The Exalted Thread

[Jürgen Hubert]

Since I am currently working on a GURPS Conversion for Exalted over on the GURPS forum, I thought I'd start a thread here to drum up some interest and start some discussion about an awesome setting unfortunately tied to an inferior game system. The core book for Exalted can be bought as a PDF here, but I think I'll start with an overview.

In the beginning, there was Chaos - or rather, the untamed possibilities of the endless Wyld, an expanse without fixed forms or rules. There were beings inhabiting it which might be sapient or not - the unshaped Raksha, or Fair Folk, as they would later be called.

But somehow, powerful, self-aware entities evolved from the Wyld - the Primordials, vast beings which were both one and many souls. After shaping the Wyld according to their whims and desires for a while, they decided to create a vast artifact where they could dwell in leisure forever. This artifact was Creation, the world that humans now inhabit. It is a flat plane spanned between the Poles of Air, Water, Fire, and Wood, with the Pole of Earth acting as the central anchor of stability. Then the Primordials created vast numbers of gods, great and small, to maintain this great machine which drew vast streams of Essence from the Wyld and refined it, and then they created humans to worship the gods and thus maintain them with their prayers. Satisfied, they withdrew to the celestial city of Yu-Shan to play the Games of Divinity and live a life of leisure.

However, the gods were dissatisfied with their lot as servants. The Unconquered Sun, the greatest of the gods and a paragon of virtue, urged the other gods to rebel. However, the Primordials had put a geas upon the gods so that they could not attack them directly and had to follow their orders. In order to circumvent this, the gods conspired with two renegade Primordials to imbue mortal champions with some of their power. These "Essence shards" containing divine power could neither be destroyed nor be extracted from a living host - and upon death of the host it would seek out a new worthy human host and bond with him. Furthermore, as the human hosts had free will, they could keep on fighting the Primordials even if their gods were forced to tell them to stop. Four varieties of these so-called "Exalted" were produced:

- As the Unconquered Sun is the greatest of the gods, so are his 300 Solars the greatest of the Exalted. Their powers derive from their mundane skill, expanding them to a superhuman or divine scale. Even a young and inexperienced Solar will likely be better than any mortal swordsman in a fight, no matter how experienced the mortal is. Older Exalted may jump over mountains - or shatter them with their bare fists. But they were not just intended as warriors - they were intended as leaders as well, and a Solar specializing in the social arts can subvert entire societies with a few well-chosen words.

- Second in power are the 300 Chosen of Luna, or the Lunar Exalted. Like their deity, they are supreme shapeshifters, and can take the shape of almost every living living being by tasting their heart's blood. They can also gain all sorts of other abilities based on changing their bodies, and they can take on impressive "war forms" which mix human and animal shape. Elder Exalted can become as large as trees in such forms. Each Lunar was created as a "mate" or partner to a specific Solar.

- The third of the so-called "Celestial Exalted" are the 100 Sidereals, or the Chosen of the Five Maidens. They were intended as advisers and behind-the-scenes manipulators, and they are the most adept at supernatural martial arts and the manipulation of the Loom of Fate - the central machinery that maintains the natural laws of Creation and the destiny of all who live in it.

- The weakest of the Exalted created were the Dragon-Blooded, or Terrestrial Exalted. They were infused with the power of the renegade Primordial Gaia - but while they were individually weaker, they were the only Exalted who could pass on their power to their offspring. Initially 10,000 in number, they quickly bred in order to prepare for the Primordial War.

And the Primordial War was a great success. While the Primordials slew scores of Exalted, new Exalted arose as quickly as they were slain. When several Primordials were killed, they turned into the Neverborn - beings dead yet dreaming which formed the foundation of the new realm of the Underworld, a plane mirroring the lands of Creation. In their deaths, they also whispered the Great Curse, which unknown to anyone subtly poisoned the Essences of the Exalted, causing them to have periodic bouts of great passion or even insanity. The majority of the Primordials surrendered and were imprisoned inside the bodies of their leader Malfeas. They were forced to swear surrender oaths on their very nature and became the Yozis, hate-filled things whose component souls became the armies of demons living in Malfeas.

The victorious gods retreated to Yu-Shan to play the Games of Divinity, and as a reward bestowed the Mandate of Heaven on the Solars - the right to rule all of Creation. The other Exalted were supposed to assist them. However, over the millennia the Great Curse slowly caused more and more of the elder Solars to become insane, and finally the Sidereals, acting upon a dire prophecy, conspired with the Dragon-Blooded to kill and depose the Solars. The Solar Essences were captured in a prison artifact which was sunk into the sea, and the surviving Lunars fled to the Wyld at the rim of Creation.

However, the souls of some Solars became powerful ghosts, and were approached by the Neverborn. These gave them power in exchange for servitude, and they became the Deathlords, powerful undead who plotted for centuries to kill of Creation in order to give their masters their final release. Eventually, one of them developed a powerful plague which destroyed most of humanity, causing the defenses of Creation to weaken and the armies of the Fair Folk to pour into the world. In the end, a lone Dragon-Blooded officer managed to reactivate a Solar-built Defense Grid which enabled her to destroy the invading armies - and proclaim herself the Scarlet Empress, ruler of the world.

This was seven and a half centuries ago. Five years ago, the Scarlet Empress vanished without a trace, and her Realm is slowly heading towards Civil War. At the same time, the Yozis told the Neverborn where the imprisoned Solar Essences were located - and how to corrupt them to other uses. The Deathlords attempted to capture them, but only managed to do so with half of them. As per their previous bargain, in exchange for the knowledge they gave 50 Essences to the Yozis, who turned them into the Green Sun Princes - humans imbued with the essences of the Yozis who can actually turn into Yozis as they grow more powerful. The Neverborn turned their 100 Essences into the Abyssal Exalted, champions of death intended to destroy the world.

And the other 150 Essences? They returned into Creation, causing the Solars to reincarnate for the first time after 1500 years into a world of chaos and confusion. The state religion of the Dragon-Blooded calls them abominations and they are hunted by the Realm - yet they grow quickly in power, and will soon find their own place in the world if their many enemies don't kill them first.


These Solars are the "default" player characters of Exalted. They begin with the power of demigods right from the start, and soon have the power to change the world. Battling mighty monsters, leading vast armies, and forging entire new nations comes easy to them, but their opponents are also powerful and numerous.

And to me this is part of the appeal of Exalted - you can make significant changes to the world from Day One, and this is in fact expected. At the same time, this power also represents tremendous responsibility. It is your job to save the world and rule it well, and you can't pass that burden on to someone else as nobody else is more capable of these things. The world is not fair - in fact, it is tremendously unfair pretty much by design - so there will only be peace, fairness, and justice and all other virtuous things if your characters will make it so.

And watching the player characters in my long-running games trying to do just that has been a fantastic experience for all of us. No longer are the PCs dirty little adventurers who have no responsibility for anyone but themselves and their own purses - this time, they really are the only ones who can set right, and it all depends on the decision they make on how the world will change.