Hidden Horse Style (RPG Geekery)

Here is something weird and wonderful for all fans of horse (magical or otherwise), fantasy RPGs (especially Exalted), and martial arts: the Hidden Horse style for Exalted 3e, by Jenna Moran, an author and a RPG writer famous for her work on games like Nobilis, Exalted, and Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, as well as the online story project Hitherby Dragons. Her stuff tends to be brilliant, creative, well-written, and sublimely weird.

This is no exception: the first Charm of the art, the foundation of it so to speak, is Sometimes Horses Approach, where "Through intense contemplation of the Seven Thousand Horses Sutra, the martial artist understands that all things are in horses, and horses, in all things. Sometimes Horses Approach reveals that a horse last seen in the possession of the martial artist was in fact hidden on her person or nearby."

Further developments include stuff like Hidden Horse Hand, High Horse Meditation, the awesome Eternal Equinox Transcension whereby you steal the steed of your enemy and use it as a weapon to bludgeon others, and the most-relevant-to-FIMfiction.net Friendship is Magic:

The real treasure of this martial art is the horses you’ve met along the way. Once per scene, the martial artist may invoke this Charm when she or her mount is struck by an attack to declare that a passing horse leapt into its path, saving her. [...] This Charm is reset by rescuing a horse or horse-like creature from a danger that the martial artist didn’t bring upon it herself.
[...]
Mastery: A passing horse that leaps between a Lawgiver and danger will not die. (At least, not as an immediate result of doing so.)

Truly, we live in great and enlightened times! Go read the whole Martial Art, it's awesome even if Exalted rules are all High Realm to you.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

I'm not that familiar with 3e, but it's close enough to what I know for me to recognize how gloriously ludicrous this is. It's no "I punched you so hard, you're now a duck," but it's wonderfully Exalted.

[Themaskedferret]

That's hilariously brilliant. I love the mental imagery of a horse appearing from nowhere.

4443506 Nothing tops the duck punch to be fair.