Exalted!

This thang. Reading the Setting setting page. :3

From what I understand this is a good thing? :D I may wait until 3 ed comes out before starting that game with my friends (it's not like we're going anywhere as is right now).

edited 9th Dec '12 11:34:42 PM by Zersk

Taken from some really awesome Nobilis campaign logs featuring Holden, with some extraneous bullshit cut:

They have also confirmed that their vision for sorcery is heavily based on Elric of Melniboné, as befits Exalted's pulp fantasy heart.

edited 9th Dec '12 11:40:38 PM by CountDorku

Ohh, I thought they meant the Alchemist! :o Heh. :p

Also the writers seem like pretty cool dudes. :3 Or at least interesting. :p

edited 9th Dec '12 11:48:18 PM by Zersk

Yeah, they's cool dudes.

Reading Glorious Shotgun Princess. It's awesome.

Which books detail the Primordials? :o

In 1e, Games of Divinity is your best bet. It's considered to be significantly better than most 2e stuff, and will likely have more of an influence on 3e.

In 2e, Compass of Celestial Directions: Malfeas gives an overview, with more details in MoXP Infernals, Return of the Scarlet Empress, and the Broken-Wing Crane. These have certain inconvenient issues, such as limiting them to One Paradigm Forever (ALL THE DICE when Malfeas decides he wants to be Karkat), but also provide a somewhat clunky guide to what they can do.

So, with the Exalted Wiki down, is there any other place I can find a list of Charms with brief descriptions? I'm not talking the actual book's indepth look into the mechanics of the charm, just a brief summary so I can run a freeform game.

Count: Sweet, thanks! :D

Dios: Have you tried the unofficial wiki? :o

Also, YOU TWO.

I seen you two's posts on the Exalted forum. :o

I've kind of withdrawn until third edition comes out.

I have kind of a low tolerance for nonstop bitchfests and people formally leaving, so I've decided to informally leave until everyone at least has something solid to gripe about.

Plus I'm currently in a mood to obsess over Nobilis instead.

@God of...

I'd highly recommend of Ed's Exalted toolkit. It's a wonderful character creator that also has descriptions of pretty much everything you want.

How Lunars' Second Breaths Happen (In An Alternate Canon)

(A remake of an old idea)

How did Luna create the Silver Shards? Don't ask Luna Vesanus, the reply will answer nothing at all and only raise more questions. Out of what did Luna create her Champions? And, on another tangent, how many Moons had lain in the cradle of Orammus? Was it 300? A few more, adding the greatest Other Moons that make up the Moon Goddess's being? And where are they now?

Were they made into the core of Luna's ultimate weapons? 300 would be moon gods shoved into a Divine Shard, splintered off from her whole self to become the engines of power to army of mercurial mad demigods.

If that's the case, it would explain the nature of the Lunar Shard, more self-aware, more independent then the other shards, not completely unlike the Infernal Shards. Each one has its own ideas of what makes a good Lunar; a Steward, a Warden, an Outsider, a Witch, a Survivor or Something Else. Each leaves Lytek's cabinet searching for its ideal Chosen. When it finds a mortal who might have the potential, it settles in and that's when the real fun begins.

The Shard creates a Spirit Guide, a mask it might wear to interact with the would-be Chosen until Exaltation or failure. As a Background, a Lunar may have a variable degree of continued interaction with this Spirit Guide even after their Second Breath. Now this Spirit Guide can look like many things, depending on what part of the soul structure its taken from. The Shard may choose itself, from memories of past shapes it took or perhaps the Other Moon deep in its core. If it uses the Lower Soul, the Guide may be some bestial manifestation or other natural phenomenon. If it uses the Higher Soul, then it may be a lot of things, something or someone important to the would-be Chosen.

Through Dreams and Visions, this Guide will then interact with the potential candidate. According to its own whims and ideas, it will test them. Using the knowledge it can gleam from their minds, it will cajole them. It will make them do things to prove their worth, inside their minds as well as in the waking world. It will do this until they have passed or failed. To those who fail, it may be shame and death. In this Age of Sorrows, Silver Shards have left behind just a few Abyssal and Infernal Exalts.

For those who pass, something greater then godhood awaits. The Shard will truly fuse with their soul structure and a beacon will be sent up. When this beacon is seen, Luna will often have the courtesy to take time out of her day to greet her new Chosen. She has the means to be in two and more places at once, so she doesn't need to drop anything. It's in this meeting that Silver Tattoos and Marks are placed on the Chosen, and she will whisper to them the name of their Guide, which is used as a secondary name for the Lunar. Without Luna, it can be done with the Guide alone, but she prefers this personal touch.

Now the Chosen's Tattoos normally remain dormant and hidden, only flaring to life when their Mark and Anima is already shining. Their Guide too will appear prominently in their Totem and may color all of their Charms prominently.

Hidan Gigomori the Hundred Cuts has a hundred rapiers appear in his Totem. He describes his Guide as having been a talking rapier and that when he had been Chosen, Luna took his Guide and carved his life's story into his flesh with only a hundred strokes. When his Anima flares, his Tattoos indeed appear as a hundred slices all around his body.

Grisit Lover says his Guide is a beautiful woman he didn't recognize but he believes was the first host of his Exaltation. He describes a very intimate meeting between him, his Guide and Luna and his Tattoos appears as sensual scrawling hand prints, lip stick stains from his head to his unmentionables and his own lips glow silver from many kisses he received.

Johan the Fountain of Words describes Luna as a wise woman who reminded her of shamistic vows by scrawling them into her flesh while her Guide, in the shape of a great bear, clawed and bit her. Both of these things appear in phosphorous silver whenever her Anima flares into life.

God: Ooh, that's really cool! :D

Awesome

Celestial Bonds

When the Moon sits in front of the Sun and the Five Stars align, the Celestines may sit in conference and join as one, this is the thesis behind the Eclipse Caste. So the story continues, it was to them the power of the Celestial Bond was given, although the exact nature of it lost in the Second Age, those who remember the First are not telling. Was it a Charm or a spell not unlike the one that binds Terrestrial Brotherhoods? Was it truly only available to the Eclipse Caste, or all of the Solars or even all of the Celestials? Its lack of practice stems from the nature of the Exaltations and the gap that has grown too large between the two Celestial Hosts, the Lunar and the Sidereal. Although then among the Sidereal it would not be so unpracticed but then the Chosen of the Stars are not an open mouthed lot.

The Primordial Wars and the First Age are scattered with epic romances that even in corrupted forms are still told today. These romances may endure in this Age of Sorrows by the power of these Celestial Bonds. By whatever power of a third party, before the Sun and the Moon and the Stars, two Shards of Divinity are joined together in exalted matrimony. This Bond can only be formed by two Celestial Exalts with a extreme Intimacy towards one another, one of Love or rarely but not unheard of in eccentric cases one of Hate. These feelings must be true, unimposed by any other force but imposes itself, endures, throughout successive incarnations. Those who are blessed or cursed by a Celestial Bond on their Exaltation will feel an Intimacy of some kind toward their Mate, much in the same way as Canon Lunars feel toward their Solar Mate except it works both ways.

The Celestial Bond is generally known as the Solar-Lunar Bond with reason. There is the nature of the Divine Shards to consider, broken off from the Celestine and by awesome decree never to be rejoined with the whole, lest the Primordials order the Celestines to reabsorb the power they gave-up. So like two magnets of the same polarity, Shards of the same Celestine are resistant to coming together. The Exalted, being what they are, have overcome such obstacles but it was more common for Exalts of different colors to come together. For this reason, actually, the Sidereal could still remain among one another, bonding across Auspices for though their patrons had a shared nature the Maidens were still the Five rather then the One. Their had long been a divide between the Sidereal and the rest of the Celestial Host, for their exclusive duties and the nature of their very Second Breath. Every Sidereal was Fated to receive their Exaltation from birth while the Solar and the Lunar, in the eyes of some, especially themselves, actually earned their Exaltations.

Most depressing of all are the events of Usurpation. Whatever the nature of its initial setting, it proved to be within the power of the Sidereal at least, or perhaps just the Chosen of Ending, to terminate the Bond, if by the will of one of the Mates. Their were those Sidereals Bonded to Solars and Lunars that took up the Vision of Bronze. Their Mates' assassinations coincided wit the Bond's termination, and they died confused and betrayed. There is at least one Deathlord, such as Who Will Fell The Stars, who's hatred is sustained by this betrayal.

By the end of the First Age, what records remain, and there are some meticulous records in the House of Serenity, state that over half of every Celestial Host has this Bond. The Solar and Lunar are dominantly Mated to one another, while uncommonly within their own Host and the Sidereal are still mostly between Auspices. A few Bonds between Sidereal and Solar or Lunar, still remain.

The Bond Of Night is the sobriquet of a Lunar-Sidereal Bond.
The Bond Of Light is the sobriquet of a Sidereal-Solar Bond.
The Bond Of Might is the sobriquet of a Solar-Lunar Bond.

Huh. Apparently John Mørke will be giving us a post of an interview involving EX3 for Christmasibration this year.

This should be good.

Edit: Aaaaand it's up!

We're getting a new signature Dawn Caste, and the map is being redrawn. Also there's some other stuff so go read it.

edited 25th Dec '12 11:24:17 AM by CountDorku

Oho, MORE splats (splat means exalt types, right) beyond the Liminals?

Well Fair Folk and Heroic Mortals were splats too, I think... Could mean Exalts, could mean other creature types.

Gonna read it tomorrow.

edited 25th Dec '12 1:52:57 PM by Adannor

Well John specifically said more Exalts, so that'll be interesting. :3

He seemed to imply Liminals aren't the only new Exalted host.

Dresden Files x Exalted Crossover

"Mab."

Everything was in place, the neat little circle all drawn. Candles too, a nice little touch.

"Mab."

This is it, this is the end of Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden as you know him. Really, I dunno how long she'll let me stay as myself.

"Ma-"

The words never leave my lips, it's kind of hard to talk when someone's shushing you. I guess it's gotta be human instinct, when someone puts their fingers on your lips you shut the hell up. When we're a bunch of dirty cavemen huddling together in a dank dark hole, you better shut the fuck up or everyone's getting eaten by saber tooth tigers. Those who don't get their throats slit and left to slow down the tigers. Ergo, natural selection.

I thought I must have actually completed the summoning, I thought I summoned Mab. My first guess was this was Mab right in front of. My second guess was Titania for some reason. Pale as the moon, that's the right word. Not as pale as snow or as the sun on a hot summer day, but the moon. I was getting a ton of moon vibes from this woman. It's one of those things with particularly powerful beings, unless they're trying to be subtle they tend to spell out their nature.

You would give up everything you were.

You would become what you abhor.

You would tear down all the rules you upheld.

And all for the sake of love.

"Oh man, you know me pretty but I dunno you," I said as my mouth motored, "Are you stalking me on Facebook? Usually, that's my brother, on account of him actually having a Facebook."

And you would mock me. The silver white lady leaned forward, hovering over me. She reached over and she grabbed my staff, leaning up next to by paralyzed guy bed, lifting it up, You have got some vitriol dipped brass balls on you.[/b]

"While I love beautiful women admirring by balls and touching my staff, I'm afraid I've got my soul to sell."

Not this day, Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden.

Well, that made me flinch. Not just what she said but how she said. It wasn't that she used all the right cadences but she used the wrong ones. Like wrong at every point, in every possible way, in the exactly right way. The only way she could have done that is if she knew how to say it the right way and then purposefully decided to turn it upside down. It'd be comparable to her saying it backwards, except not.

Today you change. Today you win.

"A winner is me?" Honestly, I couldn't help myself.

My Shard has not presented you a single test because you passed every one life set before you.

It was kind of like the camera had been focused on her and it panned out to show the audience the scene had changed. I had really been focused on her, almost the same way I'd be focused on Mab. She was just as beautiful except it was kind of hard for me to pin down how. I mean, I'm Harry Dresden, I like the ladies, but every time I tried to cop a feel with my eyes it was like I was looking at something different. Her body was like the Twilight Zone.

When that camera of my confused and wandering gaze panned out, I noticed we weren't in Father Foothill's sickbed any more and most importantly I wasn't in my clothes anymore. Neither was she as she climbed on top of me.

"Okay. I think it's fair to warn you that I might not be functional down-"

Then she reached under me, just above my butt, and unbroke my back with a sharp crack. I could tell because I have never, ever have felt my legs so much until then. All of my little piggies were wiggling with joy.

"Nevermind then."

From there her hand trailed over my body and where her fingers went, silver lines were left behind, scrawled into my skin. She was tattooing me and despite Butter's insistence I got the impression that these weren't gonna go away.

Now you take up new titles although a few you technically already have. Witch. Warden.

"Wizard. Wiiizard. Witches are for girls."

But these ones are new, and I give them to you freely, with no strings attached. Lunar. Exalted. Chosen of the Me, Luna, the Moon.

"So, these title, do I get to freely tell you 'No'?" I asked the Moon.

Luna smirked at me, reaching up to my forehead. I could feel her scrawling more there, a circle, a perfect circle I could tell.

No.

"Oh, alright then."

Cool Story, Bro. No, really, Harry Dresden as a wisecracking badass Lunar would be fuckawesome.

Also, do you guys know what's the deal with I AM? I know it was the 1st age equivalent of the internet, but not much else. Was it sentient, how powerful was it, is it still alive in some way, etc.?

I believe the Gateway-playing crystalline AI known as Icemind is pretty much explicitly a surviving I AM node, but I wouldn't swear to it.

Intersting. I'm thinking about adding tropes to I AM's section in the character page, but I don't really know where to start.