Exalted

[tulip folio]

First Pulse Form
Cost: 8m; Mins: Martial Arts 4, Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Form
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Flagstones Meets Face, Street Shifts Underfoot
First Pulse Style prizes action and despises hesitation. It strikes fast and relentlessly, hammering the foe again and again until they are nothing but red stains upon the cobblestones.

The martial artist gains the following benefits:
-She ignores the initiative cost to attack with Improvised Weapons.
-Improvised weapons she wields can be treated as any appropriate mundane melee weapon (Such as butcher's cleaver as an Improvised Axe) and gaining the Balanced and Grappling tags while she wields them.
-She adds (1/2 Athletics, rounded up) to her base initiative when she resets after an Unexpected Attack, Savage or Throw/Slam.
-She reduces the Defence Penalty for Surprise Attacks and Grappling by 1.

Special Activation Rules: Whenever the martial artist wins Join Battle, she may reflexively enter this Form.

I ended up with like half the benefits of First Pulse Form be 'fuck it, make the improvised weapons a bit more usable'. They're still worse than an artifact weapon if you have one available but they're at least better than 'drawing the dagger from your belt'.

[bleak hazel]

Sids and Abyssals both have charms for this, which is nice

[tulip folio]

Didn't know about the Abyssal one but I did try to make it Work With The Sid One.

So a First Pulse Sid can get Artifact Stats + Balanced + Grappling in form.

[bleak hazel]

I'm sure there has to be some fun stuff you can do with Holistic Arsenal Methodology here

but currently all I've got for that part of it is reflexively swapping between shield and war fan and then back again to use the weapon-specific parts of Mournful Crane's Cry while always having the shield on hand for full defences

I suppose there might also be something in having two hook-swords so you can reflexively draw the second for clash bonuses, trading out the shield because it's a melee weapon and both the sword and the war fan are Martial Arts

Rival is going to have so many goddamn weapons

[velvet raft]

I still think they specifically wanted to avert combining it with some of the very potent hook sword styles >_>

[bleak hazel]

yeah, the hook-sword family is kind of its own thing

kind of wish it had an SMA that used one but alas

[velvet raft]

“No, you may not mix this with snake and crane.”

[tulip folio]

Oh yeah. Just a case of me wanting the hook sword artifact but not a hook sword. XD

[bleak hazel]

OK, standard loadout: medium shield, artifact hook-sword
Reserves: second artifact hook-sword as part of the same weapon-set as the first, war fan, spare shield

shield optional but getting that broken by an enhanced disarm would be a pain so a replacement might be in order

everything but the second shield fits neatly in a loadout, since you can have the shield and crossed swords on the back and the fan on the belt

this is very fun if I go with the "roll up into bracers" attunement bonus for the swords and take a reinforced umbrella instead of a shield, because I can carry enough weapons for three men while still looking pretty harmless

[tulip folio]

Pondering if something makes mechanical sense. The intent is that it's for a charm that plants a thought in someone's head without you needing to directly say it.

This disconnect from the user shields her argument for hatred that would be directed towards her. The target may not invoke intimacies related to the user, unless she is connected to the topic of influence. A person who has a defining intimacy of hatred towards the user would not be able to invoke it to resist a persuade he go get a drink but would be able to use it to resist one that he give her a hug.

In contrast, as the thought seems to come from the target's own mind, the user may invoke intimacies related to narcissism, egomania or pride to support the influence.

[bleak hazel]

this did take me two read-throughs to understand what it did

it works mechanically, the main blurry point is whether the affected intimacies have to be "I hate you, the Alchemical" or whether it also applies to "I hate all artificial beings" or what have you

[tulip folio]

The intent was the latter. I'll try to clean up the wording/make it clearer.

It's decoupling you from the argument to sidestep various 'I don't want to hear this from you'

[bleak hazel]

probably the strangest charop thing I've ran into so far in this game: what's the easiest form to reflexively enter that isn't splat-specific, regardless of what it does?

there's one on the Lunar silken armour that's just "1/scene, reflexively turn this on" but it's six evos deep and some of those have Lunar charms as prereqs, so it's not generally available unless you rewrite the tree

[fierce star]

crystal chameleon maybe?

it's 'gain two levels of anima'

[bleak hazel]

exigent backer book is out (for said backers, I don't have it yet)

[chilly sluice]

do we know what's in it?

[bleak hazel]

let me copypaste the thingy

about 1000 new charmsets, half a dozen artifacts and some gods

I'm surprised the Chosen of the Dice is Celestial, given he was throwing down with poison girl, I assumed they'd be the same

Chosen of Redacted is apparently "Chosen of Siakal"

[velvet raft]

Did we finally get some spirit charms

[bleak hazel]

the gods do not appear to be statblocks

[tulip folio]

Chosen of Hot Springs? Okay dokey, I guess that's a choice.

https://static0.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ranma-falls-into-the-spring.jpg?q=70&fit=crop&w=750&h=422&dpr=1

Ultimate Combat Power

What's the difference between the Design Seeds and Introductory Write-Ups?

[fierce star]

intro write-ups have a few pages of example charms

whereas a design seed is just a blurb and some charm ideas

[tulip folio]

Interesting. I wonder if any of the new Intro Write-Ups are Celestial-Tier. Disease feels like it could potentially be big enough? Celestial-Tier Chosen of Hot Springs would be very funny though.

[prisma sun]

Chosen of

https://tenor.com/view/lobotomy-corporation-lobotomy-lobotomy-corp-censored-gif-20614396

[quiet garnet]

Great Forks o.o

[bleak hazel]

more pondering of New Exigents: there's some really fun ones in here

Chosen of Masks has one charm tree per Greater Mask, which she can get in a few ways, but barring a few charms with a special always-available keyword she can only use the ones she's currently wearing the mask for

and each mask comes with its own persona, they're very different people

it's a very good way to do an Alch-style kit-swapping character without the fiddliness or infrastructure-dependence

[prisma sun]

https://tenor.com/view/zelda-fate-mask-majora-gif-9229169

[bleak hazel]

the Chosen of Mysteries also has an "I know that technique!" charm where he analyses his opponent's style and gives his allies advice against it, but if he's trying to analyse an SMA charm it's way more difficult to pull off, which is cute

[prisma sun]

My god

Finally I can play Speedwagon

[velvet raft]

Is there anything in particular about exigents created by gods in the Bureau of Destiny, and how they interact with sids?

[bleak hazel]

the words "bureau of destiny" do not appear, but the Bleak Warden is a celestial exigent who administers one of Heaven's ancient blacksites

the Sids only show up in his "let me show you my cool base" art

[prisma sun]

Generally there's probably only like 2-3 exigents in the BoD

since Sids like to pretend exigents don't exist

so they don't have to deal with them

[bleak hazel]

they do work with them fairly often, apparently, but less of them are on the official books

the Foxbinder lore indicates that the Bronzes at least generally prefer to maneuver exigents into the Immaculacy

the Golds, as an eclectic bunch of nutcases, are more as-and-when

[velvet raft]

I wonder if it's a faux pas for a BoD god to admit to having an exigent.

That strikes me as very amusing.

Hiding them as if they were a child born out of wedlock.

[prisma sun]

I think so

[prisma sun]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnxI0mgAqgY

Sidreals

[velvet raft]

Dumb Exalted fic idea

[next delta]

There must be lots of artifact autopens in Yu Shan. In particular for the Guy Who Signs the Paychecks

[spring lynx]

but everyone gets paid in cash

[prisma sun]

I might be running TWO exalted games

[next delta]

Please don't die

[prisma sun]

I should be fine

[velvet raft]

So an Infernal winds up signing the paychecks, and so untouchable, due to shenanigans; they and the Sidereal assigned to watch them all the time then have very many additional shenanigans happen.

Shenanigan is one of my favorite words

[prisma sun]

I prefer chicanery

Could not tell you why

[velvet raft]

It’s a good one

[velvet raft]

Famous last words

[prisma sun]

So

I think the Dark Heresy squad is gonna wanna do Pirate Stuff

so I'm considering Western Adventure

and my Cyberpunk Squad is probably gonna wanna do Blue-Eyed Samurai Style Gritty Revenge

so I'm thinking of using that one Shogunate nation in the East

[spring lynx]

lookshy?

[prisma sun]

Nah its from the 8 directions

I forget the name

But it seemed neat

[spring lynx]

oh, i don't have that one

[prisma sun]

The Calin Shogunate

[prisma sun]

Okay now to think of The Plot

I am thinking of the Shogunate being swept up in crisis after the Shogun is assassinated

[prisma sun]

Main concern i think is how High Powered i wanna make it

[bleak hazel]

realised that this Snake Style/Brawl/Four Magical Materials Form Sid NPC I was idly gluing together has the fighting style of Minos Prime in almost every particular

time for more absurdly fast jumpkicks

[prisma sun]

Charcoal March lets you do the double duke nukem kick

I am deciding at least for the Cyberpunk group

I am going to limit the story to one Celestial tier exalted only

In the whole plot

[bleak hazel]

I respect this, I too try to keep the celestial numbers down because if you don't it rapidly gets a bit absurd

[prisma sun]

I think with this group they would enjoy a more grounded game

[prisma sun]

Okay so I think

Woops forgot to finish that thought

[mighty rover]

Therefore you am

[prisma sun]

But yeah, the idea i think is gonna be either the shogun or the heir to the shogunate is assassinated and it plunges it into chaos

The realm and Lookshy are only tangentially interested in Calin at the moment due to bigger problems

So its mostly bandits, local gods, and humans with a rare gentes Deeb

But I will have EITHER a lunar or a solar in there

Im gonna crib the vibe of Ghost of Yotei a lot I think

[prisma sun]

Okay cool, Calin has a bordermarch

and it's lightning themed

[prisma sun]

Are there any demons suited for assassination?

1st or 2nd circle

[tulip folio]

Honestly, very few demons are not suited for assassination. Most people can't see Dematerialized spirits.

A Blood Ape can ambush most people in ways they can't avoid

[velvet raft]

True

[prisma sun]

Well yeah but i mean vibe wise

[velvet raft]

... that could be great, actually

Playing a blood ape for horror

Would be such a vibe

[prisma sun]

https://youtu.be/KIC7CDX0m5E?si=dP7Sfl4LXvDTuUS3

[bleak hazel]

Lucien is the elite assassin second circle, I believe

master tracker and shapeshifter who spends most of his time stabbing anything that might disturb the sleep of Sacheverell

[prisma sun]

Does he have a 3e write up?

I'm considering making

https://i.imgur.com/NknVwnV.png

A central figure of the game

and making her potentiallyy Demonblooded

[bleak hazel]

don't think so, I imagine he'll at least be mentioned in the infernals book because he's decently prominent

[prisma sun]

v_v

[velvet raft]

If this is for a DB game a second circle is a big deal, fwiw.

[prisma sun]

Yeah but the 2nd circle probably won't turn up in person

But I'd like to nick an eclipse charm

[prisma sun]

https://i.imgur.com/XzqdpKv.png

Maaaaaaaaaybe?

[prisma sun]

https://i.imgur.com/1c794Gc.png

what the fuck is happening here

is that a giant raw chicken or a man

[winged swallow]

dude with arms tied behind back i think

[tulip folio]

Being tossed off Jabba The Hutt's airship to the Saarlak, I see

[prisma sun]

Oh huh, guess Creation being flat isn't technically canon in 3e

[next delta]

Oh?

[prisma sun]

https://i.imgur.com/tTvx2zF.png

[next delta]

I guess it doesn't say one way or another?

[prisma sun]

Yeah

but also like, can't have a horizon if it's flat

[next delta]

Eh

A flat plane can have a horizon

And I'm sure he Wyld does weird stuff here

You'd only not have a horizon if you were like, on something that bends "up"

[prisma sun]

A Demonblood of Audegar could also work as an assassin

wait hold on

https://i.imgur.com/a4M6mCS.png

is there more on this?

[raw owl]

Yeah, I think the Mammoth Avatar has stats in the Lunars book?

And in 2e at least there was some mention of one or more animal avatars working with the Bull of the North

[prisma sun]

Wasn't able to find the mammoth avatar

Just a lot of writing about the Bear avatar

[velvet raft]

Wait exalted has beast lords?

Huh.

[prisma sun]

Apparently

And now im wondering which animal I should use for my game

Do I use Snake

And go full Sekiro

Do I use Wolf

[velvet raft]

Sugar glider

[prisma sun]

Lmao

[velvet raft]

https://tenor.com/nq8QmBtoxrP.gif

This motherfucker is among the mightiest of the gods

[prisma sun]

I also think pirate exalted is gonna be fun

I might center it around Sharktooth

[velvet raft]

I was in a short-lived heroic piracy game

[prisma sun]

A player wants to "be a kitsune" knowing nothing about the setting

1. A person born from a trickster fox spirit who has a tail, ears, and minor fox magic
2. A Lunar whos spirit shape is a fox and who can focus on shape shifting and mischief
3. A person blessed by a Fox God with their power who now uses Fox God Powers
4. A regular fox person

is this every avenue for it

or am I missing it

[next delta]

1. can be also born of a fox god if you are drawing a distinction between god and spirit more generally here. 3. Are you including exigence here? 4. is pretty broad

[raw owl]

5. actual fox spirit
6. raksha

but yeah i think that's about it

[next delta]

I don't know if there are rules on being spirits or raksha

[prisma sun]

3 is exigence yeah

and no, there isn't any spirits or raksha

[wise ocean]

2 seems the easiest to Be Kitsune

[raw owl]

i didn't understand the question to be asking about playable splats, my bad

[wise ocean]

you even get the shapeshifting

[prisma sun]

I also am not really drawing a difference between Gods and Spirits

[next delta]

I guess 3. could be a type of exalted that uses their ability to get spirit charms

[prisma sun]

It is looking like they are settling on Exigence

[next delta]

But yeah, I agree 2 is probably the easiest way to do it

Exigence is the high-effort version

[prisma sun]

It is

but I find homebrew fun

So I'm gonna try it

Plus I only gotta design a few charms to start

Plus I think cribbing Lunar and Deeb gifts is super easy

[bleak hazel]

Foxbinder charmset, if you're OK with Shifune doing Shifune things, can easily justify some fox mutations on the host there

[prisma sun]

Foxbinder?

[bleak hazel]

not sure if it's one of the charms they have already but if not it's the world's easiest fix with either a quick custom charm or just letting them buy mutations at chargen

one of the existing exigents

[prisma sun]

They do not be in the book I have

[bleak hazel]

a fox-god was too much of a gremlin for heaven's standards and was sentenced to create an exigent as punishment, the exigent is part prison warden, part minder, part warlock in a warlock-and-patron relationship

very fun

the full foxbinder set is in the new Exigents expansion book, I believe

[prisma sun]

Ah gotcha

I don't have that

[spring lynx]

typical kitsune behaviour tbh

[bleak hazel]

he has the dice pools you would expect

[tulip folio]

Crime!

[bleak hazel]

I love the foxbinder writeup so much

everything in here is just fun

[spring lynx]

"today, i will roll my Crime Dice"

[raw owl]

it is a wonderful day in heaven and you are wicked-grin shifune etc etc

[wise ocean]

The sun is out. There are houses which have not been burnt down yet. The local magistrate is carrying their purse of jade right on their hip. It is time.

[prisma sun]

but yeah

i think the party is looking at

Water Aspect Deeb
Serenity Sid
Kitsune Exigent

[prisma sun]

https://i.imgur.com/kgqgMz4.png

This is kinda neat and not something I've seen from a homebrew before

I need to find more Exalted thematic scenes

I gotta sell the vibes

[tulip folio]

That you get 1 success from two dice on average ?

[prisma sun]

well more just like

"here's the probability"

"balance around this"

it goes in depth about how to balance the game

[tulip folio]

It's good to see the devs giving a peak behind the curtain

[prisma sun]

Also trying to figure out if adding muskets as a "new development" would be too much

[fierce star]

IIRC canonically the reason that they aren't already a thing is that firedust and equivalents require a certain critical mass in order to burn quick enough to actually launch a projectile (I think it's int he harbor cannond escription in arms of the chosen's artillery seciton), so it seems reasonable to me that some alchemist/sorcerer/etc who's been working hard at it could develope a quicker-burning firedust. Just a question of what it adds to the game thematically, other than muskets being cool (I'm fond of matchlocks, not enough people rep matchlocks)

[bleak hazel]

I think Exalted has taken a pretty clear No Guns stylistic position so I'd personally rather not

[prisma sun]

I mean there's MAGICAL guns

[bleak hazel]

Cannon are a thing but are extremely expensive because you need a lot of firedust to get it to explode rather than burn

[fierce star]

at the end of the day they'd end up being, what. Heavy, Archery (Long), Lethal, Slow?

[wise ocean]

I long for the mines (arquebus)

[fierce star]

I think the balance is fine and the thematics aren't necessarily too out there, but like. Remember back in Ex1, crossbows were the secret weapon fo the haslanti league that no one else had figured out.

Now they're Just A Thing

[bleak hazel]

Probably, but the existence of cheap, replicable firearms indicates that you should be fighting very different wars across most of the setting, either already or in ten minutes when the tech disseminates

[prisma sun]

I mean I'm doing a story set in the Calim Shogunate

and I kinda want that Sengoku Jidai feel

[fierce star]

That's why I'd make it a New, Recent, Local Thing if I did it, I think

[prisma sun]

Yeah

"The new secret weapon that will conquer Pale and free us from Lookshy"

[bleak hazel]

Firewands are basically built to serve all your flintlock weapon needs without immediately raising the question of "why aren't the Realm using all muskets, are they stupid?"

[fierce star]

be right at the cutting edge so your PCs can either be european about it or be faerunian about it

[bleak hazel]

I'd just have units of firewand-armed dudes, they work the same

[prisma sun]

Firewands are flamethrowers thoughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

the viiiiiiiiiiiiibes

[fierce star]

In short: not in every campaign I'd run, but I could see running a campaign with them. (And if I did so the guy who made them would 100% be that one antagonist from Blue Eyed Samurai. You know, the Irish guy.)

[prisma sun]

Blue Eyed Samurai is one of the inspirations

[bleak hazel]

The example firewands in core are literally just muskets, say they figured out a less flashy way to load them if you want

actual gunpowder has a bunch of setting knock-on effects I don't particularly like

not least "you can now do firearms tech development, so Exalted Shogunate/Twilight goodtech weapons are now just real world guns, which is lame"

Firedust being a gunpowder equivalent that technologically caps out at muskets and early cannon nearly solves that problem and it's easier to slightly tweak the aesthetics than make fairly simple chemistry a brand new discovery without making a lot of things odd

[wise ocean]

Aren't First Age guns more like laser rifles and grav-cannons than real guns?

[bleak hazel]

They're not guns, an implosion bow is a magitech ballista , aesthetics somewhat variable

[fierce star]

in Ex2 it was a shrine

more like a prayer-powered railgun

essence cannons were always just laser guns, baiscally.

but ex3 has kidna moved away from the hypertech aesthetic for the first age?

[prisma sun]

Wellllllll

I think it's just made it more varied and less prevelant

You can still have a Macross Mech

[bleak hazel]

the only slugthrowers were the incredibly rare prayer pieces, which were railguns powered by a row of tiny shrines that would each apply a little bit of acceleration to a solid gold slug engraved with prayers to either them or conky as it went past

[fierce star]

yeah, like it still exists but it's not The Default First Age Look is what I more mean

[prisma sun]

yeah

Now they also have "I just have a big caracel that flies"

[bleak hazel]

and all that stuff, magitek or not, is generally not the kind of stuff mortals were slinging around

even in the 2e first age mortals had slightly powered armour and spears that fired short range lightning bolts, not autocannons

[prisma sun]

Also weird thing about Calin

They apparently are the guys with turtle ships

[prisma sun]

So what if

Muskets that arent mundanely forged

But are instead grown from a diety

[prisma sun]

The God of Firewands and a Goddess of the Forge had a child and that child grows muskets out of its back

[tulip folio]

Honestly I think they're fine to just have as a recent invention. Yes they'll change mortal vs mortal fights but no amount of muskets will change 'I have a Daiklaive and an excellency coming at you'

[fierce star]

No moreso than crossbows, anyway

[tulip folio]

(My hot take is that Autocthon should totally have someone invented firearms. Not maybe spread across all of it but Firelance Spearmen is a great visual)

[fierce star]

(monkey's paw, it's Estasia.)

[tulip folio]

Medium Thrown

Alchemical Grenades
Vials containing firedust, powerful acid or any number of powerful alchemical concoctions and prepared for aerodynamics. A favourite of Jadeborn Mercenary companies and Autocthonian assault teams, they shatter formations and hardened hide easily.

Cost: •• (in Jadeborn Cities and in Autocthonia) ••• (Aboveground Creation)
Tags: Thrown(Medium), Crossbow, Mounted, Slow, Special

Alchemical grenades can be adjusted by any character with at least 2 dots in craft(alchemy) or a similar skill over a few minutes, changing the compounds or reinforcing the vial itself. Doing so grants the weapon the adjuster's choice of Bashing or Lethal, along with one of the following tags: Balanced, Piercing, Poisonable or Concussive. These last until the weapon is next modified.

New Tag: Concussive
This weapon is treated as a Heavy Thrown Weapon against Battle Groups and targets of Legendary Size.

Essence Pulse Grenades
Small metal spheres, they make use of the latest in moteic science discoveries to harness the excess of energy when a mote is broken apart. These make them powerful bombs, if one that can only be used by the exalted.

Rules Adjustments: An attuned user can change the tags regardless of their dots in craft(Alchemy). Otherwise the same as their mundane counterpart, just with the artifact statline.

I did this a while ago for Alchemical Grenades.

[velvet raft]

Wyld mutant

My catgirl DB is a wyld mutant

[prisma sun]

Yeah but i feel like "juat a fox person" covers that

[velvet raft]

Fair enough, just thought I'd mention

"Became a fox person via wyld exposure" has a somewhat different vibe from "born a fox person", I think.

[prisma sun]

So weirdly enough for the Shogunate game

the main rival to the Shogunate in Pale is House Nellens

which means if I wanted to, I could even make the Dynast Representative mortal and keep it thematic

[velvet raft]

Yeah

[prisma sun]

https://i.imgur.com/8Dopa4N.png

I might reinstall wonderdraft and make this bigger

[prisma sun]

I think a big plot point

Is gonna be that the Realm and Lookshy will both offer the players support

But mutually exclusively

The realm would back the party either crowning themselves the new Shogun (and marrying into Nellens to cement an alliance) while Lookshy would demand full annexation but work to integrate everyone to equal rights

[velvet raft]

Lookshy: We're awful and we suck, but we're awful and we suck for everyone

[prisma sun]

"So im thinking of stuff like, illusions, warding, some shape-shifting, maybe some fire or lightning stuff?"

As a basis for the kitsune player

[velvet raft]

Mm, that’s pretty wide, sounds like an exigent

[prisma sun]

Ye

Im making a kitsune exigent

[bleak hazel]

pretty sure Foxbinder has all that

save the personal shapeshifting

[prisma sun]

Which is super easy to slot in

[prisma sun]

Wait what the hell

Theres a merit that lets you one hand two handed weapons?

[winged swallow]

yah

[prisma sun]

session 0 of exalto.......

[prisma sun]

So

How did that switch channels the hell

I think the main antagonists are gonna be mortals from Azure and an Abysssal pirate

In this pirate game

[prisma sun]

Btw

is the Sid book with Sid Gojo out

[bleak hazel]

not yet, we've had the previews

(Flying Guillotine Style, Cerulean Lute of Harmony Style, Even Blade Style and a warstrider)

shouldn't be more than a couple of months

[prisma sun]

Damn

Probably won't be in time then

I may just use a slightly nerfed Anys Syn then

[bleak hazel]

his basic writeup is in the Sid book

no stats though

we know what he uses

master of White Reaper and Golden Janissary

[prisma sun]

He will also use Charcoal Spider actually

[bleak hazel]

throw in all the Melee versatile too, go wild

[prisma sun]

Because I need him to sail across the ocean and kick my Sid player in the face

But yeah, despite our Sid being a Serenity one

I am gonna have their rival be Gojo

[bleak hazel]

Ashen-Eyed Ludall is fun, yeah

I should really actually watch JJK

[prisma sun]

It's fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CARcWG8XoCY

Gojo is incredibly Sid coded

[wise ocean]

why is there a guy named jogo in a show that has a guy named gojo
are they stupid

[prisma sun]

One guy is tall and one guy is short

So it's fine

Also because the power level is a bit higher in the One Piece game

I'm considering having one of the bad guys be Siakal's Chosen and an Abyssal

as two rival captains

competing with Azure's Navy

Actually @bleak hazel as resident Numbers Man

How scary is the Chosen of Slaughter

[bleak hazel]

I have not looked extensively

let me check

wow that's a good anima power

excellency is lacking for a combat celestial, 8 dice max unless he really fucking hates you, but full Solar cap if he does

[prisma sun]

That does seem like, if nothing else

one of the best singular Demolition charms I've seen

[bleak hazel]

very solid clash charm too

you want to be using that one a lot

and Spray The Bloodmist is S tier

[prisma sun]

"Strike the Father With The Son"

is the best charm name

[bleak hazel]

assuming he doesn't have a lot of fighty allies other than his sharks

this guy is mean but not that mean, I would like to see how he does at full power against the E4-5 version of Four Seasons Rival

it would be a fun match, I think

[prisma sun]

To be fair I do think a charm that just Spawns a Siaka does add quite a lot of combat punch

[bleak hazel]

yeah, any kind of legendary size minion is huge since legendary size is very strong

[prisma sun]

That's a pretty big beastie to just say "fuckk you"

[bleak hazel]

also funny that he has a tree just called "shark"

[prisma sun]

incredibly funny

https://tenor.com/view/charc-jawesome-high-five-gif-14972902

[bleak hazel]

I think if this guy has one major issue in combat it's that he's not remotely efficient

he wants to be constantly swinging and swinging and swinging and tearing chunks out of you, and using multiple 2+ mote charms on attacks/defences, with no ways to get motes back

would struggle against a mote-efficient defence like Solar Melee, Crane or a Ways of Exaltation Sid

but he fucks up most Lunars, the moment he draws blood all the wound penalty stuff starts biting very deep if most of your health levels are -2s

[prisma sun]

So probably going to be scary for a pirate crew of a Deeb, Serenity Sid, and Terrestial Exigent

[bleak hazel]

and Blood Begets Slaughter is in there at E1 and is fucking mean

[prisma sun]

And probably a match for a non-Invincible Sword Princess Abyssal

[bleak hazel]

depends what essence level you make him

but yeah

[prisma sun]

At least 3, maybe 4

[bleak hazel]

let him have his siaka friend and throw on a few standard celestial ox-bodies

[prisma sun]

Hell yeah

[bleak hazel]

going 1vX sucks for most villains, but especially this guy

due to aforementioned zero mote efficiency

also if you use his native charms armour him the hell up

he'll need the soak

[prisma sun]

He will have a pretty big pirate crew

and probably some war gods on his side

The plot of the game I think is gonna be hunting for a legendary artifact in the Western Oceans

(Also who is the Western Deathlord again)

[raw owl]

Silver Prince

[prisma sun]

ty

https://i.imgur.com/FaQm7Oy.png

I like to imagine that that shit was all named that before he even showed uup

And he just went "oh, perfect, we're setting up here"

"The Drowner of Saints" is such a banger epithet I almost want to use him directly

[prisma sun]

Also just realized

With an Abyssal Pirate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7tJELpDfKU

Okay so

The plot will be to gain a Treasure that the party is convinced is some powerful artifact that'll make 'em rich

but it is actually a chained Behemoth in the deep that the other factions want to gain control of

The Luminary End

Giant Fucked Up Deep Sea Jelly Fish

only really visible as an impossibly long series of lights

Probably take a little inspiration from fucking uhhhh

Namielle

[prisma sun]

The Luminary End sits in a prison so deep under the waves that not even a mote of it's two nemeses' grace has deigned to touch it. So vast is it's form, and so dark is it's prison, that one can only perceive it as drifting strips of light, flashing in a row in every direction, seemingly infinitely in five directions. They shine blank white, yet change color when the beast is roused. Moods can only be inferred from these colorings, but as they flash colors known only to some deep sea creatures, to decipher them is impossible for the sane.

[prisma sun]

I'm wondering if I should make "transform into a fox" an anima effect for the kitsune

[limpid badge]

Ohhhh make turning into some ushio and tora shit the iconic effect and a regular fox a simple anime effect? The Cloak of Many Tails or something

[prisma sun]

Ye ye!

I was thinking One Tail To Many

or One Tail To Nine

I think I'm gonna make a charm Basically Just Deadly Beastman Transformation

[prisma sun]

How would I represent "You can pull seals out as a throwing weapon infinitely"

[fierce star]

Permanent charm that just let syou do that, giving the tag list for a light throwing weapont o represent them, upgrade or repurchase later to turn them into artifact weapons or customize the tags?

[tulip folio]

Yeah. I'd give them a few fun tags to start.

Maybe 'They're mundane statwise and do bashing but they can hit dematerialized beings' (But don't let you automatically see them)

[prisma sun]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N4GixYWxhT_EHvh8cy7Z4CBjlVmKRO6O_iyNb3TJzHQ/edit?usp=sharing

brain hurts

I think this is good

So I decided to get weird with Excellencies

Where the cap is equal to the amount of Tails she has at any time

Any time you spend 5 motes, you gain a Tail

which increases your Excellency cap

Up to a cap of 9

[velvet raft]

Huh, I like that

Often it would coincide with anima

Question: can excellencies raise their own cap?

Also is there a minimum?

(On mobile, would have a hard time with docs)

[prisma sun]

Minimum of 1

Since she always has a tail

Also there's no real way to make anima divide equally with 9

@bleak hazel

https://i.imgur.com/VathMfy.png

The most cost efficent charm is in Sail

give the entire Fivefold Host free excellencies

[velvet raft]

Random: I’m pondering adapting Red Evening Sky as a Nobilis character for a game with Time, Night, or Endings as her Estate.

[prisma sun]

You should, they were fun

[velvet raft]

Yeah, I've started working on her character sheet and whatnot. I've adjusted her conceit so that she was a secondary character in mediocre wuxia series, who just appeared to be strong and silent and test the protagonist and ask kung fu riddles, without ever seeing her inner life.

But when her imperator made her into a real person all of the other stuff became real :D

[prisma sun]

I do miss the server but it seems like everyone just lost interest in it all at once

And I just feel embarrassed to try and bring it back

[velvet raft]

Yeah, I get you.

But I enjoyed it while it lasted and I came up with a few fun characters I can reuse, so, I at least am glad you put it together.

[prisma sun]

Over ambitious voy project dies pathetically once again
But I am also glad people got cool ocs out of it

[wise ocean]

I wouldn't call it overambitious, I just think any RP server that's going on for Awhile needs a Plot for people to rally around and keep on the grind with

I personally just dropped off because I didn't really get the system very well

[merry arch]

yeh, and fwiw my plate got very full with other games i joined with pbp elements that ended up stealing my writing juice bigly

had a lot of fun with it while it lasted!

[prisma sun]

There was gonna be a big plot with Nexus but I wanted to let people get scenes in first

The long and short of it was basically

https://youtu.be/5yb2N3pnztU?si=so_xVjNAfLOIj38v

The Nexus Incident Arc

[merry arch]

👀

if you ever make a push to revive it i'd be very interested in chasing that

[limpid badge]

yah im also still up for it esp as I’ve gotten a better handle on BH

[prisma sun]

Id be down

But im also building two actual exalted games so I dont think i can run it

[merry arch]

maybe something to poke at in the future then! either way consider my interest piqued

[prisma sun]

I would love to tbh

In the meantime

Im wondering if I should commission a map of the Calin Shogunate

Or if thats too much effort

[merry arch]

suppose it depends on your budget and the general production value you like to place in your games? might be good to draft the map yourself first and then give yourself the option of getting something down the line

[prisma sun]

Big true

[prisma sun]

How does the "Auroral Heart" sound for a McGuffin

[mighty rover]

excellent

[prisma sun]

One thing I gotta do for the Calin game

is come up with all 14 of the noble houses

[prisma sun]

I think the named ones are

Kamamoto
Shengu
Jerogal
Gabenzi
Kenjinho
Kenzho

[prisma sun]

Which statblock would be good for marine mooks?

Medium troops?

[tulip folio]

Are these trained boarding troops or are they just sailors?

I'd go with Bandits, if they're just Sailors in a fight.

Most naval guys don't have much personal experience/drill in personal combat.

[prisma sun]

They're Azurite Marines

[tulip folio]

Okay yeah, actual marines I'd go with Medium Troops, yeah

[prisma sun]

also

https://i.imgur.com/iirFbyW.png

Should I just zoom in on this art for the Chosen of Slaughter

or should I just use Jason Mamoa

[velvet raft]

What do you mean that's Jason Momoa right there

[prisma sun]

Like

[velvet raft]

Yeah same guy :V

(I am doing a jest)

But yeah may as well just use the photo

Since that's a close-up of the same guy >_>

[prisma sun]

That's Teon Saj then

Now I just need the Drowner of Saints

Actually, does Drowner of Saints have art?

[prisma sun]

Oh wait, the AZURE are the ones with turtleships

So I should look to Korea for vibes

So yeah, Azure is gonna be Joseon Korean I think

[prisma sun]

Is there a good Exalted discord?

[quiet garnet]

Hell yeah brother

[quiet garnet]

There is the official exalted discord server

[prisma sun]

Could I get a link si vous plz

[prisma sun]

I am totally putting a Zinogre into this Calin game

Just no changes whatsoever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9VA3m8VXUY

[graceful geode]

Including an Entirely Unnecessary Bazelgeuse Turf War?

[tulip folio]

Mind-Scouring Erasure (6xp; Essence 3, Instructive Fear Resonator, Emotional Irrelevance Systems) (+1wp): For a one-Willpower surcharge, characters can’t use the targeted Intimacy to bolster their Resolve against this influence or resist it in a Decision Point. This is a Psyche effect. The Alchemical can’t use this submodule against a character more than once per story.

Am I reading this right in that this basicly goes 'You can't use I Hate You to resist me reducing the I Hate You intimacy?'

[light olive]

Sad headcanon: La Mulana is set in the Exalted universe. The Mother is Gaia.

[fierce star]

That reads correct, yeah

[light olive]

If. Adorjan had elements they should correspond to her four daughter winds. And maybe silence.

[light olive]

World constructed from Adorjan.

Call it Yande-arth

[mighty rover]

hehe

[mighty rover]

ope we've got a subtitle

Infernals: Crowned in Hellfire

[winged swallow]

https://tenor.com/view/pot-of-greed-gif-10886134850172597966

[tulip folio]

Considering Holden and Hatewheel were rather anti-magitek and even post-them, Autocthonia's access to it is rather reduced than from previous editions...I'm wondering what the Alchemical book would have looked like if they were still the ones calling the shots.

[bleak hazel]

devs did a brief Q&A on Infernals

[mighty rover]

how's it looking

[bleak hazel]

 - Infernals, like Solars and Abyssals, can select an ability to be their Supernal ability. Here its called a "Primordial ability", but its exactly the same as those other two splats.

 - Devil-Body is a once-per-story power akin to the Greater Sign anima powers of the Sidereals. Each caste has a different trigger to activate it, and from what I gather, the universal way to trigger it is (if they keep it unchanged from the teaser in Crucible of Legend) to hit your -4 health levels. Charms can be taken to improve its power and make it easier to trigger. One such improvement is giving yourself multiple Devil-Bodies to choose from.

 - It seems like a lot of the old shintai charms are separate charms from Devil-Body.

 - Soul hierarchy charms are universal and you can start building up your own from Essence 1.

 - Like Abyssals, the obligatory MA/Sorcery chapter will be heavily focused on Sorcery over martial arts.

 - Infernal Monster has been folded into Infernal Brawl rather than remaining a distinct MA, same as Solar Hero Style.

 - All Yozis are represented in the charms.

 - Charms that cause permanent mental/physical changes (such as Cosmic Transcendence of Virtue and Hateful Wretched Noise) are not mandatory prerequisites for other charms.

 - Apparently Cytherea gets a little more of a description, in addition to a few charms inspired by her.```

stole someone elses' version of the cliff notes

[fierce star]

Not exactly what I wanted but sounds less bad than I was worried about

[bleak hazel]

them getting Supernal probably suggests Shintai will be slightly toned down from the preview version, since Supernal + cracked-out demon form would probably be a bit too much juice

I like this, the more power you put into a 1/story mega form the harder it is for GMs to plan around it

either they use it and stomp or they don't and get wrecked

[wise ocean]

another supernal exalt 😔

[tulip folio]

I knew they were gunna end up Ability based/have a supernal but...I guess I'll have to make my peace with it. XD

[bleak hazel]

I will still be taking all of the self-psychosurgery charms for my Infernal

they are a large part of the vibe for me

I am looking forward to hell writeup, though

[tulip folio]

I'm really hoping they keep a lot of the 'Oh yeah, I just Mutate Shit'. We need more ability to curse people or play with flesh like clay.

and the 'I can turn a person into a first circle demon' was a personal favorite charm

[velvet raft]

All I can really say here is “it could be worse”

I don’t really like any of this information and it feels kinda mechanically flavorless but it’s unsurprising

[tulip folio]

I'm really hoping they don't end up just feeling like 'Green Solars'. As they were always such a unique beast.

3e has done a really good job making Lunars and Alchemicals and Sids feel really different to solars.

I hope they can bring that sort of spice to Infernals, even if they're not quite gunna be how I'd like.

[velvet raft]

This kinda makes it sound like the only way they can avoid being Green Solars is a good charm set, though

Which … you know, I have reasons to be optimistic about that, but

[fierce star]

The fact that youc an start building your own soul hierarchy from ess 1 is a little bright spot?

[velvet raft]

It is!

Although tbh the soul hierarchy stuff is one of the things they could have cut and I would not have minded

I’m surprised they didn’t, honestly

There was so much antipathy towards the “you become a primordial” stuff

[prisma sun]

I will say Abyssals dont just feel like "Black Solars"

[tulip folio]

Sure but it's the tricky thing of well...previously, Infernals had so very little that was solar about them that avoiding 'Solar but Green' as a comparison will be tricky as you're pushing them heavily back towards a solar-shaped box by making them an ability exalt with a supernal.

Abyssals and Solars have always had that 'mirror images of each other' aspect, to the point they actively shared charms in previous editions with the Mirror keyword.

Abyssals in 3e have the advantage of being 'Solars but there's less Goofy Bullshit because they've had the benefit of multiple books to understand design', so being 'solar-like' isn't really a problem for them as there's a place for 'Solar but the design is less disruptive'.

Hmm...I wonder what martial arts I'd pick up for an old sid of mine if I translated them to 3e. Her favourite styles ended up becoming Exalt-Specific Brawl Trees so there isn't really a 'Wait for Infernal Hero to get translated', as it's been translated just not in a way she can access.

[light olive]

thinks about kerisgame and various non canon charmsets

[bleak hazel]

I did like the one someone did for Oramus that was all about spreading literal infectious madness

at the same time I probably wouldn't like to set half the Kerisgame stuff loose in your average Infernal game because that particular fanfic-vaguely-using-game-rules is about 70% soap opera set inside the main characters' head, which is an utterly miserable experience if there's more than one player

[light olive]

True.

[velvet raft]

Aye, one thing I always loved is that Infernals can’t use SMAs, but are extremely and inherently good at sorcery.

(I also liked them being fused with a demon, and how they were strongly incentivized to ham it up like saturday morning cartoon villains no matter what their actual moral stance)

(Non-evil but unwilling to fully betray the Yozi Infernals remain a fascination of mine)

[light olive]

Eaclted Worm crossover in which Taylor is an Infernal and the Undersiders are her souls.

[tulip folio]

Yeah, I think the big thing I hope for with infernals is that they actually don't make sorcery access in the occult charms but make them general/neutral charms.

As infernals had several 'ways to get into sorcery, even if you're not actually very good at occultism'

And making terrestial/celestial/solar sorcery have very few prereqs could help get that feel across in 3

'Yeah, I'm occult 1 but I'm still a celestial-tier sorcerer with the support charms because I'm going it the primordial way, not the mortal way'

It would also give space in occult for some of the more weird esoteric infernal stuff rather than being the 'Sorcery and Sorcery Accessories' charmset

[velvet raft]

And this tracked, lore-wise, with how sorcery seems to use Primordial dev tools and was even originally taught by a demon

[tulip folio]

Yeah. I'd sorta like Terrestrial to have zero prereqs beyond just 'essence 1', likewise 3 and 5 for Celestial/Solar.

Would give them a bit of feel that 'no, this shit comes super easily to them/they don't need anything special'

Would also make it a bit easier to go 'oh yeah, I want a Specific Magic Trick. I can invest 1-2 charms in getting that'

While if you want a specific celetial trick as a Sid that's a lot of spells and ranks to get there.

As they do it the Hard Way.

[velvet raft]

But conversely Sids have their own weird, profoundly potent stuff in SMAs and astrology, which, to carry on the metaphor, let them work in assembly

... okay, I can think of one way I'd be more-or-less happy with ability-based Infernals

If, in the mold of Sids having Secrets or Battles or Endings charms, Infernals had Yozi charms and each Yozi counted a specific group of abilities as charms of those type

[bleak hazel]

admittedly the Sid requirements for Celestial Sorcery are "4 secrets charms and one terrestrial charm + spell" which isn't exactly crippling purely because there's a decent number of easy green picks

[coral wraith]

Green picks rule

[bleak hazel]

I think the main issue differentiating there is that Solars/Abyssals can already just walk into Terrestrial Sorcery with Occult 3, so you're saving a grand total of two sessions' average XP on ability dots at best, assuming you don't actually need to roll Occult at any point due to Infernal-specific carveouts

[tulip folio]

I hope infernals get a good bit of those stuff like how secrets/endings charms where you can get some Weird Shit There.

I really want a Malfeas one that is an appearance or charisma stat swap that is 'Oh yeah, I am just the best at dance'.

Like that sid one that lets you use appearance for dodge DV

[prisma sun]

Abyssals had weird shit so I feel like it should be relevant weird

[tulip folio]

And well...Infernals have always been notably weirder than Abyssals and Solars. So I'm hoping that remains.

[velvet raft]

The more I think about this the more it seems like a potentially good way of splitting the difference

[tulip folio]

...honestly, with the stat swaps that most new exalts seem to get some amount of now, I'd likely give Malfeas both the 'Use Str for Unarmed/Heavy Melee' that most splats get and a 'Use App or Cha (Either would work thematically) for dodge DV'.

Means you can be a Malfeas-empowered Juggernaut without actually having a particularly huge dexterity.

With both spite-fueled strength and dancer's rhythm.

I could also see a SWLIHN-inspired 'Use Intelligence for Unarmed Attacks/Grapples' as another alternative. As you leverage mental power over physical. SWLIHN liked grabbing things in 2e and moving stuff away from dexterity is rarely a problem as it's a very loaded stat.

[bleak hazel]

I would expect that MIND HAND (muhahahaha) is not going away

it's very much the big SWLIHN gimmick

[tulip folio]

On one hand: SWLIHN feels almost like a parody of autism, made by someone who's read about it but not lived it.
On the other: My autistic ass loves her so much. She's just so fun in being the Wannabe Straight Man of the Yozi with roughly -100% emotional intelligence.

I look foward to what sort of 'Anime Glasses Glinting Villain Bullshit' SWLIHN gets in 3e.

[bleak hazel]

I am not sure what Yozis I'm going to pick for my shameless Diabolik ripoff Infernal

(well, you don't pick Yozis anymore, but you get the idea)

Ebby + Isidoros, maybe

definitely using the soul hierarchy stuff to have a whole supervillain/pirate king lair in my own head

[tulip folio]

I can't recall who made it but I loved an Isidoros homebrew charmset people made.

Where it had my favorite of all anti-stealth charms.

'Perfect soak against ambushes/surprise attacks. Weakness: You don't learn you were attacked'

As you embody Isodoros' inability to understand anything outside himself to such a degree that things you don't recognise can't affect you.

[bleak hazel]

Diabolik is an arch-thief/master of disguise, so Ebby is mandatory, but I do want one yozi in there for supervillain bragging and extremely flashy style

which could be a lot of them, so we'll see who gets what

the only one who's hard out is Cecelyne, this guy's way too into opulent everything for her taste

[tulip folio]

Yeah, CeCe's themes are much more Exodus.

Locusts, wandering in the desert, delivering divine laws upon the people etc

[velvet raft]

My Yozi rankings are Malfeas > Adorjan > SWLIHN = Cecelyne > Ebon Dragon

[tulip folio]

My top is Malfeas but I really like Isidoros. Of the main ones I sorta lean Malfeas > SWLIHN > CeCe > Ebby > Adorjan

[velvet raft]

Ebby does the least for me because he's the only one I don't feel kinda sorta bad for

This might be my Nobilis/Glitch bias showing, but the Primordials in general strike me as very ... not exactly neurodivergent-coded, but.

[tulip folio]

Oh, they are all profoundly mentally unwell and it's a cornerstone of them.

To paraphrase my Alchemical: "The Primordials need Therapy."

(And yeah, as someone who is autistic I can see some of the things I sometimes have issues with in SWLIHN, pushed to 10000%)

[bleak hazel]

I do think the read of them where they all have human mental health issues 1-1 is a bit of a... depressingly therapy-brained one, but I can see some of it

I like it when the vast sentient ecosystems are at least a bit incomprehensible in their thought processes

the devs did mention there's ways to interact with each of the yozi face-to-face, as it were, but I think I may be given to ignoring that half the time, because people will already anthropomorphise anything they encounter to a slightly boring degree without it having an avatar with a face

[tulip folio]

It would be kinda weird if you could interact with them face to face easily.

As like...that's Autocthon's thing

He's the Yozi who wants to do that with humans.

He lobotomized one of his own souls so he could use it as the core of a project to pour his understanding into a human perspective for a time.

And even now, that project is showing at the very best only 'kinda vaguely ish successful' results. In that you can kinda commune with the godhead, not that it can directly talk to you.

[velvet raft]

A lot of the harm they cause arises out of a fundamental disconnect between how they understand the universe and how the beings they created understand the universe

Even other demons, a lot of the time

[tulip folio]

Yeah. It's why I'll rarely call the Yozi malevolent

They're harmful but few of them are really capable of that sort of intentionality of suffering required for malevolence.

Except Ebby

[velvet raft]

Right, the Ebon Dragon does get it

He's just a bastard

It's hard to say that the others would be nice if they just understood

But like, their inability to understand is an integral part of their beings

[tulip folio]

I also think being able to talk with the other Yozi face to face would turn Autocthon's situation from 'A Yozi genuinely trying to do his best to understand and care for people he fundamentally finds incomprehensible by the very nature of Being A Yozi' to 'Sorry, this particular Yozi is Too Autistic To Function'.

So I really hope they don't make it possible to talk to them as individuals.

Does that...remotely make sense?

[bleak hazel]

well, you could always chat to Adorjan, but Adorjan is odd even by Yozi standards

but I don't think any of them are autistic, purely because that implies a vast number of things beyond "has difficulty communicating on human scale for any reason"

Exalts and senior gods are already written as HUMAN BUT REALLY BIG, it's nice to have other ludicrously OP beings that categorically don't work anything like that way and to some extent resist the analogy

[velvet raft]

Yeah, they're not autistic

[tulip folio]

Oh yeah, this wasn't they're literally autistic so much as 'How it would mess things up with Autocthon's themes if all the Yozi could be talked to, as so much of his story is about trying to talk to people one on one.'

As it would turn him from 'categorically not able' to 'Yozi can do it just fine, this is an Autocthon specific issue'

[velvet raft]

They're vaguely neurodivergent-coded but that's still not the right word

[tulip folio]

The GM for the game RiRi is for, @tranquil badge, finally finished up his setting document for the minor city she's from. I'm so happy.

[tranquil badge]

Hello, I am that GM, Iki is bullying me into sharing my fluff doc. But also it would be good to get more eyes on it, if anyone cared to. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K5sRY6VIOiGZXX1DOlzIJKPdW59h7QjkLXNTpppnXgU/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.aram7g2hd354

[tulip folio]

I am a bully

Also I'm pretty sure he was working on this doc to avoid staring at exalted rules.

[mighty rover]

yoooooo

[tranquil badge]

How dare you Iki. The fact I only just how started reading GMing side rules is a total coincidence :P

Also the doc is a lot, so I don't begrudge anyone for just going over the brief overview. I started writing and just kinda didn't stop.

[tulip folio]

Poor EF

[mighty rover]

lol

[tulip folio]

Medium Thrown

Alchemical Grenades
Vials containing firedust, powerful acid or any number of powerful alchemical concoctions and prepared for aerodynamics. A favourite of Jadeborn Mercenary companies and Autocthonian assault teams, they shatter formations and hardened hide easily.

Cost: •• (in Jadeborn Cities and in Autocthonia) ••• (Aboveground Creation)
Tags: Thrown(Medium), Crossbow, Mounted, Slow, Special

Alchemical grenades can be adjusted by any character with at least 2 dots in craft(alchemy) or a similar skill over a few minutes, changing the compounds or reinforcing the vial itself. Doing so grants the weapon the adjuster's choice of Bashing or Lethal, along with one of the following tags: Balanced, Piercing, Poisonable or Concussive. These last until the weapon is next modified.

New Tag: Concussive
This weapon is treated as a Heavy Thrown Weapon against Battle Groups and targets of Legendary Size.

Essence Pulse Grenades
Small metal spheres, they make use of the latest in moteic science discoveries to harness the excess of energy when a mote is broken apart. These make them powerful bombs, if one that can only be used by the exalted.

Rules Adjustments: An attuned user can change the tags regardless of their dots in craft(Alchemy). Otherwise the same as their mundane counterpart, just with the artifact statline.

@tranquil badge. I did this a while ago for 'how grenade work'. To make it feel AOE but not be like 'hits mutiple exalts' AOE.

it's based on how obsidion butterflies works, where it deals extra damage to battle groups

Representing the AOE sweeping through the mass of dudes

[tranquil badge]

Danke!

[fierce star]

'learn it yerself' is kind of ex3 combat balance yes

[tulip folio]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/715050513338728518/1432926292030001162/Cap_Map.jpg?ex=6902d41a&is=6901829a&hm=77a9fc45312eec633cbc2ed822dca7ce22376301aa3dfa355756f6ca9078f48c

Autocthonian City Map!

[tulip folio]

I am pondering an idea I had sitting about for an infernal and pondering if it's too weird looking for even 'yeah mutations do weird shit'.

Iron Tomb of Dreams, a Feyblooded Abyssal who's very 'Classic Dullahan'. No, she's not dead. She's Feyblooded. The head thing is just Fey Stuff.

[fierce star]

I like it

[velvet raft]

Feyblooded Abyssal seems really fun

ponders reworking feyblooded solar brawler as an abyssal

[tulip folio]

I'ts a bit of a play on how the Headless Horseman is originally fey but is generally seen as undead in most modern depictions.

[velvet raft]

Yeah

Hm, tragic lack of good soulsteel armor for this purpose. I guess Scavenger's Shroud is pretty good

[tulip folio]

Also so I can have a character with 0 dice for disguise because the head keeps falling off whenever imperials look too closely.

And Abyssals can get 0 dice for disguise really easily

[velvet raft]

Killing Fist Technique/Fists of Iron Technique is really good, the more I look at it.

Just ignoring a whole bunch of soak is great

looks at Abyssal Brawl, looks at Dark Messiah's Wrath, hears RLF lunars weeping that this should be on their charm list

[velvet raft]

Overall this is still really cool but feels a lot more measured than Solar brawl

[mighty rover]

Infernals crowdfund next month

[velvet raft]

I admit I'm tempted. And also extremely fearful.

[limpid badge]

you could also give her a sort of "crumbling stone" theme if you'd like, as i recall Fae stuff doesn't react well to Underworld Energy

[velvet raft]

That's why I like the idea of mixing the two so much

[tulip folio]

I was pondering a Cold Iron theme, as that is Death for Fae.

Spiked, Bloody Cold Iron Chains etc

[limpid badge]

some pyramid head ass gear

[wise ocean]

Iron maiden and catherine wheel type of deal?

[velvet raft]

Resistance has a lot of stuff that would be fitting for this

[tulip folio]

Yeah, that's sorta my plan. Go with Resistance as her big one and wrap people up in iron chains

[velvet raft]

Also cool synergy between Resistance and Brawl

[tulip folio]

Also you get to do the Undertaker Sit Up every battle after the enemy does this big cool ultimate attack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDptoco79Ro

[fierce star]

retainer who's just paul bearer but in exalted

[velvet raft]

Huh, did they weaken the Caste Ability lineup for Dusks?

Relative to Dawns, I mean

[tulip folio]

...is there a difference?

...thinking about it, something they could do while keeping them ability-based for Infernals to feel less just like 'Green Solar' would be to make the castes not just reflections ability-wise of the solar ones. Like you could put Melee in Adojan as it's the Cutting Wind etc.

[velvet raft]

Could've sworn Dawns had Dodge and Awareness on their list

Yep, it's different

Dusks get Athletics and Ride

Dawns get Dodge and Awareness

[tulip folio]

Huh, I never noticed they were different.

[velvet raft]

Yeah, me either until just now

[tulip folio]

...I wonder how Abyssal Ride is, if you're not going like 'Hey, I have a T-Rex to Ride'

[velvet raft]

Make your own, I guess!

[tulip folio]

Could be fun for that Dullahan Abyssal to grab a Unicorn as a Mount.

[velvet raft]

Wretched Ridden Nightmare is an Essence 2, 5m Reflexive charm that grants six dots of mutations, chosen at purchase, and can be purchased Essence +1 times

So

That's potentially amazing

Oh but you can only use any one set of six dots a time prior to Saddled In Epic Monstrosity

Which lets you mix-and-match up to 12, I guess

[tulip folio]

That's pretty damn cool still.

6 dots of mutations is still enough to get like wings or something when you need to go overland.

[velvet raft]

At a glance, Abyssal Ride looks quite strong, and much more focused around one's mount getting tons of cool attacks and stuff

[tulip folio]

Unstoppable Bestial Juggernaught seems really fun considering this abyssal was looking to be Resistance supernal

[velvet raft]

Medium-range reflexive decisive AoE charm seems uh

A bit good

Just a little

Why hello there

[tulip folio]

...oh, that's scary.

Like even if your mount does Literally Nothing in the entire fight beyond 'exist' that can be a big bonus to a hit.

[velvet raft]

I wouldn't say Ride is a complete combat package since you're still going to need defense and offense charms for yourself, but from what I'm seeing it's a very, very good one

Get-out-of-crash-free is wild

[tulip folio]

Yeah. Still, looks like a solid setup for like Brawl + Ride + Resistance (Apocalyptic)

Resistance gives you a scary brawl weapon in the lashing chains

And the ability to tombstone piledriver people.

And ride helps keep the already durable resistance going longer.

Dusk

Caste: Athletics, Brawl, Resistance(Apocalyptic), Ride, War
Favoured: Integrity, Presence, Occult, Awareness, (Socialize? Survival?)

Perhaps? Athletics and Ride overlap a bit but all of the remaining caste ones overlap a bit there too.

[velvet raft]

I like the vibe, yeah

Survival does still have some stuff for animal familiars

I'm not sure if there's any way to use Stealth while mounted but it could be very cool

[tulip folio]

Yeah. I think socialize over survival though. Survival + ride is the 'fuck it, my familiar is the main character' combo while in this case I'm feeling it more as 'oh yeah, ride is a very secondary thing here'

They're a Dusk Who Can Ride, not a Dedicated Cavalry Dusk. If that makes sense?

[velvet raft]

Yeah

[tulip folio]

Unicorns also have a great advantage as 'just riding' mounts. The fuckers are Speed FIVE

They're outpacing horses fully galloping at a brisk trot

[velvet raft]

Only other thing I can think of might be Medicine?

Oh, Survival does have weather-control shit tho

Might be worth considering just for that

[tulip folio]

Oooh, weather control IS cool

...no pun intended

[velvet raft]

And the first Survival charm is "yes yes, here, eat these underworld pomegranates"

[tulip folio]

Hahahah

[velvet raft]

I'm not really clear on what Abyssal Socialize does, IIRC it kinda has vampire mind control vibes?

[tulip folio]

Yeah. It's very 'Welcome to my parlor'

Going just full Vampire Noble some time with an Abyssal could be fun.

[velvet raft]

Oh, I usually think of this as a warmain song, but I think it can have Dusk vibes, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK1UKow2U6Q

[fierce star]

aviators... my beloved...

[velvet raft]

Love this song

Very Abyssal-flavored

[tranquil badge]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoC8OBjs7Iw This one of his always makes me think of Exalted when it comes on my playlist

[tranquil badge]

As someone looking to run an Exalted game, are there any guides or resources people would recommend, to make up for the lack of GM support in the published books?

[tulip folio]

Pondering about just like 'Vampire Classic' with Abyssals and sorta running into an odd pondering - It's sorta hard to justify several small familiars instead of a single huge one as so many of the 'boost a familiar' survival charms affect a single one.

I was pondering Bats and Wolves and such and then going 'okay but like...they'll get their ass whooped by a single Good At Combat Animal' 😛

[tulip folio]

I guess if you want to run smaller animals, you could take them as a group and go with War Charms instead of Survival Charms.

[velvet raft]

Aye, I think a battle group would work well for that

[tulip folio]

Bat Swarm Battlegroup

[velvet raft]

Fr tho

Go forth my bat army

[bleak hazel]

Familiar is sadly heavily skewed by the presence of Dinosaur

Tyrant Lizard should really just not be a familiar option

[velvet raft]

Make legendary size familiars in general require charm purchases at minimum

[bleak hazel]

I was discussing this stuff in the Exalted server the other day and people quite liked the idea of a tame-untameable generic charm tree that everyone gets in Survival or whatever, yeah

so you need to sink XP into having baseline tyrant lizard that the person with a cool dog can just spend on making the dog better

[velvet raft]

The familiar rules in general are kinda half-baked

Witch Beast Pact is my favorite thing, but also I’m not even clear on what 3-dot familiars would qualify for its prerequisites

It has to be a 3-dot animal? But not a huge apex predator? I guess technically herbivorous dinosaurs might qualify for that but it feels like cheating. And possibly a magic animal (there are no rules for this)?

Also the term “animal familiar” seems way more limited than it feels like it should be

And it shows up in a bunch of charms

[tulip folio]

Animal familiar is so funny

As it's on charms they clearly thought were powerful

So wanted to avoid them on like 'I bound a fire elemental familiar'

But...Tyrant Lizard still exists

[bleak escarp]

I think basically that's not served by the Familiar background?

It seems more like material for Followers or the like

[prisma sun]

You could just have a battlegroup of wolves

[mighty rover]

https://bsky.app/profile/sabatonfan69.bsky.social/post/3lu2dvbovri2g

War Wolf (@sabatonfan69.bsky.social)

Father..

The King: No, it can’t be! (stumbling backwards off his throne)

My smile reveals sharp glistening canines: Aye… you threw me to the wolves. “bastard” you named me

King: You’ve become…you…

Me: Say it

Weary King: The War Wolf

*my pack howls ferociously behind me*

Likes

134

Bluesky · Jul 16, 2025, 2:15 AM

[tulip folio]

...a battlegroup of wolves would actually be really solid.

Pack Hunting does work there.

Most of the effects they have are for Decisive Attacks, which doesn't do much for a battle group but Pack Hunting makes them real scary in the accuracy department.

Pack Hunting: When the hound or wolf attacks an enemy, it adds one automatic success to the attack roll for each allied pack member in close range to that enemy, to a maximum of three successes. 

The base damage isn't great compared to a human battlegroup but automatic successes covers a multitude of sins

[prisma sun]

Yeah and I don't think a lot of that has to be worried about if a War Abyssal is throwing shit onto them

[tulip folio]

Finding a stat for a Bat is trickier as I don't think exalted ever statted that up.

Ah, they turned up in Hundred Demon's Night Parade, not the corebook

...okay, that's funny.

The bat rules have express rules for creating Firedust Grenades.

Which have not been statted in any book exalted has actually printed.

So if you've got friendly bats and alchemical skills you can make firedust grenades! What they do? Who knows, make it up!

[mighty rover]

lol

[prisma sun]

make more bats clearly

[tulip folio]

Vampire Noble Classic:
Moonshadow
Caste: Socialize (Apocalyptic), Integrity, Occult, Presence, Bureaucracy
Favoured: Athletics, War, Performance, Survival, Brawl

Perhaps?

[prisma sun]

Is classic vampire brawl or melee

[tulip folio]

I was thinking more Brawl for 'Grab and Bite'

[tulip folio]

Not sure if Presense or Socialize would be better for Vampire Noble Classic sorta 'I am noble, people listen to me/I play them like a fiddle'.

Apocolyptic Socialize has a suprisingly good combat charm as the capstone.

[bleak hazel]

Socialize is all about the aristo stuff, absolutely that

Has some fun stuff in the obsession tree as well as all the usual guile boosters

[fierce star]

yeah, apoc socialize is really fun for the stuf fyou want there I think

[tulip folio]

...I wonder if there's a martial art that would fit Abyssal Socialize character. As brawl is very powerful but this is more about unarmed than brawl's specific gimicks.

[velvet raft]

Black Claw

Or White Whatsit

Or Ebon Shadow

But Black Claw reflavored slightly would be good, I think

[tulip folio]

It would be fitting for a vampire to literally pull someone's heart from their chest.

[velvet raft]

Right?

And it is the social manipulation-based martial art

[fierce star]

black claw and white veil combined: you're just an asshole, aren't you

[tulip folio]

I should check out White Veil. I don't know it well.

[bleak hazel]

White Veil goes hard here, it would be my pick

It lets you roll an ambush with Socialise and then you can apply all your dice tricks to it and annihilate someone with the power of cutting insults

[tulip folio]

Also seems like it would work really well with this, which due to apocolyptic, is actually available from the start.

[bleak hazel]

there's also Flying Guillotine if you just want something that lets you have vaguely normal physical stats rather than 151

It's very good for that, although personally I'm happy with skyhigh socialise rolls, Double 9s, maybe the faux pas thing all stacked onto the E2 white veil ambush

[tulip folio]

Makes sense.

[fierce star]

One day I'll play my abyssal white veil/black claw/rat/road/medicine/citrine poxes character

+survival

basically just stack as many bad touch effects on as possible

[tulip folio]

...honestly, most of black claw isn't super appealing but I do really like the 'oh no, he started it' entry charm.

Just the ability to do a terrifying White Veil Fatal Obsession Finale ambush and have the entire court break into a performance of 'Cell Block Tango'.

[tulip folio]

I do like the thematics of the Death's Unholy Visage + Open Palm Caress.

You are just visibly, openly a fucking vampire.

But everyone still goes 'aww, you're being unfair' if the sids or wyld hunt attacks you.

[limpid badge]

honestly have been using Death's Unholy Visage for Bloody Hand through the Heavy Implication that she's Just A Ghost Blood

[fierce star]

so i was doing some tinkering and realized that despite logic, the 'extra limbs' mutation doesn't let you actually wield anything if those limbs are prehensile, such as arms or tentacles. Right? There' not actually any way, RAW in ex3, to wield more than two hands worth of weapons at a time?

(well I'm sure there's some charm or somethign ssomewhere, but)

[velvet raft]

Thousand Blades in general

But also I think it’s more that ex3 doesn’t care enough about hand economy to bother clarifying

As it is, dual wielding has no intrinsic benefit

Neither does sextuple wielding

There’s an NPC statblock in Adversaries for a six-armed lady who uses a set of six daggers

And those daggers have stats as a set of six

[velvet raft]

Other than clashing

But that doesn’t get stronger with six arms

I suppose hypothetically one could dual wield two-handers, which normally one can only do with thousand blades.

[bleak hazel]

Presumably having Extra Arms does in fact let you hold things with your extra arms

main use is keeping a whole bunch of weapons on hand for different effects, which Sids can also do with Holistic Arsenal Methodology allowing them to swap weapons reflexively at effectively any time

my HAM sid is rather too charm-inefficient for me to actually play, but it was fun that he was mechancally incentivised to carry two hook-swords, two shields, a war fan, a regular club for Smashing and however many useful-tagged backups he could get his hands on

wasn't even the weapons that ate the XP, it was just the awkward SMA transition from Melee + Crane requiring him to go all the way to Melee Enlightenment to use swords

which is just so many combat charms

[fierce star]

my basic thing is I'm plotting otu an alchemical with four arms, because I like the idea of a robot with an arm cannon, a shield, and two short daiklaives

because it's a fun aesthetic

but that comes into 'the game probably doesn't want me to have +1 parry from the shield and the clash bonus from dual wielding'

[bleak hazel]

well, if you have HAM you can just hotswap between the two, so there are other ways to get that

including holding two shields

[next delta]

Huh, interesting that dual wielding lets you apply either weapon to attacks and parries. I guess that is a good reason to use a shield. Though you probably want a medium weapon instead

[fierce star]

Shields have an aesthetic, though, y'know?

they do suck, admittedly

that damage penalty is just not worth it most of the time unless you're going a full bodyguard build

[tulip folio]

Honestly if you're getting that many dots worth of artifacts I'd just let you Hold More Things in extra arms.

Like I think the Best Case Scenario is 'I can use a 2 handed ranged weapon and a medium weapon to parry'.

And that's...okay? It's nice but not earth shaking.

[fierce star]

well the arm cannon's a charm

[prisma sun]

Why need to hold more things when you can just stunt throwing things up in the air constantly

[velvet raft]

Wouldn’t using a weapon and shield give you that anyway? Or do they have to be paired?

[fierce star]

They have to be paired for the clash bonus, yeah

[velvet raft]

I guess I'd personally rule that this applies even with a whole bunch of weapons

So if you have six knives, clash bonus. If you have five knives and a shield, no clash bonus.

Keeps things on a pretty even keel.

[bleak hazel]

"you know I thought this lady was Gyokuyou from Apothecary Diaries but she just turned her bow into a tree and shot twenty arrows out of the air while reminiscing about life from before kids" - a friend's totally average deeb campaign onboards newbies

[bleak hazel]

https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/13111d66-b3cd-4af1-8981-a1857089de78/landing

Infernals crowdfund in one week and closing

one martial art and a lot of sorcery, plus everyone's favourite green maniacs

[fierce star]

rock stars of hell, yay

man i hope we get the stats for perronelles in this book

[mighty rover]

geen

[fierce star]

I was checking Solar charms for something and got reminded that the Bridge keyword exists

[tulip folio]

...it does?

I do not recall it

[fierce star]

well only solars use it because it's stupid lmao

[tulip folio]

What's it do?

[fierce star]

It is ONLY used for certain Integrity charms

well, maybe most

I'm not reading this entire stupid charmset

[tulip folio]

...yeah, that's silly. I know a few other exalts just go 'This can instead be purchased as an X charm' without all that complexity

[fierce star]

as an example of a charm with it

it's just

really bad, overcomplicated design

[tulip folio]

I don't even get why those alt prereqs?

Nothing about those skills imply 'Super resolve'

[fierce star]

here's another one that makes... slightly more ense, maybe?

I think misc had a big chatter about it at one point

[dense verge]

was bridge one of the keywords that got deprecated in crucible or exigents

i know one keyword got deprecated

pertinent?

[fierce star]

Salient, I think

the one that just means 'this costs craft xp to use'

[dense verge]

Salient, that was it

[fierce star]

bridge just hasn't been used since core

becuase, uh, it's stupid

[velvet raft]

My guess would be that they wanted a tool for making Integrity less mandatory

[next delta]

This one is weird. Does the bridge charms only matter for XP discount purposes?

But yeah, I think it was to make it easier to dip into integrity. Which I guess they were going for "most hereos have high integrity vibes"?

[velvet raft]

Players are generally going to want to nab integrity since it's a Defense Stat

[tulip folio]

Oh yeah, it just feels a bit weird to have integrity get a specific weird callout. If you want all characters to have good mental defences, I feel like that should be more of a 'base system' thing than 'A keyword for splat charms'. They were actively writing the corebook at the time after all.

[velvet raft]

I suspect Integrity is one of those sacred cows they were unwilling to actually do anything about

[tulip folio]

I'm making diagrams of charms for my homebrew artifacts

[limpid badge]

hrmrnrnhrn i ned to rename this infernal...

i have a good concept for her and a good start to the name and i can proably just use The Layabout Prince as a general name but i can do better

[tulip folio]

'The Acedian Prince'.

Acedia is spiritual listlessness or torpor

It's similar to sloth but more spiritual

[limpid badge]

Oooh hrmn

Part of it is the fun up-and-down of "Lay-a-bout" as part of the name, since the themes the character ended up with were uh

Thrown|Sorcery|Acrobatics Evil Clown/Ringmaster, whose attempt to solve problems mostly boils down to what if i Night Paraded

sorry acedian is a good word tho we're gonna keep that one in the background

so i guess part of it is rn the full thing is The Layabout Prince Swaddled In Funeral Shroud which sounds far too much like an abyssal

[tulip folio]

Hahahah, fair. Makes sense.

[velvet raft]

Tbh if you change out funeral shroud you’ll probably be instantly golden

[quiet garnet]

....Kinda wishing I could be blissfully ignorant again regarding how Infernals got their exaltations in 2E

[velvet raft]

Yeaah, that is an extremely stupid and terrible piece of lore

Pointlessly, voyeuristically mean on the part of the writers in the way a lot of Ebon Dragon stuff was

[quiet garnet]

Like you can be grim dark without doing that...and Exalted has never struck me as being depressingly grim in the same manner as Warhammer (particularly 40k) so I was just "HUH?!" when my friend explained what he meant by saying Infernals 2E was shittily written.

[velvet raft]

I think that Infernals 2e is a triumph about 50% of the time

The trouble is the other 50%

[chilly sluice]

how did it work?

[velvet raft]

||There's a swollen, grotesque human named Lillith, who was sacrificed to the Ebon Dragon as a child, that has been transformed into a container for the Exaltations|| (CW: gross, horrible)

[chilly sluice]

ah

[velvet raft]

The part which sucks considerably less is that on exaltation proper, a first-circle demon carries the exaltation with them and physically fuses into the exalt, causing them to be reborn from a weird flesh-chrysalis

And on rebirth, that demon is still in there in the Infernal, exerting a subtle influence

Or a not-so-subtle influence sometimes

The blood ape or neomah or whatever has an opinion

Traditionally, it's a demon whose lineage goes to one's patron yozi

[tranquil badge]

I remember the first thing I was told about 2e Infernals being 'Ignore the first two chapters'. IIRC it was a case of poor communication with a freelancer and too tight deadlines to fix it, at least from what I heard.

[velvet raft]

Old White Wolf gets called a book mill for a reason

[quiet garnet]

I looked at three different short articles regarding the Ebon Dragon...I still have no clue what I'm looking at.

One of my friends was saying they were likely going to go more with the 1E version of it for 3E.

https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/13111d66-b3cd-4af1-8981-a1857089de78/landing?external_id=13111d66-b3cd-4af1-8981-a1857089de78&has_user_account=true#success Also just 4 days til the Infernal backerkit launches

[velvet raft]

In 2e, the Ebon Dragon was best understood as the embodiment of what rests opposite virtue: the venal, consuming emptiness to which all that is good is counterposed

[bleak hazel]

note: these were the 2e Virtues, and as such are a bunch of god-king heroic impulse stuff that isn't particularly in alignment with modern human morality

Ebby is a kind of cosmic yin principle, he loves the dark and the cold, things that live there like ghosts and criminals, doomed lovers, etc.

[velvet raft]

This is an okay concept except that in simultaneously leaning into "this guy is the worst" and also him being Exalted 2e's Main Villain, they made the actions of a guy who is just kinda awful central to a lot of lore

[bleak hazel]

very shady and inherently oppositional, but not the Exalted Satan he would later be flanderised into

[tranquil badge]

The thing that's interesting about Ebby is that he's also self-defeating

Every grand scheme contains the seed of its own undoing

[velvet raft]

Yeah, he sucks

Because victory is something he exists in opposition to

A lot of his charms were not about making the user better, but about making the opponent worse

Because "better" is conceptually not part of his package

[tranquil badge]

'Golden Years Tarnished Black' goes hard as an Ebby charm name.

[velvet raft]

It is suggested that the Ebon Dragon was fairly cosmically important, even as primordials go, because of his status as the negation of everything worthwhile

[bleak hazel]

unfortunately this was the same edition that burned a lot of wordcount on making the Unconquered Sun less "Ancient Chinese Lucifer" and more "swole golden Jesus" and as such they also turned Ebby into a generic cackling evil stereotype

which he is, there's a reason his infernals were even more bond villain than was normal for them, but he's that in various complicated ways

[velvet raft]

Worth in Creation was to some extent built on everything that Ebby is not

I do think the biggest error was making him focal

He's very interesting as an awful cosmic principle who occasionally mugs at people shittily

[bleak hazel]

he's the yin to the Sun's yang (deliberately, there was some lore about him having a hand in the creation of Conky) but obviously yin is not just EEVIL

[velvet raft]

But making him into an actual major villain just means you now have the embodiment of eating shit taking center stage

[bleak hazel]

in the same way that Conky and Solars are not just straight up paladins

[quiet garnet]

I know I kinda want to play an Infernal in 3E once they're out. Probably as a freedom fighter of sorts.

[tranquil badge]

I still smile at the 2e fluff where Ebby sneaks into Autochthon and gets his ass kicked by the Viator of Nullspace.

[velvet raft]

I've said this a fair bit but I love the Infernals for their pathos

And the Pathos they bring to repulsive things

And the Ebon Dragon's portrayal as the edition continued got farther and farther away from that

[bleak hazel]

he is happy to be a cackling Bond villain but he's also the patron of doomed and illicit lovers, hopeless last stands on principle and desperate criminals, there's some complexity to him

(less to his charms, his charms were the shady bastard suite and they're all great)

my current Infernal idea is "pulp supervillain heister" in the vein of Diabolik, so he's absolutely going for a lot of Ebby stuff plus whatever Black Mirror Shintai turns into

[velvet raft]

More than the other Yozi, there is nothing good to say about the dragon, nothing to redeem him. And yet, in being the basis for all value he still raises that nagging sense all the Yozi do that what was done to him was a crime

He is also, notably, the source of color in Creation.

[bleak hazel]

he does also have many fun subsouls

Mara and Erembour are playing to type, but Sibri is an interesting take on his principles

we have no idea what his fetich soul looks like, perhaps deliberately

[velvet raft]

He is the definition of opposition, and so his perfect darkness gives birth to light

Almost a twisted, backwards form of Augustinian Grace

[bleak hazel]

I do like to emphasise that he's the definition of opposition not the definition of evil, because Exalted takes no opinion on universally embodied morality

he's not Satan

(he's just a very naughty boy)

he is literally defined as "antagonist", and he's great at antagonising people

[velvet raft]

He'll act the part, but that's because he acts the part of any and every shadow

So just making him into this rolling cavalcade of horrors is

It just kinda sucks

[bleak hazel]

yeah, I find it very hard to make an Ebby-themed infernal who isn't, at least to some extent, mugging for the camera

[velvet raft]

It's boring

[bleak hazel]

I like Ebby because for some reason I like the flanderised factions/beings in damn near everything, I have repeatedly mounted impassioned defences of Smith-Shimano Corpro because people keep depicting them as the wrong kind of shady bastard

I don't really have a favourite Yozi though, there's lots of good ones

[velvet raft]

All of the main five yozi felt deeply connected to the failure of their exalted in different ways, but in the Ebon Dragon's case it's because they're the main character of Soon I Will Be Invincible

[bleak hazel]

hoping for more hot Elloge gossip in this edition, we had very little on them previously but what we had was cool

[velvet raft]

It's the failure of someone who just can't stop setting up their own defeat

I vibe with all of the main yozi pretty strongly

I find their basic unhappiness evocative

[bleak hazel]

Cecelyne is a personal favourite just due to the mental image of a titan of law being beaten up and turning into a critical legal scholar

(-slash horrific hell tyrant desert)

[limpid badge]

hiiii im digging up my infernal notes and name is still working but

making her shintai a horror transformation is fun~!

It reels back in terror, weeping and wailing, clutching her chest. And then he begins to cough, body rattling with the force, a multicolor fog emerging from her lungs and wounds.

And then her eyes fall out of her head, and the thin tendrils yank the smoking body into the rafters. Above you, its body made of smoke is an infant demon-god. Soft flesh that reminds one of a jellyfish, many eyes that roll in terror and fury within its mass, the broken body of the Layabout Prince cradled in millions of fine gossamer tendrils- like the strings of a puppeteer cradling their toy.

What if a clown was actually a nightmare jellyfish

Auto shintai when you hit -4 is good

[next delta]

Do we know what the Ebon Dragon was before his soul was mutilated?

[fierce star]

That's teh thing, it wasn't. before, he was the Dragon's Shadow.

Hew as less mutiliated at the end of the war adn more, uh

born

Became the dragon of whom he was the shadow of

also yeah, iirc in ex2 at least the Dragon's Shadow explicitly created conky so he would hav esomething to define himself against, and before them he was just kind of a conglomerate blob of Wouldn't It Suck If

(Side thing my favorite Yozi is Kimbery and I was sad she wans't one of the big five conspirators)

[limpid badge]

kimbery's fucked up monsterlab womb charms were fun, but i can't remember if they were proper or homebrew

[chilly sluice]

the main thing I always remember about Kimbery is just that I find it hilarious that she can have an infinite amount of negative intimacies

[fierce star]

IIRC we got first party Kimbery charms in the broken winged crane

[chilly sluice]

she can hate everyone in the world individually with the same intensity

[fierce star]

and I think the monsterlab womb charms were there

ye! Isn't she a great mom? :D

what can be more motherly than specifically hating you for not being good enough

go sit in the corner filled with acid and think about how much you hurt mommy by failing

[chilly sluice]

if you hurt Kimbery, like eg not living up to her impossible expectations, it is an unforgivable act of betrayal that can never be repaid
if Kimbery hurts you, it's a well deserved punishment for your own good

[limpid badge]

oh yes, okaaay yaaay

[bleak hazel]

I think either Omicron or Earthscorpion did some really fun homebrew Kimbery souls

[limpid badge]

im hoping that i can in fact make body-doubles/illusions with a bunch of infernal sorcery for Layabout Prince

[bleak hazel]

I'll have to dig those up if I ever do that Malfean Sid/Infernal buddy cop campaign

[fierce star]

you like buddy cop campaigns, misc

[bleak hazel]

I do

[chilly sluice]

it's a good format

[bleak hazel]

played very few single splat games

[prisma sun]

Green Sun guy is so far the only demon I have strong interest in