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Exalted

Exalted is a tabletop RPG set in a mythic fantasy world known as Creation. The player characters are usually the Exalted, people who've been chosen by the gods to receive a portion of divine power. As for what they do with that power... well, one of the running themes of Exalted is, "Welcome to Creation, here's your shovel."

The Exalted were made by the gods to make war on the Primordials, the Titan-like beings who had originally created the universe. The Exalted come in numerous varieties, each one depending on the god or elemental force who Exalted them:
The Solar Exalted, chosen by the Unconquered Sun, are celestial powerhouses who have the potential to be masters of all they put their mind to. Their powers are centered around enhancing skills and abilities to godlike levels. Once upon a time, they were pretty much the kings of the earth (more on that later).
The Lunar Exalted, chosen by Luna, are shapeshifting infiltrators and social engineers who were created as born companions and mates to the Solars. With the potential to become devastating warriors, and their powers focused on enhancement of physical properties, they are more than a match for their Solar companions.
The Terrestrial Exalted (a.k.a. Dragon-Blooded), chosen by the Five Elemental Dragons, are meant to oversee Creation and make sure that mortal society operates as normal. In the First Age, they were the underlings to the Solars and formed the bulk of the Exalted armies. Their strength is at their highest when they cooperate.
The Sidereal Exalted, chosen by the Five Maidens, oversee Fate itself, and make sure that gigantic Creation-wrecking disasters do not come to pass. Also, they are very powerful martial artists, being able to reach the most transcendent of supernatural martial arts.
The Abyssal Exalted, (a.k.a. Deathknights), chosen by the Deathlords, are evil beings who work to consume and destroy Creation to satisfy their masters and the Neverborn. Between their inherent natures, rivalries between Deathlords, and the free will borne of humanity, even their masters do not entirely trust the Deathknights. They were created by the Neverborn out of some of the Solar Exaltations captured at the end of the First Age...Indeed, the act of the Neverborn arranging for the Jade Prison to be breached (so they could get a portion of the Exaltation Shards) is how the Solar Exalted returned to the world.
The Infernal Exalted, chosen by the Yozis (the former Primordials), work towards freeing their masters and bringing Creation under the Yozis' sway. Akuma are those, mortal or Exalt, who have given themselves over to the Yozis for power, while the Green Sun Princes have been created using the Yozis' share of the captured Solar Exaltations.
The Alchemical Exalted, chosen by Autochthon, defend the Primordial's world-body and the people living inside it. Their powers are granted through magitechnological implants, and can be altered at whim. With Autochthon running out of resources and slowly dying, they are now being dispatched into Creation to acquire more of the Five Magical Materials, by force if necessary, in order to keep their Maker alive...

The Exalted managed to defeat the Primordials, but not before having a "Great Curse" placed upon them. The Curse was slow to manifest; at first, the Exalted saw Creation through into a shining golden age. Then they started going crazy. The Sidereals had a prophecy that showed that they could either do nothing (worst outcome), try to somehow keep the Solars from going any further insane and restore the golden age (best outcome, but by far the smallest chance of success), or turn Creation over to the Terrestrial Exalted alone (mediocre outcome, but best odds). So they chose the safe course and talked the Dragon-Blooded into overthrowing the Solars and their Lunar mates. They succeeded, and while Creation may have been saved, it quickly started going to pieces. A powerful Dragon-Blooded known as the Scarlet Empress managed to grab the reins again, and for hundreds of years, things went okay. The Solars and Lunars were cast as demonic "Anathema" by the state religion of the Dragon-Bloods, and the Exaltations of the Solars were rounded up and kept under careful guard by the Sidereals to make sure they never came back.

Recently, things have started reaching epic levels of going to pieces. The Scarlet Empress, the only thing holding the Dragon-Bloods' grip on Creation together, vanished mysteriously five years ago. The ghosts of the dead Primordials have been Exalting people of their own, and sending out these Abyssal Exalted to deliver all of Creation to a merciful death. The Fair Folk, extradimensional horrors, keep plucking at the borders of reality and feasting on human souls.

Oh. And those carefully guarded Solar Exaltations? Half have been tinkered with by the Neverborn and the Yozis and the other half have been released, they've found new champions, and they are very angry.

Is sometimes hinted at being a prequel RPG to the World Of Darkness, which takes place eons later after things have really gone down the tubes. Others have even theorized for it to be sequel to the World Of Darkness. Or maybe just an Alternate Universe. The original Tag Line was "Before there was a World Of Darkness..." but the second edition in particular seems to have moved away from this concept.

See also Keychain Of Creation, an Exalted Webcomic.

This RPG provides examples of:

  • Action Girl — Harmonious Jade is the poster girl of this. Many other examples, including Iron Siaka, Lyta, and Huyla.
  • A God Am I — Probably definitely the major reason why the Solars got bumped off in the First Age.
  • A God Is You — Strictly speaking, you could play as a normal human, but you would probably prefer not to.
  • Alien Geometries — Deeper Wyld zones. The further you get into the Wyld, the less and less sense it makes.
  • A Twinkle In The Sky — Averted horribly by the Infernal Exalted, who can punch you over the horizon...but you're coming back down the hard way.
    • Solars can do the same thing.
    • One Third Circle demon, Orabilis, plays this semi-straight, hurling things that have learned too much into the sky where they spend a thousand years dying.
  • All Your Colors Combined — Dragon-Blooded can do this with some of their attacks.
  • Amnesiac God — The Solar Exalted, due to the way their Incarnations are handed down.
  • And I Must Scream — Soulsteel, which is literally made from souls, which remain at least semi-aware and in constant agony. About 50% of Hell's technology as well, seeing as the Yozi use demons as their primary building materials. Also, some of the fates that the Solars' subjects regularly suffered in the late First Age.
  • Animal Battle Aura: You can have this, and you can make it even more awesome.
  • After The End — Exalted features Three of these. First was the Primordial War (named after the Primordials, the creators of the universe, who lost), involving the extinction of scores of civilizations and races; most of Creation was burned up by a sore loser's last act before surrendering. Then the First Age, was ended by the Usurpation. Lastly, a plague made by a ghost of a Solar killed in the Usurpation, and powered by the corpse/ghost of a killed Primordial, killed 90% of the population, and was followed by a invasion of The Fair Folk, who succeeded in unmaking half of Creation (by area).
  • Anime Hair — Unusual hair colors are stated to be common in various areas of Creation; blue and purple in the West, green in the East, etc.
  • Anti Villain — 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.
  • Arc Words — "Once, there was a maiden..."
  • Atlantis — Pretty much the entirety of the First Age. Plus, there's actually a sunken city that serves as an Atlantis that your characters can visit.
  • Arrogant Kung Fu Guy — Peleps Deled.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking — Pretty much. There are some exceptions among mortal kingdoms and organization, but gods, elder Exalted and other beings who really rule the world uniformly subscribe to this trope.
  • Automatic Crossbows — The Haslanti, Autochthonians and the Mountain Folk have 'em.
  • Awesome But Impractical — Most of the really powerful entities in Exalted have abilities that let them activate a perfect defense against any attack for a small cost. There are limitations, of course, but in general what this means is that the most over-the-top visually-impressive (and expensive) attacks are totally useless against anyone of note, because they'll just use a perfect defense to negate it — and if you can get around that, a less flashy but more efficient way of killing them is probably better anyhow.
    • Warstriders are the epitome of this trope, even more so than crazy charm combos; at least with a bit of smart tactics you can open yourself up a good opportunity there. 'Striders require practically an army to maintain them, function as armor so they carry certain limitations that are rather odd for a Humongous Mecha, and are only really useful against equally-sized threats (which, to be fair, is what they were designed to face against).
      • Hellstriders even more so. About as powerful (save 3rd circle ones, of which there are at most 6) but needing MUCH more essence to maintain and have a tendency to go rogue and do stuff that takes their fancy rather than what they are supposed to do.
  • Awesome Yet Practical — The previously mentioned perfect defenses, specialy for solars. They are very cheap, and is Exactly What It Says On The Tin. They simply defend against ANYTHING. No matter what. Yes, I just parried your nuke. With a frackin' BUTTER KNIFE, no less.
  • Awesome Mc Coolname — This is the single most common naming style for almost anyone and anything in Creation. Abyssal titles are particularly famous for this, but there are non-Abyssals with such interesting names as Harmonious Jade, Contentious Sword, Peleps Deled, Kneecap Carjack Chejop Kejak...and let's not get into some of the place names and full names of Heavenly departments.
  • Background Magic Field / Mana / Minovsky Particle — Essence. Absolutely everything supernatural in the setting either is Essence, has something to do with it, or can manipulate it. Everything is made up of Essence patterns, too; the main difference between Creation and the Wyld is that the Wyld has no set pattern.
  • Badass Abnormal — For Solars and Abyssals in particular, and all Exalts to some extent or another, the Exaltation itself is taking a mortal (usually but not always already formidable, for a mortal) and giving them epic levels of badass.
    • Enlightened Mortals (mortals who have gained the ability to channel Essence through Training From Hell, mutation, divine gifts, or basically any way other than Exaltation) also fit this trope.
      • Perhaps the most badass named NPC of this type is the Perfect of Paragon.
  • Badass Grandpa — Chejop Kejak. One of, if not the oldest living Exalted in the setting, and more than capable of handing just about anybody their ass in ten thousand different ways, each more esoteric than the last.
    • 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 (for one example of his badassery, he has walked away alive from a fight with the Bull of the North). Bonus points for literally being the Roseblack's grandfather.
  • Badass Normal — Heroic Mortals. The best of them are a fair match for inexperienced Terrestrial Exalted.
  • Barehanded Blade Block — What kind of Exalt or Heroic Mortal wouldn't be able to do that? (See Rule Of Cool.)
  • Battle Aura — The anima banner.
  • Beard Of Evil — Desus' goatee.
  • The Beautiful People — Not all Exalted fall into this group, especially in the Second Age where the majority of all Exalts are less than a century old, but many elder Exalts (ESPECIALLY back in the First Age) are inhumanly beautiful with Appearance ratings of 5 or higher. Also, a lot of Fair Folk and spirits can fit this trope.
  • Because Destiny Says So — The Sidereals get this a lot; it's pretty much their job in a nutshell.
  • Beware The Superman — The Great Curse + the raw power of the Exalted + authority to rule given to the Exalted by the gods = a lot of pain for the ordinary folks of Creation from time to time. Not always, though; a few NPC Exalts subvert this trope.
  • Beyond The Impossible — The schtick of the Solar Exalted especially, but every Exalt type can get into at least a little of this.
  • Bishonen — Captain Moray Darktide and Swan are just two of many, many canonical examples.
  • BFS— Daiklaives, powerful weapons made out of magical materials and capable of great things. They're explicitly described as being too big and unwieldy to be used normally, unless you're able to 'attune' them (invest them with some of your magical power) which makes them as easy to use as a normal weapon.
  • Black Magic — Necromancy, usually. Sometimes even normal sorcery.
  • Bloody Murder — There's both at least one sorcery spell and some Abyssal Charms that allow you to do this.
  • Blue Blood — Second Age Terrestrial Exalted, when they're in charge of a place. And the blood (usually) comes with nifty powers. Also, Half-Castes. Which...much less often comes with nifty powers.
  • Boring Invincible Hero — Perfect Defenses, which make the hero quite literally invincible to otherwise lethal attacks, have a way of making combat very, very boring
  • Brilliant But Lazy — 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.
  • Call A Rabbit A Smeerp — Raitons and Austreches (ostriches).
    • Raitons are described as being scaly and having teeth, and Austreches are meat-eaters. They're real-world extinct species.
    • Also, firewands. (Hint: They use alchemical powder to operate and look like this◊.)
      • They also differ by shooting jets of flame instead of bullets and having an absolute maximum range of ten yards. See Fantasy Gun Control.
  • Cargo Cult — The game actually allows some characters to take on a cult of people who worship them as a god, providing them with an extra boost of power.
  • Cast From Hit Points — There are a lot of Sidereal ability capstone charms, Abyssal charms, and even a few sorcery spells which require you to sacrifice health levels to initiate their effects.
  • Celestial Bureaucracy — Actually called such, too. And it's filled to the brim with the divine equivalent of Corrupt Corporate Executives.
  • Chainsaw Good: chainklaves.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower — Mortals are capable of enlightening their Essence (and technically stop being "mortals" under the game's definition of the term) and learning Sorcery, Necromancy, or even some of the least powerful of the Supernatural Martial Arts styles: but even a newly Exalted Terrestrial can defeat them, and fairly easily at that.
  • Chrome Champion — Invulnerable Skin of Bronze, among other sorcery/necromancy spells and some Sidereal martial arts Charms.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder — The Green Lady has been running so many Memory Gambit-centered Xanatos Roulettes 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 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...
      • Maybe.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander — Swan Dragon.
  • Color Coded For Your Convenience — The magical materials, and the anima banners of each Exalt type. More literally with Dragon-Blooded and Sidereals.
  • Complete Monster - Desus, a legendary historical NPC of the First Age. During his lifetime, also perhaps the setting's single biggest Villain With Good Publicity. The worst part? He might still be out there; it is entirely likely that the Silver Prince of Skullstone is Desus' ghost as a Deathlord, given suspicious similarities in their stats. And his policy of encouraging his mortal subjects to deliberately sacrifice their lives to become ghosts, under the impression that they will ascend to superior positions in his empire of the undead when their actual fate is to be forged into soulsteel and made into techno-necromantic war machines stockpiled for the eventual destruction of the world, is sufficiently sadistic enough to qualify.
  • Contemptible Cover — The supplement Savant and Sorcerer, often referred to as the "Camel Toe Book"
    • Also sometimes known as Sex and the Sorceress.
  • Cool Old Guy — Tepet Arada.
  • Cosmic Horror Story— It's pretty bleak. You've got the ghosts of dead gods, who seek to drag all of Creation into the maw of Oblivion; the still-living siblings of said dead gods, who've had their very natures inverted and who seek to pry open their prison and run roughshod over Creation; and the formless fairies from the chaotic depths of space who feed on the virtues of your average mortal. Without the titular Exalted, this trope would be played pretty damn straight. Of course, this being Exalted, the whole point is get to the level where you can kick each and every one of these threats square in the nards.
    • In theory. In practice, unless you ignore what the mechanics say about the power level of either your characters or their opponents, chief lieutenants of these EldritchAbominations can swat P Cs like insects even after years of dedicated play. While there are rules provided both for beginning campaigns at above normal starting level, and for incorporating significant timeskips into the campaign (complete with significant off-stage levelups), this just confirms the fact, that the default characters aren't really as uber as you might think after reading some entries on this page.
      • To be fair, the entry poster DID say that you have to level up sufficiently before said nard-kicking can commence.
      • Unless one of your players is a sorcerer. Then (after rather less leveling up) they just whistle while they bind those lieutenants to go build things for them/take over that country over there/what have you. Of course, if the binding fails, there will be pain.
  • The Corruption: Wyld Mutations (what happens when you're exposed to elemental Chaos and Desecration (essetially the powers of the Yozis altering your fate) are subversions: while many of them aren't pretty, they don't tend to effect a person's soul that much...Although in the second case, it can (depending on your alignment) quickly make you looking pretty villainous when in fact you aren't, since the first mutation is always turning you into a Creature of Darkness.
  • Crapsack World — If you are a mortal, Creation can be a very, very bleak place, and you are pretty much powerless to do anything about this, unless you get an Exaltation (and probability of this either depends on your bloodline or is almost entirely determined by luck). If you exalt, you get a curse that will eventually corrupt you, and strength of the curse is directly proportional to your ability to do anything about crapsackiness of the world. Also, if your particular faction of Exalted has leaders (Solars don't, as all of them are very young), they almost inevitably are Manipulative Bastards or simply bastards of some sort. Putting a cherry on the cake, the creators of your world are Eldritch Abominations, its gods are mostly selfish dicks, and its only afterlife is a gloomy realm of ghosts, ruled by a bunch of Evil Overlords.
    • Technically, the default fate that awaits you after death is reincarnation, so unless you actively cling to what you left behind, you'll be able to bypass the gloomy realm of ghosts and... be reborn into another lifetime of all that other stuff. Over and over and over again. Actually, come to think about it, that's even more depressing...
  • Crazy Awesome: All of the Exalted can be like this, but the Green Sun Princes take the (katana-shaped) cake. Screw Destiny as a passive ability? Check. Able to travel To Hell And Back without breaking a sweat? Check. Immolation of souls? It requires a bit of training, but not much.
  • Crowning Moment Of Awesome: If a stunt doesn't qualify as this, then it ain't a 3-die stunt.
  • Crystal Spires And Togas: The High First Age.
  • Damage Typing — As usual for a Storyteller System game, there's Bashing damage for blunt trauma and certain kinds of environmental injuries, Lethal damage for cutting and piercing wounds, and Aggravated damage for damage sources with a strong enough supernatural bent or from a source extremely inimical to the target's nature.
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique — Some techniques require that you sacrifice your life outright; others carry horrible penalties or costs.
  • Dark Is Not Evil / Light Is Not Good comes up a lot.
    • There are heroic and villainous examples of every splat type in the game, as well as every shade of gray in between. though most Abyssal Exalted are likely to seem rather evil to anyone who doesn't see death and oblivion as a desirable state. However, the fate of an Abyssal is to destroy. They can not do anything else. However, they could 'destroy' things like corruption and slavery. All Exalted (excluding Akuma, who are essentially other Exalted that sold their souls) retain free will, though they sometimes face penalties for using it:
      • The Green Sun Princes, effectively "Exalted" of the Yozi, build up the ire of their patron Yozi if they defy their demonic Urges. If it gets too high, they undergo demonic torment, though they can appease their patron by acting like a sufficiently convincing B-movie supervillain.
      • The Abyssals are tainted with death and view things like graveyards and blood as comforting, but still have free will. If they act too human or do anything that creates life, though, they accumulate Resonance that eventually explodes outwards, causing things they like to die.
    • Also, a more specific example of Dark Is Not Evil is Five Days Darkness, the god of Calibration, a time each year when the sun does not shine for five days straight (quite possibly the only universal holiday in creation). He's considered a Creature of Darkness (usually reserved for enemies of Creation) because of his nature and the fact he is The Unconquered Sun's shadow, and can grant others power while making them creatures of darkness themselves... but despite all these evil-seeming powers and traits, he's probbably the nicest person you could meet.
  • Deadly Dodging — One of the nastier tricks Lunar, Sidereal, and Terrestrial Exalted can fall back on.
  • Dead Person Impersonation — There are charms specifically intended to help with this. Eye and Seven Despairs does this as part of his Reunion Revenge plot, too.
    • The whole system Lunars use via Heart's Blood grants this, and they can even assume the person's strands of fate. Of course, later they can eventually do this without actually killing the person, but is still the primary method of acquiring new shapes.
  • Deal With The Devil - Akuma are the most straightforward example, but Abyssals and the Deathlords also generally resemble this.
  • Did Not Do The Research - At least one Charm builder in every book tries to get around perfect defenses without knowing how they work. It. Doesn't. Work.
    • Can be done with one charm, and does not include Zeal. Use Scarlet Patterned Battlefield Style's Singular Escape Stratagem charm and set the condition to "Do not use perfect defenses," then attack (possibly comboing with the Sidereal Excellency that grants success with no threshold). The rules simply state that the condition cannot be an unacceptable order (which means not "overtly" suicidal), and a person can still defend themselves without a perfect defense. Even if you have to wait a turn, he can't channel essence on his next action anyway or he gets hit without perfect defenses doing anything.
      • That charm has the compulsion keyword, so it's not actually beating a perfect, just telling you to not use one. Use a perfect mental defense, and there's nothing to stop you from perfecting next round (unless you lack an appropriate combo).
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu — The Exalted have days when they beat the stuffing out of eldritch abominations by the boxcar load. The Exalted call them Tuesdays.
  • Dinosaurs Are Dragons — The Dragon Kings. Despite their name they actually are roughly human-sized sentient dinosaurs who wield Essence, wear armor, can learn to breathe magical fire, and occasionally wield flaming claw weapons and enormous crystal warclubs that project laser blades.
  • Dis Continuity — Void Avatar Prana and Zeal all/most of/some of the Solar Charms in Dreams of the First Age were never written.
    • Nor was First Edition Lunars.
  • Dis Continuity Nod — Originally Exalted was intended to be part of the old 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 Traditions Mage in the old World Of Darkness. There are still plenty of references to oWoD as well, the most obvious being Autocthon, as well as the Ebon Dragon and Scarlet Empress/Queen (to Mage and Kindred of the East respectively).
  • Divine Parentage — The God-Blooded. It doesn't get them as far as you'd think, compared to the Exalted.
  • The Dragon — Each Deathknight is effectively this to their Deathlord (a Circle of Deathknights can easily be a Quirky Miniboss Squad). But the Deathlords themselves are essentially also this for their Neverborn masters...
  • Dream Mirror — Uses Body, Soul (divided into the rational higher soul and impulsive lower soul), and Life Energy (Essence).
  • Dying Like Animals — All sorts, really, but because of the Immaculate Faith most Celestial characters will find Lemmings to be a very common issue.
    • Lunars in their true form?
  • Dysfunction Junction — The Great Curse makes sure of this.
  • Eldritch Abomination — As mentioned in the Cosmic Horror section. So, get your ass in gear, start grinding, and insert foot into crotch equivalent.
  • Elemental Powers — This is the schtick of the Terrestrial Exalted. Their elements are Fire, Water, Air, Earth, and Wood. Interestingly, the game has this while generally averting the usual conclusion.
  • Elements Do Not Work That Way — The magical material of the Dragonblooded is Jade (known in the real world as a form of nephrite with a green color), but it displays several different colors: 5 normal forms, one being for each aspect; and a rare form that allows creation of artifacts without essence attunement.
    • However, the jade of Exalted is not the jade of the real world, judging from the descriptions of how and where it forms (not to mention the fact that it can be alloyed with steel). It just happens to share the same name, presumably as a reference to Chinese mythology and folklore, in which jade has various magical properties.
    • Also, all six different jade colors exist in real life jade, though to this troper's knowledge only green, white, and blue jade are naturally occurring.
  • Eternal Engine — Autochthonia
  • The Empire — The Realm
  • Evil Chancellor — There are many specific examples, but (while not specifically evil) the Sidereals' role in the Usurpation and the fact that they were originally supposed to be viziers to the Solars makes them, in effect, an entire "race" of Evil Chancellors.
  • Everyone Calls Him Barkeep — Everyone calls her the Scarlet Empress. Granted, it's because nobody can remember her name after so long.
  • Evil Is Sexy — Averted and played straight in one package: while they can start out looking normal, as the Abyssal Exalted grow in power they must choose whether to spend experience to raise their Appearance to as high as it can go, becoming this trope incarnate, or allow their bodies to decay hideously.
  • Everyone Is Bi / No Bisexuals — Both averted. From what we see in the profiles of NPCs and signature characters, the world of Exalted seems to be a roughly even mix of straight, gay, and bi.
    • Everyone Is Bi is very common Fanon, though. Although a decent number of canon characters are clearly not bisexual (interestingly, more are clearly gay than clearly straight), "everyone is bi in Exalted" is a commonly held belief.
      • Well, you are an (nigh)immortal demigod with powers rivalizing to the creators of the universe themselves (in fact, your previous incarnation(s) killed a few of them and imprisioned the rest). No one is really crazy to discriminate against you because of your sex choice (specially after considering that just liking someone from the same sex is the lower scale of "depravity" in Exalted), and after hundred and hundred of years, the curiosity is likely to get the best out of any exalted. And let's not even enter on the subject of the Lunars...
  • Everythings Better With Dinosaurs — In addition to the Dragon Kings mentioned above, there are more traditional dinosaur-like animals; specifically the Tyrannosaurus-like Tyrant Lizards and the dromaeosaurid (y'know, Raptors?) Claw Striders.
  • Evil Overlord — Most of the Deathlords are pretty classic examples of this - and in some cases you can tell that just by looking at their black armor and Spikes Of Villainy. The Scarlet Empress and some of Lunar elders may also qualify, depending on your viewpoint.
  • The Fair Folk — The Fair Folk (but of course)
  • Fan Nickname — "Ketchup Carjack," "Hulk Hogan," or "Sean Connery."
    • I hear "The Mouse of Peace" a lot.
    • The First and Forsaken Lion is more commonly referred to as the Fa FL, "the Falafel.", "Foffles," or "Victor Von Deathlord."
    • The Primordial She Who Lives in Her Name is almost universally referred to by her acronym, SW Li HN; one of the authors even bemoaned having to use her full name when writing Infernals, since it wasted so much wordcount.
    • The Primordial named Autochthon is also known as Autobot.
    • Gazellecarp — The capstone charm of the Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style transforms your character into a serpentine chimera whose features include a head like a gazelle foal and multiple carp fins down the sides.
    • Each of the Sidereal castes is Color Coded For Your Convenience:
      • Yellowsids, Bananasids: Chosen of Journeys
      • Bluesids, Berrysids: Chosen of Serenity
      • Redsids, Cherrysids: Chosen of Battles
      • Greensids, Grass-sids: Chosen of Secrets
      • Purplesids, Grapesids: Chosen of Endings
    • Captain Shoulderpads — Dace, because of his Shoulders Of Doom.
    • DEMETHEMANIA — Demetheus, a big, burly Dawn Caste fighter. In his back story, he wrestled giant lions with his bare hands and won; thus a Memetic Badass was born. He was also visibly inspired by The Rock.
    • The Nameless Solar, a solar gunslinger who (surprise!) has never been officially named, but who bears a decided resemblance to The Man With No Name
    • The signature Malefactor, wearer of the rather interesting take on a nun's habit mentioned below in the Fetish Fuel entry, is referred to alternately as Hellnun or Bondage Nun. (Her real name is Sulamore, by the way.)
  • Fantasy Counterpart Culture — By the score.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink — Creation is probably the ultimate fantasy kitchen sink. Highly-advanced technology, powerful sorcery, more empires and kingdoms of various stripes than can be counted, gods of everything, a magical martial arts style based around duel-wielding fire-spewing pistols, dinosaurs that pee heroin (don't ask) or life extension drugs, and of course, assorted gods of everything.
  • Fatal Flaw — this is a major part of the setting and the game mechanics; due to a Great Curse placed on them when they beat the Primordials, every Exalt is required to have one.
  • Fetish Fuel — The Lunar Exalted, largely from Power Perversion Potential.
    • They can temporarily turn themselves into a copy of anyone by drinking a little of the other person's blood.
    • They can temporarily turn anyone into a copy of themselves by making the other person drink a little of their blood.
    • Later on, they can gain the ability to turn into anyone whenever they want by sleeping with them.
      • After stalking them for an hour or so.
    • They can breed Furries via Hot Skitty On Wailord Action, much like in Greek mythology.
    • Honestly, the entire game carries heavy doses of Fetish Fuel; the artwork can be borderline softcore porn at times and the setting fluff does not shy away from the subject of sexuality when describing people and cultures at all.
      • Borderline?
      • Some of the illustrations in the core rulebook - nymphs and that diagram of male and female members of each Exaltation, in particular - skip straight across "borderline" and into "do not let small children look at the pictures".
    • Some of the Wyld mutations might also appeal to those with transformation fetishes.
    • The Green Sun Princes are "passed around" between their patron Yozi and its souls during initiation. The patron Yozis include things like an infinite city, an endless desert, and hundreds of crystal spheres, who incarnate themselves in humanoid form for the initiation. Their souls may likewise look human-ish, but some Yozi souls may take the shape of a green sun, a bottomless pit, or a forest of lust. So you may be squicked out by this.
      • Speaking of Infernals, the signature Malefactor is a hot woman dressed in a stripperific bondage-style nun's habit...
  • Finishing Move — Combos, which allow an Exalt to combine the power of multiple charms in one distinctive attack.
    • Abyssal Exalted take this one step further: They can have a Charm that literally terrorizes anyone who watches them murder someone in a particularly sadistic way. Yes, it's the "Fatality" Charm!
  • Five Man Band — A Solar Perfect Circle.
    • And a Dragon-Blooded sworn brotherhood.
  • Five Races — There are five standard types of Exalts: the Solars, the Lunars, the Dragon-Bloods, the Sidereals, and the Abyssals. Each kind of Exalt also usually comes in five different castes. White Wolf is pretty sweet on this trope.
  • For The Evulz — Desus.
  • Functional Magic — Pretty much all kinds under the sun, though Exalted usually make use of Inherent Gifts (Charms) and Rule Magic (Sorcery).
  • Game Breaker — Some authors don't seem to even try maintaining some mechanical balance when they write cool powers for Exalted.
    • There are various examples, but the most extreme and infamous is probably The Mirror Does Not Lie from the Obsidian Shards of Infinity Form. This technique, in exchange for a low one-time cost per scene, will allow a martial artist to automatically redirect any attacks against their person to any other target (and have it look like the attacker was attacking that target all along) as long as anyone (not just the martial artist, but anyone at all) can see the attack coming. On top of that, the technique (like all Sidereal martial arts) is massively secret, so the chances of anyone knowing even that extremely narrow limitation is essentially nil.
    • Zeal, a Solar Charm from Dreams of the First Age, is even worse. Essentially, it means that when you invoke one of your virtues to do something (anything), you succeed automatically and perfectly — and nobody is allowed to respond, react, or defend against it, including with perfect defenses (whose near-absolute inviolability is the bedrock of all higher-level combat.) And doing this costs nothing beyond the usual cost of invoking a virtue. The only limit is that you only score as many successes as you have dots in the Integrity ability, so a sufficiently epic target might only be crippled by your first shot, as opposed to instantly splattered.
      • Hey, they don't call the Solar Exalted 'Chosen of the mostly Unconquered Sun'.
      • Ironically, the Unconquered Sun does not have this Charm. (He does have something similar, but its notably more game balanced in that its subject to a variant of the Four Flaws of Invulnerability — it doesn't work if he's suppressing the relevant Virtue during the scene, so he only remains Unconquered so long as he isn't morally compromising himself. Of course, even with all of his higher-end Charm effects offline, his base stats are still obnoxious...)
  • Gender Bender — Luna and Lunar Exalted can have the power to change sex at will via the Twin Faced Hero Knack.
    • Most of the Deathlords also have this power, 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.
  • Gods Hands Are Tied — The Incarnae created the Exalted because they were unable to attack the Primordials themselves. Nowadays, this trope's purpose is filled by their addiction to gaming instead.
  • Gods Need Prayer Badly — Any being in Creation that is worshipped by someone or something else receives Essence; this is the natural way for gods to sustain themselves. Furthermore, in Heaven, you can eat and drink prayer.
    • One interpretation of the background material suggests that this trope is why the human race was created in the first place - they breed a lot and are superstitious, so that equals lots of delicious prayer for the gods.
      • It's not human superstition, but rather human utter frailty compared to the Dragon Kings and other races of Creation. A race of very feeble people for whom survival is a constant struggle is going to pray a lot.
  • God Save Us From The Queen — 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.
  • Good Hurts Evil — Celestial Exalted of all stripes (but especially Solar Exalted) have access to powers that specifically add extra hurt to "creatures of darkness", which include demons, ghosts, and Fae.
    • In 2e, Terrestrials also get some holy damage charms.
  • Guns Akimbo — Enter Kath wielding twin plasma tongue repeaters.
  • Gun Kata — With at least two flavors: Celestial Righteous Devil and Terrestrial Golden Exhalation.
  • Half Human Hybrids — TONS. Beastmen, God-Blooded, Fae-Blooded, Demon-Blooded...
  • Hammerspace — Justified : the "Elsewhere" is a specific space which characters can use charms to reach, stock then take back various weapons and items.
  • Hard Gay — Homosexuality is socially acceptable (even encouraged) in the Realm, but only if one at the very least projects either this attitude or Straight Gay outwardly. Effeminate behavior is NOT tolerated.
    • 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 Dragonblooded, because they don't produce unwanted bastards that can muddy the family lines.
      • Oh, sure, that's what they say, but what kind of Dynast can't afford a regular dose of maiden tea? It's only Resources 2.
  • Hate Plague — What happens when an Infernal fills up his Torment, though the precise flavour depends on the Infernal's patron Yozi.
  • Heroic BSOD — There's a rule for that, and it's called a Limit Break. At best, you become the embodiment of eccentricity as your Virtue overloads. At worst, you develop the attitude of A God Am I or go Ax Crazy.
    • Limit Break Berserk Anger: You want to kill everything. Everything.
    • The Green Sun Princes have an interesting version, called Torment, effectively them becoming possessed by their Yozi patron's will: While it isn't that bad for them (despite what "will of the Yozis" would imply, it's just a particularly noticable personality change that still allows them to think rationally), it's also contagious, which can be bad for them, especially if your patron was Malfeas.
  • High Octane Nightmare Fuel: The villainous factions (the Yozis and Infernals, the Neverborn and Abyssals, and the Fair Folk) are positively dripping with this. It's a natural consequence of having such massively epic heroes; anything that can make them nervous is going to be terrifying beyond all reason by our standards.
    • For this troper, the Organ of Agonies is the single most disturbing thing in any of the books. What is it, you ask? It's a musical instrument that you strap innocent victims into before playing...which it will then torture to death, making paradoxically beautiful music out of their agonized screams.
  • Hollywood Healing: The game has fairly detailed rules for dealing with bleeding from injuries, infections, and disease...which are mostly for use by/on mortals. Exalted get to ignore most of these rules, and are usually exempt from being permanently crippled or disfigured by injuries. They also heal faster than mortals.
  • Humans Are Special — Both played straight and subverted. Most books say that there's very little special about humanity (beyond the fact that they were too puny for the Primordials to pay attention to).
    • To be precise, once upon a time the Great Maker of the Primordials found one of the Fair Folk who had been encased in a pearl of Jade when Creation had formed. He made this into the first of the Mountain Folk. Later, the other Primordials took this being experimented on him to find out what made him work, and eventually crafted the first humans in a deliberate mockery of this template; humans were made to be so ineffective compared to the other races of the world (which also included, for instance, sentient dinosaur people) that they would be in constant need of divine favor to survive—in other words, they made a race that would need to pray often, and thus keep the Gods happy and working.
    • Ironically, "Graceful Wicked Masques" implies that humans are special because their souls are TASTIER than those of other races...
      • To be precise, GWM said that human dreams are much more vivid and compelling than those of other races. This seems to imply that humans are blessed with much greater creativity and imagination than anyone else in the setting. On the other hand, such traits tend to attract the attention of The Fair Folk while providing very little defense against them, making it very much a case of Blessed With Suck.
  • Humongous Mecha — Warstriders. They aren't very practical compared to normal Exalted weapons, though.
  • Hurricane Kick — Honestly this trope is one of the least of the crazy physics-defying things you're encouraged to describe your characters doing to earn those stunt dice.
  • I Did What I Had To Do — Chejop Kejak, and the Bronze Faction in general.
  • In A Single Bound — Terrestrial Exalts can easily leap over a horse. Solars can leap over mountains. Sidereals can leap into heaven.
  • Incendiary Exponent — Fire Aspect animas as well as some other select exalts who might have flame motif banners.
  • Incredibly Lame Pun — Black Ice Shadow (say it out loud) who embodies every 'gothy' cliche in the book.
    • Also the Dextrous Midnight Runners, the First Age equivalent of the Post Office.
  • Informed Ability — The Realm suffers from this. It supposedly dominated the world, but about 3/4ths of described locations in the Threshold never really were in its grip and its military history looks like an unbroken strings of defeats.
    • One of the first edition books does note that the countries detailed are the interesting ones, the ones that are good places to adventure, whereas there are plenty of quiet generic Immaculate-Dragon-fearing agricultural principalities that pay their tribute and cause no trouble to the Realm which aren't listed because... well they're just not cool.
    • Also, the original poster may be confusing the Realm with its predecessor state, the Dragon-Blooded Shogunate. That did dominate the world post-Usurpation... until the Great Contagion wrecked everything. The Scarlet Empress claimed the mantle of the Shogunate when she formed the Realm, but she's never actually claimed to rule the entire Threshold, merely the Blessed Isle. (It didn't help her case when the other reasonably intact Shogunate successor state, Lookshy, responded to her claim to rulership and request for fealty with 'Go pound sand'.)
  • Inherent In The System — Humanity NEEDS the Exalted. Mankind is not strong enough on its own to withstand all the forces that assail Creation, and sometimes the Exalted have to break eggs to make omelettes. It's just the way it is. That said, there are many, many times when the cynicism gets taken too far even for other Exalted...
  • Instant Armor — Again, the Warstriders. Better than a Humongous Mecha is one you can create on the spot when you need it.
    • Solars and Lunars also have charms that create instant normal-sized armor for them.
  • Jerkass Gods — Not quite ALL of them, but a damn good majority of 'em. If you're willing to expand the definition of "god" past the setting's, there are many elder Exalted that fit this, too.
  • Jerkass Sue — Arianna. To the point where a large segment of fandom openly cheers when art showing something bad happening to her is published...
  • Kangaroo Court — The Celestial audits that Sidereal Exalted frequently have to endure often end up being like this.
  • Ki Attacks — Many, many different kinds, progressing all the way to the Kamehame Hadoken subtype.
  • King Of All Cosmos — Most interpretations of the Incarnae (as gaming-addicted deities who ignore Creation almost completely) make them out as this. As far as the setting's actual creators go, the Primordials were even weirder.
    • The Glories of the Most High series goes a long way to making the Incarnae sympathetic figures.
  • Kung Fu Jesus — There are Biblically inspired spells in the game and one way to describe a religious character is Kung Fu Jesus. Hell, this is pretty much the textbook definition of the Zenith Caste.
  • Lady Of War — Tepet Ejava, the Roseblack.
  • Left Justified Fantasy Map — The Elemental Pole of Water, and thus Creation's single major ocean (and boy, is it a doozy of one), is in the West.
    • This is somewhat justified, as Creation has not stabilized at the borders of the map and run off into the Wyld. They even state that the waters in the far western pole have no floor and simply flow on eternally. These regions also state that they are adjacent to the encroaching Wyld.
  • Leisure Suit Larry — Ma-Ha-Suchi in the First Age. His entire motivation is to score with every Celestial Exalt.
  • Ley Line — Dragon lines, so named because the Dragon Kings were the first to map them out. Messing with them is a very bad idea. Geomantic weaponry is Creation's equivalent of nukes.
  • Lightning Bruiser — Most Exalted, especially those who are focused on the arts of battle, fit this trope. They're skilled enough to deflect a falling boulder, fast enough to strike you eight times in one second with a sword, and strong enough to decapitate a woolly mammoth in one blade swipe.
  • Little Miss Badass — The Shoat of the Mire.
  • Made Of Iron — Nearly all Exalted and other magical beings are like this, even the most otherwise physically weak. They have an innate ability to reduce lethal cutting damage that mortals lack, plus there is the near-universal Charm called Ox-Body Technique which increases the amount of health your character has, allowing for such situations as getting pierced straight through the torso by a BFS and living to tell the tale.
    • Although the way the system is statted up, even a Solar with lots of Ox-Bodies can get killed in a hit or two by a BFS like a Grand Goremaul if the attacker gets lucky on the damage roll. Outside of perfect defenses, Exalts are actually still relatively fragile compared to the damage they can dish out.
  • Made Of Plasticine — The game has rules for what it calls "extras". These unfortunate souls exist only for your characters to scythe down by the truckload; they have only three health levels and if you beat their defenses by enough, they automatically die.
  • Magic Plastic Surgery — In the first age, they did some really crazy things.
  • Magitek— You've got your guns that shoot fire, your automatons, your warstriders... It is even called Magitek (there's a Craft: Magitech skill).
  • The Magocracy — The Realm in the Age of Sorrows, the Solar Deliberative... pretty much any state in the setting where the ruling class channels Essence one way or another counts.
  • Marked Change — Celestial Exalted in general bear caste markings as well as anima banners that flare out when expending heavy essence, and then there are the moonsilver tattoos of the Lunars.
  • Martial Arts And Crafts — If a Sidereal starts practicing katas, run.
    • It might be a good idea to tread lightly around Solar and Abyssal martial artists as well. There's always that Million To One Chance that they've managed to find a willing Sidereal sifu...
      • Sidereal sifu nothing; there are Celestial and even TERRESTRIAL martial arts that do such things as turn the hem of your dress into a lethal cutting blade and fight off an assailant while relaxedly carrying on a conversation with someone.
    • Other Sidereal Martial Arts allow them to punch people out of existence. Or into a horribly humiliating shape.
      • Don't forget the one where you do a few katas and then everyone around you has their skin start sloughing off.
      • There's one particular Exalted martial arts combo that would allow you to kung fu the entire population of the Blessed Isle in the face. Simultaneously. And the Blessed Isle is larger than continental Asia.
      • That's nothing. There's a Sidereal Martial art (in the Scroll of the Monk, in case you're interested) who's first level technique permits you to dominate someone mind, body and soul by looking at them intently.
  • Master Computer - I AM in the First Age.
  • Mayincatec - Several different examples. First and foremost, the language of Old Realm is written with hieroglyphs that are very much like Mayan writing. Also, depending on whether you're talking First or Second Edition, the First Age was either loaded to the brim with this trope all over or it was mostly confined to Rathess and areas around it in the Southeast.
  • Meaningful Name / What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic — Lilith's name is suspiciously appropriate, given her status as the abused, runaway wife of Desus.
  • Memetic Mutation — Is the Exaltation of the Dragons, or from the Dragons?
  • Memory Gambit — 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.
  • Mind Control — Many of the best social Charms amount to that or even to...
  • Mind Rape — ...if applied with sufficient cruelty. And they also can make the victim love it.
    • Just reading the Sidereal styles tends to apply that trope to this troper, as trying to picture what happens hurts the brain.
  • Moral Myopia — Like you wouldn't BELIEVE in the First Age, remains an issue in the Second Age.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot — This game has, among other things: a family of demon-worshipping pirates (who themselves have demonic blood); a lost city run by a mad shapeshifting sorceress and her army of half-man, half-ape hybrids; magical giant robots galore; ninja-themed martial artist assassins who help oversee fate; and armies of extradimensional steampunk robot communists seeking to strip mine Creation to feed their dying god/world. Then there's the Underworld's armies, which often feature gruesome combinations of dead flesh and unholy machinations, and always involve the undead. The underworld also, of course, contains the ghostly versions of demon pirates from Creation, making them something akin to demon pirate zombies.
  • No Name Given — The Nameless Solar.
  • Noble Demon — 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 particular way of staving off Torment.
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat — One of the Bureaucracy charms permits you to throw these people out of your chosen organization. Another one lets you magically enhance their obstructiveness.
  • Odd Job Gods — To the point of hilarity. There are (admittedly non-sentient) gods of individual rice grains.
  • Omnicidal Maniac — The Abyssal Exalted. Their bosses are arguably worse.
    • Also arguably the Green Sun Princes and the Akuma. They may not want to destroy the world, but given that they intend to conquer it for the Yozi, it comes to the same.
  • One Man Army — Being Exalted makes this look almost easy. There are even some powers which allow one to take on entire armies; Infernals actually have a Charm that gives them more bonuses the more outnumbered they are!
  • One Winged Angel — The Necromancy spell Birth Of Sanity's Sorrow causes you to turn into a huge monster instead of dying when you would run out of health levels.
  • Orcus On His Throne — The Deathlords have had 1500 years to destroy Creation, during which they were the most powerful free actors in the setting by a wide margin, and only the Dowager has really accomplished anything big.
    • Although that something big happened to be killing 90% of everything alive.
    • It definitely didn't help when the Neverborn arbitrarily bound and punished the most powerful of the Deathlords, thus causing all his peers to feel somewhat less prone to take initiative.
    • Also, the Bodhisvatta in Dark Water has been consistently working the entire time on his (very slow and subtle) master plan, which was intended to take over a millenium. He's been heard to remark that the disappearance of the Scarlet Empress has allowed him to shave 500 years off of his timetable.
  • Orphanage Of Fear — The Dowager of Irreverent Vulgate in Unrent Veils runs one of those. She made them all orphans, and it just goes downhill from there.
  • Our Dwarves Are All The Same — The Mountain Folk subvert this trope. Worker Caste members are indeed 3-4 feet tall, squat, and broad (and often bearded). But Warrior Caste Mountain Folk are the size of smaller humans (around 5 feet average), though they retain the broad frames. And Artisan Castes? They're tall, lithe, extremely beautiful fae-like beings.
  • Our Souls Are Different — Human beings have two of them each. Primordials have many, many more.
  • Path Of Inspiration — The Immaculate Faith, though they're not unambiguously evil. Discussions on whether they're the good guys can be enthusiastic.
    • Less well known is The Tome of Endless Night, penned by one of the Deathlords. "Existence is suffering." OK, sounds like Buddhism, can't be that bad. "Therefore, work to destroy everything that exists, forever." Oh.
  • Personality Powers — The Dragon-Blooded, most vibrantly. Keeping in tune with their elemental natures, Fire Aspects are deeply passionate in everything that they do, be it love or war, Water Aspects are street-smart, adaptable, and duplicitous, Air Aspects are clever and analytical but can be eccentric and absentminded as well, Earth Aspects are sturdy pillars of calm and reason, but can be annoyingly inflexible people, and Wood Aspects are lively, outdoorsy types who may have a libido bigger than even Fire Aspects'.
  • Person Of Mass Destruction — Virtually all Exalts, if they last long enough, can eventually graduate from being "just" a Lightning Bruiser and become this. Even Terrestrials.
  • Physical God — Played straight with the really, really important deities, but lesser gods are actually a subversion of the trope; reasonably skilled younger Exalted are entirely capable of taking many gods in a fight.
  • Place Of Power — Demesnes, manses, and freeholds, places where large amounts of Essence pool/well up, often but not always due to the intersection of dragon lines. The main difference between them is whether they've been largely left undisturbed (demesnes), whether they've been harnessed for occult purposes (manses), or whether the Fair Folk have turned them into miniature Wyld zones (freeholds).
  • Point Build System — Specifically, it uses its own iteration of White Wolf's Storyteller System.
  • Poor Communication Kills — Lytek, the god of Exaltation, has known about the Great Curse that twists the Exalted for a long, long time; while he's been trying to solve it himself, he hasn't seen fit to tell anyone.
    • Jupiter, Maiden of Secrets, also knows about it, but her very nature prohibits her from telling anyone.
    • There are strong hints that Lytek has told his fellow deity Nara-O, who has his Sidereal minion Black Ice Shadow working on the problem.
  • Power Glows — Anima banners in general.
  • Power Levels — A character's permanent Essence score is a good rough measure of their power within their general type of being; it goes from one to ten.
  • Powered Armor — As part of Magitek goodness, this game features some really awesome examples.
  • Powers As Programs — Charms, spells, and other abilities such as those used by the fey fall into this category. Also, there are a more portable variety found in hearthstones. And, needless to say, this is standard operating procedure for the Alchemicals, especially with regard to Pattern Weaving, their answer to Sorcery.
    • However, while Charms embody this trope in every other way, in this case the compiler is right on hand — Exalts can (and, in fact, are encouraged to) invent new custom charms as they progress. The only exception are the Sidereal Exalted, who can't make new charms for themselves, but settle for inventing world-shattering Sidereal Martial Arts instead.
  • Powered By A Forsaken Child — Soulsteel, as well as what the Fair Folk do. They eat forsaken children.
  • Power Perversion Potential — White Wolf just released, as a semi-April Fool's joke, The Scroll of Swallowed Darkness, a sixteen-page PDF on exactly what you think it would be about.
    • Lunar Exalted + Burgeoning Wyld Infliction = You can make your lover into anything you want him/her to be. Anything.
  • Powers That Be — The Bureau of Destiny literally decides the fate of everyone in Creation. Of course, some things are outside of fate, and Exalted have the power to Screw Destiny.
    • The Sidereals, in addition to working for the Bureau of Destiny, also control much of Creation from behind the scenes in their own right.
    • The Celestial Incarnae (and, specifically, the Five Maidens) once filled this role, and are technically still supposed to, but thanks to their "WoW addiction" they generally don't.
  • Pride — The Sidereals. And how. It's actually their manifestation of the Great Curse; when they get together, they make very bad decisions, which they then carry out with extreme competence.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy — The Lunars, to an extent, often fall into this. It's been toned down a lot since First Edition, and there are many other options or themes, but it still has a major influence on many of them.
  • Puny Earthlings — Played straight in the background (the supplements state that humans were specifically created to be puny worshippers with no other purpose, and this is the reason the Primordials didn't geas them into submission like everything else.) Obviously, subverted with regard to the Exalted.
  • Ragnarok Proofing — Justified, since First Age technology is self-maintaining. The comparative fragility of modern technology is also justified; the Solars were the only ones capable of making or obtaining the materials and enchantments that made Ragnarok Proofing possible, so anything made after the Usurpation requires periodic maintenance and repairs to remain in working order, as represented by the Repair stat.
  • Real Women Never Wear Dresses - The Tya. Weather spirits called storm mothers in the western archipelago hate any woman prettier than themselves (which is everyone) and will try to destroy any ship with a woman on the deck, preventing women from working at sea. An ancient spirit pact allows women of the archipelago to tattoo themselves and effectively declare themselves men, thus avoiding the attention of the storm mothers.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Righteous Tsunami. A bronze faction leader who thinks that creation has a million and one threats other than the returning solars.
  • Refusal Of The Call — Every last one of the Green Sun Princes. They were given their exaltation after failing to commit the heroic act that might have allowed them to become Solars (if one was available that is, there is no guarantee one was).
  • Reincarnation Romance — Solar and Lunar Exalts had their shards bound to each other in the First Age via a type of marriage ritual. Thus, many Lunars seem to be strangely drawn to specific returning Solars. It doesn't ALWAYS manifest as love - sometimes it's even a rivalry - but it's common.
  • Reunion Revenge — 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.
  • Rocket Punch — Alchemical Exalted can actually do this.
  • Rule Of Cool — Is implemented by the rules. Describing awesome actions, called stunts, is rewarded by bonus dice. Succeeding at these awesome actions also gets you Essence or Willpower, which allows you to do more cool things, which gets you more Essence and Willpower, which....
    • Justified and/or lampshaded when one of the latter supplements revealed an in-world reason for this: the pattern spiders that maintain the loom of fate — the gods of the laws of physics, essentially — like things that are awesome, and facilitate them.
    • 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 intersting example. The Scroll of The Monk has what is essentialy a Bat'leth in it, mundane and artefact versions.
  • Sadist Teacher — brutally played by Desus to his own mate.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can — Many, many examples, the foremost of which are the Yozis, who, after their defeat at the hands of the Exalted prior to the First Age, were sealed in a cage comprised of the inverted, imploded body of their still-living king.
  • Science Is Wrong: Averted. While the laws of physics tend to be...flexible in this setting, magic runs in a predictable, measurable way and there's nothing stopping you from combining them.
  • Screw Destiny — All Exalted have the power to do this to an extent, though it's most obvious with the Solars, and any great use of Essence can screw up the Loom of Destiny as fate gets rapidly rewritten. There are also some creatures that are simply outside of fate and have no destiny at all; they can screw destiny just by existing.
  • Shout Out — Lots. 1st Edition has a lot to the World Of Darkness games, and there's shout-outs to pop culture and mythology all over.
    • For example, this first place Desus was mentioned by name was in a myth where he treacherously blinded a one-eyed behemoth.
    • Many fans of Hunter The Reckoning like to speculate that the Imbued are related to the Solars in some way. Whether the Gods felt like making a new version of the Exalted to combat the forces of darkness that have completely overrun the earth or the Imbued were chosen by the Heralds because they hold the reincarnated, but dorment, souls of the original Solars in their bodies. On top of the Imbuing being an awful lot like an Exaltation, this troper can point to a few examples in the Hunter canon pointing to some kind of relation. The document violin99 showed in the epilogue of the Hunter Corebook with the script baring striking similiarities to both the Hunter Code and the script used in Creation. The Hunter Storyteller Handbook talking about how "The Heralds tried something like this before in Earth's ancient mythical past" but they "Fell to corruption and were cursed". Another clue that gives this troper pause is in Fall from Grace when the demon Vassago tells Rigger111 "You're different. Your 'Messengers'... put something in you. Or gave back something they took away, long ago." But since the second edition of Exalted retconned most, if not all, of the setting's connections with the Old World of Darkness, most of this speculation is moot.
      • Also, the Infernal Castes share the names of the Demon Houses, save for the Devils and Devourers.
  • Showy Invincible Hero — Are you kidding? It's the entire point of the game.
  • Sliding Scale Of Turn Realism: Action by Action.
  • Smug Super — Dear gods, yes.
  • SNK Boss — The Deathlords, who come equipped with every published Solar and Abyssal Charm, all ghostly Arcanoi, all three Circles of both Sorcery and Necromancy, special powers of their own, can bend certain rules of the setting, and who, in the off chance you can find and use the ONE Secret Weakness that can actually destroy them, will be resurrected one year later by the Neverborn anyway...
    • However, it's important to note that the Deathlords are epically empowered ghosts — and thus they suffer the limitations of ghosts. Most importantly, they cannot naturally recover Essence while in Creation. This is why they need the Abyssal Exalted, and largely confine themselves to acting through them... outside the Underworld, they have severe endurance limits.
    • Also, Deathlords only have the Abyssal versions of mirrored Solar Charms. Now take a look at how many of those Abyssal versions carry the "Spectral" keyword, meaning that they cannot be used outside the Underworld or a shadowland without paying an additional +1 Willpower to activate, which means they will very rapidly run out of Willpower in any extended combat. And this includes all but one (the Resistance-based one) of their perfect defense charms.
  • Solid Gold Poop — The Beasts of Resplendent Liquids
  • Soul Fragment — The Celestial Exaltations.
  • Sourcebook— In one key example, while the corebook makes the presumptions that players of the game will want to play the recently-returned Solar Exalted, various Splatbooks provide rules for playing the other Exalted— Lunars, Dragon-Blooded, Sidereals, Abyssals, Infernals, Alchemicals.
  • Squick — Lillun. No, not Lilith, this is someone else. You don't want the details and I kind of wish I hadn't read them. The morbidly curious can find her in the Infernals book.
    • If you are that morbidly curious, read on: The Yozis realized that the Sidereals had locked up Solar Exaltations in the Jade Prison, and that the Deathlords were using the Monstrances of Celestial Portion to create Abyssal Exaltations, so they needed something to run the 50 Solar shards they got through the spin cycle. So they made their own storage device. Out of a little girl, whose body has been horribly twisted and tortured to provide a living cage for the Infernal Exaltations. That's right; the Yozis took a mortal girl, stuck her in Hell, and tortured her so that they could further their plans. Makes you want to punch them in the throat, huh?
      • Well, at least it does solve the moral dilemna of how to rescue the Scarlet Empress from the Ebon Dragon. Given that the Empress is the one who cheerfully sold Lillun, her own daughter, into this bondage in the first place, This Troper entirely intends to "rescue" the Scarlet Empress by sawing her head off her neck.
    • Brought to my attention, there's also an artifact made of the corpses of dead children. And it sings. This one's in the 2e Abyssals book.
    • In Dreams of the First Age, volume 1, the artwork immediately before the appendix shows a (presumed) Fair Folk noble lady holding a dinner party. Only the guests are chained to the chairs. And when you look closely, you notice that the main course is a human baby served on a salad platter.
  • Steam Punk — Oh come on, you know this is the reason Autochthonia exists.
  • Stepford Smiler — poor, poor Lilith . . . at least she's free now though there is no telling if she remains Ax Crazy.
    • This troper feels very, VERY sorry for Swan.
    • 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 Dawn of the First Age.
  • Strongly Worded Letter — Yeah, they can kill people in this game.
  • Super Empowering — Some gods have the ability to improve the abilities of others. The Exalted have the ability to awaken the essence of mortals, too, granting them lesser (but still awesome) abilities. And then of course there's Exaltation itself, though that is mostly handled by the Exaltation itself aside from the paperwork.
  • Supernatural Martial Arts — So very, very much...indeed, this troper believes Exalted is the Trope Namer, though he could be wrong.
  • Superpower Lottery — Most forms of Exaltation are, themselves, a matter of winning the superpower lottery, but even within that there are clear scales of power between different types of Exalted.
  • Superpowerful Genetics — Terrestrial Exaltation is an inherited trait passed from parent to child. It ends up being close to case 4 or 5, depending on chance.
    • Case 5s having a severe tendency towards becoming their families' Unfavorites, especially in Dynastic families.
  • Sword Sparks — There is a Dragonblooded charm that makes good use of these.
  • Technicolor Eyes — Sidereals, upon Exalting, gain these in colors matching their caste. Their pupils also become flecked with little starpoints in the same color.
  • That Man Is Dead — A job requirement for Abyssal Exalted. They have to throw their original name and whatever was left of their destiny into the Void, and their overlords will punish them for answering to their old name.
  • The Atoner — It's possible to play an Abyssal Exalt this way. However, this would require them to rebel against their Deathlord masters as well as their very nature, which makes their Resonance fly through the roof.
  • The Chessmaster — Most of the present-day Sidereals see being one as their job. They are pretty good at it, but not as good as they often think.
    • The Ebon Dragon, most cunning and patient of the Yozis and leading candidate for a campaign's Big Bad, also fits.
  • The Corps Is Mother — The Cult of the Illuminated, set up to aid the returning Solars in reclaiming their old place in the world by the Sidereals of the Gold Faction, with full intent to ensure that they remain the powers behind the Solars' ridiculously shiny thrones.
  • The Dark Side — The Great Curse tends to cause this after a while especially when using some of the Sidereal charms that rely on virtues or just Game Breaker charms like Zeal.
  • The Evils Of Free Will — The Yozis have become firm believers in this trope. Except for She Who Lives In Her Name, who's believed in it from the start, loathing free will as part of her basic nature.
  • The Faceless — Nara-O, God of Secrets but there is probably good reason for this, since if somebody saw him he may cease to exist.
  • The Fool — Tepet Fokuf. Maybe.
  • The Gods Must Be Lazy — The Incarnae, at least.
  • The Munchausen — Desus seems to fit this quite well, though his powers make people love him for it.
  • The Nondescript — Mortals find it near impossible to remember a Sidereal's appearance, if they remember them at all.
  • The Power Of Love — The Virtue of Compassion encompasses all forms of love, and when channeled by an act of will, can be frighteningly powerful even without magic.
  • Touch Of Death — Some charms allow you to literally punch someone's soul off.
  • Troperrific — "The whole idea is that there isn't just one cosmic force about to destroy Creation, there's a whole bunch of cosmic (and not-so-cosmic) forces that are all about to destroy Creation. Between declining empires of elemental supermen, zombie hordes, vengeful elder ghosts, dead primal gods, imprisoned demon-Titans, Cthulhu elves, Satanic pirates, necrophagic dinosaur-men, miscellaneous ancient artifact-slash-WMDs, international mercantile conspiracies, curse-addled reality ninjas, Conan-wannabe werewolves, assorted Godzilla-knockoffs, well-meaning but terminally misguided anime heroes, mutants up the wazoo, and the Machine God and his Aztec Cyborgs, Creation is about ten seconds away from getting gang-banged to death by every epic-fantasy cliche in the book all at once." — Sir Bob
  • Turned Against Their Masters — The Gods rebelled against the Primordials so they could rule over Creation benevolently play the Games of Divinity.
  • Unstoppable Rage — Part of the Great Curse. When an Exalt acts against their character or marshals their willpower against unnatural mental influence, they accrue Limit. When they reach a breaking point, they undergo a Limit Break and act either towards or against their guiding virtue in a fashion that makes "extreme" look mild. There are some Charms that also do this.
  • Walking Wasteland — Abyssal Exalted can cause this without even trying.
  • Warrior Monk — Immaculate Monks. Primarily Eastern-styled with a little bit of Western here and there. Their fighting arts can also burn you alive, make you drown in your own blood, or just vaporize your soul, just to name a few tricks.
  • Wave Motion Gun — The Godspear of the Five-Metal Shrike is specifically statted out as doing infinite damage on a direct hit. Also, the main weapon of the First Age's Titan-class aerial citadels—which, interestingly, the Shrike was designed to be a far more resource-efficient version of, in terms of getting that level of firepower.
  • What Measure Is A Non Super — Among many examples...because people's souls reincarnate into new bodies after death barring enough unfinished business to cause them to become a ghost, Exalted in the First Age were often...less than concerned with the individual safety of the mortals under their rule, as nothing was really being lost.
    • They did sign a treaty with Heaven, particularly the Bureau of Destiny, mandating that any mortal who died in the service of or as collateral damage from a Celestial Exalted's activities was guaranteed that their next reincarnation would be into the body of someone fated to have a happy peaceful life. Sadly, that treaty has almost certainly expired with the fall of the Solar Deliberative...
    • That was nothing more than self-justification for treating mortals like dirt, as far as this troper can tell, because although Reincarnation exists in strictly technical sense, one's personality and memories are entirely and irreversibly gone when the soul reincarnates (unless a Celestial Exaltation shard records some of them), so, for the person reincarnated, it is not really different from oblivion.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity — the Great Curse tends to do this over time.
  • Well Intentioned Extremist — Chejop Kejak seems to fit this quite well.
  • The Wild Hunt — Actually inverted with the Wyld (sic) Hunt. That consists of a force of men, led by Dragon-Blooded and sometimes Sidereals to hunt down and kill Celestial Exalts and other dangerous magical entities.
  • Woman Scorned — Holy crap, I fear for anything that gets in Lilith's way.
    • Not to mention that she was one of the most legendary martial artists in Creation in the First Age, and that was millenia ago. Outside of Chejop Kejak, Ma-Ha-Suchi, and several of the Deathlords, there probably isn't anything in Creation that can even slow her down.
  • The Woobie — Lilith.
  • Xanatos Gambit — Eye and Seven Despairs is fond of these. He just uses them to do very stupid things.
  • You Are The Translated Foreign Word — Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun.
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