Champions of God are among the rarest of
mortal humans, actively called to service by the
Almighty (in one of many possible guises) to
stand against the darkness and beat it back with
the strength and light of their faith. They are
very few in number, usually limited to the three
Knights of the Cross.
Musts: Champions of God must have a high
concept that is in line with their nature as a true
holy warrior—such an aspect (e.g., Knight
of the Cross) will be the source of many
opportunities for invocation, but it also carries
the weight of the responsibilities and codes of
behavior expected from such men and women of
faith.
Champions of God must have a fairly high
Conviction score (Good or higher recommended).
In addition, Champions of God must
take the following supernatural powers:
ŠŠ Bless This House [–1] (page 187)
ŠŠ Guide My Hand [–1] (page 187)
ŠŠ Holy Touch [–1] (page 188)
ŠŠ Righteousness [–2] (page 188)
Options: Knights of the Cross carry one of the
Swords of the Cross in addition to the above:
ŠŠ Sword of the Cross [–3] (Item of Power
already baked in.) (page 168)
Important Skills: Conviction (page 124), not to
mention some combat skills.
Minimum Refresh Cost: –5
Sword of the Cross [–3]
Description: You possess one of the three
Swords of the Cross, their hilts reportedly
forged from the nails that fixed Christ to the
Cross. Those bearing the Swords are called the
Knights of the Cross.
Musts: You must have a destiny or calling to
inherit the Sword, represented as a high concept
or template.
Skills Affected: Weapons, others.
Effects:
All Creatures Are Equal Before God. This is the
truest purpose of the Swords of the Cross,
the ability that makes even ancient dragons
take pause when facing a Knight. When
facing an opponent, the Knight may spend a
fate point to ignore that opponent’s defensive
abilities (Toughness based ones, primarily),
as well as any mundane armor the foe has, for
the duration of the scene. In essence, a Sword
of the Cross may take the place of whatever it
is that a creature has a weakness to (whatever
“the Catch” is on their Toughness powers, see
page 185), on demand, so long as the Knight
can spend that fate point—particularly
handy when facing ultra-tough Denarians or
true dragons. Whatever abilities a creature
may have, the job of a Sword of the Cross
is creating a mostly even playing field—
or something very much like it—between
mortal and monster.
Divine Purpose. A Sword of the Cross may
only be swung with true selfless purpose in
mind and heart; if this is not the case, the
bond between the Knight and the Sword is
broken and may only be restored by undergoing
some sort of trial of faith. When swung
without such purpose in mind and heart, the
blow does not land (any attack roll automatically
fails), the bond is immediately broken,
and the sword falls from the wielder’s hand.
Basically, the GM and player should look
at the description above as a guideline for
how to compel the high concept attached to
the sword—your character might be tempted
to use the sword for selfish reasons, and could
either receive a fate point to stay his hand
or succumb to the temptation and lose the
sword temporarily. If another takes up the
sword and swings it selfishly, your Knight is
still responsible for how the sword is used,
with similar repercussions.
Holy.
This weapon is a powerful holy symbol in
its own right. Its very touch is like holy water
or that of a cross or other symbol of faith
backed by the belief of the possessor.
It’s a Sword.
A Sword of the Cross always takes
the form of a sword, though the precise
type of sword may change through the ages.
There are only three in existence (OW72). As
a sword, it possesses the damage and other
attributes of any sword (page 202).
True Aim. When swung in keeping with its
purpose, a Sword of the Cross grants a +1 to
the wielder’s Weapons skill.
Unbreakable. As an Item of Power, it cannot be
broken, save through dedicated magical ritual
predicated upon perverting its purpose.
Discount Already Applied. As an Item of Power,
the sword already includes the one-time
discount (page 167). This means that if the
character possesses more than one Item of
Power, the one-time discount will not apply
on that second item. If the Sword of the
Cross is the second or subsequent artifact the
character gains, the refresh cost is –5.
Generally, they believe in free will. They can't kill anyone who is trying to redeem themselves and they actively seek out and try to get in the way of Denarians' plans.
Using the sword against its purpose might be things like striking out in anger or vengeance, killing innocent people, attacking someone who has surrendered. They don't necessarily have to be Holy...they just need to have the conviction to fight against evil and wield the sword, unwaveringly, for that purpose.
Also, what powers do the swords themselves have? What happens to those killed by the sword-wielders?
Nothing in particular. They die. Since the sword can act as a catch for almost any creature, those creatures killed by a sword usually stay dead.
double-post
Whenever magic is used to kill, some of the
positive force of life that mankind is able to
bring into the universe is truly destroyed—
removed from the universal equation. Kill with
magic, and the darker things inside and outside
of creation grow just a bit stronger. Whether
you’re using magic directly to rip the life out of
someone, summoning up force or flame to kill,
or even murdering someone without magic and
then using the energy created by the death to
power a spell, you are breaking the First Law
of Magic.
In First Law violations, even the grey areas
are pretty bad. If you summon up a gust of wind
to knock someone off a building, you definitely
broke the First Law, even if it’s “just” the fall that
killed him.
The Third Law, though it might seem to be
about a relatively harmless act, recognizes a
single, simple principle: a violation of the mind
is as much a crime as violation of the body—by
some lights, it’s worse.
To read someone else’s thoughts, you have to
cross one of the most fundamental borders in
all of creation: the line that divides one person
from another. When you break into someone
else’s mind to listen to his thoughts, you’re
disrupting the natural order of things. Think of
the mind as a locked house and think of yourself
as someone lacking a key. Sure, you might need
to get in there for the very best of reasons, but
once you’ve done it there’s a picked lock, broken
window, or busted hinge somewhere. In short,
the act is always a violent intrusion, no matter
how “gentle” you are with it.
Even beyond breaking the sanctity of another’s
thoughts, there are problems with what
you find when you invade someone’s mind.
Knowledge is power, after all, and when you
get inside someone’s head, you take a position
of profound power over him. And in this
case, we’re definitely talking the kind of power
that corrupts. Not to mention, it’s sort of the
cognitive equivalent of seeing how sausage gets
made—best left as something you don’t see and
don’t think about too much.
Furthermore, there are plenty of secrets in
the world that are meant to be kept. If there’s an
institutional reason behind the White Council’s
establishment of the Third Law, it’s all about the
secrets. Plenty of wizards keep secrets they don’t
want others hearing about, and discovered secrets
have a way of getting out. Discover enough
secrets, and you end up destroying a lot of what
keeps the world a civilized place—and civilization
is one of those little innovations that helps
keep most of mankind safe from the darkness
lurking around the edges.
Finally, reading someone’s thoughts means
you have to open your mind up to “receive” the
signal. The problem here is that you can’t always
be sure what else you’ll pick up when you do
that. Who knows what sort of nastiness could be
“broadcasting,” hoping you’ll pick them up? And
what will happen to you when you do? (In game
terms, reading someone’s thoughts always makes
you a viable target for mental attacks from both
your victim and whatever supernatural nastiness
might be in the area.)
Further on mind magic:(Your Story pg: 239)
In your game: While it’s hard to break the
Third Law accidentally, it’s very easy to want to
break it. A “justified” violation of the Third Law
can shortcut plenty of mysteries if you rummage
around in the minds of the suspects and find out
what they know.
If a player is particularly committed to that
course of action, and he understands what it
means to break the Third Law, by all means
allow him to do so. But if that happens, every
effort should be made to throw the book at
him—in as entertaining a way as possible. The
moment a player decides to break a mystery
by peeking inside the heads of those involved,
the story stops being about that mystery—and
starts being instead about that choice and its
consequences. Go nuts with it! The secret is now
out, but others’ reactions to it may be worse than
if it had come out naturally; everything starts
proceeding towards greater chaos, right on the
Lawbreaker’s doorstep (and as that hits a high
point, the Wardens can show up).
The Fourth Law
Never Enthrall Another.
A close cousin of the Third, the Fourth Law goes
beyond the simple invasion of another’s mind to
outright mastery over it. Here, enthralling is any
effort made to change the natural inclinations,
choices, and behaviors of another person. And
due to its cousin Law, it’s pretty easy to see the
Fourth as an extension of the concepts there—a
case of more equals worse.
It’s easy to see someone who uses mind magic
to turn a handful of free-thinking people into
his sex slaves as a bad guy, but this is definitely
one of those situations where the paving stones
of good intentions are particularly slick. Much
like the Third Law, the Fourth is an easy one to
want to break for all the best of reasons. Plenty
of people out in the world—possibly even your
friends—make bad choices. Magic could give
you the power to change those choices. Know
people who are tearing their lives apart with
drugs? A simple compulsion to make them
afraid of touching the stuff could set them on
the straight and narrow.
Of course, the problems here are substantial.
You have to hit someone with some pretty
vicious psychological trauma in order to change
his mind enough to force a different course of
behavior. Worse, you may not even realize you’re
doing it at the time. It might sound relatively
harmless to implant an aversion to, say, fatty
foods to help someone lose weight, but the effect
is a lot like wrapping someone’s legs in barbed
wire in order to keep him from walking to
the fridge.
Why so violent? A lot of it comes down to
the principles of free will. The thing that makes
people fundamentally human is free will; when
you enthrall someone, overriding his will with
your own, you’ve robbed him of his essential
ability to be and act human. You’re making a
monster.
This is where another of the Fourth Law’s
cousins—the Second—comes into play.
Changing someone’s behavior is a lot like
changing someone’s body. In both cases, the
victim you’re changing is a lot more complex
than your understanding of it can manage. If
there’s one conceptual thread that runs particularly
strongly through the first four Laws, it’s
that the mind is more or less equivalent to the
body in terms of what should and should not be
done with it. Like the body, the mind is vast and
intricately complex. When you decide to take on
that complexity with something as crude and
simple as a compulsion, psychological trauma is
inevitable. It’s much like trying to fix a computer’s
motherboard with a hammer. Even if you get
it working the way you want, chances are you’ve
messed up something else pretty bad along the
way, or opened it up to some worse consequence
So by my count, that one act of making someone kill themselves by removing joy breaks 3 laws.
1, To find out what makes that person joyful (Lawbreaker 3rd)
2. To manipulate that person's mind and remove those joyful thoughts (Lawbreaker 4th)
3. With the intention of having them kill themselves (lawbreaker 1st).
This person is playing themselves into NPC-dom if they aren't careful. Granted, your table may be playing with different interpretations of the Laws, but that one example was pretty brutal.