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General Exalted Thread

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You have a point there. Keep in mind that the Shinigami not only have their lesser shinigami that they command...but the souls they protect in their territory as well, so thats a lot of souls to take tithes from, and putting all the Seated Officer Shinigami as greater dead on up.

Aizen would be interesting, in that rather than trying to blur the line between Shinigami and Hollows I'd imagine he was trying to blur the line between the living and the dead.. which could have some rather profound effects on the setting...
 
Bel said:
You have a point there. Keep in mind that the Shinigami not only have their lesser shinigami that they command...but the souls they protect in their territory as well, so thats a lot of souls to take tithes from, and putting all the Seated Officer Shinigami as greater dead on up.

Aizen would be interesting, in that rather than trying to blur the line between Shinigami and Hollows I'd imagine he was trying to blur the line between the living and the dead.. which could have some rather profound effects on the setting...
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Well, if we're still in my Underworld model, it's pretty probable that he gnawed at the corpse of a Neverborn and got his Butterfly form as his fully unleashed Deathlord form. Hence why he's ludicrously OP and can no-sell other officers - he's a secret deathlord.

(SECRET TUNNEL)
 
RedV said:
Some of them, sure, but don't the majority of residents in Soul Society forget their lives entirely? Similarly, their swords don't appear to be linked to any specific intimacy, unlike Hollows.

Like, for each hollow we can see strong and defining attachments like 'comrades' (Halibel) or 'power' (Grimmjow). Orihime's brother becomes a hollow due to excessive attachment. But that's not as visible in Soul Reapers- are Hitsugaya or Yoruichi, for instance, anchored to any specific intimacy? It doesn't appear like they need to be like that to exist, whereas Hollows need to be obsessed with an Intimacy to form.

So classing both as the same type of being sounds weird to me, because they fundamentally aren't. Like, I'm not disputing that Soul Reapers have Intimacies. But the core of their being isn't "beings anchored to intimacies who purify the dead". It's more like "the overseers and enforcers of purifying the dead", which intuitively fits more as Gods to me.
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Thats where going for an exact match is counterproductive to conveying the feel and themes of the conversion. Direct conversions always would be making for mismatches...

...but I imagine the first step of recruiting a Soul Reaper from the ghost collective would be:
-Looking for exceptional ghosts. If they are strong enough you can work around their quirks and incentivize them to reinforce the system
-Looking for ghosts with an emphasis on useful intimacies. Gets you a loyal core of dudes.

Ghosts work fine. Even driving intimacies don't render you incapable of organizational indoctrination, improved rights, and getting payment in prayer.
 
ManusDomine said:
Amusingly this model works exceptionally well with @EarthScorpion's model of the Underworld; the captains are fat on power because they've been fed the tithes of those they command and the prayers of living Sijan, while Yamamoto is so powerful because he supped at the hatred of dead titans and keep the fire that wants to devour Creation entrapped in his sword, and becomes a raging demon of fire when he unleashes it.
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Yeah, Zanpakutou in general are usually in a sealed state.

Is that enough to turn a Deathlord with all of the accompanying insanity into a mild-mannered Soutaichou? If so, do all of the high end Gotei officers also act more human because they seal their insane power up in swords? Is that a feasible thing that Sijan could do?
 
That seems more in line with the Espada, who seal most of their hollow powers away in their blades and then release them for a massive power boost at the expense of shedding most of the appearance of humanity they had going. Oh I don't dount that there's part of that going on with the Shinigami, especailly the most powerful ones like Yamamoto but still.
 
Given the (justifiable) hate for the Realm using triremes; might it be worth considering of ditching all of the Realm's roman aesthetic all together, since in most places it doesn't really resemble Imperial Rome compared to all the other influences Exalted draws on.
 
Talkkno said:
Given the (justifiable) hate for the Realm using triremes; might it be worth considering of ditching all of the Realm's roman aesthetic all together, since in most places it doesn't really resemble Imperial Rome compared to all the other influences Exalted draws on.
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... the Realm has a Rome aesthetic?

No, really, I've asked about this before, and I don't think they do. I think people just say Rome is an inspiration for the Realm because hey, it's a big famous historical empire, of course it's an inspiration for the big empire in our game, right?
 
Oh, by the way, Arms of the Chosen has been sent to WW for approval. So release isn't that far away for those who care about Exalted 3E.
 
Talkkno said:
The Realm's legions very clearly look like post Marian reform legionaries, with the scuta and everything.
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... Realm legionaries carry a scuta? 'Cause I'm checking around for art references, and so far the 3e art on p.213 and the CoCD: Blessed Isle art on p.59 both look closer to a modern riot shield (and is the only part of their gear that at all resembles Roman equipment,) the 2e art on p.159 is, okay yeah that's closer with how the armour is styled, but I'd call Rome at best one influence among many there, competing with the Warstriders, the flamethrowers, the Exalt taking centre stage, etc. Scroll of Kings p.105 has them using some kind of pike and shot tactics, which is pretty far from a Roman aesthetic. Sorry man, 'large rectangular shield' does not a Roman aesthetic make, especially not when famous Chinese works like Red Cliff are doing stuff like this.
 
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Imrix said:
... Realm legionaries carry a scuta? 'Cause I'm checking around for art references, and so far the 3e art on p.213 and the CoCD: Blessed Isle art on p.59 both look closer to a modern riot shield (and is the only part of their gear that resembles Roman equipment,) the 2e art on p.159 is, okay yeah that's closer with how the armour is styled, but I'd call Rome at best one influence among many there, competing with the Warstriders, the flamethrowers, the Exalt taking centre stage, etc. Scroll of Kings p.105 has them using some kind of pike and shot tactics, which is pretty far from a Roman aesthetic. Sorry man, 'large rectangular shield' does not a Roman aesthetic make, especially not when famous Chinese works like Red Cliff are doing stuff like this.
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Could've just been poor recollection; first thing that came to mind was this image and that vaguely give a roman legionnaire vibe.
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/66/54/a2/6654a2d60e264476581ff5775853e21b--central.jpg
 
The black blood (3-dot artifact)

This black coloured liquid, named Black Blood by its creator, was an artifact produced by one of the Deathlords. An artifact produced by producing soulsteel, and via a foul and cruel process, liquified it. The liquid artifact is then injected into a bled out subject who had been bled out, effectively replacing his blood. The blood serves several functions. First, it serves as a layer of armour beneath the skin. When a blade breaks the skin or a club strikes it, it hardens to form armour. Secondly, it holds the body of the together, preventing it from falling apart, preventing it from being crippled, and even amputations have to be done with great effort. Thirdly, as a replacement for blood, the black blood is a far superior replacement, enhancing he user's body with the unholy power of the Dead. Fourthly, a user of black blood can draw it out from his own body, using it to form spikes, needles, and blades, or cover his own weapons with it to enhance them.

Of course, this does not come without its own drawbacks. Other than the blood turning pitch black, the pallor of the skin darkens and greys, as red is replaced by black. Also, the infusion of soulsteel into a person's body opens them up to the whispers of oblivion. Normally, these are easily ignored and most of the time are silent. However, using the black blood in any way intensifies these whispers, and constant advanced usages can cause madness, making the user deranged and causing her to slay all that she laid her eyes on. Of course, such effects wrar off after a week.

What is worse, is what happens after death. The user dies... and is trapped within her body, as the artifact adds her ghost to the multitude used to compose its soulsteel. And by some twisted turn of events, the souls within this soulsteel artifact can influence the corpse it is injected into. What happens after this is unknown. Perhaps the body tears itself apart as conflicting ghosts. Perhaps the ghosts resurrect the body into a hideous parody of life, searching for the one who doomed them to an eternal existence of torment.

A/n: here it is. Happy now?
 
Talkkno said:
Could've just been poor recollection; first thing that came to mind was this image and that vaguely give a roman legionnaire vibe.
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/66/54/a2/6654a2d60e264476581ff5775853e21b--central.jpg
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Nearly every 2e picture of Legionnaires have a distinctly Roman styling. Large square shield, romanesque armour, and frequently roman style formations as well. Even their doctrine is practically ripped from historical Roman strategy. State Infantry with slingers as a core, mercenary horsemen, archers and other local auxiliaries rounding out the formation. Its tried, true and until invention of stirrups and more widespread use of cavalry (horse archery and otherwise) a dominating form of warfare.
 
Grounders10 said:
Nearly every 2e picture of Legionnaires have a distinctly Roman styling. Large square shield, romanesque armour, and frequently roman style formations as well. Even their doctrine is practically ripped from historical Roman strategy. State Infantry with slingers as a core, mercenary horsemen, archers and other local auxiliaries rounding out the formation. Its tried, true and until invention of stirrups and more widespread use of cavalry (horse archery and otherwise) a dominating form of warfare.
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That kind of goes to show then at best; the Realm's legions don't have a particularly coherent aesthetic or paradigm of warfare. Like the whole the Realm outsourcing cavalry to auxiliaries always gave a very romanequse feeling.
 
War focused Dawn Commander?

EDIT: yeah i know giving whoever crosses over a exaltation but well...shrug.

That said, for the Chosen in Creation, they kind of seem to be some form of Deathknight what with the Sarcophagus....but at at the same time they seem to have plugged into a ginormous Manse feeding them all that essencePsiconic Energy. This, plus a fair few Mutations/symbiote styled from demons, ghosts or the Wyld to transform the former human into a 3 meter tall psychotic immoral killing machine.
 
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Talkkno said:
Could've just been poor recollection; first thing that came to mind was this image and that vaguely give a roman legionnaire vibe.
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/66/54/a2/6654a2d60e264476581ff5775853e21b--central.jpg
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Mmm, the thing is that doesn't look Roman to me. You're right that the shield is very obviously patterned after a Roman scuta, with the shape, the curve and the central boss, but compared to the popular image of a Roman legionary, they lack almost any other similarity. The helmet is distinctly different; Roman helms are mostly recognisable for the cheek flaps and horizontal ridge above the eyes. Instead of the distinctly Roman arrangement of segmented plates for shoulder guards, the Realm legionaries wear a more medieval-looking pauldron made of a single piece of curved metal. Their torso armour offers much less coverage, and in fact seems to be only a gorget and a couple of plates attached to some form of heavy cloth - some form of gambeson robe, maybe? Either way, it has little resemblance to the banded plate of the Roman lorica segmentum. Most notably for me, they're clearly spearmen, with no sign of anything akin to a gladius. Where I have seen Realm legionaries fight with swords, it's generally been a long and faintly curved blade, resembling a sabre.

All in all, there seems to be significant artistic variance in what Realm legionaries look like, but where they draw on Roman influence, it's clearly only one source among many. Contrary to what @Grounders10 has asserted, 'Nearly every 2e picture' does not have a distinctly Roman styling.
 
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