FrivYeti/HeroicHistory
Back to The Heroic Exalted
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Chapter One: History
The Heroic Exalted represent an entirely new Exalt type entered into Creation. How did they come about? What does their presence represent for the world? The following two story concepts are three short possible histories to explain the Heroic Exalted in your games.
Story One: Wardens of Creation
This story follows in the footsteps of the Alchemical Invasion scenario of Exalted: The Autochthonians. In this scenario, Autochthon awakens due to an influx of magical materials and new souls brought to him from the nation of Yugash. With the Seal of Divinities broken, and his world brought back into contact with Creation, Autochthon has time to take stock of the situation. As the Autochthonian forces stall, Autochthon sets to work.
In this scenario, Autochthonian forces occupy Gem and the Lap, but are unable to press further due to a combination of home problems, response from Southern forces, and the Great Maker himself, who is uninterested in the rulership of Creation. Paragon, An-Teng, and Chirascuro are the frontlines of a simmering war, which is expressed primarily through a series of minor skirmishes with Autochthon rather than with pitched battles. With the situation more or less contained, the Realm's attention begins to turn back to their internal matters - although serving on the Southern Front rapidly becomes common.
By the spring of RY 769, Autochthon has completed work on his Heroic Exalted. In order to test them, he releases one hundred essence Shards into his own workings, charging the Alchemical Exalted with watching over them and guiding them out into Creation. Once he is sure that they are working properly - a process taking about six months - he releases three hundred more Shards into Creation, to Exalt as they will.
The effects of this sudden change are twofold. Autochthonia is rocked by the Heroic Exalted, but their appearance is viewed as a great symbol, a sign that the Maker is once again taking an active hand. Most of them integrate with the society; only a few turn against it, and these slip out of Autochtonia for the most part, entering Creation proper.
In Creation itself, the Heroic Exalted quickly grow to power. Some die young, and Lytek is surprised to discover an entirely new type of Essence shard appearing in his office. Taking the cautious approach, he mentions it to Ayesha Ura, but otherwise sends them back in the world after a brief study, unwilling to risk the wrath of the Maker. The Sidereals start trying to manipulate the Heroics as soon as they realize what they are - the Bronze sees them as a replacement for Solars, and the Gold sees them as supplements. Lunars and Solars, meanwhile, try to integrate the Heroics into their own plans; in particular, the Solars find that they are in similar situations much of the time, and many Heroic Exalted find themselves attached to Solar Circles.
Reactions among the Deathlords amount to shock and anger, and they set to work trying to capture a Heroic Exalt. This takes almost eight months, after which they find that corrupting a Heroic Shard is not possible using the methods taught by the Yozi. Similarly, the Yozi adapt their plans to the idea of Heroic Exalts, preparing for their return, and set back their long-term plans to wait for the proper time to act.
In this scenario, Autochthon is mostly passive, working diligently on a cure for the Great Curse. It will likely take him up to another year to find one, and it will have a problem - he can only cure Essence Shards directly, not Exalts. While he can suborn Lytek to his cause, and start fixing Essence Shards as Celestial Exalts die, the problem of powerful and existing Celestials remains. After enough time has passed that he believes the slack can be taken up, Autochthon reluctantly approaches the Incarna with his findings - that all Celestial Exalts who have been in existance since before RY 769 must be destroyed, and their Essence Shards cleaned and returned. This will cause years of trouble, but will be a long-term solution. Autochthon pledges the Alchemical and Heroic Exalted as a stopgap manuever while the cleaning is done. In the case of the Terrestrials, he can clean their bloodline, but not them - newly born Dragon-Bloods will be pure, but not older ones. As their curse is relatively minor, he considers this to not be a serious problem. The Abyssals are a greater problem, and Autochthon begins capturing their souls, purging them of the taint of the Neverborn and the Great Curse all at once.
What follows is a second Usurpation, as the Incarna and Yu-Shan turn on the elder Celestial. Those that they think can be persuaded they do, but the ultimate end is the same - the complete fall of the Celestials. This takes place over the course of RY 774, as the Realm prepares for the funeral of the Empress.
What comes during the years that the Alchemicals and Heroics stand, alone with a few young Celestials, could be anything. The Yozi see their chance...
Story Threads: Almost anything, really. In the early days, the characters could be young Heroics finding their place. The overthrow will be vicious, and trying to stop elder Sidereals and Lunars from destroying swaths of Creation will be like unto a second Usurpation, with all the dangers that entails. Worse, the reborn Celestials, although free of the Great Curse, may bear grudges for their deaths. While the Heroics and Alchemicals stand alone, they will be in great danger; the Alchemicals are pulling double-duty in Creation and Autochthonia, Autochthon is too busy with Shard cleaning to remove the Great Geas on the Mountain Folk (at least at first), and the Heroics are still fairly young (at most, they will have six years of experience under their belts). There are a few Lunars and Solars about, with the same limits, and the Sidereals are completely gone; their duties taken up by a few Alchemicals and dedicated gods.
Alternate Ideas: It is possible that, instead of the Locust Crusade taking place, Autochthon could be awakened by other means. This storyline is very easily adapted to any of the scenarios presented in Exalted: The Alchemicals, provided that the Great Maker survives.
Story Two: The Last Ditch Effort
An alternate possibility is that Autochthon made the Heroic Exalted long ago, and left them as a safeguard against the betrayal of the Celestines. In this scenario, Autochthon need not actually return to Creation. Instead, before he knew he would be leaving, he was working on the Shards as a theoretical excercise. When he was forced to leave, he hastily buried the Shards in a back area of Yu-Shan because he wasn't entirely sure that they would be right for his purposes and it seemed easier to just pull out the Alchemicals.
The Heroic Exalted Essence Shards remained locked away for millenia, until the return of the Solars caused problems for Lytek. In the First Age, Celestial Exalts died rarely, and Lytek never had to keep very many in his office. In the Second Age, with the Solars gone, the only time that he really had any trouble was the Contagion, and even then more than enough shards survived that he didn't have any real trouble - his shelf filled to overflowing with dozens of shards, but he quickly cleaned them up and sent them back.
In the Time of Tumult, however, hundreds of Solar shards returned simultaneously, and in the weeks that followed, many of them died, along with Sidereals sent to kill them and Lunars caught in the crossfire. Lytek found that he suddenly had more Essence shards than he could easily clean, and he looked for a second secure container to hold them in, so that he could have the weeks he needed to get everything back in circulation until things settled down. To his surprise, he found a new Shard cabinet, identical to the one he already owned. When, curious, he opened it, he found three hundred Heroic Shards sitting there, and his jaw dropped. After a week of testing to ensure that the Shards were not a trap, Lytek made a snap decision. Quietly, he released the Heroic Shards into Creation, and then went to inform the Celestial Incarna of his discovery.
The news spread through Yu-Shan like wildfire, even as the Heroic Exalted began to appear in Creation. Lytek was reprimanded by the Sun for failing to ask before unleashing this unknown force on Creation, but it was agreed that this might be Creation's darkest hour; the addition of a new group of Exalts might just do the trick. The Incarnae kept an eye on the Heroics, not wanting to make things worse, but found that they seemed to be helping.
Story Threads: In this more simple scenario, there is no overarching purpose to the Heroic Exalted; they are simply a backup that has finally been released. As such, they will act much as the young Solars will, causing trouble on an individual or small group basis. The Heroic Exalted will lack the established power structures of the Sidereals or Lunars, or the raw might of the Solars, but they will begin reknitting as quickly as possible. Whether they are sufficient to keep the Great Curse from destroying Creation is in the hands of the players and the Storyteller.
Alternate Ideas: It is possible that the Shards released themselves when Lytek opens the cabinet, or that it is found and opened by someone else. In that case, the Incarnae will be much more suspicious of this new power, as will the spirits of Yu-Shan. Alternately, while Autochthonia's return is not required for this storyline, it may still occur, in which case the Heroics will find themselves with divided loyalties - their Shards programmed to not fight the Autochthonians, but they themselves wanting perhaps to protect certain areas from an invading force.
