Remove ads

General Exalted Thread

Reader mode
Now that Onyx Path has purged its old list of First Circle Demons, I've been rather at a loss on how to keep track of what's what on that front. Does anybody know if someone's stepped in to fill the gap there, put up a new online codex of FCDs? If not, could someone remind of what the FCDs made of vitriol are called?

I'm writing up the first FCD for my Ylagran pantheon, and a major point of them is that they... well, they were made for a purpose that's too vague for the species to really parse, and as a result that particular breed has dividuated into all sorts of different skill sets in their efforts to try and fulfill it, to the point where many scrolls on demonology make basic errors in what they are, what they're good at, etc, and even mistake which Yozi they descend from.

This leads into another question I have. How common is it for demons to "defect" from the hierarchy of their source Yozi and become an ardent follower/worshiper of another? The species in question has one well-known Citizen who abandoned Ylagra for the teachings of SWLIHN, and several others who've become pilgrims of Qaf. Is that considered unusual behavior?
 
GardenerBriareus said:
Now that Onyx Path has purged its old list of First Circle Demons, I've been rather at a loss on how to keep track of what's what on that front. Does anybody know if someone's stepped in to fill the gap there, put up a new online codex of FCDs? If not, could someone remind of what the FCDs made of vitriol are called?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Metody, the Vitriol Elementals

GardenerBriareus said:
This leads into another question I have. How common is it for demons to "defect" from the hierarchy of their source Yozi and become an ardent follower/worshiper of another? The species in question has one well-known Citizen who abandoned Ylagra for the teachings of SWLIHN, and several others who've become pilgrims of Qaf. Is that considered unusual behavior?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

You're looking at things the wrong way. First Circles are tool races made for a purpose - they don't really have much connection to the Yozi whose soul spawned their soul who spawned their race. Remember, the luminata are SWLIHN demons, but that doesn't mean much - they're deer made of worms who eat men.

Honestly, it'll largely be citizens or older demons who have enough of a sense of self-actualisation to decide to pursue a course in life different from the purpose of their creation.
 
EarthScorpion said:
Honestly, it'll largely be citizens or older demons who have enough of a sense of self-actualisation to decide to pursue a course in life different from the purpose of their creation.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Peraspera: "HELLO SANCELINE I THINK YOU FUCKED UP"

Sanceline: "No silly, I'm always Right. I have Order and Purp- wait why are you running towards the desert?"

Peraspera: "BRB GONNA GO BECOME WHO I REALLY AM NOW BECAUSE YOU FUCKED ME UP AND GAVE ME A MALE SHAPE"

Peraspera: "DON'T WORRY I DON'T HOLD IT AGAINST YOU"

Sanceline: "But wh-"

Peraspera: "FIXED THE PROBLEM, ALSO I WON'T CONQUER SHIT ANYMORE; OOH THAT'S A NICE ARTIFACT YOU GOT THERE"

:V
 
EarthScorpion said:
You're looking at things the wrong way. First Circles are tool races made for a purpose
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
My idea was that they were products of one of my SCDs - Yyrizesh, specifically - and were created as part of his quest to understand fear, disquiet, and other emotional aspects of reality. Unfortunately, he did so by taking his most poignant works, making them into sapient demons, and then assigning them a purpose of "become a more perfect expression of your former self's themes", resulting in them branching out in multiple directions in their efforts to try and fulfill their creator's edicts. I was trying to run with your suggestion about how FCDs are made to perform a task and how that should inform their nature and actions, by starting with the idea of a race of FCDs made to fulfill a role that's vitally important to their progenitor, but doesn't have any real easily-defined steps or means of measuring progress, and then ran with it by coming up with a few basic "branches" the species split into in their efforts to resolve this unresolvable task.

Unfortunately, I've also put a shitload of work into them at this point, so I'm loathe to just discard it all. May I discuss this with you further via PM?


ManusDomine said:
Peraspera
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Actually, Yyrizesh has a little bit of that in his design, @ManusDomine - the Great Terror Worm instinctively formed him (and his "brother" Leshtekuph) because it needed additional bodies with which to express its eternal horror at the universe around it. Yyrizesh is the Palsied Sage because his body is constantly wracked with various physical signs of fear (shaking, whimpering, chattering teeth, crying, etc.), but his mind constantly rebels against that assigned role and wishes to be free of it. Meanwhile, Leshtekuph failed to move beyond that initial role, and is a mindless hillock of screaming mouths as a result*.


His screaming acts as a vector for Ylagran Essence - tainting the land, scaring away wildlife for miles around, and infecting mortals with a memetic illness that causes auditory hallucinations, disorientation, delirium, paranoia, and ultimately a violent repurposing of their flesh and Essence to support the growth of an FCD. He's occasionally summoned into Realm strongholds by particularly vicious Lunars of the Silver Pact as a means of causing mass death and socioeconomic disruption.

Fortunately, gods and Exalts are immune to its powers, and even mortals can endure its presence by wearing five-times-blessed earplugs made of drippings from the candles of Immaculate monasteries; it can ruin a city, but the Princes of the Earth generally banish it within a week or so, and the propaganda opportunities afterwards are incredible.
 
Ridiculously Average Guy said:
If Enough demons decide to group up and rebel, could they create their own Yozi?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Now that's an interesting idea. And I suppose it depends on how the dependency flows. Do Primordials exist because a bunch of TCDs hung out for a long time? Or do TCDs exist because a Primordial formed its necessary soul structure?

We know that TCDs can leave/be removed from their Primordial, as Gramalkin left Mardukth, but I don't think there's anything said on significant numbers leaving.

As a plot hook, I'd totally do it. The Yozis getting desperate and trying to build another Primordial who wouldn't be subject to the Oaths.
 
Ridiculously Average Guy said:
If Enough demons decide to group up and rebel, could they create their own Yozi?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Not really within the scope of a standard game but maybe with the help of an Infernal and a couple of Ambition 3 Solar Workings. These would need to be Third Circles, of course, and their Second Circles would have to be totally on board.

Maybe integrate the Third Circles into the mythos of a powerful, compatible Infernal? That seems like it would fall under "subtle alterations to the cosmos."

EDIT: Crap, I didn't see your post just before mine.
 
Last edited:
runeblue360 said:
Not really within the scope of a standard game but maybe with the help of an Infernal and a couple of Ambition 3 Solar Workings. These would need to be Third Circles, of course, and their Second Circles would have to be totally on board.

Maybe integrate the Third Circles into the mythos of a powerful, compatible Infernal? That seems like it would fall under "subtle alterations to the cosmos."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I can't help but imagine this as a sort of start-up, with people breaking off from mega-corps to start something now.
 
rogthnor said:
can exalted warfare really be all that similar to ancient warfare? The world is so different from ours.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Exalted in general actually tries to be fairly similar to the real world in how people act and think. The game has and promotes a deliberate juxtaposition between a very grounded, gritty world, and the exploits of the players and the Exalted in general as high-action dramatic heroes. You can see this in Stephen's talk about the Four Layers, how the Exalted are a layer in themselves on top of two layers that include things like history, anthropology and economics textbooks. It's part of what makes the Exalted seem so awesome, that there's this very gritty and down-to-earth layer of the world as a contrast, which throws their power into sharp relief.

So on the one hand, yeah, things like divine blessings and local Elemental courts and uncovered Artifacts and hired Sorcerors and thaumaturgy are big influences on Creation's warfare, even in the absence of the Exalted. But at the same time, the fundamental base that these things are applied to is pretty much real-world ancient world warfare.
 
Last edited:
Imrix said:
Exalted in general actually tries to be fairly similar to the real world in how people act and think. The game has and promotes a deliberate juxtaposition between a very grounded, gritty world, and the exploits of the players and the Exalted in general as high-action dramatic heroes. You can see this in Stephen's talk about the Four Layers, how the Exalted are a layer in themselves on top of two layers that include things like history, anthropology and economics textbooks. It's part of what makes the Exalted seem so awesome, that there's this very gritty and down-to-earth layer of the world as a contrast, which throws their power into sharp relief.

So on the one hand, yeah, things like divine blessings and local Elemental courts and uncovered Artifacts and hired Sorcerors and thaumaturgy are big influences on Creation's warfare, even in the absence of the Exalted. But at the same time, the fundamental base that these things are applied to is pretty much real-world ancient world warfare.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
But wouldn't those things completely change how war is done? Tactics, strategies and modes of combat change as societies change. Wouldn't the existence of martial arts, and artifacts and spirits mean that bronze age tactics wouldn't work?
 
rogthnor said:
But wouldn't those things completely change how war is done? Tactics, strategies and modes of combat change as societies change. Wouldn't the existence of martial arts, and artifacts and spirits mean that bronze age tactics wouldn't work?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
When they turn up, they totally do. But nearly all of these things are so rare as to be nearly out of reach of the average Creationborn city-state. If one city has a dojo that attracts Enlightened Mortals and trains them in Terrestrial Martial Arts in exchange for military service, then the resulting warband of magical martial artists will be a terror on the battlefield, probably the centrepiece of the army, able to shatter a shield wall and turn the tide of battle. Neighbouring powers will be pressured to try to sabotage the school, or find their own answer. Some of these answers will be mundane, like fielding shit-tons of archers, or a genius tactician, or even just paying tribute. But some will be magical, such as forming an alliance with the local Elemental Court or seeking the blessing of the Gods, the Dead or Demons through prayer and sacrifice. Creation is full of stories like this.

But these things are rare enough that they don't always turn up, and when they do they tend to be The Special Thing of a particular situation. A city can be built up around a Canteen of Endless Water, partly because of its power, but also because of its rarity.
 
Sydonai said:
It would, drastically.
But for the most part people seem to ignore that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
In that case I know what I must do!

@EarthScorpion

I know that you've done a lot of work changing things around so that Exalted actually makes sense as a living breathing world (The triremes vs Junk argument from a while back comes to mind). So I was wondering what warfare is like in kerisgame/your version of exalted? How does the existence of thaumaturgy, dragonblooded dynasties, demons, artifacts etc effect war in creation? How does the return of the solars/ creation of the Infernals and Abyssals effect the way war is waged? How does war in Malfeas and in the abyss differ from war in creation? Etc Etc.

@Imrix but shouldn't things like making deals with the local courts/ offerings to the local spirits be the default? I understand that not everywhere necessarily has access to martial arts, but some of these things seem like should be omnipresent. According to Games of Divinity, outside the Realm's sphere of influence, the various terrestrial gods are basically running rampant and competing for control of creation. Most gods are demanding tribute and obedience from the humans in the area they rule. So any given village should be under the protection of a god, if only so that they can keep providing prayer. So a battle between two villages is really a battle between two villages under the control of a god or elemental or whatever. The Realm obviously doesn't work like this, but they have access to better than bronze age technology, sorcery and dragonblooded. They really shouldn't be fighting like bronze age warriors either.

Now, I will admit I'm still working my way through the books, so I'm probably getting something wrong/missing something. If so please tell me, because I am trying to learn.
 
Last edited:
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top