Hey, so I'm writing a new Exalted Quest! Three updates so far. The Centipede's Dilemma follows the adventures of Golden Road, student of the Centipede Style, as she ventures into the Grave of Swords hoping to find purpose, redemption, and functioning legs, and encountering some asshole kung fu criminals on the way. Check it out!
 
So, silly 2E idea.
We know that if the Unconquered Sun, Luna, or the Maidens die some mortal inherits their power.
Lets say they all somehow die at the same time. Can a single mortal inherit all their powers? if so, what happens?
 
So, silly 2E idea.
We know that if the Unconquered Sun, Luna, or the Maidens die some mortal inherits their power.
Lets say they all somehow die at the same time. Can a single mortal inherit all their powers? if so, what happens?
Do we know this? I don't remember that
No, it's that if one of them dies there is a contingency so that their mantle can be taken up by someone else.
 
How does that work? Do we know any specifics?
I think it had to do with a specific Charm, and there were a few examples of who would be appropriate to take up which role?
IIRC Five-Days-Darkness and Little Beam are good and decent-ish choices to replace the Sun, Keychain Carjack is a good one for Jupiter, etc.
It's been a few years since I've looked at that.
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I think that Mnemon was brought up for the Worst Case Scenario of "what do if Pole-and-Dragon of Earth are gone"?
 
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A sidereal can then deem another deity worthy of the power. It's a charm in Return of the Scarlet Empress.

Which many people seem to hate. That said, the charm itself makes sense, as do the stats of the Ebon Dragon and Scarlet Empress. The book has one thing going for it.
 
Demons!

Tahat - That Which Guards the Gates
Demon of the First Circle
Progeny of The Sword of the Yozi

Like the Primordials he worships, the Sword of the Yozi has formed a city from his very soul. To police that city and protect he has created the Tahat, demons of great vision and greater wisdom.
The body of a Tahat is that of an Ox young and strong, with the wings of a peacock and no head or neck. A wheel of fire floats where it's head would be. Eyes of lapis lazuli adorn the rim of this, 8 in total and spread evenly across it's surface.
The sight of the Tahat is great indeed. A Tahat can count the strands of hair on a human head at 9000 meters, needs not blink or close in rest and can see in complete darkness or blinding light.
No lies may be told in the sight of the Tahat, though lies and half truths are possible. For this reason all public spaces and places of import within the city are patrolled by the Tahat. The throne room of the Sword of The Yozi himself features two specimens of ancient and noble bearing, and every courtroom in his city features at least one.
Tahat gain limit if they are ever forced to close their eyes, for to do so blinds them to the lies of others.
Sorcerors summon Tahat as interrogators and judges. With the right prodding any person may be made to speak, and in the Tahat's presence they may only speak true.
Tahat are also sometimes summoned as bodyguards and advisors, as they are strong as an ox and wise beyond even their prodigious years.

Szeker - The Guardians of the Treasury
Demon of the First Circle
Progeny of The Sword of the Yozi

The Sword of the Yozi is a priest of the Yozi. Their will made manifest on the world. As such he is deserving of worship, and all the benefits it entails. Including Ambrosia, that most coveted of resources. For this reason, the Szeker were created.
Each Szeker has the form of a crocodile of prodigious size, with the neck of a snake and the wings of a bat. Szeker have great love of wealth, and so they are often found dressed in great jewelry and fine clothes or lounging upon a pile of gold coins or precious jewels.
It is the role of a Szeker to evaluate the worth of goods offered in sacrifice to The Sword of the Yozi. To do this, they devour the goods offered and in this way they learn it's value. Anything devoured by a Szeker is converted into Ambroisa equal to its resource rating, this includes people and those whose offerings are lacking often find themselves being used to supplement it.
Once a Szeker has devoured it's offerings, it retreats to it's dwelling where it vomits forth the Ambrosia as gold coins, precious jewels or other items of great worth. This horde is the Szeker's most precious possession, a ready source of wealth which it can convert into any item it desires.
In combat, a Szeker prefers to use it's prodigious size, hardened scales and great bite to destroy it's foes. If that does not work however, the ambrosia in it's gullet can be formed into a rain of swords or stream of molten gold just as easily as it can be formed into works of art or precious coins.
Szeker gain limit when others fail a prayer roll in their presence.
Sorcerers summon as blacksmiths and appraisers. Their great size and flight also makes them excellent weapons of war and bodyguards, though most Szeker have not the temperament for it. They are natural born bullies, and will often flee when they meet a significant threat.

Charm: Devour Offering
A Szeker may devour and store up to five times their own body weight in goods and material. Once eaten, these items become ambrosia equal to their resources value.
The Szeker may instantly form this ambrosia into any non-artifact item it desires. The Szeker is treated to have 3 dots in all craft skills for this purpose. A Szeker may only use craft: Genesis to form others of it's kind.
A Szeker may always choose to forgo changing an item into Ambrosia, so it may be expelled without damage.

Charm: Appraise Value
A Szeker automatically knows the resource rating of any item it devours.
 
I love new demons, and the concept of sentry-demons makes sense.

Are they based of off Seraphim and Ophanim? It seems so, with the burning wheel full of eyes...
 
I don't mind. Its (?) a mistake I make a lot, and at least you gave a like.

Any thoughts on the demons themselves? I worry the first might not be weird enough.

They look good to me. I don't really have any strong feelings or insightful comments, though.

"It's" is a contraction for "it is", while "its" is the possessive form of "it".
 
I love new demons, and the concept of sentry-demons makes sense.

Are they based of off Seraphim and Ophanim? It seems so, with the burning wheel full of eyes...
Sort of? The Swors of The Yozi is a hardcore loyalist Infernal who is very much trying to restore the true gods of creation to power. So he's really deep into the Cecelyne tree, and to visually represent that I try to give him, and his demons, an abrahamic angel feel.

Tahat is technically just 10 Vigilant Gaze from K6BD though

Also the Szeker are not abrahamic specifically, but more based on how Egypt and surrounding regions, Persia etc, had a lot of gods/spirits/supernatural creatures which were made up of several other creatures. Also it's a dragon
 
I am super-rusty in my Exalted mechanics design, so I thought I'd discuss something conceptually and ask for a bit of help to see if it can be made a thing. Or if it's barking up the wrong tree.

Solars have Chaos-Repelling Pattern. Mostly used to travel in the Wyld, hence the name, but what it does is impose Creation's laws on the world around them in a radius of a few yards.

Lunars have Wyld Charms, which are more or less only useful in the Wyld. Would it be unreasonable for Lunars to have a Chaos-Shedding Pattern (or somesuch) Charm that imposes the Wyld on the world around them, similarly to Chaos-Repelling Pattern? Perhaps more motes committed to go from "tainted land" to "Bordermarch" to "Middlemarch" to "Deep Wyld." Maybe higher Essence/Ability requirement, or even upgrade Charms.
 
I am super-rusty in my Exalted mechanics design, so I thought I'd discuss something conceptually and ask for a bit of help to see if it can be made a thing. Or if it's barking up the wrong tree.

Solars have Chaos-Repelling Pattern. Mostly used to travel in the Wyld, hence the name, but what it does is impose Creation's laws on the world around them in a radius of a few yards.

Lunars have Wyld Charms, which are more or less only useful in the Wyld. Would it be unreasonable for Lunars to have a Chaos-Shedding Pattern (or somesuch) Charm that imposes the Wyld on the world around them, similarly to Chaos-Repelling Pattern? Perhaps more motes committed to go from "tainted land" to "Bordermarch" to "Middlemarch" to "Deep Wyld." Maybe higher Essence/Ability requirement, or even upgrade Charms.
I like it
 
I am super-rusty in my Exalted mechanics design, so I thought I'd discuss something conceptually and ask for a bit of help to see if it can be made a thing. Or if it's barking up the wrong tree.

Solars have Chaos-Repelling Pattern. Mostly used to travel in the Wyld, hence the name, but what it does is impose Creation's laws on the world around them in a radius of a few yards.

Lunars have Wyld Charms, which are more or less only useful in the Wyld. Would it be unreasonable for Lunars to have a Chaos-Shedding Pattern (or somesuch) Charm that imposes the Wyld on the world around them, similarly to Chaos-Repelling Pattern? Perhaps more motes committed to go from "tainted land" to "Bordermarch" to "Middlemarch" to "Deep Wyld." Maybe higher Essence/Ability requirement, or even upgrade Charms.
I probably wouldn't allow it as a native Lunar charm, since Luna is ultimately about defending and enriching the world rather than ripping holes in it. Could pick it up through the Raksha powerset, though, or the SMA Quicksilver Hand of Dreams.

Incidentally. my houserule/headcanon is that Lunars and possibly also Alchemicals could learn Sidereal Martial Arts... but only direct from a Sidereal tutor, same as Solars or Abyssals, and only if they picked up at least one charm from the style before getting tattooed. Locking out the ability to learn new SMAs was a deliberate design decision on the part of Silver Pact elders, for complex political reasons which they prefer not to disclose.
 
I probably wouldn't allow it as a native Lunar charm, since Luna is ultimately about defending and enriching the world rather than ripping holes in it.
What if it left a patch of Creation behind when it closed (only where it was when it got turned off; it doesn't leave a trail of it)? So it's a technique used to seal up tainted lands and wyld pockets one bit at a time, but being Lunar, it does it by flooding it with mutable Essence to wipe out the underlying wound, before sealing it properly. In the Wyld, it would leave a scar that likely gets subsumed back into the ambient Wyld within a Tale or two, but in Creation, it would be stable due to the rest of Creation nearby.
 
What if it left a patch of Creation behind when it closed (only where it was when it got turned off; it doesn't leave a trail of it)? So it's a technique used to seal up tainted lands and wyld pockets one bit at a time, but being Lunar, it does it by flooding it with mutable Essence to wipe out the underlying wound, before sealing it properly. In the Wyld, it would leave a scar that likely gets subsumed back into the ambient Wyld within a Tale or two, but in Creation, it would be stable due to the rest of Creation nearby.
If your ST is willing to accept that rationale, building off of Harmony With Reality Technique seems like a good place to start. My other concern is balance: what are the limiting factors, why doesn't this allow lunars (particularly elder lunars) to swing around their Wyld-keyword charms at will?

Hm... actually, how about this: it only works on shadowlands, and only after you've established a claim of ownership over the area, uncontested by any other essence-user for at least a full month. Draining poison out of the geomantic wound and replacing it with wyld-essence incrementally flips the area from shadowland to bordermarch, and has some side effects. Point of comparison would be the sidereal larceny capstone Conning Chaos Technique.

Probably also useful somehow for slowly brute-forcing repair of other permanent geomancy problems, such as the spell Curse of Unyielding Mist, botches during demesne engineering, Thousand-Forged Dragon fallout, shattered Fellara, or the ruins of Meru. Underlying symbolic message would be that, even without raw Solar power, Sidereals and Lunars could be patching up the world a lot more efficiently if they were willing to work together.
 
I got another art piece done by the lovely @Renu

You would probably recognize him from his Nun clothes. But this picture of Beryl after he escape the blessed isle and reunites with his people in the north. Which are basically creations version of cossacks.
 
If your ST is willing to accept that rationale, building off of Harmony With Reality Technique seems like a good place to start. My other concern is balance: what are the limiting factors, why doesn't this allow lunars (particularly elder lunars) to swing around their Wyld-keyword charms at will?

Hm... actually, how about this: it only works on shadowlands, and only after you've established a claim of ownership over the area, uncontested by any other essence-user for at least a full month. Draining poison out of the geomantic wound and replacing it with wyld-essence incrementally flips the area from shadowland to bordermarch, and has some side effects. Point of comparison would be the sidereal larceny capstone Conning Chaos Technique.

Probably also useful somehow for slowly brute-forcing repair of other permanent geomancy problems, such as the spell Curse of Unyielding Mist, botches during demesne engineering, Thousand-Forged Dragon fallout, shattered Fellara, or the ruins of Meru. Underlying symbolic message would be that, even without raw Solar power, Sidereals and Lunars could be patching up the world a lot more efficiently if they were willing to work together.
I'm the ST in this case, and my purpose actually IS to let Lunars use Wyld-only Charms. This presents serious balance concerns, you say? I'll have to review the Wyld Charms, myself, but in the interests of not missing anything, what stands out as potentially broken about it? I am far from perfect at detecting balance problems when reviewing things I haven't spend a ton of time with.

Due to the idea being based somewhat on Chaos-Repelling Pattern and how it's sometimes used in crossovers to ensure the Solar has all the respiration and such he needs in a setting where ambient Essence and the laws of nature working with his Charms are questionable, I don't like (for this purpose) the idea of long-term claims over areas being necessary, nor restricting it to Shadowlands. I do see the attraction as a thematic element if I had a different purpose.
 
I'm the ST in this case, and my purpose actually IS to let Lunars use Wyld-only Charms.

Are you actually running 2E? Why? Do you not like having SAN points? Run it in a rules-light system of your choice. You'll have a better time.

Joke aside, and if you're really committed to this for whatever reason, what you need to do is something along these lines: throw together the known strong builds (2-7 filter Claws of Silver Moon martial arts build, 2-7 filter killstick build, 2-7 filter giant kaiju build, 2-7 filter flying archer build), remove the obvious broken exploits in the normal charmset, then add unrestricted use of Wyld-only effects to your test builds and see if anything breaks with the expanded capability set.

Things you need to nerf straight up before you do anything else: the charm that lets you get motes back for breaking random scenery (for obvious reasons) and the charm that gives you one attack per limb in a game where you can turn into a giant centipede (for obvious reasons). There is also a reasonably solid textual argument for double-dipping Excellency efficiency via Accuracy on Claws of Silver Moon (Dexterity Excellency to boost Dexterity for purposes of defining CoSM's Accuracy, Dexterity Excellency to boost your attack roll), nerf that right quick while you're at it before anyone gets funny ideas. Kill charmsharing wherever you find it to make your testing burden bearable, delete the "Lunars can buy raksha charms" thing or you're going to end up in combinatorial testing hell.

You also want to kill player access to broken material from shoddy sourcebooks like the merit that lets you use Strength for to hit rolls in place of Dexterity or Scroll of the Monk charms, also for bleedingly obvious reasons.

Get your example test builds, do your changes, add Wyld charms, observe for obvious broken interactions, stop if you run into something particularly terrible. Effective ways to break dice caps on attacks or DVs, reduce effective Speed below 3, generate free motes and/or willpower, perfect cheaper than 3 motes and making attacks unfooable/perfect cheaper than a defending perfect are an example of "something particularly terrible". If you don't run into anything terrible, feel free.

If you're using the 2.5 errata, the same advice applies but with different numbers involved. The process is identical.

Also, something you might want to do is to just make the Wyld-only charms just work but cost more or have a lesser effect in Creation by default rather than bother with even more charm purchases required to unlock functionality in Creation. By RAW you get one charm roughly every two sessions, if we assume one session a week that's a lot of dead time spent buying things that don't work individually.
 
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If you tie mote recovery to stunting, this creates an incentive for the player to do "pointless" stunts, like narrating how they loot the bodies of the dead bandits they just mowed down in excruciating detail because they want to regain motes. Or narrate how relaxing it is to wander through the forest admiring the scenery and interacting with the flora because they want to regain motes. Or narrate exactly what they're doing to hunt small game, prepare it and use it to cook dinner because they want to regain motes, then narrate eating dinner because they want to regain motes. Then narrate playing their bamboo flute while enjoying the sunset because they want to regain motes. Etc, etc, you all get where this is going.
This is the ideal game actually.
 
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