Jade Caste

The Jade Caste is one of the five known castes of Alchemical Exalted. They are somewhat analogous to the Terrestrial Exalted of Creation.

Overview
The Terrestrial Exalted were Chosen to embody strength through unity and to know the humble joy of service. These things are also true of the Jade Caste, but with a key difference: The Hammers of Autochthon perform their heroic labors in service to the state, not their fellow Exalts. Indeed, the very notion of greater and lesser Exalted is alien to Autochthonia in general and to the egalitarian Jade Caste especially.

The Stone Hands are, in many ways, the popular face of the Alchemical Exalted. Industrial titans, labor czars, limitless fonts of morale and indefatigable warriors, Executives are not afraid to get their hands dirty when a job needs doing. Still, being able to perform the work of 10 men does not mean the Hammers of Autochthon work alone. Such a thing runs contrary to the ethos of Autochthonia, which Stone Hands embody. They can frequently be found applying themselves to enormous public-works projects, leading squads of Populat volunteers on gremlin hunts, drilling self-defense forces or performing superhuman feats of labor to help failing factories meet their quotas.

Being the closest thing Autochthonia has to populist Exalted makes the Jade Caste enormously well liked among the Populat, but it also makes them susceptible to one of the most deadly failings possible for an Alchemical—selfishness. Daily contact with mortals promotes personal attachments that can get in the way of rational decision making. A commander must be willing to spend any and all of his troops should necessity demand it. An industrial rescue project must set the greatest good above the fate of any one threatened mortal. Making such decisions and seeing them through is often difficult for Executives.

A Stone Hand may be catalyzed only by a soul that has risked or sacrificed itself on behalf of others over the course of many, many lives. The Sodalt who seals himself in with a deadly gas leak to prevent it from reaching the rest of the city, the Populat soldier who dashes through a hail of crossbow bolts again and again to drag his wounded comrades to safety, the factory worker who takes an extra shift whenever someone in his dorm is sick, the surgeon who throws herself in front of a gremlin’s acid spray to save her patient—such individuals fuse to create the personality of an Executive. The Stone Hands are humble because they have known victory tainted by tragedy. They are respectful toward those weaker than themselves because they remember the price of heroism and the need for unity. Those who mistake this attitude for weakness seldom live long enough to realize the error of their logic.

Stone Hands most often work at the forefront of an assembly. They form the pillar that supports their comrades, be it by providing spiritually fortifying tales and performances or absorbing impossible levels of punishment in battle.

Elder Executives often devote themselves to the service of their patropolis, constructing enormous Municipal Charms and rapidly responding to industrial accidents. Others become dedicated guardians of their home cities. These massive living weapons deploy themselves at the spearhead of exploration and reclamation projects in nearby areas of the Reaches or mercilessly crush any gremlin or foreign attack on the places they call home. The oldest Jade Castes become the familiar urban-industrial landscape of Autochthonia, orthodox city templates from which other castes are defined by their deviance.

Anima
By reflexively spending five motes, Executives can fortify their flesh against injury. Skin and features harden as the wave of Essence passes, transmuting the character’s claylike flesh into a sheath of flexible stone. This power adds a character’s Essence to her natural bashing and lethal soak for the scene. It activates automatically at no cost whenever the Alchemical’s anima reaches the 11+ level of display.