Recruitment for PBP Exalted 3rd Solar game

[Balancer12]

Still working on the setting post and character creation guidelines but I'll say this now so everyone is on the same page:
-Sorry Arfan but I'm not comfortable with child age PC's, you must be this tall to ride the exalt train (18+ please)
-On the topic of Artifacts, I don't mind you starting the game with them (As long as they've been brought properly and make sense with the backstory) but the kingdom where this is set has a history of being littered with first age vaults. So if you can bear to wait on that Daiklaive I would suggest spending the points elsewhere, not a hard and fast rule and it's ultimately up to you.
-Sorry to BunniRabit but I also don't allow amnesiacs at my games, this is more for practical reasons. Not to say you would do this but too often I've seen amnesia be used as a scapegoat for lack of backstory/characterization that leaves me without good hooks or you with few defined intimacies.

Basic info:
The Kingdom of Veoletall is located in the South East on the shores of the Dreaming Sea, littered with the legacy of the first age and caught in the vice grip of the Realm for it bounty of Jade and raw materials. Historically it has had a pair dragonblood rulers for the past 200 years but they were both killed by an Anathema leading a band of beastmen, their eldest daughter (a mortal) sits on the throne but is widely ignored.

The Realm maintains a strong presence in the region, and the Immaculate Faith is heavily embedded in the area. In the first age a Blasphemous Tyrant ruled over the land, broken temples to his evil faith still litter the kingdom today. According to folklore the Tyrant was killed on the steps of the Dawnbreak temple, the only temple from that time still standing it sits in the Capital of Solius gilded in Orichalcum that defies all attempts to harm it. The Immaculate Monks since have purified the temple to the true faith, destroying the Tyrant's foul idols and some even claim they liberated a portal to the heavens deep in the Tempel's bowels.

The Dreaming sea has always delivered a bounty of fish that the local villages rely on for food, however the catches lately are greatly spoiled by Wyld mutants and glass ships can be seem ominously on the horizon at dusk with some villages disappearing entirely.

[BunniRabbi]

Sorry to BunniRabit but I also don't allow amnesiacs at my games,

I've been of the same mindset, off-and-on. I don't mind making that change.

both killed by an Anathema

Ah, would it be alright if my character was the widow of the one who doesn't have their daughter on the throne? Particularly if they hadn't been married long?

Since it's on a coast line, are we likely to have the plot taking us out on the sea?

-Sorry Arfan but I'm not comfortable with child age PC's

Are you tied to having the character being that young Arfan? Your story sounds like loosing her twin could have been done later in life. Current time could be a year or so after that, perhaps with the character just passing the 18 year mark. You'd probably still look identical or nearly so.

[Balancer12]

Ah, would it be alright if my character was the widow of the one who doesn't have their daughter on the throne? Particularly if they hadn't been married long?

Not sure I follow? The King and Queen were married so I don't see how you could be a widow? You could certainly be a royal niece/nephew to the current Queen in one of the major noble houses.

Since it's on a coast line, are we likely to have the plot taking us out on the sea.

It can but won't be the main focus, I would advise against heavily investing in it

[Aranfan]

Aranfan, not Arfan.

Let me work up Shining Topaz, the princess of a kindom Prasad destroyed because the king wouldn't disown her after she exalted.

[Balancer12]

Aranfan, not Arfan.

Let me work up Shining Topaz, the princess of a kindom Prasad destroyed because the king wouldn't disown her after she exalted.

Ah, sorry about that.

[BunniRabbi]

The King and Queen were married so ...//

Oh, pfft. I don't know why, but for some reason when you said a pair of rulers I thought of it as two rulers who each had a spouse. The idea I'm working from with this character is that she was inserted into a noble house artificially as part of her fae master's schemes, but he died and she regained control of herself. Thus she's not really in a place to reveal herself without letting it be known that the physical marks that make her seem to have high breeding are actually mutations (shaped by the Rakasha specifically to let her pass). If she's a legitimate member of the royal family it takes away from the precarious nature of her position, so I'm looking for a more illegitimate connection. I was thinking she had married-in somewhere, perhaps to an ailing family member who was expected not to live that long.

Speaking of Prasad, am I right in thinking Veoletall is a separate satrapy from the Prasad empire, not part of? It sounds like they're neighbors. Also, since they had a king and queen it makes me think that they'd use western titles of nobility, like Count and Baron. Is that right? Sorry if I'm bugging you with too many questions.

[Balancer12]

Veoletall is close to Prasad but the Realm maintains a tenacious grip on it as does the Immaculate Faith, tenisons are always high though and skirmishes are not unheard off. The do use western titles, a relic from the first age.

As for being a fey sculpted infiltrator I'm seeing alot of ambiguity in your character concept, just how a solar gets kidnapped by the Fae, mind whammed into thinking they are a fey and set free seems, contrived honestly. To be fair I can see you being taken and escaping with wyld mutations that compel you to certain actions, but for me being a totally brainwashed solar manipulated by the rakasha is antithetical to the ideas of the solar exalted. Personally I would advise you to look at something like Changeling:The Lost for inspiration if you want a fey taken character. A solar who survives the manipulations of the Rakasha and escapes the wyld through her own excellence to return to a creation they don't know if they understand or fit in with anymore makes a more compelling character than a brainwashed dupe.

[Aranfan]

The realm and the dreaming sea are so far away that Prasad is almost entirely autonomous. How does the realm have a grip on it at all if its not via Prasad?

[Balancer12]

A web of diplomatic dealings and bargains with Prasad plus a sizeable military presence kept there specifically at the request of the Scarlet Empress. Since her disappearance there has been mounting pressure from the realm to cut the satrapy loose as it's proving to be a mounting liability however with the civil war on the horizon no ones willing to expend the political capital to push it. Prasad receives a hefty kickback of loot from the tribute ships in accordance with their treaties, enough that many younger Dynasts gripe that the ships barely (By the standards of the Great Houses) justify their presence.

As for why the Scarlet Empress would seemingly go to the effort for so little reward...

Well, that's for you to discover isn't it.

[BunniRabbi]

being a totally brainwashed solar manipulated by the rakasha is antithetical to the ideas of the solar exalted..

That's kinda the idea. She was a mortal when she was taken and changed. Her exaltation was what broke the mind control.

Personally I would advise you to look at something like Changeling:The Lost for inspiration if you want a fey taken character.

I run Changeling twice a week, one session as part of an educational supplement for a high school psych program through Americorps, and the other as part of my ministry, as an exploration on the subject of pastoral care, so I've actually done a fair bit of writing on the themes of that game. I think you and I might have a very different point of view about what Changeling is about, such that I think I might want to avoid playing a character with a connection to the Fair Folk. I think it might produce argument.

[Balancer12]

That's kinda the idea. She was a mortal when she was taken and changed. Her exaltation was what broke the mind control.


I run Changeling twice a week, one session as part of an educational supplement for a high school psych program through Americorps, and the other as part of my ministry, as an exploration on the subject of pastoral care, so I've actually done a fair bit of writing on the themes of that game. I think you and I might have a very different point of view about what Changeling is about, such that I think I might want to avoid playing a character with a connection to the Fair Folk. I think it might produce argument.

I agree, though I would be very interested to discuss your interpretation of Changeling in a more neutral setting as it seems you would have some interesting ideas. I apologize if I was too harsh in my criticism.

[BunniRabbi]

Rereading my last post, I think I may have been a bit too touchy. That being said, I reworked the character concept into something that allowed for what feels like a more satisfying result:

Perspicacious Coney was taught to read and write young, so as to help out with the family textile business. She excelled at reading, and devoured every book she could. That was the start of her wanting more from life; she had read about so much more than actual life had shown her. As she grew she came to realize that being the seventh child meant there wouldn't be much of an inheritance for her, especially since her oldest sister would be the executor of the estate, and they never got along. This and a desire for adventure was enough of an excuse to go abroad looking to find her fortune, and to do so too young and too optimistic.

While waiting to find that fortune she held a number of odd jobs, before finding work transcribing documents for the Blackdeer Academy. This was heaven for her. She was already used to tuning out the bustle of a crowded space to read, and she was being paid to read now, so long as she also wrote down everything she read. She buried herself in her work, but still managed to meet a lot of the rest of the staff and have time to chat. The books' subject matter was typically history, theology and philosophy, and this inspired a lot of deep conversations. She came to feel like the rest of the staff where her family.

She was so engrossed, it took her a full year to start to wonder why she never met any students, and before she began to notice the slant in the texts; They broadly implied that all the problems in Creation came down to the usurpation of the Primordials. One could easily infer that the way to fix things was to put the Primordials back in charge.

It was another year before she was introduced to her circumspect employer, the neomah Arandoti, or before she began to understand that Blackdeer Academy might more rightly be called The Cult of the Black Deer. At that point, she was of the mindset that this wasn't such a bad thing.

Arandoti trained her to insinuate herself into groups, to turn people's attention toward her, and to practice the Black Claw style. She was flattered by the direct attention, and, at first, didn't really consider the implications of Arandoti's plans to send her and others like her into the world, to plant the seeds of 'Primordial Liberation'. Too quickly it became about impressing the demon, and then outdoing the other students. Coney didn't really notice she had fallen in love.

She did out do her rivals, and before long she was assumed to be Arandoti's second in command. That wasn't enough though, as she fought to be Arandoti's equal. In delving into the Academy's books she sought flaws, looking for ways to improve them and win the neomah's respect and affection. It was that which led
her to begin to see the inaccuracies, and to finally realize the trap she had been led into.

This epiphany spurred her Exaltation. Blazing like a bonfire, she challenged her master to defend their thesis, their position on the Primordials. Realizing that they faced a Lawgiver, and fearful of death, Arandoti threw the debate and praised the wisdom of the nascent solar. Perspicacious Coney now claims the leadership of the cult, even though she expects treachery from the demon. At the same time she contemplates how to bend the cult from thoughtless worship of the Yozis to a more nuanced perspective. She believes the demons flawed, but not entirely without merit, and expects the same from virtually everyone. Everyone is flawed and everyone is useful. She now seeks to reform the society around her, to raise peoples' standard of living and quality of life, though her methods are only a step or two more moral than her predecessor.

[Exthalion]

[Removed, posted in wrong thread]