- Location
- Virginia
There's also that Melee charm that lets you fence without a sword.
General Exalted Thread
There's also that Melee charm that lets you fence without a sword.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Glorious Solar Boat has been a running joke since... I imagine first edition, though I only came on board with second.
- Location
- The end of all things
Because that would be stu— wait, what?
Caste Book Eclipse said:
First Edition has some of the So a Captain doesn't need a crew, and a boat is just for when he's feeling lazy. What's next, a charm to create seas to sail on?
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Havocfett Setting Homebrew: Rakshasa
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Creatures of Want, Creatures of Am
(18) First of all he from his shadow created the five types of ignorance called tâmisra (Ignorance), andha-tâmisra (The concept of mortality), tama (Nescience of the self), moha (The illusion of the material/being matter), and mahâ-moha (Craving or lust)1 (19) Dissatisfied Brahmâ threw off this body of ignorance which was then seized by Yakshas and Râkshasas to serve as the darkness that is the source of hunger and thirst. (20) Controlled by that hunger and thirst they ran after him in order to eat him and cried in their affliction: 'Do not spare him!' - Bhagavata Purana (3.20.18-20)
"This is true," said YISUN fondly, "but she carries with her the most powerful mastery, which is the hunger of desire. She is the Master of Want." - Kill Six Billion Demons, Pree Aesma and the Three Masters
So, Raksha in Exalted are dumb as shit.
You may have an alternative opinion but you're wrong. They took an interesting idea that tied neatly into the historical legend of the Rakshasa and fucking ruined it because the fucking authors they got didn't understand anything that wasn't overplayed fucking faerie with fucking courts.
Jesus christ they take agg from iron.
It is some seriously dire, singularly disappointing total horseshit. If you're gonna cop out and be yet another rando using fae then don't pretend you're doing something worth the ink it's fucking printed on to lure people in.
So, yeah, Exalted's take on Raksha. Dumb bullshit, even ignoring their mechanics. But once we've recognized that, how do we fix it? You can't just tear shit down and leave a gaping hole there, after all. Unless it's the first couple chapters of Infernals. Or something similarly dire.
Well, start from the legend and adapt it to Exalted.
So, you have the Rakshasa and the Yaksha. Yaksha can be basically ignored, for our purposes they aren't meaningfully different from the Rakshasa. The term Rakshasa itself, however, has two definitions.
The first is literally 'wild men'. Ultimately this is not a particularly common use of the word, though Adivasis and, in at least one case, the Nepalese were referred to as such. That said, for our purposes it'll be useful to refer to Wyld Barbarians.
The second definition is 'demons'. It's not quite a proper translation, Rakshasa really aren't analogous to Demons in the Judeo-Christian tradition or in the hordes of Fantasy settings that have plagued the twentieth and twenty first century. Still, it's the definition we want when we're referring to Rakshasa. Consummate shapeshifters, masters of illusion, beings of superhuman strength with mastery of magic and with impossibly strong wants.
And, when talking about Rakshasa, it's the wants that are important.
Pretty much all of the legends involving or about Rakshasa revolve utterly around their wants. Surpanakha's lust for Rama and Lakshmana results in her being maimed, then results in her selling Ravana on Sita. Ravana's lust for Sita leads to a titanic war that destroys his kingdom. Hidimba's desire for human flesh leads him to eat everyone who enters his forest, while Hidimbi's lust for Bhima leads her to turn on her brother and have him killed. Ravana's desire for kingship leads him to overthrow his brother, his desire to impress Shiva leads him to pull his nerves out and play a sick Veena solo on them. Rakshasa are defined by the strength that the five illusions have on them, and consistently it is maha-moha, uncontrollable cravings and lust, that are what define their tales. Rakshasa never back down from their pursuit of what they want, save to pursue some new desire, and this holds true not merely for villainous Raksha, but also for heroic ones. Hidimbi betrays her cannibalistic sibling not because it's the right thing to do or because she's disgusted by him, but because he tells her to help him eat a hot guy.
(There are obviously exceptions but largely you can slot them into this paradigm. Kumbakharna as desiring to serve Ravana, for example, and Vibhishana very carefully controlling his desires so that he's not compelled to act on much, and as such is one of the few Raksha in Ravana's court who do not deeply want to please Ravana. The few exceptions, perhaps including Vibhishana, would fit into an expanded paradigm involving the various illusions but I'll get to that later)
In Exalted terms, they're an entire species with five conviction, randomized other virtues, and they are completely unable to suppress conviction.
Quite obviously, they weren't always like this.
So, Exalted. In the beginning you have the Wyld and jackshit else. The Primordials are things, but the Rakshasa, as we know them, aren't. What would eventually be them exists, of course, but it has not yet been cursed with the beastly idiocy that will eventually make it a Rakshasa. It doesn't want anything, it doesn't fear death, it doesn't do much at all, really, save reflect on itself. It exists in a natural, eternal state of enlightenment, incorporeal, immortal, and eternally thoughtful in the non-space of the pre-creation Wyld.
Then the Primordials fuck it all up. They create. Things exist, properly, have definition. Linear time. Direction. Needs.
Wants.
The non-thing, perhaps curious, perhaps not given a choice in the matter, takes form. A million forms. A billion forms. It cloaks itself in flesh, instantly becoming an entire species, and in an instant it forgets what it once was. Where once was an immaterial, self-content, ever-knowledgeable, atman now there are a billion stupid greedy little creatures, each wrapped in a thousand little delusions: I am. I am strong. I am wise. I am not you. We are different. I will die. I need this. I want this. This is important.
They rushed creation and her borderlands, these creatures, screaming for slaves, for worship, for food, for drink, for riches. They rushed it in their billions, running full force into the might of the Primordials, and were butchered for it. The Rakshasa, to a creature, were wiped out.
But, of course, the thing that was the Rakshasa's source, the atman, cannot die. So they returned from whence they came, became cloaked in flesh again, not as their old forms but as new beings entirely.
And, self-ignorant, they rushed into creation's borders once more and were slaughtered.
This learning period was a long, slow, brutal process. The Rakshasa that ran into creation invariably died, then simply became new, different Rakshasa, having learned less than nothing in the process. The few that didn't run into creation often died anyways, hunted by a bored primordial, or its devas, or a god, or one of the other things that lurk in the Wyld, or even other Rakshasa.
Still, over time fewer Rakshasa died diving into creation's borders. Survivors, those who found something that they wanted deep in the Wyld and pursued it long enough to miss the purge, those that were lucky enough to dodge hunts and similar threats, began to thrive and multiply. They built little empires over things they Wanted, had children, pressed newly incarnated Rakshasa into service. Yes, they would generally be wiped out, but the atrocious casualty rates of the Rakshasa Kingdoms were less than the complete annihilation that faced those who blitzed creation. So, the kingdoms survived. They didn't thrive, not in the Primordial's creation, but they survived.
Then the Primordials fell.
The new Regime were far less powerful than the Primordials. Yes, they were powerful, yes, they killed the vast majority of Rakshasa who approached creation, but they could be talked with. They had failings. They overlooked little things and made deals. Sold slaves for ingredients, for the bodies of other Rakshasa. Sure, they toppled kingdoms that got too big, sure, they killed the invasions, but they filled wants, and that's what matters. Maybe with some other power, in some other time, this would be the prelude to some sort of long-term infestation or subversion, but not with the Rakshasa. Too power hungry, too backstabbing. Where one gets her claws in, another's waiting to stab her in the back and take what she owned.
So they remain a small thing. Less so if you're sold to them, but ultimately no-one really cares about the powerless.
Then the Solars fall, the Lunars flee, the Great Contagion ruins the Shogunate. In normal circumstances this wouldn't change much for the Rakshasa. Raiding would increase massively, of course, a thousand imperialistic empires desperate to sate the wants of teeming, insatiable subjects, but the Exalted would remain too strong, and the Rakshasa too weak, for it to truly work. They would fight each other as much as they did creation, self-sabotaging in an orgy of violence the likes of which the world had not seen since the First Age.
But, ultimately, the Great Contagion came at the best possible moment for the Rakshasa, for something unique had happened to them. Kubera, a Rakshasa of immense power, who had shed many of his wants in a maniacal drive for enlightenment, left his place under a Banyan tree blessed with glorious purpose in the process. He forged the Rakshasa into one nation, demanding unity from the myriad Rajas. Many did not join him, survived assaults or were too inconvenient to reach, but most did. And for the first time in History the Rakshasa were One.
The invasion is infamous, the Kuberan March. The establishment of Aloka, and, when all seemed lost, the Ascension of the Scarlet and the death of Kubera.
Now we have Raksha in the modern day. They've a better position than they ever have before, the infrastructure of the Shogunate is gone, the Realm weak and fractious, Creation fighting a thousand myriad threats. But their chance, the fleeting, glorious reign of Kubera, has come and gone. Never again will the Raksha unite into the Scourge of the Gods, rampage across creation in pursuit of their insatiable wants. They're back to normal. Feuding. Fighting. Raiding. Powerful, perhaps, but always at war with each other, always attacking one another for an advantage or some bizarre obsession.
Mechanically, I'd stat Rakshasa either as Spirits with Spirit charms relating to shapeshifting, illusion, and massive strength (And no ability to dematerialize) or as Aberrant Novas. They have a distinct love of Artifacts, with many using shit they grabbed during the fall of the First Age, or their own, Raksha made inventions. Their Intimacies are all ranked in order, from most important to least. They have Compassion, Temperance, and Valor, but no Conviction. In all ways, a Rakshasa is treated as a Conviction 5 creature incapable of channeling or suppressing its conviction. Conviction trumps any other Virtue in case of a conflict, while higher ranked intimacies always trump lower ranked intimacies. A Rakshasa can, and will, instantly backstab anyone in pursuit of its wants (Though obviously it will attempt to satisfy both wants).
Of note are human servants of the Rakshasa, labelled in the core book as Wyld Barbarians. They remain as they are in canon, humans living in the Wyld. Often thralls or citizens to some Rakshasa, making up the bulk of their armies, but occasionally independent.
Player characters can expect to interact with Raksha in a variety of ways, from a constant threat at creations borders, to valuable trading partners with a variety of valuable artifacts, to allies who are fanatically loyal if you know their levers. Allying with one Raksha against another is normal, human Raksha can be a valuable tool and source of manpower, and for a Solar fearing the Hunt a Raksha ally can be a literal lifesaver.
(Also Raksha and their impossible wants are valuable exotic materials for artifact Creation.)
1 The untranslated terms provided here are, frankly, pretty difficult to translate meaningfully. They're technical terms bound deeply into the morals of Hindu Mythology and Hindu/Buddhist ideals behind enlightenment and the soul. I've provided an idea in the parantheses above, but they're not going to be 100% accurate.
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- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I regret that I have but one Like to give.
vicky_molokh
Posthuman spidery thingy.
- Location
- Kyïv, Ukraine
Good. Being a Solar who designs how his/her Charms work, apply the speed enhancement to the partner and not to yourself. Now you either can use the non-flattering aspect against the partner . . . or use it as a proof of how crafty you are.
NonSequtur
a body
Uh. Like 'use an 18 wheeler as a melee weapon' Novas? 'Fast enough to dance around bullets' Novas? 'Sexy enough to mind control you' Novas?
Yikes. That seems a bit high for the 'can get slaughtered in job lots by dragonblooded' group, even if you've dropped the infinite number of rakshasa existing at once.
Are there any particular changes to the Wyld's... geography in this version?
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Nah, it's nice and all but I like my faerie as they are and I don't give a crap about Hindu mythology.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I dunno, isn't there already C:TL that, I'm guessing, does all of that but better? I mean, if you want to do that 'but in a fantasy setting' you could just, you know, do Changeling: The Lost, Fantasy Edition. In which you're some peasant stolen away and told you're a Lord by some even more lordly bastard who makes you learn 'etiquette' or get hit with sticks, who escapes and finds a community of outcasts and then there's a little, um, peasant rebellion, and whoops, maybe you are a Lord now.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yarp.
(Though a bunch of their stuff would turn into Shaping effects and most Rakshasa would be hardcapped at 1-3 Essence)
Not off the top of my head, no.
Nah, C:TL is the exact opposite of what you'd want play as I'd equate Raksha more to the True Fae than Changlings. Except when Exalted come in to play, but then they do that for everyone.I dunno, isn't there already C:TL that, I'm guessing, does all of that but better? I mean, if you want to do that 'but in a fantasy setting' you could just, you know, do Changeling: The Lost, Fantasy Edition. In which you're some peasant stolen away and told you're a Lord by some even more lordly bastard who makes you learn 'etiquette' or get hit with sticks, who escapes and finds a community of outcasts and then there's a little, um, peasant rebellion, and whoops, maybe you are a Lord now.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Wait, you wanna play *as* Raksha? I thought they were, like, a setting villain in Exalted?
I'd assumed you liked them, you know, as villains.
- Location
- Spain
Jack wasn't quick, but he was nimble. Way to go jack!
I do and I'd like play as one just like you can play an Infernal seeking to free the Yozi or an Abyssal faithfully serving the Deathlords. I like the concept behind them even if the mechanics behind them need a (lot) of work to make that fun.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's long been a conceit of the game that the raksha ought to be playable, but that's mostly an extension of the traditional White Wolf philosophy - "if we stat something completely, people will want to play it, so we have to stat it in a fashion that makes it viable as a PC." Raksha, Baali vampires, spirits in either game line, same thing. Doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea but the moment people started writing a book about the raksha, the moment they intended them to be playable.
(and failed)
Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
I was introduced to Exalted by a Raksha game. I still have the character sheet and everything.
I don't agree. If anything, I take Charms like Phantom-Conjuring Performance to be an indication of the exact opposite, its lack of mechanical teeth communicating that insofar as Exalted (and specifically Solar) magic can do this, it does so in an ephemeral way that is better (in the sense of providing more tangible benefits) achieved by infrastructure.
I understand your position, and I am not saying it is a necessarily invalid one, but I reject it out of the belief that insofar as Exalted magic does allow for this, it is to the detriment of the game. I view it as a major contributing factor in the Murderhobo Problem of 2e, where characters were not sufficiently incentivised to tie themselves to the setting and other characters.
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Honestly, I'd be more inclined to use Nova charagen for stating up a Behemoth than I would for Raksha, even variants like this.
Although, with KSBD brought to mind, I am now sorta considering importing Devils.
Stream of consciousness, engaged.
The Hot Black Flame, being described as "a primordial chaos", could fit in pretty easily in the Wyld. The use of Masks and Names for binding Devils also sorta reminds me of how canon Raksha use Assumptions to get around in Creation with the distinction between an Unshaped and Shaped Raksha mapping sorta decently with Masked Devils and Unbound Devils.
It's not perfect, mind, and I don't really think you could whole sale replace the Raksha with Devils(tempting though the thought may be) but as something that someone(maybe a Sorcerer, maybe not) can call up from the Wyld as a third alternative to Demon and Elemental Summoning, maybe.
Stream of consciousness, disengaged.
Well, my general sentiment about the canon Raksha can basically be summarised as "Fuck the Raksha". I've basically stripped them out and replaced them with things that work like True Fae from C:tL - that is, with the whole "they're made of Titles, and Titles can manifest as waypoint-occupying geography, as a horde of lesser beings, as a single powerful thing or as an item of myth and legend". And that means that each of them basically has to be pretty strongly thematic and I can just go make a wendigo king leading a tribe of many-headed giants living in a giant mountain made of teeth and have a warped local ecosystem subjugated to that title-cluster.
(And then Keris shows up and ruins the good deal they had going on)
And since the canon Raksha can go fuck themselves, my hacked up version are just one part of the wyld ecology and certainly don't dominate it or anything. So they're totally compatible with a setting which also use @Havocfett's Rakasaha.
(And then Keris shows up and ruins the good deal they had going on)
And since the canon Raksha can go fuck themselves, my hacked up version are just one part of the wyld ecology and certainly don't dominate it or anything. So they're totally compatible with a setting which also use @Havocfett's Rakasaha.
Honestly that seems to be your default stance towards Exalted in general not there's anything wrong with that. I'm curious though as to how much of your version of Exalted remains RAW compared to what you've changed and how long it's taken you to reach that point.
No, my objections tend to be based on implementation over base concept [1].
Raksha? The base concept is broken.
The Raksha commit the fucking criminal offence of being a NPC splat who are probably the most intensive and micromanging splat to use. @Havocfett can protest on thematic grounds (for entirely good reasons), but I find it a lot easier to change fluff than change bad mechanics. And the Raksha have never had good mechanics. They are designed in a way that they will never have good mechanics. It's not an implementation detail - they made the absofuckinglutely horrible design decision to make the NPC splat complicated, intricate, mostly concerned with the events in a place that PCs will never go and have entire specialised subsystems that will never come up in normal play. Which is entirely wasted design time. Their basis is not fit for purpose. I'm a fucking GM, I need my NPCs to be as easy to run as possible and Raksha are the opposite of that.
That is why long ago I took a knife to them as music from Psycho played.
(Also, some of this may be built up disdain of Raksha fans from the old WW boards. Ye gods, those people and their whining that a horde-based splat who find it much easier to make new members than Dragonblooded do aren't Celestial-tier combatants.)
[1] Notably, the only splat I've changed as much as the Raksha have been the Lunars, and Lunars are weighed down by a) being linked to Werewolf: the Apocalypse and b) thematically incoherent. That can fuck right off too, which is why TAW took a knife to them and stabbed the werewolfisms repeatedly and loudly shouted "Lunars are not were-, okay? They are witches". Which was a very deliberate decision to burn away all the chaff and give them a strong central conceptual statement that could hang everything else off and wasn't just about turning into an animal and raging.
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Bursting Eagerness Soul
Threadwalking Rating Machine
- Location
- Wisconsin
I like this. I especially like the idea of being able to summon Wyld-stuff. It seems like it would fit neatly as a subcategory of Havocfett's Rakshasa too.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
SO TONIGHT
I don't generally post updates for my ongoing games but this was one of the best RPG moments I've had.
Tonight Idesu Adara, death-touched Air Aspect, premier necromancer of the early days of the Shogunate, gravedigger of the Usurpation, confronted his mentor, Ishizu, a sorcerer of great power.
Ishizu once saw a vision of the end of times, of the death of Creation, and of the means to avert it. Whether that vision was right, whether her means of averting it were the only ones, will be mysteries for the ages. What matters is that she foresaw the terrible things she would have to do to avert the end of the world, and could not stomach them.
So through sorcery she removed her ability to feel emotions, so that she could do all that was needed, without remorse, without doubt.
Her actions caused (among many other things) Gens Adara to scatter. Idesu's brother died. His sworn sisters risked death. Less than a decade after the Uprising which cast down the Solar Exalted, war tore Creation apart. In assistance to his sisterhood, Idesu committed terrible things, to help bring peace and stability to Creation. The blood of thousands is on his hand. He had to kill members of his own Gens - relatives, family - when they rebelled against him.
At the end of the war, with Creation polarizing under an Empire in the south and a Shogunate in the north, with the victory all but in hand, Idesu departed from his war-leader companion to face his mentor alone, one last time. This was not about thwarting her plans; her plans were long-accomplished. This was about putting an end to things. It was about revenge, though it felt like justice.
He did not kill her. What is the point of killing someone in revenge when they cannot feel, and only accept their death as one of possible outcomes? When they have no fear, no sorrow, no anger at what they lost? When your own pain cannot be rendered unto them?
So that last battle was not a battle of sword and spells, but one of the last act of a single sorcerous working. Idesu tried to restore Ishizu's ability to feel, and she fought back.
She lost. As her emotions bloomed once more, Idesu saw what she had seen on the day she had lost them: her vision of the end of all things.
The vision was overwhelming. He lost consciousness.
As he woke up, he realized his working had been complex. Difficult to implement with the right degree of finesse. In forcing emotions back in her mind, he had bounded himself to her. Now he could feel what she felt - had t ofeel it. And the first thing he felt Ishizu feel, as he slowly awoke, was her worry and confusion at the thought that he might die.
They did not fight. They spoke. He told her what he had wanted to say: that she'd hurt him more than anyone ever had, that this was the only punishment he could inflict that would mean something to her, that he could not look upon her without being reminded of all the pain and anger he had suffered. That he had hoped she would love him, so that abandoning her would hurt her all the more. He had planned to say this, and he did, but the words had lost their spite, their vicious pleasure, their sense of fulfillment. He only felt sad now.
She understood. From the half-collapsed Underworld castle in which they had fought, she retrieved a bundle. Their child, only a few months old.
She would not be around for much longer, she said. She would never go back to her family. She had no place anymore. She had done terrible things. She would go somewhere, and die, and so he had to take care of their child now.
And so she embraced him, and they left, and they will raise their child together. And perhaps together they can learn about redemption, and forgiveness, and maybe love.
Meanwhile, the world will heal.
I don't generally post updates for my ongoing games but this was one of the best RPG moments I've had.
Tonight Idesu Adara, death-touched Air Aspect, premier necromancer of the early days of the Shogunate, gravedigger of the Usurpation, confronted his mentor, Ishizu, a sorcerer of great power.
Ishizu once saw a vision of the end of times, of the death of Creation, and of the means to avert it. Whether that vision was right, whether her means of averting it were the only ones, will be mysteries for the ages. What matters is that she foresaw the terrible things she would have to do to avert the end of the world, and could not stomach them.
So through sorcery she removed her ability to feel emotions, so that she could do all that was needed, without remorse, without doubt.
Her actions caused (among many other things) Gens Adara to scatter. Idesu's brother died. His sworn sisters risked death. Less than a decade after the Uprising which cast down the Solar Exalted, war tore Creation apart. In assistance to his sisterhood, Idesu committed terrible things, to help bring peace and stability to Creation. The blood of thousands is on his hand. He had to kill members of his own Gens - relatives, family - when they rebelled against him.
At the end of the war, with Creation polarizing under an Empire in the south and a Shogunate in the north, with the victory all but in hand, Idesu departed from his war-leader companion to face his mentor alone, one last time. This was not about thwarting her plans; her plans were long-accomplished. This was about putting an end to things. It was about revenge, though it felt like justice.
He did not kill her. What is the point of killing someone in revenge when they cannot feel, and only accept their death as one of possible outcomes? When they have no fear, no sorrow, no anger at what they lost? When your own pain cannot be rendered unto them?
So that last battle was not a battle of sword and spells, but one of the last act of a single sorcerous working. Idesu tried to restore Ishizu's ability to feel, and she fought back.
She lost. As her emotions bloomed once more, Idesu saw what she had seen on the day she had lost them: her vision of the end of all things.
The vision was overwhelming. He lost consciousness.
As he woke up, he realized his working had been complex. Difficult to implement with the right degree of finesse. In forcing emotions back in her mind, he had bounded himself to her. Now he could feel what she felt - had t ofeel it. And the first thing he felt Ishizu feel, as he slowly awoke, was her worry and confusion at the thought that he might die.
They did not fight. They spoke. He told her what he had wanted to say: that she'd hurt him more than anyone ever had, that this was the only punishment he could inflict that would mean something to her, that he could not look upon her without being reminded of all the pain and anger he had suffered. That he had hoped she would love him, so that abandoning her would hurt her all the more. He had planned to say this, and he did, but the words had lost their spite, their vicious pleasure, their sense of fulfillment. He only felt sad now.
She understood. From the half-collapsed Underworld castle in which they had fought, she retrieved a bundle. Their child, only a few months old.
She would not be around for much longer, she said. She would never go back to her family. She had no place anymore. She had done terrible things. She would go somewhere, and die, and so he had to take care of their child now.
And so she embraced him, and they left, and they will raise their child together. And perhaps together they can learn about redemption, and forgiveness, and maybe love.
Meanwhile, the world will heal.
So he basically created an Aes Sedai Warden bond between her soul and his?
Talk of cutting off one's nose to spite one's face....