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== On Drugs, Artifacts and the <nowiki>UnExalted</nowiki> ==

Nephilpal - 03/29/2004 09:56:14

I've wrestled with this.

I remember the first time I read Exalted: the Outcastes and I came
across gunzosha troopers. I thought... wow... people who give up half
their life to fight on the same battlefield as Exalted. That's pretty
damn cool.

And then you have thaumaturgy and the power of alchemy and ways for
mortals to temporarily become powerful.

I think it would be reasonable to imagine a mortal who uses a
combination of alchemical regimens, power armor and other Shogunate
gear to take the field among Exalted. Of course, to play on a weak
Terrestrial level, he's a drug-addicted wretch whose body and soul
won't last a decade... and that's assuming the great powers of the
world don't strike him down for his impertinence.

The Exalted setting allows for such a hero, the scarred super-veteran
who is cheating the system every way possible at once for the
briefest moment of glory. These are the people who become Celestial
Exalted when there is a Celestial Essence available. But what if that
day never comes? Such a character makes a stark object lesson in the
way the setting works. Let's assume for a moment that you have an
Outcaste brotherhood with this superveteran thaumaturge as a member.
Let's say he can generally keep up when he has to. After the battle
with the mutant horde, they're all sitting around the campfire
tending their wounds and unwinding. The Terrestrials are cleaning the
gore off their armor and laughing, taking in Essence from food and
fellowship. Their ally has removed his war-carapace and is carefully
smearing a glowing paste onto his cuts to accelerate healing and
prevent infection. The paste leaves disfigured purple scars and he's
a patchwork of them now, but he wouldn't win any beauty pageants with
his array of glittering amulets riveted through skin and muscle and
bone. His companions pass around the wineflask. He can't drink wine.
He can only sip a bitter mineral water whose formula and tincture is
carefully regulated because he can't be sure how anything else will
react to the complicated batch of drugs churning through his hardened
and aged flesh. He can feel a burning with every swallow and his
blood barely smells like blood any more... less iron... more... he
can't find a name for it because no analogue exists in nature. He's
not even sure if he's human any more or whether he could breed a new
species if the drugs hadn't left him sterile years ago.

That's what it takes to play the game with Exalted as an equal or
something close (or something equally harsh).

Using the Merits and Flaws, you CAN be Frodo with a Legendary
Artifact so dangerous that none of the magical beings can be trusted
with it. Or you can be like the guy in Princess Mononoke and be Dying
for your power. Etc.

It's ok to break the system a bit, given that people in the Exalted
setting do that sort of thing. Of course, the system always breaks
you back with interest. That's another part of the setting.

--Neph

== Comments ==
Neph underestimates the power that mortals can achieve. The upper limit that a mortal can attain through thaumaturgy is actually [[Raindoll/MortalLimits|pretty high]], even without gunzosha armor. - [[Raindoll]]

The rules let it happen, but really should they be so powerful? I have read your bit about how powerful they can get, and while its possible I don't know if that matches what should be. - BogMod

Wasn't the Perfect of Paragon once a mortal? - MetalFatigue

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 Neph underestimates the power that mortals can achieve.  The upper limit that a mortal can attain through thaumaturgy is actually [[Raindoll/MortalLimits|pretty high]], even without gunzosha armor. - [[Raindoll]]
-The rules let it happen, but really should they be so powerful?  I have read your bit about how powerful they can get, and while its possible I don't know if that matches what should be.  - BogMod
+The rules let it happen, but really should they be so powerful?  I have read your bit about how powerful they can get, and while its possible I don't know if that matches what should be.  - [[BogMod]]
-Wasn't the Perfect of Paragon once a mortal? - MetalFatigue
+Wasn't the Perfect of Paragon once a mortal? - [[MetalFatigue]]

Thus Spake Zaranephilpal/HeroicMortals - Revision history

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