Across the Eight Directions [Exalted 3e/Essence]

[Eonivar]

Can I join in on this? I am not sure what I would play yet...I kind of want to look at some sort of Martial Artist...also depends which books we are looking at.

 

[Random Word]

I can do that. @Red Shadow Claws and Random Word are you good with this?

I want to put a disclaimer on here. This is shaping up to be a very dark story. I'm okay with dark stories, but it's important everyone is okay with that.

Unless things have changed a lot (and I'll have a look to see if they have), social Abyssals have a kit that almost exclusively focuses on evoking fear, despair, and hatred. The Neverborn do not want Abyssals to be heroes of the living, unless that heroism means killing or destroying something else, in which case they're pretty chill about it because eventually that means everything gets destroyed. The arc of Creation may be long, but it bends towards death. That means if a social Abyssal tries to defy their nature to help build a society focused on anything other than shepherding the living towards death, their curse will make the results tragic.

A social Solar or Lunar can keep a Dusk or Daybreak on the side of the light with heroic effort, but it's an uphill battle as Bleak Expiations (Abyssal Limit release) are going to twist an Abyssal's intimacies and even induce Whispers, and the servants of their Deathlord will always be trying to persuade them to join the dark side (They have cookies! It's a growth industry!). If there's no one around to fight that, a Full Moon is going to have a hard time keeping a Midnight or Moonshadow from walking a darker and darker path as the story goes on. Worse, a Midnight or Moonshadow can push the other PCs towards darkness unless they have strong social defenses. The Full Moon may only have recourse to violence, and the threat of force sours relationships quickly.

With Sherwood expressing interest in playing a Solar, I can go for an Abyssal. Let me read them, and present a concept.

With that said, I notice you hadn't previously mentioned Abyssals as being something you were interested in playing. If you're excited about telling the tragic story of an Abyssal hero, I'm here for it, but if you'd be more excited about another character concept, by all means. The idea I posted wasn't meant to be 'the plot', only one example of how an Abyssal could be integrated into an otherwise heroic Celestial party, and an example of what I'd like the three of you to aim for as far as narrative cohesion of your character concepts. It was more to highlight, "Try not to make your character in isolation, try to think of an exciting story together, and how your characters all fit together to tell it."

We can come up with an exciting story for any combination of splats. Say it's two Lunars and a Solar. We could have a No Moon necromancer and Full Moon warrior-priest of the Ivory and Cinnabar court, disciples of Seven Obsidian Leopard, set out from Mount Namas to follow his teachings and start a rebellion in an outer province of Prasad, hoping to topple the empire and conquer it. They win a string of stunning victories with their peasant-and-ghost army, blessed by the war gods of the Ivory and Cinnabar court and led by a martial genius, terrible necromantic curses laid upon their unprepared enemies. Their rebellion provokes a furious and mighty response from the empire, and after a great battle they are forced to retreat in disarray, sheltering in a nearby city. The populace begins to turn on them, and throw open the gates and throw themselves upon the mercy of the Wyld Hunt. The Prasadi carry out vicious reprisals to force the city to hand over the Anathema before they can escape. Amidst the violence a voice cries out, cutting through the chaos, fuelled by the pain of their slain family, rallying the people against the Prasadi. Their love for their people and burning desire to end this injustice earns them the favour of the Unconquered Sun, and together the three Celestials drive the Prasadi from the city. Now they must fight a war with a powerful empire and desperately need allies. Who will they turn to? The capricious Raksha pirates of the Dreaming Sea? The terrible and mighty sorcerer-princes of Ysyr, who have enslaved their own people? The many-sired heroes of strong-walled Volivat? The Lunar students of Tanisa Ring-Eater, who oppose Seven Obsidian Leopard and advocate for converting Prasad into a weapon against the hated Realm? Will the Solar's love for their people conflict with the hard-hearted hatred the Lunar disciples of war and death hold for the Princes of the Earth? etc etc. We can make a fun story for any part of Creation for any collection of Exalt types.

Are there any character creation rules that we will be using for this?

BP offends me, so unless there are objections, we will be using the variant XP-only character creation rules in Crucible of Legends.

Spoiler: Character Creation Rules

No BP. You start with 55 XP to spend at character creation.

Trait	Experience Cost
Attributes	10 per dot
Caste/Favored Attributes	8 per dot
Abilities	5 per dot
Caste/Favored Abilities	4 per dot
New Specialty	2
Merits	2 per dot
Willpower	6 per dot
New Charm, Spell, or Evocation	12
New Caste/Favored Charm or Spell	10

It seems like players are leaning towards a location-focused campaign, in which case the location itself is an important party member and we'll want to do character creation for it first before people get too far into the details of their own character. Once we agree on a location (like the Cinnabar Isles for the Tide of Bronze idea above, or the Dreaming Sea for the most recent idea), I can draft up options for each of you to choose from to 'create' your city-state, customizing it to have unique features that appeal to you. If you make a good case for synergy between different features, I'll add appropriate bonuses.

Any books that we won't be using?

All books and reasonable homebrew are allowed. I feel comfortable vetoing anything that will reduce fun, or surprises us by reducing fun in play (with full refunds).

Can I join in on this? I am not sure what I would play yet...I kind of want to look at some sort of Martial Artist...also depends which books we are looking at.

Of course! Again, I must stress I want us to work out the kind of story we're telling before we try to figure out which characters are best for telling it.

 

[Sherwood]

Since we are basically starting out with 50 xp, are we counting that towards Essence 2 or not?

 

[Random Word]

Yes, according to Crucible it does. So Essence 2 is at 80 XP, which is 5 sessions in.

 

[Red Shadow Claws]

I am fine with most splats, and have no problem whatsoever playing the doomed Abyssal, who's trying to tiptoe the line between being an Abyssal, and wanting to help her people survive, and maybe thrive, despite things stacked against her. And if her Charms don't lend themselves to making her people better, then she will use them to tear down those who threaten them.

It's also why I wanted to play off Sherwood's Solar. If Sherwood plays a social character, I can have my Abyssal be more of a Lore/Occult type, and vice-versa. But I am going through the Abyssal charmset, to see what Abilities I find interesting to have as a Supernal.


As far as location is concerned, I do like the Cinnabar Islands plot you suggested. It resonated with me.

 

[Random Word]

Alright, sounds good! Then I'll draw up features for the Cinnabar Islands city-state you'll be saving and then leading to glory and/or turning into a Shadowland. If the lovely Eonivar is joining, can everyone help them figure out how to integrate a new character into the story? You can never go wrong with more Martial Arts in Exalted as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Sherwood]

I am fine with most splats, and have no problem whatsoever playing the doomed Abyssal, who's trying to tiptoe the line between being an Abyssal, and wanting to help her people survive, and maybe thrive, despite things stacked against her. And if her Charms don't lend themselves to making her people better, then she will use them to tear down those who threaten them.

It's also why I wanted to play off Sherwood's Solar. If Sherwood plays a social character, I can have my Abyssal be more of a Lore/Occult type, and vice-versa. But I am going through the Abyssal charmset, to see what Abilities I find interesting to have as a Supernal.


As far as location is concerned, I do like the Cinnabar Islands plot you suggested. It resonated with me.

I was thinking of going with Occult/Sorcery as my focus, so if you want to go with the social build that's cool.

 

[Psychie]

Cool beans. I'll start to work on Garret 3rd edition version ASAP.

 

[Eonivar]

I know the Sidereal book is not out yet (I am on the kickstarter for it)...and i know it is in Essence but...I suspect we are leaning towards third edition here, would it be possible for me to play a Sidereal here? It would be fun to play a Sidereal Martial Artist. If we are going with that initial premise with the war manse, maybe they are a Chosen of Battle there to make sure the Manse stays true to its ultimate destiny. Or they could be a Chosen of Serenity tasked with bringing and keeping this group of heroes together in this specific place for a sacred purpose. Or a Chosen of Secrets to keep the secrets of the Manse.

If we cannot do a Sidereal that is fine, I can figure something else out but that is what I am kind of feeling from this at the moment.

 

[Random Word]

We love unreleased books here, don't worry. If you get approval from all the other players, a Sidereal is fine (A Raksha invasion of this size really warrants a response from Heaven, so I was probably going to include a Sidereal NPC at some point, even if the PCs never managed to learn they exist), but you'll need to thread the needle of having a Sidereal who's okay working with a Solar, Lunar, and Abyssal. Psychie 's Garret v3.0 would have to be able to get along with a Sidereal. The Solar and the Abyssal will be relatively easy since they have no idea what Sidereals even are, but if Garret is a Pact lunar, odds are good he probably hates your guts. Maybe if you can establish to the angry Full Moon the finer points of doctrinal departure between the Bronze and Gold Faction before he rips your throat out, you can be friends, but your character will have heard a lot of horror stories about what happens when young Sidereals meet Lunars. You also have the issue that you've likely been read in on what Heaven knows about Abyssals at this point, and none of it suggests they're anything other than a walking affront to Destiny and anathema to all life. Garret has probably heard rumours about Abyssals, but maybe the Abyssal is his mate or something.

We're really going all out on the rainbow here, aren't we?

 

[Psychie]

Psychie 's Garret v3.0 would have to be able to get along with a Sidereal. The Solar and the Abyssal will be relatively easy since they have no idea what Sidereals even are, but if Garret is a Pact lunar, odds are good he probably hates your guts. Maybe if you can establish to the angry Full Moon the finer points of doctrinal departure between the Bronze and Gold Faction before he rips your throat out, you can be friends, but your character will have heard a lot of horror stories about what happens when young Sidereals meet Lunars. You also have the issue that you've likely been read in on what Heaven knows about Abyssals at this point, and none of it suggests they're anything other than a walking affront to Destiny and anathema to all life. Garret has probably heard rumours about Abyssals, but maybe the Abyssal is his mate or something.

I can always go as a Casteless that has -just- Exalted. That way, I wouldn't have any preconceived notions of the Sidereals.

 

[Psychie]

No BP. You start with 55 XP to spend at character creation.

Do we bank any unused points for later use? I'm looking like I might be spending 54 points, and don't want to lose that one extra point.

 

[Random Word]

Each player can select one Quality for the city and describe its details. A Quality can be chosen more than once, either to double down on the effect or choose an alternative variant (like different elements for Elemental Pact, different industries for Industrious, or different Ancient Wonders). If someone makes a case for how two or more qualities are synergistic and I accept it, I'll reflect that in the story as an enhanced effect.

1. Dark Mirror - The city is tied to a vibrant and powerful afterlife in the Underworld. The city’s denizens venerate their ancestors and have elaborate funerary rites. Their powerful ancestors grant them wisdom and protection in return, lavishing them with blessings and protecting them from supernatural threats. The Underworld mirror preserves much of those who have lived here through the millennia, piled atop each other in what often appears to outsiders to be a chaotic mess.
2. Wyld-Touched - The city has some form of relatively safe Wyld magic incorporated into it, or a nearby Wyld pocket with Raksha who are, through cunningly negotiated treaties, sorcerous bindings, or their own mercurial codes of honour, are more amenable to peaceful interactions like trade or offering punishing trials in return for blessings and curses than violence. Gossamer wonders may fill its markets, its people may be graced with strange wyld blessings, or it may count hobgoblins and even the odd noble Raksha amongst the mercenaries its people can call on.
3. Ancient Wonders - The city is built upon the ruins of ancient wonders in various states of disrepair, or still benefits from ancient workings the original function and purpose of which are long forgotten. The denizens may have developed many innovative ways to make use of the failure modes of these wonders that their original builders may be horrified or delighted by in equal measure.
4. Cornucopia - Whether through ancient geomantic engineering, pacts with potent harvest gods, or alchemical secrets handed down through generations, the city produces a veritable cornucopia of food, fit to support a very large population in rude health with plenty to spare for export. It likely produces rare delicacies coveted by neighbouring cities, and those with the esoteric knowledge required may be able to convert some of the rare plants into potent alchemical reagents.
5. Industrious - Whether stone cutting, metal forging, clay firing, or woodworking, the people of this city are known far and wide for their talent in turning a remarkable local natural resource into exceptional quality goods. Almost unbreakable stone for construction, self-healing wooden hulls that cleave effortlessly through the waves, efficacious charms, or potent alchemical panaceas.
6. Elemental Pact - Water, Earth, Air, Fire, or Wood; this city has an ancient and abiding pact with a court of elementals whose blessings change everyday life, and who receive lavish worship in return. Perhaps much of the city extends under the harbour, air bubble streets winding through vibrant coral reefs teeming with fish, larger civic structures and neighborhoods in large bubble domes. Perhaps fire elementals power sky ships that soar over the city, or bless its forges to produce miraculous metals. Earth elementals may fill its mines and quarries with fine stone or precious gems and metals, or help its artisans and engineers carve sumptuous halls and entire neighbourhoods that extend deep below the earth.
7. Erudite - The people of this city have a strong scholarly tradition, with a variety of competing academies debating the finer points of philosophy, history, geography, mathematics, and rhetoric. It brings traveling scholars from far and wide as a beacon of erudition, maintains fine libraries, and trains fine cartographers and navigators. It has a well respected code of laws, and expert jurists that are respected even in foreign cities. If a work exists in the Southwest, likely a copy has made its way to your city.
8. Sorcerous - Whether a ruined academy of Sorcery, a preserved ancient library, a pact with a powerful supernatural being like a Demon or Elemental, or an old Lunar proving grounds, the city produces an exceptional number of Sorcerers. Their power shapes the city and its culture.
9. Necromantic - Whether through a powerful ancestor cult sponsored by ancient ghosts of great power, horrifying and mind-scarring ruins full of incomprehensible engravings, or bloody and blasphemous cultural rites, the city produces an exceptional number of Necromancers. Their power shapes the city and its culture.
10. Inventive - The people of this city have a proud culture of innovation, taking whatever hand fate has dealt them and applying their ingenuity to improving it. This may lead to exceptional architecture, ships with a novel design, sky ships, war kites, or more depending on which other mundane and magical resources the city has access to.
11. Warlike - The people of this city have a culture of martial excellence and likely subject neighbouring polities to raids and bouts of periodic violence, assuming their neighbours aren’t as warlike as they. This may take the form of gladiatorial arenas, fierce raiding parties, disciplined navies, or powerful mercenaries. Its soldiers are feared far and wide, and it nobility produces high quality officers or duelists. They may have tributary powers or a burgeoning military empire.
12. Pious - The city is home to sumptuous temples and powerful cults, diligently giving offerings to a mighty pantheon that shapes everyday life with lavish blessings in return. City politics turn on who is in favour with which deities and the power plays between minor gods to move higher in this microcosm of the terrestrial hierarchy. The faiths rooted in this city may have spread far and wide at spearpoint or on the lips of far-ranging merchants. Divine champions, and perhaps even the flame of Exigence, grace this city far more often than expected.
13. Artistic - The people of this city are famed for their artistic skill. It may be dance, music, theatre, poetry, painting, sculpture, or all of the above and more, these people have long and storied traditions that produce some of the finest examples seen in the Direction. Foreigners pay high prices to import artists or their wares from this city for festivals and celebrations, and its name is well known and thought of positively.
14. Mercantile - This city lies at the crossroads of many important trade routes, or has extremely valuable exports to draw merchant vessels from far and wide. Perhaps it maintains a large and far-ranging merchant marine of its own, or has markets overflowing with valuable goods brought by foreign ships from across the Direction. The merchants of the city have deep pockets and a keen eye for a good investment. Nearby cities may be indebted to the people of this city, exotic goods will be easier to purchase, projects easier to finance, and news from far abroad easier to come by.
15. The Blood of Dragons - Tracing their genealogy back to the Shogunate, one or more noble families in this city still reliably produce a few Princes of the Earth every few generations. They play a powerful, if not dominant, role in city politics, and follow a heretical splinter of the Immaculate Faith syncretised with local traditions.
16. Suggest your own!

 

[Random Word]

Do we bank any unused points for later use? I'm looking like I might be spending 54 points, and don't want to lose that one extra point.

Naturally! I'm not a monster.

 

[Psychie]

So, if I go with the Casteless idea, just how long are we going to say that Garret has been an Exalt? I'm trying to decide on Merits, and a lot of it doesn't make sense to me if he's just been visited by Luna yesterday. Like Hearts Blood, or having lots of Artifacts.

 

[Random Word]

The Casteless idea is tricky. It solves the 'hates Sidereals' problem neatly if temporarily, but in the original concept the Lunar character enters stage right as a Pact member sent to aid the Bronze Tide, at least nominally biddable by its warlord. They bring complications in the form of the other students of their Shahan-ya expressing their displeasure at their running off with a Solar and an Evil Solar.

If you're freshly Exalted, you'll need a whole new (or at least heavily modified) hook for your character.

If you do want to be 'visited by Luna yesterday', you can buy artifacts as a way of declaring, "Fate decrees these things will come to me soon." Or you could have found some of your old panoply in the Manse or an adjacent tomb.

 

[Psychie]

The Casteless idea is tricky. In the original concept the Lunar character enters stage right as a Pact member sent to aid the Bronze Tide, at least nominally biddable by its warlord. They bring complications in the form of the other students of their Shahan-ya expressing their displeasure at their running off with a Solar and an Evil Solar.

If you're freshly Exalted, you'll need a whole new (or at least heavily modified) hook for your character.

If you do want to be 'visited by Luna yesterday', you can buy artifacts as a way of declaring, "Fate decrees these things will come to me soon." Or you could have found some of your old panoply in the Manse or an adjacent tomb.

I'm just trying to get a concept that will work well with everyone together. I thought that if Garret had Exalted with the others, it would help to establish a comradery between them, and not seek to decapitate the Sidereal. Could I have come across either a hidden cache of artifacts/hearthstones, or have defeated another Exalt that was carrying the gear that I'm wanting to pick up?

 

[Random Word]

I'm just trying to get a concept that will work well with everyone together. I thought that if Garret had Exalted with the others, it would help to establish a comradery between them, and not seek to decapitate the Sidereal. Could I have come across either a hidden cache of artifacts/hearthstones, or have defeated another Exalt that was carrying the gear that I'm wanting to pick up?

Now I'm imagining the as-yet unnamed Deathlord, Luna, and the Unconquered Sun just sitting on a nearby rooftop, killing time until the ordained moment by playing cards or something .

Yes, of course. In any location-focused Celestial game I assume one of your past incarnations was involved in constructing the wonders found there unless the player opts out. You can certainly find a tomb of one of your previous incarnations under the city, or have beaten someone up and taken their stuff. If the latter, we'll want to know if you killed them, because otherwise naturally they'll be back.

Make sure you work with the other players to make a consistent timeline out of your respective stories.

 

[Psychie]

Now I'm imagining the as-yet unnamed Deathlord, Luna, and the Unconquered Sun just sitting on a nearby rooftop, killing time until the ordained moment by playing cards or something .

Don't forget the one Maiden that is responsible for Eonivar's character!

 

[Red Shadow Claws]

I'll go with Dark Mirror as City Quality.

Am thinking that my character was a priestess of the city's ancestors, and they sent her a vision of the prophecy that in the time of need, someone should enter the Manse and activate it, to repel an invasion. She managed to convince Sherwood's character to go it, as being the most learned, and she stood at the entrance, to prevent the fae from interrupting, but she nearly died, and was offered a dark pact by The Black Heron.

For now, I consider she might be a Midnight, and am leaning towards her having Survival Supernal, and investing in a Familiar, enhanced with Abyssal Survival Charms. INot sure if I want an aquatic, aerial, or land-based familiar.

 

[Sherwood]

1. Mercantile - This city lies at the crossroads of many important trade routes, or has extremely valuable exports to draw merchant vessels from far and wide. Perhaps it maintains a large and far-ranging merchant marine of its own, or has markets overflowing with valuable goods brought by foreign ships from across the Direction. The merchants of the city have deep pockets and a keen eye for a good investment. Nearby cities may be indebted to the people of this city, exotic goods will be easier to purchase, projects easier to finance, and news from far abroad easier to come by.

This is the one I'll pick for our city.

 

[Psychie]

I'll go with #3, Ancient Wonders.

 

[Random Word]

I'll go with #3, Ancient Wonders.

That one requires a bit more qualification - what sort of ancient wonder would you like to add? You don't have to provide details (but you're more than welcome to!). A theme or purview works. If you don't want to qualify it at all, I'll make up something that fits with the other choices, but it's probably more fun for you if you say, "Something to defend the city," or "Something to make the people better soldiers," or "A flying castle!", "Something for transportation," "Weather control," "Something to help the city make money," etc, etc.

 

[Psychie]

Ooh! Flying Castle! Just like in the anime Laputa: City in the Sky, or Alita Battle Angel.

 

[Sherwood]

That is a cool idea.