#exalted character

[irregularcircle]

Name Takahashi Sayuri (formerly Ledaal)

Exaltation Dragonblood

Elemental Aspect Air

Weapon(s) Whirlwind’s Aria the blue jade jian, and three blue jade throwing knives named Hearsay, Rumor, and Suggestion

Goal(s) Avoid being captured by the Wyld Hunt, figure out the truth about the Anathema, maybe establish her own house somewhere out in the Scavenger Lands

Fear(s) Getting caught and tried for desertion, getting her face and/or soul eaten by the Anathema, dying in some really stupid way and becoming a cautionary tale/joke

Defining Feature(s) Small, airy tattoos of cherry blossoms, clouds, and butterflies trailing down her entire right arm from shoulder to wrist

Quick Biography

Born to the dynastic house Ledaal, Sayuri was an admirable student and very aesthetically poised, on top of being something of a beauty. This made her a desirable prospect for marriage, but when her parents struck an engagement for her to someone she couldn’t stand, Sayuri surprised everyone by volunteering for military service to avoid the wedding. She took the first out she could find: the Wyld Hunt. 

Unfortunately, not only did Sayuri loathe military life, being a part of the Wyld Hunt presented her with an even worse problem. Not long after she joined the ranks, the Hunt was called out to put down a recently-Exalted Solar. The Solar in question was a teenage girl who had been trying to shut down a human trafficking ring. Instead, she had been shut down by dozens of heavily armed Dragonbloods. When Sayuri asked if they were also going to deal with the human traffickers, she was told it was none of the Wyld Hunt’s concern. (In fact, there were decent odds that some of the money from the flesh trade was making it into dynastic coffers.) Rather than be suspected as an Anathema-sympathizer or get a reputation for questioning orders, Sayuri ditched this new obligation, too, deserting the Wyld Hunt the first chance she got, and striking out into the Threshold on her own. She soon took up with a roving band of unattached Dragonbloods who called themselves mercenaries in order to make some income, but it soon became apparent that they were just thugs. Their leader, Najir, blackmailed Sayuri into staying, threatening to turn her in to the Realm for desertion if she gave him trouble. 

Trapped in yet another situation she didn’t want, Sayuri played along until one day Najir’s band tried to rob the small frontier town of Pelt. Unfortunately, this time the half-dozen dragons were utterly outmatched by the three Celestial Exalts defending the town. Rachna alone took out Najir with one slash, and gave the remaining dragons an ultimatum: either leave Pelt and never return, or surrender and serve them instead. Several members of the group fled the town. Sayuri stayed. 

If asked why she decided to throw in her lot with three ‘Anathema’, Sayuri might’ve answered that she still felt guilty about the teenage girl who had been cut down when she was just trying to make the world a better place. Perhaps she thought that no one had a stronger desire to avoid the Realm than Anathema. Maybe she just felt like she had nowhere else to go. 

Likes Fresh air, strong sake, throwing knives, good silk, sarcasm, cold drinks, freedom, sleeping in

Dislikes Being told what to do, rigid social expectations, hot weather, cheap clothes, Immaculate monks/nuns, terrible handwriting

Relationship to

Anjali 

Her primary… ‘master’, ‘leader’, and ‘employer’ are all the wrong term for the sort of relationship Anjali has with Sayuri, but regardless, Anjali is the person Sayuri takes most of her cues from, and who she gives the most respect to. This isn’t to say that she sasses off to any of the Celestials (she’s not that brave), but she’s nicer to Anjali. It helps that they’re both scholars, and can talk on similar wavelengths and topics. Sayuri often helps Anjali with old texts, or correspondence, and Anjali finds it useful having another sorcerer around to share the Essence load of spellwork. 

Rachna

Sayuri recognizes that Rachna is Anjali’s partner and therefore the most important person in her life, but she is slightly uncomfortable around him. She can’t help but feel as though he doesn’t trust her, even though Sayuri has done nothing to give him a reason to be suspicious of her. 

Shem

The recently-Exalted Lunar single dad who lives in Pelt, and who took a personal beef with raiders in his town, Shem chilled out considerably toward Sayuri once the mercenaries were routed and Sayuri mentioned that she hadn’t wanted anything to do with them anyway. He offered to let Sayuri stay in Pelt if she wanted to start over, but Sayuri declined, not wanting to spend the rest of her life in a tiny frontier town with almost no amenities.

[toxinfox]

Malati, the Resplendent Orchid, Chosen of Secrets (Marker on Bristol, 2023)

FINALLY I have a stand-alone portrait of Malati! She’s been in a few pictures, but always with her sisters Anjali and Kaveri. She might be young, but she’s already a force to be reckoned with, as any good Exalt should be. 

She has a full bio up on my Exalted side-blog, Irregular Circle.

[tacticiankate]

finally finished this - my changing moon lunar, Lustrous Emerald Demise :)

[karagna]

The queen "A Resplendent Eclipse Heralds the Arrival of the Heavenly Celestial Daughter" and her High General in Command, Andreus.

[theotterpenguin]

the performative accusation that shipping zutara (and occasionally this criticism is levied at jinko/zukka) is colonialist apologism has been addressed in some excellent posts, explaining the inaccuracies and problematic implications of this logic far better than i ever could - like this post and this one and this one and this one and this one.

and i know this topic has been talked about to death, but if you could indulge my contribution for a moment, i just find it interesting how this sentiment results from the cognitive dissonance of atla fans being unable to reconcile with the idea of their favorite show's political beliefs not lining up with their own.

atla is a largely philosophical children's show that at its core deals with themes of love, redemption, and destiny vs. free-will. atla examines these themes through an anti-colonalist, anti-imperalist lens that deconstructs the idea of racial divisiveness and the idea that people of different ethnicities are inherently different. this is message is pretty explicitly stated by guru pathik:

Guru Pathik: "The greatest illusion of this world is the illusion of separation. Things you think are separate and different are actually one and the same." Aang: "Like the four nations?" Guru Pathik: "Yes. We are all one people. But we live as if divided."

and also by uncle iroh:

"It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If you take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale. Understanding others, the other elements and the other nations will help you become whole."

this theme is developed across three full seasons, with the crux of this message culminating in zuko's friendships with the gaang - despite coming from different nationalities and different backgrounds, they have all had their own experiences being hurt by the fire nation and work together to take down the oppressive fire nation government. the question of destiny vs. free will is also explored through zuko's character - despite starting off as an antagonist, he develops into a symbolic representation of how the fire nation's oppression hurts its own citizens. he unlearns the fire nation's imperialist propaganda while simultaneously unlearning his father's abuse. rather than following misguided beliefs of what he thought his destiny was as the heir to the throne, instead he forges his own path.

thus, to claim that zuko can never form a deep and meaningful relationship with any of the gaang because of his nationality goes unequivocally against the themes of the show. and a major part of this is because these are fictional characters being used to analyze different theoretical questions within the show and in some cases, are used as symbolic representations of different philosophical ideas - their friendships and their character arcs serve a purpose within the text that cannot be easily transcribed onto real-life dynamics between people.

it's illogical to criticize fans who are choosing to understand atla at the level of the themes that are presented by the text - who are interested in exploring similar philosophical questions brought up by the show through the context of relationships.

if you don't like the themes of forgiveness and redemption that atla explores, your criticism should be aimed at the writing of the show itself rather than other fans. because you are giving far more thought to the "implications" of a close friendship or romantic relationship between someone from an imperalist nation and someone from an oppressed nation than the writers ever did. (and if you fall in this camp of people, i would hope you wouldn't be reblogging fanart of zuko and the gaang together while simultaneously claiming zuko could can never escape the sins of his ancestors and can never form a deep relationship based on trust and intimacy with katara or sokka or jin - because that would just be hypocritical).

and as a side note, people seem to apply this flawed logic to zutara far more than other ships solely because the show spends the most time exploring the complicated nature of fire nation imperalism in the interactions between zuko and katara in the latter half of b3. this is because they've been juxtapositioned against each other and paralleled with aang since the beginning of the show in ways that toph, sokka, and suki are not, who have mostly been used to examine different themes. there simply isn't enough time to explore these complicated themes with all the other characters, even if they theoretically exist in zuko’s dynamics with these characters, so the writers focus the most on zuko's relationships with katara and aang, and these relationships are given far more narrative weight, so have more content to criticize. but zuko and katara also canonically become friends by the end of the show. if you want to discount the existence of their friendship, claiming that it will always be tainted by the fire nation's oppression regardless of what is shown in the text, then you also have to discount zuko's friendships with aang, suki, toph, and sokka - because even if this isn't shown as a permanent barrier to their friendships in the show, it’s also not shown as a permanent barrier to his friendship with katara. if your logic is solely based on the idea that a person's identity in a relationship as a colonizer or a victim is fixed and unchanging regardless of character development, this would apply to zuko's friendships with everyone else as well.

[dailydungeondelves]

Another 3 artfight characters. I'm having fun staying with softer lines and colours!

Characters are Sol, The Crucified Dreamer, and Grasping Arms of the Octopus, belonging to @papastacat, @angelasasserart and @guybitesatgames respectively.

[dice-wizard]

Hello everyone looking for a new fantasy tabletop game!

You can buy Exalted Essence now.

What's Exalted you ask?

Exalted is an epic fantasy TTRPG where players play the titular Exalted - humans elevated to superhuman/demigod status - in a wild and unique setting that draws inspiration from the ancient world rather than medieval Europe. Creation (the setting) draws key inspirations from the entire world. If you're used to having to make yourself visible on your own in other fantasy, there's probably some representation in Exalted.

It has explicit queer and trans themes about finding your people, creating your own identity, and having the power to punch back at the people who hate you. This isn't incidental. The writing staff is queer as hell. You can hear me break this down more here.

Curious to learn all you can? Well you can get a detailed overview of the entire game on the podcast Systematic Understanding of Everything hosted by myself, @presidentofbirds and @phillycuriosity

If I'm used to D&D 5e why should I pick this up?

Well, I presume if you're reading this post you're already interested in trying something new, so:

The entire game in one book. Exalted: Essence is self contained, character types, equipment, enemies and all!

An exciting style of fantasy that's different than classic D&D but like, textually gay, and very easy to have scenes like ballroom fights, epic galas, and touching homoerotic healing scenes - no house rules required.

But also, tactical depth and combat you can really sink your teeth into if fighting monsters and villains is your bag.

An excuse to use all your d10s at once

Character building and advancement mechanics designed to be familiar to a 5e audience. Characters "level up" based on story beats, and have Advantages, which are functionally similar to class and race features.

A world welcoming to most heroic archetypes, so it's easy to convert your favorite OC.

Extremely kissable dragons, demons, gods, elementals, ghosts, faeries, and unnamed ancient horrors

I'm a fan of a previous edition, what's Essence got for me?

Design focused on alleviating some of the previous versions' missteps

Virtues are back, baby

2e fans will find it an improvement from second edition's mechanical strengths - it's pretty easy to convert all your favorite 2e Charms to XS.

Streamlined versions of familiar rules to make it painless to introduce new friends to the game we love.

The Cliff's notes on Ex3's new Exalt types.

Did I mention it's all of Exalted in one book?

How does it play?

d10 dice pool looking for 7,8,9 as successes. 10s count as two successes, which can lead to explosive, heroic outcomes

Combat system designed to keep all players engaged the entire time - even characters who aren't focused on fighting at all.

Combat also narrows the gap between experienced and new players and players who want to win at RPGs and players who just wanna vibe so GMs aren't tearing their hair out trying to balance encounters.

Social system designed to resolve in a single roll so you can be immersed in role play and not interrupt it with constant rolling - without sacrificing a variety of social approaches

"Ventures" system for characters working on long term projects from traveling across the world to crafting magical wonders to building communities without forcing this to be "downtime" activity

Characters have access to Charms - exception-based special powers that make them extremely good at whatever they focus on.

It's easily my favorite game (and the project I developed that I'm the proudest of), so I'm excited for everyone to try it out.

[probablybadrpgideas]

Exaltation, as well as immortality, power and authority, gives the Exalted absolutely massive badonahonkas. Just huge great honkalonkanas. Utterly enormous monkanoloknos. Tremendous...

[guybitesatgames]

The Chosen of Secrets I'm playing right now in Exalted Essence. It feels silly that the secret spy types would all go around wearing highly identifiable green, so I took it in a different direction. Character info under the cut (with some spoilers so if you're in that play group...)

Nabbed the pose from a Pride pack by @albanenechi ! I haven't decided which flags apply to him yet, so for now he gets a pale rainbow.

Toshiaki, Who Smiles Through The Ink is an intelligence officer for the Celestial Bureaucracy, currently tasked with aiding (and keeping an eye on) a mixed circle of Exalts in the polluted city of Nexus. He utilizes a number of Resplendent Destinies to pose as sages, priests and bureaucrats to infiltrate any institutions that'd give the circle trouble and wipe their existence from the record.

He's a sorcerer who only knows one spell, Theft of Memory, and he doesn't remember the details of his Exaltation. Curious, that. All he knows is that he was sighted before, and an undercover member of House Iselsi, and now he's neither.

Each of the charms on his necklace represents either another member of the circle, or one of his commonly used Resplendent Destinies. He's given similar charm bracelets to his circlemates, so that, should his Arcane Fate assert itself and remove knowledge of him from their minds, he can show them proof of their connection. Memory is such a delicate thing.

[jellisdraws]

“Speak softly lest my fangs find you.”

Recent comm of a badass Saurian character and his signature weapon, Mancatcher. Lineart is below the cut!

I have a few slots available for commissions!

Anything I can’t post here is on my Patreon, Patreon.com/JellisDraws

[irregularcircle]

Reclamation, Page 24

Uh oh, the Twilight is making the thinky face. Something's up.

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[theuncrucified]

Merry Calibration to my Exalted Secret Santa giftee, @paint-lady! I had the honor of drawing their gorgeous Moonshadow Abyssal, The Marionette Dancing on Bloody Sinew. I wish the Marionette many more dark and mysterious misadventures this year!

Drawn in Procreate.

Watch a timelapse

[lenuer]

Praise the sun beep boop

[tacticiankate]

Exalted doodles from a little while ago - had a fancy party so everyone got a dance with Emerald (except the zenith caste who was busy going into limit break and causing problems on purpose) 🦚🌙

[karagna]

My Getimian exalted, Resplendent Eclipse, and my partner's exalt, aka her former general, Graves :]

[propalitetz]

i did this commission of beautiful babygirl rev for a dear friend of mine :> (she is her lunar exalt from an upcoming exhalted ttrpg campaign) i had a LOT of fun doing all her jewelry and her beautiful hair! (i think i like the moon design on her skirt the most bc its the first thing i came up with). i also see tumblr eats details lmfao so fullview for cool shit like embossing on the gladiator shoes and little moon pins on them, also the little fox heads on her bracer, etc