History Characters / ExaltedSpirits

Often considered the greatest Deathlord in terms of personal power, resources, and military prowess, The First and Forsaken Lion is often the standard BigBad for most ''Exalted'' games. [=FaFL=] [[MyGreatestFailure is most famous for]] being spot-welded to his armor by his Neverborn masters after botching the Great Contagion by involving the Fair Folk invasion that is believed to have halted the Contagion in its tracks. [[OrcusOnHisThrone He's now banished to a far off mountain range, gathering resources and plotting his next move on Creation,]] [[JustifiedTrope so that he doesn't mess up a second time.]]

* {{BFS}}: Varan's Ruin, a Soulsteel Grand Daiklave that contains the ghost of Varan, a Solar who was able to resist the madness of the Great Curse, and who the Lion forged into the blade without breaking his mind first.

The discoverer of the Great Contagion, the Dowager is a civilized savage (to the point where some Deathlords think she's an ex-Lunar), and a powerful necromancer. One of the three canon Deathlords that plans to actually destroy Creation (the others want to rule over its corpse), the Dowager is a shameless psychopath and torturer, even worse than some of her contemporaries. See: her orphanage.

* CameBackWrong: In 3e she attempted to infiltrate Stigia long before the Stigian Pact conquered it, and the Dual Monarchs promptly dropped the Calendar of Setesh on her. Her pact with the Neverborn brought her back, as promised, but to the horror of the other deathlords she returned as a husk of her former self, her former personality flensed away so that nothing but a servant of the Neverborn bent of destroying all of Creation remained.

* EldritchLocation: The Dowager lords over the Well of Udr, a dimensional nexus where all possible realities collide and disintegrate. Anyone who looks into it without proper protection goes mad. She had such protection, and was able to extract the Great Contagion from the Well.

* OrphanageOfFear: Hoo boy. She steals the children of villages she's killed, raises them with [[SarcasmMode all the love and affection]] of a mass murderer, furbishes their rooms with soulsteel ''made from the ghosts of their parents'', then proceeds to release them once they come of age... until they have children of their own, at which point she attacks them and ''does the whole thing over again''. She ''says'' this is to create the [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds ideal Abyssal]], but she's been at it a lot longer then they've been around, meaning that she just has a reason other than ForTheEvulz now. Or to put it shorthand, the setting's equivalent of [[Characters/NewGods Granny Goodness]].
* OverlyLongName: Even by the standards of the Deathlords. Exaggerated in 3E, where it's the longest true one (even the Princess Magnificent is really an alias for the real, and much shorter, Black Heron).

%%* EvilSorcerer

!!'''Princess Magnificent with Lips of Coral and Robes of Black Feathers'''
Princess Magnificent was one of the key figures in making sure the Great Contagion reached all corners of Creation. Resting high on the laurels of her success, she settled in the East and attempted to establish dominance as "the Heron" over three tribes with their own gods. And that's where she screwed up, as the three gods of what would become Great Forks drove her off with a story. A resonant, glorious story, but a story nonetheless. She was forced to flee, and her bosses weren't happy. She was about to be tossed headfirst into Oblivion until the First and Forsaken Lion spoke up on her behalf, offering to take her under his wing. She's been there ever since, extremely bitter and trying to make her own way.

* ButtMonkey: She's the second lowest in regard amongst the Deathlords, was stripped of absolutely none of her faculties after being shanghaied into the Lion's service, and has spent every minute of her existence since then dreading and loathing.

* OverlyLongName: Her name is the longest of all the named Deathlords'.
* ParasolOfPain: Her weapon of choice is the Umbrella of Discord, woven from the flesh and bones of five dead Solars.
* TheStarscream: She's just looking for the right moment to stick the dagger between the Lion's shoulder blades.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Some of the first descriptions of the Lover describe her as clad in orichalcum plate, as an example of some Deathlords who still cling to the trappings and regalia of their Solar lives. Subsequent depictions seemed to leave this behind and put her in a more {{Stripperiffic}} black outfit, although her character wasn't fleshed out until a bit further in.

* AdaptationanalGenderIdentity: In 3E, they're explicitly genderqueer rather than male.

* ButtMonkey: This is who he was in the First Age in 2E and, given his current interests, who he was among the Deathlords. Averted in 3E, where Eye is deeply appreciated for their brilliance and desire to stay neutral in politics, and even has a VillainousFriendship with the Silver Prince.

* AdaptationalSexuality: In 3E, they're explicitly genderqueer rather than male.

* EldritchLocation: His particular manse, Cold House, is both somehow in Creation and overlooking the Void ''at the same time''.

Some nihilistic ghosts of the Ursurpation, whether out of madness, vengeance, or despair, swear themselves into the service of the Neverborn, working towards their agenda of ending all that is (ostensibly - most of them just wanted the power and [[DidYouJustScamCthulhu can pull real whoppers]]). The greatest of these servants are the Deathlords, the souls of the most decadent and vile Solars of the First Age. There are thirteen Deathlords, but only nine are named -- mainly so that Storytellers can make up one of the other four if they need a villain.

Some Deathlords do it ForTheEvulz, for power, for revenge, or for the orgasms. Walker in Darkness does it because he truly, honestly believes that dumping all of Creation into the great cosmic garbage disposal is a good thing. The warrior-priest of the Deathlords, he regularly takes to the field and preaches the word of Oblivion. He's also got a grudge against Mask of Winters, but he'll be damned if he can remember ''why''...\\

* BrilliantButLazy: A variation where he's perfectly good at ''starting'' projects, just not at actually finishing them. He's had plenty of plans that would do serious damage to Creation, but he has a fatal tendency to go chasing shiny new ideas instead of slogging through the tough bits.

* EvilVersusEvil: It's left unstated if he dislikes Mask Of Winters because of residual memories or because of the latter's recurrent GenreBlindness. Either way, they spend as much time scheming against each other as they do actually pursuing their goals.

* GenreBlindness: He has a blind spot about the size of the Daystar regarding the ability of Exalts to master skills outside their caste/aspect abilities, meaning that he is ''completely flabbergasted'' by the concept of, say, an Eclipse being a better swordsman than a Dawn, or a Zenith being a better crafter than a Twilight; it's just not how he thinks the world works. Needless to say, it is likely to end badly for him.

Some nihilistic ghosts, whether out of madness, vengeance, or despair, swear themselves into the service of the Neverborn, working towards their agenda of ending all that is (ostensibly - some just want the power and [[DidYouJustScamCthulhu can pull real whoppers]]). The greatest of these servants are the Deathlords, the souls of the most decadent and vile Solars of the First Age. There are thirteen Deathlords, but only nine are named -- mainly so that Storytellers can make up one of the other four if they need a villain.

* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: Only 13 Solar ghosts made the deal with the Neverborn.

* EvilVersusOblivion: In 3E, it's made clear that some Deathlords, like the Bodhisattva/Silver Prince, were lying through their teeth when they claimed they were fine with actually killing Creation, leading to this among their loyalist Abyssals.

* SuperIntelligence: As former First Age Solars, they know a lot about First Age technology, with some of them knowing more than all of Creation's savants put together, or even the archives of Heaven. Some of them are incorporating magitech into their plans to destroy Creation.

* OverlyLongName: Even by the standards of the Deathlords.

Some of the Solars did not do very nice things in the First Age, and Eye and Seven Despairs is testament to being on the losing side of that. He was the youngest in his circle, being the new incarnation of a recently deceased member of the same. This means he was, effectively, their punching bag, and lined up for all sorts of abuse. This culminated in being told that everything was over, his circle mates had realized what dicks they were being, and presenting him with a gift that would make it all up to him -- [[EyeScream his father's eye]]. He killed himself right after this, and claims to have been the first Solar ghost to sell himself to the Neverborn.\\
\\
And what has he accomplished with this? Absolutely ''dick''. He's a genius among the Neverborn, able to do things no one else has. But he hasn't done anything to actually kill Creation because he's busy focusing on tracking down the reincarnations of his old circle and doing hideous things to them, over and over again, for all time. As such, he's the lowest in station among the Deathlords, even compared to Princess Magnificent (who almost got shunted into the Void for her grand screw-up).

* BrilliantButLazy: He has made, among other things, a [[ZombieApocalypse plague that raises its victims as aggressive zombies]] in a world where corpses usually need to be actively and deliberately raised and then given direction, and Cold House (see below). But he hasn't actually done anything with this stuff because of his obsession.
* ButtMonkey: This is who he was in the First Age and, given his current interests, who he is among the Deathlords. It's gotten to the point where his only Abyssal servant (who he Exalted mainly to fill a quota) is considering throwing himself behind some other undead master.

* GenderBender: In addition to ShapeshiftingSquick below, he also has as one of his primary alternate identities the Prioress of Bloody Sands.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: ShrugOfGod says that it's quite possible for a storyteller to make it so that his {{Harmless Villain}}y is really a cover so he can bide his time.
* RevengeBeforeReason: His modus operandi.
* ShapeshiftingSquick: One of his favorite ways to break the reincarnations of his circle mates is to take on the form of one of their lovers (or someone they'd fall for) and then sow discord from there.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Look at what happened to him in the First Age, and you see he may just have a point. Well, if he tried actually destroying anything besides his old circle.

Another walking testament in NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast, the Lover believes in both the little death and the big one. She wants to take all of Creation to the limits of pleasure, and by showing them how fleeting it is, instill a cosmic urge for suicide. Her fellow Deathlords mainly think she's using this as an excuse to get off, and don't think too highly of her.

* BrilliantButLazy: She hasn't executed her plan to conquer Lookshy yet because she finds war tedious.

** Come off as this -- the Primordials literally think differently from everyone else, including other Primordials. As a result, they can perform the most horrific of acts not out of any actual malevolence, but because they don't see why it's wrong. Autochthon and Gaia are the only ones capable of social empathy due to their purview (or rather, Gaia is, while Autochthon made himself capable of it), but even they can perform KickTheDog acts while being completely baffled as to why the dog in question is mad at them. The exception to this trend is the Ebon Dragon, who goes around kicking dogs because that ''is'' his purview.

* SoulJar: The Fetich Soul -- the one that contains the Primordial's self-image -- works like this. Kill it, and you've basically reset the Primordial's identity.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: At the end of the Primordial War, she convinced the Celestial Incarnae to spare the surrendering Primordials, resulting in them becoming the Yozis instead. Although she had good reasons for doing so, doing this allowed the Yozis (mainly the Ebon Dragon) to discover the location of the Jade Prison, how to corrupt them into the Green Sun Princes, and make a deal with the Neverborn which allowed them to create the Abyssal Exalted. Although if this hadn't happened, the Solar Exaltations would most likely still be trapped in the Jade Prison. Whether this would makes things worse in the long run depends on how effective the Abyssal and Infernal Exalted are, and if any other future threats to Creation could only be stopped by the Solars (after all, a second Scarlet Empress is unlikely)

* FateWorseThanDeath: What the Exalted Host did to him to turn into the Demon City isn't entirely translatable in mortal terms, but can best be described as combination of a lobotomy and a vivisection. The pain he suffered was made even worse by the sheer disbelief and horror he, the literal personification of AuthorityEqualsAsskicking, felt as he was curbstomped by a group of PunyEarthlings. Which led to him going insane. He's the biggest example on how fetich death (Killing a Primordial/Yozi's Fetich Soul, the very core of their being, will alter them in very unexpected ways) can [[GoneHorriblyWrong go horribly wrong.]]

* [[ShowyInvincibleHero Showy Invincible Villain]]: His Imperfection made his charms work best with a large amount of worshippers witnessing his deeds. If fighting an enemy with little to no observers around him, Theion and Infernals would have to spend more Essence motes to use his charms.

Once, he was the Primordial known as The Dragon’s Shadow. After the war he became The Ebon Dragon, which was exactly what he wanted. If the Prince of Darkness had a teacher, this would be he. The embodiment of vice, [[WordOfGod creator commentary states that the Dragon is effectively the anti-Exalt]] -- where the Exalted are supposed to be awesome, the essence (and Essence) of the Ebon Dragon is more about denying others their victories. As long as he comes out ahead of everyone else, he could lose everything and still be happy. In ''Return of the Scarlet Empress'', [[spoiler:If he dies, he becomes the Neverborn known as: The Dragon That Was]].

* BigBad: Of the optional ''Return of the Scarlet Empress'' module, and for the Architects of the Reclamation (the five most important Yozis) at large. According to the material of some books, he could even be viewed as the Big Bad for the setting as a whole. Who arranged the creation of the Neverborn? He did. Who created the Abyssal and Infernal Exalted? He did. Who made the Scarlet Empress disappear and threw the Realm into chaos? He did. Indeed, there are very few terrible things going on in the Age of Sorrows that can't be at least indirectly laid at his feet.

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Being the living embodiment of evil, cruelty and dickishness in general, he's so prone to betrayals motivated and non that he's barely able to act otherwise. He can ignore his Urge and make a Torment roll simply by paying Willpower, therefore betraying his very own nature. Even his component souls constantly scheme and politic against each other. This guy is so utterly and irredeemably treacherous, he betrays ''himself!'' Further, should his mad plan work, the Ebon Dragon plans to be first out of Malfeas just so that he can seal the other Yozis in permanently and laugh in their faces. Of course, while he tries to do this, his own component souls will likely be fighting him to make sure ''they'' get out and the core of the Dragon gets screwed. That's right; his ultimate plan of inevitable betrayal may get screwed because ''he will be betraying himself at the same time''. In ''Return of the Scarlet Empress'', [[spoiler:he does exactly that]].

* DevilButNoGod: Because this trope was in effect when the Primordials ruled Creation, the Ebon Dragon's previous form couldn't manifest.

* DirtyCoward: As stated above, all of his virtues are as low as possible, including his Valor. He [[CombatPragmatist does not fight fair in the slightest]] and does NOT have the intestinal fortitude to strike when not absolutely sure he can win.

* MyMasterRightOrWrong: In the Time of Glory, she wasn't specifically evil, just loyal to Malfeas above all other things (and not a fan of free will). She even was willing to bow to the Unconquered Sun, once the war was over. That the Incarnae decided that she was to be locked away from Creation, too, triggered the Cataclysm mentioned above.

* AlienGeometries: The desert of Cecelyne takes exactly five days to cross, regardless of how fast you move.
* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: Her defining principle is that the strong rule over the weak. It's the one rule that her laws cannot oppose, even hypocritically.

!!'''Sacheverell, he That Sees the Shape of Things to Come'''

These souls are the devas of the Third Circle, and ''they'' are of sufficient spiritual magnitude that they typically have seven souls of their own, which themselves have independent existence. These are known as the devas of the Second Circle.\\

For the most part, the difference between deva and demon is a political one -- there is still a Third Circle, who gives birth to a series of Second Circles, who create First Circle servants.\\

* MindScrew: A demon due to be summoned will start trekking out of Malfeas and through the desert exactly in time to arrive at the barrier to Creation when the ritual goes off. This happens even if the sorcerer in question doesn't know who they're going to summon (and, in fact, sorcerers may not summon any demon in specific, instead putting out a generic call for anyone who can fulfil a task). And yet the correct demon never fails to show up and a demon who won't be summoned will never go. Back during the First Age, Solars studied this principle and ''somehow'' used it to power their more advanced technology.

* AnythingThatMoves: One of the downsides of being bitten by one. While the effect of their poison increases the poisoned intellect, it also strengthens their libido.

* AnythingThatMoves: She's turned to this out of desperation.

* JackassGenie: Some of her Charms allow her to give gifts, which inherently come with a hook that enslaves the receipient to her will.

%%* JackassGenie

* AffablyEvil: In 3E, his courteous and peaceful mask really ''isn't'', he genuinely wants to be a good ruler and to win over Creation to his side through diplomacy, and ''Crucible of Legends'' makes it clear he had no intention of ''actually'' destroying Creation. He is quite willing to turn nasty to ensure negotiation through superior firepower, however.

* DidYouJustScamCthulhu: Heavily implied to have been ''utterly insincere'' in his DealWithTheDevil, not having an OmnicidalManiac bone in his corpus. Given how this meant he fooled TheOmniscient about at least having any doubts, it's than respectable.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: He utterly hates the Lintha family. If you know anything about them, you'd understand why.

One of the other Deathlords that seeks to destroy Creation altogether (and friends with the final one, Walker in Darkness), the Bishop is also, oddly, the [[WellIntentionedExtremist most sympathetic]] one. Somewhere along the line, he came to believe that existence is the root of all suffering. He took that to its [[OmnicidalManiac logical conclusion]] and decided that Oblivion is the only really meaningful thing. What makes him ''sympathetic'' is that he... really isn't a jerk about it. Truthfully, he thinks that he can willingly convert everyone to his philosophy of suicide, and while he's certainly willing to resort to [[TraumaCongaLine blunt means]] to get his point across, he prefers to be as peaceful as his position will allow him.\\

* EvenEvilHasStandards: He utterly hates the Lintha family. If you know anything about them, you'd understand why.

Some nihilistic ghosts, whether out of madness, vengeance, or despair, swear themselves into the service of the Neverborn, working towards their agenda of ending all that is. The greatest of these servants are the Deathlords, the souls of the most decadent and vile Solars of the First Age. There are thirteen Deathlords, but only nine are named -- mainly so that Storytellers can make up one of the other four if they need a villain.

* OmnicidalManiac: The Deathlords all made a deal to cast creation into the Void. [[SubvertedTrope It's implied many have gotten cold feet, however.]]

* AffablyEvil: In 3E, his courteous and peaceful mask really ''isn't'', he genuinely wants to be a good ruler and to win over Creation to his side through diplomacy. He is quite willing to turn nasty to ensure negotiation through superior firepower, however.

* PunchClockVillain: Played with. He's a genuine megalomaniac, but it's clear the OmnicidalManiac deal he made is something he's come to regret, and so he makes token effort to make Creation more deathly while not actually killing it.

* MisterSeahorse: Her Two-Faced Bride incarnation typically manifests as a pregnant man or boy.

* OfficialCouple: She's romantically involved with Gaia.

* OtherworldlyAndSexuallyAmbiguous: She appears as male and female equally often, and will incorporate aspects of both when she wants to.

* BladeOnAStick

* MyMasterRightOrWrong: Remained [[UndyingLoyalty undyingly loyal]] to Who Hold In Thrall and where genocided for it.

* ElementalEmbodiment: Elementals of the five in-universe elements -- water, fire, wood, air and earth -- have a prominent presence in Creation; a few are mindless, but they're generally spirits in the same vein as the gods, using a lot of the same Charms and abilities. They originated from the essence of the five immense, primordial elementals shattered during the between the gods and the Primordials, and can embody an element's qualities as much as its nature -- a water elemental may be formed from or control water, or it may instead embody water's tendency to be formless and take the shapes given to it by the world, while a fire elemental may embody fire's power to purify and transform. Because they're naturally material in Creation, and come from the raw elements in the normal world, elementals are considered bumpkins by the actual gods. However, they do enjoy a bit more latitude from the Immaculate Order, because elementals are ''supposed'' to be material, unlike gods, as a part of their assigned jobs. So long as they do not solicit worship from mortals of course.

* BareYourMidriff: Her dress leaves her midriff exposed.

* DeathBySex: The last survivor of the battle has the chance to sleep with her, but doing so risks becoming a behemoth.