Well, then it'd just explicitly be the Solar, with the Lunar falling into that label if they cross a line.
World's Cutest Direwolf
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
The more you know. I just checked the Lexicon and figured that would cover it.
Say, as long as this thread's active, there's something that was kinda bugging me. Does anyone get why Jacint, chillest of Adorjan's souls and generally one of the least dangerous Third Circles, has a Messenger Soul whose shtick is being hella good at hunting people down and eating them? Or why Orabilis has a Reflective Soul who decided that being a scholar was dumb and he was going to become a wandering hedonist?
Because they're only connected in very vague terms and aren't just seven mini-me's for the 3rd Circle.
Even from the categorization, reflective soul is about reflecting and self-inspecting for the higher soul; so it is entirely possible that the 2nd circle will come to entirely different conclusions than the 3rd, otherwise there'd be no point.
World's Cutest Direwolf
Yeah, I get that they aren't mini-mes. That's kind of evident from reading about any Third Circle and associated subsoul. But I can usually work out the logic. Like, Ligier's a super-radioactive sun, so he communicates that with a guy who's a spear of green light blighting the earth, a super-radioactive sunbeam. Erembour protects herself by transforming people into things that cannot live without her darkness, so her Warden Soul is a merchant who loves branding people as his. Orabilis is Cecelyne's censor, so that's expressed as a guy killing the lowly for disturbing the great. Those I grok, Zsofika I don't.
She communicates that Jacint will always find a path to the destination, be it still or moving. What she does at the destination is her own business, however.
So, I'm doing an Exalted campaign. I'm sticking to 2e (with errata, of course), a Solar only party, because that's what I'm familiar with the most out of all the Exalted material and because it's all free. All of my players are first-timers. Here's the rough outline of what I planned:
First major event is that they'll start off already in their circle, being explained as a sort of build-up as each of them started hearing rumours of each other and came to meet over time. They'll start in the East, in a set of nations which I wrote up to be just between the Scavenger Lands and the Eastern Nations and Barbarians. They'll start off hearing about rumours: one of strange creatures seen flitting in and out of sight in the mist of a marsh. The hearsay tells of things ranging in size and shape of a hawk to a yeddim, and everything inbetween. They'll also hear rumours of a star falling suddenly from the sky into a distant forest. Convienently, the time to get to both of these places would take three to five days travel.
No matter what way they go, they'll encounter a couple of hazards, including bandits. This will act as a sort of tutorial on combat and the rules of the system. While the bandits will get their asses thouroughly handed to them, it'll act as a fun introduction and help them get a hang of the mechanics.
Then, they'll reach their destination. If they go for the marsh, they'll find that it's been converted into a Shadowland. They'll get to fight some zombies and necrotech stuff, and eventually they''ll face off against the Abyssal masterminds behind the whole thing.
If they head to the fallen star, they'll have to fight some Sidereals off, or at least talk them out of trying to acquire the starmetal that they think is there. When they reach the artifact, it'll be like nothing they've seen before, a 5-inch perfect sphere made of 5 solid pieces of each of the magical materials. It's inscribed with hundreds of runes, but has no discernable purpose. Then, suddenly, a gigantic metal head slams into the ground several meters away from them. Out of it pours 30+ Autocthonians looking for Solars to help heal Autocthon. They'll need to negotiate with their leader, an Alchemical, and if they agree to help they get a sojourn in Autocthon, and if they suceed in any measurable fashion, they'll get a powerful ally in the Alchemicals and the portal between the two worlds (which may lead to a future adventure in which they completely heal Autocthon). I'm aware that none of that may align with the lore as I understand it, but it seems like a fun way to show off the silliness potential of Exalted.
That's the long and short of what I have planned out.
Dude, do not get limited by lore canon. From what I heard, this a weakness of White Wolf games and it would be in your best interest to ignore it.
I will have to keep it in mind anyway because I know at least one of my players to be a bit of a lore junkie and he might call me out on it. That's actually why I plan to introduce the Alchemicals, because I don't think he'd know about them in or out of character.
World's Cutest Direwolf
You know what this thread needs? Hidden Horse Style
, Exalted's official best martial art.
Jupiterian Local
The real treasure of this martial art is the horses you’ve met along the way. Once per scene, the martial artist may invoke this Charm when she or her mount is struck by an attack to declare that a passing horse leapt into its path, saving her.
I approve of this wholeheartedly.
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
"Wait, was that last one a llama?"
Hey, we just got a little preview of Arms of the Chosen dealing with how the whole "magical material resonance" thing works now. Pretty interesting.
What happen to the infernal exalted? were they retcon?
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
No, they're coming. They weren't mentioned in the corebook though so I think they're saving discussion of anything to do with them until their book drops.
"No, they're coming."
Not with that speed of releases.
Coming slowly and not coming at all are very different things.
World's Cutest Direwolf
Hey-oh!
Anyway, cool sword, nice to see an indication that Exalted books are still getting worked on, and I see Liminals just kind of suck at Evocations.
Besides Infernals, Alchemicals and two unknowns are currently being kept under the devs' hats for third edition.
Jupiterian Local
Honestly, I'm pretty much over my Exalted hype at this point. My game tends to go full magic tea party more often than not, because the mechanics are often too much of a pain to deal with. When you don't want to get into fights and try out new abilities because you don't want to spend the time banging your head against the rules figuring out how it actually works mechanically, that's a bad, bad sign.
Which is a pity, really, because my players love the setting and the concepts. They just hate the rules. I can't even say I disagree with them on that, either.
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
Same. I wonder might be possible to cobble together from other systems, like taking D&D's combat.
World's Cutest Direwolf
Our own Dr Tentacles homebrewed up an Exalted system you might be interested in taking a look at.
And as long as I'm linking giant fan projects, check out this 3E Sidereals book someone did.
Another Arms of the Chosen preview, this time featuring a time-manipulating starmetal wrackstaff made from a stolen branch of a peach tree of immortality.
World's Cutest Direwolf
Nice. And the background has me wondering how a ruby eye of Hesieh ended up on a Solar's ring in the first place.
Since it didn't come up last time this thread got bumped, Minton and Vance are the Exalted devs now, and look to be trying to Win Back the Crowd.
Looking at the sword from the previous preview, it's a look into the shenanigans the Solars were up to that led to the Usurpation.
Another one. this time it's a few dragon-blooded charms.
Huh, I could have sworn that anything bad and not-mortal was Anathema. Turns out, we're both right. From page 74 in the 3e core book:
In practice, most inhabitants of the Realm (and Immaculate-influenced cultures) associate the term "Anathema" exclusively with the Solar and especially Lunar Exalted.