Gems in the Wastes (Exalted/Warhammer Fantasy/CK2)

Something I should probably also mention, though it won't be particularly relevant for a while, is that your character's going to be effectively Essence 3 using 3e's scale (starting at Essence 1 and going up). You are going to be an experienced Exalt that has already developed themselves to some degree, which is why you might be a potential throne candidate at all in the first place. It's also how you're able to be a 2nd Circle Sorcerer or Master an entire Martial Arts Style as you are.

Ah.

Well, can still have the "Cute Rookie Aesthetic" while also being a terrifyingly capable professional I guess?

Not like I'll be winning at this point in the vote, but it's a funni look.
 
Right now God-King of Destruction is well in the lead, with the secondary options determining high stat favoring Learning. That seems pretty reasonable to me, though I do slightly prefer my own plan, obviously.
 
Quick question: which part of the Chaos Wastes would we be on? The part that borders Norsca, or the one the Great Bastion is blocking off?
 
[X] Plan Let's Be A Queen
[X] Plan: Tiny Logistics Gremlin
[X] Plan Lady of the Maker
[X] Glorious Golden !!SCIENCE!!
 
Going to put up the basic rules in a moment, just wanted to get a tally of how the vote's going so far.
Adhoc vote count started by Critian Caceorte on May 14, 2024 at 9:20 AM, finished with 33 posts and 23 votes.

  • [x] Plan: God-King of Destruction
    [X] Glorious Golden !!SCIENCE!!
    [X] Plan Let's Be A Queen
    -[X] Female
    -[X] The Monarch (Overall Leader)
    -[X] Solar (-1 Point)
    -[X] Warlord
    -[X] Martial Artist
    -[X] Passion
    [X] Plan: Cold Tzu
    -[X] Male
    -[X] Chief Minister of War (Military)
    -[X] Solar (-1 Point)
    -[X] Warlord
    -[X] Martial Artist
    -[X] Passion
    [X] Plan: Bright Queen
    -[X] Female
    -[X] The Monarch (Overall Leader)
    -[X] Sovereign (0 Points)
    -[X] Crafter
    -[X] Warlord
    -[X] Beauty
    [X] Plan Lady of the Maker
    -[X] Female
    -[X] The Monarch (Overall Leader)
    -[X] Solar (-1 Point)
    -[X] Sorcerer
    -[X] Crafter (-1 Point)
    -[X] Martial Artist (-1 Point)
    -[X] Virtue
    [X] Plan: Tiny Logistics Gremlin
    -[X] Female
    -[X] Ruby Quill
    --[X]
    -[X] Chief Minister of War (Military)
    -[X] Sidereal (-1 Point)
    -[X] Martial Artist
    -[X] Virtue
    [X] Glorious Golden !!SCIENCE!!
    -[X] Female
    -[X] Chief Minister of Records (Learning)
    -[X] Solar (-1 Point)
    -[X] Sorcerer
    -[X] Martial Artist (-1 Point)
    -[X] Crafter (-1 Point)
    -[X] Insanity? I'm not insane, I knew someone who was insane once...
    [X] Plan: Recording Fate
    -[X] Male
    -[X] Chief Minister of Records (Learning)
    -[X] Sidereal (-1 Point)
    -[X] Martial Artist
    -[X] Sorcerer
    -[X] Virtue

So far, God-King of Destruction is still in first place, with Glorious Golden Science in second place. If this continues, then our character's primary stat will be Learning, followed by Combat and probably Military. I'll probably do a vote on the character's lowest stat, and extrapolate the rest of the priority from there.
 
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Basic Rules & Play
Just a word of warning, all of these mechanics are subject to change, this is just the typical CK2 quest that I'm working off of an adapting.


Turns
Turns at the start will encompass 3 months of time each, and will eventually transition to 1 year after a certain period of time. This is to accommodate the rapid changes required for a newborn Civilization in an otherwise inhospitable place to survive.

Every turn, a number of actions become available and can be taken. For overall rulers, 2 actions of each category can be taken (Military, Diplomacy, Stewardship, Intrigue, Piety, Learning and Personal). Each category uses the bonus of the Chief Minister in charge of that area rather than the ruler's, except for Personal Actions. Rulers can choose to sacrifice a Personal Action in order to perform another action in another category, using their own stats to perform it. For Chief Ministers, they can instead take up to 5 actions per turn, all of which uses their own stats, but at least 2 of which must be related to their job (after all, why do you have that position if you aren't doing your job?).

Actions, unless otherwise specified, have a Difficulty that must be rolled against and beaten. A d100 is used, with the relevant stat modifier added, and compared to the Difficulty. If it equals or beats it, it succeeds. If the result is at least 50 above the Difficulty, than it is a Notable Success, not really exceptional but a better result than you might have otherwise gained. If the result is 100 or more above the Difficulty, then the result is an Artificial Crit, producing a greater result than it otherwise would have. If the die roll itself is a Natural 100, then an even better result is gained, and a Trait as well for the person enacting the action.

For anyone except mortals, there is a risk of Critical Failures. By default, this only triggers for actions performed by the character in question which roll a Natural 1. Certain conditions, such as Exalt type or overwork, can increase this threshold further either permanently or temporarily.

Charms
[TO BE ADDED LATER]

Overwork
All Exalted characters can choose to "overwork" on a turn, essentially committing enough Essence to push themselves for more results. They gain an additional Action of any type which uses their stat bonus for every time they overwork. An Exalt has 3 "Anima" Slots, one of which is filled every time they overwork, and they can use as many slots as they'd like in a single turn up to their available amount. Sovereign Exalted, being focused around their Anima Banners, have 4 Slots instead.

Besides fueling their Anima Banners and making the Exalt shiny and sparkly, this overwork has consequences for future turn. After all, your character is pushing themselves both physically and magically to the point of exhaustion in order to fit more time onto their schedule, leaving them more vulnerable to the temptations of the Great Curse. On the turn that overwork is performed, no penalty is gained. On the subsequent turn however, all actions which can Critically Fail have their threshold increased by 2 per Anima slot filled. At the end of the penalized turn, if no further overwork was done, then 1 slot empties, reducing the Critical Fail threshold by 2. This continues for every turn without overwork being done until all slots are emptied.

For Example: Say you are a Sidereal Exalt. You Critically Fail on all actions which roll a Natural 1. You have 3 Anima Slots available to use. You decide to overwork twice this turn, filling up 2 slots, and you gain 2 additional actions to use. There is no penalty this turn for doing this. Next turn, you can only choose to overwork once, since you have only 1 available slot left. In addition, your threshold for Critical Fails increases from 1 to 1-5 for that turn. If you do not overwork again that turn, then at the turn's end, 1 slot will be opened up, and the Critical Fail Threshold will decrease to 1-3.

[MORE TO BE ADDED LATER]
 
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Will we still have access to demon summoning? I want to use demons against daemons.

Really looking forward to showing off ghost eating and Wyld shaping technique.
 
Ooh on one hand Wyld Shaping Technique on the Chaos Wastes is going to get fascinating, though I do wonder if the prospective Solar has to work towards that.
 
Will we still have access to demon summoning? I want to use demons against daemons.
Yes. In this crossover, I'm kind of debating whether Chaos Gods would be considered more Raksha or Primordials. On the one hand, the big 4 can't actually manifest themselves in ordered reality like their minions can, which calls to mind the Unshaped, but on the other their minions are all technically part of them outside of maybe the Daemon Princes? Will need to double check that. Either way, I think they're still Creatures of Darkness even if the Unconquered Sun isn't around to keep track.
Really looking forward to showing off ghost eating and Wyld shaping technique.
Ooh on one hand Wyld Shaping Technique on the Chaos Wastes is going to get fascinating, though I do wonder if the prospective Solar has to work towards that.
Assuming that a Solar wins, AND they are a Twilight Caste (which is the current projection for the vote), they will be given three potential paths to go down (4 if Crafter was taken, which it likely won't be at this point).

Each path represents an Ability, essentially taking the place of their Supernal Ability by allowing them one really late-game charm at the start. For Lore, that will be Dogstar Rumination rather than WST. On the other hand, you're going to effectively be Essence 3, you already meet all of the requirements needed to learn that charm. Assuming, again, that the current vote projection continues.

As an aside, charms will probably have more relevance for one of the Advisor roles, since they are more smaller scale in nature. For the Monarch, only the really big stuff will be worth listing like WST.
 
Yes. In this crossover, I'm kind of debating whether Chaos Gods would be considered more Raksha or Primordials. On the one hand, the big 4 can't actually manifest themselves in ordered reality like their minions can, which calls to mind the Unshaped, but on the other their minions are all technically part of them.
That is something both Primordials and Unshaped do is the thing, I would say Chaos Gods are more like Ishvara than anything. Bigger than Unshaped and more kin to the Primordials than even Unshaped but still something outright different.
 
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What about Bureaucracy Charms? Those are absolutely relevant to being a ruler.
Generally still only the wide-range stuff. Everything else can be fitted under "Solar has big stat bonus," or as a trait. For example, Speed the Wheels is definitely a distinct ability because of the massive improvements it can bring on a nation-wide scale, reducing a centuries-long effort to just a turn's worth of time. Deft Official's Way is more of a dice adder, so I would probably just fold it in narratively to the stat bonus or as a minor trait.

Basically, if its either A) Very Distinct in its effect, or B) Can affect an entire province at once, or both, it will be listed as a Charm with unique mechanics. Otherwise, I'd rather not go through the trouble of 50+ Charms for one character.
 
[X] Glorious Golden !!SCIENCE!!
-[X] Female
-[X] Chief Minister of Records (Learning)
-[X] Solar (-1 Point)
-[X] Sorcerer
-[X] Martial Artist (-1 Point)
-[X] Crafter (-1 Point)
-[X] Insanity? I'm not insane, I knew someone who was insane once...
 
Glorious Golden Science and God King of Destruction are now tied and way ahead of any other options. People who have a strong opinion between the two (ie: prefer to be a Monarch as opposed to an advisor, or vice versa, or whatever other motivation) might want to switch votes or throw in an approval vote for the one they prefer.
 
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Glorious Golden Science and God King of Destruction are now tied and way ahead of any other options. People who have a strong opinion between the two (ie: prefer to be a Monarch as opposed to an advisor, or vice versa, or whatever other motivation) might want to switch votes or throw in an approval vote.
Might as well add my QM perspective to this:

As a ruler, you dictate what happens in the nation. It is YOURS to command (assuming you don't piss anyone off too much). You control what each Ministry should do to a large degree, and with time it might even be your name that the peasantry worship alongside the actual gods, just as they did with Queen Ulu. AND, it would be difficult for an outside ally to co-opt the position from you, a member of the royal family (did I mention that? I probably should have, your character is part of the royal dynasty in some way no matter how the vote goes).

On the other hand, you're also the one that ultimately has to take responsibility for everything, if multiple different issues crop up. You also usually can't get directly involved in a situation, at least not without worries that you might be doing too much of a given Minister's job. Finally, being a ruler will focus the story more on the nation rather than on you, the individual. If you're expecting character arcs or whatnot, that's not going to happen as much with a Monarch. Are you sure you want to be stuck on a throne, unable to leave except for a bit of time each turn, unable to actively seek improvement for yourself?

Chief Ministers have a greater degree of freedom for what they can do in their day to day. So long as they are doing the bare minimum, they have more time for personal improvement and study. They're more able to go outside and take some names, meaning that even as the Chief Minister of Records you might be able to do some diplomacy with other nations or races as long as it fits within your purview. Finally, if everything goes to hell, that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone will hate you specifically for it!

On the other hand, as a Chief Minister, you are still ultimately a subordinate. You answer to someone. And the royal candidate I have in mind from canon, while known for being a great ruler, isn't a particularly good people person. Are you sure that you want to trust someone like that with the throne of all things?
 
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