The Lunars

Headnote: Some creative liberties have been taken with the original Exalted material on Lunars. The ones here are largely inspired by Revlid & Earthscorpion’s Terrifying Argent Witches revision project. 

Common Traits
Lunars take all of the following common traits for free.

Caste Traits
Lunars choose one of the three following caste traits for free. Within each caste, a lunar may choose 4 spheres from a list of 6. As with traits, the first in the list is required; but the rest can be chosen for customizability.

Lunar Miracles
As mentioned in the Essence section, each exalt type has a few extra unique uses for their Essence attribute. For the lunars, they are the following:

Note: Unlike any of the common exalted miracles, none of these powers require a mantra to be used because they are too specific. That also means that they can’t be woven into charms though.

Hypnotise — Ob = Victim’s Will
See BWC pg 277. The target must have been in your presence for a few minutes before you can use this power. It causes the victim to hesitate for two actions and then obey one simple direct command from the lunar. The intended action must still be related to the lunar’s spheres of influence though: so gibbous witches tend to elicit actions of fear or hatred, the hidden witches can evoke actions born from fascination or false perceptions, and crescent witches can induce actions of emotional manipulation or intense desire. After enough successful uses equal to the victim’s Will exponent they gain the `Indoctrinated` trait.

Note: This is a powerful effect that can take away player agency if used flagrantly! The GM or other players should step in and speak up if they feel that the rules are being abused. Discuss it with your group. Alternatively, you may give Lunars the `Hinderance` power, from BWG pg 525.

Fetch — Ob Varies
You may take the form of any specific living creature that you know of. You must have met them before in-game, or have established a meeting by a wise, affiliation, or lifepath, say. Each transformation is slightly unique, describe it however you like. It always takes 5 actions to transform, which count as a Physical Action. If successful, a shapeshifting intent can ride indefinitely until you voluntarily drop the form or shapeshift again. (Though note that the longer you keep a form the more `Abjection` tests you’ll likely rack up).

Regardless of success or failure, see the consequences section below. If you were successful though: you gain the stride, stature, natural weapons/ armour, and other physical characteristics of the new form, copying them identically. (Use the monster burner to check these when necessary). However, you retain all of your stats, attributes, and skills, beliefs, instincts, and traits. Most importantly, your mortal wound and the shades of those abilities are retained too.

While doppelganging, you can do anything that your `current form` can innately do using stats as the skill when appropriate (without Beginner’s Luck penalties). For instance, a fish would use Speed to swim, while a dragon might use Forte to breath flames. Otherwise test normally.

You also get access to any of the victim’s Lifepath settings, Relationships, Affiliations, and their Reputations—so long as you know them—but temporarily lose access to your true form’s own.

Obstacles
A lunar attempts to shape-shift using their Essence attribute, ignoring the usual restrictions imposed by mandalas, using the following obstacle list:

Ob 3:	Fetchting an innocuous, harmless, or sessile form (eg. fish, barnacles, worms).

Ob 4:	Fetching an effective, sentient, or dangerous form (eg. wolves, bears, falcons).

Ob 5:	Fetching a sapient and effective mortal form (eg. men, god-bloods, beast-folk).

Ob 6:	Fetching a simple immortal form (eg. exalts, terrestrial spirits, lower fêy).

Ob 8:	Fetching a complex immortal form (eg. celestial spirits, behemoths, higher fêy).

Ob 9:	Fetching a powerful or bizarre immortal form (eg. third circle demons, chaosites).

Ob Modifiers
Assuming that your current form has middling stature: Add +1 Ob if the creature has a diminutive or massive stature, +2 Ob if the creature has a small or gigantic stature, or +3 Ob if it has a tiny or colossal statue.

Add an extra +1 Ob if you wish to change the physical characteristics of the form, within reason (eg. altering pigments, shapes, textures, sexes, sizes, and other expected variations within a given species). Alternatively, this could be base Ob 2 to make changes to your current form.

Note: You will no longer be considered to be doppelganging if you change anything about the form, and will not be treated as such. You will lose out on their specific benefits, like Affiliations.

Restrictions
You cannot transform into anything with dead or vegetative essence (eg. corpses, ghosts, hecatonchires, inanimate objects, automata, plants, etc.) and due to the strictures of their conception you cannot doppelgang as any of the incarnate gods, including the elemental dragons and the five maidens.

What about my stuff?
If you're taking a humanoid shape, then all of your equipment can stay on you without too much trouble. If you want to become an animal or other strange form, then you'll have to either store your belongings somewhere separately, or you must envelop them into your new form requiring a separate Forte test at an Ob equal to the number of objects you bring in you: Failure inflicts a Light wound, which can cause hesitation.

Consequences
First, any non-lunar witnesses of a successful transformation should probably make a Steel test.

Then, instead of the usual ‘Tax or Anima’ choice when using Essence, you must instead choose to make a normal Forte Tax test by rolling the dice or simply mark an Abjection test at the same Ob (if this second option is chosen then no dice are actually rolled, just mark the test).

If the shapeshifting test fails then one of the following things will also happen: This is chosen and declared upfront by the GM before the test, but may also be discussed. If you can think of something more fitting for the specific situation then go for that instead.
 * 1) The transformation completely fails and you are stuck in whatever your current form is for the rest of the session. (You cannot even change between true or totem forms).
 * 2) The transformation goes wrong and you think that you have successfully transformed, but have not actually changed at all. As per `Let it Ride`, you cannot be convinced otherwise and cannot act normally again until the end of the session, or until something happens else in-game that snaps you out of it.
 * 3) The transformation is partially successful but you suffer a superficial wound in the process. This must be healed normally.
 * 4) The transformation is “too successful” and you completely become the creature. You lose control: fully believing yourself to be the target in question as well as physically resembling them. You become an NPC for a short while, causing mayhem, disrupting plans, wasting time, or whatever. Then you turn back, dazed and confused.

Note: Option 4 is chosen should generally be dealt with in a single descriptive sequence. Don’t take control away for too long!

Shape Memory
Lunar’s can eventually learn the ins-and-outs of a particular shape. When this happens they gain a permanent +1D benefit when attempting to transform into that being. This creature’s name and species are added to the lunar `shape memory`: a list of all their known forms.

There are two ways to add something to your shape memory: Successfully transforming into that being enough times equal to 10 minus your Abjection attribute (similar to `Weaving Charms` or learning a skill), which takes time and extra bookkeeping, or...

Heart’s Blood
The short-cut method for adding a form to your shape memory is to ritually hunt a target down, slay them, and consume their still-beating heart! This will always mark a difficult Abjection test.

A test to do this should definitely be involved somewhere, but the nature and obstacle of the test can depend on the prey: Most animals can be caught with a quick Hunting test. To kill a man might require a Bloody Vs. or full Fight. Killing something it’s sleep is probably a Stealthy test. A willing or restrained subject will require a Ritual test. Creatures with weird anatomy or no ‘heart’ to speak of exactly will need Butchering, to find another part of their body to consume instead.

Affinities
There’s another way to get a bonus dice for shapeshifting too: Take an `Affinity for …` trait (BWG 311), where `…` is an animal. You can buy them at character creation using the normal rules. Otherwise, obtaining them in play must be done via trait vote.

Abjection
Luna is an unnatural being drawn into the world from the dreams of the One Beyond the World and woven by the Divine Ignition. She is a weapon. She crafted the lunar exalted in her own image; with secrets given to her by Autochthon, mysteries she seduced out of her father-progenitor Oramus, wonders she stole from the bosom of the Mother of Creation, and with the love she bore for bountiful Gaia. She knew what she wrought.

The term abjection literally means "the state of being cast off." A lunar can slowly get better at throwing away their forms and embodying others to become a true shapeshifter. It stems from a complete willingness to adapt in the face of adversity.

Starting Abjection
The `Therianthrope` trait opens the Abjection emotional attribute at rank B2. This is advanced during character creation by answering the questions below. Exponent 9 is the absolute highest that Abjection can go during character burning. Five exponent points may be spent to shade-shift Abjection. At character creation, the minimum Abjection exponent is 1 and the maximum is 9. You may subtract 5 from the exponent to shade-shift Abjection.
 * +1 Abjection if your character’s age is between 100 and 500 years, +2 Abjection if it is between 500 and 1000 years, and +3 Abjection if you are more than 1000 years old.
 * +1 if your Health and Steel are both 5 or more.
 * +1 if you’ve ever taken a lead into the Outcaste setting.
 * +1 if you’ve taken a new lead after every lifepath.
 * +1 if you’ve ever been disowned, exiled, outlawed, or similar.
 * +1 if you’ve ever betrayed and killed a friend or similar loyalty, and +1 more if you also stole their skin.
 * −1 if you’re newly exalted (i.e. if exaltation was your most recent lifepath).
 * −1 if you’ve ever repeated a lifepath.
 * −1 if your Will is 7 or more, or +1 if your Will is 3 or less.

Advancing Abjection
During play, Abjection advances like a skill. When tested it is not naturally open-ended, but it is also not affected by wound penalties.

Tests can be marked for Abjection when shapeshifting or when permanently stealing a shape (see the Consequences and Heart’s Blood headers above).

Additionally there are ten ranks of passive tests for Abjection, but only mark these tests if the situations happen while you are shapeshifted. (That is, if any of these situations occur while you are in your true form, then do not mark an Abjection test).

These tests stem predominantly from events that elicit changes in your life, good or bad. As with all other situational tests, feel free to change some of these or add your own to suit your games situation or theme better:

Ob 1:	Breaking one of your true form’s instincts. Going to sleep and dreaming a false form’s dreams. Being in the form of a wild animal and bringing it into a civilised place.

Ob 2:	Appreciating the life that the form normally leads. Being in the form of a civilised person and bringing it into the wild. Acting in a way that would normally be an instinct for the form*.

Ob 3:	Maintaining a form for the rest of a session or for a week of downtime. Breaking one of your true form’s beliefs. Being in the form of a mortal creature and bringing it out of Creation.

Ob 4:	Taking advantage of one of the form’s friends or family members. Killing one of the form's enemies. Acting in a way that works towards something that would normally be a belief for the form*.

Ob 5:	Maintaining a form for an entire adventure or for month of downtime. Killing one of the form’s friends or family members. Getting the form a new relationship, establishing a new reputation, or buying them into a new affiliation.

Ob 6:	Advancing, reducing, or otherwise changing a form’s reputation or affiliation. Killing a form’s original while wearing their shape (i.e. from their perspective, they are getting killed by their own doppelganger).

Ob 7:	Maintaining a form for an entire campaign or for a season of downtime. Turning one of the form’s relationships into a hateful or romantic one.

Ob 8:	Revealing the truth about a form by casting it off and turning into something else with their circles, relationships, or affiliates as witnesses. Creating a new ‘family’ relationship for the original form.

Ob 9:	Maintaining a form for a year or more of downtime. Revealing to a form’s original that you have taken their shape and ruined their life with your actions.

Ob 10:	Completely taking over a form’s life, maintaining the form indefinitely, until everyone forgets a time when they didn’t know you as that form. Understanding that all forms are disposable once they have served their purpose. Forgetting your true form.

Note: * This can happen consciously or accidentally. It is the GM’s call usually. Successfully shapeshifting into a form will not automatically tell you any of its beliefs or instincts, but you can discover them through play by seeing what ends up marking Abjection tests. They don’t grant you Artha though, unless you copy them over to fill your own belief / instinct slots.

Chimerism (Exponent 10)
If a lunar’s Abjection exponent ever hits 10 then they lose control, and become permanently unplayable. Although they are not dead, the touch of demonic chaos in their chakras twists and pulls in all directions, and they can no longer contain it. They shred all forms of consistency and embrace constant change. The lunar becomes a chimera.

The lunar becomes an ever-changing beast of flesh and bone and quicksilver that ravages its way through towns. It becomes a floating hole in the world, rimmed with silver. Through it, horrors from Beyond squirm and wriggle, then it combusts in it’s own impossibility. It becomes an old man who sits by the road near a quiet village. He thinks he has lived there all his life, and he’s proud of his son who will become the new village thaumaturgist next week. The lunar becomes all of them, and more. And worse.

Abjection and Artha
Tapping into the nature of the forms they take, Lunars can exhibit skill at tasks they have never touched, summon reserves of bestial strength, or fluidly inhabit the mannerisms of their form. The artha goes into the Abjection attribute.
 * Fate can be spent to Help any ability test with Abjection, so long as the form that you’re currently inhabiting would ordinarily have that ability too. This marks an Abjection test of the appropriate type as per the usual help rules.
 * Persona can be spent to substitute an ability with Abjection for the duration of an intent. If this ability is a skill then you can FoRK too. Only one ability may benefit from this at a time. Mark tests for Abjection only as it’s used during the scene. (Remember that Abjection is not open-ended naturally, but also doesn’t suffer from wounds).
 * Deeds can be spent to perfectly doppelgäng as the form you currently hold and to completely become the creature until you next shapeshift. You will get to see and use their whole character sheet for the duration. Only your Essence attribute must stay the same. This marks a challenging or difficult test for Abjection, whichever is needed.

Tells (The Great Curse)
''Luna moves through the sky, ever-changing in her glory. Yet, she is always the moon. So it is for the argent witches: whatever form they might take, some part of their essence stays the same. It was not always this way, but lunars have learned to adapt—like they always do.''

Tells, like in poker, are characteristics and habits that reveal to an observant opponent that you’re bluffing. Lunars, being—in some sense—gamblers of life, are quite familiar with the term and sometimes use it to pejoratively refer to their curse.

The curse means that all of a lunar’s traits come with them when they shapeshift into various forms. This is only superseded when spending a Deeds point on Abjection (see above).

By-and-large though, these things go unnoticed until a crucial moment: A slip of the tongue, some social faux pas, a strange limp, or other small thing that might tick observers off and start searching for other things which may be wrong.

When this happens (and when it matters) the lunar should make a Falsehood, Acting, Stealthy, Inconspicuous, or Camouflage test versus Observation. The observer get’s +1D bonus dice for every two exponent points the lunar’s Abjection is beneath 10.

''For example, at Abjection 5 the observer gets +2D. At Abjection 2 they get +4D.''

If the lunar wins the test then they pass unnoticed and the test rides. The magic is preserved. People will continue to just filter out the signal that something might be wrong. (Recall that Observation is quite a rare skill among most common folk).

If the observer wins then they notice the weirdness and may react of their own accord. If they have Second Sight, they will know that the thing in front of them is a shapeshifted being. If they have Celestial Sight then they will see the lunar’s true form superimposed beneath.

Moonsilver Tattoos
A lunar may purchase Moonsilver tattoos with resource points. These tattoos function as bonus natural armour in all forms that the lunar takes. But they also also function to enhance the Tells trait, so if you buy them you should also add a note about it in your traits.

Like most natural armour, the dice are black but indestructible. There are three types to choose from: For an additional 50 rps, and permission from the GM and all players, you may grey-shade the tattoos. The tattoos count as gear.
 * Quarter— 15 rps. Adds +B1 to a body location of choice (chest, head, arms, or legs).
 * Half— 30 rps. Adds +B1 to two locations, but also adds +1D to opposing Observation tests.
 * Full— 45 rps. Adds +B2 to the chest, and +B1 to all other locations, but also adds +2D to opposing Observation tests.

Note: Using a deeds point to perfectly doppelgäng means that the tattoos are temporarily internalised and removed along with the Tells trait.