Traits

Once a Royal Spirit blossoms, her life will never be the same. Her mind has now been opened to a layer of a world most will never see. But worse, she has no power to close it again. The intrusion of ancient memories into her dreams, a third eye that drinks in the world's pain eagerly, the constant call of her Inner Light – all of these will become a regular part of her everyday life. Without careful self-control and understanding, a Princess may find herself overwhelmed by her own power.

A Princess is a being of magic and she has a talent for feeling the ebb and flow of energy that laces through life. The magical power generated by potential and hope can serve as a nearly limitless fuel for her own abilities, as long as she places herself within the chain of causality generating it. However, this presents the greatest danger to a princess as well – her spirit draws essence to itself without discrimination. Some is fuel and some is poison. A Princess surrounded by nothing but pain and suffering will soon find herself driven mad by the dark magics that plague her.

Meanwhile, her soul burns ever brighter with its awakening power. This will draw many mortals to her, seeking in one way or another the vital element lacking in their own lives. A savvy Princess can turn this to her advantage, using her magnetic draw to ingratiate herself socially and lure in those who need her help. However, this too is a double edged sword. She has no control over the mortals attracted to her. She may find herself the point of fixation for dangerous and obsessive personalities. Even close friends may start to treat her less like a person and more like a fix.

All of this is the price every Princess pays in exchange for her power. She finds herself constantly beset by dreams of an ancient time and with her magic, she can spin these dreams into reality. However, these dreams are demanding. She must live up to them or she may find their power slipping out of her grasp. Nor are they pleasant, for they are the life and death of a civilization, forever cycling through a Princess' head.

These are traits and abilities inherent to the Princess supernatural template, as well as special rules employed by the game not present in the core World of Darkness. Charms are on their own page. There is also a page for crossovers with other supernatural beings in the World of Darkness.

New Advantages: Vocation and Luminous Experience
The magical powers of the Hopeful come with a general notion of the proper way to inspire hope and conquer fear, represented by their Calling. Nearly every Noble also has more specific goals in mind for improving that part of the world she finds herself in; and in the course of accomplishing such goals, she also deepens her connection to the Light and her fervor for its cause.

To represent this a Princess has a fourth, special Aspiration called her Vocation. Like other Aspirations the Vocation should be phrased as an active achievement, and should be something the Princess can accomplish within the intended scope of play. There are two further constraints on a Vocation: it must be a specialization of the Princess’ Calling, and it should be a task for which the chief benefit, if completed, goes to someone else, not to the Princess herself. Each time the Princess makes significant progress towards her Vocation, she takes a Luminous Beat. It’s possible for the same event to grant both a normal and a Luminous Beat. In other respects (e.g. social maneuvering) the Vocation has the same effects as the three mundane Aspirations.

Five Luminous Beats become one Luminous Experience. Luminous Experience, once gained, may be spent to raise Inner Light or Belief, to remove dots of Shadows, or to buy the Virtuous Merit [CofD 46]. Luminous Experience may also be used to buy Merits which represent relationships to other people, typically people a Princess meets while fulfilling her Vocation. Of those listed in the Chronicles of Darkness, Allies, Contacts, Fixer, Hobbyist Clique, Mentor, Mystery Cult Initiation, Retainer, Staff, Status and True Friend qualify. Of the Merits listed in this book, Circle, Mandate, Troupe Magic, Entwined Destiny and Nation Officer qualify. Mundane characters who have gained Luminous Experience may spend it to raise Integrity or the qualifying Merits which are open to them, or to remove Shadows.

While the personal Vocation is the chief source of Luminous Experience for the Hopeful, it isn’t the only one - Blessed Places give access to new Vocations, and not just to the Nobility; Nations give a Vocation to their officers, Noble or mundane; and there are a few places in the Dreamlands where the Light manifests itself in a pure form, and a Princess can gain Luminous Experience by going to those places to examine her soul.

Modified Advantage: Virtue
Under the oppressive dominion of the Darkness, mundane people find it easy to yield to temptation, and cruelly hard to answer the call of their better nature. Hence they may fulfill their Vices on the slightest occasions, but fulfill their Virtues only at moments of great crisis. Not so the Hopeful: while a Princess can still be tempted as easily as any mundane character, the Light shows her ways to follow her higher calling in the small matters of daily life, and she may take heart from them nearly as easily as from her besetting sin.

Thus, the rules for fulfilling Virtue are somewhat different for the Nobility from those in the Chronicles of Darkness (The rules for Vice do not change - only Virtue is altered). A Princess may regain a single point of Willpower from an act in accord with her Virtue once per scene, without restriction. She may also regain all spent Willpower at most once per session by an act that reflects her Virtue and poses her difficulty, danger or risk, much as a mundane character does.

New Advantage: Inner Light
When a Princess’ power first blossoms, it is barely the tiniest of sparks deep within her soul. However, as time passes and the ancient spirit within her awakens, her power begins to shine like a roaring fire, strong enough to support great magics and bright enough to become an invisible presence in the material world. Inner Light is the Hopeful “power level” trait, and gives her Supernatural Tolerance [CofD 70].

As Inner Light increases, it not only gives a Princess more magical ammunition to throw around, but also represents her past life bleeding into her mental and physical world. Characters with high Inner Light experience more vivid dreams about the Kingdom and the Cataclysm and can have physical prowess beyond the limits of mere humanity. High Inner Light also increases the strength of a Princess’ Echo, and the number of people affected by it. Finally, high Inner Light makes a character more vulnerable to Sensitivity and Hauntings.

Ability Max: The highest a regular attribute or skill may be raised using XP. The maximum level of any attribute or skill in normal form is before the slash; the maximum including bonus dots from Transformation is after the slash.

Wisps / Turn: The maximum number of Wisps a character may have available in their pool and the maximum number they may spend in a single turn.

Charm Max: The highest level at which a Charm may be purchased. Basic Charms do not go beyond 5 dots, but a Charm's effective rating can be increased through upgrades. Inner Light caps the effective rating.

Practical: A small part of a Noble’s power is available without transforming. The total number of dots in available Charms is before the slash; the highest available level of Charm is after the slash.

Sensitivity: The base number of dice rolled when a Princess’ Sensitivity to suffering is invoked.

New Advantage: Wisps
A Wisp is a mote of virtue and determination, an itty-bitty ember of the Human Spirit given off by positive emotions and general happiness, that Princesses use to fuel many of their abilities. The maximum amount of Wisps a Princess can store, as well as the number she can spend in one turn, is determined by her Inner Light.

Spending Wisps

 * Charm Activation: While transformed, a Princess may spend Wisps to activate Charms; the cost varies with each Charm.
 * Practical Magic: A Princess may spend one or more Wisps to activate her Practical Magic.
 * Holy Shield: While transformed, a Princess may reflexively spend a Wisp to resist an injury as she receives it.
 * Quickened Transformation: A Princess may spend a Wisp to transform automatically as a reflexive action, bypassing the usual roll.

Call of Duty
A Princess normally regains Wisps by going out and making the world a better place in a way that fits with her Calling. A Mender could work as a nurse or in a soup kitchen, a Troubadour might perform in public or display her art, a Grace could mentor a youth, et cetera. Once a scene, if a Princess attempts an action related to her Calling duties, before rolling her player may declare that she will regain Wisps from the task. For a simple action, this adds the following results to the roll, beyond its mundane consequences.
 * Dramatic Failure: The Princess fails so badly that she loses 2 Wisps, instead of gaining any.
 * Failure: The Princess neither gains nor loses Wisps.
 * Success: The Princess regains 1 Wisp for each success rolled on the action. Extra successes [CofD 72] don’t add to her Wisps.
 * Exceptional Success: The Light’s blessing confirms the Princess in her beliefs; along with Wisps, she gains a Luminous Beat.

When an extended action fulfills a Calling duty, the Princess regains Wisps equal to the action’s required successes if she completes it properly, and loses 2 Wisps if she gets a dramatic failure. She can gain only one Luminous Beat from an extended action.

In addition during downtime a player can say that her character spends her time fulfilling her Calling duties, in-between school, family or other commitments. By sacrificing a non-trivial amount of time and energy on an appropriate task, the Princess may make an appropriate roll for that task: Intelligence + Medicine for a nurse, Presence + Expression for a performer, Strength + Crafts to build homes for the poor, and so on. She regains Wisps from this task as above. As a rule of thumb, these tasks should take up roughly an hour of a Princess’ time.

If the Princess upholds her duty in a way that honors her Queen’s philosophy, she gains 1 additional Wisp from the task, provided she scored at least one success.

Some Princesses focus on a specific way to fulfill their Calling duties; the Mandate merit represents this.

Circle of Light
Princesses with mundane families and friends often find that spending time with them, sharing their troubles or happiness, refreshes them for the supernatural fight. The Circle Merit represents these relationships; see that Merit for a full explanation.

Inner Strength
When the chips are down and the situation is dire, a Princess can call upon her own inner reserves of determination and draw out power she didn’t know she had. As an instant action, she spends a Willpower point and rolls Belief. This ability can only be used when the Princess is in immediate danger, such as in combat, and is not meant to be an everyday means of regaining power - a good rule of thumb is, if it doesn’t matter that this action is Instant and thus takes up a character’s action for the turn, it’s probably not dangerous enough to work.
 * Dramatic Failure: The Princess’ will collapses. She immediately takes the Beaten Down Tilt [CofD 87].
 * Failure: The Princess gains nothing from her Willpower, but may continue fighting.
 * Success: The Princess refreshes her magic; she regains Inner Light Wisps plus one Wisp per success.
 * Exceptional Success: On top of the Wisps, the Princess surges back into action. On her next turn, she adds a +3 bonus to her dice pool.

New Disadvantage: Sensitivity and Shadows
A Princess is, by nature, sensitive to the suffering of others. When she sees someone in pain, she cannot help but feel it herself; when she witnesses cruel or callous acts that cause suffering in others, the light within her dims and flickers. The sympathetic pain echoes in her mind afterward, as a Haunting; she may continue to see the face of the victim or relive the moment over and over. Food tastes like dust, her favorite music is nothing but a cacophony, and headaches won’t leave her. Worse, the most severe Hauntings leave behind a lasting injury to her magic, represented as the Shadows trait.

A starting character has Shadows 0. Dots in Shadows impair a Princess’ access to her powers in two ways. First, they are subtracted from her transformation roll, which becomes Belief + Inner Light - Shadows. Shadows also impair a Princess’ ability to recover Wisps: all the dice pools she rolls for that purpose subtract 1 die for each dot in Shadows she possesses.

To qualify as a tainting (the name for events a Princess has Sensitivity to) an action must cause suffering in a self-aware being. It's the mental and emotional suffering, not the physical pain, which matters. Damage inflicted on a prepared fighter defending himself generally won't trigger Sensitivity, but the same damage taken by a helpless victim, or one who thought himself safe, will. Similarly, forms of suffering that aren't physical at all, such as deep grief at the loss of a loved one, trigger Sensitivity when the Princess meets the sufferer.

The level of sympathetic pain a Princess feels at a tainting depends on her Inner Light, the moral gravity of the act itself, how she learns about it, and the degree of responsibility she bears for it. When her Sensitivity triggers, a Princess rolls a dice pool of half her Inner Light, rounding up, and modified as follows.


 * Dramatic Failure: As normal failure.
 * Failure: The tainting does not impair the Princess.
 * Success: The Princess undergoes a Haunting. She takes one of the Conditions Demoralized, Enraged or Hypersensitive. If the number of successes is less than or equal to her current Shadows dots, the Condition resolves the first time the Noble takes a Beat from it. If the successes exceed her Shadows, the Condition lasts until resolved in the stated way, and the Princess also gains a new Shadows dot and the Haunted Condition.
 * Exceptional Success: The Princess gains a new Shadows dot and the Haunted Condition regardless of her current Shadows dots. She may take one of the Conditions Demoralized, Enraged or Hypersensitive, which last until resolved. Alternatively, she may trigger a catharsis to decrease her burdens. She takes one of the Conditions Abdicated, Maddened or Magicless, clears the Haunted Condition, and rolls her Shadows; each success removes one Shadows dot.

If a Princess' Belief falls too low a tainting becomes increasingly likely to inflict Shadows or a catharsis: a Sensitivity check achieves an exceptional success on successes of either 5 or the Princess’ Belief, whichever is lower.

Resolving Haunted is the simplest way to remove a Shadows dot; once that Condition ends, though, a Shadows dot can’t be lost so easily. If a Princess with Shadows regains all Willpower by fulfilling her Virtue, she may remove 1 dot of Shadows as well. A Princess may also spend Experiences to remove dots of Shadows - sacrificing 1 Experience gets rid of 2 Shadows dots.

Modified Advantage: Belief (Integrity)
Being a Princess is not something that just happens at random, a fortunate circumstance that gives you neat-o magic powers to do whatever you want with. You are here on Earth with a purpose: to make the world a better place and bring the Light of Hope to everyone suffering. The existence of the Kingdom proves to you that it can be done, and a Princess's conviction is one of her greatest assets. She works to save the world, because she believes, she knows, the world can be saved. She sides with good over evil because she believes that good will always triumph in the end. She fights not merely because she believes she can win, but because the battle must be fought. If her beliefs begin to slip, as doubt creeps into her mind over her cause or ability, the Inner Light within her is beset by the darkness of the world.

Belief tracks the strength of a Princess's convictions, her belief in herself and her cause. Characters with high Belief are confident, assured, able to draw on their power more readily due to the strength of their certainty. They inspire confidence in everyone around them. Characters with low Belief are wracked with doubt and despair, losing their confidence that the world can be saved and that they have the ability to do it, afraid there is no hope for victory, if there was ever any at all. At first, this is only a minor loss, and characters may believe it healthy to learn of their own limitations and view the world more realistically. As Belief continues to drop, though, hope begins to abandon the character, her powers seem further away, across a widening gulf of gnawing doubt, and she may begin to project an aura of uncertainty and depression on those around her.

The Belief trait replaces the Integrity system from the Chronicles of Darkness. Starting Hopeful characters begin with a Belief of 7, representing idealism and confidence in a world beset by darkness and despair. Should a mundane character Blossom in the course of play, their Belief is equal to their previous Integrity, for psychological stresses suffered before one Blossoms still interfere with one's conviction and confidence after it. The two traits are compatible - in any situation where a character’s Integrity would be relevant, a Princess uses Belief instead.

Breaking Points
Though Princesses share many moral concepts and experiences with mundane society, they are necessarily aware of a larger context and a higher purpose. Mundane people find it disturbing to encounter the supernatural, but for one of the Hopeful, whose life the Light has transformed, nothing shakes composure merely because it lies beyond mortal ken. However, firm faith and serene hope that the world can be redeemed and the Darkness driven back are the heart of a Princess’ mental balance, and anything which sows doubt or inspires despair may easily break her, where the typical person would be unmoved. Breaking points for Princesses fall into these broad categories:
 * The Princess performs an action which violates her conscience, or her understanding of what the Light requires;
 * The Princess witnesses a victory of creatures of the Darkness over the virtuous or innocent;
 * The Princess discovers good reason to doubt her calling or her prior actions while following it.

During character creation the player of a Princess character should answer the following five questions, and define one of her breaking points from each answer. Players are free to add more breaking points for their characters beyond these, if they should discover any appropriate for their characters; and the Storyteller may declare that an experience falling into one of the categories above is a breaking point even if it doesn’t match one of those listed on a Princess’ character sheet.


 * What does the Princess believe a world redeemed from Darkness would be like? Every member of the Nobility has some notion of what the world ought to be, and how the Darkness is corrupting it. Even when they can’t explain it in words, this vision form the guiding principle when they transform or call upon the Light. Abandoning this vision will shake her soul, and working against it is likely the worst deed imaginable. Describe the Princess’ ideal world, and why in her opinion the real world isn’t like that. Failing to live by that ideal defines the first of her breaking points.
 * Who has given shape to the Princess’ character and convictions? A Princess doesn’t acquire her principles in a vacuum, any more than an ordinary mortal does. Someone has taught them to her, whether by precept or example - her parents, a brother or sister, a teacher in her school, an enemy (demonstrating what not to do), occasionally a long-dead author whose books she found in a library. (Not infrequently a Princess has had several of these; you’re obliged to name one, but feel free to give her as many as you like.) Whoever it was, they had certain expectations which the Princess feels she ought to live up to, and she reaches a breaking point if she doesn’t.
 * What did the Princess experience that prepared her for her Blossoming? While Blossoming itself is a joyous moment, it’s invariably preceded and inspired by a time of adversity, danger, troubles or strife. Describe the stressful circumstances which led to the character becoming an active Princess. Some Princesses overcome the trouble which brought about their Blossoming; their breaking point should be something that calls their solution into question. Others find their trouble persisting, even with the Light’s help, and they have a breaking point derived from that unresolved tension.
 * What did the Princess experience that made her doubt her cause, or her fitness to be a Princess? This experience can be drawn from any point in the Princess’ life, from before or after her Blossoming - or, if you like, from her memories of a past incarnation in the Kingdom. It must, however, be in some respect a failure on her part. Either she had an important goal which through her own fault she did not achieve; or, in a deeper failure, she completed some great project in the Light’s service, only to see it wrecked or corrupted. The breaking point reflects the manner of her failure.
 * Who (or what) does the Princess care for, beyond her duties to the Light? None of the Hopeful can dedicate themselves completely to a single cause, however worthy it might be. The Princess had a life, and certain obligations from that life, before she Blossomed, and she cannot be truly effective for her principles if she neglects these connections. Still, there’s always tension between the mundane and the magical aspects of a Princess, and when it flares up her dedication may crack. A threat to whatever the Princess holds most dear in her mundane life, especially if it comes from her magic or the enemies she fights with it, puts her Belief in peril.

Compromise
When a Princess experiences a breaking point, her player checks for a compromise, by rolling her Resolve + Composure with a modifier derived from her current Belief rating. Practical Magic cannot be used on this roll.

The Storyteller also imposes modifiers based on the severity of the breaking point. The chart below applies for the typical Hopeful, but the Storyteller and player should develop their understanding of a Princess’ ideals and principles to the point that they can customize a chart for her. The total of modifiers for severity should not exceed +/-5 dice.


 * Dramatic Failure: The Princess succumbs to despair. She loses a dot of Belief and gains one of the Conditions Broken [CofD 288], Fugue [CofD 289] or Cynical; or invent a persistent Condition with the Storyteller’s approval. Also, the Princess takes a Beat.
 * Failure: The Princess’ faith is compromised. She loses a dot of Belief and gains one of the Conditions Guilty [CofD 289], Shaken [CofD 290] or Doubting; or invent a Condition with the Storyteller’s approval.
 * Success: The Princess’ faith is mildly disturbed. She gains one of the Conditions Guilty, Shaken or Doubting; or invent a Condition with the Storyteller’s approval.
 * Exceptional Success: The Princess passes through the breaking point with her faith and hopes renewed. She gains the Inspired Condition [CofD 289] related to the breaking point.

Effects of Belief
As Belief falls, the lash of Sensitivity leaves deeper marks, as if to replace the Hopeful’s fading conscience. A Noble with Belief less than 5 achieves an exceptional success on a Sensitivity check on successes equal or greater than her Belief.

The Echo of a Noble carries traces of her psyche into everyone she meets, without any conscious effort on her part - indeed, she can no more stop that influence than she can stop breathing. The level of a Noble’s Belief and her dots in Shadows control whether her influence works towards the Light, or against it.

Falling to Belief 0

 * I used to think that you were a guardian angel, come to answer our prayers... But Lucifer was an angel too, wasn't he? - Professor Emil Hamilton, Justice League Unlimited.

When a Princess loses her last scrap of Belief, the keystone of her self is shattered. Her soul, scarred and blemished by horror, retreats and becomes obscured even as her Inner Light starts to gutter and fade. Her Phylactery shatters, suddenly age-rotted, and she forcefully de-Transforms, back to her normal identity. Without a Phylactery, she cannot Transform. She is barred from the Dreamlands; the Queens can offer no comfort. Even the Twilight Queens are disgusted by a Noble who falls this far, for Tears sees her as a threat to Alhambra, Storms as just another Dark creature waiting to happen, and Mirrors as a failed True Queen to be discarded.

Many would say that this is enough of a curse; that, stripped of rank and privilege, she is left to wander the Earth. It may be. But that is not the end. Before long she is not merely a fallen Princess but a fallen human, little more than a shuffling husk that drifts through life; something barely recognizable as one who once championed the cause of the Light. Stripped of all drive she may just lie still until she starves, unable to see the point of eating. If she is pushed she will go about her life, she is too empty inside to say no, to say I hurt too much to do this. She is a hollow shell of a woman, lacking the strength to fight for what she believes in, always folding at the least pressure, unable to even cry for help.

In effect, the moment a Princess' Belief falls to 0, she acquires the Soulless [CofD 290] and Enervated Conditions, and will become unplayable when her permanent Willpower falls to 0. As long as these Conditions persist the Princess cannot transform or use Practical Magic; all her powers are closed to her. Since her soul is just obscured, not actually gone, trying to give the Princess a new soul with magic does nothing for her. Once she loses all Willpower dots, indeed, nothing can be done for her. Before that point, other Princesses may be able to guide her back to the Light, if they know her well and can speak to her. The rescuers use the Social Maneuvering rules [CofD 81-84]; the number of Doors they must open equals the lower of the Princess' Resolve and Composure, plus her Shadows dots. If all the Doors are opened, and the Princess spends 2 Experiences, she sacrifices a Willpower dot to remake her Phylactery, her Belief returns to 1, and the Soulless and Enervated Conditions end.

A soul-dead Princess who does not get help from others faces a final choice when her last dot of Willpower fades: to die as a mundane human, or to yield to the Darkness and rise as a horror. To determine which, the Storyteller rolls the Noble's Shadows as a dice pool. If the roll fails, the Princess drops into a coma from which she never wakes - her heartbeat ceases within a day at most. If it gains even one success, the former Princess attempts to Transform despite her lack of a Phylactery. She turns towards the Dark to fill the empty void where she once held her Light. She focuses on everything that hurt her, everything that went wrong in her life and focuses on the grief and bitterness they invoke, for in her deranged state even that is better than nothingness. The mad will of a Princess in this state is a terrible thing to behold. She laughs with pure grief, she cries tears of crystal clear despair. Her feelings echo around her, calling pure Taint up from the Dark World and shaping it into twisted reflections of her own life. She even calls the Taint into her own body, fuelling her final Transformation into a being drawn from the depths of her own nightmares.

A Transformation in this manner should not be possible. Properly, it is impossible, for no Princess could do it, none could take this Last Transformation. But those who do so are no longer among the Enlightened, they are no longer even human. They shed their mortal forms, as Darkness rushes into the void within them which the Light once filled, and are both twisted and empowered by this blasphemous process. They wear blackened crowns on monstrous heads; they become the Dethroned.

Next: Merits