Prof. Astral/Chosen of the Heart
This is an idea for a new Exalt type I’ve had for a while: The Chosen of the Heart. The idea is that, rather than inheriting Exaltations that bear the nature of a God or Primordial, they are granted their power by the collective souls of Humanity. (The lore and background stuff I’m writing now explains how this happens in more detail.) I see this as something that Exalted is currently lacking (probably on purpose, but still). So far the only way to have any real power in the setting is to either be given it by some divine force, or be a divine force yourself.
This new Exalt type are kind of the champions of the little guys, as they’re far closer to normal mortals in mindset than many of the other kinds are. They’re not nearly as potent as a Celestial Exalt, more like Terrestrials in terms of ability, but they have the advantage of being really resilient. A Solar could take one down easily, but making one stay down is near impossible.
The Solars have perfection, the Lunars have change, the Sidereals have destiny. These guys have tenacity. They simply keep going through just about anything.
I’m working on writing up their background, abilities and so on, and I’ll post what I have in the order it’s done in. Currently though, I need some help with the name. Their working title is the Psychological Exalted, but I really don’t like the sound of it. It’s too long, too academic and really doesn’t sum up what they’re about all that well. I’m hoping for something shorter and more thematic. They’re the Chosen of the Heart, not the Chosen of Psychoanalysis.
A few of my ideas:
They have a strong connection to the Virtues and to emotion in general. I’m debating basing their castes around emotions (anger, love, sorrow, etc.) or the four personality types (phlegmatic, choleric, sanguine, melancholic and one other one), although I’m leaning towards the first.
Their Charms will likely revolve around the themes of connection, interdependence, emotion, souls and sheer bloody tenacity. Again, they won’t have many overt effects, but the effects they do have are powerful in their own subtle way.
In keeping with their themes of tenacity and connection, they have some unique ways of using Intimacies to help them survive and recover from effects inflicted by other Exalt types, like negative Shaping and penalizing Charms. Their Essence pools are also affected by their Intimacies, growing larger or smaller the more they have.
Lastly, they can also do the impossible. They can cheat Lethe and come back from the dead. This is designed to give them an ability no one else has, to make up for their overall lack of power compared to the other Exalt types, and also increase their survivability in a world with Abyssals and Fair Folk running around killing people. I’m still working on the implementation, and there will probably need to be some mechanic to ensure it doesn’t become game-breaking. The in-setting rationale for this is tied into the source of their Exaltation, which involves Lethe as well.
– –
I’ll probably rename this page or start a new one once I have a proper name for them. In the meantime, I would love suggestions, both on the name and the idea in general.
