Post by Ress on Sept 17, 2012 23:53:52 GMT -5
Welcome to the world of Exalted!
I am Jupiter, The Maiden of Secrets. I am the goddess who keeps and guards all things secret until the day comes when they are meant to be revealed. If you seek knowledge of this world, my sisters and I will be your guides.
As the Maiden of Secrets, I know the true nature and history of this world, but as this is not the right time to let those secrets loose, I will recant to you the most widely accepted story of the world thus far.
The place that would one day come to be known as Creation was once an ever shifting vortex of potential where the unformed concepts and beasts would combat titanic beings known as Primordials. These beings knew no equals in their existence, but soon tired of their endless warring with the shapeless monsters around them, so they refashioned the chaos they stood upon into a giant island of stability. Unable to follow their titanic foes, the creatures of chaos could only watch at the edges of this new world and curse its damning order.
No longer fighting an endless battle, The Primordials were free to take up hobbies and indulge in leisure, which lead them to create everything that exists, from oceans, mountains and all other manor of landscapes and plants. Soon, the world that was once a flat plane of stability was now a unique work of art teaming with life!… but maintain this world was seen as a chore. To take the burden of sustaining this world off them, The Primordials were moved to create gods to be the managers of reality.
First of these gods was The Unconquered Sun, the righteous and nigh invulnerable sun god with combat strength and knowledge that would give even The Primordials pause. As the first and most powerful of the gods, The Unconquered Sun’s job was to define time and to promote life on the face of Creation with his rays, as well as manage the other gods and protect it should the teeming chaos at the edges of creation should ever spill over.
The next was Luna, the shape changing trickster goddess of the moon. The last winner after a deathmatch with many other potential moon goddesses, Luna is a survivor at her core. Luna is nearly as powerful as The Unconquered Sun himself, but where he has unmatched skill, Luna has unbridled natural talent and strength. Luna is in charge of all things natural, be they plant, animal, land mass or weather pattern.
The final set of Incarnae gods are my sisters and I, The Maidens of Fate. We govern and watch the fate of all things in existence, making sure things happen exactly when they should and not a moment sooner... lest the tapestry of fate unravel and destroy all of Creation.
With the Incarnae created, The Primordials created millions of lesser gods to aid the Incarnae in their toils while The Primordials began work on a heaven like city called “ Yu-Shan” where they could escape the work of Creation.
For an age, Creation’s pre-history existed like this with the gods working non stop to maintain Creation while The Primordials played games in Yu-Shan between their destructive and sometimes genocidal visits. Unable to see this go on any longer, The Unconquered Sun banded together the rest of The Incarnae and began plotting the overthrow of The Primordials... but how could we revolt when servitude was built into our very beings?
The answer came in the form of of The Primordials Gaia and Autochthon who aided in empowering a hand full of mortal humans, beings made strictly for prayer generation, with the power of the Incarnae, but in very finite numbers. These came to be known as The Exalted.
The three hundred chosen of The Unconquered Sun became known as Solars, inheriting the perfection of The Sun.
Three hundred Lunars were created to be the Solar’s spouses and lieutenants. The Lunar Exalted possessed Luna’s power over not only their own forms, but of the forms and functions of things around them.
The last of The Incarnae’s Exalted were My sisters and mine, The Sidereal Exalted. We were afforded one hundred Exalted, giving each of us twenty of our own. Our chosen became masters of fate in all its forms, able to change and warp it to their designs.
These Exalted were great and powerful, but were not immortal. Should one ever fall in battle, the power inside them would leave their dead body and seek out a new worthy host, granting them the power of the gods.
Needing powerful troops for their army of chosen, Luna convinced her lover, The Primordial Gaia, to offer up The Elemental Dragons, her five greatest souls, and create Exalted for them. These Exalted would be known as The Terrestrial Exalted or “Dragon-Blooded”.
Though weaker than The Celestial Exalted, The Dragon-Blooded could pass their power to their children, allowing The Exalted a constantly growing legion of godlike foot soldiers. In a few short decades, The Dragon-Blooded numbered in the tens of thousands, marking The Exalted ready for their war against The Primordials.
After many thousands of years, the war was over. The death of six Primordials caused the surrender of the rest, who were promptly imprisoned inside the hollowed body of their tyrant king. The age that followed was a glorious one.
With the Primordials overthrown, The Gods inhabited Yu-Shan and left Creation and humanity to be ruled by The Exalted as a reward for their service, and with it, The Exalted created wonders and advancements that even the Primordials could not have imagined... but sadly, this did not last forever.
The Exalted became callous and distant from the humanity they once possessed, with The Solar Exalted being the worse offenders. Soon The Solar Exalted became just like the monsters that they had once sought to destroy.
One day, the greatest of my Exalted saw that The Solar Exalted were destined to destroy Creation of left unchecked. A great meeting was held by the chosen of The Maidens and a decision was made to have The Dragon-Blooded usurp and destroy The Solar Exalted.
With the Solar Exalted slain, The Sidereal Exalted gathered up their power and locked it away so that no more Solars would ever Exalt. With their mates killed, The Lunar Exalted were driven to Creation’s tattered edges where they became bitter and feral.
The Sidereal Exalted, ashamed at their “necessary evil” erased all traces of their existence and walked the world in secret while The Dragon-Blooded established themselves as rulers.
The feudal system set by The Dragon-Blooded worked for a short time, but the endless legions of chaos that teamed at Creation’s edges had been waiting for this day for a very long time and began rushing in, seeking to reduce Creation to the chaos it sprang from.
When all seemed lost, a single Dragon-Blooded woman was able to activate a powerful Solar artifact and in a single stroke, destroyed the invaders and set Creation right once more. She came to be known as The Scarlet Empress and she was made ruler.
The reign of The Scarlet Empress lasted for six hundred years, until one day, she vanished! On that same day, The Solar Exalted began Exalting once more, as did strange Abyssal Exalted, leading armies of ghosts and zombies on a trail of destruction.
This is the story of our world. There are a great many more secrets to discover, but the rest are up to you... but for now, I leave you with my sister Mercury, The Maiden of Journeys.
I am Mercury, The Maiden of Journeys. I govern all things relating to travel and distance, and now that you understand this world’s past, I will familiarize you with Creation itself.
You can think of Creation as a massive ship floating in a sea of chaos and potential. This sea is called “The Wyld”, and its semi sentient waves are always seeking to erode the frayed edges of Creation down to nothing and sink it. To defend against this, Creation is anchored in five directions by elemental poles. Much like the poles of your world, these poles are places of harsh elements and the closer one gets to them, the more inhospitable the lands becomes, but in the directions that the elemental poles are anchored in are flavored by the element they represent.
In Creation’s center is The Blessed Isle, where The Earth Pole is located and is the most stable and glorious place in Creation. Before they created Yu-Shan, The Primordials called this place home, as did The Gods before they too took residence in Yu-Shan. Now, The Dragon-Blooded usurpers call this Island home, as do the millions of mortals who serve them. The weather here on The Blessed Isle rarely varies that much and all storms that do occur are very light. The Blessed Isle boasts three harvests a year and there is very little poverty, but much oppression and tyranny.
The North is home to The Pole of Air, making the north cold and snowy. The North is inhabited by mostly hardy tribal nomads and very few cities, as the cold and snow are not conducive to enough agriculture to settle down in one place. The North is a loyal stronghold to The Blessed Isle and backs them with food, Jade and soldiers.
The West holds The Pole of Water, a mostly landless stretch of sea, rich in fish and checkered with chains of islands. Westerners are island dwellers who’s men work at sea, while the women work on land. This is mostly due to violent and hideous storm goddesses who would happily sink any ship a woman is on. The West is ruled, in theory, by The Blessed Isle, but due to the disappearance of The Scarlet Empress, they have not had the spare resources to bother with them.
In The South lay The Fire Pole, and as such, The South is a hot, sandy desert. Despite this, The South is home to a huge and advanced barbarian empire, ran completely by mortals. The South is home to the richest mines of gems, jade and orichalcum in Creation. The Blessed Isle claims to rule The South, but its inhabitants despise their would be rulers and pay small tributes bi-annually to them so they will stay away.
In The East, The Pole of Wood stands tall. The East benefits from the Wood Pole’s strength and fertility, allowing the plants, animal and people to grow larger than anywhere else in Creation. The East is far more populated than anywhere else in Creation, The Blessed Isle included. Easterners hate The Blessed Isle and have fought off their attempted conquests for hundreds of years.
The final location in Creation lies hidden, with its doorways barred to all mortals. This of course is my home, Yu-Shan, the City of the Gods. Here, even the slums are more beautiful than even the greatest neighborhoods in Creation. It is here The Gods live when they are not doing office work. They eat, wear and spend the prayers of mortals while my sisters, The Unconquered Sun, Luna and I rule over them. This is also where our Sidereal Exalted work and sometimes live, able to help fate and The Gods from afar.
Just beyond the walls of Creation is The Wyld, a place where all things are possible, but corrupt. All who venture too far into The Wyld become tainted by it and sprout mutations. This is where mad and tempting beings called “Fair Folk” live and seduce mortals, hoping to shed all creation of stable forms.
Under creation lies a shadowy mirror world where the dead reside. This place, known as The Underworld, was never meant to exist, but the destruction of The Primordials created a place where those not content to reincarnate could come to lay. The Underworld is ruled by these Primordial ghosts, now known as The Neverborn, who seek to drag all of Creation into the underworld.
The final world a am permitted to speak about is Malfeas, the prison in which the imprisoned Primordials, called “The Yozi”, And their countless trillions of demonic children are incarcerated. These world spanning titans search tirelessly for a way to escape their prison and get back to Creation, where they can get their revenge.
Creation is not a static thing. Much like your world, there are months and seasons that make a year. There are five seasons which are made from three months that are broken down into four weeks of seven days, making each month 28 days long exactly. Before you, I have included a Calendar. At the end of each year, there is an extra five day season called Calibration. This auspicious time is when Creation, The Underworld and Malfeas come all too close and many times spill over into one another. There is much fear during Calibration.
And now, your journey with me has ended. If this world still intrigues you, then please proceed to my sister Venus, The Maiden of Serenity.
I am Venus, The Maiden of Serenity. I oversee all things leisurely and joyous. Thank you for joining my sisters and I on this tour of our world. So I see you are interested. Would you be interested in joining our world here? You do not have to make a decision yet, but if you want, here are the record sheets here for characters in Exalted.
Do not worry, I know it seems daunting, but you have The Maiden of Serenity here for you! For now, I will walk you through this top section of the sheet. Choose any sheet you like.
Ignoring Caste and Aspect, we will start with concept.
A concept is usually a one to five words long description of the person in question. Me personally, my concept is “The Maiden of Serenity”, but a more common concept would be “Bandit king” or “ Emperor of a mighty Empire”. Think of a concept that you feel would be fun to play and really put yourself into what it is that the concept entails. If you were a bandit king, would you be a robin hood who steals for the rich and shares with the needy? Would you be a merciless cut throat? are you a stealthy sneak or a brutish thug who browbeats and intimidates? Also keep in mind these question here:
How old is your character?
Where did they grow up?
What was family life like?
What do they look like?
At what age did they Exalt?
What was their exaltation like? Was it awe inspiring? terrifying? both?
Now with your Concept set, lets go over names. I am sure everyone you know has a name, but names here in Creation are a little different. There are two usual flavors of name. Mostly noble and educated families have phonetic names, such as Falen, or Ress. The other type is iconic, such as “ Calm Foam” or “ Reed Sprout”, usually descriptive in some way of the person, but keep in mind, it is unlikely that someone from The South would name their child “Mammoth”.
The last thing I will leave you with is this question. Which Exalt type interests you most?
Thank you so much for visiting me here, and I hope you have enjoyed your tour of the inner workings of my world.
My sister Mars, The Maiden of Battles lay ahead, but she will only see you if you are truly interested in joining us in Creation. Proceed if you dare.
I am Jupiter, The Maiden of Secrets. I am the goddess who keeps and guards all things secret until the day comes when they are meant to be revealed. If you seek knowledge of this world, my sisters and I will be your guides.
As the Maiden of Secrets, I know the true nature and history of this world, but as this is not the right time to let those secrets loose, I will recant to you the most widely accepted story of the world thus far.
The place that would one day come to be known as Creation was once an ever shifting vortex of potential where the unformed concepts and beasts would combat titanic beings known as Primordials. These beings knew no equals in their existence, but soon tired of their endless warring with the shapeless monsters around them, so they refashioned the chaos they stood upon into a giant island of stability. Unable to follow their titanic foes, the creatures of chaos could only watch at the edges of this new world and curse its damning order.
No longer fighting an endless battle, The Primordials were free to take up hobbies and indulge in leisure, which lead them to create everything that exists, from oceans, mountains and all other manor of landscapes and plants. Soon, the world that was once a flat plane of stability was now a unique work of art teaming with life!… but maintain this world was seen as a chore. To take the burden of sustaining this world off them, The Primordials were moved to create gods to be the managers of reality.
First of these gods was The Unconquered Sun, the righteous and nigh invulnerable sun god with combat strength and knowledge that would give even The Primordials pause. As the first and most powerful of the gods, The Unconquered Sun’s job was to define time and to promote life on the face of Creation with his rays, as well as manage the other gods and protect it should the teeming chaos at the edges of creation should ever spill over.
The next was Luna, the shape changing trickster goddess of the moon. The last winner after a deathmatch with many other potential moon goddesses, Luna is a survivor at her core. Luna is nearly as powerful as The Unconquered Sun himself, but where he has unmatched skill, Luna has unbridled natural talent and strength. Luna is in charge of all things natural, be they plant, animal, land mass or weather pattern.
The final set of Incarnae gods are my sisters and I, The Maidens of Fate. We govern and watch the fate of all things in existence, making sure things happen exactly when they should and not a moment sooner... lest the tapestry of fate unravel and destroy all of Creation.
With the Incarnae created, The Primordials created millions of lesser gods to aid the Incarnae in their toils while The Primordials began work on a heaven like city called “ Yu-Shan” where they could escape the work of Creation.
For an age, Creation’s pre-history existed like this with the gods working non stop to maintain Creation while The Primordials played games in Yu-Shan between their destructive and sometimes genocidal visits. Unable to see this go on any longer, The Unconquered Sun banded together the rest of The Incarnae and began plotting the overthrow of The Primordials... but how could we revolt when servitude was built into our very beings?
The answer came in the form of of The Primordials Gaia and Autochthon who aided in empowering a hand full of mortal humans, beings made strictly for prayer generation, with the power of the Incarnae, but in very finite numbers. These came to be known as The Exalted.
The three hundred chosen of The Unconquered Sun became known as Solars, inheriting the perfection of The Sun.
Three hundred Lunars were created to be the Solar’s spouses and lieutenants. The Lunar Exalted possessed Luna’s power over not only their own forms, but of the forms and functions of things around them.
The last of The Incarnae’s Exalted were My sisters and mine, The Sidereal Exalted. We were afforded one hundred Exalted, giving each of us twenty of our own. Our chosen became masters of fate in all its forms, able to change and warp it to their designs.
These Exalted were great and powerful, but were not immortal. Should one ever fall in battle, the power inside them would leave their dead body and seek out a new worthy host, granting them the power of the gods.
Needing powerful troops for their army of chosen, Luna convinced her lover, The Primordial Gaia, to offer up The Elemental Dragons, her five greatest souls, and create Exalted for them. These Exalted would be known as The Terrestrial Exalted or “Dragon-Blooded”.
Though weaker than The Celestial Exalted, The Dragon-Blooded could pass their power to their children, allowing The Exalted a constantly growing legion of godlike foot soldiers. In a few short decades, The Dragon-Blooded numbered in the tens of thousands, marking The Exalted ready for their war against The Primordials.
After many thousands of years, the war was over. The death of six Primordials caused the surrender of the rest, who were promptly imprisoned inside the hollowed body of their tyrant king. The age that followed was a glorious one.
With the Primordials overthrown, The Gods inhabited Yu-Shan and left Creation and humanity to be ruled by The Exalted as a reward for their service, and with it, The Exalted created wonders and advancements that even the Primordials could not have imagined... but sadly, this did not last forever.
The Exalted became callous and distant from the humanity they once possessed, with The Solar Exalted being the worse offenders. Soon The Solar Exalted became just like the monsters that they had once sought to destroy.
One day, the greatest of my Exalted saw that The Solar Exalted were destined to destroy Creation of left unchecked. A great meeting was held by the chosen of The Maidens and a decision was made to have The Dragon-Blooded usurp and destroy The Solar Exalted.
With the Solar Exalted slain, The Sidereal Exalted gathered up their power and locked it away so that no more Solars would ever Exalt. With their mates killed, The Lunar Exalted were driven to Creation’s tattered edges where they became bitter and feral.
The Sidereal Exalted, ashamed at their “necessary evil” erased all traces of their existence and walked the world in secret while The Dragon-Blooded established themselves as rulers.
The feudal system set by The Dragon-Blooded worked for a short time, but the endless legions of chaos that teamed at Creation’s edges had been waiting for this day for a very long time and began rushing in, seeking to reduce Creation to the chaos it sprang from.
When all seemed lost, a single Dragon-Blooded woman was able to activate a powerful Solar artifact and in a single stroke, destroyed the invaders and set Creation right once more. She came to be known as The Scarlet Empress and she was made ruler.
The reign of The Scarlet Empress lasted for six hundred years, until one day, she vanished! On that same day, The Solar Exalted began Exalting once more, as did strange Abyssal Exalted, leading armies of ghosts and zombies on a trail of destruction.
This is the story of our world. There are a great many more secrets to discover, but the rest are up to you... but for now, I leave you with my sister Mercury, The Maiden of Journeys.
I am Mercury, The Maiden of Journeys. I govern all things relating to travel and distance, and now that you understand this world’s past, I will familiarize you with Creation itself.
You can think of Creation as a massive ship floating in a sea of chaos and potential. This sea is called “The Wyld”, and its semi sentient waves are always seeking to erode the frayed edges of Creation down to nothing and sink it. To defend against this, Creation is anchored in five directions by elemental poles. Much like the poles of your world, these poles are places of harsh elements and the closer one gets to them, the more inhospitable the lands becomes, but in the directions that the elemental poles are anchored in are flavored by the element they represent.
In Creation’s center is The Blessed Isle, where The Earth Pole is located and is the most stable and glorious place in Creation. Before they created Yu-Shan, The Primordials called this place home, as did The Gods before they too took residence in Yu-Shan. Now, The Dragon-Blooded usurpers call this Island home, as do the millions of mortals who serve them. The weather here on The Blessed Isle rarely varies that much and all storms that do occur are very light. The Blessed Isle boasts three harvests a year and there is very little poverty, but much oppression and tyranny.
The North is home to The Pole of Air, making the north cold and snowy. The North is inhabited by mostly hardy tribal nomads and very few cities, as the cold and snow are not conducive to enough agriculture to settle down in one place. The North is a loyal stronghold to The Blessed Isle and backs them with food, Jade and soldiers.
The West holds The Pole of Water, a mostly landless stretch of sea, rich in fish and checkered with chains of islands. Westerners are island dwellers who’s men work at sea, while the women work on land. This is mostly due to violent and hideous storm goddesses who would happily sink any ship a woman is on. The West is ruled, in theory, by The Blessed Isle, but due to the disappearance of The Scarlet Empress, they have not had the spare resources to bother with them.
In The South lay The Fire Pole, and as such, The South is a hot, sandy desert. Despite this, The South is home to a huge and advanced barbarian empire, ran completely by mortals. The South is home to the richest mines of gems, jade and orichalcum in Creation. The Blessed Isle claims to rule The South, but its inhabitants despise their would be rulers and pay small tributes bi-annually to them so they will stay away.
In The East, The Pole of Wood stands tall. The East benefits from the Wood Pole’s strength and fertility, allowing the plants, animal and people to grow larger than anywhere else in Creation. The East is far more populated than anywhere else in Creation, The Blessed Isle included. Easterners hate The Blessed Isle and have fought off their attempted conquests for hundreds of years.
The final location in Creation lies hidden, with its doorways barred to all mortals. This of course is my home, Yu-Shan, the City of the Gods. Here, even the slums are more beautiful than even the greatest neighborhoods in Creation. It is here The Gods live when they are not doing office work. They eat, wear and spend the prayers of mortals while my sisters, The Unconquered Sun, Luna and I rule over them. This is also where our Sidereal Exalted work and sometimes live, able to help fate and The Gods from afar.
Just beyond the walls of Creation is The Wyld, a place where all things are possible, but corrupt. All who venture too far into The Wyld become tainted by it and sprout mutations. This is where mad and tempting beings called “Fair Folk” live and seduce mortals, hoping to shed all creation of stable forms.
Under creation lies a shadowy mirror world where the dead reside. This place, known as The Underworld, was never meant to exist, but the destruction of The Primordials created a place where those not content to reincarnate could come to lay. The Underworld is ruled by these Primordial ghosts, now known as The Neverborn, who seek to drag all of Creation into the underworld.
The final world a am permitted to speak about is Malfeas, the prison in which the imprisoned Primordials, called “The Yozi”, And their countless trillions of demonic children are incarcerated. These world spanning titans search tirelessly for a way to escape their prison and get back to Creation, where they can get their revenge.
Creation is not a static thing. Much like your world, there are months and seasons that make a year. There are five seasons which are made from three months that are broken down into four weeks of seven days, making each month 28 days long exactly. Before you, I have included a Calendar. At the end of each year, there is an extra five day season called Calibration. This auspicious time is when Creation, The Underworld and Malfeas come all too close and many times spill over into one another. There is much fear during Calibration.
And now, your journey with me has ended. If this world still intrigues you, then please proceed to my sister Venus, The Maiden of Serenity.
I am Venus, The Maiden of Serenity. I oversee all things leisurely and joyous. Thank you for joining my sisters and I on this tour of our world. So I see you are interested. Would you be interested in joining our world here? You do not have to make a decision yet, but if you want, here are the record sheets here for characters in Exalted.
Do not worry, I know it seems daunting, but you have The Maiden of Serenity here for you! For now, I will walk you through this top section of the sheet. Choose any sheet you like.
Ignoring Caste and Aspect, we will start with concept.
A concept is usually a one to five words long description of the person in question. Me personally, my concept is “The Maiden of Serenity”, but a more common concept would be “Bandit king” or “ Emperor of a mighty Empire”. Think of a concept that you feel would be fun to play and really put yourself into what it is that the concept entails. If you were a bandit king, would you be a robin hood who steals for the rich and shares with the needy? Would you be a merciless cut throat? are you a stealthy sneak or a brutish thug who browbeats and intimidates? Also keep in mind these question here:
How old is your character?
Where did they grow up?
What was family life like?
What do they look like?
At what age did they Exalt?
What was their exaltation like? Was it awe inspiring? terrifying? both?
Now with your Concept set, lets go over names. I am sure everyone you know has a name, but names here in Creation are a little different. There are two usual flavors of name. Mostly noble and educated families have phonetic names, such as Falen, or Ress. The other type is iconic, such as “ Calm Foam” or “ Reed Sprout”, usually descriptive in some way of the person, but keep in mind, it is unlikely that someone from The South would name their child “Mammoth”.
The last thing I will leave you with is this question. Which Exalt type interests you most?
Thank you so much for visiting me here, and I hope you have enjoyed your tour of the inner workings of my world.
My sister Mars, The Maiden of Battles lay ahead, but she will only see you if you are truly interested in joining us in Creation. Proceed if you dare.