Jiba/BackgroundStory

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Background Story

"And once, there was a time, when the world was young, the gods were children, playing the Games of Divinity, a time, when a great Creator lost something of worth. But it was found by the children's children and they played with it. Today, the gods are old and lazy, they don't play for fun anymore. And their toys are forgotten."
-Jadyle

It all began with the forging of a powerful Artifact. It helped the Gods to fight the Primordials, although it was not created by one of them. During the War of the Gods, when the Exalted fought against the enemies of their masters, it fell from the heavens, as it was thrown away to take revenge. On that day, the sky cried tears of liquid iron. Humans and Exalted found it, used it, and lost it again. It seemed, that no one could use it for long, as everyone, who tried to control the Artifact, died in a mysterious way. Then, it disappeared without a trace. This Artifact should be known as the Eye of Autochton.

The Eye of Autochton was a mystery. Scholars and Exalted alike tried to fully understand it's nature, but they failed. A lot of different interpretations of the Eye's heritage and powers emerged, some more truthful, some less. Even now, in this Time of Tumult, old manuscripts tell of the Eye's might. Most of them are hidden in long forgotten buildings in the Threshold, but the whereabouts of Autochton's potent Artifact remained unclear for long.

There were stories, tales and legends about the Eye. There was Bangrash Köl, who built up a great empire in the north using the Eye to enslave whole nations. There was Manosque Viridan who used the Eye of Autochton to try to dispossess the Empress. There was the southern Prophet Ikerre, who used the Artifact's powers to fight the Fair Folk and the Shadowlands. And everyone died a mysterious death.

What is unknown is, that the Eye was hold by many others. Many scriptures were lost after the Ursupation and the Great Contagion. They lie in the ruins of that time and no savant of the Second Age of Men has yet laid his eyes upon them.

The First Holders

The first holders of the Eye were the Jadeborn, the Mountain Folk inhabiting the deeps of the Imperial Mountain. When they were recreated from living stone by the Great Maker Autochton, they were aimless people, searching for a purpose. Their existence had no meaning and so one of them, the Jadeborn called the First, plead for destination. The Great Maker answered by giving him the power to be the greatest craftsman in Creation - he gave them the purpose of forging things like he did himself, invoking his competency of handcraft in his jadeborn children. So they dwelled many centuries in the deeps of the Imperial Mountain, building up a great empire.

But while Autochton gave his children purpose, the Gods struggeled in the Heavens. They fought against their primordial masters, ursurping them. Their Exalted killed Primordial by Primordial in this endless war. The titanic rulers of Creation, who were surprised, that the Gods would turn against them, raged in fury and anger. They destroyed wide parts of the heavenly city of Yu-Shan. By doing this, they harried the workshop of Autochton, angry that he had not helped them, caring for his constructions instead. However, the forces of the Gods dispersed them, before they could do too much harm to Autochtons creations and fixed all damage they could. When the Great Maker became aware of his raging brothers, he formed an alliance with the Gods and build great wonders to aid them. Many of his constructions, however, were lost in the Elsewhere or fell down to Creation, where they could not be found.

The Eye of Autochton fell from the sky like a comet. It smashed in the Blessed Isle and it encroached upon the Imperial Mountain with great force. The stone of the mountain embraced it and it was forgotten. Where the Eye lay a magical place arised from the Essence channeled by it. The Stone in this small chamber turned to the finest Adamant and small pearls of light illuminated it. When the people of the Mountain Folk found that chamber during their mining, they were stunned by its beauty. They named that place Everlighted Socket and they craved pictures of their search for purpose and their rising in the walls. But they never dared to touch the Eye, as they could not look at it without having the disturbing feeling of facing a part of their own God.

The Eye was many years in the hands of the Mountain Folk, but with the coming of the Great Contagion, they lost it. One jadeborn master craftsman, Tafger Craghammer, whose name is forgotten and never said again stole it in the hope to obtain the same skills of creating than Autochton himself. His mind was poisoned by his own vanity and he used the potent Atrifact from the time before the God's rise to create a unworldly beautiful pearl the colour of the rainbow. After he finished his work, he was instantly turned to stone and the Eye of Autochton disappeared without a trace. The Mountain Folk found Tafger Craghammer, the pearl in his rocky palms, they posed him in the Everlighted Socket. They named the pearl Tear of the Mountain, as the Jadeborn cried to have lost the Eye and by that the trust of their creator. All tunnels, that lead to the Everlighted Socket were closed and sealed, never to be opened again. The Tear of the Mountain was touched by the stream of Essence in the cave, becoming a hearthstone directly linked to the Eye of Autochton.

Pledge of the Maidens

As Autochton left the Jadeborn alone to attend to his children, the Autochtonian Exalted, he had no idea, what could have happend to his creations, that were lost after the attack of the Primordials. However, he felt unpleasant, that he did not know. He wanted to have the Eye back, but Creation is vast and he was tired and woeful of the endless fighting, that had taken place in the heavens. Autochton retired and worked in isolation on new items, but could not match the artful creations he made once upon a time. His new children, the Autochtonians worried about their master and saw their world falling apart, though they were weakened after the war and had no chance to help him.

Nevertheless, the Five Maidens kept track of the Eye, knowing that it the power to change the destiny of whole Creation, but also aware, that they could never control its fate directly, as it was a part of the Great Maker Autochton, who existed outside of the Maidens Tapestry. They knew, that everyone, who will hold it, would have a great destiny, but they could only guide the fate of the humans and not weave the Eye into the threads of destiny. Beeing in the know of that, the Five Maidens contacted Autochton, explaining what happened to the Eye and what they found out. Autochton was interested in the Eye - he had no possibility to take it, as the Jadeborn had another purpose laid on them and his younger children, the Autochtonians were far from beeing serviceable to get the Eye back. On the other hand, Autochton himself was old, weak and sick, so he could no longer care for the happenings on Creation.

So the Great Maker asked the Maidens for a favor. They should watch the Eye and to find someone in Creation, who would be able to watch and guard it. In return, he would give them the control about what would happen to his new children, integrating them in the tapestry of fate. The Maidens agreed and promised at least to try to never get the Eye out of control.

So the Maidens searched for one to hold the mighty Artifact, who would guard it without using it out of egoistic motivation. So the Eye wandered throughout Creation, but everyone who hold it became victim to its might. Mercury carefully traced its way, while Saturn foresaw the times, when the Eye would fall out of ones hands to the hands of another. So the Eye changed hands, but the Maidens were not quite successful in their attempt to control its way. Jupiter witnessed in her all-encompassing wisdom, that the mighty Realm would once try to obtain the Eye of Autochton and that this would lead to a catastrophe for the whole Creation. Although she could not directly see, who will try to get the eye, the Maidens debated, what actions should be taken to prevent this event.

In the end, they decided to weave a prophecy around it and to take an active part in the Eyes destination. They constructed a special star constellation, which would mark the rise of a band of heroes, who would be able to guard the Eye. They choose not to let their own children have it, as they should not change the destiny of Creation directly. Furthermore, there should not only be one person to watch the Eye, but a great Army of them, so that everyone, who would try to use the Eye for his own good, could be hindered by his companions.

The Prophecy

The Maidens would never be able to choose, who exactly would get the Eye. As part of the prophecy they marked the birth of 75 heroes. Mercury knew, that the next place, where the Eye would emerge, would be the Realm and so, after asking Gaia, who wanted to aid their little sisters in their project and willingly, the Maidens marked the ones blessed with a great destiny as their heroes. Jupiter sent one of their most trusted servants, Jadyle, a Sidereal who actually has witnessed the rise of the Gods, to find every hero favoured by one of the maidens and bring them together to form an army strong enough to oppose all forces who were after the Eye. Gaia helped the Maidens to choose their heroes, searching the most idealistic and duteous Childrens of the Dragons they were able to find. But also some God-Blooded and other magical beeings were chosen to strengthen the army that would be called the 75 Splendorous Stars of Fortune.

Every Star has a special place in the structure of the army and every Star has his own destiny to be fulfilled. The Stars will have the most differential backgrounds, cultures and heritages, but they will join each other in the mission to keep creation from harm by guarding the Eye of Autochton and even using it to drive the forces of Chaos out of Creation. The Sidereal Jadyle will guide them and has the assignment to bring them together to form a powerful force against the forces of chaos. She has to keep track of the happenings around the Eye and has to warn everyone, who underestimates its power or overestimates himself.

The Way the Eye Went

~ Jiba ~

Comments

So, this is as far, as I've gotten. Tell me what you think of it. I know, it's a bit confusing and if you've got any ideas, tell me. I'll probably include them in the campaign. My troupe has not played much of the campaign yet. Jiba

While I hesitate to wave the "cannon" shtick because of rule one, good old Auto is (according to published material) the designer of Exaltation (Lytic wasn't on the scene yet, apparently). Likewise, according to the recently published book the Alchemicals were never made inside creation. However, rule #1 says screw that so go for it. It's a cool concept. I'm interested in where this is goin. -- Halloween

• I have to say, that I've not yet read Exalted: The Autochtonians. I'd like to know anything about the fact, that Autochton designed Exaltation, though. Can you explain what this is all about? And who or what is Lytic? I like to adhere to the official material, but when I cooked up the campaign, I did not know much about Exaltation. I'd like to include the cannonian facts, though. Jiba