Game : Rebirth

This is a collection of setting, rules and character information for my IRC Exalted game (I being Orion).

Rules

The game uses the PDQ rules. The basic rules aren't long, but a bit too long to post here. I'll teach the players what they need to know but if you'd like a reminder then the core rules can be found here:PDQ

However, the game does use a few different rules from the PDQ standard. Here's the main differences:

• You roll 3d6+MOD instead of 2d6+MOD.
• Two new Ranks exist above Master: Elite [+8] and Epic [+10].
• The Target Numbers have shifted to accomodate the new rolling system. They are Poor [9], Average [11], Good [13], Expert [15], Master [17], Elite [19], Epic [21]
• Splitting your attacks to affect multiple targets (or to attack the same target twice) is possible, but at a -4 penalty rather than -2.
• Armor-like defenses cannot be downshifted to ignore all damage, instead they may be downshifted to ignore MOD x2 in damage ranks.
• Unarmed human attacks (or similarly "weak" attacks like whips) inflict only Failure Ranks.

Important Terms

Anima BannerAll Exalts are divine beings and your anima is the visible expression of your divinity. At it's lowest levels it appears as a glowing mark on your forehead, at higher levels it becomes a practical bonfire of essence which can be seen for miles. Charms: These are specific supernatural powers learned by the Exalted and other supernatural creatures to perform their incredible feats. Elementals This is listed here since the elementals of Creation are very different from your standard fantasy masses of fire or air. An Elemental is a naturally material spirit related to one of Creation's five Elements. Elementals can take many, many forms although their elemental aspect is usually recognizable by anyone knowledgable enough. As elementals become stronger they naturally tend to evolve a new shape, eventually transforming into Dragons, called Lesser Elemental Dragons. (much closer relationship to the asian dragons than european) Essence Essence is the basic material of reality, the magical structure of all of Creation. Everything is composed of Essence and raw Essence pours through the world in the dragon-lines and nodes of power. Permanent Essence: Permanent Essence is a measure of a character's personal power and enlightenment. The higher your Essence the greater the charms you can use and the more power you have to draw on. Essence Pool Your Essence Pool is your reserve of personal power, measured in 'motes'. you have a Peripheral Pool (which is essence drawn from Creation) and a much larger Personal Pool (essence drawn from yourself). However, motes drawn from your personal reserves make it difficult for you to hide your divine nature and add to your anima Banner. First Age Between the primordial war and the rise of the Dragon-blooded against the Solars. This was the Golden Age of man and magic, learning and prosperity were never higher. Fair Folk The Fair Folk are the chaotic spawn of the Wyld. They have many forms, typically taken from the minds of humanity to provide a solid shape when inside Creation, from ugly and hideous hobgoblins (with shapes taken from fears and nightmares) to the beautiful Fair Folk lords and ladies. They all have incredible powers of illusion and live by feeding on the emotions and souls of humans. Gods Creation is an animistic world, everything, from individual plants to the concept of love, has a diety associated with it. These gods range in power from the Least Gods who are barely conscious inhabitants of physical objects (every object has a Least God inside it) to the Incarnae, the near-omnipotent pillars of creation. It's worth noting that starting Exalted are stronger than many of the more minor gods and can eventually surpass any god except one of the Incarnae with time. The Underworld The Underworld is where spirits who are still bound to their mortal lives end up. Normally when someone dies their ghost re-enters the cycle of reincarnation and is born anew. However, if their spirits are troubled or held to the world by some force they become ghosts. The underworld is essentially a shadowy reflection of Creation, normally completely seperate. however, there are places called Shadowlands where the two worlds intermix. Anyone leaving the shadowland during the day will come out in Creation, but anyone who leaves at Night will be in the Underworld. The Wyld This is the chaos that still exists outside of Creation. The closer you get to the border of the world the more chaotic and unstable it becomes, with the rules of reality bending and eventually breaking as the Wyld corrupts the rules of Creation. Beyond Creation is nothing but pure madness. There are also many Wyld zones in creation proper, where the activities of sorcerers or the fair folk have torn holes in the fabric of reality.

The Setting

The world of Exalted is called Creation, it is a flat world, and it is also extremely massive. The structure of Creation is supported by the five Elemental Poles. The further you go towards a pole the more extreme and usually hazardous the effect of the element becomes.

• The North: The North is the elemental pole of air: a frigid, icy land. The North is the most uncivilized of all the directions and is inhabitated mostly be nomadic hunting and raiding tribes, the descendants of ancient First Age civilizations which failed and surrendered to the cold and wind once the power of the Solars was gone. However, there are a few city states of power and influence in the North. The further north you go the stronger and colder the wind becomes, until you finally reach nothing but an endless range of icy glaciers.

• The West: The West is the elemental pole of water: nearly endless ocean dotted with islands. The islands of the west support numerous tribes, kingdoms, pirates and travelers. The West is also the direction where the influence of the Wyld is the strongest and the Fair Folk are most common. No one is quite sure what the far west is like, other than an endless expanse of ocean, those who go so far are inevitably consumed by the Wyld.

• The South: The south is the elemental pole of Fire: dry savannah eventually giving way to parched deserts. Although inhospitable the South has some of the most intact first age cities in Creation and highly active gods who protect the people against the dangers of the desert. The South also has some of the best alchemists and thaumaturges in Creation, it's the source of Firedust and other alchemical wonders.The further south you go the hotter the desert becomes, until the sand is hot enough to ignite the boots of travelers.

• The East: The East is the elemental pole of wood: grasslands giving way to forest which leads to thick jungles side by side with towering ultra-sequias. The East is the largest and most populous direction. It's also the area where the Realm has the least power and there are many independent nations scattered all across the East. It's a popular starting point for new Solars. The further East you go the thicker and denser the vegetation and life becomes until you can hardly move through the trees and vines.

• The Center: The center of Creation is the Blessed Isle, surrounded by the Inland Sea. The center of the Blessed Isle is the elemental pole of Earth, the Imperial Mountain. The Elemental Pole of Earth is the center of stability and strength, so it is not inherently dangerous. The Blessed Isle is also the center of power of the Realm and the Imperial City.

General History

The history of Creation falls into several stages:

• In The Beginning: There was nothing but the deep chaos of the Wyld. From the Wyld came the Primordials, immense beings of vast power. The Primordials desired peace from the chaos in order to better entertain themselves. To this end they made a stable world out of the chaos, called Creation. They made the gods to oversee the running and stability of creation and created humans to provide prayer and worship, reasoning that the best way to create such a species would be to make them weak and surrounded by danger so that they would constantly beg Heaven for aid. The Primordials also created the Heavenly City of Yu-Shan, supported by but seperate from Creation, which is where they resided.
• Pre-War The gods were tasked with running Creation, led by the most powerful dieties: The Incarna. The Incarna were the Celestial gods: Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), Luna (the Moon Maiden), and the Five Maidens: Venus (Maiden of Serenity), Jupiter (Maiden of Secrets), Saturn (Maiden of Endings), Mars (Maiden of Battles), Mercury (Maiden of Journeys). These dieties had power close to one of the Primordials but they were bound by oaths to their creators never to harm the Primordials. Eventually they decided that they no longer wished to serve the Primordials as servants and hatched a plan to overthrow the Primordials. This was done with the help of the Primordial Gaia and her children, the five elemental Dragons. Since the gods could not fight the Primordials themselves they decided to use some of their power to strengthen mortal servants to fight the Primordials, creating the Exalted. Humans were never forced to swear pacts of nonagression against the Primordials, it was never deemed necessary.
• War Against the Primordials The Exalted were created as living weapons to serve the gods against the Primordials. The Primordials were caught completely and utterly by suprise by the assault but they still managed to put up a fight. The war lasted for centuries, destroying continents and nearly wrecking Creation. At the end of the war the Exalted were victorious actually managing to kill several Primordials, something previously considered impossible. The surviving Primordials and their children were forced to swear binding oaths on their own names and natures, twisting them horribly and imprisoning them inside their own bodies, creating the demonic realm of Malfeas.
• First Age of Man With the Primordials dead or defeated and the gods and Exalts victorious the Gods ascended to the Heavenly City and began enjoying the paradise the Primordials had created for themselves. Meanwhile they gave the Exalted the title of Princes of the Earth and the Unconquered Sun granted the Mandate of Heaven to the Solars. To them was given the authority to rule creation, command the dieties who remained in Creation. Under the power and genius of the Solars Creation flurished. The Solars created incredibly advanced magical infrastructure and devices to keep creation safe and to occasionally fight wars against each other. However, the Primordials had a final revenge. When they were struck down they cursed their killers: the Exalted. The Solars were hit the hardest by the curse, it took centuries for it to reach full bloom but it gradually turned the Solars towards excess, hubris and insanity. The Solars eventually became mad god-kings, tormenting those they ruled and abusing their powers in the worst way. The Unconquered Sun turned away from his children in disgust by their excess and the Solars did not even notice.
• The Usurpation While the Solars grew more and more insane and destructive, the other Exalted could not help but worry about the fate of Creation. It was the weakest Dragon-blooded who acted. The Dragon-Blooded rose up against their Solar masters, slaughtering as many as they could then hunting down the rest. Somehow, they interrupted the cylce of reincarnation of the Exalted, imprisoning most of the Solar's Essences. The few who managed to escape imprisonment and be reborn were hunted down by the Dragon-Blooded Wyld Hunt, an elite cadre of Dragon-blooded warriors trained to find and hunt down Solars before they regain their power. While the Solars were killed en masse the majority of the Lunars managed to escape, fleeing to the borders of Creation and escaping the purge.
• The Second Age The Dragon-Blooded took up the rule of creation, although they did not have the Mandate of Heaven, and began to oversee the affairs of humanity. However, they lacked the raw power and insight of the Solars and much of the magical advances of the First Age were lost, replaced by simpler and cruder (but still quite powerful) artifacts. The Dragon-Blooded Shogunate ruled creation for almost 750 years, hunting down newly respawned Solars and keeping order among humanity. However, two great disasters nearly wrecked Creation: The Great Contagation and the invasion of the Fair Folk. The first was an incredibly deadly and contagious plague which decimated human and Exalted populations, killing almost 80% of Creation's population and depopulating whole cities. This was followed quickly by the invasion of the Fair Folk, the intelligent spawn of the chaotic Wyld. The Fair Folk armies marched into creation, unmaking it as they came and destroying whole swathes of the world.
• The Scarlet Empire Only one thing saved the Dragon-Blooded and Humanity. A young Dragon-Blooded officer braved the defenses of an ancient Solar Manse which held the controls to the Sword of Creation, the ancient Solar Defense Grid. After seizing control of the Manse the woman was able to activate the dormant Defense Grid and completely annihillate the invading millions of Fair Folk in a single stroke: rains of fire, lightning and molten iron wiped them from the face of Creation. With her hands on the greatest weapon system in existance the Dragon-Blooded woman declares herself the new Empress of the Dragon-Blooded and there was no one who could deny her. This is the birth of the Realm, the Scarlet Empire. For a further 800 years the Empress ruled the Realm and bred the Scarlet Dynasty, vast families of her personal descendants, and played them off against one another and against those nations not loyal to the Realm.
• NowA lot of stuff has happened recently. First, the Empress disapeared. She did not, as far as anyone knows, die she simply disappeared and has not been seen or heard from in five years. Over that time the Scarlet Empire has begun to fall in on itself, preparing slowly for the inevitable civil war which will decide who will become the new head of the Realm. However, two years later the Solars began returning, dozens reincarnating every year. The Wyld Hunt was already badly un-supported due to the problems in the Realm itself, now they had to deal with more Solars returning than ever before. They still manage to slay a few Solars here and there but they have no hope of getting them all.

Nature of Exalted

Short notes on being Exalted. First and foremost you are still human, one head, two arms, two legs, etc. (unless you've hung out a lot in the Wyld). The Exaltation is a primarily spiritual change, granting new levels of power and inner strength and most importantly allowing you to feel Essence and manipulate it to produce powerful supernatural effects (called Charms).

Requirements of Exaltation

• The Exaltation wants quality: Only mortals with larger than life desires and motivations are worthy to recieve Exaltations. The Exaltations also were designed for soldiers: it seeks out mortals typically between the ages of 14 and 55 and overlooks those who are badly crippled, maimed or otherwise unfit (although badass issues like Blindness might be overlooked).
• The Exaltation wants people who will USE the power it grants. Mortals who Exalt are those who likely already had a grand destiny prepared for them. The Exaltation demands heros.

Benefits of Exaltation

• Lifespan: The Exalted live much, much longer than mortals. Terrestrial Exalts live nearly 400 or 500 years. Celestial Exalted can live up to 3,000 years. They do not age a day until they reach nearly the end of their lifespan.
• Tremendous Vitality: The Exalted are incredibly resiliant. All Exalted heal faster than normal mortals, are practically immune to disease, and incredibly resistant to poison.
• Magically Resistant: The Exalts are much harder to affect with most magical abilities and are completely immune to some things which could instantly overcome a mortal.
• Awakened Essence: Exalts have the ability to percieve and use essence both from their own internal reserves and from the peripheral essence around them. They may also increase their Essence score far above the normal mortal level.