LiOfOrchid/CircleOfChiaroscuro

Circle of Chiaroscuro

The first (nameless) Exalted game I ever ran started back when the only books published for the line were the Core book, Scavenger Sons, and the Storyteller's Handbook. As such, many of the assumptions I made regarding other Exalted, Deathlords, Demons, Gods, and various other setting pieces, turned out very differently from what was eventually published.

The Circle

• Undercurrent. Dawn. A medicant from the West, and a student of the Tsunami Serpent Style.
• Yew. Zenith. A Dynastic scion turned rootless vagabond.
• Zannon the Artificer. Twilight. A Scavenger Lord from Chiaroscuro.
• Caleb. Night. An assassin in the infamous Glasscutter's Guild of Chiaroscuro.

Summary

In the latter days of the First Age, the Solar Exalted Circle known as the Five Immortals of Muirthemne fell, scattered and alone across Creation, hounded by their former Dragon-Blooded soldiers. Each of the Five Immortals were known by many different names, in many different lands; but after they fell, their names were forgotten and replaced by the Anathema curse-names given to them in the texts of the Immaculate Order. Ugulur the Forsaken, “Fallen Among Jackals”; Evniralemen the Wretched, “Drenched In The Blood Of The Righteous”; Vishmakto the Unclean, “Unclean Flame-Bearer”; Ilmnat the Blasphemous, “The Terrible Visage”; Jzakla the Deciever, “Speaker of Blasphemies.”

The First Age collapsed and the Second Age was born. One thousand and six hundred years later, an Eclipse of the Unconquered Sun, the first since the time of the Usurpation, heralded the return of the Solar Exalted. The Exaltation came upon worthy mortals across Creation and the strands of Destiny went to work. The power of four of the Five Immortals of Muirthemne came upon four mortals but of the power of the fifth we shall not yet speak.

The Exaltation Dawned in a young warrior of the Far West. Cast adrift by storm upon the vast ocean, Undercurrent found himself upon an island that his ancient self had raised from the waters by terrible magic and upon which he had fallen to the Dragon-Blooded. And the Unconquered Sun spoke to him, saying that Undercurrent was of the Dawn, a warrior Exalted, and to seek his destiny in the South.

The Exaltation reached Zenith in a son of the Dynasty, Tepet Thornton, called Yew. Lost in the vast wildernesses of the East, wounded unto death, burning beneath the noontime sky, Yew was Chosen. The Unconquered Sun spoke to him, saying that Yew was of the Zenith, aspect of the sun in its ultimate glory, a priest and leader among the Exalted. And he was told his destiny lay in the South.

The Exaltation lay in Twilight with a young Scavenger Lord, Zannon, called The Artificer. Hounded by enemies, the cunning craftsman was led by fate to the tomb of his ancient self a bleak desert of shattered glass. Taking up his old regalia, he was Exalted by the Unconquered Sun, who spoke to him, saying that Zannon the Artificer was of the Twilight. He was the aspect of the magician, and the builder, and the sage. And he knew his destiny was coming.

The Exaltation came in the Night to a hardened assassin in the broken alleys of Chiaroscuro. As his life hung in the balance, Caleb the Glasscutter was Exalted, illuminated in the darkness. The voice of the Unconquered Sun rose to up from out of the earth, and named him of the Night, the aspect of the Hidden Sun, the spy, the assassin. His destiny was here in the ruins of ancient Chiaroscuro.

The Exaltation came as the shadow of Luna crossed the face of the Unconquered Sun... but of this, we will not yet speak.

Four found each other in the ancient metropolis Chiaroscuro: Undercurrent and Caleb; Yew and Zannon; then the four together. Haunted by visions of a previous life, they reunited but the fifth of them was no where to be found and they knew their Circle was incomplete.

In the dust of the desert, they found an ancient monument that their old selves had reared thousands of years past. An ancient Exalt of Luna confronted them there; Teras was his name, he who had once been husband to the missing fifth member of their Circle. He knew them, but sent them from his presence with barely a word and the hint of a threat. He wanted no truck with their kind.

In the courts of Chiaroscuro, intrigue swirled. A Magistrate of the Realm was coming, for the city had not paid its tribute in three years. The Scarlet Empress was gone from the Throne, disappeared; the Realm swayed and groaned, still strong but now unsteady. The Tri-Khan of Chiaroscuro decided to stand against the Realm. His chosen agent to destroy the Magistrate was Pearl, Guildmaster of the Glasscutter’s Guild, the most feared assassins of the South. Pearl recruited his Solar student Caleb and his Circle-mate Undercurrent to aid him; together, the three slew the Magistrate and his retinue.

The four Solar fled Chiaroscuro together, fearing the attention of the Wyld Hunt. They stole the Magistrate’s ship and set course for Nexus, where they heard the reach of the Realm was not so long and the strong could chart their own course. Fate had other plans for them. A terrible storm came one night and blew them upon the rocky shores north of the cursed city Thorns. There, fleeing from the reach of the Mask of Winters, they came upon a pair of deathknights: The Abbot of Hunger and Dust and The Bloodflower Princess. Their terrible aspect and dark powers unnerved the Solar heroes and they fought hard against the deathknights with their undead troops. A shock of recognition ended the battle abruptly. Somehow, the Bloodflower Princess, who was once the fifth of the Five Immortals of Muirthemne, was now sworn to the Mask of Winters, a Exalted of the Abyss, not the Unconquered Sun. In whispers borne from afar by magic, she spoke to Undercurrent, for she had recognized him. She told them her name was Leilia, the Bloodflower Princess, and that she was sworn to serve the Mask of Winters. She warned them to flee Thorns and never return, at the peril of their lives.

They fled the terrible dark armies of the Mask of Winters and the revelation of their Circle-mate’s fate but resolved to return. They crossed the wide plains west of the lands of Marukani, north towards Lookshy. Their track led them across many weeks of wilderness. In the center of a Wyld-touched wasteland, they discovered an ancient tower, the tomb of a forgotten and nameless Solar. There they destroyed the tomb’s defenses and retreived the regalia of the ancient warrior for themselves.

At length, after a long, hard journey, the heroes came unto the city of Nexus. There, at the crossroads of the Scavenger Lands, they hoped to find more of their kind and hints to reveal their ancient past. They came unto both.

In the marketplaces of Nexus, they met two Solars, Li of Orchid and Skavird of the Mammoth Tribe. Eagerly they joined together, for all of them sought the secrets of the First Age and the reason for its Fall. Together, they tested the strength of the Anathema Tombs scattered about Nexus but without success. The power of so many Solar Exalted left traces for those skilled enough to see. The seers of the Wyld Hunt could see the signs and though their strength had waned, and though Nexus lay beyond the reach of the Realm’s Legions, they came anyway. Twelve Dragon-Blooded, the finest warriors and wizards of the Realm, came to Nexus in shadow and darkness, along with two others with stars in their eyes. As the first rains of the monsoon came to the city, the Hunt struck at the Solars.

The battle between the Unconquered Sun’s Chosen and the Chosen of the Dragons raged through the streets of Nexus for two days and nights. When it was over, the Solars were sore wounded but half the Terrestrials had returned to the Dragons and the others had fled. The city of Nexus was shaken by these brutal displays of power. The Emissary went to the Solars and extracted an oath to aid the Council of Entities in the future in exchange for the protection of the Council. Meanwhile, some mortals, dazzled by the Solars’ might, erected a shrine on the site of their battle against the hated Dynasts and paid them homage. Some regarded the Solars with unmitigated terror.

One man saw the young Solars as a source of hope. His name was Malak, Prince of Sararia. He came to the Solars, begging for aid. His kingdom, a small but proserous land in the Hundred Kingdoms had recently been conquered by a godling calling herself The Emerald Queen. With armies of snake-men and harsh mercenaries, she had taken control of his land, imprisoned his family and banished him from his home. The Solars saw Malak was a good man and were enraged by the injustices perpetuated by this Emerald Queen. They vowed to help him.

Li and Skavird did not accompany them; instead, they parted ways with the former Immortals of Muirthemne. Word had come to them of a man in the Northlands, a man of Skavird’s tribe, who had unified the icewalker tribes and was conquering the north, a man called The Bull of the North, a man who, it was said, burned with the light of the sun. They went to see for themselves if this man was another of the Solar Exalted. The six Solars vowed they would meet again and to leave word at the home of the good doctor Verdi who had treated them after their battle with the Wyld Hunt.

With Malak as their guide, the Solars traveled north to the city of Sararia. With stealth and guile they stole their way into the city, and spirited Malak’s family out from under the noses of their captors. Then, they let loose the wrath of the Sun and turned on the Emerald Queen’s troops. Within the palace, they slew two of the Emerald Queen’s captains and set the garrison to flight. Then from without, the Emerald Army attacked, burning down the palace. The Solars escaped only to be confronted by the Queen herself. To their great surprise and dismay she was a Chosen of Luna and she offered battle, clad in armor of moonsilver and weilding a long whip of the same metal. They fought to a standstill and at last the Emerald Queen relented. They extracted from her an oath to never violate Sararia again, and she swore it would be so. But she also swore that she would never be diverted from her march upon the Realm and she left them, transforming into a great winged serpent and disappearing into the night.

With the Emerald Army fleeing in disarray, the population of Sararia hailed them as saviors. They were feted and celebrated for many days, until at last a wise man at the court advised the Solars to seek knowledge of the First Age and their former selves in the necropolis of Sijan. They traveled north until they reached the City of Shrouds.

Among the ancient crumbling tombs and subterrene dwellings of that ancient city, they met a servant of death, an Abyssal named The Leper. The Leper told them he served the Deathlord, "King Beneath The Mountain" and was enemy to the Mask of Winters – and therefore their friend. Despite his hideous appearance, they came to trust him and he spoke of a way to learn the darkest secrets of the dead. The Solars knew that one day they must confront the Mask of Winters in order to regain the fifth member of their Circle and were desperate to find a way to make this possible. The Leper’s stories of the powers of the Deathlords did not encourage them; for it was well known that the Deathlords could not be killed by any known means.

Following The Leper, they therefore descended the Venous Stair, a passageway deep beneath the city, which lead through the lands of the dead, to the Labyrinth and to the very Well of the Void. For many nights they descended in the darkness and the darkness tested them. The shades of many dead men and women came to them; victims, vanquished, loved ones and friends. The Solars confronted each in turn and earned the right to descend even deeper, to the leaden core of the world, the Well of Void. There, amidst the tombs of the Dead Gods, looking out across the ultimate end, they found what they searched for: the secret weakness of the Mask of Winters and the method by which they might free their companion. But they paid a price, for the Void does not yield up such secrets willingly. Each of them was marked in their own way. Then, they began their long climb back to Creation.

Once more they breathed the clean air of the world above and the Leper parted ways from them. They returned to Nexus but something troubled them. Zannon and Caleb had been especially shaken by their descent into the Underworld and now the rumblings of war in the South reached them. Homesick, they proposed a return to Chiaroscuro.

They managed to return to that dusty metropolis of broken glass with little trouble. There, they found the rumors they had heard in the East were true. War was brewing and Chiaroscuro was at its center; the Realm had at last decided to punish the renegade tributary. Zannon and Caleb were resolved to defend their homeland and offer their services to the Tri-Khan, to which Undercurrent and Yew were amenable. Pearl was now serving the Tri-Khan directly, if secretly, and he offered an introduction to the ruler of Chiaroscuro. They agreed and together, they went into the unbroken glass citadel of the Tri-Khan…