Concept: Chosen of Endings, Martial artist, focused on the Immaculate Order, and on using Martial Arts to enlighten himself, and to enlighten the Dragon Blooded as defenders of creation.
Background: Born a dynast of the Mnemon Caras household. On a track from birth which lead him into the Immaculate Order, where the Siderials watched him and guided his learning until whisking him away at the point where he was due to be exalted by the Maidens rather than the Dragons. Trained in heaven, including special tutelage by the God of Enlightening Martial Arts (see Sifu Background). Retains some contact with his household under his birth identity, but they don't talk about him much. When they think about it, they think this is due to the unexpected embarassment of a Wood Aspect exalting in an Earth Aspected House, though they mostly don't think about it when he's not around. Has begun to influence the Immaculate Order through Resplendent Destinies of wandering monks.
Long Term Goal: Mastery of Immaculate Martial Arts, leading to the development of a Siderial Martial Art which unifies the 5 Elements and initiates Dragon Blooded into the Blossom of the Perfected Lotus. This will make the Dragon Blooded a tool to defend creation, and grant independance from the unpredictable gods.
Future Plot Note: Sifu asked for a Siderial student with interest in Immaculate Martial Arts. He had sort of expected to get a Secrets (focused on teaching of secret techniques) but fate gave him an Endings. He wants to enlighten the Dragon Blooded in order to increase his own personal portfolio. His student is on board with this, but may eventually go beyond that and follow the nature of his Maiden to seek an Ending. With armies of enlightenend Dragon Blooded under Siderial control, the Immaculate Philosophy can reach its conclusion and end the dominance of Heaven over Creation.
This is still a work in progress. The details above are the plot and background details which are common, regardles of the point build of this character. I'm currently working through the comparison between two specific builds of this character. The first one is the leading option, and therefore the most complete.
KurgansCharacterBroadOption: It's impossible to start with a full Charm set in all areas the character's supposed to be competent in, and Essence 3 is really really expensive at creation, so I went with a build which matches the fact that this is a character fresh out of training. He has broad basic training in all of the areas in which he's expected to later excel, but doesn't yet have a great degree of depth. This is probably the more efficient build in terms of power-per-points, since I didn't buy any of the items which have a high cost in BPs, and because I was able to afford to be well-rounded in Backgrounds, etc.
KurgansCharacterFocusedOption: Based on the worry that the broad option wouldn't be competent enough at anything, I'm exploring this option. This character starts with Essence 3, and is heavily focused on the roles of impersonating a competent Wood Immaculate (without cover-blowing Charms like Blade of the Battle Maiden), and on the role of dealing with spirits. He's got somewhat less combat power due to fewer Charm slots for the best Siderial combat charms. This character is probably less powerful and efficient overall, but may have more heroic things to do in the early game.
In both versions I punted on the spy/ninja aspect of this character. It felt like spreading him too thin, and like too much redundancy in the party. We've got two Secrets already, which sound like they've got Stealth and Larceny well covered. Instead I've focused this character on roles as Martial Artist, Archer, and Dealer with uncooperative gods. He'll still have the traditional Endings role of removing those whose time has come, but more in the sense of a bounty hunter or sniper than a stealthy assassin.
I feel like the Broad option is basically the character I envision (particularly in the area of Virtues, Willpower, Backgrounds, etc.), just early in his development (where he hasn't yet mastered any one area). He's actually probably the better combatant, but less capable of fighting dematerialized spirits, or fighting while not breaking cover as a Wood Immaculate. The Focused option handles those two scenarios, but at the cost of feeling very deficient in the areas I mentioned earlier, and actually somewhat less powerful when the chips are down and subtlety is out the window.
All that hinges on the high cost of Essence 3. I may've screwed myself by picking Wood Dragon Style, which has the higest Essence requirements of the Immaculate Styles. I think its Life/Soul and Spirit-Affecting angles will be the most interesting and appropriate in the long term, but for character creation, it's painful. I'm now sort of wishing I stuck with the standard Endings Assassin archetype. Would've been much easier - lots of VBoS and Stealth and I'd be all set. But I like the Immaculate-centric plot now, so don't want to ditch it.
BTS: Wood Dragon Style is also, as you've noticed, not a primary combat Charmset. It doesn't have the sort of Accuracy and Defense boosters you'd expect to see there. Like the ordinary Sidereal Charmset, it's a package of weird miracles.
AT: Right. I think that might've been exactly what made me think it was such a good fit for a Siderial, but it does make it an awkward choice for a first Style. I think VBoS is a fine primary combat Charmset, so I'll probably just go up both trees in parallel (Wood Dragon will block at certain points on Essence 3, then on Essence 4) until I'm ready to start picking up a second Immaculate style with more direct combat focus (I'm thinking Fire or Earth, since Owen's taking Water).
Ideas or suggestions from the rest of the group are welcome.