Exalted: Shadow and Steel - Interest Thread

[Arhra]

Hello everybody! I am currently in the middle of reading half a billion books so that I am properly equipped to run an Exalted campaign.

For the story I have in mind, I can best summarise it with this rapidly approaching situtation:

The Locust Crusade.

In the Underworld.

Obviously enough, Abyssal and Alchemical Exalted are going to be primary antagonists!

So who would be interested in playing?

[DanteFalcon]

Yo.

[Aerozord]

Depends, are you disallowing abyssals and alchemics? cause they are my two favorite splats

[Sithdarth]

I might be interested. Would definitely need more info though. Like are we going solar circle here or are we doing a ragtag band of misfits fighting to save the world?

[Overcast]

Interested.

[Relm Zephyrous]

Yeah, more info would be appreciated on various things, like the expectations for backgrounds, and what is restricted. Are we newly exalted for example, or have we been exalted for a few years? (Can also be translated as do we start with some xp, or do we begin fresh?)

[obscurejones]

Dear sweet tap dancing Jesus I can post! And express interest. Yes please.

[Teal Mage]

I'm interested, but I don't believe I have enough time to refresh/learn (depending on how much beyond the Core Book I need to read) the rules of Exalted, before the game begins.

Looks like you have a good response from the forums though, so that shouldn't be an issue for you! But, if you -do- find yourself pressed for players Arhra (in the event of a large quantity of drop-outs, for instance) I'll see if I can make time to join up. I know you've been dying to get an Exalted game off the ground for like, ever. I'll do my best to help, if you need.

Suppose that would make me a provisional or emergency player.

[Arhra]

I might be interested. Would definitely need more info though. Like are we going solar circle here or are we doing a ragtag band of misfits fighting to save the world?
The default is Solars, but other types of Exalted are fine. Obviously some types are going to need a better explaination than others.

Characters are relatively new to their Exaltations, so we can enjoy various exciting things as their first serious run-in with a Wyld Hunt.

I'm thinking of setting most of the game in a generally East-wards direction, although that's likely to get skewed severely to the North or the South. I've had a few thoughts but haven't set my heart on anything yet, so if anyone has places they'd especially enjoy hanging out around, now's the time to mention them.

Saying 'the Locust Crusade, but in the Underworld' is purposely misleading. It sums up some of my plans while keeping the details nice and obscured. At some point there will be an invasion of the afterlife - by robots - but the situation's going to be considerably more complex in a few respects.

I'm also in the middle of determining what I will only describe as 'Deathlord shenannigans'.

[Sifright]

Well colour me interested but I will need to spend the weekend boneing up on the sourcebooks again :)

[Relm Zephyrous]

That helps quite a bit, although now I need to decide between my two character ideas. One being me needing to refigure out a couple things and a simple solar which would only require a couple basic questions on magic, the other is... something else, and I'd have to probably talk personally a bit about the viability of. Assuming of course you're ever in a place where I could contact you that fast.

[Sithdarth]

I was thinking of a Dawn caste martial artist who uses a shield myself (totally not Captain America inspired or anything). That or possibly an Earth Aspect Dragon Blooded archer who likes to build walls.

[DanteFalcon]

I'll probably do either a Zenith or Eclipse caste. Unsure which as of yet.

[Aerozord]

First am I correct in assuming we are using dice, and that this is not a free-form game? If it is a free-form game that ignores crunch then ignore the follow-up questions

How are you handling flaws/merits, the errata, and ink monkies? Are there any house rules we should be aware of? How are we handling dice rolls?

This one is for the other players, please dont min/max. I dont want to be forced to have 5 dex 5 melee and a 3 dot daiklave just to keep my character relevant in a fight

[PhoenixFlame]

M'interested since well, Arhra PMed me.

>_>

So color that interest.

[obscurejones]

Are we using default character gen? If so I've got a lunar character ready... Readyish.

[Krylo]

I am so interested I already have a character.

[Sithdarth]

Really a warstrider? Here I was worried that a DB in power armor or a Dawn caste with a giant circular Orichalcum shield might be too obvious.

[Krylo]

No no no.

Warstriders have repairs, and attunements, and you can't take them places.

It's a MAGIC warstrider. Made with magic. Only when I need it.

[Arhra]

Just to make it clear for everyone, you see that guy Krylo made? Don't be that guy.

In the interests of getting a cohesive circle together, I'd like to hear the concepts people are considering at this point. Just a rough idea of the role you'll be playing and things you'd like to accomplish are fine.

I may transition towards a more freeform approach if it ends up being too cumbersome to do everything by the rules, but currently we'll be using default chargen.

We will be using flaws and merits, by I am likely to be banning some on arbitrary basises.

On house rules, the important ones will be a change to soak rules. The minimum damage you inflict upon an enemy despite soak is (Your Essence +1) - Enemy's Essence. This is to make weapons with Overpowering a little nicer and to help keep soak worthwhile at higher levels of power.

In the interests of keeping soak useful, I'll also be stripping the Piercing tag off quite a few weapons and possibly lowering Overpowering ratings.

Next is a change to perfect defences. Using perfect defences against sorcery costs an ammount of willpower equal to the circle of the spell. It also counts as a localised or complete dispell depending on if it's an area or single target spell, meaning hilarious collateral damage.

Perfect defences will also have a willpower cost added for defending against 'impossible' attacks. These are things like thrown mountains and attacks that are extremely enhanced by charms (exact criteria there yet to be determined).

[DanteFalcon]

Currently my mostly made character is a Zenith caste focusing on the Snake form martial art. I will be using a charm with the piercing tag (specifically Essence Fangs and Scales p.240 of the Solar Exalted Manual) so lemme know if that's changing. Weapon of choice is the Serpent Sting Staff artifact. Basically I'll have a good deal of soak, high defense with some pretty decent damage output. Lacking in skills not combat related though.

Goals I'm still unsure of. Throwing around a bunch of backgrounds in my head currently.

[Krylo]

Just to make it clear for everyone, you see that guy Krylo made? Don't be that guy.

Yeah. Concept theft is mean >=[


But for serious, my real character is a sorcerer/crafter who has the same name as that guy, and was a former dynast. He studied most things he could while in school as a dynast, but failed to exalt as a terrestrial. As a result he looked into joining the immaculate order, and was sent east where the local monks were pursuing an anathema (whom is not fully visualized yet, probably leave it up to Arhra), who the people seemed to genuinely like. Being the curious sort he looked into it and found that the Solar had saved and protected the village. Unfortunately he was also with the monks when they caught up with the anathema, and he found the anathema did more to offer mercy, and attempt to avoid collateral damage, than his own dragonblooded compatriarts did. However, the anathema was young, and was to lose the day, if not for Masik having a sudden change of heart and stopping the fatal blow himself... an act that earned him his initiation into the twilight caste.

This also all acted as his five trials. Humility from not exalting as a terrestrial. Tutelage in his studies where sought any knowledge he could--including, and especially, the forbidden sort. Journey from his travels from the Blessed Isle. Fear in facing the anathema, in facing his own companions, and in his own change into an anathema... and sacrifice in making the decision to leave everything he had known behind and become an outlaw to attempt to save a single solar who he had seen to be of nobler intention than his companions.

He only knows terrestrial circle sorcery, but his motivation is to master all three circles (well technically his motivation is to master solar circle, but you know, on the way). He has an affinity for first age knowledge, and the unjustly opposed, and after seeing the opulence of the dynasts first hand and then seeing how everyone else lives, as well as the error of their religion, he has a loathing for the realm.

Edit: He is almost entirely done statistically. I just want to keep him to myself for any shifting I might want to do until it's time to actually post them. ALSO I guess if we are using merits/flaws I will have to talk to Arhra to see how many non-flaws I can get away with (lawl sterile).

[Sithdarth]

In the interests of getting a cohesive circle together, I'd like to hear the concepts people are considering at this point. Just a rough idea of the role you'll be playing and things you'd like to accomplish are fine.

I definitely think I'm going with a Dawn Caste that carries a shield around. I found an artifact two shied that isn't too bad. Do you mind if I bump it to artifact 3 (or maybe it should be 4 we can discuss that) by adding an edge to the rim of the shield. I'd use the stats for something like a lesser daiklave and of course switching between using it has a shield and using it as a weapon would require an action (what type also to be determined later). Obviously it would be bad if he could get the shield bonus while using it as a weapon. I'm not actually going to make it thrown because that's just really absurd.

Also question, and this might mean I don't have to make the shield into a weapon, would a shield count as an improvised weapon for the sake a martial arts charm?

[Aerozord]

In the interests of getting a cohesive circle together, I'd like to hear the concepts people are considering at this point. Just a rough idea of the role you'll be playing and things you'd like to accomplish are fine.

I was thinking a rogue moonshadow (as in a rare abyssal exaltation not beholden to a deathlord) that upon exalting viewed his new role was to bridge relations between the living and the dead. Over time expanding this to seeking co-existence with any beings willing to do so. Still he is not a fool, well aware that if Ebon Dragon says he wants to live peacefully its just a ploy to get what he wants. But deep down his goal is to find some solution that stops the endless wars and cycles of hate so common in the underworld.

However his abyssal nature and its continual push towards death and destruction is not completely removed. Though manifests in an odd way. He cannot avoid resonance that forces him to kill and destroy, focusing on killing those that refuse peaceful solutions and spending most of his time mediating in the underworld.

Perfect defences will also have a willpower cost added for defending against 'impossible' attacks. These are things like thrown mountains and attacks that are extremely enhanced by charms (exact criteria there yet to be determined).
normally I just say it fails, but I like this idea, be fun to see how it works

[Relm Zephyrous]

I personally was considering some form of scholar as well, of course my original idea was to play a sorcerer, but I got sidetracked off that idea for other reasons before Krylo posted his character. I'm still going twilight caste though, with a medic of a secluded town.

He was well known for working miracles, and his current goal after exaltation and discovering what he can do is to master the art of healing to unparalleled levels of perfection, and whatever discoveries along the way he may come across. He's very precise, and his weapon of choice for that reason is a bow, the tiny details are still being worked out.

Also, since its incredibly relevant to me, do target arrows lose their piercing trait?

[PhoenixFlame]

Under no circumstances should target arrows ever lose piercing, since they were the only weapon with piercing TO BEGIN WITH in 1E, and it shows in the fact that bows deal noticably less damage than every other weapon system ever concieved.

Mh, Arhra, I'd consider ping being [1/2 Essence + 1/2 Strength +1 vs 1/2 Essence + 1/2 Stamina] of the target. It makes strength and stamina more useful in combat but dexterity remains the godstat. Armor also becomes more than deadweight, so that's nice.

My planned character is a young loyalist abyssal of "Oblivion Undivided" as I put the new 2E spin on the neverborn-servant alternate paths. Basically, she's intolerant of the whole deathlord posturing moustache-twirling kill-the-world schemes, as Creation's going to die when it's damn well ready to and not a moment sooner. She's not out to willy nillily murder people but she's certainly not going out of her way to save lives either. If they're dying, clearly it's because they're supposed to be.

Until then, it's the underworld's job to make sure the dead are properly respected, appeased, seen to, and granted their undeadly rights. Which means soulsteel should only be harvested from evil spirits, souls whom are dead should /stay dead/, and families should offer the appropriate sacrifices to their deceased... Or else.

So basically a pretty cool sis loyalist abyssal.

[Overcast]

Haven't had the time very recently to make someone, moving out of my current locale on the way to my old home for a vacation. By which I'll be swimming in time for this, but I'll see what crops up in my character and get back to you before the end of today. May end up being Syren again since I never got to play him to par. Eclipse Solar, good for social combat with a niche in martial arts with a gold chain he uses mostly to grapple folks so other people can beat the hell out of them. Has a wish to unite creation right now, new empire from the crumbling mass that the Empress left behind, conceivably in the future he will become obsessed with the risk of the sidereal and try to hunt them down, will be given vertigo by the Weaver and try to fight fate, will become mad with his kingdom being overcome by the horrors of the underworld and finally the Yozi, and by seeing that he cannot properly destroy what threatens his kingdom(like the Yozi and the Neverborn) will try to plunge all of creation into the Wyld so that this grand mistake can be reset and hopefully one day something worthwhile can be put in its place.

For right now though good heart, good mind.

[Sithdarth]

I've decided I want to go with the weapon shield if at all possible. That way I can use melee charms like the Iron Raptor Technique with it. That way I can "throw" the shield and have it return like Captain America but still rely solely on Melee. Definitely thinking that switching between using it as a shield and a weapon should be at least as difficult as drawing/sheathing a weapon.

[Red Mage Black]

There goes my idea for an Alchemical as I won't have a good explanation for them being in Creation. Guess I'll read more through Sidereal and throw something up while I wait. Unless you'll allow me to play an Alchemical, by allowing me to come up with good reason, over time. I'm ready to build anything really, since I'm incredibly bored and have been fasting without RP for too long.

Self Edit, without even posting: I really don't like the look of Sidereals, to be honest. Not a huge fan of the Celestial stuff. I mean, if you'll allow me to build an Alchemical for the game, I'll try to come up with something. Might take me a bit longer to come up with some good motivation for Sidereals though. Probably too long to even try and join.

Real Edit: Okay then, I apologize if the above made me sound like an asshole. So if that doesn't work out, I'll sneak a peek through Lunars to see if I get any ideas or just go with a Dawn, Zenith or Night Caste Solar.

[obscurejones]

The Glorious Eleventh Exaltation of the Divine Warrior Physician.
"I'm a Monkey now. Monkeys are cool."
True Form: Western Human and Monkey
Anima Banner: A large silver monkey surrounded by Chains
A slave while fleeing from his masters grew tired of running. Turning to fight he lifted the chains that once bound his ankles overhead. They were struck by the rays of the moon and Luna blessed both slave and chain. When the newly Exalted physician had defeated his former captors he sought out first his Lunar brethren in the Silver Pact. Then a Manse to the west where he had lived as a child. Finally he returned to civilization, in an effort to free all those he had left behind.

[Sithdarth]

Mostly complete working concept. Dawn Caster veteran soldier obsessed with restoring the military glory of the first age. Relatively slow but still competently agile. Being an older guy and an experienced veteran from his mortal days as a soldier he's good with detecting danger and somewhat well traveled. Basically he's good at the things you'd expect a soldier to be good at. Especially a soldier overly concerned with saving every innocent life possible.

[Red Mage Black]

My own Dawn Caste, not sure if as impressive as Sith's, but I think it works. I left cosmetics out and kept mechanics in. If you really need em, I'll provide em, but I figure the first post with do well enough. He's a bit younger then Sith's character. Less concerned about helping the people and more concerned about his own personal glory, he often loses himself when there comes up a chance to fight. It isn't so much that he doesn't care, it's that he doesn't like to pay attention to 'small details'. Then he tends to showboat his strength and natural toughness. Don't mind the title, it was just what I was thinking at the time.

Edit: And yes, I do realize you never answered on the Alchemicals thing. Don't worry about it, they just became more work then I originally thought they were.

[Sithdarth]

My own Dawn Caste, not sure if as impressive as Sith's, but I think it works.

You have literally no ideal how restrained that character is for me (I haven't even taken any flaws).

I once made a DB with a starting essence pool of like 100. Wait no it was 98. She had 13 personal and 85 peripheral and recovered 60 motes per hour. Of course she also had 9 Hearthstones, 8 of which were in skin mount amulets; that would be the reason for the giant essence pool. Looking back though I should have skipped the power armor, daiklaves, and martial arts charms and just given her a giant essence cannon. Actually I'll attach the character sheet as another example of what not to be. This is something you should never ever do to a character unless your entire circle is power gamers and the ST knows what they are in for.

[Relm Zephyrous]

No kidding... I mean, I don't even know what flaws and merits are for exalted. *ie I don't know where they are in the book besides 'virtue limit breaks' and can't thusly use them.

I'll stick to my more mundane ideas, thank you very much, it'd be interesting to have a high power level game, I haven't even played a exalted battle yet and I know I couldn't compete.

[Krylo]

No kidding... I mean, I don't even know what flaws and merits are for exalted. *ie I don't know where they are in the book besides 'virtue limit breaks' and can't thusly use them.They aren't in the core book. They're in Scroll of the Hero.

Most aren't worth taking either way, and others are so laughably non-issues that I'm pretty sure they're the one's Arhra will be saying no to. Like Sterile. I can not think of many reasons not having babies would be an actual disadvantage in a roleplaying game. Heck, the more expensive version (no genitalia) could arguably be an advantage against seduction rolls!


@RMB I moved your character over to the kind of char sheet layout sith and I were using just because it's easier for me to read, which caused me to catch some things. I'm going to assume you aren't done yet (as one of them is that you have a bunch of BP [or maybe skill points] left), though so they probably aren't worth mentioning?

Edit: Seeming as you are offline I will mention them anyway, to prevent PM tag if you actually made mistakes on accident as opposed to just being not quite fully finished.

THE FIRST! You have 10 points of abilities just for favoreds/caste and 18 for everything else. You can not raise your abilities past 3 with these points. Thus you have only spent 25 of them. And have spent 5 BP on them. I do not know if your mistake was in not spending enough ability points, or not knowing you couldn't put them over three. But basically you need to put two more points into skills that don't raise them over three and possibly shave off some from MA, Melee, and/or Dodge if you didn't want to spend that many BP. pg. 174 Core

THE SECOND! Parry MDV is Charisma OR manipulation + Presence OR performance OR investigation divide by 2, round up. As that you have no presence, performance, or investigation, and your Cha/Manip are both 3, that means your PMDV is 2. Not 3. Pg. 172 core.

THE THIRD! Dodge MDV is Essence + Willpower + Integrity/2 Round Down (Yes. Even for solars). For you this is 3 + 7 +3. Or 13. Divide by 2, is 6.5. Round down is six. Not seven. Probably a rounding mistake, and an easy one considering solars almost always round up. Dodge MDV and Lethal Soak from Stamina are the only two places I know of where it is down. Pg. 172, core.

THE FOURTH! You have two Limits listed. Only Foolhardy Contempt (valor flaw) is possible for you as you need to choose from your highest virtue. This was probably just something you forgot to delete?

I also just refigured all of your values while moving things over 'cause it was quicker for me to do the math in my head than find it on your sheet a lot of the time. So other stuff might have changed. I'll just post the sheet I did up on my sheet.

Edit: Reposted with my best guess as to where your BP were spent on it.

[Overcast]

Syren Bamulase as seen back when Funka wasn't banned forever. Unlike Sithdarth I don't need to hold back when I make a character, because I think up the character then build stats around them rather than vice versa.

Not included are the definition of his Virtue Flaw(Despair) which arises when it seems his goals are slipping through his fingers. He'll desperately try to salvage the situation but will have a two die penalty to all social and combat checks.

Also not included are things like his background, or that I invested 3 points into familiar despite the fact that I know it is functionally retarded because that dog is intrinsic to my character. Also for a minor mote battery and for spying on people because, "it's just a stupid dog."

[Arhra]

Don't have the time to make as in depth a post as I would like and respond to everything mentioned so three things for now.

First off I hate to say it but if everyone who expressed interest actually joins, this is going to be a stupidly huge group to manage. For that reason, no more sign-ups! I might be able to manage it at first since the plan is to start you guys into small groups and assemble the circle from that, which will give time for natural slims to happen but yeah, I'd prefer not to have to kick people out.

Second thing is it's time to start chatting with each other and determine who's travelling with who. All concepts look fine so far. I'd prefer groups of two or three. One or two singletons might work out as well, but no more than that.

Lastly it's been pointed out to me how messed up (normal and artifact) weapon stats are right now and how artifact armour's very crap for its cost. I'll be releasing updated stats for all weapons in the next day or two.

Artifact armour is going to be made one to two dots cheaper, possibly have higher hardness on the lower end stuff and I'm also debating that it reduces post soak damage dice by 1, to a minimum of 1.

[Aerozord]

so we ARE supposed to be doing fully statted out characters? cause I was under the impression you only wanted general ideas, this is an interest thread after all

[Sithdarth]

Unlike Sithdarth I don't need to hold back when I make a character, because I think up the character then build stats around them rather than vice versa.


Hey now I do that too, mostly. I just tend to naturally think up character ideals that lend themselves to finding the soft spots in the rules.

Artifact armour is going to be made one to two dots cheaper, possibly have higher hardness on the lower end stuff and I'm also debating that it reduces post soak damage dice by 1, to a minimum of 1.

That is awesome because spending 4 dots in artifact for articulated plate was really crappy.

I'll be releasing updated stats for all weapons in the next day or two.

I actually made the stats for my weapon-shield hybrid specifically to be on the rather crappy end of the weapon scale so I probably won't bother to change that. I'm more about taking the damage and being a living wall than anything else. Which means I'm going to need someone with a high damage output to start with me.

[PhoenixFlame]

That is awesome because spending 4 dots in artifact for articulated plate was really crappy.

Especially when you consider mortal articulated plate is almost better than artifact plate. In fact, in some case, it /is/. I've been helping Arhra.

I guess I'll start statting up my character in a bit.

@ Aero: I don't see why not. She's not going to hurt you or anything. Resonance will do that on it's own.

Edit: So here's my character candidate. She's a bit... 'optimized', but of course it's a beta. Still working the houserules out with Arhra. She serves He-Who-Holds-In-Thrall via Princess Magnificent.

[Aerozord]

ok just to ask, am I going to be disallowed from playing my Hippie abyssal because of PF's character? Cause if so I need to work on a new character concept

[Red Mage Black]

@RMB I moved your character over to the kind of char sheet layout sith and I were using just because it's easier for me to read, which caused me to catch some things. I'm going to assume you aren't done yet (as one of them is that you have a bunch of BP [or maybe skill points] left), though so they probably aren't worth mentioning?

Edit: Seeming as you are offline I will mention them anyway, to prevent PM tag if you actually made mistakes on accident as opposed to just being not quite fully finished.

THE FIRST! You have 10 points of abilities just for favoreds/caste and 18 for everything else. You can not raise your abilities past 3 with these points. Thus you have only spent 25 of them. And have spent 5 BP on them. I do not know if your mistake was in not spending enough ability points, or not knowing you couldn't put them over three. But basically you need to put two more points into skills that don't raise them over three and possibly shave off some from MA, Melee, and/or Dodge if you didn't want to spend that many BP. pg. 174 Core

THE SECOND! Parry MDV is Charisma OR manipulation + Presence OR performance OR investigation divide by 2, round up. As that you have no presence, performance, or investigation, and your Cha/Manip are both 3, that means your PMDV is 2. Not 3. Pg. 172 core.

THE THIRD! Dodge MDV is Essence + Willpower + Integrity/2 Round Down (Yes. Even for solars). For you this is 3 + 7 +3. Or 13. Divide by 2, is 6.5. Round down is six. Not seven. Probably a rounding mistake, and an easy one considering solars almost always round up. Dodge MDV and Lethal Soak from Stamina are the only two places I know of where it is down. Pg. 172, core.

THE FOURTH! You have two Limits listed. Only Foolhardy Contempt (valor flaw) is possible for you as you need to choose from your highest virtue. This was probably just something you forgot to delete?

I also just refigured all of your values while moving things over 'cause it was quicker for me to do the math in my head than find it on your sheet a lot of the time. So other stuff might have changed. I'll just post the sheet I did up on my sheet.

Edit: Reposted with my best guess as to where your BP were spent on it.
Well, I thank you for the format change. Had to turn word wrap off on text just to look at the sheet without confusing myself. It's what got me while trying to read Sith's sheet. Anyway, I haven't played Exalted in maybe... 4 years or so? Not trying to make excuses on the crappiness of the sheet, but it means I haven't touched an Exalted book and that was v1. I know too much hasn't changed since then, at least not that I remember. I do remember working on it at 3 to 4 in the morning, so it could have killed my judgment in things a little. I will address at least a couple things that were mentioned. As for how the sheet was made? Sorry for the unicode, it just helped me figure things out that involved dots.

For the first, it's true, I only did spend 25 points in total for skills. Which means I'm throwing the rest in social so I'm not under par in that section.

For the second, uh... at least I think I didn't miss anything.

For the third, same I guess...

Fourth? Yeah, bit of a mistake on my part. Was pretty early when I finished it.

Since I forgot to mention BP, I did it like this: 1 for Dodge, 2 for Melee, 2 for Martial Arts, 3 for Virtue and 7 for Essence. You already got that correct on the sheet.

From what I've corrected, it SHOULD be done. Maybe I'm missing something, but I looked over everything in the post and on the sheet Krylo generously provided. Hopefully it's good to go now.

EDIT: Actually, I forgot about the changed Artifact Values, so I've changed the armor. Oh and hey, forgot about languages, which was fixed quickly.

[Sithdarth]

I took a quick look through the Lunar book and boy is it a good thing I don't find the Lunar concept interesting. Seriously a charm that adds 15A/15L/15B soak on top of any armor you're wearing. Plus being in a war form on top of that. I bet if I put my mind to it I could make a Lunar with the size, strength, and more soak than a warstrider.

Edit: Oh and depending on how the cost of artifact armor changes I have an ideal for a charm combo. Essentially I'm just going to combine Iron Raptor with Peony Blossom so that I can through the weapon/shield once and have it bounce of an hit multiple enemies.

[Krylo]

I took a quick look through the Lunar book and boy is it a good thing I don't find the Lunar concept interesting. Seriously a charm that adds 15A/15L/15B soak on top of any armor you're wearing. Plus being in a war form on top of that. I bet if I put my mind to it I could make a Lunar with the size, strength, and more soak than a warstrider.Too bad minimum damage means people can still ping you to death if you do that.*


*By too bad, I mean it's more or less a good thing, because in 1e armor was a TAD OP, but they really over did it in 2e with all the piercing and overpowering on every other weapon, the low soak and hardness values on most armors compared to what most exalts dish out, and the sheer magnitude of minimum damage once you get your essence up a tad or when using some weapons. Hopefully these homerules will strike it all out to a nice even balance.

[Red Mage Black]

Edit: Oh and depending on how the cost of artifact armor changes I have an ideal for a charm combo. Essentially I'm just going to combine Iron Raptor with Peony Blossom so that I can through the weapon/shield once and have it bounce of an hit multiple enemies.
The Pinball Wizard comes to mind when I think about that. That reminds me, why didn't I make a combo? Well, I guess that's because I probably didn't choose a set I could combo with. Guess I'll wait on the game so I can just grab more charms and set stuff up from there.

Edit: Now that I've look at it, I don't need Hungry Tiger Technique or Fire And Stones Strike. Instead, I grabbed Dipping Swallow Defense and Solar Counterattack, figuring they'll serve me much better and are combo viable.

[Sithdarth]

Too bad minimum damage means people can still ping you to death if you do that.*

That's what the Lunar Charms in that same tree are for and perfect defenses. That and Ox-body technique where you can get like 20 extra health levels and like 10 extra incapacitated levels.

The Pinball Wizard comes to mind when I think about that.

I was more thinking along the lines of the class Captain America taking out a room full of bad guys by bouncing his shield off their heads.

[Red Mage Black]

Edit: On the next page the sheet is... newer and better.

[Aerozord]

ok two questions, are we using original 2e character gen, or errata character gen? Second, is a perfect defense a must?

I was going to make an intelligent socialite/doctor, so I was planning on being light on the combat charms

[Overcast]

A perfect is suggested on nearly all characters. Even me, the RP guy, says that if only for the sake of survivability.

[obscurejones]

Hmmmmmm.... What if having a perfect doesn't fit in the build?

[Red Mage Black]

Looks like I need one more edit then. So much for all those combat charms.

[Relm Zephyrous]

Its just two charms, really. Since you get 10, its not that big of a cut-in. Perfects are the alpha and omega of exalted play.

As a question partly related, would you still take ping damage if you used something such as Iron Skin Concentration?

[Overcast]

Then you can explain to your character that the build could not afford a perfect defense when it is murdered or at least royally incapacitated.

[Krylo]

As a question partly related, would you still take ping damage if you used something such as Iron Skin Concentration?Depends on whether you make your roll.

If you succeed on your roll, then damage is negated. Otherwise it is just more soak and pings get through soak.

[obscurejones]

To be fair Lunars have about one and a half charms to use in gen.

[Red Mage Black]

Actually, Heavenly Guardian Defense is 3 charms, if you count Dipping Swallow and Bulwark Stance as first and second. Still, going with that and the Valor flaw for it. Not too hard considering I have no magical means of movement and I'll probably dive at the deadliest anyway.

Surprised at how many times I've edited this sheet. Blargh. Why HAVE I felt the need to post my sheet between pages? Just edits to the sheet I guess, but I'll probably be editing my sheet out of the other post now.

[Aerozord]

Its just two charms, really. Since you get 10, its not that big of a cut-in. Perfects are the alpha and omega of exalted play.

As a question partly related, would you still take ping damage if you used something such as Iron Skin Concentration?

3 charms and 4 dots, thats abit of a commitment for a character that treats combat as tetriar

[obscurejones]

Seeing as I'm new to exalted and apparently going to die my first time out, I don't suppose any of you know a way I can get a perfect defense?

[Overcast]

I'm sure this will be helpful.

http://wiki.white-wolf.com/exalted/index.php?title=Four_Flaws_of_Invulnerability

[obscurejones]

Oh... Well never mind. I got this. Gracias, Overcast.

[Krylo]

3 charms and 4 dots, thats abit of a commitment for a character that treats combat as tetriar

Two charms.

Seven Shadow Evasion has only Shadow Over Water as a pre-req, and Shadow Over Water has no pre-req.

[DanteFalcon]

Currently where its at. Background still in the works.

[Aerozord]

Two charms.

Seven Shadow Evasion has only Shadow Over Water as a pre-req, and Shadow Over Water has no pre-req.

true, but I'm an abyssal so wounds mean nothing is the better bet. beside since I have no combat skills it makes more sense to go with melee.

I also want to be clear, I am not asking if a perfect defense is needed, I am asking if starting with one is needed. At the very least would Dread Lord's Demeanor allow me to stay in the back lines while others fight?

for those that dont know, that charm forces anyone that attacks me to spend a willpower. Its essence three but will definitely be one of my first purchases when I get there

[obscurejones]

New and exciting questions! Does Flowing Body Evasion have pre reqs? Because the wiki disagrees with the book.

[PhoenixFlame]

true, but I'm an abyssal so wounds mean nothing is the better bet.

WMN also requires essence 3. I don't know why you wouldn't want flickering wisp technique anyway, it's a teleport dodge. If you can teleport out of range of a flurry, it's as good as a leaping dodge combo. They can follow you if their dex is equal or greater than your dodge but still won't get more than two attacks.

Sure, it's more my schtick, but w/e.

Depends. Perfects initially? Probably not. Mandatory for fighting other exalts with the slightest combat capability? Yes. I wouldn't really worry about being assassinated, since well a perfect won't save you there unless you have a paranoia combo, which /is/ a bit of an investment. Unless it's a resistance perfect because they're step 7 (or around there), but then you're vulnerable to bad touch, so well...

[Aerozord]

WMN also requires essence 3. I don't know why you wouldn't want flickering wisp technique anyway, it's a teleport dodge. If you can teleport out of range of a flurry, it's as good as a leaping dodge combo. They can follow you if their dex is equal or greater than your dodge but still won't get more than two attacks.



cause its spectral and spending a willpower every action I want to dodge is costly

On an unrelated note, are you gonna have zombies? cause I'm going to take that charm to maintain them. Its a prereq for my anti-crippling charms

[PhoenixFlame]

Nawh, Zombies aren't very stealthy.

Pretty sure WMN is spectral too. The only non-spectral PD IIRC in that book is the insanely broken Void Avatar Prana.

[Red Mage Black]

Huh, wonder if he'll allow me to take 'Known Anathema' for a flaw. Cuz I got a couple choices or so for Merits.

[Aerozord]

Nawh, Zombies aren't very stealthy.

Pretty sure WMN is spectral too. The only non-spectral PD IIRC in that book is the insanely broken Void Avatar Prana.

in 2e WMN is not spectral. though one reason I asked about errata is they removed spectral from perfect parry and dodge, also pretty sure VAP was wiped from canon. Which I think was abit much, could have been nerfed and still been functional

[PhoenixFlame]

I already talked to Arhra about it though, we're going to be rejiggering perfects anyway.

[Arhra]

Alright, I'm not going to be providing any more than cursory feedback on character builds on account of the fact it'd take me a hojillion years when what I need to be doing is finalising the reworked mechanics and reading a thousand books to design NPCs and get further plot ideas. Plus lots of people are doing a good job of that anyway.

As a whole, after looking over the character sheets, I must admit to some concerns about the sparsity of skills which don't involve killing people. I should perhaps also remind people that a Virtue rating of 1 represents being a coward, a hothead, a wimp or a complete jerk and I'm going to hold you to it.

While on the topic of Virtues, don't forget you can make custom Virtue Flaws!

ANYWAY, to summarise the list of people we have so far with their rough concepts:

Aerozord: Moonshadow socialite/doctor hippie.
Sithdarth: Dawn Caste, CAPTAIN AMERICA.
Dante: Zenith Caste, guy with a mysteeeeeeerious mentor.
obscurejones: Full Moon Caste, warrior physician
Red Mage Black: Dawn Caste, headstrong youth
Krylo: Twilight sorceror/crafter and former dynast
PhoenixFlame: Day Caste, champion of the dead
Overcast: Eclipse Caste, ambitious diplomat
Relm: Twilight medic, credit to team

To be honest I probably should cut the numbers down since this is a ridiculously large group.

Let us discuss three things.

Firstly, tell everyone a bit about the important features of your character. the major elements that shape them. Something aso worth thinking about is where did those Backgrounds come from? Daiklaves don't grow on trees, you know! Well, except in the Forest of Cats.

Secondly, the forming of circles. Why is your person going to join up with the others?

Finally, let's talk Motivations. Most of them are quite general, although I know that's partial trying to make a thing that'll go down with a circle well. I'd quite enjoy it if people had something more specific in mind though. It's alright to start small. But what I think is more important is the question of why does your character have that Motivation?

For starting area, I am debating the Hundred Kingdoms (Eastern fringe of the Scavenger Lands). If there's somewhere else you're interested in though, now is the time to mention it! Location's quite flexible for most of my plans.

Unforutnately we don't have as many mystery-seekers as I'd first guessed, so some of the plot hooks I'd thought of to get people into the area aren't going to work. You know, ones like the stories of strange, lumbering creatures appearing out of clouds of smoke and attacking Guild caravans. Or that shadowland that supposedly floated off into the sky.

I suppose there's always the tales of Anathema in the area and that the Wyld Hunt is mobilising for those of you with feeling towards your fellow Exalts.

Another reason why your current goals are important to me is it helps me build the precious plot hooks. In fact, suggestion of reasons why you are here would be very valuable!

On to the various answers I promised:

so we ARE supposed to be doing fully statted out characters? cause I was under the impression you only wanted general ideas, this is an interest thread after all

Well I was going to have people sit around and hammer out their concepts more first, but everyone seems to be eager to jump into the nuts and bolts, so yeah.

I will be using a charm with the piercing tag (specifically Essence Fangs and Scales p.240 of the Solar Exalted Manual) so lemme know if that's changing.
No plans to change it at present!

I definitely think I'm going with a Dawn Caste that carries a shield around. I found an artifact two shied that isn't too bad. Do you mind if I bump it to artifact 3 (or maybe it should be 4 we can discuss that) by adding an edge to the rim of the shield. I'd use the stats for something like a lesser daiklave and of course switching between using it has a shield and using it as a weapon would require an action (what type also to be determined later). Obviously it would be bad if he could get the shield bonus while using it as a weapon. I'm not actually going to make it thrown because that's just really absurd.

Also question, and this might mean I don't have to make the shield into a weapon, would a shield count as an improvised weapon for the sake a martial arts charm?
Something like that should be fine. I'll have to corner you and have a proper chat about it. And a shield would count as an improvised weapon for the purposes of a martial arts charm.

Under no circumstances should target arrows ever lose piercing, since they were the only weapon with piercing TO BEGIN WITH in 1E, and it shows in the fact that bows deal noticably less damage than every other weapon system ever concieved.

Mh, Arhra, I'd consider ping being [1/2 Essence + 1/2 Strength +1 vs 1/2 Essence + 1/2 Stamina] of the target. It makes strength and stamina more useful in combat but dexterity remains the godstat. Armor also becomes more than deadweight, so that's nice.
Things are looking like I'll be stripping piercing from everything but target arrows and that handful of charms that hand them out.

Weapons list still in the works.

I think we'll give that ping variant a shot.

ok just to ask, am I going to be disallowed from playing my Hippie abyssal because of PF's character? Cause if so I need to work on a new character concept
No.

ok two questions, are we using original 2e character gen, or errata character gen? Second, is a perfect defense a must?

I was going to make an intelligent socialite/doctor, so I was planning on being light on the combat charms
A perfect defence isn't absolutely essential to start with, but it's something you should try to pick up reasonably quickly.

I hadn't heard of chargen errata so I looked it up. It's unofficial but I did like some parts of it so I think I will implement a variant thereof which captures part of its intent:


• Virtues cost 1 bonus point to increase. Increasing a Virtue to 4 or 5 costs 2 bonus points.

• Characters start with (Willpower/2 + Compassion) Intimacies.

• Charms cost 4 bonus points, 3 if within a Caste or Favored Ability.

Sorry for making you do maths again!

I'll post what this means for Lunars tomorrow, plus I have one or two houserules for them that need to get mentioned anyway.

[Aerozord]

Aerozord: Moonshadow socialite/doctor hippie.
Sithdarth: Dawn Caste, CAPTAIN AMERICA.
Dante: Zenith Caste, guy with a mysteeeeeeerious mentor.
obscurejones: Full Moon Caste, warrior physician
Red Mage Black: Dawn Caste, headstrong youth
Krylo: Twilight sorceror/crafter and former dynast
PhoenixFlame: Day Caste, champion of the dead
Overcast: Eclipse Caste, ambitious diplomat
Relm: Twilight medic, credit to team

We have alot more doctors then I thought. hmm while I love abyssal medicine, I preform surgery by ripping apart organs are rebuilding them as I see fit, solars can get the job done better. Plus we have a pure solar medic.

For starting area, I am debating the Hundred Kingdoms (Eastern fringe of the Scavenger Lands). If there's somewhere else you're interested in though, now is the time to mention it! Location's quite flexible for most of my plans.

Unforutnately we don't have as many mystery-seekers as I'd first guessed, so some of the plot hooks I'd thought of to get people into the area aren't going to work. You know, ones like the stories of strange, lumbering creatures appearing out of clouds of smoke and attacking Guild caravans. Or that shadowland that supposedly floated off into the sky.

there was something else about my character I didn't mention and might stress more since I'm removing medic. My abyssal does favor investigation, feeling that in negotiations its important to know the truth. One of the first things I'm getting at essence 3 is a charm that lets me question corpses who are unable to lie or hide anything. Needless to say I can see this adding alot of plot hooks down the road. Might even take essence 3 just to start with it.

So I might extend this nature and play my character as the curious sort.


Finally, let's talk Motivations. Most of them are quite general, although I know that's partial trying to make a thing that'll go down with a circle well. I'd quite enjoy it if people had something more specific in mind though. It's alright to start small. But what I think is more important is the question of why does your character have that Motivation?

well I've always found it more fun to have a heroic group. Being a wandering pack of sociopaths that lie, murder, and steal with no higher purpose then serving themselves kind of removes alot of good character points. Its hard to have internal conflict when you dont have any morals to conflict with. Not saying everyone should be paragons of compassion, my own character has no issues with killing, just senseless killing

Why he'd be in the circle in the first place is rather straight-forward. he wants to put an end to wars through negotiation, but knows at times force is needed. Especially against those that refuse peace, and he needs powerful allies to handle them. Might be a peace loving hippie, but he knows first hand there are plenty that need to be destroyed.

Note: he views peace by negotiation as an ideal long term solution. He's accepts fighting as a short-term solution. Easier to talk to someone if they know they can be beaten

[DanteFalcon]

So many nuts and bolts background wise to work out.

Sieg wants to be in the group because he's trying to gather as many Solars as possible to help with his motivation of restoring creation to effectively a new age of Solar Rule. He acquired this goal from a dream he had the night after his exaltation of a Creation that was under Solar Rule once more and was entering a new Golden Age because of it. He believed this to be a message from the Unconquered Sun and as a Zenith he feels it his duty to help be the one to usher in this age.

[Sithdarth]

I'm rejiggering some stuff. Basic concept won't change though I don't think. Might wait for the updated weapon stuff. Basically as previously stated I'm a walking flesh wall whose sole purpose is getting attacked so that other people can do the damage. I was trying to avoid it but I might have to move some stuff around (i.e. drop some stamina to pick up some dexterity) to enhance my survivability a bit. There is also a lot of other stuff to finalize.

[Overcast]

In An-Teng the individual does not matter. What matters is the family. Every one part will work to advance their name. This is something that is ingrained in youth, and something that carries on in adulthood. An unavoidable truth of life. Syren Bamulase had been discouraged from rash moves his whole life, his family was the kind who made slow meticulous marriages and trades that may raise their family name to a new rank of security next generation, and so his entire existence had been boring; shoved into government work as a bureaucrat to serve as a bridge for the family into more important individuals that they could work their way close to and eventually sucker into becoming Bamulase's as well.

And yet somehow he still found time to dream. Every night staring up after school and then later in life work at that shining chain that hung above their hearth, a symbol meant to make him think of the unity of family, but one that instead made him wonder how powerful a man had to be to wield such a magnificent weapon.

In dreams he found escape, wandering the wilderness from time to time practicing forms he saw some of the Immaculate Order using, but not actually understanding them. Picking up a dog whom he wrestled and scuffled with, and even secretly stashing away money to buy little martial arts items like a fighting chain, much lighter than the one at home, but it was a start.

He likely would have carried on like this forever, maybe even trying to plead his way into the Immaculate Order, if only just to learn a form to even his playing field with the Dragon Blooded enemies he may face of some grand martial hero, but then the Scarlet Empress disappeared.

The effect in his little town was odd, some folks looking to work their way into the Dragon Blooded families to get some gambit on the Realm at large(his family) others, after years of having to deal with the crap of Dragon Blooded vacationers, began to plan revolt. Still others had darker plans, in their little cults below their households, but then Syren wasn't aware of those ones yet. What he knew was that he could read in the documents he looked over the plans of a whole town, and knew that if it came down to civil war and revolt that they would likely all perish under the military scrutiny of the Realm. An-Teng, bureaucratically, had the total power to break from the Realm without the organizing influence of the Empress behind them, but that was as a whole, if they started bouncing ragtag rebels in every small town East of Steel Lotus they would systematically be eliminated. It threatened his family, his dreams, and even his life. The Realm, just as discerning in their bureaucrats as he, also saw the threat and began to push their thumb down over the town, but that only exacerbated the land, those who wanted to rise up gaining new evidence with every martial action.

Though he had no idea just what he could do, at first anyway. This needed some kind of hero who could rise up and change the direction of this slowly damning scene, and in his mind the only hero he had was that martial master he had been trying to become. Fighting would do no good, not yet, but he had to do something. Anything was better than standing by.

So he took advantage of his only other marketable skill, social interaction. He would spend the time he usually used training speaking to people, planting ideas and proof of what would happen if they moved by themselves. Breaking loyalties to leaders, or leaders from their flocks and dismantling the resistance group by group. He spoke up, mostly through letters, to the Dragon Blooded with respectful requests of things they may do to help ease the situation. Somehow winning a few good battles when he started seeing less military attention, and even less obnoxious vacationers.

The scene was advancing grandly, but there was one element he could not have seen even through the paperwork. Cultists. Yozi cults were not so unusual in An-Teng, something that likely came with the regular trade with the Lintha or just the odd nature of the Tengenese in general. Either way they had risen up with their robes and weapons looking to confront him on his way home, kill him, and let the town fall into the kind of chaos they could benefit from.

The social enemy was not just strong in their beliefs, they were fanatical. Logical proof might not nearly be enough to get through to them. He needed backgrounds, understandings, individual investigations. He had about ten seconds while their leader monologues. It came to him in a flash, some sort of intuitive understanding of why they were all here, and how he should act to inspire them. Greater than just gleaning information by sight, stronger...almost magical. He spoke loudly past their leader almost immediately, his words breaking at weak points in the individuals of the cult. Scratching open old psychological wounds, and making new ones in suspicion of how they spent their lives. The leader tried to rally them, working to keep them loyal, but the assault of words from Syren was tearing the cult apart at the seams. Until he was all alone.

Staring at Syren the man was a raging mass of fury. His whole organization reduced to one, his gods would not find this pleasing at all. He only had one thing left to offer, so he ran forward and attempted to stab the charismatic bastard who ruined his life. Though where his knife went, there was just air. And where his head was there was suddenly a fist. Then a foot where his gut was. Then an elbow where his back was. Just as systematically as he reduced the man's social group to ruin, Syren did the same to the man himself. Leaving one beaten bastard lying on the ground weeping. No longer a threat much to anyone.

Back home he got undressed, the strain of the day finally starting to catch up with him, and as he removed his working hat he found beneath something a bit odd. A golden symbol, a ring with a disc within. He had Exalted.

The revelation was quite shocking to him, the talking dog didn't help much either, his whole world was spinning as he tried to make a pure understanding of what was happening. Though even before he could do that his family was badgering him with more of their crap, talking about how he had been too rash in the past few weeks, how he was going to settle down this instant and that they had found a girl to marry him to that would be good for the family.

He saw the girl. His family could rot. He stole the heirloom a mass of funds and left the next day. He was meant for greater things than to be locked in that little town to waste away what life he had trying to advance a group of people without the ambition to take risks. He had a plan, with the Scarlet Empress gone there was a vacuum of power. Under the vacuum some families looked to fill the space, others looked to split off entirely. It was the perfect time to prey on such social weaknesses, to unite the aching masses finally broken from their dalliance from that damned woman. Somewhere in him he knew this place had once been united, and it could be so again. He was going to be the one to do it.

So he took off to the City of the Steel Lotus and jumped on the next ship East, looking to see if he could get to the Scavenger Lands.

Motivations
When Syren started his journey he realized he had little in the way of allies to realize his dream of a new empire, let alone unifying all of Creation. Grassroots resistance movements had been put down more than once even with the Scarlet Empress missing, if he wanted to win he needed to push into places much like his old home of An Teng. Places with the subterfuge to keep their thoughts of independence secret until the right moment. And he also needed allies in all the right places. The most successful land for such a thing was the Scavenger Lands.

I love that people keep ending up pushing for that part of the continent because it is often the first place Syren takes off for. It is both about as far away as he can get from An Teng and his reputation as he can muster, and is a good place to start ally building. Around here he would be building himself into the social structure so that he could start feeling around about the concept of revolution.

Here and there he may hear of troubles, and he knows the best way to get an ally is through debt. For example, the lumbering creatures themselves wouldn't interest him, but they are attacking Guild caravans. The Guild are good friends to have and he would most certainly give them some aid so he can remind them he did that in the future. He'll also help out regular jerkoffs for the sake of good PR.

So if there are rumors cooking he'll be there.

Now he has of yet never met another Exalted that wasn't DB so when he does meet one that doesn't want to hang him by his neck from a fucking tree he'll definitely want them on his side.

Backgrounds.
Familiar 3, he always had his dog Maduri and when his exaltation came the dog was uplifted with him due to their very close personal bond with each other. The dog had always been his only escape from what he considered a boring life in the complicated bureaucracy of An Teng. All of his martial skill was built on him sparring with his dog off in the wilderness when he had a moment alone, dreaming of being a great hero.

Artifact 1, the Orichalcum Chain. A family heirloom that for the most part just laid above their fireplace looking shiny. He always liked to dream of the day he would be strong enough to lift the massive thing when he was a little kid, these same heroic dreams continued to itch at his brain as an adult which caused him to secretly practice martial arts. While he knew no forms or styles he built himself to a fairly good fighter, but any time he tried to wield the damn thing it still flung uselessly on its own weight. While he has taken a path more suited to his actual strengths he holds onto the chain to remind himself of his beginnings and what a hero truly is. And also because it's awesome and since he became Exalted it seems much lighter.

Resources 2, Back in An Teng he was a capable bureaucrat and that earned him enough money to live comfortably. It also taught him a fair skill in trading, so when he left An Teng he raided his family coffers, took what was his(and maybe a little more for pain and suffering) and took off down the road. With his good social graces and knowledge of trade he takes what money he has and tries to maintain it. He as of recently hasn't had the time to increase his fortune though, in order to do that he would truly have to establish himself somewhere, and that would mean slowing down. Though maybe one day he could make a business of his own so he wouldn't have to work so hard.

Influence 1, No matter where he goes Syren likes to stick in people's minds. Not as a revolutionary or the future, but just as a genuinely interesting person. He figures what small seeds of good public relations he can plant, the more he will reap when he finally has the ability to start his plan to unify Creation.

And I'll be looking over what the stat changes mean. I think it changes nothing since I spent all my bonus points to be diverse in social combat.

[PhoenixFlame]

Unreachable Lily on the Cliff used to be a young daughter of a Guild Merchant Prince. She had pretty much everything she could want, her own slaves as playmates, and a pretty great life. Sure, she got murdered, but hey, that happens to spoiled young kids at times. Her pre-exaltation life was short and mostly unimportant, especially to herself and the nature of her exaltation, so she doesn't talk about, or think about it much.

She's good at killing people because, frankly, that's what she's expected to be good at doing. That said, there's alot more than merely killing people. Lily's very hard to detect, and she can go places, watch things, and track people with ease and efficiency. She can also kill them, but that's a bonus. She is after all, exalted by the #1 killer of mortal beings as in the end, death comes for us all.

Her artifacts, resources and gear come from being in the employ of the Princess Magnificent with Lips of Coral and Robes of Black Feathers whom has a list of resources almost as long as her name, which is pretty long. While Lily doesn't hate Princess Magnificent as much as she hates a lot of the deathlords, (although she can get the tendancy to go on wild and extravagant escapades with seemingly little thought put into them) she is EXCEEDINGLY incompetent, a fact that frustrates Lily. They have a reasonable relationship, but neither goes especially out of the way for the other.

As far as loyalist deathknights go, Lily is /strange/. Her motivation involves overturning and restructuring the underworld to remove it's moustache-twirling evil assholes like Mask of Winters and First and Forsaken Lion (So they can get back to being proper, cold and calculating grim reapers.) and incompetent fools (Like her liege...), and sadists whom treat the dead like toys (Lover Clad, for one).

In short, she really hates her bosses. Yet, one must remember that the deathlords don't run the show. They've got their bosses too, and really it's time we cut out the middle-men and let the living solar/abyssals do the job that ghosts whom should've been consigned to oblivion long ago simply can't do.

Lily fits in with the group because they don't have a night/day caste scout/archer yet, and her motivations coincide with the storyline (Preventing alchemicals from stealing souls from the underworld) and some of the solar motivations (Knock off some deathlords). She's not averse to killing some wyld hunters while she's at it, but that should be avoided, simply for being needless bellicosity. Still, if they come knocking, she'll knock back. As for flying shadowlands, well what in the world could've caused that? Guess we'll need a flying machine first, though.

[Overcast]

Wait, you are Princess Magnificent's incompetent deathknight? Heh heh.

[PhoenixFlame]

I suppose the parenthesis, and the fact that they are the same gender confuses this, but no. If you remove that, you'll see the sentance reads a bit more like "While Lily doesn't hate Princess Magnificent as much as she hates a lot of the deathlords, she is EXCEEDINGLY incompetent, a fact that frustrates Lily."

IE: "I don't hate you, but you suck, so I'm frustrated."

Philosoraptor: Of course, at chargen, everyone in Exalted is incompetent, as celestials are only marginally more capable than heroic mortals, who are literally a dime of dozen. I'm pretty sure a well-built heroic mortal could beat either of our Dawns in a straight fight, for one. At least I'm not a night caste, you might notice solars have a grand total of four stealth charms, all of which can be resisted trivially by mortals with no investiture in awareness.

[Overcast]

I won't say incompetent as much as less competent. But true, I guess I assumed that your character inherited the shame that all of Princess Mag's Deathknights get. Mostly that trickle down disdain she has the good fortune of having to deal with as Faffle's pet.

[PhoenixFlame]

Eh, it's not worse than being anyone else's. When you think about it, every last one of them is an abject failure. Mask of Winters failed to conquer more than one city in creation with the entirety of his forces... Foffles fucked up so badly the Neverborn roused from their eternal slumber long enough to call him down and bolt his armor to his soul such that he can never use the majority of his ghostly abilities ever again. Lover faffs about doing nothing all the time despite being one of the most competent, and pretty much the rest of them do the same thing only worse. Eye and Seven Despairs might be cool until you realise he's spent all his time playing mind games with his own deathknights for reasons that elude even the most erudite among us.

I've yet to see any of them make any real strides towards success, and that's really the crux of my character's motivation.

[Aerozord]

Eh, it's not worse than being anyone else's. When you think about it, every last one of them is an abject failure.

Silver Prince has done rather well for himself. An entire living nation under his control, an amassing fleet of first age level ships built entirely in secrete, an effectively limitless supply of soulsteel, and no one in Yu-Shan or Creation realizes what a threat he is

[DanteFalcon]

Given a variety of sudden Real life things that have come up I'm withdrawing from the sign ups. PM me if you wish to know more.

[Red Mage Black]

Sorry to hear that, man. Good luck on whatever it may be.

Meanwhile, I meant to ask something. I have a different Solar to use, more as a repository of knowledge and magic... with a pretty good essence pool. I was wondering if I could possibly sacrifice a charm or something with the agreement that bonus points gained are based on essence required or by your permission, on how much in bonus points it would cost to acquire the charm. I wanted to use them for specialties.

Edit: What I also meant to point out was that I have a better motivation and background info for him.

[PhoenixFlame]

If you want to sacrifice charms for knowledge, take thaumaturgy, and don't buy essence at chargen. It's literally the worst time to buy essence, and you can still learn and become a master of mortal magic. It's suprisingly diverse, if weak, but you get an entire degree for a charm slot, so it's a huge amount of versatility. You need thaumaturgy to make alchemical fuel and purify steel and magical materials/components for magictech and sorcery anyway, so you're going to get it at some point.

As for the Silver Prince, well... He's off in the deep west, and literally nobody cares what happens out there.

[Aerozord]

Still got background (both story and stat) and one BP to spend

Arbiter of Dust and Shadow
Str 2 / Dex 3 / Sta 1 Cha 5/ Man 3/ App 3 Per 3 / Int 3/ Wit 3

*Athletics 5
Awareness 3
*Investigation 5
* Lore 3
Occult 2
MA 3
Integrity 3
Presense 5
Resistance 2
*Survival 3
*Linguistics 5
*Socialize 2

CHARMS
Excellenciest- 2nd integrity/investigation/presence/MA
Raiton's Nimble Perch
Scathing Cynic Attitude
Screaming in Silence
Blood-scenting Hunger
Lunging Phantom Method
Shrouded Claw Attack

Essence 2
Willpower 6

Compassion 2 Temperance 3
Conviction 2 Valor 3

edit oh and merits and flaws. those can be fun if done right

[Krylo]

I have a different Solar to use, more as a repository of knowledge and magic... with a pretty good essence pool.

We kinda already have a few of those.

Relm's gonna be a twilight medic. I'm assuming that's gonna be lore and medicine heavy. Probably some occult.

I... well let me just copy one line from my character sheet:

Craft: (air) 3-(fire) 3-(earth) 1-(Magitech) 2 EDIT: THIS IS NO LONGER ACCURATE AFTER MOVING SOME STUFF AROUND. IT IS NOW A BIGGER LIST OF CRAFTS WITH BIGGER NUMBERS.

And I know sorcery, so that's occult 5 there... and I decided to take past lives 5...

Edit: What we are missing is a Zenith, seeming as our Zenith dropped.

[Relm Zephyrous]

Well, for information right now, I've had a very hectic week, but right now I have spare time, so I'll try to answer the questions and provide information. Also, I have 1 BP to spend due to the custom Virtues letting me do something I was highly considering doing but couldn't afford to as well.

As a whole, after looking over the character sheets, I must admit to some concerns about the sparsity of skills which don't involve killing people. I should perhaps also remind people that a Virtue rating of 1 represents being a coward, a hothead, a wimp or a complete jerk and I'm going to hold you to it.

While on the topic of Virtues, don't forget you can make custom Virtue Flaws!

I do recognize that a virtue of 1 means having low amounts of that category, raising that above one will change certain things about the character. But for example, just because I have a Valor of 1, doesn't mean that I'm going to abandon my allies, because I possess enough intelligence to weigh risks against possible 'outcomes' and fear of the now can balance with fear of the later. It will amount to not wanting to personally go into danger though.

I would consider a custom Virtue flaw, but the one I picked hits right on the money.

Also, about thaumaturgy, I haven't looked at it too much, but I'm trying to figure if it'd fit her or not, and if so whether I should just scrounge up 2 more bonus points and sink into it.

Chao Long was a strange individual, growing up she felt herself distant from other people. This was perhaps partly due to being secluded from them completely for a number of reasons caused by her upbringing. One, her family was the type to be isolated and the general placement where they lived was far off into the distance, a bit up in the mountains. Second, the family not wanting the commoners to 'taint' their little girl's mind with their lower status selves. Even the servants were kept mostly away from her during her childhood years. Although perhaps by a large chasm the greatest reason was a certain mark upon her birth, specifically a hollow pointing down triangle like shape, which to her family signified a very potent but fragile child.

She was very curious about people though, despite being kept in isolation and occupied with studies both physical and mental during her first several years. And her main area of interest was the human body partially as a result. The train of thought was approximately If my Uncle won't let me learn about these people or see them, then I'll at least learn how they are put together. She was taught to be very social, and had a talent for getting people to see her way besides the training. Would be useful, since she as the family knew wouldn't be able to be hidden behind a veil as an adult.

This came at a much sooner time than anybody planned for, certainly not when she was at the age of 14. Someone, Chao never figured out who or why, sent soldiers to the area and pillaged the area completely. But by a twist of fate, Chao survived, along with a few of the servants, and her father almost survived actually, he got knocked off the horse and then the cliff on the high passway. Assumed to be dead, and unless you make it a plot point I'll take it as he's dead. With no high ruling part of the family to detail the plan to them of what to do past the original safe spot to take Chao, she had to learn a whole lot of things in a short time, including making sure she wasn't just abandoned.

Life was a struggle, but vibrant and interesting from this point on. Despite wanting to know people, the girl would keep distant, and could never really connect with their pleas except in a logical sense. Over a few years she'd build up a small group of people who she would depend on, and in return use her highly developed medicine skills to aid.

Two years to the day after the incident though, she had a shadow at her door, an Abyssal who is really I'm assuming focused a lot more on stealth and not so much for combat, and Chao's high awareness being the only reason that she detect. If this Abyssal becomes relevant again, just noting helpful information for the record. to be exact but a newer one, coming to tell her that she was supposed to have died on a pyre in the mountains as a witch. It was too early for her exaltation to happen, but sometimes fate plays games, so ready or not it was thrust onto her to give her a chance to survive the attack. Fended the Abyssal off she did, but this put an entirely new spin on her life for multiple reasons. She was in fact critically lucky though, to have both her exaltation happen in relative privacy, and the knowledge to know to hide her new transformation from everyone.

But hell if she wasn't going to put it to good use. Disguising her new powers as experimental medicines and herbs, she tested a good many things out on people, and soon became something of a miracle worker. She's been at it so far, and before she just wanted to know about the human body, what makes it tick, and to make every kind of progress possible in it. But now she was marked, albeit secretly, but there were so many more possibilities. Her desire now was to understand completely and utterly this essence of restoration and positivity. Creating life, giving raw energy pure form, Healing that which cannot be healed, whether it be the death of someone, or the heavens themselves. Regardless, she knew she'd have to find some way to avoid the wrath of those who would seek her demise until she could 'restore' her fate to living, although she didn't know where to even begin on doing that. Perhaps more Solars like her would be ideal.

And while I'm here since it'll take a while to figure out how to put my stuff into a text, and I don't know how to link what I have, I'll just put this down but with my stats. Hope you don't mind me ripping the format. Like the title, makes me want to think of one myself.

Chao Long
Str 1 / Dex 5 / Sta 1
Cha 5/ Man 2/ App 2
Per 4 / Int 5/ Wit 2

* Archery 5
* Awareness 5
* Dodge 5
* Integrity 1
* Investigation 2
* Lore 3
* Medicine 5
* Occult 1
* Presence 5
Resistance 3
Socialize 1
Stealth 1
War 1

Charms
Excellency- 3rd Archery, Medicine
Trance of Unhesitting Speed
Shadow over Water
Seven Step Evasion
Essence Lending Method
Willpower Lending Method
Contagion Curing Touch
Wound Mending Care Technique
Wound Clensing Meditation

Essence 2
Willpower 10

Compassion 1 Temperance 5
Conviction 5 Valor 1

[The Kneumatic Pnight]

Sorry I'm a bit late in this, but I've largely been working with Arhra, and he has a good idea of my character right now. I haven't posted yet due to faffing about with housing departments and academic bureaucracy. But that should be resolving itself shortly, so I will be able to be more involved after that.

People who are aware of my unhealthy fixations may well have a good idea of my type of character. For reference, mostly focusing on diplomacy and picking up random utility charms along the way while appropriately cowering from pointy things.

I will post my histories and personalities when I pare down my cacophonous scrawls down into a readable format. Shooting for later today, but I don't know when bureaucratic dickbutts will try to get into contact with me, so we'll see what we see.

[Krylo]

Chao Long
Str 1 / Dex 5 / Sta 1
Cha 5/ Man 2/ App 2
Per 3 / Int 5/ Wit 3

* Archery 5
* Awareness 5
* Dodge 5
* Integrity 1
* Investigation 2
* Lore 3
* Occult 1
Presence 1
Resistance 3
Socialize 1
Stealth 3
* War 1

Charms
Excellency- 3rd Archery, Medicine
Trance of Unhesitting Speed
Shadow over Water
Seven Step Evasion
Essence Lending Method
Willpower Lending Method
Contagion Curing Touch
Wound Mending Care Technique
Wound Clensing Meditation

Essence 2
Willpower 10

Compassion 1 Temperance 5
Conviction 5 Valor 1

Where's your medicine ability? I'm guessing you have at least 3 points in it (probably 5) judging by how your skill points add up (and your charms), but I think you forgot to put it on the sheet.

Also: Vis a vis thaumaturgy, I've done some shuffling and now have two degrees of alchemy, but I'm not taking any of the 'medical' potions from it. Though there are a few nice ones. Mostly focusing on making explody stuff and being ready to learn how to distill orichalum and stuff when it comes up.

Edit 3: Also, Relm, here's a list of the various things you can do with thaumaturgy. (http://wiki.white-wolf.com/exalted/index.php?title=List_of_Second_Edition_Thaumaturgi cal_Arts#Alchemy). Note that a degree costs the same as a charm, and once you have a degree you can learn any art in that degree at no experience cost. However, you don't automatically know them all, you have to provide reason your character would know them. But once you are exposed to them? Learn 'em for free.

I think Arhra said he'd institute some training time to learn them, but I'm more or less okay with that.

Sorry I'm a bit late in this, but I've largely been working with Arhra, and he has a good idea of my character right now. I haven't posted yet due to faffing about with housing departments and academic bureaucracy. But that should be resolving itself shortly, so I will be able to be more involved after that.

People who are aware of my unhealthy fixations may well have a good idea of my type of character. For reference, mostly focusing on diplomacy and picking up random utility charms along the way while appropriately cowering from pointy things.

I will post my histories and personalities when I pare down my cacophonous scrawls down into a readable format. Shooting for later today, but I don't know when bureaucratic dickbutts will try to get into contact with me, so we'll see what we see.

Heroic mortal thaumaturge?

Edit: With craft magitech.

Edit 2: And a specialty in steam punk prosthesis?

[Relm Zephyrous]

Yeah, its five. I guess soon as I wake up isn't any better than soon as I'm going to sleep for typing things up, since thats the most important skill for a doctor. And Bioenhancement looks really interesting, although there's so little there, and its all basically replacing limbs and organs and such, which I'm not sure but I think I can do anyway *least with the right solar charms*. Still figuring out the rules for that though.

[Krylo]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure replacing limbs with robot limbs is generally a surgery (medicine) roll, and making them can be done as artifact creation. But there's lots of thaums that aren't useful to exalts. Like the art of demon summoning. I can just take sorcery and summon all dem demons so much easier. Or the art of enchantment, which mostly just lets you make items perfect quality.

Problem is... With craft charms? Not that hard to make them perfect in the first place.

Etc.

There's a few that do things you can't do though. Like distilling orichalum. Or making alchemical weapon fuel. Or anything from astrology.

[Relm Zephyrous]

I mean, I can think of a lot of stuff I'd like to try out with them, although I'm not sure if it'd work better as sorceries and such. But that'd all be custom designed and I have no idea where to begin on that and even if I did, I know sorceries, to make a single new spell takes months and months. And I don't know if there's a similar option for the lower mortal magics.

[PhoenixFlame]

Bear in mind it does let you summon demons without using the essence or spells involved in sorcery. Can be useful if you want a lot of them on the cheap. You also get it as part of the general guards and wards degree, which sorcery can't really do well, if at all. Lunars and stuff can hide from essence sight pretty easily, but not from anti-exalt (Lunar Celestial) wards, although the more powerful will just break them, but what's more satisfying than making an opponent waste ten motes and 1 willpower breaking something you did with a mortal skill roll?

[Red Mage Black]

I do suppose that maybe I'll make a Zenith with Weather Working or a heroic mortal with Warding and Exorcism. Most likely the former, when I think about it.

[Aerozord]

Its normal for an abyssal to lose his name when he exalts, but Arbiter of Dust and Shadow lost much more, and not for the reason you'd think. Like all abyssals he exalted right at the moment of his death, unlike most abyssals his cause of death was blunt cranial trauma. Thanks to that his earliest coherent memory is a warhammer pulping his skull.

Exaltation put his brain back into fully working order, but it didn't do as good of a job with reconnecting his memories. Oh they are still there. Whenever he hears a language only to discover he understands it, or reading a scroll only to be hit with deja vu. Not to mention the nightmares, oh the nightmares. Seems not even amateur lobotomy can release him from past traumas.

He has been able to piece together that he traveled often, and just as often dealt with people most would rather not. As a result he made some enemies, atleast one of which wanted him dead. Arbiter constantly fights his need to know, with his desire to remain ignorant.

Ironically he spent much of his post-exaltation days in the realm of memories, the underworld. Here he learned of what he was, and of the injustice of the world. The senseless wars, avoidable deaths, so many lost because of simple misunderstandings and prejudice. Finally he had enough and donned the title of Arbiter of Dust and Shadow. Acting as a negotiator and arbitrator.

He doesn't know what he was, but he knows what he is. If life and death can co-exist within his own body, perhaps we can all co-exist.

Flaws, Amnesia (its actually more like 1e 5 point version, but will accept 3 point one), Nightmare 2, Enemy 3 (representing those that dislike peaceful solutions and the unknown enemy that tried to kill him)

Merits: Linguistic Genius 3, Silver Tongue 3

I chose my flaws for two reasons. First is I loved the justification for them. Second is it provides alot of plot fodder. Thanks to the amnesia not only does he have enemies and continual nightmares, but no clue of what actually happened.

Merits, well he is a cunning linguist.

[Sithdarth]

Changed things around semi-significantly in terms of stats and such. Still have 4 bonus points to spend. I also assumed artifact armor would be at least one dot less expensive. I've got a back story brewing I just have to get it written down.

[Red Mage Black]

You know, I did have a better idea. One I can actually flesh out if I wanted. The idea is more or less a blind Sidereal of Endings(or Secrets), with Vibration Sense and possibly Acute Sense:Hearing. Well, to further drive my idea home, I did come up with a small description for it, since 'Blind' isn't in Scroll of Heroes and if it does exist, no idea which book it might be in. Anyway....


Character has no sight at all and cannot gain it back by any mundane methods. All Perception + Awareness rolls based on sight automatically fail. Attack and Dodge/Parry DV suffer at a -4 penalty if a test of the same difficulty cannot be passed.
Probably not a very good description, but it's the best idea I got. Vibration Sense and Acute Hearing were suppose to lighten them a little. Less 'debilitating', more character flavor then anything. As I said, I could flesh out this character a whole lot better then any other.

[Krylo]

Blind exists. It's diminished sense at six points:

For six points, the character is completely blind. Any rolls made for the character based on visual perception automatically fail. The character can attempt a ranged attack on anyone within 100 yards, but suffers a three-die external penalty on the attack (and possibly even a higher penalty if, for example, the target is attempting stealth or has access to cover the blind character cannot see). In addition, the character is incapable of reading unless she has some magical or technomagical means of perceiving text. Any character incapable of reading is generally also incapable of studying sorcery or necromancy unless she has a highly dedicated tutor and/or some form of magical auditory instruction device.

[The Kneumatic Pnight]

Heroic mortal thaumaturge?

Edit: With craft magitech.

Edit 2: And a specialty in steam punk prosthesis?

Surprisingly, no. My other (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XGq0NYW0awqFcYV_t8HZb48_ZJ8IXX-1gkW_s0biJPc/edit?hl=en_US) unhealthy fixation.

Backstory: Truth in Jade was born in Pless, a major Jadeborn city-state near the fringes of their dominion. Pless lies beneath the volcanic island of Kerkeis in the Neck and is known mostly as the hub of the Jadeborn interaction with Yu-Shan, and slightly less known as the hub of the most insular of Jadeborn factions.

Truth in Jade appreciated much about this environment, despite the fissures between her and it. The pathways throughout the mountain of Kherkeis lent themselves to her wandering, and too-common excursions onto the mountainside to observe the second sea rolling off to infinity. The small but constant trickle of gods, exalts, and jadeborn in their paths to and from Yu-Shan fit Truth well; while zeal for knowledge and skill is the domain of the Artisans, Truth's single-minded joy (and "energetic" attention span) were somewhat more rare, and she delighted much in learning the stories and skills that she could pick up from the passers-by. These same traits alongside her unflagging optimism were much more problematic for Truth's mentor: a particularly ancient and stern Jadeborn of the conclave. Eventually, the fractures grew too common and, in a fit of pride, the pair abandoned each other, to much censure from the conclave.

Truth wheedled her way into a small merchant caravan headed for Yu-Shan. There, she attempted to continue her education as best she could, among the surprisingly tolerant Artisans and the concerned but dutiful enlightened undercastes. Eventually an aged Raptok of no note by the name of Sesalan found Truth's naiveté and energy in a Jadeborn an oddity, but a familiar one. Reminded-of-what-was, he took Truth under his wing (Raptoks do not have actual wings) and used the merits of his empty sinecure position and knowledge of the past to pursue Truth's education, and give her the skills to protect her idealism against the more jaded. He also took to calling her Khalesh in his unfocused reveries, a nickname that Truth took to heart.

Truth's "vacation" in Yu-Shan would come to an abrupt end a little over a year later when the Conclave of Pless became "fed up with her bullshit" and sent a small retinue of Jadeborn to deposit her in the College of Divine Enlightenment. Truth went willingly and spoke penitent words and for her youth, largely escaped the harsher punishments, but was sent to the College of Divine Enlightenment of Urvar. Despite this, her unbounded energy (and slightly advanced age) left her to thrive within the walls of Urvar, and she emerged from the college with a surprising amount of respect and support from her peers and mentors.

In the years that followed, Truth would become entangled for a while in Urvarian politics, eventually gaining notice through her treatises as a bold philosopher and advocate of of entwining the Jadeborn's future and politics with those of other races: both through trade and the open sharing of knowledge (if, admittedly, carefully monitored knowledge). Her wanderlust would eventually creep back up on her, and she left Urvar, traveling to the fringes of the Jadeborn dominion and particularly key points of trade, where she would attempt to garner support for closer trade ties with the Jadeborn and would attempt to spread a positive image of their dominion wherever she went. Of particular interest to her was Pless and Yu-Shan and she made an unusual number of acquaintances within the Celestial Bureaucracy, though many of her more active overtures were foiled by bad luck and poor timing.

It was one of these acquaintances who sought out Truth and bid her to go to the East. Though this was largely through cryptic riddles and vague portents, the cryptic riddles and vague portents of Yu-Shan are not typically to be ignored so Truth dutifully acquiesced.

[Aerozord]

Inspired by Manacles of Night (codex pg 41) I came up with this

Thousand-Link Prison
Artifact 4
Commitment 8
Eclipse/moonshadow only

While in the First Age exalts got away with much, they did not always escape justice. Tempered Sun was an eclipse caste charged with settling disputes and arresting the guilty party. She believed all deserved a fair trial but capturing such powerful beings alive was no small task and essence negating restraints still required the opponent being subdued first.

For this she commissioned the Thousand-Link Prison, a manipulable fighting chain that binds and saps the strength of the victim (same as manacles). However Tempered Sun feared this tool of fair punishment being turned into a device of execution had a curse placed into it as well. Any time the one bound would receive damage it is delivered to the one attuned to the artifact instead.

After all, it is a jailers job to deliver the prisoner unharmed, even at the cost of her life

[Red Mage Black]

Blind exists. It's diminished sense at six points:

For six points, the character is completely blind. Any rolls made for the character based on visual perception automatically fail. The character can attempt a ranged attack on anyone within 100 yards, but suffers a three-die external penalty on the attack (and possibly even a higher penalty if, for example, the target is attempting stealth or has access to cover the blind character cannot see). In addition, the character is incapable of reading unless she has some magical or technomagical means of perceiving text. Any character incapable of reading is generally also incapable of studying sorcery or necromancy unless she has a highly dedicated tutor and/or some form of magical auditory instruction device.

Wow, how in the name of (Unconquered Sun/Luna/Maidens/Neverborn/Yozi) did I miss that? Guess it's time to call it quits for early morning character building. Anyway, thanks for pointing it out, Krylo. I really mean it.

Major Edit: Right then, finally finished it after working on the details all day, which I'll admit there WERE a few distractions. ANYWAY...

Since he was born blind, his father, also a Sidereal, would tell him of the stories he had read of the Solar Exalts and their unending heroism throughout the Primordial War and the First Age. However, the stories of how they fell, how they were betrayed was truly heart wrenching. If these were heroes of the people, as glorious as they were, then why would people want to seal them away? That was something he didn't understand. It wasn't until years later, years after his father had passed and his Exaltation that he had found out one fundamental thing. While it was people of his same Exalt and caste that sealed them away, there were still Sidereals that wanted them to return. While not the exact same goal as the Gold Faction, he truly believed that the Solars could be heroes once again, if they just got the chance to prove themselves once more. That people big and small would stop fighting and peace would reign. A childish thing yes, but something he still clings to this day.


Blind: Lazerus was born this way, always in the dark(metaphorically speaking) about what things always looked like. His curiosity always supersedes him however when it comes to touching things and if he isn't careful, even tasting them.

Vibration Sense: This didn't come until after Exaltation. It helped him discover something important and save lives. He was scared of it at first, when he couldn't tell what was happening, but he learned to focus on his during the event.

Heirloom: This wasn't from his father, but his mother. It always felt strangely warm on his ring finger. He could tell it wasn't a wedding band, but from what he was told, it was a ring his grandfather always use to wear. At this moment in time, he can't tell if it's magical and hasn't been able to find out the fate attached to it.

A few days after the death of both his parents, he was sent off to live with a friend of his parents. The woman ran a group home for orphaned children like himself. No matter how many times he asked, she would not answer the one question he wanted to know, "What happened to my parents?" She regarded him with quiet respect, even as the other children refused to play with him. He had his own things he wanted to learn, so he hung around the caretaker more, gaining what knowledge she would share.

That fateful vision came to him several times over the years that would follow during his time at the group home. He was standing at the foot of the orphanage and a fire was burning off in the kitchen and spreading quickly, he could smell the smoke. Someone was in there crying. A child? A woman? The cries were never that clear. Even as he grew old enough to leave on his own, he stayed at the group home, helping out with the children the best he could. Entertaining them with epic stories of 'The Heroes of The Sun'. He would always end it before he got to the part where 'One of the Heroes of Heaven betrayed the group out of the spite in his heart'. The 'Blind Storyteller' the kids would call him.

The event came to pass during Calibration. Where some local thaumaturges had gotten too confident for their own good and summoned a First Circle Demon. It swept through the village, taking it's anger out on some buildings. The caretaker was stoking a fire to help warm up the group home when it smashed into the building, bowling over the burning wood. Before he awoke, the vision hit him again, but this time it threw him off the bed. As he got up, he felt around and heard the shouting. With a fire in the building, everyone had to get out. As he ushered everyone out of the group home, he stood there, facing the door. There it was again, the crying. Only now, now he knew where it was coming from. It confusing him though, every sound he heard, it was almost as if it was right next to him. Not to mention the ground, he could feel strong vibrations and if he tried focusing enough, he would find whatever was making them happen. As he ran inside to find it, he could feel them getting stronger. It wasn't until the caretaker almost ran into him, clothing singed, that he knew things were coming true. "I saw this. I saw this happening. I didn't know when it would happen." He would tell her as they went out. "I knew it. I was just hoping that thing wasn't going to come as close as it did." That only peaked his interest as he placed a finger on his forehead, the caste mark was burning before, but it was slowly cooling down.

After that day, she promised to bring him where he needed to go. Yu-Shan, home of the Celestial Bureaucracy and Bureau of Heaven.

[Sithdarth]

This should be all the mechanics. Now all I have to do is finalize the back story.

[Red Mage Black]

Well, I fixed the background explanations and history stuff. I think they fit better then what I had there before.

[Krylo]

A few things: Firstly, I believe I've got my character hammered out:


Background
-----------------------------------------------------
Ledaal Masik was born a dynast, a member of the Ledaal family. A family which, though not on par with the Mnemons, was quite powerful and respected, with a large number of Air Aspects and sorcerers. This, his family surmised, was to be his future as well.

However, the blood of the Dragons ran thin in Masik's blood, and, despite his excellence in all of his scholarly pursuits and lack of clear weaknesses elsewhere, the dragons did not choose him. He was not sure whether to be relieved or ashamed as such a fate meant he would never be important to his family... but then again it meant he would never be important to his family, and thus would gain a level of freedom for himself that 'true' dynasts never gained.

For awhile the boy, who was quickly becoming a man, stayed on the Blessed Isle, continuing to study, as it pleased him to do so. However, he was not a man who could merely study. He wished to see the world. To help people in need. And it is to this end that he joined the immaculate order.

His kung-fu was, perhaps, not the strongest, but nonetheless he went on a small number of successful Wyld Hunts as an apprentice, though never as a master. And, at first, he was self assured. He believed he was doing the right thing, and saving the people of the threshold. Though he rarely confronted the anathema directly, preferring to provide a more... supportive role to his brothers in arms, as a death in battle was not what he sought (despite the Immaculate's promise that if he died in battle with Anathema his reincarnation would be chosen by the dragons).

However, as time went on, this feeling quickly of heroism quickly faded. He was exposed to the blood thirst of Dynasts who claimed to be heroes, the compassion of Anathema he was taught were monsters, and of populations who feared his order just as much as, if not more than, the anathema themselves.

So it was that on his fifth hunt, in an eastern satrapy of the realm, his doubt grew to levels that he could no longer abide, and he spoke with the people as his companions hunted. Though he did not interrogate them as to the location of the Anathema, but rather watched, and explored, and saw the people. He listened to their conversations, of how they reacted to the Anathema who had supposedly been camping nearby for months.

What he found was surprising: They did not fear the solar in their midst. At least not anymore. The anathema had saved them from bandits, had aided them in their trials, and over all used his power only to help these people.

The Order, of course, claimed such was simply the demonic powers of the Anathema twisting the minds of lesser men. But Masik was unsure. An uncertainty that cracked his faith in the hunt entirely when they met this Anathema and were greeted not with violence, but with offers of compassion. Offers to turn away, to surrender.

The anathema held back blows that could kill, avoided direct confrontation with the mortal soldiers, Masik included, and attempted to merely chase the hunt off. This 'monster' had no intentions of murder. Something the dragonblooded leader of the hunt did not share with the Anathema, and, in an unfortunate stroke, the dragonblood's experience and willingness to kill led the Anathema to defeat.

However, Masik, coward that he was, found that not even he could stand by for this, and so he tackled the fire aspect before him, his arms moving to hold the daiklave wielding warrior into a clinch, but, much to Masik's surprise the fire did not burn him, as he had expected it to.

Instead he felt warmth as wisps of gold and violet radiated from him and pushed back the angry flames of the dragonblooded warrior, whose lack of training in the martial arts proved to be his undoing, as Masik held him tight while the other Anathema delivered a single crushing blow to the huntsman's face and knocked him unconscious.

Even as an exalt of the unconquered sun, however, Masik still feels that he is too weak to go up against the forces of corruption in creation. That he is too young, and new, for he has seen what happens to those newly exalted who let their power go to their head. And so he seeks powers long forgotten by any who yet live, led by disturbing memories of an age long past whose golden rulers sank to debauchery and sin, haunted with the fear that he too may find his future such. That he may become 'anathema' as the Dynasts claim all like him are.

------------------------------------------------------

TL;DR's for things in the backstory, and things that aren't in the backstory because they weren't interesting enough:

Firstly, tell everyone a bit about the important features of your character. the major elements that shape them.Firstly: He's a coward. Valor 1 and all. This is actually character important and is one of the main reasons his Motivation isn't something like "Restore Lethe" or "Replace the Realm with a mortal run democratic government" or something. He feels he is too weak to do anything as it stands.

Secondly: He is afraid in more ways than just cowardice. His throwback was a monster, and he lives in fear that he will end up like her, and will go out of his way to do the right thing. Not that he wouldn't do the right thing anyway (compassion 3), but this acts as a driving motivator for it even beyond his own soft heart.

Thirdly: After being on both sides of the Dynasty, and seeing how those under its protection live compared to how the Dynasts themselves live, he despises them. He is also envious of them for the life he once had, but he refuses to admit it, even to himself. Such feelings of envy for a group whose rich and easy life comes from the pain and toil of their 'lessers' makes him feel like he has too much in common with his throwback.

Something aso worth thinking about is where did those Backgrounds come from?Past Lives 5 -> Manse -> Had some bracers. Pretty boring to write about really. You and I can hammer out the details of the manse sometime if you want, Arhra.

Secondly, the forming of circles. Why is your person going to join up with the others? Safety in numbers, and he requires assistance to complete his motivation. Or at least he believes he does. For a chosen of the sun he is not very self-assured.

But what I think is more important is the question of why does your character have that Motivation? He believes he is too weak to do anything worthwhile as it stands. He's afraid of the Realm. He's afraid of the deathlords. He's afraid of... well dying mostly. And he thinks that if he can get more power he'll stop being afraid. That if he mastered sorcery he could DO something. Stand up to them!

Mostly he wants to stop being so afraid.

...But really 'spending experience to increase valor to 2' sounds like a shitty motivation, so instead SORCERY!

And my character sheet is attached. Other than possibly using the manse building rules to make his manse background more interesting, and/or altering some intimacies (I hate intimacies), I don't think I'll be changing anything any time soon.

On crafts/ability points: Arhra has (perhaps tentatively?) ruled that normal crafts take half the points due to the specialization of the craft skill and whatnot. Magitech still costs a full point per, though.

I don't think anything else should be weird though.

[Krylo]

And one more post, simply to have all the character bios in their most recent iterations posted in one place for easy reference.

Note: I did not check any of them over and probably won't.

You may notice ObscureJones is missing. This is because he only did a single draft and then hasn't posted recently. Between that and the 14 total posts, I'm assuming he has slimmed.

Edit: And Aero and Relm are missing because their stat blocks are pretty incomplete and I don't want to fill in a sheet and do all the derived stuff and what not off of what they posted so far.

And my own is missing because it is right up there and there's a maximum of five attachments per post.

[Red Mage Black]

Cripes, look like the explanation on Exaltation messed up on me. Completely fixed though. Since Krylo has it up in that maybe I'll remove it from my post then?

Anyway, Relm isn't missing, but I'll let 'er know on AIM.

[Overcast]

Syren is a bit mild mannered as far as things go, he isn't a coward, isn't impatient isn't a monster and most definitely not a flake. He is a man of his convictions and duties and only really only escalates above his averageness when confronted by them.

This subtle mixture of nonchalance and dutifulness is what had him set his goals to such an extreme high, because he is not perfectly sure of how to get there but also has no idea what he wants at a smaller level. He hopes that as opportunities present themselves he will work hard to solve them and eventually the small answers will become big ones, and big ones into the biggest.

[Relm Zephyrous]

Well, other than my backgrounds and equipment, I'm not sure whats missing.

Background is Resources 3, Cult 2, Artifact 2 (Assault Crossbow), and I'm not entirely sure what I would have in the way of equipment, whether misc items need to be listed, armor, trinkets, and so on. This is mainly due to inexperience I guess than anything else though, so I'll consider what.

[Red Mage Black]

Lazerus's mind never truly left the group home or his childhood fancy of big heroes. Even after Exaltation and training, he only ever found an even better way to make his dreams come true, but also like a child, he doesn't like scary things, something also heightened by his lack of sight. His fascination with his father's armor is more along the lines of a child trying on a breastplate and when it finally doesn't weigh him down entirely, wearing it whenever he can. The amulet and bracers are also of the same thing, when he learns that they help prevent people being able to hurt him. His courage, if any at all, comes from wearing these items. If he's without any of them, he cowers. Even if he can see where someone is coming from, he can't see their weapon and where it's coming from. His motivation, as stated before, comes more from childhood fancy and the knowledge he learned that helps him keep going.

Though his mind isn't entirely childish. His conviction stems from the stories he read and his refusal to let these things go. His compassion comes from his understanding of his life at the group home. Of children who lost their parents or were just abandoned. He lived like that for a good part after his parents were killed. So, he can't stand the thought of others suffering, especially children. Another reason he wants the Solars back, because he thinks they'll help the needy and suffering. His Temperance is as it is because of his curiosity and inability to control himself when he has the chance to see things through touch and sometimes, try to lick them to see what they taste like. An awful habit. His Valor is as it is because he's still like a frightened child when it comes to anything involving outright violence and is afraid of what he can't see. The other fear attached to that is being left alone, like in a forest, as for most of his life hes been guided around by someone and it's hard to follow the vibrations of footsteps that aren't there.

Overall, he's childish, but he's hesitant to use the charms he learned. Having them in your line of sight doesn't mean he actually needed vision, just that he needed to be facing them and as long as he could tell where they were by where the vibrations stopped, he confident enough to use them.

[Krylo]

Well, other than my backgrounds and equipment, I'm not sure whats missing.

Background is Resources 3, Cult 2, Artifact 2 (Assault Crossbow), and I'm not entirely sure what I would have in the way of equipment, whether misc items need to be listed, armor, trinkets, and so on. This is mainly due to inexperience I guess than anything else though, so I'll consider what.

Filled out a sheet for you.

You're one BP over. I wasn't gonna check, but changing formats basically requires me to go through all the numbers, so.

Also: Assault Crossbows aren't in the core book. Are you using a supplement? If so what page? Short Powerbows are the only artifact two archery item in core.

And any thing with '???' should probably be filled in. Though that's mostly in the fluff sections.

As for equipment--anything you have should be listed. With the possible exception of basic clothing.

You can buy anything that is equal to or under your resources value. Other than Arhra putting his foot down if you go way overboard, you can spend as much as you want so long as no single item is over 3 dots cost. In the game proper, buying an item with a cost equal to your current resources background will reduce your resources background by one dot.

You may also have a number of items equal to your resources score (in this case 3 of them) that are of higher than normal quality. The rules for those are on 365 of the core book.

Other than that go crazy.

[Relm Zephyrous]

Now I was pretty sure I only spent 5 on virtues, unless I was wrong on my initial guess and I communicated my asking for confirmation of this to another person wrong.

For assault crossbow, I'm guessing its on page 22-26 of Scroll of Fallen Races: The Mountain Folk. If its not there its on pages 132-133 of Scroll of Kings.

General equipment I'll be working with.

[Krylo]

Now I was pretty sure I only spent 5 on virtues, unless I was wrong on my initial guess and I communicated my asking for confirmation of this to another person wrong.
I'll just spell out how I came to the conclusion you spent 6 points:

Each starts at one.

Your virtues thus look like:

Valor: 1
Temperance: 1
Conviction: 1
Compassion: 1

You get 5 points, and spent them only on Temperance/Conviction. Thus they now look like this:

Valor: 1
Temperance: 3
Conviction: 4
Compassion: 1

Alternatively, Temperance would be 4 and conviction 3.

You then had to purchase 3 more points (two for Temperance, and one for conviction).

As that, by Arhra's house rules, raising a virtue over three costs 2 BP each, that's 6 points spent.

I'm guessing the discrepancy comes from you doing conviction 5 and temperance 2 to start with, and then adding three points to temperance, which would be 1 to get it to three, and then 4 to get it to 5, for a total of five points.

However, if -I- were ST I'd disallow such coupon clippy methods of lowering BP points.

That's up to Arhra, though.

For assault crossbow, I'm guessing its on page 22-26 of Scroll of Fallen Races: The Mountain Folk. If its not there its on pages 132-133 of Scroll of Kings.

I don't have either of those!

So I can't hunt down the stats and put them in for you.

[Arhra]

Can't raise a Virtue over 4 without spending Bonus Points! Exalted Core Rulebook, pg 84!

[Relm Zephyrous]

Well, I'll just put in the stats myself. And the getting the virtues like that is partly to make the character very interesting. With lower virtue costs I saw an opportunity to make it something unique. Also it was me starting at 1-1-3-4, and misreading it as only the transition from 4 to 5 as being 2 points, and me phrasing it in such a way that when I checked with someone else they said I was right. Also, I have the stats, or at least the basic ones so I'll fill those in. Although I'm considering not doing the artifact and instead switching those background to something else, depending on both how good a orchilum crossbow is, and how much good I can find in other backgrounds.

Yeah, I can't actually upload it, but I've not finished it yet so far, only updated a couple things.



Assault Crossbow: Speed 5, Accuracy 3, Damage 8L, Rate 1, Range 250, Attune 5, Tags 2, B
Perfect Buff Jacket: Soak 4L/5B, Mobility -0, Fatigue -0


AGE BUILD HOMELAND
16 ??? ???
HEIGHT SKIN GENDER
5'8" Porcelain White Female
WEIGHT HAIR EYES
136 Deep Brown Jade

And it doesn't line up with spaces, you get the idea. These are the things I've updated so far. Homeland is still being decided because due to movement I have a choice, and not sure what you mean by 'build'.

[Krylo]

If your eyes are jade... can I make something out of them?

Edit: And a build is like... thin, lithe, muscular, fatty mcfatfat, etc.

[Aerozord]

Ok assuming the flaw and artifact are approved, this should be everything

Arbiter of Dust and Shadow
A man of brown skin and long white hair, his eyes slowly turning a deeper green with each passing day. His clothing varies greatly, often changing to whatever suits the location.
Str 2 / Dex 3 / Sta 1 Cha 5/ Man 3/ App 3 Per 3 / Int 3/ Wit 3

*Athletics 5
Awareness 3
*Investigation 5 (Native: Riverspeak, old/low/high realm, Forest tongue, sea tongue, Fire tongue, Tribal languages, Naval Ciphers)
* Lore 3
Occult 2
MA 3
Integrity 3
Presense 5
Resistance 2
*Survival 3
*Linguistics 5
*Socialize 2

CHARMS
Excellenciest- 2nd integrity/investigation/presence/MA
Raiton's Nimble Perch
Scathing Cynic Attitude
Screaming in Silence
Blood-scenting Hunger
Lunging Phantom Method
Shrouded Claw Attack

Essence 2
Willpower 6

Compassion 2 Temperance 3
Conviction 2 Valor 3

Background
Inspired by Manacles of Night (codex pg 41) I came up with this

Thousand-Link Prison
Artifact 4
Commitment 8
Eclipse/moonshadow only

While in the First Age exalts got away with much, they did not always escape justice. Tempered Sun was an eclipse caste charged with settling disputes and arresting the guilty party. She believed all deserved a fair trial but capturing such powerful beings alive was no small task and essence negating restraints still required the opponent being subdued first.

For this she commissioned the Thousand-Link Prison, a manipulable fighting chain that binds and saps the strength of the victim (same as manacles). However Tempered Sun feared this tool of fair punishment being turned into a device of execution had a curse placed into it as well. Any time the one bound would receive damage it is delivered to the one attuned to the artifact instead.

After all, it is a jailers job to deliver the prisoner unharmed, even at the cost of her life
Artifact 2: (recorder of everlasting glories)
Contact 2: (Eye and Seven Despairs, Silver Prince, though he'd rather avoid dealing with them)
Whisper 3

Backstory

Its normal for an abyssal to lose his name when he exalts, but Arbiter of Dust and Shadow lost much more, and not for the reason you'd think. Like all abyssals he exalted right at the moment of his death, unlike most abyssals his cause of death was blunt cranial trauma. Thanks to that his earliest coherent memory is a warhammer pulping his skull.

Exaltation put his brain back into fully working order, but it didn't do as good of a job with reconnecting his memories. Oh they are still there. Whenever he hears a language only to discover he understands it, or reading a scroll only to be hit with deja vu. Not to mention the nightmares, oh the nightmares. Seems not even amateur lobotomy can release him from past traumas.

He has been able to piece together that he traveled often, and just as often dealt with people most would rather not. As a result he made some enemies, atleast one of which wanted him dead. Arbiter constantly fights his need to know, with his desire to remain ignorant.

Ironically he spent much of his post-exaltation days in the realm of memories, the underworld. Here he learned of what he was, and of the injustice of the world. The senseless wars, avoidable deaths, so many lost because of simple misunderstandings and prejudice. Finally he had enough and donned the title of Arbiter of Dust and Shadow. Acting as a negotiator and arbitrator.

He doesn't know what he was, but he knows what he is. If life and death can co-exist within his own body, perhaps we can all co-exist.

Flaws, Amnesia 5, Nightmare 2, Enemy 3 (representing those that dislike peaceful solutions and the unknown enemy that tried to kill him)

Merits: Linguistic Genius 3, Silver Tongue 3

Note: thanks to his amnesia he still doesn't know he can speak tribal languages, high realm, or decode naval ciphers.

[Arhra]

Well, yesterday was unexpectedly busy and I've spent most of today chasing up various plot related things. But now is time for feedbacks!

Eh, it's not worse than being anyone else's. When you think about it, every last one of them is an abject failure. Mask of Winters failed to conquer more than one city in creation with the entirety of his forces... Foffles fucked up so badly the Neverborn roused from their eternal slumber long enough to call him down and bolt his armor to his soul such that he can never use the majority of his ghostly abilities ever again. Lover faffs about doing nothing all the time despite being one of the most competent, and pretty much the rest of them do the same thing only worse. Eye and Seven Despairs might be cool until you realise he's spent all his time playing mind games with his own deathknights for reasons that elude even the most erudite among us.

I've yet to see any of them make any real strides towards success, and that's really the crux of my character's motivation.
Well, the Dowager meditated on the Well of Udr for a few hundred years and then dredged out of it the plague that came within a hair's breadth of killing everyone.

And that was eight hundred years ago!

What could be next? Zombie-Kukla?

In An-Teng the individual does not matter. What matters is the family. Every one part will work to advance their name. This is something that is ingrained in youth, and something that carries on in adulthood. An unavoidable truth of life. Syren Bamulase had been discouraged from rash moves his whole life, his family was the kind who made slow meticulous marriages and trades that may raise their family name to a new rank of security next generation, and so his entire existence had been boring; shoved into government work as a bureaucrat to serve as a bridge for the family into more important individuals that they could work their way close to and eventually sucker into becoming Bamulase's as well.

So he took off to the City of the Steel Lotus and jumped on the next ship East, looking to see if he could get to the Scavenger Lands.

+4 XP!


Unreachable Lily on the Cliff used to be a young daughter of a Guild Merchant Prince. She had pretty much everything she could want, her own slaves as playmates, and a pretty great life. Sure, she got murdered, but hey, that happens to spoiled young kids at times...

...In short, she really hates her bosses. Yet, one must remember that the deathlords don't run the show. They've got their bosses too, and really it's time we cut out the middle-men and let the living solar/abyssals do the job that ghosts whom should've been consigned to oblivion long ago simply can't do.

+3 XP! Need to talk with you about one or two things once I get the chance.


I do recognize that a virtue of 1 means having low amounts of that category, raising that above one will change certain things about the character. But for example, just because I have a Valor of 1, doesn't mean that I'm going to abandon my allies, because I possess enough intelligence to weigh risks against possible 'outcomes' and fear of the now can balance with fear of the later. It will amount to not wanting to personally go into danger though.

Wrong. A virtue like Valour represents your ability to override irrational terror.

I'm afraid I feel your backstory is... incoherent.

For example, it is counter-intuitive to have been raised in isolation, deleiberately kept separate from other people and yet have been taught to be very socialable. Chao's described as curious and yet seemed remarkably incurious into discovering the identity of whoever sent those soldiers to attack... wherever it was that she was raised.

Not to mention suddenly Abyssal outta nowhere! Frankly, Abyssals don't care about someone's appointed 'time to die'. That's something written in the stars of Creation, not the cold, ghostly stars of the Underworld. All they care about is that you die.

Although another question here is why should they care about someone living in an isolated place with some servants?

Its normal for an abyssal to lose his name when he exalts, but Arbiter of Dust and Shadow lost much more, and not for the reason you'd think...

...He doesn't know what he was, but he knows what he is. If life and death can co-exist within his own body, perhaps we can all co-exist.

I should have jumped on this sooner, but I'm afraid I misinterpreted some of the earlier stuff you said about the concept. The important question is how does this advance the cause of Oblivion?

There can be no co-existence, only Oblivion. This is what the Neverborn have decreed. Though they are dead and broken, they can still make their displeasure known.

We're talking a Resonance factory here, yo!

On the game mechanics side of things, I apply Flaws on the basis they need to actually be a signifcant drawback. So while amnesia is a fine backstory, you won't get any points for it since this lack of memory doesn't put Arbiter in danger.

As for your suggested Thousand-Link Chain, an artifact that drains essence and prevents charm use on someone after you have successfuly overpowered and captured them is one thing, but one that can be used in the middle of a pitched battle quite easily?

Yeah... not going to happen.

Changed things around semi-significantly in terms of stats and such. Still have 4 bonus points to spend. I also assumed artifact armor would be at least one dot less expensive. I've got a back story brewing I just have to get it written down.
Only had a quick skim but things look fine so far. Looking forward to that story!

Truth in Jade was born in Pless, a major Jadeborn city-state near the fringes of their dominion...

...It was one of these acquaintances who sought out Truth and bid her to go to the East. Though this was largely through cryptic riddles and vague portents, the cryptic riddles and vague portents of Yu-Shan are not typically to be ignored so Truth dutifully acquiesced.
KPKPKPKPKP. Lookin' good. +4 XP!

Since Lazerus was born blind, his father, also a Sidereal, would tell him of the stories he had read of the Solar Exalts and their unending heroism throughout the Primordial War and the First Age. However, the stories of how they fell, how they were betrayed was truly heart wrenching...

... "I saw this. I saw this happening. I didn't know when it would happen." He would tell her as they went out. "I knew it. I was just hoping that thing wasn't going to come as close as it did." That only peaked his interest as he placed a finger on his forehead, the caste mark was burning before, but it was slowly cooling down.

After that day, she promised to bring him where he needed to go. Yu-Shan, home of the Celestial Bureaucracy and Bureau of Heaven.
Hmmm, some more about the stuff in Yu-Shan and why he's ended out here would be good.

On the game mechanics side of things... Afraid your guy would actually be a liability in a lot of dangerous situations as things currently stand.

Ledaal Masik was born a dynast, a member of the Ledaal family...

...Masik still feels that he is too weak to go up against the forces of corruption in creation. That he is too young, and new, for he has seen what happens to those newly exalted who let their power go to their head. And so he seeks powers long forgotten by any who yet live, led by disturbing memories of an age long past whose golden rulers sank to debauchery and sin, haunted with the fear that he too may find his future such. That he may become 'anathema' as the Dynasts claim all like him are.

Dynastic dissonance and crazy throwbacks, wheeeee! +4 XP

For the benefit of everyone, rules finalised so far that affect chargen:

The basic craft skills are half price - 1 dot in it gives you two dots to split between the sub-skills. Note that you still can't raise any over 3 without spending bonus points.

The third dot in Linguistics gives you two bonus lanugages, the fourth and fifth dots give three each.

Artifact armour is one dot cheaper and reduces post-soak damage by one die, to a minimum of one.

I've also been mulling things over and given the large ammount of extra preparation needed otherwise, I'm going to have to reduce the player numbers to five or six. So if the people who haven't said anything for a while (this means you, obscurejones and Sifright) could just comment if you're still in, I'll make the final choice.

[Red Mage Black]

Well, I kind of thought of that much, to be honest and I do see it the same way you do. I should have split the points better so he DOES seem more knowledgeable(aka specialties and such). Most I saw from it was that too many people were combat ready and thought it was a nice change in pace from the others, but it already looks like Krylo has most of the other stuff covered aside from what I did.

EDIT: Hm... guess I don't have any time to redo anything. As for the stuff for Yu-Shan, I'll have to mull over a few options that I have. Besides the little thing of, "The Maiden of Fate saw the strange group of Solars, Abyssals and a Terrestrial working together and the Bureau didn't feel like being left out of the action. So his Mentor pushed for him to get the job." As I said, something better then that.

[PhoenixFlame]

Updated for new chargen, artifact rules, and extra intimacies.

Added sun seared and greater curse to buy lucky and thermal vision.

[Overcast]

There are no such thing as too many combat ready. Not being combat ready means you are eventually going to become a plot point when you are captured and held for ransom.

[Red Mage Black]

I really didn't know what other use for him he had besides being a walking encyclopedia or something. Besides, is 'not combat capable' always such a bad thing? My original idea was 'blind thaumaturgist', but I figured that might have been just as bad as what I have now.

Just not sure what else I could do now. The second I had was 'blind martial artist', but I really don't have much else to work off that.

EDIT: My last character idea that I already built up pretty much, was an Infernal. Not too sure how helpful that would be however.

Edit2: This is the Infernal I made, not sure it's any better then my other one, but I suppose it's a matter of opinion.

[Relm Zephyrous]

First off, I guess I was slightly wrong with Valor, partly because I imagined that mentioned part to really fall more underneath conviction. That just makes her more interesting in my eyes honestly, since it means much internal fighting.

I'm afraid I feel your backstory is... incoherent.

Hm. I probably should have been a bit more clear with things in the backstory. I just originally felt that talking too much about that stuff in the backstory would give a sort of a "get on with it" feeling with the readers because I didn't imagine most of the people caring about a two page essay on the intricacies of her early childhood.

First, to get it out of the way. Not to mention suddenly Abyssal outta nowhere! Frankly, Abyssals don't care about someone's appointed 'time to die'. That's something written in the stars of Creation, not the cold, ghostly stars of the Underworld. All they care about is that you die.

That was a little of speculation of me on abyssal lore, and an idea I had that I was really putting up to review with you, since you weren't otherwise on in a way for me to contact you.

For example, it is counter-intuitive to have been raised in isolation, deliberately kept separate from other people and yet have been taught to be very socialable. Chao's described as curious and yet seemed remarkably incurious into discovering the identity of whoever sent those soldiers to attack... wherever it was that she was raised.

Although another question here is why should they care about someone living in an isolated place with some servants?

This is part of what I mean by "I should have been more clear", I guess with a lot of things. I didn't mean literal 'shut her in a box for her childhood and never let her out', although it may have seemed that way for hours at a time. Her family was rational about things, and would let her occasionally talk to other people, and she'd spend some time with family, just usually isolated from anyone unknown especially of lower class. Since she'd need to eventually learn the rules of the 'game' upon growing up they taught her etiquette and all of that. Of course, its a very mechanical and understandably lacking compassion thing despite 'looking' filled with such. I just felt going on for it this long in that post would have been straining to read through to get to the point of the story.

As for her supposed 'uncaring' about who burnt her previous home down... I don't recall saying that and if I did point that out to me so I can change it. I recall myself stating that she's been heavy in work trying to stabilize her own life and never having success in knowing about this. I don't actually recall her not caring about it, but I could be wrong on that.

And to the final part here I should mention that I imagined the attack to be on her parents, not necessarily her directly. They were a little away from the usual in the mountains, but they probably had a good influence in politics and a nice bit of wealth before someone decided to 'confiscate' it.

[Overcast]

Not combat capable isn't always a bad thing, but you are Anathema. The heavily trained martial talents of the Wyld Hunt are at all times coming to murder you. Not being able to at least dodge their blows whilst you do your Jedi battle-persuasion is something that puts you in ever present danger. I haven't read the Infernal yet, but it is difficult to imagine a Green Sun Prince doing anything good. Ever.

[Red Mage Black]

Well, I'm taking one last look at Lunars. Maybe they're more my style then arrogant perfectionists(Solars), paranoid paper pushers in what amounts to corp wars(Sidereals), mustache twirling undead(Abyssals) or deal with the devil and blood for the blood god madmen(Infernals). Yes, I'm using sweeping generalizations. Just a joke people, nothing to see here.

Late Edit: The Infernal I built was more along the lines of, "Convince people something is right to do, despite having far reaching consequences that are obviously evil." Or to put it simply, "Make people think you're doing good."

[Aerozord]

I should have jumped on this sooner, but I'm afraid I misinterpreted some of the earlier stuff you said about the concept. The important question is how does this advance the cause of Oblivion?

There can be no co-existence, only Oblivion. This is what the Neverborn have decreed. Though they are dead and broken, they can still make their displeasure known.

We're talking a Resonance factory here, yo!

I know full well he will be venting resonance alot, I did this intentionally. Like I said I like flawed characters, such an abyssal that desires peace despite his exalted nature constantly punishing him for it. Its one reason he usually travels through underworld and deals mostly with the dead. He also avoids connections with the living. No friends or lovers, cause he knows eventually his dark fate will cause them harm. Actually would depression be an acceptable flaw? Cause I can see him being just that, very depressed.

Sure you are wondering how he will do with the group, well he will work with them but keep his distance emotionaly. Eventually he might risk it. I think exalts are exempt, but he wouldn't know that.

On the artifact, well I may just remove it, but before that can I get a ruling on if depression is acceptable flaw? I forget the name for psychological illnesses, but think its 2pt

[Red Mage Black]

On the artifact, well I may just remove it, but before that can I get a ruling on if depression is acceptable flaw? I forget the name for psychological illnesses, but think its 2pt
It's under the name "Derangement" and the first one you get is 3pts. with the rest following with 1pt.

Ah yes, going to try and get the motivation to finish that Lunar and see if I can build him better then anyone else I have. As they don't seem the most overly complicated and would probably compliment the Solars.

[Arhra]

I really didn't know what other use for him he had besides being a walking encyclopedia or something. Besides, is 'not combat capable' always such a bad thing? My original idea was 'blind thaumaturgist', but I figured that might have been just as bad as what I have now.

Just not sure what else I could do now. The second I had was 'blind martial artist', but I really don't have much else to work off that.

It's not that the concept was bad, you just need to make a few concessions to the sorts of situation we are likely to find ourselves in. Having absolutely zero offensive capability hurts.

Anyway, a Lunar is fine too.

Hm. I probably should have been a bit more clear with things in the backstory. I just originally felt that talking too much about that stuff in the backstory would give a sort of a "get on with it" feeling with the readers because I didn't imagine most of the people caring about a two page essay on the intricacies of her early childhood.

It's a matter of selecting the parts that are relevant. What major things shaped Chao and why did these things happen?

This is part of what I mean by "I should have been more clear", I guess with a lot of things. I didn't mean literal 'shut her in a box for her childhood and never let her out', although it may have seemed that way for hours at a time.

How was she raised to be as persuasive as it is humanly possible to be? (admitttedly the Exaltation would give a boost there)

And to the final part here I should mention that I imagined the attack to be on her parents, not necessarily her directly. They were a little away from the usual in the mountains, but they probably had a good influence in politics and a nice bit of wealth before someone decided to 'confiscate' it.

Politic who with what? That is what I mean by incoherent.

Chao's parents were isolated. They had political influence with some group. They were wealthy. Someone attacked them. Why were these things so, and what connects them?

[Relm Zephyrous]

Well, part of it was natural talent, part of it was skill, and a lot of it was exaltation. Plus, her current stats are also figuring in the time after that isolation.

In general her family and their 'land' had a grip on critical trade routes, collecting minor fees to guarantee the safety of this road from bandits, especially since trying to get around the mountains otherwise was heavy labor. They also collected things and did barter, typical sell high and buy low. Their influence was in this area, and they had effective control of the area. It was maintained well and kept in order, and the residents nearby certainly didn't mind having a minor trade hub on the mountain, although it served as a 'police force' sometimes for the neighboring towns for good or ill.

One day, a warlord on the warpath with a sizable army took a look at this area and decided that since he was returning from a battle victorious, and that the mountains were nearby, that he could 'annex' them into his territory. This decision was probably influenced by the potential 'treasures' that awaited, since nobody outside knew just how much of what the Long family had, just that they always seemed to have enough.

That help any?

[Sithdarth]

Back Story Stuff (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20794520/Cap%27tn.pdf)

Also, updated character sheet with new slightly similar motivation. It makes more sense then what I had before with the background.

[Red Mage Black]

Here's the Lunar I built. It's a bit rough, I'll wager, but it's kind of late for me to try and write the background at the moment. I do have something simpler, yet it explains everything on the sheet in good detail. I'll get that done after I get some rest.

EDIT: And HOLY CRAP Sith, a .pdf and all that. Talk about dedication.

[Sithdarth]

EDIT: And HOLY CRAP Sith, a .pdf and all that. Talk about dedication.

Eh its a matter of like one extra second when saving a document in Microsoft word to make a .pdf instead and they are so much easier to share that way.

[Arhra]

Oh whoops, sorry, I forgot to respond to you in my last post Aerozord.

Anyway, after some deliberation, I have settled on a roster of players.

Kneumatic Pnight, Krylo, Overcast, Phoenixflame and Sithdarth.

It would be good if you could discuss with each other who'll start off travelling with who right away so I can tailor the opening scenario and start some time this week. I'd say two or three groups in total. Stories of how you ended up together would also entertain me.

To be fair to you RMB, seeing you haven't had a chance to post up a full backstory, you can still do that if you want to and if I like it you'll get in.

To everyone else, sorry but I just don't think I can run a game for a larger group than that.

[Aerozord]

Oh whoops, sorry, I forgot to respond to you in my last post Aerozord.

so your response is, I dont get to play?

[Red Mage Black]

I don't know how well I can do, but I can try.


Harken was born to a family of nomad hunters. Whether they moved from the frozen north to the desert south depended on the game. His father was a very serious man and his wife was the only one that could keep him from selling their child to make it past the hard seasons. It wasn't until he was four that a terrible accident happened. On one of his father's expeditions to the wilderness, young Harken decided to try his luck and follow his father in while his mother found water.

After noticing Harken was gone, his mother decided to go in after him. It took a few hours, but by the time he was found, there were already multiple wounds on the toddlers body from a wild animal attack and his father happened to kill it before it could actually kill the boy.

Weeks of healing later, his face would never be the same again. All lumped with scars and flesh that didn't heal right. His father just had to punish him, regardless. Forcing the boy to come out on excursions with him, to watch him kill the animal and even skin it.

It was years before his mother was taken by illness and for some reason, after watching so much death his father committed upon those animals, he didn't cry. Instead, his father made him come out for bigger game. If there was something large that he could catch, then he would be told to run after it and take it down. This resulted in many smaller incidents of things being too big for a single person to bring down and resulting in a chase with the animal with Harken still attached. This also resulted in his father making the rule, "You make the kill, you get the meat." Something he would resent for the years to come.

The last thing he ever saw of his father was on the borders of the Wyld, far east from Denandsor. Apprehensive, the young man stayed behind despite the goading of the man who otherwise blamed his son for his wife falling ill.

Harken spent the next few months of his life making his way down towards Chiaroscuro, cutting through a path in the rocky mountainside that his father had show him several years before. By now though, it was covered in vast piles of rubble, which he had to navigate around or move out of the way to stay on the path. Over the course of his travel to the city, he met several others, the poor folk. His first thought would be, "You wouldn't be starving if you made the effort to find food." Something his father had told him numerous times when he wouldn't share food.

His Exaltation came to him when he least expected it. Large lizards were good meals when you were always hungry, but when you didn't see the other hunter, things would become complicated. He was already weary. All day he had gathered, just so he could eat at night and he didn't need the complication of squabbling with another hunter about whose kill it was. Especially when the other hadn't even fired that fancy bow she had. Luna had visited him under her Bloody Huntress guise. A beautiful woman, yes, but competition. How would she stand the heat with that armor? It would take some persuasion by himself for Harken to actually talk to the Goddess.

Days later, Harken didn't exactly know what was coming over him or what that woman had done to him, but now he was running for his life from the city. Armed men were coming after him in groups trying to kill him. How did that group of crazies have such power? The Immaculate Order? He had only heard of them a few times and their ramblings didn't interest him. What was an Anathema? Why him?

Just when he thought this was the end, beasts came from the sands like roaring thunder. Ripping through the armed men like tattered parchment. Who were they? Were they going to kill him next? While they were distracted, he decided to make a further run towards the desert, his only possible salvation from this madness. Maybe then he could figure out why any of this was happening. It was a matter of seconds before they caught up to him. As they shifted back into their human forms, Harken was left with many questions unanswered, the first of course being... "Are you going to kill me like you did them?"

They had to explain the situation to him. The changes he was feeling, the strange mark on his forehead and the reason they were chasing after him. However, they couldn't stay there long or much worse was coming. Walking to the tribe took days, but the men who found him treated it like a nice stroll on a quiet day.

In time, the things had been explained. What he was, what it meant and what he would have to do, as well as the risks of what would have happened if he was left on his own. The ideas scared him, becoming a monster was not something he wanted to do, but neither was giving up the contempt he had for people who couldn't help themselves. Which was someone he didn't think about when that pack saved his life.

The Lunars, he learned also shared some of his view, but the tribe would not let others starve because of it. You had to work for your share, that was something he knew. Without a doubt, he had to accept the tattoos or else he would become something that was feared more then any wild animal.

It didn't take him long to prove he could be a proficient hunter and survivalist. The desert just took the difficulty far higher. Note of his skill was that it was a primitive, if not inefficient, but that it worked for him regardless. Reliance on pure strength rather then skill was something he had to fix.

The life debt he had accrued was from his own mentor. There was a small group of raksha making their way up and Harken was not advised to follow. They were dangerous to all but the most experienced in fighting them.

Not heeding to their warning, he gave them an hour's head start and then left on his own to join them. With his speed, he caught up to them when the battle was getting good. Then he learned that engaging them was not such a great idea. Not only did the Fair Folk not care about what they were trying to do, they were ruthless.

Battling one was an ordeal, he couldn't get a grasp on it no matter how hard he tried. It kept leaving him in the dust, using charms and powers he had never seen before. It had almost killed him if it wasn't for his mentor jumping in. The Exalted had little trouble, dealing with it as if it were those soldiers a few months before.

Then came the tattooing for the life debt. With which his mentor would tell him the conditions of it:

"You must leave the tribe for the time being. Go further west if you must. Do not come back until you have completed three tasks for me. One, your battle ready attitude are good, but only if you know what you are doing. Do not return until you have learned this fact. Two, bring me back three mementos from your travels, proof that you have seen things beyond and they must be something that can only be found in those place. As another condition to that, they must also have taught you this lesson and when you return, you must tell me what they taught you. Three, you must learn to have compassion for all living things. Not everybody has grown up with the skills to hunt, take down a large beast with just their hands or survive on their own.

As part of this, you must also make friends outside the tribe. It is good to have another to butt heads and hunt with, but humans are just as reliable. As an optional condition, you may meet Solars on your journey. If it is possible, find your Solar Mate. We all have one and when you meet them, whatever form they have taken, you will know.

The point of this isn't to drive you away. Think of it as a spiritual journey. Find it in your heart to accept those of Gaia. You too are a Child of Luna and as you were told, Luna loves her children. Be strong and go out there, but do not return until you have fulfilled those conditions."

It was grudgingly hard to accept being separated from the tribe. To try and ease his pain of separating from the community, his mentor had given him two things. A set of gauntlets to fit his style of fighting and a good set of armor to protect him. He took the oath to fulfill his debt and got the tattoos that night. In the morning, he would leave to find the things his mentor wished for him to find.

That's all of it, the best I could do.

[Arhra]

so your response is, I dont get to play?

It is somewhat pointless to say things that are not going to be used!

[Aerozord]

It is somewhat pointless to say things that are not going to be used!

well yes but it gets rather insulting signing up for a RP and not even being told I dont get to play. I am aware that you eventually did do that, but you could have had the courtesy of doing it when you made that choice rather then having me wait only to get hit yet again with "you dont get to play"

[Red Mage Black]

Aero, please don't argue about it. Generally it's like sign-ups for anything. You don't see your name on the list, you aren't in... or if you don't receive a phone call, etc.

Though I didn't see a weigh in on my backstory, guess he's either deliberating or something. So don't feel bad, Aero. I probably won't get picked either. Truth be told, I was pretty unprepared for the game.

Note to Ahra though: If you need any questions filled in about the story, let me know. I might have forgotten a few details. I kind of had a crappy morning, so it might not have turned out explaining everything.

[Overcast]

So who wants to join Syren on his fun little boat trip to adventure?

[Sithdarth]

Well I'm a local more or less and have been in the general area wandering for several years now. So I guess I'm up for being a guide/body guard for who ever wants it.

[PhoenixFlame]

It's unlikely Lily's going to be hanging out with a bunch of solars to start with, but hm, I wonder...

Going to need to think about that for a bit.

[Red Mage Black]

I don't know PF, you're kind of surrounded by them on all sides. Not sure if I should abandon thread due to lack of confirmation or wait on Ahra's answer.

[PhoenixFlame]

Oh, I know, I just mean to start with.

[Arhra]

Congratulations RMB, you're in! That life debt just entertained me far too much.

[Red Mage Black]

To be truthful, I thought it was a bit corny, but Lunar Life Debts can be anything so I thought I'd give it a swing. Besides, who doesn't like someone who can carry all the stuff we find without breaking a sweat? Also? Someone who can go into the Wyld without being affected. Many thanks, Ahra.

Not sure he'd be very well off with the Cap'n or Syren. The Abyssal might make him a bit paranoid, but at least to her he's not a Solar, right? As for Krylo's guy, I don't know what to make of him. Oh well, I'm anxious to see how this all turns out.

[Overcast]

You're solar partner is Cap. The sooner you accept this the easier it will be to read the slash fiction.

[Red Mage Black]

Already keeping tabs on Slashfic, Overcast. What would be entertaining was if that was true AND I had the Knack for switching genders at will.

[Arhra]

While I have yet to find out where on earth I buried my old Lunar houserule tweaks, I do remember this much:

All Lunars get Hide of the Cunning Hunter for free, like they did in 1e, and it also stops their Tell being easier to spot when in a true form.

Because the people who are supposedly the best shapechangers in the game shouldn't need to resort to eating someone else's face to walk into places unnoticed as a human.

[Red Mage Black]

Then I realized when I looked at that, that I don't even have the right appearance score for it, being the butt ugly guy that I am. That at least helps keep us from having to deal with the Wyld Hunt now and again. Lemme know if you find or remember any of the other rules you wanted to toss at me.

[Arhra]

Well, seeing Hide of the Cunning Hunter is pretty marginal and like I said, it used to be free, let us waive the attribute requirements.

There's been relatively little talk about who's travelling with who, so I am going to toss out some ideas and that's what we'll go with, probably.

Krylo and Overcast, you've been talking about travelling together so now you are. Masik and Syren met through SHENNANIGANS and may actually be unaware of the fact the other guy is a Solar.

KP and Sith, you encountered each other through the miracle of SHENNANIGANS and are now travelling together.

Phoenix, deathknights have few living friends so you're all on your little lonesome. Barring possible NPCs, who don't count.

RMB, you're travelling westwards where everyone else was travelling east, so you're also alone. Like the wolf. (You are not actually a wolf.)

PS: You may want to take some dots in Heart's Blood.

The area of interest is a small domain in the Hundred Kingdoms, poor and unproductive, especially for somewhere this far East, so there's little interest in it. A godblood nobility has a really tight grip on it. The peasantry is pretty oppressed.

The godbloods do, however, trade some exotic plant products that only they seem to know the secret of harvesting to the Guild, to keep their creature comforts going. Of note are major ingredients for the production of age-staving cordial and seven bounty paste.

The shadowland right on its border has been something of a problem for the last few decades, it's been remarkably persistent for one of such a relatively small size.

Except it supposedly floated off into the sky a few weeks ago.

And now there's been people and cattle vanishing, and wheels of fire appearing in the sky at night.

Some of them have returned talking of some wondrous land of plenty they were taken to. Seems harmless enough, but now an entire village has vanished off the face of Creation and there's murmurs about one of the Far People walking amongst them, their skin marked with silvery patterns.

Also strange, lumbering blank-faced demons have been appearing out of choking smoke which rolls over the Guild caravans travelling east of there. They supposedly have the power to sap the strength out of peoples' limbs and can somehow spirit away entire caravans, leaving almost no trace behind.

Krylo and Overcast, you are investigating because a) you would like to get in with the Guild (Syren) and b) demonds what the hell (Masik). Also if it's a sorceror behind it, they might have some useful occult stuff you can extort off them. No hard proof that the attacks are actually by demons though. The few witnesses have not been reliable.

KP and Sith: you are there because the word is that the Immaculate Order is taking these events as a sign of spiritual corruption and are using it as a pretext to move in and throw their weight around. Also, because weird stuff.

Phoenix, these events are a problem because there were some long term plans to strengthen the nascent ancestor cult, give the boot to the godblood nobility and convert the demense (it is a secret) into an Abyssal manse to vastly expand the shadowland.

Also, because shadowlands do not float off into the sky!

RMB, you are investigating because what the hell is going on and also that sounds like a remarkably unsubtle Lunar who is likely to get their face punched in by the Wyld Hunt.

Acceptable, everyone?

[Red Mage Black]

Well, the thing with the west mostly had to do with what I THOUGHT I read, but yeah I think if there were more interesting things to the east, he'd go that way instead. Not much else to see to the west and going north towards the Imperials would also have been a horrible idea. Also, I think I misconstrued your last sentence. At least I'm pretty sure you were talking about the 'silver markings' guy with the Wyld Hunt. If you were talking about me, I apologize.

Overall, it sounds fine to me, but if I really had to note his compassion, he has no sympathy for the poor who refuse to find their own food and no envy for the rich who get others to hunt it for them, as well as those who let themselves be pushed around by someone that's somehow 'superior'. Of course, I do believe that's one of the things that Lunars are trying to correct with 'Thousand Streams'. Though the experimentation looks like it would be pretty fun.

Not that I needed to explain all that since you already know it, but yeah, it's all fine to me. He'd be heading for the sources of the most interest anyway. I could mark off two things for Heart's Blood. Permission for a bird(Swallow or Raven?) and possibly a gecko? I'm just naming things off now.

[Red Mage Black]

Well, the thing with the west mostly had to do with what I THOUGHT I read, but yeah I think if there were more interesting things to the east, he'd go that way instead. Not much else to see to the west and going north towards the Imperials would also have been a horrible idea. Also, I think I misconstrued your last sentence. At least I'm pretty sure you were talking about the 'silver markings' guy with the Wyld Hunt. If you were talking about me, I apologize.

Overall, it sounds fine to me, but if I really had to note his compassion, he has no sympathy for the poor who refuse to find their own food and no envy for the rich who get others to hunt it for them, as well as those who let themselves be pushed around by someone that's somehow 'superior'. Of course, I do believe that's one of the things that Lunars are trying to correct with 'Thousand Streams'. Though the experimentation looks like it would be pretty fun.

Not that I needed to explain all that since you already know it, but yeah, it's all fine to me. He'd be heading for the sources of the most interest anyway. I could mark off two things for Heart's Blood. Permission for a bird(Swallow or Raven?) and possibly a gecko? I'm just naming things off now.

[Sithdarth]

Sounds good to me.

[PhoenixFlame]

Sounds good. I'll have some fun telling some godbloods they're doing a terrible job, I think.

[Overcast]

Gettin in good with the Guild behind my business partner's back? Thinking up sweet little lies about how this isn't about getting in with the Guild to keep him close? Having two with the smallest endurance together? Possibly getting a Godblood into a binding contract that involves teaching me the secrets of the spirits? Sounds excellent.

[Red Mage Black]

Guess I'll have my own fun telling another Lunar to 'cut it out', because it doesn't sound fun attracting the attention of the Wyld Hunt.

[Arhra]

OK everyone, just toss out what you'd make your first few priorities for fulfilling your various objectives so I can put together opening scenes for everyone.

One little garnish to add to the situation is that there's a Guild caravan passing back through from further east, having a stopover and debating hiring some extra muscle on hearing about the attacks.

Not that I needed to explain all that since you already know it, but yeah, it's all fine to me. He'd be heading for the sources of the most interest anyway. I could mark off two things for Heart's Blood. Permission for a bird(Swallow or Raven?) and possibly a gecko? I'm just naming things off now.

Unless it's something really exotic like a nine-tailed molehound or a tyrannosaurus, go nuts.

[Sithdarth]

Cap would definitely be looking to sign up as muscle for the caravan. Both because he needs to make a living at the moment and because he wants to prove the Immaculate Order wrong by finding out what is really happening to the caravans and hopefully stopping it.

[PhoenixFlame]

Those oppressive godbloods have got to go. Lily'd probably start out making that one of her priorities, although investigating yon flying shadowland is also of particular interest. However, she can't fly, so beyond getting a good look at it and going "Yep! That's definately wrong!" I don't imagine what I could do with it.

Probably trolling the local godblooded nobility would be more her style.

[Overcast]

Syren would probably either try to get in on muscle or see if he could get his own business in on the caravaning, citing safety in numbers. On the else he would claim to his business partner they were trying to get to the source of the evils in the forest by traveling with their primary targets.

[Red Mage Black]

If it's going the same direction as Harken, he might take the job if it leads him closer to that Lunar. He could put himself to use carrying heavy things or possibly lifting the wagon if they need to fix anything. If not, then he would head directly for the place where the Lunar is regardless.

[PhoenixFlame]

Modified character sheet after looking up avatar rules and what the hell they mean.

[Krylo]

Soooooooooo

When we doin' this?

[Arhra]

New discussion thread. (http://www.nuklearforums.com/showthread.php?p=1147819#post1147819)