The Incarnia, Spirits, and Tombs, Oh MY!

[st_gulik]

Greetings again!


I have been fleshing out my campaign for my players and I have several questions that I've never successfully answered to my satisfaction or I've forgotten the answer to that I'd like answered or given at least an idea of.


1.)  What the Hell are the Incarnia doing?  Is the US, Luna, and all the rest just playing the Games of Divinity and Fuckitall to the rest of creation!?!  Wouldn't they be concerned with the loss or potential loss of their little Exalted Biatches?  Why aren't they at war with the Siderials in Yu-Shan!?


2.)  The Neverborn - Primoridals, yes?  They were 'killed' during the first Rebellion, and sent into the Underworld, correct?  Okay, and the Yozi's were just defeated and jailed inside Malfeas, right?  =)  So the Deathlords, who were they exactly then?  Were they former Solars who turned and work for the Neverborn now?!  Why are they so much more powerful than Abyssal Exalted?


3.)  I have an idea for a combo manse complex for the party that is being guarded by a spirit (The idea where the party is advised by a spirit who secretly seeks more power for himself is where I'm going with this NPC).  Can spirits attune to manses and use them, or do they just squat on them and suck off the essence?  I'm trying to decide how this guy is going to be set up initially.  Ultimately the party will defeat him and he will become their 'dutiful' servant offering them advice and missions, etc., but I'm trying to decide how he's going to be set up when they get there.


Those are my current questions, I know I had this all figured out in the past, but a few things have changed and I've forgetten a ton since I last ran this game.  =P


Thanks for the help!

 

[DeepFlowingRiver]

1. Pretty much they are content to play their games.


2. Former Solars I think...they are more powerful mainly because they are older one would assume.


3. No idea

 

[Jukashi]

1.)  What the Hell are the Incarnia doing?  Is the US' date=' Luna, and all the rest just playing the Games of Divinity and Fuckitall to the rest of creation!?!  Wouldn't they be concerned with the loss or potential loss of their little Exalted Biatches?  Why aren't they at war with the Siderials in Yu-Shan!?[/quote']
Because the Games of divinity are, not to put too fine a point on it, crack. For just a dream of taking just one move in the Games, Celestial gods would trade in their own mothers. And, if you consider the primordials to be their parents, they did. The Incarna are totally addicted. Solars are lucky to get a pre-recorded message on their Solar Exaltation; only Zeniths, his chosen priests, get any more than an atom's attention from him at all, and only when they pile on the sacrifices. Luna seems to be the only one who actually pays any attention to her Exalted- possibly a result of her ever-changing Trickster-Goddess nature (read: ADHD).

2.)  The Neverborn - Primoridals' date=' yes?  They were 'killed' during the first Rebellion, and sent into the Underworld, correct?  Okay, and the Yozi's were just defeated and jailed inside Malfeas, right?  =)  So the Deathlords, who were they exactly then?  Were they former Solars who turned and work for the Neverborn now?!  Why are they so much more powerful than Abyssal Exalted?[/quote']
It's not so much the Neverborn were sent to the Underworld, but rather that they created it, or at least, their deaths did; there was no Underworld before they died. Or at least, almost died; because of their nature, the Neverborn cannot completely die until everything else is dead, too. So, to that end, the Neverborn granted power to the ghosts of powerful Solars killed in the Usurpation. It's because they've been granted power from the Neverborn- greater than gods, even in death- that they're so powerful.

3.)  I have an idea for a combo manse complex for the party that is being guarded by a spirit (The idea where the party is advised by a spirit who secretly seeks more power for himself is where I'm going with this NPC).  Can spirits attune to manses and use them' date=' or do they just squat on them and suck off the essence?  I'm trying to decide how this guy is going to be set up initially.  Ultimately the party will defeat him and he will become their 'dutiful' servant offering them advice and missions, etc., but I'm trying to decide how he's going to be set up when they get there.[/quote']
Spirits are fully capable of using hearthstones, I believe. But i'm not sure.

 

[st_gulik]

Because the Games of divinity are, not to put too fine a point on it, crack. For just a dream of taking just one move in the Games, Celestial gods would trade in their own mothers. And, if you consider the primordials to be their parents, they did. The Incarna are totally addicted. Solars are lucky to get a pre-recorded message on their Solar Exaltation; only Zeniths, his chosen priests, get any more than an atom's attention from him at all, and only when they pile on the sacrifices. Luna seems to be the only one who actually pays any attention to her Exalted- possibly a result of her ever-changing Trickster-Goddess nature (read: ADHD).


Okay, cool, and what're the Sidereals trying to do now? Get in on the game?


It's not so much the Neverborn were sent to the Underworld, but rather that they created it, or at least, their deaths did; there was no Underworld before they died. Or at least, almost died; because of their nature, the Neverborn cannot completely die until everything else is dead, too. So, to that end, the Neverborn granted power to the ghosts of powerful Solars killed in the Usurpation. It's because they've been granted power from the Neverborn- greater than gods, even in death- that they're so powerful.


Right I knew that about the Underworld, and the Deathlords are just UBER Solar Exalted that were sort of Proto Abyssals before the Solar prison break, Ja?


Spirits are fully capable of using hearthstones, I believe. But i'm not sure.

Yeah, I need to figure that out.  I think so too, but I am not terribly keen on that idea of the Spirit running the manses....

 

[st_gulik]

I also need to remember not to delete all those end quotes.  =P


Oh, so there are spirits being created all the time right?  Everytime a house get's built, one is created and everytime a tree gets cut down to build the house, one dies right?


Okay, so would spirits be created when a manse complex was created?  I think so.

 

[Flagg]

I don't know if they necessarily make a new spirit every time. Since Creation used to be a LOT bigger, there are now a ton of unemployed little gods in Yu-Shan.

 

[Jakk Bey]

Oh the sadness of the backwater parts of Yu-Shan that they just don't show you, with Gods all strung out, selling a wee bit of divinity for just a sniff of Ambrosia.  


You could probably get a whole truck load of Gods to do little projects like showing up outside a bodega in LA to pick up migrant workers...

 

[wordman]

So the Deathlords' date=' who were they exactly then? Why are they so much more powerful than Abyssal Exalted?[/quote']
At the time, they were solars. Only after they were killed in the Usurpation did they reach the underworld, at which time they made deals with the Neverborn. Note that, in theory, having died, their solar shards would have probably moved on to other people (or were caught in the prison). Their power comes directly from the Neverborn, so they are more like Infernals than exalted. As former powerful solars, their souls are used to channelling tons of essence, a rare gift, which may explain why there are only 13 of them.


In contrast, an Abyssal's power comes, largely, from the Unconquered Sun, who created the solar shards that were then twisted by the deathlords.

Can spirits attune to manses and use them' date=' or do they just squat on them and suck off the essence?[/quote']
Spirits probably can attune to manses, but it practice, they would almost never do so. A spirit who gained control of a manse would almost certainly destroy it to expose the demesne underneath, which they would then turn into a sanctum, which is much more useful to a spirit. Note that  a sanctum built on a demesne can produce a hearthstone. (See Games of Divinity, pg. 16.)

 

[st_gulik]

Spirits probably can attune to manses, but it practice, they would almost never do so. A spirit who gained control of a manse would almost certainly destroy it to expose the demesne underneath, which they would then turn into a sanctum, which is much more useful to a spirit. Note that  a sanctum built on a demesne can produce a hearthstone. (See Games of Divinity, pg. 16.)

Ahah!  THis is what I was looking for!  Thank you!


Hehe...the image of a passle of little gods sitting outside a Home Depot waiting for an exalted to pick them up is hilarious!  =)


I am thinking of starting the party in search for their pasts and finding a manse complex where a spirit is imprisoned by some dragon-blooded outcasts (who work for whatever island group or maybe AN-Teng, not sure yet where they're going to be located), the spirit is basically constantly kept weak by the draong-blooded.  The spirit is the spirit of the complex and draws his strength from the manses, which still trickle power out to him (he's imprisoned in the middle between them all) although the dragon-blooded have damaged the manses enough that they're not really functioning anymore.  =)


I'm going to run a Satrapy war as well as a Deathlord searching for power sort of war.  =)

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

Luna seems to be the only one who actually pays any attention to her Exalted- possibly a result of her ever-changing Trickster-Goddess nature (read: ADHD).

Who loves her Exalts? Who loves her...OH A KITTY! *Luna glomps said cat* Like oh mah God, let me tell you what Gaia did last night...oooh I love the color silver...


xD Luna, the Valley girl Incarna. How I weep for them.

 

[Solfi]

... why is it, that in any game produced by WW, when there's a faction/personality of import with a mercurial and unpredictable bent, people feel the need to interpret said faction/personality in a sillly way?

 

[Jukashi]

Because it can be, really. Few of the others can be sillified, so we use what we've got.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

... why is it, that in any game produced by WW, when there's a faction/personality of import with a mercurial and unpredictable bent, people feel the need to interpret said faction/personality in a sillly way?

Normally I don't but in this instance I felt like it?

 

[Sherwood]

... why is it' date=' that in any game produced by WW, when there's a faction/personality of import with a mercurial and unpredictable bent, people feel the need to interpret said faction/personality in a sillly way?[/quote']
Normally I don't but in this instance I felt like it?

Sounds reasonable to me.  

 

[Bizar]

Is the US, Luna, and all the rest just playing the Games of Divinity

Basically they are addicted to the game and can hardly stop playing. And nothing is more important to a junky than his fix. Actually the only thing that matters to a junky is his fix. Same for the Greater Incarna.

So the Deathlords, who were they exactly then?  Were they former Solars who turned and work for the Neverborn now?!  Why are they so much more powerful than Abyssal Exalted?

The Deathlords are the spirits of dead exalted, so not their Solar sparks. They were angry about being betrayed and killed by the DB's and made a deal with the Malfeans. They were infused with copious amounts of necrotic power and sent back to destroy the world.


Because of this it is possible to meet the Solar reincarnation from a Deathlord as a Solar. Their Solar sparks are still around and contained in other beings. So for every Deathlord there are two people who can remeber his life.


Interestingly would it be possible to exploit this connection or might there be feedback to the Solar from the Deathlord could be interesting if a character has the nightmare flaw.

Can spirits attune to manses and use them, or do they just squat on them and suck off the essence?

Yes they can.

 

[Flagg]

So for every Deathlord there are two people who can remeber his life.

Not quite. Most Deathlords have little to no memory of their former lives. Mask of Winters is the one glaring exception to this rule.


I have my own pet theory as to why.

 

[Jukashi]

I thought that, as ghosts, they had to at least remember their motivation for not passing on into Lethe, and therefore a significant portion of their lives?

 

[Flagg]

I'm sure drinking the Neverborn's doom juice changes the rules a bit.