Alternate Locations for the empress.

[wordman]

mainly i want a guy with the power of a celestial but can move in realm circles

They're called "Sidereals".

They're also called "Lunars" and "Abyssals", both of whom have charms that allow them to completely take the place of another person (as long as they are willing to kill that person).


As for the earlier question of how could such a person (or a sidereal in a resplendent destiny) produce dragon-blooded children, it is quite simple: they mate with dragon-blooded. It's true that celestials don't breed true, but terrestrials usually do, particularly powerful ones. I don't find it too hard to beleive that this tendency results in dragon-blooded genes being more dominant than sidereal ones in determining aspect, even if the child does pick up a trace of Half-Sidereal mojo. After all, dragon-blooded genes don't dilute. They work hereditarily. That is, either the kid gets all dragon-blooded goodness or none and is a mortal, just like a blue-eyed parent and a brown eyed parent produce either a blue- or brown-eyed kid, not a mix of both colors.

 

[Flagg]

Which makes me again wonder how many people in Creation are descendants of Kejak. He's been sowing his oats (presumably) for almost 5 millenia.


Look at how fecund Niall of the Nine Hostages was, and he just lived a mortal lifespan!


-S

 

[Flagg]

Also: Resplendant Destinies are great way to dodge child support payments.


-S

 

[Jack1]

While Chejop may have an awful lot of kids, I imagine that most of them just ended up as his housestaff in heaven or as loose ends efficiously tied up.


Edit: Woot! 500. Just 125 more to go. Greater Godhood will be mine!

 

[Ker'ion]

You're fired. Clear out your desk by 5pm.
-S

Well, it's a good thing I wasn't hired in the first place.


I won't have to put it on my resume.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

Dear lord! Look alive people he's got the pink slips!

 

[Ker'ion]

BRRRRRAAAAAAAAIIIIIINNNNNS!!!!!!!!!!


*complete with the zombie shuffle*

 

[Sherwood]

BRRRRRAAAAAAAAIIIIIINNNNNS!!!!!!!!!!
*complete with the zombie shuffle*

Luckily, most of us are mindless drones working for the greater glory of the Empire, and are immune to brain-eating zombies.

 

[Persell]

That's an awesome idea, and would also explain how the empress managed to make it to the controls for the defense grid without getting fried or squished.

Is anyone else bothered by the fact that you can either A) go through the practically impregnible death trap that is the imperial manse to access the defense grid or B) hike up a mountain to the old deliberative senate room and hack into it from one of the terminals there.


I keep thinking of the Simpsons where Mr Burns goes down into the deepest bowels of the nuclear power plant, past guard stations, huge metal doors and every defense known to man, only to get to the final room, which is a small control room with a ricketty screen door out to the parking lot.

Im definately NOT


I got the impression the old deliberative senate room is likely usable exclusively by solar exalted...

 

[Ledaal Kajiri]

Well, the Senate, as described in Wonder of the Lost Age, has seats for Lunars and Sidereals as part of its direct structure...the Deliberative chamber is not for Solars only. Now whether WMD can be fired from there by just anyone is another question entirelly.

 

[Persell]

I'm not very updated in Exalted, I've never used the canon world since day one, I own the hardcover Exalted: [Exalts Type Here] books and so far all the 2nd edition stuff, but that's about it so I miss alot of the hullabaloo.


I feel that WW has already written the story and filled it with Over Powered NPCs that the PCs have no chance of defeating and restoreing any semblance of balance to the world (everyone suffers from an unbreakable curse and are doomed to screw it up for eternity) regardless of what type of Exalt they may be playing.  PCs are just on lookers in a super powered world where no matter what they do some NPC can, will, or already has thwarted their every effort.  The more I read the "Canonverse" the less appealing the game became.  So, I changed it.  


So at the sake of sounding like a complete fool: Has it been said exactly what did happen to the Scarlet Empress?  Didn't she marry the Ebon Dragon and have little infernal babies or something?

 

[Haku1]

Dracian. That's one interpretation.


There are many interpretations on just what happened to Her Redness.


Myself?


I think that her habit of taking anathema into the Imperial Manse eventually resulted in a wacky accident full of hijinks.


Now if only said anathema had craft : magitech skills or even lore : first age to help him or her escape the manse or take it over...

 

[Ledaal Kajiri]

Dracian: Look at the NPCs as potential antagonists, allies, or neaither...not just as thing More Powerful than the PCs. In any and all games, at chargen there are things stronger than you...and there should be. That's part of the point in character growth...learn, bcome stronger, make allies, enemies, do something. Can you just wave your hand and fix the world? No. And that's a good thing. It's an epic goal, a quest that you may or may not be capable of succeeding in, but it's the story of that striving that is what's truly important. Is it impossible to make the world better? No. You just can't do it without working at it. How interesting would the story be if you just exalted, waved you hand, and everything was fine now? Not very. Is First and Forsaken Lion more powerful than any starting character? Yes. But starting characters grow up and become stronger...and can make friends and allies. The Exalts defeated the Primordials...and the new Exalts can do simillarlly heroic things...if they think, train, plan, and work together.

 

[Persell]

Can you just wave your hand and fix the world? No. And that's a good thing. It's an epic goal' date=' a quest that you may or may not be capable of succeeding in, but it's the story of that striving that is what's truly important.[/quote']
See, I get the point of all that, sure.  I've been gaming for quite some time and Exalted is the first game I've stumbled on (and stumbled I did, I got the core book on discount someplace on an impulse buy and loved it) where everyone is screwed!  The Great Curse has been layed down in such a manner that none of the Exalted will ever be fit to work together, ever, period.


Solars beating mothers to death in the streets for punishing thier child in public (Red Rage of Compassion), kicking and beating people in the streets just because it makes them feel better for having a small penis (Deliberate Cruelty), circle mates lashing out violently and harming or even killing thier mates for having a good time (Contempt of the Virtuous), and my personal favorite: lash out and destroy everything (Beserk Anger).


Yup... sounds like a hoot.  How do you get characters as powerful as the NPCs when they spend all thier time killing each other.


Exalted is a lot of fun, as long as your not Exalted.

 

[Ledaal Kajiri]

I think you're overstating the frequence, and the power of limit breaks. The Great Curse is a problem, sure...but it's not the game breaking force you seem to imply. this is even more true in 2nd Ed, where you can manage partial control to limit the problems. For another, it's a story telling tool...based off the sorts of epic tales we have in our own world. Think of Hercules, and how he killed his own family in a fit of madness (berserk Anger, perhaps?). Ulysses and his damn fool nigh fearlessness (Foolhardy Contempt, maybe?). The Greek heroes in particular are examples of where the Great Curse idea came from. It's not that heroes are flawless, it's how they overcome those flaws, or redeem themselves for their mistakes that makes them heroes.

 

[Persell]

I tend to treat A lot of the NPC's who are extraenous to my own plotlines as not existing...


e.g. if someone goes "wouldnt the first and forsaken lion be interested in this?..." "oh well he ran into some fairfolk on the way here, that why their not here either"


Dont do this too Arbitrerly... but... it can solve the problem like...


Have holok or Kejak go out to kill raksi...


either way creations rid of a big menace...


or have the PCS in the area... when raksi eats kejaks heart it will likely be with a lot of scars, then they can kill her, take the book of 3 circles... (Ok well do you have a more PLAUSIBLE way for solars with an essence of less then 8 to get back rakshi?)

 

[Persell]

Or you just say no to the canon powercreep ^^


Magnificient Jaguar, a first age lunar, has essence 5 in the corebook. In my opinion kejak has not more than 8, perhaps less, he does not look very enlightened to me. Essence 8 sidereal is not that scary for a circle of experienced solars.


And this can analogous be said for a lot of things in canon. Just not let anyone tell you primodials should have essence 42.

 

[Flagg]

In my opinion kejak has not more than 8, perhaps less, he does not look very enlightened to me.

Doesn't Essence 8 more or less equal "very enlightened" by definition?

 

[Persell]

I said perhaps less, probably a lot less now I think about it.

 

[Persell]

"Very Enlightened" doesn't have to mean spiritually enlightened. I always took it to me more of a blend between spiritual and physical enlightenment, The character in question has matured spiritually in terms of a deep connection to his inner self that gives him better control over his physical form and Essence.


Basically, enlightened doesn't equal altruistic. Kejak can be extremely enlightened and still be a cold-hearted bastard. And in response to the part about Magnificent Jaguar, not all First Age Exalted would have necessarily advanced to the same level of understanding and control as far as Essence goes.

 

[Flagg]

And in response to the part about Magnificent Jaguar' date=' not all First Age Exalted would have necessarily advanced to the same level of understanding and control as far as Essence goes.[/quote']
I recall somewhere in 1E was a mention that most Exalts in the First Age never got past Essence 5.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

That statement somehow makes me very happy.

 

[Flagg]

I think the rationale is that surpassing 5 requires a lot of effort and dedication to enlightenment. Many exalts didn't need to bother; they were powerful enough.

 

[Ledaal Kajiri]

I don't remember that statement...but perhaps. However, so far the 2E commentary on the Usurpation Era says that Dragonblooded involved in a Usurpation Chronicle should be in the 6-7 Essence range and Solars around 8 Essence. Such can be found on page 233, MoEP: The Dragonblooded.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

If I may bring this up here, I glanced through the Lunar book this weekend. Did we establish what we thought as the time period for the Shogunate? About 15 centuries? If so, WW writers strike again or we missed something. They say it lasted seven in the rear of the book. Check it. Just odd, in my opinion.


If so, the Usurpation lasted a long ass time and makes sense I suppose, when you think of the battle scale at hand and how long it took.