General Exalted Discussion XII: One More and Get a Free Deathlord

[Gensh]

So now that we've got a few, I'll go ahead and drop my own explanations. I just didn't want someone's explanation to color anyone's immediate gut reaction, so thanks for the spoilers, Alucard.

The first four in my list are special in that they each bring with them their own world (technically, so do Sidereals, but more on that later): the beautiful and alien Malfeas; the politicking of the Realm, Lookshy, and the various other nations; the propaganda and underground movements of Autochthonia, the early-Lovecraftian delirious wonder of the Underworld. Further, each type is interesting in that it presents a certain behavioral archetype while providing a method to rebel against it (though sadly, it's almost required for Abyssals): Infernals, even loyalists can flit between patrons; Dragonblooded make and break alliances; Alchemicals can use their power to encourage reform (for good or ill) or even go voidbringer; and Abyssals will eventually replace the Deathlords.

Dragon-Kings through Sidereals are interesting. They all have interesting histories and interesting plot hooks, but they don't bring a whole lot to the table: Dragon-Kings are effectively irrelevant to Creation at large; most spirits are confined to a region and get slapped around by common DBs; Lintha have no way up the power scale except becoming demons(?); raksha are entirely too...focused...to play all the time; Sidereals don't really belong anywhere and do a thankless job, which gets stale after a time.

Lunars...are conceptually really neat but actually pretty dull. Luna still gets my vote for Best Incarna, however.

Tyrant lizards are on the list simply because playing a game as a completely ordinary t-rex should be a thing that happens every once in a while.

Mortals score higher than godblooded because they don't draw off of anything else. Any power a mortal has is earned through blood and sweat. Godblooded currently feel more like a waiting period before playing spirits, too.

Jadeborn are...dwarves with the same sort of "broken people" theme as the Dragon-Kings. They have a connection to the Primordials and so are slightly more interesting.

See, my problem with Solars isn't that they're boring, necessarily. But they are certainly bland. Everyone else - even the generic dwarves - bring something new to the table. Solars just don't. There are no Solar stories. Even saving/becoming Sol can be done by Abyssals and Infernals. Any case of "my Solar punched out/saved/built/suplexed [thing]" can be replaced by any other type of Exalt or maybe even one of the other character types with enough effort. There has to be a more interesting way of covering the "me" theme than "bring your own awesome," because I can bring that awesome to any other character type as well.

As for Devil-Tigers, I agree with Alucard. Metaphysically, the concept is one of the most beautiful things I've seen, but at this point, they number like Chaotic Good drow rangers.


RE: Lintha and Kimbery

The Lintha were so powerful because Kimbery frequently took their greatest heroes as consorts and bore them stupidly-powerful godblooded children. Separate race or human godblood, the Lintha's continued prominence mostly rested upon consistent infusion of Primordial Essence (including from their island).