Half-Castes
History
The Dragonblooded were constructed with the express purpose of passing their power on to their children, but not so for the Celestial Exalts. This was not an error or a decision made lightly… drawn from the near infinite being of a Primordial, increases in the numbers of the Dragonblooded would be mere drops drawn from an ocean. But gods and their power, even the most potent spirits known as the Incarnae, are far from infinite, and so the Exalted shards drawn from them were limited as well lest the god be lost as it splintered into yet further Exalts. Some ancient divinities speak of gods who volunteered to form Exalted at the hands of the Primordial Authocthon and met such a fate, reduced to nothing by the greedy sucking of shards too demanding for their beings… only the Incarnae amongst all the gods had power enough to survive the process and retain themselves.
Thus, it was assumed that numbers amongst the Celestial Exalted were set in stone, and little thought was paid to their reproduction. But during the First Age, a matter of great concern emerged within the Exalted Host: the appearance of the Half-Caste.
Primordials are vast, but their attentions are equally so, and the minutiae that is the mortal body is largely beneath their attention. Autochthon had designed the Exalted to make use of the human form, for that form had been of his own design and he understood it well. But humans were NOT Autochthon’s creations, they were creatures built atop the form he had shaped, expanded by the whims and inspirations of other Primordials, and their final nature was a result of this conglomeration. Perhaps it was this mixture that made humanity capable of being so much more than the insignificant batteries the Primordials thought them to be, and perhaps not, but whatever the reason shortly after the departure of Autochthon from Creation Solar Exalts began to find strangeness amongst their offspring, Golden Children gleaming of visage and reflecting the power of their Exalted parent.
These children, deemed ‘Half-Caste’, were a cause of great consternation amongst the Exalted… the drain of their creation, felt clearly by their Exalted sire, brought savants screaming about the degeneration already seen amongst the Terrestrial Exalted, who had reduced themselves through impure and indiscriminate rutting some time before. Even the Unconquered Sun warned against following such a foolish path. But the children grew up to be unflinchingly loyal and an aesthetic match to their parent’s panoply… traits lacking in even the best-bred Terrestrial Gens. While most Solar Exalts decided to preserve themselves and embraced contraceptives and sterilization of their lovers, a few created Half-Caste lieutenants to replace Dragonblooded in the highest posts of their governments… a source of resentment amongst many ranking Dragonblooded which fed into the eventual Usurpation.
The Lunar Exalted responded to the appearance of Half-Castes by indulging in their own experiments… they did not produce anything akin to the Half-Castes, but Beastmen were the eventual result, passed off first as experiments in Genesis and then admitted openly when having an entourage of matching subordinates came increasingly into fashion.
Whether the Sidereal Exalted engaged in experiments of this sort, and what may have been produced, remains unknown.
Rules
Half-Castes are Godblooded of the Celestial Exalted, and follow the rules for such beings, with some exceptions.
- Like all Godblooded, Half-Castes have a natural cap of Essence 3.
- Half-Castes may learn the Charms of the Exalted type that created them, providing they meet all requirements and double the Essence requirement. Where Exalts receive caps (such as the Solar cap of Attribute+Ability), Half-Castes are capped at Ability. Half-Castes cannot learn charms which grant any form of Perfect or Persistent scene-long effect. Half-Castes are able to learn Terrestrial Martial Arts and Emerald Circle Sorcery, provided they have means of accessing the appropriate Charms or equivalent effects.
- When spending motes on Exalted Charms, a Half-Caste does not use their own Essence Pool. Rather, they use the Personal Essence Pool of the Exalt who is their parent. If no Personal motes remain, the Half-Caste draws from the Peripheral Pool of the Exalt, receiving one mote for every 3 motes drained. This use may not be refused by the Exalt.
- At character creation Half-Castes recieve the Great Curse mutation and the True Love merit and the intimacy that requires, towards the Exalt who sired them. This applies to the shard rather than an individual, and upon the death of the Exalt is transferred immediately to the next incarnation. The Half-Caste recognizes the Exalt immediately when encountered.
- At character creation, Half-Castes recieve an additional Attribute dot and an additional Favoured Ability, which must be chosen from amongst its parent's Caste Abilities.
- Much like the Terrestrial Exalted, Half-Castes are empowered by the touch of Exaltation in their blood, and are treated as such by Exalted Shards seeking a new host. Any shard that would ignore a Dragonblooded as a viable host will also ignore a Half-Caste.
- Half-Castes have a Peripheral Essence Pool equal to [(Essence x3) + Willpower + (sum of Virtues)].
Creating a Half-Caste
A Solar Exalt who impregnates or is impregnated by a mortal partner makes rolls Essence against Difficulty 3. If the roll succeeds, the child produced will be a Half-Caste. The Exalted parent immediately loses a point of permanent Willpower and gains the knowledge of the child’s nature. This is not a voluntary effect (though it might be argued that the choice not to employ contraceptives constitutes acceptance of all possible consequence). Relations with beings who could not recieve a Solar Exaltation (including other Exalts) do not produce Half-Castes.
Though they share the same shards as the Solar Exalted, Abyssal and Infernal Exalts do not produce Half-Castes… where the Unconquered Sun left his shards free by design, the Yozi and Neverborn broke this rule in many small ways, and it is their essence which suffuses the reproduction of their Exalts. Offspring of the Abyssal Exalted will always be Ghost-blooded; offspring of the Infernal Exalted will always be Demon-blooded, as if sired by a lesser demon in the hierarchy of their patron Yozi.
