OOC Chat and Discussions
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By Dean Shomshak (Exalted 2nd Freelance Writer)
Lunar Bond, 2nd Draft
Luna defines herself by her emotional connections to others. They are part of her strength, and she gave her Chosen a similar power to draw strength from their relationships. In particular, she and the Unconquered Sun partnered the Exaltations of their Chosen so that they would never be alone. Though barriers of awe and fear might isolate a Solar from ordinary mortals, still her Lunar mate would know her heart; and though a Lunar might change through a thousand forms and roles, his Solar mate would remind him of his true identity.
However, Luna does not define herself through a single relationship, and neither do her Chosen. The “Solar Bond” between Moonchild and Lawgiver is merely a special case of a wider capacity. The Lunar Exaltation can infuse any intense emotional relationship with supernatural power, and the bond a Lunar forms to a Dragon-Blood, a god or a milkmaid can be just as powerful as the bond to his Solar mate.
The Solar Bond has been in abeyance for fifteen centuries, due to lack of Solars. Losing all their Solar mates at once hit the Lunar host hard -- but they’ve moved on. Most Moonchildren never knew the comradeship of a Solar mate, and don’t miss it. If the returning Solars want their Lunar mates back, they will have to earn them.
Revised Background: Lunar Bond
The “Solar Bond” Background presented on pages 110-111 of The Manual of Exalted Power: The Lunars is now a special case of a broader Background called Lunar Bond. These rules supersede those printed.
As with any Background, Lunar Bond operates on a five-dot scale. A Lunar without a single Bond has chosen not to link his Essence with that of any other person. The higher a Lunar Bond’s rating, the more intense and supernaturally potent the Lunar’s connection to the other individual.
The person to whom a Lunar has a Bond is the Lunar’s “mate.” The Lunar is also “mate” to the other person. While this has connotations of love, sex and marriage, it is not necessarily so. A mate is a comrade, a person who matters so much that without them you feel as incomplete as a single sock or glove.
The Lunar Bond is usually one of affection. On rare occasions, though, Lunars find themselves bonded to people they hate. A Bond of hate is no ordinary dislike. It is utter loathing. The Lunar finds the meaning of his existence in seeking the mate’s destruction. Without that hatred, he is not fully himself. Lunars driven by a Bond of hatred have achieved great and terrible deeds that leave their fellow Moonchildren shuddering for centuries to come.
Obtaining Lunar Bonds
A Lunar character can begin play with a Bond obtained through the character’s initial allotment of points for Backgrounds, or through bonus points. Lunar Bond cannot be raised above three dots without using bonus points, and the fourth or fifth dot of a Lunar Bond costs two bonus points instead of one.
Bonds can also be acquired and raised by spending experience. Dots of Lunar Bond have the same experience cost as any other Background.
A Lunar cannot form a Bond to another person unless she already has an Intimacy to the prospective mate. On the other hand, a Lunar does not need to form a Bond to every person with whom she has an Intimacy.
If the Intimacy breaks, so does the Lunar Bond. This is notably bad for the Lunar. However, the Storyteller refunds the experience that went into the Bond. It is not possible to reduce or “buy down” a Lunar Bond, except by breaking it completely. A mate’s death also breaks the Bond.
The Lunar gains one Limit for each dot in the broken Bond, or the Lunar must spend that number of Willpower points. The Storyteller may raise of reduce this number by one, depending on the circumstances of the mate’s death and nature of the relationship. Finally killing one’s hated namesis is not so bad; losing the Solar mate who loved you for millennia can be shattering.
A Lunar can form bonds to as many people as her highest Virtue rating. However, the total points invested in Lunar Bonds cannot exceed the character’s Willpower: The more a Lunar spreads her love (or hate) among others, the less power she obtains from each.
The list of a Lunar’s Bonds always includes her Solar mate, even if that Bond is rated at 0. The supernatural connection still exists, even if the Lunar does not choose to give it any force. When a Lunar first meets his Solar mate, there’s always a “ping” of recognition between their Exaltations, and both characters remember their past lives together. (More precisely, the past lives of their Exaltations’ previous hosts.) This happens even if the Solar Exaltation has been converted to an Abyssal or Infernal Exaltation: Luna accepts that identities are fluid. These memories can be powerful and impel the Lunar to create an Intimacy to the Solar and restore the Solar Bond, but that remains the choice of the Lunar (and the Lunar’s player).
A Lunar can form additional bonds to any people she wants, with one very important exception: The Lunar Bond cannot link two Lunars. Now and then, Moonchildren ask their patron why this is. Luna responds that “I didn’t choose you so could circle-jerk,” or words to that effect.
Lunar Bond Effects
Bonus Dice: The Lunar’s player can add the Bond’s rating to the dice pool for any task involving the Lunar’s mate, so long as it is consistent with the Lunar’s Intimacy. Bonus dice from Lunar Bond are not added through Charms, any more than stunt dice or channeling a Virtue would be. The Lunar can do this as many times per story as the Bond’s rating, just as if the Lunar Bond were an additional Virtue — except using the Lunar Bond does not cost Willpower points. On the other hand, three-die stunts that are consonant with a Lunar Bond can replenish channels of the Bond instead of Virtue channels.
Examples: Fight at the side of your boon companion; follow your kidnapped mate’s trail; wisely administer your mate’s kingdom; talk your mate out of a really bad idea; talk your mate down from a Limit Break flip-out; fight your mate to stop him from doing something he will later regret; attack the mate who is your hated nemesis.
Bonus dice from Lunar Bond do not stack with dice gained from channeling a Virtue. You can channel one or the other for a roll, but not both.
Bonus dice from multiple Bonds do not stack, either. If a Lunar fights beside two mates, one Bond rated at 4 and the other at 3, he cannot invoke both at once to gain 7 bonus dice. But he can get +4 dice four times, and +3 dice three times. That’s still pretty sweet.
Defense of Loyalty:
Each dot of Lunar Bond adds one to the Lunar’s MDV static value whenever a social attack or Charm seeks to force her to act against her mate; or more precisely, to act against the Intimacy to her mate. (So it’s extra-difficult to persuade a Lunar to act against a Bond of hatred.) This stacks with the basic +1 MDV for when a social attack acts against an Intimacy.
Unlike the Solar Bond in MoEP: Lunars, though, the Lunar Bond does not impose MDV penalties if the mate attempts a social attack on the Lunar. Luna’s loyalties are not blind, and sometimes a Lunar’s job is to save a loved one from himself. The –1 MDV penalty from the underlying Intimacy may still apply, but nothing worse than that.
Sense Mate: The Lunar can expend a Willpower point to gain vague information about her mate’s current condition. Roll the Lunar bond’s rating. Each success grants one datum. A successful roll starts with the most basic information: Is the mate still alive? In addition to this, each success grants one additional piece of information such as whether the mate is in the same world as the Lunar; if so, the general direction of the mate (“east,” “up,” “somewhere in the Labyrinth”); or the emotional or physical condition of the mate (“doing fine,” “in pain,” “furious”). The Storyteller may grant other sorts of information too, of similar brevity, but information the Lunar specificially wants to receive about the mate should take precedence.
Repeated attempts to sense a mate become progressively more difficult: The second time in a day that a Lunar tries to sense her mate, the roll suffers a –1 external penalty. The third time suffers a –2 external penalty, and so on.
The Lunar’s mate can also use the Bond to sense the Lunar’s condition. This follows exactly the same rules as for the Lunar herself.
[I do like having this be part of the basic Lunar Bond rather than a Charm. Sometimes I think Exalted development focuses too much on Charms and not enough on other mechanics. Charms will then build on this aspect of the Lunar Bond.]
Flawed Bond: Acting against the Intimacy that defines the nature of the Lunar Bond causes the Lunar to accumulate Limit. Just as with suppressing a Virtue, going against a Bond requires the Lunar to fail a roll of the Bond, or else spend 1 Willpower and gain 1 Limit. This is not an intended aspect of the Lunar Bond: Rather, it is part of how the Great Curse affects the Lunar Exaltation.
At the Storyteller’s option, though, events may lead to a Lunar developing two opposed Intimacies to the same person: The Lunar comes to hate the one he loved before, or develop first a grudging admiration, then honest respect for the one he hated. Storytellers might not want to allow multiple, different Intimacies to the same person; but if you do allow this, you might also allow a Bond’s character to change by flipping from one Intimacy to the other.
