Your Headcanon

[Baaldam]

"People of the Air" were not mortals but a confederation of air elementals aligned with but independent from the Deliberative, formed in a nebulous period of the dawn of humanity, sometime between the Divine Revolution and the Niobraran War. Tales about the inhabitants of their aerial citadels and palaces as the "creations of the exalted" are the result of solar hyperbole and misinterpretation of diplomatic/social treatises between both parts, related to the "adoption" of young sorcerously-created air elementals just released from service in as citizens of the People of the Air, to be accepted on a probationary period.

The conflicts of the Usurpation, the Xogunate that followed it, along with the tensions of the Rain Wars between Air and Water courts would lead to the eventual shattering of their civilization, of which the hedonistic palaces of the Cloud People, the belligerent fraternities of nomadic thunderbirds and mysterious empty citadels floating amidst the stormy skies or the highest fog-shrouded mountains are some of the most long-lasting remnants.

(Did that because the People of Air as just some people with Solar-given mutations felt, imho, wrong and too small fry for a group who got one or two vignettes dedicated to them in the Dreams of the First Age sections in the Castebooks. Remaking them as an empire of elementals was my way to (re)dial up the sense of wonder)

The Deliberative experimented with creating water-breathing people to serve to occupy the territory of the fallen Niobraran League and hunt its remnants, but the results proved far from practical, proving too costly to develop in relation to more temporary but versatile options. The fact a number of the few successful created beings would be coopted by a number of benthic powers of varied origin pretty much sealed the fate of project "People of the Sea", relegating exploration & use of the seabed to the strategic use of sorcery, thaumaturgy & minor artifacts among other tools.

(By the same principle, i'm doing away with "People of [Element]" that came later out of little beyond a misguided sense of simmetry. The People of Sea i kind of cited above as a sort of backhanded answer to the whole "pelagothrope or not pelagothrope" conundrum of 2e. They were made, but things fell apart and the few successes were suborned/went rogue and would in time become the seed from which pelagothropes, or at least some groups of them, would spawn and spread)

Just to be clear, while in general i dislike the background we were given for them in 2e am not against the idea of solar created races per se. I just prefer more specificity and detail, preferably evocative one, that may inspire me images to expand or improvise from on the spur of the moment, over banal detail and bland generality of artificial simmetry.

Less numerous, more localized groups, possibly the vanity project/experiment of a clique of sorcerers, a circle or just one individual exalt with peculiar ambitions/aesthetics/obsessions, helps to make things more colorful and rich overall.

I am kind of tempted to mess with the "thrown in with the Jadeborn and their endless war" angle of the People of the Earth, possibly respinning them from that on the get go, more like a penal colony/batallion of convicts thrown into the meat grinder of the Darkbrood in exchange for freeing more jadeborn troops and such, with obviously far from ideal results in troop quality, morale and other issues one might expect from that.

[Frostav]

The God-Blooded children of Celestial Exalts (I have been told the 2e term is capital-P Problematic) can exalt as any Exalted type, not just the one of their parents. I'm actually not sure if the Grandchosen of the Gods even exist in 3e, but I don't see why not, the base concept is fine.

When adding something to the setting, I generally have two questions: first is "does this break the setting in ways that aren't conducive to the themes of Exalted". And I don't think this does. These characters are a minor part of the setting. Second is "does this allow for interesting, intriguing, or novel character conceps and stories?" And I absolutely think it does. Just spitballing here:

-A Solar who has managed to escape with her life and evade the Wyld Hunt has finally gotten a tiny sliver of peace, and sired a child. 10 years after she is born, Sidereals appear at her doorstep: her child is destined to be a Vizier, and the Bronze Faction has already used their mission to get the child to call the Wyld Hunt onto our Solar here. Do the Sidereals get the child and raise them to hunt her mother and all Solars, or will she escape and find herself with a Ronin daughter? (Alternatively...said child is destined to kill her own mother on behalf of the Bronze Faction)

-A son of an Abyssal has been raised in shadowlands all his life and pledged his services to the Deathlords--but Oblivion only runs partially in his veins, and he begs for a way to reconcile his humanity with his masters' genocidal vision. One day he runs off and finds himself in an old temple, despairing--yet when he is about to lose all hope, he feels that there must be some way out of this, some kind of life that isn't nothing but servitude to death. His anima flares and the Unconquered Sun rings in his head: his father may have been a corrupted Solar, but he is now the real deal, and he will be the greatest prophet of Sol Invictus there ever was, spreading the light of the sun into even the darkest places in Creation.

-A Bronze faction Journeys sires a child, charmed on a sabbatical by a bard free of all of the crushing obligations of the Five-Score Fellowship. She sequesters her child in Heaven and keeps her mostly a secret. Still, the daughter cannot help but feel the coursing desire to travel and break free of this gilded cage that her ties to Mercury fill her with--and eventually she recieves visions from that very goddess. Surely she cannot gainsay the very deity her mother answers to, right? Using her incredibly low profile, she escapes and runs..and runs..in Creation she has no idea where she should go, what she should do...until a certain silver goddess descends on her and tells her that she can have the puissance to truly be free from the chains of Heaven and blows her a kiss that gives her the eyes of an eagle. A few days later, her mother learns of a new Lunar Anathema that she must deal with...

-When the Dynasty finally slaughtered a Lunar Anathema lurking on the blessed isle, they did not expect to find a young girl in her iniquitous hideout. They also did not expect to witness said child exalt as an Air Aspect as she tried to defend herself. Sure, she's Anathema Spawn, but she is a Dragon-Blooded...and House Ledaal will take everything they can get. So it is that she is offered either death or service to the Dynasty to atone for the crime of her existence. She chooses the latter, but she knows the lies of the Dynasty, the awful things it does, and the fact that it must be destroyed to save the people of Creation. She steels herself. Even in the disgustingly avaricious dens of the enemy, she will follow the goals of the Silver Pact as an assassin from within...

-The son of a Solar chafes underneath the pressure such a blood tie gives him. He's the son of the strongest of the Chosen! Isn't that supposed to make everything effortless? All he has is a father who has abandoned him and barely any more power than a regular mortal in comparison to a true Solar. He throws himself at any trial that he comes across in hopes of gaining Exaltation, but his arrogance denies him the strong will and valiant effort that Solar Exaltation requires. Eventually he gives up--until he learns that the Wyld Hunt is descending upon his hometown in hopes of interrogating and killing the Anathema Spawn that lives there. He rushes to save it, but his laziness and pathetic demeanor means he cannot even do this. By the time he gets there, the Wyld Hunt has already burnt the town to cinders and left disappointed. As he screams into the wind, a demon comes up to him with an offer--sure, the pathetic and vainglorious so-called-Unconquered Sun has denied him his favor, but he can always settle for a tainted Solar Exaltation of the Yozis...

[Vorshan Saintrowe]

Riverspeak Stuff:

Riverscript, the alphabet used by Riverspeak, can be used letter-by-letter as a typical alphabet. However, its 'proper' arrangement is to assemble two to four individual glyphs into syllabic blocks. This convention largely persists in the major cities of the River Province, but is less common away from the Yanaze. Riverscript is also used as a script by non-Riverspeak languages, where it is usually used as an alphabet. This is thanks to Riverscript's particular simplicity. It is said that an educated man can acquaint himself with Riverscript before the day is over, and that a stupid man can master it within ten days.

Thanks to the Guild's reach, the 'default' dialect of Riverspeak is the one spoken in Nexus. It best fits 3E Core's description of being a 'loanword-filled tongue', and carries very few features that trip up inexperienced speakers. Spend a month in Nexus, learn to speak and write as they do, and you can get by most anywhere in Creation.

Sijanese Riverspeak maintains many features of Old Realm that Riverspeak has since discarded for simplicity. It notably maintains the split between formal and informal modes that also existed in Old Realm. Formal Sijanese Riverspeak keeps Old Realm's grammar and formality markers and melds it with a largely Riverspeak lexicon, and sounds decidedly stilted and archaic to a Nexan ear. Informal Sijanese Riverspeak is still marked by Old Realm, if to a much lesser extent. It is said of Sijanese morticians that two things mark them: Their bracers and their language.

Lookshyan Riverspeak also maintains some holdovers from the Shogunate era, largely in a military vocabulary. Lookshyan Riverspeak is notable not so much for its lexical features as for the manner in which it is spoken, an accent and inflection that colours the language. A non-native speaker can often be picked out simply by how their speech is insufficiently combative.

[Accelerator]

Every single exalt type... And frankly speaking. Every single unique exalt has their own way of bringing power to humans.

Dragonblooded often require long exposure to the elements, such as staying within a raging windstorm or walking in hot coals. Or living in a forest using only wooden tools.

Lunars use will, dreams, hallucinations, and drugs.

Sidereals lead their students on a week long journey where they awaken their essence at the end of the story. Each stage of the story is the equivalent of a single lesson, and is different for each caste.

Solars? Well if its big and glowy, it works.

Each different exalt has their own way of granting essence. A great preacher for example might make outstanding oration, preaching, and hold mass and fasting until tongues of flame appear over the disciples head. A great geneticist and crafter might create machines to infuse people with the might of Essence, or craft organs to serve as essence channeling prosthetics. A great solar doctor might create tonics and medical treatments to awaken the chakras and meridians. Great Scholars might give lectures and lead their students to meditate in the Essence if all things, until they can comprehend the very basics of Creation.

[Accelerator]

Denandsor is stupid.

The Db armies have long since looted it, and there's nothing left.

[Epee102]

Denandsor is stupid.

The Db armies have long since looted it, and there's nothing left.

What's Denandsor? a CTR+F hasn't brought it up in any 3e book.

[Accelerator]

What's Denandsor? a CTR+F hasn't brought it up in any 3e book.

Sorry mate.

It's from 2e. It's really stupid.

Apparently Denandsor was like the First Age equivalent to Silicon Valley or whatnot. A veritable hub of craftsmen, workshops, Artifacts, craft blessings, and whatnot. One of the most sorcerously and technologically advanced places in the First Age. It's also never been picked clean by scavengers. Apparently there's an artifact there that cause irrational, unstoppable fear in everyone. And by author fiat, this works on everyone without Solar charms.


Which is stupid because a perfect mental defense is a perfect mental defense. Integrity charms *work*. And you bring in questions of 'If it was this easy to chase out any exalt that isn't a Solar, why didn't the Primordials use it?'.

[zee PaTrick]

It's from 1e

[TheCountAlucard]

It's also never been picked clean by scavengers.

This is straight-up inaccurate. Scavengers have entered it and taken things; it's just that unless you have an absurdly-high Willpower score, it's likely that the urge to flee and never return will overtake you in minutes. There's only so much you can cram in your pockets in that scale of time.

Apparently there's an artifact there that cause irrational, unstoppable fear in everyone. And by author fiat, this works on everyone without Solar charms.

This is also inaccurate; in 2e the fear effect worked on everyone without a perfect mental defense. Just having Solar Charms wouldn't cut it.

Which is stupid because a perfect mental defense is a perfect mental defense.

Dragon-Blooded didn't have a perfect mental defense in 2e, nor did Lunars.

Incidentally, now nobody has a perfect mental defense.

And you bring in questions of 'If it was this easy to chase out any exalt that isn't a Solar, why didn't the Primordials use it?'.

Not really. Just because something was able to be done, doesn't mean it was able to be done easily, or that anyone else could have done it.

(In fact, given the unique nature of artifice in Ex3, it's very possible that the creation of the artifact generating the fear aura used up whatever was needed to make it, meaning that a Primordial who wanted to do so today may not be able to.)

[Accelerator]

Dragon-Blooded didn't have a perfect mental defense in 2e, nor did Lunars.

Incidentally, now nobody has a perfect mental defense.

.. Are you aware that I really, really hate this part of 2e? Because I really really, hate this part of 2e.

This is also inaccurate; in 2e the fear effect worked on everyone without a perfect mental defense. Just having Solar Charms wouldn't cut it.

Nope. That doesn't fix anything. Still pretty shit, because it's one section of the map mostly cut off from anyone except for Solars. And its literally stated in the Terrestrial Directions book. Only Solar Integrity Charms can give brief immunity to the miasma.

Not really. Just because something was able to be done, doesn't mean it was able to be done easily, or that anyone else could have done it.

(In fact, given the unique nature of artifice in Ex3, it's very possible that the creation of the artifact generating the fear aura used up whatever was needed to make it, meaning that a Primordial who wanted to do so today may not be able to.)

More like I'm asking, in the context of 2e, when the Exalted fought against the Primordials, in a war for all things against the beings who wrote down linear time, why wasn't this taken out? These were beings who could snap their fingers and put together the laws of physics. Why couldn't they recreate this miasma effect?

They didn't, or the did, and the DBs just shrugged it off. Because in a writer-world where it isn't shit, they had perfect mental defenses to avoid being enslaved by Raksha, 2nd circle demons, and Celestial Exalted.

[TheCountAlucard]

.. Are you aware that I really, really hate this part of 2e? Because I really really, hate this part of 2e.

Most of us aren't playing 2e anymore, I understand.

Nope. That doesn't fix anything. Still pretty shit, because it's one section of the map mostly cut off from anyone except for Solars.

What are you even talking about? It's not a "section of the map." It's barely even a dot.

And its literally stated in the Terrestrial Directions book. Only Solar Integrity Charms can give brief immunity to the miasma.

Fair, someone must've been too rushed to look up the name of Elusive Dream Defense when putting that chapter together.

More like I'm asking, in the context of 2e, when the Exalted fought against the Primordials, in a war for all things against the beings who wrote down linear time, why wasn't this taken out? These were beings who could snap their fingers and put together the laws of physics. Why couldn't they recreate this miasma effect?

Because the miasma hadn't been invented yet. Might as well ask why none of the Yozis thought to hop into a warstrider or fire up the Realm Defense Grid.

They didn't, or the did, and the DBs just shrugged it off. Because in a writer-world where it isn't shit, they had perfect mental defenses to avoid being enslaved by Raksha, 2nd circle demons, and Celestial Exalted.

Once again, 3e doesn't have perfect mental defenses; are you accusing 3e of being shit?

[DrLoveMonkey]

More like I'm asking, in the context of 2e, when the Exalted fought against the Primordials, in a war for all things against the beings who wrote down linear time, why wasn't this taken out? These were beings who could snap their fingers and put together the laws of physics. Why couldn't they recreate this miasma effect?

They didn't, or the did, and the DBs just shrugged it off. Because in a writer-world where it isn't shit, they had perfect mental defenses to avoid being enslaved by Raksha, 2nd circle demons, and Celestial Exalted.

The primordials in their war probably lacked the kind of thinking we might expect, or proper finesse to use their powers. For example they made the world, theoretically they could unmake it, and even if the Exalted shrug off your world-destruction beam they'd have no Creation or Heaven left to flee too, and no mortals to exalt when one of them died. Theoretically easy solution, but they didn't think to do it somehow. Even if it wouldn't have worked they clearly didn't even try because all that is still around.

One explanation could be that they're just really fucked up beings. Malfeas has the Brass Dancer as a kind of jotun-avatar, but he's just as much the multi-layered shifting city as he is that guy, and for many yozi we don't even see a jotun, Cecelyne is just a huge endless desert under a black sky, Kimbery is a bottomless ocean of horrors and acid, Szoreny is a titanic silver forest who's made of a single tree that's upside down and who's roots grow into the sky.

They're not necessarily sitting around a war council using their infinite knowledge to devise logical and targeted ways of battling the Exalted, their strange souls spread about across ten million individuals and an entire plane of existence each can just end up doing weird and unexpected things. It's just that they're so powerful that even without a specifically focused. Thankfully the Exalted are both genius enough that they stood a chance of finding how to fight them, and powerful enough to do so.


EDIT: also along with a million other things, they made the incarna who then made the Exalted, again in theory they could make other things that made their own Exalted, but also didn't, or even just made Exalted themselves, but didn't. I know in 3e the Law of Diminishment is a thing, but Sol made 300 Solars and he's still banging strong so I'm pretty sure a primordial could do at least something similar, and would have been quite helpful.

[marin]

EDIT: also along with a million other things, they made the incarna who then made the Exalted, again in theory they could make other things that made their own Exalted, but also didn't, or even just made Exalted themselves, but didn't. I know in 3e the Law of Diminishment is a thing, but Sol made 300 Solars and he's still banging strong so I'm pretty sure a primordial could do at least something similar, and would have been quite helpful.

Vance raised the idea the Yozis lack the knowledge to make Exalted of their own, and even if they did know, would be worried about what exactly diminishment would do to them. (Just because the Incarnae were able to doesn't necessarily mean anything else they created would be able to.)

[JohnDoe244]

The primordials in their war probably lacked the kind of thinking we might expect, or proper finesse to use their powers. For example they made the world, theoretically they could unmake it

I don't think that follows as naturally as you seem to assume it follows.

they didn't think to do it somehow. Even if it wouldn't have worked they clearly didn't even try because all that is still around.

In 2E SWLIHN tried. And wiped out 90% of everything.

Wyld Shaping Technique: *Exists*
Primordials: Am I a joke to you?

EDIT: also along with a million other things, they made the incarna who then made the Exalted, again in theory they could make other things that made their own Exalted, but also didn't, or even just made Exalted themselves, but didn't. I know in 3e the Law of Diminishment is a thing, but Sol made 300 Solars and he's still banging strong so I'm pretty sure a primordial could do at least something similar, and would have been quite helpful.

The Primodials made the Incarna to serve them. The Incarna betrayed them.

Making Super Incarna to try and kill the traitors is... not a good plan.

Further, my daughter can play piano. It does not follow that I can play piano.

[Accelerator]

Private headcanon. Yozis and normal Primordials can't make exaltations. If they could... the world will be shake.

Exaltations were a miracle based off autochthon and his ability to surpass his own limitations, as well as his ability to create tools. They were then further infused with the Unconquered Sun, the Maidens, the Dragons, Luna, and other things, and then affixed to a human soul to create a single whole that far surpassed the sum of its parts, and in time, their creators.

Exalted cannot form cults. Only mortals and other beings can. The reason being that the human capacity for prayer is now being redirected by the Exaltation for their own power.

The Primordial war was a hit and miss. Being the vast, superhuman beings that they were, there were multiple interpretations, predictions, and plans for the primordial war. Even they weren't quite sure what would happen if they were to place Exaltations within human beings, only knowing that it would be big, and unprecedented. The hopes for success ranged from the equivalent of a strike for better conditions, to being able to drive away the Primordials, and Autochthon being able to make the others take him seriously. The fact that the Exalted were not able to survive, defeat the primordials, but to even kill them and take over the very world itself and leave the gods as their own masters... It was a surprise. Not in the sense that it was unforeseen, but more like 'All simulations say this is in the 0.000001% chance of probability'.

There are far more sorcerers and craftsmen in the Realm than in canon. Various DB houses, have over the years, created massive stockpiles of artifacts, manses, and sorcerously worked servitors. Beings on the level of 2nd circle demons like Octavian, stockpiled in massive towers and warehouses of war material, or sent out into the Threshold to fight and advance the interests of the house. Not many, because they are expensive. But when you live for centuries and have DB charms, it gets pretty easy to start creating Celestial scale sorcerous workings. Same for manses. Backed by DB craft charms, manses are built with magical barracks, artillery, bound servitors, and weather control. Half of the power of the Realm isn't in the DBs or the stockpiles of artifacts, but from being able to have artillery that turns armies into broken meat from miles away.