Exalted freeform (closed to new interest)

[Guancyto]

Demigods with oddly-colored hair!

Ridiculous kung fu action!

Dramatic speeches!

Heroes forging their way in the world!

A strangely detailed look at magical fantasy economics!

Yeah, I got the hankering to run some Exalted, but didn't want to bother with the mechanics, so it'd be the world of Exalted (circa 3e-ish, so sadly the sun is not a giant mecha death star puppy that knows kung fu. I know it's a shame, but it's necessary).

I'd be interested in hearing what people would want in a game, and had some notions of my own for an opening hook but really once you get the power of demigods involved anything that wasn't a sandbox becomes so fairly quickly?

Anyway all of the Directions have both major city hubs and remote regions, SO it's really an open question overall.

East? West? North? South? Inner Sea? Center? Underneath? Cities? Cities on top of cities on top of cities? Remote regions?

Adventuring and smiting? Empire building? Pilgrimage? Capitalism ho?

Anyway I'll toss up some of my own notions once people have weighed in a little.

For the uninitiated: on a flat world steeped in magic and littered with the remnants of broken ages and broken empires, a world-spanning empire ruled by the aristocratic Dragon-Blooded teeters on the edge of collapse. In this Time of Troubles, the God of the Sun raises up the greatest examples of humanity to become legends! Also the God of the Moon does that too.

So yeah! Who's interested?

[HairyHeretic]

I'm interested. I have a handful of Exalts I can bring out.

Nexus is always a good place to start off.

I like the idea of building up a power base, perhaps not an Empire as such, that might be a bit high level to start with, but a small kingdom or border march might be doable. Adventuring that leads to empire building?

Additional motivations would depend on which of my characters was in play :)

[Cold Heritage]

Yeah, I got the hankering to run some Exalted, but didn't want to bother with the mechanics, so it'd be the world of Exalted (circa 3e-ish, so sadly the sun is not a giant mecha death star puppy that knows kung fu. I know it's a shame, but it's necessary).

How much different is the world of Exalted circa 3e? I remember 1e having a fairly Hellenic/Three Kingdoms era China feel, then 2e dialed up the magitechnology aspect a fair bit.

[Guancyto]

Basically 1e, plus the black hat factions don't want to destroy/squish the world, and there are some new realms and cities thrown into the mix. For example there's Wu-Jian which is this Western island-metropolis that's multiple city-layers stacked on top of each other, while the Caul is this vaguely-defined Lunar domain that's been entirely cut off from the Loom of Fate and uses its own homegrown Lunar equivalent. The properly detailed bit of it is Faxai-on-the-Caul, which is the Realm's beachhead and has been under siege from the first day it was established up until now where it's one of the toughest fortress-cities in the world.

There's also the Dreaming Sea in the southeast with a new Dragon-Blooded empire (smaller than the Realm but the Dreaming Sea is distant enough that Prasad the big dog; travel is harder and distance has been played up a lot), and a smattering of Lunar dominions all over the map.

There's also a couple of new Exalt types, one of which is essentially Prometheans ported into Exalted, and the other are custom-made Exalts endowed by lesser gods who got permission/endowment from one of the big gods, one of the neater signature characters is Strawmaiden Janest who is the chosen of a harvest god.

Let's see, what else... there's a civil war brewing (or possibly active) in Heaven as well as on Earth, as a rogue Sidereal tries to wrest control of the bonds of Fate (but I wouldn't worry about it that much, a Sidereal would be a very hard sell for me unless everyone wants to be one).

I had an idea for an eastern region that's been utterly devastated by Realm intervention that the group may or may not need to take over in order to stabilize it (in Creation problems are rarely so easy to fix as punching the right person in the face), and have to deal with everything that comes with that, but I'd like to hear what people would be after in an Exalted game before outright locking in what the premise would be.

[Revelation]

Exalted but without the rules? Sign me the fuck up.

[Guancyto]

Hooray!

Oh! A note, one thing I've found for Exalted is that coordinating characters works well, so once we decide on a location/premise I might decide to impose something like Legends of the Wulin's relationship chart, where everyone has a connection to someone else (don't have to be related related, could be involved with the same organization or have accidentally dropped a house on another PC's mom, but the point is that no PC is an island).

[Cold Heritage]

Thanks for that, Guancyto. Much obliged.

I personally have never cared for Sidereals other than using them as antagonists; I had a very difficult time intuiting their rules in 1e and never bothered with them much after that. I would not want to play one.

I'd have to agree with Hairy that starting in Nexus is always a good bet. I'm also on board with starting out with adventuring and acquiring the means to create a power base through adventuring.

The notion that you propose, Guancyto, of an area devastated by Realm intervention - maybe with one or more other powers competing with the Realm for the area - and all of the stuff that comes with that is fairly tempting. I think I'd enjoy very much having the players being a group of free agents who negotiate that tangled mire and, being Exalts, being potential game-changers who could swing the balance of power to one faction or another.

I am also in favour of having the characters have something to bind them other characters in some manner. I'm not familiar with Legends of Wulin, but I'm not a priori against imposing some inter-character connections.

[Re Z L]

I'd be interested too, still kind of collecting my thoughts about it right now.

Freestyle vs. System means (to me) very limited character progression in terms of "strength".  It's hard to quantify things in a systemless game.  I mention this because a lot of Exalted is tied up in the becoming more and more powerful aspect.  Charms are probably the easiest way to kind of abstract that in a freeform system...can we learn new charms over time?  When?  What would be an acceptable number of charms to start with?

Those are the sorts of questions that immediately come to mind.

In terms of setting I'm mostly indifferent.  I'm not overly fond of the North, so if I had to rank things direction-wise it would be something like...

1.  West
2.  South
3.  East
4.  Blessed Isle
5.  North

[HairyHeretic]

I'd suggest perhaps taking a leaf from Dresden Files, and have each character detail at least one background adventure where they crossed paths with another character. This establishes some degree of familiarity, and means the characters have a reason to work together (ish)

[Cold Heritage]

Apocalypse World has a chargen principle that runs along the lines that player characters don't have to be friends, but they should basically be allies. Applying that to this might be worthwhile.

[Guancyto]

Freestyle vs. System means (to me) very limited character progression in terms of "strength".  It's hard to quantify things in a systemless game.  I mention this because a lot of Exalted is tied up in the becoming more and more powerful aspect.  Charms are probably the easiest way to kind of abstract that in a freeform system...can we learn new charms over time?  When?  What would be an acceptable number of charms to start with?

Okay SO. One of my all-time favorite Exalted games was God-Kings of Lotus, which spent a lot of time building both personal power in spiritual refinement and a temporal power-base in the aforementioned city of Lotus. One of the big things about it was that they had a very healthy amount of downtime (maybe even too much, certainly more than any Exalted game I've seen before or since) to train their skills, develop their abilities and administrate their realm.  They grew in power substantially!

So I wouldn't worry about this, there will be opportunity.

For a general gist I'd go with two to five distinct magical powers (more broad than Charms) and an opposite number of broad competencies (which in the game would be represented by a bunch of different dice trick charms, but you can get very deep into Melee before you stop being just "really good at swords"), but that's far from a hard and fast rule. If you'd like to be a Brigid-type that knows a dozen spells but is basically slightly-above-mortal in everything else... that's actually not an outright terrible decision in freeform like it is in-system, is it? On the opposite side of the coin, one of the concepts one of my buddies always wanted was a sword-princess type whose Essence and spiritual refinement were complete garbage but who was ridiculously skilled, and was always disappointed Exalted systems never supported that, so if you want your power to be "I'm just really damn good," that's also a valid decision!

I'd suggest perhaps taking a leaf from Dresden Files, and have each character detail at least one background adventure where they crossed paths with another character. This establishes some degree of familiarity, and means the characters have a reason to work together (ish)

Possibly! I wouldn't necessarily want to shut people out of knowing of each other or having some sort of relation, but never having had adventures together if that's specifically the angle they want to take.

[AndyZ]

Awesome setting, very awesome people ^_^

[ShadowFox89]

 My character pitch:

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Cathak Gabrielle had it all. Money, power, a harem willing to do whatever she desired. But she never exalted, the blood of the dragons seemed to not be within her veins. And as she tried to hold onto the power that she had become used to, there were those who would see her fall. It was on a cruise to the West, what was supposed to be her last bit of freedom before joining the house legion. Assailants attacked the ship, and in the ensuing chaos, explosions shattered the vessel. All hands were thought lost, Gabrielle herself left to drown in the depths of the ocean. But whoever made the attack only half-assed the job, they never confirmed her death, never found her body. Something outside of Fate had plans for her, some force a bit more malicious than even the corrupt dynasts of the Realm.

Infernal with dynastic ties, was nearly murdered, blown up, drowned, and isn't very happy about it. Could go with any of the directions, though I've never really played in the West, so that could be something interesting.

[HairyHeretic]

Would an Infernal work with a group of Solars?

[ShadowFox89]

She would, yeah. Her goal is to get revenge on the people who tried to kill her, she doesn't really have a reason to be hostile to anyone else.

[Cold Heritage]

For a general gist I'd go with two to five distinct magical powers (more broad than Charms) and an opposite number of broad competencies (which in the game would be represented by a bunch of different dice trick charms, but you can get very deep into Melee before you stop being just "really good at swords"), but that's far from a hard and fast rule. If you'd like to be a Brigid-type that knows a dozen spells but is basically slightly-above-mortal in everything else... that's actually not an outright terrible decision in freeform like it is in-system, is it? On the opposite side of the coin, one of the concepts one of my buddies always wanted was a sword-princess type whose Essence and spiritual refinement were complete garbage but who was ridiculously skilled, and was always disappointed Exalted systems never supported that, so if you want your power to be "I'm just really damn good," that's also a valid decision!

I always liked the charms that let you soak damage and brawling, even if I lacked the adeptness with the rules to be able to make someone who could do as much damage as someone just swinging around a piece of magical material the size of a surfboard. Is that something that could be valid in this game?

[HairyHeretic]

I'd say so. The Brawl tree is pretty expansive, and while you might not do as much raw damage as using a daiklaive, you do have options like picking up an opponent and hurling them into a group of foes (even if the opponent is much larger than the Exalt)

[AndyZ]

Most people think of Azure Grace as a simple beggar, willing to do odd jobs and reasonably cheerful of disposition despite her low station in life.  A few people also know that she does the occasional task for The Night Blades, a guild of assassins with some degree of tie across every pole of Creation.  Her tasks are simple: courier work, dead drops, passing along the occasional message, and delivering the carefully made daggers of a Wretched assassin named Judgment.

Very little is known about Judgment, though the Night Blades have offered bits of information over time, such as his gender.  Judgment is never seen except as a Wretched, cloaked in darkness.  He collects information about each target he's given and refuses any job where he feels the person is unworthy of death, and he leaves a signature dagger in any of the individuals he's marked for death.

Although Azure Grace has been caught with such daggers before, she's only a courier and has no idea who he is.  Guards who have investigated into Judgment's identity know this is true, because if she had any information at all, she'd have talked after the beating that they gave her.  Besides, everyone knows that Judgment is a man, thanks to the Night Blades accidentally letting that information slip.

Public opinion on Judgment is mixed.  He's Wretched, but he has yet to kill anyone who wasn't either well known to be evil or soon discovered as such thereafter.  Many of the common folk - including Azure Grace - appreciate having someone who can eliminate the city's corrupt one villain at a time.

The truth is that Azure Grace has killed a few people in order to protect the secret that she's Judgment, but only when there was no other choice.  A few members of the Night Blades and some other Exalts know her secret as well.  (I'm very cool with any PCs who want to know starting out with said info, but doing so should imply a trusting level of relationship between them.)



This being freeform, I tried to write up a whole bunch of contingencies and conditions for when a particular ability works well or can be defeated.  I'm very willing to tone things down if I've gone overboard.

Stealth: Azure can remain perfectly hidden from anyone who doesn't have Charms explicitly designed to notice the supernaturally concealed, but can be discovered by those Charms.  However, like all Night castes, her identity cannot be discovered while she's disguised as Judgment.  Various other supernatural abilities require her to break stealth.

Truth Sense: Azure can automatically tell when she hears a lie.  This is how she discovers the guilt of her targets, usually with hours of investigation and reconnaissance, and spending hours watching an individual allows her to construct a profile to determine if they're evil enough to warrant death.

Parkour: Azure can pull off most of the tricks found in a Prince of Persia game, but cannot fly, run on water, or jump more than twice her own height.  Using parkour requires her to break stealth.

Knife Combat: Provided that the target is unaware, Azure can reliably hit a jugular vein with a thrown dagger from over a hundred yards away.  Aware targets, even fully human ones, can easily see where she's throwing and can dodge without issue.  In melee, she's not quite good enough to take on a Terrestrial Exalt by herself unless she's fresh and they've already been wounded, and she knows it, but she can take out a fang of humans if the need arises.  Far more often, she'll simply flee.  Any attack causes her to break stealth, but she'll usually establish it again rather quickly after slipping away from pursuers.

Senses: Azure can effectively perceive her surroundings in absolute darkness, but not well enough to read written words or judge color.  She can either overhear a whispered conversation in a silent room or make out a single conversation in the din of a marketplace, but hearing a whispered conversation in a marketplace requires her to get close enough and enough concentration to break stealth.  At that point, it might seem unlikely that she heard anything, but she'd very likely be noticed by the conversing pair.

Wakefulness: Azure doesn't sleep and doesn't need to.  She can push herself to exhaustion the same as anyone else, but spending some time relaxing and catching her breath is sufficient to get her back to normal.

Anima: Most Exalts build up their anima over the course of using abilities and have to let it slowly fade over time, or with specific Charms to shed it.  Like other Nights, Azure can hold off on building her anima as much as she wants, but she can also completely shed it in an instant to revert back to Azure Grace and be overlooked by pursuers.

[Premier]

Heck yeah! You threw down the gauntlet so let's go for it.

I'd quite like to play a Chosen of Endings named Eyes Like Fire raised by Heaven itself whose the sole Sidereal agent for the Bureau of Broken Hearts, tasked with ending relationships when fate decrees it. This made her best friends with a lot of of the Bureau Serenity who just loved how she'd often wreck years of hard work in one torrid week of arrows, betrayal and midnight trysts. She's a bit of an embarrassment to the rest of Endings who like to be known for their calm and stealth because her approach is more like kicking a barrel of lit fire-dust down the stairs and yelling "AMBUSH" at the top of your lungs.

She used to love the job and the challenge it posed, worming her way into people's lives and upending the apple cart often pushed people to go on to do great things but trouble began when she found all the orders that had been quietly 'disposed' of by her peers. The webs of fate demanded a lot of people's pet projects be broken up or useful allies burnt and everyone in the agency had a vested interest in making sure Eyes Like Fire never even heard of them, even fellow Endings treated her more like a problem to work around than an ally in the march to a better future. If they weren't really working to fate's plan then what were they working towards and what plans had she been unwittingly moving along?

Eyes Like Fire had always been motivated by a desire to see Creation emerge from the struggle as something greater but if the path Heaven was following wasn't going to get them there then it was on her to do it herself. She may not be able to read fate like a master, but she could see the shape of it and sometimes brush her fingertips over the pattern it should be. She'd just fill in the gaps herself, trusting her heart to get her the rest of the way.

No one in Heaven is particularly happy with the thought of a rogue Eyes Like Fire, she was a damn fine agent and did a job that was too hard for the emotionless to pull off and too punishing for the empathetic to endure. Letting her loose on Creation without a guiding hand was likely to cause some horrific chaos to the well ordered plans of Heaven, but there's not been many volunteers to go after the lady with a knack for ruining people's lives and the ones who've tried quickly regretted it. Endings master assassins meanwhile are being held back, she still does her work now and then (Though it is beginning to pile up) and nobody wants to kill her and end up taking her terrible job.

[Re Z L]

Sounds pretty good to me then!

Final character will depend on where we end up playing mostly, but I think I'm going to play a Night Caste that uses Steel Devil Style with Socialize for maintaining multiple identities...something like a leader of some thieves guild.  Still pretty flexible though, so could change it up a bit.

The Liminals are also very tempting to me.

An Infernally sort with Dynastic ties is always good out of An-Teng (which sits right in between my two favorite directions).

Night Caste Ideas

Liminal Ideas

[HairyHeretic]

These are my Exalts, all ones I've used before

Kheldaran - Eclipse Caste Solar
 

Background

Peleps Daishan was born and raised a son of the Household of Peleps Kaizoku, and like many of this household, he spent a lot of time learning about, on or near the sea. With his family's status of unofficial Realm pirates, that's to be expected. He doesn't have a great many memories of this time though

Peleps Daishan died at sea. A great storm arose, his ship was separated from the rest of the squadron, damage taken in a battle with Lintha pirates having slowed it to the point it could not outrun the storm. Damaged, and short of crew, the ship was buffeted and battered. Sailors were plucked one by one from the deck by waves that seemed almost sentient.

They were. The storm was not a normal storm, but a hunting party of the Fair Folk, far from their normal waters. Peleps Daishan was one of the last taken. Perhaps that was why he survived, the Fair Folk having sated the worst of their lusts on those already lost. He was not as fortunate, to be killed out of hand. Instead he was taken.

He who was Daishan was now a slave, to be used by the Fair Folk in any way that amused them. They took him to deep, dark, places and changed him there, so he would last longer, amuse them for longer.

He can't recall how long he was amongst them. Months. Perhaps years.

His escape was a shock to many. The hunting party had encountered a group of water spirits and were seeking uncontested passage through their realm. Their slave suddenly addressed one spirit, calling on ancient pacts in the name of who he was before. The spirit saw the reincarnation of one he owed a debt to, and fulfilled his oath. The hunting party were slaughtered, the few survivors fleeing before the spirits.

The once more Exalted Eclipse solemnly thanked his old friend, and acknowledged the debt paid. As a last boon, the spirit took him safely back to the shore, leaving him on a beach with Port Calin a distant blur on the horizon.

Unused to being above water, he was weak and uncoordinated. He was found by a Guild caravan, and having nothing of worth to pay for any help they might give him, they promptly enslaved him once again, shackling him and tossing him in a wagon with others who were to be sold in Nexus. Once he recovered his strength, he taught them the error of their ways. Recovered and now equiped with clothing and equipment that had been Guild property, he set out to explore.

Over time, some memories came back to him, enough to know that his former family would likely want to see him dead. Not only had he not fallen gloriously in battle, he had been taken as a slave, something that would mar the entire family with dishonour, and then worst of all, had exalted as Anathema.

Peleps Daishan died at sea. The man who stood on that muddy trail took the name Kheldaran. It would serve well enough for now, and could always be discarded later, if necessary.

His wandering around the Scavenger Lands found him creating a number of identities, and finding several useful tools along the way. A poorly thought out excursion to the haunted city of Denandsor almost cost him his life, but he escaped it bringing the Nymph Calinara with him, having rescued her from the empty city and its curse. She decided to stay with him, as he usually ended up in such interesting situations, mostly unmanifested and inside of him, but taking her true form around expanses of water that she judged worthy.

Ulric - Full Moon Caste Lunar
 

Background

"You want to know my story? Alright, I'll indulge you, this time. I'm from the north ... a small village, near Whitewall. You'd never have heard of it. We provided food, and some workers, for the mines. Close to the Fell." He paused, eyes unfocused, before continuing. "Marama's Fell. It's a Shadowland. Didn't know a lot about it back then, but I've learned a lot more since. Back when I was a boy, if you were lucky, and good, you could get it, look around some of the old ruins they had in there, maybe find something you could sell in the city. Lots of nasty things in there for the unlucky, or the unwary, and that's before night even falls."

"I was .. thirteen, forteen maybe. Full of my own confidence." He broke off with a chuckle. "In other words a fool. I'd been into the Fell before, never found much though. I heard stories of a new find though, deeper in than we'd ever gone, full of all sorts of things. I figured I could be in, take what I wanted and be back out before anyone was the wiser. I was wrong. I spent the next day ... and night ... running, hiding, fighting when I'd no choice. The following dawn I was backed up against one of those old ruins, a pack of hungry ghosts closing in on me, and armed with a pair of silver tonfa ... what I thought were tonfa ... and resolved to try and sell myself dear."

"Next thing I know, there's a full moon overhead, I'm hearing a voice I'd never heard before telling me all kinds of things, and then I change. I don't know who was more surprised .. me or the ghosts. Well, I tore through half of them, sent the rest scattering, and made my way back out of the Fell. Didn't realise how I looked til I scared some poor traveller half to death. He ran off one way screaming about a giant monster, and I decided I'd best go another."

"I got found a month or two later, brought to the Pack, and taught how things really were."

Wei Xiaobao - Night Caste Solar

Wei himself, dressed up and pretending to be a dynast.

Background

Concept: Gentleman Thief (Gambler, con man, etc)
Brief Background: Wei Xiaobao grew up aboard the Saikal's Maw, the ship of the infamous Pirate Queen Crimson Smile. The only male amongst a ship of women pirates, his upbringing was unusual to say the least. As he grew older, he caught strange glances and heard almost whispers of conversations about his birth, though none would ever speak directly of it.

At the age of ten, his mother took him ashore in Wu Jian, the first time he had ever been off a boat, and abandoned him there. Her only words to him were "I've fulfilled my oath, and the debt is paid. You tell him that, hear me?", and then left without a backward glance.

Wei fell in with a gang of street children, leaning the tricks of their trade, though it was in gambling he found his true calling. Over time he learned the ways of the rich and powerful ... after all, they had more to gamble with, and more to lose.

Wei drew his Second Breath at the end of a high stakes gambling bout, the final players being a Fire aspected Outcaste crimelord of Wu Jian, Wei himself and (so he claims) Plentimon, the God of Gamblers. Stories are still told of the night that mountains of jade were won and lost on the roll of a dice and toss of a card, the power of Emerald Eye Han and the Five-fold Lotus Brotherhood shattered, his closest lieutenants slaughtered and his fortress casino burned to the ground.

Wei's Followers

Left to right, the original members of the gang who stayed with him in Wu Jian after he drew his Second Breath, and managed to survive all that the world could throw at them as they fled the West. Kedo, originally the muscle of the group, and an accomplished wrestler. Tyrara, specialist in second story work and almost as good with a knife as Wei himself was. Orrun, an alchemical dabbler, but one who could come up with interesting smoke bombs, sleeping draughts and other concoctions.



Ten Thousand Opal Sunrises, though she generally goes by Opal. A former dynast house slave, Wei accidentally won her in a game of cards. She proved a font of useful information on the minds and mannerisms of the dynasts, and is the closest thing the group has to a sage.



Azula joined the group after a slight misunderstanding just outside of Thorns. It's a long story, don't ask. She's the outdoors type, and proved her worth whenever the group had to go cross country for any length of time. Wei is fairly sure she's not entirely human. Maybe fae-blooded, or someone in her recent ancestry got a touch of the Wyld in them.



Kafani joined the group in Champoor. Wei stole her from a Guild slave caravan as he felt it would be useful to have someone around who knew something of the region, and could help the others learn how to blend in. Daughter of a merchant who fell on hard times, she's still trying to figure out her role in this odd new environment.

And because his life isn't already complicated enough ...

The Inconsolable Maiden of the Thirteenth Dark Moon



Wei didn't actually mean to disrupt her ritual in Nexus. If he hadn't been running from the horde of cannibalistic wyld tainted mutants in the undercity it would never have happened. And he did at least apologise to the cultist he landed on. And to her.

Of course, given at that moment the mutant horde poured in through the same gap in the ceiling, he had to bid them all a fond farewell. He still remembers that odd look she was giving him though. As if she somehow knew him. And there's still that niggling little feeling in the back of his head that he knows her too. Or used to. Somehow.

She probably didn't really mean it when she said she would find him again.

Probably.

Plot hook I'm thinking is she is the Abyssal incarnation of someone he was involved with during the First Age. Both of them have some inkling of it, but not enough actual memories to figure out what. Enemies to start with, though that's more a matter of form and wounded pride on her part than actual burning desire to string him up by his entrails (though that might change once she gets to know him better ;) ). Possible long term idea would be to somehow win her back to the light .. epic quest time ;)

Isbjorn - Zenith Caste Solar

Background

Isbjorn was born into the Ice Weasel sept of the Mammoth tribe, growing to young manhood amongst one of the harshest enviorments in Creation. As he grew, he drew the attention of one of the tribe's shamans, Hraefn, when he demonstrated that he had the gift of the soul flame, the ability to light and keep a fire going on under any conditions. Over time, he was taught how to read the runes the tribe used to seek knowledge of the future, and how to drive away the unwanted spirits. When his training was far enough advanced, Hraefn presented him to the tribes totem, to seek approval for Isbjorn to become his successor.

He was rejected, the totem instead calling forth another youth, Eirikki. Reluctantly Hraefn bid his former pupil well, and took Eirikki in his place. Isbjorn took this change stoicly, knowing that the choice was for the good of the tribe, and returned to the ranks of the tribes hunters. With his gifts, he was often found in the hunting parties that roamed out from the migrating tribe, and who would seek to destroy any debased outsiders they came across. Within a few years he bore a number of tattoos honouring the victories he had shared in.

Sometimes though, the hunters are themselves hunted.

In his twentieth year, Isbjorn had been part of a far ranging hunting party. They had come across strange tracks in the snow, that did not quite match anything that they were familiar with. A short discussion reckoned it likely some beast of the Fair Folk, ranged far from their normal hunting grounds, and they set off to track and destroy it. The tracks led into a nearby range of hills, where they discovered just where the tracks had come from.

The first they knew of their danger was an avalanche that swept down from an overhanging cliff, burying several members of the party, and spliting the rest in two. From the cliff above dropped the corpse pale figures of a group of hushed ones, the screams of the unfortunate tribesmen who could not escape them rising into the air. Isbjorn and those with him knew there was nothing could be done to aid their kin, the rock and snow sealing the others off, and that as soon as the Hushed Ones had dealt with one group, they would be after them in turn.

The hunters fled through a maze of icy passages, more of their number falling to the traps the Hushed Ones had laid. Resolving to sell themselves dearly, the remaining hunters looked for somewhere they might make a stand. The least poor option was a icy tunnel that led into the hills. Following it back, they found themselves in a frozen cave, heavily encrusted with centuries of ice. The walls sent glittering shards of their torchlight back at them, hinting at something beneath the ice, but refusing to share secrets long emtombed.

The half dozen remaining hunters set themselves, and waited. The first rush of the Hushed Ones ran into something they hadn't counted on, the hunters laying a slick of oil on the floor around the mound of ice that dominated the center of the cave. While the momentary slickness didn't hinder them too greatly, the flames that Isbjorn called were a different matter. True to their name, the Hushed Ones blazed like silent torches til them fell still and silent on the floor of the cave, pale flesh charred black.

It was a trick that would only work once, and the rest waited til they had overwhelming force, then flooded into the cave, determined to overwhelm the hunters. Knowing the stories, that those taken alive would suffer a fate worse than death, the hunters fought with ferocity, determined to force the Hushed Ones to kill them. In the fight, Isbjorn was sent crashing into the central mound by one of the Hushed Ones diving on his. Dazed, the ice shattering under the impact, he felt cold hands around his throat. His strenght was leeched away, and his arms fell to the ground. He thought he felt something wrap around his forearms, and fresh strength blazed through him.

A single golden punch sent the Hushed One flying off him, crashing into the wall perhaps 15 feet from the ground, and Isbjorn rose, light flaring from him, and from the massive bear that blazed behind, above, around him. For a frozen moment every eye was focused on him, and he leaped forwards. Every punch blasted a Hushed One from it's feet, sending them crashing into walls, the ceiling and each other. Those that did not run were struck down, those that did were pursued by a burning juggernaught, implacable and unstopable, and the entire nest was destroyed.

When Isbjorn regained his senses, he was far from the scene of the carnage. While his folk did not share the Immaculate faith, and their feelings about 'anathema', he felt that his place was no longer amongst the tribes. He could almost recall memories of a conversation, as if from a dream, and knew that he had to head Southwards.

His journey took him many places. He saved a village from bandits near Marama's Fell, uniting both villagers and bandits against the unquiet dead. Three days journey North from Whitewall, he saved a young woman, Silk, from a travesty of a trial, ending up with a sworn companion as a result. Crossing paths several times with the Guild in and around Gethamane, the two ended up leaving more swiftly than they had arrived. Rumours of assassins, bounty hunters and a price on their heads are likely somewhat exaggerated. Probably.

For the last month and more the two have been moving more steadily Northwards, Isbjorn being drawn by dreams he cannot fully remember. Passing through Icehome the two, in conjunction with a young Changing Moon Lunar called Kisa, accidentally disrupted a scheme of House Cynis that would have seen a heavy increase in the trade of certain forbidden drugs, and possibly a shift in the political landscape that might have destablised the entire region.

A few days out from Crystal, Silk 'adopted' a small white ferret, waking up on morning to find it had crawled into her blankets at some point the previous night. Much to Isbjorn's surprise, it seems quite taken with her, and her with it. He hasn't told her yet that it's an ice ferret kitten, rather than a fully grown animal, and when mature it will probably be near twice as big as she is. Since he was unable to find any sign of it's family, and leaving it out on the ice might well be a death sentence for the animal, he's raised no objections to her actions.

Who I'll take probably depends on some degree where we end up playing, and what other people want to field. I'm leaning towards Wei though.

[AndyZ]

If we have other folks who want to play a Night, I can see about picking out something else ^_^

[HairyHeretic]

As long as the concepts are fairly different, I don't see having multiple of the same Caste is a huge concern.

[AndyZ]

Good to know ^_^ I do have a couple ideas for Abyssals seeking redemption, but I'm not 100% if Guancyto wants to open things up that far.  I can absolutely understand why not if not.

[HairyHeretic]

That could tie in to Wei's background :)

But we've already had people interested in Infernals and Sidereals, so Abyssals isn't any stranger.

[AndyZ]

If I decide to go that route, I'd be willing to consider a tie-in ^_^ More likely I'd use that concept as a stepping stone in order to write my own concept, though, rather than just taking over your NPC.

[HairyHeretic]

Yeah, no worries :)

[Guancyto]

Interesting submissions so far!

It looks like several of the concepts are assuming we'll be in some sort of urban area (which is a fair assumption to make, mind you) so it's looking like we'll start out in either Wu-Jian (the gateway to the West, a sprawling island metropolis, premier trade hub; the rich parts are dominated by the Realm but it's too big and chaotic to be controlled entirely), or in Nexus (which most Exalted players are familiar with, but for the uninitiated, it's basically the same thing but in the East, plus there's the Totally-Not-Lady-of-Pain which keeps it a neutral city of adventure).

Which would everyone prefer?

[AndyZ]

Never heard of Wu-Jian before, but reading through, they definitely seem pretty similar.  I admit I had Nexus in mind when i wrote up Azure Grace, but the concept could just as easily work for Wu-Jian.

If I went with an Abyssal concept, though, the difference would be important.  Nexus doesn't allow as much open fighting in the streets, and it looks like the Realm has a pretty tight hold on Wu-Jian except for the slums.  Azure Grace works very well in either scenario.

If we went Wu-Jian, I could see interest in a Dusk who is trying to Redeem but has been more or less set up by his/her Deathlord that it's not easy for an Abyssal to hide, and killing lots and lots of people coming after him/her only works to the benefit of Death.  But that also depends on what the other characters are playing.

[HairyHeretic]

Wei would heartily vote for Nexus, mostly because there are all kinds of people looking for his head in Wu Jian (attachment to body optional). Plus there was that ... misunderstanding ... with the Lintha.

Besides which, I think there are a lot more prospects for both random adventure and base building going out from Nexus.

[AndyZ]

So out of all the characters you posted, you're definitely sticking with Wei?

[ShadowFox89]

 Wu-Jen would probably fit Gabrielle best, it's infestation.... I mean, it's large amount of dynasts means she can probably find her target(s) easier than in Nexus, and no Emissary to interfere.

[HairyHeretic]

So out of all the characters you posted, you're definitely sticking with Wei?

Favoring him. I can change to another if need be.

[Premier]

I’d vote for Wu-Jen just for something new. Nexus is a bit done to death for me, my atagoniats will follow me wherever so it’s not tied to a specific city

[HairyHeretic]

Wu Jian could be interesting, but the problem is the West is pretty scarcely populated, both in terms of people and places, compared to other regions. Wu Jian sounds almost like a 40k hive city crossed with the walled city of Kowloon. Outside the city, it's hundreds, if not thousands, of miles to anywhere else.

If it's a matter of going somewhere new, I'd pick the Dreaming Sea region over Wu Jian.

[AndyZ]

I guess the big question there is whether we want to spend a lot of time travelling and leaving the home city.

Granted, if we do, it's just as easy to speed up the game in Narrative Time anyway.

Azure works best staying in a city, but her concept is still in the "little picture" stage.

[Re Z L]

It should be pretty obvious what my choice will be. ;D

Wu Jian gets my vote

[Guancyto]

If I went with an Abyssal concept, though, the difference would be important.  Nexus doesn't allow as much open fighting in the streets, and it looks like the Realm has a pretty tight hold on Wu-Jian except for the slums.  Azure Grace works very well in either scenario.

If we went Wu-Jian, I could see interest in a Dusk who is trying to Redeem but has been more or less set up by his/her Deathlord that it's not easy for an Abyssal to hide, and killing lots and lots of people coming after him/her only works to the benefit of Death.  But that also depends on what the other characters are playing.

Oh! Forgot to address this, wanted to. Abyssals in 3e are... different. The whole 'redeem into a Solar or be doomed to destroy the world forever' aspect is completely gone. They're a little more like Heaven's Reach Abyssals, dark heroes with gothic romance themes and horrifying powers. They are apprenticed to Deathlords and generally aren't particularly nice, but not Literally The Most Evil Thing In Existence any more.

[Re Z L]

Still, a sole Abyssal recognizing that they've become some kind of monster and seeking some kind of redemption is still a fitting trope

The metaphysics of Exalted Shards changing flavor from Abyssal to Solar doesn't seem present anymore, but that's a different sort of redemption in my opinion


PS:  If anyone needs any pictures or names or whatever, here's a little list of resource links:  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=259688.msg12837763#msg12837763

[Premier]

I just nabbed my pic actually!

Piccy

If we're going for a very mixed circle we likely need a common aim. Even if it's as simple as "Uncover the secrets of the city", "Wrest power from the Realm" or just "Punch evil in dick"

[HairyHeretic]

Well, if we're looking to build a power structure of our own, taking over Wu Jian would be a major plot. We could build up to that though, building up goodwill with the regular folk, fighting monsters and renegade gods, saving children from evil cults, that sort of thing.

Going beyond that, I have a couple of personal plots that could easily expand out. One of Wei's followers is actually Seafolk, and has been searching for allies to save her home of Oceanmouth (about a thousand miles from Wu Jian, where the Great Western Ocean meets the White Sea). She hasn't revealed herself to Wei, since she has a thousand years of anti-solar propaganda to overcome, but once she believes she could trust him, and that he'd help, she'd open up.

Helping save a Seafolk community could then lead to further First Age goodies ... knowledge of the lost sunken city of Luthe, and a rough location of where to find it perhaps.

There's also the possibly of high level shenanigans with Realm, the Lintha and the local Deathlord.

[Re Z L]

Wu-Jian is good because it's also the major hub for (almost) any travel between the Blessed Isle and the West

Denzik City Ship probably comes by from time to time too

Internally the island is just about overpopulated, with lots of not-very-nice people taking advantage of non-natives, slums, gangs, guilds aplenty.  Then there's journeying outside the normal city into the Dragon-Blooded areas that are walled off for rescues or thievery or all other kinds of nonsense.

[AndyZ]

Re Z L, are you still looking at Night Caste also?

[Re Z L]

Yup, that is my plan right now

[AndyZ]

Okay, I'll probably drop Azure Grace then.  We don't really need three.

Not really sure what I'll play in her place, but I'll figure something out.

[HairyHeretic]

As long as there's not a huge crossover in concepts, I don't think having multiple of the same caste is a massive issue. Wei is a gambler and a con man, but not much of a fighter (comparatively speaking). If you've read the Lies of Locke Lamora books, he'd fit nicely in there.

[AndyZ]

I might be worrying too much, but I've had games where the characters end up too similar and there just isn't as much for folks to do.

Besides, there are lots of options right now ^_^

Oh! Forgot to address this, wanted to. Abyssals in 3e are... different. The whole 'redeem into a Solar or be doomed to destroy the world forever' aspect is completely gone. They're a little more like Heaven's Reach Abyssals, dark heroes with gothic romance themes and horrifying powers. They are apprenticed to Deathlords and generally aren't particularly nice, but not Literally The Most Evil Thing In Existence any more.

Is there a specific spot that goes into detail here?  I saw the one page in the book and they didn't seem to be all that different from their 2e counterparts.

[HairyHeretic]

The only stuff I've seen on Abyssals is in the core book. I don't think we have much else to go on atm.

[Re Z L]

There was also a little primer on the direction they were planning to go with Abyssals (and infernals)

From what I see the emphasis is more on Abyssals being miniature Deathlords--the Deathlords using them as Apprentices, and putting them on slightly more equal footing.  Something like Palpatine to Vader.

They've also made the intent known that they want to move away from having a large number of Mirror charms, and to make Abyssals much less dependant on the murder-death-kill motif in their charms (in 2E you may recall that EVERY charm tree had some means to kill people in it).

All the old tropes for them are still there as far as I can tell, including renegades who work for their own whims or directly against the wishes of the Deathlords.

The Core Book seems to support all of that still, but who knows how things will shake out when the book is finally released.


More importantly, I think, what I don't see is the idea of Exalted "Shards" so much.  It's been a little while since I've read through the book deeply, but I don't remember there being much of that present.  What that means (to me) is that Abyssals might not be Solars at all--related certainly but not the same.  The consequence of that is that I don't believe that there would ever (normally) be a method to turn an Abyssal into a Solar.  Of course doing the impossible among other things is still a core Exalted thing, but that's still up to the ST.

I still think it's entirely possible that an Abyssal would realize that they've become some kind of monster at some point and search for redemption--whatever that might mean to them.  Be it through trying to use their dark powers to help people (perhaps not in the best ways), or to find a way to fix the mistakes that they've made.

[Premier]

I'm planning to go on a bit of a redemption arc for my Sidereal, so the Abyssals ain't got a monopoly on it!

Possibly. It's also possible she instead decides she just needs to power through and the ends will justify the means, which is probably the darker end to her arc.

[Cessali]

So I've been eyeballing this off and on for the past few days, trying to see if I've got a character I want to put together and/or dust off in a Wu Jian environment, and I finally gelled something together.  Updated for finalized sheet!

Safi Chains-Kami, No Moon Lunar Exalted

image

story

Wu Jian is an old city, built upon its own bones; there are gods and powers-that-be in its depths that have not seen the sun in a thousand years, and many of them are quite content to keep it that way.  Once, Safi was part of an unofficial line of exorcist-shamans living in the city's bowels, training at the feet of her elders and learning from wise, somewhat-helpful spirits in arts that would help keep her extended family safe from predation -- human, or otherwise.  She felt a sense of purpose in this work, savoring the adept's life even with the dangers; she knew she was doing good, and brooked no contest of her growing power.  She knew more than was good for her, and that led her into trouble with some frequency.

But one day, when she beseeched the aid of the gods whom she worshipped, they met her with silence.  She had no warning of her abandonment, or that her elders had chosen her to slake the hungers of an oft-quiescent but tremendously-dangerous raksha that lived within the bowels of the city.  Safi refused to go out quietly, though, and gave the Long Fangs of Abalone a long chase -- obscuring her path and presence with all the occult tricks she knew, turning its hunger into excitement, then turning excitement into annoyance and frustration with traps, tricks, and pain.  Luna must have seen this and been pleased by her struggle, for when Safi thought she had run out of tricks, she found herself radiant with His light -- time enough to wound the Long Fangs and make an escape proper... from the depths of the undercity, and from Wu Jian itself.

That was twenty years ago.  She is older and wiser now, though none of those years are on her face; she has learned much at the feet of Silver Pact mentors, and been turned loose to satisfy her own desires.  First among them is the calling of Home, and so she has returned to Wu Jian -- to learn what secrets the city kept from her in her mortal days, and what secrets it kept from even her wisest mentors.  She has time, now: time, and discretion.

sheet

TALENTS
Occult Savant - To be master of the hidden world, one must know its ins and outs; Safi's hard-earned skill is matched by very few in Wu-Jian.
Savvy Speaker - While few people -like- her, Safi's wry curiosity has a tendency to disarm people against their will and open their hearts to her.
Warrens Vermin - For all the changes in her life since her mortal days, Safi knows and remembers the underside of Wu-Jian like the back of her hand -- not just the wheres and hows of the city, but the whos and the whys, as well.  Increasingly, it knows and remembers her as well.
Apothecary-Alchemist - Many of Safi's eccentric trade secrets are aided and abetted by a practical interest in chemistry; she passes this activity off as an interest in medicines and medicine-making, but she knows much more than this exotic drugs, touchstones, firedust refinement, and even the secrets of the magical materials.

GIFTS
Spirit-Binding Sorceress - Safi is a sorceress of some accomplishment, and her specialty is in spirit-binding.  Ghosts, devils, elementals, if there is a way for a ritual to get its hooks in a spiritual being, then she knows it, and probably even has one of them serving her right now.
Horrible Spider Monster Body - Tuned to the spider's gifts, Safi wields them to delay, sabotage, and hamper: poison , threads of silken essence, preternatural speed, and inhuman agility.  When even these fail her, she invokes her totemic power directly with the Deadly Beastman Transformation.
Shapeshifter Par Excellence - While all Lunar Exalts are capable of shapeshifting, Safi has taken some pleasure in exploring the variety of forms she may steal, use, and abuse, human and otherwise.
Preternatural Sensitivity - See the invisible, hear the inaudible, track that which never touched the ground; Safi employs these tricks and more.

[Premier]

Heck yeah Spider Lunars.


How many you planning on for this Guan?

[Guancyto]

Gonna be looking for 4-6 of any persuasion. If I get eight applications for wannabe noir detectives then I'll roll with wannabe noir detectives, as long as they're distinct enough in personality that you can't trade one for the other then there's not a whole lot of niche protection needed. In particular I don't want to see anybody give up a concept they like just because it's the same caste as someone else's.

Consensus seems to overwhelmingly favor Wu-Jian so that's what we'll do! I'll have more detail on everything in the morning, for now, I'm thinking the opening will be... stopping a wedding.

[ShadowFox89]

 Still a work in progress, would like some input...

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Name: Cathak Gabrielle
Defiler Infernal, Bounty Hunter/"Freelance Troubleshooter", Former Dynast, Not as Dead as Hoped
"Don't call it a comeback"

Personality

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

While Gabrielle was raised a dynast, and hedonism tends to come with the lineage, her grandfather instilled a strong sense of honor and duty into the young woman. She burns with a deep desire for revenge, seeking to bring down those who tried to kill her, who took her life from her, but she has her limits. Bringing innocents into the conflict would tarnish it. She is loyal to her friends and those she considers allies, but will stop at nothing to bring low those who have wronged her. Most often, she would rather be telling jokes, encouraging others to cheer up, and relax.

Background

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Cathak Gabrielle had it all. Money, power, a harem willing to do whatever she desired. But she never exalted, the blood of the dragons seemed to not be within her veins. And as she tried to hold onto the power that she had become used to, there were those who would see her fall. It was on a cruise to the West, what was supposed to be her last bit of freedom before joining the house legion. Assailants attacked the ship, and in the ensuing chaos, explosions shattered the vessel. All hands were thought lost, Gabrielle herself left to drown in the depths of the ocean. But whoever made the attack only half-assed the job, they never confirmed her death, never found her body. Something outside of Fate had plans for her, some force a bit more malicious than even the corrupt dynasts of the Realm.

Gabrielle awoke beneath the waves, in an abandoned First Age facility hidden away since that Age. Confused, cold, barely able to move, Gabrielle could do little but follow along a path. Some doors seemed to open for her, others staying shut. Something seemed to be guiding her, directing her towards.... something. She soon found what that was, a golden staff that seemed to writhe as she approached. As Gabrielle reached out her hand, the staff seemed to leap into her grasp. A door opened after, a hidden gate leading to Malfeas, where she soon found herself brought to where she would spend some time training to hone her new abilities.

That was well over a year ago. After finishing her training in hell, Gabe came to Wu Jian and set up as a bounty hunter and freelance troubleshooter, offering her services (for a modest sum) to those who can afford it and want an "off the books" sorceress. She has begun to garner a bit of a reputation in the city's underworld, though careful not to let slip her true name.

Supernatural Abilities

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Sorcery: Gabrielle spent a bit of time in Malfeas after "dying", and from there learned sorcery from the yozi Kimbery and She Who Lives in Her Name. Gabrielle found a talent for the art, particularly spells that inflict damage and summoning and binding demons to her will.

Teletacles: Gabrielle holds both the Principle of Hierarchy and Kimbery as her patrons. Drawing on both of their abilities, Gabrielle is able to create a mass of nearly-invisible tendrils, almost appearing as the tentacles of a kraken. She uses these both offensively and defensively, preferring to refrain from physically fighting until she truly needs to. While these "teletacles" are not dexterous enough to use to write with, they are more than able to match her own strength. The furthest length they can extend is about three meters and individually each can lift around a hundred pounds.

Unbreakable: Drawing from her connection with Kimbery, Gabrielle is able to regenerate from most any wound, flesh and bone flowing back together as if trying to stab at the sea. Of course, there is a limit to this,
and eventually Gabrielle will begin to succumb to wounds, but until then at the very least she doesn't have to worry about such silly things as "dodging" and can just keep attacking.

Skills

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Combat Acumen: Gabrielle was born a soldier. Her grandfather who raised her, is a general known through the West and Realm. She spent most of her life, when not having extravagant parties, learning how to fight and command. Combined with becoming exalted, Gabrielle's fighting skills are more than a match for any mortal, at least on equal power to most dynasts.

Counter-Assassination: As part of her dynastic and military training, Gabrielle was trained how to detect poisons in food, spot hidden weapons and assailants, and keep a possible target safe.

Panoply:

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Serpent Fang Staff: The Serpent Fang Staff is a weapon from another Age, a treasure held dear by Gabrielle's first age incarnation. A seven-section staff crafted of orichalcum, moonsilver, and starmetal. It is able to shift it's shape, each of the seven sections able to fuse together with the others, extend a blade, or split off and move individually. A powerful weapon, it has been locked away beneath the see for hundreds of years, kept from looters and scavengers until discovered by Gabrielle.

Relations:

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Eyes Like Fire: Though she doesn't know it, Gabrielle owes Fire's action to her current predicament. In her younger years, Gabrielle was betrothed to a dynast from the V'Neef household. It was this betrothal that would set Gabrielle for life, she would not need to worry about losing rank within the Realm or the luxuries she had grown up with. And, contrary to many betrothals within the Realm, the pair actually showed an affection towards each other. Unfortunately, Fate decided otherwise, and Fire intervened. The boy's family was convinced to break off the betrothal. If it were not for the intervention of Heaven, Gabrielle would be living a cushy life as a magistrate's wife.

Cathak Cassiel, also known as the Inferno of the West, Divine Spear of Hesiash, Scourge of Pirates, Cathak Cassiel or grampa Cas as he's known to Gabrielle, Cassiel is a now retired Cathak general and admiral with a long and illustrious carrier, his deeds are known far and wide through the Realm. Of these, his most famous is leading Cathak's small fleet of ships against the pirate scourge known as Vanthan the Black. As the two fleets met in battle, Cassiel charged his ship against the pirate lord's flagship, leading a boarding party personally. In a fight that set ablaze one ship after another, as they moved from ship to ship, Cassiel managed to sink Vanthan's armada. While Vanthan escaped, his threat was eliminated and the Scourge of the West would never regain power. Afterwards, Cassiel was hailed as hero within House Cathak and his legend spread. When Gabrielle's parents passed away, Cassiel adopted her and his sister and raised them as his own.

[AndyZ]

I could keep Azure Grace/Judgment if she's really liked, but I've had bad experience with caste sharing before.  You wouldn't figure it makes as much of a difference, but usually the castes are separated out the way they are for a reason.

There are two other concepts I'm playing with as well.

One is a Twilight named Infinite Sky who has a hidden Manse and constructs various devices.  Being freeform, I can talk through the options, plan out particular artifacts for myself and others, and we can make quests out of getting the necessary materials.  I'd start her with two artifacts already, one being Wings of the Raptor, another is essentially an Essence Pulse Cannon that mostly stays in Elsewhere until she calls it forth, and it envelops her right forearm while in use.  (Think Mega Buster >.>) 

Her story arc would revolve more about making all sorts of things to make Creation a better place through science and invention.  For example, the West has a very hard time with steel (thanks to simple rust), so she might invent (or already have created) a thaumaturgical recipe called sandsteel, which fuses ordinary sand into a rust-proof quasi-translucent substance that's about as hard as steel.  Objects usually get created by forming wet sand into the particular shape (like making sandcastles) and performing the ritual to harden them.

The Abyssal concept is obviously crueler, a character who doesn't actually kill evil people, but tends to mutilate and blind them, leaving them either to commit suicide or live on as testament to the Chivalry of Death.  It's far less of a happy concept and I wouldn't be surprised if you don't want it in the game.

There's a few other minor concepts I have percolating around as well, but wanted to check if either of those sounded like something you'd really want to run for, or absolutely didn't want to run for.

[ShadowFox89]

Except for some minor details, Gabe is ready to go.

[Re Z L]

I'll have mine up later today

Definitely tomorrow   :'(

[Re Z L]

(Still working on it, concept is coming together a little slower than expected)

Lotus
The Shadow That Cuts

Profile

• Hair Color:  Blue-Black
• Eye Color:  Dark Green
• Skin Color:  White
• Height:  5' 6"
• Weight:  135
• Gender:  Female
• Sexual Preference:  Bisexual

Description

She rarely stands out in a crowd unless she wants to.  Her features are plain enough to allow her that luxury.  Perhaps her most noteworthy trait is her long, blue-black hair.  She keeps half of it braided down along its length which helps keep it mostly out of her way.  Her dark eyes are hard to notice distinctly from a distance, but the dark green gives them a hard edge which she sometimes uses to put people on guard or to cut through them with a sharp glance.  Her clothes are generally more utilitarian than anything else.  Sea-worn leathers at times, or more comfortable, loose-fitting clothes dictated by the weather or by whatever task she may have ahead of her.  She is rarely seen without a variety of weapons, a bandolier of knives, and most notably a pair of butterfly swords.

Background

Lotus, or whatever her original name might have been, was originally a native of Wu-Jian.  The city was not the kindest of places for someone to grow up, and her abusive parents were not the ones anyone would have wished to be raised by.  She had an elder brother who was the closest friend (and family) she had, and he helped to protect her when it was time to pass out the discipline.  It didn't necessarily matter what it was about, perhaps they had come home too late, perhaps they didn't do their chores in just the right way, or perhaps their father was just a little too drunk to come up with a reason.  Their mother was complicit in the physical abuse, but favored emotional torment in the form of forcing them to depend on her for things, belittling them, or making them feel unnecessary guilt.  The children were the drug runners for the pair, either buying from the local dealers, or otherwise "procuring" them.  It kept them out of trouble, while making it easy to just blame the children if something had happened.  Most of Lotus's early life went on like this, which left little time for being a child.

Her brother had devised a plan to get her away from the island.  When she was nearly 12 he stowed her away on the Denzik City Ship just before it left the docks.  He had assured her that he was going to go with her, but ultimately stayed behind, either out of some sense of duty to their parents, or to do something else without her there to worry about.  She never really found out what he went back for.  The slow drift of the ship ensured that she wouldn't easily find her way back to Wu-Jian any time soon.

Already used to fending for herself she took to life as a simple beggar and thief for a time in order to get by.  This way of life inevitably brought her to the secretive law enforcement agencies of Denzik: the Martial Arts gangs.  The Steel Devils were the ones that apprehended her--their leader in fact.  Still far too young to really defend herself the leader of the Martial Arts group took her under his wing and helped raise her and trained her to defend herself and help the organization.  It was nice to finally be part of a community--a family--that cared about her and that she could contribute to in a positive way.

Some years later they left the port of Chiaroscuro and began drifting back towards the West.  Wu-Jian was little more than a bad memory to her by then.  The bustle of the floating city was interrupted some weeks after they had left land with a threat.  A group had smuggled extra firedust on board and had, supposedly, rigged a large portion of the City-Ship to explode.  They were holding the whole city ransom.  She'd since gotten used to the idea of having something to protect instead of being the one that needed protecting so she slipped away from the rest of the Steel Devils and began investigating.  Thinking himself invulnerable due to the stranglehold he had on the city, the man responsible did little to try and hide himself so she observed him from a distance, slipping in and out of crowds, eavesdropping, and taking note of his mannerisms.  It became clear to her soon that the threat wasn't as extensive as they were being led to believe, but still enough of one to do extensive damage to Denzik.

She'd always been an excellent pickpocket, fingers more nimble than the greatest street magicians, and more precise than any carnival knife-thrower, and more delicate than the most skillful lovers.  The skill she drew upon was like a rush of excitement and adrenaline she'd not experienced before as she stole handfuls of Firedust and replaced it with sand.  It was simple, really, once you realized that a handful of coins wasn't so different from a handful of sand--it was just a question of size.  She left the "explosives" in place without any sign of meddling day by day until they were all similarly defused.  She hid away most of the reclaimed Firedust and saved a little extra for another task.  Like a whisper she slipped into where the leader of the group was hiding and tampered with his favored smoking pipe and tobacco.  She laced the tobacco with bits of dust and carved out an extra, hidden section in the pipe to store another small amount of the dust.

With a bone-white mask over her face she confronted the leader.  She explained that he was to give himself up and then the authorities might be lenient with him, otherwise he would find no mercy.  Predictably he retrieved his pipe and packed the tobacco into the bowl with a sneer in her direction.  The strike of the match, and the inhaling of the flame through the pipe was enough to set off the explosive power of the dust, releasing a gout of flame into his mouth and over his face.  The masked Lotus disappeared as if she had never been there, fading away into the crowds that had gathered.  The leader's followers went about the business of setting off the now impotent explosives.  When it became clear that whatever threat had existed was gone the rest of the city's police force rounded them up over the next few days.  No one ever knew of Lotus's involvement, and she preferred to keep it that way, though she took to wearing the mask from time to time to use the reputation to help keep the city a little safer.

Her mind had returned to Wu-Jian eventually, which was where Denzik's next scheduled stop was going to be.  While Denzik had helped raise her she decided it was time to finally go home, no longer the scared little girl she once was.  Perhaps she would find her brother, or perhaps she would find something else.  She bid her farewells to her family on the City-Ship and journeyed back into Wu-Jian to find her future.

Character Info

Skills

• Supernal


• Larceny
• Caste


• Stealth
• Socialize
• Dodge
• Awareness
• Favored


• Bureaucracy
• Melee
• Brawl/Martial Arts
• Investigation
• Presence

Intimacies

• Defining - Principle:  We should protect those that can't protect themselves
• Major - Tie:  Family; Principle:  Family can be blood, or they can become blood
• Minor - Principle:  We can be more than our past

Charms

Other Information

[HairyHeretic]

Wei Xiaobao - Night Caste Solar (WIP)

Background

Concept: Gentleman Thief (Gambler, con man, etc)
Brief Background: Wei Xiaobao grew up aboard the Saikal's Maw, the ship of the infamous Pirate Queen Crimson Smile. The only male amongst a ship of women pirates, his upbringing was unusual to say the least. As he grew older, he caught strange glances and heard almost whispers of conversations about his birth, though none would ever speak directly of it.

At the age of ten, his mother took him ashore in Wu Jian, the first time he had ever been off a boat, and abandoned him there. Her only words to him were "I've fulfilled my oath, and the debt is paid. You tell him that, hear me?", and then left without a backward glance.

Wei fell in with a gang of street children, leaning the tricks of their trade, though it was in gambling he found his true calling. Over time he learned the ways of the rich and powerful ... after all, they had more to gamble with, and more to lose.

Wei drew his Second Breath at the end of a high stakes gambling bout, the final players being a Fire aspected Outcaste crimelord of Wu Jian, Wei himself and (so he claims) Plentimon, the God of Gamblers. Stories are still told of the night that mountains of jade were won and lost on the roll of a dice and toss of a card, the power of Emerald Eye Han and the Five-fold Lotus Brotherhood shattered, his closest lieutenants slaughtered and his fortress casino burned to the ground.

Wei's Followers

Left to right, the original members of the gang who stayed with him in Wu Jian after he drew his Second Breath, and managed to survive all that the world could throw at them as they fled the West. Kedo, originally the muscle of the group, and an accomplished wrestler. T'yara, specialist in second story work and almost as good with a knife as Wei himself was. Orrun, an alchemical dabbler, but one who could come up with interesting smoke bombs, sleeping draughts and other concoctions.



Ten Thousand Opal Sunrises, though she generally goes by Opal. A former dynast house slave, Wei accidentally won her in a game of cards. She proved a font of useful information on the minds and mannerisms of the dynasts, and is the closest thing the group has to a sage.



Azula joined the group after a slight misunderstanding just outside of Thorns. It's a long story, don't ask. She's the outdoors type, and proved her worth whenever the group had to go cross country for any length of time. Wei is fairly sure she's not entirely human. Maybe fae-blooded, or someone in her recent ancestry got a touch of the Wyld in them.
Turns out she's actually Seafolk, and has been searching for allies to save her home of Oceanmouth (about a thousand miles from Wu Jian, where the Great Western Ocean meets the White Sea). After spending enough time with the band to be sure of Wei's character, she revealed her true self to him, pledging her service to him if he would save her home.



Kafani joined the group in Champoor. Wei stole her from a Guild slave caravan as he felt it would be useful to have someone around who knew something of the region, and could help the others learn how to blend in. Daughter of a merchant who fell on hard times, she's still trying to figure out her role in this odd new environment.

And because his life isn't already complicated enough ...

The Inconsolable Maiden of the Thirteenth Dark Moon



Wei didn't actually mean to disrupt her ritual in Nexus. If he hadn't been running from the horde of cannibalistic wyld tainted mutants in the undercity it would never have happened. And he did at least apologise to the cultist he landed on. And to her.

Of course, given at that moment the mutant horde poured in through the same gap in the ceiling, he had to bid them all a fond farewell. He still remembers that odd look she was giving him though. As if she somehow knew him. And there's still that niggling little feeling in the back of his head that he knows her too. Or used to. Somehow.

She probably didn't really mean it when she said she would find him again.

Probably.

Plot hook I'm thinking is she is the Abyssal incarnation of someone he was involved with during the First Age. Both of them have some inkling of it, but not enough actual memories to figure out what. Enemies to start with, though that's more a matter of form and wounded pride on her part than actual burning desire to string him up by his entrails (though that might change once she gets to know him better ;) ). Possible long term idea would be to somehow win her back to the light .. epic quest time ;)

Powers and competencies:
Performance
Wei is very good at making it seems like he belongs exactly where he is, whoever he is pretending to be at the time. It's a talent that's proven very useful when running cons on assorted rich and powerful figures. Generally he prefers to have some time to set a cover identity up, but needs must when your neck is on the line and all standing between you and assorted sharp and unpleasant objects was your acting skill. Besides which, ventriloquism is fun

Gambler
Never put up anything against Wei in a game of chance that you're not prepared to lose. Especially when he is dealing the cards. It's a very special deck. He claims it belonged to Plentimon himself, the God of Gamblers. Wei can throw the cards as if they were daggers, and they always appear back in his hand or the deck when he wants them.

Cards special ability

Five Ordeals Odyssey power :
In their travels, sometimes the owner of this deck encounter problems that make further progress seem impossible. Before the scene ends, something happens to remove the obstacle to his travel: a sudden squall blows away the approaching pirates, the desert caravan that has run out of water finds an oasis, a secret tunnel offers a way into the fortress, giant birds nest on the island where he is stranded.

But they (and any companions) have only traded one trouble for another, equally severe but possibly soluble: the squall also blows their ship aground in a dangerous land, the oasis has a Fair Folk mistress who transforms men into beasts, the secret passage is prone to dangerous rock falls, catching a ride on a giant bird takes them to a valley of the giant snakes the birds feed upon. This new threat is locked into destiny, so they cannot use Five Ordeals Odyssey again to attempt another escape and perhaps some lesser danger. The Charm also cannot remove impediments to travel that come from outside fate, such as attacking nephwracks or storms of Wyld energy.

Larceny:
Wei met Coral's gaze evenly as she referred to his 'ill calling', lip curling in amusement. "With one single word you would divine every facet of my being? Truly, you have a dizzying intellect, and insight worthy of Long Tusk, God of Walrus Mating Fights." He gave her a courtly bow, one that would not look out of place in any Dragonblooded palace.

"Unlike these others, I am simply Wei. We untrustworthy types change our names as easily as our clothes, so it takes less time to throw away a short name, you see, and they do not weigh you down as much as a longer one when you have to flee." He heard a muffled snort of amusement from one of the others behind him, and his lips twitched in echo.

"Yes, I have been a thief. It may not be something to take pride in being, but I could take pride in being a very good thief. And swindler, and con artist for that matter. Not a murderer, slaver or drug dealer though, unlike say, The Guild. No, I took only from those who took from the people they ground into the dirt beneath gilded boots." His hand rose and with a flourish a trio of cards fanned out between his fingers. "But this .. this was my passion, and where I excelled." Another flourish and the cards vanished again. "It's much easier to part the rich from some small portion of their wealth when they hand it to you willingly. And even more enjoyable when you can out cheat someone who has made their fortune from cheating others."

"So yes, I stand before you a thief and a liar and a cheat, and no doubt a host of other unflattering terms." His flippant tone changed as he spoke again. "And I stand before you a Chosen of the Unconquered Sun. Knowing all of my faults and flaws, he still selected me to serve him, and graced me with his power. So, unless you feel your judgement superior to his, smile when you call me thief. Because I still will."

Healer:
Somewhat to Wei's surprise, it seems the Unconquered Sun has favoured him with the ability to heal with his powers, both Wei's own wounds and those of others. With enough time, he can bring someone back from any injury short of death.

Sailor:
Growing up in the West, Wei is quite familiar with shipboard operations, stories of the sea, and how to survive out there. Given a previous misunderstanding with the Lintha is what sent him to the mainland in the first place, well, he'd prefer not be back out West, but here he is. Go figure. Oh well, it'll all come back to him in no time.

[Premier]

Eyes Like Fire - Endings Sidereal

Eyes Like Fire was born on the Imperial Isle and would have no doubt grown up to tend the grape plantations of her families Dragonblood Lords but that doesn't really matter much because fate had other ideas. Taken early as a mere baby she was raised in Heaven by the Gods themselves, going through a whole host of Gods focused around child rearing and then taught by the Goddess of Education herself. For the loom said she was to be a was destined to be one of Heaven's chosen and ... well it may have left out a few of the other details or maybe people would have paid a bit more attention to her upbringing.

She'd had years of listening to the Gods subtle hints at the issues with Heaven and she was all ready to finally tackle them when she became an agent of Endings. This did not make her very popular as most Sidereals viewed the Gods more of a frustration to their work than things they should be working to serve. Yet she persisted and as the decades rolled by she didn't waver from this conviction. Unusually for an Endings her talents laid more in social machinations than outright assassination and this eventually lent one bright Elder to shuffle her off into a department no one really wanted to get stuck in. The Bureau of Broken Heart, charged with making sure relationships in Creation ended at the right time, be they romantic, political or even familial. Killing people was easy compared to having to orchestrate personal disaster in people's lives but Eyes Like Fire believed in the mission of Heaven to repair the Loom and took to it with enthusiasm. She's lasted longer in the job than anyone before and actually longer than most of her colleagues full stop, Chosen of Serenity in particular despise her as the hatchet woman for many of their carefully orchestrated marriages. Even if it's all just the whims of fate it's hard to like the woman sent in to undo all your good work.

Of late Eyes Like Fire is starting to grow a little disillusioned that her fellow kin will ever really help the Gods they should serve or fix the loom they safeguard and has begun looking for more radical ways to enact change and if it means Heaven needs to be shaken up to do it so be it. She has yet to cotton onto the irony that the Loyal Heart Assassin has finally aimed her relationship ruining efforts at herself.

Major Abilities

Supernal: Socialize
Eyes Like Fire's true talent is in poisoning the well of social cohesion while sitting in the middle a small pool of untouchable calm as chaos reigns around her. Ruining love, making slaves become masters and turning Taboo into the talk of the town.

Archery:
She likes Archery okay? It's classy and she's really damn good at it.

Investigation:
A hold over from her time being raised by enthusiastic teachers. Eyes likes to know as much as she can as quickly as possible and her pet pattern Spider keeps her fed with the basics, while servants summoned from plants or animals can do the more heavy research work. When all else fails she puts out offerings to the spirits themselves in the hope for a clue, sometimes their advice is even helpful!

Occult:
She's not a Sorcerer, but Eyes Like Fire is 'very' well loved by gods and she tries to know enough to help them in turn. It doesn't hurt that it's led her to learn a fair bit about other kinds of magic and how they touch the world so she can watch for their hand guiding the web of fate off course.

Quiver of Regrets

Usually artifacts are weapons but for Eyes Like Fire it's her Quiver that's enchanted and she uses a regular old bows. It's certainly easier to carry about. Arrows pulled from the Quiver of Regrets don't do any damage when fired but overwhelm their victim instead with despair instead. Armour is useless against the attack, only a strong mind can resist the ensorcelled arrows for any length of time and Eyes Like Fire is used to most guards being thick as bricks.

Wounded Heart Never Heals Style

A Martial Art mostly of her own devising (SHE'S OLD OKAY and the Bureau has some forgotten secrets she's been using), Wounded Heart style is an Archery Martial Art that is based on loss and pain. It gives her great combat advantage of anyone she can rattle or personally wound with her wounds and every blow makes it harder for her opponent to hide their heart from her.

It's about breaking someone's spirit from afar, so neither body has to bear any real wounds. It means she talks a lot in combat and ignoring her is actually not the best way to counter the style, those who refuse to face their wounds only let them fester.

[Rajah]

     

Steel and Soft Paws in the Hero's Adytum
The Black Dog of Wu Jian, Twice-Murdered Courier to the Shadows That Eat Stars

Profile

• Exaltation:  Abyssal
• Caste: Dusk
• Apprenticeship: The Dowager of the Irreverent Vulgate in Unrent Veils
• Concept:  Shepherd of lost sheep and hunter of the West's wolves
• Limit Trigger:  Seeing souls shackle themselves to misery and suffering to escape their fear of death
• Anima Banner: An impression of labyrinthian black hallways limned in bloody reds and sunset purples, stalked by glinting shadows both hungry and lean

Description

A gaunt young man, pale and strange, with the colors of dying evening in his hair and the fading sunlight of dusk radiant in his eyes. His full lips and noble angles are well-matched to the careful wounded dignity he affects at all times, the hard luck princeling with downcast eyes, a mask echoed by his soft voice and the submissive hunch of his shoulders. These things are all costumes, of course; Steel and Soft Paws is a killer of men and gods, a jackal-hearted reaver capable of inhuman savagery at a moment's notice.

Background

Patrician parentage and a life spent as much among pleasure vessels and noble company as the sunlit upper layers of Wu Jian did little to prepare Akare Tag for the tragedy that was to befall him. He doesn't talk much about his death or the destiny it sundered, though it's no secret that Akare Tag was last seen weeping, dragged down into the great sewer-caves of Wu Jian by the exile raksha Song of Frogs. His family mourned his death for two years, all but one uncle and one clever sister, both of whom have disappeared under suspicious circumstances.

Steel and Soft Paws in the Hero's Adytum, as he calls himself now, has not technically left the service of the Deathlords; the Dowager cares little enough for affairs that would draw her attention from her beloved scrying-pool or the games she plays with the Shoat of the Mire, and though the Bodhisattva Anointed by Dark Waters is concerned with his movements - and those of Witch, for the Deathlord desires that vessel greatly -  the Bodhisattva's own affairs have limited efforts to investigate Steel and Soft Paws. Steel and Soft Paws was ostensibly sent to Wu Jian to recover certain secret works of necromancy trafficked there, but in truth the Dowager sends most Deathknights foisted upon her out on one mad quest or another and has little expectation of their success or interest in their progress. So long as they kill and don't bother her, she is content.

Which is fortunate. The Abyssal has had no share of troublesome encounters in Wu Jian, and realized somewhere in the course of them that there were more ways than one to end the suffering he abhors. He hunts pirates and lowlives to keep himself sharp, but his true quarry for the last several years has been the Wyld Hunt - he has twice frustrated efforts to slay a newborn Solar in Wu Jian, and twice claimed the lives of Exalted assassins. Seeing the way the city groans under the weight of its vast corruption, he's also begun aiding efforts to break the reaching fingers of Realm and Guild, though the depth and thoroughness of their influence has proven well beyond his worst initial suspicions. In addition he collects the hopeless, the addicted, the broken and the lost, and these folk he slays gently, ushering them from their circumstances and into eternal existences - or Oblivion, as was once requested.

Character Info

LEGEND

• MAGIC
  
  


• Warrens of a Forbidden Palace: You will never find the truth; each shadow conceals only more shadows. In darkened structures defiled by heartsblood or old caverns made unfriendly to trespass, Steel and Soft Paws can build doors of rust and bone that all lead to the same mysterious oubliette. This place is part of neither Heaven nor Hell, Creation or its Underworld, though its accursed gateways may adjoin it to those locales; it is a chimera-sanctum formed of the forlorn ephemera of slain eidolons - the once-souls of the Neverborn. It has some traits of a shadowland, but its weirded chambers are far hungrier for living Essence, and do not willingly surrender that which is dead. Even in those places that mimic courtyards or pool-gardens open to false sky, there is no passage to Lethe or to Oblivion or anywhere else at all except through its doors, which any skilled witch might force entry through but which are far more difficult to escape. Murdered things of great potential - spirits, raksha, and mortals - are drawn to this dreaming dark, becoming the materials of new construction, spectral flora and fauna, or haunted furnishings and art.
  
  
• Nightmare Hydra Hysteria Spasm: Nightmares cannot be faced; it is their nature to overcome, to divide and swarm the sanity of cornered heroes. Steel and Soft Paws can rip himself apart from the inside, becoming a terrible vampiric monster-thing armored in black iron and bone. In this state he is a most puissant combatant, hideously mobile across several environs, and can create lesser horrors by swallowing sufficient masses of flesh and bone; these strange packmates carry echoes of his dark ferocity, and may follow the Abyssal back to human form if they can find whole corpses to devour and assume.
  
  
• Starving Dog Style: Steel and Soft Paws is an accomplished martial artist, capable of outstanding feats of violence and destruction. These feats transcend even the limits of Exalted skill into the truly supernatural, allowing him to tear free magic and leave gaping spiritual wounds, devastate enemies with a mind-crumbling howl, or lose himself in an insane frenzy of life-swallowing knife-blows.
  

• SKILLS
  
  


• Wanderer of Dread Waters (Survival): A skilled hunter and fisher, Steel and Soft Paws is at peace with the red-reefed oceans around Wu Jian and its fetid underwaters of loch and lichen, a savant of sea-poisons and the predator's arts.
  
  
• Dead Knight's Graces (Socialize):  Etiquette, lies, and a discerning gaze are gifts more precious than gold or bread in Wu Jian, where the multitudes and pressures of survival highlight the worst of human nature far more frequently than its lofty best. Noble-born and made courteous in the service of things too terrible to long contemplate, Steel and Soft Paws might now be counted among the extraordinarily gifted.
  
  

• PANOPLY
  
  


• Little Sister: This curious soulsteel device is sometimes a gauntlet and sometimes a water-spider, empty of ghosts and absent a hearthstone - its back is already socketed with a beautiful pearl of Yasal crystal, caged forever by a delicate starmetal seal, which contains a single Pattern Spider stolen from the Loom as an egg. It can sever its victims from Fate with its future-killing 'bite' (a starmetal knife-fang that extends instantly from the palm) and is deadliest to such victims, destining their wounds to worsen, stumbling them into the path of Steel and Soft Paws, or raising their bodies should their cursed wounds overcome them.
  
  


• Witch: A slender courier-ship built from the wreckage of the Six-Skies Voyage and the corpse of the behemoth remembered as Voyage's End, Witch is a true ghost ship, ephemeral and untethered from almost all the world - save the soulsteel flute that masters it, within which the ghosts of Admiral Yat's harem can be seen to look out mournfully on a world forever lost. Played into the world, Witch soon arrives, along with thick fogs and placid waters. Its prow is an extravagant horror of soulsteel tentacles built to contain the ghost of Voyage's End, forever straining to reach the pale leather sails of its flayed skin, and those whose flesh bears a splinter of the vessel cannot drown within sight of either. All others should beware the waters, for Witch is always on the lookout for fresh bones to maintain its literal skeletal crew, and the touch of its second set of tentacles - spectral and animate, coiling beneath the surface - imparts some of its ephemeral nature: victims' limbs pass through water as if it were smoke, condemning them to drown and rot away until their clean bones can be taken.
  
  

• RESOURCES
  
  


• Teeth Like Rain Falling:  Steel and Soft Paws' cult, led by a pair of his were-horror spawn, focuses mostly on training in the martial arts and amassing wealth by hunting unlucky thieves and pirates. The cult spends a fair portion of this wealth on buying slum properties - as well as slaves, the cheaper and more abused the better: easy converts to fanatic devotion and the mysteries behind Steel and Soft Paws' rust and ivory doors.
  
  
• Kiara Scythefins: An enigmatic Lunar who once gutted Steel and Soft Paws and left him for dead, and once saved his life from the axe of an Abyssal rival stalking the sewers of Wu Jian. He isn't sure what she intends for him in the end, but the bite of their first encounter has never fully healed, and it carries a strange authority among pirates and certain dockmasters.
  
  

[Re Z L]

Basically done!  (Assuming this is still going strong)

Just a couple minor things on the to-do list:  flesh out abilities a bit, just adding a little more description to them but I figured listing supernal/favored would help give an idea of what she's best at.  Going to also throw in a smattering of charms to give the idea of what she can do.

[Guancyto]

SO.

I feel like I should make decisions on who to accept after Thanksgiving, so... let's say next Tuesday (one week) for selections, then a couple of days to build a relationship web, then away we go!

(Incidentally since it was asked and I forgot to answer AndyZ: I like Azure Grace, and to be honest having thought on it I'm a little leery of Abyssals in general just because we don't know much about them.)

[AndyZ]

Having just picked up and skimmed through Arms of the Chosen, I'm not 100% I like how they're doing Artifacts in 3e.  I may or may not make an attempt at translating Infinite Sky, but if Azure Grace is liked, I might just stick with her ^_^

And no worry about being leery on Abyssals ^_^ Thank you for letting me know that so I can avoid them.

[Rajah]

Right here guys.  :-(

So should I take a shot at a more, you know, yellow-y colored character?

[Guancyto]

Not necessarily yellow-y, but I would greatly appreciate something else both for the sake of being team-friendly and also letting me kick the can down the road in terms of hammering out what exactly Abyssals are. Sorry about that, should have said so sooner. (

SO. I promised more detail, like, a week ago.

Wu Jian has been conquered by the Realm long enough that only the very old remember when it was any other way. Their domination is not complete. In the poorer parts of the great City, people live if not well then at least free of the Dragon's yoke. In these teeming hives of humanity, many walled-off from more affluent districts, all manner of iniquity festers away from the prying eyes of the conquerors, and all manner of heroism shines. Ruthless ganglords and two-fisted heroes rule the night. It is, for the most part, vaguely tolerated by the respectable and well-to-do, at least as long as they keep to their side of things.

But of course it's not that simple. When the Dragon feels it has been pricked, there are so many willing to revenge the wound. Whether it's a daring master thief stealing one of the treasures of the Realm or a common laborer that ran off with a shipment of wine, the Realm pays bounty hunters a princely sum to invade the slums and enact what they would deem justice. Many of these bounty hunters come from the slums themselves, for a good enough bounty can promise a better life away from the dens of crime, and who knows the streets better than those who have run it for decades? Often the bounty far exceeds the actual value of the crime - for arrogant Dragons, it is not about justice, but about teaching a lesson.

The latest instance of this is particularly curious. One of the wealthy of Wu-Jian has put out a truly exorbitant bounty on women in the slums possessing naturally silver hair. At first it was dismissed as a trick, but when the notorious hunter and kidnapper Left-Hand Lien returned to the slums to throw around piles of newfound wealth, the poor and desperate took notice. The slums of Wu-Jian are beset by a crisis of distrust, where impromptu parties of hunters tear through their neighbors' houses in search of a silver prize that will be their ticket out of this place. Even those without silver hair travel in groups, for a party of hunters that cannot find what they seek might settle for taking possessions or slaves instead, or for settling old scores. There was always hunger. Now there is terror and blood, as an ever-fractious people turn on each other in earnest.

In such a place, perhaps it would take the chosen of the gods to end the reign of terror. Or perhaps they will be swallowed up by it too...

Into the fray, we have:

Azure Grace, played by AndyZ
Safi Chains-Kami, played by Jarick (pending sheet)
Lotus, played by Re Z L
Wei Xiaobao, played by HairyHeretic
Eyes Like Fire, played by Premier
Cathak Gabrielle, played by Shadowfox89
Rajah, who gets leeway in making a new dude because it's only fair; I decided far too late I didn't want Abyssals

Assuming some amount of natural attrition that actually makes for a pretty generous Exalt party, possibly too big but we'll see! Really if anybody wants to make a new character/aren't satisfied with the one they've got I'm down with it.

The game will go in NC: Exotic-System Small Groups, not because I plan on including that kind of content but because consent gets sort of squirrely/dubious when you get supernaturally convincing people involved and I'd rather be safe than sorry re: classifying the game.

SO! Relationship web! There's no need to directly know everyone, but everyone should have some manner of connection to or mutual acquaintance with at least one other person, whether it's that you both use the same bookie that you see every Saturnday or you happen to both be next-door neighbors to a legendary supervillain or maybe you actually know each other. Wulin style!

(Having an old Sidereal in the cast (especially a true believer in the dictates of Fate) is sort of cheating where relationship webs are concerned because they can have been anywhere doing anything so long as Fate decreed it.)

[AndyZ]

As per the setting (given Guancyto's okay), I'm thinking Judgment has probably killed enough evil people on both sides of the City to claim some strong enemies.  Minor villains and the line will be given commands and left alone if those commands are obeyed, such as telling a cruel slaver to free said slave if there are public beatings going on, and then leaving the slaver alive if they do it.  This warning is only good once, and she's let off a few hunters of silver-haired women that she'll execute if she sees them doing it again on their promise never to do so again, letting them spread the word of warning.

Rapists, murderers, and the like earn themselves death, as well as repeat offenders who already got a warning for something.  Judgment will carry out assassinations when possible to earn some sort of bounty, but a lot of the kills are just public service.

By contrast, Azure Grace is just a kindly urchin who begs for money and will do odd jobs when they're available.  She's one of the first people to run away whenever there's trouble (after which she goes into stealth, circles around to the other side or a better angle, and observes if the aid of a Night is needed).  She'll sometimes spread gossip and tell the stories she's heard about why Judgment killed a particular person.

I'm good with any other PC knowing that Azure Grace is Judgment provided she has a decent reason to trust that person not to reveal her secret identity, ideally with each of our characters knowing the other's Caste.  Otherwise, if someone wants to have met Azure Grace via begging and odd jobs, or knew a rival or enemy who was killed by Judgment, by all means ^_^

[HairyHeretic]

Wei could easily be known to anyone with criminal connections, by reputation if nothing else. He's been out of Wu Jian for a while, probably a year or two, and is recently returned.

[ShadowFox89]

 Well, there's two ways to have a connection to Gabe;

Option 1) Somehow, you knew her back when she was a dynast or know someone connected to her (the easy one for this is her grandfather).

Option 2) More likely, you've run into her in her current business as a bounty hunter/troubleshooter/backroom spellslinger. Either one of her jobs somehow involved your character, or one of her jobs involved someone connected to you such as a contact.

[AndyZ]

Wei could easily be known to anyone with criminal connections, by reputation if nothing else. He's been out of Wu Jian for a while, probably a year or two, and is recently returned.

I remember you said something about people hunting Wei.  Perhaps Judgment was hired out to execute him, but after doing some investigation on him, she couldn't find anything about him that was worthy of death.  (Judgment also refunded the money after refusing the execution.  That's part of every assassination deal with Judgment.)  How does that sound?

Well, there's two ways to have a connection to Gabe;

Option 1) Somehow, you knew her back when she was a dynast or know someone connected to her (the easy one for this is her grandfather).

Option 2) More likely, you've run into her in her current business as a bounty hunter/troubleshooter/backroom spellslinger. Either one of her jobs somehow involved your character, or one of her jobs involved someone connected to you such as a contact.

One possible idea would be that Gabe was hired to hunt down Judgment, but Judgment has already killed one of the evil people that Gabe is hunting, and would be interested in slaying the others.  Alternatively, they might have worked on jobs together, and while it'd have taken some effort for Azure Grace to reveal her true identity, it's entirely feasible.  Or both of these ^_^ What do you think?

[Premier]

Wei could easily be known to anyone with criminal connections, by reputation if nothing else. He's been out of Wu Jian for a while, probably a year or two, and is recently returned.

Perhaps Fire in her Eyes worked with Wei at some point to bring down two gangs that had merged? She so she can keep a balance of power where it needs to be and Wei because that'd just be bad news for them.

[HairyHeretic]

I remember you said something about people hunting Wei.  Perhaps Judgment was hired out to execute him, but after doing some investigation on him, she couldn't find anything about him that was worthy of death.  (Judgment also refunded the money after refusing the execution.  That's part of every assassination deal with Judgment.)  How does that sound?

Wei's criminal activity tends to focus heavily on long cons on the rich and powerful, so an annoyed victim could easily have hired someone to quietly find and punish Wei and his gang (emphasis on the quiet, as he doesn't want notice of his being conned to get out). He prefers not to see anyone hurt or killed, if he can help it.

Would that fit with Judgement's way of doing things?

Perhaps Fire in her Eyes worked with Wei at some point to bring down two gangs that had merged? She so she can keep a balance of power where it needs to be and Wei because that'd just be bad news for them.

Wei tends to be relatively hands off when it comes to other criminals ... professional courtesy and all that. He's not big on things like slavery or drugs though, and wouldn't object strongly to removing gangs that were heavily focused on those (particularly if they're being backed by powerful interests). Rather than fighting them directly though he'd probably try and arrange matters to that they fought each other to destruction, subtly aiding each side to keep a balance as they destroyed each other.

[Premier]

Wei tends to be relatively hands off when it comes to other criminals ... professional courtesy and all that. He's not big on things like slavery or drugs though, and wouldn't object strongly to removing gangs that were heavily focused on those (particularly if they're being backed by powerful interests). Rather than fighting them directly though he'd probably try and arrange matters to that they fought each other to destruction, subtly aiding each side to keep a balance as they destroyed each other.

This is more Fires speed too! She's more of a social assassin than a literal one. Though sometimes someone does need a good arrowing.

Maybe she provided contacts and a little money and Wei provided the background local knowledge that she was lacking. They made a good team! Then once the job was done she just up and disappeared as did all her previously unquestionable history in the area. Weiiiird.

[HairyHeretic]

Given the amount of fake identities Wei has used and discarded over the years, having someone else 'disappear' after a job is done is quite normal from his perspective.

[Cessali]

Updated the sheet (as it were) with competencies and gifts!  I'll give it another pass to hammer out some Burning Wheel-style Intimacies later on.

For connections, two that leap out at me:

Safi would be interested in sorcerers as part of Good Practice, which means that when (as opposed to if) she gets word of Gabrielle's own activity, she will want to have had a conversation where they can suss one another out -- anything from the occasional alliance of convenience to even something as simple as a non-aggression pact.

Eyes Like Fire's connections to the gods would give her reason to know Safi, on account of Safi intending to be a major player in the spiritual underbelly of Wu Jian; Safi may be aware that Eyes exists, notionally at least, depending on how active Eyes's own meddling happens to be.

[Re Z L]

I left Lotus's timeline relatively vague, she could have been in Wu-Jian for a while now.  Mostly she'll probably be keeping to herself while trying to enforce some kind of rule of law in the slums.

Her "hook" into the adventure will probably be trying to help keep the Silver-Haired girls hidden away, either by hiding them herself or confronting would-be hunters.

She'll likely frequent various bars/pawn shops/less friendly places to maintain contacts amongst the less vicious of criminals.  It's possible she might run into people that way.

[HairyHeretic]

Hey Andy, you good with both of us playing Night caste then? I can switch to another character if you think it might cause issues.

[AndyZ]

We'll give it a shot ^_^ Hopefully it won't be a big deal.

[HairyHeretic]

Looking over the characters, I may shift to Isbjorn anyway. It looks like we have enough nefarious types around as it is :)

Besides, it'd be fun to carry on like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCw_aAS7vWI

though since we are going freeform, I did always want to work up an Exalted gunkata type, though with essence projection weaponry rather than firedust. Those bracers might fit the bill, and would combine well with a brawl focus.

Hmm ....

[Guancyto]

I will mention that having a whole pile of sneaks, thieves and ne'er-do-wells is something I'm super okay with. It means that the majority of problems to be solved can and will be resolved sneakily (in fact, sneaking only gets more effective as a strategy the more people can do it).

In fact the biggest problem with it is that there's one member that's not a sneak, thief or... well she's definitely a ne'er-do-well. Gabrielle doesn't mind being a big, flashy distraction, right? I guess Yang But A Man And With Laser Fists could also fit the bill, admittedly.

[HairyHeretic]

Having multiple options on how to handle things is always useful though.

Also, Heaven's Thunder Hammer looks too much fun not to use ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnDTU362bmY

[ShadowFox89]

I will mention that having a whole pile of sneaks, thieves and ne'er-do-wells is something I'm super okay with. It means that the majority of problems to be solved can and will be resolved sneakily (in fact, sneaking only gets more effective as a strategy the more people can do it).

In fact the biggest problem with it is that there's one member that's not a sneak, thief or... well she's definitely a ne'er-do-well. Gabrielle doesn't mind being a big, flashy distraction, right? I guess Yang But A Man And With Laser Fists could also fit the bill, admittedly.

Man, you know that's what I play best. Big, loud distraction that takes hits and causes lots of chaos.

I will confirm, Heaven Thunder Hammer is one of the best martial arts charms. When you need to beat a motherfucker by punching him into another motherfucker.

[HairyHeretic]

A Scion game I played years ago, I ended up beating a Minotaur down with another Minotaur  ;D

Technically the weapon the Minotaur was holding was doing the damage, but I was wielding the Minotaur, so it counts ;)

[ShadowFox89]

 Would anyone be interested in doing some pre-game scenes to get character relationships established? Some quick, one to two scene stuff where we can nail down character quirks and how they interact.

[HairyHeretic]

Sure, but I need to sort out a revised character sheet first, so to speak.

[Guancyto]

Wanted to note something about Wu-Jian and the 'plot,' such as it is.

An outsider would assume that specifically targeting silver-haired women wouldn't actually be a huge deal, even if the price were exorbitant. There really aren't many such people! But that would be missing a huge element.

That element being Grandmas.

One of the most stabilizing factors in the poor sectors of Wu-Jian is Grandmas. Dad and Uncle might be rotting in a prison or dead somewhere, but Grandma is there to look after the teahouse and keep the kiddos in line. Mom and Cousin might enjoy the same respect from kiddos as the dogs on the street, but you ignore Grandma at your peril. It's not a formal arrangement like the Tengese or Realm Matriarchs but they are, in very practical terms, the rock on which Jian society is based.

(And since this is a wuxia movie about a downtrodden people, badass old ladies are basically standard; they are landladies and ganglords as well.)

Yes, the bounty is for naturally silver hair, but when seventy years old you reach, who will remember what color your hair was? Your own social circle, yes, but certainly not a bunch of punk-ass kids looking for a way out of Wu-Jian. And if you're powerful people will be more hesitant to try and take you on, but at the same time the powerful always have enemies, and suddenly it gets really easy to recruit for a war against you because everybody's figuring on getting rich if you fall.

Won't somebody save the Grandmas?

[Premier]

As a kind of Grandmother (Don't ask about her family tree you'll be there all day), Fires is totally down for saving the badass Grannies.

[AndyZ]

Gonna admit I didn't think of the grandmas, but I'm sure Judgment has saved a few.

Maybe one of them baked Judgment a pie as a reward.

[HairyHeretic]

Id just like to draw everyone's attention to Sir PTerry's Rule 1

"Do not act incautiously when confronting little bald wrinkly smiling men!"

Also applies to little old ladies too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5lanjFi6qo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbRfv4YksK0

[Guancyto]

OOC thread is up!

IC thread is not yet because we still got some things to hash out! It will be posted either when I get impatient (and then people can join in a timeframe that suits them) or when everyone's good to go.

Probably the former if I'm even the slightest bit honest.