Dice [OOC] The Best Laid Plans of Gods and Men

[Esbilon]

So, I'm starting to write out my BG properly and I'm coming to realize that the story I have in mind pulls pretty explicitly on some dark parts of Jewish history. I am not myself a Jew or all that well-versed in their history, religion or culture, so if anyone here finds that disrespectful or uncomfortable, please let me know and I'll try and swing my back story in a more generic direction.

 

[Esbilon]

I've updated my sheet with a partial bg and slightly tweaked stats. I need to write an ending to the bg and probably flesh out the Intimacies a bit more. I ended up with picking house Ledaal as my nemesis, but that's subject to change if there's a good idea for a tie-in or some such.

 

[Empyreal1]

As soon as I figure out charms I'll try to post up Cinerea.

 

[Random Word]

As soon as I figure out charms I'll try to post up Cinerea.

Let me know if you need any help!

So, I'm starting to write out my BG properly and I'm coming to realize that the story I have in mind pulls pretty explicitly on some dark parts of Jewish history. I am not myself a Jew or all that well-versed in their history, religion or culture, so if anyone here finds that disrespectful or uncomfortable, please let me know and I'll try and swing my back story in a more generic direction.

I don't see anything disrespectful in your story. I think any marginalized minority can empathize with that.

 

[Epiphany]

What does rebuilding the First Age mean to her? She doesn't appear to have any intimacies about Solars at all one way or the other, which is interesting. Does she want to forge a Lunar-Sidereal Deliberative?

So many more Intimacies I could have added, but I think you've already seen she's got the longest list of the group by a wide margin. That said...no, she doesn't have much of an opinion about Solars one way or the other. They're historical figures who did miraculous things and who are otherwise wholly unconnected to herself and anything she's been up to so far.

On a related note, this is also how her sole negative Tie works in connection with the Realm (Disinterested Dislike). The difference being the Realm actually exists but had nothing to do with her tribe, her travels or any of the time she spent in the South or the East. She's basically has the perception that everyone talks and talks and talks about what a big deal the Realm is, to the extent that she's decided she doesn't like it because of how it's just words said to her face.

Given her circumstances, a Lunar-Sidereal Deliberative would be amazing but she's not quite thinking that far ahead. At the moment, getting Lunars to not kill her on sight probably takes priority...

 

[Sherwood]

You grew up in Lookshy, an Immaculate stronghold, remain a loyalist, and live in Heaven hanging out with and/or being carefully watched by Sidereals, several of whom kill Solars for a living. Where in the world did you go from possibly-lapsed Immaculate to curiosity about Solar Anathema? This isn't an admonition or a veto, but something important happened to your character to create this belief and sustain it in such a hostile environment. What prompted your character to form this belief, and why is it merely Minor, given how you must have clung to it to hold it still? How have you hidden it from your detractors in Yu-Shan? This seems like yet another reason to mistrust your character, and something the powers that be would seek to 'fix' whether by persuasion or coercion.

After spending all of his youth being indoctrinated with the IO philosophy, his stable world was suddenly rocked by his Exaltation in realizing that the Dragon Blooded are not the end all be all of Exalts, but are instead just one of many different kinds of Exalts, with the Sidereals being a true game-changer. Not to mention his time spent studying with the Lunars that tested him on what Caste he was going to be.

All the various rumors about the Solars that were being bantered about by the Lunars that Garret trained with also started to make him wonder - who is his Solar bond with? What are the Solars really like? Why does the IO fear them so? And finally, what does the Celestial Bureaucracy have against them? This makes him wonder about the Solars, but he's wary of dealing with them because of all the crazy stories of the atrocities committed by the Solars. It is not a consuming drive, but it is something that makes him think.

 

[Sherwood]

Random Word I am thinking of making a few small changes to my character by dropping my Hearthstone and getting the Martial Arts Merit and swapping a Charm for the first in the White Reaper Style. Would that be ok?

 

[Random Word]

You can make all the changes you like! Not all characters are complete, and even if they were, you can change anything about your character you haven't used or had referenced in play so long as you give me a heads up.

 

[Sherwood]

Awesome. Thanks.

It seems to me that having some MA skill when running with a bunch of Sidereals would make sense.

 

[Random Word]

Ah, well, it can. Thematically it opens a nice opportunity for them to actually put the Sifu thing into play, which can be fun. It might be tricky to avoid feeling overshadowed if MA is important to your character and you're surrounded by Sidereals. Lunars never get Mastery, but they do get some very nice combos with their native Charms that even Solars can envy. The option is open to you to start in XP debt for the Martial Artist Merit (Through Amahle inducting you into MA and you becoming her Finger) instead of paying Merit points for it. You can choose to make that Lunar-XP-only debt if you'd like.

 

[jaydude]

Quick question regarding the Sidereals: roughly how long have we been Exalted for?

 

[jaydude]

Also, who's the person who wrote up suggested builds for us on the Google Doc? Because I appreciate it.

 

[Random Word]

Quick question regarding the Sidereals: roughly how long have we been Exalted for?

Sidereal training is a crash course for a year and a day. From there there's a period of supervised assignments of indeterminate length depending on your competence where you're the junior partner shadowing someone experienced. This will be your first major assignment where you are the most experienced agent assigned.

Let's say you've been exalted for 3 years or so, putting you in your early 20s. Amahle is more complicated, since she spent years wandering Creation while Exalted prior to accepting the Bureaus job offer.

 

[Esbilon]

And just to be clear, current time is year 768, right?

 

[Epiphany]

Also, who's the person who wrote up suggested builds for us on the Google Doc? Because I appreciate it.

The Google Doc is mine: Best Laid Plans of Gods and Men

It's just a utility I use to figure out where there are unfilled niches, so they can be filled.

As memory serves, Shi-Vath's build in the Google Doc was derived from me googling "Exalted Shi-Vath", finding a hit from 2020, and extrapolating what that might look like. You are by no means bound to follow it, I was just guessing that she was likely to lean more Larceny/Stealth over Lore and possibly Occult, for example, based on where the original's spends were.

 

[Random Word]

And just to be clear, current time is year 768, right?

Unless someone has an exciting reason for us to change the date, we'll go with the default 768. Empress is gone, Thorns is dead, Tepet's bloody, Center cannot hold, etc etc.

 

[Esbilon]

Cool. I've tweaked my bg accordingly, added an ending (there's always one, you know). and added an intimacy. I think that means I'm good to start whenever, but I haven't filled in combat information or figured out what my manse is like, so also don't feel like I'm trying to rush things.

 

[Epiphany]

I'm still stalled over how to handle group transport. I have vague ideas that include in no particular order:

• Both Ride and Sail are Caste and I'd be a pretty sucky Journeys Caste if I didn't use one of them.
• No one wants to deal with the Sail rules in 3e.
• Ideally I want a method of transportation that works across land or sea.
• Sail: Airship? Folding Ship that has an Evocation to turn itself into a wagon when on land or something?
• Ride: Flying Yeddim, Airbender style? Something big that can handle land and water and ideally transport a Fellowship, plus include inventory storage would be nice...
• Build Doctor Who's TARDIS in Exalted?
• Artifact book of maps that let you literally travel by map montage, like in the movies, while presumably stopping anywhere along the way that's narratively important so as to not entirely bypass travel rules.
• Just handwave the whole thing since virtually no one wants to spend time on the trip, they just want to get to the plot at the destination.
• Convince Sherwood to get a giant flying shape and have the Fellowship ride the Lunar everywhere?
• Everyone gets the Sidereal Charm that lets you turn into a crow and we all just migrate like a flock of birds wherever we need to go.

Uff da.

 

[Random Word]

While some hands will certainly be waived if none of you make means of travel central to your character, typically the complexity of hiring a ship or purchasing passage on one already bound for your destination is not high. Not every Sidereal operating in the West has an airship, flying bison, or TARDIS, and they manage to muddle through. Do not feel like it's mandatory, but absolutely take it if it sounds fun.

 

[Empyreal1]

I did it! I finally finished Cinerea. Off to post her.

 

[Random Word]

Ah, I love Lot-Casting Atemi! Excellent choice.

 

[Random Word]

Okay, let's see. You only have 30 dots of Abilities at or below 3, and are missing a dot of Occult, so I'm guessing you missed the part where I gave all Sidereal players 1 free dot of Lore, Linguistics, Bureaucracy, Occult, and a MA of their choice. Congratulations, you have more points to spend!

Is Sahlak Sonata or Ohlone your Black Claw sifu? I presume Sahlak Sonata, since you must be in love with them, and I'm not sure you can break it or if it has to be stronger than Minor. You can start with as many intimacies as you like, and you should have one for a 3 dot Mentor.

Okay, your intimacy of Love for your Black Claw sifu can indeed be weakened to Minor, you're right, so now my question is why was it weakened to Minor, because it almost certainly didn't start that way. What sort of falling out did you have with your sifu?

Your Contacts should have a context - what sort of contacts are they? How did you cultivate them? If you would like, you may leave this ambiguous and declare them in play as you wish to call on them.

Do note that while you can take each of Presence, Performance, and Socialize at 3, there is some overlap, and by not taking any of them to 5 your excellency will only permit you to take the TN from 7 down to 6 for 1m (unlocked at Ability 3), where at Ability 5 you unlock TN 5 for 2m. That's a 10% boost for 1m and a 20% boost for 2m, respectively. Right now you've opted to be better at dodging and much better at hand to hand fighting than diplomacy and court etiquette, which could reflect the focus of your supernatural training, but it may not be how you want the character to be reflected mechanically.

Because of what I consider a questionable design decision in the math of the game, it's much cheaper to get 5's at character creation than in play. I may choose to flatten XP curves out of personal distaste for the perverse incentives the current curves create.

Stealth: 3 - Moving Silently

Lore: 3 (The West)

Too broad. Narrow them down and make them more interesting. Stealth - Being Stealthy is not appropriate, and neither is Lore - The Campaign's Direction. Lore specialties especially are meant to represent educational backgrounds. Even if Shi-Vash is a Patrician in a Peleps province, she didn't get a degree in Everything About the West.

Epiphany you forgot to write down your specialties. I assume they're all in Craft from what I saw in the spreadsheet.

Esbilon You have 7 BP marked as spent on Abilities, but only spent 6. 35/33 <= 3, 4 > 3 = 6 BP. Congrats, have a free BP.

Sherwood It looks like you've spent 8 BP on Abilities (33/31 <= 3, 2 > 3, x2 for Lunar Ability Tax = 8 BP) and somewhere between 5 and 9 BP on Merits depending on whether you're in XP debt for Martial Artist. 2 BP on a point of willpower brings you to 15 if Merits is XP debt, so I'm guessing this all works out, but it really helps if you document your character creation! Also you have a fourth Specialty you haven't assigned.

 

[Empyreal1]

I was thinking that Sahlak Sonata was a noblewoman in Gem that Cinerea grew up with. They were best friends and later secret lovers. Sonata taught her Black Claw style, at least, as much a mortal could know. But when Cinerea's Arcane Fate kicked in, Sonata completely forgot about her. I think that Cinerea spends some of her sabbatical time in Resplendent Destinies, trying to romance Sonata, just to be close to her. I also think she spends a good amount of time promoting Gem and destinies that benefit it and it's empire.

I think that Ohanlei is her current patron in Heaven, who has introduced her to Ryzala, the head of the Bureau of Heaven. Cinerea has probably spent some time ingratiating herself with Ryzala, the Censors, and Celestial Concerns. Does that work? I think I'll take Ryzala as a five-dot Ally, if that's okay? I updated my sheet accordingly.

 

[Random Word]

Sonata taught her Black Claw style, at least, as much a mortal could know.

This is a very interesting question! If a Mortal teaches Black Claw Style, can it carry the supernatural effects of learning it from a supernatural practitioner? Your Black Claw sifu suffering Arcane Fate defeats Mara's intent in creating the style in my opinion. If a mortal could teach you Black Claw, they would not be affected by your Arcane Fate. I'm going to say Black Claw is uniquely unsuitable to making the jump from mortal practitioner to Exalted practitioner. Mara's clearly up to something in its design, and as much as it might tickle her for a mortal to have power over an Exalt, and as interesting as it is that there may be an infernal cult in the court of Gem, Black Claw is one of those Martial Arts styles that's really less about fighting than magic. This isn't Tiger Style, where Exalted practitioners just punch harder than mortal practitioners. Black Claw is inherently supernatural. If you didn't have a Sidereal Sifu, something very interesting happened.

I'll let you have this: If you want, Cinerea can believe Sahlak Sonata is mortal, but the intimacy ought to be at least Major. You don't spend your sabbaticals pining after someone who always forgets you at Minor. Given how far away Gem is, this is unlikely to ever come up in play unless you request it with a Flag or something, in which case I'll figure out how Sahlak gets herself involved. Out of curiosity, is Cinerea lesbian or bisexual, for the purposes of knowing which so-inclined NPCs should try to play games with her (Useful to know for Appearance 5 Serenity socialites)? Of course the Red Rule exists and you can veto any seduction or courtship attempt by anyone, I just assume a character like that wants to break some hearts.

I think that Ohanlei is her current patron in Heaven, who has introduced her to Ryzala, the head of the Bureau of Heaven. Cinerea has probably spent some time ingratiating herself with Ryzala, the Censors, and Celestial Concerns. Does that work? I think I'll take Ryzala as a five-dot Ally, if that's okay? I updated my sheet accordingly.

Excellent, you don't aim small. The Queen of Heaven as a 5 dot Ally, huh? You can take it, but this is not a relationship of equals. You're Ryzala's woman, and she'll expect you to actively further the aims of the Bureau of Heaven in return for your significant perks. Ohanlei is going to expect you to kick plenty of those favours back to her for what must have been one hell of an introduction, too. That's no small boost she gave to your career. You are by far the most politically powerful member of the Fellowship at this point. You're who everyone else goes to when they need wheels greased and scandals smoothed over. Shi-Vash doesn't have her merits in, so you might still have competition, but you'll have a lot of pull when it comes to getting Heaven to do things the way you want, but Ryzala and Ohanlei will have just as much pull in getting you to ensure events go the way they want.

 

[Empyreal1]

I'll let you have this: If you want, Cinerea can believe Sahlak Sonata is mortal, but the intimacy ought to be at least Major. You don't spend your sabbaticals pining after someone who always forgets you at Minor. Given how far away Gem is, this is unlikely to ever come up in play unless you request it with a Flag or something, in which case I'll figure out how Sahlak gets herself involved. Out of curiosity, is Cinere lesbian or bisexual, for the purposes of knowing which so inclined NPCs should try to play games with her (Useful to know for Appearance 5 Serenity socialites)? Of course the Red Rule exists and you can veto any seduction or courtship attempt by anyone, I just assume a character like that wants to break some hearts.

Cinerea is probably bisexual. As a Princess, she would have been expected to wed and produce an heir or heiress, regardless of her feelings.

Excellent, you don't aim small. The Queen of Heaven as a 5 dot Ally, huh? You can take it, but this is not a relationship of equals. You're Ryzala's woman, and she'll expect you to actively further the aims of the Bureau of Heaven in return for your significant perks. Ohanlei is going to expect you to kick plenty of those favours back to her for what must have been one hell of an introduction, too. That's no small boost she gave to your career. You are by far the most politically powerful member of the Fellowship at this point. You're who everyone else goes to when they need wheels greased and scandals smoothed over. Shi-Vash doesn't have her merits in, so you might still have competition, but you'll have a lot of pull when it comes to getting Heaven to do things the way you want, but Ryzala and Ohanlei will have just as much pull in getting you to ensure events go the way they want.

Well, Exalted aren't supposed to aim small, are they?