Holden is still writing? I thought they kicked him out.
General Exalted Thread
Holden is still writing? I thought they kicked him out.
I mean, what is an exojock or heavy HITMark upgrade but a transhuman champion of the machine-god, wielding faith, dogma, and tools?
And more seriously confusing an Alchemical with like, a baseline rando HITMark V or something is probably a really good way to get fucked but higher-end HITMarks and their upgrades (or simply one running some remote buffs from an overseer, which isn't exactly uncommon) have some pretty serious capabilities.
The Alchemical is far more flexible, but the hubris would probably be less 'underestimating their ability to beat ass' and far more 'ignoring this versatility in favor of just using them as a glorified gun.'
Salty
Shadow Cabal Assumptor Supreme
- Location
- Sun, Moon, Talia
- Pronouns
- I/Me
You can take the man out of the company, but you can't take the Ink Monkey out of the man.
- Location
- my house
If someone has 3L/4B does the 3L protect against bashing as well?
- Location
- U.S.
No, they are separate soaks. A target with 3L/4B reduces bashing damage by 4 dice, and Lethal by 3 (Down to minimum damage, whatever that is for a given attack). They aren't connected.
Aggravated damage, as a note, is a third category that may or may not be connected to Lethal soak, depending on source. Outside of charms or other appropriate magic, nothing has natural aggravated soak, but armor grants aggravated soak equal to it's lethal soak.
Sanctum of the Sorcerer
Price: 25m; Circle: Sapphire; Anchor: Any 1+
Target: Ritual Site/Anchor
Spell Duration: Indefinite; Casting Duration: Ritual
Essence Aspect: Any; Favoured Aspect: None
It is written in ancient books that spells such as these are a lesser form of the arts from which Creation was wrought. It is for this reason that the Immaculate Order destroys such tomes, which would claim that demon-wrought sorcery could ever possibly match the work of Gaia and the Dragons.
Ritual: The sorcerer can choose to embed the Sanctum in reality, modifying existing terrain, or create an Elsewhere realm accessible via a door to the sanctum linked to the Anchor. The Anchor or the terrain must be harmonised before the spell can occur - for example, one could not create a Solar Aspected sanctum in a Yozi cult's temple without extensive purification and cleansing. Once the anchor and/or the site is harmonised, it requires a six hour ritual, which consumes Resources 4 in appropriate ritual ingredients. Should a character not part of the ritual interfere with the location during the casting, the sorcerer automatically botches.
Mechanics: At the end of the casting duration, the sorcerer rolls their Pool at a difficulty equal to the Anchor for Elsewhere sancta, or at the Anchor plus one for ones modifying existing terrain. On a success the door to the elsewhere sanctum forms, or the terrain warps and twists over the course of a few minutes to take its new shape - as an ice palace rises up from the ground or a ramshackle hut turns into a mighty tower.
If the spell is countermagiced, an Elsewhere sanctum starts to collapse over the course of a few minutes. A character who cannot escape before the door ceases to be perishes. A ritual site sanctum melts and dissolves over the same time period, returning the land to what was there before the spell was cast.
Effects: A Sanctum equal in ranking to the Anchor is created. Its design flavoured by both the Essence Aspect and the Anchor. A daiklaive with a lion-headed pommel used to anchor a location-based spell might create a tower with a grand lion-head upon the door, but Solar essence might make it out of white stone and gold while the same door made with with Malfean essence would be baroque brass and basalt.
Elsewhere sancta created by this spell have a single sanctum door at any one time. For localised Anchors like Artefact, Demenses, and the like, the sanctum door is located by the Anchor. For example, in the case of a daiklaive, the sword itself may open any door to the sanctum, while in a Demesne there may be a traditional sanctum door that leads to the hidden world. For more abstract Anchors, like Backing or Allies, the portal is created when the spell is cast. By performing the ritual again, the sorcerer can move the sanctum door.
Example Spells:
Palace of Dreams (Anchor - Cult)
The sorcerer inhales the prayers of her cult, and sings a song that gives birth to a tiny world, nurturing it with song and feeding it with music. Her dreams are what shape this place, and many sorcerers worry what might be read from the shape of such a world.
Pool: Intelligence + Performance
House of (Element) - (Essence Aspect - (Element), Target - Ritual Site Only)
There is power within Creation - power enough that one strong enough might grab hold of a dragon line and wrench it to the surface to mould the world like clay. Sorcerers of the High First Age wondered what they might do if they could grow strong enough to lift one of the elemental poles, but they could never achieve that.
Pool: Strength + Athletics
White Petal Residence (Anchor - Ally (Divine), Essence Aspect - Celestial)
In the First Age, certain beautiful Lunars charmed away the keys to the palaces of the gods. They returned them, but only after making records of their design. Telling a tale of this ancient theft, the Celestial symbolically 'borrows' the design of a celestial god's Yu Shan dwelling, creating a home literally fit for the gods.
Pool: Appearance + Socialise
Nightmare Mirror Recluse (Anchor - Whispers)
There are horrors below the world, born of the rotting dreams of world-creating titans. To store such a dream within one's head would be - and bring - madness, but to think the thoughts of those who built Creation would let one repeat a corpse-doll mockery of their deeds.
Pool: Wits + Integrity
Price: 25m; Circle: Sapphire; Anchor: Any 1+
Target: Ritual Site/Anchor
Spell Duration: Indefinite; Casting Duration: Ritual
Essence Aspect: Any; Favoured Aspect: None
It is written in ancient books that spells such as these are a lesser form of the arts from which Creation was wrought. It is for this reason that the Immaculate Order destroys such tomes, which would claim that demon-wrought sorcery could ever possibly match the work of Gaia and the Dragons.
Ritual: The sorcerer can choose to embed the Sanctum in reality, modifying existing terrain, or create an Elsewhere realm accessible via a door to the sanctum linked to the Anchor. The Anchor or the terrain must be harmonised before the spell can occur - for example, one could not create a Solar Aspected sanctum in a Yozi cult's temple without extensive purification and cleansing. Once the anchor and/or the site is harmonised, it requires a six hour ritual, which consumes Resources 4 in appropriate ritual ingredients. Should a character not part of the ritual interfere with the location during the casting, the sorcerer automatically botches.
Mechanics: At the end of the casting duration, the sorcerer rolls their Pool at a difficulty equal to the Anchor for Elsewhere sancta, or at the Anchor plus one for ones modifying existing terrain. On a success the door to the elsewhere sanctum forms, or the terrain warps and twists over the course of a few minutes to take its new shape - as an ice palace rises up from the ground or a ramshackle hut turns into a mighty tower.
If the spell is countermagiced, an Elsewhere sanctum starts to collapse over the course of a few minutes. A character who cannot escape before the door ceases to be perishes. A ritual site sanctum melts and dissolves over the same time period, returning the land to what was there before the spell was cast.
Effects: A Sanctum equal in ranking to the Anchor is created. Its design flavoured by both the Essence Aspect and the Anchor. A daiklaive with a lion-headed pommel used to anchor a location-based spell might create a tower with a grand lion-head upon the door, but Solar essence might make it out of white stone and gold while the same door made with with Malfean essence would be baroque brass and basalt.
Elsewhere sancta created by this spell have a single sanctum door at any one time. For localised Anchors like Artefact, Demenses, and the like, the sanctum door is located by the Anchor. For example, in the case of a daiklaive, the sword itself may open any door to the sanctum, while in a Demesne there may be a traditional sanctum door that leads to the hidden world. For more abstract Anchors, like Backing or Allies, the portal is created when the spell is cast. By performing the ritual again, the sorcerer can move the sanctum door.
Example Spells:
Palace of Dreams (Anchor - Cult)
The sorcerer inhales the prayers of her cult, and sings a song that gives birth to a tiny world, nurturing it with song and feeding it with music. Her dreams are what shape this place, and many sorcerers worry what might be read from the shape of such a world.
Pool: Intelligence + Performance
House of (Element) - (Essence Aspect - (Element), Target - Ritual Site Only)
There is power within Creation - power enough that one strong enough might grab hold of a dragon line and wrench it to the surface to mould the world like clay. Sorcerers of the High First Age wondered what they might do if they could grow strong enough to lift one of the elemental poles, but they could never achieve that.
Pool: Strength + Athletics
White Petal Residence (Anchor - Ally (Divine), Essence Aspect - Celestial)
In the First Age, certain beautiful Lunars charmed away the keys to the palaces of the gods. They returned them, but only after making records of their design. Telling a tale of this ancient theft, the Celestial symbolically 'borrows' the design of a celestial god's Yu Shan dwelling, creating a home literally fit for the gods.
Pool: Appearance + Socialise
Nightmare Mirror Recluse (Anchor - Whispers)
There are horrors below the world, born of the rotting dreams of world-creating titans. To store such a dream within one's head would be - and bring - madness, but to think the thoughts of those who built Creation would let one repeat a corpse-doll mockery of their deeds.
Pool: Wits + Integrity
Doesn't this sort of break the "no chumping Exalts" rule? If you're asleep or your Sanctum is just big enough to not be escapable in a few minutes, you can pretty much OHKO an Exalt this way.
I'd suggest, like, dumping all characters into the Wild or something as the Sanctum reverts to absence, which does basically the same thing but is survivable for a prepared Exalt. Or otherwise rule that Integrity Charms might let you survive in Elsewhere long enough to spontaneously develop a Charm that lets you get back.
If you can't get out of a self-destructing base in a few minutes, you die just like any other movie villain who can't escape in time when the heroes blow up his base. The heroes have managed to track down your hidden base, and broken its defences so now it's collapsing into the void and if you can't get out before it seals, you die. That's not chumping. That's dying to your own hubris as you assume that your hidden sanctum-base is protected against everyone.
If you don't want to perish when the world collapses on you, go create the option that isn't a hidden sealed away base which can be brought in secretly to a place, only have its entrance seen by people who can see spirits, and is super convenient. Go summon a sorcerer's tower in the real world. But if you want the low visibility option, accept the risks and suck it up.
Alternatively, you're not a movie villian and you just want to mind your own business without being involved in the theomachy anyone who can cast Saphire Circle Sorcery is exalted into. But I suppose after climbing to the middle heights of sorcery you really should have looked into an entirely unrelated option for personal security like turning into a mole and burrowing into the dirt.
- Location
- Land of the Midday Sun
Hello, Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion. Good to see you again. Also usable for modelling The Hunter's Dream, now that I think about it.
Palace of Dreams already has that covered.
mothematics
How wide is the concept of "you"?
- Location
- the bottom of a coffee cup
- Pronouns
- She/Her
it's basically morpheus's castle from sandman and I'm there for thatPalace of Dreams already has that covered.
I'm really fond of Divine Monster Judgment. Honestly, the charm seems like everything Beast the Primordial tried for and then failed to implement.
Sucal
The Devil’s Cut
- Location
- Bottom of the barrel
Especially scary if your Solar Mate is an empire builder (or has a bad sense of humor)
- Location
- my house
So I just saw Alita and Zapan had this thing where his back was like a bunch of faces that were in the style of like ancient indian or maybe Mayan temples? And it was just like the most exalted aesthetic I have ever seen even if it was on a cyborg I just like want the words to describe it so I can make it the aesthetic of an infernal for my game but I dont have the words to do it justice
- Location
- my house
Little bit, but it doesnt look quite right. Maybe I just didn't get as clear a look at it as i thought though
That help at all?
- Location
- Gladstone, OR
So I got bored and was thinking about the Realm and the Lunars.
The Realm is a decadent imperialistic hegemon that seeks to elevate it's ruling class (the Dragonblooded), using the vast potential wealth of the Satraps to do so.
As a nation, their flaws are many. So are their virtues. They are, without a doubt, one of the top three most organized and dedicated forces that take on the responsibilty of defending Creation. Like all great causes, a number of these threats are exaggerated or fabricated for propaganda, and others are real. The other two are Sidereals and Lunars, none of which are better or worse than each other.
In a very real sense, the face of heroism for half of Creation is the Dragonblooded, be it a Dynast or an Outcaste. That's not to say there aren't mortal heroes or godblooded or whatnot, but for centuries of not milenia, the power of the Elements was what people thought of as 'Exalted'.
The modern heroism of the Realm is similar to the development of Bushido and other martial philosophies- things that were at the more cynical or pragmatic level, created to focus the energies of an increasingly idle ruling military class to more productive ends. If a Samurai was pursuing those virtues, they weren't out there pillaging and warmaking and messing things up for the rest of the country.
Now DBs aren't Samurai and the Realm does not hew to anything as simple as a copy-paste of Bushido, but the logic I hope is clear. The 'Modern Realm' has a number of filtering mechanicms to push people towards the least destructive or most productive lifestyles. The wild, passionate scions of the Great Houses venture out in to the Threshold and work out their urges, make fortunes, lose them, and so on.
This is all a drastic oversimplification, for the record.
---
For the rest of Creation, their heroes are Lunars.
I think part of the problem is that we've run out of or closed off various ways to describe Lunars and their agency across Creation. We can't have them make Empires- that's the Realm's thematic and narrative purpose- to BE the singular empire that everyone else rallies against or defends. They can't be dynamic firebrand instigators rediscovering lost techniques and ancient birthrights- that's the Solar's job as the Returning Movers and Shakers. They don't want to destroy Creation like the Abyssals, nor preserve at all cost like the Sidereals, or Transform it like the Infernals.
Their major coherent agenda- 'Protect Creation' is largely a pragmatic one that's basically 'we protect Creation because we Live there, and because we Have for Ages'. It's a fine reason, but it's not really compelling- too big for a player character to really sink their teeth into.
Concentrating their 'splat identity' into 'Fuck the Realm' is no silver-bullet solution. It IS a powerful, central concept.
The Thousand Streams River Project was an implicit refutation of the 1e thesis of Exalted- that the world is full of Better-Than-Yous. It spoke to the ideal of a 'strong' system that can resist change, to avoid the obvious failing of the first age and solar lynchpin dynamics. This I feel was one of the more attractive elements of the TSR, even if it was in a lot of ways a sort of pandering, offensive idea to Exalted as a whole. The thesis of TSR was 'make something that won't need you'.
That's a lovely sentiment for a narrative, but a terrible one for a playable game experience.
The Lunars, as characterized by 2e, saw how the First Age fell into squalor by dint of the Solars no longer being around to maintain the greatest wonders. That in and of itself offers a whole raft of thematic problems, like if taken too simply, implies that the major gripe the Lunars have is 'All the cool stuff got wrecked'.
Additionally, a lot of 2e was retconned into being Lunar efforts that didn't amount to anything, because it was an obvious, trasparent ploy to make Lunars relevant, and the readership recognized it as such. Nobody cared that such-and-such place was a Lunar project behind the scenes, because people cared about that place for what you could play there, not it's backstory. History in a game needs to advance the playable agenda.
---
So you can't have 'Lunar Empires' because the Realm is already an Empire. You can't have Lunars do the rags to riches Solar arc, because they're ostensibly not the Infrastructure Heroes like Solars are. (in the sense that Solars are best at uplifting people and using tools).
You want Lunars to have a culture, but there's no room for them to HAVE a culture because their population is so small. They don't organize into large enough groups to have a cohesive group-identity other than 'We're all Lunars'. Trying to make smaller groups falls flat because on the scales of Creation, there's only so far a given Lunar clique can project their personalities and whims.
Further, we're all committed to this idea that Lunars cannot or should not have a shared coherent vision as that 'doesn't fit' the conception of Lunars. 'Fuck the Pact' is a common refrain- people don't want to be part of the Silver Pact or any Lunar organization, due in part to them being lame, but also due in part to how Lunars come off best as lone wolves or small-team operators (to their credit and detriment).
I think... at the core, Lunars don't just need histories, they need Setting Conceits.
The Wyld Hunt, for example, is an inherent part of the game. Any game of Exalted you play is going to have to acknowledge the idea of it, even if out of game, every player knows that in practice it'll never come up. Amusingly, the Lunars ostensibly are probably the most relevant to the Wyld Hunt anyway- being the primary Anathema opposition.
Setting that aside, I'd ask this: what's the setting conceit of the Lunars? What is the one thing you know, going in to any game, any splat, that Lunars are going to be doing? That you can essentially drop into any game, any format, just as easily as a Wyld Hunt?
The Realm is a decadent imperialistic hegemon that seeks to elevate it's ruling class (the Dragonblooded), using the vast potential wealth of the Satraps to do so.
As a nation, their flaws are many. So are their virtues. They are, without a doubt, one of the top three most organized and dedicated forces that take on the responsibilty of defending Creation. Like all great causes, a number of these threats are exaggerated or fabricated for propaganda, and others are real. The other two are Sidereals and Lunars, none of which are better or worse than each other.
In a very real sense, the face of heroism for half of Creation is the Dragonblooded, be it a Dynast or an Outcaste. That's not to say there aren't mortal heroes or godblooded or whatnot, but for centuries of not milenia, the power of the Elements was what people thought of as 'Exalted'.
The modern heroism of the Realm is similar to the development of Bushido and other martial philosophies- things that were at the more cynical or pragmatic level, created to focus the energies of an increasingly idle ruling military class to more productive ends. If a Samurai was pursuing those virtues, they weren't out there pillaging and warmaking and messing things up for the rest of the country.
Now DBs aren't Samurai and the Realm does not hew to anything as simple as a copy-paste of Bushido, but the logic I hope is clear. The 'Modern Realm' has a number of filtering mechanicms to push people towards the least destructive or most productive lifestyles. The wild, passionate scions of the Great Houses venture out in to the Threshold and work out their urges, make fortunes, lose them, and so on.
This is all a drastic oversimplification, for the record.
---
For the rest of Creation, their heroes are Lunars.
I think part of the problem is that we've run out of or closed off various ways to describe Lunars and their agency across Creation. We can't have them make Empires- that's the Realm's thematic and narrative purpose- to BE the singular empire that everyone else rallies against or defends. They can't be dynamic firebrand instigators rediscovering lost techniques and ancient birthrights- that's the Solar's job as the Returning Movers and Shakers. They don't want to destroy Creation like the Abyssals, nor preserve at all cost like the Sidereals, or Transform it like the Infernals.
Their major coherent agenda- 'Protect Creation' is largely a pragmatic one that's basically 'we protect Creation because we Live there, and because we Have for Ages'. It's a fine reason, but it's not really compelling- too big for a player character to really sink their teeth into.
Concentrating their 'splat identity' into 'Fuck the Realm' is no silver-bullet solution. It IS a powerful, central concept.
The Thousand Streams River Project was an implicit refutation of the 1e thesis of Exalted- that the world is full of Better-Than-Yous. It spoke to the ideal of a 'strong' system that can resist change, to avoid the obvious failing of the first age and solar lynchpin dynamics. This I feel was one of the more attractive elements of the TSR, even if it was in a lot of ways a sort of pandering, offensive idea to Exalted as a whole. The thesis of TSR was 'make something that won't need you'.
That's a lovely sentiment for a narrative, but a terrible one for a playable game experience.
The Lunars, as characterized by 2e, saw how the First Age fell into squalor by dint of the Solars no longer being around to maintain the greatest wonders. That in and of itself offers a whole raft of thematic problems, like if taken too simply, implies that the major gripe the Lunars have is 'All the cool stuff got wrecked'.
Additionally, a lot of 2e was retconned into being Lunar efforts that didn't amount to anything, because it was an obvious, trasparent ploy to make Lunars relevant, and the readership recognized it as such. Nobody cared that such-and-such place was a Lunar project behind the scenes, because people cared about that place for what you could play there, not it's backstory. History in a game needs to advance the playable agenda.
---
So you can't have 'Lunar Empires' because the Realm is already an Empire. You can't have Lunars do the rags to riches Solar arc, because they're ostensibly not the Infrastructure Heroes like Solars are. (in the sense that Solars are best at uplifting people and using tools).
You want Lunars to have a culture, but there's no room for them to HAVE a culture because their population is so small. They don't organize into large enough groups to have a cohesive group-identity other than 'We're all Lunars'. Trying to make smaller groups falls flat because on the scales of Creation, there's only so far a given Lunar clique can project their personalities and whims.
Further, we're all committed to this idea that Lunars cannot or should not have a shared coherent vision as that 'doesn't fit' the conception of Lunars. 'Fuck the Pact' is a common refrain- people don't want to be part of the Silver Pact or any Lunar organization, due in part to them being lame, but also due in part to how Lunars come off best as lone wolves or small-team operators (to their credit and detriment).
I think... at the core, Lunars don't just need histories, they need Setting Conceits.
The Wyld Hunt, for example, is an inherent part of the game. Any game of Exalted you play is going to have to acknowledge the idea of it, even if out of game, every player knows that in practice it'll never come up. Amusingly, the Lunars ostensibly are probably the most relevant to the Wyld Hunt anyway- being the primary Anathema opposition.
Setting that aside, I'd ask this: what's the setting conceit of the Lunars? What is the one thing you know, going in to any game, any splat, that Lunars are going to be doing? That you can essentially drop into any game, any format, just as easily as a Wyld Hunt?
samdamandias
Apprentice Plane Wizard
History and "Deep Time"*
It came up on the discord, and in the previews.
Old Lunars are old. Nobody's around from the War of the Gods/Titanomachy/Primordial War, but MHS, Raksi, Leviathan, and Ui the Burning Eye* are all from the first age, and have more in common with each other than they do any living Lunar. Imagine sending the socially awkward penguin meme to somebody, and then needing to explain not only what socially awkward penguin is, but what a penguin is and what an image macro is.
That is what it means to be a Lunar, to be an expatriate in time, rather than space.
*Not really deep, but this is a reminder that Julius Ceaser lived closer to the opening of the first Pizza Hut than the building of the pyramids, and that the modern US is only three degrees of separation from Rome.
**Yes, that really is his name
- Location
- Gladstone, OR
Unfortunately Irrelevant. That's history. Speaking for myself, I can't internalize that as a setting conceit. It doesn't tell me anything useful. It's interesting, and I can with effort, do something with it- but it's not the same kind of useful as 'Wyld-Hunt'.
Ideas are hard to convey in general and even more so when trying to be succinct. I'm not really worried about what 3e is or isn't doing, or plans to do. I'm speaking more about the non-solar experiences holistically.
Queshire
Wants a pink flamingo for their lawn.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Sure, until you need something from that Deep Time. Tracking down some treasure, looking for a cure to a curse, trying to figure out the weakness of the big bad monster threatening your kingdom? Bam, hit up the nearest Lunar elder.