History TableTopGame / Exalted

* {{Fiction 500}} -- Sidereal Exalted receive their Salary from the Celestial Bureaucracy in the form of Quintessence and Ambrosia, which can be converted into any mundane material, including money. In Heaven, this isn't really a problem, since money of all sorts is basically WorthlessYellowRocks. In Creation, however, a Sidereal Exalted's ''starting pay'' would be enough to set them up as a millionaire several times over. Higher levels of Salary could allow a Sidereal to buy and sell nations, or bring the Realm's economy to its knees in a matter of days. Luckily, the Celestial Bureaucracy has already figured this out, and makes actually using Salary to its fullest extent in Creation a crime.

See also ''KeychainOfCreation'', an ''Exalted'' Webcomic. See also ''{{Scion}}'', which is basically diet ''Exalted'' [[XMeetsY meets]] ''AmericanGods'' [[RecycledInSpace IN AMERICA]].

*** YourMileageMayVary: Said radiation sickness involves her ''removing'' the tumorous flesh, revealing her normal body underneath. Makes it look like she's removing a Halloween costume, under which she's not wearing a bra.

** Also, if an Abyssal's Deathlord master has their "Monstrance of Celestial Portion" (soul cage), they can kill an offending Abyssal instantly. The rulebook suggests having the Deathlord treat any minor rebellion as part of their XanatosRoulette, to give them a ''little'' slack.

* AnyoneCanDie -- The Return of the Scarlet Empress. Including [[spoiler: Autochton, the Unconquered Sun and the Ebon Dragon!]]

* OurLichesAreDifferent[=/=]OurVampiresAreDifferent -- The Abyssal Exalted are masters of death and the Undead and drink blood to refill their Essence pools; they can also be courtly aristocrats or hideous monsters. However, they can't spread their [[CursedWithAwesome curse]], and they don't have any of the standard weaknesses other than being vulnerable to Holy effects. They ''can'' be killed by the light of the Sun, but that's because the Dirigible Engine Daystar is an enormous battle-station that can kill just about anything. Back when the setting was linked to ''TabletopGame/TheOldWorldOfDarkness'', the Abyssals were the ''[[TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade Vampire]]'' equivalent.

* DisContinuityNod -- Originally Exalted was intended to be the prehistory of of the old/classic World of Darkness. Despite them going away from this interpretation, the back cover still states that "science is a lie," implying that is written from the viewpoint of a [[TabletopGame/MageTheAscension Traditions Mage]] in the old WorldOfDarkness. There are still plenty of references to oWoD as well, the most obvious being Autochthon, as well as the Ebon Dragon and Scarlet Empress/Queen (to Mage and Kindred of the East respectively). Recently, they've also been sneaking in references to nWoD games such as Promethean (mortals who are capable of crafting Alchemical Exalted are known as demiurges) and Geist (Abyssals' "old laws" charms).

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything -- Whether or not ''Exalted'' is still old-[[WorldOfDarkness WOD]]'s prehistory, the Lunars' "Thousand Streams River" project -- grand-scale social engineering, aimed at creating societies that can survive and thrive without the need for Exalted leadership/control -- can easily be interpreted, when viewed at a remove of hundreds of millennia, as [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse the Impergium]].

* FridgeHorror: The Scarlet Empress and Ebon Dragon are responsible for giving the Wan Xian/Wan Kuei a second chance and for imbuing the [[HunterTheReckoning Hunters]] in the Old WorldOfDarkness. It's implied that they are, effectively, the "good guys" in a BlackAndGrayMorality CrapsackWorld. That's right, going on the old idea that Exalted is the World of Darkness in the past, the embodiment of vice and his bride, who has the same powers HE does, are the GOOD guys. That also makes you wonder how bad something has to be for them to undergo a FaceHeelTurn...

* OurLichesAreDifferent[=/=]OurVampiresAreDifferent -- The Abyssal Exalted are masters of death and the Undead and drink blood to refill their Essence pools; they can also be courtly aristocrats or hideous monsters. However, they can't spread their [[CursedWithAwesome curse]], and they don't have any of the standard weaknesses other than being vulnerable to Holy effects. They ''can'' be killed by the light of the Sun, but that's because the Dirigible Engine Daystar is an enormous battle-station that can kill just about anything. Back when the setting was linked to ''TheWorldOfDarkness'', the Abyssals were the ''[[TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade Vampire]]'' equivalent.

* ShoutOut -- Lots. 1st Edition has a lot to the WorldOfDarkness games, and there's shout-outs to pop culture and mythology all over.

** Also, the Infernal Castes share the names of the [[DemonTheFallen Demon Houses]], save for the Devils and Devourers.

* DisContinuity: The first three chapters of ''Manual of Exalted Power: Infernals'' was written by someone who was under the impression that they were supposed to be the "pure supervillain" splat. The writers have went on to say that they ignore that bit completely, and in particular the part about mortal [[DealWithTheDevil akuma]] (WordOfGod says that only an Exalt can become one, with the mortals becoming Yozi-Kin [[HalfHumanHybrid Demon-Bloods]] instead).

* BilingualBonus -- One of the Dynastic Houses, Peleps, has a household of privateers named Kaizoku, which as SuperSentai fans know, [[KaizokuSentaiGokaiger means "pirate"]].

* BrownNote -- Flawless Brush Discipline makes a Solar's handwriting so beautiful that those who read it will fall in love with the writer.

* AndIMustScream -- Soulsteel is literally made from souls, all of them trapped in eternal agony. Similarly, Helltech artifacts are forged from demons, and some of them are sentient... and malevolent.

This backstory would be bleak, forbidding, and generally depressing in any other setting, but the basic premise of ''{{Exalted}}'' is that you are a Hero. A Hero in a universe where Heroes Matter, and in fact are endowed with power to equal and even surpass the gods. The RuleOfCool is the order of the day, and there is ''nothing'' you cannot do if you put some effort into it.

* ActionGirl -- Harmonious Jade is the poster girl for this. Many other examples, including Iron Siaka, Lyta, and Huyla. Any female Exalted, really.
* AdiposeRex -- Sesus Nagezzar, aka "The Slug." He's not a king, but he is nobility, being one of the Terrestrial Exalted. A former SuperSoldier like all Dragon-Blooded, he became grossly overweight after being supernaturally crippled. He's got some fairly detestable personal habits, but he's one of the few hopes [[TheEmpire The Realm]] has for survival.

* AllYourColorsCombined -- Dragon-Blooded can do this with some of their attacks, combining multiple elements into a single super-attack.

* AntiVillain -- With the revelations about where the true blame lies for the Deathlords and the Great Contagion in the Abyssals 2e, ''Chejop Kejak'' of all people. See trope entry for details.
** The Perfect of Paragon probably qualifies as well, being DoctorDoom given a SympatheticPOV. While he ''is'' a dictator with some [[PoliceState pretty]] [[EvilSorcerer questionable]] [[HumanSacrifice ethics]], he genuinely cares about his people and wants what's best for them. And to his credit, [[AffablyEvil he's a pretty good dad]].
** Honestly, in a world where everyone is a bad guy to someone, everyone's an AntiVillain... Except the Ebon Dragon, who pretty much ''is'' the concept of treachery and dickery. And the only reason its "pretty much" is because the Ebon Dragon [[BeyondTheImpossible Even betrays himself by not betraying people occasionally]]

* ArrogantKungFuGuy -- Peleps Deled.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking -- Malfeas, the [[EldritchAbomination primordial]] king of hell is known for his unending rage, sheer overkill and dancing skills.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking -- Chejop Kejak, the Deathlords, the Lunar Elders, and the Yozis all bear this out, but the Dragon-Bloods avert it. Despite being the rulers of Creation, they're the weakest of the Exalted. A Dragon-Blood can still kick a mundane human's ass, though.
** On the other hand, it tends to hold true within Dragon-Blooded culture, though it overlaps with AsskickingEqualsAuthority -- since they derive both personal power and general authority from breeding a large number of Dragon-Blooded. And, of course...
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: ...the Empress is the star example of this, given how she derives all her authority from a giant WMD. All the Exalted can qualify to an extent, though -- even when they have laws and mandates declaring their power, it ultimately comes down to their having had the brute force to overthrow the Yozis.

* AxCrazy -- Adorjan. To put it simply, she considers silence to be the ultimate gift...[[{{Yandere}} so she kills people she loves to give them ultimate quiet]].

* BadassGrandpa -- Chejop Kejak is the oldest and most powerful Exalt in the setting, a Sidereal who's versed in four different reality-bending martial arts styles.
** Cathak Cainan, one of the oldest and most personally powerful Dragon-Blooded alive, as well as one of the most honorable and well-liked. If it weren't for the fact that he is so near his life's end, the secret rulers of the Realm would have given him the Scarlet Throne already!
** Tepet Arada, also one of the oldest and most badass Dragon-Blooded alive. One of the few to have walked away from a fight with a Solar.

* BeardOfEvil -- Desus' goatee.

** Their patrons, the Five Maidens, have powers that literally run on this principle -- when they choose, they can see the future ([[ScrewDestiny probably]]), but are then bound to bring about whatever future they saw.
** The Yozi Sacheverell sleeps and dreams of the present. It is believed that, if he were to awaken, [[YouCantFightFate his prophecies would ensnare everyone]].
* BewareTheNiceOnes -- While how nice Autochthon is [[YourMileageMayVary is an answer that depends on the reader]], there's no doubt that he's at least very nice to mortals. He also created the Exalted when his siblings pushed him too far, and when the local variation of TheGreys grew hubristic enough to try to enslave him, he wiped them all out with the metaphysical equivalent of a wave of his hand, ''accidentally'' creating soulsteel in the process.

* BreakTheCutie -- Ma-Ha-Suchi was a Lunar who dreamed of sleeping with every Exalt in the First Age, and Raksi was the youngest Lunar to have ever exalted. Then [[ThePurge the Usurpation]] came. Now Ma-Ha-Suchi is a Wyld-tainted madman with an unquenchable desire to destroy Creation, and Raksi is a twisted psychopath who [[LonersAreFreaks lives alone in an abandoned tower]] with her beastmen servants, eating babies and trying to unlock the secrets of the universe.
** The younger daughter of the Scarlet Empress, Lillun. All she wanted was to see what Mommy was doing, and Big Sister Mnemon said she could...[[spoiler:she's known as the Phylactery Womb, now.]] [[hottip:*: [[spoiler: Infernals are showed and taught to revere Lillun]]. Some even take on the cruel pleasure of [[spoiler: calling her "Mother"]]. Being something all of them go through initially, no canonical [[spoiler: infernal openly defied that]], or they'd just be killed and replaced.
** A common theme among more charitable interpretations of Autochthon. Weakest and most pleasant of the Primordials, so nice, in fact, [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer that the others disliked him for being strange]], leading to an almost infinite parade of misery that finished with [[MoralEventHorizon the Ebon Dragon pulling apart his most prized creation piece by piece]] -- ''[[ColdBloodedTorture which was the first sapient]]'' -- [[MoralEventHorizon and using his remains to create the]] [[TheGrotesque Darkbrood]] to mock him and his attachment to Creation. Cue creation of Exalted and death and imprisonment for the Primordials.
*** Autochthon was not imprisoned. When he heard about the gods planning a rebellion, he agreed to help them because the other Primordials where being such dicks to him. He made the prototypes for the first Exalted and out of gratitude, the Gods let him continue to stay in creation after the war, until the Solars started going insane, which prompted him to take his followers to [[TheVoid Elsewhere]] and hide out. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome So while he was the weakest, he was one of only two Primordials to avoid imprisonment or death after the war.]]
* BrilliantButLazy -- Eye and Seven Despairs. It's implied that he's actually the most devious and intelligent of the Deathlords when he actually puts his mind to anything beyond his pointlessly convoluted revenge plot.

* ButtMonkey -- Eye and Seven Despairs. He's one of the most terrifyingly powerful beings in the setting, and managed to create a ZombieApocalypse plague, among other things. But no one takes him seriously, because he's too busy playing sadistic mind games with the reincarnations of the people who picked on/horrifically tormented him when he was alive.
* CameBackWrong -- If a Primordial's [[LoadBearingBoss Fetich Soul]] is killed, it implodes and can't do anything until it redefines itself by spawning a new Fetich. This process changes the Primordial's identity, theme and powers. This is what the Exalted did to all the Yozis before imprisoning them.

* CardCarryingVillain -- The Ebon Dragon not only is the embodiment of villainy, wickedness, treachery and general bastardry, but defined virtue in the first place to have something to be opposed to.
** The Yozi reward the Infernal Exalted for playing the role of villains as well, such as monologuing about their evil schemes, leaving their heroic foes in cunning deathtraps, or other cliched acts of villainy. One can be rewarded for going through said cliches...[[KickTheSonOfABitch against people worse than they are]]...[[PokeThePoodle with deliberate flaws]]... the Green Sun Princes can become [[NobleDemon]]s if they want.

** The Ebon Dragon, most cunning and patient of the [[SealedEvilInACan Yozis]] and leading candidate for a campaign's BigBad, also fits.
** Ledaal Kes is this literally (except replace "Chess" with "Gateway"). He's also implied to have one of the best tactical minds in the world, such that the Sidereals would have preferred him to become the new Emperor, except that his skills in actual combat aren't good enough to impress the Dragon-Blooded. All of this is justified partly because the Sidereals trained him directly (though he was already skilled enough at Gateway to play the Empress at age 8, around the time he Exalted). Also, if you take the comics as canon and part of a singular story, he survived a match of Gateway with a Second Circle Demon whose entire purpose is to play games and steals the bodies and souls of the losers, ''and'' [[spoiler: is the leader of the resistance in the event that the Ebon Dragon wins, right up there with Nara-o himself.]]

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder -- The Green Lady has been running so many {{Memory Gambit}}-centered {{Xanatos Roulette}}s for so long that even ''she'' no longer remembers whose side she's on. At least four separate Deathlords are each convinced that she is betraying the other three (and the Bureau of Destiny) for them. One is convinced that she is a man.
** Later revealed that [[spoiler:she's a quadruple-triple agent in the service of the Bureau of Destiny, and she's simultaneously betraying all four Deathlords to Heaven and each other at once. Of course, she had to mindwipe herself so she doesn't ''know'' she's doing this...]]
* ClingyCostume -- The First and Forsaken Lion. The penalty for failing his Neverborn master was to be welded into his armor.
* CloudCuckooLander -- Swan Dragon.

* CoolOldGuy -- Tepet Arada embodies this in the Second Age. In the First Age, Saibok Gauto was undisputed master.

* DomesticAbuser -- Desus and Lilith.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep -- Everyone calls her the Scarlet Empress. [[JustifiedTrope Granted]], it's because nobody can remember her name after so long.

* FatBastard -- This trope is deliberately invoked by Sesus Nagezzer, the Realm's [[ThePornomancer provider of "questionable services"]] and (unofficially) kingmaker in order to trick people into underestimating him.

* TheFool -- Tepet Fokuf. [[ObfuscatingStupidity Maybe.]]
* ForTheEvulz -- The Ebon Dragon is literally the cosmic principle of villainy.

** Most of the Deathlords also have this power as part of their disguise capabilities, although it isn't particularly relevant for them... with the exception of Eye and Seven Despairs, whose extreme obsession with creating elaborately fake female identities has managed to ''creep out the other Deathlords''.

** When the Primordial called He Who Bleeds The Unknown Word underwent fetich death, the resulting Yozi was the female Elloge, the Sphere of Speech.
** For a long time, fanon held that Adorjan's previous incarnation of Adrian had been male; writing was mostly unclear on this. It was finally {{Jossed}} once and for all by a freelancer post.

* GenreBlindness: This is the Deathlord Mask of Winters' FatalFlaw. He's incredibly suave and clever...but his schemes are pretty well treaded in the Bond villain world, and he hasn't realized other people might know this.

* GodEmperor -- The Scarlet Empress. Invest a few Background points in Cult and Influence, and you can be one, too. The downside, though, is that the Realm will come and kill you (Her Redness doesn't like competition).

* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen -- Depending on your position, the Scarlet Empress, although she's not quite so two-dimensional. Mnemon certainly applies, though, even if she's not technically Empress yet.
** ''Scroll of Exalts'' reverses this: Mnemon is revealed to have a ''much'' more sympathetic portrayal, while the Scarlet Empress was already revealed in Infernals to have tried to sell out to the Yozis.

* {{Gonk}} -- Huyla's face looks something like a squished frog, freakishly flat with a wide mouth. Exactly how extreme it is varies with the artist, but her face always stands in stark contrast to every other female in the game's art. Of course, Huyla's particular brand of ugliness is deliberate (she's kin to the Lintha, who are scions of Kimberry, the Sea That Marched Against the Flame—in other words, the next thing to Deep Ones) and lampshaded in her official character write-up. Even her name is a pun on that of a genus of tree frog.
** She's more likely to be related to the Pelagials, who are even more Cthulhu-esque.

* [[GratuitousForeignLanguage Gratuitous Hungarian]] -- So very much in the names of demons and Yozi.

* HappilyMarried -- Ledaal Kes and Ragara Szaya. Despite both being gay, the two of them seem to have a strong emotional bond, even verging on seeing each other as the exception to the rule. But it's mentioned somewhere that it's less IfItsYouItsOkay and more "Both sides play GenderBender."

* HarmlessVillain -- Eye and Seven Despairs, one of the Deathlords, is a brilliant and amoral scientist and pioneer of necrotech... who also happens to have his head [[IncrediblyLamePun six feet down]] his own ass. Like the other Deathlords, he's a frightening OmnicidalManiac with uber-death powers, and what does he do? ''Play decades-long convoluted head games with the [[LegacyCharacter reincarnations]] of his tormentors from the First Age''. In perspective: Princess Magnificent With Lips Of Black Coral has been forced by the Neverborn to [[TheStarscream be second-in-command]] to a man she hates, and she's ''still'' looked upon as higher on the totem pole than Eye is.
** This may be for the best for Creation, as Eye had just developed Creation's first contagious zombie plague when he set it aside and forgot about it in favor of his new schemes.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo -- Chejop Kejak, and the Bronze Faction in general.
* IfICantHaveYou -- She Who Lives in Her Name felt this way about ''90% of Creation''.

* InnocentFanserviceGirl -- ''Thousand-Faceted Nelumbo'', the iconic Adamant Caste. Admittedly, she's more "ultra-practical" then "unknowing," and she's a lot deeper than most examples, but still.

* JackassGenie -- Cecelyne has Charms that allow her to grant the wishes of people she overhears wanting something. She's also a [[SealedEvilInACan Yozi]] who became a jaded SocialDarwinist after the Unconquered Sun ignored her treatise for peace and overthrew her and her siblings. [[CaptainObvious What do you]] ''[[CaptainObvious think]]'' [[CaptainObvious she is?]]

* TheJuggernaut -- The Mask of Winters has a gargantuan behemoth called Juggernaut, which fully lives up to its name. Then there's the Yozi Isidoros, who's able to push aside such piddling trifles as the moon, the planets, and the layers of the Demon City...

* KingInTheMountain
** The backstory of the Bodhisattva Annointed by Dark Water / Silver Prince includes a villainous version of this trope.
** Canon is deliberately vague on the Sun Dragon's fate, but if he survived he'd qualify.

* LadyOfWar -- Tepet Ejava, the Roseblack.

* LegacyCharacter -- Quite a few.
** Crimson Banner Executioner: each time this Sidereal Chosen of Battles Exalts into a new incarnation, they take up the name and costume of their predecessor.
** Shoat of the Mire, the Dowager's CreepyChild Abyssal.
** The way Celestial Exaltations work, all 700 Celestial Exalted are effectively Legacy Characters to some degree. Infernals can take it further with The Flame of the Rising Phoenix charm.

* LighterAndSofter -- Despite including the Phylactery-Womb and Deathknights going from solars with dark tricks to potentially more horrifying harbingers of Oblivion, the [[{{Reconstruction}} second edition]] is this to the [[{{Deconstruction}} first]]. As noted above, the first edition was a grim setting that narrated the end of the world [[DoomedByCanon in the first paragraph of the first book.]] In second edition, not only can your characters ''win'', but do so meaningfully and heroically and not just as the latest in a [[ViciousCycle succession of conquerors and tyrants]].

* LittleMissBadass -- [[CreepyChild The Shoat of the Mire]].

** Neither is avoiding marriage and children. The Realm needs those Terrestrial bloodlines to continue! The only socially acceptable excuse for not ''eventually'' passing on the family name is if you've become a monk. OTOH, if you're doing your bit for the gene pool then nobody cares with what gender you might be spending the remainder of your time; in fact, same-sex lovers are ''preferable'' for the Realm's Dragon-Blooded, because they don't produce unwanted bastards that can muddy the family lines. Also, it's perfectly acceptable (and likely preferable) to marry, churn out enough offspring to meet or exceed your quota (the Realm only asks you to make two), and then let the marriage lapse and proceed to monkdom.

* MeaningfulName / WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic -- Lilith's name is suspiciously appropriate, given her status as the abused, runaway wife of [[CompleteMonster Desus]].
** And then there's House Peleps' subsidiary household Kaizoku. Anyone who's been watching [[KaizokuSentaiGokaiger this year's]] SuperSentai series (or who simply speaks Japanese) shouldn't be surprised to learn they're privateers.
* MemoryGambit -- The Green Lady has abused this so much that she isn't even totally sure of her ''gender'' anymore, nevermind whose side she's on.

* TheMunchausen -- Desus seems to fit this quite well, though his powers make people love him for it.
* MyBelovedSmother -- Brought to its most extreme conclusion in the form of Kimbery, the Sea That Marched Against the Flame. She tends to view her worshipers, servants and various creations as her "children," giving them gifts of prosperity, protection and [[BodyHorror mutations]]. Get on her bad side, however, and she'll punish you... and as a living ocean made entirely of poison and acid, that's something she's quite good at.

* NietzscheWannabe: Two of the Deathlords.
** The Lover Clad In The Raiment Of Tears, a disturbing mix of this and TheHedonist.
** The Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible, who literally thinks he can HannibalLecture Creation into ''killing itself''.

* NobleDemon -- Ligier, literally. He will sometimes fight on the side of humans who display sufficient valor, without the need for a summoning. When confronted by an enemy he considers worthy, he'll send out his animated sword (which, though only a fraction of his own power, is still quite nasty); if they beat it, he'll generally cede the field out of respect for their accomplishment, as long as they don't insist on attacking him.
** Also a requirement for good Green Sun Princes, due to their [[PokeThePoodle particular way]] of staving off Torment.
** Well, that's if they ''want'' to try and subvert their Yozi masters' will. Yes, you can play an Infernal as a NobleDemon, but it's not exactly difficult to become a [[NightmareFuel terrifying]] [[CompleteMonster avatar]] [[MoralEventHorizon of]] [[AlienInvasion the Reclamation.]]
* NoIndoorVoice -- Fanon has Malfeas ALWAYS SPEAKING IN ALL CAPS.
* NoNameGiven -- The Nameless Solar.

* OrphanageOfFear -- The Dowager of Irreverent Vulgate in Unrent Veils runs one of those. ''She'' made them all orphans, and it just goes downhill from there.

* {{Polyamory}} -- Venus has repeatedly asked the Unconquered Sun to marry all Five Maidens. The Sun has accepted the offer each time, and [[{{Tsundere}} Saturn broke off each engagement before the wedding]]. All of this is BecauseDestinySaysSo (more specifically, Venus and Saturn are each seeing a different aspect of the whole picture and making judgement calls based on that).

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure -- Righteous Tsunami. A Bronze Faction leader who thinks that creation has a million and one threats other than the returning Solars.

* ReunionRevenge -- Eye and Seven Despairs devotes the vast majority of his time and resources to arranging what is essentially this... despite being one of thirteen ancient ghosts empowered and charged with the task of destroying creation by powers once greater than the gods themselves. This has not earned him a particularly good reputation with his peers.

** You still can fail these awesome actions, though. Or you can botch them, which is a failure so epically bad it, in itself, can be awesome.
** Another interesting example. The Scroll of The Monk has what is essentialy a [[StarTrek Bat'leth]] in it, mundane and artefact versions.
* SadistTeacher -- Brutally played by Desus to his own mate.

* ScarsAreForever -- Arianna, as a Solar Exalt, can heal from any wound, and as a Twilight she is by definition one of the greatest doctors who ever lived. She still has a huge scar across her face from her early adventures, though.

* [[SmartPeoplePlayChess Smart People Play Gateway]] -- Ledaal Kes, a Dragon-Blood mainly known for being one of the setting's greatest VariantChess champions, is believed by some Sidereals to have the potential to be a better Emperor than any of the serious candidates. The comics show him easily toying with Mnemon over a 'casual' game -- with his hands [[ClaspYourHandsIfYouDeceive steepled]] as her composure breaks.
** He also played the Empress at age 8, which is when he Exalted. He didn't win, but since Mnemon herself wasn't good enough to warrant her mother's attention at the game...

* TheStarscream -- Countless.
** The Ebon Dragon literally ''cannot'' avoid betraying others ... except by ''betraying himself''.
** In Return of the Scarlet Empress, we see that Szoreny is also one of these -- his big plan to escape Hell? Wait until someone else seems about to succeed, then stab him in the back in exchange for parole.
** The Princess Magnificent qualifies as well -- she loathes the First and Forsaken Lion, but was enslaved to him by the Neverborn, and is eager to betray him at the first opportunity.
** Most of the Deathlords in general serve this role to the Neverborn -- while their job is technically to destroy the world, most of them only agreed to do it in exchange for power, and what use is power if you don't have a world to lord it over?
** The Heresy keyword from the Broken-Winged Crane is the result of the Yozis swallowing the VillainBall again and not noticing that Green Sun Princes can design Charms for ''themselves'', not just new Yozi Charms. As a result, each one is basically a variation on "Sir? Kiss my ass, Sir!"

* StepfordSmiler -- Poor, poor Lilith... at least she's free now [[spoiler:though there is no telling if she remains AxCrazy]]. There are strong indications that she's still obsessed with him and acting out some of the compulsions left over from the First Age if you read some of the comics she's in and the profiles for herself and Desus in Dreams of the First Age.
* {{Stripperiffic}} -- Plenty of examples of both beefcake and cheesecake...but ''Thousand-Faceted Nelumbo'' of the Adamant Caste takes the crown. Her [[FanNickname Developer Nickname]]? ''Maiden of the Missing Pants.'' This is '''not''' a metaphor; one picture of her shows her upside down with literally everything except her vagina showing.

* SugarAndIcePersonality -- Poor Black Ice Shadow.
* SuperBreedingProgram -- Dragon-Bloods, specifically the Dynasty.

* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial -- There is no White Veil Society, and, if there was, it would not be a powerful secret society spread across Creation. Furthermore, if such a society did exist (and it's ludicrous to think it might), it certainly would not teach a martial art that allowed practitioners to do battle and even deliver killing blows without even the victim noticing. This hypothetical martial art is not written up in Scroll of the Monk, and that nonexistent writeup does not deny, in suspiciously specific terms, the exact details of this society or its nonexistent style.
* SwampsAreEvil -- And in the case of the Yozi Metagaos, AKA the All-Hunger Blossom, who is [[ExtremeOmnivore hungry]] and [[ViralTransformation infectious]] to boot. Metagaos is so disturbing, he even creeps out ''[[{{Yandere}} Adorjan]]''.

* TakeThat -- Black Mirror Shintai, an Ebon Dragon Charm in the Infernals hardback, mocks the infamous Sidereal martial art Obsidian Shards of Infinity Style, calling it the closest any mortal has ever come to duplicating the Ebon Dragon's "principle of antagonistic cheating." In this case, it was later writers making clear their contempt for the earlier ones.

* TragicMonster: It's unlikely [[EatsBabies Raksi]] would like herself very much if the Wyld didn't render her a [[AxCrazy homicidal paranoid schizophrenic.]] The general consensus is that any story about curing her mental illness would involve [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone dealing with the aftermath]].

* VillainWithGoodPublicity -- Desus, who had mind-control charms that ''forced'' everyone to view him as a hero. Many of the Deathlords also qualify, especially the Silver Prince.

* WalkingShirtlessScene -- Since his exaltation, signature character Panther has walked the four corners of Creation righting wrongs, fighting evil, and never once putting on a shirt. Don't you just love Resistance charms?

* WellIntentionedExtremist -- Chejop Kejak seems to fit this quite well.
** The Alchemical Exalt ''Excessively Righteous Blossom'' seems to fall under this trope as well (although in his case, it may be less "well-intentioned" than "blinded by his own self-perceived perfection").
** This is the most charitable possible interpretation for the Scarlet Empress. Anything less, and her Goodness Meter starts dropping precipitously.

* WhiteHairedPrettyBoy -- Disciple of Seven Forbidden Wisdoms and Captain Gyrfalcon. Also ''Dreadful Adjudicator of Law'', if he would ever take off his armor.
** Double-subverted with the Lunar Exalted Ma-Ha-Suchi. In the Age of Dreams, he was a very {{Bishonen}} WHPB, but wasn't evil at all. By the time of the Age of Sorrows, he is evil (or at least, criminally insane), but is [[NoDoubtTheYearsHaveChangedMe no longer so pretty]].

* WomanScorned -- Fear for anything that gets in Lilith's way.

* WorthyOpponent -- This is Szoreny's ''entire reason for existing''.

* XanatosGambit -- Eye and Seven Despairs is fond of these. He just uses them to do very stupid things.
** Also a bad habit of Sidereal Exalted. The fact that they can ''literally'' predict the future with a disturbing degree of accuracy means that their plans sometimes approach XanatosRoulette territory.
* {{Yandere}} -- "Sometimes, Adorjan falls in love. Her hate is safer."
** Kimbery is worse. She's the Mother Ocean, and thus the living embodiment of MyBelovedSmother. And when she's not in smothering love, she wants revenge for betrayal. Yeah, she's got issues.