"two sidurreals, two sloars, two durrrgan bluhhhded, and a whole bunch of dragon blooded NPC flunkies (and possibly lunar mates)" - the Storyteller, on our party make-up
"walk into a bar."- Me
I decided I was going to make a thread to catalog an online game I am participating in over the next few months with some long time gaming friends around the country. My posts in this thread will come with each game session discussing the occurrences each game, the storyline and adventure, our character development, and speculation/interpretations/musings about the storyline and system from me and possibly my friends playing in the game or the storyteller (aka the ST.) Feel free to comment or inquire in this thread and I hope you enjoy it if you decide to keep up. The system is Exalted Second Edition but we're running it in the First Age.
For those of you unfamiliar, it is an RPG system published by White Wolf Publishing, who brought you other such game books as Vampire: The Masquerade and anything published under the "Sword & Sorcery" imprint for the d20 system, among other things. Before I get into the game and the characters, I'm going to explain Exalted 2e as fast as I can for you so you know what weirdness to expect. Exalted is considered to be "high fantasy," but wikipedia describes it as "mythic fantasy," because the game's developer tried to avoid going Tolkien with its game design and instead spread its inspiration across multiple sources of mythological inspiration. The game is also inspired by many sources, from video games like Dynasty Warriors to various animes, but it is unique enough not to emulate any too familiarly. The game could be called "over the top," logic doesn't seem to be present in at least half of the game's material, and yet somehow it entertains very well all the same. The setting and backstory of the Exalted world, Creation, is paraphrased here.
To start, I'll discuss with you the setting. In Exalted Second Edition you play during the Lost Age. Basically, when the Primordials who made the world were defeated by the Exalted on behalf of the Gods, who proceeded to give the world to the Exalted while they go play World of Warcraft. Some of the Primordials surrendered and were sewn inside a big Primordial's stomach, and he was sewn into his own stomach, and it hardly makes any sense, so I'm not going there. The rest of them died, but by dying their pretty much glitched the cycle of reincarnation and accidentally created the Underworld, with the void at the bottom where all things cease to be. The original goal of the Primordials when they shaped Creation in the middle of the twisting, formless chaos of the Wyld was to create and enjoy order - what greater order is there than the order of non-existence? No variation, no error, no chaos, just nothingness. When they died however they yawned out a curse in their dying breaths which is now referred to as the Great Curse. basically they cursed all the Exalted to go crazy.
Well, it eventually began to happen. The Solar Exalted, chosen of the Unconquered Sun, were given the world to run. The Lunars were made their personal bodyguards and mates, the Sidereals were made into their advisors, the Dragon-blooded into their footsoldiers, and the world was their oyster. Problem is, the Solars began to become jerks due to the curse and so the Sidereals basically herded them up for a banquet and wiped them out with the help of the Dragon-blooded, who they promised the world to. The Solars of course would just find new bodies and revive so the Sidereals made a special prison to trap their Exaltations so they couldn't - then they broke the universe a little so they would be forgotten by mankind and could operate from hiding to keep the world going without the Solars.
They turned out not to be very good at it without the Solars. Some bad guys brought them back on accident though but that doesn't matter because t his game takes place before the Great Usurpation, before the Solars were betrayed and wiped out. It takes place in the flourishing First Age, where technology and magick and martial arts were evolving and being awesome. The Solars ran the world, the Dragon-blooded were their subordinates, and the Sidereal jerks that would betray them haven't done it yet.
Aaaand I'm one of those Sidereal jerks. And some of our party maaay be Solars. In any case, the game hasn't begun yet as we're still assembling characters. When I finish or am almost finished with mine I'll show you.