It's kind of part of being a Sorcerer. Sorcerers are, generally, people who went out and risked their lives and through cleverness, willpower, and often sheer brutality, got magic power that literally puts them above many gods. Sorcery is hard as hell, and I'm pretty sure most who try to get it die. Those who have it tend to be pretty hardcore, or Exalts who got it relatively easier.
Exalted Questions Thread
- Thread starter Chehrazad
- Start date
- Location
- Singapore
Wait. How does this make them evil?
It...doesn't? It makes them powerful, determined people willing to fight for what's theirs and with a strong sense of self-interest in a generally unfair world. It makes every sorcerer dangerous, not evil.
mind, some totally are evil, but that's a different argument.
Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
Yeah, like... Look at the kind of people who become Sorcerers. Look at what it requires of you, and ask yourself if the sort of person who spends years dedicated to grasping the power of the cosmos is really going to content themselves with being some podunk king's court magician. Hell no, they're going to take the throne by right of "I command wonders, and you do not."
I mean, the Realm can keep something like a leash on its Sorcerers, but that's because the standard members of the ruling class in the Realm are Dragonblooded, not mortal dictators on the Threshold. Generally speaking, if a Sorcerer arrives in a Threshold nation, the local ruler hopes the reason the Sorcerer doesn't rule a kingdom is because their particular brand of being a Weird Creepy Pulp Spellcaster means they don't want to, because if the reason is "they haven't gotten around to it yet," then this is probably them getting around to it.
The scales are somewhat different if the nation is a heavyweight with like, magical halfbloods in positions of power or ruled by an Outcaste Dragonblood, but nations like that are pretty thin on the ground.
I mean, the Realm can keep something like a leash on its Sorcerers, but that's because the standard members of the ruling class in the Realm are Dragonblooded, not mortal dictators on the Threshold. Generally speaking, if a Sorcerer arrives in a Threshold nation, the local ruler hopes the reason the Sorcerer doesn't rule a kingdom is because their particular brand of being a Weird Creepy Pulp Spellcaster means they don't want to, because if the reason is "they haven't gotten around to it yet," then this is probably them getting around to it.
The scales are somewhat different if the nation is a heavyweight with like, magical halfbloods in positions of power or ruled by an Outcaste Dragonblood, but nations like that are pretty thin on the ground.
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Take @Aleph and @Shyft's Inksgame, where there are fewer than 10 sorcerers in Gem. The Despot pays them very well in both cash and influence to do magic for him - there's one who's a geomancer who gets wealth and privilege lavished on them because they can divine for mine deposits and foresee where mine collapses are going to happen, while one ornery old Dragonblooded bastard runs the Scouts. A sorcerer who's willing to work for the fantastically wealthy Despot is basically set for life with far less stress and worry than trying to run Gem would take.
And despite the low number of sorcerers, one of them already turned out to be a crazy Yozi-dealing cultist who had turned herself into a living gold statue because she was part of a heretical cult that believes the Immaculates are right about the Anathema stealing the power of the Sun with demonic magic and that that's a very good idea and they should copy them.
The moral of this story is that picking up random sorcerers is like playing Russian roulette.
Probably my favorite thing Ex3 changed is introducing Shaping Rituals, Control Spells and Sorcery merits, encouraging Sorcerous PCs to be weirdoes whose shadows are alive and creepy, or who burn people to death with a look, or who eat souls for massive surges of power, while also having stuff like "obsidian nails due to my signature butterflies spell" or "my skin looks like the metal of my magic armor and makes me passively more durable."
Sorcerers are weirdoes if they're even kinda good at it and I love it.
- Location
- West Michigan
As a crafting ingredient, how valuable is the virginity of a young priestess, actually the exalt's first convert, who has Compassion 4-5 and a lifelong attunement to a healing artifact of at least 4 dots and possible N/A rank?
I want to settle an argument in a Exalted/DxD crossover fic at QQ. The girl's identity should be obvious in that light.
I want to settle an argument in a Exalted/DxD crossover fic at QQ. The girl's identity should be obvious in that light.
- Location
- Singapore
Wow. QQ.
Well, we all know how that's going to work out.
Um.... extremely? I mean, isn't this kinda rare and hard to get?
- Location
- West Michigan
The question has more to do with the degree of rarity than whether or not it's rare at all. A half-decent Presence/Socialize/Lore build makes the first and third qualifiers trivial - just use Legendary Scholar Curriculum (it's a Solar fic) to pump up the Compassion of all your cult's apprentices to the desired tier - and that's what one side of the debate focused on, to argue that the ingredient is only appropriate for (at most) a 2-dot craft. The other side focused more on the attuned artifact and its rarity, arguing that the ingredient is instead worth 3 or 4 dots, if not (at the extreme) 5.
There's a wide range between the two.
- Location
- Singapore
Gah. Darned solar exalted....
You know what, don't give a damn. Just think about a mortal, and how difficult it would be for him and his epic quest to get it. Or a dragonblooded, or something.
Don't care about the solars. They all cheat using wyld-shaping technique, anyway.
You know what, don't give a damn. Just think about a mortal, and how difficult it would be for him and his epic quest to get it. Or a dragonblooded, or something.
Don't care about the solars. They all cheat using wyld-shaping technique, anyway.
- Location
- Britain
There are two answers here I can give you.
1. It's up to the GM.
2. If I was GM, I'd tell you to fuck off and that it's worthless because virginity has no inherent value beyond that ascribed to it by a misogynistic society. Exalted is already sexist enough without people trying to pull shit like this.
It is generally considered bad form to inflict your weird porn on other people. Why don't you go back to QQ and ask them?
edited an initially perhaps overly hostile response
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- Location
- Singapore
Also, isn't virginity, like, easy regained with a demon that absorbs passionate memories? What was it called again?
The passion moreys? The ones that leach colour and hate tin?
please god don't let this be something they actually wrote (of course they did, 'cause 2e)
First edition even, and the passion morrays return "innocence " as you lack knowledge and memorys of carnal moments. I think the first edition writeup had a mention of virginity not mattering in the grand scheme but that might just be my memory.
Still seems out of tone for Exalted. Wouldn't expect demons to have a concept of "innocence" like that.
- Location
- West Michigan
The fic established several chapters back that it does have mystical power and that men's works just as well: the Exalt's first hookup was audibly disappointed that she missed the chance to use his. Canon examples of exotic ingredients allow for all sorts of incorporeal shit like, "The look in a father's eyes as his last child dies before of him," so is this really so different?
NonSequtur
a body
Wouldn't this imply all ritual ingredients are worthless, as nothing has value inherently?
bigthonk.gif
But if I'm arguing the sacrifice is meaningful due to social context, as a GM, I'd also argue that having sex is irrelevant to sacrificing virginity, and the actual ritual would be public shaming, which is a lot more awful and are you really sure you want this as a ritual ingredient.
(If you say yes the Exalt is a disgusting person.)
- Location
- Singapore
They just pull away passionate memories.
We do not care what the weird porn fic you are reading is about. It's creepy and sexist, go away!
The demons do not care for innocence ,its a side effect as they would also remove your memorys of a passionate murder.
- Location
- Gladstone, OR
To explain- the Okidaci (The Fire And Stone Dancers) do not make materials ex nihilo. Their bodies are so hot and their flames are purifying, so the right combination of reagents applied to their metal skins burn into useful materials. Rubies are in fact Aluminum Oxides... so Air + Not Air, in turn created through a process akin to oxidization.
Aaaaaah, okay, good, that's much better. I was worried I'd missed some weird sex demon for making girls 'pure' again or something equally awful.
- Location
- Singapore
That sounds exactly like what a decadent dragonblooded or solar would so.
Granted, IIRC right after that it mentioned how some Yozi Cults do practice virgin sacrifice, and use this method to obtain "a proper candidate".
And I think it mentioned how the demons involved didn't really grok what was going on, they just liked receiving sacrifices and offering.
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