Sure, but let me correct some typos.
General Exalted Thread
Sure, but let me correct some typos.
- Location
- Singapore
- Location
- Singapore
Done yet?
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Besides, most religions in Creation should probably practice orthopraxy rather than orthodoxy, to be honest. The matter of whether you believe correctly should be irrelevant to whether you perform your rituals correctly, not only would it be fitting and appropriate to the early iron age that inspires Creation, it also involves getting rid of more modern religious conventions, of which I would always be an approving fan.
It wasn't actually inteded as a double standard, I just genuinely think Adorjan is fitting to the name Scourge, that said I'm not attached to it as I've already mentioned long before that my preferred names would be Carnifex (Adorjan), Lictor (Malfeas), Censor (She Who Lives in Her Name), something I don't know for an Ebon Dragon Night-Equivalent and Exarch (Cecelyne). That said, before my headcanon starts infesting this discussion like cancerous, malignant tumour, I was mostly joking when I said I like Scourge, I just prefer it to the others, but my main issue with the Infernal Caste names is that they all (except for Malefactor and Fiend, which have separate issues) describe Someone Who Does X, whereas Dawn, Zenith, Twilight, Night and Eclipse all describe a specific phase of the sun, which mean that they come to be exemplars of what their Caste stands for through metaphor and allegory rather than something direct - Dawn become warriors not because their name implies war, but because creatures of darkness flee from the morning sun, while Night become sneaky assholes not because their name implies stealth (though it does imply stealth!) but because the night is a time where Creatures of Darkness come out from their shadowed hiding spots.
No. Stop.
If they were a reference to the Anathema, the names would be Forsaken, Blasphemous, Unclean, Wretched and Deceivers, and their Caste Marks wouldn't be far from resembling any other known Celestial caste marks - they can't play into the Anathema thing when they don't resemble them.
Alert: NOT THE PLACE
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
not the place
This is the Exalted General Thread, not 'Idle Curiousity About STDs'. Ask questions like that elsewhere.
TenfoldShields
Lounging on a Hoard of Words
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Wwwaaaaaay belated to the First Age conversation (and tbh it's not like this is any great loss, my shit's pretty fanon infested too so this is mainly "HEY HERE'S WHAT I THINK IS COOL"), but I generally don't at all mind the interpretation of the Deliberative-Era as being vaguely sci-fi. And I -I mean I guess I understand the general vague snobbery?- but the Orokin aesthetic kinda nails the personal imagery to a t.
Slick, organic, looks more grown than riveted and stapled together and, most importantly, it's blinged out the ass. I guess it hits some of the important points for me when I think "what would a world designed by jaded, bored, power-drunk Solars look like". Namely: incredibly ornate, grandiose, and sort of feeling like it dwarfs you in every way that matters. In style and raw scale and technology and, I guess in that sense, that's kinda why I feel like the automation argument is somewhat misplaced? Or that the abhorrence of it at least is a little odd. They were Better Than You and in a very real sense even you as a reincarnated Solar are still playing Blind Man and the Elephant when trying to figure out what the fuck was what. I mean yeah, Your Creation May Vary, but...idk. It largely does the job I think? And that kind brings me to my second point:
I'm really very fond of the idea that most easily accessible Solar-era stuff was either cannibalized or repurposed by the Shogunate because, I mean, why wouldn't they? The Gentes would have been heavily involved in the construction of a lot of these places by necessity and after you're done facemurdering the Deliberative it's not like you're suddenly going to develop qualms of conscience rifling through their stuff. And even if you do your kids probably aren't.
(Generally the aes-hrk-thetic I prefer for the Shogunate is kinda one that sits somewhere between Jin-Roh, Fallout, and The New Order
. Big, brutalist, mighty and imperious. Maybe not fascist in and of itself but...prideful? Glorification of the Gentes, the Immaculate Orthodoxy and the bloodline. Of military prowess and industrial achievement. Motholitic and dominating. Advanced yeah but in a way that feels more grounded when contrasted with the Orokin-style stuff.)
Slick, organic, looks more grown than riveted and stapled together and, most importantly, it's blinged out the ass. I guess it hits some of the important points for me when I think "what would a world designed by jaded, bored, power-drunk Solars look like". Namely: incredibly ornate, grandiose, and sort of feeling like it dwarfs you in every way that matters. In style and raw scale and technology and, I guess in that sense, that's kinda why I feel like the automation argument is somewhat misplaced? Or that the abhorrence of it at least is a little odd. They were Better Than You and in a very real sense even you as a reincarnated Solar are still playing Blind Man and the Elephant when trying to figure out what the fuck was what. I mean yeah, Your Creation May Vary, but...idk. It largely does the job I think? And that kind brings me to my second point:
I'm really very fond of the idea that most easily accessible Solar-era stuff was either cannibalized or repurposed by the Shogunate because, I mean, why wouldn't they? The Gentes would have been heavily involved in the construction of a lot of these places by necessity and after you're done facemurdering the Deliberative it's not like you're suddenly going to develop qualms of conscience rifling through their stuff. And even if you do your kids probably aren't.
(Generally the aes-hrk-thetic I prefer for the Shogunate is kinda one that sits somewhere between Jin-Roh, Fallout, and The New Order
. Big, brutalist, mighty and imperious. Maybe not fascist in and of itself but...prideful? Glorification of the Gentes, the Immaculate Orthodoxy and the bloodline. Of military prowess and industrial achievement. Motholitic and dominating. Advanced yeah but in a way that feels more grounded when contrasted with the Orokin-style stuff.)
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- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The plural of Gens is fucking Gentes.Wwwaaaaaay belated to the First Age conversation (and tbh it's not like this is any great loss, my shit's pretty fanon infested too so this is mainly "HEY HERE'S WHAT I THINK IS COOL"), but I generally don't at all mind the interpretation of the Deliberative-Era as being vaguely sci-fi. And I -I mean I guess I understand the general vague snobbery?- but the Orokin aesthetic kinda nails the personal imagery to a t.
Slick, organic, looks more grown than riveted and stapled together and, most importantly, it's blinged out the ass. I guess it hits some of the important points for me when I think "what would a world designed by jaded, bored, power-drunk Solars look like". Namely: incredibly ornate, grandiose, and sort of feeling like it dwarfs you in every way that matters. In style and raw scale and technology and, I guess in that sense, that's kinda why I feel like the automation argument is somewhat misplaced? Or that the abhorrence of it at least is a little odd. They were Better Than You and in a very real sense even you as a reincarnated Solar are still playing Blind Man and the Elephant when trying to figure out what the fuck was what. I mean yeah, Your Creation May Vary, but...idk. It largely does the job I think? And that kind brings me to my second point:
I'm really very fond of the idea that most easily accessible Solar-era stuff was either cannibalized or repurposed by the Shogunate because, I mean, why wouldn't they? The Gens would have been heavily involved in the construction of a lot of these places by necessity and after you're done facemurdering the Deliberative it's not like you're suddenly going to develop qualms of conscience rifling through their stuff. And even if you do your kids probably aren't.
(Generally the aes-hrk-thetic I prefer for the Shogunate is kinda one that sits somewhere between Jin-Roh, Fallout, and The New Order
- Location
- Singapore
I got an idea. How about instead of, say, a having massive giant first age ships, you instead do the opposite? First age is more compact. More miniaturizied. More elegant.
Lets compare 2 ships:
Shogunate: big giant warship, covered in guns. Able to go 100 km/hr, and able to turn a city to ash via bombardment.
1st age: a small fist sized crystal that creates a shield and platform of essence. Top speed is 120 km/hr, and is agile as heck, with no need of maintenance.
I think the 1st age should.... maybe be most of the time small. Small, unassuming, but big effects.
Lets compare 2 ships:
Shogunate: big giant warship, covered in guns. Able to go 100 km/hr, and able to turn a city to ash via bombardment.
1st age: a small fist sized crystal that creates a shield and platform of essence. Top speed is 120 km/hr, and is agile as heck, with no need of maintenance.
I think the 1st age should.... maybe be most of the time small. Small, unassuming, but big effects.
Seems more likely to be the opposite. In the First Age, your exalts have an entire logistical chain of exalts and spirits to make shitloads of materials in the perfect magical forms.
It would make large, extremely ornate and half decorative creations possible. Lots of fiddly shit that needs maintenance because why wouldn't you have the parts?
The Shogunate would be more of a post apocalyptic feel with basically everything either the plain 'infantryman' edition or else repurposed or salvaged. Efficiency in materials would be important, especially in the early Shogunate where the skills and techbase are still there but they foresee scarcity.
It would make large, extremely ornate and half decorative creations possible. Lots of fiddly shit that needs maintenance because why wouldn't you have the parts?
The Shogunate would be more of a post apocalyptic feel with basically everything either the plain 'infantryman' edition or else repurposed or salvaged. Efficiency in materials would be important, especially in the early Shogunate where the skills and techbase are still there but they foresee scarcity.
RedV
Refuelling
- Location
- Right here
I think Fiend sounds vaguely Latin and suits the transgressive themes of the Ebon Dragon pretty well. It brings to mind shadows and secrets too, which somewhat relate to the Night caste.
Keeping it would be a good shout out to canon too.
The same reason we miniaturise phones and computers become tablets? It isn't always convenient to use maximum bling.
The First Age should have been super efficient at getting the most out of whatever they had- the Shogunate started not able to use Celestial Craft charms and so began to use more Jade/Hearthstones/Cannons to compensate for the drop in effectiveness, leading to larger and clunkier designs salvaged from the ruins of what they operate.
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notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
It's actually Germanic.
RedV
Refuelling
- Location
- Right here
Thank you for clarifying!
I'm surprised Germanic had that sort of latin-ish sound in it.
Which, I note, is a canonical trait observed in First Age architecture. The old city parts of Nexus, which are now where the mega-rich live, are explicitly described that way - they look like they were grown from the rock rather than built, with no bricks or joins and everything flowing.
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Fiend is Germanic and is reminiscent of the Danish word for 'enemy' fjende; the thing is that it also wouldn't fit since all those other positions are greco-roman official positions - Carnifex is an executioner (butcher, even), Lictors were the bodyguards who protected senators, Censors were the supposedly incorruptible judges and an Exarch is 'someone who rules from the outside'.
(Swapping out Lictor for Praetor would probably also be cool; I've been considering Sicarius, but it sounds stupid as a Caste.)
I remember really liking that when I first read that description back in the day. I remember reading somewhere too that a lot of First Age cities were built in the shape of a wheel.
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
One can observe that many medieval cities were built around cores of old Roman cities; thus, we can establish that many larger Second Age cities are likely built randomly around a walled core of Shogunate architecture where the rich or ruling members live, while the remainder of the city outside the old walls are built with architecture more reminiscent of the Age of Sorrows.
No, not at all. Remember, the Shogunate population was vastly larger than modern Creation, so what you'll actually get is a set-up more akin to early-Saxon London or Constantinople as of the 1400s, where the old walls are much further out than the populated areas. As a result, you'll have an outer boundary wall (likely heavily ruined and plundered for stone), and you'll have farms inside the old walls, then possibly more walls, then possibly an innermost area of somewhat maintained or patched up Shogunate structures.
Take the example of Paris, say.
With the exception of the outermost area (the city today), all the inner divides are historic walls the city has had. The tiny dark section in the centre is the oldest Gallo-Roman wall on an island in the Seine, and all the other divides are getting newer as the city outgrows its old walls. You could have an entire region in Exalted built on the ruins of a Shogunate city and its concentric walls.
Graypairofsocks
What is Grammar?
- Location
- earth
I'm pretty sure being lazy counts as a prayer to some gods.
- Location
- Singapore
Ok, so.... if you were, to, say, get alchemy or thaumaturgy, and you wished to homebrew some stuff. Ok, so what's the maximum power level you would give it? essence 1 solar charm? Spirit charm? Essence 1 terrestrial charm?
Frakir's brother
Goodbye.
- Location
- The Sea of Trees
Thaum can beckon Second Circle Devas. It gets pretty decent. Second, a fully kitted and optimized thaumertage should be a decent challenge for a newly exalted Dragonblood.
- Location
- Singapore
Yeah, thats the thing.
I found thaumaturgy neat, so i set out to make a setting where thaumaturgy, sorcery, and martial arts are available. But no exalted.
So should i buff up the effects?
For a given standard, very much not necessarily true. Remember the Exalted were chosen from cultures across the whole range of tech levels, and particularly Celestial Craft charms reward singular pieces of hypertechnology that does everything in exchange for having either high exotic resource consumption, exalt dependent maintenance or being difficult to operate, while the Early Shogunate versions would be focused on making them easier to use/maintain/copy, with the Age of Sorrows being pretty much durability or ease of production focused, left.
Accounting for the flaws of sweeping statements of course. It's not like the hundreds of strongly opinionated god-kings are going to agree on aesthetics, acceptable costs and acceptable risks.
RedV
Refuelling
- Location
- Right here
Yes, but it's not like a majority of the tech is being built for the Solar Exalted themselves. Their consorts, concubines, children, ministers, servants, etc significantly outnumber them. Given that, most First Age tech ought to have been usable by them.
These people are probably going to prefer having something they can carry around and use, and convenience of use, over singular and very large and showy use most of the time.
I'm not saying that it isnt a resource drain- given how much an iPhone takes to charge and so, it should be exorbitantly difficult to get running.
However, the First Age tech should probably tend towards ease of use and a compact aesthetic simply because it may have been designed for people who can't attune and aren't exalts too. There is a difference between a supercomputer sitting in the Pentagon ( an exalt's personal panoply) and the ruins of some mortal' s communication device (which should probably be more common as a discovery given population ratios)
I do agree to this, yeah. But easy to use =! compact and non showy
A flintlock, for example, was far more showy than a handgun
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- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
My view on how to handle thaumaturgy isn't exactly rock-solid, but I can say this - the four things that (in my opinion) define what is an Exalt and what is another being with Spirit Charms is easy access to perfect defenses, cheap Shaping defenses, fast-acting strategic scale abilities, and a broad body of powers.
Any thaumaturge can, in theory, boost up a group of soldiers until they're effectively superhuman, provided they have the knowledge of appropriate rituals/techniques and plenty of time/resources. A Terrestrial Exalt can grab a group of people he's never seen before and make them into a formidable fighting force so long as they follow him without needing anything but his own Essence.
Likewise, even the most blinged-out warrior in the world is never going to be able to parry the fist of a mountain-sized behemoth, because his skill - however much it is enhanced with mutations or rituals or equipment - is still bounded by the laws of the world, and those laws decree that when a man is struck by a fist the size of three yeddim put together, the man loses. The Exalted can defy those laws by the power of their keter soul, and thus knock aside the behemoth's blow with nothing but a kitchen knife. It might be costly, it definitely has limitations on its use, but nonetheless they can negate attacks that no normal being could.
In the same vein, many spirits and Wyld creatures can take out opponents that would crush them in a straight fight by using Shaping effects to end the fight at a stroke. A wrathful lake god makes the Sign of Stilled Waters, and his foe falls dead, lungs clogged by silt. A strange thing of plague bandages and pus from the Wyld has a bite that devours its prey's strength, reducing even the toughest of beasts to emaciated husks in an instant. A certain breed of demon tears the eyes from those who defy it and puts Pyrian embers in their place, destroying the rebellious mortal's will and making them a puppet that it commands. Once again, Exalts can ignore these dangers because they have Shaping defenses, where almost any mortal would have to carefully plan around them.
Most of all, a single Exalt can do many such impossible things, where other mortals and ex-mortals could never hope to. Take the above example of a Terrestrial Exalt supercharging the unit he leads into battle: a godblooded of war, or someone with an Artifact banner with morale-enhancing powers, or a particularly gifted Sorcerer could all potentially accomplish that feat as well. However, the Dragonblood can also fade from others' perception by playing music, throw scourging bolts of elemental fury, and know a man's allies by looking in his eyes. A given Essence-using mortal could perhaps match one aspect of an Exalt's power, but he could never hope to match all of them.
Salty
Shadow Cabal Assumptor Supreme
- Location
- Sun, Moon, Talia
- Pronouns
- I/Me
this is bad and you should feel bad