I had an interesting idea come to mind after I read someone suggesting that Grave Goods from the death of the First Age Solars could be used as the origin for the Abyssal Exalted. Sharing it here in case anyone is interested.
Grave Goods producing Celestial Exaltations might be too overpowered but I think you could have a lot of fun exploring how they can lead to massive power increases in the Underworld and the regions of Creation within reach of a Shadowland.
Much of the canon coverage of Grave Goods has focused on relatively small-scale productions (individual items and equipment, small groups of cattle and slaves, etc.) or one-off disasters producing replicas of destroyed cities. It would be cool for Exalted to instead include elements of real history where kingdoms and empires have devoted meaningful portions of their budgets over several years or decades to massive funeral projects. I am thinking about the Pyramids and Terracotta Armies as the exemplars but there are many other examples of massive tombs throughout history.
In the paradigm of Exalted, these funeral projects would equate to massive power for the Ghost that wakes up in the Underworld. This should have implications for both funeral practices in the regions outside the Realm's authority (the enforcement of the Immaculate Order would naturally prevent such projects) and the structure of the Underworld. Power would not just come from how willing the Ghosts are to debase themselves to gain supernatural empowerment from the Neverborn but also the practical efforts that they and their descendants put forth to prepare for existence after death. The idea is that the dedication of sufficient wealth (on an individual, community, or national level) can allow a mortal to become a being that can operate on the level of Gods and Exalted after they have died.
One civilization that I imagine existing in this paradigm is an empire built on a series of increasingly powerful undead kings. The idea is that the first undead king would have been a moderately successful leader who was buried with a large amount of grave goods. This king would have arisen as a Ghost in the Underworld and journeyed out of a nearby Shadowland to support his people. The power of his people would have grown and the currently reigning king would eventually have been buried with a somewhat greater amount of Grave Goods than his predecessor. When this king arose as Ghost in the Underworld he would have allied with his predecessor and worked together to provide greater aid to their people. They would have formed a Council of Ghost Kings that aided the expansions of their Empire in Creation and grew with each generation as the Empire. The growing power of the Empire would allow for the production of more expensive funeral processes that would add increasingly powerful Ghost Kings to the Council. As civilization develops increasing knowledge of necromancy and the structure of the Underworld would facilitate the creation of more complex Grave Goods and help Ghosts gain greater access to Creation. This would have created a virtuous cycle of growing power as positive developments in one phase of existence would work to benefit the other.
I am familiar with some similar ideas of Dead-Living partnership in canon and fanon but my understanding is that they are centered on the idea of ancestor worship or are sponsored by a Neverborn empowered Deathlord. This would be a purely secular arrangement that is entirely based on mortals recognizing an exploitable flaw in the structure of Creation / the Underworld.
Grave Goods producing Celestial Exaltations might be too overpowered but I think you could have a lot of fun exploring how they can lead to massive power increases in the Underworld and the regions of Creation within reach of a Shadowland.
Much of the canon coverage of Grave Goods has focused on relatively small-scale productions (individual items and equipment, small groups of cattle and slaves, etc.) or one-off disasters producing replicas of destroyed cities. It would be cool for Exalted to instead include elements of real history where kingdoms and empires have devoted meaningful portions of their budgets over several years or decades to massive funeral projects. I am thinking about the Pyramids and Terracotta Armies as the exemplars but there are many other examples of massive tombs throughout history.
In the paradigm of Exalted, these funeral projects would equate to massive power for the Ghost that wakes up in the Underworld. This should have implications for both funeral practices in the regions outside the Realm's authority (the enforcement of the Immaculate Order would naturally prevent such projects) and the structure of the Underworld. Power would not just come from how willing the Ghosts are to debase themselves to gain supernatural empowerment from the Neverborn but also the practical efforts that they and their descendants put forth to prepare for existence after death. The idea is that the dedication of sufficient wealth (on an individual, community, or national level) can allow a mortal to become a being that can operate on the level of Gods and Exalted after they have died.
One civilization that I imagine existing in this paradigm is an empire built on a series of increasingly powerful undead kings. The idea is that the first undead king would have been a moderately successful leader who was buried with a large amount of grave goods. This king would have arisen as a Ghost in the Underworld and journeyed out of a nearby Shadowland to support his people. The power of his people would have grown and the currently reigning king would eventually have been buried with a somewhat greater amount of Grave Goods than his predecessor. When this king arose as Ghost in the Underworld he would have allied with his predecessor and worked together to provide greater aid to their people. They would have formed a Council of Ghost Kings that aided the expansions of their Empire in Creation and grew with each generation as the Empire. The growing power of the Empire would allow for the production of more expensive funeral processes that would add increasingly powerful Ghost Kings to the Council. As civilization develops increasing knowledge of necromancy and the structure of the Underworld would facilitate the creation of more complex Grave Goods and help Ghosts gain greater access to Creation. This would have created a virtuous cycle of growing power as positive developments in one phase of existence would work to benefit the other.
I am familiar with some similar ideas of Dead-Living partnership in canon and fanon but my understanding is that they are centered on the idea of ancestor worship or are sponsored by a Neverborn empowered Deathlord. This would be a purely secular arrangement that is entirely based on mortals recognizing an exploitable flaw in the structure of Creation / the Underworld.
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