DigAndMeisFailedUsurpationThoughts

To be clear: we're talking about the hypothetical 2nd Age where the Usurpation failed, theorized about in Thus Spake Zaraborgstrom/SolarMonsters. - DigitalSentience

I'm picturing a Blade-Runner-esque metropolis if it had been built by Tolkein's elves. With the Solar Kings, of course, living at the tops of the megalithic towers. And everybody else living down in the shadowy depths. - DigitalSentience

I dunno, I imagine some of t hem would make the world nice for their pet humans. The same way people buy their cats ridiculous scratching posts. - MeiRen

Oh, don't get me wrong; the buildings would be beautiful - heck, the whole world would be beautiful. It would be bright and shining and well-lit and clean. But then you'd have to offer up your first-born. - DigitalSentience

Heh - a "dark future" without the darkness. Imagine every beautiful thing you've ever wanted... holographic videogames, instant diet pills. One day, the newspaper reports the discovery of a new disease; two days later, its cured. Until one day, some Twilight hideously botches a roll for some Solar circle sorcery, and all of a sudden half the population of Nexus has trees growing out of their eyeballs. - MeiRen

I wonder what they would have done with the other Exalted? Suppose they'd still serve? - DigitalSentience

I imagine the Dragon blooded would be doing the "small bureau, big ego" thing. You know, how some people who get just a little bit of power let it go to their head completely. Or maybe more like historical China,where there are traveling bureaucrats, and in the grand scheme of the bureaucracy, these people are nobodies whose role it is to pick up the Emperor's robe with their toes. But they hold powers of life and death over every peasant within 50 miles. - MeiRen

Ha! I was picturing they'd be the horribly oppressive overt police force, to contrast with the Sidereals' "secret police". You know, some mortal slips up somewhere. A flying hoverbike zooms up, and this scary-ass dude wearing red full-body armor and a face-mask that completely hides his features steps off, tells everyone to "get back" in a booming voice, and then incinerates the "perps". And then calmly flies away again. - DigitalSentience

Yeah, well that's if the Dragon Blooded were doing it. If the Night caste enforced the law, it would just be, you commit a crime, then you die with no visible cause. And by the time you hit the ground, the Night Caste is 20 miles away, working on even more hideous Athletics charms. - MeiRen

The weird thing is, most Solars could still be decent most of the time, except for their occasional Limit Breaks. I guess the assumption is, after about the hundredth time they Break, and go off and do something atrocious, they stop beating themselves up about it any more. And then the downward slide begins. - DigitalSentience

Although what about the people who have limit breaks like "Compassionate Martyrdom"? That might be equally scary when taken to an epic scale. I mean, what does a 8 Essence Solar have to do to find a situation in which he could conviecavably become a martyr? Maybe he becomes this horrible, cancerous Robin Hood. Where he picks some families to help randomly, and at first, they're grateful, 'oh look at what god has given us.' But then it gets creepy; the Solar loses all perspective. Some student makes fun of the kid at school, and the next day, the Solar kills everyone in that kid's family, including Cousins, out to the fourth degree of relation or something. "Mysterious Rash of people dissolving into Acid across city!" "Sola--I mean, uh, Solitary Mask of Cruelty, 3rd Circle Demon, suspected" - MeiRen

Next day? Hell, within 5 minutes of the transgression.

"Mysterious." Yeah, right. "Our Most Righteous and Holy God has Deigned to Bless 57 Citizens - Gift of death bestowed upon lucky families." - DigitalSentience

Or you know, a Solar with presistant Presence charms could be addictive: she walks down the street, and everyone who sees her can never love again. You know, this would turn into a Horror game pretty quickly, except with Solars instead of Cthulhu. And the narrator could say something other than "the madness that moves" over and over. It would be a far creepier horror game, really, because it would be largely about violating your sense of self. And the mystery would be things that have been implanted in your own mind. And when you get to the end of it, and all the pieces click into place... you either go completely mad or Exalt. Or both. - MeiRen