I’m not 100% sure about how the Void Embrace Trait works. My thinking is that when you get the Trait, your keep your Hatred at its current exponent, and gain Void Embrace as a new Emotional Attribute.
Furthermore, if you get the Void Embrace Trait during character generation, you answer the Hatred questions to establish your starting Hatred exponent, which can never be raised.
Lastly, if you have Void Embrace, is it possible to shade-shift your Hatred by taking sufficiently difficult Beginner’s Luck tests and spending Artha on them?
Not quite. If you gain Void Embrace in play, it destroys your Hatred. You have embraced nothingness. Cross off or erase Hatred from your sheet and write Void Embrace in its place. It starts at whatever exponent your Hatred was when you gained the Void Embrace trait.
If you start the game with Void Embrace, there’s no need to answer the Hatred questions. Answer the Void Embrace questions on page 245 instead.