- Location
- Nova Scotia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I mean, looking at it as written, I guess you could keep using this every round, but you have those motes committed for as long as the individual equipment exists.
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General Exalted Thread
So, the Liminal Undying ability allows them to heal twice as fast if they have a decent supply of "spare parts", so to speak. However, the system section says that all Exalts regain all their health after a single recovery scene, which is stated to cover an arbitrary amount of time decided by the storyteller. Does mean that the ST is just supposed to give any Liminal Players the opportunity to do something without the rest of the party because they only need a half scene or whatever?
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
They might have in-scene regen that Undying lets them turbocharge? I mean, their Dodge literally lets them detach limbs to back away from something scary while keeping their victim in a grapple so there's some serious body horror themes with them.
- Location
- my house
Probably a versioning error. I'd note it in the feedback form
- Location
- my house
Random thought, but I've been thinking recently about how crucial it can be for players to define not just their Motivation, but also their character's methodology. Not only does it help the player get into the mindset of playing as someone else but it helps the ST predict what you are going to do, which is crucial for a game as player driven as Exatled is.
For instance, I am statting up an Infernal right now, and while he is Malfean in temperament and charms, he came from a nomadic people and so he doesn't like to attack his enemies directly. Instead his MO is to target their weakpoints. To hit their allies and cut off their resources and foment rebellion and then, once they are isolated, weak and alone, he strikes with a devasting singular blow. Which, I mean, is basic strategy, but its not the only way to approach things, and it tells the ST that when presented with an objective I am first going to ask about/investigate into the supporting structures which feed into that objective rather than going straight towards the goal.
For instance, I am statting up an Infernal right now, and while he is Malfean in temperament and charms, he came from a nomadic people and so he doesn't like to attack his enemies directly. Instead his MO is to target their weakpoints. To hit their allies and cut off their resources and foment rebellion and then, once they are isolated, weak and alone, he strikes with a devasting singular blow. Which, I mean, is basic strategy, but its not the only way to approach things, and it tells the ST that when presented with an objective I am first going to ask about/investigate into the supporting structures which feed into that objective rather than going straight towards the goal.
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The MacKenzies
una salus victis nullam sperare salutem
- Location
- Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Signature
I've always done this during Session Zero, kind of just in the natural way of doing business, but making it more explicit and formalized might be beneficial, yeah.
- Location
- my house
I've done it for, like, what I want to do (i.e. I really want to do combat, or roleplay, or conquer a nation) but never for my character before, if that makes sense?
At least not formally
- Location
- my house
BTW, here is the latest in my series of essays on the Exalts. This time we cover Infernals, my fav splat.
Born in Tragedy
A Solar's Second Breath is the greatest moment of their life. They exalt in triumph, as they face their greatest challenge and overcome it.
An Infernal is not so lucky. For Infernals are born in tragedy. For an Infernal, their second breath is the worst day of their life.
And this failure defines their life as an Exalt.
In many ways, deciding on your Infernal's tragedy is the most important part of creating their character concept.
Luckily, there's quite a few ways methods you can use.
Failure
My personal favorite tragedy, and the one that defined them in previous editions, the Infernal can exalt during or as a result of their failure.
This could be a failure of capability. A child may be too weak to protect their loved ones. A woman may run her business into the ground through dumb investments. A doctor may be unable to prevent the spread of a plague.
However, I find that moral failures tend to be more interesting, as they are the character flaws which cement Infernals as villains (or anti-heroes). The child was not too weak, they ran in fear. The woman was too ambitious and got involved in shady investment. The doctor was too greedy, and accepted bribes to let (seemingly) healthy people leave and preventing a proper quarantine from going into effect.
Regardless of what form the failure takes it should profoundly effect your Infernal, either as a consistent character flaw they never move past or as something they consciously choose to change about themselves. The child hates themselves for their fear and tries to overcome it. The woman never loses her ambition and her overreach consistently foils her plans (or maybe with her new power her capabilities now match her ambition). The doctor's greed never leaves him, but he seeks to make amends by ending the plague itself.
Example Characters: Batman (especially if he chooses to focus on vengeance over justice), Taylor Hebert (really any parahuman from Worm), Edward Elric (when his ambition cripples him and his brother), Griffith (when he breaks from seeing the loss of his dream), Guts (when he fails to save his friends, when he kills his father, when he realizes that he only appreciates things when they're gone, etc. Listen, Guts is great and you should read Berserk.)
Deal with the Devil
This origin is one that I personally do not find as interesting or evocative, but it does offer a broader range of options when making an Infernal. Rather than being a response to a tragedy, the Infernal's second breath could be a deliberate thing. A conscious choice to take on the powers of the Yozi to achieve their goal.
This could be benevolent. A farm boy could be offered the power and knowledge he needs to save his sickly father and choose to take it. Or it could be purely selfish. A skilled sorcerer may make fell bargains with a demon prince and receive an exaltation in return.
The Solars of Sin
The Infernals are villains and anti-heroes. You can be purely benevolent, and it can be really interesting to learn how to turn their charms to purely benevolent means, but generally if you want to play a hero you'll want to pick another splat.
And often, what separates a villain (or anti-hero) from their heroic counterparts is what drives them. While a hero is driven by pure motives, by a desire to protect, or a love for one's fellows a villain is driven by darker emotions. Envy, hate, pride, cowardice. The ugly emotions of life. Just as powerful as other emotions, but much less appealing.
When making an Infernal, it often helps to identify a darker emotion at the core of their character which can define them. Something which can push them to new heights of evil and evil simultaneously. Any "dark" or "evil" emotion will do, but so can traditionally "good" ones if you give them a proper twist. A hero's self-sacrificing compassion could be rooted in a lack of self-worth for instance.
Examples: Cassandra's envy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaHBg8E1o00), The Count of Monte-Cristo's desire for revenge, Lucifer's Pride, Scar's Hatred (FMA, not Lion King. That Scar is envy), Walter White's fear of dying without achieving anything, etc.
Weird Charms
The Infernal charmset is notorious for being weird. Its trees are grouped thematically rather than by ability, making it hard to plan out a specialized build and its charms are designed for a very specific (often evil) purpose which means that the player needs to learn to use them in ways orthogonal to their origina'l purpose.
Which can honestly make making a character relatively easy. Just make a generic one. Make an Invcible Sword Princess, or an Invisible Ninja or a Scavenger-Scientist Warlord. The Infernal charmset is weird enough that you'll still come up with a unique character, and then you can backfill those charm choices to learn about your character.
After all, if your character invested a lot into the Malfean charmtree that says something about them.
Transhumanism
The Infernal's charms have always carried a large streak of transhumanism. Their bodies and minds are warped by the essence of their hell, changing them to be more like the Yozi who are their patrons. However, these changes have never been anything so crude as a possessing spirit. There is no outside force trying to corrupt the Infernal or steal control of their bodies.
Instead the Infernals are provided the powers of the Yozi, and given the choice to use them. With Freedom Lets Go they can cut toxic relationships and ideas from their lives. With Green Sun Nimbus Flare they can smite their foes with nuclear fire. And none of these powers are inherently evil, but just having access to them changes the way Infernals think and act, because it gives them more options. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like nail. And the Infernal has been given all sorts of hammers.
Born in Tragedy
A Solar's Second Breath is the greatest moment of their life. They exalt in triumph, as they face their greatest challenge and overcome it.
An Infernal is not so lucky. For Infernals are born in tragedy. For an Infernal, their second breath is the worst day of their life.
And this failure defines their life as an Exalt.
In many ways, deciding on your Infernal's tragedy is the most important part of creating their character concept.
Luckily, there's quite a few ways methods you can use.
Failure
My personal favorite tragedy, and the one that defined them in previous editions, the Infernal can exalt during or as a result of their failure.
This could be a failure of capability. A child may be too weak to protect their loved ones. A woman may run her business into the ground through dumb investments. A doctor may be unable to prevent the spread of a plague.
However, I find that moral failures tend to be more interesting, as they are the character flaws which cement Infernals as villains (or anti-heroes). The child was not too weak, they ran in fear. The woman was too ambitious and got involved in shady investment. The doctor was too greedy, and accepted bribes to let (seemingly) healthy people leave and preventing a proper quarantine from going into effect.
Regardless of what form the failure takes it should profoundly effect your Infernal, either as a consistent character flaw they never move past or as something they consciously choose to change about themselves. The child hates themselves for their fear and tries to overcome it. The woman never loses her ambition and her overreach consistently foils her plans (or maybe with her new power her capabilities now match her ambition). The doctor's greed never leaves him, but he seeks to make amends by ending the plague itself.
Example Characters: Batman (especially if he chooses to focus on vengeance over justice), Taylor Hebert (really any parahuman from Worm), Edward Elric (when his ambition cripples him and his brother), Griffith (when he breaks from seeing the loss of his dream), Guts (when he fails to save his friends, when he kills his father, when he realizes that he only appreciates things when they're gone, etc. Listen, Guts is great and you should read Berserk.)
Deal with the Devil
This origin is one that I personally do not find as interesting or evocative, but it does offer a broader range of options when making an Infernal. Rather than being a response to a tragedy, the Infernal's second breath could be a deliberate thing. A conscious choice to take on the powers of the Yozi to achieve their goal.
This could be benevolent. A farm boy could be offered the power and knowledge he needs to save his sickly father and choose to take it. Or it could be purely selfish. A skilled sorcerer may make fell bargains with a demon prince and receive an exaltation in return.
The Solars of Sin
The Infernals are villains and anti-heroes. You can be purely benevolent, and it can be really interesting to learn how to turn their charms to purely benevolent means, but generally if you want to play a hero you'll want to pick another splat.
And often, what separates a villain (or anti-hero) from their heroic counterparts is what drives them. While a hero is driven by pure motives, by a desire to protect, or a love for one's fellows a villain is driven by darker emotions. Envy, hate, pride, cowardice. The ugly emotions of life. Just as powerful as other emotions, but much less appealing.
When making an Infernal, it often helps to identify a darker emotion at the core of their character which can define them. Something which can push them to new heights of evil and evil simultaneously. Any "dark" or "evil" emotion will do, but so can traditionally "good" ones if you give them a proper twist. A hero's self-sacrificing compassion could be rooted in a lack of self-worth for instance.
Examples: Cassandra's envy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaHBg8E1o00), The Count of Monte-Cristo's desire for revenge, Lucifer's Pride, Scar's Hatred (FMA, not Lion King. That Scar is envy), Walter White's fear of dying without achieving anything, etc.
Weird Charms
The Infernal charmset is notorious for being weird. Its trees are grouped thematically rather than by ability, making it hard to plan out a specialized build and its charms are designed for a very specific (often evil) purpose which means that the player needs to learn to use them in ways orthogonal to their origina'l purpose.
Which can honestly make making a character relatively easy. Just make a generic one. Make an Invcible Sword Princess, or an Invisible Ninja or a Scavenger-Scientist Warlord. The Infernal charmset is weird enough that you'll still come up with a unique character, and then you can backfill those charm choices to learn about your character.
After all, if your character invested a lot into the Malfean charmtree that says something about them.
Transhumanism
The Infernal's charms have always carried a large streak of transhumanism. Their bodies and minds are warped by the essence of their hell, changing them to be more like the Yozi who are their patrons. However, these changes have never been anything so crude as a possessing spirit. There is no outside force trying to corrupt the Infernal or steal control of their bodies.
Instead the Infernals are provided the powers of the Yozi, and given the choice to use them. With Freedom Lets Go they can cut toxic relationships and ideas from their lives. With Green Sun Nimbus Flare they can smite their foes with nuclear fire. And none of these powers are inherently evil, but just having access to them changes the way Infernals think and act, because it gives them more options. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like nail. And the Infernal has been given all sorts of hammers.
MiracleGrow
Miracles for only $19.99 [They/Them]
- Location
- DOOR STUCK DOOR STUCK PLEASE I BEG U
Freedom lets go is a incredibly evocative charm for me. Like, one of the most interesting charms in exalted. Everyone is tied to their memories and past experiences no matter how hard one tries to shake them off. It's always kinda breathing down your neck one way or another.
But a Adorjan Infernal can just let go. Leaving it all in the dust behind them. They can experience freedom from all things like no other being in creation can. Which is cool as fuck honestly. Giggle murder zoom zoom best infernals.
But a Adorjan Infernal can just let go. Leaving it all in the dust behind them. They can experience freedom from all things like no other being in creation can. Which is cool as fuck honestly. Giggle murder zoom zoom best infernals.
QafianSage
Ascending Ape
- Location
- United Kingdom
So, I'm working up a more full writeup of Ashina from Sekiro as a location in Creation, but here's a little preview of part of it.
The Headless
Yidak
Dead by Execution
It is widely known that the souls of warriors are restless things. Some say they must be, to take a woman so far from home. Some say that bloodshed and slaughter loosens their bonds to life, so that in death they rise all the easier. Whatever the case, the death of a soldier is not to be taken lightly, especially when dishonorable. And among the more terrible forms of warrior-ghosts are the Headless, for they are the defiled remains of a hero.
When a mighty warrior is executed by his own people, his spirit may arise after death. Propelled by the outrage of betrayal, and forgetting any crime it may have committed to earn such an end, it claims its own desecrated body, which swells and bloats with corrupted power. It takes up whatever weapon it might have wielded in life and puts it to bloody work again in death, often reaping a bitter toll upon its former comrades as it arises with all the strength and skill it once possessed, now put to the purpose of mindless vengeance.
In addition to these powers, all Headless possess two further gifts. First, their certainty in their own supremacy leaks from their ever-putrefying forms like a corpse-fog, numbing and confusing the brains of those face them, and slowing their movements. Second, against those who once betrayed them the Headless wield an unconscious, mind-twisting power - they are at once the essence of patriotic glory, and the ultimate degradation of that same prestige. They are the rot of people and the state personified, and the contradiction plucks at the strings of thought; the weak-willed can easily break under the strain, or accept the contradiction by accepting the fundamental corruption of their people. For this reason, polities often prefer to confine the Headless, and keep them out of sight and mind, than attempt to destroy them, for they know that even if their soldiers defeat the enemy many may come away as new subversives.
This is helped, too, by the fact that the Headless are not hard to confine. They are blind, though they can sense the breath of the living, and their madness is such that they cannot think far ahead, or remember far behind. They live only in an eternal 'now', and so can be lured to an isolated place and bricked in or left to wander with relatively little danger; they have not the wherewithal to make any long journey, or to remember where they might go if they did. Nevertheless, when a foe is before them a Headless is relentless, and will not cease in their assaults until the victim is destroyed, or escapes and they forget.
The Headless make poor fighters in the field of open battle, and so necromancers more often summon them to serve as guardians of certain places, or to sow terror and discord within an opposing kingdom. They are also unusually easy to produce, though doing so is often a deadly blow to the morale of a necromancer's own forces. When tasked to deal with a Headless, exorcists most often choose to isolate them and post warnings of the monster ahead, though they often supplement these measures with wards and other procedures intending to keep the hungry ghost trapped. When a Headless must be killed, it is best to employ foreigners to do it, as they are not so vulnerable to its loyalty-twisting powers.
The Headless
Yidak
Dead by Execution
It is widely known that the souls of warriors are restless things. Some say they must be, to take a woman so far from home. Some say that bloodshed and slaughter loosens their bonds to life, so that in death they rise all the easier. Whatever the case, the death of a soldier is not to be taken lightly, especially when dishonorable. And among the more terrible forms of warrior-ghosts are the Headless, for they are the defiled remains of a hero.
When a mighty warrior is executed by his own people, his spirit may arise after death. Propelled by the outrage of betrayal, and forgetting any crime it may have committed to earn such an end, it claims its own desecrated body, which swells and bloats with corrupted power. It takes up whatever weapon it might have wielded in life and puts it to bloody work again in death, often reaping a bitter toll upon its former comrades as it arises with all the strength and skill it once possessed, now put to the purpose of mindless vengeance.
In addition to these powers, all Headless possess two further gifts. First, their certainty in their own supremacy leaks from their ever-putrefying forms like a corpse-fog, numbing and confusing the brains of those face them, and slowing their movements. Second, against those who once betrayed them the Headless wield an unconscious, mind-twisting power - they are at once the essence of patriotic glory, and the ultimate degradation of that same prestige. They are the rot of people and the state personified, and the contradiction plucks at the strings of thought; the weak-willed can easily break under the strain, or accept the contradiction by accepting the fundamental corruption of their people. For this reason, polities often prefer to confine the Headless, and keep them out of sight and mind, than attempt to destroy them, for they know that even if their soldiers defeat the enemy many may come away as new subversives.
This is helped, too, by the fact that the Headless are not hard to confine. They are blind, though they can sense the breath of the living, and their madness is such that they cannot think far ahead, or remember far behind. They live only in an eternal 'now', and so can be lured to an isolated place and bricked in or left to wander with relatively little danger; they have not the wherewithal to make any long journey, or to remember where they might go if they did. Nevertheless, when a foe is before them a Headless is relentless, and will not cease in their assaults until the victim is destroyed, or escapes and they forget.
The Headless make poor fighters in the field of open battle, and so necromancers more often summon them to serve as guardians of certain places, or to sow terror and discord within an opposing kingdom. They are also unusually easy to produce, though doing so is often a deadly blow to the morale of a necromancer's own forces. When tasked to deal with a Headless, exorcists most often choose to isolate them and post warnings of the monster ahead, though they often supplement these measures with wards and other procedures intending to keep the hungry ghost trapped. When a Headless must be killed, it is best to employ foreigners to do it, as they are not so vulnerable to its loyalty-twisting powers.
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- Location
- my house
Yeah, it's imo the best example of how Infernal charms can change you just by being useful charms. Because a lot of people would want that power and have good reason to use it, but it still makes your actions really weird and alien to others
- Pronouns
- He/Him
So, Shards of the Exalted Dream and the movie New Gods: Nezha Reborn have got me thinking about a cyberpunk Exalted setting. Some parts of the setting are easier to adapt to a Blade Runner-esque megalopolis - the Dragon-Blooded as genetically-engineered celebrity-superheroes who are united under the banner of rival corporations instead of various great Houses.
Others are harder - I think what's giving me the most trouble is figuring out how the Gods/Primordials fit into all of this. Part of me wants to put the general "decaying supermetropolis" thing in the spotlight, rather than focusing on more abstract and cosmological things, but I also hesitate to go full Burn Legend and strip away the idea of "legendary divine heroes returning" completely.
Anyone have ideas, opinions?
Others are harder - I think what's giving me the most trouble is figuring out how the Gods/Primordials fit into all of this. Part of me wants to put the general "decaying supermetropolis" thing in the spotlight, rather than focusing on more abstract and cosmological things, but I also hesitate to go full Burn Legend and strip away the idea of "legendary divine heroes returning" completely.
Anyone have ideas, opinions?
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Could have them be super AI that took over in the setting backgorund and where overthrown?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
"Super AI" is a niche that's going to be filled by the
Who's that? The woman in green who attends all the board meetings? Oh, she's just the secretary. Pay no mind.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
hmm. You could run with the Yozis being made up of their constituant demons? So each Yozi was a super gang that ruled the underworld but then their leuitenents (the incarna Sol and Luna) rebelled and now rule the criminal underground as a diarchy.
Edit: With reminates of the old Yozi gangs still hanging around.
Edit: With reminates of the old Yozi gangs still hanging around.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
In general, I'm thinking of stripping some of the baggage away - the Solars are these beings that were ancient heroes of legend, who rose up when the powers of Hell threatened to conquer humanity and drove back the demons. But their triumph terrified others; they were usurped and destroyed.
The new Mugen/Solars aren't reincarnations so much as a new expression of this mysterious, heroic power that wells up inside the worthy. The Shinigami/Abyssals are empowered by the vengeful spirits of the first, now-dead Solars. And the Yozi are these primal, base creatures that have always existed and will always exist, and they rule the criminal underworld's lowest depths by reaching up and empowering their servitors, the Infernals/Akuma.
Going off this perspective, the whole thing is sort of similar to a superhero setting, a la X-Men - you're this heroic vigilante type figure.
The new Mugen/Solars aren't reincarnations so much as a new expression of this mysterious, heroic power that wells up inside the worthy. The Shinigami/Abyssals are empowered by the vengeful spirits of the first, now-dead Solars. And the Yozi are these primal, base creatures that have always existed and will always exist, and they rule the criminal underworld's lowest depths by reaching up and empowering their servitors, the Infernals/Akuma.
Going off this perspective, the whole thing is sort of similar to a superhero setting, a la X-Men - you're this heroic vigilante type figure.
- Pronouns
- He
Today in Exalted, we killed a space whale.
Through the 'miracle' of Exalted combat rules, this will be a lot quicker to read than it was to play but we all still had a good time. Anyway, it started with Dervish finally getting out of the airlock and jetting up into the Void with her massive railgun. As Dahlia and I whacked on the tentacles binding the creature to the ship, she flew up into the whale's mouth and started opening fire.
it had quite the effect, especially when she used the special shell she was keeping around for an emergency. As the two of us severed one of the tentacles, the body of the beast started to swell up from the inside. I knew where this was going and was glad that I'd just be cleaning space whale guts off of my armor instead of inside my mouth.
Sure enough, the void behemoth exploded and the tentacles went slack, letting us slip away into freedom. The special shell Dervish had used was actually a Pokeball for a lesser elemental dragon, who was quite happy to be freed and showed that happiness by blasting a few enemy ships.
And there were a lot of enemy ships. By now, the Imperial fleet had closed to the point where boarding parties are a possibility. Oh, and only a third of the behemoths are dead and the remaining twenty are still making a mess of the Gunstar's defense line. But you don't call in three Exalted for the easy jobs.
Next time, we get some more void action!
Through the 'miracle' of Exalted combat rules, this will be a lot quicker to read than it was to play but we all still had a good time. Anyway, it started with Dervish finally getting out of the airlock and jetting up into the Void with her massive railgun. As Dahlia and I whacked on the tentacles binding the creature to the ship, she flew up into the whale's mouth and started opening fire.
it had quite the effect, especially when she used the special shell she was keeping around for an emergency. As the two of us severed one of the tentacles, the body of the beast started to swell up from the inside. I knew where this was going and was glad that I'd just be cleaning space whale guts off of my armor instead of inside my mouth.
Sure enough, the void behemoth exploded and the tentacles went slack, letting us slip away into freedom. The special shell Dervish had used was actually a Pokeball for a lesser elemental dragon, who was quite happy to be freed and showed that happiness by blasting a few enemy ships.
And there were a lot of enemy ships. By now, the Imperial fleet had closed to the point where boarding parties are a possibility. Oh, and only a third of the behemoths are dead and the remaining twenty are still making a mess of the Gunstar's defense line. But you don't call in three Exalted for the easy jobs.
Next time, we get some more void action!
samdamandias
Apprentice Plane Wizard
If the Mugen are the return of the same force of old heroes, perhaps the Infernals are empowered not by Hell, but by the city itself? Something new and unexpected.
Are you just doing the classic Solaroids/Sidereals/Lunars/Deebs or are you also including Alchemicals, Liminals, Exigents or Getimians?
- Location
- my house
Cyperpunk is what it looks like when the Infernal's win. The world has become a barren desert dotted with isolated brass-megacities, each ruled by its own Infernal. Real food is a luxury in those cities, afforded only to the rich who can afford the magic that must be used in place of soil. Everyone else must subsist on the crystaline locusts which crawl from the ground under their ruler's temple complexes, given as reward for a days backbreaking labor or strenous prayer. Cameras and screens dot the city, blaring propaganda and acting as the Infernal's eyes. When she desires they become her voice as well.
And these are the nice parts of the world. The conquest of the world was not easy, and many places still bare its scars. Vast swathes of the world are poisoned by the fires of Malfeas, and in these places strange monsters grow. Twisted, mutated things that were once demons or gods or men and are now something else.
--------
Anyway, question for the thread, but what do you consider the general level of magic in creation? Like, what sort of magic items do you expect to be standard/common for the people?
Queshire
Wants a pink flamingo for their lawn.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I can't remember where exactly I read it once, but there was a comparison between the Yozi with their multiple souls and a corporation. Malfeas as a whole would be the equivalent to say, Disney. Ligier would effectively be the CEO then. Each of the other third circle demons would be equivalent to other executives. One might be the equivalent to, I don't know? The head of marketing? Another the head of research? The second circle demons would be the direct subordinates underneath each executive and the masses of first circle demons would be the normal employees. I think that sort of set up would be a good fit for a Cyberpunk style setting.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Okay, I was thinking of just doing the classics - but I have to say, I love this idea of Malfeas as Cyberpunk City. This is something where I just... love. Love, love, love. The tie between the overwhelming overstimulation of Malfeas and the endless clamor of the archetypal not!Night City, as well as the old heroes' romantic source of empowerment being contrasted by the villains being the incarnation of the city itself.
As for the "what Exalts," cyberpunk is narrower in scope so including too many Exalt types would get... messy. And also I'm less familiar with them.
samdamandias
Apprentice Plane Wizard
So as I understand things you currently have the Ryujin(DBs) as genetically engineered superheroes, the Mugen(Solars) as the rising heroes, MAIDEN Techs(Sidereals) doing Weird Sidereal Plotting off in the corner*, the Shinigami(Abyssals) as the vengeful ghosts of the old heroes, and Infernals as people empowered by the city itself, yes?
Alchemicals are fairly easy to add, experiments in robotics and such.
Getimians might work as glitches in the Loom/MAIDEN. (cf. the basic Getimian dodge charm involving noclipping)
Lunars are harder to work in. Something something nanomachines son.
Exigents maybe champions of old gods, depending on how you want things to go.
Liminals I got nothing.
*pay no attention to the courier on the yellow motorcycle
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'll try and get a proper elevator pitch write-up in the next few days, right now I've got a fair bit of Miscellaneous Stuff that's keeping me relatively busy.
Right now, the wonderful suggestions from @samdamandias, @Queshire, and @Red Orion have got me thinking that the ideal route is to divide the city between the idyllic upper part (where the genetically-engineered corporate nobility of the Ryujin live) as being representative of the "mainstream" decadence, and then the middle part where most people eke out their lives, and then the Pit where the system's fallen through entirely and Akuma-run gangs wallow in illicit wealth.
So you've got this sort of tug-of-war going on between the equally-ruthless/corrupt "legitimate" and illegitimate parts of the megalopolis, and then the Mugen find themselves in the middle of that.
Right now, the wonderful suggestions from @samdamandias, @Queshire, and @Red Orion have got me thinking that the ideal route is to divide the city between the idyllic upper part (where the genetically-engineered corporate nobility of the Ryujin live) as being representative of the "mainstream" decadence, and then the middle part where most people eke out their lives, and then the Pit where the system's fallen through entirely and Akuma-run gangs wallow in illicit wealth.
So you've got this sort of tug-of-war going on between the equally-ruthless/corrupt "legitimate" and illegitimate parts of the megalopolis, and then the Mugen find themselves in the middle of that.
- Location
- my house
Yeah, I've thought about it myself before, and Infernals are just ok perfect a metaphor for corporate greed to not use them as the CEO who run everything.
I mean, they've even got charms which produce unlimited food at the cost of turning the surroundings into a barren desert so that you can have mad max shenanigans going on right outside the walls
I mean, they've even got charms which produce unlimited food at the cost of turning the surroundings into a barren desert so that you can have mad max shenanigans going on right outside the walls
Queshire
Wants a pink flamingo for their lawn.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Though if we're comparing them to superheroes I see Infernals as closer to corporate sponsored superheroes rather than being executives in their own right.
They've got access to the executives and can boss around the employees, but they don't fall neatly in the normal corporate hierarchy. There's plenty of room for them to indulge in all sort of corporate vices or conflict with the executives assigned to manage them.
They've got access to the executives and can boss around the employees, but they don't fall neatly in the normal corporate hierarchy. There's plenty of room for them to indulge in all sort of corporate vices or conflict with the executives assigned to manage them.