Exalted alternate settings

[memesis]

This is an attempt to catalog the various alternate settings that I've seen suggested for Exalted.  This is anything that does not fall into the category of "Celestial/Terrestrial Exalted campaign set a few years after the disappearance of the Scarlet Empress".  Add to this list or comment on what you like or what works.


- Late First Age (Usurpation-era) Solars


- Exalted on modern Earth


- Exalted in the "long Second Age" (Modernis Mundi)


- Primordial War or Pre-War Celestials (Rise of Man)


- Mid-Second-Age Dragon-Blooded


- Dragon King (any age)


- Exalted Spelljammer/Exalted in Space


What others can people think of?

 

[skafte]

Shogunate era DB power fights, cleanup / rebuilding


Shogunate era Solar out for revenge.


Shogunate era Lunar, staqrting to establish the Silver pack


DB under The Great Contagion and the Fay invasion

 

[Forn Clakes]

Autochthonia's initial departure of Creation. How would the hordes of mortals who were kidnapped and taken Elsewhere react at such an act?


The founding of the Immaculate Order. Who did write the Immaculate Texts and scattered them for future generations to re-discover?  


The Sidereal's prophesy and the following decision. What if they chose not to eradicate the Solars?


The forming of the Underworld and the coming of the Neverborn.  How did the ghosts find solace in this dark realm?


~FC.

 

[skafte]

What reactions where was to the discovery of Necromancy (i have not read the story in BWT yet). Quests for this new knowledge, actions to outlaw it's use etc.

 

[Flagg]

- Mid-Second-Age Dragon-Blooded

Is this eqivalent to Shogunate Era games, or something different?


I ask because there's a lot of confusion (which WW has helped to create) over wether the Shogunate was in the First or Second Age.

 

[memesis]

- Mid-Second-Age Dragon-Blooded

Is this eqivalent to Shogunate Era games, or something different?


I ask because there's a lot of confusion (which WW has helped to create) over wether the Shogunate was in the First or Second Age.

It was deliberately vague, but we can break this into:


- Shogunate-era Dragon-Blooded (or Lunar or Sidereal!)


- Scarlet Empire-era Dragon-Blooded (or Lunar or Sidereal)


But really, it's not like WW is obscuring some historical point that in Creation is crystal clear - in-game, historians aren't exactly united in their opinion either, and it seems appropriate to me that the game content itself doesn't pin this down.


That said, I'd love to run a Lunars game set in the Shogunate era..

 

[Jakk Bey]

I'm still sort of poking at the Axis of Fate--a more Steampunk setting, and a bit more esoteric than the current setting.  Multiple worlds, death being a transition between worlds.  Sort of a gritty Exalted meets Planescape.


I had thought to open it up to the rest of the ECR, but folks have been sort of laggy on it, so I've been poking at it in dribs and drabs. In part, because of the rules for Enlightenment and the Bulb of the Perfected Lotus being tied to something other than Martial Arts have been sort of a chore.  It's a lot of Enlightenment Charms. Tying Enlightenment to Occult instead and giving each Ability a few Charms, for each level of Enlightenment, and crafting the whole Enlightenment so Mortals can achieve even the highest levels of the Path of the Perfected Lotus, as can the Dragon Blooded, but Martial Arts are still blocked for them.


It's a big project.  Between the work at these Enlightenment rules, and the sheer size of the Axis of Fate--Creation as Mundus, Numina, Wyld, Mortis, Mundatum, and all skewered on the Axis of Fate where souls are ferried between their Heavens and Hells--means I might not finish the project for some time. The Numina I envisioned similar to the Umbra of the WoD, but a bit more ordered, with Heavens, Yu Shan, the Hells of the Yozi, and more planes and worlds of the Solars, the Lunars and Sidereals. The Wyld encapsulated by the Numina, the lands of the Dead in the Mortis at the end of the Axis of Fate, and the cold logic of the Mundatum, and Autocthon at the other--both ends of the Axis of Fate end up in either complete dissolution and Oblivion, so rigid and locked up in total stasis, while at the center you've got the Wyld, and at the center of the All you've got the Mundus, a balance of Stasis, Wyld, and Entropy.

 

[Flagg]

But really, it's not like WW is obscuring some historical point that in Creation is crystal clear

It's one thing for the persepctives of various groups to differ in-game; it's another for unbiased out-of-game facts about the history of Creation to differ. The former creates depth of setting; the latter creates confusion amongst players and Storytellers. WW does both.

 

[Solfi]

I'm still sort of poking at the Axis of Fate--a more Steampunk setting' date=' and a bit more esoteric than the current setting.  Multiple worlds, death being a transition between worlds.  Sort of a gritty Exalted meets Planescape.[/quote']
Have you read The Brothers Lionheart by swedish children's book author Astrid Lindgren? (mostly known internationally for Pippi Longstockings I surmise). That's exactly what it's about. Pretty adult theme for a children's book admittedly, and one of the best I read when I was a little boy. I have no idea how the english translation compares, but the swedish one is definitely a good read for the adult mind as well, in the same way the folkloristic books by Neil Gaiman (ie. Stardust) is.

 

[Jakk Bey]

Haven't read it, but I'll keep my eyes out.

 

[Hanat-Osul]

I'd like to see a series based on the founding of Stygia.

 

[memesis]

It's one thing for the persepctives of various groups to differ in-game; it's another for unbiased out-of-game facts about the history of Creation to differ. The former creates depth of setting; the latter creates confusion amongst players and Storytellers. WW does both.

What "unbiased, out-of-game facts" are differing?  "The First Age" and "The Second Age" are explicitly in-game monikers.

 

[Ledaal Kajiri]

It's rather like arguments between scholar of exactly when one Age ends or begins... We've had, and still do, among our own scholars disagreements about such. There are commonly accepted divisions, but they are not all indisputed.

 

[Jukashi]

Don't forget Mortal/God-Blooded games, in any age.

 

[Flagg]

What "unbiased, out-of-game facts" are differing?  "The First Age" and "The Second Age" are explicitly in-game monikers.

What I mean by that phrase is information that's not presented from the perspective of characters in Creation, but as "facts" about the setting.

 

[Dracogryff]

Well, what if the fact is that there is no clear delineation of which is what age? The Solars fell. The Shogunate fell. These are facts. What qualifies as 'First Age' or 'Second Age' depends completely on the viewpoint of the people involved...they are purely mortal (and by extension, Exalted) concepts. Thus there is no true delineation of when the First Age ended...because the idea that there was an age at all is created by man and Exalt in idea, and isn't pure fact. Nobody argues that the Solars and the Shogunate fell...just what people view as an 'age' varies.

 

[Flagg]

Well, what if the fact is that there is no clear delineation of which is what age?

The 2E core says rather flatly that the First Age ended with the Usurpation, and that the widely held belief that it endured until the Contagion is wrong. It's deliberate mis-information on the part of the Realm and its Sidereal backers.

 

[Dracogryff]

Well then, if it's clearly stated, why are you complaining? *confused* No offense intended.

 

[Flagg]

Because in other places (I'm specifically recalling the Wyld book), it appears to contradict this information.

 

[Ledaal Kajiri]

Welll, this is White Wolf for one. They write things according to the view of who they are writing about. To the Solar, they are all that really matters...so OF COURSE their death and imprisonment ended the First Age to their mind. For the Dragonblooded, the Contagion ended the First Age, as it was the major fall from how things had been. For mortal scholars, the Contagion and the loss of Shogunate Era technology and 9/10th of the population is the end of the First Age.


The Wonders of a Lost Age book makes it pretty clear that there is some disagreement by some Celestial Exalts (not a very large population, but a powerful one), but outside of that, there was the High and Low First Age, and then there is the second Age, the Age of Sorrows. At no time in any of the books has the title for the current age, the Age of Sorrows, been used for the Shogunate Era. Now, perhaps this should really be considered the Third Age instead of the Second, and have the First Age as the time of the Solars, the Second Age as the Shogunate, and the modern Age of Sorrows as the current age...but that does not appear to be how scholars see it.


The fall from Shogunate Era technology was a greater loss to most minds than the fall from Solar Era technology...as the heaviest loss was in durability. While more maintenance is certainly a big loss...things still worked. The standard of living stayed very high, higher than this modern age. The weather machines still kept the climate relativelly nice...once the disagreements with the Bureau of Seasons and so forth were ironed out, people had heated homes, distant communication, and so forth. Sky ships still flew about with regularity. Then the Contagion happened...and not only did 9/10 of the population die...but so did 9/10 of those who knew how to handle this or that piece of magitech...as well as much of the populace needed to support it.

 

[Flagg]

Welll' date=' this is White Wolf for one. They write things according to the view of who they are writing about.[/quote']
So you're saying that according to the POV of "the Wyld", the First Age ended with the Great Contagion? Huh?

 

[Dracogryff]

Well, considering it's what let them invade and start taking over, I don't see it as implausible.

 

[Ledaal Kajiri]

Of course. The Wyld came in and kicked serious Creation ass during that time. The Wyld would love to feel that it ended the First Age.

 

[Flagg]

Well, considering it's what let them invade and start taking over, I don't see it as implausible.

Who is "them"? This isn't the Fair Folk book. It's the Wyld.

 

[Dracogryff]

It has info on the Fair Folk tribes, if not their creation rules and charms. *shrugs* And the Fae pretty much rule the Wyld, insofar as anything can rule it...and as LK said, who in the Wyld wouldn't want to think they ended the First Age?