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General Exalted Thread

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Gamerlord said:
Hahaha, fuck no.
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IIRC, the existence of the Street of Golden Lanterns (more specifically, the fact that it's a red light district where all the lights shine the color of TUS and their chosen human form looks like a sexified gender-bent young TUS) implies that there's something fucky going on with Malfeas' sexuality vis a vis TUS.
 
Salty said:
IIRC, the existence of the Street of Golden Lanterns (more specifically, the fact that it's a red light district where all the lights shine the color of TUS and their chosen human form looks like a sexified gender-bent young TUS) implies that there's something fucky going on with Malfeas' sexuality vis a vis TUS.
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My headcanon now is that Theion views UCS as the most beautiful thing in all creation, as he views the unconquered sun as the most perfect thing he had made or done.

If you had seen Theion's version of the golden street, it would have been in the form of a dragon.
 
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The soul that represents Malfeas' capacity for love vaguely resembles a genderswapped UCS, which some people take to imply certain somethings. I just think it's Malfeas desiring the last remnants of the holy perfection he used to be. Like a has-been obsessing over their last big hit.

GardenerBriareus said:
This sounds pretty garbage, to be honest. It's Adorjan in a trenchcoat & fedora, especially with the "freedom is all" nonsense and being an unstoppable, largely intangible force; there's nothing there that addresses or inverts the themes of what Adrian became, and what little is changed from The Silent Wind's description just makes "her" sound like a stereotypical bratty kid.
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Fetich-killed Yozis still resemble what they used to be. Sacheverell, Malfeas and Elloge still revolve around the themes of The Lidless Eye that Sees, Theion and He Who Bleeds the Unknown Word, just in a different style. Adrian isn't going to be a total inversion of Adorjan, she'll be a different take on the same ideas. On the face of it, she'll be radically different: Instead of silent wind, a roaring river. Instead of whimsy, attachment. But underneath the imagery of it we're still dealing with a person who desires freedom above anything else, has to keep moving, loves killing, and has funny ideas about how to treat the things you care about.

GardenerBriareus said:
My issue with that is that I don't see any real hooks to give the charmset a properly Infernal "archetype".
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What sort of thematic does Adrian represent? She enjoys violence upon others and herself, she's always moving, she's incredibly destructive just by being there. She's an explorer, and can become incomprehensibly attached to a thing for no apparent reason.

Wandering sadomasochist? A hedonist like Isidoros, but with a different set of vices?

Honestly more than Ahab or Hannibal, I'm seeing her as a Cenobite from Hellraiser. "Explorers in the further regions of experience. Demons to some, angels to others." *cue raksha tears*

GardenerBriareus said:
If you can just scoop up all your bonuses and plop them down as you please with no drawbacks, then the charmset doesn't have any teeth.
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My original suggestion, which was just a half-thought and needs actual work done, was to create some form of Attachment (through an Intimacy, Motivation or similarly important character trait) and have bonuses applied to actions which further or serve that attachment while all other actions receive penalties. So it could definitely be useful to someone chasing their heart's desire, but someone who's just following orders would be in a rough spot.

GardenerBriareus said:
I actually had entirely different ideas on how to do the external charmset, though; I'll try to write something more extensive tomorrow, but it was built on the idea of forcing enemies to come to you instead of you coming to them. It'd use a lot of metaphors about boats being drawn helplessly into whitewater rapids, the idea of "sending away" your wounds on the currents of Adrian to heal while in combat (almost certainly with some sort of complicating factor), fucking up the landscape to better accommodate you and funnel enemies into your kill zone (like how rivers carve channels into the land), and just generally being this advancing force that drags in and crushes everything it doesn't like. Reaching out a hand toward distant enemies and shouting "Kurozu!" as the tides of Adrian pull them into range of your daiklaive might also be on the table.
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"Sending away your wounds" sounds interesting. Maybe you could package them up into a temporary creature with stats based on the number of wounds you pack into it, send it out, and as it does damage it becomes weaker until it dies, restoring your health? It encourages players to get hurt, which is something I think is very thematic for Adrian based on the bits of fluff she has.

Fond Remembrance of Adrian does something similar, lashing out at would-be attackers.

I also think there'd be a lot of overwhelming and flurry-style attacks. Adrian held off the Exalted host all by her lonesome until Lilike got ganked, so she's got serious offensive capability, possibly moreso than any other titan.
 
Graypairofsocks said:
Unconquered Sun: I never asked for this.
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Risk a spiteful Primordial nuking huge swaths of Creation on her way out, or stick it in the crazy?

UCS: I take the nuke.
Salty said:
IIRC, the existence of the Street of Golden Lanterns (more specifically, the fact that it's a red light district where all the lights shine the color of TUS and their chosen human form looks like a sexified gender-bent young TUS) implies that there's something fucky going on with Malfeas' sexuality vis a vis TUS.
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As far as I can tell Malfeas is mainly in love with himself from before his mutilation, and UCS was after all created in that theme?
 
While we are on the topic, how would you interpret the Ebon Dragon in a more positive manner? (Yes, I know it probably involves using info from GoD over 2e stuff.)
 
For you guys who've actually played, what have you guys done, when doing things like improving the life of mortals and setting up infrastructure?
 
Peanuckle said:
What sort of thematic does Adrian represent? She enjoys violence upon others and herself, she's always moving, she's incredibly destructive just by being there. She's an explorer, and can become incomprehensibly attached to a thing for no apparent reason.

Wandering sadomasochist? A hedonist like Isidoros, but with a different set of vices?

Honestly more than Ahab or Hannibal, I'm seeing her as a Cenobite from Hellraiser. "Explorers in the further regions of experience. Demons to some, angels to others." *cue raksha tears*

My original suggestion, which was just a half-thought and needs actual work done, was to create some form of Attachment (through an Intimacy, Motivation or similarly important character trait) and have bonuses applied to actions which further or serve that attachment while all other actions receive penalties. So it could definitely be useful to someone chasing their heart's desire, but someone who's just following orders would be in a rough spot.
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So, if I was doing something with Adrian (which I won't, because what's the point - it's as useless as the Theion set in Shards) she'd very much have a similar "I can see bits of Adorjan in her" thing going on.
  • The running things and most of the combat effects can stay, suitably renamed where appropriate. Wind Born Stride might be called Roaring River Rush, but the mechanics are the same. Same as Opened Eye of the Typhoon become Ice-Fire-Blade Oroborous, but is still a "fuck your overwhelming penalty, I'm stabbing all of you even harder".
  • Rather than having lots of interactions with Compassion, Adrian interacts with Conviction. She uses it to resist any pain (and turn wound penalties into bonuses), and avoid anyone swaying her from her obsessions. Tragic Love Amusement is replaced with something that lets her form desire-based Intimacies at a whim - Freedom Lets Go doesn't exist, but she has something which lets her transform her desires into new desires if she sees something more interesting. She's not a murder-buddha - she's a murder-Buddhist demon, a creature of vice and attachment.
  • All Adorjan's Silence-based stuff is replaced with Vice/Indulgence stuff - rather than having super-hearing that hurts her from loud things and flee loud noises, she has super-all-senses that means she takes penalties if she isn't being CONSTANTLY STIMULATED so you rush towards any kind of sensory input. To the extent that you're mechanically incentivised to injure yourself if you can't find any other kind of stimulus because a wound penalty is better for you than the "bored now" penalty.
  • Adrian's got a gateway Charm that just cripples your Temperance. Adrian auto-fails Temperance rolls, can't channel it, and may indeed be able to willingly enter an Overindulgence Limit Break. Likewise, her "boredom" penalty applies to all Compassion rolls, because yeah, sure you're usually compassionate, but OH MY GOD SO BORED I NEED STIMULUS *kicks puppy*
  • Just refluff Adorjan's AOE stuff to being ice-fire-razors instead of wind. It's still 6 Agg per action either way.
 
Graypairofsocks said:
While we are on the topic, how would you interpret the Ebon Dragon in a more positive manner? (Yes, I know it probably involves using info from GoD over 2e stuff.)
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The Ebon Dragon loves everyone in their imperfections. He is always with you. He is a strong proponent of free will because it enables the greatest gift of all, hope. Something like that, I'd say.

Graypairofsocks said:
Take the third option, have Luna disguise himself as the UCS.

There is no way this could go wrong.
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UCS, five seconds after mistakenly being sent nudes by SWLiHN, who is desperately enjoying Luna-as UCS: *Screams externally with perfection*
 
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Graypairofsocks said:
While we are on the topic, how would you interpret the Ebon Dragon in a more positive manner? (Yes, I know it probably involves using info from GoD over 2e stuff.)
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I know him being pro-free will gets some play but honestly that's mostly because he thrives on chaos and disorder. He doesn't want free will because he thinks it'll make men better or because he even thinks that mankind deserves to be unshackled, he wants people to be free so that they'll fuck up horrendously and perpetrate incredibly fucked-up stuff upon themselves and others. And at this point that's basically the only way he can get hard. In that regard honestly I think of him as a bit along the lines of Dishonored 1's Outsider. He corrupts systems and turns them against themselves simply by giving people the opportunity and the ability to Do Shit they wouldn't normally be able to do and then oh my look at that. Down it comes, all in flames.

If anything I'd say that the most positive aspect of the Ebon Dragon is...I'unno if affection is the right word? But it's something like that. He's the shadow of all things and he loves the tragic, doomed, broken and aching and wretched things that nobody else does. That right thinking people would turn their backs on in disgust. The tortured, the lamed, the unclean. If y'know Fate shit he's along the lines of Angra Mainyu. He's seen the very worst of all mankind but can't honestly bring himself to despise them. It doesn't really matter if you're the lowest of the low, the absolute bottom of the social ladder, and you go to bed starving most nights on a dirt floor. You have a shadow don't you? And that shadow is him and he knows you, the things you want, your hidden sins, and he doesn't hate you for them, he doesn't even pass judgement really.

In terms of virtue Compassion is really his strength.
 
TenfoldShields said:
I know him being pro-free will gets some play but honestly that's mostly because he thrives on chaos and disorder. He doesn't want free will because he thinks it'll make men better or because he even thinks that mankind deserves to be unshackled, he wants people to be free so that they'll fuck up horrendously and perpetrate incredibly fucked-up stuff upon themselves and others. And at this point that's basically the only way he can get hard. In that regard honestly I think of him as a bit along the lines of Dishonored 1's Outsider. He corrupts systems and turns them against themselves simply by giving people the opportunity and the ability to Do Shit they wouldn't normally be able to do and then oh my look at that. Down it comes, all in flames.

If anything I'd say that the most positive aspect of the Ebon Dragon is...I'unno if affection is the right word? But it's something like that. He's the shadow of all things and he loves the tragic, doomed, broken and aching and wretched things that nobody else does. That right thinking people would turn their backs on in disgust. The tortured, the lamed, the unclean. If y'know Fate shit he's along the lines of Angra Mainyu. He's seen the very worst of all mankind but can't honestly bring himself to despise them. It doesn't really matter if you're the lowest of the low, the absolute bottom of the social ladder, and you go to bed starving most nights on a dirt floor. You have a shadow don't you? And that shadow is him and he knows you, the things you want, your hidden sins, and he doesn't hate you for them, he doesn't even pass judgement really.

In terms of virtue Compassion is really his strength.
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...So, basically: "Bring me your tired, your poor, your weary. I have coke to sell."
 
Are there any 3rd circle forged 1st circles, or do they only ever make behemoths as 1st circles aren't work the time or effort in comparison?
 
grommile said:
To answer this question, first ask "what job would a Second Circle demon of SWILHN want done, that isn't done by an existing demon?".
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She is the principal of Hierarchy, which she means she wants the greater to become greater, and the weak to become weaker. She is the one that crushes rebels, the one that destroys those who would try to overthrow the system. She is the one that gives powers to kings and rulers.

Thus, what a second circle would want is for people to obey orders. For people to stay in their place. For people to stay in their place in society. But such a thing is rather abstract. I'm not sure on how to make a 1st circle demon for it. The best I can come up is a demon whose whispers makes everyone more subservient to their superiors, and for people to slowly lose free will, slowly becoming slaves.
 
I suddenly have the image of SWLiHN creating a species of demon that is a parody of Solars/Exalts in general, vaguely human looking creatures that are British, ugly and stupid except in their ingenuity at destroying all order and beauty they encounter...
 
Graypairofsocks said:
While we are on the topic, how would you interpret the Ebon Dragon in a more positive manner? (Yes, I know it probably involves using info from GoD over 2e stuff.)
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Why do you think his current portrayal is very negative? I found his 2e portrayal lolz, though obviously not very protagonising. The Ebon Dragon is fun. He represents that heretical impulse that lies in the hearts of men, the devil whispering to Eve in the garden. He is interesting in his ability to transgress against the prevailing order. The constant betrayal part is funny and the memes it has spawned are part of what drew me into Exalted.

He's a very good antagonist to have and certainly can be interacted with more than Malfeas or Kimbery or SWLiHN.

I also really like his charms and Exellency (with the exception of Memory Poison Mastery which only suits certain characters).
 
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