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I have that one OC in every universe that is supposed to be a representation of myself…

She’s always small and awkward. She wears clothes that hide her away within them. She has glasses and is clumsy and is so scared of such little things. Everyone thinks she’s adorable…even when I do not intend for such thoughts.

She’s scary though. She’s fierce and clever and will kill to defend her values. She’s always happy to point out that Chaotic Good doesn’t mean Chaotic Nice. I so desperately want to tell the stories where they snap.

I’m just afraid that once they do they won’t go back to being normal again…

Let’s Talk About Exalted!

Part two: Exalted Basics

In this installment of LTAE I’m going further in depth in regards to the different major character types that exist in the world of Creation. We’ll cover Exalted’s equivalent of classes, power levels, a glance over the basics of the different types of Exalts in creation.
This should help you figure out how to start acclimating your characters into an Exalted AU…or maybe inspire something new? Who knows.

Lost? Check out the first post here!

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So where do we start?

The first thing to remember is that while the focus of a typical Exalted campaign falls upon the Exalts, Creation is vast. In the first age there were many races, but in the third age it appears that whats left in the world are:
Humans
Minikin ((Reference on right of image))
Beastmen ((See the badgerman))
God/Demonbloods
That’s the playable list. There are also elementals, gods, ghosts, demons, and zombies; but they cannot exalt.
Of course, if you remember from the previous topic, there are a limited number of Exaltations. Those who do not Exalt are simply mortals, and while a mortal will never be an Exalt in terms of power, a Heroic Mortal is still a force to be reckoned with.

Choosing your Chosen one

So you want to be an Exalt….wait have I said that before?
Anyway, CONGRATULATIONS! You have been granted incredible power and responsibility beyond your wildest dreams! But just what have you gotten yourself into? Well that depends on what exaltation you received!

Have you faced impossible odds and succeeded?
This could mean anything from battling your way through an army single-handedly, teaching yourself something long forgotten despite being told you could never succeed, infiltrating the highest guarded establishment in the east, or even managing to talk your way into marrying the richest woman in town as a commoner. The point is, you did something fantastic enough to warrant the attention of a Solar Exaltation. You are now framed by your success and blessed by the light of the sun. By Yu-shan’s laws, you are always in the right, and it is your job to reclaim your place as Creation’s great defender. Solars are decorated in gold and warm colors.

Have you faced tribulation and adapted to survive?
This often occurs when a person has to face the harness of nature. A sailor who manages to survive a shipwreck out of craft. A slave who makes their way to freedom by telling their captors exactly what they want to hear while they pull a set of hidden strings. If this is the case, then Luna has smiled upon you personally, inviting you to the world that is the Lunar Exaltation. Bonded with and animal resembling your spirit, you are now further connected to Creation. You can transform into your animal, or hunt others to shapeshift into. You can even gather your strength and spirit to become a mighty beast of war. In case I didn’t make this obvious enough: you now have some sort of “tell”. Something that if someone looks at you hard enough would notice: Hey…that’s weird. Common tells are the ears or tail of the animal, feathers in your hair (for birds), scaled skin, weird eyes/tongues, etc. It’s your job to protect Creation, and seek your Solar mate ((More on that in another section)). Lunars are decorated in silver.

Have you faced impossible odds and failed spectacularly?
Perhaps you commanded a squad of men into battle, only to watch them all die. I honestly don’t have a lot of examples for this one. The point is that you failed, but survived. Ashamed by your failures you are offered another chance to succeed. A chance for greatness. You’ve agreed, gone to Hell, and suffered something terrible. In return you are greater, and determined never again to fail. You have become an Infernal. While similar to Solars, since their origins are the same, you are twisted. You are tied to the Yozis and have the urge to do terrible things. You summon demons and steal the essence from gods. Your job is to assist your Yozi masters in their return to Creation. Infernals tend to decorate in greens and bronze.

Have you died, and yet…do not wish to die?
As death crept upon you you silently wished to keep living. Whispers came to your ears, offering to fulfill your wish if only you will serve them. You agree. Your hair turns black and your body cold. You are dead, and yet you are alive. You are brought before a lord to be taught, a terrible dark master in control of land in the underworld. You learn that your duty is to destroy all life in creation, and that to protect any life shall bring punishment upon you. You even give up your name. You are an Abyssal. You are given a title, something along the lines of Maiden of the Mirthless Smile, or Vengeance Clad in a Cloak of Black Feathers*. You are the twisted Solar, turned to darkness…and yet that means there is a Spark of light still within you. Abyssals typically wear blacks and dark colors.

*No one will ever refer you you by this title. They will think of a simple nickname and you will always hate them for it. My favorite Abyssal is referred to as Stabby. That isn’t even close to her title.

Have you done absolutely nothing?
This actually leaves us with two options.

Were you chosen as a child to go to an elite school for mysterious reasons?
Settle down for several boring years and tons of unanswered questions. You are a Sidereal. Chosen by one of the five maidens, you are going to exalt…someday. Until then you will learn everything you need and be acclimated into the bureaucratic world that is Yu-Shan. You will learn that you have basically been picked as a politician of Creation. However, your true duties depend on your maiden. Chosen of Jouneys, the lady Mercury, are in charge of making sure everyone and everything gets where it needs to go. Letters need to be sent, and armies need to reach the battlefields. Chosen of Serenity, the Lady Venus, are charged with matters of peace and love. Making sure lovers find each other, that there is a positive aftermath to war. Chosen of Battles, the lady Mars, are in charge of conflict. Battles need to be fought, wars need to be waged. Chosen of Secrets, Lady Jupiter, are in charge of finding and keeping the secrets of creation. They are the spies and librarians, and the silencers of blabbermouths. Finally, Chosen of Endings, Lady Saturn, are tasked with the dirty-work. They are assassins, the man who ends the war, the friend who breaks up your relationship because you’re blinded by love and he’s just not good for you. Each maiden’s Sidereal tends to decorate in their maiden’s color, Yellow, Blue, Red, Green, or Purple.

Done nothing but were born into a rich family?
Well the rich family might not be a prerequisite all the time, the last category is Dragonbloods. If you are a Dragonblood, someone in your family line was also a Dragonblood. You are associated with one of the five elements: Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, or Air. You can also pretty much do whatever you want because you’re in charge of Creation. Dragonbloods are complicated, so we’ll get into them in another section.

Phew. That was exhausting. As an important note: keep in mind there is the occasional oddball exaltation. Something that doesn’t make sense at first glance….but the loom of fate works in mysterious ways.

But wait! There’s more!

I commend anyone who has gotten this far. Unless you skipped all of that. I don’t blame you. There’s just a few notes I want to cover here before we go.

Every type of Exaltation has five “classes” or Castes. Sidreal’s are divided by maiden, Dragonblood by element. Solars, and Solar derivatives have classes that reflect the different position of the sun in the sky. Lunars had five at one point, but now only have three…and they’re a special case, so stay tuned for them.

Why is this important? Because each caste favors a set of five skills. Those skills will be easier for the Exalt to learn. Often times it’s easier to determine what caste a character will be by the skills you know they’ll be good at rather than trying to figure out how to set your skills based on a random caste you picked. That’s just food for thought.

That covers the absolute basics. Thanks again for any interest you’ve shown.

Let’s Talk About Exalted!

What is Exalted?
Exalted is a tabletop roleplaying universe published by White Wolf. It is very different from the more well known Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) in both game mechanics, and in typical setting. For example, while DnD tends to be based with Tolkien style fantasy in a medieval Europe-esque play area, Exalted tends to carry more of a feudalistic Asian inspired theme with the only real non-human races being beastmen and small bald people called minikin.

Why do you want to talk about it?
Exalted is a beautiful universe with a lot of potential that many people don’t know about. It’s a wonderful place to put AUs for many types of character without defaulting to a ‘traditional’ medieval setting. Furthermore, it’s something that really pulled my girlfriend and I together and so I just want to share it with everyone.

Still interested? I have more under the cut.

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Let’s Elaborate on Setting
Bear with me. While this looks like a lot of information I am really only giving you very little of what we know about the universe. The game books are all thick and have a ton of content.

Long ago, before there was much of anything, there was the Wyld. There, the songs of chaos and the unmade flowed; when from the chaos awakened something, the first primordial, and with her awakening the idea that one could awaken became a truth. From that point, many other awakened and brought many other truths into existence from the chaos that was the Wyld. They made the land and the sea, islands and mountains. This land fell under the name of Creation, and was eventually held within the body of the youngest Primordial: Gaia. To watch over this world while the Primordials played their games, they created Gods to serve and watch the land. The Gods were forbidden from harming Primordials.
Gods ranged in rank from categories like God of Axes, to God of a particular person’s axe. The most important Gods became Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun; Luna, the Goddess of the Moon; and 5 mysterious maidens whom no one quite recalled their origin.
To serve the gods, humans and other creatures were created as slaves.
Things were well, but over time the Gods began to want for the games of the Primordials. They knew they could not harm them, but the humans had potential. They created secondary souls, Exaltations, and filled them with great power. The Unconquered Sun and Luna each took 300, while the Maidens divided 100 between them. Humans were picked for various reasons.
Solars were those who faced impossible odds, and yet still managed to succeed. They would become the generals of war, the leaders of a new age.
Lunars were those who, when faced with tribulation, learned to adapt to their situation. Their bodies gained attributes of a spirit animal, and it was their duty to serve as protectors of their Solar mates.
The Maiden’s chosen, Sidereals, were always predetermined by fate for reasons often unknown to all but the Maiden Jupiter, whose secrets she will never reveal. They were to be the Viziers, using fate to guide the others in the right direction.
Of course, there was one more set of Exaltations. Gaia became aware of an impending war, but did not seek to intervene for she, while Primordial, was in love with Luna. Instead, she allowed her souls, 5 elemental dragons, to seek and choose who they saw worthy to imbue with one of their five elements. These chosen, the Dragonblood, would become the footsoldiers of the impending war.

And so war happened.

The Exalts were successful. Those Primordials that did not die, surrendered. These remaining Primordials were banished from Creation into a prison torn into the body of Malfeas, contained by the laws of the Primordial Cecelyne. However, they left the Exalts with a great curse; one that would drive them to madness in time. The only Primordial that did not suffer one of these fates, was Gaia.

Thus dawned the first age. The Solars ruled Creation with the Lunars at their side. The Dragonbloods (the only exalts that could pass exaltation through breeding) divided into houses that served each solar. There was advancement in technology, a golden age broken only by bouts with the wyld at Creation’s edges, forever seeking to reclaim the land to its chaos.
But such peace cannot last forever.
The Gods began to play, and quickly became obsessed with the Games of Divinity. Such is why the Exalts had come to truly rule. Up in Yu-shan, where the Gods play, the Sidereals continued their duties of watching the loom of fate, and guiding the others…until something was seen that posed a danger to all of Creation.

It came to the Sidereal’s attention that something was very wrong with the Solars. Gripped by emotion, the chosen of the Sun were going to destroy everything. The Sidreals had three options: One, allow things to proceed as they were; two, try to change the path and fix the Solars; or three, kill the chosen of the sun and seal their exaltations away.
Option one would have meant certain disaster.
Option two might have worked, but in the end it was decided that the risk of failure was too high.
And so they chose option three.

The sidereals worked quietly, planting seeds of doubt into the minds and hearts of the Dragonbloods, turning the armies against their generals. In time, another war waged. The Solars were defeated. Those surviving Lunars fled. The Solar Exaltations were sealed in a prison of Jade and dropped to the bottom of the sea, and the Sidereals hid themselves within the fates, ashamed of what they had done.

Without the chosen of the Sun to Guide them, the Dragonbloods took charge, but they could not hold the heavy weight that was Creation. The Wyld reclaimed much of the land. A sickness fell over the people. Everything was falling apart until one woman stood up and seized control. Her name became the Scarlet Empress, and she began the dawn of the Third Age.

While they could not reclaim what they had lost, with the Empress in charge the Dragonbloods held off the fury that was the wyld. She gave birth to eleven children who would form the great houses of the Realm. The Realm would seize control over creation, and over those few Dragonbloods who did not agree with its reign.

But trouble was stirring. The empress disappeared. Agents of the banished Primordials, the Yozis, found the Jade Prison. Together with the help of the Neverborn, those souls of the dead Primordials, they broke open the Jade Prison. Due to the power of the Solar Exaltations, the two groups were only able to catch a fraction of what had been inside. The rest were released back into Creation; to find the souls worthy of new Solars.

The Yozi corrupted their new Exaltations with Demonic powers. These twisted chosen now each served under a Yozi, damned to do their bidding…chosen by bitterness at failing their impossible odds. Their job is to find a way to let the Yozis escape back into Creation. To reclaim it as their own once more.
The Neverborn corrupted their Exaltations with death and the void. They took the dying and sent their whispers, offering new life in service to the Neverborn. Each new Death Knight would be tied to a Lord, a spirit of a fallen Solar given greater power by the Neverborn, and commanded to cross the lands of Creation and see it destroyed.

This is where we stand now. New Solars have awakened on the lands of Creation, some carrying memories of their former lives. The Sidereals stand, bickering in Yu-Shan, divided over what new actions to take. The Dragonbloods seek to once more rid the world of Anathema, if they can decide what to do about their empty throne. Lunars are awakening with their Solar bretheren and seeking their long lost mates, trying to make sense of their own lives. The Infernals are searching for the metaphorical keys to creation, to let in the demons and reclaim the land for their lords. Shadowlands are growing from the death and destruction across the world…and the Abyssals are rising to continue the slaughter.

There are many mysteries left to unfold…we’re just getting started.

Let’s Elaborate on something else

I would….but that was a lot of information. Take a sec to read through it again if you like. To do more research on your own, google Exalted rpg and check the various Wikis on the subject and stay tuned for more issues of “Let’s Talk About Exalted”