Post apocalyptic Creation

cyl

cyl

Creepy smile
So, I saw a few days ago the latest terminator trailer and it transported me way back in time when I was running around the ruins of L.A. with my M16 and a couple bullets, chased by a T-800 and many other metals (for those who were too young to have played it: Terminator Future Shock and SkyNET ! :) ).


So I thought about adapting it to the exalted universe (easy Falafel + Auto ! :) ), but then other references popped into my head, horror movies, comics (curse of the spawn on top of them), and then I remembered there were also... feys, demons, and an army of heaven.


Surely if the scenario of Falafel merging with Auto went to its final conclusion, no force of Creation or heaven could stand against it (let's face it, by the time the Lion has submitted the other deathlords and made their armies his, no one will be able to unite and lead the armies of heaven), feys I am not sure (necromancy is pretty powerful when it comes to kickin gossamer's ass), that leaves us with... demons.


Has anyone built a post apocalyptic setting for Creation ?! I'm looking for ideas for a new game.
 
Ah you included the time travel thing, I would not :)


I'm just looking to build a really really dark futuristic but coherent version of Creation.
 
cyl said:
Has anyone built a post apocalyptic setting for Creation ?! I'm looking for ideas for a new game.
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Back in the old days of the first exalted compendium... I believe I saw a idea for an dark future/ semi apocalyptic setting...


What if the sidereals attempt to overthrow the solars failed?


The blurb went something along the lines of "Dark gods rule, and everynow and then, some golden heroes kill one of them.... Until they become the new dark gods." (My memory mostly fails me.) I believe Rebecca Borgstrom had that idea.
 
Look down forum. Crearth is the start of something along those lines. DG's running a game set in a semi-postapocalyptic Earth. My own character is a Dragonblooded Fire Aspect U.S. Army Captain turned regional warlord trying to help piece the world back together...by force of arms if necessary, diplomacy, when an option...though if things follow his plans, we're likely to see a bastardized Heinelein-esque Starship Troopers/Lookshy hybrid United States reforming under a civilian governement who has seen the fecal matter hit the fan, has blood on their hands, and knows one end of the sharp pointy thing from the other or tube that shoots things from the other. More likely, I'm thinking we'll see him manage the New England area at best, at least for some time. With DC in the hands of something unknown, no central command giving me orders, and Pennsylvania in the hands of a Solar Zenith Caste Major with delusions of granduer and belief in the Creation Ruling Mandate...things are certainly likely to prove interesting.


Not to mention Mask of Winters in Detroit, FaFL in Egypt...and some crazy guy thinking he's Arthur reborn facing off against the King William and the newly Exalted House of Lords at his back...and is that Luthe, rising from the depths where Thera used to be?
 
Besides' date=' if you really want post apocalytpic creation... Just play right after the Great Contagion struck.[/quote']
The Contagion and Fae crusade lasted only for 10+ years, I am looking for something more... radical :)


The best plot I could come up with until now was:


- falafel merged with Autobot, becoming something entirely different nor dead, nor neverborn. He submitted the other deathlords into serving him (killing a few of them convinced the rest) and went native on the Neverborn, turning all Creation into one big shadowland (except for some rare places where the resistance kept their strongholds, cities like Lookshy, Whitewall, Chaya) filled with necro machines patrolling the earth to hunt and gather humans into the concentration camps where they are stocked, executed and processed. He had the power to keep the mouth of the Void from opening and technically bound the Neverborn into the Labyrinth, he wanted to conquer Creation, he has almost succeeded so far !


- of course the complete chaos of the celestial bureaucracy and lack of real power made Creation fall as soon as Falafel launched his attacks (I'm tempted to consider he made another deal with the Fae for a simultaneous strike, but tricked them with his machinery and instead of allowing them to claim back the land for the Wyld, he turned them into shadowlands), Yu Shan cut itself from Creation after the Kukla was unleashed and slayed by the Lion himself and all accesses to Heaven are now permanently closed. The Lion has made no effort of invading the city of the gods, he knows its a battle he cannot win... yet.


- now a few resistants live in fortified cities, always on alert, struggling to survive and looking for a mean to reclaim their lost lands from the grasp of the necro machine god.


Demons are still out of the loop for now, and I suppose they strangely would be "allies" of the resistant since they intend to conquer Creation as well.
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I once thought of a post-apocalyptic Creation of sorts when I was coming up with ideas for an Okami-like game. The basic concept was that shadowlands had covered Creation to the extent that it wasn't really Creation any more, allowing the Yozis to invade, and the whole place had turned into a three-way battle.


The way I took it from there, though, had Gaia effectively stop time, leaving the players (chosen by her) to travel the still, greyscale world purifying and "starting" it again one piece at a time, while contending with the limited (but numerically superior) forces that the other primordial entities were able to get moving.


I should try do that game again.
 
Definitely Okami like :)


But I am looking for something truly hopeless.


Nothing can technically be done about the shadowland without solar circle sorcery so, or maybe the most powerful and purest elemental essence (to recreate life just like the scales of the Kukla are supposed to).
 
cyl said:
Besides' date=' if you really want post apocalytpic creation... Just play right after the Great Contagion struck.[/quote']
The Contagion and Fae crusade lasted only for 10+ years, I am looking for something more... radical :)
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What I was considering an alternate history somewhat akin to the suggestion above:


Set it right at the end of the Great Contagion... except:

  • The Lion and other Deathlords take an entirely different tactic for trying to get a piece of the end of Creation. The Fair Folk Invasion doesn't happen when it was supposed to. Instead, the Jade Prison is destroyed early.
  • The woman who would have become the Scarlet Empress dies from the Contagion.
  • In Yu Shan, a Sidereal contracts the Great Contagion while studying the Loom. However, in this timeline, the outbreak is not contained. The Contagion lays waste to Yu Shan.
  • Finally, when all is effectively lost... Creation is invaded.


As for the nature of the invaders, it could be the delayed but not avoided Balorian Crusade. Or a Yozi breach. But personally, I would find the most interesting choice would be a massive alchemical invasion from Autochthon -- an invading force which has a driving reason to preserve Creation... for themselves!


--Kkat
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The univers shall be hopeless, a world slowly drifting to the other side, and the players shall bring the hope this world needs, the ones people look up to save them and make the right decisions (no pressure :lol: )


Better said this way ?! :wink:
 
Okay so, doing a bit more thinking, a cool chronology could look something like that (duhduh-duhduhduh... :lol: ):


- 790: The FFL becomes aware of the Locust Crusade problem and focuses his attention on this new ennemy.


- 795: the FFL invades Autochtonia with his forces.


- 796: the FFL conquers Autochtonia and merges with Autochton, the Machine God, and becomes a new being, freed from his Neverborn alliegeances and more powerful than anything this world has ever known. Seizing control on the Soul Gem technology he ensures the systematic capture and recycling of the souls from Creation.


- 797: the FFL launches his crusade against the Neverborn, and conquers Stygia again, for good this time. The other deathlords oppose his crusade and gather their armies to take Stygia again but surrender as soon as the Silver Prince is destroyed by the Lion's hand. The Lion enters the Labyrinth.


- 798: the FFL gets out of the Labyrinth, and announces that he know shall rule the underworld and soon all Creation. The other deathlords all follow his plans and his armies march on Creation, allying themselves with the Faes. The conquest is brutal and merciless.


- 799: the Ebon Dragon machinations bear their fruits and finally the armies of demons lead by the Infernals exalts breach the prison Malfeas and conquer the Blessed Isle.


Calibration of 799: the Unconquered Sun decides that the situation is desperate enough and unleashes the Kukla on Creation. The Kukla shatters most of Creation and the Blessed Isle, but is single handedly killed by the Lion himself. The Heavens close all their gates, Yu Shan isolates itself and prepares for an invasion, leaving Creation behind.


A hundred years later, let's face it, no one knows the date anymore for sure, and does it really matters, Creation has turned into a gigantic shadowland ruled by necromachines, and humanity struggles to survive as every human that is captured will be processed in the great Necro cathedral factories and his soul will never return to Creation...


This is humanity last stand, the last instants before total anihilation, your deeds may be the last hope for man, make them count !
 
What about the Underworld as is? Shit sucks there right now and there is no hope of it getting any better. As in like, really. The best it can get is to disintegrate along with the Neverborn.
 
The FaFL-Autobot fusion (henceforth referred to as FA) should have a shot to take down Yu-Shan just by himself, let alone with the armies in his wake.


I'd suggest that FA goes after Yu-Shan first, and takes most of it in bloody fighting except for the Jade Pleasure Dome. After several failures to breach the Dome, FA is approached by an emissary from the Yozis. After intense negotiation, the Yozis and FA cooperate to enter the Dome and take on the Incarnae.


100 years later...


Most of Yu-Shan and Creation have been taken over by FA and the Yozis. There is tension between the two factions, but it has not erupted into open warfare...yet. Some elder Stewards and Viziers still survive, but in remote corners of Creation. Most mortals are slaves to the Yozis, or doomed to be processed in the necrocathedrals of FA.


Something like that.
 
The armies of heaven have the potential might to squash the FA's forces.


I mean on the bad guys side you got:


FA: primordial-deathlord


12 deathlords and their forces


around 100 abyssals. countless war ghosts and nemissaries.


On the good guys side you got:


Gaia


12 Incarnaes


5 battle gods


countless spirits and elementals.


Not taking into account the imperial legions, barbarians tribe, lunar elders and solars.


FA couldn't go straight for Yu Shan... but by conquering Creation, and destroying souls, he weakens the gods (no more prayers...) and prepares for an assault (as he can go straight to Yu Shan and take his forces with him :)


Also, IMHO, a long term alliance with the Yozis is improbable, the guy has an ego and doesn't like to share... merging with a primordial wouldn't better that much I guess :lol:


Plus if the survivors have to fight demons AND necromachines... then Creation is completely screwed :mrgreen:


I think that letting the demons on the Blessed Isle can make an interesting alliance for the players.
 
One thing seems off to me. To really fit in the "post-Apocalypse" genre, there really shouldn't be anything left that is ruling the world. Most of the point of post-Apocalypse games is the concept of rebuilding from the ashes and discovery. What you are talking about is more of a "struggling under the boot of tyranny" game, with some devastation to the scenery thrown in. That's more like a "during-Apocalypse" game. (For the same reason, the post-Skynet Terminator world isn't part of the post-Apocalyptic genre either; it is more in the "desperate guerrilla war" genre.)


A true post-Apocalypse game in Exalted would need to shatter everything: no Yozis, no deathlords, no gods, maybe no underworld. Just a few exalted shards floating around a bunch of shattered cavemen. You could probably adapt the Wyldspan concept to do this, with a bit of work.
 
Damn, you're right... it's totally apocalyptic.


But I think the genre could be cool in the exalted world you know. Bring hope and light where everything else is despair and darkness (which is not yet the case in the second age).
 
The thing is Creation itself ia post-apocalyptic setting by default.


The Primordial War


The Usurpation


The Contagion


The Balorian Crusade


Those are the apocalypses of Creation. With the following as potential future bad-ends.


The Locust Crusade (potential)


The Neo-Balorian Crusade (potential)


Left for Dead aka Multi-Deathlords Invasions (potential)


Disco Inferno aka Yozi Endgame kicks in (potential)
 
If anyone has ever played Rifts, you might recognize this...


What if the events of the Locust Crusade/First and Forsaken invasion went off basically as planned except for one thing...Autocthon ran a self-destruct subroutine and blew himself and the Lion to tiny motes. Now the threshold is in ruins/shadowlands and the Fae move in en-masse, dragging the majority of it into the Wyld. A few human settlements survived (Lookshy, Whitewall, some Autothonian-held cities in the south, much of the west, etc.) but the rest is bordermarches at best and mostly middlemarches, slowly falling to total chaos.


On the Blessed Isle, the conflict in the Threshold drew the dynasts inward to protect their homes, cutting it off from the onslaught. Just as the tattered remnants of the Realm were starting to despair that they could hold the isle, the Empress returned...with newfound infernal power and perhaps the Ebon Dragon himself. The Great houses mostly submitted, though some were simply crushed, and the Isle found a sort of peace in the eye of the storm.


Heaven's status is uncertain. Many gods want to help (and some break ranks to do so), but the Incarnae still will not spare the attention from their Games (revealing the horrific truth of the curse that is the Games). So the Heavens watch with dispair as the world burns...


So now...


The only nation to speak of is the Scarlett Empire, now corralled on the Isle and ruled by demons, but holding the greatest of history's marvels and artifacts. The handful of human settlements are ravaged by the remaining undead from FaF's army, now mostly controlled by the other Deathlords, the Fae, and beasts from the Wyld. Travel is extremely dangerous, so Exalts are about the only adventurers out there. In the near-wyld, anything is possible, from horrors of the darkest sort to mortal utopias ruled benevolently by loving Raksha nobility.


It will be up to the characters to find their path through chaos. Only a few things are certain: In time the world will fully cease to be, as the Wyld consumes it. The Scarlett Empire has the best hope to save it....for the Yozis. It is virtually impossible for the remaining human city-states to come together against anything with all the problems that each faces. It will be up to the heroes of mankind to forge ahead through the darkness and bring the hope of a future to humanity.


Throw it a century or two into the future, limit the characters access to information, and say no one really knows what happened back then. Then you can take it anywhere and let it last a while, yet still keep the nihilistic backdrop that a post-apocalyptic setting needs.


Hope it helps.
 
Haku said:
The thing is Creation itself ia post-apocalyptic setting by default.
The Primordial War


The Usurpation


The Contagion


The Balorian Crusade


Those are the apocalypses of Creation. With the following as potential future bad-ends.


The Locust Crusade (potential)


The Neo-Balorian Crusade (potential)


Left for Dead aka Multi-Deathlords Invasions (potential)


Disco Inferno aka Yozi Endgame kicks in (potential)
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You forgot the Primordial that fled to the wyld ^^


The setting I proposed takes care of all the 4 at once without letting too many bad guys remaining but one very powerful common ennemy: the necromachines.


Lion takes care of the Locusts


The Neo Balorian Crusade helps FA in his conquest, but he screws them in the end


Left for Dead, well that's what happened to the world simultaneously with the Neo Balorian crusade.


Disco Inferno happened but was stopped by FA.


Virjigorm: I liked your proposition and it gaves me new ideas. The Forest / Jungle types of environment are not adapted for the necromachines, and where there is little deathlord presence, some settlements might have survived (I'm thinking the kingdom of Halta mainly), apart from the Blessed Isle who clearly has become a Yozi controlled territory.


Still to work on it a bit more :)
 
Haku said:
The thing is Creation itself is post-apocalyptic setting by default.
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I'd call it closer to the "fallen empire" genre. Creation is still way too organized to be post-apocalyptic.
 
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