God-King Armament
The Thousand Talons
Description
Artifact 
Attunement Cost: 10m
Hearthstone Sockets: 3
The God-King Armament is a masterwork weapon of intricate filigree decorations married to sweeping and deadly curves made of a combination of orichalcum and moonsilver. But for all of its majestic appearance, even attuned it still seems to be no more potent than any other grand daiklave. But the secrets of the weapon are revealed when used in conjunction with the charm Glorious Solar Saber (Simple, Combo-OK, 5 Motes + 1 Willpower to activate). Infused with a surge of shaped solar essence, the God-King Armament flares to life.
Once empowered, with a reflexive action the solar can alter the form of the God-King Armament into any other 3-dot artifact weapon. The blade could be a dire lance one moment, a long powerbow the next, and then a grand grimscythe. This includes warstrider sized weapons as well. The only restriction is that the weapon must not require a magitech mechanism to operate (eliminating any weapon with a repair value).
Similarly, with the same reflexive action the wielder can also split the weapon into any quantity of duplicate manifestations (or reform multiple manifestations back into one). One daiklave could become a thousand with little more than a thought. Weapons not held by the exalt attuned to the God-King Armament are not solid though; composed entirely of essence. As a result they cannot be used to interact with the physical world until grasped by the exalt. Once made whole, a manifestation will remain physical for the entire tick in which it was touched, allowing thrown weapons or ammunition to be used normally. The following tick they return to a state of visible essence.
Regardless of the form of the weapon, the God-King Armament receives the benefits of the charm used to activate it; Glorious Solar Saber. Once empowered the weapon radiates light, does aggravated damage to creatures of darkness and adds one mote to the exalt’s overdrive pool for each action taken. Similarly, the God-King Armament will only remain empowered by Glorious Solar Saber for one scene.
Serving as a beacon on the battlefield, the wielder and her allies enjoy an increased level of coordination. Whenever the user of the God-King Armament successfully parries an attack from a target with permanent essence less than the bearer, an ally can make an immediate counterattack against the attacker. That ally must either have an intimacy towards the wielder (and vice versa) or they must both have an intimacy towards the same cause. In addition, the ally must be able and willing to make an attack against the target when the parry occurs. If the bearer performs a perfect parry then up to her permanent essence in valid allies that can counterattack are able to.
Against enemies of equal or greater permanent essence it is more difficult to maneuver them into a position where a weakness is exposed. In these instances, the attack must miss the DV of the bearer by more than the difference between his permanent essence and the wielder’s for an ally to be granted a counter attack. As an example, an essence 7 creature is attacking the essence 5 bearer of the God-King Armament. If that creature’s attack were to miss hitting the bearer’s parry DV by 2 then an ally of the bearer would not receive a free counterattack against the attacker. But if that same creature were to miss by 3 then a counterattack would be awarded to an ally. When performing a perfect parry the number of allies that can counterattack is equal to the bearer’s permanent essence minus the difference in permanent essence scores between the bearer and the attacker to a minimum of 1.
Backstory
Though Raxin Hsen could and did lead armies, he was at his most comfortable and most dangerous when leading a small team of elite troops. Though the might an army represented could not be denied, Raxin lacked the charisma to inspire effectively. He was a sought after commander given his charm set and tactical knowledge, but he was respected, never admired. As a result it came as little surprise to those that knew him when he started to replace his armies of flesh and blood with literal killing machines. But when leading a well trained strike force, he was more than respected, he was feared.
Leading a Fang composed on one or two additional celestial exalts and half a dozen or so terrestrial exalts, Raxin became one of the most dangerous men in Creation. Combining just the right mix of talent and training, those within these small units seemed to compliment each other perfectly, operating with an efficiency and ruthlessness that couldn’t be matched. It was said that the only thing more frightening than seeing Raxin at the head of his army, was seeing his army without him.
Constructed in the final days of the Primordial War, the God-King Armament was designed to serve as Raxin’s ideal weapon. Once empowered with the glory of the Unconquered Sun, the weapon could take any form, always making it the perfect weapon for the job at hand. It also greatly enhanced the coordination and capabilities of the small squad tactics favored by the solar. But over the centuries the weapon fell out of use as the Great Curse made Raxin more and more paranoid. What he once considered a strength, enhancing those he fought beside, was eventually seen as a liability, relegating this weapon to little more than a war trophy.
Templates
God-King Daiklave
| Speed | Accuracy | Damage | Defense | Rate | Tags |
| 5 | +3 | +6L/2 | +3 | 3 | O |
God-King Grand Daiklave
| Speed | Accuracy | Damage | Defense | Rate | Tags |
| 5 | +1 | +14L/4 | +0 | 1 | 2,O,R |
God-King Reaper Daiklave
| Speed | Accuracy | Damage | Defense | Rate | Tags |
| 4 | +4 | +5L/2 | +1 | 5 | O |
God-King Reaver Daiklave
| Speed | Accuracy | Damage | Defense | Rate | Tags |
| 5 | +2 | +10L/3 | +0 | 2 | O |
God-King Short Daiklave
| Speed | Accuracy | Damage | Defense | Rate | Tags |
| 4 | +3 | +4L/2 | +1 | 2 | O |
God-King Wavecleaver Daiklave
| Speed | Accuracy | Damage | Defense | Rate | Tags |
| 4 | +1 | +6L/2 | +5 | 2 | O |
God-King Dire Lance
| Speed | Accuracy | Damage | Defense | Rate | Tags |
| 5 | +4 | +6L/+9L/2 | +2 | 2 | 2,L,O,R,Th |
God-King Goremaul
| Speed | Accuracy | Damage | Defense | Rate | Tags |
| 5 | +1 | +13B/2 | +0 | 2 | O |
God-King Grand Goremaul
| Speed | Accuracy | Damage | Defense | Rate | Tags |
| 6 | +0 | +20B/3 | -1 | 1 | 2,O,R |
God-King Grimcleaver
| Speed | Accuracy | Damage | Defense | Rate | Tags |
| 5 | +1 | +13L/3 | +0 | 2 | O |
God-King Grand Grimcleaver
| Speed | Accuracy | Damage | Defense | Rate | Tags |
| 6 | +0 | +16L/4 | -1 | 1 | 2,O,R |
God-King Grand Grimscythe
| Speed | Accuracy | Damage | Defense | Rate | Tags |
| 6 | +1 | +13L/2 | +1 | 2 | 2,O,R |
God-King Chakram
| Speed | Accuracy | Damage | Range | Rate | Tags |
| 5 | +5 | +4L/2 | 50 | 2 | O* |
God-King Long Powerbow
| Speed | Accuracy | Damage | Range | Rate | Tags |
| 6 | +2 | +5L/2 | 350 | 3 | 2,B,O |
Warstrider sized melee weapons, thrown weapons and ammunition double the base damage, overwhelming damage and range (if appropriate) of the normal sized version without increasing the rating of the artifact, but are otherwise the same. Powerbows are more complicated…
Design Commentary
Weapon Qualities
- In its inert state the weapon is equivalent to a low 3-dot artifact Orichalcum Grand Daiklave.
- Morphing qualities are inspired by Lunar Blade Reconfiguration (Essence 4, Lunars pg.150) and Weapon-Shaping Method (Essence 3, Lunars pg.150). The former contains the bulk of the mechanic while the later addresses how thrown and ammunition work. As a stand alone artifact, say a pair of gloves, this would be a 3-dot.
- Multiplicative qualities are a stand alone effect (at least I haven’t found a similar charm). This is done almost entirely for narrative purposes as Tya Mnemia is the Thousand Talon Eidolon and I have regularly tried to give her a working arsenal, not just a single weapon. By making the copies essence manifestations until they are grasped the mechanical benefit is effectively eliminated. As a stand alone artifact this would be a 1-dot.
- Glorious Solar Saber provides a number of benefits, enough that a permanent manifestation of the charm would be a 3-dot artifact. But this isn’t a permanent manifestation. In fact, it might be simpler to look at this as if the weapon generated by Glorious Solar Saber was being manipulated by Lunar Blade Reconfiguration. Since the benefits of Glorious Solar Saber are paid for by the charm activation, this doesn’t have an appreciable impact on the mechanical benefit of the artifact.
- Granting counterattacks is inspired by Great Thinker’s Defense Maneuver (Essence 6, Monk pg.148), but is significantly different. Where this comes in on the power scale is debatable, but there’s one significant down side to the granted attacks, and that is that the power is useless without having capable and trusted allies.
