#exalted essence

[dice-wizard]

Okay Exalted Tumblr, I think we need to start up a sibling rivalry with Vampire Tumblr. Maybe all of WoD Tumblr if we're feeling spicy but Vampire fans first and foremost.

They're our weird older sibling or like super goth cousin who's cool to hang out at the family gathering and will totally let you smoke and not tell your mom.

Idk how we go about this. I just think we should. But I want it to be loving! This is not at all malicious!

@raiasintended I know you have that menace in you help me out here

[karagna]

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

[someguysart]

Week 2: Anima Banner

Upon each page is written a scandal, a cipher, the key to a mystery, but they're all moving too fast, converging in a whorl on the Sidereal. Wherever one makes contact with him, dark green ink begins to spread, blotting out any useful information. Pages blackened with wet ink cling to his form, an increasingly obscured silhouette, but for his wicked grin. Those too leaden with ink to stay aloft pool at his feet and disintegrate in his wake.

Made as part of theuncrucified's Exalted Art Challenge

[the-one-and-only-overlass]

just got into exalted and it's clear there is a lot of shit going on in here

like apparently the lore keeps getting changed and stuff

never mind the fact that apparently solars in 3e are poorly designed?

im just tripping over arguments

[trans-mouse]

Exalted Art Challenge Week 4: Beastpeople

The Amoda mothfolk are mentioned in passing as one of the Caulborn beastfolk clans… But I need way more information about them. They get two sentences, one of which says they don't believe the sun exists! What does that mean? Well, I'm a writer, so I get to make it up! This is my week 4 exalted art challenge. I couldn't really think of a way to make the weekly topic work, but the 24th was "beastpeople," so I figure that's good enough justification to get all this lore from my head onto the page!

The dozen clans of the Amoda worship Luna as the greatest of all gods beside the Caul itself, and view the sun as a feeble reflection of her divine power. She is regarded as a trickster god by them, but also as a protector against the predations of the wyld and the dragonblooded. So long as they live their lives in the moon's light, they keep themselves safe from most external threats. But walking in the moonlight means more than just keeping from sunlight; the Amoda practice trickery, and particularly theft, as a game. When not at war, practically all Amoda, from their first steps, wear lots of jewelry and adorn themselves with dangling pendants, all to be stolen. While these are meant to be protected, they are also meant to be stolen, so they tend to be crafted from pretty rocks and twists of hide and hair, rather than precious metals or gemstones. Any stolen are worn by the victor, and a pendant gains meaning with each owner attaching another adornment. Amoda folk tales regularly speak of pendants stolen a hundred times being used in battle, or in clever trades with deadly fair folk hunters.

Aside from these pendants, the most commonly stolen thing among the clans are their nocturnal cave-yaks. Boasting smaller horns and lighter but longer fur than those found elsewhere in the world, they make up the primary form of wealth and food for the clans. The most precious of them are brought with the clans, their horns decorated with charms like those they wear, while thousands more roam atop the hilly region beneath which the Amoda make their homes. It is these most precious that are stolen by other clans, rustled by night when they are grazing upon the grasses of the hills. The yaks make up their primary source of food, clothing, and tools.

In the caves beneath the hills are dozens of semi-permanent camps, and hundreds of miles of tunnels, each with stars painted on the ceiling to navigate by. These are used as the clans' primary means of travel during twilight hours, and during the summer when night hours grow scarcer. Within these camps and tunnels, the clans are at peace. While jewelry and pendants are stolen during meetings, yak and trade goods are held sacred beneath the hills. Every clan wants the others to survive, and trades are often lopsided, a clan receiving more than they offer if the other knows they need the help, in exchange for a few extra stolen trinkets.

Aside from tricksters and herders, the Amoda are expert navigators, experienced beyond simply the hills they call home, and are often hired as guides by visiting lunars; they refuse any business with the dragonblooded, preferring to keep their distance from powerful groups and stealing from weaker ones. For the most part, the Amoda clans abhor violence, preferring to lose their enemies in woods and tunnels, or to demoralize them with trickery. There are two clans that boast great warriors, often found in the employ of lunars, and they stray the furthest from their hills the most often.

Their legends are kept by priests, who have cast off their clan and family name, visiting all clans, spreading news and legends with them. While their most sacred legends are recited word for word with allowance only for dramatic sounds or gestures, any younger ones are changed to focus on favorite characters or further dramatize actions. Most of the sacred legends center around Sword-Eater, the Lunar that blessed them with their moth form, and who fought duels against hundreds of dynasts, claiming their swords as prizes. The shattered remains of these jade swords mark each camp within their caves. From Sword-Eater, they inherited fighting techniques based around disarming and humiliating their foes, as well as a hatred of the usurpers. Many newer legends center around mortals besting dragonblooded, and young and foolhardy warriors often make this their goal. The priests are also primary in dealing with the fair folk and gods that are so abundant on the Caul, though the clans typically make no rules forbidding others from doing so. Indeed, tricking a god or fae is held in high regard by every one of them. Priests are the only Amoda that do not wear pendants or jewelry, eschewing wealth and marking themselves as somewhat apart from the rest of society.

Sorcery is practiced by the sages of the clans, who practice ecstatic deprivation, gaining insight from dreams after sleepless days or feasts after a week without food. Their spells tend to resemble those cast by the dragonblooded, focussing on manipulation of elements and nature. They use these to shape the weather, ward off intruders, and in dire cases, fight those who would prey upon them. Each clan has one sage, and when they die, they select a youth to train under another clan's sage. A new sage's training complete, they return to their home clan, joining the two clans in a great feast.

Physically, the Amoda are tall, thin, and, unsurprisingly, mothlike. Their heights typically surpass those of the tallest humans they meet, thanks in part to the extra set of shoulders (and arms) they possess. They sport fluffy fur, with a soft peach fuzz over their whole body, with tufts around their wrists, legs, and neck, giving them almost a mane. The color of this fur, as well as their hair, are widely varied, seemingly not carried over from parents to children. In the rare circumstance that their hair is exposed to sunlight, it changes color, reflecting a much brighter version of their "true" colors. Their eyes are large, and they have antennae that are essential for speaking their language, which is made up not only of phonemes, but of twitches of their antennae and subvocal trills that are practically impossible to notice or hear by outsiders. Their names are made up of a personal, family, and clan name, and pronouncing them in languages aside the native tongue of the Amoda takes quite a long time. Because of this, they almost always go by nicknames to non-Amoda, who cannot hope to pronounce their names, though they appreciate lunars and gods who can speak their names.

The majority of Amoda do not have wings. They are born without them, and the process to obtain them is both exceptionally difficult and unspeakably painful. This is done via a month-long ritual of self-deprivation, drinking only water dripped from within their caves and eating nothing. As Calibration begins, the hopeful wraps themself in a handmade chrysalis, which is coated internally with a concoction that dissolves their skin and much of their muscle, reforming themselves thinner, taller, and with newfound wings. At the end of Calibration they emerge to a grand feast, where they, starved and scarred, eat their fill a dozen times over for several days. This ritual is mostly undergone by priests, all of whom must undertake the process as symbolic of Sword-Eater's ancient blessing rite that first created them, but a select few others, particularly noted duelists and sages, undergo the same process. The wings gained are not fit for flight without an enormous amount of effort and training, which many who attain them never undergo.

The Amoda have tense relationships with neighboring groups. While they are good-natured and friendly, anyone who visits them comes away with lighter pockets. When approached for trade, they are genuine and fair, but this is rare. They tend to have better trade relationships with Lunars, who either don't bring much but their necessities, or don't mind a few trinkets going missing, understanding it as the cost of doing business. While they rarely make craft with them, each clan maintain enormous underground stashes of jade and precious gems, squireling them away in hidden passageways, magically concealed from other clans. For those willing to do business with them, they offer shocking riches.

(If you've read this far, you should read my other stuff about exalted (click the tag!) and check out my patreon, https://www.patreon.com/c/NotSoLuckyLydia

It helps out a ton, and there's a bunch of free stuff on there, both about exalted and about other games!)

[spectrolitha]

Quartz Crumbs of Wyrm's Teeth (a Dusk Abyssal OC of mine) and Demise's Elder Brother (a Deathlord OC of mine). I struggled with Demise's design so much. And now I finally can draw something akin to him yay

So, Demise is Quartz's Deathlord. And he's a bastard. He uses all of Quartz's weaknesses to make him loyal, and it's not like Quartz needs much – he led such a life that now even a glimpse of affection can win him over. And Demise wisely gives him so much more, treating Quartz as a younger sibling in need of care and guidance. Which also means that whenever Quartz fails, he has to face Demise's cold wrath, which is equal parts painful and terrifying. But hey! Who cares, if Demise takes care of Quartz's wounds and gives him a headpat afterwards? Definitely not Quartz.

[shownomarcy]

not ready for a full reveal of the project I'm currently working on, but here's a little preview of something good :3

[a-wa-c]

Another deluxe edition for the collection.

[jacqueline-riggwells-gaming-blog]

I'm gonna sum up why I love being a PermaGM and why I love Exalted in one straightforward set of ideas. It's taken me a long time to get here but I'm glad I did.

Make your players feel awesome

Make their successes feel awesome

Make their failures feel awesome

Exalted, when it works, when it works for me and a group, does all that so well. Some day I'll return to Creation for another extended stay. Some day.

[doctentaclesrpg]

Kofi Link with PDF Download: Ruin Delve

Fantasy RPGs can’t ever fully shake the lure of a good dungeon. Exalted isn’t DnD or Pathfinder—you’re not shuffling through corridors by torchlight, arguing about long rests while suspiciously tactical kobolds bleed you dry one trap at a time. But it is pulp, and pulp loves ruins.

So even if it was originally launched as White Wolf’s anti-DnD, Exalted still owes Robert E. Howard some rent. Ruins are part of the game—cracked remnants of lost glory, full of ancient corpses and worse, you know the drill.

Like 60% (source: none) of published adventures are about some ancient tomb. Invisible Fortress, Tomb of Memory, Tomb of Dreams—you get the idea.

This is in direct opposition to the sort of bullshit your average Exalted charmset includes. A DnD dungeon is (allegedly) a tactical puzzle. (Or at least an attrition test.) An Exalted dungeon, mechanically, is…something. The game hasn’t been sure what between editions.

I think Ventures—introduced in Exalted Essence have finally figured out how to make dungeons work in Exalted.

Make a highlight real, essentially.

Skip the filler. Spotlight the good stuff.

Montage cut from sneaking past the ancient soul-flaying traps, to solving the puzzle that’s also a metaphor for your past life’s greatest failure. Outrun the crumbling tomb—or let it bury you and just walk out of the rubble. If you’ve got a big moment planned—a dramatic ghost showdown, a centuries-old ethical dilemma involving demons—play it out. 

Otherwise? Venture.

So I put together a custom tomb-delving venture. It pulls from research and infiltration ventures, since those already lean in the right direction, but should make session prep a mite easier.

Now go rob your own grave. (Editing Credit: @brian-the-elementalist)

[guybitesatgames]

I made my Abyssal an ornate character sheet for funsies. It's not the most functional or printer friendly, but being unabashedly goth in spite of practical restrictions keeps the Resonance at bay. If y'all want it, I put the .psd here, or you can frankenstein these two filled and unfilled versions together, as the Black Nadir Concordat would have wanted.

[dice-wizard]

If you've always wanted to get into Exalted but don't know where to start, the Exalted Essence pdf is $6 today! It's a great way to learn the basics of the game.

[theinkedknight]

Ahhhhhhhhhhh. While not my first gig as a developer, this is my first project to drop! At least to Exalted Essence backers. Out wide soon!

[skrig-is-nice]

Clockwatcher Charis, Exigent of Eons

So thoroughly did she break time, and with it existence, that the Time Father was unable to prevent, cease or repair her transgression no matter how many attempts he made. He Who Stands Outside found his only recourse was to exalt her as his Chosen.

Charis serves under the eyes of the Thrice-Faced's scuttling agents, carrying out inscrutable missions to maintain the order of time, ensuring: the past happened; the present exists; and the future is uncertain.

Play Clockwatcher Charis if you want to be out of your depth trying to save Creation from incomprehensible threats that you may be responsible for.

She's finally here, the fully formatted and illustrated Exigent booklet introducing: the Timekeeper and her overseeing Bureau of clockroaches; charms and universal modes; existence threatening anachronisms; and advice on how to play her as both player and Storyteller.

[gamertales]

Look what landed in my mail today