Remove ads

General Exalted Thread

Reader mode
emeralis00 said:
Alas my own assassin became a pile of ashes on the floor of my workshop and never had a chance to surrender. He went from alive to very very dead quick.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah, if he'd had the time to realize how outmatched he was, he would have fled or tried surrendering, but he was so sure he could get a quick lethal strike on her and then bail.

And then she burnt him to death with love, Harry Potter style.
 
HamSandLich said:
My read was that the problem of the ancient Solars was that they had built a system in which they were completely unaccountable by any systemic means. Even then its ambiguous the extent to which Solars were categorically a problem, from either godlike charisma, or simply having enough skill at Sorcery to move continents. 3e does not present this as an inevitability with the returned Solar Host, merely one of many possible outcomes.

I think that the subtle change in the Sidereals Splat reveals a lot: There was no Great Prophecy, no Immutable Future. A group of Sidereals came to believe that Creation would be safer without the Solars, and enough people sided with them, from either genuine agreement, or cynical self-interest, that the Usurpation came to pass. Clearly their rule was not absolute enough to prevent this.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

To my gathering the unaccountablity came form a few areas too.

The first seems to have been some marginalizing of Dragon-Blooded polities, despite htem having a big military presence in total. ANd the second si that even assuming different Exalted hosts were supposed to chekc one-another...the biggest potential rival group was actually their best friends politiclaly.
Kingfisher said:
I think it's fair to note that in the history of the game line which splats were included in the list of Exalt types shared certain things in common that several of the newly introduced types of Exalt do not.

Whether you think this distinction is important or not is another matter.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It kind of isn't. There are some things the original five didn't share either.

Celestial Exalted had their Exaltations passed between lives and shared memories. Each Terrestrial Exaltation was a bespoke thing that came form the igniting of the blood fo the dragons.

Solars, Lunars, and Abyssals had a single aptron. Dragon-Blooded and Sidereals were group efforts.

Solars, Lunars, Abyssals, and Sidereals had Castes or Aspects fixed at Exaltation. Lunars didn't, had a different set in the past, and affixed them to the set we have today (through different reaosns in previous editions.)

Dragon-Blooded were countedin the thousands, other Exalts in the hundreds.

Dragon-Blooded animas caused damage. In 1e and 2e, were unique in being noisy.

Sidereals didn't have iconic anima images until 3e. They also uniquely had their eyes change.

Sidereals were Chosen at birth and fated to Exalt. Other Exalts it was something later.

Abyssal Exalted were a new sort of Exalt. THier magical magerial had no Exalt associatiosn before them. THey were the only one linekd ot death. They didn't have the same Great Curse mechanics. They were the only Exalt better at necromancy than sorcery.

We had the Celestila/Terrestirla split at all in 1e and 2e.

And this is before you added in Alchemicals, which created all sorts of complicatiosn in all three editions to the above. And note, were originally going to be in the 1e corebook along with Autcothhonia.

You could in a way find things like this for the other ones I Think. Liminals despite their weirdness, do share stuff with Alchemicals, Abyssals, and Dragon-Blooded. Getimians share a lot with Alchemicals, Sidereals, Solars, and Lunars. Exigents exist in part to share with others and frakly, exist as an Misc. Exalt Category that was kind of crowding out the Hell themes in parts of Infernals.

I dunno, to me while Getimians and Liminals are weird, they do so in a way that still overlaps with other Exalts in some basic ideas that just let htem explore areas that others can't without diluting the themes. To me, at least, that's a big thing wiht 3e and the new Ealts. They exist as much to create negative space and focus for the previously existing ones rather than having them wear too many hats.
 
LaSquida said:
While I can certainly understand someone disliking the treatment of Liminals in Exalted essence, I'm rather surprised if their implementation seemed Promethean. It definitely didn't inspire any of their abilities or great curse manifestations.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Gazetteer said:
I don't feel like anyone who's done a close reading of the XS Liminal charmset actually feels this way, and the general opinion seems to be that it's that it's the best designed Exalt charmset in the book? Like, it's got a lot of really strong theming and flavour in there considering the limited space there is to explore it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah, I found that Exalted Essence brought Liminals more into line with what I expected their playstyle to be. With a game style that probably looks more Sin-Eater than Promethean.

I think the QC antagonist in the Ex3 core did them a mild disservice by being a ghost-hunter who only has one charm for dealing with ghosts before disappearing into body horror, which admittedly does work for an antagonist lot of potential to misunderstand what this person's about and they're not helping themselves by carrying around a soulsteel grimsythe! Unfortunately, this was the first Liminal write-up we ever saw and I think a lot of people were left unconvinced that they did something besides take body horror away from Abyssals.
 
Remove ads
Form Weapon Compatibility Master List
  • Threadmarks
    • I'm tired of looking through all my books every time I need to cross-reference form weapon compatibility. I've found one master list chart but it only covers the Ex3 core. So here, the Martial Arts Weapon Compatibility Master List. I will be presenting this in two ways: first, a plain text list of each martial art style's form weapons under a spoiler, which is just for quick reference; then, a plain text list of weapons and which martial arts falls under each, which is what I'm really after, for when I do stuff like make a character who's using Gnomon, the Starmetal Wrackstaff, and want to check which if any MA styles they have access to. There was originally going to be a spreadsheet, but then I realized that this would be a lot of work and I hate spreadsheets, so I decided not to. You're welcome.

    Martial Arts Form Weapon List

    Snake
    Seven-section staff / Dragon-Coil Staff
    Hooked Sword / Hook Daiklave
    Light armor

    Tiger
    Tiger claws / Razor claws
    Light armor

    Crane
    War fan / Typhoon Fang
    Hooked Sword / Hook Daiklave
    No armor

    It is unclear if the stylist can choose to wield only a hooked sword or war fan, or if the 'form weapon' is the combination of both.

    Single Point
    Curved sword / Reaper Daiklave
    Light or medium armor
    No unarmed

    White Reaper
    Staff / Wrackstaff
    Spear / Direlance / Longfang
    Scythe / Grimscythe
    All armor

    Ebon Shadow
    Knives
    Sai
    Tiger claws / Razor claws
    Fighting Chain / Dire Chain
    No armor

    Silver-Voiced Nightingale
    No weapon
    Light armor

    RIghteous Devil
    Firewand / Dragonsigh Wand
    Flame piece / Devil Caster
    Light and medium armor

    Black Claw
    No weapon
    No armor

    Dreaming Pearl Courtesan
    War fan / Typhoon Fang
    Whip / Dire Lash

    Steel Devil
    Dual-wielded swords
    No unarmed
    Light and medium armor

    Golden Janissary
    Staff / Wrackstaff
    Spear / Longfang/Direlance
    Light armor

    Mantis
    Baton
    Kama
    Nunchaku / Dragon-Tail Thresher
    Seven-section staff / Dragon-Coil Staff
    War fan / Typhoon Fang
    No armor

    White Veil
    Garotte
    Hand needle / Heartpiercer
    No armor

    Centipede
    Fighting chain / Dire Chain
    Hook sword / Hook Daiklave
    Iron boots / God-Kicking Boots
    Seven-section staff / Dragon-Coil Staff
    Tiger claws / Razor claws
    Light armor

    Falcon
    Iron boots / God-Kicking Boots
    Tiger claws / Razor Claws
    Cestus / Smashfist
    Medium or heavy improvised weapons dealing bashing damage
    Light armor

    Laughing Monster
    Staff / Wrackstaff
    War fan / Typhoon Fang
    Whip / Direlash
    No armor

    Swaying Grass
    Baton
    Iron boots / God-Kicking Boots
    Knives
    No armor

    Throne Shadow
    Fighting chain / Dire Chain
    Rope dart
    Seven-section staff / Dragon-Coil Staff
    Staff / Wrackstaff
    Wind-and-fire wheels / War-God Rings

    Violet Bier of Sorrows
    Sword / Daiklave
    Short sword / Short daiklave
    Chopping sword / Reaver Daiklave
    Slashing sword / Reaper Daiklave
    Great sword / Grand Daiklave
    Knives
    Staff / Wrackstaff
    Seven-section staff / Dragon-Coil Staff

    Air Dragon
    Chakram / Infinite Chakram
    Light armor

    Earth Dragon
    Tetsubo/ Grand Goremaul
    All armor

    Fire Dragon
    Dual-wielded short swords
    Light and medium armor

    Water Dragon
    Tiger claws / Razor claws
    Light and medium armor

    Wood Dragon
    Staff / Wrackstaff
    Light armor

    As a unique feature, Wood Dragon users can treat a longbow as a staff, but Wood Dragon Charms are not compatible with bow attacks as such.

    Charcoal March of Spiders
    Fighting Chain / Dire Chain
    Knives
    Meteor hammer
    Nunchaku / Dragon-Tail Thresher
    Rope dart
    Seven-section staff / Dragon-Coil Staff
    Whip
    No armor

    Citrine Poxes of Contagion
    Darts
    Needles
    No armor

    Emerald Gyre of Aeons
    Kusarigama
    Meteor hammer
    Nunchaku / Dragon-Tail Threshold
    Rope dart
    Staff / Wrackstaff
    Seven-Section Staff / Dragon-Coil Staff
    Wind-and-Fire Wheel / War-God Rings
    No armor

    Obsidian Shards of Infinity
    Khatar
    Sai
    Knives
    No armor

    Prismatic Arrangement of Creation
    No weapon
    No armor



    Form Weapon Style Compatibility List

    I think limitations breed fun. I enjoy Exalted's form weapon rules because there is a part of me that enjoys looking at, say, Snake Style and Crane Style, seeing they're both compatible with hooked swords, and coming up with a character with magic hooked swords using a special, personal blend of Snake and Crane (call it Feathered Serpents), more than a free for all in which any style is compatible with any weapon. It's not even a balance concern; it's just cool.

    If you're like me, however, you've often run into the following problem: "I want to use this cool weapon I found in Arms of the Chosen and martial arts, but I have to cross-reference four books to see which are compatible with it."

    Well, fear no more.

    Sword (any) / Daiklave
    Violet Bier of Sorrows

    Chopping Sword / Reaver Daiklave
    Violet Bier of Sorrows

    Great Sword / Grand Daiklave
    Violet Bier of Sorrows

    Short Sword / Short Daiklave
    Violet Bier of Sorrows
    Fire Dragon (if paired)

    Slashing Sword / Reaper Daiklave
    Violet Bier of Sorrows
    Single Point

    Special: Paired Short Swords
    Steel Devil
    Fire Dragon

    Staff / Wrackstaff
    White Reaper
    Golden Janissary
    Laughing Monster
    Throne Shadow
    Violet Bier of Sorrows
    Wood Dragon
    Emerald Gyre of Aeons

    Seven-Section Staff / Dragon-Coil Staff
    Violet Bier of Sorrows
    Snake
    Mantis
    Centipede
    Throne Shadow
    Charcoal March of Spiders
    Emerald Gyre of Aeons

    Tiger Claws / Razor Claws
    Tiger
    Ebon Shadow
    Centipede
    Falcon
    Water Dragon

    Knives / Iron Talons
    Violet Bier of Sorrows
    Ebon Shadow
    Swaying Grass
    Charcoal March of Spiders
    Obsidian Shards of Infinity

    War Fan / Typhoon Fang
    Crane
    Dreaming Pearl Courtesan
    Mantis
    Laughing Monster

    Fighting Chain / Dire Chain
    Ebon Shadow
    Centipede
    Throne Shadow

    Hooked Sword / Hook Daiklaves
    Snake
    Crane
    Centipede

    Iron Boots / God-Kicking Boots
    Centipede
    Falcon
    Swaying Grass

    Whip / Dire Lash
    Dreaming Pearl Courtesan
    Laughing Monster
    Charcoal March of Spiders

    Nunchaku
    Mantis
    Charcoal March of Spiders
    Emerald Gyre of Aeons

    Rope Dart
    Throne Shadow
    Charcoal March of Spiders
    Emerald Gyre of Aeons

    Spear / Direlance / Longfang
    White Reaper
    Golden Janissary

    Sai
    Ebon Shadow
    Obsidian Shards of Infinity

    Baton
    Mantis
    Swaying Grass

    Hand Needles/Needles/Darts / Heartpiercer
    White Veil
    Obsidian Shards of Infinity

    Meteor Hammer
    Charcoal March of Spiders
    Emerald Gyre of Aeons

    Wind-and-Fire Wheels / War-God Rings
    Throne Shadow
    Emerald Gyre of Aeons

    Orphaned Weapons (Appear only in one Style)
    Chopping Sword (Violet Bier of Sorrows)
    Great Sword (Violet Bier of Sorrows)
    Scythe (White Reaper)
    Kama (Mantis)
    Cestus (Falcon)
    Garotte (White Veil)
    Chakram (Air Dragon)
    Tetsubo (Earth Dragon)
    Khatar (Obsidian Shards of Infinity)
    Kusarigama (Emerald Gyre of Aeons)


    Conclusion:
    Raw numbers can be deceiving, as Sidereal Martial Arts have added a lot of weapon compatibility that isn't really relevant for a lot of characters or games. Some of the weapons introduced in Sidereals also feel like they would like to be errata'd into a few older styles, like the meteor hammer. All in all, the humble staff has the widest selection of compatible styles outside of SMAs, and the seven-section staff ranks just below, with the two tied once SMAs are brought into the picture. Tiger claws acquit themselves surprisingly well, with a shocking five styles. Actual synergy is harder to judge; with VBoS, Snake, Mantis, Centipede, Ebon Shadow, and Throne Shadow, the 7SS is capable of a broad range of direct offense, grappling assists, defense, as well as potent stealth kills and support, which makes it probably the best-rounded weapon of the lot, while the Razor Claws enable Water Dragon/Tiger/Centipede synergy for absolutely destructive offense and some powerful stealth in Ebon Shadow. The staff, meanwhile, has more options but most of them are highly idiosyncratic - White Reaper, Laughing Monster and Golden Janissary are all kind of doing their own weird thing and I am not sure how well they combine - although access to VBoS and Wood Dragon doesn't leave ol' reliable out in the rain by any means. There are some surprise standouts - I had no idea War Fans had that many compatible styles - and some weapons whose range really shifts massively depending on whether investing into Sidereal Martial Arts is feasible for your character.

    One thing is certain, though:

    As of Sidereals: Charting the Course of Fate, we can now combine Single Point with Violet Bier of Sorrows while wielding Shining Ice Mirror. From the deepest pit of Malfeas to the very pinnacle of the Heavens, Creation shall tremble.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • Lioness said:
    Ebon Shadow has fighting chains too.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    What, but-

    "Ebon Shadow style uses fighting chains to deliver painful, lashing blows, or moves in close to to use unarmed attacks, sais, tiger claws, and knives to deliver strikes to the jugular, solar plexus, and other weak points of the body."

    grumble grumble put all your goddamned form weapons in the same goddamned clause grumble
     
    Gotta say I prefer how Essence does Form Weapons. It gives you a list of compatible ones but it also gives you compatible tags
     
    You are ignoring content by this member.
    Martial arts are fun, although I usually wind up relying on the tried-and-true native charms most times if I'm not making a Lunar. My personal view is that the style has to sync up with an ability outside of the usual combat stuff for it to be really interesting and worth it; I wouldn't bother taking Snake Style over Solar or Sidereal Brawl, but I'd be happy to combo Sidereal or Solar Performance with Silver-Voiced Nightingale.

    Anyway, on the topic of combat abilities, I'm wondering if anyone else thinks that Sidereal Dodge needs just a bit more to put in on parity with Melee. If I'm interpreting it right, you're supposed to be acting as the dodge tank for your other party members, but it doesn't seem to be able to pump its numbers up as high as Sidereal Melee can when it defends other and you've got a medium weapon (such as an off-hand shield or your standard daiklave), and Sidereal Melee has the added bonus of being able to counterattack or clash anyone that attacks anyone around you. Also I have no clue how Enticing Mystery Elopement works; can you be targeted if you use it to conceal yourself?
     
    Nightdream said:
    I would be fine with them if they were a unique thing rather than making them a kind of Exalt. Jadeborn are cool, people seem to like Dragon Kings, and from what I have seen, the only reason more people did not play Raksha is because their rules are confusing as shit and their powers are garbage outside the Wyld.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    MiracleGrow said:
    I enjoy working with basically every splat and other not quite mortals when it comes to antagonists. But the only one I dislike working with is Fae. I'm not sure why but I feel like I'm unable to make anything cool with them. Wyld marshes are great to work with. I just rip off that one chapter of Beserk.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I have always felt that the Fae were chronically underwhelming as potential antagonist because many of their fantastic, reality-warping powers, which made them one of the greatest threats to Creation in the days of yore, could be thwarted — or even turned to the ends of their foes! — by a sufficiently high Roll to Disbelieve.

    It was something I was glad they seemed to have gotten rid of in 3e, and bringing it back was one of the few things that I was genuinely displeased with about Essence.
     
    Omicron said:
    That's for another character, Yatagarasu is a bird and cannot hold a reaper daiklave in his tiny, tiny claws 😔
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Color me relieved XD

    Though, more seriously, I'd just nerf Single Point if you really wanted it, the major issue with the Style is how it combos with Supernal Awareness and the uncapped damage addition, and then to a lesser extent the synergies with Deadly Beastman Transformation, I just like being comedically angry about Single Point after all the lovingly designed bosses it has destroyed over the years XD
     
    As a minor addendum, you forgot to add Scythes/Grimscythes to the orphaned weapons list (Only compatible with White Reaper, my Strawmaiden cries in disappointment).
     
    The Lowtide said:
    As a minor addendum, you forgot to add Scythes/Grimscythes to the orphaned weapons list (Only compatible with White Reaper, my Strawmaiden cries in disappointment).
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Edited.

    As another minor addendum of my own, the "Typhoon Fang," the Artifact version of the War Fan, is almost definitely supposed to be the "Typhoon Fan," but a typo snuck in somewhere in the writing process and unless we get an official wording it is now officially 'Fang,' but that's easily changed at your table.
     
    Article:
    Since I will be running a short game set in Malfeas, I thought I may try to write down a few of my thoughts about how to portray the Demon City, and particularly the culture of common demons, in an interesting way. If there is interest in this sort of thing, I may end up continuing those write-ups.
    Source: A/N


    The Kingdom of Transience

    Many Creation's demonologists, who learn of Hell through treatises on soul hierarchies and long lists of names borne by demon lords and princes—the Minister of the Ivory Tassel, the Keeper of the Forge of Night, the Guardian of Sleep—come to imagine Malfeas as an empire of sorts. In their minds, it becomes a twisted reflection of Creation's own realms, with its nobility and its subjects, its grand palaces and temples, authorities and clergy. The total obedience of demons bound into their service seems to confirm those notions, that Hell is a place of absolute rule and utmost subjugation. They imagine it as filled with terror and decadence, sublime cruelty and utter despair.

    It takes a single visit to Malfeas to shed such ideas, for they are worse than wrong: they are misleading, and those who do not divest themselves of them do not last long under the ceaseless day of the Green Sun.

    For the first question of Malfeas is not who do you rule, or whom do you serve, but rather how do you live. How do you live in a city where the streets themselves hate you and will kill if they are able? When at any moment a poisonous ocean may sweep away whole districts, at any moment the sky may collapse and crush you beneath its weight, when a second silence can provide an opening for an indifferent, killing wind that spares no one? How do you live knowing that there is no promise of tomorrow, and no power in the whole of the demon can truly guarantee you even one day more?

    To those used to Creation, with its solid ground and a welcoming sky, such a life may seem an impossibility, a horror beyond imagination. A week spent on the brass streets of Malfeas may scar a mortal for life; until the end of their days, they will wake to nightmares of the sudden nightfall that is named the Ebon Dragon, and the monsters that emerge from its shadow, or perhaps of the ruin in the wake of Isidoros, whose mere passage bends space and breaks time.

    But demons lack the luxury of a retreat back to Creation, whose calm safety is to most of them only ever a dream and a well-worn song. And so, they do the one thing left to them: in spite of everything, they live. To the full, and to the end, which is never far away, they live. Against a hateful sky, and in defiance of merciless rule, they live.

    What demons understand and so many demonologists do not is that Malfeas is a kingdom of transience. Streets you walk today will be erased tomorrow by the churning of Hell's many layers. SIlver forests will uproot themselves and march to new nesting grounds. Living mountains will wake and smash through slums to burrow themselves again. This means that nothing built can be expected to last: neither your home, nor your life. And so the first lesson of Malfeas is: live now. To defer a desire until tomorrow is to bury it; to lie in wait for a better time is suicide. Travellers from Creation often liken the bustle of Malfeas' streets to a constant riot, and not without reason; for demons, immortal as they may be, there is no time left.

    If you are hungry, eat. If you are lovesick, seduce. If your heart aches, sing. Those are the demands that undergird the intensity of Hell's culture. Take, for example, the lowly angyalkae, the long-fingered demon harpists. Summoning manuals tend to note that they are a breed of demons that must be allowed to constantly play their music, for being denied from doing so causes them to wither and die. They do not say why; it is the kind of advice that demonologists receive like a good practice of animal husbandry, viewing demons as nothing more than a sorcerous tool to be used and dismissed. And here is the reason: an angyalkae is born attuned to the Harp of Time, and an eternity of music left yet to perform—and so little time left to play it all. When a sorcerer—or a Malfean street-thug—denies the ability to play from them, they suffer because they know there is no making up for lost seconds, minutes, or hours.

    What you don't sing today, you may never get to sing tomorrow. And no one else is going to do it for you.

    This is also why the rule in Hell is so immediately brutal. The slow working of empire-building, of raising a realm from its foundations and building a nation brick by brick, is not a privilege allowed to the brass streets and basalt spires. If you want to be sovereign, you must achieve it here and now. Cruel killings and merciless subjugation are quicker and easier, and so it is what most petty tyrants and little rulers of Malfeas resort to. The idea of a dynasty, of having a heritage to pass on, is utterly alien to such minds. No one gets to carry their kingdom with them when they die; if you want to rule, don't look back, and forget tomorrow.

    There are, of course, some constants in all of this. The worship of Yozis sanctified by black-robed priests of Cecelyne and their arcane laws is the primary one, as are fiefdoms carved out by powerful demons of the Second Circle, who have less to fear from the constant cataclysm that is Malfeas. But they are all more like buoys over a stormy sea rather than a solid ground to build on. Authority in Malfeas tends to not wear a princely face—or even a warlord's iron crown—but rather a sneer of a blood ape thug. A particularly grown erymanthoi kills some fools and claims a street as its fief. It extorts those who live by it to offer it favors, to feed it and clothe it, to flatter its dumb ego. This may last a week, a month, or maybe a year. But then, a scorpion-tailed tinsiana will stumble along and best the blood-ape, mount its head over the entrance into the street, and declare himself the new top dog. The cycle will repeat, until some day the inevitable happens and the Silent Wind blows through the street and empties it of all delusions of authority, or the bothersome noise of life.

    The knowledge that no power can hope to last—but that of the ineffable Princes of Hell, who are places and concepts more than individual kings—lies buried deep in the mind of all demons capable of lucid thought. This is the other thing that travelers from Creation are often misdirected by: they come to a city so obviously ruled by ten thousand petty tyrants who drive their subjects with an iron whip, and assume that the demon-kind must be servile by nature. But rather, the whip comes second, for it is the only tool that, in minds of Malfeas' would-be-sovereigns, can overcome the anarchic streak that runs through so many hearts in Hell.

    Isn't it, however, what all demonologists ought to already know? To rule a demon, one must first break its will completely; only then will it submit. Though the adepts of sorcery hide the brutality of this act under the anodyne name of "demon binding", the same practice in Malfeas is a steel collar, chain, and whip: is blood shed and bones broken to drive an endless mass of riotous demon bodies into fulfilling the designs of today's kings, who are also tomorrow's corpses.

    To understand the implications of that requires letting go of the hopes for a better future—to cling to those in Malfeas is a prime sign of foolishness and delusion—and to attune oneself to that desperately hungry here and now of demon culture. Culture which, in spite of its appearances and obsession, has a long and rich tradition, only one that has been carried from ruin to ruin, from atrocity to atrocity, always on the backs of the few who managed to escape into yet one more day of living.

    Consider, for example, Malfean cuisine. Street food stands are everywhere in the Demon City, and what they all have to share is that the cook must be able to pack it all up—their kitchen, their stores, their spices and recipes—at a moment's notice. An anhule, a breed of a demon spider, carries a small burner and a girdle strapped to its back; when it sets up, it fries its own silk in hellish spices, advertising it with loud clattering of its fangs. At the first sign of trouble, it bundles its belongings and skitters away. There will always be hungry passerbys elsewhere.

    Or consider the finest of demon arts, that is music. Though there are conservatories in Malfeas, and even some schools and academies (most of them being Demons of the Third Circle themselves), few lineages of demonic art originate from them. Songs are exchanged on the streets, hastily memorized and altered with each repetition. A tomescu may hum a tune it overheard from a troop of marching heranhal, substituting their bawdy lyrics for a darkly ironic rumination on its own foretold death. Then, when it dies, the song dies with it: or perhaps it survives in half-remembered fragments, carried on by those who were moved by its last performance.

    The culture of Malfeas, as Malfeas itself, is in a constant churn. It is a nomadic affair, caring little for canons or standards. But it is vital, vibrant, and keenly experienced as necessary. Because ultimately, it is the one thing that demons can truly own and call their own: a sense of a lust for life and survival, of there being more to Malfeas than just the desperation of forever-prisoners trapped in the broken bodies of mad ancients. And though its sheer, desperate beauty does not redeem the countless cruelties of Hell, nor can it save anyone from its sudden and inevitable calamities, it persists.

    The riotous streets of Malfeas, with their mad bustle and a rush to live for as long as there is time, defy the fact that this time is always running out. Against the inevitable transience of demonic life, they offer not the consolation of a better tomorrow, but the desperate conviction that even in the worst of todays, there is more than just survival.
     
    The Lowtide said:
    As a minor addendum, you forgot to add Scythes/Grimscythes to the orphaned weapons list (Only compatible with White Reaper, my Strawmaiden cries in disappointment).
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    One of the styles coming to the Companion at least is one that uses scythes. So they'll get some love in the future.

    I'd also be shocked if Abyssals didn't have at least one style which sues them.
     
    Omicron said:
    Crane
    War fan / Typhoon Fang
    Hooked Sword / Hook Daiklave
    No armor

    It is unclear if the stylist can choose to wield only a hooked sword or war fan, or if the 'form weapon' is the combination of both.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Okay, my only experience with Ex3 is a short game I ran using the leaked playtest, but I could have sworn that in deliberate contrast to Ex2 where crane was paired hook swords or paired fans, Ex3 crane called for one hook sword and one fan.

    A non-symmetrical winged crane, so to speak.
     
    Chloe Sullivan said:
    Okay, my only experience with Ex3 is a short game I ran using the leaked playtest, but I could have sworn that in deliberate contrast to Ex2 where crane was paired hook swords or paired fans, Ex3 crane called for one hook sword and one fan.

    A non-symmetrical winged crane, so to speak.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Yes, that's what I was trying to allude to but my wording was poor. Crane Style says:

    Article:
    Crane Weapons: Crane style practitioners typically dual wield a war fan and hook sword, using the fan for defense while disarming enemies with the sword. Unarmed attacks usually consist of graceful kicks, but a Crane stylist lacking his usual weapons might use one hand to deliver rapid chops while holding back the other for powerful lunges and sweeping blows.


    I'm not sure if that "typically" is meant to read as "exclusively"; that is to say, I'm not sure if the "form weapon" of Crane is only and explicitly a paired war fan and hook sword, or if it can be used while wielding only a hook sword, or only a war fan.

    The former, while flavorful, would be... extremely limitating, basically consigning Crane to the "Orphaned weapons" category that is only compatible with other styles barehanded. And make me very annoyed when I have to figure what Artifacts to give my Crane Stylist.
     
    Omicron said:
    Yes, that's what I was trying to allude to but my wording was poor. Crane Style says:

    Article:
    Crane Weapons: Crane style practitioners typically dual wield a war fan and hook sword, using the fan for defense while disarming enemies with the sword. Unarmed attacks usually consist of graceful kicks, but a Crane stylist lacking his usual weapons might use one hand to deliver rapid chops while holding back the other for powerful lunges and sweeping blows.


    I'm not sure if that "typically" is meant to read as "exclusively"; that is to say, I'm not sure if the "form weapon" of Crane is only and explicitly a paired war fan and hook sword, or if it can be used while wielding only a hook sword, or only a war fan.

    The former, while flavorful, would be... extremely limitating, basically consigning Crane to the "Orphaned weapons" category that is only compatible with other styles barehanded. And make me very annoyed when I have to figure what Artifacts to give my Crane Stylist.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I'm inclined to think the former is RAI on the precedent that the 2e version called for paired weapons.

    Also, irony: in 2e the hooked sword had better defensive stats, and the war fan better offensive ones. So in 2e if you could do bent-wing crane, you would want to attack with the fan and defend with the sword.
     
    Gargulec said:
    Article:
    Since I will be running a short game set in Malfeas, I thought I may try to write down a few of my thoughts about how to portray the Demon City, and particularly the culture of common demons, in an interesting way. If there is interest in this sort of thing, I may end up continuing those write-ups.
    Source: A/N


    The Kingdom of Transience

    Many Creation's demonologists, who learn of Hell through treatises on soul hierarchies and long lists of names borne by demon lords and princes—the Minister of the Ivory Tassel, the Keeper of the Forge of Night, the Guardian of Sleep—come to imagine Malfeas as an empire of sorts. In their minds, it becomes a twisted reflection of Creation's own realms, with its nobility and its subjects, its grand palaces and temples, authorities and clergy. The total obedience of demons bound into their service seems to confirm those notions, that Hell is a place of absolute rule and utmost subjugation. They imagine it as filled with terror and decadence, sublime cruelty and utter despair.

    It takes a single visit to Malfeas to shed such ideas, for they are worse than wrong: they are misleading, and those who do not divest themselves of them do not last long under the ceaseless day of the Green Sun.

    For the first question of Malfeas is not who do you rule, or whom do you serve, but rather how do you live. How do you live in a city where the streets themselves hate you and will kill if they are able? When at any moment a poisonous ocean may sweep away whole districts, at any moment the sky may collapse and crush you beneath its weight, when a second silence can provide an opening for an indifferent, killing wind that spares no one? How do you live knowing that there is no promise of tomorrow, and no power in the whole of the demon can truly guarantee you even one day more?

    To those used to Creation, with its solid ground and a welcoming sky, such a life may seem an impossibility, a horror beyond imagination. A week spent on the brass streets of Malfeas may scar a mortal for life; until the end of their days, they will wake to nightmares of the sudden nightfall that is named the Ebon Dragon, and the monsters that emerge from its shadow, or perhaps of the ruin in the wake of Isidoros, whose mere passage bends space and breaks time.

    But demons lack the luxury of a retreat back to Creation, whose calm safety is to most of them only ever a dream and a well-worn song. And so, they do the one thing left to them: in spite of everything, they live. To the full, and to the end, which is never far away, they live. Against a hateful sky, and in defiance of merciless rule, they live.

    What demons understand and so many demonologists do not is that Malfeas is a kingdom of transience. Streets you walk today will be erased tomorrow by the churning of Hell's many layers. SIlver forests will uproot themselves and march to new nesting grounds. Living mountains will wake and smash through slums to burrow themselves again. This means that nothing built can be expected to last: neither your home, nor your life. And so the first lesson of Malfeas is: live now. To defer a desire until tomorrow is to bury it; to lie in wait for a better time is suicide. Travellers from Creation often liken the bustle of Malfeas' streets to a constant riot, and not without reason; for demons, immortal as they may be, there is no time left.

    If you are hungry, eat. If you are lovesick, seduce. If your heart aches, sing. Those are the demands that undergird the intensity of Hell's culture. Take, for example, the lowly angyalkae, the long-fingered demon harpists. Summoning manuals tend to note that they are a breed of demons that must be allowed to constantly play their music, for being denied from doing so causes them to wither and die. They do not say why; it is the kind of advice that demonologists receive like a good practice of animal husbandry, viewing demons as nothing more than a sorcerous tool to be used and dismissed. And here is the reason: an angyalkae is born attuned to the Harp of Time, and an eternity of music left yet to perform—and so little time left to play it all. When a sorcerer—or a Malfean street-thug—denies the ability to play from them, they suffer because they know there is no making up for lost seconds, minutes, or hours.

    What you don't sing today, you may never get to sing tomorrow. And no one else is going to do it for you.

    This is also why the rule in Hell is so immediately brutal. The slow working of empire-building, of raising a realm from its foundations and building a nation brick by brick, is not a privilege allowed to the brass streets and basalt spires. If you want to be sovereign, you must achieve it here and now. Cruel killings and merciless subjugation are quicker and easier, and so it is what most petty tyrants and little rulers of Malfeas resort to. The idea of a dynasty, of having a heritage to pass on, is utterly alien to such minds. No one gets to carry their kingdom with them when they die; if you want to rule, don't look back, and forget tomorrow.

    There are, of course, some constants in all of this. The worship of Yozis sanctified by black-robed priests of Cecelyne and their arcane laws is the primary one, as are fiefdoms carved out by powerful demons of the Second Circle, who have less to fear from the constant cataclysm that is Malfeas. But they are all more like buoys over a stormy sea rather than a solid ground to build on. Authority in Malfeas tends to not wear a princely face—or even a warlord's iron crown—but rather a sneer of a blood ape thug. A particularly grown erymanthoi kills some fools and claims a street as its fief. It extorts those who live by it to offer it favors, to feed it and clothe it, to flatter its dumb ego. This may last a week, a month, or maybe a year. But then, a scorpion-tailed tinsiana will stumble along and best the blood-ape, mount its head over the entrance into the street, and declare himself the new top dog. The cycle will repeat, until some day the inevitable happens and the Silent Wind blows through the street and empties it of all delusions of authority, or the bothersome noise of life.

    The knowledge that no power can hope to last—but that of the ineffable Princes of Hell, who are places and concepts more than individual kings—lies buried deep in the mind of all demons capable of lucid thought. This is the other thing that travelers from Creation are often misdirected by: they come to a city so obviously ruled by ten thousand petty tyrants who drive their subjects with an iron whip, and assume that the demon-kind must be servile by nature. But rather, the whip comes second, for it is the only tool that, in minds of Malfeas' would-be-sovereigns, can overcome the anarchic streak that runs through so many hearts in Hell.

    Isn't it, however, what all demonologists ought to already know? To rule a demon, one must first break its will completely; only then will it submit. Though the adepts of sorcery hide the brutality of this act under the anodyne name of "demon binding", the same practice in Malfeas is a steel collar, chain, and whip: is blood shed and bones broken to drive an endless mass of riotous demon bodies into fulfilling the designs of today's kings, who are also tomorrow's corpses.

    To understand the implications of that requires letting go of the hopes for a better future—to cling to those in Malfeas is a prime sign of foolishness and delusion—and to attune oneself to that desperately hungry here and now of demon culture. Culture which, in spite of its appearances and obsession, has a long and rich tradition, only one that has been carried from ruin to ruin, from atrocity to atrocity, always on the backs of the few who managed to escape into yet one more day of living.

    Consider, for example, Malfean cuisine. Street food stands are everywhere in the Demon City, and what they all have to share is that the cook must be able to pack it all up—their kitchen, their stores, their spices and recipes—at a moment's notice. An anhule, a breed of a demon spider, carries a small burner and a girdle strapped to its back; when it sets up, it fries its own silk in hellish spices, advertising it with loud clattering of its fangs. At the first sign of trouble, it bundles its belongings and skitters away. There will always be hungry passerbys elsewhere.

    Or consider the finest of demon arts, that is music. Though there are conservatories in Malfeas, and even some schools and academies (most of them being Demons of the Third Circle themselves), few lineages of demonic art originate from them. Songs are exchanged on the streets, hastily memorized and altered with each repetition. A tomescu may hum a tune it overheard from a troop of marching heranhal, substituting their bawdy lyrics for a darkly ironic rumination on its own foretold death. Then, when it dies, the song dies with it: or perhaps it survives in half-remembered fragments, carried on by those who were moved by its last performance.

    The culture of Malfeas, as Malfeas itself, is in a constant churn. It is a nomadic affair, caring little for canons or standards. But it is vital, vibrant, and keenly experienced as necessary. Because ultimately, it is the one thing that demons can truly own and call their own: a sense of a lust for life and survival, of there being more to Malfeas than just the desperation of forever-prisoners trapped in the broken bodies of mad ancients. And though its sheer, desperate beauty does not redeem the countless cruelties of Hell, nor can it save anyone from its sudden and inevitable calamities, it persists.

    The riotous streets of Malfeas, with their mad bustle and a rush to live for as long as there is time, defy the fact that this time is always running out. Against the inevitable transience of demonic life, they offer not the consolation of a better tomorrow, but the desperate conviction that even in the worst of todays, there is more than just survival.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    This is really nice, thank you
     
    Apocryphal NPCs: Umbrals, Chosen of Nebiru

    Saras Natala / Star Eating Leopardess
    Eldest daughter of the patrician House Saras, Natala is very nearly everything her parents could have hoped for in a child. Elegant, brilliant, and filial, the only way she could have excelled more is if she had been chosen by the dragons. Talented enough to stand at the top of her class in her secondary school, an institution normally dominated by un-exalted dynasts, she continues to impress her classmates and elders alike with her subtle wit and charm. After so many years of this excellence, it has become commonplace for those around her to simply expect it from Natala, holding her to increasingly impossible standards; she has risen too high for the fall to be anything less than catastrophic. Day after day, it wore the young woman down, until one day, something in her snapped, and a shard of long dead Nebiru nestled in her heart.

    On the surface, Natala still appears to be the prodigy she was before. Her scholastic performance remains exemplary, her wardrobe and hair flawless, her circle of admirers and friends as fawning as ever. When night falls however, after Natala goes to sleep, someone else wakes up in her place; Star Eating Leopardess, underground pit fighter, cat burglar, sometime-vigilante, and inveterate ne'er-do-well. Her face is the same as Natala's, but her visage is adorned in shocking makeup and a panoply of foreign jewelry, her hair is an ever changing mane, dyed raven black by Umbral essence. In terms of character, the two could not be more different, Leopardess coarse and uncouth as Natala is refined and elegant. The young Umbral is a midnight whirlwind of chaos and charisma, bane of the city's black-helms and idol of its disaffected youth.

    Natala wakes from these nocturnal excursions refreshed and ready for a new day, never entirely willing to admit to herself that the events of the last night were anything but a dream. She tells herself that her nightly escapades are merely idle imaginings, desperately juggling her two lives with all her exalted might. A visiting magistrate has made her situation ever more precarious, and in her heart of hearts she fears having to make a final choice of one identity over the other.

    Ustas the Penitent / The Black Petrel
    Once, there was a man named Ustas the Black Petrel, pirate prince of the Cracked Claw Isles, his name accursed by every honest sailor on the sea. For thirty years he preyed upon the shipping lanes of the West, stealing money and lives in service to his own avarice and cruelty. But in time, his razor cunning dulled, his bones grew weary with age, and his treacherous crew, who had learned well from him the art of betrayal, marooned him on a spit of land in the middle of the ocean. He would have died there on that godless isle, had not Humble Palm, exalted devotee of the Sisterhood of Pearls, found him. The saintly Dragonblood rescued him, dressed his wounds and nursed him back to health. When he tried to steal her ship, she disarmed him with nothing more than kind words and a disappointed gaze. Ashamed, the Black Petrel died and Ustas the Penitent, convert of the Sisterhood of Pearls, breathed his first.

    That might have been the end of it, Ustas might have lived the rest of his days in quiet peace and contrite penance, running supplies with Humble Palm between the Isle of Fevers and the greater West, had not an Azurite freebooter sunk the pair's vessel while they were en route. Cast adrift for the second time in his life, something within Ustas refused to drown, and he hauled an unconscious Palm and himself ashore with tendrils of Umbral shadow. The two now attempt to make their way back to the Isle of Fevers, island hopping as they can and avoiding the perils of an increasingly tumultuous West. The pair make a strange duo, a sage-like young woman with hair like palm fronds and a grizzled former reaver who appears twice her age.

    Ustas feels the Black Petrel within him still, gorged on Exalted power and screaming for him to let it out. It tempts him with promises of retribution and vengeance upon Azure, upon his treacherous crew, upon the thousand injustices he and Palm witness on their journey, sometimes he gives in and the surf runs red with the blood and gore of his foes. With House Peleps prowling the West ever more hungrily, the Black Petrel has even more leverage over him with every instance of its imperial tyranny. He has confided in Palm the nature of his affliction, and she does her best to restrain his worst impulses, but the younger Exalt struggles to understand the essence fever of an Exalt so unlike a Dragonblooded.

    Pontiff Yraneus, Hierophant of the Unknown God
    In the far expanse of the east, atop the plateau metropolis of Ganth, lies the Temple of the Unknown God. A towering edifice, it is almost a little city unto itself, its terraces and geometric domes large enough to house thousands. Within the sprawling complex, a hereditary order of monks vacillates between ascetic self-denial and sacred debauchery before the altars of alien spirits. A curse-bringing shadow crawls along the ground to guard against the unwelcome. From time to time, edicts from the cloistered palace ring through the city, heralded by the peal of soulsteel bells, and the people of Ganth and the lowlands below dutifully obey. Centuries ago, the ruler of this domain was once but a lowly scribe, enslaved by the hereditary tyrants of the plateau city. Now, he is the God-King of Ganth, and he rules from a palace built atop his former masters' bones. All in his shadow pay him homage, and long indeed is the shadow of this holy madman; Pontiff Yraneus, Hierophant of the Unknown God.

    Visitors to the city give conflicting tales of the Pontiff. Some say he is an urbane and generous philosopher king, loath to hurt even a beetle in his gardens. Others say he is a cruel and monstrous demigod of darkness, his temple a citadel of excess and torment in equal measure. In truth, Yraneus is both, for the creed he espouses, the Invisible Fold, is one of dualism, contradiction, and cycles of sin and absolution. It is his doctrine that all beings have within them both Light and Dark, and that holiness is found in maintaining a proper balance between the two. All of his acts, cruel and kind, restrained and debauched, are illustrative of the Invisible Fold's ethos; that one must respond to Light with Light, and to Dark with Dark. Penance must follow Indulgence, and Indulgence must follow Penance. According to Yraneus, only by proper action, and through the completion of mystical rituals, can the faithful bring The Unknown God closer to the world, and in His invisible light, achieve salvation.

    Every night, the elder Umbral scours the night skies with arcane orreries and magical lenses, searching for the occlusion in the firmament that is the Unknown God's form, hoping to divine more revelations from its effect on the stars. In the center of his temple-palace, magi and spirits from the Firmament in his employ work on the construction of what he calls, "The Needle of Outer Night," a towering magical dart that shall convey him unto the celestial sphere where dead Nebiru dreams, so that he may commune with the corpse of divinity.
     
    Last edited:
    Some things moved-up so going the rounds to share this to folks.

    CURRENT PRODUCT STATUS
    Changes for Monday January 23rd    : Abyssals moved to Redlines. Damned Lies title changed to Scoundrelsong and moved to Development. Art direction and layout moves forward.

    WRITING AND DEVELOPMENT
    Outline
    Exigents Jumpstart
    Miracles of Divine Flame (Exigents Companion)

    First Draft
    Essence Adventure Trilogy
    Exalted Essay Collection
    Essence Jumpstart & RMCs (Merged)

    Redlines
    Abyssals

    Second/Final Drafts
    A Murder in Whitewall (Exalted Essence Novella #3)

    Development
    Scoundrelsong (Exalted Essence Novella #2, formerly Damned Lies)

    Post-Approval Development
    What Lies Forgotten (Exalted Essence Novella #1)

    Editing
    Pillars of Creation (Essence Companion)
    Sidereals: Charting Fate's Course
    Surface Truths     (Dragon-Blooded Novella #2)

    Post-Editting Development
    Exalted Essence Edition
    Exigents: Out of the Ashes
    Many-Faced Strangers     (Lunars Companion)

    ART AND PRODUCTION
    Art Direction
    Across the 8 Directions
    Crucible of Legends
    Exigents: Out of the Ashes
    Many-Faced Strangers
    Sidereals: Charting Fate's Course

    In Layout
    Exalted Essence Edition (Goal of done by week's end)

    At Press
    Facets of Truth (Lunar Novella #1, errata)
    Adversaries of the Righteous (errata)
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top