Like ES said, the difficulty for an Exalted isn't really toppling the regime but in replacing it with something else. Linguistic charms help with getting things rolling, but even when everyone communicates well building something new is going to be very difficult.
General Exalted Thread
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Aren't akuma mindless monsters? Why would you want your children to be akuma?
In that game an Akuma is simply an behemoth made with infernal essence.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Crying Spiders
Lesser Dead
Dead by Grief and a Broken Heart
A noblewoman engages in a torrid secret marriage with a monk, and they conceive a child. The father chooses his faith over her. The child is born, but the mother cares not for her babe and wastes away, letting her grief for her lost love consume her. Hereafter a weeping spectre in fine robes is seen wandering the streets of her hometown, carrying a cloth-wrapped babe and playing a stringed instrument. Those who try to speak to her find that under her robes she has the body of a spider and her bundle is in truth the drained-dry skull of her lover, wrapped in her silk.
In the scholarly lore of the Realm, it is said that the spider is a selfish and lazy creature, who refused to do its duty to the gods and chose instead to lurk in its web, waiting for prey. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that the ghosts of men and women who let unrighteous love and maudlin sorrow consume them and neglect their duties often take on the aspect of the spider. Crying spiders are spectres born of self-indulgent grief. Many took their own life, while others merely let death claim through negligence. They can hide their arachnid bodies under the clothes they spin from their own silk, but they smell of aramanth and copper and they must play music to hide the clicking of their legs.
Crying spiders hunger for the blood of the living, which allows them to feel emotions other than the grief that slew them. Their mouths unfold to reveal barbed chelicerae which leave a characteristic bite mark on their victims well-known to exorcists. Given their druthers, a crying spider will drain their victim until they are a mummified corpse, parchment-thin skin draped over bone. They dwell in graveyards and around places where there is stagnant water, and spin webs which snag on men's minds. A person trapped by a crying spider has their curiosity muted and can touch - and be touched by - the spirits. Fire can burn off these webs, and exorcists know to keep a candle close at hand to singe their own flesh.
Necromancers find crying spiders to be unusually trustworthy ghosts, as long as one remembers their nature. They are predatory, but their minds are sharp and when glutted on blood they are unusually mentally flexible compared to most ghosts. Some crying spiders even regret their deaths and seek to protect the living, though they ask for a payment in the blood of animals from those they watch over. Exorcists tend to take a dimmer view of them, and many monks have blue-white puncture scars from where a crying spider tried to feed on them.
Lesser Dead
Dead by Grief and a Broken Heart
A noblewoman engages in a torrid secret marriage with a monk, and they conceive a child. The father chooses his faith over her. The child is born, but the mother cares not for her babe and wastes away, letting her grief for her lost love consume her. Hereafter a weeping spectre in fine robes is seen wandering the streets of her hometown, carrying a cloth-wrapped babe and playing a stringed instrument. Those who try to speak to her find that under her robes she has the body of a spider and her bundle is in truth the drained-dry skull of her lover, wrapped in her silk.
In the scholarly lore of the Realm, it is said that the spider is a selfish and lazy creature, who refused to do its duty to the gods and chose instead to lurk in its web, waiting for prey. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that the ghosts of men and women who let unrighteous love and maudlin sorrow consume them and neglect their duties often take on the aspect of the spider. Crying spiders are spectres born of self-indulgent grief. Many took their own life, while others merely let death claim through negligence. They can hide their arachnid bodies under the clothes they spin from their own silk, but they smell of aramanth and copper and they must play music to hide the clicking of their legs.
Crying spiders hunger for the blood of the living, which allows them to feel emotions other than the grief that slew them. Their mouths unfold to reveal barbed chelicerae which leave a characteristic bite mark on their victims well-known to exorcists. Given their druthers, a crying spider will drain their victim until they are a mummified corpse, parchment-thin skin draped over bone. They dwell in graveyards and around places where there is stagnant water, and spin webs which snag on men's minds. A person trapped by a crying spider has their curiosity muted and can touch - and be touched by - the spirits. Fire can burn off these webs, and exorcists know to keep a candle close at hand to singe their own flesh.
Necromancers find crying spiders to be unusually trustworthy ghosts, as long as one remembers their nature. They are predatory, but their minds are sharp and when glutted on blood they are unusually mentally flexible compared to most ghosts. Some crying spiders even regret their deaths and seek to protect the living, though they ask for a payment in the blood of animals from those they watch over. Exorcists tend to take a dimmer view of them, and many monks have blue-white puncture scars from where a crying spider tried to feed on them.
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Dragonheart Haunters
Yidak
Dead of Many Causes
Know this; the po sits in the heart and within that beating organ lives life, love and passion. But also know that the power of the dragons flows in the blood of the Terrestrial Exalted, and for the count of their years - which may be three hundred years or more - the po of a Terrestrial labours to pump their thick dragon-blood around their body.
When the hungry ghost of a Terrestrial rises, it knows the nature of dragons intimately and frequently takes on the form of an elemental dragon of the underworld element linked to their aspect in life. This happens more frequently the older the Dragonblood. Terrible dragons of blood, prayer, ash or stranger things burst forth from the disrespected body of the deceased, filled with rage at whoever woke them from their eternal rest. Some resemble a human with draconic features, but most have shed the appearance of man and exist as great deathly drakes of the Underworld.
Such po souls retain the potency of the dead Chosen. The yidak of a powerful Terrestrial begins their existence with the potency of one of the Greater Dead; a creature on par with a mighty god or a demon lord. Most terrifying of all is their long-earned acclimatisation to the elements, which means - uniquely - such ghosts can ignore those elemental defences which ward against the Dead. Such a yidak can swim through running water, crawl across a line of salt or freshly cut herbs, or burst through a circle of fire.
Dragonheart haunters are proud monsters, terrible fiends who are hard to propriate - and even harder to slay. They are greedy, iniquitous and cruel. In that, they very much resemble the Dynasts they were in life. They desire the treasures and pleasures they knew in life, and so pillage towns for wealth that they hoard, gorge themselves on food and drugs with an endless appetite, and seek out beautiful young men and women to devour. The sun burns them, and so when they squirm forth from caverns below the earth they do so at night. To hunt a dragonheart haunter one must venture down into its caverns and fight this monster on its own turf. The Underworld is no safer from their depredations, and it is said that they can still recognise the kinship of souls. Deep in the lands of the Dead, nests of tens of these drakes are said to exist, flying out to pillage and rage over the insolence of ghosts who fail to pray to them.
Even the weakest dragonheart haunter is a powerful yidak, and the mightiest are spawned as Greater Dead. Their greed and hunger leads them to only grow more potent. For this reason, necromancers treat these ghosts with a mix of wariness and ambition. A young haunter can be bound by a necromancer as a fearsome weapon, but no small number of necromancers have been devoured by a dragon they called up that they could not control. Exorcists fear these dragons greatly for they can dominate a landscape or lay waste to a town, and the Immaculate Order maintains several specialist teams of Exalted exorcists to handle those cases when a Dynast rests uneasily.
Yidak
Dead of Many Causes
Know this; the po sits in the heart and within that beating organ lives life, love and passion. But also know that the power of the dragons flows in the blood of the Terrestrial Exalted, and for the count of their years - which may be three hundred years or more - the po of a Terrestrial labours to pump their thick dragon-blood around their body.
When the hungry ghost of a Terrestrial rises, it knows the nature of dragons intimately and frequently takes on the form of an elemental dragon of the underworld element linked to their aspect in life. This happens more frequently the older the Dragonblood. Terrible dragons of blood, prayer, ash or stranger things burst forth from the disrespected body of the deceased, filled with rage at whoever woke them from their eternal rest. Some resemble a human with draconic features, but most have shed the appearance of man and exist as great deathly drakes of the Underworld.
Such po souls retain the potency of the dead Chosen. The yidak of a powerful Terrestrial begins their existence with the potency of one of the Greater Dead; a creature on par with a mighty god or a demon lord. Most terrifying of all is their long-earned acclimatisation to the elements, which means - uniquely - such ghosts can ignore those elemental defences which ward against the Dead. Such a yidak can swim through running water, crawl across a line of salt or freshly cut herbs, or burst through a circle of fire.
Dragonheart haunters are proud monsters, terrible fiends who are hard to propriate - and even harder to slay. They are greedy, iniquitous and cruel. In that, they very much resemble the Dynasts they were in life. They desire the treasures and pleasures they knew in life, and so pillage towns for wealth that they hoard, gorge themselves on food and drugs with an endless appetite, and seek out beautiful young men and women to devour. The sun burns them, and so when they squirm forth from caverns below the earth they do so at night. To hunt a dragonheart haunter one must venture down into its caverns and fight this monster on its own turf. The Underworld is no safer from their depredations, and it is said that they can still recognise the kinship of souls. Deep in the lands of the Dead, nests of tens of these drakes are said to exist, flying out to pillage and rage over the insolence of ghosts who fail to pray to them.
Even the weakest dragonheart haunter is a powerful yidak, and the mightiest are spawned as Greater Dead. Their greed and hunger leads them to only grow more potent. For this reason, necromancers treat these ghosts with a mix of wariness and ambition. A young haunter can be bound by a necromancer as a fearsome weapon, but no small number of necromancers have been devoured by a dragon they called up that they could not control. Exorcists fear these dragons greatly for they can dominate a landscape or lay waste to a town, and the Immaculate Order maintains several specialist teams of Exalted exorcists to handle those cases when a Dynast rests uneasily.
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
There are certain thaumaturgic rituals that let hungry ghosts retain some level of cunning, or use ceremonial human sacrifice to produce a pair of servitor-ghosts which each have aspects of hun & po. Alternatively, there are yidak which gain a dubious sapience from following the path of the sin-eater, gorging on the corpus of other ghosts until they absorb a portion of their victims' intellect.
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
Penance Shrouds
Lesser Dead
Dead by Failure in Their Duties
In this fallen age, there are many who take oaths but do not keep them, or pursue careers of service with only half a heart (if that): guards who drink and gamble during their watch, men who gossip about matters they swore to keep private, or priests who betray their vows in the pursuit of power or fleeting pleasures.
On occasion, Fate sees fit to punish such sluggards, causing their breach of honor to bring about their own demise – and should they manage to realize the severity of their actions in the moments before death claims them, the souls of these miserable ne'er-do-wells may rise up to make amends.
Penance shrouds take their name from the dingy wrappings which engulf their bodies, symbolically hiding their shame from the world. They seek to undo the evils they committed in life, tearing down what their sins have built and taking vengeance on those they see as accomplices or co-conspirators to their failure: a dead gossip will not rest until the secrets he offered up to the public forum have been scourged from the memory of the living. The smith whose shoddy craftsmanship led to the deaths of soldiers who bore his wares into battle must track down his subpar creations and destroy each and every one. A laggardly night guard hounds the men she gambled with on watch, forcing them to take their tasks with proper seriousness.
Often, the sins which bind a penance shroud to the world are ones whose correction is of little consequence to society, and their actions may even be welcomed. Generally, it is only when a penance shroud's crusade inconveniences someone in a position of power, or if one becomes violent and destructive in pursuit of absolution, that exorcists are sent to deal with them. In either case, spirit-breakers tend to find them aggravating targets, unwilling to risk themselves in combat when they could instead go to ground and wait out the aggressor, or harangue former associates into acting on their behalf.
Summoning: (Obscurity 1/2) Penance shrouds are useful to Necromancers who need a subtle agent; they can invade the dreams of the living, give suggestions which the recipient mistakes for their own thoughts, and inflict all manner of sickness, injury, or other misfortune on those guilty of the same misdeeds they themselves committed in life. Older penance shrouds, the ones for whom atonement has proved the work of decades or centuries, often develop more direct powers as time passes and their desperation (and bitterness) grows, learning to steal men's bodies for their own use or shred the minds of those who will not aid them.
So yeah, @EarthScorpion inspired me to write this up in ~40 minutes. Opinions?
Lesser Dead
Dead by Failure in Their Duties
In this fallen age, there are many who take oaths but do not keep them, or pursue careers of service with only half a heart (if that): guards who drink and gamble during their watch, men who gossip about matters they swore to keep private, or priests who betray their vows in the pursuit of power or fleeting pleasures.
On occasion, Fate sees fit to punish such sluggards, causing their breach of honor to bring about their own demise – and should they manage to realize the severity of their actions in the moments before death claims them, the souls of these miserable ne'er-do-wells may rise up to make amends.
Penance shrouds take their name from the dingy wrappings which engulf their bodies, symbolically hiding their shame from the world. They seek to undo the evils they committed in life, tearing down what their sins have built and taking vengeance on those they see as accomplices or co-conspirators to their failure: a dead gossip will not rest until the secrets he offered up to the public forum have been scourged from the memory of the living. The smith whose shoddy craftsmanship led to the deaths of soldiers who bore his wares into battle must track down his subpar creations and destroy each and every one. A laggardly night guard hounds the men she gambled with on watch, forcing them to take their tasks with proper seriousness.
Often, the sins which bind a penance shroud to the world are ones whose correction is of little consequence to society, and their actions may even be welcomed. Generally, it is only when a penance shroud's crusade inconveniences someone in a position of power, or if one becomes violent and destructive in pursuit of absolution, that exorcists are sent to deal with them. In either case, spirit-breakers tend to find them aggravating targets, unwilling to risk themselves in combat when they could instead go to ground and wait out the aggressor, or harangue former associates into acting on their behalf.
Summoning: (Obscurity 1/2) Penance shrouds are useful to Necromancers who need a subtle agent; they can invade the dreams of the living, give suggestions which the recipient mistakes for their own thoughts, and inflict all manner of sickness, injury, or other misfortune on those guilty of the same misdeeds they themselves committed in life. Older penance shrouds, the ones for whom atonement has proved the work of decades or centuries, often develop more direct powers as time passes and their desperation (and bitterness) grows, learning to steal men's bodies for their own use or shred the minds of those who will not aid them.
So yeah, @EarthScorpion inspired me to write this up in ~40 minutes. Opinions?
- Location
- Ottawa
The Tomb of Dreams quickstart adventure is out.
Looks like the new team is already making things happen.
Looks like the new team is already making things happen.
Hakazin
Serpent Admirer
- Pronouns
- She/Her
May I ask where?
It's out for kickstarter backers, the links were given out in emails.. I'm not sure it's ouy for the gp.
Ellf
Apprentice Wizard
- Location
- Virginia
Probably not yet. It's going to be released for general purchase soon enough. (At a significantly lower price than the main book, given its 60 page length)
Only for backers at this moment
Hakazin
Serpent Admirer
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Ahh. Never mind then.
OK! I'm bored and feeling whimsical.
Therefore I'll write up manses, demesnes, ghosts or first circle demons provided by the thread. Proposals should be no more than 50 words long and should detail the broad concept rather than overly precise details.
Therefore I'll write up manses, demesnes, ghosts or first circle demons provided by the thread. Proposals should be no more than 50 words long and should detail the broad concept rather than overly precise details.
Salty
Shadow Cabal Assumptor Supreme
- Location
- Sun, Moon, Talia
- Pronouns
- I/Me
Hokay.
Manse: Combination of observatory and mesoamerican ballgame court, themed around the tiger of the Chinese direction guardians.
FCD: The internet but it's infested with the nightmares of the Yozis.
Manse: Combination of observatory and mesoamerican ballgame court, themed around the tiger of the Chinese direction guardians.
FCD: The internet but it's infested with the nightmares of the Yozis.
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- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Three Celestial demesnes - one Solar, one Lunar, one Sidereal - that have been tainted by shadowlands.
Alt/additional: First Circle demon "iPod with headphones".
Alt/additional: First Circle demon "iPod with headphones".
First Circle Demons: "Iron Chefs" ~ Demon Chefs who produce wonderful dishes
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
First Circle Demon - an Immaculate monk briefly amused a 2CD long ago, so he made a demon to "help" with recruitment for the Order.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The ghosts of passionate servants or spouses who throw themselves on funeral pyres or bury themselves alive in their tomb, but upon rising as ghosts discover that the beloved dead passed on, and as a result take a... Bad turn.
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
Alternatively, whatever happens when a culture where that's expected forces a widow onto her husband's pyre and she comes back to avenge herself upon them.
Spurned Pyreflames
Lesser Dead
Dead by Self-Immolation
It is a tragedy worthy of the poets. Two men from rival families fall in love, but Fate frowns on their happiness and one is taken from this world through misfortune. Consumed by love, the other casts himself on the funereal flames, so they can be together forever. But only one ghost remains and he wanders the world, looking for his lost love - or someone akin to him. Such ghosts will make use of illusions in the smoke and trickery to snatch up mortals who resemble their obsession - only to burn them to death when they realise that they are not the one they seek.
It is never entirely predictable whether one will linger as a ghost. In the case of those who self-immolate to be with their love or liege-lord in the lands of the Dead, often they will find that their beloved passed on to be reborn. Only their desire can hold off the pain of their blackened skin and the blue pyreflame that licks at them forever but never will they see their paramour or prince again. Shrieking and wailing, they tear at their flaking flesh and try to quench the flames that afflict them, but this offers no respite.
In their madness, these tormented souls desperately seek out anyone who resembles their lost love. When they believe they have found the object of their obsessions, the fire that consume them dies down to mere embers. Just as smoke can escape through cracks, so too can these ghosts make passageways and portals to the Underworld through places where fire has burned. Through various trickeries they will try to bring the one they think they love to the lands of the Dead where they can be together. Alas, it is inevitable that they will realise that their beloved is an imposter, and then the flames burn with renewed fervour, consuming the innocent they believe deceived them. It is said that one can escape their wrath if one pretends to be the brother or sister of one the Dead looks for, claiming it was an innocent mistake - or otherwise an offering of rosemary and ice at a shrine can sooth the ghost's pain for long enough that it realises its mistake. There are rumours that if the beloved is reborn their touch will make the ghost pass instantly to Lethe - but how would one find such a reincarnated soul?
Necromancers make use of spurned pyreflames for their capacity to make passageways into the Underworld. A moliated ghost can aid in the trickery of one of these spectres. Otherwise, a silver tongue might coax one into believing a foe are the one they seek out. Exorcists, on the other hand, seek to banish and placate these ghosts, leading them to Lethe so that they can escape the agony of their existence. Many exorcists react very poorly to romantic poetry which extols the virtues of suicide for one's love or lord.