[Exalted] Rebirth of the Devil Tigers

Misanthrope

Misanthrope

Junior Member
Who will we be? Players would take control of Devil Tigers, Infernal Exalts that undertook a series of heretical enlightenment that freed their exaltations from the control of their Yozi Masters. They would not be playing characters with an essence of three or higher to begin with, but the newly exalted second generation of Devil Tigers. I'm not against players taking the roll of Lunars, Solars, Abyssals and other Exalt types however. My main story focus will be upon the Devil Tigers, however. Multiple characters may even be a possibility if I can find additional storytellers to assist me.


What will we do? Whatever you like. I'll be running both thread and chat-based scenes based on your own motivations. Characters will predominantly be playing in a 'sandbox' with various elements of plot and story available for those who can make them. Much of the control about what you'll do will be in the player's hands. I would even like some players storytelling for others. I chose the Hybrid Tag because I will be running scenes in chat as well as in RP threads.


Where in Creation will the game be based? I've always had a preference for the South and the East, but I'm open to suggestions by the player base.


When will the game take place in terms of RY calendar? In order to make being a Devi Tiger a 'dangerous thing to be', I envision the Realm and the Wild Hunt being intact - and whats more, a robust institution with assistance from the Bronze Faction of the Sidereals. In addition, I think that the Yozi need a greater influence on the surface of Creation - they want their lost Green Sun Princes back. With that in mind, the year would be RY999, with Mnemmon on the throne of the Realm. Her rulership was instrumental in thwarting, at least partially, the attempts of the Ebon Dragon and his co-conspirators in their efforts to escape. The forces of Yu-Shan and Creation were able to be brought to bear on the war that began the Age of Brass - the age where Creation and Malfeas come closer than ever to being the same. Trapped between Creation and their prison, the Yozis have a greater deal of influence on their Creation, though they still seek doorways to allow their Jouten to enter fully. The Lunar Elders feel the pinch as the Wild Places become breeding grounds for Yozi cults, and must once more take on the mantle of protectors or else watch their mortal experiments fall before the unholy might of the former Primordials.


So, the Devil Tigers are reborn into a world of strife and conflict, where their nature marks them as enemies of all things, and allies of none. Will they be able to survive the Realm's Wild Hunts, as well as the Sidereal agents and Green Sun Princes hunting them down for their exaltations? Will they write their legend across Creation for good or for evil?


How will this work? Basically, at character creation for a Devil Tiger, only two custom things need to be worked upon: the first is the Devil Tiger's Caste, the second is the First Excellency. These constitute the 'Legend' of the Devil Tiger, the definition from which all other charms can be expanded out from. This makes a good Legend all important - it can't be too narrow or two broad, and the idea of the caste needs to be balanced.


So, what do I need to do?


Let me know the following:

  • If you will be playing anything OTHER than a Devil Tiger...
  • Opinion on the WHERE factor - East, West, North, or South. I'd rather set the game in a single direction for the most part, though moving to other areas of Creation is totally possible.
  • Opinion on the WHEN - is there anything here that you would like to see added or taken away? Anything not at all clear?
  • Let me know if you would be willing to act as an OFFICIAL PLEDGED STORYTELLER for the game. You can be a Storyteller and still have a Character in a different thread of the game.
  • Let me know if you are an OFFICIAL PLEDGED PLAYER who wants to take part in this game.
  • Any other comments or thoughts you might have had about the game.
 
I am definitely interested.


If you don't mind, can I ask about what's been going in in the 250ish years since the Empress's disappearance (assuming you're keeping that as canon)? What have the Deathlords done? This is well within the Silver Prince's planned destruction of the world timeframe. What about the 150ish solars? You're saying the focus will be on second generation Devil Tigers, does that mean that the first generation lived to the ripe old age of 250 and died roughly at the same time?


Sorry if this seems accusatory, I just feel that Creation at the canonical start date is in a terribly unstable situation, and unless something happens to calm things down in a big way, I don't see it surviving roughly unchanged for more than a decade or two, tops.


Character-wise, I'd be interested in playing a lunar mate to one of the devil tigers.
 
@Misanthrope, Another thing you might need to consider if this game is a Hybrid game, is when you would be looking to do the extra-forum activities (TeamSpeak gameplay, etc), since many people will be in different time zones.


Captain Hesperus
 
Esbilon said:
I am definitely interested.
If you don't mind, can I ask about what's been going in in the 250ish years since the Empress's disappearance (assuming you're keeping that as canon)? What have the Deathlords done? This is well within the Silver Prince's planned destruction of the world timeframe. What about the 150ish solars? You're saying the focus will be on second generation Devil Tigers, does that mean that the first generation lived to the ripe old age of 250 and died roughly at the same time? Sorry if this seems accusatory, I just feel that Creation at the canonical start date is in a terribly unstable situation, and unless something happens to calm things down in a big way, I don't see it surviving roughly unchanged for more than a decade or two, tops.
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You are very right in thinking the idea is nebulous. It is. Part of my rationale for only wanting to concentrate on one direction is that it cuts down on the sheer weight of powerful entities to consider by 80% roughly. We're talking about a time frame of 150ish years since the Empress Disappeared in which we've seen a war consume all the corners of Creation (I'm assuming here the events in the Return of the Scarlet Empress came to pass, but were thwarted by Mnemmon's coop, a bunch of solar, lunar and sidereal heroes, and some of the Abyssal Exalted too ). Other than that, I truly don't know - But thats not to say I don't accept suggestions. What will really start to solidify things in my mind is when I know which direction to start looking in.


One thing I do want to make clear is that -something- obviously has happened to the first Devil Tigers for them all to be destroyed and reborn throughout creation (specifically concentrated in one Direction, in the main). There are not many of them... There still exist Green Sun Princes that would love to recapture them and bring them back to Malfeas...


You are absolutely right that the Status Quo in the cannon setting is not a stable political situation. Things will have changed drastically.


Do you have any preference in a Direction to set the game? Is there an NPC you'd like to see having created their own Empire? A deathlord perhaps that you feels needs to have won vast swathes of Creation for the neverborn? Or a Solar that has stood and been counted, creating an Empire of their own? Will the Lunars have helped or hindered such attempts?


Your concerns are utterly valid, but not answerable until I have more details about what people want to see...

[QUOTE="Captain Hesperus]@Misanthrope, Another thing you might need to consider if this game is a Hybrid game, is when you would be looking to do the extra-forum activities (TeamSpeak gameplay, etc), since many people will be in different time zones.
Captain Hesperus

[/QUOTE]
It is my plan to run ad-hoc scenes timetabled in a thread in the game for Teamspeak. I do like the tool, and I prefer to run my scenes in a few hours, compared to a few weeks of Forum posting. Especially for combat... lol.
 
It is my plan to run ad-hoc scenes timetabled in a thread in the game for Teamspeak. I do like the tool' date=' and I prefer to run my scenes in a few hours, compared to a few weeks of Forum posting. Especially for combat... lol.[/quote']
Okay, just making sure you had that in mind as part of your game plan, so to speak.


Good luck with the game!


Captain Hesperus
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The Reclamation as described in Return of the Scarlet Empress is not of the centuries-variety, it is expected to play out in a few years. Canonical start is (iirc) 768, so adding a few years to get the Reclamation started and finished, that still leaves more than 200 years of idle time. Perhaps it is just my inclination to play solars who want to take over the world, but those guys would mess things up in a big way if given that kind of time to expand their power base.


There are 13 deathlords with solar or greater power levels, and each of them have a (good or bad) plan for destroying the world, the Silver Prince and the First and Forsaken Lion being the most pressing.


I know the writers wanted Creation to feel Big, but for various reasons (to a certain extent the presence of speedy communication and travel), it doesn't. Therefore, restricting us to one corner of it does not change much if any of the characters are interested in global politics, and in my (biased) experienced, someone in every group, particularly every sandbox group, is.


My point, I think, is that when you say that you're starting us two centuries ahead of the canon time, everyone will have their own conflicting thoughts on how the world has developed, so everyone will go into the game with different expectations, and unless you're restricting us to a small sandbox, that means that it is pretty much your job to rewrite the entirety of Creation's fluff, and justify your writing to your players. There are ways to restrict your players' access to information, and great games can be had that way, but they're typically not very sandboxy, and you want to be very clearly about it if that's the kind of game you're running.


I don't want to dissuade you, I get what you're doing and I think it has potential for much awesome, but your seemingly casual timeskippinng makes me worried. If it were me, I'd set the game very shortly after the Reclamation had failed (incidentally killing off a lot of the powerful NPCs with rich backstories) and task the players with defining the new world order.

Misanthrope said:
Do you have any preference in a Direction to set the game? Is there an NPC you'd like to see having created their own Empire? A deathlord perhaps that you feels needs to have won vast swathes of Creation for the neverborn? Or a Solar that has stood and been counted, creating an Empire of their own? Will the Lunars have helped or hindered such attempts?
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I have only weak preferences on Directions, even more so if we skip far enough ahead in the future to make everything different.


There are no canonical NPCs I can imagine running a successful empire some 200 years after the Empress's disappearance. I have a few of my own if you're interested.


Deathlords do not win vast swathes of Creation, they destroy them. I would think that the Silver Prince has brought much of the West into the Underworld, and that the First and Forsaken Lion has done near-irreparable damage to much of the South. But almost all of them should have either died in glorious battle (conveniently taking out a few heroes with them), or done something to seriously threaten the world. But I don't see them involved in long, sustained struggles, much less them being satisfied with any status quo, they're destroying the world, or preparing to.


Solars generally stand and are counted, if empires emerge around them depends on the solar, but surely some of them could, as I said, I have some old PCs/NPCs if you're interested.


I don't imagine the lunar community having a unified reaction to this, if they had unified reactions, they'd have accomplished something in the past 1500 years. Some will support, some will oppose, and 200 years is way too long for me to make predictions about how it turns out.

Misanthrope said:
It is my plan to run ad-hoc scenes timetabled in a thread in the game for Teamspeak. I do like the tool, and I prefer to run my scenes in a few hours, compared to a few weeks of Forum posting. Especially for combat... lol.
Click to expand...
PBP-combat in general and Exalted PBP-combat in particular does indeed suck major balls.
 
Again, I agree with the vast majority of what you've said. And I know what you mean about ensuring a shared vision of Creation is important to a congruous series of stories. As I've said previously, I'd prefer to set a game in the South or in the East/ Scav lands. The fun for me is in reimagining places like the Lap and Gem - and then justifying these new visions with 200 years of conflict (as you said). The bonus comes from the fact that people can once more explore a An-Teng that is NEW and DIFFERENT yet familiar... I imagine, in the broadest sense, the following time line for the Whole of Creation.


RY 770 -


The Reclamation begins apace with the return of the Scarlet Empress. She is Akuma of the Ebon Dragon, and always was (Its no accident she managed to access the Imperial Defense Grid - She made a deal with the devil to save creation). Famine strikes the North, War englufs the West, and the Sword of Creation wipes Lookshy off the map.


Of the Sidereals, heaven is suddenly unsure. A vast swathe of them are reborn in the following months in Creation, unexpectedly, causing snarls in the Loom of Fate.


RY 771 - 774


Mnemmon, knowing of her Mother's perfidity, eventually manages to align a few houses, and the Roseblack into a force, and takes the Imperial City from the forces of the Demons, aided by some Solars, Lunars and two of the four Elder Sidereals left after years of struggle. This happens at the hight of the Wedding... And at the crucial moment, the ritual that would unlock the Yozis was interrupted... and thwarted.


Civil war engulfs all the Satrapys of the Realm, and the Blessed Isle. In the Chaos, the neatly ordered plans of the Empress slowly unravel....


The Yozis are stuck in a half-escaped state tied to locations in Creation and to their hellish prison, Malfeas.


RY 790


The Undead Army of Lookshy (with all the military might of the former living city) begins preying on the River Confederation, demanding tribute and payment for their mercenary ways much as they did while alive. They remain opposed to the Mask of Winters.


RY 799


Alhat's followers overthrow the Imperial Troops in Kirghast.


RY 804


Dynasts that Exalt as a Celestial are granted pardons, as long as they remain loyal to the Throne of the Realm. Mnemon binds them with spells to ensure that these powerful beings do not betray her. She is assisted by the Four remaining Sidereal Elders, all of whom now see the Bronze Faction as the only way to fix Creation.


RY 807


The Bull of the North takes Halata, Whitewall and much of the North, but is confounded in further expansion by the exaltations of rival Solars who would challenge his rule. The North remains a political hotbed for tribal relationships between Icewalkers.


RY 815


After decades of working, a Devil Tiger manages to create a stable portal between Creation and Malfeas. The GateKeeper allows passage only at a price. The Jotoun of Adojan accpets the price, and walks into Creation... Free at last.


RY 815-40


The Wind Wars spread across the North, as Adojan blows across Creation, slaying Millions. The Bull and the other Solars in the north finally managed to drive her back into Malfeas, but at a great cost to themselves.


RY 820


Paragon goes to war with Gem


etc...


I'll do more, but only when I know where Im focusing my game. lol.


I hope you can see that the Creation of 999 is vastly different to that of 770 - 229 years of change will do that. But still, its essentially similar...


Help me out, if you like... I'm more than interested in hearing what might else have happened.
 
You know, it would be really easy to adapt TAW into a small batch of infernally corrupted Lunar exaltations.


And I think the Bull of the North was more likely to take over Linowan than Halta, possibly freeing the Haltans to expand out of their forests and onto the ground. Metalworking would change their society in ways that their Lunar patrons might object to, or be entirely handled by some new caste of beastman.
 
I love this idea!


Directionally, I have no real preferences, as I can enjoy each for its own reasons. That said, once we do get a Direction (or, I suppose, two if we're in a corner), I'd love to help with the history brainstorming. In particular, I like the Undead Army of Lookshy still fighting against the Mask of Winter.


I'm primarily interested in playing a Devil Tiger, though I do generally enjoy playing supportive characters as well (whether a Lunar mate or some stranger).
 
I am absolutely in. This sounds fantastic. I've always wanted to use my Devil-tiger concepts.


EDIT:


I prefer the north, and yes, I can storytell a few scenes!
 
I'm interested in playing DT.


WHERE: I have thing for north and south but it's weak preference.


OFFICIAL PLEDGED STORYTELLER:No


OFFICIAL PLEDGED PLAYER:yes


Solars


If Bull of the North survives I see him and his empire as rallying point for Solars, By his reputation alone he would be default go to person for young Solars. It wound not necessary make him leader of fraction (like Kejak is for Bronze in canonical creation) unless he is very very successful but he could be influential person.


There is also Cult of the Illuminated, either they failed or are fraction with significant power base (dozens of celestial carry some weight) and have major impact on creation .. after all they exist to change it for better (how , what and how much they have done is another matter but they would not be idle). If they survive cult won't claim any power as secular entity but it's exalted members can: I see few kingdoms and organizations adhering to few common principles and cooperating much better with each other perhaps even having common political program(or elements of it).


Abbysals


Sijan is good place to hag out for Renegade Abbysals


GSP


Just a thought what about cabal or two akumized not for powers but to keep other GSP honest and loyal. they probably keep their akuma status hidden form other GSP.


Lunars


Solar bond may start having impact and there is growing number solaroid-lunar pairs.


Sidereals


Does their immaculate lie survives? I see sidereals prioritizing their hunt considering damage done by Yozi and GSP, GSP and DT are top priority next are Abbysals (also sevants of strange hosttle forces), Solar and L:unars may be now at the bottom end of priorities especial if they can be manipulated and at core are human as Sidereals.


DTs


It's possible for DT to create own world-body (or in this case soul-world) it may be possible to join or connect such realm to creation in some way. There may be few now strange realms out there and such world don't have do die when orginal DT dies (after all it's Legend lives in new host) most likely not as big as Creation or even Blessed Isle but still...
 
[QUOTE="Shining Lotus Sage]You know, if you can bear to delay this a few months, I bet the Infernals in your other game will invent some kick-ass DTs.

[/QUOTE]
Oh, no doubt!


But wait a few months? That, I feel, is akin to self-torture.
 
You bet I am interested.


If the other game holds straight, I'll have to hold off on using Syrenica and her eventual charmset.


That leaves me making technological wonders to bring terror to the South... or a mischief protector/alter of intended events.
 
Oh right these (One sec)

  • If you will be playing anything OTHER than a Devil Tiger... (Wait ... I mean DT is all I want to do. xD )
  • Opinion on the WHERE factor - East, West, North, or South. I'd rather set the game in a single direction for the most part, though moving to other areas of Creation is totally possible. (South or East, potentially West, but mostly South)
  • Opinion on the WHEN - is there anything here that you would like to see added or taken away? Anything not at all clear? (No strong preference here)
  • Let me know if you would be willing to act as an OFFICIAL PLEDGED STORYTELLER for the game. You can be a Storyteller and still have a Character in a different thread of the game. (Not... very likely. I have two games elsewhere still struggling to survive xD )
  • Let me know if you are an OFFICIAL PLEDGED PLAYER who wants to take part in this game. (This is a Yes, yes yes)
  • Any other comments or thoughts you might have had about the game. (None)
 
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  • If you will be playing anything OTHER than a Devil Tiger... (Possibly, but the DT is my MC in the Plan see.)
  • Opinion on the WHERE factor - East, West, North, or South. I'd rather set the game in a single direction for the most part, though moving to other areas of Creation is totally possible. (North, West, Whatever.)
  • Opinion on the WHEN - is there anything here that you would like to see added or taken away? Anything not at all clear? (No strong preference here)
  • Let me know if you would be willing to act as an OFFICIAL PLEDGED STORYTELLER for the game. You can be a Storyteller and still have a Character in a different thread of the game. (I could /help/ but..... I aint pledging.)
  • Let me know if you are an OFFICIAL PLEDGED PLAYER who wants to take part in this game. (This is a Yes, yes yes)
  • Any other comments or thoughts you might have had about the game. (None)
 
I'll I'll talk to you in PM about a concept or three before I commit to anything. You've seen how fast I can complete a brand new concept, though, so I am a strong Maybe. Don't tap me for storyteller until I get some logs up on the the forum.
 
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edited mine. I had to nuke my computer, reinstall OS, and now I'm back I seemed to have not answered mine correctly. But it is fixed now... >>
 
Nuked 'puter? OMG... you have the same problems as I....


I'm about ready to do a complete wipe on this windbag - its so damn slow.


Anyways, thanks for the interest so far chaps! I'm happy to take as many people as want to play. Right now, just working on the general posts, house-rules etc. and some 'Immutable laws of Legendary Charm making'.
 
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