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Back to the age of Bagrash Kol

The State of the Exalted

Although it has been almost two centuries since the Balorian Crusade, the after-effects of the war against the Fair Folk continue to reverberate through the ranks of the Exalted. Every class of Exalt has suffered greatly, and their ranks are not what they once were.

The Solar Exalted

During the Balorian Crusade, the slow Exaltation rate of the Solars quickened dramatically as heroes Exalted, fought bravely, and died in their first battle against the fae. In the three months of the crusade, over a hundred Solars Exalted and died, only to Exalt again to carry on the fight. Furthermore, in the aftermath of the war, with the Wyld Hunt fragmented and the Sidereals distracted, several of these Exalts finally survived on the fringes of the world, carving out minor kingdoms and small empires in their shattered world.

It was ten years before the Wyld Hunt began to fight again, and sixty before the Sidereals could confidently state that the last of the Contagion-born Solars had been destroyed. Their trust proved misplaced thirty years later when a Solar sorcerer-queen emerged from the Wyld with an army of Wyld-mutants and a Third Circle demon at her disposal, and the Bronze Faction lost significant resources when they destroyed her. The thought that there might be a second Solar out there, subtle and waiting, is one that keeps the faction's more paranoid members awake at night.

The Lunar Exalted

The Contagion hit the Lunar Exalted hard, and the Balorian Crusade battered them even further - by the end of the war, fewer than thirty Lunars were left alive, a mere one-sixth of those who had lived when the plague first came. To make matters worse, most of the Lunars who Exalted in the wake of the Crusade did so in regions stricken by the Wyld's leftovers, and scores succumbed to chimerism in the absence of elders who could tattoo them. Most of these sad creatures were soon destroyed, but other new Lunars fell in their wake. Even now, decades later, there are still several powerful chimerae in existence, slipping through the cracks in the world despite the best efforts of the Lunars to find and destroy them.

On the other hand, the Silver Pact has revived under the auspices of those Lunars, many of them elders, who survived the Crusade. Under their guidance, the Lunars have begun the Thousand Rivers project, selecting nations from those that throng this new world and working to improve them.

The Sidereal Exalted

By the end of the Great Contagion, only twenty of the Sidereal Exalted remained of the ninety that had once served the Maidens. With their resources stretched thin, dozens of disasters slipped past their attention, and it was decades before they had managed to get any sort of order restored. Worse, several Sidereals chose not to join the Bureau upon their Exaltations, vanishing into places in the world where the tapestry was thin. The Bureau termed such renegades 'ronin' and did everything it could to round them up, but in the present day two such Exalts remain lost, and may never be recovered.

Matters became worse twenty-nine years ago, when Bagrash Kol rose to power. Five Sidereals died that day, although the exact circumstances surrounding their deaths remains classified, and their souls were unaccountably delayed in resurrecting for eight years. With their replacements now trained and ready for action, the bureau is returned to its proper strength - or at least as much of it as exists since the end of the First Age.

The Terrestrial Exalted

The Terrestrial Exalted have been shattered. Where once they thronged the world, numbering well over half a million, only the smallest fraction of that number still survives. By the end of the Balorian Crusade, fewer than 4,000 Dragon-Blooded existed worldwide, and more died in the early days of the Scarlet Empire, victims of the terrible purge against the Seven Dragons, the war between the Realm and the Scavenger Lands, or the general hostility of life in the dawn of the Lesser Second Age.

Still, if there is one thing that Dragon-Bloods do well, it is multiply. Already, the Scarlet Empire contains over 4,000 of its own Exalts, divided amongst seven Great Houses that are a mixture between the descendants of the powerful heroes that joined the Empress, and the younger houses of her own husband and children. Outside of the Realm, another 5,000-odd Terrestrials carve out kingdoms and empires, from the thousand that serve Bagrash Kol, through the hundreds that populate Lookshy, through the scattered bloodlines and lineages that are the remnants of the Shogunate. The Dragon-Blooded have survived, and their numbers will only grow as time goes on.