Creation, the Incarnae, and even the humans themselves - none of this would've existed if not the work of Primordials. Even though the Primordials are narcissistic entities trying to enforce arbitrary rules and occasionally damn someone to eternal torment. People seem to be commonly okay with this argument for submitting to YHWH, so don't tell me there's no precedent for this being a good argument for at least a couple of billion people . . .
I am not one of them.
If they have no awareness beyond constant, consistent suffering, the distinction is immaterial.
...
There's a distinct difference between 'no awareness' and 'the only thing of which I'm aware is
"PAIN".
I don't want to own the sourcebooks, (Infernal Ew, Lunar Ew, [occasional?] Solar Ew, I'm wary of Abyssals and Alchemicals) and I don't want to resort to piracy.
Then either pay attention or shut up.
It's substantially different, because A: my local library has Harry Potter, so I can read it without resorting to the options I mentioned, and B: I'm not generally arguing, I'm asking questions. When I do argue, I do it with stuff other people have presented in this thread.
Actually, no it's not different. Access to the books, potential or otherwise, is irrelevant if you refuse to read them.
Really? Exalted is a setting where convincing people to do things is literally a roll of the dice, and can be enhanced with magic.
Then you vastly miscalculate the nature of the game and the setting. Yes, players have characters with which they play, but in the game? In the game such a person isn't just 'rolling some dice backed with magic,' that person is a superlative debater that is really good at convincing people.
The real world is filled with real people, and you can't just spend a decade in the mountains, amassing the power to kill everyone and take their stuff.
Sure you can. And like in Exalted, it doesn't work.
(You probably can't actually do that in Exalted, either, but the principle applies. To 'win' Exalted, you need to be clever and somewhat lucky, with a willing Storyteller. To achieve World Peace, a lot of people have to be Not Stupid [and not too greedy].)
You really don't understand the nature of RPGs, do you? Especially an RPG like Exalted that likes to profile itself as 'you know those ancient, mythological heroes? The ones that we are fairly certain actually existed to
some extent even as the tales around them became fantastical and unbelievable? Imagine living in a world where people like that
actually exist, and do all the things that people with that kind of power would do in reality.'
The Realm is the dynastic policies of feudal societies writ large and backed up with magic. Lookshy is Sparta backed by literally superhuman soldiers and a cache of high tech weapons, there are monsters out there that eat souls and/or want to rip your larynx out of your throat so they can make a new flute with it. The beings who handle prophecy have a political agenda and are struck by factionalism, so mere fortune alone can't always explain why things go well or poorly.
You don't 'win' Exalted. There's no 'victory condition' like you have in a board game that you
have to hit and after that everything will be fine. You can set goals for yourself, or for your character, with which you can achieve a satisfactory conclusion to a campaign, or be able to say you made an honest try.
But a victory that says 'everything is fixed?' First, answer the question 'what is this state you call fixed,' and second, how do you expect to get there without lobotomising everyone along the way, either through your own actions or through an ST that's incompetent or unwilling to play the NPCs as the experienced, powerful kickers of arse they are.
And where they can, to a man, be defeated by a well prepared assailant.
Hey, is it possible to knock a Solar down to zero Motes without killing them?
Sure. Good luck actually succeeding.
Do you have a suggestion for how I could do that? Legally, without actually buying them?
Sure, you could borrow the books from someone, but we both know it won't matter. You won't read them anyway.
