Crow Demons

Third Circle Archetypes

Aradia, the Shade of Desperation

Not all are afraid of the darkness that forms in Creation, where the features of the land and the phases of the day have conspired to keep the Unconquered Sun from laying his gaze. Thieves and cutthroats favor the darkness that hides them from the city watch, children cower in the corners of their rooms where abusive parents cannot see them, and many soft-bodied species only emerge at night when Luna has cooled the ground and the grass is soft and wet with dew. Aradia is that darkness, a spirit who exists solely to bring comfort to her reclusive and enigmatic creator, as well as all those who resemble him.

Appearing to those most desperate for repose from watchful eyes, or the harsh and unending torments of a sun (and any sun), she embodies Crow's preference for illusion, anonymity and stealth, as well as the genuine comfort he feels when ensconsed in darkness. Her powers represent these preferences, making her an able interrogator, courtesan and caregiver due to her ability to sense those things people wish keep hidden, both physically and metaphorically. Her command of shadow is not mutational as Erembour, but allows those who flee to the darkness to appear someplace 'other' if their desires are strong enough.

To comfort and caress those within her body, she may produce an infinite number of shadowy limbs and organs to produce just as many possible sensations, though her abilities are limited to what is possible for the recipient. She can produce no voice to speak to the deaf, no limbs to caress the insensate and no beauteous illusions to lull the blind.

When manifested, Aradia appears as a faint whisper and unusual warmth clinging to a strip of shade in any realm of existence where light does not absolutely permeate the world. The places she occupies look no different than any other shadowy corner. If somehow cajoled into leaving the safety of the darkness she embodies, she appears as a young woman with pale skin and dark hair, often in a plain white dress with a hem and lower body stained in inky-black darkness that trails her like wet paint.

Aradia is otherwise extremely weak as a Third Circle, something that frustrates Crow when he compares her to the creations of his peers, but he concedes that her value is beyond argument. That she instantly understood all that was wrong in the heart of her creator when she emerged from the Chrysalis that birthed her and immediately proceeded to caress him has nothing to do with this, at all.

Or so he tells himself of the naive child and sibling that emerged from his soul.

Summoning: (Obscurity 5/5) Aradia travels frequently between the many realms of existence she is able to frequent (being barred from the splendor Yu-Shan and misery of the Underworld), and is naturally drawn to those who are miserable and beneath the gaze of their superiors, a type of person that Creation and Malfeas suffer no shortages of. Unfortunately, her only particular use to the average Exalted summoner would be for her ability to move things between the places she occupies. When a person has accepted death or some other terrible fate while cowering in the darkness, she occasionally intervenes to spirit them away from it.

Motivation: To protect those who cannot be seen and help them find where they belong. Aradia's intimacies include those things of the night such as thieves, assassins, lovers in the night, as well as the concepts of secrecy and privacy. Ironically, she is embarassed by the concept of love, lovemaking and Although they resemble one another, she bears a powerful intimacy of hate towards Erembour, and has a dislike and rivalry of the descendant soul that Crow adopted.

Virtues: Compassion 5, Conviction 2, Temperence 1, Valor 3

Traits: As Third Circle Demon

Panoply Charms:

• Embrace of Darkness: Aradia may extend tendrils of shadow into the body of any creature which embraces her in either of her forms, which allow her to replicate any sensory experience the target is capable of experiencing. She is incapable of causing physical pain or producing effects the target would otherwise consider unpleasant, but may choose to withhold service. Those affected by Embrace of Darkness may be cured of all non-Aggravated wounds, negative mutations, derrangements and Crippling effects at the end of their sojourn within Aradia's body, although she cannot undo those harmful effects wrought by Shaping or social charms that bestow Intimacies.
• Shadow and True Self: Aradia automatically knows the Motivation, Urge, Virtue ratings and Intimacies of any sentient being perceives, as well as any memories they consider 'secret' or 'private'. She cannot turn this ability off, but may be made to forget facts that are inconvenient to be shared by declaring an embarassing truth, such as professing love to her or having intimacies towards activities she is flustered by.
• Spectral Transition Network: Those who pass within the many bodies of Aradia may travel between them as if using Gates of Auspicious Passage, although the sizes of the entrance and exit portals vary. She frequently uses this power to rescue victims of domestic abuse, slaves and virtuous thieves who'd failed their missions to bring them to her sanctum in Thorns, where one of her subordinate souls takes care of them. Spectral Transition Network is less reliable to large armies, which may become scattered in the gutters of a city they intended to invade. If a particular target area is too well-illuminated, they could find themselves miles away from their intended site in the lightless underground.

Willpower: 9, Essence: 9

Nyaldee, the Polymer of Faith

Crow desires to insinuate himself into all religions so that all will know his name. It is a secret, foolish desire that he does not nurture greatly for fear being intemperate, but it is one that has nonetheless given birth to Nyaldee, the Polymer of Faith. She is the archpriestess of his cult and the spearhead of his attempts to prolesthysize the world, a powerful demon woven entirely from a sticky wax-like substance which distorts all that it touches and grants the base desires of living things. All manifestations of this substance are her body, which is why she breeds the ability to produce it in many of her subsidiary souls.

Her main appearance is that of a young priestess (or priest, in regions where only men can become clergy) who looks to be from the region she currently resides in, clad in filmy robes. Although her appearance is flawless, the other senses fail to disguise the substance of her body. Touch reveals flesh a soft as tallow that flows like motel wax at will, she possesses neither breath nor heartbeat and her she is surrounded by an intoxicating smell that sends those it affects into journeys of spiritual awakening that tip them towards. Thus, simply by living among a given culture and acting out their religious ceremonies does she cause heresies that favor her master.

Despite this, she is seemingly serene and passionate about the religion she has immersed herself in, never once lending prayer to the Crow. Her personality changes depending on the typical temperment of the people and priesthood and often matches it, though her true character can be revealed in the lattice-world within the Crow's soul. There, she is almost obsessively curious about others and dissects their habits piece by piece. Her temple-body is a non-Euclidean structure with myriad shrines to the innumerable people she has come to understand, with little notes stuffed into cracks that line statues of stone (or the magical materials for Exalts) in effigy to them.

Nyaldee has the simple desire to make all one in the shape of her master, but the methods she pursues vary depending on the norms of the culture she is in. A morbid, self-ablationist enlightenment cult might cause her to drown all the faithful in the liquid of her body and rend them together as a great masked bird, while the myriad cults of the Scarlet Empress (and indeed, many Exalts) often produce beautiful mimicries of their patrons with little touches of the Crow's avian nature.

Summoning: (Obscurity 5/5) Nyaldee is not a creature that can be summoned by normal means, although she frequently investigates sites where a mortal has eaten some of her polymer, often out of morbid curiosity. If she recognizes that person as an enemy of her sire, she will burst from his chest (often without killing them) and proceed to torment them in exotic ways.

Motivation: Insinuate the Cult of the Crow into other religious doctrines. Nyaldee's intimacies include the trappings of religions, including temples, priests and priestesses, veneration and sacred virgins. She hates the faithless, although wielders of Essence are permitted to love themselves religiously.

Virtues: Compassion 3, Conviction 5, Temperence 3, Valor 2

Traits: As Third Circle Demon.

Panoply Charms:

• Moths to a Candle: Nyaldee causes divine inspiration in the presence of the faithful, giving them heretical dreams of a masked crow in a manner most evocative and appropriate to their particular beliefs. Any mortal who spends more than 5 minutes around Nyaldee per day or consumes her polymer must spend 3 Willpower or receive her feverish dreams that night. If not roused or kept awake, they will receive an intimacy of worship towards "a masked crow" and instinctively understand the protocols to venerate it.
• All is One: Nyaldee grants the central conceit of a religion with an obvious purpose, such as venerating a single person or becoming one with an ideal as an Obvious Shaping effect costing 5 Willpower to resist. The manner it is done in tends to be a little twisted, such as turning the cult of personality of an Exalt into vague fascimiles of their patron, and always carries small hints of Crow's nature. Whatever the result, all mortals affected are turned into Idonkentoi, Devas of the First Circle who represent the idea of religious effigy. This power is used sparingly as a consequence of Devas not producing essence through prayer.
• Polymerization of Love and Hate: Nyaldee does not smite, and she does not have the standard Endowment ability of some demons. Instead, upon discerning that which the target desires most and that which he hates most, she propels a gout of her liquid body towards him and sears both ideas within his flesh. As an Obvious Shaping effect, he is given that which he wants most in the most sensible way possible, such as granting good business acumen or marketable skills to a man who desires wealth, charming manner and good looks to a man who desires women, but he is made to embody that which he hated the most. His face becomes that of a hated foe or a man who swore an oath to slay the undead becomes gaunt and skeletal or given the service of many walking dead. Should a person be so saintly to lack something they hate, they will be made subject of minor cosmetic changes to bait them into ire.

Willpower: 9; Essence: 9

Castalian, the Arbitrary Muse

Crow is a devoted aesthete who enjoys making things beautiful nearly as much (or so he might claim) as Niet, and Castalian is the soul that rose from that enjoyment. Castalian is a breathtakingly beautiful man of transcendant charm with flawless ivory skin and iridscent ebony hair, dressed in the sharpest and most modern clothes of the dominant civilization of the age. He is everything that Crow craves in a man, but also entirely heterosexual. He is different things to different people, representing unattainable platonic or romantic ideals denied by a singular trait- an arbitrary muse that wounds the soul.

He exists primarily to bring beauty into the world, but depending on the initiatives he is given (either by Crow or his summoner) will do so in such a manner as to make them less happy. Allowed to roam free, he turns those he comes across into beautiful women and inducts them into his harem for a year and a day, reducing the number of men in the world for his patron and denying the products to the people in the world who might be contented by them. His whims vary, occasionally taking the form of an impossibly beautiful woman and doing just the obvious to spite Niet and her souls, creating irreverent atheists as a barb against Priceless Emerald or espousing the virtues of humanity and robbing beastmen of their animalistic features to displease Danizelle.

His aspect as a muse is displayed primarily through his main power, which is directly embody the platonic ideal of a person gazing upon him, bearing only a single flaw. He may similarly bestow these qualities upon the person to whom he is acting as muse.

His palatial body within the lattice-world of Crow's soul is similarly frustrating, having all the ameneties that a visitor might want save for the one that would make him truly happy. He does not deprive his guests of lavatories or food, but those who enjoy bathing as their primary vice might find a cold pond instead of the splendid bathhouses offered to others, while the food given to a gourmand will be plain but nourishing. Inexplicably, Crow always finds that the attendants know their own minds, have no wants and are always polite and straight-talking.

Summoning: (Obscurity 5/5) Castalian is not summoneable via normal sorcery, but might be called to the workshop of an artist who cries over the imperfection of his inspiration and desires better things. He will also show up to a scene where a single person lambasts another for her flaws for six or more hours.

Motivation: To create unsatisfactory beauty. Castalian has positive intimacies towards trickery, cuckholding, being the most beautiful, mockery and the members of his harem.

Virtues: Compassion 4, Conviction 2, Temperence 5, Valor 3

Panoply Charms:

• Little Black Book: Castalian possesses a small leatherbound tome which lists the personal tastes of whoever he targets with its perfect Investigation effect costing Castalian 5 motes, giving him complete knowledge of their vices, likes, dislikes and their expectations of him (if any). He may use this effect without opening the book.
• Hollow Ideal Sculpture: By embodying that which his Little Black Book reveals to him about the target but omitting some specific desire, Castalian mocks his target profoundly, causing an social attack against the trait he refused to conform to costing 4 Willpower to ignore. A target that fails to resist the effects changes the context of the original intimacy and appends it to become shameful, such as making Love into Ashamed Love or Hate into Ashamed Hate.
• Chisel of Ideation Denied: Castalian strikes the target once and shatters the outside of their body as an Obvious Shaping attack, causing a new person that resembles a form taken on through Hollow Ideal Sculpture to step out. If the Intimacy denied was theirs, they are subject to the same social attack as the one generated by Hollow Ideal Sculpture save that it costs 2 Willpower and is initiated every morning when the character wakes up for a week.

Willpower: 9; Essence: 9