General Exalted Discussion XVIII: Lunars Time To Shine!

[Arbane]

On the offchance this hasn't already been posted:

Exalted Vs. The World of Darkness - a fangame by Holden Shearer.

An excellent resource for anybody who ever wanted to tapdance on Talley/Vykos/Hardestat/Voormas' stupid face.

Elysium. All the best-dressed monsters in the city have gathered to see and be seen. There’s a commotion outside the doors, and conversations stall as immortals tilt their heads and listen. The door opens and an unconscious ghoul falls through it. A wave of alarm ripples through the room, followed by anger and hunger.

The figure in the doorway is human, you see. Mortal. Some of them can smell the sweat on his skin, hear his heart pounding in his chest. It’s just a kid, 18, 20 tops, skinny, with a wild mop of carroty hair, standing there backlit by a street light. He’s got a gym bag. The room’s silent enough to hear a pin drop, certainly quiet enough that everyone hears him swallow and unzip the bag. Half of them could be across the room in a heartbeat to end this, but eternity’s a long time and there are, eventually, so few surprises.

He pulls off his shirt, revealing nothing very impressive, and then brings two objects out of the gym bag. The first is the saddest, ****tiest mall katana you could ever imagine. The second is a rubber horse-head mask, which he pulls on before stepping out into the gallery light.

The first vampire is just starting to laugh when the icon of a blazing sun erupts, shining gold through the rubber mask, and then the killing starts.

(Should I crosspost this to the WoD thread?)

[Lord Raziere]

I like that the Exalted Vs. WoD is there but I don't see playing it myself, to be honest. cuts out too much of what I like about Exalted- such as daiklaves and the cool esoteric martial arts- sure its silly and awesome but it comes at the cost of the things that would really make it worth it. its a solid "okay" in my book.

[Morty]

This whole thing just rubs me in the wrong way, so I haven't paid any real attention to it.

[Doran]

Does anyone have any advice for recruiting players to Exalted for a real-life game?

How to sell the setting and get people hooked - from experienced RPGers to people brand-new to role-playing?

I've run the introductory campaign before as a one shot, but didn't get much interest in a followup.

[Rater202]

I like that the Exalted Vs. WoD is there but I don't see playing it myself, to be honest. cuts out too much of what I like about Exalted- such as daiklaves and the cool esoteric martial arts- sure its silly and awesome but it comes at the cost of the things that would really make it worth it. its a solid "okay" in my book.

I mean, it points out that Exalts can use the "magic item" backgrounds of various supernaturals and Werewolves have daiklaves.

My opinion, having read the entire document: I want to play a game of this as a little-girl Abyssal hanging out with vampires that everyone things is an Elder/Low Gen Malkavian becuase her effective generation is too low for most people to use Dominate on and she's got the knowledge from the Whispers(Not sure if want Creepy-Cute or just Creepy.)

Beyond that, it works as a decent enough chassis if nothing else.

[Andreaz]

Does anyone have any advice for recruiting players to Exalted for a real-life game?

How to sell the setting and get people hooked - from experienced RPGers to people brand-new to role-playing?

I've run the introductory campaign before as a one shot, but didn't get much interest in a followup.

You could describe it as, say, a cinematic action game about grandiose heroes and their legendary shenanigans in a world that's been taught to hate them for millenia. And "action" extends far beyond kung fu and parkour. It includes things like heated debates, talking the king into betraying his own family and kingdom, managing a caravan, planning an ocean's 11 style heist, investigating/preventing such heist, exploring the world, turning an entire city into a raging, zealous mob with your music, teaching a tiny village to defend itself against mutated barbarians in mere days...

[lightningcat]

Does anyone have any advice for recruiting players to Exalted for a real-life game?

How to sell the setting and get people hooked - from experienced RPGers to people brand-new to role-playing?

I've run the introductory campaign before as a one shot, but didn't get much interest in a followup.

Make sure that they understand that that while the world is stacked against them, they get to break the status quo. That is the primary part of the game. You get phenomenal cosmic power, and you get to use it. Exalted is not about saving the world, it is about rebuilding it.

While the character do not need to be "evil," standard Exalted has more in common with playing a super villain game than a super hero game. The characters should be proactive instead of reactive.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Does anyone have any advice for recruiting players to Exalted for a real-life game?

How to sell the setting and get people hooked - from experienced RPGers to people brand-new to role-playing?

I've run the introductory campaign before as a one shot, but didn't get much interest in a followup.

"You were awesome. Then you Exalted and became a demigod, making you stupid awesome. The world is big and scary with a lot of pulp fantasy and Chinese mythological influence, but you and your buddies have the power to remake it while kicking the crap out anyone in your way."

(I wouldn't pitch it to new players, though, not unless you're going to start really slow with pure mortals and gradually build complexity. Even 3e is a monster to get your head around)

[Doran]

Interesting, I could try running a few more oneshots and garner interest that way.

It's a good point how new players maybe intimidated by the complex rules of 3e.

Any ideas on how to convert DND 5E players specifically - there are a LOT of them in my local area.

[Milo v3]

3e does have a sample adventure to help with new players. The Tomb of Dreams Jumpstart.

[Izzyboshi]

Does anyone have any advice for recruiting players to Exalted for a real-life game?

How to sell the setting and get people hooked - from experienced RPGers to people brand-new to role-playing?

I've run the introductory campaign before as a one shot, but didn't get much interest in a followup.

Might I recommend for inspiration :

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Exalted

Honestly Exalted is a bit of a beast to explain. I've gone with : "You play as an avatar of the Gods. People generally want to kill you because of the fantastic power you wield and the fact that your character by design is just a little bit crazy. Do you like ghost stories, Kung Fu movies, Studio Ghibli movies, folktales or giant ass robots? Man do I have the BEST system for you...

[Kobold-Bard]

Do they like WoD?

Exalted can be their epic pre-history where stuff was just plain crazy before the world learned what moderation was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdWKXvlt0do

[Lord Raziere]

hey good news.

final Dragon-Blooded download is out for those who backed, and the actual Dragon-blooded pdf is on sale on drivethrurpg.

we can now officially say we have two fully released third edition Exalts!

which means I no longer consider not having the DB book an excuse STs. I wants me to play some Dragon-Blooded at some point.

[Morty]

Building Ornn from League of Legends turned out to be surprisingly fun and doable with Lunars. With Strength, Stamina, Wits and Intelligence, he could be either a Full Moon or a No Moon. It also does feel good to build a character with high strength and stamina but low dexterity who's actually effective.

[Vhaidara]

Does anyone have any advice for recruiting players to Exalted for a real-life game?

How to sell the setting and get people hooked - from experienced RPGers to people brand-new to role-playing?

I've run the introductory campaign before as a one shot, but didn't get much interest in a followup.

I actually got a bunch of my 4e group interested recently by running an Epic level 4e module style game where you did a smash and grab jailbreak freeing a liminal from Thorns. They got to fight a Nephwrack, a nearly complete Abyssal circle, and came face to face with The Mask of Winters. Since their employer was also an Abyssal (the missing member of the aforementioned circle) they were paid not in gold, but in items, several of which were made of Soulsteel, which the liminal they rescued was able to explain (resulting in some of them deciding "I cannot use this, this is evil").

Basically, I got them interested in the world by bringing the world into another system. And now I've also got an intro to Exalted game going on (and get to play my 4e adaptation of a liminal)

As a note, if your players have a system they like, this can be really effective in general. I've also done it for Sentinels of the Multiverse and a digital card game called Eternal.

[Doran]

Running a oneshot as a DND5E epic game is a great idea - rather than introducing them to the mechanics and story all at once.

[Andreaz]

You do what works, bro. I advise against it because the system itself has an appeal d&d never will, just like d&d has an appeal exalted will never have.

Exalted's system rewards style on top of decent optimization, and has a far greater native potential to become truly cinematographic. It feels very different.

It's also an easier system than d&d.

[Doran]

I was thinking running the oneshot as 5E, then moving onto Exalted 3E for a full campaign, might be an easier two-step process.

[Vhaidara]

Exalted's system rewards style on top of decent optimization, and has a far greater native potential to become truly cinematographic. It feels very different.

Given that I've implemented stunting rules in my 4e games, and often include cinematic combats combining aspects of fighting and skill challenges, it doesn't have to be a huge leap

It's also an easier system than d&d.

Besides being 100% subjective, it's also irrelevant when the group in question is already familiar with the system being used in place of exalted for the introduction.

[Grod_The_Giant]

It's also an easier system than d&d.

Hahahahahahahahaha <gasp> hahahaha. That's funny.

I enjoyed the hell out of Exalted 3e and would love to play it more, but it's way worse than D&D, especially 5e. The basic mechanics are certainly no simpler, Decisive-vs-Withering attacks is a step or two beyond "roll to hit, roll damage," and ranges are way less intuitive than a grid. Then you add the fact that each Exalt knows-- at a minimum-- fifteen "spells." Only Charms are worse than spells, because they often get used alongside normal actions as opposed to being an action in and of themselves, and can be combined, and (in your specialty) have similar-but-not-quite-overlapping effects...

My Essence 1 Dawn Caste character was complicated enough I had to make a flowchart to keep track of what I could do when during a fight, and I'm the kind of rules nerd who spends his time arguing on gaming forums and writing homebrew systems. I've built more complicated characters in D&D 3.5, but I had to try*-- you always had the option of just rolling a Barbarian or Rogue and getting on with your day.



(*I got this close to playing a Changeling Totemist/Incarnate/Chameleon who could essentially be a completely different character every morning before the DM hit the brakes)

[Andreaz]

Hahahahahahahahaha <gasp> hahahaha. That's funny.

I have taught and narrated RPGs monthly for third parties, largely newbies, for nearly 20 years now. They grasped 3e's core functionality far, far easier than d&ds, even 4 and 5, the simpler ones.


Laugh as you will, I have half a decade of evidence teaching 3e alone, back with the manuscripts in 2015.

[Rater202]

I noticed that this was left out before: Holden Shearer also did a companion to exalted versus Wod

It's just under 100 pages: It's half optional rules, charms, and errata(miss exalted magic items? Well, they're still gone but now there are rules for making WoD magic items yourself) and Half Holden figuring out how to do Alchemicals and Infernals in ways that felt appropriate to the WoD setting.

Notably, Infernals were buried Deep under the thousand Hells and tens of thousands of years of exposure to the Yomi Kings and various Sinners has made each one a Caste of One with the influences of those Hells combining with rthat of a specific Yozi making something that's recognizable as a Green Sun Prince but has a flavor keyed into the Kindred of the East.

Alchemicals are "in this AU The Computer in Autocthonia is just Autochthon screwing with the people who woke him up, he was playig a Long Con but then sensed the Exalted returning, panicked, and cannibalized both his own resources--including souls that once bore Exaltations--and Technocracy Reosources to craft a Dozen or So Exaltations." They're based on Alchemicals from the "Modern" Shard in Exalted 2e and the default assuption is that you just kind of found one's physical vessel and now you're a cyborg on the run from the Men in Black(Technocracy)

[Gensh]

So! I'm not dead, apparently!

I've been requested to write a revision of Creation for people who wanted to keep the high-octane insanity of the setting in 2E. Exalted Pathfinder, if you will. No mechanics, though; just the setting and metaphysics.

What sort of things would be on you folks' wishlists for a return to 2E's ultra-magitech, reality-bending Creation? What sorts of things have you seen in 3E that you feel would transfer back well? I couldn't make it through the corebook, so I'm not familiar with how everything's ended up.

Mind, I'm starting with really basic things, like how the Usurpation is impossible in 2E.

[Lord Raziere]

So! I'm not dead, apparently!

I've been requested to write a revision of Creation for people who wanted to keep the high-octane insanity of the setting in 2E. Exalted Pathfinder, if you will. No mechanics, though; just the setting and metaphysics.

What sort of things would be on you folks' wishlists for a return to 2E's ultra-magitech, reality-bending Creation? What sorts of things have you seen in 3E that you feel would transfer back well? I couldn't make it through the corebook, so I'm not familiar with how everything's ended up.

Mind, I'm starting with really basic things, like how the Usurpation is impossible in 2E.

Hm.

the magitech, I'm all for. Usurpation being impossible I'm not so sure I want. Usurpation happening is kind of the pivot around most of the setting turns. your going to have to explain to me how you have a good playable setting without it.

as for wishlist of things I'd want....
-the essence cannon/handguns/fiery solar cannon
-the airships and other cool vehicles being there would be great
-the fivefold harmonic adapter could be helpful with Evocations, having Evocations fomr 3e would be great.
-power armor definitely
-warstriders are still a thing but I'm listing them anyways? perhaps more varied warstriders than singular super robots, which is how 3e is doing them?
-oh tiny gods! 3e threw those out, but tiny gods is so 2e, and if there is anywhere tiny gods should be embraced its something like this.
-I know some people had fun with the fair folk oneiromancy stuff, so perhaps that in some manner, maybe in some way more understandable?

I'm going to re-download the first age stuff, I'll have to recheck if I really want stuff from there, my memory of whats in there is not much aside from kilomote and that.....protoshinmaic vortex. which I might want or not depending on how well executed they are? do we want those? hm.

looked at it some: definitely NOT the hand of the great maker. Protoshinmaic Vortices yes, Hands of the Great Maker no. Solars can already alter reality enough with their own charms in 3e Lore trees and Sorcery.

I'd definitely keep the 3e sorcery initiation system so as to make sorcery more interesting. because even with magitech, one source of sorcery is boring.

I know some people like the enlightened mortal thing, and 3e threw that out, so some ability to teach mortals how to supernatural kung fu would probably be cool. oh! perhaps more spotlight given to those servant races the Solars designed like the Minikin or other altered race stuff?

stuff from Gunstar Autochthonia and other Shard s f the Exalted dream stuff is all good.

would I want more Dragon Kings and Mountain Folk having some more relevance? they seem cool with their own tech and stuff that are often overlooked.

2e thaumaturgy would be good to return, because I'm honestly disappointed with 3e thaumaturgy. its just bad, and I've never once used it nor do I see me ever using it, but 2e thaumaturgy looks like a logical magical art you can see someone using before they learned sorcery, and even an Exalt using when they need to after they are a sorcerer to keep a low profile or to use minimal amount of energy to solve a problem rather than just fixing it with the sorcery hammer. like bring 2e thaumaturgy back so that it feels logical for an occultist to make the transition from being a normal guy, to being a thaumaturge to get their feet wet, then becoming a sorcerer. because 2e thaumaturgy just gives that a so much better natural progression.

I'm not sure how much of the necrotech and weird yozi artifacts are going to return, but I'm going to add them in as things I'd like to have in my Exalted 2e heartbreaker anyways on the assumption that they won't. also the biotech, biotech stuff is cool.

I would not mind the new Exalts from 3e or ones much like them appearing. I would in fact love to see what magitech spin would make of them, and I personally would not see how they'd conflict with such a setting.

can't think of anything else right now.

[Gensh]

the magitech, I'm all for. Usurpation being impossible I'm not so sure I want. Usurpation happening is kind of the pivot around most of the setting turns. your going to have to explain to me how you have a good playable setting without it.

Ah, sorry! I meant how the Usurpation doesn't make sense with the way the Exalt types worked in 2E's power levels. Setting aside the mechanics, the Solars were just too _conceptually_ powerful. But that was part of the fun, so I can't just tone them down. I have to figure out a way to rewrite the Usurpation.

-the essence cannon/handguns/fiery solar cannon
-the airships and other cool vehicles being there would be great
-the fivefold harmonic adapter could be helpful with Evocations, having Evocations fomr 3e would be great.
-power armor definitely
-warstriders are still a thing but I'm listing them anyways? perhaps more varied warstriders than singular super robots, which is how 3e is doing them?
-oh tiny gods! 3e threw those out, but tiny gods is so 2e, and if there is anywhere tiny gods should be embraced its something like this.
-I know some people had fun with the fair folk oneiromancy stuff, so perhaps that in some manner, maybe in some way more understandable?

I'm definitely going to be handling the tech better in general. Since 2E grew unrestrained over such a long period, the tech levels aren't internally or even thematically consistent. I'm definitely going to expand on the uses of small gods in tech as well. I intend to go with a sort of 40k machine spirit vibe, based on that Solar revolver whose bullets have individual gods.

Protoshinmaic Vortices

They'll exist, but not in the same context. The worlding of the words is AMARANTH.

I'd definitely keep the 3e sorcery initiation system so as to make sorcery more interesting.

Mm. I'll look into it.

I know some people like the enlightened mortal thing, and 3e threw that out, so some ability to teach mortals how to supernatural kung fu would probably be cool. oh! perhaps more spotlight given to those servant races the Solars designed like the Minikin or other altered race stuff?

would I want more Dragon Kings and Mountain Folk having some more relevance? they seem cool with their own tech and stuff that are often overlooked.

Variant humans and servant races don't really do anything for the setting. I'm not going to explicitly remove them, but I'll probably ignore them unless I have a really great idea. They'll at least get mentioned in the First Age content because I really like writing Bright Shattered Ice.

Enlightened mortals will still exist, but it'll be less of a defining line for a mortal's worth. Tiger Warriors are going to exist and be somewhat prominent, but they'll be much more restricted.

I haven't decided what I want to do with the Dragon Kings because they've got a really awkward part in the story.

The Jadeborn are actually going to be an early focal point for the campaign I intend to run to test the setting changes. They'll be going back in time a little bit, so to speak. I'm intending a very Noldor feel for them.

The Lintha provide a very interesting opportunity, but I'm going to explore that later, when I get to more general Infernals content. The "sample" Yozi interactions are going to be with Cecelyne since she's the literal barrier to entry.

2e thaumaturgy would be good to return, because I'm honestly disappointed with 3e thaumaturgy. its just bad, and I've never once used it nor do I see me ever using it, but 2e thaumaturgy looks like a logical magical art you can see someone using before they learned sorcery, and even an Exalt using when they need to after they are a sorcerer to keep a low profile or to use minimal amount of energy to solve a problem rather than just fixing it with the sorcery hammer. like bring 2e thaumaturgy back so that it feels logical for an occultist to make the transition from being a normal guy, to being a thaumaturge to get their feet wet, then becoming a sorcerer. because 2e thaumaturgy just gives that a so much better natural progression.

I'm not sure how much of the necrotech and weird yozi artifacts are going to return, but I'm going to add them in as things I'd like to have in my Exalted 2e heartbreaker anyways on the assumption that they won't. also the biotech, biotech stuff is cool.

I'm going to spin up everything with a pretty subtle progression, yeah. Especially for necro- and hellish variants of tech and magic. A slow and subtle corruption is always more tragic.

I would not mind the new Exalts from 3e or ones much like them appearing. I would in fact love to see what magitech spin would make of them, and I personally would not see how they'd conflict with such a setting.

I complained about the newer Exalt types originally, from a developmental/clutter perspective. How many years is it going to be? Since I'm being pretty loose here, I don't see any reason why I couldn't include even more. Nocturnals? Sure. I couldn't get through the Manual, but if a player can explain it, why not? Astral Exalted? I don't know if we need even more stars, but fine, you can be the sole survivor. Even contradicting the established setting is not necessarily a bad thing since it allows for more metaphysical play in Creation. And I can blame it all on the Well of Udr anyway.

[Recaiden]

So! I'm not dead, apparently!

I've been requested to write a revision of Creation for people who wanted to keep the high-octane insanity of the setting in 2E. Exalted Pathfinder, if you will. No mechanics, though; just the setting and metaphysics.

What sort of things would be on you folks' wishlists for a return to 2E's ultra-magitech, reality-bending Creation? What sorts of things have you seen in 3E that you feel would transfer back well? I couldn't make it through the corebook, so I'm not familiar with how everything's ended up.

Mind, I'm starting with really basic things, like how the Usurpation is impossible in 2E.

Good 3E things:
Multiple sources of sorcery with their own little differences.
Each martial art being learnable by everyone, just even stronger in the hands of stronger exalted.
Artifacts with their own charm trees unique powers and forging a bond between Artifact and wielder.
Exigent Exalted.

Things to bring back from 2E:
Yozis being big and horrible and containing people without being people.
The outrageous nonsense of everything in the wyld being imaginary or made of Raksha.
Resonance making Abyssals have a very hard time.
Ancient ruins in exotic locales.
"mysterious geodesic aerial fortresses that spill forth a surprise invasion of impossibly fast pyramid-shaped skyships"

Things to avoid:
Big setting-warping characters whose shadow falls across any campaign. Looking at you, Deathlords, Bull of the North.

[emeraldstreak]

Mind, I'm starting with really basic things, like how the Usurpation is impossible in 2E.

The Usurpation is not entirely impossible in 2E

[Gensh]

Artifacts with their own charm trees unique powers and forging a bond between Artifact and wielder.

I've never had a good experience with spellcasting weapons. Do you have a particular example you like?

Yozis being big and horrible and containing people without being people.

In a sense, they were always people, but they were much more vaguely described. I intend on building off my Mystery Cults content. For a simple example, Elder Scrolls 4 ended with Akatosh saving the day. Elder Scrolls 5 features Alduin trying to destroy the world. Alduin is Akatosh -- a different interpretation of the same spirit and so manifesting as an entirely contradictory material person.

Big setting-warping characters whose shadow falls across any campaign. Looking at you, Deathlords, Bull of the North.

I've actually never had the Elminster/elders problem. I've had far more of a problem with players changing their minds or not being able to decide on an action. I'm looking into ways to provide structure without adding rails. As far as powerful NPCs, it's more likely that my players will try to recruit a Deathlord. And it technically worked once, but no one cares about Princess Magnificent. Which is another problem. It doesn't matter what kind of drama you build or impressive speech you write for the Mask of Winters when he's interrupted with a "Shut up, Larquen!"

The Usurpation is not entirely impossible in 2E

Fair, and that's even a very Sidereal narrative. The problem is that the Solars have so much more narrative mass that players don't really care. Of course, rather than nerfing Solars, I just have to make Sids and DBs cool enough that players believe they could win. So far, I've been informed that involves a lot of power armor, but I'm going to consider other options.

[Morty]

Just so everyone knows, the Realm book is out for backers and should be available for purchase before too long.

[Lord Raziere]

Heheheheh....

Spoiler: Raziere Reading The Realm: A Satire

Show

Empress be trolling:
Ragara: heheh, I'm just going to kill off all my siblings to become emperor
Empress: Ragara! my surviving son, how great of you to still exist, here have a brother, his name is Sesus, I have this problem where my progeny keeps dying for some reason! I cannot possibly figure out who it might be, but clearly future heirs must be protected at all costs and taught to protect themselves better, given your knack for surviving while all others have died, your clearly the perfect person to protect and teach your newest member of the family. I'm sure you will do your best to keep him secure from whatever threat is menacing us, But I will hold you personally responsible if anything happens to him, what empress would I be if I didn't hold people responsible for things?
Ragara:....understood mother.

Empress: I'm going to named a heir after my first millennium of reign!
DBs: then your going to step down right?
*Empress just smiles*
DBs: Right?
*Empress Smiles wider*
DBs: Right!?
*Empress cackles evilly*
DBs: Dragons dammit!

They agreed that the Empress truly abdicated after seven years pass. This was 764. present day is 768. Only three years left before the Realm erupts like a volcano.

A Conversation that Realm people probably seriously had at one point:
Dynast: "Alright, lets make these dispossessed useful and enslave them, might as well get some money out of them."
Immaculate monks: "You can't enslave the dispossessed, that is uplifting them beyond their station!"
Dispossessed: "We just want to be useful and get some food and shelter!"
Monks: "shut up, you don't have rights!"
Disposessed: "rights? what are that? can you eat it? cause it don't matter, cause we want food."
Dynast: "join and work for me, and I'll pay you in food! I can't say you'll be uplifted to the prestigious status of slavery and thus get protection as being one of my property, but you'll get food!"
Dispossessed: ballin'.
Monks:.....you win this round, tyrannical dynast.

*snicker* I'm sorry, TFS ruined "Thunderhead" for me. I see it in the text and all I can think of, is a patrician or dragon-blooded version of abridged Cloud crossdressing to be accepted in female dominated realm referring to himself as that in disguise.

19 year old patrician: oh god I only have one year to prove I can Exalt then I'm a failure forever. whelp. time to pull off something stupid or die trying!
*Succeeds, Exalts as Solar*
New Anathema: DAMMIT! I wish I had died!

...now I can imagine a Dynast speaking to their friends and they ask:
"what do you do these days?"
and they answer "general meddling."
and they're all like "ah yes, I do a spot of general meddling as well, but I'm more of a war tourism person myself."
"ah yes indeed, but I'm partial to scheming and adventuring."
just job description: general meddling.

On Art:
Monk: ok here is how we detect art heresy. if its not approved dragon, burn it. if it is dragon, worship it, got it?
Other Monk: but most art is abstract or incredibly stylized and people keep saying their art is a metaphor for the dragons
Monk: just burn it anyways
Other monk: but we can't possibly enforce against the heresy of all the people with nude Empress artwork
Monk:.....damn, your right. just say that they're metaphorically depicting Hesieh and move on.

Geomancer con man Dynast succeeds by not knowing what he is doing:
Peasant: so your SURE that this will harmonize our geomancy
con man: yeah, fives, and pentagrams all the way down. entire town, pentagram, your house, pentagram, just always build in fives and your fine. when in doubt, use the five.
Peasant: sounds mystically plausible to me, take my money
Con man: works every time.
*later, real geomancer comes by*
Geomancer: wow, he built in fives all the way down, this man must be a genius

pancakes? wow, I guess this means pancakes are older than I thought, but the thought of people in the Realm eating pancakes is just funny to me and now I'm imagining a Twilight opening Creation's version of IHOP.

Peasant and Patrician Dinners: Happiness
Dynast Dinners: Oh no My parents are back

every city on the blessed isle has one or more temples to the immaculate dragons. because one, apparently isn't enough, they need to praise them twice as much to show that they care more than those other cities that only have one, they're only doing the minimal amount of praising.

aw yeah, folklore and superstition when magic actually exists, lets go. HAHAHAHAHA! MY EARLIER ABOUT FIVES WAS RIGHT ON THE NOSE! FIIIIIIVES! even more reason why just building things in five just works! AND YES! CHANGELING TALES OF MOUNTAIN FOLK! SICKNESSES ATTRIBUTED TO INVISIBLE THINGS! THEY THINK EPILEPSY IS A CURSE BY GODS! this makes me so happy.

YES! I was right! sorcerers do enter the immaculate order to wield sorcerous power!

wait there are just charlatans claiming to have magical powers everywhere? huh, guess that makes sense and makes Anathema a little harder to find. I can just imagine a charlatan claiming to have magical powers to curse a hated foe, the black helms coming to drag them away while the real Twilight Caste is right over there struggling not to burst out and correct people on their ignorance in fury.

The Imperial Force: only force in the Realm specifically empowered to detain and bring in Exalted, still has to grovel and give extravagant apologies. "Sincerest apologies my most esteemed prisoner..."

Trained beggars? excuse me? now I imagine criminal beggar lessons: "appearance is everything for begging, first you have to look as sad and pitiable as possible, really tug on the heartstrings..."

....an exigent of a hot springs god is a killer? don't go to the hot springs on the Blessed Isle, got it.

yes there is a canonical Realm Tarot!

I like how there are museums both religious and non in the Realm, this is the perfect kind of anitquarian nonsense for the Realm to have, and provides so much opportunity! a single thing displayed at one of these museums could be a plot hook all in itself. these things are plot hook central.

wow, couriers are badass in the Realm. don't mess with the mail I guess. now I imagining a courier coming up against some ridiculous opposition and just doing everything they can to deliver the message regardless, like some Exalts just being frustrated a freaking mailman is harder to catch than they think.

huh, tax collectors sometimes have to keep themselves from collecting too much tax even if honestly collected. hm. how odd, but I like how this gives a good legal/moral dilemma that you don't normally see in fiction.

speaking of money, almost every House is in debt. fantastic. oh earlier, the Imperial treasury is becoming a mess. so......yeah. and Ragara is playing the debt game, and it ends when someone cancels the debt.

I SO want to play a Magistrate now. this book makes them sound much more awesome than previous editions.

"oh yes, sure you own that jade, I put the numbers here instead of here, nevermind that the vault is inaccessible..."

I just realized that The Imperial Treasury can be abbreviated as TIT. and now I'm imagining the Realm games of thrones style nicknaming it the Realm's Tit and making jokes about how the Houses are suckling it dry, agh.

ok, the Assessors are apparently badass to, don't mess with mailmen or tax collectors in the Realm then.

"-one cannot forge a daiklave out of paper money!-"

Origami Craft Twilight: Challenge. Accepted.

oh the All-seeing eye. this too is something I think is interesting, because man did 2e not do this good at all, so I'm seeing how this book does this better. its not a Sidereal puppet, and is in fact quite decentralized, to the point where its falling apart like the magistrates and some of it going rogue to do their own things, having little idea of who else is also apart of the Eye- oh wait nevermind, its the ISELSI's puppet now, and well a COUPLE Bronze Sidereals.

and the Deliberative is as squabbling and useless as ever, in both subtle corruption and shouting match versions. some things never change.

wait, the Empresses funeral will cost enough to bankrupt nations? WHY?

The Legions:
okay, seven full legions have deserted. great. great. this isn't a problem or anything.

a legion typically has 40 to 60 Dragon Blooded. wow okay then. good luck to a Lunar or Solar trying to assassinate all of them in a single night then. suddenly a Dawn caste spending all their essence to kill five doesn't seem all that invincible anymore.

the Immaculate Order. I'm interested in this primarily.
ah so the religion is very Buddhist/Hinduist. and look Heresy everywhere! just like wh40k. I like Immaculate Monks just KNOW that Anathema are other Exalted but just don't bother to explain it to people, they don't even pretend or delude themselves,t hey just think its tragic.

the weirdest thing about this is apparently, the Immaculate Texts include erotica. like its apparently the educational text for all of the Realm and their society. so its both education and religion at the same time.

and yeeeep, the Dynasts see everyone else as ignorant barbarians and wastes resources while getting rid of all doubt in their minds. thats bad. we doubt for a reason.

The Jmperial spelling returns in the Bless Jsle map! heheheh

....yeah I'm gonna have to stop there, its late and I still have three more chapters to get through. this book is great. really fleshes out a lot of this.