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Lexicon References in official First Age material

5.19.08: Over on the White Wolf fora, Alabrax made a thread pointing out that Dreams of the First Age references some Lexicon material (specifically, the Bitter Flower Empire). He didn't seem happy about it, so I feel like I should do some full disclosure: this is my fault. I was a significant contributor to the Lexicon back before I wrote "official" Exalted material (in fact it was my favourite Wiki project ever), and I referred to the Bitter Flower Empire in a lot of my entries. I don't have my copy of Dreams yet, so I don't know if she made it in to the actual book, but I wrote up Seven Hymns Princess as one of the Solar signature characters. One of the setting authors for Dreams then took my references to the Bitter Flower Empire from the Princess' entry, and ran with it.

It literally never once occurred to me that any of the other Lexicon contributors would be offended that I referenced some of the Lexicon's material in Dreams. On the contrary, I assumed that people would be glad that I managed to somewhat "canonize" the Lexicon project. If anyone's really upset about this, then you should blame me, because it's definitely my fault. And I'm sorry. My intent was not to steal ideas, I swear! I just wanted to involve my favourite fan project in the game!

I'm available by email if you want to discuss.

Worship Chris Longhurst

11.17.06: I currently freelance occasionally for "Exalted" 2nd. You'll see me credited as an intern and a playtester in the core rulebook, for additional material in the Scavenger Lands book, and for some crunchy bits in the comic. My creative partner and I, Dustin Shampel, got our first full-on authorship credit recently co-writing some styles for "Scroll of the Monk". The important part of this section is where I say Chris Longhurst is awesome, because he wrote the Martial Arts Style that we based our draft of Quicksilver Hand of Dreams Style on, and although I tried to secure him a credit in "Scroll of the Monk", it didn't work out. Chris, you rule.

Exalted Credits (with Dustin Shampel)

• Scroll of the Monk: Even Blade Style, Fivefold Shadow Hand Style, Silver-Voiced Nightingale Style, Laughing Wounds Style, Obsidian Shards of Infinity Style, Quicksilver Hand of Dreams Style (see also: cut material); and Path of the Arbiter Style from the PDF.
• The White and Black Treatises: The sorcerous Schools, tomes and some other stuff (see also: cut material).
• Oadenol's Codex: The Demesne and Manse chapter, not counting the hearthstones (see also: the original Manse Creation System).
• The Roll of Glorious Divinity, Volume I: Revised all elementals and created most of the new gods and elementals (such as Grandmother Bright, Sessen Douji, Jealous Saffron Rage, the Quicksilver Queen, Joyous Youth Juritsu, carmine lilies, Translucent Alabaster, and Rabszolga) (mostly me), and spirit Charms (mostly Dustin). Also some other bits, like the spirit-creating guidelines.
• Dreams of the First Age: Solar signature characters (mostly me) and Charms (mostly Dustin). Note: before I got my author copies I thought Conrad Hubbard wrote some Solar Charms, but he didn't.
• The Roll of Glorious Divinity, Volume II: the Yozis and the General Malfeas section (Dustin wasn't on this project, but continues to work on other Exalted stuff on his own).

Yup.

[last updated in 2007]

So. I'm one of those ever-more-plentiful girl gamers. I graduated college in 2004, where I was a Philosophy / Religion / 2-D Art major. I wrote my senior thesis mostly on "Exalted" and a good chunk of it is actually fanfiction, because I am just awesome enough to convince the head of the Literature department that it's a worthwhile subject for exploration. (You can find out more about my erstwhile thesis here.)

I am currently living in a co-op in Chicago (having spawned in New York).

I've played Exalted ever since it came out. When I saw Tanith Lee, my favourite author, in the literature credits, I figured it had to be good. I consider it the best game ever made, and although my interpretation of it tends to slant a little bit from canon -- in some places more heavily than others -- I spread the faith vigorously.

I use some British spellings because I think they're prettier and I was an art major, so give me a break for obsessive and bizarre aesthetic craziness and don't fix them on my pages, please.

I got my roleplaying start with MUDs right around age eleven and I've used the same name and signature character ever since, so if you ever encountered a Shataina in an online game (or, in fact, on the Internet anywhere else), it was probably me. (Unless it was EverQuest, which I have never played. Someone stole my name for that game. Death comes on swift wings. ... Or [later edit] World of Warcraft; someone else stole my name for that game, too. S/he'll suffer in her next life.)

I tend to like absurd and random things, the colour red, ferrets and cats, overanalyzing sociological distinctions (particularly between men and women), ethics, and (of course) science fiction and fantasy. (Authors I would recommend lately include, of course, Tanith Lee [sticking to her earlier stuff is a good idea], Jorge Luis Borges, Guy Gavriel Kay, Connie Willis, and Richard K. Morgan.)

Here is one of my favourite quotations ever:

"I am against the terms 'fantasy' and 'symbolism' in themselves. All our interior world is reality -- and that perhaps more so than our apparent world. To call everything that appears illogical, 'fantasy', fairy-tale, or chimera -- would be practically to admit not understanding nature." ~ Marc Chagall

Comments

Us New Yorkers r0xx0r. Also, feel free to IM me Miedvied. - Miedvied

22-0. _Ikselam

Excellent. If I'm ever on at a time when any sane person is awake, I shall.
And Ikselam, what?
~ Shataina

You're from New York, but don't follow the Yankees? _Ikselam

{quasi-sexist remark}She's female. It's not a prerequisite.{/quasi-sexist remark} -EJGRgunner

Or maybe she's has the good taste of prefering to spend her time on better things than watching overpaid athletes reek of testosterone and tobacco while running after balls. Or occassionally schratching balls. Resplendence (very male)

Do you mean to imply that there are better ways of spending your time than watching overgrown and overpaid children rub their genitals? Poppycock. -- Miedviedwho prefers to spend his sports-watching time on football

I'm from New York and I don't follow the Yankees either. Sports? Bah. - Quendalon

I don't follow sports at all, but, I mean, 22-0. Seriously. _Jabberwocky

I'd defend myself, but watching you people brawl is too much fun. <goes to buy some hot dogs>
~ Shataina

That's a good quote. My favorite quote on the same (or at least similar) subject is: "You see things as they are and ask, 'Why?' I dream things as they never were and ask, 'Why not?'" (George Bernard Shaw)
Resplendence

Nice one. Thanks. I shall squirrel it away for future usage. :)
~ Shataina

Hmm. well, a good reason to use british spellings is because they are the correct ones? ;) US english is not a language, it is a Dialect. The Queen's English is the correct one. *ducks* Sorry, I can never resist. And.. Hmm. Qudos on your convincing skills. The thesis was interesting. As for MUD's.. Ever run across a MUSH? - Molikai

I think so. I was never clear on the exact distinction between MUDs and MUSHes; let's just say I've played a number of text-based games (although not that many, and not for a rather long time now, so don't expect too much).
Many thanks for the props on my thesis!
(And hey, I would be fine with using British English for everything, but I want to be an editor someday and this country won't let me ... so I restrict myself to linguistic stuff I'm sure I can later remember not to do when necessary, like "ou" in "colour", etc.)
~ Shataina

MUDs are the ones in which game mechanics are already coded into the system; speaking on over-generalized terms, they tend to have commands that include some variation on ">kill." MUSHes are the ones in which the game mechanics are handled more or less entirely by storytellers/game-masters. I tend to prefer MUDs because you can play them when no one else is around. - Arafelis is endlessly useful! No, really!

Molikai in some places US English isn't a Dialiect - it's an atrocity. I live in Texas, trust me, I know! ;P Although it still has nothing on Engrish, but, hey, what does? Gamlain

Do you mean the actual recorded dialect spoken by the Queen (which, to the best of my knowledge, no one else in Britain actually speaks) or RP (and if RP, exactly WHICH RP, as there are several major variants, all of which really fall on more of a scale than being easily seperable dialects). As to US English not being a language, there is actually a fair amount of evidence that some dialects of English as spoken in America are actually more faithful to the original forms in grammar, pronunciation, and even in the semi-fossilized bones of language that constitute spelling.
Returning to British English, are you considering some of the features found in outlying areas that are more original to the language? Ie. some of the unshifted vowel patterns in northern England (as distinct from Scotland; thank you, I do know a little geography, after all...), or the non-R-dropping dialects of similar, original vintage in areas further away from London and Liverpool?
Before speaking about whether something is a language or not, please try to learn what you're talking about. Shataina apears to have said that she likes certain forms that are more typical of British English (mainly in spelling). Great. Good for her. One friend of mine, though very definitely a speaker of an American dialect of English, favors the form [shedule] in speech. Such things are personal choices affecting idiolect. They are often decided on consciously, and as such are a matter of preference.
Gamlain, Texas varieties are just as valid as anyone else's. This whole idea that one dialect is better than another is really equivalent to racism or sexism. It's just as ugly, and just as inappropriate. The lot of you, grow up. Liking or disliking a dialect is one thing. Don't assume that your opinion carries any real moral force. There is no "correct" dialect among L1 speakers. To claim otherwise speaks not only of the language, but of the people speaking it. It's very real, and very offensive. -Suzume (who is so sick of hearing this sort of shit she wants to scream.)
P.S. I also don't follow sports much at all. Too many men. Watching women's Tennis or Volleyball on occasion is entertaining, though. They tend to make amusing noises... ^^

Suzume! Down! Linguistics is an art, not a baseball bat! - Arafelis speaks with an indistinctly Midwestern accent, and so can do no wrong.

^^; I do seem to recall hearing about someone who painted with a baseball bat, somewhere. ^^; -Suzume

Eh. Linguistic prescriptivism serves a purpose in large sets of speakers. Comparing it to, say, sexism is only accurate insofar as genders are constructed ideas like language is... saying, "such and such a gender is inferior" can be perfectly accurate as long as one realizes that the assigned gender only exists by mutual agreement between the observer and the observed. Likewise it is with speech; two parties can agree on a 'superior' form of communication, as long as it's recognized to be 'superior' only in the context that it is the one that has been chosen. I mean, one can't really hold an opinion (ie, "British spellings are preferrable") if one goes around thinking it's incorrect, can one? - Arafelis suggests that playing baseball-fencing with the prescriptivist attitude is probably just adding fuel to the fire

It is important to note a couple things when comparing linguistic preferences to racism/sexism. First, dialect can be chosen much more freely than either race or gender. Second, as language does act directly as a tool, there will be times when one version of it will be more practically applicable. While you might argue that the reasons for this are socially constructed and even possibly morally problematic, that doesn't make it any less true that within those circumstances there might be valid rational preferences. -szilard

You've demonstrated more thought, Arafelis, than anyone who actually practices "linguistic prescriptivism"--cute euphemism, by the way--is likely to exercise. I'll also note, szilard, that dialect, like accent, is not so easy to simply 'switch'. You don't simply choose the methods with which you vocalize thoughts, unless you make a deliberate, concious effort to do so. Vocalization is largely instinct, which is what makes judging others based on their modes of speech so foolish. For those who don't think dialect bias has real and obvious effects, try speaking in southern drawl in... oh, say, Connecticut. It's absolutely magnificent. As long as you talk in ways people have only seen in spaghetti westerns, some of them will treat you like a moron. It makes absolutely no difference if you are grammatically correct. Simply adopting the tone and inflection will convince these people you're somehow unworthy of intelligent conversation. -- Ketrus has learned not to underestimate people that look or sound stupid, by teaching others that very lesson.

I am highly amused at the furore a simple joke hath caused. :) Sorry for the cascade of comments I seem t ohave started on your page, Shataina! - Molikai

No need to apologize! The comments field ain't mine -- one might say especially and explicitly so.
~ Shataina

Random: I know a guy who submitted a graphic novel as his BA project for an English major, so yeah, they're pretty darn hip. Makes me wish I were an English major, except that I can't write. And yeah, "the differences between men and women" is a favorite topic of mine as well, although I'm never entirely certain that I'm not talking nonsense. The second clause stands pretty well on its own, actually. -MeiRen

On your last sentence: I know the feeling.
~ Shataina

WoW names are bound per server. If your name is taken on one server, just try another. - Wordman

I don't actually want to play WoW. I'm just a jealous mean girl who doesn't want anyone else using her name.
~ Shataina

I really didn't have a problem with the material being in the first age book, I found that to be rather awesome actually. The problem I had was the lack of acknowledgement to the Authors. Saddly your influences section and Seven Hymns Princess did not make it to print. Also when I first saw the Bitter Flowers Empire in print I instantly flipped to the credits to see if you were in there, because that would have explained things for me. You did not get credit in the book I was looking in at the time, you did get credit in the other book however, which was someplace I had not thought to look. Anyhow if I had seen that you were connected to this I would have just thought it was cool that this happened and let it go, but since I didn't see you or anyone else from the Lexicon project listed I got in to a huff about it. Alabrax

Well, I'm glad you're not upset ... that's a relief. Seven Hymns Princess didn't make it to print? That's a shame, she was definitely one of the better characters I wrote. It hurts my soul to think that someone decided printing every single freakin' Charm for every single NPC was a great idea, and then cut actual characters for space. But I guess that's the joy of the editing process.
~ S.