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General Exalted Thread

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Amidatelion said:
I also don't know how to feel about the current iteration of the Lover. She feels a bit directionless and a bit... storybook? Like, she's the evil queen of a frozen castle that hates love and wants you to despair and that's... functional. I guess.

I kind of wish they tried a better go at her 2e schtick, but I understand why they didn't.
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The storybook thing is like...meant to be her thing. She's kind of the dark ice queen thing going. The bits I have seen of her kind of feel like something out of Tanith Lee or Neil Gaimon, personally. She's a melodramatic ghost with a big emphasis on the melodrama.
 
Blaque said:
The storybook thing is like...meant to be her thing. She's kind of the dark ice queen thing going. The bits I have seen of her kind of feel like something out of Tanith Lee or Neil Gaimon, personally. She's a melodramatic ghost with a big emphasis on the melodrama.
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OK, I get that, but just being melodramatic isn't really enough to make her stand out in a cast of already highly melodramatic Deathlords where others are named as also being extremely melodramatic, like the Mask of Winters.

The end result of making her a flat evil ice queen-type character is that it just makes her kind of boring.
 
Melodrama is almost universal for ghosts and Abyssals alike.

I mean, look at those names. It's hard to out-melodrama a dark lord named The First and Forsaken Lion without descending into self-parody.

Chehrazad said:
SO TRUE
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I feel like I'm not following this subthread. What exactly is flipping bricks?

Googling suggests selling drugs, which doesn't really make sense here.

mothematics said:
I don't think the Silver Prince is piratical. He's the eerie ghostly envoy and brave exploring captain of ships pluming dark waters, not Blackbeard.
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Maybe this is just the One Piece fan in me, but I don't think there's any contradiction between being an explorer and being a pirate. As long as you own a boat, have adventures, and do violence against some kind of government, you can be a pirate.
 
I promise you, if ever he was one - maybe technically he was one once - he is not meaningfully a pirate anymore nor is that the vibe of his undead nautical exploits.
 
I also can barely remember how 2e Abyssals and Deathlords were like (besides "kinda bad") so here's a list of interesting things with no recognition if they were in 2e or not:
The Bishop created the Shining Way but lets it be reintepreted in many ways, even ones that oppose his stated goal of consuming all souls, because he's secretly scared of being oblivion'd himself and hence left plenty of room for even his loyal followers to "accidentally" drag things out.

The Black Heron got her ass kicked by Great Forks, and is the best patron for Abyssals because she really, really want to wipe that damn city off the map. If this rivalry existed in 2e, it's now a far more fair fight because Great Forks is Exigent central.

The Shoat of the Mire wanted to be a sacred child, was constantly unchosen, ran away from home and died, then came back as an Abyssal. She's now very happy to be a sacred child ++ but in true teenager form is pissing off all the adults. This... somewhat conflicts with how the 3e lore for Monstrals is that they merely allow the Deathlords to steer the Exaltation somewhat; the Abyssal Exaltation still only chooses people who could become Solar Exalts, so hell if I know what Sol thinks of this sassy lost child.

Eye and Seven Despairs is the researcher guy and taught that one crazy Lunar necromancer. Sadly, said Lunar stole his stuff and left, so now Eye h a t e s all Lunars.

The Lion's favoured ghost-warlord, Feast of the Centipede's Daughter, is very dubious about her master's alliance with Black Heron, but somehow her investigation has lead to a puppy crush on the Heron.

One of the reason the Mask makes Thorns such a huge show is that it screws over the Walker's own plans in the Scavenger Lands because now everyone is on alert for ghost stuff.

The Lover has a whole culture of nomadic clans, the Tear Eaters, who she patronises for basically nothing because one of their kind became her disciple. She doesn't even try to convert them!
 
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Sanctaphrax said:
I feel like I'm not following this subthread. What exactly is flipping bricks?

Googling suggests selling drugs, which doesn't really make sense here.
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i'm one of her shooters, i'll fucking kill anybody who even looks within 40 degrees of the black heron. i move so much of that skullstone skunk my fucking back hurts
 
Ryang said:
The Lion's favoured ghost-warlord, Feast of the Centipede's Daughter, is very dubious about her master's alliance with Black Heron, but somehow her investigation has lead to a puppy crush on the Heron.
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Can you blame her?

mothematics said:
I promise you, if ever he was one - maybe technically he was one once - he is not meaningfully a pirate anymore nor is that the vibe of his undead nautical exploits.
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awwww =( no swashbuckling action?

Blaque said:
The storybook thing is like...meant to be her thing. She's kind of the dark ice queen thing going. The bits I have seen of her kind of feel like something out of Tanith Lee or Neil Gaimon, personally. She's a melodramatic ghost with a big emphasis on the melodrama.
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They're ALL dark melodramatic storybook villains. And it works beautifully for most of them. But they all have something that makes them stand out from the rest.
 
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Anyway, to get back to talking about the actual book, I'm curious if Skullstone is getting a full write-up in that setting book that's been stuck in development for a while.
 
mothematics said:
I promise you, if ever he was one - maybe technically he was one once - he is not meaningfully a pirate anymore nor is that the vibe of his undead nautical exploits.
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I think he gives off a Pirate King vibe - leader of an island nation that's very naval focused, with a markedly different system of governance from all the nearby countries, more egalitarian in many ways but also more dictatorial, very charismatic and generous to his people but a blatant rule and custom breaker to everyone else etc.
One Piece is probably the most well known of that kind of fictional archetype but I believe its not exactly uncommon?
 
The sky pirates from the series that gave me my name also come to mind. To be a sky pirate on the Edge, you don't need to do any piracy per se. But you do need to live under a piratical system. Which is much as you describe.

I'm actually fiddling with a pirate decklist in MtG as I write this, and while Ixalan's pirates do more actual sea-robbing they also put a lot of emphasis on the "vibe". Replacing the city and farm with the ship, replacing the state with a thousand charismatic captains, rejecting all laws in favour of your own customs. Fleeing from tyranny and seeking adventure.

SunnySprings said:
everything. you think she can afford that ice she wears by paying taxes? wrong, its through the sanzu river ritalin trade
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I imagine that being a Deathlord pays pretty well.

And all jokes aside, I am interested in hearing about why you like the Heron so much.
 
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Sanctaphrax said:
I imagine that being a Deathlord pays pretty well.

And all jokes aside, I am interested in hearing about why you like the Heron so much.
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1. I think she has a fairly interesting underworld locale associated with her, she has a pretty easy campaign hook with her vendetta against those assholes in Great Forks, and she has a neat dynamic with her Deathknights since she can't use them as disposable assets like others might be able to in times of need.
2. she is hot
 
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So are they no longer going with the bit that the underworld was created by Neverborn being unable to reincarnate? One of the details from the Lion's writeup involves "...strange beasts unremembered even by the dead. Those venturing into [the depths beneath the Thousand] occasionally return bearing strange treasures of unknown purpose, created by whatever dwelt in the depths long before humanity." And given that humanity was obviously around for the Primordial War, that sets it to before the old explanation.

I suppose this ties in to that quote posted a few pages back about the Dark Mother having been the spider to the web of the old Lethe? So it's now 'this event created the underworld as we now know it' rather than the place literally not existing before.
 
HalfTangible said:
The Seven Degreed Physician of Black Maladies... I've heard that name before in one of the campaigns I was in but can't recall the specifics.
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Diligent researcher; excellent co-worker; terrible doctor. Did so many unethical experiments pre-exaltation that when some relative of a former patient showed up at his doorstep and stabbed him in the forehead without preamble, he thought to himself "I've got no idea who specifically they're avenging, but I'm sure I deserved it."
 
Essence's extremely useful Inspirations sidebars in its setting chapter describes Skullstone as culturally Renaissance Venice with Mycenaean/Minoan aesthetics. The Silver Prince would be very much about legitimate ocean trade rather than piracy, although the presence of Moray Darktide on his team tells me that this would in no way prevent any swashbuckling adventures.
 
man, exalted is so rad. Its a shame that I can't possibly get my gaming group to agree to play it, I know that character creation by itself would be totally overwhelming to some players.
 
Blaque said:
The storybook thing is like...meant to be her thing. She's kind of the dark ice queen thing going. The bits I have seen of her kind of feel like something out of Tanith Lee or Neil Gaimon, personally. She's a melodramatic ghost with a big emphasis on the melodrama.
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yeah, but that's kinda.. boring?

Like, considering The Black Heron was defeated by a story in 2e, I would have thought the melodramatic evil Disney princess vibe would be hers, while the Lover focused more on being the lusty ghost from a land of ice and snow.
 
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Things I'm enjoying about the Deathlords so far:
-They actually feel like ancient ghosts instead of Elder Abyssals
-That even the most hardcore devotees to the Neverborn are, deep down, kind of really bad or honestly reluctant about the whole total annihilation thing, and are all kind of terrified of the Dowager for actually taking a full on swing at it and actually almost succeeding
-That they are no longer married to being only Solar ghosts. While a lot of them still have that vibe, I don't think any of their write ups, if they do mention their lives, ever explicitly state what kind of Exalted they used to be. This freedom is especially valuable when thinking up new Deathlords; in addition to the excellent examples provided, I almost immediately though of a a Sidereal Deathlords obsessed with the Calendar of Setesh and the stars of the Underworld.
-That I think only 4? of them are stated to have mastered the Void Circle of Necromancy, and the opposite extreme is also represented, with the Black Heron only having mastered the Ivory Circle.
-That there are other ghosts capable of rivaling, impeding, or otherwise threatening them, or at least their ambitions. It's nice to have the Dual Monarchs in particular feel actually mighty now, being able to defeat the Dowager in a 1v1 fight (well, 1v4 — look, you know what I mean), the conquest of Stygia requiring a Pact of multiple Deathlords and "other Underworld conquerors" instead of it being a solo raid by the First and Forsaken Lion and his Legion, and it requiring a likely unique instance of a united Deathlord front to force the Dual Monarchs to temporarily turn over control of the Calendar of Setesh.
Sucal said:
yeah, but that's kinda.. boring?

Like, considering The Black Heron was defeated by a story in 2e, I would have thought the melodramatic evil Disney princess vibe would be hera, while the Lover focused more on being the lusty ghost from a land of ice and snow.
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Tbh, if they'd just given the Lover a magic mirror and/or the shards of such that she used to freeze/taint people's hearts as part of her trails or as a method for striking out at loving relationships, then the Hans Christen Anderson's "The Snow Queen" vibes I get from her would be much clearer and more specific, as opposed to a generic fairy tale dark queen vibe.

Edit: Wait, I forgot, they literally did give her a magic mirror lol.
 
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