CRITICALLY NEEDED RELIGIOUS AND DOCTRINAL REFORM, WHEREIN THE DRAGONBLOODED SERVE THE CITIZENRY RATHER THAN VICE VERSA
;_______;7 EFFICIENCY
General Exalted Thread
CRITICALLY NEEDED RELIGIOUS AND DOCTRINAL REFORM, WHEREIN THE DRAGONBLOODED SERVE THE CITIZENRY RATHER THAN VICE VERSA
;_______;7 EFFICIENCY
Ah, never mind. on a rereading that only applies to random misfortune. so if an assassin attacks you and you are expecting it then you can use the charm, but if a Shrike flips a coin on which village to attack and ends up in yours then it can't.
"The Charm does
not help characters resist random misfortune, nor can it
thwart actions of those advancing an agenda unrelated to
the Infernal's long-term goals."
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I don't really know man, the Autochthonian way of governship doesn't really work in Creation given that "OBEY ME" Charms that are effective against mortals are much more common there.
And a bunch of other reasons that @Dif already outlined such as the fact that Autochthonia already has thousands of years of experience with this whereas the Realm is about 964 years old IIRC.
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- Location
- New York City
If one wants to appreciate the Alchemicals rather than feeling ambivalent about them, what would be the reading you guys would recommend? I'm generally not down with the stuff that falls on the hypertechy side of Exalted, though I'm not universally opposed and I'm trying to keep an open mind.
Graypairofsocks
What is Grammar?
- Location
- earth
I don't know how good that soup would be. Those priests have fire for heads, so if everything you eat gets burned then you won't be able to compare it to make sure it wasn't burnt in the first place.
- Location
- Wörms, the half continent
Priests are of a greater rank than serfs, so they can just declare that all food created by them is prefect, the Laws of Cecelyne say it must be so, so it must be so. See, it makes perfect sense.
It probably wouldn't actually work, given that Alchemicals are uniquely dependent on mortal support crews and infrastructure in a way other Exalt types never were.
2E Alchemicals and COCD Autochthonia are probably the two best books for them right now.
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- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
FFTY.
Noooo the 1E adventures were awful and gave a terrible picture of the setting while the 2E book gave more options for them interacting with the main setting besides outright warfare.
greensun
You shall all burn beneath my light!!!
Do I have to remind you about the Locust Campaign?FFTY.
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Yeah but the 2e book was horrendous on every other point and added Demiurges because Holden can't into infrastructure.
Sure, the Locust Crusade was worthless, but it's not like that was the only adventure, there was also one about an epic quest for the Eye of Autocthon which was pretty cool.
I disagree, and at the very least 2E offered a more comprehensive and diverse Autochthonia compared to 1E's Metropolis styled uniformity.
Anyways preferences about which book is better can vary but at the very least COCD Autochthonia is both a good book and very useful.
I missed this, but not that recently. I think within the last year though.
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It doesn't leach souls by any chance, does it?
My hateful, horrible ST would probably be mean enough to do it, so let's run with the assumption that it does, until proven otherwise.
Do you mean "reading" by way of interpretation, or relevant media? Because as for interpretation, the thing to bear in mind that while the Alchemical visual cues trend towards complex robotics, and the fandom likes to paint them as mechanical beep-boop logicbots, what they really are is closer to ensouled golems made of clay and waxes, and their Charms can just as easily be justified as layers of magical runes, specialized enchantments and overlays of symbolic metallurgy. Its pretty forgettable aesthetically, since outside of the infrastructure elements, the Alchemical condition isn't so overtly demanding "chromed-out magical hypertech is the entire point of the exercise" like you see in most cyberpunkish media.
As for media, beyond the 1e book fluff giving a closer look at examples how Alchemicals interact with their people and world before they got a bunch of needless "you should be going to Creation now because Autochthonia is a themepark dystopia" bullshit tacked on later, a fine start is Super Robots, oddly enough. Especially the ones which hew Less towards justifiable technology and more towards "magic pageantry happens in robot form to set the stage for character drama." The key thing is to associate the pilot and robot together as one "character," because in a sense, the Alchemical and her enlightened soul/engineered body are split much the same way, where you have "who she is" that drives her and communicates with other characters and the tool everyone else Sees acting as her face, which she uses to change the world around her with industrial miracles.
Second side to that is playing up the "the hero out of time"/"unexpected resurrection" element, much like you see in a lot of the better Captain America stories, because Alchemicals are very much about bringing the baggage and morals of their old lives with them as a stabilizing force to help contextualize an unsteady present. The technology bent is simply the justification for that narrative, not the purpose of the story anymore than what the details of her Anima banner are.
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- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Chiming Minaret has taken to wrapping her sword in her new wonderful shawl of awesome that I won't let anyone take from me:
The Shawl Caliginous (Wonder ●●)
A gauzy veil of half-transcluent silk of unearthly make, this silken shawl drifts perpetually on unseen winds, and the light plays in the grey folds of the veil, drawing a rainbow of colours over it's surface. It is light and soft to the touch, and feels immensely fragile, as if one could rip it apart with but a touch, yet despite this, even a sorcerer would find his magic ineffective against the veil, for it is warded many times with the magic of that bygone era that breathed it's last sighs long before the birth of the Realm.
The shawl reacts to even the slightest breeze and will recede from touch with almost fearful motions, as if it was animate and feared the touch of life. It is undecorated, except for a vague and colourless sunburst, embroidered in the middle of the shawl which may be glimpsed when one looks for it under the light of day. Should one listen ever so closely, under silence so deep that one's heartbeat should sound like the beating of a gong, a slight murmuring whisper may be heard as the fabric billows and moves, the language of this murmuring is either long forgotten or complete gibberish, for not even the most potent magics reveal it's nature. The shawl is one and a half meters long, and a half meter wide, though the shadows playing over it often causes it to look larger.
Once, the shawl belonged over the shoulders of a fine lord or lady, where the colours would dance in the light of her soul and sing her praises wherever she went, but this beauty died with the lessening of the world, and now it is drab and grey, whispering eternally. Just like many other once-great wonders, the only use found for it's forgotten glory in the darkness of the Second Age of Man is one of violence, for a wearer of the shawl is silent and fades into the background like snow falling on white.
Powers of the shawl:
Fanning The Light: It is said that the shawl is so delicate that the sun dares not shine upon it, for fear of burning it, whether this is true or not, it certainly is hard to spot. Hiding anything beneath this shawl will increase the difficulty to spot it by two, if spotting it was an unrolled action before, it now requires a roll.
The Shawl Caliginous costs one mote to attune to.
(Do note that base TN in our game is 8, so it's power is fucking amazing.)
The Shawl Caliginous (Wonder ●●)
A gauzy veil of half-transcluent silk of unearthly make, this silken shawl drifts perpetually on unseen winds, and the light plays in the grey folds of the veil, drawing a rainbow of colours over it's surface. It is light and soft to the touch, and feels immensely fragile, as if one could rip it apart with but a touch, yet despite this, even a sorcerer would find his magic ineffective against the veil, for it is warded many times with the magic of that bygone era that breathed it's last sighs long before the birth of the Realm.
The shawl reacts to even the slightest breeze and will recede from touch with almost fearful motions, as if it was animate and feared the touch of life. It is undecorated, except for a vague and colourless sunburst, embroidered in the middle of the shawl which may be glimpsed when one looks for it under the light of day. Should one listen ever so closely, under silence so deep that one's heartbeat should sound like the beating of a gong, a slight murmuring whisper may be heard as the fabric billows and moves, the language of this murmuring is either long forgotten or complete gibberish, for not even the most potent magics reveal it's nature. The shawl is one and a half meters long, and a half meter wide, though the shadows playing over it often causes it to look larger.
Once, the shawl belonged over the shoulders of a fine lord or lady, where the colours would dance in the light of her soul and sing her praises wherever she went, but this beauty died with the lessening of the world, and now it is drab and grey, whispering eternally. Just like many other once-great wonders, the only use found for it's forgotten glory in the darkness of the Second Age of Man is one of violence, for a wearer of the shawl is silent and fades into the background like snow falling on white.
Powers of the shawl:
Fanning The Light: It is said that the shawl is so delicate that the sun dares not shine upon it, for fear of burning it, whether this is true or not, it certainly is hard to spot. Hiding anything beneath this shawl will increase the difficulty to spot it by two, if spotting it was an unrolled action before, it now requires a roll.
The Shawl Caliginous costs one mote to attune to.
(Do note that base TN in our game is 8, so it's power is fucking amazing.)
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- Location
- Ottawa
Boots. Window glass. Clothing. Knives. Furniture. All kinds of things, really.
The Eight Nations are industrialized. They have factories and mass-production. If they could import raw materials from Creation, they could crank out a truly ridiculous amount of stuff.
I think the Compass might actually be the best Exalted book.
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Veil-Cutter Warrior Style
See the southeastern bride, she smiles and laughs, as she playfully toys with a colourful veil. See the Dynastic man, in one hand he holds a veil of scarlet, and in the other, a dagger sharp as his smile. This style's practitioners make wide, sweeping motions and quick flashes of their distinctive veils that they always use side by side with their blades. The style emphasizes the use of a weighted piece of cloth, often an arm's length alongside a blade in the other hand, this veil is used to confuse and hinder enemies, and with sufficient weighting, also to hurt them. This style must be practiced with any kind of one-handed bladed weapon in the practitioner's main hand and a veil in the other hand. It can be practiced in armor, as long as the armor doesn't have a mobility penalty higher than -0.
See the southeastern bride, she smiles and laughs, as she playfully toys with a colourful veil. See the Dynastic man, in one hand he holds a veil of scarlet, and in the other, a dagger sharp as his smile. This style's practitioners make wide, sweeping motions and quick flashes of their distinctive veils that they always use side by side with their blades. The style emphasizes the use of a weighted piece of cloth, often an arm's length alongside a blade in the other hand, this veil is used to confuse and hinder enemies, and with sufficient weighting, also to hurt them. This style must be practiced with any kind of one-handed bladed weapon in the practitioner's main hand and a veil in the other hand. It can be practiced in armor, as long as the armor doesn't have a mobility penalty higher than -0.
- +1 to appear elegant or beautiful in combat.
- +1 to distracting enemies through the use of veils and pieces of cloth.
- +1 to hit against distracted enemies.
Ridiculously Average Guy
I'm you, but stronger
- Location
-
Is this when you hit on someone, but in the process give them enlightenment/an epiphany?
Man-Eater Leopards
Yidak
Dead by Leopard Soul Sickness
First a woman complains of headaches and suffers shakes and spasms. Then she falls into a deep lethargy or starts laughing hysterically. In the end, she dies when she gives up the will to live. She is ritualistically cannibalised, as is the custom among her people. But her soul does not pass on, and a mad ghost-leopard with human eyes preys on the village. Those who suffer its painless bite in their sleep will die as she did - and their souls will rise, too.
Such a tale occurs in the South-West sometimes when a man - or a woman, or a child - consumes the brain, flesh and heart of another human. Something bestial and horrible awakens within them, as their own lower soul becomes like an animal, unfit to wear the human form. The sickness is progressive, and may take decades to kill them. First comes clumsiness and headaches. As the beast within them grows stronger, they suffer emotional swings and hysterical laughter. The end comes when they can no longer swallow for themselves and do not respond to others. But their lower soul is a mad, hungry thing by this point and it leaves their corpse and wanders the earth wearing a form that resembles a big cat.
Man-eater leopards are highly dangerous hungry ghosts, with all the predatory threat of a leopard wedded to the supernatural horror of a yidak. They attack people at night, dragging their corpses away to hang from trees - for like most hungry ghosts, they must eat rotten meat. During the day, they rest inside hollow trees or ride the bodies of living leopards, driving them mad so they show no fear of man. Most feared, however, is the fact that they can smell humans who have consumed the brains of other men. They sneak into their houses, unseen, and bite them gently with their fangs. The bestial cursed nature of the hungry ghost passes to the lower soul of the victim, dooming them to this curse of leopard soul sickness.
Necromancers who know of this breed of hungry ghost use them as predators and weapons of terror. Those dark magicians who can think on longer timescales will often secretly feed their would-be victims scraps of human brain and send a man-eater leopard to bite them, so they are afflicted by the curse. Within the areas where this curse is most common, local exorcists know methods to placate the man-eating ghost. The Immaculate Order, by contrast, bans all ritual cannibalism in its lands and burns its practitioners alive, taking this disease as evidence of the practice - which proves effective at stopping the spread of the curse and preventing these ghosts from rising.
Yidak
Dead by Leopard Soul Sickness
First a woman complains of headaches and suffers shakes and spasms. Then she falls into a deep lethargy or starts laughing hysterically. In the end, she dies when she gives up the will to live. She is ritualistically cannibalised, as is the custom among her people. But her soul does not pass on, and a mad ghost-leopard with human eyes preys on the village. Those who suffer its painless bite in their sleep will die as she did - and their souls will rise, too.
Such a tale occurs in the South-West sometimes when a man - or a woman, or a child - consumes the brain, flesh and heart of another human. Something bestial and horrible awakens within them, as their own lower soul becomes like an animal, unfit to wear the human form. The sickness is progressive, and may take decades to kill them. First comes clumsiness and headaches. As the beast within them grows stronger, they suffer emotional swings and hysterical laughter. The end comes when they can no longer swallow for themselves and do not respond to others. But their lower soul is a mad, hungry thing by this point and it leaves their corpse and wanders the earth wearing a form that resembles a big cat.
Man-eater leopards are highly dangerous hungry ghosts, with all the predatory threat of a leopard wedded to the supernatural horror of a yidak. They attack people at night, dragging their corpses away to hang from trees - for like most hungry ghosts, they must eat rotten meat. During the day, they rest inside hollow trees or ride the bodies of living leopards, driving them mad so they show no fear of man. Most feared, however, is the fact that they can smell humans who have consumed the brains of other men. They sneak into their houses, unseen, and bite them gently with their fangs. The bestial cursed nature of the hungry ghost passes to the lower soul of the victim, dooming them to this curse of leopard soul sickness.
Necromancers who know of this breed of hungry ghost use them as predators and weapons of terror. Those dark magicians who can think on longer timescales will often secretly feed their would-be victims scraps of human brain and send a man-eater leopard to bite them, so they are afflicted by the curse. Within the areas where this curse is most common, local exorcists know methods to placate the man-eating ghost. The Immaculate Order, by contrast, bans all ritual cannibalism in its lands and burns its practitioners alive, taking this disease as evidence of the practice - which proves effective at stopping the spread of the curse and preventing these ghosts from rising.
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- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well, let's be scientific here. What's more plausible? That eating a human means your soul is cursed to turn into a leopard that can't control the human body properly, because humans shouldn't eat humans? Or that something which isn't even alive passes from the eaten to the eatee, and makes tiny invisible bits of your brain into more of itself and that somehow progressively makes your brain work worse?
Gotta say, the ghost leopard hypothesis sounds a lot more plausible than the so-called 'prion' hypothesis to me. It just makes more common sense, you know.
EDIT: Hmm. Unless it was a witch. Well, let's split the difference. Maybe witches are controlling the ghost leopards.
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Giygas
Cutest Sawk i could find. Lucario is a nice extra.
This is much better than the half idea about the same disease-ghost i had one week ago.
Yay me for not completing it?
Abyssal / Lunar Stealth-Social Hilter Charm (Vampires, Werewolves)
I remember reading about how Hitler's propaganda team would set up speakers around his waiting audience, bombarding them with inaudible wavelengths that caused intense discomfort. As soon as Hilter would appear on stage, the team would turn the wavelength off, resulting in an immediate and profound sense of relief, as though Hitler's mere appearance had caused all of their fears to disappear.
Imagine that you're just going about your business, when you suddenly feel an inexplicable sense of dread. Perhaps you even feel eyes on you, following you everywhere, but you can't see anyone or anything stalking you. The feeling persists, growing stronger even as it wears you down, and just when you feel you're about to break...
A smiling, concerned stranger appears out of nowhere, greeting you and asking if all is well. As soon as you see them, your unease vanishes. If you felt as though some monster were stalking you, it seems as if this kind gentleman or woman has scared it away with their arrival, as though its unholiness feared their wholesomeness.
The Charm (Stealth for Abyssals, Manipulation for Lunars) requires the Exalt to make a Stealth roll contested by the Awareness rolls of all witnesses (after all, if a bystander can point the stalker out to the target, the trick loses its punch). The more Stealth rolls the Exalt wins, and the more extra successes by which he wins, all contribute towards the power of an Inspire action that puts the target at ease and fills them with gratitude and trust, so that they'll agree to various things the Exalt suggests... like following him out of these wet and dreary woods and back to his manor, where they can be dry and warm, or telling the big bad wolf where grandmother's house is.
The Charm could alternatively be used to supplement an Intimidation action; the jump scare at the end of a long and suspenseful build-up.
I remember reading about how Hitler's propaganda team would set up speakers around his waiting audience, bombarding them with inaudible wavelengths that caused intense discomfort. As soon as Hilter would appear on stage, the team would turn the wavelength off, resulting in an immediate and profound sense of relief, as though Hitler's mere appearance had caused all of their fears to disappear.
Imagine that you're just going about your business, when you suddenly feel an inexplicable sense of dread. Perhaps you even feel eyes on you, following you everywhere, but you can't see anyone or anything stalking you. The feeling persists, growing stronger even as it wears you down, and just when you feel you're about to break...
A smiling, concerned stranger appears out of nowhere, greeting you and asking if all is well. As soon as you see them, your unease vanishes. If you felt as though some monster were stalking you, it seems as if this kind gentleman or woman has scared it away with their arrival, as though its unholiness feared their wholesomeness.
The Charm (Stealth for Abyssals, Manipulation for Lunars) requires the Exalt to make a Stealth roll contested by the Awareness rolls of all witnesses (after all, if a bystander can point the stalker out to the target, the trick loses its punch). The more Stealth rolls the Exalt wins, and the more extra successes by which he wins, all contribute towards the power of an Inspire action that puts the target at ease and fills them with gratitude and trust, so that they'll agree to various things the Exalt suggests... like following him out of these wet and dreary woods and back to his manor, where they can be dry and warm, or telling the big bad wolf where grandmother's house is.
The Charm could alternatively be used to supplement an Intimidation action; the jump scare at the end of a long and suspenseful build-up.