone Amulet (Artifact •), a Memorial Iron (Manse •), and 4 exceptional reinforced buff jackets (Resources •• x4 = 8).

Arsenal Ratings and Assets

• - 2 dots of Assets, max 1-dot Hearthstones, Artifacts, or Resource costs.

•• - 3 dots of Assets, max 2-dot Hearthstones, Artifacts, or Resource costs.

••• - 5 dots of Assets, max 3-dot Hearthstones, Artifacts, or Resource costs.

•••• - 7 dots of Assets, max 4-dot Hearthstones, Artifacts, or Resource costs.

••••• - 9 dots of Assets, max 5-dot Hearthstones, Artifacts, or Resource costs.