notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
Did you really need to make a post saying that?
General Exalted Thread
- Location
- Singapore
I wanted to ask. Then halfway through i realized that was rude.
She is the Goddess of Bureaucracy, and is also the ultimate Corrupt Politician Archetype of the setting.
In this case "Corruption" means that someone is abusing their position and authority to increase their own personal power and holdings rather than what they are supposed to be doing, except that in the case of Ryzala IIRC she is capable of doing both at the same time due to who and what she is.
Earthscorpion Homebrew: Not So Enchanted Islands
For @Rook and others;
Alahi
Alahi has slipped from the Realm's fingers, and in the Deliberative Dynasts bicker and squabble over what is to be done with this troublesome place. One of the largest islands in the Anarchy, House Tepet turned it into endless fields of sugarcane. The entire native population was enslaved, and when that proved insufficient to sate the sweet tooth of the Blessed Isles countless other souls were brought to work the fields. The fertile fields of Alahi caused a crash in the price of sugar which allowed even the middle classes of the Realm to afford cane sugar in place of honey.
But House Tepet is ailing, and its brutality towards its slaves has been its undoing. The remaining locals, the new slaves and the bastard children of Realm colonists united three years ago, and burned the capital at Glorious Earth. In the Deliberative they speak in hushed words about rumours of atrocities visited on the colonists who could not flee, but nothing is done. It would take three legions, War Minister Cathak Cainan says, to take back Alahi with any due speed and the Tepet have no legions to spare.
Last year, they tried hiring Saatan pirates to secure them a foothold, but half their mercenaries died in battle or from disease, and the other half defected to the rebels. The former slaves fight like men possessed - and perhaps they are, for they tell rumours that the Dead have come seeking revenge for the acts of the Tepet. The Deliberative merely send orders to other satrapies in the area to use brutal force to prevent any other rebellions while they consider whether to send the Imperial legions. For a slave to speak the name of the warlord-priestess Sani Nem Ka is a death sentence by their decree. It is said she was the house slave of the satrap - perhaps his bastard, or the mother of his bastards, or both - and that his head tops her war banner.
Ca Map
Ca Map, the island made by men, where the poor live in barges and hoisted-up plundered ships and the rich live upon ancient platforms that float in the sky. Ca Map, where rum is cheaper than water and brothels are cheaper than hotels. Ca Map, where the worst scum gather and plan daring raids against the merchant princes. When strangers think of the den of piracy and villain in the Anarchy, they think of Saata. When Saatans think of such a thing, they think of this place. Located in the east of the Anarchy, just below the Wailing Fen, Ca Map is a canker on the world which lacks grace or kindness - but does possess a number of ancient weapons trained on the sea lanes that means people consider twice whether its destruction is worthwhile.
The Despot of Ca Map, Tuyet Alka, peers out from his floating lighthouse of antiquity with bottle-thick glasses, fondling his riches within his private chambers. In his youth he was a feared scavenger lord and pirate king, who stole the secret of how to activate the mechanisms of this platform. When the Realm came for him, he burned their ships with forgotten weapons and ransomed the Dynasts he captured back to the Imperial Navy. Now he is almost blind and palsied, with a hacking cough that will not clear. His life has been prolonged by the secrets he found here and by his pet sorceress, but his body deteriorates even though his mind remains sharp. He has made a pirate kingdom that even the Realm dare not assault - but he is dying. His deals with the Lintha have not helped. His bribes to the universities of Saata have not helped. Now he calls on the necromancers of Nightfall Isle, desperate to just grab a few more years of life.
Jati Isles
Weep for the Jati Isles in the Far South West, which had the misfortune of the blessings of Venus. If they had not been blessed, then they would not have been the only place where a divinely blessed breed of nutmeg tree with delectable blue flowers and a sweet azure nut grew. If they had not had blue nutmeg, then the oligarchs of the isles would not have made their fortunes from its sale. If the oligarchs had not been rich men, then the Steel Dragon Society would not have conquered this place and taken up cultivation of blue nutmeg on a systematic scale - and killed or banished nine in every ten of those who dwelt there. The blessings of the gods are hard to tell from their curses, sometimes.
These days, the Jati Isles are a miserable place. Where the land can support nutmeg trees, they grow the trees. So much land is set aside for nutmeg cultivation that they must import food, in addition to two hundred slaves a year to replace those who die. The Jati Isles are making the Steel Dragon Society extravagantly rich and the other pirate princes of the Anarchy - and more than a few Dynasts - are considering the value of these islands. Not one of them plan to bring respite to those who suffer in the nutmeg groves. And what of Venus? Might she one day turn her eyes towards Creation and see what has been done with her blessing?
Lu Bak
When pirates in dive bars tell ghost stories, they mention the cursed isle of Lu Bak. It is said that it was once ruled by a king so wealthy that he built his entire palace out of gold and roofed it with pearl. But he was murdered by his greedy servants and left a mighty death-curse. The tales are true enough. The golden walls are tarnished and smeared with bone ash; the pearl roofs have been replaced with lead, but Lu Bak exists, veiled by cursed mists. The geomancy of the isle has been rebuilt with obsidian spires and basalt tombs into a profane place of deathly power. Now black-sailed ships sail forth, crewed by the Dead. Skeleton rowers labour ceaselessly without rest on barges packed with grave earth, ruled over by blood-drinking necromancers.
And the necromancer-lords of Lu Bak are real; men and women who used the secrets found in the ancient cities to devour their lower souls and become creatures whose blood is stagnant and whose passions are cold. Of the slaves they take in their raids, most become food for the necromancers and their ghoul servants and their bodies join the crews of the undead. Those with the right talents - or the right heritage - are offered the chance to study at the feat of these pirate-kings of the Dead, until they are as twisted as their masters.
Sargassia
An island with no roots; a land with no stone - no wonder Sargassia was born of the madness of the Wyld. This island is a twisted mass of seaweed, coral and pumice, all twisted up and snarled so tightly that birds and other sealife have thought it solid land and made it their home. Crustaceans the size of dogs - or horses - dwell on it, and the clams grow to a peculiar size with lustrous many-coloured chaos pearls. There are species of seaweed here that devour flesh, and gulls that have given up flight and chitter from the trees. Handsome men and women, half human and half fish, sit upon the rocks and comb their hair - and only show their sharp teeth when they lure their prey in.
Sargassia drifts on the tides, sometimes blocking sea lanes, and sailors caught unaware might approach it seeking anchorage. From a distance, one might think that the greenery-snarled masts that dot the coastline are trees. The hungry seaweed bites onto wooden hulls and does not let go. Head up river on Sargassia, and one finds that space itself is convoluted. There is always more river as one heads to the heart of chaos, and finds the trapped ships getting older and older and older. There are Shogunate hulks in here, lost to the years, and once-human mutants dwelling upon them. Time too is not as it should, and the guttural calls of the mutants grow more and more archaic the deeper one goes.
Alahi
Alahi has slipped from the Realm's fingers, and in the Deliberative Dynasts bicker and squabble over what is to be done with this troublesome place. One of the largest islands in the Anarchy, House Tepet turned it into endless fields of sugarcane. The entire native population was enslaved, and when that proved insufficient to sate the sweet tooth of the Blessed Isles countless other souls were brought to work the fields. The fertile fields of Alahi caused a crash in the price of sugar which allowed even the middle classes of the Realm to afford cane sugar in place of honey.
But House Tepet is ailing, and its brutality towards its slaves has been its undoing. The remaining locals, the new slaves and the bastard children of Realm colonists united three years ago, and burned the capital at Glorious Earth. In the Deliberative they speak in hushed words about rumours of atrocities visited on the colonists who could not flee, but nothing is done. It would take three legions, War Minister Cathak Cainan says, to take back Alahi with any due speed and the Tepet have no legions to spare.
Last year, they tried hiring Saatan pirates to secure them a foothold, but half their mercenaries died in battle or from disease, and the other half defected to the rebels. The former slaves fight like men possessed - and perhaps they are, for they tell rumours that the Dead have come seeking revenge for the acts of the Tepet. The Deliberative merely send orders to other satrapies in the area to use brutal force to prevent any other rebellions while they consider whether to send the Imperial legions. For a slave to speak the name of the warlord-priestess Sani Nem Ka is a death sentence by their decree. It is said she was the house slave of the satrap - perhaps his bastard, or the mother of his bastards, or both - and that his head tops her war banner.
Ca Map
Ca Map, the island made by men, where the poor live in barges and hoisted-up plundered ships and the rich live upon ancient platforms that float in the sky. Ca Map, where rum is cheaper than water and brothels are cheaper than hotels. Ca Map, where the worst scum gather and plan daring raids against the merchant princes. When strangers think of the den of piracy and villain in the Anarchy, they think of Saata. When Saatans think of such a thing, they think of this place. Located in the east of the Anarchy, just below the Wailing Fen, Ca Map is a canker on the world which lacks grace or kindness - but does possess a number of ancient weapons trained on the sea lanes that means people consider twice whether its destruction is worthwhile.
The Despot of Ca Map, Tuyet Alka, peers out from his floating lighthouse of antiquity with bottle-thick glasses, fondling his riches within his private chambers. In his youth he was a feared scavenger lord and pirate king, who stole the secret of how to activate the mechanisms of this platform. When the Realm came for him, he burned their ships with forgotten weapons and ransomed the Dynasts he captured back to the Imperial Navy. Now he is almost blind and palsied, with a hacking cough that will not clear. His life has been prolonged by the secrets he found here and by his pet sorceress, but his body deteriorates even though his mind remains sharp. He has made a pirate kingdom that even the Realm dare not assault - but he is dying. His deals with the Lintha have not helped. His bribes to the universities of Saata have not helped. Now he calls on the necromancers of Nightfall Isle, desperate to just grab a few more years of life.
Jati Isles
Weep for the Jati Isles in the Far South West, which had the misfortune of the blessings of Venus. If they had not been blessed, then they would not have been the only place where a divinely blessed breed of nutmeg tree with delectable blue flowers and a sweet azure nut grew. If they had not had blue nutmeg, then the oligarchs of the isles would not have made their fortunes from its sale. If the oligarchs had not been rich men, then the Steel Dragon Society would not have conquered this place and taken up cultivation of blue nutmeg on a systematic scale - and killed or banished nine in every ten of those who dwelt there. The blessings of the gods are hard to tell from their curses, sometimes.
These days, the Jati Isles are a miserable place. Where the land can support nutmeg trees, they grow the trees. So much land is set aside for nutmeg cultivation that they must import food, in addition to two hundred slaves a year to replace those who die. The Jati Isles are making the Steel Dragon Society extravagantly rich and the other pirate princes of the Anarchy - and more than a few Dynasts - are considering the value of these islands. Not one of them plan to bring respite to those who suffer in the nutmeg groves. And what of Venus? Might she one day turn her eyes towards Creation and see what has been done with her blessing?
Lu Bak
When pirates in dive bars tell ghost stories, they mention the cursed isle of Lu Bak. It is said that it was once ruled by a king so wealthy that he built his entire palace out of gold and roofed it with pearl. But he was murdered by his greedy servants and left a mighty death-curse. The tales are true enough. The golden walls are tarnished and smeared with bone ash; the pearl roofs have been replaced with lead, but Lu Bak exists, veiled by cursed mists. The geomancy of the isle has been rebuilt with obsidian spires and basalt tombs into a profane place of deathly power. Now black-sailed ships sail forth, crewed by the Dead. Skeleton rowers labour ceaselessly without rest on barges packed with grave earth, ruled over by blood-drinking necromancers.
And the necromancer-lords of Lu Bak are real; men and women who used the secrets found in the ancient cities to devour their lower souls and become creatures whose blood is stagnant and whose passions are cold. Of the slaves they take in their raids, most become food for the necromancers and their ghoul servants and their bodies join the crews of the undead. Those with the right talents - or the right heritage - are offered the chance to study at the feat of these pirate-kings of the Dead, until they are as twisted as their masters.
Sargassia
An island with no roots; a land with no stone - no wonder Sargassia was born of the madness of the Wyld. This island is a twisted mass of seaweed, coral and pumice, all twisted up and snarled so tightly that birds and other sealife have thought it solid land and made it their home. Crustaceans the size of dogs - or horses - dwell on it, and the clams grow to a peculiar size with lustrous many-coloured chaos pearls. There are species of seaweed here that devour flesh, and gulls that have given up flight and chitter from the trees. Handsome men and women, half human and half fish, sit upon the rocks and comb their hair - and only show their sharp teeth when they lure their prey in.
Sargassia drifts on the tides, sometimes blocking sea lanes, and sailors caught unaware might approach it seeking anchorage. From a distance, one might think that the greenery-snarled masts that dot the coastline are trees. The hungry seaweed bites onto wooden hulls and does not let go. Head up river on Sargassia, and one finds that space itself is convoluted. There is always more river as one heads to the heart of chaos, and finds the trapped ships getting older and older and older. There are Shogunate hulks in here, lost to the years, and once-human mutants dwelling upon them. Time too is not as it should, and the guttural calls of the mutants grow more and more archaic the deeper one goes.
mothematics
How wide is the concept of "you"?
- Location
- the bottom of a coffee cup
- Pronouns
- She/Her
literally a supervilain
MR KRABS GUARDS MANY A FINE TREASURE
I like Lu Bak and would like to hear more about it, but just on sheer feeling this places spooks me way harder.
- Location
- Virginia
Arms of the Chosen final PDF is out, I put together a list of the changes: Arms of the Chosen final PDF changes - Onyx Path Forums
edit: and, well, while I was doing that Vance also posted one: Arms of the Chosen Errata Changelog - Onyx Path Forums
edit: and, well, while I was doing that Vance also posted one: Arms of the Chosen Errata Changelog - Onyx Path Forums
Last edited:
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
If you hit its weak spot for massive damage, you may be able to claim the treasure.
Is he a spider crab, though?
So through extensive comparison, holding up pairs of examples and squinting, and general guesstimation, I have judged this to be approximately the size of the state of Connecticut, and roughly 1/8 to 1/5 of an inch on the map depending on whether you're using the 2e map or the 3e map.
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
Keep in mind that this is the high end. At the low end, a petty kingdom is a random village. (Seriously though, low end would probably be about the size of a city-state.)
Yeah, though a the territory a city-state controls is probably a fair bit bigger than the city itself, which is what I was after. <_<
I wanna know how often I could practically throw a new psuedo-legitimate political entity at a character while they just sorta wander around. I think roughly 1 Rhode Island should contain enough resources and population centers to make it worth some random warlord's while to try and set themselves up as king of it.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I've been looking in the sourcebooks available to me and I cannot seem to find any definite indication of just how many spells the average sorcerer has at his disposable, whether he be mortal, Terrestrial Exalt, X-Blood or greater. I mean, it seems pretty silly to dedicate your life to study and work to master only one or two discrete abilities, but the list of spells I've compiled for a Dragonblooded sorcerer adversary is getting pretty large - and I haven't even figured his charms either. The sheer mechanics doesn't really matter, more the fluff and his rough capabilities since it's a story and not a game, but I don't want to make the guy who was initiated and raised by elementals stronger than the average Heptagram graduate.
Last edited:
- Location
- United States
How many charms would an equivalent NPC of their power level have in your campaign? strip some of those out and replace them with spells. it takes them the same amount of effort to learn a spell as it does to learn a charm, after all - and I assume your npc stats don't have "has all splat melee charms" for melee.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
That's the thing, it's not a campaign, rather a story I'm writing.
- Location
- United States
then what you are really asking is "how powerful do i make the characters in a book" and that is "as powerful as the story needs them to be".
most experienced sorcerers, who have the means to, are going to know a handful of spells. You only NEED, if sorcery is the core of your concept, an attack spell, a travel spell, and maybe three or four unique misc spells so you have some tricks. And an exalted sorcerer is going to have other options when it comes to charms that do certain kinds of things, so that will trim down the spellbook to a degree. And the kinds of access they have to spells is gonna restrict what they can learn. And I would assume that most sorcerers, when they get a spell that does X, are going to not be as hot to getting another spell that also does X in a different manner - you get a spell that lets you send manipulative dreams to people and you won't be hunting down more mind control spells because you already have a mind control spell, better to develop a spell that lets you send your shadow out to hunt down arcane links from people to use your dream sending spells through.
most experienced sorcerers, who have the means to, are going to know a handful of spells. You only NEED, if sorcery is the core of your concept, an attack spell, a travel spell, and maybe three or four unique misc spells so you have some tricks. And an exalted sorcerer is going to have other options when it comes to charms that do certain kinds of things, so that will trim down the spellbook to a degree. And the kinds of access they have to spells is gonna restrict what they can learn. And I would assume that most sorcerers, when they get a spell that does X, are going to not be as hot to getting another spell that also does X in a different manner - you get a spell that lets you send manipulative dreams to people and you won't be hunting down more mind control spells because you already have a mind control spell, better to develop a spell that lets you send your shadow out to hunt down arcane links from people to use your dream sending spells through.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
My concern is the canon comparative power of the average Heptagram graduate and my homebrew guy. In terms of 'uses' he has 2 attack, 1 defense, 1 travel as already decided and part of the story I've written so far (the link in my signature) and his control spell which is his title, then a definite choice of at least one mind control. Problem is there are a few others I think are thematic and would be something he would have picked up over his history.
- Location
- Singapore
And then there's the salinan working.
Sure, the sorcerer didn't have mamy books.
But the ripples of light of a bronze cup gave him insight on the essence pattern needed to create the skin of bronze. Observing a flight of sparrows had him intuit the word which lets him transform into birds.
Sorcerous spells can come from anywhere. Due to salina.
Sure, the sorcerer didn't have mamy books.
But the ripples of light of a bronze cup gave him insight on the essence pattern needed to create the skin of bronze. Observing a flight of sparrows had him intuit the word which lets him transform into birds.
Sorcerous spells can come from anywhere. Due to salina.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
That's really not relevant. He got his spells from working with elementals, but what I need to find out is the canon power level of Heptagram graduates.
A graduate can be a char-gen DB. So probably 1 or 2 spells, though they're likely to summoning(which is super powerful) as well as charms. Of course, that's not the only way to measure strength.
Salty
Shadow Cabal Assumptor Supreme
- Location
- Sun, Moon, Talia
- Pronouns
- I/Me
Who gives a shit?
The corebook is a tool. The corebook setting is an example. Don't let yourself be bound by the chains of compliance to some meaningless canon.
Blow it all up, and free yourself.
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
According to Exalted: The Outcaste, the Sorcery background describes the amount of spells that a sorcerer might start with, which Heptagram sorcerers are unlikely to start with "the highest levels of". At level three, you get around three spells which is the number that such sorcerers would be most likely to start with. I don't really think this is very smart because Exalted: The Outcaste does a long job out of how much better than the Realm Lookshy is and does so in all the wrong ways, so I'd suggest around four-five spells. The Heptagram primarily teaches spells that relate to symbols, communication, summoning and combinations of elements. It teaches spells under the Silurian paradigm of sorcery, which professes that everything consists of symbols which can be combined in different ways and adjusted by a skilled sorcerer. For my Quest, Seven Spires I wrote up that:
- Location
- United States
Your "average heptagram graduate" is gonna be a book-standard realm chargen DB, so there's a very real trade off between native charms and spells that exists in game. Each hypothetical graduate in the graduating class each year is gonna range between zero and (full starting charm array -1) spells known in their "spellbook".
Beyond that there's not gonna ever be a "graduates leave school knowing X spells" because that kind of thing is up to player choice. For your work, just decide a number and go with it.
Beyond that there's not gonna ever be a "graduates leave school knowing X spells" because that kind of thing is up to player choice. For your work, just decide a number and go with it.
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
This is also important. I tend to go for between three to five, but it's really more of a gradient than a hard number. Any Heptagram graduate will know one spell because you have to to complete the final test, but other than that it's really just a matter of how much they feel like studying.
- Location
- United States
RIght, the zero was a nod to graduates who leave without learning sorcerery. The Heptagram also teaches about using your natural essence, so the potentially higher levels of "i dumped all my charm pics for spells" are fairly rare. Personally I think starting with two spells is more than enough.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Problem is it's kind of difficult to build homebrew (which I love) without having some foundation/measuring stick in canon.
That is helpful, as the guy is an outcaste who did focus almost entirely on spells since the elementals raising him knew absolutely fuck-all about how DB charms work. They just poured a bunch of Occult mixed with Medicine and Survival on his head and were pleasantly surprised when he first exalted and then became a sorcerer. I am also using EarthScorpion's 'grounding sorcery in backing/artifact/etc' homebrew, which I think should defray the xp costs on spells slightly.