One of the Underworld’s greatest necromancers, a consummate socialite and schemer, an artificer of legendary skill, a fencer of achingly perfect grace: there is no pursuit in which the Lover does not excel. Over millennia, she has practiced every art she believed might hold the key to breaking love’s hold on the human heart. Disdaining conquest, the Lover focuses her attention on individuals, lovers, and families. Each human soul is a microcosm of the universe: in the Lover’s eyes, to damn one soul is the same as damning the world entire.
A couple is placed in a trap only one may escape, and they must betray the other before they’re betrayed. A starving artist is given a chance to display her art to princes and queens, if only she’ll abandon her lover for the alluring stranger offering this opportunity. A mother must choose which of her children to surrender to death, and, years later, that abandoned child returns to her with a blade in hand. One passes the Lover’s tests by severing the bonds of one’s love willingly, decisively, and without remorse. These rare few successes, she richly rewards. Those who plant the knife only to be wracked by guilt, who try to outsmart the terms of the game, or whose skills prove insufficient to capitalize on the opportunity betrayal gave them, she sees with contempt and devises some ironic punishment for. But to truly fail one of the Lover’s tests, one must stubbornly hang on to love in the face of every trial. To these, the Lover reserves her most exquisite agonies.
The Lover tests individuals by putting them in extreme circumstances designed to strain the bonds of their love. Each individual test the Lover devises is but one argument in a long thesis to prove the ultimate futility of love, and it is only half-written. To whom she’s trying to prove this point is a mystery few would dare try unravel.
Essence: 9; Willpower: 10; Join Battle: 12 dice
Personal: 140
Health Levels: −0×8/−1×8/−2×10/−4×10/Incap.
Actions: Artifice: 14 dice; Feats of Strength: 10 dice (may attempt Strength 5 feats); Necromancy/Sorcery: 14 dice; Read Intentions: 14 dice; Senses: 10 dice; Social Influence: 14 dice; Underworld Lore: 12 dice.
Appearance 7, Resolve 7, Guile 6
Combat
Attack (Siren in Avern, soulsteel rapier): 14 dice (Damage 17L/5, Piercing)
Attack (Icy spear conjuration): 14 dice at short range (Damage 14/3, Thrown (Medium))
Attack (Grapple): 10 dice (10 dice to control)
Combat Movement: 12 dice
Evasion: 6; Parry: 7
Soak/Hardness: 12/4 (Orichalcum breastplate)
Intimacies
Defining Principle: I will prove the falsity of love.
Defining Tie: The Neverborn (Reverent Duty)
Major Principle: The human soul is best tested through ordeals.
Major Principle: I grant my favors to those I deem worthy.
Major Tie: Tear Eater clans (Noblesse Oblige)
Minor Tie: Deathknights (Intrigued Anticipation)
Escort
The Lover is typically surrounded by courtiers, necromancers, and champions sworn to her (use the traits of nephwracks (Exalted, p. 506), and ghostly champions (p. XX)) who frequently conflict over how to interpret her philosophy. She often has at least one loyal deathknight in her entourage.
Special Traits
Chilling Aura: The Lover is perpetually surrounded by entropic cold, imposing a −1 penalty to physical actions at short range or −2 at close range. This increases by −1 on any turn during which she’s taken a shape necromancy/sorcery action.
Face of Love and Woe: The Lover can treat herself as having or lacking the Hideous Merit as benefits her.
Loveless Intimacies: Effects that refer to loveless Intimacies take into account any positive Tie or Tie of fear toward the Lover, or any negative Intimacy of despair, fatalism, or belief in the falsity of love.
Merits
Cult 4: The Lover’s teachings have inspired a number of idiosyncratic cults and nihilistic philosophies across the Underworld and the shadowlands of the North, many of which bear only passing resemblance to her exact beliefs but still worship her as a figure of dark beauty and faith stronger than love.
The Mirror of Darkness and Lightning: This six-foot-tall oval of silvered ebony hovers at the Lover’s side, following her every move. Rarely, she offers those who have earned her favor a chance to gaze into its depths. To stare into the mirror is to meet the wrathful eyes of Effulgent, a soul of the Typhoon of Nightmares. This causes a contest of wills, using ([Intelligence or Wits] + Integrity) against the demon’s Ensnare pool of 14 dice, with an interval number of one turn and a goal number of 10. If the onlooker wins, she robs the demon of some of its power, setting her temporary Willpower to 10. If the demon wins, the victim loses two Willpower and gains a Minor obsession (Exalted, p. 169) to gaze into the Mirror again. Winning a contest cures this obsession, but losing increases the intensity by one step. An onlooker who loses the contest of wills with the obsession at Defining intensity is pulled into the mirror by eleven arms of jet-black lightning, never to be released without the Lover’s wish. The Mirror is a sorcerous and necromantic Means, and the Lover may consult the knowledge of all who have been trapped in it, including Effulgent itself, who is a sorcerer.
Offensive Charms
Breath of the Storm (15m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Decisive-only; Essence 7): The Lover conjures a storm wind that freezes blood and souls. She makes a decisive attack against all characters in a 90-degree arc out to short range, dividing her Initiative evenly and adding with five base damage. Characters who suffer 3+ levels of damage lose one Willpower and have their wound penalty increased by one for the scene. Unless they spend an additional Willpower, their highest positive Intimacy is eroded by one step.
Frozen Heart Sorcery (6m; Supplemental; Instant; Perilous; Withering-only; Essence 3): Flurry a shape necromancy/sorcery action with a withering icy spear conjuration attack, taking no flurry penalties. This attack cannot deal more than five dice of damage, but can reach medium range without aiming. The Lover gains a sorcerous or necromantic mote for every two Initiative gained.
Defensive Charms
Perfection-of-Form Defense (5m; Reflexive; Instant; Uniform; Essence 2): The Lover ignores penalties to her Defense against a single attack, and successfully defends if attack successes equal her Defense. That attack does not increase her onslaught penalty. If struck, she subtracts one success from the damage roll.
Shattering Heart Evasion (10m, 3i; Reflexive; Instant; Decisive-only, Perilous; Essence 4): If a decisive attack’s damage would fill all of the Lover’s health levels of one type, any additional damage from that attack is negated. The Lover’s form shatters into crimson ice shards, and she reforms anywhere within short range.
Weight of Despair (10m, 1wp; Simple; Psyche; One scene; Essence 8): The Lover rolls her social influence pool against the Resolve of all characters within short range, converting bonus dice from Appearance into bonus successes. Characters whose Resolve is overcome are forced to their knees and become prone. To rise, they roll (Wits + Resolve) or (Strength + Athletics) at a difficulty of the Lover’s Appearance as a miscellaneous action. A character can resist the effect or rise from prone by allowing one of their Major or Defining positive Intimacies to erode by one step. Characters exposed to this effect can go into experience debt to purchase Whispers (Abyssals, p. XX).
Witch-Queen Supremacy (—; Permanent; Withering-only; Essence 5): The Lover can choose to lose gathered sorcerous motes instead of Initiative when struck by withering attacks, at a rate of two motes per Initiative.
Mobility Charms
Flight of Shadows (6m; Supplemental; Instant; Essence 3): The Lover moves an additional range band as part of a move action, gaining double 9s on any movement roll. She can move directly upward, and using this Charm on each turn allows continued flight.
Social Charms
Bond-Dissecting Insight (7m; Simple; Instant; Eclipse; Essence 4): Make a read intentions action with double 8s against the Guile of two characters within short range. Success against both reveals their relationship, if any, as well as what specific Intimacy they have to one another. The Lover may use this Charm against a single character she is touching, in which case she sees a vision of the character toward whom they have their strongest positive Intimacy and divines that Intimacy and the character’s name.
Death’s Own Beauty (15m, 1wp; Reflexive; One scene; Essence 8): The Lover makes herself a manifestation of death’s terrible allure. She gains two bonus dots of Appearance, which can raise her Appearance above seven. All characters who can die are treated as having a Minor Tie of attraction or fascination toward her, and she treats attempts to persuade characters to take actions likely to result in death as serious tasks, rather than life-changing tasks.
Hundred Ways to the Heart’s Flaws (7m; Supplemental; Instant): Gain double 9s on a social influence roll if one of the following criteria applies, double 8s if two, double 7s if all three:
• She is attempting to undermine a positive personal Tie or a Principle reflecting moral convictions, or to persuade a character to take an action that would violate a personal positive Tie or a moral Principle.
• She is attempting to seduce a character; appeal to their greed, lust for power, or desire for revenge; or instill a loveless Intimacy.
• She has spent time before this scene actively setting up the circumstances under which she’s taking this influence, such as putting her target into a trap, confronting them with a long-lost relative, or the like.
Resisting this influence costs an additional Willpower if she doubles 8s or 7s.
Inscrutable Crimson Ice Facade (6m; Reflexive; Instant): Up to nine 1s and 2s subtract successes from a read intentions or social influence action against the Lover. The first time in a scene that a character fails to read intentions against her, he loses one Willpower from the cold dread of her majesty.
Root of Disharmony (6m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 6): Make a read intentions action against the Guile of a character in sight, choosing a positive Intimacy they have that the Lover is aware of, gaining double 9s if it is a Tie of love. On a success, gain knowledge of every Intimacy they have which would potentially undermine this positive Intimacy, such as love of wealth when targeting an Intimacy of love for a poor husband.
Miscellaneous Charms
Frozen Perfection Prowess (1m per die or 2m per point; Reflexive; Instant): The Lover adds up to 10 bonus dice to an action or up to five to a static value. If the target of her action or the target that she is defending against with a static value has a loveless Intimacy, she discounts this Charm’s cost by its intensity.
Materialize (70m, 1wp; Simple; Instant; Essence 4): The Lover takes form in a swirling pillar of frost.
Evocations of Siren in Avern
Freezing Blood Lunge (7m, 1wp; Supplemental; Instant; Decisive-only; Essence 3): Siren in Avern’s decisive attack doubles 9s on the damage roll and adds threshold successes from the attack to its damage equal to the target’s wound penalty. If the attack increases the target’s wound penalty, their blood freezes in their veins, dealing an additional five dice of decisive damage and increasing their wound penalty by one for the rest of the scene.
Evocations of the Mirror of Darkness and Lightning
Spiteful Demon Ward (10m; Reflexive; Counterattack; One scene): The Mirror of Darkness and Lightning moves to meet attacks against the Lover. It grants her heavy cover against ranged attacks. Attackers within close range must either take a −3 penalty to attack rolls by avoiding looking into the mirror, or are subject to a roll of 14 dice against their Resolve as a Counterattack; on a success, they lose one Willpower, three Initiative, and five motes.
Necromancy/Sorcery
The Lover is a Sapphire Circle sorcerer and a Void Circle necromancer. She knows an extensive range of spells in both disciplines, but her most favored are those that create environmental effects, influence minds, or inflict curses.
Demiurgic Art: The End of All Love
The Lover will only use this power once her −2 health levels have been filled with damage and she is unable to escape, or if a character successfully erodes her Defining Principle. She tears her own ghostly heart out of her chest to summon a terrible storm of ice and shadow, roiling with black lightning, an abyss in which love itself drowns. The Lover suffers one lethal level of damage and rolls Join Battle with 10 bonus dice, and the following effects apply for the rest of the scene:
The storm is an environmental hazard with Damage 6L/minute in a nine-mile radius, destroying most structures less sturdy than a stone fortress. It has no difficulty; instead, each success on a (Stamina + [Integrity or Resistance]) roll reduces the damage by one die, to a minimum of zero, and must be rolled again each interval. Within medium range of the Lover, the interval is every turn. Physical actions by characters other than the Lover suffer a −(3 + highest loveless Intimacy) penalty, which does not stack with her Chilling Aura effect.
All Intimacies within the storm are treated as one step lower than they are, save for loveless Intimacies which are treated as one step higher. This effect can be ignored for the space of a single round by spending one Willpower.
Shape necromancy actions by all characters award two necromantic motes per success, and the Lover’s own shape necromancy actions add five non-Charm dice. The Lover gains one Willpower at the beginning of each round, which can only be spent on necromancy spells.
Characters who develop a Defining loveless Intimacy cannot continue to fight the Lover. They may be convinced to serve her or turn against their own allies as a life-changing task. If they have already resisted such influence, it is reset.
The Lover ignores wound penalties to social influence actions, attack rolls, and shape necromancy actions. Losing her heart is a crippling injury inflicting a −4 penalty to the Lover’s actions and disabling this power until she can acquire a suitable new heart, a complex, extensive process that will take her months or years.
Tactics
The Lover is generally practical until a battle nears its conclusion, and she allows her nephwrack aides and any Abyssals present to occupy her opponents as she flurries her spellcasting actions with attacks from medium range, contributing devastating spells and a barrage of ice spears. Once she has 20 initiative or higher, she will launch an area attack with Breath of the Storm. She is loath to kill her opponents; once she has begun winning, she’ll take the chance to use social influence to bring her opposition to despair and convince them of the futility of their actions. The same is true of most conversations she has outside of combat, as her special interest of corruption and bringing others to ruin tends to dominate her priorities.
The Loveless
None know whether the Lover created the Loveless as a curse upon the North, or if they are merely an incidental result of the shadow she casts upon the Direction. Some are made Loveless by her hand; others merely because they saw her pass one day and found her again in their dreams; others yet merely hear of her beauty, and it consumes them. The embrace they long for is cold, and their own warmth drains into it, until they perish from exposure even sitting by a warm fire. Those who die so yearning arise as one of the Loveless, embodied ghosts denied the Underworld. They are naturally material, appearing alive save for their too-pale skin, blue lips, and ever-cold bodies.
Loveless hunger for living warmth. If possible, they obtain it by luring mortals with promises of companionship: a night together, a meal around the campfire, a game of dice. Mortals who are drawn in slowly wither away as the Loveless drink their living breath. In a frozen tundra, one night may be enough to kill, but those Loveless who insinuate themselves into human communities can keep their victims alive for months, their companions never knowing why they fell to wasting sickness. Loveless who go too long without sustenance slowly fall into feral violence, hunting for living flesh to get at the warmth within.
Like any ghost, the Loveless retain memories, beliefs, and passions from their mortal existence; some struggle with their predatory natures or fall into delusions that their feeding does no harm. Often, their first victims are the very source of the passion that kept them shackled to unlife: a lover may kill her spouse in the embrace of their reunion, a parent’s child may waste away under their well-meaning protection. This keening loss is one of the Lover’s lessons, and, in time, all Loveless face madness, dissolution, or acceptance.
Loveless use the traits of mortwights (Exalted, p. 505) with the following modifications:
Actions: Disguise: 8 dice; Feats of Strength: 9 dice (may attempt Strength 5 feats); Read Intentions: 8 dice; Senses: 10 dice; Social Influence: 10 dice.
Appearance 5, Resolve 3, Guile 5
Merits
Breath-Drinker: While socially interacting with someone living, the Loveless feeds on their vitality, inflicting one level of lethal damage per hour of interaction, or per minute of direct physical contact. Victims typically become aware something is wrong when they begin suffering wound penalties, though appropriate distractions may force a (Wits + Awareness) roll to become aware of the feeding before it is too late.
Living Guise: Identifying the Loveless as being undead requires an (Intelligence + [Medicine or Occult]) roll at Difficulty 3 if able to physically examine them, or Difficulty 5 from a distance.
Nightbound: The Loveless are naturally material, and only the most powerful learn to dematerialize. They suffer one lethal damage level per minute of direct sunlight, but veils and parasols are sufficient to protect them.
Sorrow-Bound: The Loveless cannot naturally form new Ties of love. Ties of love instilled through social influence decay at a rate of one level per night unless reinforced through magic.
Offensive Charms
Drink Life’s Breath (5m, 1wp; Supplemental; One grapple; Decisive-only): While grappling, the Loveless inflicts one level of lethal damage per each turn she restrains her victim, healing one health level at the same time. Incapacitating a living target refunds this Charm’s cost.
Social Charms
Death’s Allure (10m; Reflexive; Indefinite; Essence 2): The Loveless gains one dot of Appearance, which can raise it above five. Characters with Intimacies reflecting loneliness or a desire for companionship are treated as having a positive Minor Tie toward her. Especially old and powerful Loveless can raise their Appearance by two dots and convert bonus dice from Appearance to bonus successes.