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toxinfox · 2 years

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Exaltober, Days 2, 3, and 4: Light of the Unconquered, Shapechangers of Silver, Weavers of Starmetal

The Skalishaya Sisters

Born into a family of scavengers whose fortunes were made or broken by raiding tombs and uncovering artifacts, the three sisters Anjali, Kaveri, and Malati were scattered across Creation when the untimely (?) deaths of their parents Kirandir and Nakanadi caused them to lose track of each other until adulthood.

Anjali Skalishaya, No Moon Lunar

Anjali, the eldest, was 19 and old enough to accompany her parents on that fateful trip to a long-forgotten manse in the deep East. Three mortals entered the manse. One Exalt left. Anjali, newly bereft and terrified of what her remaining family would think of what she’d become, wandered in the East for a time before encountering a circle of Solars, whom she worked with for many years, reclaiming the lost university of Sperimin/Mahalanka from Raksi, thwarting the schemes of a circle of Abyssals, and eventually encountering her Celestial mate, Rachna... (but that’s a whole other story!).

Kaveri Shendo, Night Caste Solar

Too young to accompany their parents on the Eastern manse job, Kaveri, who was 10 years old at the time, and Malati, who was only 6, stayed behind with their Aunt Jindei and Uncle Ursho Shendo in Farhold while their parents and older sister Anjali ventured into the deep East. When months passed and no one returned from the expedition, it became clear that... no one ever would.

Ursho was a Lookshyan soldier on leave, and had to return to Lookshy, so, rightly assuming the two girls were now orphans, he packed Kaveri and Malati up, and he and Jindei headed back to Lookshy with the two girls. While Malati was misplaced along the way, Kaveri grew up in Lookshy, receiving military training as an excellent archer.

But when she accidentally uncovered a plot involving the highly dangerous Mourning Field just outside Lookshy’s southern gates, her efforts to investigate landed her whole family in trouble with the law. Her aunt and uncle were thrown in prison, and Kaveri was on the lam. Determined to stop whatever was going on, Kaveri did something bold and desperate: she broke into the bedroom of the Chumyo of Lookshy, forged a letter of pardon using the signet ring on the sleeping man’s finger, and then smuggled herself into the Nightwatch Citadel prison on the underside of a supply cart, intending to present the letter of pardon to the warden. She was moments from the warden’s door when she Exalted.

Malati, the Resplendent Orchid, Chosen of Secrets

On the way back to Lookshy, the small family of aunt, uncle, and two young girls passed through Nexus. While making their way through a crowded market, Malati got separated from the rest of the family, and in spite of days of looking, was never found. Devastated but on a timetable, eventually, Ursho and Jindei had to stop looking and continue on to Lookshy with Kaveri.

In truth, they never would have found Malati, because minutes after she’d been misplaced in the bustling market, she was snatched up by a Sidereal and taken to Yu Shan, where it was foretold that when she reached 18, she herself would Exalt as one of the favored of the Maidens, and her Fate looked bright indeed.

Malati grew up in Yu Shan, and retained hazy memories of her parents and sisters. When she was a teenager, she entered into the training of an old and powerful master: Chejop Kejak himself. She was a brilliant martial artist even before she Exalted, and Kejak treated her like a favored pupil, but whenever she asked him about her family, he would say very little, other than that she should let them go-- as a Seneschal of the Maidens, she would have greater responsibilities than looking for a handful of mortals who wouldn’t remember her anyway.

So of course, she she did finally Exalt, Malati read the Loom for herself to see if she could find out what had happened to her family. She found, of course, that her mother and father’s threads had snapped long ago, when she was a little girl. But the threads of her two sisters, Anjali and Kaveri.... burned a brilliant, shining gold and silver. They were Celestial Exalts.

With Kejak’s Bronze Faction teachings feeling very heavy on her shoulders, Malati had a choice to make. Follow the philosophy of the man who had trained her and counseled her for a large portion of her young life... or find her sisters, her only living family, and see for herself if the Celestial Exalted really were that bad...

#Exaltober #exalted #exalted art #sisters #characters #bit of a ramble

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toxinfox · 2 years

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Exalted, Day 8: Fairest of the Fair Folk

...Sorry, no actual Fair Folk in this comic. The Wyld is at least mentioned in passing, though.

This comic includes Yaxkin (Fiend Caste infernal), Rook (Twilight Caste Solar), and Kaveri (Night Caste Solar).

#exalted #exaltober #exalted comic #exalted rpg #exalted ttrpg #solar exalted #infernal #comic #comic strip

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toxinfox · 2 years

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Exaltober, Day 11: Way of the Immaculates

Malati, the youngest Skalishaya sister, was mentored by Chejop Kejak himself, and is a terrifyingly good martial artist. Rachna, who has extensive memories from the First Age, has his own opinions about Malati’s sifu.

Characters in this comic:

Malati, the Resplendent Orchid (Chosen of Secrets Sidereal, dark purple hair)

Kaveri Shendo (Night Caste Solar, dark red hair)

Anjali Skalishaya (No Moon Lunar, purple/blonde hair)

Rachna, Anjali’s mate (Scourge Caste Infernal, face tattoo)

Rook (Twilight Solar, white robe)

#exalted #exaltober #exalted art #exalted comic #solars #lunars #sidereals #infernals

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toxinfox · 2 years

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Exaltober Day Two: Light of the Unconquered

Note: My entries for Days 2, 3, and 4 will be combined into one image that drops on Day 4. In the meantime, and for any Exaltober days that I don’t have specific images to match the prompts, please enjoy some of the quick little comics I’ve made over the years of my group’s various Exalted characters in everyday situations.

The characters seen here are Kaveri (redhead, Night Caste Solar), and Anjali (purple/blonde hair, No Moon Lunar), who are sisters.

#Exaltober #Exalted #Exalted art #exalted comic

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irregularcircle · 2 years

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Name Kaveri Shendo

Exaltation Solar

Caste Night Caste

Weapon(s) Stinging Conscience, an Orichalcum short power bow

Language(s) Rivertongue, Low Realm, a bit of Old Realm

Goal(s) Protect Lookshy from falling to its enemies, maybe start some grand project with Rook

Fear(s) Losing her sisters again, Lookshy falling, doing something she regrets for the rest of her life, getting her friends killed

Likes Spicy food (no, spicier than that), workouts, wide open plains, the cover of darkness, causing a good jump-scare, trick shots, drinking games

Dislikes Formality, bland food, getting up early, being the center of attention, very confined spaces, paperwork

Defining feature(s) Deep red hair in a hip-length braid, tall and slim with minimal curves.

Interesting Extras Kaveri is attracted to authority figures. Unfortunately, as a Solar, the list of people she considers an authority figure is a short one. About the only thing that scratches that particular itch is another Solar asserting dominance over someone else.

Quick Biography

Born to Kirandir and Nakanadi Skalishaya, Kaveri is the middle sister, nine years younger than her elder sister Anjali, and five years older than her younger sister, Malati. Kaveri was only ten when her parents and older sister disappeared into the deep East, searching for a lost Lunar manse. Far too young to accompany them, Kaveri and Malati stayed behind with Nakanadi’s sister, Jindei (the girls’ aunt), and Jindei’s husband, Ursho Shendo.

Kaveri was, however, old enough to know what it meant when her parents and sister never came home. Eventually, with Kirandir, Nakanadi, and Anjali all presumed dead to the many perils of the East, Ursho and Jindei took Kaveri and Malati and headed back for Ursho’s home city– Lookshy. Tragedy didn’t stop with the loss of Kaveri’s older sister and parents, however; on the trip home, the small family misplaced Malati in a crowd of people. In spite of a week of searching, she was never found, and, distraught but out of time and with no leads, Ursho, Jindei, and Kaveri moved on.

Once in Lookshy, Kaveri settled into her new life as a Lookshyan citizen. When she turned twelve, she started junior drill training, preparing to fulfill her military service, as all Lookshyan citizens did for at least a time. She very quickly proved to be an adept archer, and her superiors groomed her for eventual service in a field archer’s division later.

When she was not training, Kaveri aided her aunt and uncle with their day jobs as scribes and message couriers. Kaveri had spent her early childhood being raised by scavenger scholars, so she could read and write, and had respectable calligraphy, so she took to scribe work quickly, but she really enjoyed the freedom that delivering messages gave her – she had a pass to almost anywhere in the city, and very quickly noticed that no one ever gave the messenger a second look.

Kaveri was twenty when her cozy, stable new life came crashing down again. One day, her aunt accidentally intercepted a message she wasn’t supposed to read, and discovered that something fishy was going on. Someone, it seemed, was feeding the chumyo (the military ruler of Lookshy) some dubious advice about the Mourning Field– the small but particularly nasty shadowland right on Lookshy’s doorstep. Kaveri was determined to figure out who was feeding such terrible advice to the chumyo, and tracked the source of the shady correspondence to an Anathema who made Kaveri’s skin crawl. (Whom she later learned was an Abyssal.)

But before they could figure out what to do, or how to warn the chumyo (assuming he didn’t already know), the family was caught reading the chumyo’s correspondence, and immediately placed under arrest for treason. Only Kaveri evaded capture. Her aunt and uncle were thrown into the Nightwatch Citadel. She feared they might be slated for something worse than a simple prison sentence…

Desperate not to lose ANOTHER set of parental figures, Kaveri did something desperate and foolish, and forged a letter of pardon in the chumyo’s handwriting, wrote him a separate note to explain what was going on, broke into his villa while he was sleeping, and used his seal – that was still on his finger!!-- to make the forged letter look official. And then…

And then she broke into the Nightwatch Citadel, by clinging to the bottom of a supply cart. Once she was in… she relied on the functional invisibility of a messenger, and walked to the warden’s office, trying not to panic too obviously. Her hand was almost on the doorknob when she Exalted. Due to a combination of a reasonably authentic-looking (if suspicious) letter of pardon being delivered by a (very definitely real) Anathema, the warden okayed the release of Jindei and Ursho, who fled out the eastern gate with their immediate effects, unaware of who the blazing golden figure watching them leave was.

Shortly after, before she could catch up to them, Kaveri was run out of Lookshy by a handful of young dragonbloods who were sympathetic to the Immaculates, and she was forced to hide in the countryside until her anima calmed down again. In that time, she located an abandoned manse with an orichalcum bow inside, and encountered Rook… who ultimately helped her locate her aunt and uncle.

Relationship to

Rook

The first Celestial Exalt Kaveri encountered after she herself had Exalted, Rook was Kaveri’s first ally, and remains her closest friend. She admires his intellect and his relentless inventiveness… and also thinks that his occasional moments of farm boy naivete are so endearing. The two of them have a semi-casual friends-with-benefits partnership, although every now and then, when she catches him asserting himself, Kaveri finds Rook very, very attractive. Neither is sure how deep the feelings of the other are, but for the time being, both Solars intend to work together for the foreseeable future.

Anjali

Kaveri’s older sister Anjali was sort of a role model/babysitter/teacher figure for Kaveri when they were growing up. As a child, Kaveri had always tried to impress her older sister, and while she didn’t prove to be quite as effortlessly bright and clever as Anjali always was, Kaveri did have excellent calligraphy, and their father Kirandir had always believed that someday Kaveri would be a proper expert at circumventing locks and traps and things in tombs. When Anjali disappeared alongside their parents on the expedition into the Deep East, Kaveri was devastated– her sister, her mentor, was gone, and all of her dreams of adventure together had gone with her.

Rediscovering Anjali– and learning that she, too, was an Exalt– had been the second most astonishing revelation of Kaveri’s life, just ahead of losing her in the first place, and only slightly behind her own Exaltation. The two sisters are still trying to figure out how their relationship works now – time and Exaltation and the presence of partners has complicated things– but they are ecstatic to have found each other and hope to work together for the long term.

Malati

If Anjali was Kaveri’s role model and mentor figure, Kaveri strove to be something similar for Malati, her little sister. Five years apart in age, the girls were normal sisters for the most part– sometimes Kaveri was annoyed by Malati always tagging along, and other times, she fiercely defended Malati from any threat, whether it was other children teasing her, or a scary spider. She doubled down on her intention to protect Malati when Anjali and their parents disappeared, and when Malati herself was lost as the girls and their aunt and uncle passed through Nexus, Kaveri bore that feeling of failure for years. Kaveri has never admitted to it, but her Aunt Jindei strongly suspects that Kaveri refused to cut her hair after Malati was lost, because she had just learned to braid a few weeks before her disappearance in Nexus.

Upon encountering Malati now, in adulthood, with all three sisters as Exalts, Kaveri isn’t sure how to relate to Malati. The childhood feeling of failing as a protector conflicts with delight at finding out her little sister is alive and well… but Kaveri is also aware that Malati has spent more than a decade being trained by Sidereals before becoming one herself. She knows, as much as she doesn’t want to admit it, that she doesn’t really know Malati anymore. She WANTS to… but there is a lot more hesitation there than she feels with Anjali.

#Exalted #exalted rpg #solar exalted #exalted ttrpg #exalted art #exalted character bio #Kaveri

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irregularcircle · 2 years

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Name/Title Malati, the Resplendent Orchid

Exaltation Sidereal

Caste Chosen of Secrets

Weapon(s) Delicate scrollwork Starmetal bracers

Language(s) Low Realm, Celestial, Rivertongue, Old Realm

Goal(s) Figure out the truth of the Anathema… and what the real most pressing issue is in Creation right now

Fear(s) Being wrong about her sisters and discovering that they’re actually monsters after all… and that her Sifu was right all along.

Likes Order and discipline, Perfect Noodle, Meditation, martial arts, snooping for a bit of juicy information, hearing Anjali talk about what mom and dad were like, fancy clothes and toiletries,

Dislikes Chaos she doesn’t control, Abyssals, Sifu’s disapproval, strong drinks, very spicy food, anything poor quality

Defining feature(s) Deep purple wavy hair, mother of pearl orchid clip in her hair

Theme Song “Stars Align”, by Lindsey Stirling

Interesting Extras Malati is friends with several half-snake god/dess siblings (there are 53 of them– she doesn’t know them all), who are the one-night-stand kids of one of Anjali’s old circlemates, Reinhardt.

Quick Biography

Orphaned when she was just 5 years old, alongside her older sister Kaveri, Malati was originally intended to return to Lookshy with Kaveri and their aunt and uncle once the girls’ parents and older sister, Anjali, failed to return from an expedition in the deep east. The small family even made it as far as Nexus before tragedy struck: while moving through a dense crowd, Malati got lost and separated from the rest of her family. In spite of looking for days, Aunt, Uncle, and sister Kaveri never found Malati, and eventually, to their deep heartbreak, were forced to move on.

Rather than being lost to the seedy underbelly of Nexus, however, Malati had been rescued– or abducted, depending on how you look at it– and taken to Yu Shan by a Sidereal, as the little girl was fated to Exalt under the auspices of the Maiden of Secrets… but she’d never live long enough if she wasn’t rescued from Nexus.

Therefore, Malati grew up in Yu Shan, raised by an assortment of gods and Sidereals, and trained in bureaucracy, martial arts, and plenty of subterfuge. Everyone’s favorite daughter, Malati became accustomed to little luxuries, and looked forward to the day she Exalted, and could really put her training to use. She told no one, except her close half-snake friend Rania, however, that what she was looking forward to most was being able to read the Loom of Fate, and figure out what had happened to her parents and sisters… whom she only vaguely remembered.

Eventually, when she did Exalt, near her 18th birthday, her martial arts sifu told her that she had a new teacher now– one who could make her into a far more formidable weapon than he ever could. And with that, Malati entered the tutelage of none other than Chejop Kejak. Their relationship was a mixed one– he was a strict instructor who expected nothing short of excellence from her, but it was clear in glimpses that she was among his favorite pupils… a fact which was confirmed when he ‘graduated’ her from his training, proclaiming her ‘ready’, and ‘one of the finest students he ever taught’.

With all of his martial arts teachings, however, Malati had been thoroughly indoctrinated with Kejak’s Bronze faction ideology– the notion that the Solar and Lunar Exalted were not to be trusted, and could not be relied on to rule the world as they had in the past. And she believed him wholeheartedly…

…until the day she went to read the Loom for herself, and saw what had become of her two sisters. One was a Lunar Exalt. The other a Solar. And for the first time, Malati doubted. Because she didn’t remember much about her sisters, but what little she did know couldn’t believe that they were monsters.

And so, under the guise of intending to hamstring the designs of the Anathema, Malati took it upon herself to figure out who her sisters were, what they were doing to Creation, and who she really believed.

Relationship to

Chejop Kejak

Mentor, teacher, sifu, and in some ways a sort of stern father-figure to her, Malati has deep and mixed feelings about Chejop Kejak. She believes him about necessity of the Usurpation, and the necessity to keep the chosen of the Sun and Moon from power, but she’s also convinced there is more than meets the eye, and desperately wants to know. But she’s also very afraid of disappointing him, or losing his trust.

Anjali

Malati remembers very little about Anjali from when she was a small child, but what she does remember is positive. She recalls Anjali reading to her, and teaching her Old Realm words for things… most of which Malati did not retain. Now that Malati has encountered her again, now that all of the sisters are Exalted, Malati recognizes the sparkling intellect, and gentle, teaching personality she remembers of Anjali… but she worries about her eldest sister’s newfound animal side… and how deep it runs.

Kaveri

While Anjali was much older than Malati (19 to Malati’s 5), Kaveri was much closer to her in age (10 to Malati’s 5). Malati has slightly more memories of playing with Kaveri– climbing trees, playing hide and seek, pretending to be princesses or warriors or whatever the thing of the day was. Having found Kaveri again, Malati isn’t surprised that her middle sister took to the fighter lifestyle of Lookshy, and remains an agile, active person. But the words of her mentor echo in her head, and she wonders whether her sister can really be trusted with the awesome and terrible power of Sol Invictus… or whether her tendency toward stealth and combat will make her a dangerous liability in the future.

#Exalted #exalted ttrpg #exalted bio #exalted character #exalted character bio #Malati #Sidereal

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toxinfox · 2 years

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Exaltober, Day 9

A sequel to yesterday’s comic! No Hungry Ghosts in today’s comic, but I guess Kaveri was hungry? It’s okay, she’s from Lookshy; her spiciness tolerance is second to none.

Comic includes Rook (Twilight Solar) and Kaveri (Night Caste Solar), as well as Rachna (Scourge Caste Infernal) and Yaxkin (Fiend Caste Infernal).

Rook has had a crush on Kaveri basically since they met, but has never had a romantic relationship, so he’s shy and awkward about bringing it up. Apparently the mortals his shard chooses are notoriously bad at romance, because Rachna and Yaxkin, whose Infernal shards bear memories of the First Age, remember Rook’s predecessors having the same problem...

#exalted #exaltober #exalted comic #exalted art #solars #infernals #spicy

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toxinfox · 2 years

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"So we're all in agreement then?" said Anjali, glancing over the spell one more time to be sure it would serve their purposes. "If there are no objections, let’s-" Beside her, Kaveri stiffened, and nocked an arrow. "Anjali. Someone's here." * The madness took me and I did a high-effort group image of all five of my Celestial Exalts conspiring together over something. For fellow Exalted fans, the image is riddled with little hints as to what kind of Exalts they all are, if you know what you're looking for/at. For those who don't feel like trying to decode the symbols and/or don't have any idea who these people are/what Exalted is, the character names/castes/etc are below, from left to right: Forsaken Bride of Crimson Vows, Moonshadow Abyssal (sitting pirate with femur-handled cat-o-nine-tails. Symbols include blood splatter on wall, skull, and broken statue of a Solar, indicating that she's a fallen Solar) Kaveri Shendo, Night Caste Solar (standing, with orichalcum bow. As if the bow wasn't a dead giveaway, her main symbol is the golden stained glass 'halo' behind her. She's an imperfect Solar, but still intact.) Anjali Skalishaya, No Moon Lunar (sitting, with book and pair of moonsilver short klaives. Tattoos are a dead giveaway, but she also has the obvious symbolism of the nearly-gone moon above her.) Malati, the Resplendent Orchid, Chosen of Secrets Sidereal (sitting on broken wall/window. Symbolism includes the stars and spiderweb above her head.) Yaxkin (Surname and/or title pending), Fiend Caste Infernal (sitting on floor, scantily dressed. Symbolism includes the dragon on the mosaic floor below her, the fingers crossed behind her back, the twisty patterns and criss-crossed laces on her sandals, the snake-eyes dice, and the broken pot with a Solar on it, indicating that she, like Bride, is a fallen Solar.) * Marker, Micron pens, and a tiny bit of white gel pen on printer-sized Bristol board, approximately 3 days of work.

#Exalted #Exalted rpg #characters #character art #rpg characters #Solar #Lunar #Abyssal #Sidereal #Infernal #marker #markers #marker art #copic #copic markers

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