MicahHakubi/Essay01
It's a testimony to the quality of the creators of Exalted that each Exalted subset have thier own unique identifying qualifiers that make them wholely unique in feel and subtext while not making them totally alien to one another.
Each Exalted type has a certain subset to call thier own. Dragonblood are Soldiers - thier strength lies in numbers, and thier charms reflect this. While they can function as a single individual - and many do - this is not where thier calling lies. It's not what they're made to do.
Abyssal are inverted Solars - twisted, breathtaking, shambling, crawling, lovecraftian and Rice-esque horrors risen and empowered by the unholy oblivion gnawing inseesently in thier crooning death-dreams at the roots of creation. They start human, and yet they quickly gain the taste of... something else. Something dead.
Lunars are protean. Fluid. They adapt, they fit themselves to thier world. They're promethean wargods/esses that crawled up from beyond the rim of a flat earth and are sworn to protect it, and are wholely unique in that respect.
Solars -are- perfection. They're the only Exalted that can claim that vaunted status, with the possible exception of Abyssals, and even then, Abyssals lack several things Solars do not. That -is- the Solars thing - they are human skill and perfection incarnate.
Sidereals. Sidereals could be said to be THE most twisted, fucked up, and unique out of all of the Exalted leigions(taking the moment to NOT count Alchemicals, mind), because of -what they are-. Well, what are they? Martial Artists? No... not quite. Martial Arts for Sidereals is a crutch(What!?) that they use to cover up thier one huge, gaping weakness - the inability to create new charms in any other ability set. They -became- Martial Artists. They didn't start as them.
The bit that makes Sidereals unique is -perception-. They, and perhaps they alone, are truely aware of the unique nature of thier world - that reality is only what you perceive. To them, reality is not simply what's presented on face value - they're aware of the strings of essence, the -tapestry-, that's woven together to bring to coherent form the consensual reality that is Creation. They're designed to -handle- this. That -is- thier thing. And, when nessecary, they bend it - or break it. They are Agents of a Reality that's only as real as you - or they - make it.
Is it any wonder the Maiden's effectively have each and every one of thier choosen wearing a leather collar with chain and spikes with the end firmly clenched in thier well-manicured hands? Consider for a moment what could be done if Sidereals WERE allowed by thier patrons to develop new charms? What they WOULD have developed, considering that the majority of thier abilities revolve around retro-/actively changing or arranging reality -as they know it-?
Wow. No wonder Sidereals got gelded there.
Wow. It's no wonder they have a raging hard-on of lust for thier Martial Arts.
Comments
What makes you think that Creation is a consensual reality? Exalted doesn't seem to be consensual reality based at all. -BogMod
Working on low caffiene, so excuse me if I make a glaring error. I'm primarily basing my assumption that creation is a 'Consensual Reality' on what talk GCG has done on the effects of the Great Contagion and just how it had the effect of dissolving large portions of Creation into the Wyld. Basically, if nothing alive is present(As the Great Contagion is hinted at killing -every living thing-), then Creation forgets itself and sloughs off into the Wyld. Granted, this idea tends to break down around Exalted and Essence Users, but that's to be expected, as they break alot of rules.
There are other things(Such as the Tapestry and the Pattern Spiders) to take into account, but that's it in a nutshell, imo. And about as far as I can get without writing another essay entirely. -MicahHakubi
Actually, it's been stated (in AB:E, I believe) that the only parts of Creation that disappeared into the Wyld due to the Contagion, were those bits that weren't originally part of Creation. Ie: Those (vast) portions on the edges that had been formed by various Exalts (and the like) with Wyld-Shaping Techniques (and the like). Which indicates... well, not much, really... but it could be taken as the Wyld was unable to reclaim the original bits (too well made by the primordials), or it could just be a fluke that that's as far as it got before things settled down. - Nikink Does kinda make me wonder why Gaia was on the Gods (and Humanities) side during the Primordial War... perhaps because they promised to make her more of Creation for life to flourish upon? Hmmm...
