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General Exalted Thread

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rogthnor said:
As for the lineage thing, does that mean only one spell van be anchored per backround? That seems like to few as it means that you'd need a ton of different backgrounds to get a useful amount of spells.
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The commitment is while the spell is active. But yes, someone who's into sorcery in a big way and keeps lots of effects sustained? Has to be loaded.

A sorcerous dabbler, or a PC on the move... well, they can have their daiklaive as their basic casting tool, use their familiar for utility things, and maybe make a spirit ally or two for more exotic effects. The background commitment cost, by contrast, really kicks in at the strategic scale, where your sorcerer-king has to greedily acquire wealth in order to lay enchantment after enchantment on his kingdom. It's basically the counterbalance for the lack of meaningful mote costs for strategic-scale sorcery - you pay with your Backgrounds.
 
EarthScorpion said:
The commitment is while the spell is active. But yes, someone who's into sorcery in a big way and keeps lots of effects sustained? Has to be loaded.

A sorcerous dabbler, or a PC on the move... well, they can have their daiklaive as their basic casting tool, use their familiar for utility things, and maybe make a spirit ally or two for more exotic effects. The background commitment cost, by contrast, really kicks in at the strategic scale, where your sorcerer-king has to greedily acquire wealth in order to lay enchantment after enchantment on his kingdom. It's basically the counterbalance for the lack of meaningful mote costs for strategic-scale sorcery - you pay with your Backgrounds.
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That makes sense. Any idea how long until the mechanics are solidified? Id love to see the final product
 
GardenerBriareus said:
I don't know too much about the workings system, but my guess as to fluff would be something involving geomantic lanscaping. The Sorcerer takes a jug of water drawn from the seas around the Western Pole and uses its resonance with that element to gradually draw up Water from the dragonlines of the desert, twisting the geomantic balance of the region to create a pool of concentrated Water and gird it with similarly focused Wood Essence, to ensure the growth of plants and keep the native Fire elements somewhat at bay.
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Although that would might produce saltwater...
 
Shyft said:
What is not clear, @EarthScorpion is which backgrounds if any can have multiple instances. Like two cults or two lineages.
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Lineages doesn't seem to allow duplicates, both due to his explicit statement and the general thrust of the writeup. It's the magical weight of the oaths and teachers you have. Having more teachers just makes you have more lineage. Plus, since it works as an extension/sub for breeding it makes sense that you only get one, or else breeding starts to seem much worse.

I feel that all of the other ones should allow for mutliple, though ones like cult would be difficult for the general reasons having multiple cults would be.
 
Aleph said:
nah mang

you just need enough fake moustaches and occult props, and make sure you're a master of the quick change

: V
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Now I'm imagining a Sidereal using multiple Resplendent Destinies to initiate into multiple lineages and then passing those off to the various PCs and the amusement when the entire Circle discover each of their Mentors is the same guy (despite two being a girl and one being a third circle demon).
 
@EarthScorpion
Can sorcerers working together pool backgrounds using this System? Like, one is using his kingship as fuel, whilst the other uses his cults, and the third is using the backing of Ligier or another demon. Can they work together to make a spell far greater than any of them alone could do by pooling backgrounds together into one?
 
Intolerable Gift of Authority
Cost: 20m, 1wp per dot Type: Simple Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Sorcerous, Servitude
Mins: Essence 4 Prereqs: Magnanimous Warding Gylph, Sorcerous Enlightenment of Malfeas

So it was that the Primordial King did look upon his subjects and was greatly pleased by their obeisance and he grew profuse in his gratitude and passed down his gentle right hand and thus burned into their soul a spark of his unimaginable power such that the righteous may speak with his voice, though the divine words did burn out their tongues and the truth became a pyre in their eyes.

This Charm may be used on any creature that willingly accepts a Magnanimous Warding Glyph. The Gylph must be placed on the targets forehead and can not target an Exalt of any type. The Infernal invests some of his own authority into the brand, spending 20m and 1wp per Background dot of authority he wishes to bestow. This authority can be used by the recipient to cast and maintain spells that draw on the Infernal's nature as if he was present, though the caster must provide the Cost. The Infernal is instantly aware of anytime his servant draws on this Authority to cast a spell in his name and may withdraw his support at any time, though doing so terminate this Charm immediately. The recipient gains the ability to bind demons as per the Laws of Cecelyne based on the Infernal's authority, though the Infernal may extend or retract this authority on a species by species or even specimen by specimen basis.

At Essence 5 this Charm may be repurchased, in which case whenever someone use this Authority the Infernal may pay the Cost in motes himself. Doing so forces the recipient to immediately suffering the effects of Green Sun Wasting though aesthetically it targets their tongues and eyes more than anywhere else.
 
@EarthScorpion , how does committing backgrounds work with spells like Sacrifice of the Crystallized Heart, Ritual of Elemental Empowerment and Raising the Earth's bones, which create permanent objects/structures?
 
Indivisible said:
@EarthScorpion , how does committing backgrounds work with spells like Sacrifice of the Crystallized Heart, Ritual of Elemental Empowerment and Raising the Earth's bones, which create permanent objects/structures?
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Instant effects are instant effects. So tearing out someone's heart to make a gem or warping the landscape to make a wall is done when it's done.

... by contrast, Ritual of Elemental Empowerment is basically just Thaumaturgy that lives in Sorcery for some reason, so if we're going to repurpose the name, then binding raw elemental force into something is a sustained effect and probably a way of, heh, essentially performing background alchemy.

And by that, I mean, "I turn my Backing (King) into an Artefact weapon by using this spell on a mundane sword to ignite it with lightning or whatevs."
 
@EarthScorpion So does this means that is it totally kosher for a sorcerer-king to pull an FMA by ritually sacrificing the entire populace of his nation and crystallising their souls into a gem that lets him cast Adamant circle spells on the go?
 
Alasnuyo said:
@EarthScorpion So does this means that is it totally kosher for a sorcerer-king to pull an FMA by ritually sacrificing the entire populace of his nation and crystallising their souls into a gem that lets him cast Adamant circle spells on the go?
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Sure, the ritual requires over a century of dedicated work-time and involves excising your "Sins" and forming them into at least seven Behemoths that are not necessarily loyal to you.
Note; doing this may radically alter your Intimacies and Motivation.
 
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To be honest, I'd probably view the FM Sins as either 2nd Circle souls or the devas of a Devil-Tiger

GardenerBriareus said:
It's when the living twin dies under the right circumstances to induce ghosthood, rises up as hun and po, and is met by the Yuu-Zin pair that you set the stage for the Exalted equivalent of rampant Hollows forming a Menos.
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I was thinking about this and now I'm imagining Exalted Arrancar. Conceptually, they're a type of murderous ghost who has somehow found something powerful enough to 'sate' their hunger/partly override their inherent deathly nature. Logically, this should be easier for a weaker ghost, but I think Bleach's conception of this only being possible once the ghost is sufficiently strong is preferable for both game design and lore purposes. Also, I kind of like the idea of ghosts having an 'end game' to aim for.

Now, the inherent problem with ghosts is that although they draw strength from living things, they're not really supposed to be anything 'new', so to speak. On the other hand, they would obviously make for very interesting foundations for future creations...assuming the creator in question had both the power and inclination to empower the dead. The forces of heaven and the Immaculates wouldn't touch these ideas with a 10 foot daiklave, Solar essence would likely be anathemic to the dead, and of the Yozi, only TED (and arguably Oramus) dare to interact with their dead siblings. So really, that basically leaves Abyssals, maybe some really bold Lunar necromancers, TED, Oramus, or something Autocthonic. Abyssals and TED are probably most in theme, though I have to admit that I'm feeling it more for TED here. It feels totally in theme for him to use a ghosts memories to create a perverse mimicry of who they once were. Functionally, it could be some sort of powerful artifact that binds the nature of a ghost upon itself; making it simultaneously weaker and stronger, by making them less 'dead', but able to unseal their full deathly might at will. Honestly, the ideal way of structurally ideating this is still escaping me. Any thoughts?
 
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Sydonai said:
Debatable, creating them involved literally removing their namesake from himself, so he probably did it to remove possible distractions.
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No. He still has those behaviors (in similar degrees to someone who just controls themself very well), and 5 or 6 of them are perma-killed before the Promised Day.
 
frozenchicken said:
Functionally, it could be some sort of powerful artifact that binds the nature of a ghost upon itself; making it simultaneously weaker and stronger, by making them less 'dead', but able to unseal their full deathly might at will. Honestly, the ideal way of structurally ideating this is still escaping me. Any thoughts?
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I'd actually say that @Omicron's post about the Black Garda School is a good place to start - it's literally a group of ghostblooded Sorcerers who forged a pact with an elemental to escape from being overwhelmed by their own necrotic Essence, becoming something neither ghost nor elemental nor mortal but partaking of them all.

Also, the example NPC wears a mask (to conceal her distorted features) and can do this:

Omicron said:
When removing her mask and letting her Essence burn free, she takes on a terrible form: that of a woman with four arms and six wings, taut skin as dry as leather and empty eyesockets burning with inner fire. In one hand she holds a lash of black flame, in the other a scythe whose touch freezes water; in both other hands she holds flaming orbs from which she can hurls balls and gouts of golden fire.
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Which sounds like exactly the kind of thing you wanted: a being of death which has bounded its power to crawl partway free of the shackles of its nature - but when threatened, casts off the false veneer of humanity to reveal the Greater Dead horror beneath.

I'd personally use it for something where a god or elemental which forsook Heaven to rule in the Underworld* elects Greater Dead as its champions/enforcers by imbues them with its own Essence, giving them additional power & some limited capacity to feel and think beyond their Fetters (at the cost of gaining new ones connected to the god's domain, of course) in exchange for servitude.

EDIT: Also, the outdated version of TAW I have on my desktop had a Charm called Beloved Monsters on Parole, which let a Lunar "naturalize" a demon, raksha, or ghost - removing tags like Creature of Darkness or Creature of Death and making them count as native to Creation - at the cost of having their own Essence tainted. You could probably build something off of that.

* Via Joyless Spirits' Corruption, a Necromancy spell I've referenced in this thread like five times at this point.
 
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Erkishal is my second Underworld creation to have aspects blatantly drawn from the Arrancar. There is just something about not-quite-human characters who use masks as either a vector of or a seal on their true power and who remove them to reveal a monstrous transformation which speaks to me on a deep level.
 
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