The Book Of Wood/GodWar
After the Solars returned and began to reclaim their rightful place in the world, the gods of Yu-Shan looked down and saw that all was not right with the world. Despite the best efforts of the Sidereals to properly direct their indoctrinated charges in righteous action, the Chosen of the Sun were too prideful, too willful, too powerful. The keepers of the Celestial Bureaucracy grew weary of the almost daily reworking of maps and censuses that the Solar abuse of Creation led to. Eventually, they appealed directly to the highest among their kind, the Celestial Incarna, for surcease.
They were disappointed. The first family of Heaven was even more engrossed in the Games of Divinity than ever, and even the most politic of observers had to admit that there was a problem in heaven's highest. No one can say for sure whom the conspiracy first began among, but a secret group of gods took matters into their own hands. It took some doing and much time, but eventually they were able to convince a circle of Solars that riches beyond imagination lay for the taking in the Jade Pleasure Dome. Smuggling them in Yu-Shan and arranging for the inherent defences of the Dome to be down took even more doing, but the celestial gods are nothing if not resourceful...
The wrath of the Celestial Incarna at having their games interrupted by their own errant children exceeded the conspirators' expectations. Shocked out of their lethargy by this blasphemous breach of protocol, the Incarna demanded an immediate accounting of the state of Heaven and Creation. What they had reported to them, shocked them. Although they were soon drawn back into the endless entertainment of the Games, they gave sufficiently broad orders to the Bureau of Heaven to spare no expense to rectify matters, as soon as possible. The conspirators were ready for this, and had long ago decided their course. With their new authority, they seized control of the Aerial Legion, as well as drafting all wargods from the Division of Battles...and declared war upon the Exalted.
Their first strikes were fast and within their own sphere. Only the oldest Sidereals saw it coming soon enough to organize a massive departure from Yu-Shan. Many of these ancients, lay down their lives to allow their younger brethern to escape the divine onslaught; only Chejop Kejak neither ran nor fought, simply waited and allowed the gods to take him prisoner, confident that they would not do him, at least, any harm. Like falling stars, the Fivescore Fellowship descended to the mundane world, factional strife forgotten. All now agreed that the only hope for the world and themselves was to recruit the Solars and take back their rightful place in Heaven. They also all agreed that they needed insurance that the Solars would stay on their side...
Calling together all of the Solar Exalted controlled by the Cult of the Illuminated (or the Solar Congress, if this campaign is combined with Exalted: Reclaimation), the Sidereals attempt to bind the most important Solars to them with a variant of the Celestial Spell Threefold Binding of the Heart. In many cases, it works, but in some, it doesn't. Those who successfully resist flee to tell others of their kind. The Sidereal's actions may have cost the unity of the Solar Congress when it's needed most, as the armies of heaven descend upon Creation attacking any gathering of Exalted they can find...
Now the PCs are in the midst of war on Heaven itself. Will they seek sanctuary and aid among the many who offer it, including the Deathlords, Raksha and demon cults? Or attempt to take the fight to the enemy by storming Heaven itself? Can peace between gods and Exalt yet win out, or must one destroy the other for Creation to exist?
What legends will be told of your deeds?
