Remove ads

General Exalted Thread

Reader mode
Omicron said:
On a completely unrelated subject; I really like Evocations, and I like making them, but I lack experience in trying to deal with the specifities of their design (small self-contained trees with a strong guiding theme that focused on enhancing one weapon exclusively), so I need to make more to get a better sense of them.

I also really like Dark Souls' unique weapons (all three games), so they seem to provide good fodder for that kind of experimentation. There are a lot of them, though, so instead of browsing through lists until I can narrow it down I'm going to try something else: you suggest me a Souls weapon you'd like to see as an Ex3 Artifact and I try to do it. I'm probably not gonna manage more than three in a row, so three suggestions sounds like a good point.

The final result is probably going to be beyond the original concept in scope, since DS weapons tend to just be powerful weapons with occasionally one relatively straightforward special attack, but that's fine. I like taking something and making it more.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The Dark Hand? Artorias's Sword? The Dancer's / Ciaran's blades?
 
Revlid said:
A personal favourite I came up with was an ancient defense automaton from the First Age that had been utterly overgrown by moss and vines and tiny Wood elementals. The village it sat near had built a shrine around it and worshiped it as a protector, and passed down a sacred chant from village elder to village elder that would awaken it in times of need to destroy outsiders. They didn't realize that the minutes-long song of awakening just happened to contain three sections that phonetically approximated its (relatively brief) activation code.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Be honest, this was totally a Castle In the Sky reference, wasn't it?

Totally gonna steal it.
 
Salty said:
Ah, this is something I can comment on.

You see, in Exalted's legacy system, while you will more often than not score a hit when swinging a weapon with equal stats in a white room scenario...
Actually, nevermind all that.

The important thing is, White Wolf loved threshold successes, so more Accuracy directly translates into more damage.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

A cap on damage from accuracy? But then soak is something that needs to be overcome, which is why overwhelming and minimum damage exists. Ugh... I'll think on this more when I'm not suffering migraines.

Dif said:
Except having More Attacks with high Accuracy outweighs base-damage any day of the week, because what Rate 2/3 grants is effectively a pseudo-reroll for every attack you are making, compared to the single-shot strikes of everything past Medium. Frequency-of-attacks is Absolutely a factor in these things, even without the use of Tick Speed compounding the issue.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Thanks for remind me that action economy is a thing.

This just reminds me that I'm a storyteller, not a game designer. :(
 
So I am making a dawn who is the princess of a petty kingdom that the realm is only just starting to interact with. She is not the heir, and is loyal to the proper order of succession. As such, she is an agent of her father the king, receiving his continued support and such in exchange for doing things her father wants done.

In 3e, should the merit be ally, father, or some level of backing? Is her income as a princess a separate resources merit or not?
 
Aranfan said:
So I am making a dawn who is the princess of a petty kingdom that the realm is only just starting to interact with. She is not the heir, and is loyal to the proper order of succession. As such, she is an agent of her father the king, receiving his continued support and such in exchange for doing things her father wants done.

In 3e, should the merit be ally, father, or some level of backing? Is her income as a princess a separate resources merit or not?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Personally I would represent that as Backing, though perhaps with a small amount of resources to represent your own funds and inheritance outside of what your 'job' grants you.
 
Omicron said:
Now you got me wondering what "Humanity" would be in an Exalted context.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hmm.
The Undead still have both their Hun and Po, although they are separated, and Hollowing is the Po gradually eating away at the Hun.
So Humanity would be the Po of other people, ripped out at the moment of death, and consumed to satiate your own.
...Does that work at all? Probably not.

One of the important things to remember is that Humanity is supposed to be a physical substance, you can hold it in your hand and it has weight.
Also, in the Souls-verse Darkness has physical substance. That's what the Abyss is; darkness so thick that is literally feels like your on the ocean floor.
 
Last edited:
Omicron said:
On a completely unrelated subject; I really like Evocations, and I like making them, but I lack experience in trying to deal with the specifities of their design (small self-contained trees with a strong guiding theme that focused on enhancing one weapon exclusively), so I need to make more to get a better sense of them.

I also really like Dark Souls' unique weapons (all three games), so they seem to provide good fodder for that kind of experimentation. There are a lot of them, though, so instead of browsing through lists until I can narrow it down I'm going to try something else: you suggest me a Souls weapon you'd like to see as an Ex3 Artifact and I try to do it. I'm probably not gonna manage more than three in a row, so three suggestions sounds like a good point.

The final result is probably going to be beyond the original concept in scope, since DS weapons tend to just be powerful weapons with occasionally one relatively straightforward special attack, but that's fine. I like taking something and making it more.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The mighty bow of Hawk Eye Gough.

Crossbreed Priscilla's fearsome Lifehunt Scythe.

And for something of an easy one, the Stormruler.
 
Aaron Peori said:
The Hun soul. I mean, its not even ever in doubt. It is literally what makes you human. (Even animals have po souls after all.)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Well, if you're really going to fuse them tighter, there's clearly some kind of connection between Humanity and Autochthon's void sickness.

... so, basically, Seathchthon decided to go dabble with the Abyss, shortly after he got through betraying all his siblings because they bullied him because he was doomed to die.
 
Aaron Peori said:
The Hun soul. I mean, its not even ever in doubt. It is literally what makes you human. (Even animals have po souls after all.)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah, but "I take pieces of your Hun soul to fuel mine" is something that... Well, like a lot of Dark Souls setting elements, it would work very well in a ghost story, used by ghosts against ghosts; you draw part of another ghost's substance from them, they lose memories, pieces of themselves, of their sanity, and in return you get to stay "normal" even as you grow in power, to avoid for a while the transformation into one of those twisted, molliated, Passion-mad wraiths that usually comes with ghostly empowerment. But it's not a "general purpose" thing; it only really makes sense as something used by ghosts againt other ghosts. You can't really make it an Artifact, for instance.

But as a setting element, yeah, it works fine. The Court of the Black Hand dwells in the Northeast of the Underworld, amidst grey crags and endless forests; though they are a nobility of the dead, great in power, their corpus is shaped as they were in their youth, their cheeks flush with life, their expression natural; although they have mastered some of the darkest and most obscure Arcanoi, they do not hear the whispers of the Abyss, and they are reasonable, refined beings, without the crawling madness that corrupts the mind of the old dead.

And all it takes is for them to, once in a while, ritualistically don the garb of the Darkseekers, hunt down ghosts whose souls are not yet too twisted, and rip out their sanity from them. But that's not something you talk about in polite company.

(or you could just make them mortwights/nephwracks worshipping Oblivion, since the parallels with Kaathe and the Abyss are obvious, but that's kind of easy)
 
Last edited:
Omicron said:
Yeah, but "I take pieces of your Hun soul to fuel mine" is something that... Well, like a lot of Dark Souls setting elements, it would work very well in a ghost story, used by ghosts against ghosts; you draw part of another ghost's substance from them, they lose memories, pieces of themselves, of their sanity, and in return you get to stay "normal" even as you grow in power, to avoid for a while the transformation into one of those twisted, molliated, Passion-mad wraiths that usually comes with ghostly empowerment. But it's not a "general purpose" thing; it only really makes sense as something used by ghosts againt other ghosts. You can't really make an Artifact, for instance.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Your problem here is that you think the protagonists of Dark Souls are ghosts, abyssals or undead.

They're not.

They're raksha.

Let us look at the facts, gentleman! (taps whiteboard with pointer)

Fact the first; the raksha are not a natural part of Creation. They require a constant intake of Essence to maintain their human guises. They can nto respire the Essence of Creation so what do they do? They feed on the souls of humans.

What happens to raksha who do not feed? They slowly go insane as their Virtues hit their limits, causing them to suffer effects such as the curse of forgetfulness that makes them lose their very identity. Eventually they Calcify, and become reduced to basic elements. Some become corpses, others become humans, but humans that are mad and insane by the views of most humans.

Well, what happens to their victims? They too go mad! Their memories, emotions, eveyrthing that makes them them is slowly drained away until all that is left is a soulless wretch, a Dreameaten horror good only for menial labor and shock troops.

How do the raksha operate? One of two ways, they either show up in force and destroy everything and take what they want; which is bad. But far worse is when they show up in the forms of beings you would otherwise trust. They gift you with 'forbidden' knowledges and blessings that turn out to be curses. You will find your kingdom flourishing under their tutelage until one day everything crumbles into ashes and all that is left wandering your streets are madmen and the 'demons' or 'gods' that brought you low.

Where do the raksha come from? Chaos, the primordial sea which existed before their was a Creation. Before there was Creation, there was chaos. And with Creation, came disparity. Life and death, and all that.

And what does Chaos do to Creation? Well, you can steal bits of Chaos and use it to fuel Creation. The world is an engine, designed to burn Chaos and fuel itself to run its engine of wonders. But if Chaos infected the engine, the engine would break down, stop working. One by one, the sun and stars would go out. The barrier between life and death would cease to function. Time itself would run down.

So if you're looking for your Dark Souls in Stygia you are looking in the wrong place. Look outward, to the smiling raksha offering freedom from disparity.
 
Aaron Peori said:
Your problem here is that you think the protagonists of Dark Souls are ghosts, abyssals or undead.

They're not.

They're raksha.

Let us look at the facts, gentleman! (taps whiteboard with pointer)

Fact the first; the raksha are not a natural part of Creation. They require a constant intake of Essence to maintain their human guises. They can nto respire the Essence of Creation so what do they do? They feed on the souls of humans.

What happens to raksha who do not feed? They slowly go insane as their Virtues hit their limits, causing them to suffer effects such as the curse of forgetfulness that makes them lose their very identity. Eventually they Calcify, and become reduced to basic elements. Some become corpses, others become humans, but humans that are mad and insane by the views of most humans.

Well, what happens to their victims? They too go mad! Their memories, emotions, eveyrthing that makes them them is slowly drained away until all that is left is a soulless wretch, a Dreameaten horror good only for menial labor and shock troops.

How do the raksha operate? One of two ways, they either show up in force and destroy everything and take what they want; which is bad. But far worse is when they show up in the forms of beings you would otherwise trust. They gift you with 'forbidden' knowledges and blessings that turn out to be curses. You will find your kingdom flourishing under their tutelage until one day everything crumbles into ashes and all that is left wandering your streets are madmen and the 'demons' or 'gods' that brought you low.

Where do the raksha come from? Chaos, the primordial sea which existed before their was a Creation. Before there was Creation, there was chaos. And with Creation, came disparity. Life and death, and all that.

And what does Chaos do to Creation? Well, you can steal bits of Chaos and use it to fuel Creation. The world is an engine, designed to burn Chaos and fuel itself to run its engine of wonders. But if Chaos infected the engine, the engine would break down, stop working. One by one, the sun and stars would go out. The barrier between life and death would cease to function. Time itself would run down.

So if you're looking for your Dark Souls in Stygia you are looking in the wrong place. Look outward, to the smiling raksha offering freedom from disparity.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's certainly an amusing twist on the concept.
 
Aaron Peori said:
You asked if we had soul eating monsters in Exalted. The answer is yes.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yes, but I already know that. "Dark Souls is Raksha" is an amusing 'gotcha' take on the idea of porting Dark Souls elements to Exalted, but it's really nothing more. Ultimately Dark Souls is a story about human beings dying yet remaining chained to this world, dying over and over and losing pieces of themselves every time until they are nothing but hollowed-out husks or maybe fade away, or else find power to sustain themselves against that decay a little longer until they turn into bloated monstrosities, set against the backgrop of a decaying kingdom as the ages turn.

Also there is literally an Abyss at the heart of their kingdom that's seeping corruption into the land, turning some of the undead into mad wraiths seeking to sacrifice others to their own power and dark whims, a heart of darkness which one can only walk by either being part of it or wielding the power once given by the gods.

Also the land was once ruled by mighty creatures who found shards of immense power and were exalted by them, but are now all mad, hollowed, shadows of their former selves.

You could just straight up drop Lordran into the Underworld and nobody would flinch. It's not like "soul-eating" isn't already thematically appropriate for ghosts.
 
Last edited:
So, slight step away from Dark Souls and into Kill Six Billion Demons.

Anyone have any ideas on how to adapt Angels into Exalted?

Conceptually, they fit in just fine being spirits of sapient plasma skilled in millennia old martial arts inside of an artifact body that corresponds either to a set of power armor or else a tank, who's purpose of defending and enforcing the Old Laws comes into conflict with the nigh endless corruption of Heaven.

The issue is, Exalted already has guys like that in the form of Celestial Lions.

So yeah......Thoughts?
 
Aaron Peori said:
The Hun soul. I mean, its not even ever in doubt. It is literally what makes you human. (Even animals have po souls after all.)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Except that in Dark Souls Humanity is of the Dark.
The purest form of Humanity is Manus.
Aaron Peori said:
They feed on the souls of humans.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Souls are not literally Human Souls, or at least not is commonly pictured when someone says "Human Soul".
It is a substance inside yourself but is separate from your "Self", it can even be split up and given away.
It actually reminds me slightly of gossamer, except that it can be produced by any random person or animal.
Souls are common enough that it is used as a currency.
edit:
"Humanity and the Soul"
Nervaqus987 said:
The issue is, Exalted already has guys like that in the form of Celestial Lions.
So yeah......Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
So expand on the Lions?
Make the Lions the "generic" Angel, the most common type that can be found in Yu-Shan.
 
Last edited:
If you're straight up porting over elements from other fiction (Dark Souls or whatever) into Exalted you are doing it wrong. Exalted is Exalted, its not Dark Souls or Nasuverse or Neir or Tales From the Flat Earth.

You can certainly take inspiration from Dark Souls or Kill Six Billion Demons into Exalted but should be looking to adapt those properties into the setting. The best way to do that is to conceal the original inspiration. That way, you're playing Exalted with a flavor of another setting.

It's like how Bloodborne was interesting because while it was obviously inspired by gothic and Lovecraftian horror it was not literally Dracula and Cthullu fight.

Don't confuse aesthetics and jargon for themes and mood. The Abyss in Dark Souls is not thematically connected to the Abyss in Exalted and trying to cram the two together is just going to result in cognitive dissonance.
 
Aaron Peori said:
If you're straight up porting over elements from other fiction (Dark Souls or whatever) into Exalted you are doing it wrong. Exalted is Exalted, its not Dark Souls or Nasuverse or Neir or Tales From the Flat Earth.

You can certainly take inspiration from Dark Souls or Kill Six Billion Demons into Exalted but should be looking to adapt those properties into the setting. The best way to do that is to conceal the original inspiration. That way, you're playing Exalted with a flavor of another setting.

It's like how Bloodborne was interesting because while it was obviously inspired by gothic and Lovecraftian horror it was not literally Dracula and Cthullu fight.

Don't confuse aesthetics and jargon for themes and mood. The Abyss in Dark Souls is not thematically connected to the Abyss in Exalted and trying to cram the two together is just going to result in cognitive dissonance.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yes yes yes, we all know that.

But the Underworld is the most convenient, fitting, and straightforward medium of adapting aspects of Dark Souls to Exalted.

You can do it with the raksha. I didn't tell you your idea was terrible; I told you it was an amusing twist, which isn't bad. You could take elements of Dark Souls and introduce them into Exalted through any medium; I did the First Flame as the source of a sorcerous shaping ritual. I'm currently working on certain boss soul weapons as the relics of a particular event that occurred around the time of the Contagion.

The Underworld is just convenient. It lends itself to it more easily. The raksha thing is kind of silly and a bit forced, but it also has novelty going for it and you can make it work, since there are many ways of reading Dark Souls through an Exalted lens.
 
Hello, I'm new to this forum, but have heard a great deal about this "Forum"... more like i've heard a lot about this thread. But yhea. Instead of being the creepy dude just looking at what goes up on the thread i thought i would introduce my self, so if anyone has a question or something. Ask, i my self am very interrested in homebrewing and exalted as a general thing. So hope its cool that i just hang around here...
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top