Systematic Understanding of Everything podcast

[Darkfoxdev]

I wasn't as big on this one, the 2e focus and in-jokes made it a lot less applicable to the current edition, I'm going to be recommending this to my players when the Essence manuscript drops, and I'm uncertain that this one does a good job communicating the idea of sidereals, as opposed to their design history. I'd prefer a lot less focus on the weird tangents 2e went off on that aren't as relevant now since they'll communicate the wrong idea to my players.

[TheCountAlucard]

I'd prefer a lot less focus on the weird tangents 2e went off on that aren't as relevant now since they'll communicate the wrong idea to my players.

It’s the same reason I don’t recommend the TVTropes or 1d4chan pages for Exalted as player resources. :-/

[Chausse]

You're starting to scare me people I still haven't watched it yet

[Darkfoxdev]

You're starting to scare me people I still haven't watched it yet

It's not as bad as what you're thinking I'm sure, it just went off on some tangents about how the Sidereals, Chejob Kejak and the Games of Divinity were portrayed in the last edition, and in some slightly meme-y ways you'd get from people excited to talk about the neat things they just read, there was an excitement to this episode that came from Terry who normally acts as the audience surrogate for those who aren't familiar with the game instead having just read the splatbook and being really hyped on it. It was a fun discussion, and it did provide a good overview of the Sidereals and their story themes but it went a little off the rails at points and in a way I'd worry doesn't quite fit the 'Exalted for newbies' approach the podcast has had.

[ElfSpeaker]

Thank you all for the feedback. This one was a bit off our usual offering for a couple of reasons. It's the first time we don't have 3rd edition material as a guidepost and also the one where Terry has a much deeper familiarity with the previous material. The next couple episodes take a step back from the 2e details once again with a little more conjecture about how things will be portrayed going forward and bits from Essence.

[Uknown DarkLord]

https://www.exaltcast.com/2020/08/24...the-sidereals/
Ha ha! I remembered the link this time. We learn the origins of the Exalted, the true nature of the Games of Divinity, Terry goes off-script, and even get a small spoiler for ExEss.

Confusion about the discussion about Sidereal exaltations. While exaltation is determined by fate; in 2E mortals fated to exalt into Sidereals did not have that exaltation, or a portion of it, with them since birth. The Sidereals books talk about how sometimes sidereals will train their own replacements.

It also ties into the discussion on how it can take 18 years or more to get a new sidereal. Which if a sidereal dies unexpectedly with no mortal designated as their replacement, then sure. But it isn't always the case.

I don't know if 3E changed any of this.

[Gonzo]

I'm enjoying the podcast, but after listening to the Lunars episode, I gotta say that:

Hummingbirds were not associated with war by the Mayans. It was the Aztec whose war god Huitzilopochtli is depicted as a hummingbird. I'm not sure why there's so much confusion about these two groups. It's like confusing Sparta with Athens or something like that.

[ElfSpeaker]

I'm enjoying the podcast, but after listening to the Lunars episode, I gotta say that:

Hummingbirds were not associated with war by the Mayans. It was the Aztec whose war god Huitzilopochtli is depicted as a hummingbird. I'm not sure why there's so much confusion about these two groups. It's like confusing Sparta with Athens or something like that.

Woops! I should have caught that. Thank you for the correction.

[ElfSpeaker]

We have the latest episode of the Systematic Understanding of Everything out now. Gasp of Dead Gods covers the Abyssal Exalted, Lawgivers of Death: https://www.exaltcast.com/2020/09/07...gods-abyssals/

[Greyman]

Now the latest episode of the Systematic Understanding of Everything is Inner Devil Unchained - Infernals covering the Punk Rock Stars of Malfeas: https://www.exaltcast.com/2020/09/21...ned-infernals/.

[Blaque]

I still hold the only reason the Yozis were focosued on as thwere in 2e is they were the ones that were shown as examples in Games of Divinity and they wanted to "make sure they got covered again" before moving to anyone else. ANd as such were made more important.

Also, their Caste-associations in 2e were solely dictated along the lines that that's the ordr they showed-up in Games of Divinity.

[ElfSpeaker]

I'm not sure if it came acrsoss in the episode, but I'm excited to see how the Infernals evolve in 3e.

[ElfSpeaker]

In the latest episode, Exalted developer and writer Neall Raemonn Price joins the usual crew to share his expertise about the Alchemicals and reveal a few details about new stuff for Alchemicals: https://anchor.fm/exaltcast/episodes...emicals-ekjp63

[Blaque]

Neall added a fun bit of energy and things to this. His enthusiasm helped there I think and his additon to explaining things pretty concisely was a great add there. Though the references at the start was pretty awesome. Good work.

[BrilliantRain]

So....Alchemicals are my favorite Exalt type. And I enjoyed the episode and I really, really appreciate the minor Essence spoilers.

That said, I would like to note a couple of things.

On creating Alchemicals:

Every Exalt is, to some extent, Captain America, in the sense that they are heroes given the power to truly realize their heroism. However, Alchemicals feel like the truest expression of this theme. They were ...people, doing good things, heroism both low key and significant, the kind of people you can find by putting "real life heroism" into google. People who demonstrably had the soul of a Hero and who would go on to do great things in this life, regardless of where they ended up.

But, instead of giving them a human body, they were granted a body made of divine engineering and miraculous materials. A Body that was truly fit for their Heroic Soul.

Let's hope the miracle can keep up.


On the Great Curse and Clarity:

So, I want to preface this by saying that I know the Count of Words is a huge jerk and that, to properly do justice to every Exalt type would end up making Essence longer than the 3e Core. Which...yeah. Ok. I get it.

However, I do feel like there is a fundamental difference between Clarity and the Great Curse that is worth considering going forward with the game line and I wanted to at least note it.

So, The Great Curse is, fundamentally, something that is Wrong with the Exalted. It is an outside effect that has broken them to some degree. It is something you could theoretically go on an epic quest to go fix (and I expect a lot of new Exalt players go and do that. At least, I know that was part of the plot of my first game).

Clarity, on the other hand, is a fundamental part of being an Alchemical. It is Working as Intended. Trying to fix it would be like trying to fix a Solar who bought too many Integrity and Socialize charms. It's a side effect of a human mind coming into contact with a Divinely Inhuman one and no longer conforming to what humans think of as normal.

If Alchemicals do have an equivalent of the Great Curse in this respect, I'd say it was Gremlin Syndrome, in that it's a creeping infection imposed from outside. Of course, you don't want to make every Alchemical a Gremlin either, so that's not really an option. (and one could argue that Gremlin Syndrome is also inherent to Alchemicals, as it also represents something inherent to Autochthon: his looming mortality)

And, yes, mechanically, Clarity is the "hey wait some part of being an Exalt has to suck" feature for Alchemicals and most of the time it's basically going to get treated the same as the Great Curse. But it does have a couple of points where it's fundamentally different and I really hope those aren't forgotten. Or that a choice is made to fundamentally change what Clarity IS and is continued on down the line.