Exalted: What Fire Has Wrought

"He who drinks oceans of blood shall never stop bleeding from the mouth"

From fires of chaos order was forged, this is the eternal lesson of Creation. The Primordials forged order from chaos in the Wyld when the world was given shape and substance. The Gods & Exalted brought order when the Primordials grew decadent and oppressive. The Shogunate brought order to Creation in the Great Uprising, when the Anathema who grew drunk on the stolen powers of the Sun and Moon were cast down and imprisoned for all time. Greatest of them all however was the Scarlet Empress. She, who a midst the twin disasters of the Great Contagion and the Balorian Crusade, mastered the ancient weapons of Creation and expelled the armies of Chaos and Death. 

From the bones and ashes of the old a new order, the Realm, was wrought. A great Empire that lies at the beating heart of Creation. Upon her ascension she commanded all to serve her ambitions. Cities were rebuilt, harbors dredged, great armies raised, universities founded, and the Arts & Sciences flourished underneath her patronage. Under her reign the Realm grew fat on the tribute extracted from conquered nations, with her extended family, the Scarlet Dynasty, standing astride the new colossus. Its cultural, economic, military, mystical and political power dictates the fate of all nations in Creation. So the Second Age of Man began. Without the powerful magics of the Anathema to guide them, the scholars of this fallen era have relied on their ingenuity and natural phenomena to guide their development. Electric lights now illuminate the streets of Creation's cities, and cellphones speed its communications. It looked as if Creation had entered a new eon of peace and prosperity until the Crisis of the Empty Throne. 

In RY 763 the sun disappeared from the sky at high noon, plunging the world into darkness. Explosions and the sound of battle could be heard in most major cities of the world. In the chaos many of the world's leading figures were either killed or captured before the sun returned to the sky. Among those captured where the Scarlet Empress and the Daimyo of Lookshy, who were taken to the Far North by Fae abductors. To make matters worse a large host of Fae has been spotted in the North, of a size that has not been witnessed since the Balorian crusade. The disappearance of soo many leaders along with the prospect of a new Crusade has thrown the world into chaos. In response the Realm Deliberative declared martial law within in the Realm and unanimously approved of investing the esteemed general Tepet Arada as Regent and Lord Protector of the Realm. While the Dynasty presents a show of strength and unity in these dark times many whisper that soo many defenses could not have been bypassed without inside help, and so the Great Houses begin to act against each other and themselves in order to root out the traitors in their midst. 

Her Holiness, the Mouth of Peace, leader of the world's largest religion the Immaculate Faith, has broken her traditional silence to address Creation. In a proclamation she called for the people of Creation to take up arms in defense of Creation, proclaiming an Exalted March against the Fae incursion and declaring that those who fall against the Fae will be rewarded in their next life. Moved by her words many heed the call and there are whispers that those who join the March will be forgiven for all sins committed in this life. Many have flocked to the North, some for faith and others for promises of fame and fortune that come from rescuing the captive dignitaries. The Great Houses of the Realm and several of the major nations have cautiously committed troops to the initiative, citing financial concerns for not offering more aid. There are many who would benefit from the chaos, with their ambitions untempered by restraint or practicality. Ancient grudges are being avenged and political goals once thought untenable under the watchful eye of the Empress are now being pushed. 

It is into this era of chaos and reckless ambition that our Heroes enter, will they mend the shattered peace or will they fall prey to the unquenchable fires of ambition?

Setting Overview 
This campaign is based in an alternate version of Creation where technology advanced in the centuries after the contagion. The tech level in the setting is the same as modern Earth but with a few differences as some nations, such as the Realm, have access to ancient technologies from the First Age. A summary of modifications to the default setting are below
  • The Thousand Streams River project does not exist, the Lunars have been doing something else. 
  • House Tepet has not been destroyed by the Bull of the North 
  • The Deathlords have not yet appeared in Creation
Character Generation Guidelines
  • Solars, Lunars, Sidereals, and Dragonblooded(Dynasts) are allowed for PCs
    • Dynasts gain Resources 3 for free to represent their House stipends
  • Standard character generation rules for your splat, please also include a wishlist of atleast 10 items along with your completed character sheet. 
  • Characters can purchase Resources 3 for 1 bonus point, Resources 4 and 5 are 1 bonus point a piece. So a character can go from Resources 0 to 5 for 3 BP. 
  • Make a character that can play well with a group 
  • Artifacts taken at chargen need to be run by the ST first
House Rules
  • Scroll of Heroes is banned
  • Firearms(Dawn, Battles, Fire) and Drive(Eclipse, Journeys, Earth) from Shards of the Exalted Dream are in use. They replace one of the favored abilities from the associated castes.
  • Free Ox-body for every dot of essence you have 
  • Free spell once you initiate into a circle of sorcery or necromancy 
  • All Craft abilities are now a single Craft. This means that Craft grants equal aptitude with blacksmithing, agriculture, architecture etc. When rolling Craft for Esoteric crafts, they are limited by a single other ability, listed below:
    Magitech: Lore
    Genesis: Medicine
    Fate: Occult
    Glamour: Occult
    Crafting small items roll Perception, crafting large items roll Intelligence
  • New XP system
    If a character has a trainer when purchasing Attributes or Abilities, they receive a 1xp discount for each dot the teacher has higher than the student. This cannot reduce the price below 1xp. Charms learned from a trainer (including sorcery/necromancy) have a flat 2xp reduction in price. All exalts are considered to have a trainer when learning Excellencies and Ox-Body equivalents
    All XP costs are replaced by the below chart (thanks to Sojiko for developing it). These costs are static, except for Essence, meaning they do NOT rely on the current rating. XP Costs (Unfavored/Favored)
    * Attribute : 8/6 XP
    * Ability : 4/3 XP
    * Specialty : 2/1 XP
    * Native-level Magics : 10/8 XP (includes Charms and spells)
    * Superior Magics : 12/10 XP (includes mortals learning TMA and TCS, or Dragonblooded learning CMAs)
    * Other Magic : 9 XP (includes Heretical Charms, Infernal spells, and Knacks)
    * Essence : Current Rating × 8 XP
    * Virtue : 1 XP
    * Willpower : 3 XP
    * Colleges: 2/1 XP
    * Thaumaturgy Degree 6/4 XP (or 3/2 BP at chargen)

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