warningThis is not a thread to bicker about axiomatic disputes over what Exalted should be. This is a thread for people to ask questions and get answers. @Kuciwalker you will drop this tangent and @Jon Chung you will not pick it up. If I have to put a thread policy in place that you may only respond to a poster asking a question and not someone else's answer then I will do so. The old Exalted thread has generated ridiculous amounts of work for the Moderation Staff and I will not countenance this thread following that dubious example.
So I remember hearing that originally the Lunar's were supposed to be an antaognist faction, the ones who led the Raksha into Creation durinh Balorian crusade, back in 1E? How true is this, and what book should I be looking at?
Because I honestly like the sounds of it, and I wouldn't mind spending some time making a shard for it.
So I remember hearing that originally the Lunar's were supposed to be an antaognist faction, the ones who led the Raksha into Creation durinh Balorian crusade, back in 1E? How true is this, and what book should I be looking at?
Because I honestly like the sounds of it, and I wouldn't mind spending some time making a shard for it.
So I remember hearing that originally the Lunar's were supposed to be an antaognist faction, the ones who led the Raksha into Creation durinh Balorian crusade, back in 1E? How true is this, and what book should I be looking at?
Because I honestly like the sounds of it, and I wouldn't mind spending some time making a shard for it.
There's really no book about it, because it was a decision made during the development of the game that resulted in a Lunars book being made. But a lot of the 1e material was written with the idea in mind that Lunars were shapeshifting not-quite-Raksha leading hordes of fae on raids against Creation. They were later adapted into a playable splat.
There's really no book about it, because it was a decision made during the development of the game that resulted in a Lunars book being made. But a lot of the 1e material was written with the idea in mind that Lunars were shapeshifting not-quite-Raksha leading hordes of fae on raids against Creation. They were later adapted into a playable splat.
I'm aware of the long trip Lunars took to get where they are, and they bear severe scars from it. They were originally not playable at all, then they were made playable at the last minute but given no niche. Grabowski eventually decided that, since all of the playable Exalt types were also self-contained genres of epic fantasy, Lunars would be savage fantasy in the vein of Conan, the poetic Eddas, or the Saga of Burnt Njall.
As far as I know, everything known about Rametheus comes from Dreams of the First Age. He was one of two Promordials that fled to the Wyld rather than dying or becoming a Yozi. He spent a while retooling himself into a dedicated engine of war, then came back to Creation to wage a one-Primordial guerilla war for like 200 years or something until they managed to kill him. That's it.
No one is going to hold you down and beat canon into you if you write fanfiction. But "punch an exalt so hard that the exaltation can't get back to Creation to exalt someone else" is something that's threat-proofed against in canon. Even someone trapped inside an Yozi-powered, bespoke and impossibly secure prison realm where they suffer for all eternity can't keep a exaltation locked away from the main setting like that.
the answer to your question is 'game the conditions on Exaltation itself'. As in "Oh, clearly SOMEONE ELSE somewhere is Worthy At that Moment and therefore gets the shiny Now." It makes no difference in the end. As long as the potential host is viable (human soul structure, free will, hale and Heroic, willing to use the power), they're valid candidates.
You could always have a shard of the Jade Prison that would have fallen into the Underworld fall into the Wyld or the Well of Udyr or whatever. Or a Lunar died in the deep Wyld and the Exaltation went somewhere different. I don't know about Sidereals though - I don't think their Exaltations are 'physical' in the same way as those of other Exalts (probably just Loom Threads that the Maidens immediately reclaim because they're on the Loom while also being in the Sidereal's soul).
There's always the Well of Udr, which is basically plot-device-in-a-can. But unless the why is important to your story and will be brought up in-story, focus less on "Why is there Exalt here?" and more on "There's an Exalted here, wat do?"
How do people react to the presence of the Exalt? What butterflies start to flap their wings?
Just have it show up, and don't bother addressing the setting shift or Exalted's own universe. Your story is about a character in that setting with an Exaltation, don't drag it down by tying it to Creation and Creations baggage.
Which Lunar caste and spirit shape are the best fits for Schala from Chrono Trigger? I'm not very familiar with how Lunars (well, non-Solaroids in general, but definitely Lunars) actually play and what's important for them to do and learn, so I'm open to using any ruleset and vouched-for homebrew, whether it's 2.5 vanilla(+), the First Age castes, TAW, a pure-narrative interpretation of whatever 3E Lunars are supposed to be like, or whatever.
After the total clusterfuck at the Ocean Palace, Schala wakes up to find herself in the Darkness Beyond Time, right next to the copy of Lavos that, in the DS version, eats/fuses with her to become the Dream Devourer superboss (and later, in Cross, the Time Devourer).
Instead of that happening, Schala earns an Exaltation by GTFO'ing and using a region where physics is more malleable to escape into a neighboring world. She spends over twenty years wandering from one reality-is-out-to-lunch world to another, including the Deep Wyld, the Dresdenverse Nevernever, the WOD faerieland, and the Warp, eventually emerging in a heavy-divergent AU setting of a completely different work where she finally encounters the one other person besides herself whom she knows is real after so many years of not trusting any of her mundane senses: her Solar mate. The fic is actually from his perspective, so all of the above is just backstory that determines her starting charsheet and personality: a clingy yandere who's delved deep into solipsism and serves as a very good reason for the Mate to learn Hastening Night's End.
(It's still better than her canon fate!)
Ideally, I'd like to have two charsheets for her, one for the moment of Exaltation and one, heavily-annotated, for when she first enters the story, but I figured I'd start with just the basics.
Simplest route: An Exalt crossed settings under his own power and died there, possibly doing something stupidly heroic, or possibly the journey involved soloing some horror beyond the worlds along the way. His shard popped out, looked around and hopped into the nearest Worthy Human since it was faster than going home.
Find a take on Lunars you like, and actually read the whole thing. The mechanics, the fluff, all of it. Do not do a crossover without actually understanding both sides of the setting.
Simplest route: An Exalt crossed settings under his own power and died there, possibly doing something stupidly heroic, or possibly the journey involved soloing some horror beyond the worlds along the way. His shard popped out, looked around and hopped into the nearest Worthy Human since it was faster than going home.
