What is Exalted?

If he was punched by a sid, he'd be turned into a duck, he wouldn't get heterochromia, silly user!

This is after he was punched into a rainbow and then got better, obviously.

Give your Solar super chromia, with each eye being a wheel of multi-colors, neither eye having the same color as the other, and when he expends essence, the colors flash and change like a merry-go-round

If it's not to much trouble, can someone give me a summary of each Exalt, and whats so special about them? I've read about most of them, but can't quite wrap my head around what makes each one unique.

No, this is not an excuse to get you guys to post funny summaries of the Exalt classes, why would you think that

For all the meme status of sidereals, it was Lunars who could best do a duck punch in 2e, using Lunar Blood Shaping Technique+Insidious Lunar Transformation + optionally Life of the Hummingbird or Compassionate Mirror Nature.

(Or, for the magical realmers, combine with Courtesan's Possesion and you can arguably *fuck* someone into a duck, or any other shape you know.)

Solars: They glow yellow and they are good.
Lunars: They glow silver and they shape-shift.
Sids: They glow soft colors and they are weird.
DBs: They glow strong colors and they use elements.
Abyssals: They glow dark and they kill things.
Infernals: They glow green and they are weirder.
Alchemicals: They glow all colors and they are robots.

>Sids: They glow soft colors and they are weird.
>Infernals: They glow green and they are weirder.
>Weirder
What did he mean by this?

You want funny summaries? OK, lemme see how much I have to stretch to fit everyone into Ancient Greece.

Solars are Greek heroes like Hercules and Odysseus, larger-than-life humans brimming with glory and heroic virtue.
Lunars are Greek gods like Zeus and Poseidon, playing with the fates of kingdoms and begetting monsters on mortals.
Sidereals are the Greek chorus, standing off on the sideline singing "This is how it's gonna be, this is is how it's gotta be" and occasionally giving the protagonist of the play a hint to make sure it turns out that way. Or a lot of hints. Or a fucking walkthrough if necessary.
Terrestrials are the Greek Realm, all decadently fucking around and still being most civilized nation in the world and that's perhaps not a very high bar and running the Sacred Band of Thebes except not quite so gay. Still quite homosocial tho.
Abyssals are the Greek Furies, chthonic avengers, speakers for the dead come to wreak havoc on the unjust living.
Infernals are champions of the Greek Titans, the imprisoned primordial quasi-deities that were in the Before Time. They're hired to overthrow the current order of being and put the Titans back in charge. Of course, seeing as the Titans are imprisoned and all, there's very little to stop the Infernals defecting en masse when one e.g. meets Hercules and decides the current order is actually pretty good if it has muscleboy husbandos like this.
Alchemicals are what happens when Archimedes decides that what he needs to build to fend off the Romans isn't giant laser-mirrors, but mechanical men.

Is it true that the Infernals are, theoretically, the most powerful Exalts?

Weren't they solar at one point?

As yet undefined in 3e.
In 2e, Solars, Abyssals and Infernals were all running on the same "power source" and approximately equally powerful, putting them a step above Lunars, Sidereals and Alchemicals, who in turn were a step above Terrestrials. But that's power for a given quantity of XP and focus; older Terrestrials can beat up younger Infernals, and social-focused Terrestrials can woo combat-focused Infernals.

In 2e they had the potential to be, waaaay later down the line.

In 3e, we don't know, presumably no.

The thing that gives them power was the same as a Solars, before being fucked with.

I got a few good Abyssal ones from a random generator a while back:

Wandering Blade of the Rancorous South
Daughter of the Grieving Dusk
Daimyo of the Unlamented Talon
Liege-Cleaving Moonset
Nine Blasphemous Wings
Flickering Blood

If someone with a crippled or missing limb was exalted, would it heal them, or would they become a badass god-warrior cripple?

Nice trips

They would exalted with a missing limb.

The Unconquered Sun lead me to these trips.

If you exalt as a zenith you get a vision from the unconquered sun. He has compassion 5. Ask him to give you one of his. he has spare.

>One armed man Exalts
>Asks the Unconquered Sun for a spare arm
>One armed Exalted man now has a large, burning sun arm

Which would be totally awesome and hella weird plot. As a ST in a silly exalted game i would totally let a player have that as a high value... artifact i guess.
Good theme to build charms off.

More like a high point value mutation.

>By end game, the player has constructed his Solar's charms so he can trigger a bunch of them and pretty much become a small Unconquered Sun

I imagine everyone and their mother would be after the motherfucker though when they realize he has a piece of divine might strapped to his shoulder.

>swole
>shiny
>extra shiny in the presence of Creatures of Darkness
>twitchy while you're aware of CoDs and not fighting them
>unarmed attacks are Holy
And it's not like UCS can't regrow his own arm.

>
>Circle's Twilight keeps acting super weird around the guy, taking measures and spending hours staring at the arm in awe.

>End game charm turns his burning arm into a bootleg Daystar

Who here would watch an ATLA style exalted tv show featuring the different types of exalts as characters
Solar - A holy paladin of the unconquered sun who desires to help people however necessary
Lunar - A thief who was exalted and who joins the characters group in one of the early episodes
Dragon Blooded - Either the descendants of exiled DB or had his parents assasinated, seeks to overthrow the realm
Sidreal - a elderly gold-aligned sidreal who acts as the mentor figure for the rest of the characters
Extigent - A mortal who eventually is exalted later in the series and perhaps surpasses some of the other characters

Villains could include
Abyssal - an abyssal exalted dark knight style villain who upholds the chivalry of death
Dragon Blooded - member of the realm who seeks to destroy the main characters
Story would likely focus around the Solar or Dragon Blooded as the main character
Thoughts?

Like this, but with more fire and sunlight

Could a regular TV show afford the animation budget to rightfully display Exalted combat?

Also should include an Infernal who struggles with doing his job but also wanting to be one of the good guys

Iron Man arm blasters, but with more SUN.

My thoughts exactly.

Probably wouldn't be affordable
Infernal is a good addition though

ATLA?

Eh, adding shiny where the animation is getting tricky is a cost saver. Like zoom out and look like it's fucking beyblade with the animas fighting.
I mean it's exalted. I expect halfway shoddy workmanship.

Avatar: the Last Airbender.

Avatar The Last Airbender

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Hes sounding proper shonen manga MC enough for Exalted

Avatar: The Last Airbender

C-c-c-combo breaker

>He ignites his Anima, which is now a spliced image of his original Anima with add-ons that seem borrowed from US's image

What's this? 2006?

Oh how I wish it was. Eternal Summer did not begin yet.

So a normal Solar anima?

With more sun iconography

>yo dawg, I heard you like sun iconography...

>Look, I really love the new arm, and am happy that you lent it to me, but can we please chill out with all the sun stuff?

Not everyone goes full anima all the time.

Show animas once or twice per seasons, at the end of season battle. Ez.

>Alright you colossal weebs, what is your Exalt's (current or planner) fancy name?

The shortened form is "Ouka." Her full name translates out of her local tongue three different ways in terms of how it's written or read. Strictly speaking, her proper name is "Cherry Blossom of/grows from a Hundred Graves," but can also be read as "Praise be to the Hundred Fallen Heroes," and it's a homophone for "Imperial Conquest of the Hundred Lands."

I honestly don't think it would work that well. Morality in Exalted is, uh, less clear-cut than that. The sex and violence and weird cultures would be more Game of Thrones-esque. Also, the fact that all the significant characters are genuinely superhuman would make for a weird dynamic.

Question about Solar Exalted. In some instances there is talk that when they die Exalted Essence finds a new host and nothing remains of previous host but few memories. In short person dies and essence finds a new, totally different person to allow him to achieve greatness.

But in some later books, as i'm reading through them, it feels like each time they die they will go through a process of reincarnation. Different bodies, same soul, same person.

So which is "correct" one? Am I misinterpreting something?

An Exaltation is analogous to an additional soul, so on a certain literal level it is rapid reincarnation. They contain memories and other elements of their past lives.

On a mythological level, Exaltations are extremely similar to reincarnation, to the point that it further blurs the lines, intentionally.

Books are contradictory, devs cannot into metaphysics, I advise you treat it like WH40K where all the books are "canon" in the sense that someone in the setting believes this is true and said so.

Jedu Hynnan. Simple personal name, surname. Pic related. At first. I really put him together in a hurry.

This is how I've always seen it: they're a reincarnation in the sense that a grown-ass adult is inheriting a third soul that some other person previously owned. As far as supernatural beings are concerned, that means you're the legal reincarnation of that previous person, because that's the only part of you that makes your mortal ass worth a damn as far as they're concerned.

My thought was that Exaltation is some sort of Essence with a bar code. So when a Great Curse hit Solars it actually put a mark on Exaltation. Solars come and go and each time Exaltation finds a new host. But because each one has a barcode Great Curse always manifests in the same way on personal basis. That and with few memories that are coming in package from previous owners molds a new Exalt into a semblance of original bearer. So after a while thoughts, manners, vices are generally similar or exactly the same.

If you want to run the Exaltation as a meme-virus essence bomb, that's your table I guess. Not how it's been written in Ex3 though.

Alright, here's some weeb shit for you. My longest-running Solar had a very good relationship with her Lunar mate, which eventually turned into marriage. A bunch of shit happened with the Lover involving her nearly getting stuffed into a monstrance, but was pulled out of mind-break status by their love. She promptly declared that their love would outlast even the death of Creation itself, took the name Everlasting Lily, and later became Everlasting Lily, the Stag of the North after winning a military campaign to push the Lover back into the Underworld "for good".

The lily represents lesbians/yuri in Japan.
This character is in the backer credits, too.

how is it written in 3rd edition?

The only bit that talks about past lives is in Miracles of the Solar Exalted. It's the backer charms pdf, very first page.

Yeah, the War charm tree is exactly this, and it's fucking awesome if a bit niche.

If you decide to go deep or supernal into it, talk with your ST about the scope of the campaign. If they're planning on featuring nationbuilding and epic conflicts knock yourself out, but if its going to be smaller scale, your charms will be better spent elsewhere.

A little of both. Normal humans in creation have 2 souls. Non-Infernal Celestial Exalted have 3. Any given Solar is 2/3rds themselves and 1/3rd a reincarnation.

A mild mannered guy who happened to rise above himself when shit got real with an exaltation thar last belonged to a boisterous, center-of-attention, lager-than-life Solar with a very strong personality might get totally over written. Someone with a much stronger sense of self getting an exaltation from a very short lived predecessor might not show any personality quirks from their past life at all.

In a sense, both. The shard of Exaltation is a third soul, and takes on memories of the Exalt. Celestial Exaltations are wiped of memories in between hosts, with only enough fragments for the odd plot hook, and Terrestrial Exaltations die with the Exalt, so nothing can be passed on. Infernal Exaltations, however, can carry memories over, which is represented by the Past Lives merit, which allows them to boost their abilities at a chance of temporarily believing that they are their predecessor.

Mythbusters was more or less "Two Twilights Having Fun: The Show"

Humans in Creation reincarnate which means their souls are cleaned of their memories and find new newbron hosts. Exaltation is somewhat similiar to that. When you die it leaves you and sometimes carries some memories. But it's not direct reincanation, you are not the next iteration of Solar before you. It's more akin to inheriting a title. When you draw your Second Breath you become a next link in a chain of legends.

I usually wouldnt describe exalts as mary sue's. A mary sue is the best at everything, exalts are mostly hyper competent at one thing and then mediocre to poor at everything else.

Where does that "Exaltation is a third soul" meme comes from? I can't remember anything like that from 3E Core. It talks about it oike it's more of a divine blessing.

It's not a meme. It was part of 2E during its "let's get really into the metaphysics of Creation" phase.

And mary sues have plot armor.

Awww, that's sweet. and weeby. but mostly sweet.

actually, I find the idea of the lunar bond in general sweet and hope it become a buyable background for Lunars instead of being totally cut like has been kinda implied. I'm totally down with making "your exaltation's bond failed in the solar's absence and no longer exists" the default, even the 0 dot version from 2e was too much to be shoving onto a character who's player wasn't interested, but I still want to be able to buy *mine* up.glorious golden husbando get or waifu or whatever, I'm a goddamn lunar, we can work something out.

MoEP: Infernals referred to the Demon Coadjutor as the 4th Soul, because the Exaltation was your 3rd Soul

Eh, I prefer what I said in . Exaltation isn't a soul because it doesn't animate or carry any sort of sentience, intincts nor emotions. It's a blessing that moves between hosts and sometimes gets imprinted with stray memories or strong impressions because that makes for nice plot hooks.

Meant to quote

He was talking about in 2e, where it was literally a little pellet same as a soul was. Sure it didnt work exactly the same, but on the metaphysics level they were identical.

In 2e if Solar charms were a 10, than Abyssal charms at killing people were an 11 and Infernal charms related to the Yozi's niche were a 11 as well.

Outside of that however they really, really suck at other things, but a 7 if able to do it at all.

>chuunibyous

Should Exalted characters be made in concert, with everyone comparing notes, or should you just bring a guy to the first session?

>not the loss edit

Exalts just happen, that you are a circle at all is almost entirely due to pattern spiders furious masturbating your threads of destiny.

Don't even worry about it. You live for 3000 years, spending a decade a part doing your own things isn't even a blip

Not him, but that's one thing i've been wondering, how long do everyone's games tend to last for in game time? I know my group actually ticking over the year clock is a huge milestone. We've never actually passed 2 years in game and we've had games run for over a year.

Depends on the pace of the campaign. There is no right answer, and the subject itself is not important at all.

I'm an autist according to this thread. To my mind, people who live for centuries don't really give a shit about a couple of years.

Well I must be an autist too, because I definitely agree with you. I guess what occurs in my campaigns tends to focus more on the immediate instead of the long run. When we get to managing whole kingdoms I guess it will pick up pace.

I know in the campaign which i'm playing in where we are already conquering parts of the 100 kingdoms we seem to time skip with a lot more frequency, but just not years at a time.

If they have alread lived for centuries, maybe. But most fresh Solar don't even know what exactly they are. And they are still humans. The change of perspective comes with time.

It varies, but I prefer having lengthy periods of downtime and quickly described 'off-screen' activities in between the periods of Solars' lives that are the focus of the campaign. Among other things, the idea of the kind of ridiculously quick advancement in Essence that easily follows from a faster pace kind of bugs me.

Currently it's Arric of House Wolfbelly. Hopefully it will eventually turn into Arric, King of the Dreaming Sea

That is kinda a big area man

The real question is whether it's bigger than 1/300th of Creation, the share a Solar can reasonably expect to claim.

>he thinks true love can't survive a rewrite

>he thinks it isn't MORE special to have bondmates now that the canon is that bonds are no longer natural and shattered to pieces

You can "reasonably expect to claim" all of it, it's not like any other Solar is actually doing any conquering.

i havent played exalted as a player in a dog's age

but last i played, i was Azure Sunset Hunter, a roguish twilight who loved opening tombs and learning martial arts. self-named, though. Someone who chases the twilight of the sunset.

i'd insist everyone just call me Ash for short. there was a player who'd say "Azure" every time instead. we didn't get along IC because of it.

Then your ST is doing it wrong, because part of the point of Exalted is that PCs are not the only ones with agency and there are other people and groups out there doing world-changing shit and conquering stuff, if at a slightly less ridiculous ramp-up rate than the one at which PCs gain XP.

Is 3e worth it? Or should I play 2e for the supplements?

If you do not know the rules to 2e: play 3e, because its rules are just better, and there's no point learning 2e's rules.

If you do know the rules to 2e: play 3e, because its rules are just better.