General Exalted Discussion V: Our Armies are Pants

[Turalisj]

They can build artifacts that let them simulate shapeshifting.

Why would they want to bother with fate? The spiders are their biggest fans. Hence stunts.

They have that one charm in glories of the most high that let them emulate primordials.

They can write poetry so epic, you and your entire extended family will want to worship them for generations.

Don't know what a Hannya is.

[Tavar]

Hannya are from the scroll of Errata, and are the new super predators the wyld is birthing. They seem to be making life hard for the Fae, currently.

Also, I'd point out that I don't think anything stops a Solar from being very depressive; only Abyssal are so limited. At least, I think.

[Turalisj]

Solar can be depressed, just like they can have every other mental disorder out there.

[Xefas]

Also, here is my submission for the new iconic Solar circle.

Spoiler

Show

Amuricah, **** yeah! They dispense Amuricen justice from the back of their Indomitable-Class Pickup. Watch out, Fair Folk. It's Manifest Destiny time, and the Faraway is their new California.

[Turalisj]

Why is Theodore Roosevelt not in there?

Oh, right, he's far too badass to be a simple exalt.

[Qaera]

Nocturnals are not canon, so they can't really factor into this. As for the others... you're confusing methods of doing things/states of being with actually doing things.

Yes, I wrote up a long post describing this and closed the tab trying to get back, so I'm not going to bother. Basically, [acknowledgement of Nocturnal vs Canon (Zeal, VAP, SMA, unexpected attacks, Panther's backstory]. [Long comparison of solar way of doing things with splat way of doing things.]

You should have given them two scoops. Of raisins

I had to guess what ol' Sol's favorite food was, in a game I'm playing in. Two scoops of raisins, yup.

They can build artifacts that let them simulate shapeshifting.

Why would they want to bother with fate? The spiders are their biggest fans. Hence stunts.

They have that one charm in glories of the most high that let them emulate primordials.

They can write poetry so epic, you and your entire extended family will want to worship them for generations.

Don't know what a Hannya is.

Yes, because simulating is more awesome than eating/bedding/stalking your enemy and becoming him.
Hey, M_r_l_ changing the basic way the world works is awesome. More awesome than glowing at it, yes.
Yeah, PPE is a great example of a high essence charm. Something original? Nope! Eclipse it up, but this time, with Primordials! Thanks, Glories.
Yes, but Abyssals automatically win when it's emo poetry. So it's hard to beat that.

Hannya are from the scroll of Errata, and are the new super predators the wyld is birthing. They seem to be making life hard for the Fae, currently.

Also, I'd point out that I don't think anything stops a Solar from being very depressive; only Abyssal are so limited. At least, I think.

Hannya are why the Raksha are Not So Infinite. Which is good.

~ ♅

[Tavar]

Yes, I wrote up a long post describing this and closed the tab trying to get back, so I'm not going to bother. Basically, [acknowledgement of Nocturnal vs Canon (Zeal, VAP, SMA, unexpected attacks, Panther's backstory]. [Long comparison of solar way of doing things with splat way of doing things.]

Well, unless you put up your side of the argument I can hardly debate the point, except for one thing. Solars can't do a task in whatever way they please; to do so would allow them to encompass every theme. But, they can do any task, and do it better than anyone else.

Or, that's what the setting's fluff describes.

Also, considering that the two things you mentioned that Nocturnals can do are things that are specifically called out as impossible in the setting... Yeah.

[Kris Strife]

Also, here is my submission for the new iconic Solar circle.

Spoiler

Show

Amuricah, **** yeah! They dispense Amuricen justice from the back of their Indomitable-Class Pickup. Watch out, Fair Folk. It's Manifest Destiny time, and the Faraway is their new California.

Who's the guy in the middle?

[Xefas]

Who's the guy in the middle?

That's Carl Sagan. You may know him from such works as inspiring an entire generation of scientists world-wide in every field of study with his exceptional wit and intelligence, but also a glowing personality and masterful writing skills. He wrote the book Cosmos, which is awesome, and you should totally read it.

[Turalisj]

Unless I'm mistaken, that's Carl Sagan.

Edit: dam fate ninja....

Editedit: he's also the guy behind SETI, and gave the speech on how earth is nothing more than a pale blue speck.

[Feriority]

Pale blue dot, I think it was.

Sagan was too... well, affable to be a Twilight. Not nearly enough mad in his science, not enough reach exceeding grasp. He was a brilliant educator, to be sure, but just too stable for that to fit.

Perhaps Tesla has a place in this magnificent circle?

[Kris Strife]

I've heard of Carl Sagan, just didn't know what he looked like.

[Xefas]

Sagan was too... well, affable to be a Twilight. Not nearly enough mad in his science, not enough reach exceeding grasp. He was a brilliant educator, to be sure, but just too stable for that to fit.

Perhaps Tesla has a place in this magnificent circle?

I think he could still get the Exaltation. I imagine the crazy can come afterward for some Twilights.

And Tesla was Austrian (IIRC).

Someone should do a UK Abyssal circle to be their arch-nemeses.

[gareth]

I've come up with an interesting idea for an Exalted game, but I don't have nearly enough experience to be an ST. So someone else might be able to use it.

When you're recruiting for the game, insist that all the PCs are enlightened mortals. They can only have Martial Arts, Sorcery, and Necromancy charms. They must have become enlightened through their own efforts, not through inheritance or the intervention of other people. Finally, their enlightenment must have been intentional - they must have had some understanding that they would gain supernatural powers from whatever it was they were doing.

At the start of the game all the characters are given an adamant artifact and are tested to see if they can attune to it and get the magical material bonus. This is doubly impossible, since enlightened mortals can't get those bonuses, and nothing in Creation can get a bonus from adamant anyway. But it works. The PCs are actually exalts, just like all the thousands of enlightened mortals in Creation that fit the restrictions. Their god was killed by the primordials and its name forgotten. The original exalts killed each other off, but the exaltations survived, empowering mortals who seek enlightenment.

But there's an obvious problem: why are their powers so feeble? They should be Celestial exalts with Creation-shattering charms, not a bunch of Essence 3 party tricks. What are the true powers of the Transcendent Exalted? Why were they lost? And how can they be restored? All of these questions will be answered in a epic adventure.

[Turalisj]

I think he could still get the Exaltation. I imagine the crazy can come afterward for some Twilights.

And Tesla was Austrian (IIRC).

Someone should do a UK Abyssal circle to be their arch-nemeses.

Ukrainian, actually.

And Michael Jackson needs to be replaced with Theodore Roosevelt. That guy has the whole Zenith personality down, and the physical/mental endurance.

Hell, the guy even has his own anima banner; a giant bull moose.

[Edge]

Someone should do a UK Abyssal circle to be their arch-nemeses.

I resent this. We're more likely to be Bronze Faction Sidereals.

But link me to somewhere where I can download the caste marks, and I'll get a British Infernal Circle done.

[DragonSinged]

You have to slash, instead. None of that bullcrap you see in fiction where you they cut just by gently sweeping the blade. You have to push hard when the blade makes contact. With minimal penetration capability, you have less targeting options. The carotid and femoral arteries are the best options, although you need to make diagonal cuts to prevent them for closing up. Tendons are another decent choice, and if you can get to the ground, the achilles tendon is an excellent target.

You have to push hard with a razor? I don't know what kind of cruddy, dull razors you're using, but the straight-razor I use for shaving with doesn't need any kind of pressure at all. If I twitch wrong with that I get cut, and it's not even made of a magical material.

Occam's Orichalcum Razor kind of sounds like something that should be in Exalted, though. A charm or artifact or something.


Also, regarding Limit Break: It doesn't seem odd to you all that despite how long the Solars were around for, and the fact that at least some of them must have been decent people.. How to put this.

Solar Cherum is the nicest damned guy. He is a paramount of Valor and Compassion. Everyone who knows him says he's just so nice. He loves children and animals, and he even sometimes visits villages of mortals just to make their lives a little bit better. However, Cherum has the Berserk Rage Valor flaw. Every ten or so times someone insults him, he blacks out, and when he wakes up, he's covered in blood and surrounded by the piled-up bodies of the villagers he is so attached to.

Worse, it doesn't really say in the description of Limit Break that the Solar necessarily blacks out, so it's entirely possible that he remembers the whole thing, and how good it felt (unless he was suppressing it, which I don't really know why he wouldn't be.)

This doesn't seem strange to anyone? This doesn't seem strange to Cherum, who would loathe what he's done? I mean, I know Limit Break isn't something that happens all the time, but in some instances (like Berserk Rage) it can come up fairly frequently (though I suppose in the first age, insulting a Solar might not happen that often).


It just seems odd to me that, yes, even though "Solars are crazy", no-one really thought, "Hey, something seems weird here."

[Lord Raziere]

again....the Solars...are not long term or big picture thinkers, and there were probably all separated all doing their own thing even during the First Age.

I mean it is stated outright in the Sidereals book that only the fate ninjas really noticed anything since they were the 100 guys running back and forth across Creation meeting different Solars everywhere and noticing "hey...thats strange"

and as for Cherum, he has just committed a lot of manslaughter over an insult, they aren't going to be asking anything about it or whatever, they are going to kill Cherum because he just slaughtered a village for no reason, they think he's gone mass murderer on them and that he needs to executed before he kills more people.

again, the leaps of logic that it would to go from "Solars are acting kinda strange" to "Great Curse" are very big, in fact lets have a demonstration of how big a leap:
:mike: :Solars are acting strange! Clearly this means that they are under a great and powerful curse inflicted upon them by Neverborn at the instant of their death and all of Creation is in danger!

Even if people noticed something was strange- they are Solars, immortal people with godly power, the First Age was kinda the first time they had
Solars, they had no idea what the power and longevity of being a Solar could do to a person, for all they knew, the "acting strange" was just a little accumulation of eccentricaccy as the ages turned to deal with the stress of living so long, again thousand more plausible explanations could come up with besides "Great Curse".

that said, most people only noticed that one Solar was acting strange, not the whole pack and therefore easily explained away as some kind of mental condition from time spent living an immortal life or something, I mean what, you think everyone in the First Age was going around constantly observing the Solars everyday of their lives or something? 300 Solars means they are distant monarchs, ruling from their palace while people advise and help them rule and improve everything, and everyone knows monarchs have some weirdness to them, not being around the common people all the time.

[TheCountAlucard]

Solar Cherum is the nicest damned guy. He is a paramount of Valor and Compassion.

This is, by default, going to make him less of a nice guy, because now, he's almost always going to have to spend Willpower to ignore insults, dares, and challenges.

Every ten or so times someone insults him...

Actually, it's gonna happen more often than that; considering this guy is rolling five dice every time it happens, it'd be surprising if he makes it to the fourth time.

he blacks out

No, he doesn't. A Solar in Limit Break remembers the experience; however, they're forced to mentally justify it such their actions made perfect sense at the time. CLEARLY that village of skipping children and puppies needed to be killed.

Worse, it doesn't really say in the description of Limit Break that the Solar necessarily blacks out...

That's because they don't.

...so it's entirely possible that he remembers the whole thing, and how good it felt (unless he was suppressing it, which I don't really know why he wouldn't be).

There are several reasons to not suppress your Limit Break; regaining Willpower is one of them.

This doesn't seem strange to Cherum, who would loathe what he's done?

He may not like what he did, but in his mind, he's already made the decision that it was a perfectly rational thing to do.

It just seems odd to me that, yes, even though "Solars are crazy", no-one really thought, "Hey, something seems weird here."

That's the thing - some did. Unfortunately, a few of the ones that did believed it to be that there were akuma among the ranks of the Exalted host. A few of the others kept silent about it because no one else seemed to notice. The rest became the Bronze Faction.

[Turalisj]

No, he doesn't. A Solar in Limit Break remembers the experience; however, they're forced to mentally justify it such their actions made perfect sense at the time. CLEARLY that village of skipping children and puppies needed to be killed.

See, this is why my Solar hasn't been very active in one game... Last time he went into Limit Break, he started a fight with a Slayer Caste and ended up getting the Hunt called into Nexus, exposed as a Solar, and lost his job.

And he smashed in half of the ground floor of the Guild Headquarters.

[Qaera]

Well, unless you put up your side of the argument I can hardly debate the point, except for one thing. Solars can't do a task in whatever way they please; to do so would allow them to encompass every theme. But, they can do any task, and do it better than anyone else.

Or, that's what the setting's fluff describes.

Also, considering that the two things you mentioned that Nocturnals can do are things that are specifically called out as impossible in the setting... Yeah.

Yes, the fluff is fantastic, and if it directly correlated to the crunch, that would be awesome. The fluff says the Unconquered Sun is the Paragon of Virtue, but he has to suppress at least one of them to do anything. The fluff says the Lunars are a force to be reckoned with in their own right, but the crunch makes them Silver Solars with Shapeshifting. The fluff says the Sidereals are Agents of Fate, but they require a high enough Salary to take a week off of the Job. The fluff says that Solars can do anything better than anyone, but they got taken out by some accountants and their puppies. The fluff says Solars can do anything better, they can achieve a better result sooner, more efficiently, and cooler, but they either have to develop a combo to do something similar to one charm from another splat. The fluff says the Solars can do anything better, but it took a lot of Reincarnations to take down even one Primordial.

Re: Nocturnals- time travel and resurrection being kind of vague. They can manipulate a Manvantara for an effect similar to time travel, but not really. And instead of being young until 5000 years when you die, they have a normal lifespan, then when they "die", they get Renewed back to the age they Exalted at, so not really either.

And I thought Solars were made to do the impossible?

I think he could still get the Exaltation. I imagine the crazy can come afterward for some Twilights.

And Tesla was Austrian (IIRC).

Someone should do a UK Abyssal circle to be their arch-nemeses.

Yeah, but who does the UK have? Not Carl Sagan, that's who!

~ ♅

[Edge]

Yeah, but who does the UK have? Not Carl Sagan, that's who!

~ ♅

*cough*

Craft-focused Twilight, I do believe.

[Qaera]

He looks like a bampf, but I've never heard of him. It is far too easy to make a Twilight who's craft-based, please try again with... Medicine? Maybe dental?

~ ♅

[SurlySeraph]

I think he could still get the Exaltation. I imagine the crazy can come afterward for some Twilights.

And Tesla was Austrian (IIRC).

Someone should do a UK Abyssal circle to be their arch-nemeses.

What about Russian? I'm thinking Ivan the Terrible as a Dusk, Rasputin as a Midnight, Mikhail Kalishnikov as a Daybreak, Vasily Zaytsev as a Day, and Peter the Great as a Moonshadow.

[Edge]

Florence Nightingale for a Medicine Twilight? Aleister Crowley as an Occult/Sorcery/Demonology Twilight? Though he's probably more of a Defiler...

[Turalisj]

They have:
Sir Christopher Lee (Eclipse or Zenith)- If I need to tell you who this is, there is no hope for you

[Edge]

We also have the greatest Dawn caste ever.

[Qaera]

Florence Nightingale for a Medicine Twilight? Aleister Crowley as an Occult/Sorcery/Demonology Twilight? Though he's probably more of a Defiler...

-never heard of her, but she looks legitimate.
-I already knew about Crowley and he seemed more like a mortal thaumaturge than anything.

~ ♅

[Turalisj]

I'm thinking we should be wary a bit of talking about national heroes....

Anyway, General Grant.

edit:

Wait, you've never heard of Florence Nightingale?

[DeadManSleeping]

He looks like a bampf, but I've never heard of him. It is far too easy to make a Twilight who's craft-based, please try again with... Medicine? Maybe dental?

~ ♅

"CRONUS RESENTS YOUR APPROPRIATION OF THE SYMBOL OF THE PROGENY OF CRONUS. THE PROGENY OF CRONUS WOULD NEVER INCORRECTLY APPLY THE PHRASE "B.A.M.F.". YOU DISHONOR CRONUS AND THE LINEAGE OF CRONUS."

Also, I play a craft-based Twilight in a RAW game. It is NOT easy.