Attunement 5

See (Core Rulebook, p111) and (Core Rulebook, p101) for example images depicting style and range of mallability.

While all Exalts desire protection from harm, those who favor certain martial arts styles cannot combine armor with their chosen fighting style. In addition, Exalts are sometimes forced to appear in ceremonies, diplomatic meetings or similar situations where wearing armor is considered rude or unmannered, or proof of either lack of trust or aggressive intent. While some Exalts wear chain shirts, others choose an even less obvious form of protection.

This artifact consists of a pair of diaphanous silken trousers with an opaque bikini bottom, a gossamer silken top, and two gossamer silken sleeves. The top contains a socket for a single hearthstone, and both the top, the trousers and the sleeves appear delicate, and extremely sumptuous. To use these items, the wearer must wear all of these items and commit five motes of Essence to them. In addition, the wearer must wear these artifacts next to her skin and cannot wear armor or any other heavy garment made of metal, hard leather or any other inflexible material. If the user attempts to stack these artifacts with any other type of armor, the artifacts will not function. The user may, however, dress in anything additional from light clothing to the most elaborate robes. If any attack is made upon the wearer, the silken Essence armor instantly and automatically activates before the attack strikes the wearer. When activating, the artifact automatically draws three motes of Essence from the wearer.

The wearer can deliberately choose not to spend these motes, but in this case, the artifact remains inactive and does not help reduce the severity of the blow. Once activated, these artifacts remain active for one full scene, unless the wearer dismisses their protection earlier. When the silken Essen armor activates, it covers the wearer in a glowing sheet of Essence that is obviously magical. This glowing sheath raises the difficult of all Stealth rolls by two, including Stealth attempts aided by Charms. Night Caste Solar Exalted and Day Caste Abyssal Exalted who choose to wear this armor, however, can spend a total of six motes when activating the armor to eliminate this Stealth penalty. Spending these extra motes allows them to greatly reduce the brightness of the Essence that surrounds the wearer. When they do so, they are surrounded by a barely visible shimmer that produces only a faint glow in absolute darkness. While active, the armor increases it's soak by +6L/3B, and gains hardness 2L/2B.

This armor is specifically usable with Charms that require the wearer to not wear armor. While inactive silken Essence armor cannot be detected as magical without the use of some magic-sensing Charm such as All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight. Silken essence armor also can be worn while performing Martial Arts styles that normally prohibit the use of armor. Anyone can wear silken armor, but it remains somewhat stiff unless attuned to the wearer’s Essence. The armor's Fatigue is reduced to 0 once the wearer is attuned to the artifact.

The armor's features include:

• Harmony of Predictive Motion: +2 bonus to Atheletics when performing jumps. The garb predicts and animates to mimic the wearer's movement, allowing more precise and farther jumps. This autonomous movement can also be invoked without actually moving, purely for esthetic effect.
• Saltation: + 3 yards per tick to move actions, and +6 yards per tick to dash actions.