Sz/PMEPremise

Exalted with Wyld-powered Diamond Inter-Constellational Spacecrafts!

And moon-sized giant mechas made from Orichalcum! And James Bond dual-wielding chainguns that shoot blood icicles! And satellite cannons equipped with Anti-Essence Deathray invented by Infernal Nikola Tesla! WHO FEEDS ON THE DREAMS OF YOUNG, ASPIRING SCIENTISTS!!!

Or an Exalted setting that is somewhat between modern and sci-fi. It will generally like an Exalted Modern, except there are bits of hypertech and superscience fueled by Exalted genius, which make interplanetary transportation companies and cold fusion possible. A sort of 15-minutes-into-the-future feel, but more like 3-4-decades-into-the-future. Therefore, Postmodern Exalted. Awesome name, I know. :P

Before I elaborate any further: I'm not a fan of hard sci-fi. I enjoy watching sci-fi action flicks and mecha anime that try to explain how their giant robots are possible, but that's about it. Discussions about the mechanism of warp drive or gravitational anomalies created by certain megastructures from certain series and so on never really interested that much. The reason I like sci-fi is not because I like the scientific crunchiness, but because cool things are bound to happen and I like cool things.

And Exalted is all about cool stuff, right? I mean, it's written into the game mechanics.

Anyways, so, I'm bound to make facepalm-prone errors that don't make sense at all. I will greatly appreciate it if you point those out and help me fix them up, but please keep it in mind that I wrote those errors not because I thought they made sense, but because I thought they sounded pretty God-damned cool at the moment. A faster-than-light spaceships made of purified gold and solid sunfire get to fly faster than light not because I have come up with an elaborate mechanics for FTL travel, but because Solars are that awesome, they can disregard standard limits imposed by the Loom of Fate. Alchemical snipers get to snipe people from across a city and Infernal celebrants sing a song that resounds across an entire space fleet, because Exalted are that sick. Well, it might have been better if I flat out said that everything is powered by Essence, like in canon. Science is just a really complex way of comprehending how Essence and the Loom of Fate work.

So, yeah.

Overall, I would like that the setting of PME largely resemble that of canon. The Realm at the center of Creation is ruled by the Scarlet Empress and her Dragon-Blooded descendents, Sidereal masters rule from behind the veil, Lunar warlords and revolutionaries try to reshape the world from the very edge of Creation, etc. The Constellation of Venus (which corresponds to the East in canon) is bustling with independent states that have allied against the Realm rule, the opposing Constellation of Mercury suffers from relative instability and space-pirates, and whatnot.

Though, I am making a really big change from canon with PME, and that's the introduction of the Primordial Exalted. They are the Abyssals, the Alchemicals and the Infernals. Respectively, they are the antitheses of the Solars, the Lunars and the Sidereals. The decision to do this comes from one of my old ideas, where I supposed Lunar Shards converted by Autochthon, therefore creating Alchemical man-machine hybrid champions, as opposed to Lunar man-life hybrid champions. Then Wordman gave me the idea of the Sidereal antithesis, named the Infernals. Me being me, I stole this idea without ever notifying him. Hey Wordman, if you stumble across this page, do you mind if I steal your idea? :<

Cough. Well, with the increased role that technology, science and machines play in PME, I thought it was only appropriate that an Exalted host should take this new aspecte of Creation as their niche. And also, I felt that there should be an Exalted host which brutally goes against this new aspect. Anachronistic and anarchistic individualists, armed with bloody and gory magics that remind one of ancient sacrifices dedicated to old gods and hallucinogen-derived trances into the spiritual world, whose source power is passionate faith and roaring emotions rather than cold, soulless science. Also, I hated how the Fair Folk was handled in canon so I made them Exalted. :D So I decided to create two additional Exalts, the Alchemicals and the Infernals. They are somewhat based on the canon counterparts, but they are not at all their canon counterparts. I think I'll end up putting too much effort in making them awesome and relevant, though. Eh.

Bah, I've had the idea of PME in my head for so long, trying to explain it out is extremely challenging. Please tell me if anything so far sounds 1) incredibly counterintuitive 2) incredibly stupid and/or 3) curious. The reason I put this up here was because I wanted other people to make me stop being silly. orz

Comments

I'm a fan so far. Seems internally consistent enough, though I must admit the scope of known space seems unfeasibly large. Are we talking "Star Trek" space here, with lots of unrelated cultures? Are we talking "Star Wars" space where the majority of useful planets have at one point been colonized, then mayhaps ignored? Or is this a different feel altogether? Essentially, while I get the exalted, and the time line, I'm confused about the socio-political history... - GreenLantern

Socio-political history is what I haven't really gotten around to yet. >_> I should work on it, but without figuring how quickly technology which makes space travel possible and stuff, I don't think I could come up with anything believable. Though, I do know that most of the planets that exist are to various degrees inhabited, but some might be more barren and less populous than others, while might be overpopulated and completely enveloped with cities and whatnot. So, I guess it's more like Star Wars space? I can't say not having watched either ST or SW (I've already lost many of my friends over this. Geez.) And, for the size bit, well, I know it's large, but I thought that that wouldn't be too much of a problem when travel through anomalies, such as travelling through Yu-Shan, the Underworld and so on, is taken into acount. But yeah, I guess that might be too large... oh well. >_> - Sz

I don't mind if you "steal my idea". In fact, I don't even remember coming up with it in the first place. - Wordman

Excellent. Then I'll pretend it was my idea all along. :9 - Sz