Post apocalyptic Creation

The concepts put in Creation by the Primordials are persistent. They exist within their creator, and outside of him.


Proof: Auto is the Great Maker, his exile from Creation didn't stop people from building things, nor the death of the Primordial killed the concept they had given to Creation (on the contrary, one could think it is what ties them to it).


And IMHO, very few Deathlords are really eager to end Creation and the Underworld, few are, but the Lion is not one of them, he just (very very basically) wants his revenge and to crush everyone that stands against him.
 
The scenario included in the Autochthonians book implied that, even in death, Autochthon will maintain his creative drive. The difference would be that they will no longer be ingenuous and more than unlikely to be tools/methods of deconstruction.
 
I wonder if you're overestimating the Onceborn. He would essentially still be a Neverborn, and the Neverborn are pansy-asses compared to healthy primordials. A single circle of elder Exalts has canonically been able to stroll down to the Maw of the Void and beat them up for their lunch money.
 
Jukashi said:
I wonder if you're overestimating the Onceborn. He would essentially still be a Neverborn, and the Neverborn are pansy-asses compared to healthy primordials. A single circle of elder Exalts has canonically been able to stroll down to the Maw of the Void and beat them up for their lunch money.
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Five of them, actually, although they had just been woken up so maybe they were a little disoriented.
 
From the Black Treaty actually.


But yeah, following the history of the Underworld (as written in the CoCD:U from p.10), it took a while for the Neverborn to sleep and it also took many many efforts from various sources to calm them and stabilize the UW.


There is no doubt in he setting about the combined efforts between the ghosts of the dead war heroes (and they had to be powerful...) and the survivors, and the societies of the dead are all based on this combined effort... though I doubt anyone in both plans remembers it.


Now picture one of them, fully awakened with the power hunger and anger of the Lion as a focus... now picture that Onceborn being Autochton, the entity that created most of Creation and the exaltations... how can I truly overestimate such a being.


I mean the primordials tore the first elementals (the gods creation) to shreds... and you think that such an entitiy could not kill an elemental dragon (a strange by product of the dissolution of the first elemental essences) ?!


I am personally most doubtful... :|
 
The thing about the Neverborn is that they're dead. And when you die, you become less than you were. That's why Abyssals need to still be alive, why Deathlords need a Neverborn powering them just to be as strong as they were in life, and why the Neverborn can't actually do anything themselves - I think it was in CoCD: Underworld that attacking a Neverborn directly was described, and the thing was that they couldn't actually do anything beyond shoot crazy horror mindbeams at you. Purely mental/spiritual danger, not physical.


Also, Autochthon wasn't the beefiest primordial in the first place. Among his siblings, he was the fat bespectacled one that the others forced to do their homework for them - that's why he helped overthrow them, and that was by making weapons for other people, not using them himself. He only has one really military-minded soul. You could well argue that Gaia - who is everyone's mother - is a more threatening enemy, what with her five massively powerful dragons.


I'm not trying to underplay the threat of the Onceborn, don't get me wrong: he'd be scary. But I don't think he'd be any more powerful than a healthy primordial, and that's precisely the level of threat the Exalted have succeeded against before: even the original elementals died fighting multiple primordials, so can a single one be as much of a threat? That's an open question. His apocalyptic Creation could still happen, sure, especially considering the state of things in the Age of Sorrows, but it wouldn't be as bad as all that.
 
I'm not trying to underplay the threat of the Onceborn, don't get me wrong: he'd be scary. But I don't think he'd be any more powerful than a healthy primordial, and that's precisely the level of threat the Exalted have succeeded against before: even the original elementals died fighting multiple primordials, so can a single one be as much of a threat? That's an open question.
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Even less powerful than a regular primordial, considering the situation if this thing rised in the 15 years, everyone'd be screwed. Solars are not what they were when they fought the primordial wars, and everyone fights alone...
 
This is the sort of thing that could unite the Realm to action, maybe even Lookshy too, and though they wouldn't have any Celestials, an army of a few thousand Dragon-Blooded with First Age weapons is supposed to at least be a threat to a primordial. Meanwhile, the Sidereals for all their internal strife will close up to strike hard and fast on something they can all agree on hating, much like a dysfunctional family. And, finally, you have the Silver Pact.


Add in a few individually meddling Solars and you will at least have an interesting time. It is during such a time that the Kukla would be released, meaning that the Onceborn won't be fighting one on one with it. More like one on one with a crowd of superpowered mosquitoes set on your blood.


Of course, if you wanted to, you could still justify the Onceborn winning, quite easily. But it would at least leave some inspiring tales of heroism for the survivors to tell, and perhaps some critical wound-related weakness to his primordial necro-natomy, left by someone's valiant sacrifice. Chejop seems the type.
 
Interesting idea, the sacrifice of Kejak would have inspired many to survive, but I thought that before going after the realm of the living, the Onceborn Lion would have ensured his domination over the underworld forces (slaying a deathlord for the example).


Therefore Creation would not only have faced only him, but also the others, and the Realm was taken care of by the return of the Empress.


I mean, I could have written a setting less noir, but that wasn't exactly my point.
 
I guess it comes down to my feeling that Exalted and true grimdark don't go well together. If you have Sidereals you will have secret plans. If you have Lunars you will have survival. If you have Solars, you will have change.
 
Well:


- sidereals plans have gone snafu at times (Green Lady is responsible for the creation of abyssals and infernals and the sack of Thorns).


- lunars have chimerism to worry about


- solars will eventually go crazy again


I think the setting is pretty grim in itself, as since the Curse the world is caught in vicious circles. Everytime a cycle reaches his apogee, the fall is hard and the next cycle is a little less shiny and the world becomes a mess everytime the cycle changes (First Age -> Shogunate -> Second Age).


I mean the solars could make the Third Age a little more like the First Age, but they will inevitably fall again and again (unless someone reveals the curse and all exalts take action about it... but some divinities know and they never peeped anything for the past millenias), and this time if no one can stop them... who's to say what could to happen ?!


I think that from that perspective, Exalted is pretty dark considering the long run.


Making the universe a little darker only reinforces the symbol of hope the exalts will incarnate IMHO :)
 
Seen the 4th movie - a bit disappointed but surprised by the ending - gave me new directions.


Will cast Thread Resurrection Prana soon. :)
 
So okay, I found some interested players.


All I gotta do now is to create the universe, and as all brains, mine has its limits so I'm going to borrow some of your neurons to help my excuse for a collection of synapses.


I'm going to write the base setting and after that I thought I'd proceed pole per pole to write the background and plant the universe.


I'll start with the East, most likely the place where the game will take place, then will detail other poles.


But first I need a name for the ennemy... obviously... necro machines sounds nice, but I also need a name for THE Ennemy, the merging Autochton / Lion... something cool, and terrifying, justifying in a few words the paradoxal nature of the merging of the Great Maker and one of the deathlords (which is not totally paradoxal, since the Lion doesn't give a crap about the cause anyway, he just want to wage war on the world).


Any ideas for a title ?
 
The Engines of Extinction.


(It's not from Exalted: the Autochthonians! I swear!)


Or you could go with the Onceborn, which is what the book referred to the Lion-Autochthon fusion as. It kind of makes sense if you are willing to make parallels to oWoD.
 
Something a little more personal, like "the Great Maker" - you know it's one entity.


The themes behind the name are :


- conquest


- destruction


- recycling (this entity would effectively use 100% of a mortal, body and soul)


- necromancy


- engineering


- creating malevolent designs


On another point... soulgems and essence batteries.


I've read that the essence batteries already exist (necro tech) and are used on simple necro constructs... but from what I understand souls are "made" from pure essence too (with the ability to pray and channel even more essence), and souls are used as materials for soulsteel, giving the black ore the power of the void through their suffering.


So technically a soulgem if properly redesigned (to inflict suffering on the soul for example) could be used as an essence "battery", or is it pushing it too far ?


I was planning something like this for the universe and was interested in the revelation of this to my players. Like "would you use this uber weapon even if you knew it was powered by a human soul ?".
 
Well, anyone who's read "Whitechapel Gods" would find "Grandfather Clock" a sufficiently frightening name...


As far as names and titles... Perhaps something derived from both? Though the unified entity may have decided on a new name that didn't echo either of its previous names, too, to stake out its place as a new being.


The Creator Forsaken


The Engineer of Death's Shadow


The Soulpyre Engine


Whatever the First Age term would be for "The Alpha and Omega."

cyl said:
The themes behind the name are :


- conquest


...


- engineering


- creating malevolent designs
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General Motors (*cough*pleasedon'tkillme*cough*)
 
Plural form is used to address greatness and significance in Hebrew! Example being Behemah = a beast, Behemoth = the Beast. I personally think this scheme is cool as heck so yeah.


So how about the Onceborn? This one's sort-of canon. :|
 
Nah I'm not building a OWoD parallel universe... just a harsh universe from the base setting of Exalted.


For atmosphere... read Blame or the Glimmer Rats. That's the kind of feeling I want my players to feel not because I'm a saddistic autocrat, but because I think the heroes shine brighter when the universe is darker.

General Motors (*cough*pleasedon'tkillme*cough*)
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Noooo... I wouldn't kill you for this... kill you would be too quick a release.... nooo, instead I'd have you soulforged into a terrible canine automaton.
Since you'll be my dog' date=' your new name will be "Spot". Welcome to slavery. [/quote']
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cyl said:
Nah I'm not building a OWoD parallel universe... just a harsh universe from the base setting of Exalted.
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Uh. It is from a printed Exalted material. Refer to E:tAu pg. 295 if you don't believe me. It's even got an illustration of the Lion's face exploding with Autochthon-juice.
 
True, but I personally think that "onceborn" isn't very threatening, though it would define the entity quite appropriately.


Any feedback on the soulgem as a source of energy ?
 
Soul gem as batteries, I'd say no. Unless you want to destroy the soul in said gem once you use it up.
 
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