Tweet
I was originally thinking of this as a possible interpretation of the Getimians; but I think I prefer it more as a “setting hack”. The idea here is that there are Exigents that come from… somewhere else. Not the Wyld; not the Underworld, nor Malfeus. Not Autochthonia. Not anywhere adjacent to Creation. They have been summoned to Creation from Another World.
The worlds that the Isekai Exigents come from are extremely varied; as a starting point, any of the Shards from the 2e supplement Shards of the Exalted Dream are possible “origin worlds” for the Isekai Exigents. So are possible futures of the setting (very likely distant futures, far enough in the future that it might as well be another world). If the notion that the World of Darkness is a possible distant future of Creation holds, then that's another source for Isekai Exigents. Or any other world that the Storyteller wants to allow: as an onyx path fan, my own preference would be to prioritize worlds described in other Onyx path gamelines, like The Chronicles of darkness, the Trinity continuum, or Scion. But even the likes of pugmire or Cavaliers of Mars are possibilities. And there's nothing restricting you from “Isekai”ing other properties of you so choose. Anything goes.
That said, the world the isekai exigent comes from only matters so much; it's the character's past, not her present or future (probably). And the details of the world she came from only matter to the extent that they affected her before she was summoned to Creation. And isekai exigent who came from the World of Darkness or the Trinity Continuum but never encountered any of the aspects of those worlds that differentiate them from the real world might as well have just come from the real world.
The act of summoning an Isekai Exigent also tends to have the effect of... changing it. It's basic nature remains more or less same; but this can be used to empower someone who was perfectly ordinary in the world that he or she came from, or it can be used to take someone who was already empowered and make some changes to the manifestations of those powers. This latter can be used, for instance, to “rewrite” a character from another gameline Creation.
System-wise, Isekai Exigents work just like regular Exigents; they differ only in terms of where they came from, and thus the kinds of stories you tell using them. They're strangers in a strange land, bringing an outsider perspective to the setting without necessarily having an inhuman mindset. In fact, the default assumption that the source genre goes with is “an ordinary person from a mundane world (usually ours) gets thrust into a world of fantasy”. I just don't see any reason to limit the concept to just that. That said, their Exigency should reflect their homeworld, even if they were perfectly ordinary before they were summoned: a person summoned from the Trinity Continuum might have an Exigency that resembles a psion, nova, or Talent, for instance, even if he or she was a baseline before being summoned. Someone who was summoned from the World of Darkness might acquire an Exigency that mimics a vampire, werewolf, mage, etc., even if the new arrival had nothing to do with the supernatural before being summoned.
By default, the connection to the character's homeworld is one way and one-off. If you're interested in a cross-world game, though, it might be possible for variants of the original summoning ritual to exist that can use the presence of an Isekai Exigent to open a dimensional gateway to her world. Obviously, if you want her to stick around and she wants to go home, such portals should be difficult to come by, surfing the role of a macguffin; or they should be one way, capable of bringing things over from her world but not sending things to it.
With that in mind, I'd like to develop this thread by posting sample Exigencies that mimic character types from other games, but done in a way that they work within the framework of Creation. Top priority would be WoD-inspired Exigencies, given the never-formally-denied connection that exists between Creation and the World of Darkness. Possibly also develop some “Isekai Sorcery” that specializes in interacting with other worlds, for those gaming groups that want such a thing — again, with an eye toward keeping it more or less in line with the various Sorceries that already exist in Creation.
That's it for now. Thoughts?
The worlds that the Isekai Exigents come from are extremely varied; as a starting point, any of the Shards from the 2e supplement Shards of the Exalted Dream are possible “origin worlds” for the Isekai Exigents. So are possible futures of the setting (very likely distant futures, far enough in the future that it might as well be another world). If the notion that the World of Darkness is a possible distant future of Creation holds, then that's another source for Isekai Exigents. Or any other world that the Storyteller wants to allow: as an onyx path fan, my own preference would be to prioritize worlds described in other Onyx path gamelines, like The Chronicles of darkness, the Trinity continuum, or Scion. But even the likes of pugmire or Cavaliers of Mars are possibilities. And there's nothing restricting you from “Isekai”ing other properties of you so choose. Anything goes.
That said, the world the isekai exigent comes from only matters so much; it's the character's past, not her present or future (probably). And the details of the world she came from only matter to the extent that they affected her before she was summoned to Creation. And isekai exigent who came from the World of Darkness or the Trinity Continuum but never encountered any of the aspects of those worlds that differentiate them from the real world might as well have just come from the real world.
The act of summoning an Isekai Exigent also tends to have the effect of... changing it. It's basic nature remains more or less same; but this can be used to empower someone who was perfectly ordinary in the world that he or she came from, or it can be used to take someone who was already empowered and make some changes to the manifestations of those powers. This latter can be used, for instance, to “rewrite” a character from another gameline Creation.
System-wise, Isekai Exigents work just like regular Exigents; they differ only in terms of where they came from, and thus the kinds of stories you tell using them. They're strangers in a strange land, bringing an outsider perspective to the setting without necessarily having an inhuman mindset. In fact, the default assumption that the source genre goes with is “an ordinary person from a mundane world (usually ours) gets thrust into a world of fantasy”. I just don't see any reason to limit the concept to just that. That said, their Exigency should reflect their homeworld, even if they were perfectly ordinary before they were summoned: a person summoned from the Trinity Continuum might have an Exigency that resembles a psion, nova, or Talent, for instance, even if he or she was a baseline before being summoned. Someone who was summoned from the World of Darkness might acquire an Exigency that mimics a vampire, werewolf, mage, etc., even if the new arrival had nothing to do with the supernatural before being summoned.
By default, the connection to the character's homeworld is one way and one-off. If you're interested in a cross-world game, though, it might be possible for variants of the original summoning ritual to exist that can use the presence of an Isekai Exigent to open a dimensional gateway to her world. Obviously, if you want her to stick around and she wants to go home, such portals should be difficult to come by, surfing the role of a macguffin; or they should be one way, capable of bringing things over from her world but not sending things to it.
With that in mind, I'd like to develop this thread by posting sample Exigencies that mimic character types from other games, but done in a way that they work within the framework of Creation. Top priority would be WoD-inspired Exigencies, given the never-formally-denied connection that exists between Creation and the World of Darkness. Possibly also develop some “Isekai Sorcery” that specializes in interacting with other worlds, for those gaming groups that want such a thing — again, with an eye toward keeping it more or less in line with the various Sorceries that already exist in Creation.
That's it for now. Thoughts?
Comment