Remove ads

General Exalted Thread

Reader mode
Shyft said:
hey i come bearing a gift!

Name: Ledger-Master Stroke
Cost: 3m
Minimums: Linguistics 3, Essence 2
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequistes: Whirling Brush Method

As Lawgivers, the Exalt understands they must convey much with as little as possible.

This Charm supplements action to record information by text or image, allowing the Solar to write the equivalent of a page in the space of a single word or pictograph, and novels across single pages. Her highly compacted script is often dense, flowing and iconic as a result.

Observers can read a page-symbol written by the Solar with a Reflexive action. Longer works, including contracts, novels and so on can be completely digested with a Speed 5 Miscellaneous Action. Readers intuitively perceive every nuance and meaningful grain of knowledge, even if they only see a handful of strokes representing a whole page.

The writing itself is not inherently magical, only a representation of the Solar's unsurpassed grasp of language. Any character with a Linguistics rating equal to the Solar's at the time of writing can copy the information without issue, ensuring it remains legible. If copying the text via printing or some other method, substitute [Craft] in place of Linguistics.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Sounds like something very close to what Letter Within A Letter already does. I write a haiku and hideku a message in it about attacking the Daystar Exhaust Port Plans in it.
 
Hey, so, I wrote a martial arts style, and I feel it could use a few more eyes on it. The capstone I'm aware badly needs work, but criticism on the rest of the style, and suggestions for the capstone, would be much appreciated. Here, then, is Third-Eyed Raptor Style.
 
So I just saw this on SB
[QUOTE="Yzarc SB]Oh you think THEY are bad, you should see the proposed Infernal iconic. She is the Dawn equivalent, a hardcore nudist and former Assassin who's greatest feat is to laze on a pile of wealth that she may not have even killed for as it was strongly implied that she got it from her Demon lovers.

She is a Dawn Equivalent in all but name. Thank got they haven't put her in the core yet and made it canon.[/QUOTE]
Is this a thing?

If so, how accurate?
 
Matthew G said:
Is this a thing?

If so, how accurate?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Holden:

"Basphomy in Verdigris was a minor Tengese political pawn, alternately victimized by the occupying forces of the Realm and resistance elements of weak and disorganized An-Teng underground, who sought to be the tool of neither yet was forced into being a catspaw for both-- and eventually a killer for the underground, though she knew she was viewed as a disposable asset to be used up and thrown away.

She's taken the stolen might of a Solar Exaltation as reason to swear she'll never bow to anyone or anything ever again, and has come to view the world as her oyster-- she knows there are few things that can gainsay even her least desire now, and her retinue of demonic servants and handful of demon lovers have assured her that this is a completely proper attitude for one of her elevated station. Two years ago she was a Tengese pawn who had nothing; now she wears only the finest silks and the most beautiful jewelry (when she bothers to clothe herself at all, which is rarely, for her skin is like the finest armor), wields paired blades older than any standing nation in the world, takes what catches her fancy, and kills with poisonous green fire when offended. When this host of blessings is insufficient, Basphomy in Verdigris calls upon a terror chained in the depths of her Essence, and becomes a lean and eyeless dragon, whose screams are sonic hammers sufficient to shatter marble and explode flesh.

Decadence and casual power are major motifs for the Third Edition Infernal Exalted. The art in the preview is as it is because Melissa Uran was kind enough to volunteer to do a couple of sketches for us so we wouldn't have to use recycled art or no-art, and I think she knocked 'em out of the park. If I had time and budget for a proper commission, the character would probably be wearing significantly less (only jewels and golden adornments), lounging on a mound of jade and silver and fine furs, with blood-apes waving peacock-feather fans at her, an angyalka playing Time for her pleasure, and servant-boys pouring fine wine into a jeweled chalice held in one blood-stained hand. Just to really hammer the idea in good and hard."
 
And none of those things change the fact that shes a half naked fantasy chick pictured in exactly the same sort of pose and picture we've been giving fantasy artists shit for doing in the last twenty years. Its especially sterotypical for the 'evil' seeming splats.
 

Said MUran sketch of the Infernal in question.

Though really, the thing which amused me for the longest time was how often the original reception of her attempted to derail discussion of the "why generic cheesecake baddie" reinterpretation of Infernals by trying to puzzle out if "Basphomy" was a particularly aggressive typo of "Blasphemy" or not.
 
I do think it was an... extremely strange choice to reveal Basphomy as one of the first 3e character sketches (possibly the first?) so soon after that giant Let's Not Have Bikini Witches thread the devs started. I mean, I like Basphomy in Verdigris, I think she's a cool concept that could be made to work, but I also think revealing her would have worked a lot better after a stable of other, sensibly dressed Exalted ladies were already a thing. The idea that her waltzing about almost naked is a statement of casual power only really works when the first thing a reader compares it to isn't... Most ladies' fantasy armor, which does that anyway.

When characters like Perfect Soul, Harmonious Jade: Pants Edition (wasn't she supposed to come back in 3e?), the Roseblack and that Karaschian halberdier standing the wall are the main image of how women dress, then Basphomy in Verdigris strutting about near-naked is a significant contrast that can illustrate who she is. Without those characters, that same aesthetic is just... one more bikini-witch.
 
Last edited:
Omicron said:
What's 'voluntary'? People tend to look at interesting things in their environment unless they have reason to believe that looking is actively harmful to them. If you put up magical sigils people who aren't aware that they're magical mind-warping sigil will voluntarily look at them and attempt to understand them, since it only takes a glance and it's an eye-drawing feature of your environment.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I would assume "voluntary" means "you must declare that you are deciphering the symbol".
 
Ishem said:
Actually it's almost exactly a buffed up Solar version of Craft Icon. The meaning isn't hidden, and it's in a ridiculously compressed format.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Why do you need a separate Charm for compression if you already can place one message into another message without any fuss? Just designate 'anyone reading this' as the intended recipients, and now you can do a de facto non-hidden version.
 
Imrix said:
because they already had volfer

one slice of beefcake is enough, right?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
NAY, NAY I TELL YOU! Besides, he's wearing more than jewels, and there are no demons to be seen around him! And where are the burning green eyes?! Infernal Fanservice needs to be as scary as it is beautiful! I DEMAND MORE VARIETY!
 
Imrix said:
I do think it was an... extremely strange choice to reveal Basphomy as one of the first 3e character sketches (possibly the first?) so soon after that giant Let's Not Have Bikini Witches thread the devs started. I mean, I like Basphomy in Verdigris, I think she's a cool concept that could be made to work, but I also think revealing her would have worked a lot better after a stable of other, sensibly dressed Exalted ladies were already a thing. The idea that her waltzing about almost naked is a statement of casual power only really works when the first thing a reader compares it to isn't... Most ladies' fantasy armor, which does that anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Ah yes. That was the character which had hatewheel accusing @Eukie of "slut shaming" for condemning such a terrible and generic female fantasy character design.
 
Imrix said:
I do think it was an... extremely strange choice to reveal Basphomy as one of the first 3e character sketches (possibly the first?) so soon after that giant Let's Not Have Bikini Witches thread the devs started.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
To be totally honest, I think if anything the problem with Basphomy isn't the part were she's half-naked, but where her conceptual underpinnings are the laziest possible shorthand. Outside of pinup fantasy art circles, whole or partial female nudity is not inherently visually indicative of "lavish personal decadence" unless you are applying puritanical standards of 'nudity is undignified', 'moral degeneration means 24/7 wicked sick orgies', and the 'mounds of dehumanized slave girls' motif, because rarely is the one presiding over said decadence the half-naked one when it is all intended as a show of wealth and overt social power over others.

To play up "decadence" for a greedy and conquering Dawn equivalent, you want to display Spectacle and Excess of the demon realm in both presentation and dress, not less. If her skin is toughened like armor, then she wears more armor because she can, and you are not worthy enough to see or test her flesh firsthand. It should be the most elaborately fashionable and expensive she can find, the kind where every link in her mail shirt is a conquered mortal soul, hammered to shape on Alvuela's anvil and etched with Ligier's green fire, and silks it is draped in are wrought from their voices by Berengiere so each is beguiled to whisper of her past glories and cunning for all eternity.

She should array herself not with jewels and metals of the crude earth, but yassal crystals by the dozen, every one containing a member of her sprawling retinue for entertainment or service, lounging on a throne of living furs culled from the immortal beasts who carry her atop a palanquin across their flayed backs as a warning to all who witness her. You want her constantly flanked to either side with blood ape attendants hunched under tall racks of fearsome and ensouled Malfean blades pledged to her service like officers, because she has had her pick of them, but in battle she is more likely to order a limb torn free from a loyal tomescu to wield for the purpose instead, having been taught to be equally capable of killing with either.

Less is not more, more is more!
 
Dif said:
To play up "decadence" for a greedy and conquering Dawn equivalent, you want to display Spectacle and Excess of the demon realm in both presentation and dress, not less. If her skin is toughened like armor, then she wears more armor because she can, and you are not worthy enough to see or test her flesh firsthand. It should be the most elaborately fashionable and expensive she can find, the kind where every link in her mail shirt is a conquered mortal soul, hammered to shape on Alvuela's anvil and etched with Ligier's green fire, and silks it is draped in are wrought from their voices by Berengiere so each is beguiled to whisper of her past glories and cunning for all eternity.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Nah, I'd say that if her skin is as strong as armor, she should wear the most lavish clothes around. Fine silks... I'm not actually familiar with old Southeast Asian fashion, so that's all I've got.
 
notanautomaton said:
Nah, I'd say that if her skin is as strong as armor, she should wear the most lavish clothes around. Fine silks... I'm not actually familiar with old Southeast Asian fashion, so that's all I've got.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Fine silks and lots and lots of bling.

It's true, though; nudity can be a statement of power, but it's not really a statement of decadence. It is, after all, free.
 
Now, nudity + scented oils + intricate body designs painted in gold dust, then you're getting somewhere if you want to communicate decadence.
 
Imrix said:
Now, nudity + scented oils + intricate body designs painted in gold dust, then you're getting somewhere if you want to communicate decadence.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Still not really IMO, because you could have more expensive shit on. Scented oils and gold-dust-painted body designs are a good base layer, but when you could have elaborate ceremonial garb made of silks made from wyld-silkworms, embroidered with jade threads and in enough volume and detail to have required the work of master seamstresses, and then add the jewelry, and then your surroundings...

Decadence and wealth is, at its core, about displaying how much you have for all to see. Restraint may be a sign of taste, but it's inherently in contention with displaying decadence.
 
I think there's room for all the ideas, depending on the given Infernal. Except the one with cray-cray amounts of magical trinkets. Magic is not quite so easy to find, I don't think. Nor do I particularly care for a signature Infernal wearing armor custom-forged from dozens of murdered mortals. Let's not go back to 2E Abyssal of over-the-top EEEEEEEEEVIIIILLLL.

(My preferred Infernal concept in my brain is overt displays of magic. Casual use of sorcery and bound spirits, always with Charms up, ect. He would...probably get killed pretty fast.)
 
Last edited:
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top