General Exalted Discussion Thread VII: Playground Eternal Essence

[Hiro Protagonest]

Lunars sound good.

In the D&D Demotivators thread, something pretty much secured my love of dragonblooded. Although now's it's wavering since they're paranoid of solars and lunars, the two main good guy types.

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I'm not sure why he chose a picture with Sokka in it.

[Volthawk]

Lunars sound good.

In the D&D Demotivators thread, something pretty much secured my love of dragonblooded. Although now's it's wavering since they're paranoid of solars and lunars, the two main good guy types.

Spoiler

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I'm not sure why he chose a picture with Sokka in it.

Eh, to be fair their paranoia is justified. Solars can be do some scary, crazy, dangerous stuff. And they're not assured to be good guys. Like I said, they're the wild card. The lack of an organisation means they'll be doing there own thing - and what that goal is and how they go about may not be good for the area around them.

Really, every type of Exalt, supernatural being and organisation has their good and bad sides.

[aetherialDawn]

Lunars sound good.

In the D&D Demotivators thread, something pretty much secured my love of dragonblooded. Although now's it's wavering since they're paranoid of solars and lunars, the two main good guy types.

Spoiler

Show

I'm not sure why he chose a picture with Sokka in it.

Well, Solars and Lunars are the Good Guys, but they don't have to be good. Lunars, when they consider a mortal experiment to have failed, will generally destroy them to the last man, woman, and child unless they have a further purpose in mind. Solars have a very, very easy time going power-mad.

Dragon-blooded can vary quite a bit, and have errata helping them. Also, their First Excellency is kind of astoundingly good, even if their dice caps are lackluster.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Eh, to be fair their paranoia is justified. Solars can be do some scary, crazy, dangerous stuff. And they're not assured to be good guys. Like I said, they're the wild card. The lack of an organisation means they'll be doing there own thing - and what that goal is and how they go about may not be good for the area around them.

Really, every type of Exalt, supernatural being and organisation has their good and bad sides.

Yeah, I figured solars were the "humans" of this game. Dragonblooded sound like a sorcerous version of the Proud Warrior Race.

[Drascin]

Lunars sound good.

In the D&D Demotivators thread, something pretty much secured my love of dragonblooded. Although now's it's wavering since they're paranoid of solars and lunars, the two main good guy types.

Take into account, "Solars and Lunars are the good guys" is very much not actually true. There's good Lunars and bad Lunars (you can ask someone about Ma-Ha-Suchi or Raksi), and there's good Solars and bad Solars (or at least so I'm given to understand. Never actually met a good Solar, myself ). Same goes for most other splats.

Seriously, please don't fall into the trap of "those who are on the side of the Solars=good, those who aren't=bad". We have enough with the fact that a few of the writers did in a couple books .

[Xefas]

Yeah, I figured solars were the "humans" of this game. Dragonblooded sound like a sorcerous version of the Proud Warrior Race.

In the Second Age,

Dragonblooded are decadent greedy elitist pricks who will fight to the death to defend the innocent.

Sidereals are corrupt conniving treacherous bastards who work themselves to the bone day and night to protect the fabric of Creation and all who live within.

Lunars are psychotic rabid monstrous perverts who selflessly defend the world against horrors the likes of which would drive lesser men to madness at the very sight of.

Alchemicals are oppressive totalitarian robots who will ensure that every honest man lives as good a life as they can provide.

Solars are jerks.

Abyssals are emo.

Infernals are great.

The end.

[Lord Raziere]

Yeah, I figured solars were the "humans" of this game. Dragonblooded sound like a sorcerous version of the Proud Warrior Race.

Sorcery is different.

the Dragon-Blooded are yeah, very militaristic and teamwork and elemental power-blasting, but Sorcery is something different. for one thing, Sorcery takes a while to cast and isn't a good option while in combat. use Sorcery for other stuff. like summoning, transportation, utility and such, things that won't get you attack in the middle of chaotic combat and get your spell interrupted, thus causing an explosion- I'm pretty sure thats what happens when you interrupt a sorcerer mid-cast but I'm not sure.
But generally, sorcery in the middle of battle: NOT a good idea.

[Mr.Bookworm]

I can't get the errata since my iPad only downloads apps and the laptop doesn't have much memory. T.T

What are all the different exalted types like? I don't want to buy all the splats since I'm saving up for a netbook, so I want to know which ones I want now and which ones I'll buy after I get all the D&D books (which'll take a while (understatement of the year)).

Let's see.

Sarcastic condensed (you're thinking, no really?, but yes really) version of Exalted history (this probably isn't all that helpful, but once I got to the Shogunate, I figured I might as well finish it):

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Once there were a bunch of gigantic jackasses, and they were called the Primordials. They were big and powerful and kicked everyone in the seat of the pants, and they made the world, which they called Creation. The Primordials lived int the Wyld, which is pretty much everything that could possibly be (your standard realm of raw chaos), and making Creation pissed off everyone else, but the Primordials had the biggest guns, so screw them. They also made the Games of Divinity, which is like Crack: the Board Game.

After making the world, the Primordials made the gods, the most powerful of which were the Incarnae (the Unconquered Sun, Luna, and the Five Maidens). The Primordials told the Incarnae, "Hey, we're going to go off and play our super-fun games, so run the world for us and clean up after our messes when we come down here and wreck **** every now and then, kthxbai."

So eventually, the Incarnae got sick of being cosmic janitors with minimum wage. So they were like "Hey, let's kill all of those *******s and take their stuff!" But they couldn't just walk up and murder them in their faces, because the Primordials had made them pinky-promise not to do anything. So they went to Autochthon, a Primordial who was in a surprising twist of fate not that much of a jackass, and enlisted his help, because he was basically the youngest kid that all of the other Primordials kicked dirt in the face of. Luna also went and seduced Gaia, another Primordial, and they fell in love and had lots of freaky cosmic sex.

They eventually decided to use humanity for their champions, because humanity kind of sucked compared to almost everyone else in the setting, and the Primordials hadn't bothered making them pinky-promise not to hurt them.

Autochthon then made the Exaltations, 700 of the most awesome things ever, which are basically these things that attach to your soul and give you a crapload of power. He gave 300 to the Unconquered Sun, god of perfection and virtue. He gave 300 to Luna, god of change and trickery. The remaining 100 went to the Maidens because they drew the short straw. The gods then infused the Exaltations with their Essence (standard magic bull****), creating the Solars, Lunars, and Sidereals, who are generally the baddest people in any given room. Solars are the leaders and the most powerful of the Exalted. They generally don't do anything fancy, they just amp up human abilities to 11 and kick ass. Lunars are shapechangers, and are associated with animals in general. Sidereals are Fate Ninjas, and they're in charge of watching the Loom of Fate, which makes things in Creation run smoothly. All Exaltations, when their current host dies, goes out and seeks a heroic person doing something heroic, grafting itself to their soul and giving them ultimate power.

Gaia then split five of her souls into pieces and put them into the blood of humans, creating the Dragon-Blooded, or Terrestrial Exalted. They weren't as powerful as the Celestial Exalted (Solars, Lunars, Sidereals), but they made up for that by there being a hell of a lot of them and being able to use the Power of Teamwork to kill things really well. Also, funky kung-fu genetics means that you can pass down the magic supersoldier trait, so your kids can become Dragon-Blooded, so you can always make more of them and there are theoretically an unlimited number of them that could be in existence.

So the gods had a badass army, and they said "Go forth and do grievous bodily harm". So the Exalted did. There was a gigantic war lasting a literally unknowable amount of time (because both sides starting using time-warping weapons), and then the Exalted did something really surprising. They actually killed a Primordial. Long story short on Primordials: They are literally impossible to kill. But the Exalted did it anyway, because **** yeah Exalted.

This created the Neverborn, giant ghost Primordials too big to pass through the cycle of reincarnation, who are always asleep and in constant agony. This also created the Underworld, a really gloomy and dark mirror of Creation where a bunch of ghosts and other stuff live. This also created/revealed (it's not that clear) Oblivion, which is the cessation of all existence. The Neverborn want to murder everything that exists so they can actually die.

Oh, yes, and they laid a death curse, called the Great Curse, on the Exalted, basically screwing up everything for everyone forever (way to go, Neverborn). The Great Curse amplifies aspects of their nature that were already there. Solars act out some facet of heroic virtue taken to an extreme (think Achilles in his tent or Herakles murdering his family), Lunars act more like animals, and Sidereals make really bad plans and execute them with extreme competence. None of the Exalted are aware of the Great Curse.

After the Exalted killed several Primordials, the other Primordials went "ho****" and surrendered. The Exalted turned their King (a giant city) inside out, placed his sister (an endless desert) around him, extracted pinky-promises to not escape, and chucked all of the other Primordials in there. These Primordials are now called the Yozis.

So the Incarnae decided to leave, and go play the Games. They left the world in the hands of the Exalted, specifically the Solars, and told them to have fun and don't mess up the place too bad. This resulted in the First Age, when the Solars ruled everything, and lots of stuff was awesome. So everything was semi-fine for a while, but then the aforementioned Great Curse started creeping in, and everyone started acting like *******s.

Autochthon, still kind of sore over the whole "helped murdered his family" thing and afraid of the Solars, wanted to leave Creation. Autochthon has robo-cancer, which is eating him alive, and he decided to go to sleep and see what the world looks like in a millenia or two. So he grabbed a bunch of mortals, and left Creation, leaving the Seal of Eight Divinities in place so that no one can get to him.

So, a lot of people are now insane jackasses in one way or another. So the Sidereals are all Fate Ninja, and get together to see what they can do. They cast the Great Prophecy. They see two possible futures for Creation. One where they succeed in advising the Solars back onto the path of righteousness, which will lead to an eternal golden age. If they fail, though, everything ever dies. The other is one where the Sidereals murder the Solars. This is guaranteed to succeed, but it means the fall of the golden age.

The Sidereals fight with words and swords, but most choose the Bronze faction, and they eventually put their plan into action. They recruit the Dragon-Blooded, and then when all of the Solars are gathered for a feast, they initiate the Usurpation.

There is an enormous battle, and by the end of it, all but a few Solars are dead. The Lunars all either die or run to the edges of Creation. The Sidereals capture all of the Solar Exaltations going around, and stick them in the Jade Prison, which they bury on an island and make a treasure map with a giant red X where it is and not really, nobody but a very few people have any idea where they kept the damned thing. The Sidereals also basically ran a DDoS attack on the Loom of Fate. This shattered a constellation in the sky and kind of broke reality a little. Now nobody can remember the Sidereals for long, and everyone forgot direct memories of their role in the Usurpation.

Anyway, remember the Neverborn? So a bunch of angry Solar ghosts come floating down into the Underworld, and the Neverborn pick 13 of them and offer them power in exchange for servitude (i.e. destroying the world). They accepted, and that's how we got the Deathlords, rulers of the Underworld.

So back in Creation, things have gone downhill, fast. There are a bunch of warring states of Dragon-Blooded, all picking over the corpse of the First Age. The Sidereals create a religion called the Immaculate Philosophy, which basically says that the Celestial Exalted were all demon-possessed monsters and that the Dragon-Blooded are awesome and they should totally rule the world.

So it goes on like this for a while, and then the Deathlords show up. One of them releases a plague called the Great Contagion, which killed 90% of all life in Creation.

Now wind back a little bit to the Wyld. A nigh-infinite amount of beings live in the Wyld, called raksha. They are usually unshaped and without form, but a small (still millions) number of them live on the metaphysical/literal edge of Creation and have definite shape and form. One such raksha was named Balor, and he was an ishvara (rakshas are basically sentient stories, and ishvara are raksha so powerful that everyone around them is drawn into their story). So another Deathlord (who are chronic back-stabbers and in-fighters) went and said, "Hey, Creation is pretty weak, why don't you come in and destroy it all?"

So the Balorian Crusade comes in, and everyone in the world collectively craps their pants. They destroy a bunch of the world, sending it back into the Wyld, and there's not a lot anybody can do to stop them.

Enter a nameless young Dragon-Blooded officer. She enters the Imperial Manse, a magic fortress thing, and gets it running again. Said Manse is also connected to a network of magic-nukes. She blows the crap out of the Fair Folk, who retreat into the Wyld. She then declares herself the Scarlet Empress, and lets her nukes do the diplomacy for her.

So the Sidereals know when they've got a chance to stick their foot in, and they approach her. She makes the Immaculate Philosophy the state religion and enforces it, and the Sidereals support her in exchange.

So, she rules for a long time, and the world sort of stabilizes. One part of Creation is under the Scarlet Empress' control and there are a bunch of other countries of various power and size. It's not very pleasant, but it's a living.

Now back way up again. Remember the Yozis? They've been steaming their heels in a jail cell for a long time, and they see a shot to escape. They approach the Deathlords, and make a deal. They give the Deathlords equipment to capture Exaltations, the Deathlords go to the Jade Prison, and they split whatever they get. So the Deathlords do that, they crack the Jade Prison open, and they manage to capture 150 of the escaping Exaltations. The Deathlords get 100 and the Yozis get 50, per their agreement.

The Deathlords turn their Exaltations into Abyssals, which is done by basically just flipping the input switch from living magic to dead magic. They are really good at killing things, and to become an Abyssal, you have to agree to destroy the world while you're dying.

The Yozis turn their Exaltations into Infernals. This is a lot trickier than Abyssals, as they basically make baby Primordials out of them (probably not intentionally). Someone with an Infernal Exaltation can access and use the magic of Yozis. Infernals are made with a Faustian bargain type deal, and to become an Infernal, you have to have failed at some heroic moment of your life.

So anyway, there are now 150 extremely dangerous enemies of Creation on the loose, but the Solars are back, too, even if a lot of people hate them.

Then the Scarlet Empress disappears, and a short time after that is when the timeline stops.

Basic breakdown, because holy crap wordswordswordswordswords.

Solars: The leaders. They're the most powerful, and their magic is usually about amping up human abilities to insane levels. They are also the new kids on the block, since they've almost all been gone for a long time.

Lunars: The sidekicks (*ducks*). "Lancer" would be more accurate, but I don't know if you read TV Tropes and I try to avoid using tropes in conversation. Lunars kind of suffer from a crisis of fluff, in that they don't have a clear thematic direction. Anyway, Lunars are shapechangers, are associated with animals, and need silver tattoos to avoid going insane and turning into a chimera, a monstrous Lunar. They're mostly building societies well away from the Scarlet Empire.

Sidereals: The advisers/mentors/spymasters/ninjas. Suffer from the exact opposite problem of Lunars. They have mostly awesome fluff, the crunch is just bollocks. They live in Heaven and generally try to keep everything everywhere running smoothly.

Dragon-Blooded: The footsoldiers of the Exalted. Have elemental (Wood, Water, Fire, Air, Earth in Exalted) themes. Current masters of the world. They get a lot of magic that emphasizes teamwork and unity. A Celestial will curbstomp a Terrestrial solo, but Terrestrials are the nastiest things ever when working in a group.

Abyssals: They're stuck working for the Deathlords. They're one of the two "villain" splats, but Exalted tries to emphasize your ability to flip off your master and kick them in the balls (although this is kind of hard for Abyssals to do, as their very existence kills things, and the Deathlords have some control measures in place). Abyssals can actually "redeem" themselves and become Solars, which is great because the Neverborn have removed the Great Curse from them and can't put it back on. Their magic is basically Solar stuff painted black, and is usually better at killing stuff.

Infernals: The other of the two "villain" splats, stuck working for the Yozis. Again, you can kick the Yozis in the balls and run away, and unlike with the Abyssals, there's pretty much nothing stopping you from doing this. They're the rock stars of Hell, basically. They get lots of cool transformative magic, and again, are basically baby Primordials.

Alchemicals: I didn't mention this up above, but Autochthon is still floating around away from Creation. No one ever woke him up, but the descendants of the humans are still alive inside of him, forming the Eight Nations. They're basically communists. Before he went asleep, Autochthon gave them the stuff needed to make Alchemical Exalted, who are semi-robots who use magitek. The Alchemicals serve the state, first and foremost. The default state of Autochthon is that they haven't broken through the Seal yet, but it's a possibility for it to happen.

[Hiro Protagonest]

In the Second Age,

Dragonblooded are decadent greedy elitist pricks who will fight to the death to defend the innocent.

Sidereals are corrupt conniving treacherous bastards who work themselves to the bone day and night to protect the fabric of Creation and all who live within.

Lunars are psychotic rabid monstrous perverts who selflessly defend the world against horrors the likes of which would drive lesser men to madness at the very sight of.

Alchemicals are oppressive totalitarian robots who will ensure that every honest man lives as good a life as they can provide.

Solars are jerks.

Abyssals are emo.

Infernals are great.

The end.

Very gray in alignment.

Sorcery is different.

the Dragon-Blooded are yeah, very militaristic and teamwork and elemental power-blasting, but Sorcery is something different. for one thing, Sorcery takes a while to cast and isn't a good option while in combat. use Sorcery for other stuff. like summoning, transportation, utility and such, things that won't get you attack in the middle of chaotic combat and get your spell interrupted, thus causing an explosion- I'm pretty sure thats what happens when you interrupt a sorcerer mid-cast but I'm not sure.
But generally, sorcery in the middle of battle: NOT a good idea.

I meant magical.

@Mr. Bookworm: Don't know if I've been on TVTropes!? I've braved the deepest depths of that site to gain ranks in knowledge (tropes)!

[Drascin]

This is a pretty good summation of the Exalted backstory as well.

[Lord Raziere]

I meant magical.

yea basically that, but close to magical elemental super soldiers

Solars are magical super-kings

Lunars are shapeshifter-Stewards

Sidereals are magical spy-advisers

Abyssals are magical killing machines

Alchemicals are magical robots

Infernals are magical Cthulhu-humans

[Lix Lorn]

In the Second Age,

Dragonblooded are decadent greedy elitist pricks who will fight to the death to defend the innocent.

Sidereals are corrupt conniving treacherous bastards who work themselves to the bone day and night to protect the fabric of Creation and all who live within.

Lunars are psychotic rabid monstrous perverts who selflessly defend the world against horrors the likes of which would drive lesser men to madness at the very sight of.

Alchemicals are oppressive totalitarian robots who will ensure that every honest man lives as good a life as they can provide.

Solars are jerks.

Abyssals are emo.

Infernals are great.

The end.

If it weren't for your... slight bias on the solaroids, that would be a wonderful description.

[Cyborg Mage]

@Mr. Bookworm: Don't know if I've been on TVTropes!? I've braved the deepest depths of that site to gain ranks in knowledge (tropes)!

Get that D&D out of here. You've got a Lore specialty, not a whole, independent ability. This is exactly why we made individual craft abilities into specialties. That was an awful system.

[Lord Raziere]

If it weren't for your... slight bias on the solaroids, that would be a wonderful description.

how about:

Solars are mind-washing, arrogant, power-mad, all powerful dictators who want to bring utopia to everyone and solve all problems.

Abyssals are sociopathic, nihilistic, destructive, melancholy, nostalgic, tragic killing machines who just want to be redeemed or rebel against their crazy masters.

Infernals are alien, weird, vengeance-obsessed, insane failures who rebel against their crazy gods and to become their own kind of crazy god.

[aetherialDawn]

how about:

Solars are mind-washing, arrogant, power-mad, all powerful dictators who want to bring utopia to everyone and solve all problems.

Abyssals are sociopathic, nihilistic, destructive, melancholy, nostalgic, tragic killing machines who just want to be redeemed or rebel against their crazy masters.

Infernals are alien, weird, vengeance-obsessed, insane failures who rebel against their crazy gods and to become their own kind of crazy god.

I think the Solar description is good.

But perhaps...
Abyssals are sociopathic, nihilistic, doom-causing, killing machines who suffer for the tragedy of their existence and have the potential to become a nicer person than anyone in the setting - if they don't destroy themselves and all they care for first.

Infernals are confusing and alien, and meant to bring Hell into Creation. But they aren't forced to tolerate their insane and spiteful masters any more than another splat, and have a variety of wondrous and interesting powers drawn from the original creators of Creation.
They have more reason and infinitely more ability to break from their masters than Abyssals, but plenty of reasons to make their own Hell rather than seek any redemption.

No matter how much the Infernal cares for the Yozis, what they can expect in return is probably either toleration or abuse. At least the Neverborn and some Deathlords appreciate Abyssals.
But at the same time: Why would you ever want to abandon Infernal powers for Solar, and why would you ever want to have Abyssal powers over Solar?

[Lord Raziere]

But at the same time: Why would you ever want to abandon Infernal powers for Solar, and why would you ever want to have Abyssal powers over Solar?

Bias alert!

warning, warning, this is where some bias comes from. Solars, Abyssals and Infernals are meant to be equally powerful, and they almost are, but people like the fact that you can create your own charm set with Infernals, basically be whoever you want with Solars without anything holding you back.

Meanwhile Abyssals are stuck with death, doom and destruction…..and no one has bothered to write anything new for them. I am for one sympathetic to the Abyssals and personally would like to do things like suck up essence from people, raise zombies, blast necrotic bolts of energy, make bonestriders, and eventually build my own ghostly kingdom using charms to rule everyone with fear and superior firepower- cause if you got the best most destructive charms, who can possibly say no to you when you want to kill them?
Fear me, world, I am Lord Raziere! Destroyer of All You Hold Dear!
but only if you displease me. and am I not more honest than a Solar? a Solar will brainwash all your freedom away. I will only make you fear me and my power, and if you do not arouse my ire, I have no problem with you...

[Gensh]

I still think I have the best summary of the setting:

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Way back when, there was the great Malfasa, King of the Primordiallands. He was lord over all he could survey, which was the whole goddamn universe, and it was a golden age for everyone that didn't hate him, except the herbivores got eaten, but that happens no matter what. Of course, there were jerks who disliked Malfasa (especially the herbivores), including the also awesome but not-so-noble Unconquered Scar, who was kind of like his Mini-Me. Well, the UCS had a plan to steal Malfasa's Reindeer Games for himself, so what he did was have his minions, Lunzi, Bonzaia, and Edtochthon to start an Exaltebeest stampede after tricking Simbaverell into standing in their path. Then, the UCS went running to Malfasa to tell him about the stampede.

Like the totally awesome king of everything he was, he dove headfirst into the Exaltebeests and started killing them like a boss, but he was ultimately too late to save Simbaverell. Continuing to be the most awesome thing that ever lived, he tried to get away from the stampede by going straight up a cliff face. He called out to the Unconquered Scar to help him. The jerk shanked him in the fingers and threw him off the goddamn cliff.

The End.

What? You thought this would have a happy ending? Simbaverell died, remember? The Unconquered Scar is now supreme ruler of the Primordiallands and spends all his time playing the Reindeer Games instead of keeping out the ghosts of that creepy Elephant Graveyard (which was his fault in the first place) or keeping the Heartless away. Eventually, there will be nothing left of the Primordiallands thanks to his goddamn reindeer crack habit.

This is the first lesson of learning about Exalted: every source is horribly biased and will outright lie about everything.

Fear me, world, I am Lord Raziere! Destroyer of All You Hold Dear!
but only if you displease me. and am I not more honest than a Solar? a Solar will brainwash all your freedom away. I will only make you fear me and my power, and if you do not arouse my ire, I have no problem with you...

Everyone kind of pitched a fit when the Empyreal Chaos did that, so good luck.

[aetherialDawn]

Bias alert!

warning, warning, this is where some bias comes from. Solars, Abyssals and Infernals are meant to be equally powerful, and they almost are, but people like the fact that you can create your own charm set with Infernals, basically be whoever you want with Solars without anything holding you back.

Meanwhile Abyssals are stuck with death, doom and destruction…..and no one has bothered to write anything new for them. I am for one sympathetic to the Abyssals and personally would like to do things like suck up essence from people, raise zombies, blast necrotic bolts of energy, make bonestriders, and eventually build my own ghostly kingdom using charms to rule everyone with fear and superior firepower- cause if you got the best most destructive charms, who can possibly say no to you when you want to kill them?
Fear me, world, I am Lord Raziere! Destroyer of All You Hold Dear!
but only if you displease me. and am I not more honest than a Solar? a Solar will brainwash all your freedom away. I will only make you fear me and my power, and if you do not arouse my ire, I have no problem with you...

A good point. What Abyssals do, they do best. It just isn't very nice.
Or, sometimes, very flexible. They can kill in any way they please and be scary, but they lack flexibility.

And actually, I'm quite enjoying my Solar character right now as well as my Infernal. An Infernal who wished to just put it all behind him might very much wish to be Solar; their charmset is much easier and much more relaxed, whereas an Infernal is constantly fighting and clashing together internally to ensure that anything useful comes out (unless you want to be a Slayer and walk around punching people in the snout to establish dominance and shouting orders. In that case, Infernal and Solar are about equal.)

Someone who wanted to enact their will upon Creation would want to be an Infernal.
Someone who wanted to defend Creation, and be happy without it being a constant challenge, would want to be a Solar.

[Drascin]

Everyone kind of pitched a fit when the Empyreal Chaos did that, so good luck.

I thought Emps was golden, not green. Green's Malfeas.

[Volthawk]

To be honest, my main reason for liking Abyssals is necromancy and necrotech. I know other Exalts can do it as well (GSP's and Ebbie's Akuma are the only ones able to get Void circle, mind, apart from the Deathlords and guys like that) but eh, I kinda feel that necrotech is their thing.

[Gensh]

I thought Emps was golden, not green. Green's Malfeas.

It's fairly vague. There are conflicting sources, but if I'm not mistaken, Ligier was the sun prior to Sol (though possibly named differently since the EC and Malfeas are technically different Primordials). Since he survived the death of Ruvelia, I'd posit that Ligier's color would remain a constant. On the other hand, it's also been stated that if someone killed Ligier, he'd respawn as a red sun for the new King Yozi, but it's debatable how much of this old information is still valid. The only reason I even know about it is because of a tangentially-related Google search pulling an old thread from the WW forums.

To be honest, my main reason for liking Abyssals is necromancy and necrotech. I know other Exalts can do it as well (GSP's and Ebbie's Akuma are the only ones able to get Void circle, mind, apart from the Deathlords and guys like that) but eh, I kinda feel that necrotech is their thing.

Actually, they can only go down to Labyrinth with Ultimate Darkness Internalization, same as Solars.

[TheCountAlucard]

To be honest, my main reason for liking Abyssals is necromancy and necrotech. I know other Exalts can do it as well (GSP's and Ebbie's Akuma are the only ones able to get Void circle, mind, apart from the Deathlords and guys like that) but eh, I kinda feel that necrotech is their thing.

Technically, there's also the option of questing for the Underworld equivalent of the Mantle of Brigid.

[Xefas]

If it weren't for your... slight bias on the solaroids, that would be a wonderful description.

How's this?

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Dragonblooded are decadent greedy elitist pricks who will fight to the death to defend the innocent.

Sidereals are corrupt conniving treacherous bastards who work themselves to the bone day and night to protect the fabric of Creation and all who live within.

Lunars are psychotic rabid monstrous perverts who selflessly defend the world against horrors the likes of which would drive lesser men to madness at the very sight of.

Alchemicals are oppressive totalitarian robots who will ensure that every honest man lives as good a life as they can provide.

Solars are powerful, uncontrollable, self-righteous forces of nature that cannot be checked or balanced. They will die as the greatest kind of hero, or live to become the worst kind of villain.

Abyssals are death incarnate that sold out Creation at their lowest moment, and suffer under a torment disproportionate to their crime, though many choose to heft their burden and make their way in the world all the same.

Infernals are an echo from a time forgotten. They are both a reminder of the mistakes of the past, and a hope for its future. They are free; free to be terrible and monstrous, and free to be glorious and noble, with bounds to neither, and a propensity for both.

[Lix Lorn]

But at the same time: Why would you ever want to abandon Infernal powers for Solar, and why would you ever want to have Abyssal powers over Solar?

Bias alert!

warning, warning, this is where some bias comes from. Solars, Abyssals and Infernals are meant to be equally powerful, and they almost are, but people like the fact that you can create your own charm set with Infernals, basically be whoever you want with Solars without anything holding you back.

Actually... he's right. Solar powers are cool, but generic. Infernal powers are DIFFERENT.
Abyssal powers are solar powers, but with all the non-killy stuff stripped away.

Also also... I made a CMA for ponies.

[Volthawk]

Actually, they can only go down to Labyrinth with Ultimate Darkness Internalization, same as Solars.

Huh, so they can. Haven't ever done a Infernal Necromancer, you see. Really only made a Swillin-focused defiler.

Technically, there's also the option of questing for the Underworld equivalent of the Mantle of Brigid.

Oh, that artefact. Never read it, just know of it from another player talking about using it. What does it do, let you learn a higher (lower, I guess would be a better word for it in necromancy) circle of necromancy?

[golentan]

Lunars sound good.

In the D&D Demotivators thread, something pretty much secured my love of dragonblooded. Although now's it's wavering since they're paranoid of solars and lunars, the two main good guy types.

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I'm not sure why he chose a picture with Sokka in it.

Hey, it's my poster! (I included sokka because it was the best quality "team picture" I could find: I would have preferred to have another bender there instead but couldn't find it).

As punishment for enjoying my poster, you shall be inflicted with... MOAR EXALTED POSTERS!

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[TheCountAlucard]

Oh, that artefact. Never read it, just know of it from another player talking about using it. What does it do, let you learn a higher (lower, I guess would be a better word for it in necromancy) circle of necromancy?

Pretty much, yeah - as a grave goods version of the ordinary Mantle, you can learn a better circle of Necromancy than you would otherwise be allowed.

@golentan: Man, it'd be awesome to have tea with Sean Connery...

[Hiro Protagonest]

Exalted posters? Well then, I have a job for you homebrewers out there!

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Make something for devil fruit powers! But there are so... many...

Of course, some of it's already been made.

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[Turalisj]

I'm pretty sure Ace would have the Celestial Martial Art- Fire Dragon Style....

As far as the Strawhat crew being in Exalted? Heroic mortals with mutations.

edit: And if you are looking for a game, check out Yu-Shan Academy linked in the front page. It's in an AU based in modern setting, but we'll start you out learning how to play.

[Story Time]

You're aiming too low![...]Become the CUTEST KITTY /EVER./

I like low power / low auspice games. I like humble wanderers that travel from town to town setting Right small Wrongs and gaining life-time favors from Mortals. I like the simple crafts-person who hammers diligently to perfect his craft and bring honor to his Home and his House for the quality of his blades. I like the itinerant artist who forsakes wealth, power, and prestige to create the most breath-stealing depictions of non-existent places.

I like the Jade-born warrior. The simple, humble, one who fights in the Endless War for the survival of his kind and the Intimacies of his fellow warriors.

I like story (!) ...not power.


Oh, and I'm still building that Primordial you made me think of.

Teh Kitteh Collar

Hi, Meschlum!

I...realize what you're trying to do here. Really, though, those words are atrocious. Someone really should call Miss Pell.

Exalted posters? Well then, I have a job for you homebrewers out there!

One Piece makes me think of Wyld Folk, not Celestial Exalts. I don't mean to discourage anyone from their view or the attempt to try, of course.