ExaltedVsWoD
Exalted was originally announced as being set in the same continuity as the WoD, but way before:
"Before the Impergium, before the Mythic Ages, before the Sundering, before there was a World of Darkness, there was something else..."
Exalted is in the Second Age of Man (as some believe, the very end of said age, as the events in the game will lead to the Third Age). The WoD depicts the end of the Fifth Age, and after the Time of Judgement, the world either ends or goes into the Sixth Age.
However, afterwards such claims were removed from most promotional material - including the website - and White Wolf stated more than once that this continuity is not necessarily true.
Of course, ultimately it is a moot point. There are definitely some resemblances, and if you (Storyteller) decide to shape your world as the distant past of the WoD, you will find it quite easy. If you decide to treat it as an altogether separate setting, that's ok too.
Still, this is one very frequently recurring FAQ, specially from people who saw the original promotional material. So this is why this page is here.
Assuming this is true, this is the usual list of correspondences:
- Solars become Hunters
- Lunars become the Changing Breeds (Werewolves, et. al.)
- Sidereals become Mages
- Abyssals become Cainite Vampires
- Dragon Bloods become the Kuei-jin (oriental vampires)
- Fair Folk become Changelings
- Yozis become Demons
But bear in mind that, as I said, this is quite of a moot point. After all, there are at least two entire ages for things to change. These ages are supposed to be huge amounts of time, and almost anything could happen. In the end, "what becomes what" is up to the storyteller (apart from the obvious ghosts and fey).
There are some obvious problems with the "standard" list. I, for one...
- place the Kuei-Jin in the Abyssals, and count Cainites off as an offspring that somehow learned to pass on a fraction of their essences (there are some Charms that provide similar, if limited, effect).
- can't quite see Solars reborn as Hunters. Of course Hunters are quite obviously Exalted, but so are Mages. Perhaps the Dragon-Blood are more like it.
- really have a problem with Mages. Yes, technocrats and hermetics and shamans and even seers make good Sidereals. But the Sidereals are the most hidden and secretive and concealing sort of all. I'd say Mages can come from all sorts of Exalted (even Dragon-Blood), some kinds of Mages more likely to come from some kinds of Exalted for obvious reasons. Akashic are very hard to imagine as Sidereals. Personally, I think if the Sidereal essences remain as proportionaly few as they used to be, that they correspond to the Ksirafai, later NWO. Or perhaps they eventually went Abyssal too, dunno.
- The Sidereal-as-Mages actually does make sense, and the Solars-as-Hunters; if you were to break their Exalted Shards up, apart from giving Lytek a heart attack, what would happen when the shards started Exalting people? What if someone was 1/100th of a Sidereal? Or a 1/1000th of a Solar?
- The Lunars-as-Beta makes some sense- each Lunar would be the founder of (functionally) a Tribe, and their Beastmen Children are also godblooded- enough to learn both limited shapeshifting and Spirit gifts. Or possibly Luna largely reduced the power of the Lunars, locking them to their true forms- but so lessened, their Exaltation could pass through the blood as it does with the Dragonblooded. (As an interesting sidenote for this thought- go with the 'Luna is Gaia's Fetich' thought. If the Lunars do eventually start to pass the Exaltation through the blood, then it's only Primordial inspired Exalts who do so- Luna's and Elemental Dragons')
- On the other hand, from whence does that minor allergy to Silver come from? Maybe the Lunars did something to REALLY piss Luna off, and she cursed them to not suffer her touch ever again? Perhaps the Beta are Infernal remenants of Lunars- thus the Evil Rage (tm)?
- Eh. Random thoughts. - DariusSolluman
Some claim there are some shapeshifters on the WoD who couldn't possibly be Lunars (Mokole for one). I'm not so sure - from the Exalted point of view, even Mokole and Corax are Lunar if compared to your average Hunter or Technocrat. Mokole seem to be the product of interbreeding of Lunars and Dragon Kings, or perhaps Dragon Kings themselves.
My personal guess is that, during the third age, the Lunar, Sidereal, Dragon-Blood and what few Solars didn't go Abyssal (or Infernal), somehow gathered together, and re-split some time later based on one very different differential - probably, the manner in which their essences are passed on. But this is wild guess.
I've never fully gotten the Dragonblooded become Kuei-Jin, myself. I mean, ya, the Elemental thing is there. But NOTHING ELSE. They are 'born' in an entirely different way, more akin to Abyssals or Infernals than a blessing passed by blood.
I'd always pegged the Dragonblooded as becoming the Gypsies, more than anything else.
Also, I've seen a REALLY good comparison of the Alchemicals to Mummy before...
Demons from DtF are *not* Yozis in any way shape or form. Not at all. No connection, no similarity. Yozi just *stay* Yozis. - Telgar
Are you sure? I think Malfeans stay Malfeans, but Yozis, well, are very powerful "evil" creatures imprisoned in an off-reality prision... dunno.
(By the original author of this page who, stupidly enough, is still researching the subject)
Seomeone who calls herself "maddy" aptly wrote on the White-Wolf forums, at http://206.65.59.245/forums/search.dna?t=2003112313521827&p=5&task=message (I don't know if the forum link eventually expires, so I'm pasting the relevant part):
maddy - 11/23/2003 21:16:20
- We're aware that the canonical end of the Age of Sorrows is
- a near total victory of the Wyld.
- Well, a huge Wyld storm can do lotsa strange things. It can
- turn a dog into a rock. A rock into a pie. And that pie into
- a song, or an idea, before it turns it into something your
- mind can't even comprehend.
- So, given that the world was essentially warped to the point
- on nonrecognition at the end of the Time of Tumolt?... it's
- really not that hard reconciling how Exalted could come to
- be the WoD.
- I mean, let's be honest! With that much Wyld energy, it's
- really not that much of a stretch to see Exalted becoming
- the --Smurf's-- universe.
- So that's the great key, ya see. Dragonblooded -don't-
- become the Kindred of the East. But they do. Just like you
- turn into a patch of screaming glass peach trees, when you
- walk too far out south, they turned into something /vaguely/
- related but... eh. It's a stretch.
I don't know from where she's "aware of the fact", but even if it isn't true, we have to remember that in the time of Exalted, and with the small population that existed, even small interactions with the Wyld could produce such effects. In fact, "mutated" Lunars are already described in the Lunars book...
(I won't argue about my theories tat the Smurf's universe actually is the WoD, as you probably have something better to do.)
Just some insight into the whole DB = Kindred of the east htingy:
The empress is currently in malpheas (that much is certiand.) for the DB's to become kindred, the empress spreads infernalisim all throughtout the DB population, causing their essence sparks (Yes, DB's ahve essence sparks, they simply are nto trtansmited, they DO have a higher soul) to bond with infernal energies, thus resulting in the Poe. Once their essences are enhanced by the infernal energies, they are strong enough to transmigrate to new bodies (jsut liek other exalted). Yet they can still ahve children (just as unbalanced kuei-jin can have dhampyrs).
But do the Children of the Kuei-Jin become Kuei-Jin themselves?
Plus, Kuei-Jin seem much more created things- and created by the Yozis at that. Someone posted what amounted to a 'Create Vampire' Necromantic spell earlier that struck me as a brilliant origin story- it basically turns the Deathlords in the Antideluvians, the Abyssals into the Fourth Generation, and their progeny into the Fifth generation and beyond.
Maybe the Abyssal and Infernal Exaltation aren't so different. Maybe an Infernal Exaltation must be powered by a Dragonblood spark- and so when a soul dies and is sent to the Yomi Hells, it may be returned, Exalted. A little.
Infernal Exalted with Dragonblooded Flavor as Kuei-Jin makes a lot more sense to moi :)
Just to resurrect everyone's favorite topic, a thought occured to me in the shower.
Solars are supposed to be Hunters- but Hunters have the wrong number of Virtues, and don't suffer Virtue flaws.
Except I was miscounting- all Hunters have Conviction, in addition to the virtues of Mercy (Compassion), Zeal (Valor) and Vision (Temperance). Further, they even have Virtue Flaws- when they more than max out a single Virtue, it starts to rule them, controling their thoughts and making them little better (if better at all!) than the monsters they hunt.
I am amused :)
On the more useful side of thoughts, Hunter Edges might make good Spirit Charms, being that they're all Virtue Driven and stuff.
While flipping through Creedbook: Wayward, the thought occured to me that "Maybe Waywards are Dawn Solar shards containing too much of the old Essences, and thus too much of the Great Curse." It *was* stated in there that perhaps Waywards were meant to be the generals of the Hunters, and that they appeared to be some kind of failed experiment in imbuing, and thus rapidly abandoned after the first few were made.
It should also be noted that most favor Zeal edges, which corresponds to Valor, as DS pointed out. Also, Waywards tend to be inhumanly skilled in the art of war, and Waywards are universally insane, seeing the world from a grossly twisted POV.
Just a thought.
- Damarus
