NewbieGuide/ThematicIntroduction
Note:This was taken from http://206.65.59.245/forums/search.dna?thread=2003080922414476&category=EX&division=ww&subject=Exalted&task=thread and will be removed if the respective authors so demand. This is mostly to show how a discussion can work in a Wiki.
Hey everyone...
I don't know much of anything about Exalted, except for it being set in the Second Age of Man. Can someone tell me about the story, and the game itself? I have been playing WoD stuff for a while, but Exalted is looking really interesting, and I am thinking about giving it a try.
Thanks in advance... ;D
Before the First Age the Titans (Primordials) forged Creation (the World) out of primal chaos (the Wyld). They than created a host of spirits to run Creation for them so they could spend more time experimenting and playing the Games of Divinity. The spirits, led by the greatest of the Gods, The Unconquered Sun, resented the rough way the titans treated the world. So using knowledge given to them by the renegade titan Autocthon, they forged mighty divine souls that they emplaced in mortal humans. Since the gods were under oath to never rebel it was left to these living weapons (the Exalted) to fight and kill or capture the titans one by one. The gods in gratitude left Creation in the hands of the Exalted and retreated to the holy city of Yu-shan. This was the start of the First Age. The Exalted created a golden age unlike any period in history with the greatest achievements. But the Exalted suffered under the Great Curse, a curse inflicted on them by the defeated titans before they were locked away in Malfeas. The curse was that the Exalted would suffer the same fate that befell the titans, betrayal and rebellion. True to the curse the Solar Exalted were driven insane and overthrown by there servants the Terrestrial Exalted. This was the start of the Second Age. A great Contagion spreads across Creation killing 9 out of 10 people putting an end to the glory of the First Age. The Second Age is ruled by the Terrestrial Exalted (known as Dragon-blooded) for almost a thousand years. But now the Scarlet Empress has disappeared and the Great Houses gear up for a civil war. In the chaos the Solar Exalted are reborn into a world that hates and fears them. They must now take up arms to decide there own fates. This is the current time.
-- SunChaser
Little nitpick: the Curse was pronounced by the Primordials who were killed and sank into the Underworld, not those who were imprisoned in Malfeas.
-- Ikselam
Wow. O.O
That's quite a story! I like how the city the gods retreated to is named after a mountain (possibly two, one in Taiwan and one in China), Yu Shan (Iron Mountain). Heh...
So, what about the Scarlet Empress? What is known about her?
(That's really interesting, but now I have to sell a kidney to go buy the books...*sob*)
The Scarlet Empress was a Dragon-Blooded soldier who seized power when the Fair Folk (brain-sucking fairies born of the Wyld, the chaos that lies beyond the edges of Creation) attacked following the Contagion. She broke into the Imperial Manse and activated the magical defense system that had lain dormant since the fall of the Solars, driving the fey back to their home.
Afer that, she went on to basically subjugate the entire world. This went on for about 750 years (significantly longer than the average Dragon-Blooded lifespan), during which time the Empress' numerous lovers, spouses, and offspring formed the numerous Houses of the Scarlet Dynasty. The Empress maintained power through shrewd misrule, secret backing from the mysterious Sidereal Exalted (champions of the Five Maidens: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn), overt backing from the Immaculate Order (the false religion created to justify the Dragon-Blooded overthrow of the Solars), and her command of a number of extraordinary magical artifacts.
Unfortunately, the Empress made some deals with beings she shouldn't have, and is now in Malfeas (Hell) paying the piper; this leaves the Realm in turmoil at a crucial moment in history. Deathlords and their Abyssal Exalted march from the lands of the dead to conquer the world of the living; barbarian hordes led by bestial, shapeshifting Lunar Exalted pace hungrily outside the door to civilization; terrifying, alien Fair Folk emerge from the Wyld to consume the dreams of mortals; and the dreaded Solar Anathema once more walk the land, their vile taint spreading further with each passing day...
-- Ikselam
As for those barbarous shapeshifting Lunar Exalted and their hordes, they're not just nameless thugs either. In the First Age, the Lunar Exalted were the Seconds of the Solars -- generals and officers in the Realm of the Solar Exalted. Indeed, it was common practice for Lunars and Solars to marry one another -- they were in effect the ruling Council in creation.
With the betrayal by the Dragon-Blooded, the Lunars turned their back on this civilization and fled into the deep Wilderness on the Edge of Creation. There they tried to survive, for the Edges of Creation are dark and dangerous and the Lunars were the scions of their civilization and had to learn survival all over again. One of the greatest threats that the Lunars faced was the Wyld itself, that shifting mad place on the edge of creation.
Over time, the Lunars grew touched and affected by the Wyld on the edges of Creation and it began to change them. After the Great Contagion, when the Wyld swept over the world and large swaths of Creation washed away never to exist again except in the boundless potential of the Wyld, the Lunars were trapped and found their powers broken and changed forever -- unable to access the greatest extent of their powers.
Yet, the Lunars are nothing if not survivors and the Druid/Sorcerer's of the Lunars -- the No Moons -- found a way to regain some measure of their own power, through the use of magical tattoos. The Lunars were casted, given back the majority of their magical power (though some of it was lost forever, never to be regained) -- most of them were, in any event. It was too late for many, and they instead were swallowed by the Wyld to become the Chimera.
Centuries past, as the Lunars dwelt on the edges of Creation. Over time, for the Celestial Exalted live for Millenia, many of them -- those who were old when the Lunars initially fled -- began to die, and their Godly- Souls were reborn into the world. The Lunars, just now entering their 'middle age', have never known the touch of civilization or the place of the Lunars in it. They have always been Barbarians, ostracized by the soft people of Creation and placed off to the side -- while the Civilized People of the Realm and it's tributaries eat well and grow fat off the prosperity they have not earned.
Yet, to these Lunars, the Barbarians -- their people -- are the strongest most pure in Creation. They see Civilization as weak, impure, and stiffling. They are pushed on in these beliefs by many of the older Lunars, who have long since grown to view Civilization as the cause of the weakness that led to the foundering of the First Realm. Thus, the Lunars have sat -- held back from the utter eradication of Civilization by only one thing. The Sorcerous Defenses of the Realm, at the control of one woman -- the Scarlet Empress.
Now, though, the Empress is gone and the Lunars know that this is finally their time. Their time to reshape the world as they feel it should be, to create a new society different from anything else in the past. They will rage out of the hinterlands, overcome the cities of Creation, and raze them to the ground. In their wakes, great fields and mighty cities will be left to the meadows and the forests and the Barbarians will rule the World.
-- CrownedSun
Sure, that's all well and good, but what about enlightenment?
Alas my boy, only you can enlighten yourself. But there are some helpful guidlines to be learned in the teachings of Buddha.
http://www.konchogrinchen.com/the_eight_fold_path.htm
I try to live by them, and often fall rather short of the expectations of the Eight Fold Path.
-- InvaderZim
