Axelgear
General Wontwit
We gotta go
We've got nothing to lose now
Time has come for us to get out
We gotta go
If we're going down, well
Let's go down in flames
The Usurpation. There is no word to describe the utter necessity of the action nor the level of betrayal approached by this penultimate of acts. You are a Solar, over a thousand years of age and totally lost to the Great Curse, and now your faithful servants turn against you, your greatest advisers now seek to dethrone you, your Lunar mates have abandoned you and you are alone...
But it's not over yet. You avoided the mass-murder at Meru for the Calibration Feast and by virtue of being with your circle-mates, you thwarted the plans of your would-be assassins, if only temporarily. However, using the terrible power of Sidereal Martial Arts, each of you was infected with the illness known only as One Hundred Days of Grace. For ninety-nine days, you will continue to live normally, until, on the hundredth day, you will find the full weight of death upon you. On the hundred and first day, you will die.
There is no hope of a cure, for all your research equipment is lost and any fellow Solars who might aid you in finding a way to solve your ailment are dead and gone.
So, here you are: Five mad Solars, with no hope of survival, no chance of redemption... Well, if you've got to go, go out with a bang, right?
Edit: So, some details I should have included.
Char Gen
This is a First Age Solars game set during the Usurpation. You are five members of a Solar Circle, all using the Legendary Solar starting template as found in Dreams of the First Age. Because you are so damned powerful, expect damned powerful foes. Note that backgrounds such as Backing and Contacts and such will not be useless but choose them carefully. After all, you only have 99 days in which to run Creation from tits to toes.
Game Goal
The obvious goal in the game is to rage against the dying light. There's really no reason you can't potentially destroy Creation entirely in this game, after all.
Characters
All characters will be Solars, I'm taking five players and you're all going to be starting in the sea between the Blessed Isle and the Eastern continent, on a pleasure yacht, surrounded by 3 dead Sidereals and a hundred dead Dragon-Blooded, along with a few floundering ships.
For the record, to make my job easier, I will be taking people who want to participate but not play Solars as Sidereals working in opposition to them.
2nd Edit: Because you asked for it...
The Sidereal Death Squad
I will be taking up to 3 Sidereals to act as my Sidereal Death Squad, possibly more if I really like the concepts presented. That's UP TO 3, though; three is not the guaranteed number. The reason I'm going to be so picky about this is that the Sidereals will be required to come up with their own plans on how to assault the Solars. That is, to say, you will be designing your own various schemes to interfere with their plans, kill them or otherwise do what is necessary to save Creation from their madness.
In short, I'm placing a lot of trust in you to be cunning, conniving and every bit as devious as a millennia-old Vizier should be. You made a conscious decision to kill the Lords of Creation, this is not something you are doing lightly, so any characters I take will need to reflect the levels of badassery necessary for such feats and, more importantly, any players I select will need to show a level of creativity and independence in coming up with their plans.
Sidereals will be using the Legendary Sidereal Character Creation rules and will have access to all Sidereal Martial Arts Charms. Any official SMA? Yours to take, no questions asked.
Lunars
I disallowed Lunars for the extra sense of betrayal. However, I'm not... Unwilling to let them in entirely. You'd just need Solar Bond at the Legendary level. Yes, I know there's no Legendary Solar Bond in the book but I'd rule it in here. In this case, you'd be fanatically loyal to your Solar, overlooking anything they do that's morally questionable and being so devoted as to sacrifice your own life without question or hesitation at their say-so.
In short, you must be devoted as only an Exalt can be.
For the record, this Background is free.
Again, you'd use the Legendary Lunar start. However, you've been with your Solar for at least 2/3rds of that span and, remember, you've been beyond loyal every Great Curse induced, inhuman second. You're either hopelessly broken or a monster and every bit as amoral as your mate. Be prepared to play that.
Naturally, you'd also need to be bonded to one of the other players.
3rd Edit:
House Rules
The Bitchin' Artifact Rule - Artifacts are meant to be awesome. Treat them more like characters in their own right than just items to make yourself more awesome. That is why, if you offer up more detail behind any major artifacts your character has (the history behind your daiklave, for example), I will bestow upon it a small additional power. Nothing huge but maybe because your Daiklave was the legendary weapon that sliced through one of the subsidiary souls of the Primordial-turned-Neverborn He Who Holds In Thrall, its incredible edge now finds other challenges pitiful, granting it the Piercing quality.
You don't have to provide a background for all your items, not every artifact has an absolutely epic backstory, but this gives you a chance to give your character an attachment to some favourite item of theirs.
The Bitchin' Artifact Corollary: The Death By Mundane Rule: If I deem a character to have no good reason to have a certain artifact (why would a Sidereal have a copy of the Crown of Thunders?), you either have to put up a good reason for it that would explain your one-of-a-kind circumstances or put the item back on the shelf.
The Bitchin' Artifact Sub-Rule (Rule of Cool addition): In regards to custom artifacts, chance of acceptance increases the cooler the item is. This is Exalted; rules are loose things, so if I have to bend them a little to allow your character to do something awesome, I'm willing. If you what effectively amounts to a ballista as a powerbow that shoots bundles of arrows at such high speeds that they ignite the air around them, well, damnit, it's in! If you want a coat stitched from the night sky itself, through which people can see the equivalent of the Hubble Field, allowing you to exist outside Fate and teleport, I'm game. The more original your concept or the more quirky it is, the better. An artifact that makes you invisible is humdrum; a ninja mask that makes you invisible as long as you hold your breath is far more interesting.
As should be obvious, always check with me before adding in a custom artifact.
Making Stuff's Easy (Craft Condensing Rule): Crafting things is an art but all arts have some cross-disciplinary turn-over. Crafting a perfect sword, cutting the perfect gem, mixing an elegant perfume... They're all very different activities, yet also very similar. They all take excellent understanding of materials, deft hands and careful eyes, and once you master one, mastery of the others isn't anywhere nearly as difficult as if you had to learn it all from scratch.
As such, all basic forms of Craft, which is Fire, Water, Earth, Wood and Air, are all under Craft with each being bought as a specialty. For example, if you have Craft 5 (Fire), it only takes one specialty or ability dot to gain Craft 5 (Fire, Earth). Esoteric crafts, meanwhile, are so inherently different to the rest of these spheres as to require their own skills. Craft (Glamour, Fate, etc.) is each its own separate ability.
These specialties do not count towards the 3 Maximum Specialties limit as they are effectively not specialties at all. They do not have a rating. This means that if you have Craft (Air, Fire, Water), you can still take Earth and Wood to gain all five, as well as three additional specialties. These are best recorded separately.
Example: Transcendentally Glorious Bob has Craft (Fire) at 5 dots. Figuring his swordsmith would likely know a decent amount about earthen works as well, having to make his own fire pits and such, he spends one specialty dot to add Earth to this. This makes the ability Craft (Fire, Earth) 5.
Later, Transcendentally Glorious Bob decides to try his hand at reshaping the very stuff of dreams itself. This, however, requires a considerably different set of tools and understandings than how to hit things with a hammer until they stop looking funny. Bob must instead spend 5 new ability dots to learn Craft (Glamour) 5.
Finally, Transcendentally Glorious Bob decides that he wants to learn all forms of crafting. After many years of practice, he now has Craft (Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Wood) 5. Bob now figures he can do something he really likes and learns to make flower arrangements as a specialty. Bob now has Craft (Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Wood) 5 [Flower Arrangements oo].
We've got nothing to lose now
Time has come for us to get out
We gotta go
If we're going down, well
Let's go down in flames
The Usurpation. There is no word to describe the utter necessity of the action nor the level of betrayal approached by this penultimate of acts. You are a Solar, over a thousand years of age and totally lost to the Great Curse, and now your faithful servants turn against you, your greatest advisers now seek to dethrone you, your Lunar mates have abandoned you and you are alone...
But it's not over yet. You avoided the mass-murder at Meru for the Calibration Feast and by virtue of being with your circle-mates, you thwarted the plans of your would-be assassins, if only temporarily. However, using the terrible power of Sidereal Martial Arts, each of you was infected with the illness known only as One Hundred Days of Grace. For ninety-nine days, you will continue to live normally, until, on the hundredth day, you will find the full weight of death upon you. On the hundred and first day, you will die.
There is no hope of a cure, for all your research equipment is lost and any fellow Solars who might aid you in finding a way to solve your ailment are dead and gone.
So, here you are: Five mad Solars, with no hope of survival, no chance of redemption... Well, if you've got to go, go out with a bang, right?
Edit: So, some details I should have included.
Char Gen
This is a First Age Solars game set during the Usurpation. You are five members of a Solar Circle, all using the Legendary Solar starting template as found in Dreams of the First Age. Because you are so damned powerful, expect damned powerful foes. Note that backgrounds such as Backing and Contacts and such will not be useless but choose them carefully. After all, you only have 99 days in which to run Creation from tits to toes.
Game Goal
The obvious goal in the game is to rage against the dying light. There's really no reason you can't potentially destroy Creation entirely in this game, after all.
Characters
All characters will be Solars, I'm taking five players and you're all going to be starting in the sea between the Blessed Isle and the Eastern continent, on a pleasure yacht, surrounded by 3 dead Sidereals and a hundred dead Dragon-Blooded, along with a few floundering ships.
For the record, to make my job easier, I will be taking people who want to participate but not play Solars as Sidereals working in opposition to them.
2nd Edit: Because you asked for it...
The Sidereal Death Squad
I will be taking up to 3 Sidereals to act as my Sidereal Death Squad, possibly more if I really like the concepts presented. That's UP TO 3, though; three is not the guaranteed number. The reason I'm going to be so picky about this is that the Sidereals will be required to come up with their own plans on how to assault the Solars. That is, to say, you will be designing your own various schemes to interfere with their plans, kill them or otherwise do what is necessary to save Creation from their madness.
In short, I'm placing a lot of trust in you to be cunning, conniving and every bit as devious as a millennia-old Vizier should be. You made a conscious decision to kill the Lords of Creation, this is not something you are doing lightly, so any characters I take will need to reflect the levels of badassery necessary for such feats and, more importantly, any players I select will need to show a level of creativity and independence in coming up with their plans.
Sidereals will be using the Legendary Sidereal Character Creation rules and will have access to all Sidereal Martial Arts Charms. Any official SMA? Yours to take, no questions asked.
Lunars
I disallowed Lunars for the extra sense of betrayal. However, I'm not... Unwilling to let them in entirely. You'd just need Solar Bond at the Legendary level. Yes, I know there's no Legendary Solar Bond in the book but I'd rule it in here. In this case, you'd be fanatically loyal to your Solar, overlooking anything they do that's morally questionable and being so devoted as to sacrifice your own life without question or hesitation at their say-so.
In short, you must be devoted as only an Exalt can be.
For the record, this Background is free.
Again, you'd use the Legendary Lunar start. However, you've been with your Solar for at least 2/3rds of that span and, remember, you've been beyond loyal every Great Curse induced, inhuman second. You're either hopelessly broken or a monster and every bit as amoral as your mate. Be prepared to play that.
Naturally, you'd also need to be bonded to one of the other players.
3rd Edit:
House Rules
The Bitchin' Artifact Rule - Artifacts are meant to be awesome. Treat them more like characters in their own right than just items to make yourself more awesome. That is why, if you offer up more detail behind any major artifacts your character has (the history behind your daiklave, for example), I will bestow upon it a small additional power. Nothing huge but maybe because your Daiklave was the legendary weapon that sliced through one of the subsidiary souls of the Primordial-turned-Neverborn He Who Holds In Thrall, its incredible edge now finds other challenges pitiful, granting it the Piercing quality.
You don't have to provide a background for all your items, not every artifact has an absolutely epic backstory, but this gives you a chance to give your character an attachment to some favourite item of theirs.
The Bitchin' Artifact Corollary: The Death By Mundane Rule: If I deem a character to have no good reason to have a certain artifact (why would a Sidereal have a copy of the Crown of Thunders?), you either have to put up a good reason for it that would explain your one-of-a-kind circumstances or put the item back on the shelf.
The Bitchin' Artifact Sub-Rule (Rule of Cool addition): In regards to custom artifacts, chance of acceptance increases the cooler the item is. This is Exalted; rules are loose things, so if I have to bend them a little to allow your character to do something awesome, I'm willing. If you what effectively amounts to a ballista as a powerbow that shoots bundles of arrows at such high speeds that they ignite the air around them, well, damnit, it's in! If you want a coat stitched from the night sky itself, through which people can see the equivalent of the Hubble Field, allowing you to exist outside Fate and teleport, I'm game. The more original your concept or the more quirky it is, the better. An artifact that makes you invisible is humdrum; a ninja mask that makes you invisible as long as you hold your breath is far more interesting.
As should be obvious, always check with me before adding in a custom artifact.
Making Stuff's Easy (Craft Condensing Rule): Crafting things is an art but all arts have some cross-disciplinary turn-over. Crafting a perfect sword, cutting the perfect gem, mixing an elegant perfume... They're all very different activities, yet also very similar. They all take excellent understanding of materials, deft hands and careful eyes, and once you master one, mastery of the others isn't anywhere nearly as difficult as if you had to learn it all from scratch.
As such, all basic forms of Craft, which is Fire, Water, Earth, Wood and Air, are all under Craft with each being bought as a specialty. For example, if you have Craft 5 (Fire), it only takes one specialty or ability dot to gain Craft 5 (Fire, Earth). Esoteric crafts, meanwhile, are so inherently different to the rest of these spheres as to require their own skills. Craft (Glamour, Fate, etc.) is each its own separate ability.
These specialties do not count towards the 3 Maximum Specialties limit as they are effectively not specialties at all. They do not have a rating. This means that if you have Craft (Air, Fire, Water), you can still take Earth and Wood to gain all five, as well as three additional specialties. These are best recorded separately.
Example: Transcendentally Glorious Bob has Craft (Fire) at 5 dots. Figuring his swordsmith would likely know a decent amount about earthen works as well, having to make his own fire pits and such, he spends one specialty dot to add Earth to this. This makes the ability Craft (Fire, Earth) 5.
Later, Transcendentally Glorious Bob decides to try his hand at reshaping the very stuff of dreams itself. This, however, requires a considerably different set of tools and understandings than how to hit things with a hammer until they stop looking funny. Bob must instead spend 5 new ability dots to learn Craft (Glamour) 5.
Finally, Transcendentally Glorious Bob decides that he wants to learn all forms of crafting. After many years of practice, he now has Craft (Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Wood) 5. Bob now figures he can do something he really likes and learns to make flower arrangements as a specialty. Bob now has Craft (Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Wood) 5 [Flower Arrangements oo].
