Can a mortal use an artifact in Exalted 3e? If so, how?

Question

Motivation for the question

We are running into questions around whether and how mortals can use artifacts in Exalted 3E. My Twilight has now twice wanted to make artifacts to give to mortals, once to bribe a mortal that had useful influence and connections and once a weapon to make an ally more effective, and we are a bit stymied on how or even if it should work.

Problem: Almost all Artifacts require essence to use, which Mortals lack.

Almost all artifacts either require attunement or require spending motes to get any use from them at all. Winterbreath Jars (essentially magical refrigerators, p. 118 of Arms of the Chosen) are the only clear exception to that that I am aware of, specifically stating that attunement is not required. The Lotus Blossom Cup (id. at p. 117) also implicitly seems like it works without attunement. But the vast majority seem unusable by someone without an essence pool. In fact, the description of attunement on p. 594 of the main book suggests that without attunement most artifact weapons cannot be wielded at all.

But despite all that, the discussion of artifacts on page 593 refers to scavenger lords and heroes from the Threshold using artifacts. Presumably, this refers to more than the very few and very minor artifacts that do not absolutely require essence.

So, the question is, can a mortal make use of an artifact and if so how?

Solutions that didn't work, or at least not fully.

One idea that we have explored is allowing an exalted to commit essence on the mortal's behalf for attunement. This does not have any rules support that I can find, but seems a reasonable stunt for an exalted. It essentially comes with a permanent cost since the motes would be committed, but that might be a price worth paying to properly outfit an ally that fights with you often. Should this work?

The other option we looked at is Prophet-Uplifting Evocation (EX3, p. 373) which grants a small essence pool. This seems like it would work under the rules. but it seems incomplete. First, it doesn't explain how scavenger lords or heroes from the Threshold used artifacts before the Solars returned. Second, it just doesn't work well for my particular character who has no investment in Presence at all yet so it would be a long time before that became an option.

Is there another way for my Twilight to let mortals use artifacts, and if so, what?

Answer 1

Some Artifacts explicitly allow it

The most prominent example of this is Gunzosha Armor, page 174. of Heirs of the Shogunate. This is an entire class of artifact armor, ranging in rating between 3 and 5 dot, that allow a mortal to pay 5WP to attune, along with some other drawbacks (Accelerated aging, requiring surgery). A sidebar also tells us to treat mortals as dissonant for artifacts that allow their attunement, regardless of magical material.

There is also Vainglory, Arms of the Chosen, page 77 which mentions:

The crown’s curse cries out for its power to be used, and it will embrace any suitable vessel. A mortal with a prideful Defining Intimacy may spend five temporary Willpower to attune Vainglory. She gains access to the above powers, and can wield Vainglory as a thrown weapon, but cannot awaken Evocations.

Generally speaking, when crafting an artifact, you will get roughly what you are aiming for. If a Twilight sets out to craft an artifact usable by a mortal, he will get it if the crafting process succeeds. So if your Twilight wants to make artifacts to use as bribes, it would be entirely reasonable for him to create such an artifact that a mortal can attune to.

Some Artifacts don't require attunement or spending Essence

While (almost) all Weapons and Armor require attunement or an explicit exception, quite a few miscellaneous or utility artifacts do not. You mention Winterbreath Jars, but I'd also point out artificial servitors/golems. The Golden Viper does not require attunement, serving the first person to address it after the death of its former master. Brass Legionaries serve whichever officer has their command codes (and some are smart enough to be people).

This is another good candidate for a gift to a mortal, giving them some kind of mechanical servant, in my opinion.

Scavenger Lords and heroes from the Threshold

The full quote you're referring to is:

Yet many powerful figures and states in the Age of Sorrows, from scavenger lords and other Threshold heroes to the Dragon-Blooded scions of the Realm, still make use of artifacts to impose their will on Creation

A powerful figure like a scavenger lord is not necessarily taking a daiklave and personally fighting to establish his power. He might be a mortal that chanced upon a cache of such artifacts and loans them out to secure the loyalty of essence-wielding subordinates or allies, be they outcaste Dragonblooded, Liminal or Exigent Exalted or bound demons. He could have a squad of Brass Legionaries serving him, having found their command codes, which explicitly state:

while a handful of Threshold princes and sorcerers maintain tiny retinues of such soldiers.

In some ways, artifacts are a strategic resource on the level of city-states, enhancing the power of whatever essence-wielders they manage to enlist.

And of course, 'other Threshold heroes' doesn't necessarily mean such a person is a mortal in the first place. They could themselves be any of the beings I just listed.

Answer 2

No full answer seems to be published yet.

As Gatherer suggested in the comments, as far as I can tell, there is no full answer to this question yet. On another message board, which I cannot find again right now, it was suggested that it was a deliberate design decision to make essence wielding mortals (other than sorcery) genuinely rare and give those few who could semi-unique origins.

With that said, there do seem to be a few ways to allow a mortal to wield artifacts that require attunement that at least have some rules support, most of them are based on Adversaries of the Righteous (AoR).

Use Willpower instead of essence to attune

So far as I can tell, there is no general, published rule that a mortal can attune artifacts using Willpower. But, two artifacts published in AoR on pages 178 - 179, specifically allow attunement by a mortal using temporary willpower. It does not say the willpower is committed, so presumably it is recovered normally but leaves the artifact attuned until the attunement is broken in one of the normal ways.

We've adopted the rule that a mortal can use a one-time expenditure of willpower in place of essence to attune almost any artifact. Naturally this only allows the mortal access to passive abilities from the artifact and wouldn't allow them awaken evocations that require the use of essence.

This allows for scavenger lords and heroes to make at least some use of almost any artifact, answering that question in a way that at least has some rules support thanks to AoR and allows my Twilight to use minor artifacts as bargaining chips even with mortals.

At least one artifact grants an essence pool

The Skystone Artifact which appears on page 17 of AoR grants its bearer an essence pool among other benefits. However, this artifact is rated n/a and can explicitly be wielded only by mortals and comes with an obsession as a drawback.

Blessings from powerful entities short of exaltation

Ashana Ikatu on page 10 of AOR gained a small essence pool by merging with a serpentine spirit, the spirit was part of "a mystical blessing passed down from [the Dojo's] serpent-god founder".

There are a couple of other examples of beings that used to be mortal humans under the "Strange Folk" section which have essence pools due to being changed by a powerful spirit or other powerful entity. Most of those no longer count as "mortal humans", but they explicitly started that way before receiving blessings that stopped short of exaltation.

This also encompasses the very few published charms like Prophet-Uplifting Evocation (EX3, p. 373) that allow an exalted to grant a minor essence pool.

Sorcerous workings

While not explicitly listed as an example, granting an essence pool that a mortal could use for Martial Arts and Artifacts seems to fit well within a Celestial Circle Working.