Mare Internum: An Exalted Quest
- Thread starter Crumplepunch
- Start date
ThatGazzer
Minds Eye Bind
- Location
- PNW
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Ah, it seems she was meant to exalt as an Abyssal, but her life was saved in defiance of her fate, perhaps? leaving her sort of Between
- Location
- Spain
Yeah it seems like Vesper souls are separated.
That's kind of a bad thing.
1337Procrast
Fire Emblem Enjoyer
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
How could Vesper exalt as an Abyssal when she's already a Dragonblooded? The scene includes her controlling her own blood to keep herself alive, a very Water Aspect capability.
Exalted is filled with all kinds of weird magic stuff you don't need to immediately jump towards OMG, VESPER IS A GETIMIAN?!?! Or whatever.
thelordofmango
may be stupid
- Location
- under a rock
I'm half convinced you lot are just making up words now.
Parabola
Divided Loyalties Librarian
- Location
- The Destination of Fate
- Pronouns
- She/Her
That's not quite how that works - your lower soul is representative of the baser desires of your body, while the upper soul is what traditionally gets considered the person proper. So a person can conceivably leave behind both a regular ghost and a hungry ghost (which is typically feral and thirsts for blood). In fact, hungry ghosts can conceivably arise while the owner still lives - that's the story of the example Hungry Ghost in the 3e corebook.
Terrestrial exaltations are different than Celestial ones too, they're not exactly something that latches itself onto your soul like a Celestial one does. I'm not 100% clear on the metaphysics, but even if Crumplepunch were working off of the more rigid 2e interpretation of things (which I don't think he is), then this is fair game. And we already are an Exalt - jokes about what type she is aside, Vesper is almost certainly a Water Aspect Dragon-Blooded.
All that said, yes, potentially having your soul split is not a good thing in any sense. In fact, if we assume this is the lower part of our soul, that'd... actually very easily explain why Vesper behaves like the protagonist from Disco Elysium: unable to think terribly long-term, taking decisions on the first impulse she gets, being barely aware of herself, etc.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
No no no, that's a completely different direction to what I'm saying. The facts are that Exaltations will only choose people with complete mortal soul hierarchies, are at least somewhat 'mortal' with lineage from humans and if someone stops qualifying thusly - which is analogous to death or becoming an akuma - the Exaltation leaves. Now if the soul is still connected and in the same vessel, just alienated from one another, this is salvageable, but if at some point one soul just ups and leaves our body, we should according to canon, lose our Exaltation.
Parabola
Divided Loyalties Librarian
- Location
- The Destination of Fate
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well, we're still alive, and still an Exalt, so either I'm wrong, and there's something else weird going on here, or Crumple is doing what he thinks would make for a fun story regardless of pesky canonical details.
I'm inclined to think it could be both, that even if Crumple is taking some liberties, I could be wrong and this isn't our soul, but as Vesper speculates, part of our memories. Our reflection is telling us this isn't a dream, but for all we know our reflection is also a liar, or wrong.
- Location
- East of the Sun and West of the Moon
Ooh, fantasy tarot bit! I love fantasy tarot bits.
Yeah, I am greatly concerned about us doing something unspecified to them. We are not blessed with a surfeit of people ready to put up with our nonsense.
- Location
- ?
I'm not going to make any statements on what bearing this discussion might have to the current scene, I just want to say that, by way of canon, this is definitely not true in Ex3 and I'm 90% sure it has never been true in any edition. Having your souls removed (or part removed) is not the same thing as death, and does not trigger some kind of automated Exaltation shutdown. People with damaged or incomplete souls (like the dream-eaten victims of the raksha) can Exalt just like everyone else.
For those new to Exalted and confused by this exchange, Exalted metaphysics has a higher and lower soul, like a simplified form of Chinese Daoism or the ancient Egyptian concept of the soul. Exaltation, the spark of supernatural power that gives Exalts their extraordinary abilities, is rarely and inconsistantly described as a third soul.
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For A Better World 5
- Location
- ?
You draw the Dragon of Lamps, highest card of the Lamps suite.
REFLECTION: "See how he coils around his flame? The Dragon of Lamps is mighty, but, unlike the General, temperate. He shepherds the fire, and dwells in the world of anticipation. The clouds, subconscious distractions, retreat before him. The mountains, material desire, are far beneath his notice."
Her hands click and reshape as her overlong fingers place the Dragon of Lamps next to the Lightning Bolt in the indeterminate space between you.
REFLECTION: "A picture begins to form, perhaps? For what do you wait? Do you fear your completion? Is the cost of enlightenment too high for you to bear, in your fallen state?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
REFLECTION: "Ignorance. Ignorance to be remedied. Ask another question."
[ ] Who are you?
[ ] What did you mean when you said I did something to Fincher and Logris?
[ ] How can I make this stop, please?
[ ] What is the nature of the Five Part World?
[ ] No, I'm done with this.
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- Pronouns
- They/Them
I may be running off of fan-written rules then. I wasn't saying 'damaged or incomplete' vaguely but 'hun or po is completely missing making the structure too different'. For some reason I have it in my head that Exaltations are keyed to human-ish beings that way, and it's why Dragon Kings and pureblood Lintha don't Exalt - or any other pre-human races - because they have a different soul structure, and disengaging if things change too much - which is why ghosts can't exalt or keep their Exaltation, because they're just a hun or just a po. But again, there's been so much fanwork around Exalted I probably got the idea from that.
- Location
- Nova Scotia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I think you're massively overthinking things, and the forms of Exaltation that exist currently in the setting only work for humans because they only work for humans. You don't need an overly technical explanation about the shape of a soul or whatever, and there's no like "aha you activated my trap card, by messing up your soul, your Exaltation is forfeit" anywhere in canon.
In Ex3 there are mention of other Exaltations who are, so far as we know, gone now that belonged to other races. Not to mention the Exigents who are all custom jobs, and the various permutations of weird and wonderful exaltations we now have. Basically if the storyteller wants someone to exalt you're probably good.
For A Better World 6
- Location
- ?
"What is the nature of the Five-Part World?"
The Reflection pauses, recedes. She shifts thoughtfully, streamers of dry flesh shuddering against each other over the suppurating darkness like the scales of a coiling serpent.
She reaches up and touches the second card, the Dragon of Lamps.
REFLECTION: "He dwells in the world of anticipation. To dwell in one world is glory."
"That doesn't really answer my question."
REFLECTION: "Many states comprise the world. Its elements. Its virtues. Its boundaries and constraints. Most of all, its perspectives. It was the insight of Sulidan to identify the five worlds. The windows into which the true Creation is cut, facets of a gemstone. Most dross live within the boundaries of the five-part world. A truly refined state of being must reconcile one."
"That sounds cool and makes sense." you lie.
REFLECTION: "You mock. We glimpsed one such world."
"Was it the world of anticipation? That one sounds boring."
The reflection laughs that wheezing laugh again. Something black and viscous drips into the white void.
REFLECTION: "The world of intention. The state of supreme violence."
"Oh, that doesn't sound good at all."
REFLECTION: "To dwell in one world is glory. Our self has grown strong, enriched beyond the vicissitudes of meat."
"You lost me again."
The buzzing intensifies. Bony, insectoid digits without number hold forth the pack.
REFLECTION: "Then draw one more card. To guide you."
[ ] The Wolf
[ ] The General of Ewers
[ ] The Matriarch of Flowers
[ ] The Ace of Banners
[ ] Creation, Inverted
[ ] Refuse
mothematics
How wide is the concept of "you"?
- Location
- the bottom of a coffee cup
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] The Wolf
The last time when we drew a card (when we were showering on the beach), we lost an hour. We drew multiple cards now. Does this mean that Vesper spent an entire day standing in front of the tree having visions while everybody just awkwardly watched?
Half Moon
In the end, there is no end.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It's probably not quite that linear, but I would be entirely unsurprised all the same.
- Location
- florida
They would probably find something better to do after an hour. It can't be that much fun to watch us.
- Location
- Spain
They are probably freaking out over Vesper catatonic corpse