Daybreak Caste

As the Unconquered Sun recovers from his nightly death, the darkness of night defies the unspoken promise to return to claim its due. Deathknights of the Daybreak Caste stand with the last bastion of night, gleaning all they can from the secrets of the dark before the light envelops them. No secret can hide from their inquisitive minds; no dark miracle evades their clutching grasp. Driven by the need to unleash their horrific genius, Those Who Work Unclean Arts haunt libraries and laboratories, perusing necromantic tomes or building grisly war machines. The showy power of necromancy and the extensive infrastructure that the Children of Bone to function at maximum effectiveness can put them at odds with the quiet self-reliance Day Caste.

Daybreak Exaltations do not well suit mortals who pursue knowledge for sake. All knowledge must have a purpose; every experiment must be a means to end. Before Exaltation, ideal prospective Children of Bone took a hands-on approach to gathering knowledge, whether by raiding ancient tombs or by forcefully extracting magical knowledge from recalcitrant sorcerers. This approach to seeking knowledge often claims the of those chose to become deathknights Descending Darkness. In the Black Exaltation, they see the ultimate means to gather knowledge and practice their crafts until time itself ends. In mortal life, few Daybreaks concerned themselves with the morality of the knowledge they sought.

Renegade Children of Bone seek out lore on their own and market their genius to petty dictators and would-be savants in exchange for the resources to pursue their own experiments. Pitiless clarity is their tainted gift to the world, helping those blinded by passion to see the coldly calculated truths that advance some greater design. All too often, however, the empathy necessary for redemption eludes renegade Daybreaks, taunting them with the one mystery they cannot unravel.

Loyalist Daybreaks enjoy the patronage of some of the most powerful entities of any Age. Necrosurgeons, poisoners, vivisectionists, demonologists—the Deathlords are masters of all these fields and more. The Shadows of the Abyss become deadliest when supported by the terrible infrastructure of resurrection pits, operating theaters and necro-alchemical laboratories given to them by their masters, though these facilities are also cages where the Deathlords can monitor their activities for the slightest hint of treachery. Recognizing this, some Daybreaks actively seek assignments in Creation for the illusion of freedom and opportunity to work on their own pet projects. Sooner or later, though, the lure of limitless resources always draws them back.

Perhaps the greatest sin of loyalist Daybreaks is not the obscene nature of their research or the widespread pain they dispassionately inflict in the process, but the fact that they so often destroy sources of knowledge after they plunder it for themselves. The Unclean leave burnt libraries and broken wonders in their wake. Knowledge is power, but knowledge that no one else has is greater power. And so, the Shadows of the Abyss send Creation toward a dark age of savage ignorance while seeking absolute knowledge for themselves. Getting the chance to build the weapons that will kill Creation is just a bonus.

Anima Banner: The onyx caste marks of the Daybreak half open on their brows like the narrowed eyes of an obsessed madman, weeping bloody tears that mock the true pain of their victims. Anima colors tend toward the majestic, displaying regal purple and stately gray hues.

Anima Effects: The merciless intellect of the Daybreak Caste can find the flaw in any attack to weaken it with her anima or turn it aside entirely. By reflexively spending five motes, the Daybreak character subtracts levels of damage equal to his Essence from the damage rolled in Step Ten of attack resolution.

Caste Abilities: Shadows of the Abyss lend their scholarly inclinations to discover and dissect all truths through affinity with Craft, Investigation, Lore, Medicine and Occult.

Associations: The colors of orange and black, the western direction, the corpse-element of bone, the crescent moon.

Sobriquets: Those Who Work Unclean Arts, Shadows of the Abyss, Children of Bone, Descending Darkness, The Unclean

Concepts: exquisite inquisitor, humorlessly comedic chirurgeon, military engineer, obsessed necromancer, sophisticated serial killer, unappreciated puppet maker

Quote: "There, there. This will only hurt until your die."