General Exalted Thread

[ichypa]

People have bitched about triremes at length.

Click to shrink...

Yep.

More targets to flail around harmlessly and get sunk by the dozens!

Click to shrink...

Having looked over the linked discussion, I find myself concluding that the Realm uses triremes because they're so terrible, to serve as a sign of the Realm's fundamental incapability of ruling Creation, as their true Celestial masters can; perhaps they were also to serve as Worfs for a Celestial player's superior ship designs to triumph over.

Because god forbid that the Dragon-Blooded stray from the fundamental meaning of their existence, to be the lackeys and servants or enemies of the Celestial Exalts, and have a purpose or reason for existing or a way of meaningfully contributing to Creation independently of of Celestial influence.

...Serafina pointing out in the linked discussion that the Dragon-Blooded, as Exalts, have supernatural design skills and other such competencies, and therefore should be able to do things, sort of jabbed a sore point I have about the Dragon-Blooded. It seems like everywhere I look, in both fluff and mechanics, the concept that the Dragon-Blooded were only ever meant to act as support and they're failing so hard at running things because they weren't designed to have the capacity to do things on their own is rubbed in my face and reinforced over and over. Hell, in some instances they seem to be incompetent as support staff as well. I don't necessarily mind the Dragon-Blooded not being as powerful as Celestials, but the sheer aggression and pervasiveness of it makes me seethe.

It means there's plentiful room for ST's to add their own stuff to the pot beyond the published material, it helps to sell the idea of Creation as a world of wonders and weirdness if there's enough room for anything to happen, and it plays up the grandeur of the Exalted that they can bestride a world of comparable scope to our own, shaping (pieces of) it to their own desires. Basically, it's a way of making sure the map has plenty of "here be dragons (go have adventures with them)" space, which is good and desirable for the game.

The execution was, uh, lacklustre, but the principle was sound.

Click to shrink...

Except, looking at the map, the increased size doesn't seem to have changed the relative distances between polities from the published material or the effective territories controlled by them, so to me it feels more like "everything takes up more room" than "there's room to spare for the ST to fit their own stuff in."

Kerisgame, for example, would not work in Tiny!Creation. The entire game relies on the fact that there's a roughly Europe sized area of small islands and coastlines to be the South China Sea meets the Caribbean where pirate-feudalism holds true (and ship captains replace mounted men at arms). In Tiny!Creation, there simply isn't space for a place like this to be inserted wholescale - and even if there was, there'd be too many pre-existing powers and the Realm would have too much interest in that place.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I think the West in particular would be effected by an actual increase in size, because it were actually that big and not just scaled up Tiny!Creation, there would be more than essentially 4-5 different cultures that basically make up the entirety of the civilized West; if only because there would have to be more islands big enough to support a sustainable populations, and just more islands in general. Certainly, a larger West would have meant there would be room for a Heartwind Island that was magical Australia.

 

[Accelerator]

It seems like everywhere I look, in both fluff and mechanics, the concept that the Dragon-Blooded were only ever meant to act as support and they're failing so hard at running things because they weren't designed to have the capacity to do things on their own is rubbed in my face and reinforced over and over.

Click to shrink...

Just ignore it.

That's what I do. I just pretend that comet-deflecting mode can deflect all things. There's no reason for it to fail against magic. I mean, dude, they're Exalted. Why on earth would they fail against magic? The most magicy things of all? One made by Autobot? You think he'll make something suck like that?

Also, their shaping defense works perfectly fine against Celestials.

On that note, have you ever wondered if maybe Awareness should be sent to Air aspects instead?

And do you think wyld-shaping technique fits the dragonblooded more than the Solar exalted?

 

[The Laurent]

It means there's plentiful room for ST's to add their own stuff to the pot beyond the published material, it helps to sell the idea of Creation as a world of wonders and weirdness if there's enough room for anything to happen, and it plays up the grandeur of the Exalted that they can bestride a world of comparable scope to our own, shaping (pieces of) it to their own desires. Basically, it's a way of making sure the map has plenty of "here be dragons (go have adventures with them)" space, which is good and desirable for the game.

The execution was, uh, lacklustre, but the principle was sound.

Click to shrink...

I'm not sure why you'd need and want the Realm to be that ridiculously large, then? Like, I sorta get it, though I'll say that even a creation half that size...actually, part of the problem is the Realm itself. Like, if you want to make Creation the size of Earth, fine, but the problem is it's hard to do that *and* also say, "And this one Empire, using pre-modern technology, totally has a greater percentage of the world in thrall than any Empire in history, even modern ones with modern transportation and communication."

The solution if you want something like that seems to be to decentralize the whole affair. You can't have an intimate world where the Realm is everyone's problem because it's so big it defies all reason, and also have a world as large as earth. You sorta, honestly, have to give up one or the other or it doesn't make sense?

(Honestly if I was choosing, I'd almost want to give up the 'Realm Uber Alles' as far as it goes, in favor of greater variety and the Realm merely being the antagonist of certain parts of the world (you could even make most of the canon material focus on the area around the Realm, in the same way that a game set in America still has the rest of the world but it's not the focus of the canon info), rather than looming large over everything ever. [Yes, I know that this would do complicated things to the meta-plot, but...*shrugs.*])

Of course, I'm not choosing, so you're free to do whatever you want.

 

[landcollector]

For one thing, Sorcery does not have to be attached to any ability.

Click to shrink...

Well, not exactly. Barring Infernals, an Exalt (or Mortal) needs at least Occult 3 (or Intelligence 3 for Lunars) to gain access to Sorcery.

 

[Accelerator]

Well, not exactly. Barring Infernals, an Exalt (or Mortal) needs at least Occult 3 (or Intelligence 3 for Lunars) to gain access to Sorcery.

Click to shrink...

Oh. Sorry. I meant in terms of the spells. I mean, if you use flight of brilliant raptor, you won't be rolling archery. I think. And if you put in Invulnerable skin of bronze, you aren't gonna be factoring in stamina/ resistance. I think.

It's been some time since I read the books.

 

[Imrix]

Except, looking at the map, the increased size doesn't seem to have changed the relative distances between polities from the published material or the effective territories controlled by them, so to me it feels more like "everything takes up more room" than "there's room to spare for the ST to fit their own stuff in."

Click to shrink...

That's sorta what I meant by 'the execution was lacklustre', but there is significantly more empty space on the larger map. Most polities didn't actually take up more space (Halta is something of an exceptional cartographic embarrassment in this sense). The mistakes are things like "Paragon is in a trade war with Gem, despite both of them being single-city states thousands of miles apart," but all you have to do there is drop the trade war. They're still city-states with thousands of miles between them where you can write in whatever homebrew nations you like.

The solution if you want something like that seems to be to decentralize the whole affair. You can't have an intimate world where the Realm is everyone's problem because it's so big it defies all reason, and also have a world as large as earth. You sorta, honestly, have to give up one or the other or it doesn't make sense?

Click to shrink...

I don't think you do, frankly. The Realm is stupid huge, yeah, but it's also basically the only nation in the world that can really call itself an inheritor of the Shogunate and, to an extent, the First Age, and even if the infrastructure and power of that has degraded, the culture and sense of unifying identity remains. More to the point, the Realm is a great congregation of Dragonblooded. It has literally superhumanly effective organisational skills on top of a technology base that's fairly out of scale with the rest of the world. To indulge in very, very, very crude shorthand; Semaphor + Infallible Messenger + Dragonblooded Bureaucracy + Dragonblooded tendency to work with each other = a satisfying answer to the scope of the Realm, at least for me.

 

[The Laurent]

That's sorta what I meant by 'the execution was lacklustre', but there is significantly more empty space on the larger map. Most polities didn't actually take up more space (Halta is something of an exceptional cartographic embarrassment in this sense). The mistakes are things like "Paragon is in a trade war with Gem, despite both of them being single-city states thousands of miles apart," but all you have to do there is drop the trade war. They're still city-states with thousands of miles between them where you can write in whatever homebrew nations you like.
I don't think you do, frankly. The Realm is stupid huge, yeah, but it's also basically the only nation in the world that can really call itself an inheritor of the Shogunate and, to an extent, the First Age, and even if the infrastructure and power of that has degraded, the culture and sense of unifying identity remains. More to the point, the Realm is a great congregation of Dragonblooded. It has literally superhumanly effective organisational skills on top of a technology base that's fairly out of scale with the rest of the world. To indulge in very, very, very crude shorthand; Semaphor + Infallible Messenger + Dragonblooded Bureaucracy + Dragonblooded tendency to work with each other = a satisfying answer to the scope of the Realm, at least for me.

Click to shrink...

Well, I still don't entirely buy it? I guess some of it is that the whole idea of the Realm kinda bores me, so I might be uncharitable? I mean, comically large fantasy Empires are a dime a dozen.

And the difficulty of balancing certain mental things is certainly interesting in a way, I suppose. I mean, it's instructive in the way that people can rationalize anything and justify anything, but...*shrugs*.

I mean, the superhuman organization skills thing just creates more problems because then we have no real, historical models for understanding what the fuck we're looking at, which isn't a good thing when one of the draws for a lot of people is its stabs at realism. Plus, and here's where some of this is subjective, it just makes it easier to wank/wax apologetic over the Realm, IMO.

It's sort of central to Exalted, yes, but that doens't necessarily make it the best thing?

Edit: Another thing is that I find real Empires, while quite horrible, a lot more interesting than even ES's best stabs at making an interesting Realm.

 

[Imrix]

Well, I still don't entirely buy it? I guess some of it is that the whole idea of the Realm kinda bores me, so I might be uncharitable? I mean, comically large fantasy Empires are a dime a dozen.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, and that means I can easily see why Exalted decided to sit down and really examine the idea.

 

[The Laurent]

Yeah, and that means I can easily see why Exalted decided to sit down and really examine the idea.

Click to shrink...

But what new thing does it really say about such Empires? You've just personally handwaved the crippling problems they'd faced using administrative magic that makes it much harder to model them on actual Empires without running into, 'And then a Wizard fixed things.'

Like, I don't see what interesting things are really said that couldn't be said/examined with a non-ridiculously-large Empire?

Edit: Like, if the examination is supposed to say, "An empire that lasts 800 years and covers a larger area than the British Empire makes no sense" then...duh?

Like, a new examination of a cliche is only interesting if it says something about the cliche. If the point is, "Empires are bad" then you could demonstrate that with an Empire of literally any size. For instance: you know, every Empire in history?

 

[Imrix]

But what new thing does it really say about such Empires? You've just personally handwaved the crippling problems they'd faced using administrative magic that makes it much harder to model them on actual Empires without running into, 'And then a Wizard fixed things.'

Like, I don't see what interesting things are really said that couldn't be said with a non-ridiculously-large Empire?

Click to shrink...

For starters, an actual examination of imperialist attitudes and how it encourages people to buy into it, rather than just standard fantasy Here Is An Evil Empire, Everybody In It Is A Jerk, Go Beat Them Up.

And, frankly, I reject that it's a handwave when we can examine and explore what sort of effects particular pieces of magic have. Like, the Dragonblooded focus on bloodlines lends itself very well to a rough unity of the Scarlet Empire as a whole, but with a whole mess of dynastic politics that people have run entire campaigns around. Infallible Messenger provides the ability to rapidly pass emergency information around the Realm, but it's mostly good for short messages, and it requires the use of rare Sorcery, so it's probably not practical for anything but emergency information, which has its own implications for how society works.

Basically, I only view "A Wizard Did It" as a real problem when that's pretty much the sum total of the explanation.

 

[The Laurent]

For starters, an actual examination of imperialist attitudes and how it encourages people to buy into it, rather than just standard fantasy Here Is An Evil Empire, Everybody In It Is A Jerk, Go Beat Them Up.

And, frankly, I reject that it's a handwave when we can examine and explore what sort of effects particular pieces of magic have. Like, the Dragonblooded focus on bloodlines lends itself very well to a rough unity of the Scarlet Empire as a whole, but with a whole mess of dynastic politics that people have run entire campaigns around. Infallible Messenger provides the ability to rapidly pass emergency information around the Realm, but it's mostly good for short messages, and it requires the use of rare Sorcery, so it's probably not practical for anything but emergency information, which has its own implications for how society works.

Basically, I only view "A Wizard Did It" as a real problem when that's pretty much the sum total of the explanation.

Click to shrink...

But...you don't need a comically large Empire to do that? You could replace the Realm with literally any size of Empire known in history, and you'd still have the same imperialist attitudes, the same cultural justifications...

It's pretty endemic to the whole mechanism of Empire, at least any Empire that lasts any period of time to start to buy its own hype. So there's no actual need for The Largest Empire Ever.

Also, the thing is: like, look at your own empire. Or former Empire, Imrix. Within a startlingly short period of time of 'gaining' it, they were giving/being made to give, federation status to Australia, they were losing their grip on India, which they'd truly held in full for a startlingly short time, less than a century, etc, etc.

Having an Empire last 700 years seems inimical to talking down about it/revealing the bullshit that rests at the hearts of Empires without simply saying 'evil.'. Or is the job to try as hard as you can to justify the Empire in some fashion so that you can prove that even then it's not justified? If so that seems overly complex.

Edit: Also, I have to go to work. See you later.

 

[Omicron]

But...you don't need a comically large Empire to do that? You could replace the Realm with literally any size of Empire known in history, and you'd still have the same imperialist attitudes, the same cultural justifications...

It's pretty endemic to the whole mechanism of Empire, at least any Empire that lasts any period of time to start to buy its own hype. So there's no actual need for The Largest Empire Ever.

Also, the thing is: like, look at your own empire. Or former Empire, Imrix. Within a startlingly short period of time of 'gaining' it, they were giving/being made to give, federation status to Australia, they were losing their grip on India, which they'd truly held in full for a startlingly short time, less than a century, etc, etc.

Click to shrink...

It's a Comically Large Fantasy Empire explored through the lens of how actual empires in history worked, and how magic might support and explain its existence.

You could have it just be the size of a historical empire, sure, but... That's literally missing the point?

It's a study in how immense fantasy evil empires might look like if they actually used the mechanisms of historical empires. Remove that and it's just Fantasy China or Fantasy Britain. It loses all metatextual commentary.

 

[BiopunkOtrera]

what are the given travel times across the inner sea anyhow?

 

[The Laurent]

It's a Comically Large Fantasy Empire explored through the lens of how actual empires in history worked, and how magic might support and explain its existence.

You could have it just be the size of a historical empire, sure, but... That's literally missing the point?

It's a study in how immense fantasy evil empires might look like if they actually used the mechanisms of historical empires. Remove that and it's just Fantasy China or Fantasy Britain. It loses all metatextual commentary.

Click to shrink...

I guess so? It's just that it doesn't seem like that interesting of a theme to explore.

...and, it's more than supporting or explaining, honestly, with the way some worldbuilding and homebrewing seem to go in this thread. But I don't have time to talk about that right now, I really am going to be late for work.

 

[vali]

Like, I don't see what interesting things are really said that couldn't be said/examined with a non-ridiculously-large Empire?

Click to shrink...

I really enjoy big empires because big empires are epic.

Part of why I love Exalted is because of its over-the-top excess. Giant anime swords. Exalts going super-saiyan. Ancient lost technologies capable of breaking or remaking the world. Supernatural beings that can go toe to toe with Lovecraftian monsters. Superhumans living hundreds of years. Everything is that much more epic, more over the top, more intense.

This isn't meant to be a criticism of the points you've made; I just want you to understand why someone might find comically overlarge fantasy empires fun.

 

[The Laurent]

I really enjoy big empires because big empires are epic.

Part of why I love Exalted is because of its over-the-top excess. Giant anime swords. Exalts going super-saiyan. Ancient lost technologies capable of breaking or remaking the world. Supernatural beings that can go toe to toe with Lovecraftian monsters. Superhumans living hundreds of years. Everything is that much more epic, more over the top, more intense.

This isn't meant to be a criticism of the points you've made; I just want you to understand why someone might find comically overlarge fantasy empires fun.

Click to shrink...

The problem is, that exists, for one, in the same place as, you know, the dysentery and etc, etc. I mean, if you want 'why I mostly just follow this thread out of curiosity and to steal fun ideas', then yeah it does have to do something with how every examination of "What are the rights of the ordinary person compared to the special, extraordinary person" always has one answer...and even when they're trying to say the opposite (as Exalted might be trying to), they fall into the "Accidentally making it look too cool" trap.

Eh. Really gotta go, I'm just getting more and more late debating things on the internet.

 

[Omicron]

I guess so? It's just that it doesn't seem like that interesting of a theme to explore.

...and, it's more than supporting or explaining, honestly, with the way some worldbuilding and homebrewing seem to go in this thread. But I don't have time to talk about that right now, I really am going to be late for work.

Click to shrink...

The important thing is that you realize that "it doesn't really seem interesting to explore" is something that a decade and a half of writers and fans have disagreed with, instead finding it one of the most interesting aspects of the line.

 

[Imrix]

But...you don't need a comically large Empire to do that? You could replace the Realm with literally any size of Empire known in history, and you'd still have the same imperialist attitudes, the same cultural justifications...

It's pretty endemic to the whole mechanism of Empire, at least any Empire that lasts any period of time to start to buy its own hype. So there's no actual need for The Largest Empire Ever.

Click to shrink...

It's a Comically Large Fantasy Empire explored through the lens of how actual empires in history worked, and how magic might support and explain its existence.

You could have it just be the size of a historical empire, sure, but... That's literally missing the point?

It's a study in how immense fantasy evil empires might look like if they actually used the mechanisms of historical empires. Remove that and it's just Fantasy China or Fantasy Britain. It loses all metatextual commentary.

Click to shrink...

Plus, you'd also lose the other important thing about the Realm for me, which is that it is a universal problem. The Realm is crumbling, and the shrinking of its shadow can be felt all across the world. That's good. That serves as a clear indicator that the world is changing, and it means that wherever you are in Creation, the status quo is not sustainable.

I've said before that Exalted is not a superhero story. It doesn't want you to defend a healthy status quo, it wants you to look out at a world that must change, and get out there and change it yourself. The Realm as it is provides a great part of that, because its fall is something that everybody will react to, one way or another. Satrapies will rebel, enemies will take notice, border territories will flourish, and monsters will scent blood on the winds of change.

Because the thing is, that idea of the superhero story, where anybody with power beyond regular people 'should' act as a defender of an existing power... It's kind of ingrained in the popular mindset. It's the easy choice, so the game needs to have big things that get in the way of that. It's a similar deal to how "The Yozis Are Breaking Free!" was marked out as impossible - and players still ran that plotline.

If the Realm isn't an oppressive presence with a shadow that falls across most of the world, then it's far too easy to imagine nations in Exalted who are just kind of... doing okay. Getting by. No big shake-ups to give a sense of a world that must change, but could maybe use the players help to solve a few problems here and there. And, bluntly, I don't think that's a kind of nation that should exist in Exalted.

 

[The Laurent]

The important thing is that you realize that "it doesn't really seem interesting to explore" is something that a decade and a half of writers and fans have disagreed with, instead finding it one of the most interesting aspects of the line.

Click to shrink...

I acknowledge that, and was just talking personally there.

...though it seems like that's almost the problem? When the point is how unattractive (and not in a grand, vague evil way) Empires are (though also their mechanisms of self-justification), but it's attracting that much attention and often work to try to make it work because it's so fascinating to people...*shrugs*.

 

[NonSequtur]

The important thing is that you realize that "it doesn't really seem interesting to explore" is something that a decade and a half of writers and fans have disagreed with, instead finding it one of the most interesting aspects of the line.

Click to shrink...

I've never actually heard anyone talk about the interesting thing about the Realm being the size. Insofar as people talk about the Realm as a commentary it's about special bloodlines with superpowers, or about imperialism, or the fantasy 'defender of all existence' kingdoms. Most of the people promoting the Scarlet Empire often concede the size is implausible.

 

[BiopunkOtrera]

Having looked over the linked discussion, I find myself concluding that the Realm uses triremes because they're so terrible, to serve as a sign of the Realm's fundamental incapability of ruling Creation, as their true Celestial masters can; perhaps they were also to serve as Worfs for a Celestial player's superior ship designs to triumph over.

Click to shrink...

It's more that exalted technology is just all over the shop. Like, there's that one illustration in Scroll of Kings of a galley with a steam cannon attached to the front.

IMHO the best way to square the circle is to assume that
1: The Realm has galleys that are equal to later types of galley (galleys were used well into the 18th century)
2: The inner sea is naturally pretty calm, like, to mediterranean levels, it just takes a while to cross.
3: The dragon blooded, having a huge number of red headed women and being dragon blooded, have beaten the storm mothers of the inner sea up until they leave their convoys alone and give only favourable winds
4: The Realm uses rowed close assault ships which they tow into combat with larger tender craft which apply sail or hybrid, Xebec style craft.

 

[SerGregness]

The problem is, that exists, for one, in the same place as, you know, the dysentery and etc, etc...

Click to shrink...

Part of the issue you're having, is that 'epic hugeness coexisting with dysentery' is a feature, not a bug for most of us. The short version is that the gritty realism serves to cast the epic heroism into contrast, and vice versa. Stephen Lea Sheppard went into some depth about it here, so check it out when you're done with work (don't be late!).

 

[BiopunkOtrera]

the hugeness of exalted exists to allow the storyteller put their own stuff in without bumping up against anything.

 

[ichypa]

Just ignore it.

That's what I do. I just pretend that comet-deflecting mode can deflect all things. There's no reason for it to fail against magic. I mean, dude, they're Exalted. Why on earth would they fail against magic? The most magicy things of all? One made by Autobot? You think he'll make something suck like that?

Also, their shaping defense works perfectly fine against Celestials.

On that note, have you ever wondered if maybe Awareness should be sent to Air aspects instead?

And do you think wyld-shaping technique fits the dragonblooded more than the Solar exalted?

Click to shrink...

Oh boy, an excuse to rant about the Dragon-Blooded? Thank you. Man where to even start?

The thing is, I can't really bring myself to ignore it, because its not just Charms being limited in dumb ways (I think most of the magic vulnerabilities we fixed or reduced in severity in errata, anyway) or other minor flaws and points of illogic. My problem is that I feel that the fundamental premise and purpose of the Dragon-Blooded as a part of the setting, from both an in and out of universe perspective, is flawed and restricted to the point of disrupting its own themes.

The most significant example of this, and the source from which the majority of the other flaws stem, is that unlike the other forms of Exalts, the Dragon-Blooded were not design with a post-Primordial War purpose in mind for them to fulfill. Each Caste of Celestials had a role that they were designed to fulfill in the world after the war, which they would carry out within the context of the general purpose that each Exalt type would fulfill. Dawns were generals and champions, Zeniths were kings and priests, Twilights were scholars and craftsmen, Nights were spies and assassins, and Eclipses were bureaucrats and diplomats; the Lunars and the Sidereals had there own purposes for each of their castes. Beyond that, the Solars were the Lawgivers, the Lunars were the Stewards, and the Sidereals were the Viziers. The Dragon-Blooded were created to be the soldiers, servants, and lackeys of the Celestial Host, and after the war, they remained the soldiers, servants, and lackeys of the Celestial Host. They had no purpose of there own, there was only acting in service and support of the Celestials. In Lords of Creation, it said that the Dragon-Blooded Gentes basically just permanently served specific Celestial Exaltations -- not even specific Exalts, but all the bearers of the same Exaltation -- and did this for generation upon generation without any indication of independence or shifting loyalties or location. They neither provided any service or benefit to Creation nor possessed any greater purpose beyond their service to the Celestials or to act as the weapons and soldiers that all Exalted were made to be.

This concept, which permeates everything about the Dragon-Blooded in fluff and is the core of their very existence as a part of the setting, is something that I feel is intrinsically toxic to the idea of the Dragon-Blooded being capable of benefiting Creation and the idea of the Dragon-Blooded being heroes in their own right. Because it declares that they aren't heroes, not even just smaller ones than the Celestials; it brands them as jumped-up sidekicks and nothing more. They have nothing to contribute, and are therefore unnecessary to Creation, and it might be better for everyone if they all just died out. The Celestials could just make servants and soldiers that could be just as good, if not better, after all. :\

From this toxic concept, Dragon-Blooded themes and adventures pursue ideas that are only sustainable if the status quo and balance of powers within Creation is maintained, or that are not truly supported by the powers and inherent capabilities that the Dragon-Blooded have at their disposal, and only weakly support the themes of Exalted as a whole.

Cooperation and overcoming great obstacles through numbers and teamwork? The Great Houses of the Realm are constantly at each others throats, Lookshy is ranges from insular to domineering of others, and Outcastes are few and scatter across the world; furthermore, the vast majority of Cooperative Charms or that otherwise let Dragon-Blooded combined their powers for greater effects are in some way related to combat, with few it any utilitarian applications (why are there no Medicine Cooperative Charms, for example.); Terrestrial (Ability) Reinforcement is limited and worse, unintuitive, and going by the characters in the Scroll of Exalts Terrestrials only use it for combat Abilities if they use it at all.

Family and lineage? The Family background was fucking useless until Dynasty charms were introduced and it could be used to represent the effects of one that is applied to you, members of the Great Houses are as likely to stab their kin in the back as they are to be loyal to their own Houses, and the Great Contagion and Crusade eradicating or disrupting any significant Dragon-Blooded lineages outside the Scarlet Dynasty and Lookshy means that records of your grand lineage to which you are heir to probably only goes back a few generation, killing any sense of extended familial history or legacy from before those catastrophes. What's worse, the blood of the Dragons is so dilluted that in another couple thousand years, odds are good that the Dragon-Blooded Host will not meaningfully exist with all the damage they've taken and will take in the future. So you're severed from your ancestors, and your descendants are probably fucked. To add insult to injury, without knowledge of Purity Charms the Breeding Background rivals Familiar as-written in it uselessness, and even with access you might still be better off asking your ST if you can take the abomination-level Essence Abundance and get a 3-dot Manse with the Dragon's Nest power, which grants all meaningful non-Purity related benefits of having Breeding 5.

Intrigue and politics? You're adventures, concept, and advantages are dependent on the status quo of the current era.

So, so many of the problems I have with the Dragon-Blooded could have been prevented by giving the Dragon-Blooded their own, independent, purpose as Exalted rulers and custodians of Creation and making Purity and Dynasty Charms a thing from the beginning. It would give them far greater flexibility or variety of play, make the power disparity seem less staggering, and provide story hooks and attachment to a character's family and legacy. Blood ties would mean something beyond politics and social standing. Those are the biggest ones, but given the length of this post as is, I won't inflict any of my other thoughts on people unless they want to hear them.

 

[EarthScorpion]

Let's go with a Shogunate remnant manse, Wood Aspect.

Click to shrink...

The Gardens of Nalara
Manse 1: Wood 1

Just south of the bulk of the metropolitan Realm lies the island of Nalara. Warm subtropical water washes up against volcanic beaches of black sand. The island is particularly famous for its hot springs, which lie so close to the beach that famously there are some springs where one can rest with one leg in the ocean and the other in a spring. Naturally, this results in more than a trifle licentiousness from the Terrestrials who visit. Such invites are held in high value, because the entire island is the possession of the Imperial Household and everyone who does so attends at the Empress' pleasure - in theory. With the absence of the Empress, the right to invite guests to Nalara technically falls to the Keeper of the Imperial Purse and he has made full use of it to curry favour.

The highest residences on Nalara are the ones which surround the famed Gardens, a Shogunate-era conservatory of crystal and marble that spirals into the sky like a strange tree. Bioluminescent plants cover the structure, providing light day and night, while the "roots" of the structure suck up water from the hot springs to water the many rare plants which grow there. The Empress has built up an extensive collection of plants from all across Creation here, and the wondrous magics of the Shogunate ensure that diamond-dust roses from the Far North can grow next to Southern palm trees. This is a place of peace and tranquillity where even the most stressed Dynast can relax, with plenty of carefully trained servants to see to their every want.

At least in theory. The Empress was more discerning in her invitations than the Keeper of the Purse is. Sooner or later, he's going to extend an invitation to two mortal enemies to visit at the same time. Knowing his luck, maybe an entire feuding network of allies and friends will be visiting at the same time. And inevitably someone will wind up dead in the night, on a remote island where no one can leave or enter and suspicion will fall on the entire group. Recriminations will abound. If a Magistrate can't find the real culprit, two Houses might end up on the edge of war. And wouldn't you know it, that'd really distract them from their efforts to usurp his position as Keeper of the Imperial Purse.

Be a real shame if that happened, wouldn't it?