TEXT: SCROLL OF HEROES
  SCROLL OF HEROES
  www.white-wolf.com/exalted
  The mighty Exalted 
  lord over Creation, 
  but even the numerous 
  Dragon-Blooded are as 
  but a drop of water 
  in the teeming sea of 
  humanity. Most of these 
  folk live simple lives, 
  endeavoring to stay 
  beneath the notice of 
  the various supernatural 
  beings who threaten 
  to end, or at least 
  complicate, those lives. 
  Some few, however, 
  rise above the masses 
  that surround them to 
  confront the dangers 
  of their world head on. 
  These are mankind’s 
  heroes.
  A character sourcebook for Exalted
  Exalted
  featuring:
  • Overviews of mortal life in all 
  corners of Creation during the Age 
  of Sorrows
  • Everything players and Story-
  tellers need to generate heroic mortal 
  characters, as well as God-Blooded 
  heroes
  • Merits and Flaws for second 
  edition characters of all types
  WHITE WOLF
  WW80209
  9 781588 463760
  52499
  PRINTED IN U.S.A.
  ISBN: 978-1-58846-376-0   WW80209  $24.99 U.S.
  
  SCROLL OF HEROES
  SCROLL OF HEROES
  www.white-wolf.com/exalted
  The mighty Exalted 
  lord over Creation, 
  but even the numerous 
  Dragon-Blooded are as 
  but a drop of water 
  in the teeming sea of 
  humanity. Most of these 
  folk live simple lives, 
  endeavoring to stay 
  beneath the notice of 
  the various supernatural 
  beings who threaten 
  to end, or at least 
  complicate, those lives. 
  Some few, however, 
  rise above the masses 
  that surround them to 
  confront the dangers 
  of their world head on. 
  These are mankind’s 
  heroes.
  A character sourcebook for Exalted
  Exalted
  featuring:
  • Overviews of mortal life in all 
  corners of Creation during the Age 
  of Sorrows
  • Everything players and Story-
  tellers need to generate heroic mortal 
  characters, as well as God-Blooded 
  heroes
  • Merits and Flaws for second 
  edition characters of all types
  WHITE WOLF
  WW80209
  9 781588 463760
  52499
  PRINTED IN U.S.A.
  ISBN: 978-1-58846-376-0   WW80209  $24.99 U.S.
  
  1
  BY  ALAN ALEXANDER, GENEVIEVE COGMAN, JACK NORRIS, 
  NEALL RAEMONN PRICE AND ANDREW WATT
  
  2
  CREDITS
  Authors: Alan Alexander, Genevieve Cogman, Jack Norris, 
  Neall Raemonn Price and Andrew Watt
  Comic Scripter: Carl Bowen
  Developer: John Chambers
  Editor: Carl Bowen
  Creative Director: Rich Thomas
  Art Direction and Layout: Brian Glass
  Artists: Gordon Bennetto, John Floyd, Groundbreakers 
  Studio (with Paolo Aguasin, Jezreel Rojales and Kriss Sison), 
  Andrew Hepworth, Shipeng Lee and Melissa Uran
  Cover Art: Groundbreakers Studio (with Brian Valeza)
  © 2009 CCP hf. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of the pub-
  lisher is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes of reviews, and for blank character sheets, which 
  may be reproduced for personal use only. White Wolf and Exalted are registered trademarks of CCP 
  hf. All rights reserved. Scroll of Heroes, Scroll of Fallen Races, Scroll of Kings, Scroll of the Monk, 
  Scroll of the Monk the Imperfect Lotus, Exalted Storytellers Companion, Graceful Wicked Masques 
  the Fair Folk, the Manual of Exalted Power the Dragon-Blooded, the Manual of Exalted Power the 
  Lunars, the Manual of Exalted Power the Sidereals, the Manual of Exalted Power the Abyssals, the 
  Manual of Exalted Power the Infernals, the Manual of Exalted Power the Alchemicals, the Compass 
  of Celestial Directions the Blessed Isle, the Compass of Celestial Directions the Wyld, the Compass 
  of Celestial Directions Yu-Shan, the Compass of Celestial Directions the Underworld, the Compass 
  of Celestial Directions Malfeas, the Books of Sorcery, Oadenol’s Codex, the Roll of Glorious Divinity 
  I, the Roll of Glorious Divinity II and the Second Age of Man are trademarks of CCP hf. All rights 
  reserved. All characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted by CCP hf.
  CCP North America Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of CCP hf.
  The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned.
  This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are fiction and intended for entertainment purposes only. This book contains mature 
  content. Reader discretion is advised.
  Check out White Wolf online at http://www.white-wolf.com/
  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
  © 2009 CCP hf. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of the pub-
  COMING NEXT:
  THE COMPASS OF TERRESTRIAL DIRECTIONS, 
  VOL. V — THE NORTH
  The North is home to one of Creation’s harshest 
  environments, and its savage predators, deadly winters and 
  scarcity of resources would be challenging enough, even 
  without additional threats posed by marauding barbarians, 
  seductive Winter Folk and the frozen dead. Defying both 
  the elements and the Northland’s many threats, though, a 
  myriad of states, large and small, have succeeded in wresting 
  order from a chaotic wilderness and forging a stable home for 
  their subjects. Will the returned Lawgivers seek to maintain 
  these fragile metropolises, or will they be drawn to the ban-
  ner of the Solar Bull of the North, who seems determined 
  to plunge the entire region into war?
  COMING NEXT IN THIS SERIES:
  SCROLL OF EXALTS
  The last of Exalted’s five Scrolls of Esoteric Wisdom, 
  the Scroll of Exalts provides full stats for the game’s 
  most famous and infamous Chosen. These include the 
  signature Solars, Lunars, Sidereals, Abyssals, Dragon-
  Bloods, Alchemicals and Infernals, as well as movers and 
  shakers such as Elias Tremalion, Ma-Ha-Suchi, Chejop 
  Kejak, Prince of Shadows, Ragara Bhagwei and many 
  more. In all, over 70 Exalts are profiled for use as allies 
  and antagonists in any Exalted series.
  
  3
  TABLE OF CONTENTS
  INTRODUCTION 
  4
  CHAPTER ONE: MORTAL LIFE IN CREATION 
  6
  CHAPTER TWO:  CHARACTER CREATION AND TRAITS 
  24
  CHAPTER THREE: MERITS AND FLAWS 
  46
  CHAPTER FOUR: CRAFTED RACES 
  76
  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY 
  105
  CHAPTER SIX: STORYTELLING 
  144
  
  4
  
  5
  INTRODUCTION
   
  INTRODUCTION
  INTRODUCTION
  Show me a hero and I will write you a 
  tragedy.
  —F. Scott Fitzgerald, 
  The Crack-Up
  Although their exploits often pale in comparison to 
  those of the Exalted, the many mortal heroes of Creation 
  struggle just as valiantly to achieve their more modest goals. 
  Although mortal man is deemed insignificant by the more 
  ignorant of the world’s powers, the wise realize the great 
  strength it wields as a whole. Of what use is an Exalted 
  general without an army to command? From whom springs 
  the Essence of prayer that fuels the gods? Whose beliefs 
  bulwark Creation against the savage tides of the Wyld? 
  Whose lineages bear the blood of Dragons and play host to 
  Celestial Exaltations? Creation’s greatest enemies recognize 
  this strength and seek either to corrupt or eliminate mortals 
  to engineer their triumph.
  HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
  Scroll of Heroes provides the rules and background to 
  run a game that focuses upon heroic mortal characters (or on 
  Celestial Exalts prior to their Exaltation) or to design such 
  characters as allies or antagonists for other Exalted games. 
  The book’s contents are as follows:
  Chapter One: Mortal Life in Creation
  This chapter details what it’s like to live as a mortal in 
  Creation. It examines what it takes to rise above one’s sta-
  tion to become a hero, with specific attention paid to the 
  differences between rural and urban life and those owing to 
  the region of Creation in which one is raised.
  Chapter Two: Character Creation and Traits
  This chapter supplies the rules needed to create a heroic 
  mortal character. Also in this chapter are traits unique to 
  such characters, as well as information on how to adjust 
  existing traits for heroic mortals.
  Chapter Three: Merits and Flaws
  This section of the book focuses on Merits and Flaws, 
  optional traits to customize Exalted characters, mortal or 
  otherwise.
  Chapter Four: Crafted Races
  This chapter supplies the information needed to design 
  and play a heroic mortal character from one of the surviving 
  blessed races crafted by the Solar Exalted in the First Age.
  Chapter Five: Children of the Mighty
  This chapter supplies the rules one needs to create a 
  God-Blooded character. Also in this chapter, one can find 
  traits unique to such characters, as well as information on 
  how to adjust existing traits for the God-Blooded.
  Chapter Six: Storytelling
  The book’s final chapter describes the special factors 
  one must consider when storytelling a game about mortals 
  in a world of Exalted.
  
  6
  
  CHAPTER ONE • MORTAL LIFE IN CREATION
  7
  CHAPTER ONE
  CHAPTER ONE
  MORTAL LIFE 
  MORTAL LIFE 
  IN CREATION
  IN CREATION
  Among some gods, when drunk on ambrosia and awake 
  to the fundamental truths of Creation, a certain thought 
  arises: What if we are not the rulers of Creation? For it is true 
  that the gods treat mortals as playthings. Even those gods 
  bound by the Immaculate Philosophy are still capable of 
  working their will on and through the shaping of mortal 
  lives. No mortal can resist a god’s will, or even claim to 
  resist an Exalt’s commanding presence. Truly, Creation 
  must belong by right to those who can work Charms and 
  shape destiny as a potter shapes clay.
  And yet…
  For every little deity and spirit, there are ten thou-
  sand mortals. For every Exalt, there are a million people 
  who will never call upon the power of Essence to light 
  themselves like a beacon. By sheer numbers, the world of 
  mortals overwhelms the world of gods and Exalts as the 
  ocean swallows the stream. Moreover, the cycle of birth, 
  death and rebirth takes the Exalted back into itself, again 
  and again. However long the lives of the Dragon-Blooded 
  or the Celestials are, the Chosen can never escape the 
  deep tide of humanity that is their foundation and their 
  ultimate crown of being. No matter how glorious a destiny 
  a Solar might have, he is dust—and to dust he will return, 
  to become a mortal again in due course. Such is the order 
  of things, as it has always been and always will be, until 
  Chaos unmakes Creation and Yu-Shan falls. Gods scheme 
  and Exalts bluster, but mortals are the glue and mortar 
  that holds Creation in being.
  Humans, whether they have webbed feet and gills, 
  wings and feathers, fur and blubber—wherever they hap-
  pen to live—must acknowledge that they are all “nobody 
  special.” A human can try to live up to her greatest 
  potential, but she always knows in the back of her mind 
  that the least Exalt can overpower her and do greater 
  things. Beyond them, gods and God-Blooded, elementals, 
  spirits and monstrous beings from beyond the doors of the 
  
  8
  world are all individually more powerful than any dozen 
  mortals. Moreover, every culture in the world of Creation 
  ultimately traces its history back to the near-monolithic 
  cultural unity of the First Age, when I AM provided the 
  best in music, art, literature and philosophy from the whole 
  known world to everyone. The result today is a broad range 
  of cultural divergence, but an underlying recognition that 
  the typical mortal can work to constrain and limit the 
  acts of gods and Exalts, but almost never oppose them 
  directly. This is who mortal heroes are—who they must 
  be—in the Age of Sorrows.
  WHAT IS THIS DUST?
  The life expectancy of the average mortal in the 
  Age of Sorrows is 56 years for men and 48 for women. 
  The Contagion and the collapse of the First Age system 
  of hospitals and trained physicians and midwives has 
  fallen hard on the mortal populace. People are subject 
  to disease, accident, age, malfeasance and war. Infection 
  follows injury, and infection means death. And these are 
  only the dooms of ordinary mortal machinations. There 
  is also death by sorcery, collateral damage of Exalted 
  struggle or petulant god, disaster and ruin by raksha and 
  behemoth. The catalogue of doom is extensive, wide-
  ranging and random.
  What does the ordinary mortal do with threescore 
  years? The first five years are spent as a child in a village 
  or city neighborhood, protected by family or coddled by 
  neighbors (or they are a desperate struggle for survival). 
  The second five years are spent learning a trade—most 
  often the work of hands rather than brain, for human 
  labor and human life is cheap. The second decade will see 
  marriage and the start of a family, as neighbors and culture 
  push the young into ordained roles. A third decade sees 
  the mortal to positions of responsibility in community 
  and work. The fourth decade sees the man to seniority 
  and eldership, while the woman enters menopause and 
  becomes grandmother and elder counsel to the young 
  women of her community. In the fifth and sixth decades, 
  as the body’s joints lock up and the muscles sag, the work 
  becomes harder and the eyes grow dim. The middle-aged 
  grow weary from caring simultaneously for young and old, 
  and the demands of the young always win out in the end. 
  The old are so near to rebirth, after all.
  CHILDREN OF EARTH
  Almost all mortals in Creation are dependent, to one 
  degree or another, on the life and work of those who rarely 
  stray more than 20 miles from the place of their birth. 
  These Children of Earth, as they are sometimes styled, 
  work the land, drive the animals to and from market and 
  
  CHAPTER ONE • MORTAL LIFE IN CREATION
  9
  hustle at the market stalls. They live in a state of quiet 
  self-reliance unless the Exalted or the little gods disrupt 
  their lives. They have little, and they know that even 
  that can be taken from them. Their security comes from 
  being honorable respected members of their communities, 
  having lots of children and attracting as little notice as 
  possible. The disreputable lose their land and sometimes 
  their lives long before they become community elders. Far 
  too many children die before their parents do, claimed 
  by disease, accident or war. Of course, the loud upstarts 
  tend to vanish before the ferocity of the inquisitors and 
  the mighty men who rule them.
  In some places, the Children of Earth are called 
  peasants. In other places, they are serfs. In others, they 
  are slaves, villeins, habitants, rustics, goodmen or small 
  farmers. By and large, they are conservative, suspicious of 
  outsiders and more suspicious of change, fearful of their 
  safety and jealous of their neighbors. There is nothing so 
  small that they know cannot be taken away, even their 
  lives. That makes them dangerous, indeed, when roused 
  in large numbers.
  Rousing them, of course, is difficult for the un-
  Exalted. The Children of Earth prefer to do their work in 
  neighborhoods and regions that are insular and resistant 
  to change. Few willingly join armies or rise in protest in 
  the streets. They mind their own business except when 
  it gives them an advantage over an immediate neighbor. 
  It takes tremendous losses before their standard pattern 
  of fear will push them over the line into outspoken anger 
  and violent rage.
  THE HEROES
  In contrast to the Children of Earth are the heroes. The 
  five archetypes of mortal heroes are described more fully in 
  Chapter Two, but warriors, priests, savants, criminals and 
  brokers are those who seek a different life than they would 
  have as Children of Earth. These heroes choose to live in 
  a different way than the vast mass of humanity—a way 
  closer to the Exalted and farther from the peasantry—one 
  that most Children of Earth can barely imagine.
  SELFHOOD
  At the core of every such hero is a kernel of selfhood 
  different from that of most mortals. While the average 
  Child of Earth lives within a routine framework of simple 
  happiness and baroque fears, the heroes live within a 
  framework of personal responsibility. The hero assumes 
  that destiny is something that affects the gods and the 
  Exalted, but not him. To be a hero is to believe one can 
  influence and change the world in a meaningful way.
  Accordingly, the hero seeks to make change occur, 
  and each archetype seeks to make change occur in a 
  particular way. The warrior seeks to make change occur 
  through combat and achievement of personal honor and 
  reputation on the battlefield. Priests use their abilities 
  to work change among the common people and bring 
  about new relationships between the people and the 
  gods. Savants seek to rediscover ancient knowledge and 
  adapt it to the current realities of mortal life in order to 
  bridge Creation’s glorious past and its promising future. 
  Criminals wish to use their natural talents and mastered 
  skills to gain power or wealth for themselves. Brokers work 
  to elevate themselves or their purposes in the world to 
  new levels of power and strength. Underlying all these 
  drives are the personal beliefs that it is possible to bring 
  about change and that one need not be an Exalt or a 
  god to do it.
  A PLACE IN THE FAMILY
  Mortal heroes in Creation are rarely loners, though 
  they can be that. More often, they are intertwined in webs 
  of family and tribe that run deep. While every region has its 
  own rules for determining kinship and tribal membership, 
  there are commonalities that affect all of them. Heroes 
  are born into these webs of relationship, and no matter 
  how much they might wish to see themselves as apart from 
  them, they must accept at least some of the rules of these 
  societies in order to function within them.
  Even the barbarian, far from home, accepts a place in 
  this order as a foreigner. The locals know nothing of his 
  kinship, of his tribe or family or lineage. They might not 
  know his training or his membership in a company. They 
  might call upon the foreigner for help and pay him in jade 
  or scrip or silver, but they will never admit him deep into 
  their counsels or make a place in their hearts for him until 
  he has proven his loyalty to them again and again.
  KINSHIP
  A hero stands at the center of a series of concentric 
  circles or webs of responsibility and mutual assistance, 
  which she can reject, ignore or accept as she chooses. The 
  first of these nets is the net of kinship, or family.
  Few heroes are born into families of heroes. Men and 
  women grow to greatness through experiences that allow 
  them to understand that they have the power to make 
  things happen. Most Children of Earth find the concept 
  that they are agents of change to be deeply frightening. 
  Causing change is a power reserved for the strong, not 
  the weak, and they believe themselves to be weak. Yet, 
  the Children of Earth bring many more children into the 
  world, and most parents secretly hope for a hero, even just 
  one, among their progeny. A hero is more likely to provide 
  well for his parents and extended family in the future, if 
  she has sufficient loyalty to the family line. One hero in 
  a family is more likely to rouse brothers and sisters to the 
  cause, rally nieces and nephews to greatness, and carry 
  family members to new heights of power and wealth, out 
  of grinding poverty or even slavery.
  
  10
  On the hero’s side, the kinship connection could 
  be very strong or very weak. If she buys into the con-
  nection, her dependency and perceived weakness 
  might be a liability for achieving what she wishes to 
  do. If she ignores the connection, she could be seen as 
  less compassionate or dangerously disconnected from 
  society. Even the orphan has a range of connections 
  and family in Creation—for only children are rare in a 
  world without safety nets or social service. As a result, 
  the hero usually walks a fine line between connection 
  and disconnection from family, between responsibility 
  to family and distance from it.
  LINEAGE AND TRIBE
  Mortals in Creation also belong to lineages. These 
  groups are called clans in some parts of Creation, tribes 
  in others, extended families or lineages elsewhere, or 
  even houses or bloodlines. Most governments and 
  nations in the Age of Sorrows are weak and fragile 
  things. They concentrate on maintaining their borders, 
  setting certain rules of behavior and enforcing certain 
  taxes and tariffs. Law-enforcement functions and social 
  services are virtually nonexistent outside tributaries of 
  the Realm and the largest independent states in the 
  Threshold. As a consequence, lineages provide many 
  social functions for mortals, such as caring for widows 
  and orphans, managing low-level crime, punishing 
  violations of civil order and choosing local leadership. 
  Lineages arrange funerals, settle boundary disputes, 
  celebrate births, arrange marriages and divorces and 
  resolve feuds between families. They frequently consist 
  of 20 to 200 families or more. In a world in which the 
  Exalted ride roughshod over so many institutions, lin-
  eages are a kind of social glue that can outlast almost 
  any other kind of organization.
  Most lineages function the same way regardless of 
  where in Creation they are located. A pecking order 
  among the families in the lineage exists. All the families 
  of the lineage are arranged in networks of obligation and 
  dependency. When an issue arises between two family 
  members, members of the next oldest generation intervene 
  to re-establish peace and harmony. Conflicts between 
  families are settled between the most prestigious member 
  of the next oldest generation above the generation in 
  which the issue exists. Conflicts between families of dif-
  ferent lineages are settled between the most prestigious 
  members of the generation above the level where the 
  conflict is found.
  Prestige is determined by two variables, lineality and 
  leadership, and lineality always takes first priority. A lin-
  eage might be patrilineal or matrilineal. (The paternal side 
  of a family tree is more prestigious in a patrilineal lineage, 
  while in a matrilineal society, the maternal side of the 
  tree is more prestigious.) Then leadership is determined. 
  Leadership can be either patriarchal or matriarchal. If 
  a matrilineal society is patriarchal, then an offender’s 
  mother’s eldest brother will intervene first in a conflict, 
  but the mother herself will intervene in a matriarchal 
  lineage. In a matriarchal patrilineal clan, the father’s sister 
  is the first to intervene, while the father of the offender 
  intervenes in a patriarchal society.
  Issues of prestige and position in a lineage come 
  before actual ability. If the person who is called upon 
  to intervene in a given conflict is incompetent, senile, 
  distracted, dysfunctional, addled or enchanted, it makes 
  no difference. Only the death of the incompetent author-
  ity allows the issue to be bumped to the next appropriate 
  person. Even then, the clan’s fortunes might be at a signifi-
  cant disadvantage. The clan’s newest resolving authority 
  is expected to abide at least in part by the treaties and 
  solutions previously agreed upon. Only a new conflict 
  can open a discussion of prior issues.
  Most resolutions between lineages take the form 
  of social contracts or reparations. In some parts of 
  Creation, violence is the standard method of resolving 
  lineage-level conflict. In most places, however, resolv-
  ing conflicts through direct violence is frowned upon. 
  Violence is often used to bring the appropriate party to 
  negotiation, but the violence is usually directed against 
  the children, nieces and nephews of the person with 
  the prestige and standing to bring the matter to a suc-
  cessful conclusion, rather than the person himself. To 
  attack that one directly is to involve the grandparents 
  or even the great-grandparents and make the issue 
  messier than before.
  ADVENTURE SEEDS: KINSHIP
  Although some players might prefer their charac-
  ters to be only children and orphans to boot, mortal 
  series thrive on family and kinship connections. On 
  one hand, it is difficult to accomplish much in Cre-
  ation without aid and allies. On the other hand, no 
  one can manipulate, bear grudges and exasperate like 
  family. Sample family connections that can generate 
  stories include:
  • Five brothers reunite for an eccentric uncle’s 
  funeral and learn he was murdered.
  • A priest hurries home to perform a family 
  wedding, only to discover it’s his own wedding cel-
  ebration.
  • A warrior receives a visit from three young and 
  difficult cousins, intent on learning the martial arts 
  for very different reasons.
  • A savant is asked to come and deal with a 
  mysterious plague in her home village.
  
  CHAPTER ONE • MORTAL LIFE IN CREATION
  11
  of their orphans. If an offender is utterly unrepentant, his 
  own family might decide to assassinate him for the good 
  of the lineage and to preserve its standing.
  Heroes are born into these systems, and while some 
  choose to ignore them, they cannot fully escape them. It 
  might be that one becomes the most prestigious member 
  of his generation, or that his elders intervene in his life to 
  resolve conflicts with mortal enemies. Only running away 
  and traveling long distances outside the web of relation-
  ships between lineages can protect one completely from 
  their influence. Even fleeing entails certain risks to those he 
  leaves behind, and woe befalls the hero who lands among 
  expatriates with living ties to his homeland.
  AGE SET AND CIRCLE
  The lineage of a hero exerts itself in another way 
  in many societies of Creation, as well. While not all na-
  tions practice age rites, a great many do. In age rites, all 
  of the individuals of approximately the same age attend 
  ADVENTURE SEEDS: LINEAGE
  Lineages make for great storytelling tools in both mortal and Exalted series. Consider using any of the following 
  in your game:
  • An elder commissions the characters as her messengers and envoys to resolve a decades-long feud.
  • A warrior is summoned home to learn that he has become the adoptive father and presumptive husband to 
  the orphans and widow of a long-time foe.
  • Members of a criminal’s family begin hunting her for dishonoring the lineage.
  • After a violent riot, a priest learns that he is the eldest and most prestigious member of his generation. He’s 
  now responsible for making peace with the murderers of his nephews.
  • A savant uncovers evidence that an agreement was falsified to resolve a brutal war a generation ago.
  FOUNDING A LINEAGE
  While it is hard to start a new lineage, it is not impossible. Most lineages are ancient, dating to the time of the 
  Contagion or earlier. Many were founded by the heroic mortals that led friends and families out of failing First Age 
  cities or helped disparate groups survive in the wilderness. Few wield much authority outside their home region. 
  That said, even ancient lineages sometimes splinter upon the death of a particularly prestigious elder when two or 
  more juniors have equal standing.
  Lineages, like societies as a whole, are full of individuals with terrible problems and no resources. Figuring 
  out who gets what in resource-starved communities often depends on one’s prestige within the larger framework 
  of family and tribe. The ones who get left out lead lives of desperation. Heroes have a unique opportunity to form 
  new lineages, by stepping in to help those who cannot help themselves. Sometimes they provide a new business or 
  diplomatic solution that employs or relieves the burdens of the weak.
  Trust and compassion are the foremost elements of any new lineage. A hero intent on founding one cannot 
  simply offer help once and then turn to other problems. It is a continuous process by which the hero returns again 
  and again to the same people in the same community to lift them out of misery. At the same time, the hero cannot 
  expect that the elders of an existing lineage will let people turn their loyalties over to a new network of families. 
  The hero will need warriors and brokers alike to secure and retain continuing rights as a new lineage. When a fam-
  ily abandons its obligations to an old clan to join a new one, it risks bloody vengeance and genocide. Ill will and 
  vengeance killings can persist for decades if not generations.
  In later stages of the formation of a lineage, the hero’s bloodline and progeny become more important. The 
  founder needs to have children who are equal to the challenges of retaining a hold on the loyalties of the initial 
  families that bought in, and who have the military and diplomatic skills to hold the emergent tribe together. This 
  requires that the hero have properly educated children.
  Conflicts come in many varieties. They might be 
  issues of physical boundaries between farms or territo-
  ries. They might be low-level tribal warfare or patterns 
  of livestock thievery. They might be regular patterns of 
  calculated insults or duels or sexual insult. In general, 
  most lineage elders will agree on one of five stages of 
  punishment: public apology, payment of reparations in 
  goods, payment of reparations in service, marriage or adop-
  tion, and honor killing. For low-level crimes that caused 
  minimal damage, the offender will be asked to deliver a 
  public apology to her victim. For higher-level offenses, a 
  payment of money or mobile property might suffice. Land 
  could even change hands if the crime is serious enough. 
  For especially egregious acts, an offender might have to 
  surrender time and effort and perform some act or service 
  that could take days, weeks, months or years to complete. 
  Some individuals find themselves formally married to the 
  widows of their victims or established as the foster parents 
  
  12
  and go through an initiation rite and proceed to the next 
  stage of life together. These events are once-in-a-lifetime 
  progressions and usually mark transitions between certain 
  stages of life. Among males, infants become children; 
  children become men; men become husbands and house-
  holders; householders become elders; and elders become 
  lorekeepers. Among females, infants become girls; girls 
  menstruate and become women; women become brides 
  and then become mothers; mothers become elders; and 
  elders become grandmothers.
  While different cultures use different names for these 
  stages, and not all societies have all levels, their essential 
  function is the same. Infants get to play all the time, 
  while children are expected to begin to learn what their 
  role in society will be as adults. Men carry out the work 
  of guarding a lineage’s rights and enforcing their rules. 
  Householders and mothers work to increase the wealth 
  of their family and lineage. Elders, grandmothers and 
  lorekeepers secure the bounds of daily life with rituals to 
  honor ancestors and little gods.
  Age-set cultures usually hold special ceremonies every 
  10 or 12 years designed to raise all members of a lineage 
  or tribe of about the same age to the next rank in society 
  at once. If an individual misses the ritual, that person 
  loses standing in his family and lineage, and loses prestige 
  and influence in society as a whole. The ceremonies are 
  time consuming and elaborate, usually occupying several 
  days of celebration, fasting, feasting and ritual, as well as 
  contests of skill.
  Different societies give these rituals different names, 
  but in general, they follow a basic five-step process. The 
  candidates for initiation to the next stage in life are first 
  taken out of their old category. Then comes a celebration 
  of the new stage, in which stories, songs, dancing and 
  feasting may occur. Candidates then undergo some sort of 
  vision-quest, which might involve meeting with spirits or 
  ancestors of the lineage, or a journey into the wilderness. 
  There is some ritual marking, either with paint or dye, or 
  with tattoos or body modification. Finally, the candidates 
  play the principal roles in a ritual that signifies their new 
  place in the community.
  Functioning slightly differently than age sets are 
  circles. While age-set rites are usually conducted for all 
  members of a society across several lineages, circle rites 
  are usually conducted within only certain lineages—the 
  families of traditional chieftains or priests, for example. 
  The rites are conducted in the same way, but for much 
  smaller groups of people, and usually in secret.
  SCHOOL AND SOCIETY
  Civilization brings with it many elements not found 
  among the lineages and tribes of the outer Threshold. 
  
  CHAPTER ONE • MORTAL LIFE IN CREATION
  13
  ADVENTURE SEEDS: AGE SETS AND CIRCLES
  There are many ways that age sets and circles can 
  be incorporated into a game. For example:
  • A warrior is expected to put aside his weapons 
  as the time comes for him to start a household and 
  assume the duties of a householder.
  • A priest must return home to be the principal 
  celebrant of his tribe’s age-set rites.
  • Raksha attack an age-set rite, killing many 
  and disrupting a community’s relationships with the 
  spirit world.
  • A broker is asked to guarantee safety for the 
  circle rites of a lineage long in hiding and believed 
  destroyed.
  • A criminal is barred entrance to the age-set rites 
  of her clan due to her reprehensible behavior.
  • Mortal monks of the Immaculate Order appear 
  to prevent an age-set rite from occurring, denouncing 
  it as heretically lionizing the Anathema.
  Among these are vestiges of the First Age—the school 
  or college and the society.
  Not many people in the Second Age of Man get to 
  attend school of any sort. Some villages in the Realm and 
  in the inner Threshold have schools, as do some towns 
  and most cities, but they are expensive and teach little 
  other than some writing, literature and mathematics. Most 
  serious study is done with private tutors at great expense 
  or as a result of slavery. Nonetheless, schools do exist and 
  engage in teaching of highly specialized pursuits, ranging 
  from the martial arts to the study of religion, calligraphy, 
  law, medicine and, occasionally, thaumaturgy. While a few 
  such institutions are run by Exalted founders, many more 
  have merely mortal faculties. Schools are almost always 
  in tension with lineages and age-set systems, because they 
  usually teach a point of view other than allegiance to family 
  and tribe. As a result, the elders of the clans view schools 
  with suspicion. At the same time, schools provide training 
  in practical and useful arts, so it is difficult for the great 
  families to ignore them or refuse their benefits. A school’s 
  leadership has prestige quite apart from the normal lineage 
  system, and the leaders speak from outside it to a degree, 
  even if they belong to a lineage themselves. Control of a 
  famous school also confers prestige upon certain lineages, 
  so that their reputation and standing in the larger society 
  rises, and they gain more power.
  While graduates feel a common allegiance and 
  gratitude to their school for past learning, members of 
  a society instead feel gratitude and allegiance to that 
  institution for present profit. Societies include profit-
  making organizations that transcend family, region 
  and national boundaries: other words for them include 
  company, syndicate, firm, office, agency, fellowship, en-
  terprise and corporation. The Guild is the most famous 
  such venture, though other smaller versions of it exist 
  throughout Creation.
  Members of societies usually reject the standard 
  dictates of their lineage and age set in order to pursue 
  profit and pleasure in this life. They wander far from their 
  birthplaces, engage in long-distance trade or profiteering 
  ventures on land and sea, and avoid too much contact 
  with home.
  CASTE
  Many heroes are not bounded solely by tribe, age and 
  training, but by caste as well. Though not every culture in 
  Creation separates people into different categories based on 
  the kind of labor they perform in the world, many cultures 
  do discriminate on the basis of perceived standing in the 
  roster. The Immaculate Philosophy frowns on such ranking 
  of the worth of a human by birth alone, even as it holds 
  that all humans are subordinate to the Dragon-Blooded. 
  Yet, Immaculate monks cannot enforce their sutras at all 
  moments, everywhere. Caste distinction is most common 
  in the South and in the West, while elements of it exist 
  in parts of the North and East. Some vestiges of it survive 
  even on the Blessed Isle.
  According to the dictates of caste, a person is born 
  into a family and a role in society that is hers to have 
  throughout her present incarnation in Creation. In gen-
  eral, there are eight layers of caste, though some cultures 
  have more, and some have fewer. At the apex are usually 
  the priests, whose duty it is to enforce a series of ritual 
  taboos that grow increasingly restrictive for the lowest 
  ADVENTURE SEEDS: SCHOOL AND SOCIETY
  There are many ways to start adventures in the 
  context of a character’s place among the schools and 
  societies of mortal life. Here are just a few:
  • A warrior must return to his martial arts acad-
  emy, where he has been named a candidate to succeed 
  the dying master.
  • A savant is imprisoned by a society who 
  believes she has the secret to a First Age longevity 
  treatment.
  • A pirate society raids a school to capture young 
  physicians and tutors to sell into slavery.
  • A caravan society steals children along their 
  route to train as merchants and criminals.
  • A school of thaumaturgy inflicts horrors on 
  its neighborhood when the masters lose their souls 
  to demons.
  
  14
  orders, while granting wide latitudes to the upper castes. 
  Next down are the warriors, whose duty it is to fight for 
  the gods and for the rulers.
  Different societies order the next three layers dif-
  ferently, depending on the cultural imperatives at work. 
  Merchants, artisans and savants of various sorts occupy a 
  variety of positions in society, some high and some low. A 
  physician, for example, might be higher than a carpenter 
  but lower than a potter in one culture, while she might 
  be higher than both in another. Some cultures value the 
  luxuries of trade very highly, while others see the middle-
  men as a necessary evil unworthy of being rewarded with 
  high status in addition to great wealth.
  The last two caste levels (the farmers and the laborers) 
  are particularly troublesome. Most cultures in Creation 
  that deal with caste make a clear distinction between the 
  woman who nourishes the seed to produce something ed-
  ible and the man fit only to dig ditches. Not all cultures 
  agree on which should be accorded higher status than 
  the other. It is important to note that slaves fall outside 
  the normal dictates of caste. In some sense, the mortals 
  of Creation tend not to think of slaves as being part of 
  their culture, but instead regard them as alien. There is 
  a certain freedom in being apart from a caste, but that 
  freedom is difficult to exercise in a nation where caste 
  plays an important role.
  Each caste is defined by a set of taboo rules and regu-
  lations that may not be violated without consequence. 
  These rules might be religious, economic, political or 
  some combination of all three. Typical taboos include 
  abstaining from certain foods or participation in certain 
  religious rituals or avoiding physical contact with mem-
  bers of other castes. There is the additional wrinkle in 
  Creation that many taboos were created and are enforced 
  by the little gods. They form part of a pact of chiminage 
  between a culture’s priesthood and the divinity. As a 
  result, the gods themselves might use their Charms to 
  enforce their will with regard to caste upon a servile and 
  defeated populace.
  REGION AND NATION
  As mortal heroes grow in power and reputation, the 
  level and compass of their area of operations grows larger. 
  Heroes act in ways that bring them to the attention of 
  leaders—whether of families or lineages or schools or 
  societies. These leaders then decide whether to support or 
  oppose the heroes in their midst, either as allies in their 
  own desire to change the world or as rivals and enemies 
  intent on destroying their vision.
  In the Age of Sorrows, mortal leaders usually desire 
  more of what they already have: a steady stream of in-
  come and favors, minimal disruptions to routine and an 
  indolent life undisrupted by allegations of corruption or 
  malfeasance. An absence of armed revolt is considered a 
  necessary precondition to the benefits of leadership.
  VILLAGE AND TOWN
  The first frame of reference in which many an 
  emergent hero operates is that of the villages of a market 
  town. Whether it is a holdover from the First Age or it 
  is a more recently developed pattern, no one knows. Yet 
  on average, 10 villages of no more than a few hundred 
  people will gather around one market town of no more 
  than a few thousand people. Ten such market towns will 
  surround a city of over 10,000 people, and 10 such cities 
  will surround a city of 100,000 people. The realities of 
  agriculture, mining and trade, even with the technologies 
  surviving the collapse of the First Age insist that things be 
  this way. The center of any village can be no farther from 
  the marketplace than the farmer can bring his produce 
  in a day. With the primitive carts and wagons, beasts of 
  burden or barges available, this sets a limit of no more than 
  eight miles from village to nearest market town.
  In the Second Age, each market town sits upon one of 
  the tributary lines of the great trade routes that crisscross 
  Creation. The marketplace takes goods from afar and 
  transfers them to local owners in return for sacks of rice, 
  beans, wheat, flour or whatever the locally produced staple 
  is. Jars and bottles of wine, honey, vinegar, and bales of 
  cotton, linen and wool cloth trade hands just as simply. 
  Slaves are bought and sold nearly everywhere.
  Assuming that only one in a thousand mortals has 
  the potential to live up to the heroic nature of the arche-
  types, the typical market town and surrounding villages 
  have around 20 potential heroes living in it. Some will be 
  skillful warriors, while others will be careful physicians, 
  and still others will be diplomats or crime lords. In truth, 
  there are often more like 100 mortals in such an area, with 
  larger destinies than the Children of Earth usually have. 
  ADVENTURE SEEDS: CASTE
  Caste violations can kick off all sorts of difficul-
  ties for characters, or they can help smooth the way 
  for them to achieve remarkable things.
  • A priest must conceal his caste in order to 
  remain in his religious order.
  • A girl with a dangerous talent for thaumaturgy 
  comes from the wrong caste to be a magician. Should 
  she be killed or protected and trained?
  • A prominent physician suffers ritual con-
  tamination and refuses to work just as an outbreak 
  of plague begins.
  • A town fears a criminal boss because her high-
  caste status makes her nearly untouchable.
  
  CHAPTER ONE • MORTAL LIFE IN CREATION
  15
  Some will have opinions and missions in conflict with 
  your players’ heroes, and some will be allies.
  The typical market town, even one of minimal stand-
  ing, is large enough to support a hierarch. Such towns 
  have room for one or two schools, a society or two, and 
  at least five lineages that work with and against each 
  other. They are also large enough to see at least one an-
  nual inspection by the tax collectors of the larger region 
  or realm. Therefore, it is in such places that heroes often 
  first make their mark on the world.
  Throughout Creation, towns and villages take differ-
  ent forms. Some are built of wood or stone, while others 
  hang from tree branches or are carved from living rock. 
  Certain fundamentals remain the same, however. Villages 
  are rarely capable of supporting more than one or two busi-
  nesses, while towns can support 40 or more. The nature of 
  Creation’s economies pushes barter to the edges, and pulls 
  money to the center. There is often enough coin or scrip 
  to make a town function, but that wealth rarely travels 
  far from the market. Banks and vault businesses in town, 
  and bandits and robbers outside, pressure even the most 
  avaricious peasant to trade cash for goods and services, 
  and the most precious holders of value such as jade tend 
  to flee the market towns for larger economic centers.
  Architecturally, most towns follow a similar plan, with 
  four basic neighborhoods, or wards. The upper ward con-
  tains public buildings such as the hall of records, a temple 
  to the local god or gods, the treasury and the town armory. 
  Sometimes, the most prominent families have houses here; 
  other times, it is closed to residences. In frontier areas, 
  a fort and lookout station occupies the highest point, 
  even if it is no more than 15 feet above the surrounding 
  plains. The middle ward holds most of the houses, except 
  for a single street lined with businesses catering to local 
  residents. If the town is a legal center, the courthouse is 
  here. If it’s an educational center, the schools are here 
  too. The lower ward holds the main marketplace, where 
  long-distance traders meet with local brokers for the small 
  farmers and manufactories. Just beyond the town walls on 
  the most marginal land is the shantytown for those who 
  work in town but cannot afford rents.
  Villages follow a similar plan, with a small cluster 
  of houses within a palisade, defensive ditch or other 
  barrier, and fields set all around outside. Fields closest 
  to the village center are reserved for cereal crops, while 
  outlying farms—each with a defensive perimeter around 
  the house and barns—handle livestock and orchards. The 
  main path from the village leads directly to the nearest 
  market town, while footpaths meander across the fields 
  to the nearest villages in every direction. A road might 
  cut through between two market towns—if not a canal 
  or river—but these tend to be rarities.
  These basic plans repeat all over Creation due to the 
  essential requirements for all settlements to be nourishing, 
  accessible, serviceable and defensible. Human habitations 
  not built according to this plan tend to fail after short 
  periods of time, because the Age of Sorrows is a dangerous 
  time, and it is not safe to live in lonely places without 
  plans and protection.
  CITY AND REGION
  Just as streams pour into rivers and rivers pour into 
  seas, so does the labor of the country find its way to market 
  town, and the market town’s trading finds its way to the 
  city exchanges. Like great spiders sitting in their webs, 
  the cities of Creation draw wealth out of the surrounding 
  countryside and into themselves. They then carry this 
  wealth out to the Western Ocean, the Inland Sea or the 
  White Sea and bring luxuries from the farthest reaches of 
  Creation back home again. It is an oft-repeated cycle.
  Heroes who can act on a stage the size of city (as 
  opposed to their local neighborhood) or the surrounding 
  region have usually grown quite strong. They are strong 
  enough to attract the notice of the Exalted, who will 
  see them either as a rivals to be dominated, allies to be 
  cultivated or enemies to be eliminated. Rare is the city 
  in Creation that does not hold at least one Exalt within 
  its walls. Rarer still is the Exalt who will not meddle in 
  the lives of mortal heroes grown so strong.
  Creation’s cities are not like the market towns at all, 
  which are so frequently designed around the same basic plan. 
  ADVENTURE SEEDS: TOWN AND VILLAGE
  Towns and villages might seem like small adven-
  ture locales, but in fact, they can be quite packed with 
  serious stories. Many story ideas can be pulled from 
  one’s local newspaper and re-imagined for Creation’s 
  forgotten hamlets. The “Police Blotter” is often an 
  excellent place to start, but front-page stories are often 
  equally useful. For example:
  • Angry veterans of recent wars go on a ram-
  page.
  • Idle apprentices use the senility of their master as 
  a cover to brew dangerous mixtures in his workshop.
  • The son of a local magistrate leads a gang that 
  terrorizes the women of the town.
  • A predatory monster eats farmers and destroys 
  their lands and houses on the community’s fringe.
  • A reputable merchant in town vanishes with 
  most of the community’s money.
  • The local tax farmer squeezes profits from the 
  poor in a time of drought and famine.
  • A sudden disease overtakes the young men of 
  a village just before the harvest begins.
  
  16
  Every city in Creation is different and unique, with some 
  built among trees and others carved into cliff faces above 
  roaring waterfalls. Even so, they do have some things in 
  common. First, every city in Creation is a transport hub, 
  where two or more forms of transportation come together 
  and goods and services cross from one to another type of 
  transport. Oceangoing ships need stevedores and long-
  shoremen to move cargo into barges, and caravans need 
  to break down crates of spices carried on yeddim-back 
  into packets suitable for donkey and camel. These points 
  of transition mean work for thousands of people (and 
  tariffs and taxes for hundreds of bureaucracies). Wherever 
  trade makes the leap from one sort of transport system to 
  another, there is a city.
  Second, Creation’s cities are led by councils and 
  mayors and princes and priests and gods. Yet, under all the 
  official leadership are two essential truths: They cannot 
  function without bureaucracies, and those bureaucracies 
  cannot effectively manage more than about 7,000 people 
  each with the tools available in the Second Age. A city 
  will grow smoothly and effectively until it reaches a 
  population of about 7,000. Then it will begin to fracture 
  and experience significant growing pains, and without 
  significant reorganization, the community will suffer civil 
  unrest by about 10,000 or 11,000 people.
  This rule tends to result in a city being split into a 
  series of districts of between 2,000 and 8,000 adults each, 
  with all having a minimum of three districts; in cities with 
  only two districts, they invariably war with each other. 
  Bureaucracies and city governments evolve to serve each 
  ward separately. Aristocratic or oligarchic cities have 
  celebrations and competitions that pit different districts 
  against each other. Democratic cities have neighborhood 
  councils to address issues at these levels. Cities with First 
  Age technology tend to have larger districts, but even 
  then, the number of city officials tends not to rise above 
  10 percent of the city’s total population except in highly 
  totalitarian urban centers.
  Districts are frequently further broken down into 
  neighborhoods, each distinctive and real. Shops and busi-
  nesses tend to cluster along neighborhood edges, along 
  with parks and other social centers, while neighborhood 
  cores are usually residential. Neighborhoods usually consist 
  of no more than a few hundred families, and there may 
  be six or more neighborhoods crowded into a city ward.
  Neighborhoods in Creation are usually organized 
  around a particular theme. Some are be for immigrants and 
  expatriates from elsewhere. Others are organized around 
  specific types of labor. Most have a mix of manufactories, 
  shops, teahouses, homes and public centers in the form 
  of temples, theaters, fountains and plazas. The rich and 
  poor often live in close proximity to one another in older 
  
  CHAPTER ONE • MORTAL LIFE IN CREATION
  17
  ADVENTURE SEEDS: CITY AND REGION
  City dwellers in the Age of Sorrows have some 
  advantages over their rural cousins. First, most live 
  within walking distance of most goods and services. 
  They have access to a wider range of materials. Yet, 
  there are also far more troubles in close proximity. 
  Some examples include:
  • A police force initiates a coup against the le-
  gitimate city government.
  • A ring of raksha slips inside the city walls to 
  cause mischief.
  • Exalted battles outside the city damage its aque-
  duct system, and it must be repaired in a war zone.
  • Widespread crop failure leads to escalating prices, 
  and the heroes must find alternative sources of food.
  • A strike among dock workers paralyzes the city’s 
  income supply.
  • A run on city banks shatters the local econ-
  omy.
  • An earthquake knocks down several prominent 
  manufactories and closes the docks; the city will starve 
  without new work and new trade routes.
  • The city’s First Age transport system finally 
  fails, and everyone must find new ways to travel 
  around town.
  • A gang war erupts between two criminal syn-
  dicates.
  • A savant discovers a library of ancient texts 
  beneath a collapsed building.
  cities, but the poor often live in taller and less safe build-
  ings where crime is frequent. Even so, many city streets 
  are safe even without the obvious presence of police or 
  soldiers. The nature of community layout in Creation is 
  such that, in the cities, people are often eyes on the street, 
  and a wide range of witnesses and potential defenders are 
  often present to prevent obvious and dangerous criminal 
  activity. The concept of turf is strong in many city dwellers, 
  who correctly fear that crime on their streets will sooner 
  or later turn against them.
  Most of all, city life is dense. Most cities in Creation, 
  even despite the horrors of disease, accident and war, 
  hold scores of mortals per square mile if not more. Behind 
  walls and other safeguards, cities are simply safer places 
  than most rural areas, and residents try to keep them that 
  way. Safety, employment and the benefits of government 
  (however dubious that might be in the Second Age) all 
  conspire to make cities crowded and confusing places.
  Further, cities are often at the center of large regions 
  or territories, which are suitable for storytelling on a grand 
  scale. Whether or not heroes can really defend a city or 
  solve the problems of a region is up to the Storyteller, 
  but several groups of heroes working together almost 
  certainly can do so.
  NATION
  Mortal heroes who function at the level of a nation 
  are rare. Frequently, each has risen to the top of his or 
  her profession, as the principal general of the kingdom, 
  the crime lord of a city or the chief prelate of the religious 
  hierarchy. They are chancellors of universities, princes of 
  city-states and guardians of ancient secrets.
  Yet, being a mortal at this level in the Time of Tumult 
  is not a happy lot. The Anathema have returned, the 
  Wyld Hunt is on the prowl, and the Fair Folk are newly 
  emboldened. What is mortal life against such threats? 
  Whatever they have can be taken from them by any near-
  god who wants it more. Some mortals, confronted with 
  the awe-inspiring presence of one of the Sun’s Chosen, 
  have willingly relinquished all they had. Sometimes, even 
  one of the Dragon-Blooded can cause such awe.
  Therefore, mortals at these high levels do their best to 
  immerse themselves in webs of responsibilities, duties and 
  routines. In this way, they imitate the Lawgivers of old, 
  who ruled through ritual and formal patterns of behavior. 
  Mortal leaders who live this way hope that their range 
  of formal duties will dissuade the Exalted from wanting 
  to replace them.
  LIFE ON THE BLESSED ISLE
  Mortals on the Blessed Isle probably live better than 
  anyone else in Creation. They eat well from the bounty 
  of the three harvests a year, and the manufactories of the 
  Realm produce a huge variety of goods. Police and social 
  services are common, at least in areas where the impend-
  ing civil war has not yet caused too much disruption. The 
  Scarlet Empress deliberately limited lineage, caste, tribe 
  and other cultural factors over the last seven centuries, 
  so that all the Blessed Isle would look to her first of all. 
  Formal public education protocols, supported by schools 
  run through the monasteries of the Immaculate Order, 
  further limited the capabilities of mortals to act without 
  the approval of the Dragon-Blooded.
  Most mortals on the Blessed Isle are peasants or 
  artisans. They work in the fields and manufactories of 
  the Realm, producing food or goods ranging from rice to 
  chopsticks, apples to armor. Few rise to positions of wealth 
  or prominence. A good many younger children will join 
  the Legions, take the entrance exams for the Thousand 
  Scales or seek initiation as monks of the Immaculate Order. 
  Yet, their humble birth often prevents them from rising 
  very high in the ranks of these organizations.
  Even so, there has always been room for mortal heroes 
  in the Realm. Judges, archons, engineers, prefects and 
  others thrive on the Blessed Isle, because the Terrestrial 
  Exalts cannot be everywhere at once.
  
  18
  THE KIN OF THE DRAGONS
  Most often, true power among the Blessed Isle’s heroic 
  mortals belongs to those who are kin to the Terrestrial 
  Exalted. The mortal members of the Great Houses wield 
  tremendous influence over the prefectures and cities of 
  the empire. They do the real work of running the Realm 
  by crewing the ships of the five fleets, making up the 
  lower ranks of the officer corps in the Imperial Army, 
  ADVENTURE SEEDS: NATION
  Several possibilities exist for storytelling at the level of the nation. These stories usually have much vaster sweeps 
  than the typical game, but they allow even relatively fragile mortals to have an effect on a large scale.
  • An impoverished royal family seeks to regain its throne and ancient rights.
  • A crime lord seeks dominion over the whole kingdom.
  • A group of nobles and priests decides to oppose the Exalted usurper who has taken over the kingdom—not by 
  trying to destroy him, but by restraining his actions.
  • A hierophant decides to lead a national rebellion against a corrupt god.
  • A prince schemes and connives to protect his throne against Dragon-Bloods of the Realm on one hand and 
  the Bull of the North on the other.
  REFUGEES IN THE SECOND AGE
  The assault of the Bull of the North, the actions of the Wyld Hunt, the machinations of the Realm’s Great 
  Houses and the sack of Thorns have put thousands of people out of work, forced thousands more from their homes 
  and placed millions more at risk of starvation or disease in the next year. Many have taken to the roads in search of 
  safety and shelter. Columns of refugees can be found everywhere in Creation.
  Refugees come in many forms. Often, the first wave consists of physicians and merchants of Gem or Thorns or 
  Whitewall immigrating to city houses in Nexus or other great commercial centers. They have enough wealth and 
  power to simply move their bases of operations from one place to another. Those with the money to get out ahead 
  of the curve usually do so, robbing their country of wealth and intellect at a critical time.
  Next, the middle class and intelligentsia abandon their homes. They flee with a few duffel bags, perhaps a cart, 
  and some mobile treasure stuffed in hidden pockets. A few have weapons or hire mercenaries. Most rely on their 
  wits and a soft departure to keep them safe. When they reach their destination, most equip themselves with portable 
  wealth, ready for the next exodus.
  Once the disaster falls, those people already on the margins of society take to the roads in an effort to find 
  something better. Often, they travel with little to nothing. They have already been robbed of everything they had—
  whether land, money, tools or goods. Some are skilled workers, but many more are unskilled laborers. They mass in 
  traveling bands of dozens or hundreds but rarely function as a group. Shamed by the loss of what they had, they are 
  rarely motivated enough to lead others to a new situation of safety and security. While leaders emerge among the 
  diasporas of upper- and middle-class refugees in their final destination, few emerge from this third group until years after 
  resettlement. In the meantime, they are easy pickings for slavers, the Fair Folk, unscrupulous princes and others.
  They are also potentially a source of followers for heroes. Unfettered by the usual rules of lineage, age set and 
  national affiliation, they can usually be motivated enough to attach themselves to new leaders. Supporting refugees 
  carries great risks for the would-be hero, however. It is easy to marshal refugees into an army, but the country in 
  which they reside is likely to think poorly of their general.
  CARAVANS, TRADE AND THE GUILD
  Separated (if not entirely divorced) from caste, clan and culture, mortals who travel with caravans have unique 
  opportunities to see Creation. Most caravans travel consistent routes repeatedly between two termini and have 
  habitual way stations. Guards, merchants and accountants alike become familiar with likely ambush points and the 
  traders and goods they are likely to encounter along the way. They build networks of relationships and communities 
  that last for years, if not decades.
  Yet, heroes with a spark of destiny rarely stay with one caravan for very long. Their talents and spectacular abili-
  ties make them desirable for short-term employment along multiple routes, and their love of adventure often leads 
  them off the safer paths onto riskier routes where they have greater chance for wealth and glory. Therefore, while 
  the Children of Earth might stick to the same hundred-mile route for most of their lives, a hero could easily jump 
  from caravan to caravan and ride the whole overland route from Whitewall to Gem—a journey of many years, and 
  utterly unrepeatable.
  
  CHAPTER ONE • MORTAL LIFE IN CREATION
  19
  ADVENTURE SEEDS: THE REALM
  The Realm is a reasonably good place for mortal 
  adventures, provided that you downplay the presence 
  of the Dragon-Blooded except as patrons or leaders of 
  enemy factions rather than as chief adversaries.
  • Immaculate monks must patrol a region and 
  keep a vicious criminal gang in check while their 
  Exalted patron is away.
  • A special ops team for a Dragon-Blooded 
  prefect tries to keep the region safe from predation 
  by refugees and the other Great Houses.
  • A group of refugee leaders tries to find a safe 
  haven for the demoralized rabble that follows them.
  • Archons of one of the few surviving magistrates 
  try to help their lord carry out his duties while also 
  keeping him safe.
  filling out and delivering the paperwork of the Thou-
  sand Scales and managing the logistics of empire. The 
  Dragon-Blooded can shout slogans and march in parades 
  all they like, but it is mortals who actually organize the 
  parades and manage the human crews to launch the 
  confetti bombs.
  Many mortals of high status in the Realm loathe 
  the Exalted as a group, because the Exalted strip away 
  so much potential for personal achievement. Lacking 
  access to Essence confers certain disadvantages upon 
  mortals in a world where the best weapons and tools 
  require the ability to manipulate it. Accordingly, many 
  must rely upon other means of accomplishing complex 
  goals. They use the lands and markets of the empire to 
  acquire wealth, they build bureaucratic strongholds to 
  achieve goals, and they construct palaces, far from any 
  manse, in which to live lives of ease. In these ways, a 
  mortal lord can build a sense of personal accomplish-
  ment, and can rival or obstruct a Dragon-Blood or two 
  as needed.
  What mortals cannot avoid are Dynastic obligations. 
  The leaders of the Great Houses care greatly that the 
  proper marriages occur in the proper sequence and that 
  the children of these marriages show up in the right way 
  at the right time. Even if the children fail to Exalt, the 
  grandchildren or the great-grandchildren might. Once 
  the order is given that a mortal must marry a certain 
  Exalt, the un-Exalted Dynast is trapped. Most go to their 
  weddings with a sense of resignation, though a few ap-
  proach them with love and respect. True followers of the 
  Immaculate Philosophy are rare among mortal Dynasts, 
  who often must give up private lovers or even harems 
  for the sake of a Dragon-Blooded consort.
  THE SCALES AND THE MONKS
  Among the bureaucrats of the Realm, and in the 
  Immaculate Order, mortals greatly outnumber the Ter-
  restrial Exalted. Yet, chains of command and hierarchies 
  of obedience place very specific and real demands upon 
  mortal attention and action. The archons of a magistrate 
  of the Realm live to serve their mistress and do her bid-
  ding with an eagerness born of a combination of deep 
  devotion and deliberate, Essence-driven manipulation of 
  their loyalty. The proselytes of a vartabed of the Order 
  chant hymns, day in and day out, praising the awesome 
  necessity of obeying their Dragon-Blooded mentor until 
  death. These are no more capable of disobedience than 
  a custodian of Autochthon.
  Yet, their loyalty and constraint of their action does 
  not overly harness their minds. Immaculate monks and 
  bureaucrats are both capable of rational thought and 
  cunning scheming. Most recognize that the Thousand 
  Scales or the Order have brought them most of the good 
  and glorious things in their lives. They will fight, plan, 
  scheme, connive and conspire in order to further and 
  extend its goals, laws and authority.
  LIFE IN THE NORTH
  Humans in the icy lands of the North face more 
  severe environmental pressures than elsewhere. Finding 
  and storing up food for the winter occupies many people’s 
  time. Because of this, though, mortals typically have a 
  freer hand in managing their own affairs in the North, 
  since Exalts who can leave for warmer climates and more 
  sybaritic lifestyles usually do so. The one great exception 
  to this rule is the Bull of the North and his retinue. The 
  Anathema leader and his circle constitute a significant 
  threat to many communities, and they must always take 
  into account his plans and actions in determining their 
  own safety.
  THE LEAGUE
  Among all the cultures of Creation, the Haslanti 
  League is the most accepting of the idea that mortals are 
  suitable candidates for rulership even if an Exalt is avail-
  able. Mortals repair, crew and command the ships of the 
  famed Air Fleet and Ice Squadron. They rule the towns 
  of the League in both greenfields and emeralds, they man-
  age the re-supply of far-flung settlements, and they fight 
  battles against raiders on the periphery. An Exalt might 
  do the job better than a mortal, but will she be there when 
  you really need her? Being pragmatic, the League and its 
  attendant states relies heavily upon training and practice 
  to beef up its agents as competent to stand against any 
  threat, even the Exalted, in large enough numbers.
  Not everything is easy for mortals in the League, of 
  course, and they do not always present a united front to 
  
  20
  Creation. First, the city-states are technically independent 
  of each other and prone to rivalry. Most cities operate spy 
  cells in one another’s territories unofficially, gathering 
  information on business, crime and political affiliations. 
  Criminal gangs maintain local organizations as well as 
  regional ones, and bandits often attack caravan trade routes 
  while pirates attack ice vessels. Only the air boat routes 
  are free from mortal interference. Here, though, the crews 
  are specially trained to deal with spirits, gods and demons, 
  either through appeasement or neutralization.
  Since dueling is an accepted practice in the League 
  as well, most mortals must be prepared to deal with their 
  rivals or opponents on a moment’s notice, accepting death 
  as the penalty for failure. This makes for some dramatic 
  moments in the life of a typical Haslanti.
  WHITEWALL AND GETHAMANE
  The League is not the only power in the North, of 
  course. Whitewall and Gethamane have their own at-
  titudes toward outsiders and toward mortals, and both 
  cities are at tremendous risks from forces below, within and 
  around their communities. These forces are easily capable 
  of overwhelming the typical mortal, body and soul. The 
  two nations are hardly safe places even for heroes unless 
  players and Storyteller are content on ending their series 
  with unalloyed horror.
  Even so, there are opportunities for storytelling here. 
  Whitewall is very much in need of rebuilding and reform, 
  while Gethamane’s disturbing history lends itself well to 
  investigation and desperate battles in the darkness. Both 
  are close enough to each other, to the forces of chaos, to 
  the League and to the Realm, to make for some excel-
  lent storytelling centered around diplomacy, espionage 
  and intrigue.
  AMONG THE BARBARIANS
  Among the barbarian tribes of the Northeast, there 
  are also opportunities for storytelling not well served 
  elsewhere. Heroes in this part of the world are likely 
  fighting against both the Bull of the North and the 
  environment. They are probably caught in the age-old 
  tangle between neophilia and tradition. Stories here 
  revolve around lineage and age set, and what happens 
  when those familiar patterns are disrupted.
  Barbarian clans respect and honor Exalted among 
  themselves—sometimes. Most often, they drive away 
  Solars and accept Lunars as leaders. Dragon-Blooded 
  are accepted or driven out or destroyed, depending 
  entirely on the clan’s prior experiences with the Realm 
  or its tributaries. Barbarian warlords love having the 
  power of an Exalt or God-Blood at their side in battle 
  but they fear being replaced by a rising power at their 
  
  CHAPTER ONE • MORTAL LIFE IN CREATION
  21
  ADVENTURE SEEDS: THE NORTH
  Heroic adventures in the North can end a lot 
  like the tales of H. P. Lovecraft, with everyone mad or 
  dead, or they can conclude more like Beowulf, where 
  the hero dies with honor after achieving great things 
  for his people and himself. The Storyteller has a lot 
  of options, including the following:
  • A warrior rises to leadership of his clan and 
  tribe.
  • A tribe must decide whether to join the Bull 
  of the North or stand on its own.
  • A criminal steals a shipment of goods intended 
  for the League military.
  • A savant finds a library of materials related to 
  building skyships.
  • A group of Undertown workers in Whitewall 
  fights a series of nameless horrors successfully… at 
  first.
  hall’s table or in the tribe’s counsels. A mortal hero in 
  this setting has to worry about not only beating enemies 
  in battle, but also dodging the long knives in the dark 
  of his own homestead.
  LIFE IN THE EAST
  For the men and women of the Eastern cities, life is 
  not exactly easy, but there is a degree of hustle and flow 
  rarely found elsewhere. In Sijan, the city of tombs, there 
  are always the dead to care for. In Nexus, there is always 
  the next deal or the next con. In Lookshy, there is the 
  next battle and the intrigue that leads up to it. In Great 
  Forks and Greyfalls, there is the next season of trading. 
  On the heights of Mount Metagalapa, there is the next 
  raid to plan and the next council to wrangle.
  Farther south, in the shadow of Thorns, life is more 
  tenuous in all senses of the word. Yet, mortal heroes have 
  done more against the Deathlord and his grip on that city 
  that most of the Exalts and gods combined. They have 
  little left to lose in their fight against the undying ruler 
  of their homeland. The only thing that truly disheartens 
  them is to see their former comrades rise up as the undead 
  servants (or worse) of their enemy.
  ALONG THE RIVERS
  The River Province and its city-states new and old 
  are probably the most fruitful ground for mortal heroes 
  in all Creation. There are fortunes to be won and lost, 
  ancient caches of First Age technology, lucrative op-
  portunities for trade in finished goods, and above all, so 
  many Exalted running loose that it is possible to escape 
  their notice.
  Mortals and mortal heroes rule along the rivers. They 
  control the towns and captain the ships. They man the 
  forts and pilot the pirate barges. For every Dragon-Blood 
  or Solar Anathema, there are 10,000 mortals, and every 
  one of them is angling for something: tonight’s dinner, 
  next week’s big deal, next year’s newest fortune. Some 
  believe that what they need or want can be found in the 
  train and company of an Exalt, but many more choose 
  to go it alone or work with friends or families to achieve 
  their desires.
  Collectively, River Province folk have much working 
  in their favor. They have a broad range of manufactories 
  available to them and a wide selection of foods and raw 
  materials. The population is dense along the rivers, with 
  numerous cities of 10,000 people or more, and hundreds 
  of towns. It is possible to raise armies in the Scavenger 
  Lands and feed them. It is also possible to make fortunes 
  here, and to lose them just as easily.
  NEXUS AND GREAT FORKS
  Mortals in Nexus and Great Forks are some of the freest 
  and most ambitious humans in the world. With access to 
  the luxuries and basic produce of Creation, they have the 
  potential to live lives of great extravagance. Yet, many live 
  in squalid poverty, unable or unwilling to amount to more. 
  The dysfunctional governments of these principalities are 
  highly inefficient or are deliberately unequal.
  Still, many who live here have opportunities far be-
  yond those of an ordinary mortal elsewhere. Both cities 
  are large enough to support several criminal syndicates, 
  each preying on a different aspect of the city’s trade or 
  manufacturing. Both cities contain several schools and 
  colleges, for teaching everything from basic accounting 
  to the sword. Mercenary companies recruit orphans from 
  the streets and contracts from city hall. Incense flows out 
  of hundreds of temple doors. Any mortal hero who can’t 
  add to or alter the urban experience deserves a knife in 
  the kidney from a more enterprising fellow. In fact, they 
  frequently get just that.
  For the Exalted, these cities are recruiting grounds 
  for followers, and only peripherally available to attack or 
  to try to control. Individual heroes, families, lineages and 
  more are tightly woven into these places. The mysterious 
  Emissary and the Council of Entities make Nexus safe for 
  mortal ambition, and the result is a city that flourishes 
  without too much Exalted intervention.
  IN THE FORESTS
  While the population of the Eastern forests is consider-
  ably lower than in the Scavenger Lands themselves, there 
  are still many more mortals than there are Exalts of any 
  kind. The endless Halta-Linowan conflict is fought with 
  mortal soldiers, and the tribes of the Far East leap from 
  
  22
  tree to tree in search of medicinal bromeliads and hallu-
  cinogenic fungi. And farther south, a war brews between 
  humans of a standard shape and the altered beastmen.
  In the forests of the Far East, there is little appar-
  ent distinction between the aware, alert mortal and the 
  typical Exalt from the cities. A Dragon-Blood has little 
  knowledge of the poisonous plants and other dangers of 
  the jungle. She is at great risk of death or dismember-
  ment every time she strays from the paths chosen by 
  knowledgeable guides. Her stamina, strength and endur-
  ance protect her, but they do not always guide her well 
  to avoid such issues. The knowledgeable mortal has no 
  chance to survive the horrors that can destroy one of 
  the Princes of the Earth, but he has greater knowledge 
  of his surroundings and can avoid many of the land’s 
  dangers and pitfalls.
  In Harborhead, the Brides of Ahlat are nearly all 
  mortals. Only a few of these terrifying warriors belong to 
  the ranks of the God-Blooded or the Exalted. Humans 
  populate the Realm’s imperial garrison and bureau-
  cracy, and the natives’ councils of the Drums, far more 
  than otherworldly agents do. The result is that human 
  policy tends to be in the forefront of all decision mak-
  ing (once the opinion of the Bull God himself is taken 
  into account).
  Farther west, in Chiaroscuro and Paragon, mortals 
  make up the bulk of these states’ armies and bureaucra-
  cies. It is possible to run a mortal army without Charms or 
  the prestige of an Exalted general, but it is tremendously 
  difficult to maintain unit cohesion and morale in the face 
  of such an advantaged enemy. In the same way, mortal 
  bureaucracies tend toward venality, petty power games 
  and corruption. They are as likely to be led by criminals 
  as by savants.
  BETWEEN THE SOUTHERN CITIES
  The coastal lands of the South are heavily developed 
  and settled. The network of towns and villages is thick, 
  and true wilderness areas are rare. The Children of Earth 
  are strong here, for the lawful and unlawful authorities 
  alike frown on heroes. The Realm satrapies dislike mortal 
  heroes doubly, for disobeying the will of the Empress and 
  for contravening the Immaculate Philosophy by resisting 
  Exalted rule. Nonetheless, criminal gangs and schools and 
  societies flourish here, out of sight of the prying eyes of 
  the Scarlet Empire’s officials.
  The villages and coastal towns between Yane and 
  the Lap are joined by a road that, while built in the First 
  Age, has not weathered the years quite as successfully 
  as the road between Whitewall and the coast. Deeply 
  rutted, often muddy and occasionally impassible, this 
  route serves the poorer travelers and traders who cannot 
  afford to ship goods by sea. Its gods and their wayside 
  shrines are often run down, but banditry is kept at a 
  minimum due to the regularity and frequency with 
  which the villages contain schools for mortal martial 
  arts. The courtyards of the “fighting tea rooms” along 
  the road serve as an informal kick-boxing circuit for 
  monks, travelers, students, masters and anyone intent on 
  proving their skills who does not wish to go up against 
  an Exalt. Hostels cater to the traveling fist-show, and 
  clinics exist for patching up losers and winners alike. 
  Each teahouse has its own house rules, as well as a 
  feature or two in the courtyard that makes fighting 
  there unique.
  AMONG NOMADS
  Farther south, in the deep desert, the number of people 
  drops off rapidly, and the tents shift places frequently 
  ADVENTURE SEEDS: THE EAST
  Mortals in the East are capable of being tribesmen 
  living in sustainable permaculture villages ensconced in 
  the jungle, scavenger lords picking over First Age ruins 
  in the vicinity of Denandsor or ship captains on the 
  region’s great rivers. Adventures can go to some wild 
  places in this part of Creation. To wit:
  • A company of Lookshy rangers faces off against the 
  newly forming shadowlands on the frontiers of Thorns.
  • A scavenger lord hires a team of bodyguards to 
  help unearth an ancient library.
  • A warrior travels village to village competing in 
  wrestling tournaments and seeking to right injustices
  • A team of mercenaries working for the Council 
  of Entities patrols the Yellow River, investigating claims 
  of piracy.
  • A tribal hunting party captures a newly Exalted 
  Solar. What will they do with her?
  Criminals here tend to be bandits who watch the 
  more frequently traveled trails to rob peddlers. Priests and 
  savants act as tribal shamans and witch doctors. Warriors 
  are always in great abundance among peoples who kill and 
  maim their rivals for sport.
  LIFE IN THE SOUTH
  The South has always seemed more decadent and 
  more dangerous than the other directions to many visitors, 
  but the truth is that mortal life is cheap everywhere. Even 
  so, it is more obvious here. A peasant collapsing of heat 
  stroke in the fields is likely to be ground up and ploughed 
  under as fertilizer, without even traditional amenities such 
  as a funeral. In pearl fisheries, deep mines and blisteringly 
  hot rice paddies, mortals struggle to eke out a living from 
  the land of fire.
  
  CHAPTER ONE • MORTAL LIFE IN CREATION
  23
  ADVENTURE SEEDS: THE SOUTH
  The deserts of the South make finding drinking 
  water and food almost an adventure in themselves. 
  Heroes who stay in the cities tend to focus more on 
  issues of social justice and fairness in dealing with the 
  slaveholders and serfs of these decadent pleasure-dens. 
  Some story ideas include:
  • Refugees from Gem decide to learn the truth of 
  the mysterious Locust Crusaders.
  • Sea captains from Chiaroscuro compete with 
  each other to find new trade routes as the gods of the 
  Inland Sea trade duties and areas of responsibilities in 
  an upheaval of the Terrestrial Bureaucracy.
  • Lion-Folk in the desert have destroyed the Ex-
  alted monster-hunter who came looking for them; now 
  they’re hunting his human support staff.
  • Rebels and escaped slaves in the hills around 
  Paragon decide to strike back against the corruption 
  and luxury of their former masters.
  • Immaculate monks near the Lap try to square 
  the dichotomy between the incredible poverty of the 
  people and the luxury of their elders.
  ADVENTURE SEEDS: THE WEST
  The West’s open waters and lonely islands make 
  a fine place for telling stories of brave and resourceful 
  humans.
  • Seafaring pirates decide to attack and capture 
  the wrong ship.
  • A savant decides to find whether rumors of an 
  undersea city are true.
  • An arranged marriage might be able to end 
  decades of feuding between two islands—if the priest 
  can keep the bride’s and groom’s families from murder-
  ing them first.
  • Warriors compete for the honor of being the 
  first swordsman in the archipelago. When prizes are 
  this valuable, though, some resort to foul play.
  in search of water and fodder for animal herds. Most 
  mortal heroes are warriors here, with priests and savants 
  alike often being called sachem or shaman or revered 
  one. Criminals are rare indeed, for the desert folk honor 
  taboo and custom that prohibits stealing from those who 
  honor you with hospitality. Sharing water is tantamount 
  to sharing life in this part of the world. You cannot steal 
  from one who offered you life. Along the desert fringes, 
  where the merchants travel, bandits and con artists alike 
  tend to succeed more readily.
  LIFE IN THE WEST
  Compass and quadrant yield their secrets to mortals 
  as readily as to the Exalted. Common sailors and captains 
  alike have never drawn the Second Breath and joined the 
  ranks of the Dragon-Blooded or the Celestial Exalted. 
  The sea is full of ships of every make and every island, 
  and their crews are far more often mortal than not. Pearl 
  fishers and clam divers alike are mortal, yet lead adven-
  turous lives indeed—fighting off pirates and fending off 
  sharks (or worse) in the deep. The pirates, too, are often 
  mortal and prey on mortal shipping and mortal towns for 
  slaves and wealth. Mortals watch the skies and predict 
  the weather, cast nets for fish and gut clumsy cutpurses 
  in dark alleyways behind drinking halls in the roughest 
  harbor towns in the world.
  ISLAND FOLK
  The islanders of the West dream of escape. It is dif-
  ficult to live one’s life forever among islands where all 
  things remain the same, always. Mortals here are tied 
  into a web of families and lineages far more tightly than 
  anywhere else, and many are actively discouraged from 
  becoming heroes, as the Western Children of Earth have 
  far too much to do just to keep society from unraveling. 
  There are tubers to pluck from the earth and peel, fish 
  to hunt in the reefs and all manner of shellfish to gather. 
  The life of a hero is unsuited to such lives.
  Even so, there are heroes. Merchants run their tables in 
  the market square under brightly colored awnings. Gladia-
  tors spar for strings of polished cowries under the hot sun. 
  Savants examine the color of urine in elegant glass bottles 
  to determine the cause of diseases and the appropriate 
  cures. Hierophants consummate annual marriages to the 
  sea, to assure prosperity and good fortune. Hermits seek 
  out rocky islets to study in solitude the nature of Creation 
  and their own spirits. Such men and women are often 
  looked sought to solve the problems and trials of life on 
  earth in the midst of the vast depths of the sea.
  AMONG SEAFARERS
  It is not uncommon for sailors to spend much of their 
  lives crewing the same route, but the nature of the ocean 
  is such that few stay on the same ship all that time. Most 
  vessels except First Age relics fall apart or rot within a 
  decade of first entering the water. Many more run aground 
  because of reefs, rocks or the anger of a little god. Ships 
  must be replaced, and sailors find new berths regularly. 
  Warriors, merchants, savants and criminals all have ways 
  to live well onboard ship, sailing from port to port and 
  island to island.
  
  24
  
  25
  CHAPTER TWO • CHARACTER CREATION AND TRAITS
  CHAPTER TWO
  CHAPTER TWO
  CHARACTER CREATION 
  CHARACTER CREATION 
  AND TRAITS
  AND TRAITS
  In all of Creation, there are but 700 Celestial Exalted of 
  any sort. The Dragon-Blooded vastly outnumber them but 
  are themselves only a few ten thousand strong. For every 
  Exalt who walks Creation, there are thousands of mortals, 
  enough to drown the Princes of the Earth in sheer numbers if 
  their potential could be harnessed. Not that anyone has truly 
  sought to fulfill the potential of humanity since the Great 
  Contagion. To a cynical observer in the Age of Sorrows, the 
  Solars seem to care about mortals only as potential followers, 
  the Dragon-Blooded view them as worthless vassals, and the 
  Abyssals regard them as simply future corpses. Even among 
  the two Exalted groups with perhaps the most interest in 
  humanity, the Lunars often see mortals as simply fodder for 
  social engineering experiments, while the Sidereals most often 
  forge them into acquaintances to pass away the monotony 
  of centuries hounded by their Arcane Fate. Even most gods 
  are inclined to see little worth in humanity save as fonts of 
  Essence. There are individual exceptions, of course, but the 
  great powers of Creation usually deem the human race as 
  irrelevant save as potential hosts for Exaltation.
  But humanity can be so much more. True, the great 
  teeming masses of mortals who toil in poverty and ignorance 
  across Creation would seem to belie that prediction, but some 
  exceptional mortals transcend the limitations placed on them 
  by their so-called betters. Touched by destiny and blessed 
  with the drive to achieve, such mortals have the audacity 
  to reach for a status greater than mere lackey or slave. They 
  strive to become heroes.
  This chapter explains the rules for creating heroic 
  mortal characters, expanding on the rules outlined on page 
  81 of Exalted. Such characters may be created as a prelude 
  to an eventual Exaltation or may actually be the stars of 
  an all-mortal series. Regardless, each heroic mortal carries 
  within her a seed of potential that needs only the water 
  of adversity to blossom into greatness. Although they are 
  not heirs to the blessings of the gods in the form of awe-
  inspiring magical powers, heroic mortals can still achieve a 
  great deal—far more than any Exalt, deity, demon or ghost 
  might ever imagine.
  
  26
  You might not be an Exalt, but you are still a hero. What 
  tales will they tell of your deeds?
  HEROIC MORTAL CHARACTER 
  CREATION
  STEP ONE: CHARACTER CONCEPT
  The first step in creating a heroic mortal is to choose a 
  character concept. Decide who your character is and what 
  he’s doing with his life. Ask yourself these questions: What 
  is your character’s name? Where does he come from? What 
  has his life been like? Is he cunning or brutish? Belligerent 
  or charming? A mighty warrior or a bookish archeologist? 
  What are his views on the Dragon-Blooded? The gods? The 
  Anathema?
  ARCHETYPES AND PROFESSIONS
  Unlike Exalted, heroic mortals have neither castes 
  nor aspects. All heroic mortals, however, can be fit into 
  one of five general archetypes that roughly correspond to 
  the Solar castes: warriors, priests, savants, criminals and 
  brokers. Warriors include soldiers, mercenaries, gladiators, 
  assassins, hunters and anyone else who makes a living 
  through skill at arms. Priests are holy men and women, 
  shamans, cult leaders and anyone else who serves as a 
  religious figure. Savants include scribes, thaumaturges, 
  physicians, archeologists and anyone else who makes a living 
  through applied knowledge. Criminals include everyone 
  from ruthless assassins and thieves to roguish pickpockets, 
  wandering circus performers, street musicians and home-
  less vagrants, as well as anyone else who makes their way 
  through the underbelly of society. Finally, brokers are 
  couriers, diplomats, businessmen, nobles and adventurers, 
  and they include anyone who makes their living through 
  skilled social interaction.
  Each of these archetypes (which are described more fully 
  beginning on p. 35) lists several professions associated with it. 
  For example, gladiator is one of the professions associated with 
  the warrior archetype. Each profession grants the character 
  bonus dots in Abilities chosen from a list associated with the 
  profession, provided the character meets all the requirements 
  for membership in that profession
  Of course, it is possible to conceive of a character con-
  cept that does not neatly fit into any of the listed archetypes 
  or professions. A wily prostitute might arguably be viewed 
  as either a criminal or a broker, while the war priest of a 
  bloodthirsty militant religion might be viewed as a warrior, 
  a priest or even something else. The archetypes and profes-
  sions listed in this chapter are simply a shorthand way to 
  describe certain common character tropes so as to facilitate 
  establishing the character’s concept, so don’t worry too much 
  if your character concept doesn’t neatly fit into a professional
  box. If none of the listed professions or archetypes seems 
  appropriate, talk to your Storyteller about setting up rules 
  for an alternative profession.
  
  27
  CHAPTER TWO • CHARACTER CREATION AND TRAITS
  MOTIVATION AND INTIMACIES
  Next, you must select a Motivation for your character. 
  Motivations function for heroic mortals just as they do for 
  Exalted (see Exalted, pp. 88–89). Yet, the Motivation of a 
  heroic mortal, while still usually epic in scope, is rarely as 
  grandiose as that of an Exalt. A heroic mortal might desire 
  to become a conquering warlord, but only a delusional one 
  would ever seriously think that she might one day conquer 
  all of Creation. Among Solar Exalts, such dreams of world 
  domination represent perhaps the most common Motiva-
  tion, at least among younger Exalts who have not outgrown 
  such banal goals.
  Also, select starting Intimacies for your character. Intima-
  cies function as they do for Exalted (see Exalted, p. 90), and 
  your character begins with a number of starting Intimacies 
  equal to her Compassion.
  STEP TWO: CHOOSING ATTRIBUTES
  Heroic mortals get fewer starting Attributes than 
  Exalted do. First, rank the three Attribute categories 
  (Physical, Social and Mental) according to which is primary, 
  secondary or tertiary. Then allocate six dots to the primary 
  category, four to the secondary category and three to the 
  tertiary category.
  STEP THREE: CHOOSING ABILITIES
  Heroic mortals receive a total of 25 dots to distribute 
  among their Abilities. You cannot raise any Ability above 
  three dots without spending bonus points. A character 
  who chooses a profession from among the options listed 
  under the various character archetypes, however, gains 
  additional Ability dots that may potentially raise an Abil-
  ity to 4. Each heroic mortal gets one Favored Ability and 
  must allocate at least one dot to it. A heroic mortal may 
  never have any non-Favored Ability rated higher than his 
  Favored Ability.
  STEP FOUR: ADVANTAGES
  BACKGROUNDS
  A heroic mortal begins with five dots to allocate among 
  Background points. Some of the standard Backgrounds are 
  not available to heroic mortals or are limited in some way. 
  The specific rules governing these differences are explained 
  beginning on page 29. You cannot raise any of a heroic 
  mortal’s Backgrounds above three dots without spending 
  bonus points.
  VIRTUES
  A heroic mortal has five dots to allocate among the 
  four Virtues (in addition to the free dot in each Virtue the 
  character already has). Virtues function for mortals just as 
  they do for Exalted, but mortals do not suffer from any ver-
  sion of the Great Curse. Nor do they suffer any other adverse 
  effect tied to their Virtues (except for any negative effects 
  the player imposes on her character through some of the 
  Flaws found in Chapter Three).
  ESSENCE
  A heroic mortal begins with a permanent Essence of 
  1, but most mortals have neither a Personal nor Peripheral 
  Essence pool nor any way to directly channel the Essence 
  within them. A heroic mortal must possess the Awakened 
  Essence Merit (see p. 59) to become an Essence wielder. Such 
  a blessed individual gains an Essence pool equal to (permanent 
  Essence x 10). The character may thereafter channel Essence 
  for such powers as supernatural martial arts, thaumaturgy, 
  sorcery or necromancy, or even acquired Charms.
  Any Essence-wielding mortal can increase her starting 
  Essence at a cost of 10 bonus points per dot, up to a maximum 
  of Essence 3, which represents the absolute limit of human 
  potential. After character creation, an Essence-wielding 
  mortal can increase her Essence with Experience at a cost of 
  (rating x 20). A heroic mortal can reach Essence 4 only if a 
  deity elevates him to godhood, if a demon invests him as an 
  akuma or endows him as a Demon-Blood or if he Exalts.
  STEP FIVE: FINISHING TOUCHES
  A heroic mortal’s Willpower is equal to the sum of her 
  two highest Virtues. She has health levels as follows: -0, 
  -1, -1, -2, -2, -4, Incapacitated. Finally, each heroic mortal 
  begins with 21 bonus points to spend as the player wishes, 
  as well as up to 10 additional bonus points gained through 
  Flaws (as described in Chapter Three). This cap may be 
  modified by the Esoteric Knowledge Background found on 
  pages 33-34.
  
  28
  • STEP ONE: CHARACTER CONCEPT
  Determine your character’s concept.
  Choose Motivation, archetype and profession.
  If none of the existing archetypes and professions fit your 
  character concept, discuss creating a new archetype and/or 
  profession with your Storyteller.
  • STEP TWO: CHOOSE ATTRIBUTES
  Note that all Attributes start with one dot before you 
  add any.
  Prioritize the three categories: Physical (Strength, Dexterity 
  and Stamina), Social (Charisma, Manipulation and Appear-
  ance) and Mental (Perception, Intelligence and Wits).
  Divide six dots among your primary Attributes, four among 
  your secondary Attributes and three among your tertiary At-
  tributes.
  • STEP THREE: CHOOSE ABILITIES
  Choose one Favored Ability. Divide up 25 dots among your 
  Abilities, then add any additional dots gained from a profes-
  sion. No non-Favored Ability can exceed the Favored Ability, 
  and no Ability can exceed three dots without spending bonus 
  points unless the fourth dot comes from a profession.
  • STEP FOUR: CHOOSE ADVANTAGES
  Choose Backgrounds (5—none may exceed 3 without 
  spending bonus points, and each dot above 3 costs two bonus 
  points). Assign Virtues (5, plus one free dot in each Virtue—
  none may be higher than 4 without spending bonus points).
  • STEP FIVE: FINISHING TOUCHES
  Record Essence (1), Willpower (sum of two highest 
  Virtues—may not start higher than 8 unless at last two Vir-
  tues are 4 or higher) and health levels (7). Choose up to 10 
  points in Flaws.
  • BONUS POINTS
  Spend 21 bonus points, plus any additional bonus points 
  gained from Flaws, at any point during character creation.
  ARCHETYPES AND PROFESSIONS
  • Warrior—One who lives and dies by his skill at arms. 
  Professions include gladiator, guard, soldier, thug or warlord.
  • Priest—One who acts as a religious leader or as an 
  intermediary between mortals and higher powers. Professions 
  include hermit, hierophant, mendicant, monk or shaman.
  • Savant—One who seeks knowledge and understanding, 
  whether for enlightenment or in pursuit of personal power. 
  Professions include craftmason, physician, scavenger lord, 
  scholar or thaumaturge.
  • Criminal—One who makes her way through the seamy 
  underbelly of Creation. Professions include assassin, gambler, 
  master thief, racketeer or scam artist.
  • Broker—One who facilitates social or business interac-
  tions. Professions include courier, diplomat, merchant, noble 
  or spy.
  BACKGROUNDS
  • Allies—Friends and associates who help in tasks.
  • Artifact—Magical devices, often dating from the First Age.
  • Backing—Standing and status in an organization of power.
  • Command—Authority over a military unit.
  • Contacts—Sources of information and conveniently placed 
  friends.
  • Destiny—A powerful fate written in the stars.
  • Esoteric Knowledge—Supernatural understanding and 
  benefits acquired through either a lifetime of study or dangerous 
  questing in the Wyld.
  • Face—Status arising from your peerless martial arts.
  • Familiar—An animal companion.
  • Followers—Other mortals who look to you for guidance.
  • Henchmen—Loyal and often ruthless agents who do your 
  bidding.
  • Influence—Your power over the mortal society around 
  you.
  • Library—A repository of arcane knowledge useful for re-
  search.
  • Manse—A place of magical power over which you hold 
  dominion.
  • Mentor—An influential and powerful friend whose favor 
  you have gained.
  • Patron—An employer or simply a guardian who aids you in 
  exchange for services rendered.
  • Resources—Personal wealth.
  • Retainers—Personal servants or slaves.
  • Sifu—A teacher who can instruct you in Terrestrial martial 
  arts.
  • Spies—A network of espionage agents who feed you secrets.
  CHARACTER CREATION SUMMARY
  BONUS POINT COSTS
  Trait 
  Bonus Points
  Attribute 
  4
  Favored Ability 
  1
  Non-Favored Ability 
  2
  Background 
  1 (2 if the Background is being 
   
  raised above 3)
  Specialty 
  1 (2 per 1 if in a Favored Ability)
  Virtue 
  3
  Willpower 
  2
  Essence* 
  10
  Merit 
  listed cost
  * The character must have an appropriate Merit in order to raise 
  his Essence to 2 and cannot raise his Essence above 3.
  Note: The possibility of purchasing Merits or buying off 
  Flaws with experience is discussed in Chapter Three beginning 
  on page 48.
  
  29
  CHAPTER TWO • CHARACTER CREATION AND TRAITS
  MORTAL TRAITS
  In general, most traits function the same way for heroic 
  mortal characters as they do for the Exalted. There are certain 
  exceptions and clarifications, however, and this section is de-
  voted to outlining them for both players and Storytellers.
  ABILITIES FOR MORTALS
  Abilities function for heroic mortals just as they do for 
  Exalted with one exception. Although a heroic mortal can 
  possess any of the five Craft Abilities listed on page 107 of 
  Exalted, she may never learn any other Craft Ability [such 
  as the Craft (Glamour) Ability used by the Fair Folk or the 
  Craft (Fate) Ability of the Sidereal Exalted] unless she also 
  possesses the Esoteric Craft Merit described on page 53.
  ALTERED BACKGROUNDS
  The following preexisting Backgrounds are available to 
  heroic mortals. Except where noted, each Background may 
  be found in Exalted and functions identically to its descrip-
  tion there. Some Backgrounds found in other supplements 
  are Exalted-specific and are not available to heroic mortals 
  unless specifically allowed by a Storyteller for some special 
  plot-related reason. They include:
  • From Exalted—Cult.
  • From The Manual of Exalted Power—The Dragon-
  Blooded—Arsenal, Breeding, Connections and Family.
  • From The Manual of Exalted Power—The Lunars—
  Heart’s Blood, Solar Bond, Taboo and Tattoo Artifact.
  • From The Manual of Exalted Power—The Sidereals—
  Acquaintances, Celestial Manse, Savant and Salary. As noted 
  on page 33, heroic mortals may possess the Sifu Background, 
  but for them, it functions somewhat differently.
  • From The Manual of Exalted Power—The Abys-
  sals—Abyssal Command, Liege, Underworld Manse and 
  Whispers.
  • From The Manual of Exalted Power—The Infer-
  nals—Familiar (Demonic), Infernal Manse, Past Life and 
  Savant.
  • From The Manual of Exalted Power—The Alchem-
  icals—Charms, Eidolon, Familiar (Autochthonian).
  ALLIES (SEE EXALTED
  EXALTED, PP. 110–111)
  A one-dot ally is most likely another heroic mortal, 
  with additional points applied to this Background repre-
  senting progressively more powerful or influential heroic 
  mortals. The significant power differential between Exalts 
  and heroic mortals makes the former more appropriate as 
  a mentor or patron rather than an ally. At most, a five-dot 
  ally might be a relatively weak Dragon-Blood, but only with 
  Storyteller approval.
  ARTIFACT (SEE EXALTED
  EXALTED, P. 111)
  Unless a heroic mortal has the power to channel and 
  commit Essence, he can never attune to a weapon or to 
  any other artifact with an Essence-commitment cost. For 
  mortals capable of channeling Essence, Artifact functions 
  normally.
  BACKING (SEE EXALTED
  EXALTED, P. 111)
  This Background functions normally for heroic mortals.
  COMMAND (SEE THE MANUAL OF EXALTED 
  THE MANUAL OF EXALTED 
  POWER—THE DRAGON-BLOODED
  POWER—THE DRAGON-BLOODED, P. 106)
  A heroic mortal with the Command Background holds 
  a position of authority over a military unit. The source of 
  this authority might come from family connections, personal 
  wealth or actual rank in one of Creation’s militaries. The 
  availability of this Background may be conditional on the 
  presence of other related Backgrounds. If the soldiers in the 
  character’s unit are loyal to him personally, the character 
  must have a Resources rating greater than his Command 
  rating in order to keep his troops properly outfitted and 
  provisioned. If the unit is part of a larger fighting force in 
  which the character merely holds command rank, he need 
  not pay for his troops personally. Yet, neither will he be able 
  to order them to act in ways contrary to the military objec-
  tives of his superiors (at least, not without risking the loss of 
  this Background). Such a character has greater freedom to 
  use his forces as he wishes if his rating in either the Backing 
  or Influence Background is greater than his Command rat-
  ing. Such an influential mortal can circumvent the chain 
  of command if necessary.
  It is rare for a unit under the control of a heroic mortal 
  to have a Might rating higher than 1, unless the character’s 
  concept gives her access to gunzosha or ashigaru armor or 
  similarly impressive hardware. Yet, magical beings take orders 
  from a mere mortal only in very exceptional circumstances. 
  By default, the soldiers provided by this Background are 
  elite soldiers. If they are untrained extras, use the traits for 
  followers instead.
  • 
  About 25 elite soldiers.
  •• 
  About 125 elite soldiers.
  ••• 
  About 250 elite soldiers.
  •••• 
  About 500 elite soldiers.
  ••••• At least 5,000 soldiers.
  CONTACTS (SEE EXALTED
  EXALTED, P. 111)
  This Background functions normally for heroic mortals.
  DESTINY (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN SCROLL OF 
  SCROLL OF 
  THE MONK
  THE MONK ON PP. 151–152)
  Any person can change the world through great talent 
  and hard work, but most people don’t. Many fail when they 
  try. Some force of fate clings to people with this Background, 
  however, to enmesh them in events that affect the lives of 
  others. Yet this force is blind to good and evil. The tyrant 
  who claws his way to power and turns a nation into one vast 
  scream carries a destiny as mighty as the hero who leads the 
  uprising against him. The force of destiny might work to 
  keep a fated individual alive until she can fulfill her role, 
  but it seldom grants happiness or contentment. If anything, 
  
  30
  powerful destinies tend to ruin lives as they drive their bear-
  ers to their fated ends.
  Taking this Background indicates that a character has a 
  specific fate in store, which the player and Storyteller should 
  work together to create. (A brave player can leave the mat-
  ter entirely in the Storyteller’s hands, though, learning the 
  character’s destiny along with the character.) Astrologers 
  can tell that a character has a destiny and give some idea of 
  its strength, but a common horoscope won’t say what the 
  destiny is.
  Players can roll the character’s Destiny to create lucky 
  breaks or coincidences. “Luck” is a relative term, though 
  (and also a distinct Merit in its own right—see p. 60). For 
  instance, a person with a destiny whose ship sank could be 
  rescued before he dies of exposure… or he could be “rescued” 
  by pirates who then sell him into slavery. But even this rough 
  treatment could send the character where he needs to go. 
  The more successes a player rolls, the luckier (and more 
  improbable) the coincidence will be. A player can also add a 
  number of dice equal to his Destiny to the pool for a critical 
  task, such as figuring out how to operate a First Age device 
  before the loathsome wrigglies attack or throwing a knife 
  to kill the courtier who knows the character’s treacherous 
  schemes. The character can also use Destiny to improve DV. 
  The player must roll one die for each point of Destiny, with 
  each success increasing DV by one. Since a player can invoke 
  Destiny only once per scene, however—and then only when 
  the Storyteller agrees the task is critical to the character’s 
  survival or advancing to her fate—this Background is usu-
  ally not much good in open combat. In most cases, a player 
  would be better off rolling for some lucky break to change 
  the circumstances of a fight than to apply Destiny as a bonus 
  to attack or defense for a singe action.
  Only mortals, God-Bloods and Terrestrial Exalted can 
  take this Background. The higher sorts of Chosen make their 
  own fates, and other people have destinies to interact with 
  them. For most people, destiny is set at birth. A few unusual 
  circumstances, however, can grant characters a destiny in 
  the course of play instead of during character creation. He-
  roic mortal martial artists may possess destinies. In learning 
  supernatural martial arts, they declare their intent—their 
  need—to step beyond ordinary life and ordinary fates. Such 
  a destiny can lead a martial artist to repeated encounters 
  with the Exalted as opponents, allies or other important 
  roles in their lives.
  • 
  You’ll live a life slightly greater than usual, perhaps 
  as a local hero or villain or the sidekick to a more 
  powerful figure. At some point, your actions will 
  affect at least a town’s worth of people. Small co-
  incidences happen in your life, such as meeting a 
  person who gives you useful information.
  •• 
  Your life can affect a province or small nation, and 
  your deeds will be regional gossip for years to come. 
  
  31
  CHAPTER TWO • CHARACTER CREATION AND TRAITS
  You know you’re luckier than most people, even if 
  that luck is all bad.
  ••• 
  Your deeds influence a kingdom, for better or worse, 
  and you’ll definitely win a place in chronicles or local 
  legends. Unlikely coincidences often help or hinder 
  you. People quickly see you don’t live an ordinary 
  life. Some people stay close to you for that reason. 
  Others stay away.
  •••• Your choices affect a significant part of Creation 
  for decades to come. You might found a kingdom or 
  destroy one. It seems nothing can kill you or avert 
  your destiny, even if you wish it would. Bad things 
  often happen to people you love—usually when 
  their deaths become more useful to your destiny 
  than their lives. Your life is often entangled with 
  other people who have prominent destinies.
  ••••• One way or another, the fate of the world is in your 
  hands. Your life is full of astounding luck and heart-
  breaking tragedy as your destiny relentlessly drives you 
  toward your place in history. The Empress certainly 
  had Destiny 5 (and it might not be over yet).
  FACE (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN SCROLL OF THE 
  SCROLL OF THE 
  MONK
  MONK ON PP. 152–153)
  Prerequisites: The character must have Martial Arts 3+ in 
  order to possess this Background.
  In the Martial Arts World, fighters seek fame as paragons 
  of fighting prowess or of some ideal espoused by their school. 
  A sifu might be famed for insightful training methods or 
  generosity in accepting indigent pupils. A fighter who fre-
  quently competes in tournaments could be revered for good 
  sportsmanship as well as his victories. Face represents how 
  well a martial artist has become known to, and respected by, 
  other martial artists.
  Face does not necessarily represent a character’s raw 
  power. In the Realm, for instance, everyone knows that Im-
  maculate monks wield far greater power than other martial 
  artists. Nevertheless, most Immaculates lack this Background 
  because they are not famous as individuals. The powerful 
  martial artists among the Lunar Exalted are also little known 
  outside their own kind, giving them little face in the Martial 
  Arts World. Martial artist characters can begin play with 
  Face if they were already known for their combat prowess as 
  mortals, or if they studied under a famous sifu. Most of the 
  time, however, characters gain Face in the course of play. 
  They can also lose Face, of course, if they suffer humiliating 
  defeats, show cowardice or otherwise bring dishonor upon 
  themselves.
  When two martial artists meet, compare their Face 
  ratings, and subtract the lower score from the higher. The 
  player of the character with greater Face gets to add that 
  number of bonus dice to all social rolls made against the 
  opposing martial artist. Yet, Face applies only when both 
  characters see themselves as part of the Martial Arts World 
  and acknowledge the importance of their reputation within 
  it. For example, a great but mortal sifu won’t impress one of 
  Luna’s Chosen who feels contempt for all civilization and 
  knows he could eat the sifu for lunch. The Storyteller can 
  also reduce a character’s effective Face if she travels, since 
  news spreads slowly in the Age of Sorrows. One character 
  might acknowledge another martial artist’s Face only after 
  seeing her fight and recognizing her skill or who must have 
  trained her.
  Note: Although normally associated with the Martial 
  Arts World, a player can purchase Face appropriate to some 
  other milieu with the Storyteller’s permission. For example, 
  gladiators often recognize one another by reputation, as do 
  famous assassins or other criminals. Ultimately, Face repre-
  sents the measure of one’s reputation within one’s chosen 
  field, but for narrative reasons, it is most commonly associated 
  with martial artists.
  • 
  Noticed: Other martial artists have seen you earn 
  a few victories, or maybe you just have a revered 
  teacher.
  •• 
  Known: You have a strong reputation in the Martial 
  Arts World, at least locally. Other martial artists 
  know you as a capable practitioner who should not 
  be taken lightly. Your sifu is most likely proud to 
  claim you as a student.
  ••• 
  Famous: Your victories are known far and wide. 
  Other martial artists challenge you to see if you are 
  as skilled as stories say. Would-be martial artists 
  might seek instruction from you. You could open 
  your own dojo.
  •••• Revered: Impeccable technique and numerous vic-
  tories make you known throughout Creation, at least 
  among connoisseurs of combat. Other martial artists 
  consider you one of the greatest living practitioners 
  of your fighting style.
  ••••• Legendary: Only the greatest or most hotheaded 
  martial artists dare to test your prowess. Students 
  constantly seek your tutelage, and you have success-
  fully trained several of them. You are known as one 
  of the all-time greatest practitioners of your fighting 
  style—perhaps you even created a powerful style 
  of your own. Even the Sidereal Exalted speak your 
  name with respect. Anyone who studies under you 
  receives +1 bonus to his Face because of it.
  FAMILIAR (SEE EXALTED
  EXALTED, P. 112)
  Unless a heroic mortal has the power to channel and 
  commit Essence, he cannot recover additional Essence from 
  a familiar. Otherwise, this Background functions normally.
  FOLLOWERS (SEE EXALTED
  EXALTED, P. 112)
  This Background functions normally for heroic mortals 
  except that a heroic mortal character, lacking the personal 
  magnetism of an Exalt, must usually have either Backing, 
  
  32
  Influence or Resources at a level equal to her Followers rat-
  ing in order to maintain her followers’ loyalty. Extremely 
  charismatic mortals can overcome this requirement, however. 
  Compare the heroic mortal’s (Charisma + Performance) to 
  her (Followers x 2). For every point by which the former total 
  exceeds the latter, reduce the Backing/Influence/Resources 
  requirement by one, to a minimum of zero. For example, a 
  cult leader with Charisma 3, Performance 2 and Followers 2 
  would need Backing, Influence or Resources of only 1 instead 
  of 2 in order to justify her Followers rating.
  HENCHMEN (SEE THE MANUAL OF EXALTED 
  THE MANUAL OF EXALTED 
  POWER—THE DRAGON-BLOODED
  POWER—THE DRAGON-BLOODED, P. 110)
  The heroic mortal has several mortal followers who are 
  completely loyal to her and will obey her directions unless 
  betrayed or treated very badly indeed. A military commander 
  might consider his most ruthless adjutants as henchmen, while 
  a crime boss might view his top leg breakers the same way. 
  Generally, characters who possess henchmen use them for 
  activities that are seedy at best and often overtly criminal. All 
  REDUNDANT BACKGROUNDS
  At first glance, some Backgrounds seem to overlap needlessly. For example, the Allies, Command, Followers, 
  Henchmen and Retainers Backgrounds all basically provide the same benefit—people to aid the character in some 
  capacity. The distinction between these Backgrounds is a subtle one that turns mainly on what that support can be 
  called upon to do and how faithfully it will be provided.
  Allies are friends or at least close associates of the character. Usually, each dot in Allies represents a single person 
  of approximately the character’s own power level. While the player may create a more powerful ally by allocating 
  more dots to the Background, additional dots do not result in progressively higher numbers of allies, as would be the 
  case with other similar Backgrounds.
  Command provides for elite soldiers who will follow the character’s orders in the context of battle. Although 
  having a fighting force, if not an army, can be useful, it can also be expensive to maintain and potentially threat-
  ening to rivals. The personnel represented by this Background are always soldiers and have little non-combatant 
  utility. In fact, soldiers under the character’s command might actively disapprove of being ordered to perform tasks 
  inappropriate to military personnel. The character must have a Resources, Backing or Influence rating equal to his 
  Command +1 in order to have complete discretion in ordering his troops into battle. Otherwise, the character will 
  have to answer to superiors for unwise applications of military force.
  Followers provides a larger number of extras who are devoted to the character but who generally lack actual 
  fighting prowess and are never of quality equal to elite soldiers. They can do many things that soldiers under the 
  character’s command cannot, though, such as perform manual labor, spread the character’s reputation or simply 
  worship the character faithfully (performing the same role as cult members for mortals who cannot benefit from a 
  true Cult rating). At the lowest level, followers are little more than an entourage of hangers-on. At its highest level, 
  this Background might represent a small kingdom at least nominally loyal to the character.
  Henchmen are fewer in number in comparison to followers or a command, but each henchman is invariably 
  a heroic mortal and is more valuable individually than the typical soldier or follower. Henchmen are best used as a 
  personal gang, the crew of a ship or a private mercenary force on the character’s payroll. Henchmen remain loyal 
  unless events turn them against the character.
  Retainers provide the smallest numeric benefit of these Backgrounds, and each retainer is individually a non-
  heroic mortal or, at best, the equivalent of an elite soldier. Retainers are extremely loyal to the character, however, 
  and may be quite competent within a specific field. Retainers are best used as personal servants, household staff or 
  even slaves. There is no requirement that a character have Backing, Influence or Resources at any particular level 
  in order to justify having retainers, but if she has no dots in those Backgrounds, it is assumed that she has all of her 
  resources tied up in maintaining her own personal staff rather than simply tending to her own needs.
  henchmen are heroic mortals, although usually less powerful 
  than the character to whom they have sworn loyalty.
  Each henchman has an Intimacy of personal loyalty to 
  the character to whom she is sworn. While this Intimacy 
  can be degraded, it will never lessen solely because of any 
  personal distaste for the character’s actions or agenda.
  • 
  One loyal henchmen.
  •• 
  Three loyal henchmen.
  ••• 
  Six loyal henchmen.
  •••• 
  10 loyal henchmen.
  ••••• 15 loyal henchmen.
  INFLUENCE (SEE EXALTED
  EXALTED, PP. 112–113)
  This Background functions normally for heroic mortals.
  MANSE (SEE EXALTED
  EXALTED, P. 113)
  Unless a heroic mortal has the power to channel and 
  commit Essence, she gains no particular benefit from pos-
  sessing this Background and is most likely either a holy 
  
  33
  CHAPTER TWO • CHARACTER CREATION AND TRAITS
  person meditating in some ancient temple or a mere squat-
  ter occupying a decaying ruin until someone more powerful 
  comes along.
  MENTOR (SEE EXALTED
  EXALTED, P. 113)
  This Background functions normally for heroic mortals.
  RESOURCES (SEE EXALTED
  EXALTED, PP. 113–114)
  This Background functions normally for heroic mortals.
  RETAINERS (SEE THE MANUAL OF EXALTED 
  THE MANUAL OF EXALTED 
  POWER—THE DRAGON-BLOODED
  POWER—THE DRAGON-BLOODED, P. 111).
  The heroic mortal has a small number of servants. Al-
  though not combat ready like the soldiers provided through 
  Command or the lackeys provided by Henchmen, nor as 
  numerous as the throngs provided by Followers, the benefits 
  of the Retainers Background are still useful. Each dot provides 
  for a number of personal servants who can perform menial 
  tasks, provide personal service or operate businesses on the 
  character’s behalf.
  SIFU (SEE THE
  THE MANUAL OF EXALTED POWER—
  MANUAL OF EXALTED POWER—
  THE SIDEREALS
  THE SIDEREALS, P. 107)
  Prerequisites: Martial Arts 5, Essence 3
  Your character studies under a martial arts master who 
  can introduce him into the esoteric world of enlightened 
  martial arts. While many Sidereal Exalted also possess this 
  Background, the version available to heroic mortals is, 
  understandably, inferior. In order to gain any benefit from 
  having a sifu, the character must first be capable of learning 
  a Terrestrial martial arts style. That is, he must be capable 
  of wielding Essence, and he must have mastered the Root 
  of the Perfected Lotus.
  A heroic mortal is limited to Terrestrial martial arts 
  and can never learn Celestial martial arts, let alone Sidereal 
  ones, without achieving a higher state of being (whether 
  that involves becoming a god, akuma or Exalt). As with 
  the Sidereal version of Sifu, this Background provides the 
  character with an instructor who knows and can teach one 
  or more martial arts styles. With the mortal version, all of 
  these styles are assumed to be Terrestrial ones. Theoretically, 
  a heroic mortal’s sifu might know Celestial or even Sidereal 
  styles but would never be able to teach them to the charac-
  ter, or in most cases, even allow the character to know that 
  the sifu has knowledge of what might be termed forbidden 
  “Anathema styles.”
  • 
  Your character’s sifu knows one Terrestrial martial 
  arts style.
  •• 
  Your character’s sifu knows two Terrestrial martial 
  arts styles.
  ••• 
  Your character’s sifu knows three Terrestrial martial 
  arts styles.
  •••• Your character’s sifu knows five Terrestrial martial 
  arts styles.
  ••••• Your character’s sifu is unparalleled: he knows seven 
  Terrestrial martial arts styles.
  SPIES (SEE THE MANUAL OF EXALTED POWER—
  THE MANUAL OF EXALTED POWER—
  THE ABYSSALS
  THE ABYSSALS, P. 99; ALSO THE MANUAL OF 
  THE MANUAL OF 
  EXALTED POWER—THE INFERNALS
  EXALTED POWER—THE INFERNALS, P. 78)
  In a world where gods and demigods walk the lands, 
  mortals rarely get noticed. While regrettable in some ways, 
  this anonymity is valuable in others, for mighty Exalts and 
  powerful deities rarely pay attention to the mortals cowering 
  at their feet—and so, they rarely notice how closely some 
  of these mortals pay attention to them. A heroic mortal 
  with this Background can learn secrets uncovered by a web 
  of spies and informants. While the Contacts Background is 
  superior for the general acquisition of knowledge, the Spies 
  Background is better for ferreting out knowledge that has 
  been hidden.
  This Background represents the character’s access to 
  a spy network. The higher a character’s rating is, the wider 
  and more numerous are the areas where she knows the lo-
  cal agents and has authority to call on their services. Like 
  contacts, spies do not endanger themselves for a character’s 
  sake. They simply provide information and minor support 
  services such as a safe place to sleep and messages passed 
  back to the character’s employers.
  • 
  Your character knows how to contact and use a few 
  agents in a town or small kingdom.
  •• 
  Your character has access to a spy network in two 
  significant city-states in Creation.
  ••• 
  Your character can call upon spy networks in three 
  important nations or trans-national organizations 
  such as the Guild.
  •••• Your character exploits a spy network that expands 
  throughout an entire cardinal direction of Creation. 
  Anywhere she goes in that region, she can find 
  informants. (Naturally, this works best if it’s the 
  same region where the character usually acts.)
  ••••• Your character has complete access to a spy net-
  work spread across an entire cardinal direction in 
  Creation, including thousands of casual informants 
  and hundreds of full-time agents. The master’s eyes 
  are everywhere, and they tell her everything they 
  see. All she needs to do is ask.
  NEW BACKGROUNDS
  The following new Backgrounds are available for heroic 
  mortals.
  ESOTERIC KNOWLEDGE
  Prerequisites: Heroic mortals only. A character’s Esoteric 
  Knowledge Background may never exceed the lesser of her 
  Lore or Occult.
  The character is an experienced thaumaturge, a gifted 
  shaman, a wise monk or a wily scavenger lord. Regardless of 
  
  34
  the source of her acumen, she knows far more about forgot-
  ten lore than any mortal character has any right to. Such 
  forbidden knowledge often also carries a heavy price tag for 
  a character, though. Some characters patiently acquire it 
  through years or even decades of training and study. Others 
  take the quicker or more dangerous path of vision-questing 
  in the Wyld in pursuit of power gained through mutation. 
  Regardless, the practical effect of this Background is to increase 
  the maximum number of bonus points that can be obtained 
  through taking Flaws and/or negative mutations (which 
  together are normally capped at 10 bonus points).
  Each dot taken in Esoteric Knowledge allows the player 
  to gain up to five additional bonus points from Flaws and/or 
  negative mutations. The additional bonus points acquired 
  thus must be spent in one of the following areas: the Lore or 
  Occult Abilities, thaumaturgical Arts, Storyteller-approved 
  Supernatural Merits, positive mutations or improved Essence. 
  Generally, Flaws acquired as a result of years of academic study 
  or training will most often be associated with the effects of 
  age (most often, Physical Flaws), while positive mutations 
  should usually be paid for with negative mutations, but this is 
  not a hard-and-fast rule. As long as the Storyteller approves, 
  any Flaw or negative mutation may be used to represent the 
  cost of acquiring Esoteric Knowledge.
  LIBRARY
  Prerequisites: Lore 2 or higher
  Although printing is still widely practiced in the Age 
  of Sorrows, books are a precious commodity far out of reach 
  for most of the wretchedly poor underclass of Creation, even 
  assuming such drudges could read. In a time when most 
  mortals have never even seen a book, your character has a 
  significant collection of research materials to aid her studies. 
  Prized by savants of all types, a library is especially valuable 
  to a thaumaturge. On the downside, a full-sized library is 
  not simply something you can carry in your pocket. Your 
  character must have a Resources rating equal to (Library – 1) 
  in order to account for storage and maintenance of a person-
  ally owned library or Backing, Influence or Mentor equal 
  to (Library – 2) to account for a library owned by others to 
  which you have free access.
  • 
  Your character has a small stash of rare books cover-
  ing a wide variety of topics, albeit none in depth. 
  Add one die to all Lore rolls when your character 
  has an opportunity to research at the library.
  •• 
  Your character’s collection includes a number of 
  advanced tomes, including obscure (and possibly 
  illegal) texts pertaining to magic. Add one die to 
  Lore and Occult rolls when the character has time 
  to research.
  ••• 
  Your character’s library is quite large and impressive, 
  providing a comprehensive base for research into 
  many fields. Add two dice to Lore rolls and one to 
  Occult rolls. Your character no longer has to double 
  training time for self-taught improvement of Lore 
  or Occult.
  •••• Your character’s library is a match for the public 
  libraries of large cities or major Immaculate monas-
  teries. Add two dice to all Lore and Occult rolls.
  ••••• Your character’s library is the envy of scholars across 
  Creation and among the largest privately held col-
  lections in Creation. Add two dice to all Lore and 
  Occult rolls and one die to any other Ability roll 
  as long as the roll is based on research or study. 
  Additionally, the cost of increasing any trait of a 
  magical nature (Storyteller’s discretion) decreases 
  by one if the library is used during training.
  PATRON
  A mentor is a respected teacher who gives guidance 
  and assistance and expects little in return save for the 
  respect of a loyal and devoted student. Unfortunately, 
  mortal characters usually lack the obvious potential that 
  makes such a generous investment of time and resources 
  profitable… unless the character has something to give 
  in return, such as loyalty and obedience. A patron serves 
  many of the same functions as a mentor, but the charac-
  ter is under no illusions about the power disparity in the 
  relationship. While a mentor is usually a friend, albeit a 
  formidable one, a patron is more like an employer. Ex-
  amples of patrons include Dragon-Blooded and even gods 
  who need mortal servants for plausible deniability, crime 
  lords who require loyal henchmen or even cult leaders who 
  need worshipers. Having a patron provides slightly better 
  benefits than having a mentor, but the tradeoff is that a 
  patron demands more in exchange for her assistance and 
  isn’t shy about asking for it.
  Once per session, the player can convert the character’s 
  Patron rating into dots in any of the following Backgrounds 
  for a single long action: Allies, Backing, Command, Con-
  tacts, Followers, Henchmen, Influence, Mentor, Library, 
  Reputation, Resources or Spies. In game, this action takes 
  the form of simply asking one’s patron for a favor, and the 
  patron responding by putting some of her personal power 
  at your disposal. The patron cannot give what she doesn’t 
  have, though. When this Background is first acquired, the 
  player and Storyteller must determine who the patron is 
  and what Backgrounds she actually has, and Patron dots 
  cannot be converted into any Background rating higher 
  than what the patron actually possesses. For example, if the 
  patron has Command 3, then the character cannot make 
  use of more than three dots of Command, no matter what 
  his Patron rating is.
  Whenever the character calls upon his patron, the 
  patron has the right to ask for some suitable service in 
  return. Unlike a mentor, who will typically have at least 
  some sympathy for the character’s plight, a patron might be 
  ruthless in her demands, demanding cash or major favors 
  
  35
  CHAPTER TWO • CHARACTER CREATION AND TRAITS
  within an archetype adds nothing to the character other 
  than simply saying “this character is good at fighting” or 
  “this character prefers to think his way out of problems.” 
  Yet, each archetype also contains within it a number of 
  professions common to the Age of Sorrows. In order to 
  reasonably call herself a member of a given profession, 
  your character must meet certain criteria. If she does so, 
  her lifetime of experience within that field of endeavor 
  manifests itself with additional Ability dots appropriate to 
  the profession.
  Each profession has a number of Abilities associated 
  with it. If the character is eligible for a profession, she 
  gains one free dot in three of those Abilities. These free 
  dots are applied after Ability dots are allocated but before 
  bonus points are spent. A free profession Ability dot can 
  raise an Ability from 3 to 4 without the expenditure of 
  bonus points.
  The five most common archetypes are: warrior, priest, 
  savant, criminal and broker. In addition to a number of as-
  sociated professions, each archetype also identifies which 
  castes among the various Celestial Exalted are most closely 
  associated with it. These associations are tenuous—a mortal 
  is perfectly capable of Exalting into any caste, regardless of 
  who or what she was pre-Exaltation—but as a rule, warriors, 
  for example, are more likely to join the Dawn Caste than 
  the Twilight Caste.
  for her assistance. This does not necessarily mean that 
  the patron is evil or even criminal, though. An honest 
  town guard might become the patron of a street criminal, 
  demanding tips and insider information in exchange for 
  help in evading justice, regardless of how much danger the 
  criminal faces for being a snitch.
  • 
  Your character’s patron is a local figure of some 
  influence.
  •• 
  Your character’s patron is an important figure in 
  the city.
  ••• 
  Your character’s patron is one of the dominant 
  figures in the city, if not its ruler.
  •••• Your character’s patron has connections in nearby 
  cities or perhaps powerful influence in the Guild or 
  the Realm.
  ••••• Your character’s patron intrigues across an entire 
  region of Creation and has connections in every 
  major city therein.
  ARCHETYPES
  While Exalted allows for great diversity in character 
  design, as a general rule, most heroic mortals within the 
  setting fit into one of several fairly broad character concepts 
  referred to as archetypes. For the most part, simply fitting 
  
  36
  WARRIOR
  Violence and conflict rule the Age of Sorrows. Every nation has an army. Every city has a city guard. Gladiatorial 
  combat is one of the most popular viewing pleasures among the peoples of Creation, whether in the enormous arenas and 
  coliseums of the great cities or in pit fights staged by traveling carnivals in small towns. At the edges of Creation, barbar-
  ians pillage and murder, and everywhere, those who lead armies dream the dream of conquest.
  A warrior is a heroic mortal who lives and dies by his skill at arms. Warriors usually favor Physical Attributes and 
  are generally highly proficient with at least one form of personal combat and competent at several others. In addition to 
  combat Abilities, warriors often favor Athletics, Awareness, Dodge and War. 
  A high Valor is important, but high Compassion ratings are problematic for 
  characters who must often kill for a living.
  Associated Exalted Castes: Dawn Caste Solars, Dusk Caste Abyssals, 
  Slayer Caste Infernals, Sidereal Chosen of Battles or Chosen of Endings, 
  Full Moon Caste Lunars
  WARRIOR PROFESSIONS
  GLADIATOR
  The gladiator fights for sport and profit. Gladiatorial combat is com-
  mon across Creation, and nearly every major city has at least one arena 
  or coliseum devoted primarily to the games. Betting is legal and highly 
  lucrative, especially in areas where the games are a Guild operation. Con-
  sequently, a proficient gladiator is a highly valuable commodity. Most 
  gladiators start off as slaves bought outright for training in gladiatorial 
  schools, but free men and women often volunteer for training in such 
  schools in hopes of making their fortune. Generally, even slaves receive 
  a prize for each win, and exceptional fighters can often make enough 
  to buy their own freedom. A free gladiator is on the road to fame and 
  wealth… for as long as he survives, anyway. With freedom comes the 
  power to manage one’s own career, to travel to other arenas and even 
  to high-purse competitions, and to leverage one’s fame and crowd 
  appeal for personal profit.
  Most gladiatorial fights involve close range combat, either 
  barehanded or armed with a melee weapon—most commonly, a 
  short sword, lance or trident. Gladiators are accustomed to fighting 
  with minimal armor. Although most fights are one-on-one, the 
  best gladiators are prepared for anything. Many arenas also hold 
  chariot races, and for some of the more jaded crowds, promoters 
  pit gladiators against wild animals. A top gladiator might even be 
  called upon to face a Wyld barbarian or even some horrific Wyld 
  mutated beast.
  Although most gladiators exist within the gladiatorial system, 
  the requirements and benefits of this profession might also apply 
  to character concepts such as “martial arts sifu,” “traveling circus 
  pit fighter” or “professional duelist.” The defining characteristic 
  is that the character fights professionally in front of an audience, 
  usually with a fair bit of showmanship brought to the battle.
  Minimum Requirements: Either Martial Arts or Melee must be a 
  Favored Ability. The gladiator must have Martial Arts 2 and Melee 
  2, and she must have a specialty in one of them.
  Profession Abilities: Choose three from Athletics, Martial Arts, 
  Melee, Performance and Ride.
  GUARD
  A guard is either a law-enforcement officer for a town or city, 
  a security officer for the estate of some person of importance or the 
  traveling bodyguard for a noble or some other wealthy individual. Law 
  
  37
  CHAPTER TWO • CHARACTER CREATION AND TRAITS
  enforcement is incredibly varied across Creation. In small 
  towns, the locals might elect one of their number to serve as 
  sheriff, who would then hire deputies to assist him. Sheriffs 
  and deputies might also be appointed by local landowners 
  to police their domains. In cities across Creation, the ruling 
  governments generally establish local police forces of varying 
  degrees of quality. City guards on the Blessed Isle, for example, 
  are usually highly trained graduates of law-enforcement pro-
  grams and are often respected ex-military, while the guards 
  in Chiaroscuro are little more than armed thugs to whom 
  the Tri-Khan has granted law-enforcement powers. Nexus 
  has no established police force and instead contracts with 
  local mercenary companies to provide law enforcement (to 
  the extent it exists at all in Nexus). In most civilized areas, 
  a guard is expected to not only be proficient with basic com-
  bat, but to also understand the legal structure of the society 
  that granted her authority. Whether that expectation is met 
  varies from place to place.
  Private guards are usually ex-mercenaries or former 
  criminals who have found a legal channel for their violence. 
  Such guards often serve as henchmen for other characters 
  and use their status and position to advance the interests of 
  their patrons. Some private guards serve on security details 
  for private estates, while others are hired as night watchmen 
  for properties likely to be the target of burglary or other 
  crimes. Still other private guards act as personal bodyguards 
  for wealthy patrons. Private guards can have nearly any sort 
  of combat training but are expected to be able to both defend 
  themselves and those in their charge.
  Minimum Requirements: Backing 1, Influence 1 (or Patron 
  2 in the case of private guards), Melee 2
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Awareness, Dodge, 
  Investigation, Melee and Presence.
  SOLDIER
  A soldier is a warrior trained in the art of military com-
  bat. Some soldiers are highly decorated officers known for 
  their personal honor and brilliant grasp of strategy. Others 
  are lowly grunts who barely know how to swing a sword and 
  care only about where to swing it and who is paying them 
  to do so. Some soldiers are graduates of military academies 
  across Creation, while others are unlettered barbarians 
  who learned everything they know about combat from just 
  surviving it. Some are patriots who joined the military to 
  serve their nations, while others are mercenaries who fight 
  for whoever pays them the most.
  Soldiers are usually trained in a wide variety of combat 
  techniques, as well as in basic military strategy. A good soldier 
  is proficient with several weapons, although he often favors 
  one fighting style above others. Most of Creation’s soldiers 
  are infantry, but any competent soldier will have a basic 
  grasp of mounted combat.
  Minimum Requirements: Backing 1 or Patron 1. One of 
  the following must be a Favored Ability: Archery, Melee 
  or War.
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Archery, Martial 
  Arts, Melee, Ride and War. For a nautical game, the Story-
  teller may allow the substitution of Sail for Ride.
  THUG
  Some warriors fight for justice and honor. The thug 
  does not. Brutal, efficient and loyal only to himself, the 
  thug is most commonly the henchman of a more power-
  ful character, usually one with a criminal background. 
  This is not always the case, however, and some thugs 
  work as freelance leg breakers. Warriors in the employ 
  of the Guild are usually thugs, as that organization has 
  no interest in formal military training. Most thugs fight 
  with their fists, but some favor a quick knife in the back. 
  But while the typical thug is only hired muscle, heroic 
  mortal thugs have the potential for more, whether through 
  a destiny that cannot be ignored or even the possibility 
  of future Exaltation.
  No particular training is needed to become a thug. Those 
  who would employ such brutes are always on the lookout for 
  someone who seems to have more muscle than brains and 
  who will do what he’s told in exchange for some quick cash. 
  Of course, not all thugs are stupid. Many are quite clever but 
  have learned to conceal their street smarts from those who 
  want their muscle seen but not heard.
  Minimum Requirements: Backing 1 or Patron 1. Strength 3, 
  Stamina 3, Martial Arts 1
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Athletics, Dodge, 
  Larceny, Martial Arts and Melee.
  WARLORD
  While many warriors know how to fight in battle, only 
  a few know how to command during one. The warlord is 
  not just a warrior, she is a leader. Whether a grizzled mer-
  cenary barking orders, a cutthroat barbarian rampaging 
  across the countryside or an experienced general laying out 
  elegant battlefield stratagems, the warlord understands not 
  just fighting but war itself. The warlord is a fairly general 
  category that covers every character concept built around 
  a military leader devoted to conquest who excels at com-
  manding military units.
  Most warlords have considerable military experience 
  and acumen. The War Ability is a requirement, as is pro-
  ficiency with at least one combat Ability. Training in the 
  War Ability need not be formal, however. Many mercenar-
  ies and barbarian chieftains learned the art of war the hard 
  way, by surviving in battle long enough to figure out what 
  works and what doesn’t. Warlords usually define themselves 
  by the quality of troops at their disposal, and a warlord who 
  doesn’t have a high rating in Command will seek to acquire 
  one as soon as possible.
  Minimum Requirements: War 2+. Command 2+ or a Back-
  ground that can be converted into Command
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Bureaucracy, 
  Melee, Presence, Survival and War.
  
  38
  PRIEST
  As a character archetype, the term “priest” refers to any religious figure who acts as an intermediary between the divine 
  (which may include fallen “gods” such as the Yozi and the Neverborn or even Exalts or ghosts) and mortal society. Religion 
  plays a powerful role in nearly every society in Creation. Indeed, atheism is virtually impossible due to the obvious role the 
  gods play in nearly every aspect of Creation-born life. Many gods openly operate among mortals and even rule over them. 
  In such an environment, how can priests not play a vital role?
  The nature of priesthood, however, varies from individual to individual. Shamanism of one sort or another is com-
  mon at the fringes of Creation, especially among barbarian tribes and among ancestor cults. In more urban areas, religion 
  takes on a more dignified and structured tone, as dogma and tradition establish the rites of worship instead of the more 
  improvisational spirit diplomacy practiced by shamans.
  Priests almost always favor Social Attributes as befits one who must speak on behalf of deities, but a few favor Physi-
  cal or Mental Attributes instead. Presence and Performance are valuable for sermonizing, and of course, prayer invariably 
  involves a (Charisma + Performance) roll. Some priests also favor Occult and Lore in order to gain insight into the nature 
  of the beings they serve. More than a few develop high ratings in Survival, as many deities 
  require their priests to purify themselves by long sojourns in desolate places. Conviction 
  is highly prized among priests who seek to show their devotion to their masters, while 
  Temperance allows a priest to better resist temptation.
  Associated Exalted Castes: Zenith Caste Solars, Midnight Caste Abyssals, Malefac-
  tor Caste Infernals, Sidereals from any caste but especially the Chosen of Serenity, 
  Changing Moon Caste Lunars
  PRIEST PROFESSIONS
  HERMIT
  A hermit is a priest who eschews mortal society and the temptations of mortal 
  life in favor of an ascetic existence. Hermits differ from monks in that the latter seek 
  enlightenment by withdrawing from Creation into a closed society of peers. A hermit 
  seeks enlightenment alone, eschewing even the company of other like-minded religion-
  ists. Often irascible to the point of misanthropy, a hermit rejects every creature comfort 
  associated with mortal society and, if forced to enter mortal society, will often be either 
  befuddled by societal mores or enraged by them. Most hermits live in isolation until 
  destiny—often in the form of the hermit’s deity exercising her will—draws the hermit 
  forth to pursue some quest.
  Survival is the most important trait for a hermit, as most hermits live in isolated and 
  often barren places. As with most priests, Performance is valuable both to perform prayers and 
  to exhort a crowd to embrace the hermit’s religious views. Many hermits also pursue martial 
  arts training in the quest for enlightenment, and more than a few possess a high rating in 
  Lore or Occult acquired through years of communing with the gods in isolation.
  Minimum Requirements: Stamina 3, Performance 1, Survival 2. A hermit may not begin 
  with any dots in the Socialize Ability.
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Lore, Martial Arts, Performance, Resistance 
  and Survival.
  HIEROPHANT
  A hierophant is a priest who leads mortal congregations in worship and who sees to 
  it that the sacred mysteries of the religion are reserved for those who truly deserve to hear 
  them. Every religion possessed of any inherent structure has hierophants who make the 
  preliminary gospels of the religion available to the larger congregation while overseeing 
  the initiation of true believers into the deeper mysteries. Among the Immaculate Order, 
  hierophants are represented among the Order’s leadership who determine when and how 
  the various gods may be worshiped and who oversee the training of younger postulants. 
  Among the priesthood of the New Order in the Skullstone Archipelago, the hierophants 
  are those mortals who search the people of Skullstone for heretics and non-believers. 
  Among the Houses of the Bull God in Kirighast, the hierophants are those who oversee 
  induction into the Brides of Ahlat and who prepare for the coming revolution against the 
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  39
  CHAPTER TWO • CHARACTER CREATION AND TRAITS
  Dragon-Blooded. While few of these religious leaders would 
  actually call themselves hierophants, the term is properly 
  applied to any heroic mortal who combines the role of priest 
  with that of organizational leader.
  Presence and Performance are vitally important for a 
  hierophant, as the ability to lead is the hierophant’s chief 
  duty. Integrity is prized among them, for it determines the 
  hierophant’s loyalty to her deity’s goals in the event of capture. 
  Most hierophants oversee large congregations and/or cults, 
  so Bureaucracy and Occult are also necessary.
  Minimum Requirements: Backing (religion) 2 or Influence 
  (religion) 2. Performance 2, Presence 2
  Profession Abilities: Choose three from Bureaucracy, In-
  tegrity, Performance, Presence and Socialize.
  MENDICANT
  A mendicant is a wandering priest. In many ways, the 
  mendicant is similar to the hermit, in that both are divorced 
  from the larger organizational structure of their respective 
  religions. The mendicant does not reject mortal society, 
  however, but embraces it. She wanders the highways and 
  byways of Creation, preaching the gospel of her religion, 
  enduring the scorn and intolerance of those who follow 
  different ways and helping those who cross her path as best 
  she can. A significant number of Immaculate priests (and 
  especially mortal Immaculates) lead the life of a mendicant, 
  wandering the Threshold acting as the eyes, ears and fists 
  of the Order.
  Mendicants usually have high Survival ratings, a result 
  of years spent on the road. Many are trained in Martial Arts 
  for self-defense, and knowledge of Medicine is common, as 
  some mendicants function as traveling healers as well as 
  priests. Mendicants most commonly take vows of poverty 
  and rely on the support of their order and the kindness of 
  strangers to survive.
  Minimum Requirements: Integrity 2, Medicine 1, Survival 2. 
  No mendicant may begin play with any dots in Resources.
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Integrity, Martial 
  Arts, Medicine, Resistance and Survival.
  MONK
  A monk is a priest who withdraws from society not into 
  seclusion like the hermit, but into a cloister of like-minded 
  religionists. The most famous example of the monk is, of 
  course, the Immaculate monk, but many other religions in 
  Creation make use of the monastic lifestyle in order to help 
  their priests pursue enlightenment. Many worshipers of the 
  Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible are monks, and the 
  Brides of Ahlat also represent a form of monastic existence. 
  In addition, a monastery devoted to the Shining Lord still 
  stands in An-Teng.
  Monks lead austere lives devoted to worship and the 
  quest for personal enlightenment. Many pursue advanced 
  studies in Martial Arts. Integrity is prized, as the rejection 
  of temptation is essential to the monastic life. Most monks 
  are also highly learned, and Lore and Occult studies are 
  also common.
  Minimum Requirements: Backing (religion) 1, Integrity 
  2, Martial Arts 1
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Integrity, Lore, 
  Martial Arts, Occult and Resistance.
  SHAMAN
  Most commonly found at the fringes of society among 
  barbarian cultures, the shaman is a priest who negotiates 
  pacts between mortal worshipers and those gods and el-
  ementals who exist outside the structured framework of the 
  Immaculate Order. Shamans see to it that local gods are 
  appeased and cajoled into blessing local societies. They also 
  act as lawgivers and judges for such primitive societies, and 
  in some cultures, the shaman also acts as village elder and 
  leader. Among ancestor cults, shamans also propitiate the 
  spirits of the dead and see to it that ancestors are properly 
  worshiped and obeyed.
  Most shamans are wise to the ways of the spirit worlds 
  but are also attuned to the physical world and able to survive 
  in its harshest environments. Performance is important for 
  prayer, while Occult and Lore are needed to understand the 
  strange ways of the little gods. Some shamans also function 
  as village healers in their communities and frequently as 
  arbiters, judges and lawgivers as well.
  Minimum Requirements: Charisma 3, Lore 1, Occult 1, 
  Performance 1, Survival 1
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Lore, Medicine, 
  Occult, Performance and Survival.
  
  40
  SAVANT
  The archetypal savant is a heroic mortal whose goal is the acquisition of knowledge and understanding, whether for 
  his own enlightenment or in pursuit of personal power. In general, a savant is simply any person of learning who may be 
  consulted for information about some arcane topic. As a practical matter, the only requirement to being a savant is simply 
  having a significantly higher level of education and knowledge than those around you. A savant may be privately employed 
  as a physician, a scribe or as a freelance scholar. Many savants in the Threshold become scavenger 
  lords, achieving great wealth and power through their explorations of lost cities and forgotten tombs. 
  One might also serve on the staff of some wealthy personage or even a national government, as in 
  the case of military thaumaturges. A few might even be slaves working as tutors or scribes or simply 
  shackled to forges or drafting tables.
  Savants almost always favor Mental Attributes. Either Social or Physical Attributes might be sec-
  ondary, depending on whether the savant must engage in some degree of diplomacy and salesmanship 
  in her work or is instead an adventurous scavenger lord who must overcome deadly dangers in 
  the pursuit of forgotten knowledge and lost treasure. Lore and Occult are prized among 
  savants. Sedentary savants also favor Bureaucracy, Linguistics or Medicine, depending 
  on their specific job titles, while scavenger lords prefer Athletics and Survival to 
  aid in their long expeditions. As an archetype, savants neither favor nor disfavor 
  any particular Virtues. The Esoteric Knowledge Background is both common 
  and favored among savants. Most savants respect age as long as it is accompanied 
  by wisdom and experience.
  Associated Exalted Castes: Twilight Caste Solars, Daybreak Caste Abyssals, 
  Defiler Caste Infernals, Sidereal Chosen of Journeys or of Secrets, No Moon 
  Caste Lunars
  SAVANT PROFESSIONS
  CRAFTMASON
  Craftmason is a blanket term for a savant 
  whose area of expertise is in designing and 
  making things, whether as the 
  chief architect for a great 
  metropolis or as a lowly 
  blacksmith in a one-
  horse town. Most of 
  Creation’s militaries have combat engineers who oversee the 
  construction of barricades and siege engines, as well as the 
  maintenance of siege weapons and even minor artifacts. Look-
  shy and the Realm, in particular, train mortal craftmasons to 
  maintain warstriders (although major repairs for such artifacts often 
  require Exalted skill). Other major powers call upon the services of 
  architects and engineers to oversee the construction of new build-
  ing projects or to preserve or repurpose fallen wonders from the 
  First Age. In Chiaroscuro, for example, craftmasons oversee the 
  careful excavation of razor-sharp adamant fragments from the 
  fallen areas of the city, fragments that are then used to make 
  adamant weapons and armor. But even a solitary blacksmith 
  or carpenter in a tiny hamlet still has the potential to be a 
  heroic mortal and the chance to use his skills in the pursuit 
  of greatness.
  Craft is the defining Ability of the craftmason, 
  regardless of what specific form that Ability takes. 
  Lore is valuable, as is Bureaucracy for those craftmasons 
  who are self-employed or who work for governmental entities. In the 
  Age of Sorrows, craftwork is often a highly physical activity, and 
  the ability to swing a hammer often allows for a fair bit of Melee. 
  40
  as a physician, a scribe or as a freelance scholar. Many savants in the Threshol
  lords, achieving great wealth and power through their explorations of lost cities a
  One might also serve on the staff of some wealthy personage or even a nationa
  the case of military tthaumaturges. A few might even be slaves working as tutors
  shackled to forges or drafting tables.
  Savants almost always favor Mental Attributes. Either Social or Physical Attr
  ondary, depending on whether the savant must engage in some degree of diploma
  in her work or is instead an adventurous scavenger lord who must overcom
  the pursuit of forgotten knowledge and lost treasure. Lore and Occu
  savants. Sedentary savants also favor Bureaucracy, Linguistics or M
  on their specific job titles, while scavenger lords prefer Athl
  aid in their long expeditions. As an archetype, savants neith
  any particular Virtuues. The Esoteric Knowledge Backgrou
  and favored among savants. Most savaant
  n s respect age as long
  by wisdom and experience.
  Associated Exalted Castes: Twilight Caste Solars, Daybr
  Defiler Caste Infernals, Sidereal Chosen of Joourneys or o
  Caste Lunars
  SAVANT PROFESSIONS
  CRAFTMASON
  Craftmason is a blan
  whose area of expertis
  making thin
  chief a
  m
  b
  h
  Creation’s militaries have combat enginee
  construction of barricades and siege eng
  maintenance of siege weapons and even m
  shy and the Realm, in particular, train m
  maintain warstriders (although major repairs for
  require Exalted skill). Other major powers call 
  architec
  e ts and engineers to oversee the constr
  ing projects or to preserve or repurpose falle
  First Age. In Chiaroscuro, for example, craf
  careful excavation of razor-shara p adaman
  fallen areas of the city, fragments that are
  adamant weapons and armor. But even a
  or carpenter in a tiny
  n  hammlet still has t
  heroic mortal and the chance to use hi
  of greatness.
  Craft is the defining Ability
  regardless of what specific form
  Lore is valuable, as is Bureaucracy 
  who are self-employed or who work for governm
  Age of Sorrows, craftwork is often
  e  a highly p
  the ability to swing a hammer often allows ff
  
  41
  CHAPTER TWO • CHARACTER CREATION AND TRAITS
  Combat engineers often have formal training in Melee, as 
  well as War.
  Minimum Requirements: Craft (any) 3, plus Craft as a 
  Favored Ability
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Bureaucracy, 
  Craft, Lore, Melee and War.
  PHYSICIAN
  Compared to the First Age, a time when disease was 
  almost eradicated and a state-of-the-art hospital could be 
  found in every major city, medicine in the Second Age 
  is inadequate, bordering on nonexistent. In cities where 
  healthcare systems have had some measure of continuity from 
  the First Age, basic surgical techniques and disease-treating 
  remedies are still available, but the miracle cures of the First 
  Age are only the stuff of legend. In rural areas, healing is 
  the role of the village wise woman or the local shaman and 
  rarely consists of more than home remedies, some of which 
  work and some of which are quackery.
  Naturally, the physician favors Medicine, and many also 
  have high levels of Lore in order to research ancient medical 
  texts. Investigation can help in forming a diagnosis, while Oc-
  cult helps in identifying maladies with a supernatural origin. 
  Many physicians hold positions of status in their communities, 
  and their pronouncements as to what must be done to preserve 
  public health are often reinforced by a high Socialize rating.
  Minimum Requirements: Intelligence 3, Medicine 3 (plus 
  Medicine as a Favored Ability)
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Investigation, 
  Lore, Medicine, Occult and Socialize.
  SCAVENGER LORD
  Part archeologist and explorer, part tomb raider and thief, 
  the scavenger lord wanders Creation seeking his fortune among 
  the ruins and detritus of the First Age. So many wonders are 
  still out there, just waiting to be discovered by anyone with 
  the wit and courage to find them. Unfortunately, too many 
  of these wonders never see the light of day again, protected 
  as they are by ancient traps and bizarre occult defenders. The 
  risks of life as a scavenger lord are high, but even the simplest 
  artifacts are worth a king’s ransom, more than enough to make 
  it worth his while… if he survives to bring his booty home.
  Born survivors, most scavenger lords have eclectic skill 
  sets. Lore and Occult are necessary to lead the scavenger lord to 
  the hidden treasures he seeks. Survival, Larceny and Athletics 
  allow him to penetrate ancient defenses and overcome deadly 
  traps in order to bring that treasure home again. Although it is 
  not a professional Ability, many scavenger lords also have high 
  levels of Craft, which is useful in either repairing or repurpos-
  ing damaged or destroyed artifacts. While it is not required, a 
  high Valor rating is often helpful, given the many frightening 
  encounters the scavenger lord must face in the field.
  Minimum Requirements: Wits 3, Lore 2, Occult 2. The 
  scavenger lord must have at least one specialty in Lore or 
  Occult pertaining to the First Age.
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Athletics, Larceny, 
  Lore, Occult and Survival.
  SCHOLAR
  Men of letters and women of learning, scholars function 
  as teachers, scribes, secretaries and seneschals. Many scholars 
  work directly for wealthy patrons as tutors for children or as 
  personal secretaries. Others are contract employees hired to 
  run businesses on behalf of the owners. Some scholars are 
  slaves, but usually trusted and prized slaves who often hold 
  positions of authority even over free persons in their masters’ 
  employ. Regardless of an individual scholar’s circumstances, 
  as a profession, a scholar is simply a highly educated person 
  whose employment is derived from his superior knowledge 
  and training within a particular field of intellectual endeavor. 
  Unlike craftmasons, who actually have to build things, 
  scholars are paid simply to know things.
  The key to success for a scholar is a high Lore rating, which 
  translates into a broad academic background. Linguistics is 
  also favored heavily, while Bureaucracy and Investigation are 
  essential for scholars who play any role in the running of a 
  business. Many scholars also dabble in thaumaturgy and add 
  Occult to their repository of knowledge. Naturally, Mental 
  Attributes are almost always primary, but scholars neither 
  favor nor disfavor any Virtue.
  Minimum Requirements: Intelligence 3, Lore 3 (Lore must 
  be a Favored Ability)
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Bureaucracy, 
  Investigation, Linguistics, Lore and Occult.
  THAUMATURGE
  The vast majority of Creation’s people will never see true 
  sorcery performed. Exalted are too rare, and sorcery is too arduous 
  and difficult to learn for those Exalted who do exist. Therefore, 
  when most people think of “magic,” they think of thaumaturges, 
  men and women who have mastered the art and practice of 
  thaumaturgy. Respected but often feared, thaumaturges study 
  forgotten lore and secret occult rituals. They can summon 
  demons, exorcise ghosts and spirits, enchant objects and read 
  the stars. In Lookshy and the Realm, thaumaturges play a vital 
  role in military exercises due to the importance of thaumatur-
  gical rituals in maintaining artifact weaponry. In Skullstone, 
  thaumaturges work alongside God-Blooded necromancers to 
  maintain the death magics that allow their ghoulish nation to 
  flourish. In the South, thaumaturge astrologers form the basis 
  of Varangia’s entire society by casting the birth horoscopes 
  that will determine each citizen’s caste and destiny.
  Thaumaturges almost always make Mental Attributes 
  primary and favor a high Intelligence. Occult is essential, 
  and Lore almost as much. Integrity allows the thaumaturge 
  to resist the temptations of the demons she summons, while 
  Presence allows her to treat with gods and spirits with civil-
  ity. Craft is useful in setting up the arcane components of 
  thaumaturgical rituals.
  Minimum Requirements: Intelligence 3, Occult 3 (Occult must 
  be a Favored Ability), at least one Art at the Initiate level
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Craft, Integrity, 
  Lore, Occult and Presence.
  
  42
  CRIMINAL
  In the Age of Sorrows, crime is a regrettable fact of life. Of course, it 
  was also a fact of life even in the idealized First Age, but back then, even 
  organized crime was, for the most part, run by Solar Exalts who saw criminal 
  enterprise as just one more tool for social control. While a life of crime is 
  an unsavory one rarely consistent with the usual 
  definition of “hero,” many criminals are nev-
  ertheless heroic mortals. As an archetype, 
  the word “criminal” does not refer 
  specifically to those convicted of 
  criminal acts or even those 
  who have committed 
  criminal acts. Rather, 
  a criminal is one who 
  lives his life in Creation’s seamy underbelly, rejecting societal norms and 
  conventional notions of moral behavior. One might be a dashing rogue 
  who steals from the rich to feed poor orphans. Another might be a 
  ruthless assassin feared across Creation. Still another might simply 
  be an itinerant gambler who rarely engages in crime himself but 
  is perfectly comfortable being around those who do.
  Heroic mortal criminals typically focus on those Abilities 
  that are most useful to a career criminal—Larceny, Stealth and 
  Athletics. Criminals who favor violent crime typically favor Physi-
  cal Attributes and one or more combat Abilities. Con artists and 
  gamblers prefer Social Attributes and Abilities such as Presence, 
  Performance and Socialize, which facilitate the manipulation of 
  others. Generally, the criminal lifestyle does not require a high degree of education, so Intelligence is not particularly 
  favored, but Wits and Perception are invaluable, and some criminals might have Mental Attributes as primary. Virtues 
  are flexible, but it is an unusual criminal who has a high Temperance. Most career criminals are creatures of impulse, after 
  all. Among violent criminals, Compassion is usually just as rare.
  Associated Exalted Castes: Night Caste Solars, Day Caste Abyssals, Scourge Caste Infernals, Sidereal Chosen of Journeys 
  or of Endings, Changing Moon Caste Lunars
  CRIMINAL PROFESSIONS
  ASSASSIN
  In this Time of Tumult, it is sadly common to find people willing to kill for money and even more common to find 
  people willing to pay for another person’s death. Assassins are trained in the arts of stealth combat. Some are associated 
  with death cults, notably the Salmalin. Most assassins, however, are self-taught individuals who have discovered that they 
  have a flair for the art of killing. That art can rescue a young assassin from a life of poverty and deliver her to one of wealth 
  and power—if she’s willing to harden her heart to what she does for a living.
  Assassins invariably favor Athletics, Stealth and at least one combat Ability. It is a rare assassin who limits herself to 
  one weapon, however. Thrown and Melee are the most common, depending on whether the assassin prefers shuriken and 
  throwing knives over a quick dagger to the throat. Many also favor Medicine, often taking a specialty in poisons. Although 
  most assassins favor Physical Attributes, some of the deadliest make Mental Attributes primary instead, relying on obscure 
  poisons or elaborate death traps designed to make their kills look like accidents. The very best might even possess dots in 
  the Face Background as their reputation spreads with each new kill.
  Minimum Requirements: Athletics 2, Stealth 2, Melee 2 or Thrown 2. An assassin may not begin with a Compassion 
  higher than 2.
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Athletics, Medicine, Melee, Stealth and Thrown
  GAMBLER
  It is not actually necessary for a gambler to be a criminal, but it is inevitable that a gambler will travel in criminal 
  circles, given the type of people who typically run casinos and gambling rings in the Age of Sorrows. Creation is full of 
  people who want to get rich quick and have little to no understanding of the rules of probability. Such people are the prey 
  of the gambler. Nearly every major city will have at least one casino and innumerable back alley dice and card games. 
  orrows, crime is a regrettable fact of life. Of course, it 
   even in the idealized First Age, but back then, even
  for the most part, run by Solar Exalts who saw criminal
  e more tool for social control. While a life of crime is
  ely consistent with the usual
  many criminals are nev-
  tals. As an archetype,
  does not refer
  onvicted of
  those 
  ted
  on’s seamy underbelly, rejecting societal norms and
  s of moral behavior. One might be a dashing rogue
  rich to feed poor orphans. Another might be a
  ed across Creation. Still another might simply
  ler who rarely engages in crime himself but
  ble being around those who do.
  riminals typically focus on those Abilities
  to a career criminal—Larceny, Stealth and
  who favor violent crime typically favor Physi-
  ne or more combat Abilities. Con artists and
  al Attributes and Abilities such as Presence,
  cialize, which facilitate the manipulation of 
  he criminal lifestyle does not require a high degree of education, so Intelligence is not particularly
  
  43
  CHAPTER TWO • CHARACTER CREATION AND TRAITS
  The skill of the gambler is to move in such circles and win 
  consistently without arousing the wrath of the losers.
  Gamblers usually favor Social Attributes, but Perception 
  and Wits are both valuable. Larceny is the Ability used for 
  most gambling rolls, especially to cheat. Performance allows 
  for cool bluffs, while Awareness lets a gambler spot the de-
  ception of others. The best gamblers have the Luck Merit, 
  which can turn a 50-50 coin toss into a sure thing. Success-
  ful gamblers may have high Resources but know that such 
  advantages can be lost with the next spin of the wheel.
  Minimum Requirements: Larceny 2 (Larceny must be a 
  Favored Ability). The character must have a specialty in at 
  least one form of gambling.
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Awareness, Dodge, 
  Larceny, Performance and Presence
  MASTER THIEF
  As long as the human race exists, someone will desire 
  what another possesses, and if he cannot steal it away on his 
  own, he will hire someone else to do it. Thieves are ubiqui-
  tous in the Age of Sorrows, but truly great thieves are a rare 
  breed. A master thief is one with almost superhuman stealth 
  and dexterity, as well as an up-to-date knowledge of most 
  contemporary security measures. The very best are also highly 
  intelligent and usually knowledgeable about even First Age 
  traps and defenses, the better to pluck treasures right from a 
  Dragon-Blood’s nest. Some are members (or even heads) of 
  local thieves’ guilds that provide assistance to burglars and 
  pickpockets alike in exchange for a generous commission. 
  Others run solo, stealing what they wish on behalf of a wealthy 
  benefactor or simply for their own amusement.
  Master thieves are smarter than the typical criminal and 
  usually favor Mental Attributes. Physical is usually second-
  ary, with Dexterity heavily favored, but some thieves rely 
  on Social Attributes and trickery to get them close to the 
  treasure they seek. Larceny is, naturally, a required Ability, 
  with Athletics and Stealth also essential. Master thieves most 
  often favor Conviction but rarely emphasize any Virtue to 
  an exceptional degree. A high Valor is often a negative, as 
  the wise thief knows when to run and hide. Some master 
  thieves possess the Face Background, which represents the 
  characters’ reputation among the criminal classes.
  Minimum Requirements: Larceny 3 (Larceny must be a 
  Favored Ability). The character must have at least one 
  specialty related to theft.
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Athletics, Aware-
  ness, Larceny, Presence and Stealth.
  RACKETEER
  A racketeer is a member of an organized criminal (or 
  quasi-criminal) enterprise. Many would consider operatives of 
  the Guild to be racketeers, especially in those locales where 
  its drug dealing, slave trading and other less savory activities 
  are openly practiced. Outside the Guild, racketeers often 
  work for local criminal syndicates or as trusted fixers for 
  powerful businessmen or nobles. Smuggling, loan-sharking, 
  blackmail, prostitution, assassination—if there is money 
  to be made from it, a racketeer will figure out how to get 
  a percentage.
  Within the Guild, racketeers often operate as the 
  public legal face of Guild activities while simultaneously 
  running its illegal activities and also concealing them from 
  local law enforcement. Such operatives are masters of social 
  manipulation and political intrigue. Their agenda is simple: 
  maximize profits, by any means necessary. Other racketeers 
  function in capacities ranging from lowly pimps to the heads 
  of international assassination societies.
  Racketeers constitute a diverse lot. Those who favor 
  Physical Attributes and Abilities are most often leg breakers 
  and hired muscle, not unlike common thugs (although usually 
  with more ambition and cunning than the typical member 
  of that profession). Those who favor Social Attributes use 
  diplomacy to insinuate themselves and their co-conspirators 
  into the good graces of local governments and persons 
  of influence. Those who favor Mental Attributes are the 
  crime lords and masterminds who direct the functioning of 
  these illegal organizations. The one common feature among 
  racketeers is that they all work either with or for others. The 
  racketeer never works alone, but instead carries either the 
  backing of some larger organization, the patronage of some 
  powerful crime figure or the support of a group of followers 
  willing to affect his schemes.
  Minimum Requirements: Backing 2, Followers 2 or Patron 2. 
  Larceny 2. A racketeer may not begin with a Compassion 
  above 2.
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Awareness, Bu-
  reaucracy, Larceny, Presence and Socialize.
  SCAM ARTIST
  There is a saying that goes, “A tree cannot help but 
  surrender its leaves.” To a scam artist, those are words to 
  live by. Scam artists are criminals who rely on trickery and 
  misdirection rather than either brute force or artful robbery 
  in liberating cash from their chosen victims. Minor scam 
  artists run games of “follow the Empress” on street corners 
  or run simple, basic con jobs on tourists. Luminaries of the 
  profession run elaborate, high-risk cons on the wealthy and 
  powerful, and a few have even dared to cheat the Dragon-
  Blooded, though even fewer live to tell the tale.
  For scam artists, a high Manipulation is essential, while 
  Charisma and Appearance are highly valuable. Mental 
  Attributes are also prized, while Physical Attributes are 
  usually necessary only when a con goes sour. Performance 
  and Presence are the chief Abilities of the scam artist, but 
  Larceny and Socialize play valuable rolls. The wise scam 
  artist also develops her Dodge Ability. Eventually, someone
  will try to hit her.
  Minimum Requirements: Manipulation 3, Performance 2, 
  Presence 2, a specialty related to lying or trickery
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Dodge, Larceny, 
  Performance, Presence and Socialize.
  
  44
  BROKER
  A fairly broad archetype, the broker facilitates social interactions between others, especially in the governmental or 
  business sense. Brokers oversee the purchase and transportation of goods, the administration of city affairs, the workings of a 
  noble court or the subtle arts of diplomacy and espionage. There are as many types of brokers as there are social interactions. 
  Some brokers are born to the archetype, inheriting their position from parents or elders. Others work their way up through 
  the lower ranks of whatever institution pays the broker’s salary. Regardless, brokers tend toward urbane sophistication, and 
  even uneducated barbarians who fit this archetype are cooler and more sociable than their peers.
  Brokers heavily favor Social Attributes, regardless of profession, but some prefer Mental Attributes, especially those 
  who operate in the financial or espionage sectors. Whatever Abilities a broker favors will be the ones that best facilitate his 
  chosen profession—merchants favor Bureaucracy, while spies favor Presence—but most brokers favor a wide selection of 
  Abilities. The Jack of All Trades Merit is especially common among brokers. Conviction 
  and Temperance are usually favored, but not by an overwhelming degree.
  Associated Exalted Castes: Eclipse Caste Solars, Moonshadow Caste Abyssals, Fiend 
  Caste Infernals, Sidereal Chosen of Journeys or of Serenity, Changing Moon Caste 
  Lunars
  BROKER PROFESSIONS
  COURIER
  A courier is charged with delivering sensitive information or items from one 
  party to another, whether across enemy lines or simply past gangs of cutthroats 
  and assassins. Whether the courier is conveying a trade agreement, military 
  plans or simply love letters, her success and often her life both depend 
  on seeing the package delivered. Some couriers work directly for one or 
  both of the parties to the exchange. Yet, many large cities have private 
  delivery agencies, often operating with no questions asked. Away from 
  the cities, couriers also act as guides willing to shepherd travelers or 
  pilgrims from one town to the next, if the price is right.
  The courier is easily the most physically inclined of the 
  broker professions. He must often travel long distances to 
  perform his duties and usually overcome physical hardships to 
  do so. The work is often dangerous, and most couriers have at 
  least a passing familiarity with self-defense or at least good evasion 
  skills. Physical Attributes are most often primary, and Conviction 
  is prized among those looking for a good courier.
  Minimum Requirements: Athletics 2, Linguistics 1, Ride 2 (or Sail 
  2 as appropriate)
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Athletics, Dodge, Re-
  sistance, Ride and Survival. For games with a nautical setting, 
  substitute Sail for Ride.
  DIPLOMAT
  Whether negotiating the end of a war or simply for new trade 
  concessions, diplomats travel the length and breadth of Creation 
  seeking to establish new bonds between cities and businesses, 
  tribes and nations. Even the Guild maintains a fleet of diplomats to act 
  as trade envoys, although the line between diplomat and spy tends to blur for 
  such brokers. The ideal diplomat is one who always seems to let the other side 
  win the debate, even as he walks away with whatever prize he seeks.
  Diplomats favor Charisma and Manipulation in equal amounts, as well as 
  Intelligence to see through the complexities of treaties and trade negotiations. 
  The diplomat must be charming but aloof, an able speaker and writer, and he must 
  always have one ear listening for what is not being said. Diplomats invariably have 
  the backing of the entity they represent, and often influence within it as well.
  Abilities. The Jack of All T
  and Temperance are usu
  Associated Exalted Ca
  Caste Infernals, Siderea
  Lunars
  BROKER PROFE
  COURIER
  A courier is 
  party to anothe
  and assassin
  plans or s
  on seeing 
  both of th
  delivery
  the cit
  p
  d
  lea
  ski
  is priz
  Minim
  2 as ap
  Profe
  sist
  c
  se
  tribes and
  as trade envoys
  such brokers. Th
  win the debate, ev
  Diplomats fa
  Intelligence to see
  The diplomat must
  always have one ear
  the backing of the enti
  
  45
  CHAPTER TWO • CHARACTER CREATION AND TRAITS
  Minimum Requirements: Backing 2 (associated with the 
  party the diplomat represents), Presence 2. Charisma 3 or 
  Manipulation 3.
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Awareness, Lin-
  guistics, Lore, Presence and Socialize.
  MERCHANT
  “Everything has its price,” they say, but only a good 
  merchant knows what it is or how to get it. A merchant is a 
  broker who either owns or manages a business of some sort. 
  Most commonly, such a business is merely a trading concern 
  that either produces and sells goods or simply conveys them 
  from one seller to another buyer for a cut of the profits. He-
  roic merchants often sell more exotic goods and will travel 
  thousands of miles for some precious rarity. The traders on the 
  Guild caravansaries and the shipping magnates of the West 
  are merchants, as are the slavers of Nexus and the dreamstone 
  merchants of Gem. Although the typical merchant is often 
  staid and perhaps a bit plump, heroic merchants are more 
  often bold sea captains who risk death or worse in pursuit 
  of the next big cargo or charismatic entrepreneurs always 
  looking for the next deal.
  Merchants are diverse and favor no particular Attribute 
  as a profession. A typical merchant is invariably skilled at 
  Bureaucracy and Socialize, while the best hagglers are skilled 
  at Presence. A good merchant will know how to ride a horse 
  or pilot a ship unless he maintains a business in a set loca-
  tion, usually in a major city. While the owner of a one-room 
  general store in a tiny hamlet may be a heroic merchant, a 
  tycoon or sea captain is far more common.
  Minimum Requirements: Resources 2, Bureaucracy 2, (Bu-
  reaucracy must be a Favored Ability). The character must 
  have at least one Bureaucracy specialty pertaining to trade 
  or salesmanship.
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Bureaucracy, 
  Presence, Ride, Sail and Socialize.
  NOBLE
  Most people choose their profession or have it chosen 
  for them. A noble is born into his. Nobles are heroic mortals 
  who, by virtue of birth or adoption, stand as scions to some 
  politically powerful family group. The mortal members of 
  the Great Houses of the Realm or the Gentes of Lookshy 
  are nobles, but aristocracy is common across Creation. Gem, 
  Chiaroscuro, Cherak and many more beside all have ruling 
  families whose members are considered nobility. Furthermore, 
  the noble profession need not be limited to those legitimately 
  recognized as aristocrats. The family members of high-ranking 
  Guild members might be considered nobles, as would the 
  children of the Council of Entities in Nexus.
  The true mark of nobility, at least as far as the profession
  goes, is being raised from childhood to understand how to rule 
  others. Nobles may have the social acumen of diplomats or 
  wealth equal to the greatest merchants. In some situations, 
  the noble might have Command, although Henchmen are 
  more common. Generally, a noble can be any sort of character, 
  but as a profession, a certain amount of education, breeding 
  and style are essential. The king’s son may be an illiterate 
  pig who eats with his bare hands, but he will not have any 
  of the benefits of the noble profession. Most nobles will, at 
  least in comparison to most mortals, be educated, socially 
  adroit and able to maintain their families’ holdings.
  Minimum Requirements: Mentor 3 or Patron 3 (representing 
  the ranking noble from whom the character has inherited 
  his status). At least one dot in the Heir Apparent Merit 
  (see pp. 56-57).
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Bureaucracy, Lore, 
  Performance, Presence and Socialize.
  SPY
  Masters of intrigue and deception, spies are heroic mortals 
  who infiltrate the enemies of their employers to gain intel-
  ligence and, where practicable, destroy them from within. 
  While the All-Seeing Eye of the Scarlet Empire is the most 
  (in)famous spy agency in Creation, spies may be found in the 
  employ of nearly every nation, city, criminal enterprise and 
  noble family in the world. Major businesses, including the 
  Guild, regularly engage in industrial espionage. Even many 
  religions have spies working for them to ferret out heretics. 
  In fact, spies are so common that access to a spy network is 
  a widely held Background.
  Good spies are master dissemblers. High Mental and 
  Social Attributes are equally prized among spymasters. 
  A spy should be proficient at subterfuge, impersonation, 
  interrogation and infiltration. A few also specialize at as-
  sassination, and there is some overlap between the spy and 
  assassin professions. Generally, all spies have either Backing 
  (if the spy works for an organization) or Patron (if she works 
  for a single, powerful individual). Conviction is the most 
  important Virtue for a successful spy, with Temperance a 
  distant second for most.
  Minimum Requirements: Backing 2 or Patron 2. Presence 2,
  Manipulation 3
  Professional Abilities: Choose three from Larceny, Perfor-
  mance, Presence, Socialize and Stealth.
  
  46
  
  47
  CHAPTER THREE • MERITS AND FLAWS
  CHAPTER THREE
  CHAPTER THREE
  MERITS AND FLAWS
  MERITS AND FLAWS
  The standard rules outlined in Exalted and its various 
  supplements provide for remarkable diversity for character 
  creation, but sometimes, a player wants to add a few bells 
  and whistles to her character. Among those bells and 
  whistles are Merits and Flaws. A Merit is a special benefit 
  the character possesses that may be purchased at character 
  creation with bonus points. Most Merits are comparable to 
  Backgrounds, but whereas Backgrounds define the charac-
  ter’s possessions, connections and special abilities, Merits 
  more commonly represent physical advantages, character 
  quirks and other characteristics not easily modeled with 
  conventional Backgrounds.
  Flaws are the opposite of Merits. They are physical 
  disadvantages, psychological drawbacks and other char-
  acteristics that interfere with the character’s progress as 
  obstacles or handicaps to overcome. Each Flaw carries a 
  bonus point value, and these bonus points are added to 
  the bonus points with which each character is created. 
  A character may not begin with more than 10 extra 
  bonus points gained from Flaws. Although a player 
  may select as many Flaws as he wishes for his character, 
  he cannot gain more than 10 bonus points in exchange. 
  (There is an exception, however, for God-Blooded who 
  possess the Inheritance Background or heroic mortal 
  characters with the Esoteric Knowledge Background. 
  These Backgrounds can increase the maximum number 
  of points that can be gained from Flaws.) A player may 
  spend as many of his bonus points as he wishes on Merits. 
  As always, the Storyteller has the final authority to limit 
  the number of Merits or Flaws that may be taken, or even 
  to ban them altogether.
  The Storyteller may also veto the selection of any 
  particular Merit or Flaw he chooses for any reason 
  whatsoever. This is particularly important in games in 
  which the characters are or will become Exalted. A blind, 
  one-armed, syphilitic beggar with an irrational fear of 
  
  48
  physical violence might be an interesting character to 
  play, but she is an unlikely candidate for Solar Exaltation. 
  The Storyteller should always give careful thought to how 
  Merits and Flaws selected by the players might adversely 
  affect the series. For example, a Solar character who pos-
  sesses the Known Anathema Flaw would probably bring 
  the wrath of the Wyld Hunt down on her circlemates as 
  well as herself. The Storyteller should not be forced to 
  choose between effectively freeing the character from 
  the adverse effects of a seven-point Flaw or inflicting the 
  full effects of that Flaw on other characters who have not 
  taken it and have gained no benefit from it.
  Most of the Merits and Flaws described in this chapter 
  are available to any character. Some have availability 
  restrictions, however. For example, a Merit might be 
  restricted to Exalted or un-Exalted characters, or it might 
  require a minimum rating in an Attribute or Ability. 
  Other Merits and Flaws have modified costs for certain 
  characters, such as the Double-Jointed Merit, which is 
  cheaper for Lunar Exalts to acquire.
  Many Merits add dice bonuses to certain types of roll, 
  while many Flaws inflict dice penalties. Merit bonuses stack 
  with applicable specialties but do not count as either part 
  of the normal dice pool or as a specialty for purposes of 
  Excellencies. Unlike specialties, the bonuses gained from 
  multiple applicable Merits stack, but the Storyteller is free 
  to veto any combination of Merits that might disrupt the 
  game or abuse the system.
  GAINING AND LOSING MERITS AND FLAWS
  Generally, Merits and Flaws are acquired only at 
  character creation. Over the course of a series, however, 
  it is possible to gain and lose both through roleplay. The 
  Storyteller should approach such changes cautiously, 
  though, as some players might benefit from a particular 
  allocation of Merits and Flaws in a way that is unfair to 
  the other players. For example, a character who begins 
  play with only one eye (a three-point Flaw) may soon 
  recover that lost eye by finding some source of magical 
  healing, thereby getting two additional bonus points basi-
  cally for free. Yet, a different character who loses an eye 
  in combat (perhaps through being subjected to a Charm 
  that carries a Crippling effect) effectively gains the same 
  Flaw but receives nothing in exchange. If the Storyteller 
  approaches such situations in an inconsistent manner, 
  players might find it unfair. There are three basic options 
  on how to approach the acquisition of Merits and Flaws 
  during game play. Any of the options represents a valid 
  approach, but the Storyteller should make it clear to the 
  players which option he is using.
  
  49
  CHAPTER THREE • MERITS AND FLAWS
  Option 1: The simplest option is just to say, “Too 
  bad. So sad.” (That is, “Please accept that Merits and 
  Flaws can change over the course of the series just like 
  Backgrounds.”) A character who loses the benefits of 
  a Merit or who acquires a new Flaw gains nothing in 
  recompense, while a character who acquires a Merit or 
  sheds a Flaw pays no penalty. While some players might 
  consider this unfair, it is the simplest means for dealing 
  with the issue, provided that the Storyteller is consistent 
  and does not show favoritism.
  Option 2: Another option is to balance out Merits 
  acquired through game play with Storyteller-imposed 
  Flaws, while rewarding new Flaws acquired with a cor-
  responding amount of Merits. This is simple but relatively 
  fair approach, although some players might find it ar-
  bitrary and some Storytellers have difficulty plausibly 
  working such benefits into the story. As an alternative, 
  the Storyteller could choose to balance newly acquired 
  Merits and Flaws with an increase or decrease in some 
  other trait. For example, a character who acquires the 
  four-point version of the Enchanting Features Merit 
  might suffer the loss of a point of Temperance, as his 
  newly improved ability to seduce others increases his 
  temptation to do so.
  Option 3: Perhaps the fairest option, albeit the one 
  that calls for the most bookkeeping on the Storyteller’s 
  part, is to reward the acquisition of new Flaws with addi-
  tional experience and to “bill” players for the acquisition 
  of new Merits by docking their experience. Essentially, this 
  turns the in-game acquisition of a Merit into a Training 
  effect (see Exalted, p. 183). If a character loses a Merit or 
  gains a Flaw, the Storyteller should grant her a one-time 
  experience point bonus equal to twice the cost of the 
  Merit or Flaw affected. If the character gains a Merit or 
  loses a Flaw as a result of in-game events, she acquires an 
  experience debt equal to twice the cost of the Merit or 
  Flaw. Thereafter, she must pay half of all newly acquired 
  experience to pay down the debt until it is extinguished. 
  Under this option, a character who acquires more than 10 
  points worth of Flaws should not receive any additional 
  experience points.
  MUTATIONS AS MERITS AND FLAWS
  With Storyteller approval, a player may acquire a 
  mutation as either a Merit or a Flaw, whichever is ap-
  propriate, during character creation. Positive mutations 
  purchased with bonus points cost one point for a pox, two 
  for an affliction, four for a blight or six for an abomination. 
  Negative mutations supply bonus points as follows: one for 
  a deficiency, two for a debility or four for a deformity. Most 
  mutations, whether positive or negative, are unnatural 
  and are typically the result of exposure to some sort of 
  supernatural phenomenon—most commonly, exposure to 
  the Wyld. Other sources of mutations include alterations 
  made to the character by the Charms of an Exalt, a raksha, 
  a demon or a god. Akuma, for example, may acquire both 
  positive and negative mutations when first transformed 
  through the Investiture of Infernal Glory, while a raksha 
  might bless or curse a mortal with mutations through the 
  Behemoth-Forging Meditation Charm.
  Some mutations are naturally occurring but represent 
  rare characteristics among adult mortals. For example, 
  the Small pox (see Exalted, p. 288) is universally com-
  mon among children but rare among mortals save for 
  naturally small people like the Djala or mortals suffering 
  from dwarfism. Alternatively, the Large pox (see Exalted, 
  p. 288) is uncommon among mortals but not so unusual 
  that gigantism is unheard of.
  In addition to the core book, positive and negative 
  mutations can be found in the following supplements:
  • The Manual of Exalted Power—The Lunars, 
  pp. 207–210
  • The Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. II—
  The Wyld, pp. 144–150
  • The Manual of Exalted Power—The Infernals, 
  pp. 62–64
  MERITS
  PHYSICAL MERITS
  These Merits improve the functioning of the charac-
  ter’s Physical Attributes and associated Abilities.
  AMBIDEXTROUS
  Cost: 1 pt.
  Availability: Anyone
  Most people favor one hand over the other and suffer 
  an internal penalty for using a weapon or tool with the 
  off hand. An ambidextrous character ignores this penalty 
  and can freely use either hand for Dexterity-related ac-
  tions without penalty. In close combat, an ambidextrous 
  character wielding a melee or one-handed martial arts 
  weapon can shift his weapon from one hand to the other 
  freely with a single success on a [Dexterity + (Martial Arts 
  or Melee)] roll. Doing so counts as an action but reduces 
  the Parry DV of the target of the character’s next attack 
  by two, provided that the two combatants are already in 
  close combat.
  DOUBLE-JOINTED
  Cost: 1 pt. or 3 pts. (1 pt. or 2 pts. for Lunars)
  Availability: Anyone (very common among Lunars)
  The character is remarkably supple and skilled at 
  easily dislocating her limbs and flexing her body into 
  odd positions. With the one-point version of this Merit, 
  the character gains a one-die bonus to all grapple rolls 
  and to all rolls in which such flexibility benefits the 
  
  50
  character, primarily rolls based on Dexterity, Athletics 
  and/or Larceny.
  For three points, the character is a master contortionist 
  capable of any number of remarkable (and often disturbing) 
  feats of flexibility. The character gains a three-die bonus 
  on all Dexterity, Athletics and/or Larceny rolls, and the 
  difficulty of escaping from non-magical bonds decreases 
  by two (to a minimum difficulty of 1). Also, anyone who 
  attempts to grapple the character suffers a -1 external 
  penalty. For Lunar Exalted, this improved version of the 
  Merit costs only two points.
  FLEET OF FOOT
  Cost: 1–3 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  The character is incredibly fast in an all-out sprint. 
  Normally, a Dash action allows a character to move (Dex-
  terity + 6 – wound penalties – mobility penalty) yards per 
  tick. A player may take Fleet of Foot up to three times. 
  Each instance adds two yards to the distance the character 
  can move as part of a Dash action without any effect on 
  DV. This Merit has no effect on normal Move actions.
  IMPROVED RESISTANCE
  Cost: 1 pt. or 1–5 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Improved Resistance assists the character in resisting 
  the effects of poisons, drunkenness and/or disease. There 
  are two versions of this Merit. For one point, the character 
  can be totally immune to one specific disease or to one 
  specific poison and will always automatically succeed on 
  any (Stamina + Resistance) roll to resist it. For purposes 
  of this Merit, alcohol counts as a poison, and a character 
  with Improved Alcohol Resistance will never get drunk 
  no matter how much he consumes.
  Alternatively, the character may acquire an Improved 
  Resistance against all toxins and diseases. The character 
  can acquire up to five dots in this version of the Merit, 
  with each dot adding a one-die bonus to all (Stamina + 
  Resistance) rolls to resist disease, poison or intoxication. 
  A character may possess both versions of this Merit. For 
  example, a character might have a general +3 resistance 
  to all diseases and toxins as well as total immunity to a 
  specific disease (such as the tuberculosis he survived as 
  a child) or poison (such as the arrow frog venom with 
  which he prefers to coat his weapon).
  LEGENDARY [ATTRIBUTE]
  Cost: 5 pts. (3 pts. for Exalted)
  Availability: Anyone (very common among Exalted and 
  God-Blooded)
  Normally, a character may not raise any of his At-
  tributes above 5 unless he has also raised his permanent 
  Essence above 5, in which case, his permanent Essence 
  rating becomes his new Attribute cap. A character with 
  this Merit increases his normal Attribute cap by one with 
  regard to a single Attribute. For example, a character with 
  Legendary Strength would be able to raise his Strength 
  to 6, regardless of his Essence rating. If he later raised his 
  Essence to 6, he could then improve his Strength to 7. 
  This Merit does not actually give the character any extra 
  dots in the chosen Attribute, it merely confers the poten-
  tial to reach a superhuman level within it. If the player 
  selects this Merit during character creation, however, it 
  is certainly possible to acquire a six-dot rating in an At-
  tribute with bonus points.
  Although Legendary [Attribute] is grouped among 
  Physical Merits, identical Merits exist for Social and 
  Mental Attributes.
  OMNIDEXTERITY
  Cost: 3 pts. (2 pts. for Haltans or 1 pt. for Lunar Ex-
  alted)
  Availability: Rare (common, however, among Haltans, 
  jungle-dwelling Eastern barbarians and Wyld mutants, 
  and among Lunars)
  The character’s feet are specially adapted to grasp 
  objects, including tools and even weapons, and she suffers 
  no dice penalties for doing so. This Merit is quite common 
  among the Haltans and other tree-dwelling peoples and 
  particularly common among Lunars. A character with this 
  Merit also gains the benefits of the Ambidextrous Merit 
  for free. Once you’ve learned to wield a sword with your 
  toes, doing so with your off hand is nothing.
  PAIN TOLERANCE
  Cost: 3 pts., 5 pts. or 7 pts.
  Availability: Anyone (very common among Lunars, as 
  well as ghosts and Abyssals with corpse-like flesh)
  The character is remarkably resistant to the debilitat-
  ing effects of injury. She still suffers from the existence 
  of such injuries, but in terms of the dice penalties associ-
  ated with lost health levels, she simply doesn’t notice 
  pain. With the three-point version of this Merit, the 
  character treats her -1 health levels as being -0 health 
  levels, ignoring all wound penalties before the -2 level. 
  With the five-point version, the character also treats her 
  -2 levels as being -0 levels, ignoring all wound penalties 
  before -4. With the seven-point version, she ignores all 
  wound penalties and can continue to function normally 
  until her last Dying level is filled in.
  Although clearly beneficial, this Merit also has certain 
  drawbacks, as the character’s preternatural toughness im-
  pairs her sense of touch. With the three-point version, the 
  difficulty of all touch-based Perception rolls increases by 
  one. With the five-point version, the difficulty of such rolls 
  increases by two. Finally, with the seven-point version, the 
  character feels nothing through touch and automatically 
  fails all Perception rolls to do so. This Merit does not stack 
  
  51
  CHAPTER THREE • MERITS AND FLAWS
  with supernatural effects that negate wound penalties. 
  Only the most powerful applicable effect applies.
  SELECTIVE CONCEPTION
  Cost: 1 pt.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character controls his own fertility. A female 
  character with this Merit can have sex as often as the 
  opportunity is available, with no possibility of pregnancy 
  unless she chooses to allow it. Said female character can 
  also, at the cost of one Willpower point, ensure pregnancy 
  after copulation with any male who is not sterile. A male 
  character with this Merit cannot ensure pregnancy, but he 
  can prevent undesired pregnancies. A male who does not 
  actively exercise that option may or may not sire offspring 
  during a sexual encounter and will not know whether a 
  pregnancy occurs.
  This Merit is prized among Dynastic Dragon-Blooded 
  due to the social stigma of siring lost eggs.
  STRONG BACK
  Cost: 3 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character is exceptionally strong when it comes 
  to heavy lifting. Add one dot to the character’s Strength 
  solely for purposes of determining how much she can 
  lift or carry. The added Strength does not apply for any 
  other purpose.
  STRONG LUNGS
  Cost: 3 pts. (2 pts. for Western mortals and Water-aspected 
  Dragon-Blooded)
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character can hold his breath for (Stamina x 60) 
  seconds, plus an additional 60 seconds for every success 
  on a (Stamina + Resistance) roll.
  SOCIAL MERITS
  These Merits improve the character’s use of Social 
  Attributes.
  BORN TO RULE
  Cost: 2 pts. (1 pt. for Dragon-Blooded characters and 
  un-Exalted scions of Dynastic families)
  Availability: Anyone
  Some characters wear authority as easily as a comfort-
  able, well-worn jacket. A character possessing this Merit 
  is accustomed to giving commands and expecting them 
  to be obeyed without question. Whether your character 
  has worked hard for the authority she asserts or was to 
  the manor born, the result is the same. The character 
  gains a one-die bonus to all social rolls made against an 
  acknowledged inferior (such as a subordinate within an 
  organization or merely a social inferior). While the Sto-
  ryteller is the final authority on when this Merit applies, 
  mortals of the Blessed Isle are almost always considered 
  the social inferiors of even the most recently Exalted 
  Dragon-Blooded, while outcastes are usually considered 
  inferior to Dynasts.
  CAROUSER
  Cost: 2 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character knows how to party and how to best 
  present himself to fellow party-goers. The character gains a 
  two-die bonus to all social rolls made to influence, charm 
  or seduce others in the context of any party less sophis-
  ticated than a formal cotillion—whether in a raucous 
  Northern bar, a Nexus orgy or the drunken initiation 
  party for a newly Exalted Dragon-Blood. The character 
  also gains a two-die bonus to all (Stamina + Resistance) 
  rolls made for him to resist the effects of consuming too 
  much alcohol or other recreational drugs at the party. At 
  the Storyteller’s discretion, this two-die bonus may also 
  apply to any rolls relevant to sexual performance in the 
  context of the party.
  ENCHANTING FEATURES
  Cost: 2 pts. or 4 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character isn’t necessarily good-looking, but 
  she has a special allure that others find nigh irresistible. 
  With the two-point version, the character gains a two-
  die bonus on all social rolls designed to seduce another 
  person who is capable of becoming sexually attracted to 
  her. Additionally, the limit on the maximum dice bonus 
  that a character gains from having a higher Appearance 
  than the target of her social attacks increases by one. If 
  the target of the seduction has a higher Appearance, it 
  reduces by one any penalty inflicted on the character 
  with this Merit.
  The four-point version renders the character preter-
  naturally alluring. She gains a four-die bonus on all social 
  rolls against those who are normally capable of becoming 
  attracted to her. Against a character whose sexual orienta-
  tion is not compatible with her gender, the character gains 
  no dice bonus but ignores any dice penalties resulting from 
  the target’s orientation. Also, the limit on the maximum 
  dice bonus acquired from having a higher Appearance 
  increases by three, and the character ignores any penalty 
  for having a lower Appearance when trying to seduce 
  someone better looking than herself.
  INNOCUOUS
  Cost: 2 pts. or 4 pts.
  Availability: Appearance 2 (no higher, no lower)
  Your character is neither beautiful nor ugly, but instead 
  plain… remarkably so. Everything about your character’s 
  appearance is perfectly normal and typical of the average 
  member of the society from which he hails. As a result, 
  it is more difficult for those who have encountered the 
  
  52
  character to remember anything about him. With the 
  two-point version, the character gains a one-die bonus on 
  all Larceny and Stealth rolls made for him to blend into a 
  crowd. The difficulty of any casual pursuit or investigation 
  of the character increases by one.
  With the four-point version, the character’s normalcy 
  rises to the level of a form of supernatural occlusion. Re-
  membering anything more than the most superficial details 
  of the character after an encounter with him requires a 
  successful (Wits + Essence) roll. The base difficulty for this 
  roll is 6, reduced by one for every significant encounter 
  the observer has had with the character over the last week 
  (to a minimum of 1). If this roll is successful, the observer 
  pierces the character’s anonymity and remembers him 
  clearly for one week. At the end of that time (and at the 
  end of each subsequent week in which she has had no 
  contact with the character), the observer’s player must 
  again roll (Wits + Essence) against a difficulty equal to 
  the number of weeks since the two have last interacted. 
  Failure on this roll indicates that the observer has forgot-
  ten all details about the character.
  A character with the four-point version of this Merit 
  has serious difficulties in establishing long-term ties in 
  mortal society. Such a character may never have more 
  than two dots in Allies, Contacts or Mentor unless those 
  Backgrounds are defined as representing magical beings 
  (who are immune to the effects of this Merit). The character 
  may never possess any dots in Command, Cult, Followers, 
  Henchmen or any other Background that require that he 
  be widely known in mortal society.
  The effects of Innocuous do not stack with any 
  Charm or magical effect that conceals identity. Only the 
  most powerful effect applies. Sidereals may not purchase 
  either version of this Merit, as they are already protected 
  by Arcane Fate.
  SILVER TONGUE
  Cost: 3 pts.
  Availability: Manipulation 2+
  Your character is a skilled con artist and inveterate 
  liar. The character’s player gains a two-die bonus to all 
  Manipulation rolls based on deliberate deception.
  MENTAL MERITS
  These Merits augment Mental Attributes and Abili-
  ties that rely on them.
  ACUTE SENSE
  Cost: 2 pts. (for hearing or vision) or 1 pt. (for touch, 
  taste or smell)
  Availability: Anyone
  One of your character’s senses is especially perceptive. 
  Acute Sense functions as a sense-specific specialty for the 
  Perception Attribute. Each time the Merit is purchased, 
  the character gains a one-die bonus to Perception-based 
  rolls that involve a specific sense (hearing, smell, taste, 
  touch or vision). This Merit may be purchased up to three 
  times, either granting up to a three-die bonus to a single 
  sense or granting lesser bonuses to different senses.
  COMMON SENSE
  Cost: 1 pt.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character has an inner voice that warns her 
  when her present course of action is unwise or dangerous, 
  a voice that sounds remarkably like that of the Storyteller. 
  Whenever the character prepares for a course of action 
  that is objectively a bad idea (and especially when it is a 
  very bad idea), the Storyteller will warn the character’s 
  player of the danger he has apparently failed to see. The 
  Storyteller is obliged only to warn the player. Nothing 
  prevents a stubborn or bull-headed character from dog-
  gedly pursuing a course of action that a more reasonable 
  character would avoid.
  Note: This Merit is most appropriate for the characters 
  of inexperienced players.
  EIDETIC MEMORY
  Cost: 3 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character has a remarkable memory and is able 
  to recall anything she has ever observed with picture-
  perfect clarity. She can recognize someone by a whiff of 
  perfume, repeat verbatim an epic poem first heard years 
  earlier or recognize a specific person from among a crowd 
  of hundreds. Generally, there is no roll to recall anything 
  the character has ever experienced. Yet, if the character 
  either attempts to recall something while under stress or 
  tries to remember some detail she first observed during 
  a stressful situation, the player must roll (Intelligence + 
  Awareness), with a difficulty assigned by the Storyteller 
  based on the level of stress involved. If the character with 
  Eidetic Memory has a low Intelligence, the Storyteller 
  may allow the substitution of Wits instead.
  ESOTERIC CRAFT
  Cost: 1 pt.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character may purchase dots in one of the ex-
  otic Craft Abilities normally not permitted for her. For 
  example, Sidereal Exalted have access to Craft (Fate), 
  an Ability usually not permitted for non-Sidereal char-
  acters. Similarly, Abyssal Exalted have access to Craft 
  (Necrotech), which is likewise forbidden for those not 
  associated with the Underworld. Your character has 
  somehow gained a measure of knowledge in such forbid-
  den lore and may begin play with dots in one of these 
  esoteric crafts. This Merit may be taken multiple times, 
  with each Merit applying to a different Esoteric Craft. 
  
  53
  CHAPTER THREE • MERITS AND FLAWS
  Please note that this Merit only allows the character 
  to begin play with a rating in the chosen Craft. It does 
  not allow her to increase her rating in it. For that, the 
  character must have some other appropriate trait (most 
  commonly, the Mentor, Patron or Library Backgrounds) 
  to justify such training.
  Note: Usually, Exalted automatically gain the benefit 
  of this Merit, but as an optional rule, the Storyteller may 
  require Exalted characters to purchase Esoteric Craft in 
  order to use Craft Abilities not normally associated with 
  their milieu.
  EXPERIENCED
  Cost: 1–3 pts.
  Availability: Heroic mortals only
  Your character is older than most typical starting 
  characters, and with age comes experience and insight. 
  Such experience manifests as additional Ability dots that 
  represent a lifetime of training, study or just surviving life 
  in the Age of Sorrows. But the passing of years brings 
  with it the debilitating effects of age. Each dot of the 
  Experienced Merit grants five additional bonus points 
  that can be spent only on Abilities (whether Favored or 
  non-Favored). In exchange, the character must sacrifice 
  one of the Attribute dots granted during character creation 
  per Merit dot as well. At the Storyteller’s discretion, in 
  lieu of sacrificing an Attribute dot, the character might 
  be required to take four points of Flaws that might be 
  logically associated with aging instead. Extra bonus 
  points gained through such age-related Flaws will not 
  count against the normal 10-point cap on bonus points 
  gained through Flaws.
  As a general rule, each dot of Experienced adds 20 
  years to the character’s starting age (which, for heroic 
  mortals, normally defaults to somewhere between 20 
  and 30). A player may choose for his character to be as 
  old as he wishes, though, without sacrificing Attributes 
  for Abilities through this Merit. Such a character will be 
  remarkably fit for her age but will not be as knowledge-
  able or well trained as an experienced character with this 
  Merit would be.
  If the Storyteller’s ultimate intention is for the 
  character to receive Exaltation, she should not allow 
  this Merit and instead require the player to take the 
  Diminished Attribute Flaw.
  EXTRA FAVORED ABILITY
  Cost: 2 pts.
  Availability: Sidereals, Dragon-Bloods, any un-Exalted 
  character
  Your character possesses a preternatural aptitude for 
  some Ability. For two points, the character may acquire 
  
  54
  one Favored Ability (in addition to any normally gained 
  through character creation), which follows all the normal 
  rules for Favored Abilities with regard to bonus and experi-
  ence point costs. A mortal character may never have any 
  non-Favored Ability rated higher than any Favored Ability. 
  This Merit may be purchased multiple times, with each Merit 
  representing a different Ability. No character may have 
  more than five Favored Abilities, however, so a Sidereal 
  may not purchase more than one extra Favored Ability 
  (since Sidereals acquire four through character creation), 
  while a Dragon-Blood may not purchase more than two. 
  Typically, heroic mortals begin with one Favored Ability 
  and may purchase this Merit up to four times.
  INTERNAL COMPASS
  Cost: 1 pt.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character has an intuitive sense of direction. She 
  can automatically orient herself according to the cardinal 
  directions without effort, and she gains a one-die bonus on 
  all navigation rolls made for her, whether to pilot a ship or 
  to find her way through a maze. If your character is native 
  to some realm of being other than Creation (such as the 
  Underworld, Malfeas or the Wyld), she can choose the 
  power to navigate that realm instead of Creation.
  JACK OF ALL TRADES
  Cost: 4 pts.
  Availability: Mortals only
  Your character has a remarkably broad background 
  of knowledge and experience that allows him to func-
  tion in nearly any realm of human activity. Normally, 
  if a mortal character does not possess at least one dot in 
  an Ability called for by a roll, her player suffers a two-die 
  penalty on that roll. The player of a character with this 
  Merit ignores this limitation and can roll her character’s 
  full dice pool when the character attempts an action for 
  which she is untrained. Furthermore, even if the character 
  has no dots in Lore, she is presumed to be literate in her 
  native tongue.
  There are two limitations to the utility of this Merit. 
  First, the character may not use Jack of All Trades to com-
  municate in a language if she has not acquired fluency in 
  that language through either dots in the Linguistics Ability 
  or the Linguistic Genius Merit. Second, the normal penalty 
  applies when the character attempts an action that calls 
  for one of the more esoteric uses of the Craft Ability, such 
  as Craft (Fate) or Craft (Gossamer) unless she has the 
  Esoteric Craft Merit.
  LINGUISTIC GENIUS
  Cost: 1–5 pts.
  Availability: Linguistics 1+
  Your character has a knack for picking up additional 
  languages, more so than his Linguistics rating might in-
  dicate. For each dot taken in this Merit, the character is 
  familiar with one additional language. A character may 
  not purchase more dots in this Merit than the lesser of his 
  Intelligence or his Linguistics. By default, the character 
  can neither read nor write in any of the extra languages 
  acquired through the Merit. For each dot of Lore the 
  character has, however, he can choose to be literate in 
  one extra language.
  PRODIGY
  Cost: 5 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character has a supernatural aptitude for a par-
  ticular Ability. The character may improve his puissance 
  with any of his Favored Abilities (whether he acquired a 
  Favored Ability normally through character creation or 
  through the Extra Favored Ability Merit) or any of his 
  Caste Abilities (in the case of Exalted). This increased 
  aptitude reduces the experience point cost for increasing 
  a Favored or Caste Ability to (rating x 1). The character 
  also gains a one-die bonus on all uses of the Ability. This 
  Merit may be purchased more than once, with each pur-
  chase applying to a different Favored or Caste Ability. The 
  character may not, however, purchase this Merit more 
  times than the lesser of his Intelligence or Wits.
  SPIRITUAL MERITS
  These Merits affect the functioning of the character’s 
  Willpower and Virtues.
  DRIVING PASSION
  Cost: 3 pts.
  Availability: Conviction 3+
  Each character possesses a Motivation that defines 
  the character’s principle goal in life. For some characters, 
  however, a Motivation is not merely an aspiration as much 
  a zealous crusade. If your character has the Driving Passion 
  Merit, the intensity with which she pursues her Motivation 
  actually aids her in fulfilling it. Whenever the character 
  takes any action in direct furtherance of her Motivation 
  that requires a dice roll, her player gains a two-die bonus 
  to the roll. Note that each Driving Passion is specific 
  to a Motivation—if a character fulfills her Motivation 
  completely, her Driving Passion ceases to exist.
  PARAGON OF [VIRTUE]
  Cost: 3 pts.
  Availability: [Virtue] 3+
  Your character is a font of Compassion, a bastion 
  of Conviction, a wellspring of Temperance or a tower 
  of Valor. There are four Paragon of [Virtue] Merits, one 
  for each Virtue. A character who is a paragon of one of 
  these Virtues has the potential to raise that Virtue one 
  dot higher than normal, whether at character creation or 
  with experience. For most characters, Virtues are capped 
  
  55
  CHAPTER THREE • MERITS AND FLAWS
  at 5, but a character with this Merit raises that cap to 6. 
  If a character already has a Virtue cap higher than 5 for 
  whatever reason, this Merit raises the cap by one additional 
  dot. The Merit does not actually provide any additional 
  dots in the Merit, which must be paid for normally. Also, 
  even if a character raises a Virtue to 6 or higher, she can 
  never have a Willpower rating higher than 10. A Paragon 
  character has the option of rolling the Virtue associated 
  with this Merit every morning to recover Willpower in 
  place of Conviction.
  TRUE LOVE
  Cost: 4 pts. (5 pts. for Abyssal Exalted)
  Availability: Compassion 3+
  Your character has a deep and abiding romantic rela-
  tionship with another character (which may be a player’s 
  character or a Storyteller character). The object of the 
  character’s affection must be someone for whom he has an 
  Intimacy, but she need not possess a reciprocal Intimacy 
  for the character. Even true love can be unrequited. This 
  Merit effectively raises the character’s Intimacy to the 
  level of a secondary Motivation. In social combat, the 
  character gains a +3 bonus to MDV against social attacks 
  that seek to turn him against his Intimacy. He suffers a -3 
  MDV penalty, however, against attacks that play on his 
  emotional attachment (such as threats to harm the lover 
  or attempts to make the character jealous). Whenever 
  the character performs any action that reaffirms his love, 
  such as saving his lover from harm or performing some 
  grand romantic gesture, he regains Willpower just as if 
  he performed an action in furtherance of his Motivation. 
  Finally, as long as the character is in the presence of his 
  lover, his player has the option of rolling the character’s 
  Compassion every morning instead of his Conviction for 
  Willpower recovery.
  Abyssal Exalted, due to the emotionally cauterizing 
  nature of their Exaltations, rarely experience the power 
  of True Love. For an Abyssal to acquire this Merit, the 
  player must pay an additional point for it.
  VIRTUE SPECIALTY
  Cost: 2 pts., 4 pts. or 6 pts.
  Availability: [Virtue] 3+
  A loving mother becomes ferocious in protecting 
  her children. A chaste priest turns his nose up at even 
  the most seductive temptresses. A mighty demon-hunter 
  proves herself utterly fearless in the face of horrific Yozi 
  spawn. In some specific situation, your character is able to 
  rely on one of his Virtues more than other characters of 
  weaker spirit could. Essentially, this Merit functions like 
  a normal specialty, but it applies to a Virtue instead of 
  an Ability. The player must define a specific situation in 
  which his character’s moral fiber is made of sterner stuff. 
  Whenever that situation arises and the character channels 
  the appropriate Virtue, he gains a dice bonus to the roll. 
  For two points, the Merit confers a one-die bonus; for four 
  points, it confers a two-die bonus; for six points, it confers 
  a three-die bonus. As with normal Ability specialties, 
  the player can purchase this Merit multiple times, but 
  he cannot acquire more than three Virtue specialties per 
  Virtue. He may purchase a single specialty up to a three-
  die bonus, or he may take multiple specialties in a single 
  Virtue as long as the total number dice bonus associated 
  with that Virtue does not exceed three.
  There is a downside to this Merit, however. The bo-
  nus gained from a Virtue specialty also applies to Virtue 
  rolls appropriate to it, even if the Virtue roll is one the 
  player wishes to fail. For example, if a character has the 
  specialty of Valor (Demons 3), he gains a three-die bonus 
  whenever he channels his Valor to fight demons. He also 
  gains a three-die bonus on Valor rolls triggered by the 
  presence of demons, however, which might prevent him 
  from simply fleeing from a powerful demon who is obvi-
  ously too much for him to handle. Successes gained from 
  rolling bonus dice on Virtue rolls have all their normal 
  effects, including Limit gain. As with Ability specialties, 
  the Storyteller may veto any proposed Virtue specialty 
  she deems to be too broad in scope.
  BACKGROUND MERITS
  These Merits modify the functioning of the character’s 
  Backgrounds.
  CACHE
  Cost: Variable
  Availability: Resources 4+ or Salary 2+
  Generally, the Resources Background presumes that 
  a wealthy character’s income is tied to a specific location 
  and that if she gets too far from her personal domain, she 
  will be unable to access the full scope of her wealth. This 
  rule also applies to Sidereals and to other characters who 
  possess a Salary, although that Background places intrinsic 
  limits on how readily a Sidereal can exercise his Salary 
  in Creation (see The Manual of Exalted Power—The 
  Sidereals, pp. 104–106). A character with this Merit has 
  overcome the geographic limitations on wealth by estab-
  lishing financial connections with business entities across 
  Creation, whether through the Guild, through Dynastic 
  banking interests or through other means.
  Your character can access the full benefit of her Re-
  sources or Salary in locations far from her home. Of course, 
  this money might not be immediately available. Small 
  villages, for example, rarely have enough money on hand 
  to satisfy a Resources 4 request. Yet, unless the character is 
  lost on the Great Ice or wandering the Southern Wastes, 
  she can usually get whatever funds she needs within a few 
  weeks at most. The range of the character’s financial con-
  nections determines the Merit’s cost as follows:
  
  56
  four-dot allies for purposes of this Merit, while Celestial 
  gods always count as five-dot allies.
  Once the character calls in his marker and the debtor 
  satisfies her obligations, this Merit ceases to exist. A 
  character may choose not to call in the debt for its full 
  value and instead ask for minor favors for an extended 
  period of time. Generally, a character owed a favor may 
  ask for the benefits of a favor costing two or more points 
  less once per session, and he may call upon the benefits of 
  a favor costing one point less once per story. For example, 
  if the debtor is a Dragon-Blood who owes a life debt to a 
  character, he can ask her for a minor or moderate boon 
  once per session or for a major boon once per story. Once 
  he asks for a favor that is equal to the life debt, however, 
  the Merit is lost.
  The benefits of this Merit are not enforced magically, 
  and a debtor could renege on her obligations. Generally, in 
  order to refuse a favor requested from a character whom the 
  debtor owes, the debtor’s player must roll Conviction and 
  get no successes. Add one additional die to the Conviction 
  roll for each level by which the requested favor is less than 
  the debt owed. That is, if the character asks for a minor 
  boon from someone who owes him a life debt, add three 
  dice to the roll. If the character appeals to the debtor’s 
  sense of honor through social combat, his successes on the 
  social attack may add dice to the Conviction roll as well. 
  The Storyteller may add even more dice to the roll if the 
  debtor would face social opprobrium for refusing to fulfill 
  such a debt or if she is from a culture that places particular 
  emphasis on repaying such debts.
  HEIR APPARENT
  Cost: 1–5 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character holds a place of importance in some-
  body’s will. This benefactor could be the character’s 
  mentor but does not have to be. For each point put into this 
  Merit, the character will receive two Background points 
  at some point in the future to be applied as the player 
  wishes, although no Background can be raised above five 
  dots. The player and Storyteller should decide when the 
  Merit is purchased exactly what bequests the character will 
  receive. Naturally, the Storyteller will determine when 
  the benefactor will ultimately meet her demise unless, of 
  course, the character takes steps to facilitate that end in 
  order to secure his inheritance more quickly.
  In addition to the Background points conferred di-
  rectly by this Merit, the player may gain one additional 
  Background point for each major condition the character 
  must fulfill in order to stay in his benefactor’s good graces. 
  For example, the character might be required to graduate 
  from the House of Bells with honors in order to receive his 
  inheritance or to be married (or unmarried) at the time the 
  Cache (1 pt.): The character can access her full Re-
  sources or Salary if she is within 500 miles of her home.
  Cache (2–4 pts.): For each additional point, the 
  character names one major city in the cardinal direction 
  (including the Blessed Isle as a direction) in which she 
  resides. The character can access her full Resources and 
  Salary if she is within 500 miles of each of these cities.
  Cache (5+ pts.): Beginning at the five-point level, 
  the character can access her full Resources and Salary 
  anywhere in the cardinal direction where she resides. 
  With each additional Merit point, she may add one ad-
  ditional cardinal direction. Thus, at the nine-point level, 
  the character may access her full Resources or Salary 
  anywhere in Creation.
  FAVOR
  Cost: Variable
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character is owed a debt from some powerful 
  or influential personage, and he can use this debt as le-
  verage to gain benefits. As a practical matter, this Merit 
  represents a short-term version of either the Mentor or 
  Allies Background. The character can call upon his debtor 
  to perform a service comparable to those granted by the 
  aforementioned Backgrounds, but once the marker is called 
  in, the Merit is lost. The value of this Merit is based on 
  the type of favor the debtor owes the character.
  Base Merit Cost Favor
  1 pt. 
  Minor boon. The debtor is obligated to 
  perform some task that might occupy 
  a few days of her time but exposes her 
  to no significant risk.
  2 pts. 
  Moderate boon. The debtor is obligated 
  to perform some task that represents a 
  serious inconvenience but is not life 
  threatening.
  3 pts. 
  Major boon. The debtor owes a major 
  boon to the character, and fulfilling 
  it could involve a substantial risk of 
  injury.
  4 pts. 
  Life debt. The debtor owes her life to the 
  character. This debt can only be can-
  celled by either saving the character’s 
  life or by performing any major request 
  of the character’s choice, no matter how 
  time consuming or dangerous.
  The default assumption is that the debtor is the 
  equivalent of either a three-dot mentor or ally. Add one 
  to the cost of this Merit if the debtor is equivalent of a 
  four-dot mentor or ally. Add two if the debtor is equal to 
  a five-dot mentor or ally. Terrestrial gods always count as 
  
  57
  CHAPTER THREE • MERITS AND FLAWS
  will is read or simply to spend a night in the benefactor’s 
  creepy old mansion. The player may not gain more than 
  three extra bonus points from conditions placed on the 
  character. Finally, an heir apparent is considered to owe 
  his benefactor an obligation (per the Flaw on pp. 68-69) 
  equal to (his rating in this Merit – 2). Failure to fulfill 
  that obligation could result in disinheritance.
  Generally, an heir apparent is most likely to receive 
  tangible bequests in the form of artifacts, land, manses, 
  resources or followers (usually slaves). He might receive 
  more unusual benefits with a little creativity, however. 
  For example, inheriting controlling interest in a business 
  might confer contacts or allies, while a necromantic ar-
  tifact bequeathed to an Abyssal might also increase her 
  Whispers rating.
  HEIRLOOM
  Cost: 1 pt.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character has a single expensive item that his 
  Resources rating is insufficient to justify, such as an excep-
  tional weapon or suit of armor, a large plot of land with 
  a manor house or even a well-trained concubine slave. 
  Regardless of the Resources cost of the item, this Merit 
  costs only one point. The heirloom need not have actually 
  been part of an inheritance. It could just as easily have 
  been something acquired in a heist or won in a high-stakes 
  card game. An heirloom may never be magical, as such 
  items fall under the Artifact Background. The character 
  has the option of selling the item, if he can, but doing so 
  should not raise his Resources by more than one dot with-
  out Storyteller approval, and Storytellers should be wary 
  of players who abuse this Merit to gain a high Resources 
  rating on the cheap. Any attempt to sell an heirloom 
  should be a significant part of the series itself, as most of 
  these items have a story all their own, as well as a host of 
  individuals who would kill to possess them.
  HIDDEN MANSE
  Cost: 1 pt. or 2 pts.
  Availability: Manse 1+
  Generally, any Essence-wielding character can in-
  tuitively sense the presence of a manse or demesne by 
  perceiving the ambient Essence flows, and even mortal 
  thaumaturges can identify such valuable real estate by 
  studying local dragon lines. Yet, whether through cun-
  ning geomancy or simply through quirks of Essence, some 
  demesnes and manses conceal themselves from detection. 
  For one point, your character has control over a demesne 
  that naturally conceals itself from detection by others. For 
  two points, she possesses a manse of any level that does the 
  same. The character and her allies must still be discreet in 
  their comings and goings, as ostentatious displays of power 
  near a hidden manse might expose its location.
  
  58
  Note: More expansive rules for manse construc-
  tion, including mechanisms for concealing a manse from 
  detection, appear in The Books of Sorcery, Vol. III—
  Oadenol’s Codex on pages 44–79. This Merit is presented 
  for the benefit of players and Storytellers without access 
  to that supplement.
  COMBAT MERITS
  These Merits affect the character’s skill at armed and 
  unarmed combat and also with tactical strategy.
  BRUTAL ATTACK
  Cost: 2 pts. or 4 pts.
  Availability: Strength 3+
  Your character specializes in brutal crushing attacks in 
  close combat, relying on overwhelming power in place of 
  focus and sophistication. When making a Melee or Martial 
  Arts attack, the character has the option of replacing 
  his Dexterity with his Strength in calculating the attack 
  pool. A character can use this option on mundane Martial 
  Arts attacks, but he cannot use it on attacks augmented 
  by any Martial Arts Charm other than an Excellency. If 
  a martial artist character purchases this Charm as a four-
  point Merit, however, he can make such an attack with 
  any style customarily based on blunt direct attacks rather 
  than finesse, such as the various “Hero Styles.”
  DANGER SENSE
  Cost: 3 pts. or 5 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character has a knack for sensing treachery and 
  other impending dangers. For three points, a two-die bonus 
  is gained on all Perception-based rolls for the character 
  to detect ambushes, traps and other hidden dangers and 
  also on Join Battle rolls. For five points, the character in 
  addition never loses his Dodge DV as a result of surprise, 
  though he can lose his Parry DV if he does not have a 
  weapon drawn. Furthermore, his player adds three dice to 
  all rolls for the character to evade hidden dangers (such 
  as a [Dexterity + Athletics] roll for the character to catch 
  onto the edge of a pit trap and avoid falling in).
  FAVORED WEAPON
  Cost: 2 pts.
  Availability: Anyone with a specialty in the relevant 
  combat Ability appropriate to the weapon
  Your character has trained for so long with a specific 
  weapon that it has become a part of her. Whether it is 
  an ancestral sword, an artifact goremaul from a previous 
  life or the boomerang she’s practiced with since child-
  hood, the character and her weapon move as one. In the 
  character’s hands, a favored weapon adds one to its Ac-
  curacy and Defense. Whenever the character uses another 
  weapon that calls upon the same combat Ability as her 
  favored weapon, however, it feels wrong in her hands, as 
  if she is betraying a loved one. This unease inflicts a -1 
  penalty to the Accuracy and Defense of her replacement 
  weapon. A character can have only one favored weapon 
  at a time, and if it is permanently lost or destroyed, this 
  Merit immediately converts into a two-point Flaw that 
  inflicts the penalty described above until the character 
  rids herself of it.
  IMPROVED JOIN BATTLE
  Cost: 1–3 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character can smell an oncoming battle as easily 
  as others might scent the smoke from a slow-building fire. 
  Each point invested in this Merit adds a one-die bonus to 
  the character’s Join Battle rolls.
  QUICK DRAW
  Cost: 2 pts. or 4 pts.
  Availability: Melee 3+
  At the first sign of danger, your character’s hand 
  moves to the hilt of his blade or the grip of his flame piece, 
  and the two become one. For two points, your character 
  reduces the flurry penalty for drawing a weapon and at-
  tacking with it on the same tick by one per attack. For 
  four points, your grace is supernatural in its fluidity. You 
  can draw a weapon reflexively and suffer no flurry penalty 
  on your attacks after doing so.
  TACTICAL INSTINCTS
  Cost: 3 pts.
  Availability: War 2+
  Whether watching pieces glide across a Gateway 
  board or observing the clash of armies on a battlefield, 
  your character has an intuitive grasp of the ebb and flow 
  of combat. A prodigy at military tactics, the character 
  can easily discern the enemy’s plans and spot the enemy’s 
  weak points. In mass combat, after the character observes 
  the enemy’s tactics for a single long tick, her player may 
  roll (Wits + War) as a simple action. Each success on 
  this roll goes into a pool of bonus dice the player can 
  add to the attacks of any unit of which her character is 
  the commander or of which she is a special character 
  (provided that she has the opportunity to communicate 
  her observations to the commander). No more than three 
  bonus dice may be added to a single attack. When the 
  entire pool is expended, the player can roll (Wits + War) 
  again and gain a new bonus dice pool, but doing so is a 
  full action that may leave the character’s unit exposed if 
  she is the commander.
  In addition to its implications for mass combat, this 
  Merit grants the character a natural brilliance at games of 
  strategy such as Gateway. As a reflexive action, a character 
  with Tactical Instincts involved in such a game may review 
  the board, and the player may roll (Wits + War), putting 
  any successes into a pool that may be used on subsequent 
  
  59
  CHAPTER THREE • MERITS AND FLAWS
  rolls made during the game. Again, no more than three 
  bonus dice may be added to any single roll.
  SUPERNATURAL MERITS
  These Merits represent magical or similarly special 
  characteristics.
  ALTERNATIVE DIVINATION
  Cost: 1 pt.
  Availability: Occult 1+
  Astrology is, by far, the most common form of divina-
  tion available in Creation, since the destiny of Creation is, 
  quite literally, written in the stars. Yet, other divination 
  techniques exist, though they all use the same basic format 
  as the Art of Astrology (see Exalted, p. 138). Normally, 
  the Art of Astrology is treated as a thaumaturgy Art with 
  four main rituals: Compile Chart, Lesser Divination, Divi-
  nation and Greater Divination. Alternative Divination 
  techniques work exactly the same in all respects except 
  that the preliminary ritual, Compile Chart, is replaced 
  with some other ritual appropriate to the divinatory style 
  used. Some of the more common styles are described here, 
  along with their preliminary rituals.
  Note: In addition to the four aforementioned rituals, 
  additional rituals associated with the Art of Astrology may 
  be found in The Books of Sorcery, Vol. III—Oadenol’s 
  Codex, pages 132–133. With the Storyteller’s permission, 
  a player may adapt some or all of these subsidiary rituals 
  to an alternative divination method as well.
  Crystallomancy: Scry Crystal (0, Perception, 2, 10 
  minutes). The character must spend 10 minutes meditat-
  ing on a crystal with a minimum Resources value of 2. 
  Within the reflecting facets of the gemstone, the character 
  sees the patterns of future events. Some characters rely 
  on scrying orbs instead. A scrying orb is a smooth glass 
  ball about one foot in diameter. In the modern era, any 
  competent glassmaker can fashion a scrying orb at a cost 
  of Resources 2. Some antique scrying orbs have a greater 
  pedigree, however. If the player purchases a scrying orb as 
  a one-dot artifact for her character, she may gain a two-die 
  bonus on the scrying roll. Her insights gleaned from the 
  crystal or orb allow for further divination rituals.
  Haruspicy: Read Entrails (0, Perception, 2, one hour). 
  The character must ritually sacrifice an animal and then 
  spend time studying its entrails. If the animal is expensive, 
  add a one-die bonus for each point by which the animal’s 
  Resources cost exceeds one dot. Success gives the character 
  insight into the weave of destiny sufficient to allow for 
  further divination.
  Oneiromancy: Interpret Dream (0, Intelligence, 5, one 
  full night’s sleep). The character is gifted with precognitive 
  dreams that foretell future events. The character rarely 
  has any choice over what he chooses to dream about, but 
  by spending one Willpower before retiring for the night, 
  he can ensure that he has a precognitive dream. After 
  awakening, he must then record the events he saw in this 
  dream and attempt to interpret them. The hazy, abstract 
  nature of precognitive dreaming makes such interpretation 
  difficult, and the normal difficulty for dream interpretation 
  is 5. If the character also has the Lucid Dreamer Merit, 
  however, this difficulty is reduced to 3.
  Palmistry: Study Palm (0, Intelligence, 5, one 
  minute). A fairly weak form of divination more closely 
  associated with carnival hucksters than with true seers, 
  palmistry is the practice of reading a person’s future by 
  studying the lines in his palm. The palmist must study her 
  subject’s hand for one minute in order to gain sufficient 
  insight to tell his future through further divination ritu-
  als. Although simple, quick and cheap, palmistry is not 
  terribly reliable, as can be seen from the base difficulty 
  of 5 for the Study Palm ritual.
  Sortilege: Toss Bones (0, Wits, 3, five minutes). 
  Common among Icewalker tribes, sortilege refers to 
  divination through the casting of lots or bones. The 
  character must spend five minutes in meditation while 
  shaking a container full of ritually prepared animal 
  bones. She then tosses the bones on the ground at her 
  feet. Success allows the character to see the pattern that 
  Creation has laid out for observation, a prerequisite for 
  further divination rituals.
  AWAKENED ESSENCE
  Cost: 4 pts. or 7 pts.
  Availability: Mortals only
  Through some means—be it years of meditation 
  or exposure to Wyld energies or a dark pact with the 
  Yozis—your character has acquired the power to perceive 
  and manipulate Essence. Your character gains an Essence 
  pool equal to (Essence x 10), all of which is considered 
  Personal Essence. He can spend one-third of his Essence 
  pool freely. To use the rest, he must spend one Willpower 
  point in each scene in which he wishes to access the 
  remainder of his Essence. A character with Awakened 
  Essence can increase his permanent Essence with bonus 
  points or experience. The character regains Essence at 
  the same rate as an Exalt. He can attune to artifacts nor-
  mally, but he never gains a magical material bonus from 
  artifact weapons or armor. He can also attune to a manse 
  or demesne just like an Exalt.
  The four-point version of this Merit duplicates the 
  benefits of the Enlightened Essence blight (see The Com-
  pass of Celestial Directions, Vol. II—The Wyld, p. 148). 
  At the seven-point level, the character can freely access 
  his entire Essence pool without spending Willpower.
  HOLY MIEN
  Cost: 7 pts.
  Availability: Compassion 3+ and Conviction 3+
  
  60
  Your character’s enlightened soul, tranquil mind and 
  natural piety surround him with an aura of holiness that 
  is inimical to creatures of darkness. You gain a four-die 
  bonus on all rolls made for the character to affect lesser 
  creatures of darkness through magical means. This bo-
  nus also applies to Presence rolls made to intimidate or 
  threaten such beings, but not to any other mundane roll. 
  Creatures affected by the character’s holy mien include 
  First Circle demons, ghosts, Demon-Blooded mortals, 
  Infernal Exalts, Abyssal Exalts and lesser spirits of cor-
  ruption. More powerful entities, such as Second and 
  Third Circle Demons or Deathlords are immune to the 
  Holy Mien, as are Infernal and Abyssal Exalted whose 
  Essence ratings are more than three dots higher than that 
  of the character.
  A character with this Merit automatically gains the 
  one-point version of the Priest Merit and reduces the cost 
  of the seven-point version of it to six points. Teodozjia and 
  other entities that are innately opposed to holy beings are 
  drawn to characters with a holy mien and are naturally 
  hostile toward them.
  LEGENDARY BREEDING
  Cost: 3 pts.
  Availability: Breeding 5
  Unheard of in the First Age and extremely rare in 
  the modern era, the blood of the Dragons runs so purely 
  through your character’s veins that even other Dragon-
  Blooded are impressed… and occasionally frightened. 
  The character effectively has Breeding 6, which confers 
  the following benefits.
  • +6 motes to Personal Essence
  • +11 motes to Peripheral Essence
  • Reduce the cost of activating the character’s anima 
  banner by three
  • Add three to the roll to determine whether the 
  character’s children Exalt
  • Add a one-die bonus on all social rolls against other 
  Dragon-Blooded and against mortals taught to respect and 
  fear the Dragon-Blooded.
  In addition to these benefits, the character suffers 
  one drawback: It is so patently obvious that she is a 
  Dragon-Blood that the difficulty of any attempts to pass 
  as a mortal increases by two.
  LUCID DREAMER
  Cost: 3 pts.
  Availability: Anyone except Fair Folk and Fae-Blooded
  When your character dreams, she is aware of it and 
  can even influence the nature of her own dreams. As a 
  result, she is immune to any supernatural effects that might 
  attempt to influence her dreams or harm her through them, 
  including the dream-manipulating powers of gods, demons 
  and Fair Folk. In addition, if the character possesses the 
  Alternative Divination (Oneiromancy) Merit, the base 
  difficulty for her to interpret her own prophetic dreams 
  is reduced to 3.
  LUCK
  Cost: 1–5 pts. (1–3 pts. for Sidereals)
  Availability: Anyone
  For whatever reason, your character is favored by the 
  Loom of Fate such that he is protected by chance and 
  good fortune. For each level of this Merit, the character 
  gains a “luck pool.” A point of luck may be spent to reroll 
  any failed (or even botched) roll made for the character 
  save for a roll that botches through the operation of the 
  Eclipse Caste oath or a similarly powerful curse. The 
  character can even apply multiple luck points to a single 
  roll until he gets the desired result or until he runs out 
  of luck points. Spent luck points return at a rate of one
  per week that has passed without the character calling 
  upon his luck pool. The luck pool refreshes completely 
  between stories.
  In addition to its reroll properties, the character can 
  use his luck to influence the outcome of a game of chance 
  or any other completely random event. As a general rule, 
  each point of luck spent in this manner increases the 
  odds of a favorable result by 10 percent. For example, 
  if the random event is a coin toss with a 50-50 chance 
  of coming up heads, the Storyteller should roll one die, 
  adding one to the result for each luck point spent, with 
  the coin landing favorably to the character on a result of 
  6 or higher.
  Not all Sidereals have the Luck Merit, but those 
  who do are exceptionally lucky. For each level of this 
  Merit taken by a Sidereal, add two to the luck pool, to a 
  maximum pool of five. Thus, by spending one point on 
  this Merit, the Sidereal gains a luck pool of three, while 
  spending three points confers a luck pool of five.
  A character may have both the Luck Merit and the 
  Destiny Background with Storyteller approval, and can 
  even combine the two, such as to reroll a failed Destiny 
  roll. A lucky character may also possess the Unlucky Flaw 
  (see p. 74).
  PAST LIVES
  Cost: 1–5 pts.
  Availability: Anyone (limited for Dragon-Bloods and 
  mortals)
  Your character occasionally has flashes of memory 
  from a prior existence, whether they are a Solar’s hazy 
  recollections of the glory of the First Age or a mortal’s
  remembrance of a prior existence. For Celestial Exalts, 
  each level of this Merit grants a benefit that corresponds 
  to an increasing recollection of the First Age in terms of 
  technology, society and history. The benefits conferred 
  are as follows:
  
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  CHAPTER THREE • MERITS AND FLAWS
  Merit Rating Benefit
  1 pt. 
  The character has hazy memories of First 
  Age events, sufficient to perhaps grant 
  clues that are helpful in her current situ-
  ation.
  2 pts. 
  The character’s memories grow clearer. 
  She gains a one-die bonus on all rolls to 
  use First Age technology.
  3 pts. 
  The character begins to recall the day-
  to-day lifestyle of a First Age citizen. She 
  may now apply her one-die bonus to rolls 
  pertaining to First Age society, customs 
  and history.
  4 pts. 
  The character remembers much of the First 
  Age as if it happened yesterday. Occasion-
  ally, she becomes distracted over pleasant 
  memories of a better world and depressed 
  over the fallen state of Creation. She gains 
  a three-die bonus on all rolls pertaining to 
  First Age technology, lore and society.
  5 pts. 
  The character recalls scenes and vignettes 
  from across the entire history of the First 
  Age, from the Primordial War through 
  the Usurpation. She gains five dice to 
  all appropriate rolls. Unfortunately, such 
  powerful memories are often overwhelm-
  ing, and many characters who remember 
  the so vividly are at risk for the Throwback 
  Flaw (see p. 74).
  A Dragon-Blooded or mortal character may possess 
  this Merit up to only the two-point level. Even at that level, 
  though, it does not confer any benefit to using First Age 
  technology. Dragon-Bloods and mortals live mayfly lives 
  compared to the Celestial Exalted and almost never recall 
  anything from before the life that preceded the character’s 
  current one. Instead, such a character may draw insight 
  from the hazy memories of a recent past life. Also, at the 
  two-point level, the character may add a one-die bonus 
  to a single Ability roll once per session (with the bonus 
  representing a flash of insight from how a prior life would 
  have handled the situation).
  The Storyteller may decide on the nature and cir-
  cumstances of the character’s flashbacks, or she may 
  allow the player to determine the character’s prior his-
  tory. The former method allows the Storyteller to dole 
  out information as needed in order to facilitate the plot. 
  The latter method makes the player more invested in 
  the spiritual heritage of his own character and may pro-
  vide for a richer narrative environment. Ultimately, the 
  actual memories conferred by this Merit (as opposed to 
  
  62
  any mechanical benefits) function as plot devices and a 
  background element.
  Note: The benefits of this Merit are redundant to 
  anyone who has access to the Savant Background (such 
  as Sidereals and the Green Sun Princes).
  PRIEST
  Cost: 1 pt. or 7 pts. (or free or 6 pts. for characters with 
  the Holy Mien Merit)
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character is a priest of a particular deity or within 
  a particular organized religion. (Zenith Caste Solars, 
  No Moon Caste Lunars, Midnight Caste Abyssals and 
  all Sidereals regardless of caste automatically gain the 
  benefits of the one-point version of this Merit for free. 
  Green Sun Princes automatically gain similar benefits by 
  virtue of being priests of the Yozis.) When making prayer 
  rolls, the character’s player reduces the difficulty of the 
  roll by one (to a minimum of 1). Also, at the Storyteller’s 
  discretion, the character may receive dreams or omens 
  sent by her patron deity.
  The seven-point version of the Merit means that the 
  character is a favored priest of the deity in question. The 
  character regularly receives prophetic dreams or even 
  waking visions from the deity. He can also call upon the 
  deity to grant miracles in response to prayer. The roll is a 
  standard prayer roll (Charisma + Performance), but the 
  character must either spend a point of Willpower for an 
  automatic success or to channel a Virtue. Some of the more 
  commonly sought miracles (and the successes needed to 
  receive them) are as follows:
  Divine Guidance: The character receives a sign or portent 
  advising him on the course of action he should next take. 
  The clarity of the sign increases with more successes.
  Essence Recovery: The character recovers two motes per 
  success on the prayer roll.
  Exorcism: The character can exorcise a possessing spirit 
  from another if his player garners a number of successes 
  equal to (the spirit’s Essence + 3). The priest’s patron 
  deity must also have a higher Essence than the possess-
  ing spirit.
  Healing: The character can heal a dying character up to the 
  Incapacitated level with five successes, but the priest must 
  also have sacrificed Resources 4+ on the prayer roll.
  Warding: A priest character who worships one of Cre-
  ation’s deities can pray for protection from creatures of 
  darkness. If the deity grants this benediction, the priest 
  may divide the successes between the area of protection 
  (10 yards per success) and the strength of the ward (which 
  will bar any creature of darkness from entering the area 
  whose Essence is not greater than the successes spent 
  on strength). Conversely, a priest character who serves 
  some dark power such as the Yozis or the Deathlords may 
  instead ward an area against the following creatures of 
  light: gods loyal to the Unconquered Sun, Solar Exalted 
  and all Exalted of any type who know even one Charm 
  with the Holy keyword.
  Willpower Recovery: The character recovers one spent 
  Willpower point per every two successes on the prayer 
  roll.
  If a priest wishes to make a sacrifice in conjunction 
  with her prayer but does not have anything of sufficient 
  value, she may promise her patron that she will make a 
  suitable offering at the earliest opportunity. The deity may 
  accept such a promise (at the Storyteller’s discretion), but 
  the Resources value of the promised sacrifice is halved for 
  purposes of calculating the difficulty of the prayer roll,
  and patrons who accept deferred payment will not answer 
  any further prayers until the promised sacrifice is made. 
  Any spirit may perceive the mark of the priest’s patron 
  deity in the priest’s Essence patterns, and such markings 
  are also visible to All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight and 
  other forms of Essence sight. Exalted who are naturally 
  one-point priests by virtue of Exaltation need pay only 
  six bonus points to acquire the seven-point version of 
  this Merit. Whenever such an Exalt prays for a miracle, 
  her caste mark shines brightly and obviously.
  ROOT OF THE PERFECTED LOTUS
  Cost: 1 pt.
  Availability: Awakened Essence, Essence 3+ and Martial 
  Arts 5
  Your character has been initiated into the myster-
  ies of supernatural martial arts and can learn Terrestrial 
  Martial Arts Charms from a sifu. He might even know 
  such Charms (if purchased with bonus points) already, 
  but he cannot learn new Charms without a teacher. A 
  Terrestrial Martial Arts Charm costs 15 experience points 
  for a mortal (12 if Martial Arts is a Favored Ability). At 
  character creation, such Charms cost eight bonus points 
  (six if Martial Arts is Favored).
  Additional information on heroic martial artists may 
  be found in Scroll of the Monk, beginning on page 17.
  SORCERY FOCUS
  Cost: 5 pts. (or 4 pts. for Twilight Caste Exalted)
  Availability: Any Exalt capable of learning Terrestrial 
  Circle Sorcery
  This Merit denotes a singular focus on the part of a 
  sorcerer for the study of his magical art. A character with 
  this Merit halves all bonus/experience point costs and train-
  ing times for learning new sorcery spells. Yet, the character 
  also doubles the bonus/experience point costs and training 
  times for all Charms except for Ox-Body Technique and 
  Charms for which Terrestrial Circle Sorcery or Celestial 
  Circle Sorcery is a prerequisite.
  
  63
  CHAPTER THREE • MERITS AND FLAWS
  This Merit normally costs five points, but is reduced 
  to four points for Twilight Caste Solars. Daybreak Caste 
  Abyssals and Defiler Caste Infernals do not get the price 
  break associated with Twilights. Characters capable of 
  learning Shadowlands Circle Necromancy, however, 
  may purchase a functionally identical Merit called Nec-
  romancy Focus that applies to necromancy spells and 
  for which Daybreak Abyssals need pay only four points. 
  Among Green Sun Princes, the corresponding Merit 
  is called Infernal Sorcery Focus, which costs only four 
  points for Defilers and five points for all other Infernal 
  Sorcery initiates.
  Mortals—even those with the Terrestrial Circle 
  Sorcery Merit (or its necromancy equivalent)—may not 
  take this Merit.
  SPECIAL SENSE
  Cost: Variable
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character has access to a special form of per-
  ception other than the normal five senses, or perhaps a 
  modification of an existing sense. Examples of possible 
  special senses include:
  Echo Location (2 pts.): The character is able to see in 
  total darkness like a bat by giving off sub-audible signals 
  and listening as they bounce off nearby objects. This power 
  also functions underwater.
  Essence Sight (5 pts.): The character can easily perceive 
  dragon lines and Essence flows and track them with a suc-
  cessful (Perception + Awareness) roll. She can look at an 
  Essence wielder and see how much Essence he still has 
  available, but when she tries to use this power against a 
  Night Caste Solar, a Day Caste Abyssal or a Scourge Caste 
  Infernal, she suffers an external penalty equal to the Exalt’s 
  permanent Essence. The character can intuitively sense the 
  presence of nearby manses and demesnes (provided they 
  are not shielded from discovery), as well as the presence 
  of magitech with built-in Essence batteries. Essence Sight 
  does not allow the character to perceive dematerialized 
  spirits or ghosts, however. Despite its name, this sense is 
  not necessarily a visual one. Some characters can hear, 
  smell or even taste ambient Essence.
  Spirit Sight (6 pts.): The character may automatically 
  see dematerialized ghosts, spirits and demons without the 
  need for a roll.
  Telepathy (7 pts.): The character can hear the surface 
  thoughts of anyone he observes. He can understand these 
  thoughts regardless of the target’s native language, but he 
  cannot comprehend the thoughts of inhuman creatures 
  such as demons, Fair Folk, Dragon Kings or other similar 
  races. In order to use this power, the player must success-
  fully roll (Intelligence + Awareness) with a -1 internal 
  penalty for every point of Intelligence the target has above 
  the telepathic character. If the target is aware of the at-
  tempted telepathic intrusion, she can attempt to block 
  the telepath, with her player rolling (Wits + Lore) as a 
  resisted roll against the telepath. Both rolls can be assisted 
  by stunts and by channeling Virtues. Finally, although 
  telepathy is not intrinsically associated with the Wyld, it 
  is treated as a Shaping effect for purposes of Charms that 
  resist Shaping effects. Thus, Integrity Protecting Prana, for 
  example, absolutely protects a Solar Exalt from telepathic 
  intrusion from this Merit.
  Thermal Sight (2 pts.): The character can see patterns 
  of heat, allowing him to see in darkness by the reflection 
  of his own body heat, to track the still-warm footprints 
  of those who have recently passed through or to spot a 
  smoldering campfire at night from miles away.
  Vibration Sense (2 pts. or 5 pts.): The character can 
  sense vibrations as they pass through solid objects. He 
  can easily hear a conversation in the next room as if there 
  were no walls in the way, and he can detect the location 
  of nearby moving objects by feeling the vibrations in the 
  ground from their passage. At the two-point level, this 
  sense extends for (Perception + Awareness) yards. At the 
  five-point level, it extends for ([Perception + Awareness] 
  x 100) yards.
  Weather Sense (1 pt.): The character can intuitively sense 
  changes in the local weather, anticipating the weather 
  patterns over a number of days equal to the successes 
  rolled on a (Perception + Awareness) roll.
  TAINT’S WARNING
  Cost: 2 pts. for Solars. 1 pt. for Abyssals and Green Sun 
  Princes.
  Availability: Solars, Abyssals and Green Sun Princes
  A Solar character with this Merit has the intuitive 
  ability to sense creatures of darkness, which is defined 
  to include the following: demons, undead, Infernal Ex-
  alted, deathknights, Deathlords and anyone else whom 
  the Storyteller classifies as a creature of darkness. Some 
  akuma may be detected by this Merit, but unfortunately, 
  many of them are skilled at hiding their demonic natures. 
  Whenever a creature of darkness comes within (perma-
  nent Essence x 10) yards of the Solar, her caste mark 
  automatically (and possibly unwillingly) lights up at a 
  cost of one mote. If the Solar’s anima is at the 4+ range, 
  her caste mark activates at no cost. Regardless, the Solar 
  instantly senses that something unwholesome is nearby, 
  something that is utterly inimical to the Unconquered 
  Sun. The Merit does not reveal the nature or identity of 
  the threat, however.
  For Abyssal Exalted and Green Sun Princes, this 
  Merit has been altered by the nature of their Exaltations. 
  Instead of detecting creatures of darkness, the Merit 
  detects creatures of light, which are defined to include: 
  
  64
  Solars, Lunars, Sidereals, celestial lions or any other direct 
  servants of the Incarnae.
  TERRESTRIAL BLOODLINE
  Cost: 1 pt.
  Availability: Anyone with less than Essence 4 (excluding 
  all Dragon-Blooded)
  The blood of the Dragons is strong and often persists 
  in offspring for generations to come. Your character, 
  while not a Dragon-Blood, is descended from one and 
  carries within her the potential to breed Terrestrial Ex-
  alted offspring. When a character with this Merit mates 
  with another character who does not possess it, roll one 
  die for each resulting offspring. On a 1, the child will 
  eventually Exalt as a Dragon-Blood. On a 2 or 3, the 
  child will not Exalt, but will inherit this Merit. With 
  any other result, the bloodline does not extend to the 
  child and his own future offspring (unless the blood of 
  the Dragons reenters the family line at some point in 
  the future). If a character with this Merit mates with 
  another mortal who carries it, any issue will Exalt on a 
  roll of 1, and those who do not Exalt will automatically 
  possess this Merit. If the character mates with a Dragon-
  Blood, add one to the Dragon-Blooded’s Breeding to 
  determine the likelihood of any children Exalting. (See 
  The Manual of Exalted Power—The Dragon-Blooded, 
  pp. 105–106, for an explanation of the functioning of 
  the Breeding Merit.)
  Celestial Exalted may possess this Merit and have 
  the same likelihood of siring Dragon-Blooded children 
  as any mortal. Once the Exalt has achieved Essence 4, 
  however, his children will become Half-Castes instead of 
  Dragon-Blooded, and this Merit is lost.
  TERRESTRIAL CIRCLE SORCERY
  Cost: 10 pts.
  Availability: Mortal with awakened Essence, Essence 3+ 
  and Occult 5+
  With this Merit, your character has been initiated 
  into sorcery and can learn and cast spells of the First 
  Circle. She can then learn any spells associated with that 
  circle at a cost of 15 experience points (12 if Occult is a 
  Favored Ability) or eight bonus points (six if Occult is 
  Favored) just as if she had learned the appropriate initia-
  tion Charm. Any spells cast by the character follow the 
  normal rules for casting actions, and the character must 
  spend a Willpower point in order to cast any spell.
  A character may begin play with a functionally identi-
  cal Shadowlands Circle Necromancy Merit instead, but 
  she may not possess both versions of the Merit.
  STUNT MERITS
  These Merits improve the character’s ability to use 
  stunts and generally demonstrate her coolness.
  DAREDEVIL
  Cost: 4 pts. (3 pts. for mortals)
  Availability: Anyone
  Fortune favors the bold, often to an improbable degree. 
  Your character has incredible skill at defying the odds, 
  especially when death is on the line. By spending one 
  Willpower, the character can double the stunt dice awarded 
  for any physical action with a difficulty of 3 or higher. A 
  character can spend Willpower to gain the benefits of this 
  Merit as well as gaining an automatic success or channeling 
  a Virtue, and the character need not declare his use of this 
  Merit until after the Storyteller has determined the roll’s 
  final difficulty. This Merit does not affect the number of 
  motes or Willpower recovered after a successful stunt, nor 
  does it double the extra stunt die awarded by Signature 
  Style if that Merit is also applicable to the situation. The 
  cost of this Merit is one less for mortals because a mortal’s 
  heroism in the face of overwhelming odds is all the more 
  impressive for his lack of magic.
  SIGNATURE STYLE
  Cost: 2 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  The character’s natural flair and competence shines 
  in one particular endeavor. A signature style is essentially 
  a specialty that applies to stunts. If the character performs 
  a stunt that is appropriate to his signature style, he gains 
  a one-die bonus. A character may take this Merit up to 
  three times, but a single stunt may never gain more than 
  a one-die bonus no matter how many signature styles it 
  arguably fits within. The dice bonus does not affect the 
  number of motes or Willpower points the character recov-
  ers for a successful stunt.
  Examples of possible signature styles include: 
  “Performing the Impossible,” “Invoking Pants-Wetting 
  Terror,” “Shocking Brutality,” “Effortless Grace” and 
  “Peerless Skill.”
  As always, the Storyteller is the final arbiter of 
  whether a particular stunt fits within the parameters of 
  the signature style, and she also has final authority on 
  whether a signature style is too broad to be acceptable 
  as a specialty.
  FLAWS
  PHYSICAL FLAWS
  These Flaws interfere with the functioning of Physical 
  Attributes and associated Abilities.
  AMPUTEE
  Cost: Variable
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character is missing one or more limbs, most 
  likely as a result of some prior accident, injury or crip-
  
  65
  CHAPTER THREE • MERITS AND FLAWS
  pling attack. Alternatively, one or more limbs has been 
  rendered useless, such as a withered arm resulting from 
  polio or a limb that has been permanently paralyzed due 
  to injury. In particular, many Charms that carry the Crip-
  pling keyword can inflict this Flaw on a character if the 
  Charm’s effect is a permanent one. The cost of the Flaw 
  varies according to the nature of the debility.
  Missing One Hand (2 pts.): The character is missing 
  one hand. It is assumed that either the missing hand is 
  the character’s off hand or that the character has simply 
  adjusted to using his off hand. Either way, a character 
  with a missing hand suffers no off-hand penalty. A char-
  acter missing a hand suffers a -4 internal penalty on all 
  tasks that normally require the use of two hands, such as 
  wielding a two-handed weapon or climbing a ladder. If 
  the character has a hook or other mundane prosthesis, 
  the penalty is reduced to -2.
  Missing Both Hands (5 pts.): The character is missing 
  both hands. Tasks that call for fine manual dexterity are 
  utterly impossible, but if the character is equipped with 
  hooks or mundane prosthetics, she can attempt such feats 
  at a -4 internal penalty.
  Missing One Arm (3 pts.): The character is missing 
  one arm. He suffers a -2 internal penalty on all Athletics 
  rolls due to lack of proper balance, although this penalty 
  may be negated with a creative use of weighted garments 
  or prosthetics. The character also suffers the effects of 
  missing one hand.
  Missing Both Arms (6 pts.): The character is missing 
  both arms. He automatically fails all actions involving 
  manual dexterity (absent the creative use of Charms or 
  magic) and suffers a -3 internal penalty on all Athletics 
  rolls involving balance.
  Missing One Leg (3 pts.): The character is missing one 
  leg. Normally, she cannot walk or run at all, can barely 
  stand and suffers a -5 penalty on all Athletics checks that 
  require footwork. With a peg leg or prosthetic leg, she can 
  move and dash at half her normal rate and suffers only a 
  -3 penalty on footwork.
  Missing Both Legs (6 pts.): The character is missing 
  both legs. He cannot walk under any circumstances, 
  automatically fails all Athletics rolls involving foot-
  work, cannot dash and, if forced to move under his own 
  power, can only crawl at one-third his normal Move 
  rate. A legless character in a wheelchair or cart (either 
  of which is Resources 1) can move and dash, but the 
  movement rate is based on the character’s Strength 
  instead of Dexterity.
  Quadriplegic (8 pts.): A highly unusual character concept 
  for the Age of Sorrows, the character is either paralyzed 
  
  66
  from the neck down or has lost the use of all four limbs. 
  She is incapable of nearly any physical task.
  Exalted characters gain less from this Flaw than 
  mortals, since the gods simply do not normally choose 
  crippled characters for Exaltation. The bonus point reward 
  for losing a hand or single limb is reduced by one for an 
  Exalt. For amputations involving two or more limbs, the 
  reward is reduced by two.
  CLIMATE SENSITIVITY
  Cost: 2–4 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character is acclimated to a particular region 
  of Creation and suffers penalties in other climates. If the 
  character’s climate sensitivity is triggered, the character 
  suffers a -1 internal penalty on all actions, and the difficulty 
  of all Survival and Resistance rolls increases by one.
  The cost of this Flaw is dependent on how vulner-
  able the character is to different climates. For two points, 
  the character suffers only in an extreme environment 
  that is the antithesis of his preferred climate (such as a 
  Northerner in the hot desert or a Southerner in the frozen 
  tundra). For three points, the character is uncomfort-
  able in any environment other than his preferred one, 
  including even temperate zones (such as Northerner in 
  any non-cold environment or a Southerner outside of 
  the desert). For four points, the character is limited to 
  one specific geographic region and cannot even endure 
  areas that are climatically similar but not identical. 
  Most often this is due to environmental conditions of 
  which the character might not even be aware until he 
  tries to leave (such as a Southeastern jungle dweller 
  who sickens when not regularly exposed to the pollen 
  of the indigenous trees or a Westerner from the Neck 
  who cannot stomach water that tastes different from the 
  well in his village).
  The Storyteller should veto any form of climate 
  sensitivity that would apply only if the character were to 
  enter an area the story is unlikely to compel him to go. 
  Likewise, a character who has access to Charms or other 
  magic that negates penalties for harsh climates should not 
  be permitted to take this Flaw.
  DIMINISHED ATTRIBUTES
  Cost: 3 pts. per Attribute dot
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character is weaker, slower, more sickly or infe-
  rior in some other way to her peers. This debility might 
  be the result of injury, old age, extreme youth, sickness 
  or even some curse inflicted by a powerful magical being. 
  Regardless, the character begins with fewer Attribute 
  dots than the character-creation process would normally 
  provide. For every Physical Attribute dot sacrificed, the 
  character gains three bonus points. Although this Flaw 
  is grouped under Physical Flaws, similar Flaws exist for 
  Mental or Social Attributes, which are identical to this 
  Flaw except for the type of Attribute affected. Unlike 
  the Attributes sacrificed with the Experienced Merit, the 
  character receives fewer bonus points but can spend them 
  on anything instead of just Abilities.
  MUTE
  Cost: 1 pt. or 4 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character is unable to speak normally. For one 
  bonus point, the character is simply unable to speak above 
  a whisper, while complete dumbness grants four bonus 
  points. A character with the one-point version automati-
  cally fails all Performance or Presence checks that require 
  public speaking but faces no penalty on social attacks as 
  long as his target can hear him, which requires the target’s 
  player to succeed on a (Perception + Awareness) roll at 
  difficulty 2.
  A character with the four-point version of the 
  Merit automatically fails all Performance or Presence 
  checks based on verbal communication and suffers a -5 
  penalty on all social attack rolls made for her unless the 
  attack expressly has no verbal component. While there 
  is no universal sign language in the Age of Sorrows, 
  the character and her allies can communicate through 
  an informal sign language if each of them commits one 
  Linguistics slot to it.
  SICKLY
  Cost: 3 pts. or 6 pts.
  Availability: Anyone with Stamina 3 or less
  Your character either has a weak constitution or is 
  particularly vulnerable to disease or infection. For three 
  points, the character either doubles all healing times or
  doubles the difficulty for all (Stamina + Resistance) rolls 
  to resist disease or infection. For six points, the character 
  suffers both weaknesses. If the character’s Stamina rises 
  above 3, this Flaw is lost.
  SUN-SEARED
  Cost: 2 pts., 3 pts. or 6 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character is extremely vulnerable to sunburn, 
  most likely because she is an albino, a Wyld mutant or 
  an Abyssal. Treat exposure to direct sunlight as a damag-
  ing environmental effect. At the two-point level, direct 
  sunlight inflicts a damage of 1B/hour with a trauma of 
  3, and the character also suffers a one-die penalty on all 
  rolls. At the three-point level, it inflicts damage of 1B/30 
  minutes instead, and the penalty increases to two dice. At 
  the six-point level, most commonly found in Abyssals and 
  Wyld mutants, sunlight inflicts 1B/minute and a three-
  die penalty. Heavy clothing doubles the time interval for 
  environmental damage.
  
  67
  CHAPTER THREE • MERITS AND FLAWS
  STERILE
  Cost: 1 pt. (3 pts. for Dragon-Blooded)
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character is either sterile or infertile. Some men 
  become sterile as a result of castration, whether from an 
  accident, as a punishment or from being gelded in prepara-
  tion for becoming a eunuch. This Flaw grants more points 
  to Dragon-Blooded Exalts due to the societal pressure 
  they face to bear children. Many mortals employed by 
  the Lintha pirates carry this Flaw.
  SOCIAL FLAWS
  These Flaws adversely affect the functioning of Social 
  Attributes or associated Abilities.
  BARBARIAN
  Cost: 3 pts.
  Availability: Lore 0
  Your character has never learned how to function in 
  civilized society. Of course, reasonable people differ on 
  what civilized means. The Delzahn nobles of Chiaroscuro 
  often view their nomadic, desert-dwelling cousins as bar-
  barians, while Dynasts residing in Chiaroscuro often view 
  the comparatively rustic Delzahn nobility with the same 
  condescension. For the purposes of this Flaw, however, a 
  barbarian is someone who is completely uneducated and 
  almost inept when socializing in polite, genteel society.
  The character has no dots in the Lore Ability and 
  may never gain any dots while he possesses this Flaw, 
  which also inflicts a four-die penalty on all rolls made for 
  the character to interact civilly with others in situations 
  requiring education or breeding. The Storyteller is the 
  final arbiter on when this penalty applies, but examples 
  include: not embarrassing oneself at a formal dinner party, 
  negotiating a contract with a Guild operative, finding 
  a particular book in a library or arguing a point of law 
  before a judge.
  CHILD
  Cost: 5 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character is much younger than typical starting 
  characters. Reduce the number of starting dots received 
  in primary Attributes and secondary Attributes by one 
  each. Reduce the number of starting dots for Abilities by 
  four. Your character cannot begin with an Ability higher 
  than 2 without spending bonus points, and the character 
  suffers a two-die penalty on all social interactions with 
  adults. For two additional points, your character is a very 
  young child and has the equivalent of the Small pox (see 
  
  68
  Exalted, p. 288). A very young child suffers a four-die 
  penalty on social attacks against adults.
  DARK SECRET
  Cost: 1–5 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character harbors a dark secret that would be 
  disastrous if the wrong person learned it. The exact nature 
  of this secret is left to the player’s discretion, subject to 
  Storyteller approval. The value of a dark secret is rated 
  from one to five points, with a one-point secret being a 
  minor one that will trigger a limited amount of public 
  humiliation or opprobrium. A three-point secret repre-
  sents serious social consequences, such as a past criminal 
  history or bastardy. A five-point secret represents the 
  most serious possible consequences, such as treasonous 
  conduct or illegal dealings with the Fair Folk, Deathlords 
  or Yozis. Such secrets likely deserve the death penalty in 
  the character’s culture.
  A character with a dark secret also automatically 
  gains an Intimacy toward keeping the secret that can 
  never be lost while the character still has this Flaw, but 
  that is automatically lost if the secret is revealed. If that 
  occurs, the character either gains a number of appropri-
  ate, Storyteller-chosen Flaws that would flow naturally 
  from the revelation or loses a number of appropriate, 
  Storyteller-chosen Background dots or Merits or some 
  combination of the two. For example, the revelation that 
  a trusted Guild member has been embezzling might result 
  in the loss of Backing and Resources or the acquisition 
  of the Enemy or Wanted Flaws.
  The number of dots worth of Backgrounds or Merits 
  lost or Flaws gained is equal to twice the value of this 
  Flaw. A Celestial Exalt may not count his Exalted status 
  as a Dark Secret unless the character has specific Back-
  grounds or Merits that are likely to be lost upon exposure 
  as an Anathema. For example, a character with Backing, 
  Command, Followers or Resources whose Anathema status 
  is revealed might quickly be forced on the run and lose 
  those Backgrounds as a result.
  DISFIGURED
  Cost: 3 pts. or 5 pts.
  Availability: Anyone except Abyssal Exalted
  Your character is hideous, either as the result of some 
  birth defect, mutilation, Wyld mutation or some other 
  reason. For three points, the character has an Appearance 
  of 1 that cannot be raised with bonus points or experi-
  ence. For five points, his starting Appearance is 0, and 
  he begins with one less dot to spend in Social Attributes. 
  Most other characters will simply look upon him with 
  unbridled contempt, but if you choose to take this Flaw 
  at the five-point level, you may treat your character’s Ap-
  pearance as 5 for purposes of intimidation rolls.
  ENEMY
  Cost: 1–5 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character is troubled by a recurring nemesis who 
  constantly seeks to thwart her goals, defeat or humiliate her, 
  or even kill her outright. The enemy need not be utterly 
  hostile, however. A rival who always swoops in to steal the 
  credit for the character’s successes (or just the character’s 
  girlfriend) before running away laughing can represent an 
  enemy. This Flaw functions as the antithesis of the Allies 
  Background. For every point taken in this Flaw, increase 
  the power of the enemy or rival relative to the character, 
  using the Allies Background as a general guideline. (See 
  pp. 110–111 of Exalted as well as page 29 of this book 
  for guidelines on creating ally characters.) Additionally, 
  the enemy or rival is one who, for some reason, cannot 
  simply be killed outright, assuming the character has the 
  means to do so anyway, unless this Flaw has been bought 
  off with experience.
  At the beginning of each session, the Storyteller should 
  roll one die. If the result is equal to or less than the rating of 
  this Flaw, the enemy will take some action in the course of 
  that session that will interfere with the character’s long-term 
  goals. It is not necessary for the character to interact with 
  her enemy during that session. The enemy might simply 
  send word during a later session to inform the character 
  that he has kidnapped one of her loved ones.
  OBLIGATION
  Cost: Variable
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character owes a debt to some powerful or influ-
  ential personage who uses your indebtedness as leverage 
  to secure your services. This Flaw represents the antithesis 
  of the Favor Merit found on page 56, as your character is 
  the one who owes the favor to someone else. The credi-
  tor can call upon the character to act as a henchman or 
  unwilling ally. The value of this Merit is based on the 
  type of favor the character owes.
  Base Merit Cost Favor
  1 pt. 
  Minor boon. The character is obligated 
  to perform some task that might occupy 
  a few days of her time but exposes her 
  to no significant risk.
  2 pts. 
  Moderate boon. The character is 
  obligated to perform some task that 
  represents a serious inconvenience but 
  is not life threatening.
  3 pts. 
  Major boon. The character owes a major 
  boon to the character, and fulfilling it 
  could involve a substantial risk of in-
  jury.
  
  69
  CHAPTER THREE • MERITS AND FLAWS
  cident, etc.), but since that point, she has no short-term 
  memory. Whenever the character awakens from sleep or 
  is simply startled suddenly, she forgets everything that 
  happened between that traumatic event and the present. 
  The character’s player must roll Conviction against a 
  difficulty of 3 in order to maintain the character’s short-
  term memories every time she takes damage or fails 
  any kind of Valor check. The character automatically 
  forgets everything since the original trauma whenever 
  she awakens from sleep. Neither form of amnesia in-
  terferes with Attributes or Abilities in any way. Once 
  a character acquires a new Ability or Charm, she will 
  retain the knowledge of how to use it, but she might 
  not remember she actually has it. As an optional rule, 
  the player may permit the Storyteller to spend some or 
  all of the character’s bonus points for her to represent 
  advantages the character does not know about at the 
  start of the series. Obviously, this requires a high degree 
  of trust between player and Storyteller.
  DERANGEMENT
  Cost: 1–3 pts. The first derangement acquired gives 3 pts.; 
  any subsequent derangements grant only 1 pt.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character suffers from some type of mental illness 
  that affects his cognitive functioning. Derangements are 
  always active but can be suppressed for a scene with the 
  expenditure of a Willpower point. In addition to any other 
  specific effects of a derangement, all derangements inflict 
  a -3 internal penalty on all social-interaction rolls made 
  for the character against characters who do not share the 
  same derangement(s). Common derangements include:
  Depression: The character is in a permanent state of 
  depression and is overwhelmed by sadness and despair. He 
  constantly suffers from the partial control effects of the 
  Heart of Tears Virtue Flaw (see Exalted, p. 104).
  Glossolalia: When exposed to stress, the character’s 
  player must roll Temperance against a difficulty of 3. On 
  a failure, the character begins “speaking in tongues” and 
  loses the ability to verbally communicate with others 
  for the duration of the scene. While under the effects of 
  glossolalia, the character is also highly agitated and finds 
  it difficult to comprehend others or to communicate with 
  them even non-verbally. This derangement is common 
  among shamans, true prophets and characters with the 
  Whispers Background.
  Megalomania: The character believes utterly in his 
  own superiority over everyone else he encounters. If 
  defeated or outwitted, he rationalizes his failure as being 
  the results of the incompetence of his allies or through 
  cheating on the part of his enemies. The character’s player 
  must roll Conviction and get no successes in order for the 
  character to willingly follow the instructions of another 
  4 pts. 
  Life debt. The character owes her life 
  to the debt holder. This debt can be 
  cancelled only by either saving the 
  patron’s life or by performing any major 
  request of his choice, no matter how 
  time consuming or dangerous.
  Once the character satisfies her obligations, this Flaw 
  ceases to exist, but that is far easier said than done. The 
  patron might choose not to call in the debt for its full 
  value but ask for minor favors for an extended period of 
  time instead. Generally, a character under an obligation 
  may be asked for the benefits of an obligation costing 
  two or more points less once per session or the benefits 
  of an obligation costing one point less once per story. For 
  example, if the character is a Lunar who owes a life debt to 
  another, the creditor can ask her for a minor or moderate 
  boon once per session or for a major boon once per story. 
  Once he asks the character for a favor that is equal to the 
  life debt, however, the Flaw is lost.
  The effects of this Flaw are not enforced magically, 
  and it is quite possible for a character to refuse to fulfill 
  her obligations. Generally, in order to refuse an obliga-
  tion requested by the debt holder, the character must 
  roll Conviction and get no successes. Add one additional 
  die to the Conviction roll for each level by which the 
  requested favor is less than the debt owed. That is, if 
  the debt holder asks for a minor boon from a character 
  who owes him a life debt, add three dice to the roll. If he 
  appeals to the character’s sense of honor through social 
  combat, the successes on the social attack may add dice 
  to the Conviction roll as well. The Storyteller may add 
  even more dice to the roll if the character would face 
  social opprobrium for reneging on a debt or if she is from 
  a culture that places particular emphasis on repaying one’s 
  debts. Lunars, in particular, find it socially unacceptable 
  to deny their obligations, especially life debts.
  MENTAL FLAWS
  These Flaws adversely affect the function of Mental 
  Attributes and/or Abilities.
  AMNESIA
  Cost: 3 pts. or 7 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character begins play lacking all her prior life 
  memories. For three points, the character is missing signif-
  icant chunks of her memories prior to the start of the series. 
  Perhaps she does not remember the last several years, 
  or perhaps she is a tabula rasa and knows nothing prior 
  to the moment she first awakens in the series. For seven 
  points, the character may or may not remember the 
  majority of her life, at least up to some significant or 
  traumatic event (Exaltation, survival of a near-fatal ac-
  
  70
  without either trying to subvert the orders or to take credit 
  for the plan’s success.
  Multiple Personalities: The character has more than 
  one personality, each of which has a different Motivation 
  and Intimacies (although some Intimacies may overlap, 
  such as when both personalities love the same person). 
  One of the personalities is the primary “true” personality. 
  Each additional personality is keyed to a particular Virtue. 
  When the primary personality either fails a Virtue roll 
  associated with that Virtue or channels that Virtue and 
  then fails the roll, the associated alternative personality 
  takes over for the duration of a scene. In addition, the 
  personality that is secondary to the character’s can com-
  municate with the character as a Storyteller-controlled 
  character when not dominant. The first alternative person-
  ality grants three points, and each additional personality 
  grants one point.
  Sadism: The character enjoys cruelty and the inflic-
  tion of suffering on others. He constantly suffers from the 
  partial control effects of the Deliberate Cruelty Virtue 
  Flaw (see Exalted, p. 105).
  Short Fuse: The character is easily provoked and 
  becomes overwhelmed by blind rage when threatened in 
  any way. She constantly suffers the partial control effects 
  of the Berserk Anger Virtue Flaw (see Exalted, p. 105).
  (A player may not choose a derangement that dupli-
  cates the effects of his Exalted character’s Virtue Flaw.)
  DIMINISHED SENSE
  Cost: Variable
  Availability: Anyone
  One of your character’s senses is weakened in some 
  way, perhaps to the point of nonexistence. The character 
  might be near- or far-sighted, if not completely blind. He 
  could be hard of hearing or deaf as a post. The cost of this 
  Flaw varies according to the nature and severity of the 
  sensory loss. In particular, if the character can overcome 
  the Flaw with Charms or magic, the Storyteller is free to 
  reduce the point value of the Flaw or to veto it.
  Hearing (2 pts. or 5 pts.): For two points, the character 
  is hard of hearing. His player suffers a two-die penalty 
  on all auditory Perception rolls made for the character, 
  as well as adding one to the difficulty of all social rolls 
  in loud social situations where he will be unable to hear 
  well. For five points, the character is completely deaf. 
  All auditory Perception rolls made for him automatically 
  fail, and he suffers a -3 internal penalty on all Perception 
  rolls made for the character to spot someone attempting 
  to sneak past with Stealth. The character can read lips if 
  his player successfully rolls (Perception + Linguistics) at 
  difficulty 3 (difficulty 1 if the character has acquired “Lip 
  Reading” as a language with one of his Linguistics dots). 
  Speaking clearly is difficult for a deaf character, whose 
  player suffers a -2 internal penalty on all rolls made for 
  the character that involve oral communication.
  Smell (1 pt. or 2 pts for Lunars): The character has no 
  sense of smell and automatically fails all olfactory-based 
  Perception checks. For most characters, such a disability is 
  a minor annoyance at worst. It is more serious for a Lunar 
  Exalt who might otherwise be able to track a quarry by 
  scent if wearing a suitable form.
  Taste (1 pt. or 3 pts. for Lunars): The character has no 
  sense of taste and automatically fails all Perception rolls 
  to identify a substance by taste. For most characters, such 
  a disability is frustrating but not seriously debilitating. It 
  is more serious for Lunar Exalted, as the inability to taste 
  interferes with the character’s ability to learn new shapes 
  by drinking a creature’s Heart’s Blood (see The Manual of 
  Exalted Power—The Lunars, pp. 109–110). Normally, 
  there is no roll associated with the act of drinking Heart’s 
  Blood, but the player of a Lunar with this Flaw must suc-
  cessfully roll (Perception + Occult) at a difficulty of 3 in 
  order for the character to do so.
  Touch (4 pts.): The character is insensate and auto-
  matically fails all attempts to identify anything by touch. 
  The character does not feel pain and halves all wound 
  penalties, but she will also fail to recognize the extent of 
  any injuries suffered unless they are pointed out to her or 
  the character’s player succeeds on a (Wits + Medicine) 
  roll. The character is incapable of noticing temperature 
  changes, and the difficulty of Survival rolls to avoid frost-
  bite or heat prostration increases by two. The character 
  is also incapable of feeling physical pleasure, which is 
  profoundly frustrating to characters of low Temperance 
  or high Compassion, although the mechanical effects of 
  this are left to the Storyteller’s imagination.
  Vision (2 pts., 3 pts. or 6 pts.): For three points, the char-
  acter has poor vision. If she is far-sighted, her player suffers 
  a two-die penalty on all rolls that involve the character 
  reading small characters or manipulating small objects. If 
  the character is near-sighted, her player suffers a two-die 
  penalty on all Perception rolls made for the character 
  to spot something more than (Perception + Awareness) 
  yards away and a two-die penalty on all ranged attacks. 
  Optometry exists in the Second Age, albeit primitively, 
  and a character who acquires glass or crystal spectacles 
  reduces the benefits of this Merit to two points. Such 
  spectacles cost Resources 4 in the Threshold or the rural 
  Realm; Resources 3 in Nexus, the Imperial City or any 
  other major metropolis; or Resources 2 in Chiaroscuro, 
  the glass capital of Creation.
  For three points, the character is blind in, and may be 
  missing, one eye. The player of a one-eyed character 
  suffers a two-die penalty on all vision-based Perception 
  rolls made for the character and a three-die penalty on all 
  
  71
  CHAPTER THREE • MERITS AND FLAWS
  ranged attack rolls made for the character due to his lack 
  of depth perception. Also, an attacker in close quarters 
  may try to attack the character from his blind side. The 
  attacker’s player must roll (Wits + Martial Arts or Melee) 
  roll, opposed by (Wits + Martial Arts or Melee) rolled by 
  the character’s player. Any successes the attacker gains 
  over the character subtract from the character’s DV against 
  the next attack.
  For six points, the character is completely blind. Any 
  rolls made for the character based on visual perception 
  automatically fail. The character can attempt a ranged 
  attack on anyone within 100 yards, but suffers a three-die 
  external penalty on the attack (and possibly even a higher 
  penalty if, for example, the target is attempting stealth 
  or has access to cover the blind character cannot see). In 
  addition, the character is incapable of reading unless she 
  has some magical or technomagical means of perceiving 
  text. Any character incapable of reading is generally also 
  incapable of studying sorcery or necromancy unless she 
  has a highly dedicated tutor and/or some form of magical 
  auditory instruction device.
  UNSKILLED
  Cost: Variable
  Availability: Anyone
  The character is uneducated and/or untrained in 
  comparison to most starting characters. For each point 
  taken in this Flaw, reduce the number of starting Ability 
  dots by one. (This Flaw is most common among children 
  and those with low Intelligence.)
  SPIRITUAL FLAWS
  These Flaws affect the functioning of the character’s 
  Virtues or Willpower.
  CODE OF HONOR
  Cost: Variable
  Availability: Conviction 3+
  Your character has a highly developed sense of personal 
  honor that restricts her ability to break her word or to act 
  dishonorably. The cost of this Flaw is determined both 
  by how strict the code is and how strongly the character 
  believes in it. For one point, your character is incapable 
  of lying to anyone toward whom she has an Intimacy or 
  betraying an Intimacy in any way unless her player first 
  fails a Conviction roll. For two points, your character 
  feels this way about anyone she considers an ally. For 
  three points, she is honest to a fault and can neither lie 
  to nor betray anyone who is not actively an enemy. For 
  five points, the character is incapable of lying to anyone 
  without her player first failing a Conviction check. For 
  six points, the character is a total pacifist and may not 
  attack another living being without her player first failing 
  a Conviction check. For each additional point added to 
  the Flaw’s base price, add a two-die bonus to all appropri-
  ate Conviction rolls.
  In addition to the aforementioned effects, if the char-
  acter also owes an obligation (per the Flaw) to someone 
  else, add this Flaw’s rating to all Conviction rolls made to 
  renege on the debt. If the player rolls successes but wishes 
  her character to violate the code of honor anyway, she 
  must spend Willpower points equal to the cost of this Flaw 
  (rounded up) in order for the character to do so.
  INTOLERANCE
  Cost: Variable
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character has an irrational dislike for some class 
  of people. Common triggers for intolerance include the 
  very poor, the very rich, people with Wyld mutations or 
  members of social groups opposed to the character’s own 
  social group (such as a citizen from a nation with whom 
  the character’s people are at war). Uncommon triggers for 
  intolerance include clowns, elementals, demons or people 
  from distant lands. The cost of this Flaw is determined 
  first by whether the trigger is a commonly encountered 
  type of being or not. For three points, the character has 
  an intolerance with a relatively common trigger. When 
  the character encounters the trigger, his player must suc-
  cessfully roll Compassion against a difficulty of 3 lest the 
  character become immediately hostile to the hated person. 
  While active, an intolerance inflicts a three-die penalty on 
  all social actions taken by the character against the other 
  person except for intimidation. The player may spend one 
  Willpower to ignore the effects of a failed Compassion roll 
  for the scene. For each additional point gained from this 
  Flaw, the difficulty of the Compassion roll increases by one, 
  as does the Willpower cost of ignoring the intolerance. If 
  the triggering class of individual is not often encountered 
  (meaning that the Flaw will be less of a hindrance to the 
  character), reduce the base cost of the Flaw by two. The 
  Storyteller can veto any intolerance on the grounds that 
  the trigger is too rare to come up in the series.
  NIGHTMARES
  Cost: 1–5 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character suffers from crippling nightmares that 
  deprive him of sleep and leave him emotionally exhausted 
  during the day. Whenever the character attempts to sleep, 
  the Storyteller should roll one die. At the one-point level, 
  the character wakes up screaming during the night, and 
  regains no Willpower the next morning, if the roll comes 
  up 1 or 2. For each additional point gained from this Flaw, 
  increase the range of the roll that results in a nightmare by 
  two. At the three-point level, for example, the character 
  will have a nightmare on a roll of 1 to 6. Additionally, 
  if subjected to dream-manipulating Charms or powers 
  
  72
  employed by gods, demons or Fair Folk, the character’s 
  player suffers an internal penalty equal to the Flaw’s rating 
  on any rolls to resist, and the character suffers a similar 
  penalty to any applicable DV.
  PHOBIA
  Cost: Variable
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character is irrationally afraid of some person, 
  place, thing or condition of being. Common triggers for 
  phobias include heights, enclosed spaces, spiders, drowning 
  or public speaking. Uncommon triggers for phobias include 
  clowns, being buried alive, public nudity or shellfish. A 
  phobia’s cost is determined first by whether the trigger is 
  a commonly encountered phenomenon or not. For three 
  points, the character has a phobia with a relatively com-
  mon trigger. When the character encounters the trigger, 
  the character’s player must successfully roll Valor against a 
  difficulty of 3 lest the character be forced to flee the scene 
  or otherwise panic. If the character is forced to remain 
  near or interact with the trigger, the phobia inflicts a dice 
  penalty on all relevant rolls made for the character equal 
  to the total cost of this Flaw. The player may negate this 
  effect for a scene by spending one Willpower. For each 
  additional point gained from this Flaw, the difficulty of 
  the Valor roll increases by one, as does the Willpower cost 
  to ignore the phobia. If the trigger is an uncommon one 
  (meaning that the Flaw will be less of a hindrance to the 
  character), reduce the base cost of the Flaw by two. The 
  Storyteller can veto any phobia on the grounds that the 
  trigger is too rare to come up in the series.
  VICE
  Cost: Variable
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character is addicted to some vice. Common 
  vices include alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling or even accept-
  ing dares. Uncommon vices include sex with demons or 
  Fair Folk or imbibing exotic drugs such as bright morning. 
  A vice’s cost is determined first by whether the trigger is 
  a commonly encountered phenomenon or not. For three 
  points, the character has a vice with a relatively common 
  trigger. When the character encounters the trigger, the 
  character’s player must successfully roll Temperance against 
  a difficulty of 3 lest the character surrender to the chosen 
  vice. The player may spend one Willpower to have the 
  character ignore the effects of a failed Temperance roll for 
  a scene. For each additional point gained from this Flaw, 
  the difficulty of the Temperance roll increases by one, as 
  does the Willpower cost to ignore a vice. If the trigger is 
  an uncommon one (meaning that the Flaw will be less of a 
  hindrance to the character), reduce the base cost of the Flaw 
  by two. The Storyteller can veto any vice on the grounds 
  that the trigger is too rare to come up in the series.
  WEAK-WILLED
  Cost: 2+ pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character’s will is less developed than those 
  of other characters. For every two points gained from 
  this Flaw, reduce the character’s permanent Willpower 
  (as determined by the sum of his two highest Virtues) 
  by one.
  SUPERNATURAL FLAWS
  These Flaws interfere with the character’s Essence, 
  Charms and other magical traits.
  BEACON OF POWER
  Cost: 4 pts.
  Availability: Any Exalt except Night Caste Solars, Day 
  Caste Abyssals and Scourge Caste Infernals
  Your character finds it difficult to hide her Exalted 
  nature. The character has only one Essence pool equal 
  to the sum of what would normally be her Personal and 
  Peripheral pools. All of the character’s Essence is consid-
  ered Peripheral for purposes of anima displays.
  GREATER CURSE
  Cost: 1–5 pts.
  Availability: Celestial Exalted, Green Sun Princes and 
  Abyssal Exalted
  If your character is a Solar, Lunar or Sidereal, he is 
  more prone to Limit Break. For each point gained from 
  this Merit, the character’s Limit pool decreases by one. 
  If the character has this Flaw at the three-point level, he 
  experiences Limit Break when he acquires seven points 
  of Limit instead of the normal 10. If the character is 
  an Abyssal, his Resonance pool is reduced instead, and 
  if he is a Green Sun Prince, his Infernal Limit pool is 
  similarly reduced. Players of Sidereal Exalted may choose 
  to apply the effects of Greater Curse to the character’s 
  Paradox pool instead of her Limit pool, but only one or 
  the other. The player may not divide a Greater Curse 
  between the two pools.
  OATHBOUND
  Cost: Variable
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character has sworn some oath or accepted some 
  taboo in exchange for power. Many priests and holy men 
  swear oaths as signs of their devotion to their deities, and 
  the deities in question bless their followers with magically 
  conferred benefits as long as that oath remains fulfilled. The 
  severity of the oath’s requirements is directly proportional 
  to the number of points gained.
  Minor Oath (1 pt.): An oath that barely restricts the 
  character at all—never accept food from a red-headed 
  person, never use bladed weapons, pray to your god once 
  per day.
  
  73
  CHAPTER THREE • MERITS AND FLAWS
  Moderate Oath (3 pts.): An oath that impedes the char-
  acter, but not in any life-threatening way—no sex outside 
  of marriage, never eat pork, pray several times per day at 
  specific intervals, never start a fight.
  Major Oath (5 pts.): An oath that interferes with the 
  character’s life in a major way—never cut your hair, 
  remain completely celibate, never use any weapons, 
  spend at least one hour of every day in meditation, strict 
  vegetarianism.
  Legendary Oath (8 pts.): An oath that severely limits the 
  character’s lifestyle—never bathe, embrace total pacifism, 
  reject all forms of physical pleasure, never consume food 
  or drink other than rice and water, spend at least six hours 
  every day in meditation.
  Unlike most Flaws, a player who imposes an oath on 
  her character must specifically note what traits the bo-
  nus points gained were used to acquire, like so: Complete 
  celibacy, Major (5 pts), +1 Conviction, 1-pt. Priest. If the 
  character ever violates the oath, he loses the benefits 
  associated with the oath until he has made suitable 
  atonement. This atonement will generally take a number 
  of months of contrition and penitence equal to the Flaw 
  rating, as well as a sacrifice with a Resources cost of the 
  Flaw rating or some other suitable, Storyteller-chosen form 
  of repentance. In addition, at the Storyteller’s discretion, 
  violations of major or legendary oaths may also result in 
  divine punishment of some sort, such as the infliction of 
  a Flaw or curse of some kind under which the character 
  must labor until he has received forgiveness.
  A character may have multiple oaths (but never 
  more than one legendary oath). While multiple oaths 
  may stack, if the character has more than one oath that 
  interferes with the same general area of life (combat, 
  dietary restrictions, sex, prayer, etc.), each oath after 
  the first suffers a cumulative -1 reduction in value. For 
  example, a character who has sworn never to start a fight 
  and to fight only barehanded would gain five points for 
  the major oath but only two points instead of three for 
  the moderate oath. The Storyteller should not allow the 
  player to select multiple oaths if one embraces the other. 
  For example, it would be inappropriate for a character to 
  swear a moderate oath to never start a fight when he has 
  already sworn a legendary oath of total pacifism. Likewise, 
  the player should not be allowed to stack an oath to never 
  eat shellfish on top of an oath of strict vegetarianism.
  PERMANENT CASTE MARK
  Cost: 2 pts. (1 pt. for Sidereals and Green Sun Princes)
  Availability: Celestial Exalted, Abyssal Exalted and 
  Green Sun Princes
  Your character’s caste mark is permanently visible on 
  his forehead. The mark does not glow unless the character 
  spends Peripheral Essence, and unless it glows, it can be 
  
  74
  concealed with a thick headband or some other kind of 
  headgear. The caste marks associated with Solars, Lunars 
  and Abyssals are well known from Immaculate teach-
  ings and appear, at best, to be blasphemous tattoos. The 
  symbolism behind the Sidereal caste marks is less well 
  known due to the Sidereals’ efforts to conceal their own 
  history. For Sidereals, this is only a one-point Flaw. The 
  Green Sun Princes have taken similar steps to conceal 
  their characteristics.
  THROWBACK
  Cost: 1–5 pts.
  Availability: Celestial Exalted, Abyssal Exalted and 
  Green Sun Princes
  One of a character’s past lives exerts a powerful and 
  unhealthy influence over him. When this Merit is se-
  lected, the player and Storyteller must jointly define the 
  personality of one of the character’s past lives, include 
  her Motivation and Intimacies. When the character 
  finds himself in a situation that would tend to evoke the 
  past life’s Motivation or Intimacies, roll the character’s 
  Willpower against a difficulty equal to his Essence. If the 
  roll fails, the character is overwhelmed by the emotions 
  of the past life and must act according to her Motivation 
  and Intimacies instead of his own. This is considered a 
  form of unnatural mental influence that lasts for a number 
  of hours equal to the Flaw’s rating. The character can act 
  against the externally imposed Motivation and Intima-
  cies for one scene by spending a Willpower point. He can 
  overcome it completely by spending a number of Willpower 
  points equal to the Flaw’s rating. The Storyteller is free 
  to veto any past life concepts that are not sufficiently in 
  opposition to the character’s normal goals. Examples of 
  acceptable past life concepts include: a Gold Faction Side-
  real who was previously a Bronze Faction member, or vice 
  versa; an Abyssal or Infernal Exalt who was previously a 
  staunch enemy of the Neverborn or Yozis; an aggressively 
  chauvinistic he-man who was previously a demure young 
  female, or vice versa.
  Green Sun Princes who possess the Past Life Back-
  ground (as opposed to the Past Life Merit on pp. 60-62) 
  often suffer a condition similar to Throwback as a result 
  of being overwhelmed by their memories of the Usurpa-
  tion era. A Green Sun Prince who has this Flaw will have 
  a third Motivation and set of Intimacies to represent a 
  past life other than the one associated with her Past Life 
  Background. Most likely, the Prince’s last Solar incarna-
  tion suffered from this same Flaw, which has been carried 
  through to the current life. 
  UNLUCKY
  Cost: 1–5 pts. (+2 pts. if the character’s bad luck can 
  spread to others)
  Availability: Anyone
  The character is plagued by bad luck and is considered 
  a jinx by those who know him well. For each level of this 
  Flaw acquired, the Storyteller adds one point to a “bad luck 
  pool” that can be used against the character. Whenever 
  the character’s player succeeds on a roll, the Storyteller 
  may choose to spend one point of bad luck to force him 
  to reroll. The Storyteller may continue to spend bad luck 
  points to force rerolls on the same roll, if she wishes, until 
  the roll fails or she runs out of bad luck points. The dice 
  pools, target numbers and difficulties for any rerolls are 
  exactly the same as for the original roll, even taking dice 
  modifiers such as Excellencies into account.
  The Storyteller can also spend bad luck points to 
  negatively influence the outcome of a completely random 
  event such as a coin toss or anything similarly random 
  that involves the character. Normally, such events are 
  resolved by rolling a single die with results of five or less 
  being unfavorable to the character. For every bad luck 
  point spent, the Storyteller can reduce the result of this 
  die roll by one. The bad luck pool recovers one point per 
  week that the character has gone without suffering a jinx 
  and refreshes at the end of every story. A character can
  have both the Lucky Merit and the Unlucky Flaw, and 
  both can affect the same roll.
  Although the bad luck pool may not exceed five, if 
  the player adds two to the cost of the character’s Flaw, 
  he becomes a jinx to those around him. The Storyteller 
  gains the option of spending bad luck points not just to 
  thwart the character, but to inflict ill fortune on his allies. 
  The Storyteller can spend bad luck points to force a reroll 
  of any character who is an ally of the unlucky character 
  provided that the dice roll represents an action taken in 
  the unlucky character’s immediate presence.
  WEAK ESSENCE
  Cost: 6 pts.
  Availability: Anyone who would otherwise have Essence 
  2+ (excluding all Dragon Kings)
  Your character suffers from stunted magical develop-
  ment. If the character is an Exalt or some other type of 
  character who would normally begin with Essence 2 or 
  higher, her starting Essence is reduced by one and may not 
  be improved with bonus points. This means that Exalted 
  characters begin with only Essence 1, which will severely 
  limit Charm selection. This Flaw is particularly appropriate 
  for newly Exalted characters, and with the Storyteller’s ap-
  proval, the player may choose not to fill all of her character’s 
  Charm slots during character creation, instead reserving 
  some Charms for later after she has raised her Essence. The 
  character need not pay experience for Charms acquired later 
  to fill these slots, but the rules for training times still apply. 
  Dragon Kings may not purchase this Flaw because an Essence 
  1 Dragon King is feral and unsuitable for play.
  
  75
  CHAPTER THREE • MERITS AND FLAWS
  BACKGROUND FLAWS
  These Flaws interfere with the proper functioning 
  of Backgrounds.
  DAMAGED ARTIFACT
  Cost: 1–3 pts.
  Availability: Anyone with an artifact rated at least one 
  dot higher than the Flaw rating
  The character possesses an artifact that is either dam-
  aged or not fully functional. At the one-point level, an 
  artifact suffers one of the following defects:
  • -1 to Accuracy, Damage or Defense of any 
  weapon
  • +1 to Rate of any weapon
  • Reduce Range by 25 percent for any ranged 
  weapon
  • -1 to the bashing and lethal soak of armor or from 
  its Hardness
  • +1 to fatigue value or mobility penalty
  • For any other type of artifact, roll one die whenever 
  the item is used. The device will fail to function properly 
  on a 1.
  At the two-point level, spend six points to negatively 
  affect the traits of an artifact weapon or armor according 
  to the preceding list. With any other type of artifact, roll 
  one die whenever the item is used. It will fail to func-
  tion on a 5 or less. At the three-point level, the artifact 
  is completely unusable but is still potentially valuable if 
  repaired or simply sold to gullible collectors.
  As a practical matter, the most common use of this 
  Flaw is to reduce the starting cost for common artifacts that 
  are often damaged by the ravages of time. For example, a 
  grand daiklave is normally Artifact 3. With this Flaw, it 
  may be purchased as a two-dot artifact with one point lost 
  from its normal traits or as a one-point artifact with six 
  points lost. The ruined remains of a four-dot artifact cost 
  only one Background or bonus point with this Flaw.
  KNOWN ANATHEMA
  Cost: 7 pts. (4 pts. for Lunars)
  Availability: Solars, Lunars, Abyssals and Infernals
  Your character is widely known to be an Anathema. 
  The Wyld Hunt is aware of her existence and might have 
  already sent assassination squads against her in the past. 
  Worse, the Bronze Faction of the Sidereal Exalted considers 
  her a threat to its agenda and searches the Loom of Fate 
  constantly for any sign of her. Whenever the character 
  spends enough Essence to trigger an iconic anima banner, 
  roll one die. If the result is equal to the character’s Essence 
  or less, the Wyld Hunt will begin pursuit within one month 
  at most. On a roll of one, the Wyld Hunt will already be 
  active in the area and will begin pursuit within one day.
  Additionally, the character’s Exalted status makes 
  it more difficult for him to acquire certain Backgrounds. 
  Specifically, a character who is a known Anathema must 
  pay double for Allies, Backing, Contacts, Followers and 
  Resources, whether at character creation or with experience. 
  This penalty does not apply to Lunar Exalts, who can eas-
  ily acquire such Backgrounds through false identities with 
  a judicious use of shapeshifting. Accordingly, Lunars gain 
  only four bonus points for this Flaw.
  Note: The Storyteller may veto this Flaw if the story 
  is set in at the edges of Creation where the Wyld Hunt 
  is unlikely to reach.
  WANTED
  Cost: 1–5 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character is on the run from the law. Whether 
  he is a criminal, an escaped slave, an innocent falsely ac-
  cused of a crime or even someone who testified against the 
  Guild, the character is on the run from someone and faces 
  a fearsome penalty. Even if the character flees the area, he 
  must still fear bounty hunters or wanted posters bearing his 
  likeness. The Storyteller should feel free to veto this Flaw if 
  he has it in mind for the series to quickly take the character 
  far away from the place where he is wanted, however.
  At the beginning of each session, the Storyteller should 
  roll one die. If the result is equal to or less than (the Flaw’s 
  rating + 2), the character’s wanted status will somehow 
  interfere with her activities, perhaps through a city guard 
  recognizing her or an ally betraying her for a bounty reward. 
  In addition, being wanted impacts the character’s ability 
  to acquire certain Backgrounds. The character must pay 
  double both at character creation and with experience for 
  Backing, Cult, Patron, Resources and Sifu, and a wanted 
  character may never have Command.
  WARD
  Cost: 1–5 pts.
  Availability: Anyone
  Your character has been charged with the welfare 
  of another person, usually a young person for whom the 
  character serves as a mentor. A ward might represent the 
  character’s own child (whether biological or adopted), 
  the young disciple of martial arts sifu or the apprentice 
  of a thaumaturge or a master thief. The character must 
  have an Intimacy for his ward, and this Intimacy may 
  not be removed until this Flaw is bought off. Addition-
  ally, the ward very often gets into trouble or otherwise 
  complicates her mentor’s life. At the beginning of each 
  session, the Storyteller should roll one die. If the result is 
  equal to or less than (the Flaw’s rating + 2), something 
  happens involving the ward that distracts or endangers 
  the character. The ward might be kidnapped by an en-
  emy or accidentally insult a visiting dignitary or decide 
  to “impress” her mentor by running off solo to perform 
  some dangerous mission.
  
  76
  
  77
  CHAPTER FOUR • CRAFTED RACES
  CHAPTER FOUR
  CHAPTER FOUR
  CRAFTED RACES
  CRAFTED RACES
  At the height of their First Age power, Creation’s Law-
  givers performed experiments on human beings to produce 
  servitors who would possess unique abilities. Some of these 
  creations were designed for colonization, to tame the distant 
  winds of the North, to monitor the savannas of the South or 
  to dwell in the great ocean of the West. In a more extreme 
  case, the Djala were modified from an already diminutive race 
  into creatures known as minikins. (The entire Djala people 
  lost their previous identity and were viewed purely as minions 
  whose sole purpose in life was to adjust Essence technologies 
  and perform other delicate tasks such as spying, surgery and 
  the mining of rare minerals.) Many of these crafted races 
  developed a sufficient breeding population, or were successful 
  enough—and thus supported by their Exalted overlords—
  to establish cities and colonies, and to form a homogenous 
  culture or cultures. They were able to comfortably coexist 
  with the baseline human population of Creation, with both 
  uniting in servitude to their Exalted masters.
  The Usurpation changed everything, and the Great 
  Contagion added the finishing touches. Many of the crafted 
  races died defending their Solar and Lunar creators and mas-
  ters. Others were slaughtered later as the Dragon-Blooded 
  imposed their peace upon Creation. The survivors who still 
  had viable breeding populations were reduced still further by 
  the Contagion, dying just as easily as the normal humans did. 
  In the modern day, only a few diminished remnants survive 
  of the previous great variety of races created by the Exalts 
  of the First Age. The mighty cities of the Northern people 
  of the air are fallen, and the Wyld has closed over many of 
  the undersea metropolises of the West. The people of the 
  dunes are pitiful and deadly murderers and cannibals, and 
  the Djala are slaves.
  But they do survive. And perhaps, with Creation in 
  the throes of change, the crafted races will find themselves 
  once again able to prosper and grow and stand equal with 
  the humans from whom they were created.
  CRAFTING RACES
  In the first centuries after the end of the Primordial War, 
  the Celestial Exalted celebrated their victory as the victory of 
  
  78
  all humanity. By creating new races from base human stock, 
  the Lawgivers combined demonstrations of their wondrous 
  power with the eminently practical idea of making new types 
  of people who could work and colonize parts of Creation that 
  were otherwise difficult to access. Three Twilight Exalted, 
  working together, took several thousand human volunteers 
  and transformed them into the people of the air, the people 
  of the sea and the people of the earth. While they were not 
  the only Exalted working on the project (for many others 
  offered helpful suggestions or ran simultaneous experiments), 
  they were its main organizers. By order of the Deliberative, 
  they had final authority regarding what changes were in-
  cluded and what were left out. The final results were named 
  blessed mortals, for they had been shaped into something 
  more than—or at least other than—human.
  The blessed mortals were granted life spans twice as long 
  as those of ordinary stock. They were also given psychological 
  conditioning to make sure that they would serve the Solars 
  faithfully. Even though they had been chosen from among 
  the most faithful and willing of mortal volunteers, the Solars 
  remembered the lesson that the gods taught the Primordials 
  and saw no reason to repeat it. Psychological conditioning 
  was also important to help the newly created races adjust to 
  their new habitats. Merely being able to breathe underwater 
  or to see and endure in a total absence of light does not nec-
  essarily make normal humans able to mentally endure such 
  alien environments. The new races had to be trained to use 
  their new capabilities until they were the norm, as well as 
  being taught that they were blessed by the Lawgivers and 
  must use their new capabilities in service to them. In many 
  cases, that conditioning passed into the lore of the race and 
  has been passed down (if in warped and partial form) to the 
  current Age of Sorrows. The crafted races remember, even 
  now, that they were made by the Exalted to serve them.
  In the thousands of years that followed, other Celestial 
  bioengineers created additional varieties of blessed mortals. 
  Some, such as the minikins, were produced on a large scale 
  to serve across Creation, while others, like the albino slaves 
  that became the dune people, were made for a single task 
  in a single location. As creations and favored servants of 
  the Lawgivers, however, members of the crafted races were 
  often given special treatment, granted preferential status and 
  training and so on. This favoritism resulted in them being 
  significantly represented in positions of power and authority 
  across Creation—and also led to them being targeted during 
  the Usurpation, since the Dragon-Blooded could not allow 
  such faithful servants of the Solars to live.
  THE PEOPLE OF THE AIR
  The people of the air were originally created to tame 
  the frontiers of the Far North. They were built to survive in 
  a cold climate and on limited resources. Besides wings and 
  enhanced eyesight, their creators gave them unusually long 
  lives, which contributed to their survival as a species and 
  
  79
  CHAPTER FOUR • CRAFTED RACES
  their still-extant civilization. They witnessed the decline 
  of the Solars and the Usurpation and were wise enough 
  to flee and hide once the Dragon-Blooded rose to power. 
  Unfortunately, no concealment could protect the air folk 
  from the Great Contagion or the inrush of the Wyld. They 
  now exist in isolated enclaves, for while humans accept 
  them more readily than some of the other crafted races, the 
  people of the air are still aware of how easily fortune could 
  turn against them. The air folk have learned many things 
  over the centuries: Primary among them is caution.
  ORIGINS
  The air folk were designed by a team of Twilight Caste 
  Exalted working together to engineer a species that would be 
  beautiful as well as effective in the environment for which it 
  was built. Led by the famous bioethnologist Soaring Miracle 
  Hammer, they combined the wings and eyes of birds of prey 
  with the coloration of swans and the life span of double-
  century owls. The result was as attractive as it was hardy, 
  and while the newly crafted people of the air did indeed 
  help colonize the North, they also spread across Creation, 
  admired by both Exalts and humans. Their capital city was 
  Sezakan, in the Northwestern mountains now lost to the 
  Wyld. They also had major outposts at Gethamane (where 
  they traded with the Dragon Kings and studied under them), 
  Chiaroscuro (where they dwelled in some of the highest of the 
  glass towers) and the city of Amrelles on the great Western 
  continent. While they did have cities and towns in the more 
  level and less-forested parts of the East, the air folk’s wings 
  were not well adapted to the great forests of the Far East. 
  The people of the air were built with a larger wingspan than 
  modern hawkmen, intended for flying over the great distances 
  of the North rather than navigating the thick growth of the 
  East. While shorter wings, better adapted to thick forest, 
  have developed among the air folk over the centuries, they 
  preferred the vast expanses and the high peaks to the narrow 
  spaces of the trees in the days of their glory.
  The beauty and popularity of the people of the air allowed 
  them a latitude that other crafted races never enjoyed. Many 
  Celestial Exalted treated them as favored servants, even as 
  pets or lovers. Even the gods took pleasure in the air folk, 
  resulting in a high number of God-Blooded children. While 
  this caused discontent among many pure humans (which 
  would lead to some of the later post-Usurpation pogroms), 
  the people of the air were always able to retreat to their high-
  pinnacled cities, out of the reach of those below.
  DEVELOPMENT
  The air folk were quick to take advantage of their abil-
  ity to travel and endure harsh conditions, eagerly spreading 
  through the North with a zeal that was only partly due to 
  conditioning from their Exalted crafters. Led by Aisato Snow-
  Winged, one of the first to emerge from Soaring Miracle 
  Hammer’s Essence laboratories, they sought autonomy and 
  conquest as well as new lands for their masters. While the air 
  folk were designed to accept servitude as only natural, they 
  wanted lands of their own to rule under the Exalted. They 
  desired soaring mountains and pinnacles where they alone 
  could travel, far from the humans whom they were already 
  beginning to view as lesser creatures.
  The Wyld took its toll on the early air folk colonists, just 
  as it did on the pure humans on the borders of Creation. The 
  pure white wings designed by the Twilight Caste engineers 
  developed into a variety of different shapes and shades, resulting 
  in the spectrum (from white through cream to gray) that can 
  be seen in modern air folk. (Other poxes also afflicted the air 
  folk colonists, but affected individuals were generally shunned 
  and not permitted to breed. Their crafters had instilled in them 
  high instincts toward racial purity and aesthetics.) While dif-
  ferent wing colors were not regarded as outright ugly, white 
  wings were soon considered the height of beauty, and city 
  rulers almost always came from white-winged families.
  While preserving the normal contemporary Creation 
  standards of gender equality, childcare rapidly became a pressing 
  issue. Air folk children are born winged and can fly practi-
  cally as soon as they can crawl. Given the air folk tendency to 
  have cities in high places, it became the norm to rear children 
  in large shared nurseries, and for the care and education of 
  children to be viewed as work for pregnant women. (Pregnant 
  female air folk are less graceful and efficient than usual, which 
  encourages them to stay out of the public view.)
  Built for the Northern climate and supported by their 
  crafters, the people of the air rapidly established themselves. 
  Some of their cities were in areas that could be reached only 
  by flying, while others were shared with normal humans, 
  with the air folk inhabiting high trees, pinnacles or towers. 
  In mixed-population cities, the groups often remained dis-
  tinct, with the air folk viewing themselves as a glamorous, 
  privileged elite.
  While many air folk were warriors, merchants, couriers 
  and hunters, the race also had its due number of artists, poets, 
  savants and thaumaturges. Of course, it is hardly surprising 
  that their art most often dealt with the air and winds, and 
  that their thaumaturgy was often oriented toward weather-
  working and cajoling elementals of the air. The famous savant 
  Tarasina Stormcaller was known for being able to whistle up 
  high winds at a moment’s notice and for her friends among 
  lesser storm serpents.
  CHARACTERS AMONG THE CRAFTED RACES
  When creating heroic mortal characters from the 
  crafted races, they are built according to the rules in 
  Chapter Two of this book, though bonus points must be 
  spent to obtain the mutations common to the species. 
  It is also possible for a member of any crafted race to 
  receive Celestial Exaltation. Exalted crafted humans 
  are created as normal Exalts, but with bonus points 
  having to be devoted to mutations as with creating 
  heroic mortal characters.
  
  80
  It is possible for a person of the air to bind her wings in 
  order to restrain them while in narrow or cluttered spaces, 
  or to conceal them under robes or a cloak. (The person in 
  question will require full clothing that covers the shoulders 
  and back, and will look slightly stoop-shouldered. With a 
  successful [Perception + Awareness] roll, viewers will realize 
  that the shape of her shoulders and back is unnatural. It is 
  impossible to conceal the wings and their bindings from close 
  inspection.) While no air folk would have even considered 
  binding their wings for disguise during the First Age, those 
  who served in the retinues of Exalted sorcerers and engineers 
  often did so while in their laboratories, to prevent accidents. 
  In the current Age, however, young people of the air who 
  have left their native settlements often bind their wings to 
  prevent discovery of their true nature.
  THE USURPATION’S EFFECTS: 
  A FALL FROM GREATNESS
  Unfortunately for the air folk, their high cities and aeries 
  made for ideal sanctuaries for the fleeing Solars and Lunars. 
  Naturally, the air folk fought in defense of their masters, and 
  they died just as readily and easily as humans. Their capital 
  Sezakan was strewn with winged corpses. Those few air folk 
  settlements that had not been touched by the initial battles of 
  the Usurpation closed their borders and isolated themselves, 
  hoping to ride out the storm and emerge untouched on the 
  other side. Once the fighting had died down, some of these 
  cities sent prompt messages of allegiance to the Shogunate, 
  while others declared their independence.
  When the Shogunate began its great purge of creatures 
  and races crafted by the Celestial Exalted, the air folk—many 
  of whom had been involved in the battles of the Usurpation—
  were again caught up in the events and were as quickly 
  sentenced to death as the other crafted folk. Many of them 
  fled, seeking refuge in pure air folk cities on the borders of the 
  Wyld, while others bound their wings and concealed them-
  selves among normal humans, hiding in isolated villages. In 
  the turmoil of the period, many small towns and villages were 
  grateful for visiting thaumaturges or healers, and were prepared 
  to avoid questions in return for concrete assistance.
  The virulence of the Great Contagion was the same re-
  gardless of species, so the high air folk cities were afflicted as 
  quickly as the human cities far below, despite their attempts to 
  sequester themselves. A further blow was struck when the Fair 
  Folk invaded and the Wyld swallowed the edges of Creation. 
  The people of the air had been proud of their role as colonists, 
  building cities and pinnacles near the Wyld’s borders. Now, 
  the few survivors were forced to flee inward, while those who 
  chose to remain were lost to the forces of chaos.
  Beaten, driven from their borderland cities, thinned by 
  disease and persecution, there were barely enough people 
  of the air left to maintain a stable population for their race. 
  They didn’t have the option of retreating into the depths 
  of the ocean, like the people of the sea—while they could 
  reach the mountain heights, they still required food and 
  other resources. Their great wings made them very obvious 
  targets for persecution or slavery, and while Realm policy 
  and Immaculate dogma did not automatically proscribe them 
  as rebels or heretics, neither did the Realm consider them 
  allies. Some air folk wanted to ally themselves with the 
  Realm or with Lookshy, to serve as mercenaries or couriers, 
  but the air folk leaders feared becoming a minor dependent 
  client tribe, living at the sufferance of the Dragon-Blooded. 
  They wanted independence, and ultimately, they wanted 
  power. The remaining groups of air folk formed scattered 
  enclaves, mostly in the North and East, with the remnants 
  of First Age lore and technology that they had managed to 
  scavenge from their lost cities.
  CURRENT SITUATION
  The air folk tendency toward pride and isolationism has 
  developed into a fear of the rest of Creation. Many air folk 
  enclaves warn their children that, if they are discovered, 
  they will be slaughtered, enslaved or driven into the Wyld to 
  the mercies of the raksha. While these fears are not without 
  foundation, they are exaggerated. Just as the Metagalapan 
  hawkriders are highly useful auxiliaries to Lookshy, the air 
  folk could just as easily win respect and military or political 
  power. They hold fragments of First Age lore and technology 
  that would intrigue scavenger lords and savants. And they 
  RELATIONSHIPS WITH HUMANS
  Humans and air folk are interfertile and are quite 
  capable of finding each other attractive. Long-term 
  relationships between humans and air folk are looked 
  down on from the air folk side, however, unless the 
  human is somehow specially gifted. In First Age days, 
  such relationships were regarded with uncomfortable 
  awe from the human side. A mixed couple is likely to 
  find itself outcast from both societies.
  The genetic traits for the air folk are generally 
  dominant, resulting in nine out of 10 children being 
  born winged. (If the mother is pure human, she will 
  probably require medical assistance during the birth—
  air folk women were crafted to make such births easy.) 
  Winged children will be accepted into air folk society 
  without many problems, but there is simply no place 
  for wingless children among the air folk. Under the 
  best circumstances, they will be placed with a human 
  family or orphanage, but they are more likely to be 
  abandoned to die in some high place.
  In the modern era, those air folk groups that al-
  low human contact are more willing to permit open 
  relationships with humans, as long as any children are 
  born winged. The birth of a wingless child is social 
  grounds for the end of a relationship. Even if the air 
  folk partner wishes to continue it, intense social pres-
  sure will be brought on him to break it off.
  
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  CHAPTER FOUR • CRAFTED RACES
  can fly. While this ability was less vital in the First Age, in 
  the days of automata and flying craft and common sorcery, it 
  now gives them a potentially vital edge in the wars that are 
  troubling Creation. But if the air folk fail to take advantage of 
  the possibilities open to them, they will be drawn in on one 
  side or another eventually but will lack bargaining power.
  Air folk enclaves have become tribal societies, often 
  descending toward barbarism. A council of elders holds the 
  ultimate authority, but given how widely a group of air folk 
  can stray from their home bases, hunt leaders are expected to 
  exercise authority in the field. The sexes are equal, but women 
  always tend the children. Keeping normal humans as slaves 
  is common and convenient, since the humans cannot escape 
  from the high dwellings that the air folk favor, and they can 
  sire or bear air folk children to increase the enclave’s size. Such 
  slaves are used for gathering (never hunting), craftwork and 
  menial tasks. While some air folk groups take slaves in raids on 
  human villages or by capturing travelers, this is a rare practice, 
  as it exposes the air folk to possible notice. They do not sell 
  slaves to the Fair Folk, as the people of the air hate the Wyld 
  and everything associated with it. One of the few occasions 
  when they might actually assist normal humans would be to 
  fight off a raksha raid or a Wyld mutant group.
  Air folk enclaves are often situated in mountain valleys, 
  among the trees in lonely groves or in the tattered remains 
  of ancient towered ruins. They have fallen from the days of 
  First Age architecture, and now their habitations are slipshod 
  METHELAN, THE CIRCLING CITY
  Methelan was a wonder of First Age architecture, 
  a vast ring of metal and jade that spun around a cen-
  tral pinnacle, balanced by an Essence network strung 
  throughout the surrounding Northern peaks. It was ac-
  cessible only by air and was almost totally populated by 
  air folk, though both Terrestrial and Celestial Exalted 
  frequently visited. The whole city was a gigantic refining 
  plant, and its motion and Essence flows served to draw 
  up molten gold through the central spine and distil it 
  into orichalcum in the factory-cathedral at the top. 
  The air folk inhabitants were fortunate that no Solar 
  attempted to take refuge there during the Usurpation. 
  They were quick to declare their loyalty to the new 
  rulers, currying favor by continuing to manufacture 
  orichalcum for them. When the Fair Folk invaded, 
  however, Methelan was lost to the Wyld.
  An air folk woman who recently arrived in White-
  wall claims to have escaped from a Fair Folk court that 
  has taken possession of Methelan. She says that it is 
  ruled by a crooked raksha noble who styles himself 
  the Cripple in Gold. Several forces, including those of 
  the Bull of the North and those of the Lover Clad in 
  the Raiment of Tears, are reported to be investigating 
  this claim further.
  and makeshift, with hangings woven from silk and bamboo 
  that cover up the cracks in the walls. Children are trained 
  in flight but warned not to let themselves be seen. The air 
  folk go out in disguise to meet travelling merchants, binding 
  their wings to hide their nature.
  Fewer than 25,000 people of the air survive in Creation 
  today. Their largest settlement is in the city of Sezakan, 
  hidden among the mountains on the western coast of the 
  northernmost lands. High cliffs and mountains make the city’s 
  valley almost inaccessible, except from the air. At the center 
  is a large manse that looks like a pyramid of glowing blue ice, 
  which provides the city with light and protection from the 
  frigid air, and which powers the reality engine that partly 
  protects the city from the Wyld. Some of the air folk there 
  trade with Gethamane and the Haslanti, offering unmelting 
  ice and feathersteel in return for supplies of food and other 
  essentials. The city is ruled by the Solar Council, which 
  consists of elected leaders advised by shamans who deal with 
  the local gods and elementals. The inhabitants worship the 
  Unconquered Sun, and since the city was never conquered 
  by the Shogunate, they have one of Creation’s few intact 
  temples to that god. The city’s population includes a few 
  God-Blooded, from liaisons with local deities and elementals, 
  and Dragon-Blooded descended from Deliberative loyalists 
  who took shelter there during the Usurpation.
  Sadly for the air folk, much of Sezakan’s First Age 
  technology and relics have now fallen into disuse, and only 
  a few working pieces survive. The city itself is mentioned 
  in a few historical records, but its position in the fringes of 
  the Wyld makes it nearly impossible to find. Visitors who do 
  manage to reach it are expected to keep the city’s location 
  and existence secret. Anyone who seems unlikely to do so 
  is held captive or killed.
  AIR FOLK AND HAWKMEN
  Some people assume that, since they both have 
  wings, air folk and hawkmen must be distant relatives. 
  Nothing could be further from the truth. The hawk-
  men of Halta and Metagalapa are the distant offspring 
  of Lunar breeding or Wyld mutations. They have the 
  heads of hawks as well as the wings and constitute an 
  obvious blend of bird and man. Air folk result from 
  Celestial Exalt biosculpting, and have human heads 
  and bodies, with their wings being the only obvious 
  avian part of their form.
  Both groups tend to look down on each other, 
  with the air folk viewing the hawkmen as half-animal 
  crossbreeds, and the hawkmen viewing the air folk as 
  dangerous and antiquated toys of the ancient Anath-
  ema. While there have been a few cases of individuals 
  coming to respect each other for their prowess in the 
  air, referring to one of the air folk as a hawkman (or 
  vice versa) is generally considered an insult.
  
  82
  Less civilized air folk enclaves lie across the North and the 
  Northeast. Some of them still honor the Unconquered Sun, 
  Luna and the Maidens, as do the people of Sezakan. Others 
  have chosen to honor local deities instead, ranging from greater 
  gods such as Caltia or Grala of the Endless Hunt to minor 
  gods that are also worshiped by local barbarian tribes.
  Among the better known air folk enclaves (that is, 
  known to other air folk) are Atlastiva, on the northern border 
  of the White Sea, southeast of Diamond Hearth; Tiencol, 
  far north of Chaya; and unusually far south, Silebe, in the 
  Summer Mountains southwest of Kirighast.
  Atlastiva is lashed by the Northern winds and has to 
  fight off frequent assaults from local Fair Folk while avoid-
  ing the notice of Haslanti air boats. These air folk fish the 
  waters of the White Sea like ospreys but also use harpoons 
  and spears to hunt dolphins, seals and walruses. Very few 
  in this enclave survive to become elders, so it is extremely 
  warlike. The hunt leader, Athen Snowfury, is the first in 
  every charge and the last in every retreat.
  Tiencol is mostly guarded by the reputation and nature 
  of Chaya, as the Chayans themselves do not tend to explore 
  to their north. It is actually one of the most stable air folk 
  enclaves, and though it has few slaves, the air folk there live 
  relatively undisturbed. In fact, they might actually be able 
  to assimilate back into human society reasonably well. A 
  few young air folk leave the enclave every year to travel in 
  disguise, and while some never return, others have brought 
  back tales of the Solar and Abyssal Exalted, the disappear-
  ance of the Scarlet Empress and other big events.
  Silebe is an anomaly, existing far to the south of most air 
  folk enclaves. Its inhabitants dwell at the top of the Summer 
  Mountain peaks, taking advantage of the colder air there. 
  While some local tribes know of them, they also fear these 
  air folk as lesser air spirits, offering their own children to 
  them as slaves. The air folk take care to sacrifice heavily to 
  the local gods in order to ward off any suspicions of steal-
  ing divine honors, but they keep the slaves. A mated pair, 
  Muon Swift-Courser and Alarotha Hound-of-the-Air leads 
  this enclave. They know of several local jade deposits and 
  are looking for a way to exploit them.
  Nearly a thousand air folk live in the civilized nations of 
  the Threshold—mostly as slaves, kept for their exotic looks, 
  as pets or lovers or showpieces. A few find a place as couriers 
  or messengers, but they know that they live on a knife’s edge, 
  liable to be labeled a mutant or a creation of the Anathema 
  at the first sign of trouble in the vicinity. In Chiaroscuro, 
  the air folk woman Gull-in-Glass who works as a free courier 
  is attempting to negotiate with the Grey Shields mercenary 
  company to get herself and others hired as an auxiliary brigade. 
  She intends to smuggle other air folk slaves to freedom and get 
  them employment with the Grey Shields and possibly even 
  affiliate them with one of the hidden enclaves. The full scope 
  of the potential enterprise is still undetermined, but she hopes 
  the mercenaries can see the value in fliers. If the Grey Shields 
  fail her, she will attempt to seek patronage elsewhere.
  
  83
  CHAPTER FOUR • CRAFTED RACES
  PEOPLE OF THE AIR
  Created as proud masters of the air and explorers of the North, the people of the air built a network of cities across 
  the untouched Northern steppes and mountains, and were admired for their intelligence and strength as much as for their 
  grace and speed. Now their proudest cities are fallen, their few remaining enclaves hidden, and thousands of them live 
  in slavery across Creation. Where they once prided themselves on helping hold the border against the Wyld, they must 
  now conceal themselves on the very Bordermarches. While they would once have walked in Creation among the human 
  throngs and been admired for the splendor of their white wings, they must now hide those wings if they are to move freely. 
  Otherwise, they risk being slain as Wyld mutants or captured as slaves.
  But they endure. They preserve ancient pieces of First Age technology and lost artifacts from their high cities, they 
  train their young in combat as well as hunting, and they remember the Lawgivers who were once their masters, dreaming 
  that they will come again and return the air folk to their rightful place.
  Clothing and Weapons: The most important thing about air folk clothing is that it should not hinder flying. Therefore, 
  people of the air wear an assortment of items such as tunics, loincloths, belts and scarves—anything that will not get in 
  the way of their wings. Air folk wear cloaks or robes only if they are ill, and they never conceal their wings unless they are 
  deliberately disguising themselves. While they carry swords or long knives for use at close quarters, they favor javelins or 
  tridents for use at a distance. Bows are not popular, as it is difficult to fire them while in midair.
  Mutations: All people of the air possess the Enhanced Sight and Longevity poxes, and the 
  Wings abomination.
  Associations: the color white, winds, birds, the Northern direction
  Sobriquets: Air Folk, Birdmen, Blessed of the Air, 
  Flyers, Winged Ones
  Concepts: innocent explorer, proud war-
  rior, seeker of ancient cities, spy with hidden 
  wings
  83
  CHAPTER FOUR • CRAFTED RACES
  disguising themselves. While they carry swords or long knives for use at close quarters, they favor javelins or
  use at a distance. Bows are not popular, as it is difficult to fire them while in midair.
  ns: All people of the air possess the Enhanced Sight and Longevity poxes, and the 
  ination.
  tions: the color white, winds, birds, the Northern direction
  ets: Air Folk, Birdmen, Blessed of the Air, 
  ed Ones
  ts: innocent explorer, proud war-
  f ancient cities, spy with hidden
  I didn’t carry you up here just to let you 
  feel the exhilaration of flight or see 
  the wonders of our hidden home. 
  I did it to make sure you could never 
  reveal our secret existence. 
  I’m sorry. Farewell.
  
  84
  THE PEOPLE OF THE DUNES
  The dune people were crafted as slaves, and they now 
  ferociously treasure their freedom, looking on the rest of Cre-
  ation’s peoples as enemies who must be slaughtered whenever 
  possible—and as food. The dune people are albinos who must 
  avoid the rays of the sun (particularly in the Far South), as 
  it sears them without mercy. Their children are trained to 
  hunt and kill humans, beastmen and Wyld mutants as soon 
  as they can walk. While they worship Luna and respect her 
  Chosen, they abhor and distrust the Solar Exalted, considering 
  them betrayers, slavers and fiends. They’d make excellent 
  allies for the Realm… if it wasn’t for their habits of distrust 
  and cannibalism.
  ORIGINS
  Late in the Old Realm, the Lawgiver Eternal Crimson 
  Sunset founded the Pleasure Dome of Xela-Cas, a city de-
  voted entirely to pleasure and recreation. She also crafted 
  a slave race to serve its visitors’ every need, making them 
  albinos so that they would remain discreetly underground 
  and avoid the city’s sunlit streets. This race was designed to 
  stay out of the way of visitors and come out only at night to 
  perform menial tasks such as cleaning and preparing food 
  for the next day. Similarly, she taught her slaves that their 
  place was servitude and gratitude, and that only a Solar as 
  merciful as her would give them a safe place to live and allow 
  them to serve the Chosen of Heaven.
  In the mythology of the dune people, she is remembered 
  as the Great Liar.
  When the Usurpation came, a few Solars were loitering in 
  Xela-Cas rather than attending the great feast. The Dragon-
  Blooded who had been sent to assassinate them also intended 
  to kill the albino slaves, as a simple matter of cleaning house. 
  Yet, a pair of Lunar Exalts there took pity on the dune people. 
  These two Lunars, Ka-Koshu and Namiha Featherback, had 
  sympathized with the slaves’ plight before but had no way to 
  ameliorate things. Now they could see that the Solar cause 
  was lost, that they themselves needed to flee the area and 
  that stripping Xela-Cas of its slaves would seriously hamper 
  pursuit. They led the albinos into the desert in the dead of 
  night while Xela-Cas burned and the Solars died.
  DEVELOPMENT
  In the deep desert wastes, the two Lunars taught the 
  slaves the arts of survival, using a combination of Charms, 
  practicality and the fact that those slaves who didn’t learn 
  rapidly died. (Ka-Koshu and Namiha later became two of 
  the founders of the Thousand Streams River, using much 
  of what they learned from their experiences teaching the 
  slaves.) They renamed the albinos the “dune people” and 
  commanded them never to live in slavery again, before finally 
  moving on to escape Dragon-Blooded pursuit.
  Over time, the dune people grew increasingly savage, 
  rejecting the remains of the civilization that had created 
  them. Based on the Lunars’ teachings, they evolved tribal 
  structures similar to the other desert barbarian tribes, with 
  a high respect for personal honor, the tribal ancestors and 
  the spirits around them. Their highest priority, however, was 
  survival. Every day was spent in desperate concealment from 
  the lethal rays of the sun, and every night was taken up in 
  the hunt for food and water. Aesthetics were literally pared 
  down to the bone (though their carvings on human bone were 
  marvels of limited scope), and their literary tradition became 
  severely practical. Stories became concerned purely with the 
  details of hunting and survival and the folly of dishonor and 
  betrayal, rather than anything more imaginative.
  The first of the truly great dune people leaders was Dorol 
  Bone-Breather. Previously, the dune people had taken shelter 
  from the sun by sleeping beneath the sand during the day, 
  using carved wooden tubes to breathe through. Dorol intro-
  duced the concept of using the carved thighbones of their 
  enemies. In one stroke, this both dealt with the problem of 
  limited wood supplies and presented a convenient mark of 
  adulthood. Dorol became overleader of a dozen dune people 
  tribes and eradicated several neighboring desert tribes to 
  establish a clear territory for the dune people.
  Unfortunately, Dorol’s vigorous conquests and the in-
  creased number of dune people, together with the total absence 
  of trade, led to the dune people moving toward starvation, 
  having exhausted the area’s resources. It was then that the 
  next great dune people leader, Erion Clear-Vision, led his 
  tribes to the obvious solution: eat human flesh. This was at 
  first greeted with horror and dismay, with the dune people 
  still considering humans as distant relatives. Yet, Erion was a 
  skilled orator. He claimed that their Lunar saviors had ordered 
  them to survive at any cost, he pointed to the little children 
  of the tribe who were starving, and he reminded the dune 
  people how they had been slaves before to normal humans. 
  His appeals to the dune people’s pride and hunger won out. 
  At first, the consumption of human meat was limited to the 
  very young and very old, to keep them from starving when 
  the tribe’s adults could make do with less food. Gradually, it 
  became a staple of the dune people’s diet. This change in diet 
  coincided with a greater degree of separation from normal 
  humanity. The dune people came to view themselves as a 
  different race, and they began to nurture an active malice 
  and bitterness against humanity, which had first enslaved 
  them then driven them into the desert to die.
  The Great Contagion struck the dune people just as 
  it did the rest of Creation, but their population had grown 
  enough by then that they were able to survive it. While they 
  didn’t go so far as to eat infected humans, they did unite to 
  wipe out diminished human tribes and oases, looting their 
  stocks of food and weapons. (While the dune people had 
  become universally anthropophagous, they still ate other 
  things as well.)
  The Fair Folk invasion that followed, however, drove the 
  dune people back inward toward civilization, and they found 
  themselves between hammer and anvil, crushed between the 
  humans (who often viewed them as Wyld mutants or raksha 
  
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  CHAPTER FOUR • CRAFTED RACES
  auxiliaries) and the Fair Folk. On several occasions, they even 
  went so far as to propose an alliance of convenience with the 
  humans, but they were universally rejected. Such rejections 
  solidified dune people opinion of the human race.
  With the accession of the Scarlet Empress and the 
  reestablishment of Creation’s borders, the dune people 
  began to spread out again, preying on trade caravans and 
  isolated tribes. While no great leaders on the level of Dorol 
  or Erion have emerged in the last few hundred years, the 
  dune people population has risen to the point that a leader 
  on that level could pose a serious threat to trade across the 
  South of Creation.
  CURRENT SITUATION
  The dune people’s emphasis on survival at all costs 
  has meant that their race has grown strong and increased 
  in numbers, despite the South’s harsh conditions. Between 
  150,000 and 200,000 dune people exist across the South, in 
  tribes of 50-300 people. Each tribe travels along particular 
  songlines across the deserts: routes recorded in tribal chants 
  and also tattooed on manskin tapestries that are kept by 
  the tribal leaders. When a particular tribe grows too large 
  for its current area to support it, it splits in two parts, with 
  the smaller part choosing a new songline to travel. Shamans 
  perform ritual human or animal sacrifices to Luna at signifi-
  cant points where different songlines cross.
  Dune people shamans typically have the traits of thau-
  maturges (see Exalted, pp. 280–281), with dots in Medicine, 
  Lore, Survival and Performance. They rarely have friendly 
  spirit mentors or allies, and they never have familiars. Even 
  if the harsh desert possessed the sort of animal that could be 
  swayed to such a task, the dune person would eat it rather 
  than befriend it. Common shamanic skills include training 
  in Elemental Summoning, Spirit Beckoning, Warding and 
  Weather Working. (Dune people do not sacrifice to their 
  ancestors. The desert has little enough for the living, and 
  nothing to spare for the dead. Dune people ghosts usually 
  pass directly into Lethe.) Demon summoning would greatly 
  interest dune people shamans, but they have never had the 
  chance to learn the skill thus far.
  The dune people have their own language, a degenerate 
  whispered form of Old Realm that sounds like snakes slithering 
  across the sand. Their written pictograms also descend from 
  Old Realm writing, and a savant familiar with Old Realm 
  could decipher dune people reading and writing if necessary 
  (at a -2 internal Lore penalty). Of course, actually getting to 
  talk with one of the dune people is an unlikely thing in itself, 
  but they will respect ambassadors who come in the name of 
  Luna or one of the desert gods they honor. They scarcely 
  ever agree to any treaties or truces, but they might agree to 
  a mutual withdrawal from a particular area if the other side 
  has proven itself to be strong enough.
  Dune people value ferocity as well as strength. To say that 
  you fear a dune person is to compliment her. (The dune people 
  dialect contains a number of words that stress awe at another 
  person’s personal strength or viciousness without implying 
  one’s own weakness. It is very important to be able to say that 
  you fear another person’s ferocity without actually suggesting 
  that you are afraid.) The dune people have no marriage rituals 
  or property laws but simply sleep together in the sand all day, 
  sharing everything except their weapons and breathing tubes 
  in common. Personal honor is vitally important, but actual 
  dueling (usually on the grounds of compassion to outsiders 
  or betraying the tribe through laziness) is rare. It is carried 
  out using sleeping bones as weapons, until death or a sleeping 
  bone is broken, and if a sleeping bone is broken, the owner 
  must leave the tribe. Given that the sleeping bones are fragile 
  things, it is very easy for both parties to end up exiled, which 
  makes most dune people reluctant to engage in a full duel.
  CROSS-SPECIES ROMANCE
  The odds are against cross-species breeding be-
  tween humans and dune people. Humans view the 
  dune people as crazed murderous cannibals, while dune 
  people view humans as slavers, weaklings and food. 
  Also, the dune people are unattractive by Southern 
  standards and similarly view humans as aesthetically 
  unpleasant. It would take a truly astonishing set of 
  events for any sort of friendship to evolve, much less 
  romance. While rape is possible, the dune people 
  would rather eat human flesh than ravage it.
  It is possible, however, for a cross-species child to 
  be conceived. Such a child would not be an albino, 
  but merely a pale human. (In the First Age, the albino 
  servants of Xela-Cas were often taken as concubines, 
  and they were designed to have children outside their 
  species.) Such a child would be rejected by the dune 
  people and left out at birth to die of exposure.
  Infant mortality among the albinos is high. Daylight 
  births rarely survive, and children must quickly master the 
  ways of the desert as they grow. While young, they sleep in 
  clutches in manskin tents underground, but when one is old 
  enough to learn how to use it, he is given the sleeping bone 
  of a previous member of the tribe (kept by the shaman for 
  the tribe’s children). The young learn the tribal chants and 
  history, how to butcher humans for their meat and use their 
  ligaments and bones for weapons before rendering down the 
  remains for water, how to tattoo themselves with the juices 
  of desert plants, and how to hunt and kill. When they are 
  old enough (usually 17 or 18 years of age) they hunt down a 
  human and hollow out sleeping bones of their own. Several 
  camps gather to welcome the new adult, while shamans pierce 
  themselves with bone slivers to enter ecstatic trances and call 
  the spirits of the sandstorm to bless the gathering.
  The dune people know the regular trade routes, just as 
  any hunter knows the paths of his prey. They rarely take 
  
  86
  an entire caravan and 
  can sometimes be bought 
  off by a caravan master leaving 
  victims behind for them. Some slave caravans use this as a 
  threatened punishment to keep their slaves in line, crippling 
  a couple of slaves as an example and leaving them behind 
  for the dune people. The most reliable way to avoid the 
  dune people, however, is for caravans to skirt the edges of 
  the Wyld on their routes or to deliberately journey through 
  Wyld-infested areas, as the dune people loathe and avoid 
  the Wyld.
  And yet, it is a mistake to simply decry the dune people 
  as moronic cannibals, as so many often do. The people of 
  the dunes have all the virtues of the desert barbarian tribes, 
  as well as many of their vices. They value personal honor, 
  the safety of their tribe, the protection of children, respect 
  for elders and due worship of the gods. They have personal 
  aesthetics, expressed in the carving of their breathing tubes 
  and the tattoos on their skin. When there is famine, the 
  old and the young are fed first. When there are sandstorms, 
  mothers would give their lives to save their children. When 
  humans come hunting them down, they fight to the death 
  with heart-stopping courage against vastly superior odds to 
  protect their fellows.
  The dune people attitude toward humans comes down 
  to two simple points: the legends that every child of their 
  people learn, telling how the humans enslaved them, and 
  the fact that they have absolutely no contact with humans 
  except over the edge of a weapon. Dune people don’t view 
  themselves as cannibals. They certainly would never eat each 
  other. They eat human flesh because humans are a differ-
  ent species, and an enemy species at that. The dune people 
  simply have no history of peaceful interaction with humans 
  and no way of beginning such interactions.
  Sometimes in human strikes against dune people tribes, 
  the dune people adults have all been wiped out but a few 
  very young children have survived. (Older children would 
  have fought and died with the adults.) Slave traders sell 
  an entire caravan and 
  can sometimes be bought
  simply have no history of peaceful interaction with humans
  and no way of beginning such interactions.
  DUNE PEOPLE AND THE WYLD
  The dune people don’t tolerate the Wyld. They 
  avoid Wyld-tainted areas, they kill Wyld mutants but 
  refrain from eating their meat, and they hunt down 
  and slaughter any of their own kind who develop 
  Wyld mutations. While civilized humans in the South 
  often assume that the dune people are Wyld mutants, 
  better-informed desert tribesmen know that this is 
  one of the worst insults that can be offered to one of 
  the dune people.
  The people of the dunes are a very tightly knit 
  race, with very obvious physical traits and closely 
  woven tribal structure. Everyone outside their group 
  is an enemy. Everyone perverted from their group is 
  an enemy. Everyone different from their group is an 
  enemy. They aren’t interested in physical or mental 
  changes, and view such things as perversion and in-
  sanity. They don’t have a concept for “good change” 
  as opposed to “bad change.” Their greatest leaders 
  are the ones who managed to introduce some form 
  of improvement to the tribe without being killed for 
  new and dangerous behavior. The Wyld is viewed as 
  an abomination, and only dangers come from it. 
  
  87
  CHAPTER FOUR • CRAFTED RACES
  such children as curiosities who can be trained as guards 
  or laborers. Since these children will barely have been old 
  enough to learn the dune people language, let alone Flame-
  tongue or any other common Southern language, they are 
  unable to communicate and are assumed to be unintelligent, 
  barely a step up from monkeys. Such slaves are valued for 
  their night vision and stealth but are harshly treated and 
  regarded as animals.
  One situation under which dune people might delib-
  erately interact with humans (in a relatively non-hostile 
  manner) would be under divine orders. The shamans of the 
  dune people tribes devoutly honor Luna and the desert spirits 
  and would reluctantly consider meeting and negotiating with 
  humans if the spirits command it. They also remember the 
  Chosen of Luna from the ancient tales and would respect 
  anyone who could claim that distinction.
  MAJOR DUNE PEOPLE TRIBES
  The dune people don’t have fixed settlements. Such 
  settlements represent human weakness, and the dune 
  people avoid such things. They also don’t need to worry 
  about positioning themselves on trade routes, except when 
  it comes to ambushing caravans. Several of the currently 
  notable dune people tribes are the Oldest Bone tribe, the 
  White Sandstorm tribe, the Moontrack tribe and the Iron 
  Saber tribe.
  The Oldest Bone tribe can trace the lineage of its sha-
  mans back to the two Lunars who taught the dune people 
  the ways of the desert. While otherwise mostly normal, the 
  shamans of the tribe are a spiritual authority for the dune 
  people as a whole. Other dune people tribes bring them par-
  ticularly knotty problems of honor or spirit propitiation. The 
  current oldest shamans are brother-sister twins (an unusual 
  event and an omen in itself), Kedo Whitesand and Marilke 
  Blacksand. While they have their race’s usual prejudices 
  against humans, they also preserve the lore that the Chosen 
  of Luna freed them and that their race therefore owes Luna 
  and her Chosen some sort of repayment. This tribe is also 
  notorious for having young explorers leave temporarily for 
  far-ranging solo hunts or exploration.
  The White Sandstorm tribe honors the wind spirits 
  that bring the killing desert sandstorms and siroccos. He-
  retically, these dune people even give these spirits greater 
  respect than they do Luna herself. Some of their tribe are 
  God-Blooded, causing the tribe to be feared by other dune 
  people, who suspect them of harboring Wyld mutants. The 
  current leader of the tribe is God-Blooded, a woman named 
  Astmilla Sandcutter. She encourages overly purist younger 
  members of her tribe to go out on long journeys of exploration 
  and hunting. The wind spirits that guide them want more 
  devoted worshipers and are looking for ways to strengthen 
  the tribe and increase its numbers.
  The dune people of the Moontrack tribe are implacable 
  hunters, and it is said that they can follow the moon herself 
  as she journeys across the desert. While some dune people are 
  prepared to let the remnants of a caravan escape once they 
  have taken sufficient captives and corpses, the Moontrack 
  tribe pursue it to the last man, taking every last corpse to 
  be rendered down and leaving nothing but scattered trade 
  items behind in the desert. As well as being excellent hunt-
  ers, they are very well fed by dune people standards. They 
  have less actual animosity toward humans than some of the 
  other tribes do, but they view it as a matter of personal pride 
  and good hunting practice to salvage every last enemy and 
  strip them to the bone.
  The Iron Saber tribe is notable because its leader, Krado 
  Ironhand, has begun to introduce the concept of personal 
  property among his tribe. It began with him taking an iron 
  blade for himself and keeping it after slaughtering a caravan 
  of slavers, but he then went on to encourage other members 
  of the tribe to choose and keep their own weapons of metal, 
  contrary to the tradition of communal property. This practice 
  has resulted in more food and more victories over local human 
  forces, but the tribe’s shamans are muttering that this is against 
  tradition and that Krado will bring disaster on them all. He 
  has already renamed the tribe (it was previously known as 
  the East Hawk tribe) and is hoping to persuade other tribes 
  to join him so that they can increase their scope. He has yet 
  to realize that raiding on such a scale and with such a degree 
  of success brings a higher degree of likely counterattacks from 
  civilized settlements.
  DUNE PEOPLE AND THE UNCONQUERED SUN
  When they were slaves in the First Age, the dune 
  people worshiped all the gods, as was proper: the Un-
  conquered Sun, Luna, the Maidens and various lesser 
  gods that were the patrons of hard-working servants 
  and concubines. While the Lunars who led the dune 
  people out into freedom didn’t deny the Unconquered 
  Sun’s power and divinity, neither did they stress his 
  worship. Faced with the agonizing death the sun’s rays 
  brought them, the dune people saw the Unconquered 
  Sun as a nightmare deity of punishment rather than 
  a kind father or a just ruler. They no longer worship 
  him. Instead, they pray to Luna to be spared from his 
  wrath and thank the merciful sandstorm spirits who 
  blot out his rays.
  
  88
  PEOPLE OF THE DUNES
  The people of the dunes clawed their way out of slavery to survive in the desert. They live in tribes where all prop-
  erty is held in common, with no laws, but only the words of the shamans and their own oral history to guide them in 
  living honorably. They view humans as an entirely different species, hunting people down to eat their flesh and turn 
  their bones into breathing tubes and weapons. While they respect other dune people, the people of the rest of Creation 
  are their enemies.
  In the endless wastes of the Southern deserts, they have been battered by Fair Folk raiders, harassed by city-dwellers, 
  hunted down by desert barbarians and massacred by mercenary armies. They live in a world where water is scarce and 
  where a touch of the omnipresent sun during the day could kill them. Yet they survive, they tend their children lovingly, 
  they worship the gods, and they remember the legends of the two Lunars who led them out of captivity.
  Survival in the desert leaves little room for dreams and hope, but if the dune people wish to ever be more than they 
  are now, they must look more widely and dream of a new future, for themselves and for the South.
  Clothing and Weapons: Dune people wear a bare minimum of clothing (often merely loincloths) made of salvaged 
  fabric or human skin. They often scrub themselves in sand baths to remove the 
  risk of their scent alerting their prey. The people of the dunes wield 
  knives, axes, spiked clubs, boomerangs and short spears 
  made from carved bone and obsidian.
  Mutations: As albinos, all 
  dune people possess the six-point 
  version of the Sun-Seared Flaw. 
  Their skin and hair is completely white, 
  and prolonged exposure to sunlight has 
  a deleterious effect on them. They suffer 
  one level of bashing damage per min-
  ute of exposure to sunlight and must 
  endure a three-die penalty during their 
  exposure. Heavy clothing doubles the 
  interval for environmental damage.
  Associations: the color white, can-
  nibals, bones, the moon, the Southern 
  direction
  Sobriquets: Dune People, Desert Can-
  nibals, Flesh Eaters, Night Stalkers
  Concepts: lost child brought up as a slave to 
  humans, negotiator seeking alliance against the Wyld, 
  shaman on mission from the spirits, wandering hunter
  y
  ,
  Dune people wear a bare minimum of clothing (often merely loincloths) made of salvaged
  ten scrub themselves in sand baths to remove the 
  eir prey. The people of the dunes wield 
  erangs and short spears
  bsidian.
  all
  nt 
  aw. 
  y white,
  light has
  ey suffer
  er min-
  d must
  ng their 
  bles the
  h
  mage.
  ite, can-
  Southern 
  e, Desert Can-
  kers
  ught up as a slave to
  iance against the Wyld,
  irits, wandering hunter
  What’s that? You have a family? 
  I do too. And they’re hungry.
  
  89
  CHAPTER FOUR • CRAFTED RACES
  THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH
  Like the air and sea folk, the people of the earth were 
  created by the Solar Exalted, crafted to be underground miners 
  who would not only work far below the surface of Creation, 
  but also be truly happy there. The earth folk were not supposed 
  to be a slave race (examples of that kind came later, with the 
  tree folk and others), but a celebration of what humans and 
  Exalted could achieve in working together and the vanguard 
  of a glorious new frontier-breaking exploration of Creation.
  Beaten down by the Usurpation, earthquakes, the Great 
  Contagion and the Fair Folk invasion, barely a thousand of 
  the earth folk survived. Since the Scarlet Empress took power, 
  they have increased in number, living among the Mountain 
  Folk in their deep cities and identifying more with them than 
  with the surface-dwelling humans. If they are to return to the 
  surface and meet their kin among the humans and the crafted 
  races again, they will come as strangers. They have learned 
  much in their long exile, however, and it might be that they 
  hold secrets that will be of value to all Creation.
  ORIGINS
  As with the air and sea folk, the earth folk were made 
  from human volunteers by the Twilight Caste Exalted. They 
  were given short claws on their hands and feet that allowed 
  them to both defend themselves and climb with consummate 
  ability. Their large, featureless black eyes could see normally 
  even in the total absence of light. Their skin was made 
  bright azure, toughened to withstand injury and as smooth 
  and hairless as the hide of a dolphin. (Original designs made 
  them albinos, like other cave creatures, but it was felt that 
  this would make them less efficient if they needed to come 
  out into the open air. In the end, they were given azure skin 
  as a personal dedication by one of the Copper Spiders to the 
  Maiden of Serenity.)
  The earth folk were designed to have a strong racial 
  identity and to actually prefer being underground to being 
  aboveground. They were intended to work in mines that 
  might be miles deep, staying below ground for months on end 
  and developing worked-out mines into living structures and 
  transport networks behind them as they progressed onward, 
  until eventually the whole of Creation might be connected 
  underground just as it was aboveground. They were also 
  thoroughly indoctrinated in loyalty to the Lawgivers, so 
  that they could be trusted at times and in places where they 
  might not be checked on for years.
  DEVELOPMENT
  While the air folk and the sea folk made dramatic strides 
  in exploration and trade, the earth folk simply went below 
  ground and started digging. They produced great mines and 
  
  90
  tunnels, they built underground cities (often using the remains 
  of previous mines as starting points), and they did it all while 
  hardly ever coming to the surface. Mine entries and ore transit 
  points leading to the surface were manned by normal humans 
  as well as by people of the earth, and that was the main area of 
  interaction between the two. Emissaries from the earth folk did 
  occasionally come to the surface for important religious festivals, 
  to attend major events or when summoned by the Lawgivers 
  or other Exalted. They also sent up representatives for trade. 
  While the depths of the earth provided much that the people 
  of the earth needed, they didn’t provide everything.
  Earth folk culture rapidly developed underground into 
  something that could endure the stresses of earthquakes and 
  mine collapses, arguments over ore discoveries and communal 
  living in an enclosed environment. While brilliant miners 
  were respected, expert organizers rapidly rose in the chain 
  of command, and a bureaucracy developed. Goods had to be 
  transported in and out of the mines, records had to be kept of 
  new discoveries and worked-out shafts, and strategic planning 
  was necessary on all levels of mine management.
  This didn’t become pointless bureaucracy, however. 
  The moral system that developed among the earth folk was 
  one of strict indebtedness and repayment. This system was 
  summarized as the Three Great Debts, which were inscribed 
  above the entrance to every earth folk mine.
  were frequently accompanied by a blessing from the nearest 
  priest. The people of the earth worshiped all the usual gods, 
  but they paid particular honor to Primordials Gaia and Au-
  tochthon. Parents raised children to their early teens, then 
  apprenticed them to a trade. At that point, each was formally 
  adopted by her new master and expected to regard him as a 
  parent. Since they might pass through several masters in their 
  career, earth folk often ended up with multiple “parents,” 
  real and adoptive, all of whom they were supposed to honor 
  and respect. This practice resulted in a heavily interwoven 
  society, where change was almost impossible.
  The earth folk produced numerous savants and thau-
  maturges, almost all of whom were gifted alchemists. Some 
  of the most skilled were honored by being selected to work 
  in the private laboratories of the Lawgivers. Their frequent 
  communications to their parents allowed the earth folk to 
  remain aware of what was going on in the world above and 
  what the Exalted were doing. The Solars themselves paid 
  little attention to what the people of the earth did as long 
  as the supplies of ore and gemstones kept coming, and the 
  earth folk themselves were suitably obedient. While a few 
  Celestial Exalted were curious enough to explore the earth 
  folk cities or build manses of their own in the depths of the 
  earth, most of them preferred the sunlit parts of Creation.
  The earth folk also had well-equipped armed forces. 
  While the Darkbrood were the greatest threat in the caves 
  and tunnels beneath Creation, there were also wild animals, 
  demons that had escaped Malfeas, human criminals and 
  (toward the edges of Creation) Wyld mutants. Earth folk 
  battle tactics involved coordinated groups of small units 
  armed with mundane arms, using their natural advantages 
  in the underground, augmented with alchemical explosives 
  and Essence-powered weapons when necessary.
  Hunters were not a vital part of earth folk life. The people 
  of the earth farmed varieties of cave moss and fungus and 
  domesticated various cave lizards and fish. When expanding 
  their territory, as opposed to simply mining, the architects and 
  designers always included lakes to breed fish stock and fungus 
  beds where they could force-culture some of the nutritious 
  mushrooms that their Twilight designers had crafted. Issues 
  of territory were negotiated by the local Authority. Earth 
  folk society was placid, well fed, efficient and dull.
  As the domain of the earth folk expanded, the people of 
  the earth sometimes encountered the Mountain Folk. While 
  the two groups were able to coexist and even cooperate to a 
  limited degree, they did not fully trust one another. Yet, there 
  was plenty of territory to work and explore. The Jadeborn 
  and the earth folk had no need to associate closely, and when 
  they did interact, the earth folk scrupulously observed their 
  traditions of law and debt.
  THE USURPATION’S EFFECTS
  When the Usurpation occurred, the Dragon-Blooded (and 
  the Sidereal Exalted) were well aware of the earth folk’s network 
  of mines and tunnels underlying large portions of Creation. 
  THE THREE DEBTS
  The ﬁ rst debt is the Debt of Gift: 
  For all gifts there must be repayment.
  The second debt is the Debt of Creation: 
  The Lawgivers made us, and we owe them the 
  repayment of service.
  The third debt is the Debt of Law: 
  The law gives us peace, and we owe it the repayment 
  of obedience.
  First Age earth folk society was organized along these 
  lines. Civil authority was a meritocracy, with the most efficient 
  organizers rising to the top and using Old Realm information 
  storage and filing techniques to coordinate underground expan-
  sion and track contracts and debts. Engineers and architects 
  planned new mines and cities, while miners and gem-cutters 
  worked the actual stone, and traders brought in food and 
  other goods from the surface. While the earth folk had been 
  designed so that they could survive off cave moss and water, 
  they enjoyed the taste of surface cuisine. Normal human cooks 
  were often lured down for a visit into the depths in order to 
  prepare some of their best meals for the people of the earth. 
  (Since the earth folk paid well, very few chefs refused.)
  All formal contracts were recorded and registered with 
  the local Authority—the earth folk term for the ranking bu-
  reaucrat for the area, and also for his subordinates. Marriage 
  and adoption were also formal contracted affairs, though they 
  
  91
  CHAPTER FOUR • CRAFTED RACES
  Not only did it contain a number of important manses, but 
  it was connected to many functioning factory-cathedrals and 
  major cities. Unlike the air folk, who could be driven North, 
  or the sea folk, who could be driven West, the earth folk were 
  everywhere under the ground. They couldn’t be monitored. 
  They couldn’t be predicted. They couldn’t be controlled.
  The only safe thing to do was to get rid of the earth 
  folk.
  The Dragon-Blooded seized earth folk records and maps 
  at their major underdomes in order to have a clear picture of 
  the earth folk distribution across Creation. They then coor-
  dinated channeled earthquakes and dedicated strike teams 
  to wipe out city after city. While a few scattered enclaves of 
  earth folk endured deep in their mines, the majority of earth 
  folk who survived were those who fled to the Mountain Folk 
  and begged for refuge. Although few Jadeborn cared about 
  the politics of the Exalted, some of them felt sympathy with 
  a created people who were now hated and distrusted by the 
  Exalted. Also, the earth folk had always dealt fairly with the 
  Jadeborn and had honored Autochthon respectfully. Several 
  Mountain Folk states in the North and South hid groups of 
  earth folk among their population and lied to the Terrestrial 
  Exalted who came to check that they had been wiped out, 
  claiming that they had turned the earth folk away and were 
  uninterested in Exalted or human affairs.
  The earth folk were left in shock after the fall of their 
  cities and the destruction of so many of their kind. Their laws 
  and records had been lost, their maps stolen, and the debts 
  and kinship networks thrown into total chaos. While the 
  iconoclastic ones were better able to adapt, the more rigid 
  earth folk retreated into their previous habits, forming new 
  families in an attempt to rebuild their social structure. 
  Meanwhile, the Jadeborn felt responsible for their 
  new acquisition. Since they considered the earth folk to be 
  sadly weak (in comparison with the Jadeborn, at least), they 
  improved their bodies by giving them the Exalted Healing 
  mutation. This generosity, combined with the loss of the Solars 
  and the cruelty of the Dragon-Blooded, influenced the earth 
  folk’s faith. They slowly turned from their previous worship 
  of the Incarnae to full adoration of Autochthon, with a bare 
  minimum of prayers being made to the other gods.
  It was Ban In-Per-Thel, one of the surviving members 
  of the Authority, who suggested that the earth folk should 
  integrate fully with Jadeborn society. Ban had always been 
  as close as any man of the earth folk could get to being a 
  rebel. He had spent his youth as an explorer before moving 
  into the administration and had always been known for the 
  precision and fairness of his judgments. Ban pointed out that 
  firstly, the Lawgivers were gone, meaning that the Debt to 
  them was void. Secondly, the surviving earth folk now owed 
  a Debt to the Jadeborn. Thirdly, to continue in their previous 
  way of life was now impossible, as their best mines were lost 
  and their cities broken. Fourthly, they were far more like the 
  Jadeborn than they were like normal humans in any case, so 
  why not embrace the similarity?
  By the time the Great Contagion struck hundreds of years 
  later, the people of the earth had long since begun dwelling 
  in enclaves within Jadeborn territories. The Mountain Folk 
  promptly sealed off their cities that were not yet contaminated, 
  remaining in contact through their echo jewel communica-
  tions network. Naturally, this facility was not available to 
  the earth folk, as it was restricted to priority messages. Those 
  earth folk who were fortunate enough to be inside the sealed 
  cities (rather than being in the infected ones and dying by 
  the score) were isolated even further, with only a few families 
  remaining in some cities. By the end of the Contagion, fewer 
  than 1,000 of the earth folk remained alive.
  When the Balorian Crusade swept across Creation, the 
  disruption to Essence flows cut off all communication be-
  tween Jadeborn city-states, and the consuming Wyld entirely 
  SLIPPING THROUGH THE NET
  Not all earth folk were willing to abide by their 
  society’s strictures or to harness themselves in never-
  ending debt and work in a socially acceptable niche. 
  There were earth folk who were thieves, murderers, 
  heretics who rejected the concept of the Three Debts, 
  solo hunters and lone warriors, demon cultists, explor-
  ers following their instincts rather than their orders 
  and even earth folk who were lazy. 
  Earth folk who were antisocial but not actually 
  criminals were ostracized by society (depending on 
  their success in their field of work) but often sup-
  ported younger earth folk who were similarly fighting 
  the social order. The elder outsiders adopted the 
  younger as apprentices or provided loans to help them 
  establish themselves in their particular field. Some 
  cities, such as Greenweight (under Linowan) and 
  Masonhigh (to the east of Whitewall) were known 
  to have a high number of the “differently opinion-
  ated,” and attracted pilgrimages of such groups from 
  across Creation. While these cities were famous for 
  great inspirational leaps and discoveries, they often 
  lacked the rigorous safety standards and reliability of 
  some of the other earth folk cities.
  Earth folk who engaged in criminal actions 
  (theft, assault, heresy, speaking against the Lawgiv-
  ers in public) were formally expelled from earth folk 
  society and from the lands beneath Creation. They 
  were marched to the nearest exit point and driven 
  out onto the surface, and their names and descriptions 
  were circulated among all earth folk cities and mines 
  to prevent them from entering again. Exile was the 
  only punishment among the earth folk, but it was an 
  effective one. Some earth folk exiles became criminals, 
  others traders, and others found employment with the 
  Exalted. Many simply lay down before the doors to the 
  underground and died there, starving to death.
  
  92
  In the time since the Scarlet Empress took power, 
  the Dragon-Bloods gradually became aware that there are 
  earth folk living among the Mountain Folk. The Scarlet 
  Empress’s official policy on the matter was to live and let 
  live. If the earth folk kept within Mountain Folk territory 
  and followed the same treaties as the Mountain Folk, then 
  she had no reason to pursue them. While she would have 
  been interested in negotiations with separatist colonies of 
  earth folk, to use their mining skills, these were so rare that 
  the situation never arose.
  CURRENT SITUATION
  The earth folk in Creation can be divided into two types: 
  those who have assimilated into the Mountain Folk, and 
  those who remain independent. Very few people (includ-
  ing the earth folk living with the Jadeborn) have actually 
  encountered the still-independent earth folk. Few people 
  even know they exist. When savants discuss the earth folk, 
  they mean the ones living with the Jadeborn. In fact, some 
  inaccurate records suggest that the earth folk are actually 
  products of Jadeborn/human crossbreeding.
  In the present day, there are perhaps 100,000 earth 
  folk scattered across Creation in Jadeborn city-states. In 
  the Jadeborn city-states of Dijak and Teffa, earth folk make 
  up close to 10 percent of the population. Other city-states 
  have earth folk enclaves numbering from 500 to 5,000 
  people. There is constant movement of earth folk between 
  the city-states, though a high proportion of the travelers are 
  earth folk with enlightened Essence, being sent elsewhere 
  for training, helping supervise trade and supply caravans, 
  and so on. Ordinary earth folk require a significant reason 
  to travel outside their city-state. There is no room for simple 
  journeying for pleasure or exploration.
  The earth folk in any Jadeborn city-state usually have 
  their living quarters in the same area or clusters of living 
  quarters close together. It is easier for architectural planners 
  to arrange heating or supplies for general areas, rather than to 
  single dwellings scattered across a whole district of domestic 
  quarters. Ordinary people of the earth are typically treated like 
  unenlightened members of the undercastes, except that their 
  living conditions are somewhat more comfortable because 
  they are less sturdy. Earth folk with enlightened Essence are 
  considered the legal equivalent of Enlightened members of 
  the undercastes and lead lives of relative comfort. They are 
  especially valued because (unlike the Jadeborn) they can 
  learn sorcery. Indeed, earth folk with the potential to do 
  so are expected to do so, to maximize their contribution to 
  the city-state.
  While earth folk in Jadeborn city-states work side by side 
  with the Jadeborn and are subject to Jadeborn laws, there is 
  also an Authority in each earth folk enclave who is respon-
  sible for recording and adjudicating all matters of Debt. This 
  includes marriage, adoptions, work arrangements between 
  earth folk, trade expeditions for supplies used only by earth 
  folk and dealings between earth folk and other races when 
  JADEBORN AND EARTH FOLK
  The Jadeborn view the earth folk much as the 
  Dragon-Blooded view un-Exalted family members or 
  as the citizens of Halta view san-beasts: as members 
  of a group who are similar to them and who think 
  in a similar way, but who lack a crucial degree of 
  power, ability or intelligence, even though the oc-
  casional individual can rise to near-equality. There’s 
  also a degree of patronizing affection involved. The 
  Mountain Folk like the earth folk. After all, they try 
  so hard, and they work so hard, and they worship 
  the Great Maker, and it’s not their fault that they’re 
  weak and fragile and live such short lives. By now, 
  the Jadeborn feel thoroughly responsible for the 
  earth folk living among them, and they’d protect 
  them—even from themselves, if the earth folk 
  should do something risky or unwise, or that might 
  endanger the Jadeborn.
  devoured several outlying territories. The Scarlet Empress’s 
  activation of the Sword of Creation turned back the Fair Folk, 
  but it also produced earthquakes throughout Creation, causing 
  massive rockfalls in the remaining Mountain Folk cities. The 
  Jadeborn did their best to protect the comparatively fragile 
  earth folk, but even so, more of them were lost.
  With the Scarlet Empress in power, the Jadeborn began 
  to rebuild, and the earth folk slowly began to re-establish 
  themselves. Their nascent population assembled in several 
  surviving Mountain Folk city-states (Dijak and Teffa in 
  particular) in order to have enough living bodies to form 
  communities, marry and so on. It was promptly agreed that 
  the Debt owed to the Jadeborn should be entered as the 
  Fourth Great Debt and that the earth folk should integrate 
  with Jadeborn society as a matter of immediate survival. The 
  Authority at that time, Veli An-Dach-Tel, negotiated with 
  the Jadeborn ruling caste to establish legal rights and privileges 
  for the earth folk (rather than simple toleration as guests) and 
  future arrangements for expansion and mining. Her foresight 
  included clauses for earth folk family groups or explorers to 
  operate independently without Jadeborn oversight as long 
  as they were not on Jadeborn territory at the time.
  While a few scattered remnants of the earth folk had 
  survived the Usurpation, the Great Contagion and invasion 
  outside the Mountain Folk citadels, they were now totally 
  isolated and unable to contact the main body of the race. 
  (Indeed, they generally didn’t realize that there were any other 
  survivors of the race.) By now, these groups were severely 
  inbred and, in some cases, Wyld-tainted as well. While their 
  location deep beneath the ground kept them safe from many 
  of the common dangers, they lived in a constant struggle with 
  the Darkbrood, the more elemental dangers of the Wyld, 
  shadowlands and First Age remnants that had been driven 
  into the tunnels during the Usurpation.
  
  93
  CHAPTER FOUR • CRAFTED RACES
  the Jadeborn don’t wish to be involved. (This arrangement 
  was established by Veli An-Dach-Tel, who saw a possible 
  future point when the earth folk might wish to once again 
  build their own cities and maintain an allied-but-separate 
  relationship with the Jadeborn.) First Age attitudes toward 
  obligation and respecting one’s elders still apply, though the 
  situation of a child having enlightened Essence when the 
  parents aren’t (and thus being higher in caste than them) can 
  make for difficult social situations. The traditional solution 
  is for the child to move to another city-state and be adopted 
  by parents there with enlightened Essence.
  HUMAN PREJUDICE
  In some ways, it’s easier for normal humans to 
  tolerate the earth folk because they’re so obviously 
  different. The air folk can hide their wings and the 
  sea folk can hide their gills, and both of them can look 
  normal, but with the earth folk, a human always knows 
  where she stands. It facilitates dealing with them as a 
  completely separate race. Normal humans don’t expect a 
  typical human mindset from them and, therefore, aren’t 
  surprised when they don’t get it. Once a human being 
  gets over the initial shock, it’s fairly straightforward to 
  regard the person of the earth as a regular person who 
  just happens to have bright blue skin and featureless 
  black eyes. It’s not as if they had wings or gills, after 
  all. They’re practically normal.
  While the earth folk have assimilated into Jadeborn 
  society, their personal aesthetics are still their own. Their 
  living quarters and workplaces inside Jadeborn city-states are 
  decorated with recognizably Old Realm designs and carvings, 
  and they still use the Old Realm language for recording 
  Debts. They also retain some of their First Age records of 
  mines and geography, including the location of some of their 
  great cities before the Dragon-Blooded looted and collapsed 
  them. These are a great secret of the Authority and are not 
  even shared with the Jadeborn. (It was decided that it was 
  inappropriate to use this information to pay the Jadeborn, 
  as it was something held in trust for the future of the earth 
  folk as a race.)
  Those earth folk living outside the Jadeborn cities, in 
  tiny enclaves on the edge of the Wyld or in caverns deep 
  beneath the earth, live in constant danger and struggle to 
  exist. They are small (a few hundred at most) and have 
  no time for debt beyond the day-to-day balance of owed 
  favors, or for civilization, or for any mining beyond what 
  is necessary for immediate ore requirements for weapons. 
  Some of them have been mutated by the Wyld, and where 
  this would have been grounds for exile in the First Age, it 
  is now ignored unless it is actually dangerous to the group, 
  as every living member is needed for survival. There is no 
  room for anything else.
  
  94
  PEOPLE OF THE EARTH
  Quiet, mild-mannered and socially stable, the earth folk have apparently assimilated into the Mountain Folk city-
  states. They adhere to ancient traditions involving the obligations that one owes to creators, family and friends, and they 
  pay back what they owe to the last obol either in thanks or in vengeance. They were almost obliterated by the Dragon-
  Blooded after the Usurpation, and while they make no moves against them for the moment, that debt is also remembered. 
  They have held what they owe to the Lawgivers who created them in abeyance for hundreds of years.
  Earth folk are clearly inhuman, with bright azure skin, huge black eyes and claws. Yet, they carry themselves with 
  an innate gentleness and calm that subconsciously reassures those around them, and they are soft-spoken, raising their 
  voices only in emergencies. They are accustomed to working together, viewing this as the natural response to problems, 
  and while they can function perfectly in the endless dark depths of the earth, they are also capable of managing on the 
  surface of Creation without any problems.
  Clothing and Weapons: Earth folk clothing is functional and practical, even in private or at leisure. Workers wear 
  simple tunics and breeches, and both sexes dress alike. Savants, thaumaturges and others with sedentary occupations wear 
  plain robes. There is no aesthetic for decoration of clothing or embroidery. 
  The closest that earth folk come is knotted cords worn in particular 
  patterns as belts or necklaces. They use many of the same weapons 
  as the Jadeborn, typically crossbows and skirmish pikes, with the 
  occasional flamethrower or similar alchemical fire weapon 
  carried by one member of a squad.
  Mutations: All people of the earth possess the Claws, 
  “Fur,” Longevity and Night Vision (x2) poxes and the Wall 
  Walking blight. Those who dwell among the Jadeborn 
  also have the Exalted Healing affliction. Possessing the 
  Night Vision pox twice allows people of the earth to 
  see in total darkness as well as ordinary mortals can in 
  full daylight. Although they are protected as if they 
  had the Fur pox, people of the earth have exceedingly 
  tough azure skin rather than actual fur.
  Associations: the color black, burrowing crea-
  tures, the earth, the Center direction
  Sobriquets: Blessed of the Earth, Burrowers, 
  Diggers, Earth Folk, Molemen
  Concepts: Darkbrood fighter, debt repayer, ex-
  plorer, thaumaturge, trader seeking surface contacts, 
  Wyld-mutant from isolated colony
  The Wyld Hunt will 
  never find you here, 
  Your Excellency. 
  Now, please follow us. 
  We have to show 
  you something.
  
  95
  CHAPTER FOUR • CRAFTED RACES
  THE PEOPLE OF THE SEA
  The sea folk were engineered in the First Age to extend 
  the dominion of the Exalted beneath the waters of Creation. 
  For centuries, they enjoyed the best of both worlds, being able 
  to live both below the waves and on land. When they dwell 
  on the surface now, they are often assumed to be beastmen 
  (or worse, Lintha) and must live as outcasts or menials on the 
  outskirts of human communities. Beneath the waves, mat-
  ters are not much better. The glory days of the First Age are 
  gone, many of the technologies and skills that maintained the 
  undersea kingdoms are lost, and Lintha, Wyld mutants and 
  pelagothropes press on sea folk territories. Even the undead 
  now walk the seabed. Skeletons and zombies have no need 
  to breathe, and the Silver Prince uses them to harvest the 
  ocean bottom and clear the way for his future empire.
  The people of the sea hold no grudges against the Solars 
  or against the Dragon-Blooded (who mostly left them to 
  their own folk after the Usurpation) or even against normal 
  humans. While they hardly like being treated as second-class 
  citizens or freaks of nature, they view normal humans as 
  pitifully disadvantaged, unable to enjoy the true bounties of 
  the waters. Sea folk who are able to leave humanity behind 
  and enjoy the boundless depths are more inclined to this 
  point of view, while those sea folk who have to live on land 
  and regularly interact with humans are less patronizing and 
  rather more bitter.
  ORIGINS
  The sea folk were an obvious project to the members of the 
  Solar Deliberative. All the West lay open to development, but 
  humans could not access the parts below the surface without 
  significant investment in Essence-technology to pump air to 
  underwater domes and cities or in artifacts that would allow 
  them to survive underwater. In addition to the three main 
  crafters, several other Twilight Castes competed to create 
  the most efficient and elegant model of water-breathing hu-
  man. In the end, the Deliberative was forced to adjudicate 
  and instruct the Twilight crafters to combine their designs. 
  High Fantastic Dream took credit for the main parts of the 
  crafting on the gills, though Lucid Topaz was acknowledged 
  for his work on combining longevity with aesthetics and 
  adjusting the human metabolism to consume plankton and 
  particulate seaweed.
  People of the sea look mostly like normal attractive 
  Westerners, with the blue or green hair and blue-tinged skin 
  often found in the West. Their most obvious abnormalities 
  are the elegant gill slits that extend down their neck and a 
  palm’s breadth down their back. On land, the slits close and 
  simply resemble unusually symmetrical scars. The sea folk 
  also have tough webbing between the first joints of their 
  fingers and the entire length of their overly long toes. While 
  all these features can be concealed by appropriate clothing, 
  the climate and fashions of the West make this difficult. 
  Few Western cultures hide the hands or feet (especially 
  when at sea) or conceal the neck. In fact, attempts to do so 
  often arouse suspicion, on the grounds that the person must 
  have some unpleasant reason for covering their body, such 
  as Lintha heritage, Wyld mutations or worse.
  The sea folk spread out to colonize the West underwater 
  but also maintained a presence around the Western islands. 
  They were shipwrights, able to mend ships from underwater 
  without needing to dry-dock the vessel, and fishers and un-
  dersea miners and pearl divers and a thousand other things 
  besides. They could perform as well out of the water as in it. 
  Settlements spread into the Inland Sea and into Creation’s 
  great lakes and rivers.
  DEVELOPMENT
  If one word could be used to describe the First Age sea 
  folk, it would be happy. They were truly blessed, granted the 
  freedom of both land and sea, and able to expand across the 
  oceans and seas and lakes without having to compete for 
  territory with normal humans in the way that the air folk 
  did. The Exalted built them great undersea cities of glass 
  and gold and granite, with magnificent domes and sweeping 
  arches and pinnacles. In some stretches of the ocean, a sailor 
  could look down from his ship and see the sea folk’s buildings 
  in the clear deeps below, glinting like distant stars. Some of 
  their outposts were mines, where they dug out rare minerals 
  and gems for the Exalted, while others were great fisheries, 
  where they herded great flocks of fish to be harvested and 
  processed. Yet others were observatories and laboratories and 
  factory-cathedrals, tapping Essence-flows on the seabed and 
  building networks of manses down there. 
  Many a First Age Exalt had a private seabed manse with 
  a loyal staff of sea folk, where she could retreat to work in 
  privacy. Faced with potential squabbles over seabed territory 
  among the Lawgivers, the Deliberative ruled that specific 
  demesnes in the neutral ocean belonged to whichever Exalt 
  found and developed them first, though the military could 
  commandeer their Essence flows if necessary to prevent 
  Wyld incursions.
  While the sea folk pushed back the unexplored bound-
  aries of the West, they also established cities under the 
  main trade routes. Many ships were saved when becalmed 
  or during storms by sea folk swimming up to bring food and 
  water, to help mend their ships so they could reach land or 
  even to offer sailors shelter in some of the air-filled rooms 
  they kept for guests. All sea folk cities had some rooms that 
  were sorcerously pressurized and filled with normal air, for 
  the comfort of Exalted or human visitors who didn’t wish to 
  adjust their metabolisms via Charms or sorcery.
  The sea folk had their own wars, battling against the 
  pelagothropes and the siakamen that came in from the 
  Wyld. By its nature, the Great Western Ocean was prone 
  to currents and drift, meaning that tainted tides could come 
  in from the Wyld to put a wide area at risk or corrupt a 
  whole settlement before the alarm could be raised. While 
  sea folk patrols could alert their Exalted masters in the case 
  of a large-scale emergency, they were often faced with the 
  
  96
  task of destroying a Wyld incursion and slaughtering all 
  the resulting Wyld mutants themselves. This responsibility 
  became a matter of honor. Famous legends were told about 
  Brack Two-Spear, who held the Great Gorge against the 
  charge of the seal-mutants until he died of a hundred wounds 
  (none on his back), or Ellahna Tidesinger, who called up 
  an earthquake that destroyed her own home city when the 
  Wyld overran it. The Wyld was the enemy, and it was noble 
  and heroic to resist it.
  Many sea folk had some training in thaumaturgy or in 
  handling Essence flows. Their underwater cities often de-
  pended on great First Age engines to manage water flow or 
  support the infrastructure, and the Essence technology had 
  to be cared for and tended. It was a matter of practicality to 
  enable the sea folk to manage this themselves so that they 
  wouldn’t need attention from Exalted or from normal human 
  thaumaturges all the time. As the sea folk colonies spread 
  further toward the Western horizon, it became possible for 
  a typical member of this blessed race to live out her life in 
  the water, never coming to land and never meeting a normal 
  human. Those sea folk who were based in the Inland Sea 
  or an inland lake didn’t suffer such a degree of separation, 
  but they didn’t have the same degree of independence. Sea 
  folk cities based closer to human habitation or trade routes 
  usually had strong links with the nearby lands, for trade, 
  military service and duty to the Exalted.
  Sea folk society was a meritocracy, with a leader selected 
  by a council of elders (subject to Lawgiver approval). Gender 
  equality and universal education were cornerstones of sea 
  folk life, helping to produce the thaumaturges and savants 
  who supported the undersea cities. Yet, the great unspoken 
  assumption of sea folk life (and the great blind spot) was 
  that the most important thing for any man or woman of the 
  sea folk was his or her ability to swim, to know the waters 
  and to survive the great depths. Even the elders and the 
  savants were capable of far surpassing any normal human 
  underwater. Children who failed to reach the proper stan-
  dards of sea craft were quietly abandoned on beaches, left 
  to make a life on land or die alone, with the understanding 
  that “they would never have been happy living down here 
  properly with us.” Adults who showed weakness in those 
  areas would never rise to any position of true power or influ-
  ence, but would spend their lives in menial tasks, however 
  great their potential might have been. The ocean had no 
  room for weakness.
  THE USURPATION AND THE CONTAGION
  The sea folk fought bravely and loyally in defense of 
  the Lawgivers during the Usurpation, and the only reason 
  that more of them didn’t die was the sheer scope of the 
  West. The news simply didn’t get to many of the underwa-
  ter cities until too late. Even then, the sea folk who would 
  have fought for their masters couldn’t reach the fighting in 
  time. While military Essence technology could traverse the 
  West fast enough, taking control of it had been one of the 
  priorities of the Usurpation. The Dragon-Blooded (and the 
  Sidereals) could easily see the potential of the Solars being 
  able to move themselves and their forces freely around the 
  West, and had made taking control of the main nexuses 
  and means of transport a high-level priority. Those areas 
  of the West that weren’t shattered by the fighting could 
  only accept the fait accompli and come to terms with their 
  new masters.
  ABIDING LOYALTY
  While the sea folk leaders swore loyalty to the 
  Dragon-Blooded with all the proper forms and words, 
  many of them still hoped that the Solars might re-
  turn or that they could be saved from whatever the 
  Dragon-Blooded had done to them. The mechanism 
  of Exaltation was hardly a secret, and while the 
  sea folk knew that the Solars could be killed, they 
  also knew that new Solars would rise to take their 
  place. The fact that the Dragon-Blooded had utterly 
  wiped them out was new and foreign and entirely 
  incomprehensible.
  Many sea folk believed that the Lawgivers must 
  still be out there, somewhere. Surreptitious search par-
  ties across Creation hunted for traces of imprisoned 
  Solars. Sadly, they never once had the slightest idea 
  that the Jade Prison existed, let alone that it was 
  hidden in the ocean depths.
  Even today, the people of the sea dream of the 
  return of the long-lost Lawgivers and pray to the 
  Unconquered Sun that he might show mercy and 
  return his chosen ones to govern the world once 
  more in righteousness and save it from the shadows 
  of corruption. They remember the glory of the First 
  Age, and while they can accept the Terrestrial Exalted 
  for the moment, they will throw all their strength 
  behind the Solars when they return. Assuming that 
  they recognize them.
  The only danger would be if the returning Solars 
  didn’t live up to the sea folk’s expectations, nurtured 
  lovingly for centuries. That could be bad.
  The Shogunate stripped the more accessible undersea 
  metropolises of their First Age Essence-driven technology, 
  leaving only the bare minimum necessary to sustain the cities 
  (and not even that, in some cases). As with the minikins, 
  those sea folk who were trained in the maintenance and 
  upkeep of the First Age mechanisms were conscripted for 
  life, driven to exhaustion to keep the devices running in the 
  absence of the Solars who had designed them.
  Centuries later, one of the sea folk, Kalikan the Last 
  Master (as he is remembered), began to speak of rebellion. 
  
  97
  CHAPTER FOUR • CRAFTED RACES
  His Essence was awakened, and he was a thaumaturge and 
  warleader who had fought back Wyld incursions many times. 
  He was a hero, respected by the sea folk, he was a notable 
  strategist, and he predicted that the time would come when 
  the Shogunate’s grip would be more desperate, and when 
  the sea folk might have a chance to rise up in rebellion and 
  escape the Terrestrial Exalted’s rule. He began to gather an 
  army, and allies of his smuggled him stolen bits of Essence 
  technology to arm and equip his warriors.
  When the Contagion struck, however, it killed the liv-
  ing creatures of the waters just as it killed those on the land. 
  Sea folk died as readily as humans did, and Kalikan’s nascent 
  army was wiped out before it could be used. His caches of 
  First Age technology were lost with him.
  The timing could hardly have been worse. Just when 
  the sea folk had lost the cream of their warriors and weap-
  ons, the Fair Folk invaded. Cities that had miraculously 
  survived the chaos of the Usurpation and barely managed 
  to endure the Contagion disappeared into the Wyld, lost 
  in tides of chaos-tainted waves and shadows. Great Gor-
  gomire with her waterfall curtains and her crystal domes; 
  sweet Isinerende, where sculpted seaweed and sea moss 
  formed ever-moving patterns of color across the city; dark 
  Dissomer of the hidden depths, where veins of orichalcum 
  were mined from the very bottom of the sea bed; Onderaine 
  in the North, where the buildings were carved from ice and 
  yet were never too cold… All were lost to the Wyld, and 
  many more beside.
  The sea folk fought shoulder to shoulder with humans, 
  Dragon-Bloods and Lunars, throwing themselves into a 
  last-ditch attempt to hold back the Wyld. They did not 
  truly expect to win. A certain degree of fatalism had always 
  been one of the race’s main character traits, and after all 
  the previous calamities, this just seemed to be the finishing 
  touch, the end of all Creation. Courage and persistence 
  kept them at their posts, even though all hope of victory 
  seemed lost.
  When the Scarlet Empress activated the defense grid 
  and threw the Fair Folk back from the borders of Creation, 
  the sea folk were as confused about what to do next as the 
  normal humans. Some small enclaves of sea folk tried offering 
  her their formal loyalty. They were tolerated at first, since 
  the Empress was not going to turn down any support for her 
  throne, but they soon found themselves marginalized by 
  the newly drafted Immaculate dogma, second-class citizens 
  who were tolerated for their abilities but expected to stay 
  well away from the Realm. Others withdrew entirely from 
  human-occupied islands, building new settlements or repair-
  ing old ones on the seabed or on islands that were unsuitable 
  for normal human occupation. (The sea folk could harvest 
  additional supplies from the sea and didn’t have to depend 
  on above-water sea routes.) Perhaps two-thirds of the sea folk 
  
  98
  remained in their previous stance, cooperating with human-
  inhabited islands and working with human navies and trade 
  fleets, living partly on land and partly in water.
  The growth of the Immaculate faith and the increas-
  ingly common misconception that the sea folk were Wyld 
  mutants made it more and more difficult for the people 
  of the sea to maintain their relationship with citizens of 
  the Scarlet Empire. Meanwhile, the Coral Archipelago 
  was building itself into a nation of pirates and raiders, and 
  the shadowlands where the Silver Prince now holds court 
  were growing wider with every passing year. Most of the 
  sea folk who lived in the White Sea or the Inland Sea, or 
  in inland lakes and rivers, drifted to the West or withdrew 
  from human territories. In the East, the Linowan and the 
  Haltan people made war on each other, and the Linowan 
  exterminated the few sea folk who dwelled in their great 
  rivers, assuming that they were part-human spies for the 
  Haltans. The sea folk themselves turned away from their 
  previous pure veneration of the Incarnae and began honoring 
  local water deities as well, in search of immediate benefits 
  and protection.
  CURRENT SITUATION
  While the sea folk are no more welcome among humans 
  than any of the other crafted races, they can at least withdraw 
  to the ocean depths. Yet, if they wish to truly re-establish 
  themselves as a group to be respected and feared, and perform 
  their ancient task of holding back the Wyld, then they need 
  connections and allies among the human race. They need 
  assistance with rebuilding some of their First Age ruins, and 
  they need aid in fighting the mutants with whom they are 
  so often confused.
  Sea folk in many different communities have come to 
  the conclusion that they need to seek a rapprochement with 
  humans, but they differ as to how to achieve it. Some favor 
  making a pact with the Scarlet Empire, pointing out that, 
  in the Empress’s absence, this is an excellent opportunity 
  to ally with one or more of the Great Houses and earn their 
  gratitude. Others look to Lookshy or the Haslanti, seeing 
  them as opportunists who are rising in power. Some even 
  suggest joining the Confederation of Rivers, if a sea folk 
  settlement could move to an appropriate body of water in 
  the area. A few even whisper that the ancient Lawgivers 
  have returned and that it is time for the people of the sea 
  to support them.
  Major sea folk settlements include the island of Seahome, 
  west of Abalone, where sea folk and outcaste Dragon-Blooded 
  work together to push back the Wyld; Oceanmouth, in the 
  depths below the edge of the White Sea; Darkwater, south 
  of Skullstone and north of the Neck; and Jalarin, a warped 
  First Age city deep in the Western Bordermarches.
  Seahome has more than 6,000 people of the sea living 
  there. Although it is located within the tainted lands, a jade 
  obelisk protects the island and its inhabitants from the Wyld. 
  Its people have bred with outcaste Dragon-Blooded and water 
  elementals for centuries, and today, it includes a few hun-
  dred God-Blooded and more than a dozen Dragon-Blooded 
  people of the sea. They also offer refuge to Western female 
  Dragon-Blooded “lost eggs” who seek rights for themselves 
  in the mainly patriarchal cultures of the West. As a result, 
  Seahome is often stigmatized as an island of water-breathing 
  women with sorcerous powers and loose morals. Seahome is 
  looking for allies to help push back the Wyld and has some 
  salvaged-but-damaged First Age artifacts to sweeten the deal. 
  (The island is governed by a council of savants and has a 
  strong respect for scholarship and the study of magic.) The 
  Tya trade with it, but secretly, as known association with 
  Seahome would damage their own reputation as neutrals in 
  the rest of the West.
  Oceanmouth lies in the deep waters where the White 
  Sea meets the Great Western Ocean. It is a constant victim 
  of strong tides and nearby tribes of pelagothropes. One small 
  city of sea folk cannot bar the pelagothropes from the White 
  Sea or hope to hold them off for long, but they’re trying. 
  Unfortunately, they’re losing. The city’s current leader, Zan-
  nin Sea-Furrower, is seeking help from any source possible, 
  and one of his thaumaturges, Jezath the Seeker, has even 
  suggested calling up demons for aid.
  Darkwater is known to the Silver Prince, who courts it 
  with suggestions of alliance. His emissaries point out that 
  the humans of the Skullstone Archipelago live happily and 
  well, and claim that the sea folk would be honored partners, 
  respected and accepted by the humans, with full trading 
  privileges and rights as citizens. The main reason that the sea 
  folk haven’t yet accepted is that their leader, Rennis Wave-
  light, firmly believes in the promised return of the Solars and 
  refuses to ally with anyone except them. He is bigoted and 
  stubborn, but that stubbornness is keeping the Darkwater 
  settlement away from the Silver Prince at the moment. For 
  his part, the Silver Prince would very much like the sea folk 
  as shipwrights for his hidden vessels—living or dead.
  Jalarin is a tragedy. It was an underwater metropolis, 
  a jewel of the First Age, that was ruined in the Usurpation 
  and then swallowed by the Wyld during the Fair Folk inva-
  sion. The sea folk who were trapped inside it at the time 
  have become aquatic barbarians, adapting to the Wyld by 
  becoming living tales of honorable, fearless, merciless pirates. 
  All but one of the city’s crystal domes are shattered, and all 
  knowledge of First Age wonders has been lost. The Jalarinites 
  have lost their history, their past and all memory of resisting 
  the Wyld. Their mental assimilation has kept them relatively 
  sane and allowed them to remain free of mutations, but it 
  has destroyed their culture. Now they attack ships around 
  Coral, Skullstone and the Neck, selling prisoners to the Fair 
  Folk as slaves. The population includes several dozen Fae-
  Blooded people of the sea, who are the city’s finest shamans 
  and emissaries to the Fair Folk. The Jalarinites even go so 
  far as to employ siakamen as shock troops and marines. The 
  sea folk who once fought the Wyld to their last drop of blood 
  now serve it and help it expand.
  
  99
  CHAPTER FOUR • CRAFTED RACES
  PEOPLE OF THE SEA
  The sea folk were crafted to have the best of both worlds, land and sea. They could endure the great depths and never 
  need to surface, or they could live on land without a moment’s difficulty. They spread across the waters of Creation in 
  territories that nobody else could inhabit and fought back the tides of the Western Wyld with heroic determination. Even 
  now, with their greatest cities lost, their people scattered and Creation viewing them as no better than the beastmen of 
  the Wyld, they persevere.
  Their customs—equality of gender, meritocracy and personal strength—have descended with them from the First Age, 
  and they tolerate humans far better than humans tolerate them. Although they abandon their children if they are weak, 
  they believe they do so for the children’s own good. The only thing they cannot abide is the Wyld and all that comes from 
  it, and they fight against it with the resources that remain to them, while waiting for the Solar Exalted to return. Like 
  water, they are scattered across Creation, even though they are most common in the West, and like the water again, they 
  are persistent, adaptable and enduring.
  Clothing and Weapons: Sea folk prefer to wear nothing more than a loincloth, with jewelry for decoration. If respecting 
  local customs, however, they may add breastbands, tunics or even robes. They do not wear scarves or other neck-coverings 
  unless it is necessary to conceal their gills. For weapons, they favor harpoons, tridents, nets, 
  spears and knives. Some few communities possess the secret of crafting thaumaturgically 
  waterproofed crossbows to keep the cord and firing mechanism functional however 
  many times they are taken into the water. 
  Mutations: All people of the sea possess the Elemental Adaptation (Water) 
  and Longevity poxes and the Gills affliction.
  Associations: the color blue, water, fishes and frogs, the Western direction
  Sobriquets: Fishmen, Sea Folk, Swimmers
  Concepts: abandoned child, alliance seeker, explorer, hedonist, shipwright, 
  Wyld-mutant hunter
  CHAPTER FOUR • CRAFTE
  unless it is necessary to conceal their gil
  spears and knives. Some few commun
  waterproofed crossbows to keep th
  many times they are taken into th
  Mutations: All people of
  and Longevity poxes and the
  Associations: the color 
  Sobriquets: Fishmen, Sea
  Concepts: abandoned chil
  Wyld-mutant hunter
  The mutants are coming no matter 
  what you do to me. If you release me, 
  I can come back with help. If you don’t, 
  we’re all going to die.
  
  100
  THE DJALA
  In some ways, the Djala have had to win back everything 
  they once lost. They are known in Creation today as a com-
  paratively small and delicate race of people, frequently seen 
  as slaves or servants. Those who can trace the race’s history 
  back to the First Age can produce records of them being 
  smaller still, barely two and a half feet tall at most, and assume 
  that they were created at the time by the ancient Solars and 
  Lunars for their own purposes. The Djala themselves know 
  little more than that.
  Accurate First Age records, however, give a more detailed 
  story. The Djala were originally an independent race with 
  their own history and territory, until the Lawgivers chose to 
  modify them into a smaller race of blessed mortals, specifically 
  designed to serve them by tending Essence-based technologies. 
  The new race was successful, but the true Djala were almost 
  destroyed. The people that now claim that name are the 
  descendants of the Lawgiver-created race and are too often 
  considered slaves or servants by the rest of Creation.
  ORIGINS
  In the millennia that followed the founding of the 
  Deliberative, the success of the air folk, the sea folk and the 
  earth folk inspired other Solars to create their own versions 
  of blessed humans. One of the most successful experiments 
  was the race of minikins. These were created by Owl-Over-
  Water, a Lunar scholar and sorcerer of the No Moon Caste, 
  who wished to craft a race of miniature humans specially 
  designed to repair advanced Essence-based devices. This 
  was a very practical piece of work, rather than being purely 
  aesthetic as some other experimental races were. While 
  only the most powerful First Age artifacts required regular 
  maintenance, many of them underwent regular upgrades, 
  and all of them needed servicing if they were damaged. A 
  race that was specifically designed to see to this work was an 
  extremely economical direction of research.
  Using the already short Djala people as her base, Owl-
  Over-Water created the minikins specifically to work in 
  small areas, on and inside complex devices. Each minikin 
  appeared to be one of the Djala people, only less than two 
  and a half feet tall and with exceptionally flexible joints—and 
  an innate ability to work Essence. The new blessed race was 
  so successful that Owl-Over-Water extended invitations to 
  more and more of the Djala people to report for modifica-
  tion and re-creation. Given the inevitable losses involved, 
  there were soon tens of thousands of minikins working across 
  Creation, but the original Djala territory was little more 
  than a shell. In an act of kindness (and with an eye toward 
  future breeding stock), the Lawgivers forbade other humans 
  from resettling the area, leaving it to the comparatively few 
  Djala who remained.
  DEVELOPMENT
  Minikins soon became popular for many tasks besides 
  thaumaturgical engineering: mining fragile materials, per-
  forming delicate surgery, acting as bodyguards for the children 
  of the Lawgivers, spying and so on. Although they were 
  considerably less numerous than the other races of blessed 
  mortals at the time, there were soon more than 100,000 
  minikins working across Creation. All had enlightened Es-
  sence, and most knew at least some thaumaturgy, while many 
  were skilled magitechnicians and accomplished sorcerers or 
  martial artists.
  The minikins were unique among the blessed mortals 
  in that they had no homeland of their own. Instead of the 
  Northern mountain cities of the air folk, the Western undersea 
  metropolises of the sea folk or the underground caverns of 
  the earth folk, they lived in cities or research installations all 
  across Creation. Many such places contained special districts 
  where the buildings, streets and other conveniences were 
  built at 40 percent of human scale, made to fit the minikins. 
  Because need for their services was limited in any one place, 
  however, even the largest factory-cathedrals had communi-
  ties of only 2,500 or so minikins. The minikins were also 
  transferred around as need demanded. While some efforts 
  were made to allow them to preserve family groups or mar-
  ried couples, the requirements of the Lawgivers’ technology 
  were ultimately paramount.
  Very few minikins wanted to go back to the Djala 
  homeland in the Southeast. They generally enjoyed their 
  new status as expert operatives and favored servants of the 
  Exalted, and were more interested in this new life than in 
  the old ways of farming, hunting and crafting. The remaining 
  Djala in their homeland were well-provided-for, as mortals in 
  Creation went, as the Exalted wanted to preserve the racial 
  stock and make sure that they didn’t try to move elsewhere 
  or expand too much.
  The minikins’ small stature made it easy for humans to 
  patronize them, regarding them as no more than children, 
  so the minikins preferred to associate with each other. The 
  standard minikin social group was the family, and children 
  in a family followed their parents’ trades, trained in them 
  from childhood onward unless they showed a very strong 
  aptitude in another skill set. Parents would carry their babies 
  and toddlers around with them in small backpacks while 
  working on Essence-driven technology or be followed by 
  their children once they were old enough to walk, explain-
  ing all the mechanics of the artifacts as they repaired them. 
  Marriage was usually more of a work partnership than a 
  matter of romance. Unfortunately, minikin women had 
  trouble bearing children safely. While they had the best of 
  medical care during pregnancy (as the Exalted valued their 
  minikin servants), they were never as prolific as the other 
  blessed races.
  Djala racial pride became minikin pride in expertise. 
  While the minikins felt a natural lack of enthusiasm toward 
  the fact that everyone else was so much larger than them, 
  they could be smug about their skill and their manipulation 
  of Essence. They might be technicians and servants, but they 
  viewed themselves as vitally important technicians and ser-
  
  101
  CHAPTER FOUR • CRAFTED RACES
  vants. They directed prayers to the gods to keep the devices 
  running on schedule and to grant the minikins opportunities 
  to demonstrate their abilities. As the minikins put it (in 
  private), any fool could explore the Threshold or challenge 
  the borders of Creation, but only a really skilled, intelligent 
  minikin could keep the factory-cathedrals running.
  While a proportion of minikins trained in the enlight-
  ened martial arts, this was a matter of leisure and skill rather 
  than an immediate necessity for survival (except for the ones 
  who were employed as spies and assassins). In general, the 
  minikins were a prosperous and protected group, scattered 
  across Creation, frequently traveling as they were assigned 
  to new work locations, and cosmopolitan and well informed, 
  since they were so often close to their Lawgiver masters.
  THE USURPATION’S EFFECTS
  The Sidereals and Dragon-Blooded didn’t want to kill the 
  minikins, they wanted to use them. Minikins were a valuable 
  resource, and while there was some “natural wastage” during 
  the Usurpation and its aftermath (due to the destruction of 
  Solar homes, cities and factory-cathedrals), approximately 
  50,000 minikins survived. The new Shogunate promptly 
  declared them the property of the state. As such, they were 
  protected and given a stipend for living expenses, but they 
  lost any remnants of freedom, becoming basically slaves. 
  (While they had not had a great deal more freedom under 
  Solar rule, at least it had never been expressed in so crude a 
  way.) All minikins who had been trained as spies or assassins 
  were killed on sight—or hidden by their new owners.
  Given the chaos going on around them, the minikins 
  accepted their new station at first, assuming that new laws 
  would be passed to grant them more freedom as soon as the 
  current crisis was over. The situation became worse and worse, 
  however. The shortage of minikins and the failure of city 
  infrastructures and factory-cathedrals caused the Shogunate 
  to work the minikins harder, to break up family groups so 
  that everywhere was staffed and to reduce rations and pay 
  for the duration of the emergency.
  Their close access to communications technology al-
  lowed the minikins to consult each other across Creation 
  while avoiding the notice of the Terrestrial Exalted. Led by 
  the Anshias family, the Sterakes family and the Arpachis 
  family, they decided after centuries of enslavement to flee 
  to the Djala homeland and broker a price for their return 
  and services.
  The Great Contagion gave them that opportunity. 
  Abandoning their work, taking a selection of choice portable 
  artifacts with them and stealing flying devices or stowing 
  away on ships and caravans, they traveled back toward their 
  ancestral home. Those minikins who survived to reach it 
  found that the Contagion was already there. Among their 
  thefts, however, they had stolen portable pieces of First Age 
  medical technology and land-cultivation devices. While 
  nothing could stop the Contagion itself, they did manage 
  to keep deaths from other sources and incidental infection 
  down, and to farm the land despite the small numbers left 
  to do it.
  The living Djala were astonished at the return of their 
  smaller relatives. Their land had been touched only lightly 
  by the Usurpation and the Shogunate, so they knew little 
  of what had been going on among the Exalted. When the 
  minikins explained the situation to them, the Djala tribes 
  agreed to give their kindred sanctuary, in return for the mini-
  kins sharing the Essence-based technology they had brought 
  with them. The Contagion had left few enough people that 
  there were no quarrels over territory.
  The Djala and the minikins began to intermarry. Owl-
  Over-Water’s changes had left them interfertile, and over the 
  decades, the Djala population began to stabilize, genetically 
  carrying the best of both worlds. The “new Djala” had both 
  the natural minikin advantages (Enlightened Essence and 
  Longevity) and the natural Djala height and build. What 
  they didn’t plan on having was a reputation as slaves.
  Even though the Scarlet Empress had now come to 
  power, the Dragon-Blooded (and people across Creation) 
  remembered the minikins as tireless, efficient, uncomplaining 
  slaves. Even though the world had now changed enough that 
  there wasn’t the same need for technicians to maintain First 
  Age artifacts, there was still plenty of need for slaves.
  The Djala territory had always been protected by Law-
  giver mandate in the First Age, preserved and untouched, and 
  the Djala themselves had never needed to develop armies. 
  They had hunters and warriors, and now that the minikins 
  had been assimilated into the culture, they had enlightened 
  martial artists, but they didn’t have armies, and they didn’t 
  have a military structure that could protect the nation. 
  Emerging nations and the Guild saw them as prime targets 
  for enslavement. The fact that the average Djala was about 
  four feet tall didn’t help matters.
  The Djala rapidly realized that their survival lay in sub-
  mission. They didn’t have the resources to fight back. The 
  First Age artifacts that the minikins had retrieved or stolen 
  were not weapons. They had some resources, but not on the 
  scale of a city-state like Lookshy. Also, if other neighboring 
  countries or the Realm became aware that they had First 
  Age artifacts concealed, they would only be targeted more 
  frequently and the entire nation might be occupied.
  Of course, these decisions were taken by some of the 
  most minikin-influenced families, at the heart of the Djala 
  lands. The outlying families and tribes knew only that they 
  were being raided more and more often and marched away 
  in chains and that no help was coming from their respected 
  leaders. Anger began to grow in the outlying Djala groups. 
  Some of them realized that they could effectively save 
  themselves by sacrificing others. The Guild was happy 
  to broker arrangements in which it sponsored particular 
  tribes in return for slaves taken by them from other tribes. 
  Other countries, such as Varangia, were less subtle and 
  simply made regular raids to take slaves from the nearest 
  convenient source.
  
  102
  CURRENT SITUATION
  Inside Djalan territory, in the unraided areas, very little 
  has changed since the First Age. The Djala live in small camps 
  or tree-houses, where the panels of their tents and houses are 
  woven from local silks camouflaged to match the foliage. They 
  hunt the wild beasts of the land—more violent and varied 
  than in the First Age, but still not uncontrollable—and they 
  store fruits, nuts and lengths of edible vine for the winter. 
  What outsiders don’t see are the deep villages, a 
  recent development in the last hundred years, where the 
  minikin-led arts are taught. Previously, the minikin skills 
  were passed down among families, but now, the villages 
  are open to all Djala who are sent there or who can find 
  them. These villages are concealed in the depths of the 
  jungle, with circles of watching camps. Here young Djala 
  are trained in enlightened martial arts, in the defunct skills 
  of maintaining First Age artifacts (mostly by rote, as there 
  are few to repair here any more), in medicine and surgery, 
  and in spying and assassination. Once trained, they go out 
  to the Djala borders to help where they can, attacking sla-
  ver troupes and laying traps for raiders. The elders in these 
  villages are notably smaller than the average Djala, as they 
  are often descended from heavily minikin-bred families. 
  The students are under orders not to display their abilities 
  in front of strangers though. Some of them masquerade as 
  traveling acrobatic troupes or pilgrims.
  What do the Djala actually want? Primarily, they 
  want to be left in peace. If someone handed them a First 
  Age weapon that could safeguard their borders (or a Solar 
  who could be persuaded to do so), they’d use it. In an ideal 
  Creation, many Djala would enjoy being able to work on 
  DJALAN PILGRIMAGES
  Djalan religion worships the forest spirits as well 
  as the Unconquered Sun, Luna and the Maidens, with 
  tribal shamans offering sacrifices of fruit and flowers 
  to all of them equally. (Djalan shamans are often 
  thaumaturges and practice all Arts except the Art 
  of the Dead and the Art of Demon Summoning.) A 
  particular ritual that young Djala observe is to make a 
  journey around Djalan territory, carrying flowers and 
  branches from one area to the next, offering them to 
  the spirits in that area, then picking new flowers to 
  offer in the next area along. It is considered spiritual 
  and virtuous, and it allows young Djala to travel 
  around the country and learn more about their land 
  and people. It also gets them away from their parents 
  for a few months. Unfortunately, pilgrim bands (usually 
  a dozen to several dozen youngsters) are prime targets 
  for slave raiders, being young and healthy.
  
  103
  CHAPTER FOUR • CRAFTED RACES
  First Age artifacts as their ancestors did and as they have 
  learned by rote to do. They still value expert service and tasks 
  well performed as honorable, meritorious things—which is 
  useful for the many Djala who end up as slaves and have 
  to find some sort of meaning for their lives. While they 
  are not servile by nature, the minikin nature was to work 
  for a living, and the concepts of aristocracy and hereditary 
  leadership have never really caught on among the Djala. 
  While certain families are particularly well respected, all 
  decisions come back to local councils of elders. Nobody 
  can speak for the whole Djalan race. While this has led to 
  the country’s open borders and the enslavement of many 
  of its citizens, it has also kept the secret of Djalan artifact 
  stashes and hidden training villages.
  The Deathlords remember the minikins and watch 
  the Djala with an eye to recruiting them for necrosurgical 
  techniques, but so far, this has been unproductive. It is 
  unclear whether this is because the enslaved Djala they 
  used lack the appropriate skills or because the Djala are 
  simply not in tune with the Abyssal energies being used. 
  The Djala themselves do not practice ancestor worship, 
  though some of the more rebellious enslaved Djala in the 
  Threshold have formed small cults that worship any divin-
  ity that offers them a chance of freedom. As a result, it is 
  that much harder for the Deathlords or their servants to 
  influence Djalan society.
  The Djala are ripe for change. The outer territories are 
  bitter about the constant enslavement of their people. The 
  inner territories are desperate to remain unobtrusive and 
  hide their artifacts and skills. The spy-trained young Djala 
  creep around the borders and ambush slavers or travel as 
  groups to try to rescue other enslaved Djala. Meanwhile, 
  the tens of thousands of Djala enslaved in the Threshold 
  or on the Blessed Isle grow weary of their servitude and 
  are inspired by tales of Faku Kun, the first known Djalan 
  Solar Exalt.
  Slave traders consider Djala to be moderately prof-
  itable. They are generally peaceable, calm, resigned to 
  slavery and capable of small delicate tasks, but they lack 
  size and strength. Enslaved Djala do not demonstrate their 
  enlightened Essence, so the slavers and eventual masters 
  have no idea of it (or think that the odd example is an iso-
  lated case). The Guild doesn’t raid the Djala too heavily, 
  not wanting to overload the market and force prices down. 
  The most notable enslavers of Djala in the South are the 
  Varang City-States, as enslaved Djala compose a vital part 
  of their economy.
  A few Djala have risen to become full citizens of 
  Lookshy through loyal service to the city and have estab-
  lished a community of several dozen there, but they are so 
  assimilated into the city’s ways that they would not now 
  choose to return home. Lookshy’s rulers have correlated 
  records from the Shogunate and the First Age with the 
  current performance of their Djala and their skill at tending 
  Essence-based weaponry. Based on what they’ve discovered, 
  they are considering an alliance with the Djala (or at least, 
  with a large enough Djala tribe), offering protection in 
  return for technical expertise.
  
  104
  DJALA
  The Djala are descended from two 
  sources: the minikins and the original gentle 
  jungle-dwelling Djala. As a result, they are a nation of family-size 
  groups and tribes, with occasional nexuses of hidden First Age artifacts 
  and trained martial artists and thaumaturges. Many of them are 
  slaves or servants across the Threshold. Others hide their abilities 
  and their First Age knowledge, trying to protect their people from 
  further investigation and domination.
  This division in Djala society is causing growing discord. The enslaved 
  Djala believe that their compatriots should do more to protect them, while 
  the more educated Djala remember the days of racial slavery during the 
  Shogunate and fear such a thing happening again—while ignoring the 
  fact that it is already going on under their noses. The recent Exaltation 
  of a Djala, the Night Caste Faku Kun, has exacerbated this problem. 
  Many enslaved Djala are hoping for freedom and dreaming of a proud, 
  independent nation that is not constantly raided for slaves. Other 
  Djala see her as a potential threat that could draw down discovery and 
  destruction.
  Clothing and Weapons: Free Djala wear simple tunics or robes, 
  made of silk or cotton to suit the climate. All free Djala also wear a belt 
  that carries the tools of their occupation, ranging from crafting knives and 
  scrapers to weapons to pens or—very occasionally—the tools for adjusting 
  Essence-powered technology. Female Djala wear earrings, while male Djala wear 
  necklaces. Few of either gender wear bracelets or bangles. (In the First Age it was 
  necessary to keep the hands unencumbered.) The Djala use knives, bows, spears and 
  hand-axes as weapons. A few can use First Age technology or enlightened martial arts, 
  but they keep this a secret from those who are not Djala.
  Mutations: All Djala possess the Longevity and Skin Color poxes, the Small deficiency and 
  the Enlightened Essence blight.
  Associations: ants, monkeys, spotted patterns, slaves
  Sobriquets: Minikins, Panda People, Spotted Slaves
  Concepts: escaped slave, First Age researcher, secret martial artist, skilled craftsman, spy
  You’re bigger and stronger than 
  us, but there’s only one of you. 
  And none of us are scared of 
  you anymore.
  ntle 
  a nation of family-size
  f hidden First Age artifacts
  es. Many of them are
  ers hide their abilities
  tect their people from
  owing discord. The enslaved
  o more to protect them, while
  s of racial slavery during the
  again—whilille ignoring the
  ses. The recent Exaltation 
  xacerbated this problem.
  and dreaming of a proud,
  raided for slaves. Other
  draw down discovery and
  ear simple tunics or robes,
  All free Djala also wear a belt 
  nging from crar fting knives and
  sionallyy—the tools for adjustingg
  wear earrings, while male Djala wear
  lets or bangles. (In the First Age it was 
  .) The Djala use knives, bows, spears and 
  Age technology or enlightened martial arts, 
  re not Djala.
  vity and Skin Color r poxes,s  the Small deficiency and
  atterns, slaves
  po
  p tted Slaves
  h
  i l
  i
  kill d
  f
  
  105
  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  
  106
  CHAPTER FIVE
  CHAPTER FIVE
  CHILDREN OF THE 
  CHILDREN OF THE 
  MIGHTY
  MIGHTY
  Nearly every being naturally capable of channeling 
  Essence can mate with mortals or animals to produce 
  half-blooded offspring. Yet, not all do so. Some beings, 
  such as the Primordials, rarely bothered doing so and of 
  their infrequent dalliances with lesser beings only the 
  degenerate Lintha remain. Creatures such as behemoths 
  would destroy any humans or animals with whom they 
  tried to couple. The Yozis and Neverborn have no need 
  or desire to mate with mortals and are more than capable 
  of creating servants and spawn in other ways.
  The remaining Essence-users—the gods, demons, 
  ghosts, Exalted and Fair Folk—can and do mate with 
  mortals on occasion. The gods and elementals are par-
  ticularly prolific in mixing with mortals and animals. It 
  is for this reason that these half-breeds are collectively 
  known as the God-Blooded. Other types of crossbreeds 
  are given names based on their supernatural heritage: 
  Demon-Blooded, Ghost-Blooded, Half-Caste (for off-
  spring of the Exalted) and Fae-Blooded.
  All God-Bloods are roughly equivalent in power 
  to each other, though all have unique traits based on 
  their parentage. They are capable of channeling and 
  using Essence, though their mortal nature makes them 
  somewhat less powerful and adept than their parents. 
  God-Blooded tend to live longer than mortals, but they 
  measure their extra years in decades instead of centuries. 
  They are often hardier and healthier than most mortals, 
  though their half-human status means they can sicken 
  or succumb to poison and infection. They truly are a 
  mixture of the mortal and magical. Also, the nature of 
  their mixed blood means that few traits are universal 
  among the God-Blooded. Some heal quickly and rarely 
  tire, while others might be able to quickly master various 
  skills. The children of powerful magical beings manifest 
  
  107
  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  truly wondrous powers, such as immortality or immunity 
  to elemental forces.
  The God-Blooded are as diverse socially as they are 
  physically. Some are aware of their nature and serve their 
  supernatural parents as agents, spies, messengers, soldiers 
  or assassins. Others go their entire existence without ever 
  knowing the magical being whose blood flows through 
  them. They walk the line between mortal and Exalt. Many 
  find their destiny tied to both. Their relationships with 
  their family and friends are no less diverse and complicated 
  than those found among mortals. In fact, their family ties 
  are usually even more complex and varied, made so by 
  the presence of supernatural beings in their lives.
  BIRTH
  The exact details vary slightly between the heritages 
  of the God-Blooded, but the standard rules of concep-
  tion and pregnancy apply. Gestation takes the normal 
  amount of time for the mother. Exalted take one year, 
  mortal humans nine months and animals according to 
  species. Gods, demons and elementals can bring children 
  to term in minutes if they so desire.
  Regardless of species, the God-Blood’s supernatural 
  blood sustains and protects the mother. Pregnancies are 
  generally free of complications. Mothers tend to carry 
  their children easily and with less discomfort than normal 
  pregnancies. The actual birth is another matter.
  Many mortal mothers do not survive birthing a 
  God-Blood. A (Stamina + Resistance) roll must be made 
  to determine survival. Success means the mother and 
  baby are fine. Failure kills the mother but not the child. 
  Magical beings never risk death from childbirth. Other 
  guidelines regarding birth depend on heritage.
  GOD-BLOODED
  Any god with a permanent Essence of 2 or higher 
  can produce God-Blooded offspring as an innate power. 
  Many spirits can even ignore gender and anatomical 
  restrictions to do so. An earth elemental could visit his 
  lover in the form of a gentle earthquake, or a river god 
  could impregnate a woman who bathes in his waters. 
  Animal gods often take the form of beasts while mating. 
  Gods who strongly identify with a particular gender will 
  not switch sexes when mating, and many female spirits 
  don’t have the disposition or temperament to carry a 
  child to term. Fortunately, this is rarely a problem since 
  spirits can usually find other ways to birth the child. 
  Some spirits lay eggs, while others place the child in the 
  womb of a mortal woman or animal.
  
  108
  pregnant when they awake. Still others, such as the 
  neomah, even use their demonic powers to shape and 
  craft children as a sculptor works metal or stone.
  Demonic births are exceptionally dangerous to 
  mortals. Add one to the difficulty of the roll for mortal 
  human and animal mothers to survive childbirth. Even 
  mothers who survive sometimes suffer mental trauma 
  as a result of the hellish visions that often plague such 
  births. Make a (Stamina + Integrity) roll with a difficulty 
  of 2 for mortal mothers of Demon-Bloods. Failure results 
  in the mother losing a point of permanent Willpower 
  and suffering from nightmarish waking dreams for the 
  rest of her life.
  GHOST-BLOODED
  It is generally against the natural order that death 
  begets life. Endings swell the Underworld, not beginnings. 
  That said, the dead can and do have children with mortals. 
  There are simply some conditions on these births.
  Only ghosts with the proper expertise and mastery 
  over their forms can impregnate a mortal woman. The 
  ghost must know the Fertile Soul Endowment Charm 
  (see The Books of Sorcery, Vol. V—The Roll of 
  HALF-CASTES AND EXALTATION
  It is very unusual but not unheard of for Half-Caste children to eventually Exalt. Such children often 
  retain some of the power and strangeness of their God-Blooded nature, but the act of Exaltation burns away 
  much of their half-breed nature. Storytellers are completely within their rights to disallow such transformations, 
  though they can provide a way to keep a God-Blood adventuring with Exalted from becoming overshadowed 
  by his companions as they grow in power.
  If such an event occurs, there are some special rules. The God-Blooded mutations are burned away by the 
  power of the Exaltation, either disappearing or fading to vestigial changes that give no positive or negative ef-
  fects. Positive mutations are converted to experience for the character to buy Charms, raise Essence or otherwise 
  advance his character. Negative mutations are converted to a deficit that must be paid off with current or future 
  experience (see “Inheritance” on p. 127, for experience values for mutations). In addition to this pool of experi-
  ence, the God-Blooded gains all the extra Favored Abilities (beyond his initial two), all the appropriate Caste/
  Auspicious Abilities, the Personal and Peripheral Essence pools of a full Exalt, and half the starting Charms of 
  an Exalt of his type. If the character’s permanent Essence is not at least 2, it is raised to that rating. Additional 
  Charms can be purchased with experience gained from cashing in mutations. God-Blooded who have learned 
  sorcery or necromancy keep this knowledge when they become full Exalted and can learn any higher levels of 
  magic allowed to their Exalt type. Finally, if he did not already possess the Great Curse through mutation, the 
  former Half-Caste is now subject to it in the same manner as any other Exalt of his type.
  It is completely unheard of for a Half-Caste to Exalt as a different type of Chosen than his parent. Caste 
  may differ, but the marks of destiny in the character’s blood has pledged her to the service of the Unconquered 
  Sun, Luna, the Maidens or the Yozis even before she was born, and this cannot be changed.
  God-Bloods who Exalt are often a bit odd. If they had strangely colored eyes, hair or other minor physi-
  cal mutations, these oddities remain. Greater mutations typically vanish, though some small artifacts of these 
  changes might remain. For example, a Half-Caste Lunar who possessed wings might manifest feathers on her 
  arms as a Tell. A Half-Caste Solar with Perfect Healing Factor might discover that even the worst wounds do 
  not scar after he Exalts. Mental mutations degrade into strange but rarely debilitating quirks. Storytellers are 
  free to disallow any minor effects that seem too strange or would logically have strong mechanical effects.
  DEMON-BLOODED
  Demons do not mate and reproduce with each other 
  sexually. Exact methods vary from demon to demon, but 
  sex is merely a diversion for most. Even those demons who 
  enjoy sex often kill their lovers with violent and depraved 
  acts of pleasure. Furthermore, powerful demons can kill 
  lovers through their very nature. Demons of the Third 
  Circle are such demons, whose destructive nature destroys 
  most mortals with whom they mate. These demons can 
  often prevent this by exercising restraint, but few bother 
  unless the creation of a Demon-Blooded child is their goal. 
  Exalts, certain powerful beasts and other God-Bloods can 
  generally survive such matings regardless.
  Not all demon matings occur with the demon in-
  stigating them, however. Since the First Age, sorcerers 
  have been summoning demons for sexual encounters, 
  sometimes for the express purpose of producing Demon-
  Blooded offspring.
  The exact method of mating with a demon varies as 
  widely as the nature of demons themselves. Some mate as 
  humans do, using intimate contact and similarly formed 
  organs. Others enter their lover’s dreams to leave them 
  
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  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  Glorious Divinity II, p. 135) to accomplish this act. 
  This Charm can be used by male or female ghosts, but 
  the mother must be mortal. As with Demon-Blooded, 
  the difficulty to survive childbirth increases by one, but 
  the possible psychological effects are absent. Mothers 
  of Ghost-Bloods who die in childbirth almost always 
  become ghosts themselves.
  HALF-CASTE
  Unlike the Dragon-Blooded, Celestial Exalted do 
  not normally pass along their power to their children. 
  Additional power, either internal or external must be 
  present to birth a Half-Caste. Celestial Exalted with a 
  permanent Essence of 4 or greater possess such power, 
  and their children are born Half-Caste. Exalted who 
  live as gods and receive the worship of mortals (a Cult 
  Background of 3+ or Followers Background of 3+ defined 
  as devoted worshipers) reduce this Essence requirement 
  by one. Those Exalted who live for at least a month prior 
  to conception in an uncapped demesne also reduce the 
  requirement by one, and these effects stack. Actual breed-
  ing and pregnancy occurs normally as with mortals.
  Lunars of any Essence rating can produce beastmen 
  as an innate power by mating with an animal or human 
  in the Bordermarches or deeper in the Wyld. These births 
  follow natural limitations, so a hawk cannot produce 
  an egg large enough to give birth to a God-Blooded or 
  beastman. Once a Lunar reaches a permanent Essence 
  of 4 or greater, she can produce beastmen outside of the 
  presence of Wyld energies, and she can also give birth 
  to Lunar Half-Castes. Whether a child is beastman or a 
  Half-Caste is a product of the Lunar’s desires, conscious 
  or otherwise. Lunar Half-Castes are also more likely to de-
  velop animal-like mutations than their other Half-Caste 
  cousins. Any Exalt can occasionally produce beastmen 
  with cross-species mating if his permanent Essence is 5 
  or greater. This requires a successful Essence roll with 
  difficulty 3, however, and the roll is not optional.
  Most Half-Caste births follow normal rules, with the 
  exception of Abyssal Half-Castes, Infernal Half-Castes 
  and beastmen. Beastmen’s strange Wyld-changed nature 
  is dangerous to mortal women, and Abyssal Half-Castes 
  can literally suck the life out their mothers as they 
  are born. Infernal Half-Castes use the same rules for 
  childbirth as demons. The difficulty of a mortal woman 
  surviving giving birth to either a beastman or an Abyssal 
  Half-Caste is 3. In the rare case of beastmen litters, this 
  difficulty increases to 4. More information on beast-
  men can be found in Exalted, pages 282–283, and The
  Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. II—The Wyld, 
  pages 157–160.
  FAE-BLOODED
  When a raksha assumes the form of a mortal, he 
  takes on all aspects of that form. It is because of this 
  that all Fair Folk may mate with mortals to produce 
  Fae-Blooded offspring. There is no minimum Essence 
  required to conceive such a child.
  The erratic and mercurial nature of the Fair Folk 
  means that far more sire than bear Fae-Blooded children. 
  Their Wyld-fueled fertility does have its benefits, though. 
  A mortal mother adds her child’s Inheritance rating to 
  all attempts to resist Wyld mutation and other effects of 
  Wyld exposure while she is carrying a Fae-Blooded child. 
  TERRESTRIAL HALF-CASTES?
  Half-Castes are the children of Celestial Ex-
  alted and those newer creations of the Neverborn 
  and Yozis that make use of the stolen Solar Exalta-
  tions. The Terrestrial Exalted do not give birth to 
  Half-Castes regardless of their Essence. Instead, 
  they pass their powers down to their children as a 
  they always have, through their elementally charged 
  blood. Not all the children of the Dragon-Blooded 
  Exalt, but those who do become full Terrestrials 
  and not weaker half-breeds.
  The reason for the lack of Terrestrial Half-
  Castes is twofold. The first is setting related. 
  The Dragon-Blooded were designed to pass their 
  powers along through their offspring. The “design 
  flaw” in Celestials that allows the mutations and 
  diluted blood of the Half-Castes is absent from 
  their bloodline and has been replaced with true 
  Exalted heritage. The second reason for the absence 
  of Half-Caste Dragon-Blooded is story related. If 
  powerful Terrestrials could birth Half-Castes, then 
  logically the powerful families of the Realm would 
  be filled with these half-breeds. The social conflict 
  between the Terrestrial Exalted and their mundane 
  siblings would be lessened if so many non-Exalted 
  were still noticeably supernatural.
  This is not the say that Storytellers cannot 
  add Terrestrial Half-Castes to their series if they 
  wish. The rules for God-Blooded can be used 
  without alteration to craft Half-Caste children of 
  the Dragon-Blooded. It is recommended however 
  that Storytellers seriously consider the ramifica-
  tions of adding half-blooded supernaturally charged 
  children to the Great Houses of the Realm. Their 
  presence would alter the political and social dy-
  namic of the Scarlet Dynasty, and the echoes of 
  these changes would affect the rest of Creation. 
  They should not be introduced into an Exalted 
  game lightly.
  
  110
  What’s more, the energies protect the woman during 
  the birth. This means that mortal mothers only die in 
  childbirth through a botch of the normal (Stamina + 
  Resistance) roll.
  ENDOWMENT
  Birth is the most common way a God-Blood is created, 
  but it is not the only way. Some gods and demons can 
  use various Charms and powers to “adopt” a mortal. This 
  adoption endows the mortal with a portion of the magical 
  being’s Essence and transforms him into a God-Blood 
  of a type dependent on the magical being who granted 
  the power. (Eclipse Caste Solars or Moonshadow Caste 
  Abyssals who learn Charms that allow for supernatural 
  endowment can also create Half-Castes in this manner, 
  though other Exalted cannot.)
  The mortal who receives this Endowment is treated 
  as a normal God-Blood. He receives an Inheritance 
  Background equal to one-half the Essence rating of his 
  adopting parent, rounded down. For example, if the 
  Essence 6 demon Lucien, the Guardian of Sleep (see 
  The Books of Sorcery, Vol. V—The Roll of Glorious 
  Divinity II, pp. 64-65), endows a mortal agent with some 
  of his power, the mortal transforms into a Demon-Blood 
  with an Inheritance rating of 3. Magical beings with a 
  permanent Essence of 1 cannot transfer power to mortals, 
  as they are simply too weak to do so.
  Despite the possibility of creating God-Blooded in 
  this way, few magical beings do so. First, naturally born 
  God-Bloods grow up with their powers and supernatural 
  nature. They are often trained and conditioned to serve 
  their parents for years. Also, most of these children feel 
  the strong bonds of family that usually serve to keep them 
  from betraying or displeasing their parents. Endowed 
  God-Blooded have none of these advantages. The transfor-
  mation from mortal to God-Blooded might drive them mad 
  or drive a wedge between them and their “parents.” They 
  are generally too much of an unknown commodity.
  There is one other reason most demons and gods 
  avoid creating God-Blooded in this fashion: cost. Us-
  ing Charms to endow this level of permanent power 
  costs Essence, and few gods or demons squander their 
  energies⎯especially when they can engage in a few 
  moments of sex to achieve the same effect.
  That said, sometimes demons and gods elevate trusted 
  servants or useful pawns to the level of God-Blooded. 
  These individuals are almost always heroic mortals al-
  ready, as these magical beings see no reason to work with 
  substandard materials. Generally, only the most devoted 
  mortals are chosen for this honor. Their selection doesn’t 
  guarantee loyalty and devoted service onto death, but it 
  does go a long way to suggest it.
  ASCENSION
  In addition to endowing a mortal with powers to 
  make them God-Blooded, some beings can elevate God-
  Blooded to the status of full supernatural beings. Many 
  call his process ascension, though it sometimes goes by 
  less flattering names depending on context. The God-
  Blood must have an Essence rating of at least 3 to be 
  eligible for ascension. God-Bloods with lower Essence 
  ratings are too bound to their mortal flesh to transcend 
  it. The exact effects of such supernatural endowments 
  are as follows:
  BLOOD PRIMACY
  At times, different magical beings mate not 
  with mortals, but each other to produce God-
  Blooded offspring. In such cases, the child favors 
  one parent over the other based on age-old rules 
  of fate and parental status. The God-Blood favors 
  the parent with the highest permanent Essence 
  rating. In the case of a tie, the following hierarchy 
  is used (ranked from highest to lowest):
  Solar/Abyssal/Infernal
  Lunar/Sidereal
  Terrestrial/God/Demon
  Fair Folk/Elemental
  Ghost
  If there is still a tie, such as when an Infernal 
  and a Solar of the same Essence mate, then the 
  Storyteller should consider the exact circumstances 
  of the conception. If the Solar/Infernal mating oc-
  curred in Malfeas, for example, the child should 
  favor his Infernal parent. Otherwise, simply roll a 
  die for odd or even, or flip a coin.
  Note that Terrestrial Exalted do not birth 
  Half-Castes as their Celestial cousins do. If the 
  Terrestrial’s lineage in such a mating is dominant, 
  then the child is born as any other Terrestrial child 
  with one important difference⎯Terrestrial mat-
  ings with other supernatural beings nearly always 
  results in the child Exalting as a Dragon-Blood. 
  Many of these children come to their powers early, 
  sometimes too early for them to properly understand 
  and manage them.
  Storytellers who wish for a bit more variety in 
  such unions might consider allowing the player of 
  a God-Blood to select mutations that are normally 
  available to only the God-Blooded of the non-
  dominant parent. Do so carefully, though, since 
  mixing certain specialized mutations can result in 
  mechanically unbalanced characters.
  
  111
  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  God-Blooded: God-Blooded who ascend become 
  little gods or elementals of similar type to their parents. 
  Some of these God-Bloods might become gods of slightly 
  different concepts or phenomena depending on their 
  own actions and destiny. For example, a daughter of a 
  forest god who felt a special kinship with certain forest 
  animals might become an animal spirit instead of a lesser 
  forest god.
  Demon-Blooded: Demon-Blooded promoted into 
  the Descending Hierarchy of demonkind become de-
  mons of the First Circle, and serfs besides. Their stay at 
  this level of service might not be long in the case of the 
  children of very powerful demons, but they begin in the 
  First Circle and must prove themselves loyal denizens of 
  Malfeas and servants of the Yozis before they can expect 
  to be granted true citizenship.
  Ghost-Blooded: Ghost-Blooded who ascend die 
  instantly. Moments later, they are reborn as full ghosts. 
  They are no longer material creatures and have all the 
  powers and limitations of ghosts.
  Half-Castes: Half-Castes endowed with addition 
  power do not automatically Exalt. Exaltation is a gift 
  for the worthy, and mere Charms cannot cause it to 
  occur. If an Exalt believes in a Half-Caste enough to 
  grant him additional power, however, then the gods 
  look on this as a sort of “letter of recommendation.” As 
  a result, they might grant additional rights or powers. 
  Exaltation is even a possible reward to those with the 
  greatest destiny and most worth, but that decision is out 
  of even the gods’ hands.
  Fae-Blooded: Fae-Bloods do not ascend. They are 
  forever half-mortal and half-Fair Folk. Some Fair Folk 
  do grant additional powers to favored children in place 
  of ascension, though.
  Rules on converting a God-Blood to a full magi-
  cal being are found later in the chapter (see p. 115), 
  while rules on Exalting a Half-Caste appear on page 
  108. Storytellers are never required to ascend or Exalt a 
  God-Blooded character, and such achievement should 
  never be easy. A whole series could be crafted around a 
  group of God-Bloods questing for ascension so that they 
  might join their magical parents.
  GOD-BLOODED 
  CHARACTER CREATION
  This section details the steps to create God-Blooded 
  characters in Exalted. In essence, creating a God-Blood 
  is much like creating a heroic mortal, and many of the 
  rules are the same. The main differences are in the large 
  number of bonus points God-Bloods gain as a result of 
  their supernatural blood and the ability to spend these 
  points on a number of mutations.
  STEP ONE: CHARACTER CONCEPT
  Choosing a concept for a God-Blood is much the 
  same as doing so for an Exalted or heroic mortal. Consider 
  the character’s past. Since God-Blooded gain their power 
  and half-supernatural status from their parents, the char-
  acter’s family is very important. Who were his parents? 
  Where did he grow up? What were the circumstances 
  surrounding his birth⎯a lustful affair, marriage, rape or 
  something else? Who was his supernatural parent and 
  his mortal one? Does he have any siblings? Full or half? 
  How does he get along with his parents, particularly his 
  supernatural one? How does he feel about supernatural 
  beings and events? Is he even aware of his parentage and 
  God-Blooded nature?
  HERITAGE
  God-Blooded do not fall into castes like Exalts. 
  Instead, they come from one of five heritages depending 
  on the nature of the supernatural beings from whom they 
  descend. The five heritages are: God-Blooded (gods and 
  elementals), Demon-Blooded (demons), Ghost-Blooded 
  (ghosts), Half-Caste (Exalted) and Fae-Blooded (Fair 
  Folk). Note that God-Blooded is also the generic term 
  for all of these heritages, mostly because the children of 
  the gods and elementals are by far the most numerous 
  of these half-blooded beings. These five heritages are 
  all roughly the same in power level with the strength of 
  the God-Blood having more to do with the power and 
  position of her supernatural sire.
  INHERITANCE
  Backgrounds are usually covered under Step Four: 
  Advantages, but there is one exception: Inheritance. 
  Inheritance represents God-Blooded power and potential 
  due to breeding. Each dot in Inheritance provides bonus 
  points, making it more powerful and not balanced with 
  other Backgrounds. It is better to look at Inheritance as 
  a benchmark to establish the power level of a group of 
  God-Blooded. Storytellers should assign a consistent In-
  heritance rating to all God-Blooded characters to be used in 
  character creation. They should select this rating based on 
  the intended power level of their series and to make God-
  Blooded characters better match any non-God-Blooded 
  characters. See pages 127-129 for more information on 
  the Inheritance Background and its effects.
  MOTIVATION
  God-Blooded characters select a Motivation as 
  normal. Many God-Blooded who serve their parents 
  learn to conceal their true selves beneath a veneer of 
  submission, filial piety and loyalty. Underneath this mask, 
  they might be conniving schemers, zealots, idealists or 
  anything else. They might have ultimate goals that go 
  against the desires of their parent.
  
  112
  STEP TWO: CHOOSING ATTRIBUTES
  God-Blooded are generally less powerful than 
  Exalted, but they are still exceptional. Their starting 
  Attributes are similar to heroic mortals, though slightly 
  more potent. God-Blooded receive six dots for their 
  primary Attributes, five for their secondary and three 
  for their tertiary. Half-Caste characters gain a further 
  Attribute bonus, as described under their description 
  later in the chapter.
  STEP THREE: CHOOSING ABILITIES
  God-Blooded are not the font of skill and expertise 
  that Exalted are, but they can reach heights of expertise 
  comparable with heroic mortals. God-Blooded charac-
  ters select one Favored Ability. They also receive 25 dots 
  to distribute among Abilities. No ability can be higher 
  than their Favored Ability. They purchase specialties 
  as normal. As with Exalted, no Ability can be raised 
  above three dots at character creation without the use 
  of bonus points. Given the large number of bonus points 
  God-Blooded receive from Inheritance, this is not much 
  of a limitation, and many God-Blooded exhibit truly 
  exceptional levels of skill in multiple areas.
  STEP FOUR: ADVANTAGES
  BACKGROUNDS
  God-Blooded characters receive six dots in Back-
  grounds. These may be selected from the Backgrounds 
  in the Exalted core book and from the new Background 
  Patron, found later in the chapter. God-Blooded of 
  certain ancestry can also, at the Storyteller’s discretion, 
  select Backgrounds from other Exalted sourcebooks. For 
  example, an Abyssal Half-Caste may possess Backgrounds 
  from The Manual of Exalted Power—The Abyssals.
  MUTATIONS
  By spending bonus points, players can select various 
  mutations for their God-Blooded characters that reflect 
  how their supernatural parentage has changed them. 
  Mutations are detailed later in the chapter and come 
  in both positive and negative types. Positive mutations 
  cost bonus points and give various advantages. Negative 
  mutations are harmful or limiting, but they give additional 
  bonus points to spend.
  Mutations are at the core of the God-Blooded’s 
  power. Care and consideration should be taken in 
  selecting them since they tell much about how a 
  God-Blood appears and how he interacts with the 
  world. Mutations can turn a God-Blood into a barely 
  human monster or a god-like being of wonder. They 
  are fundamental changes to the body, mind and even 
  the very soul of God-Blooded characters and should 
  be not taken lightly.
  If the Storyteller is using the optional rules for Lineage 
  (see p. 130), then mutations marked “Inherited” should 
  also be selected at this time.
  CHARMS
  In addition to mutations, God-Blooded characters 
  can select most Charms available to their magical parents. 
  These Charms must be purchased with bonus points at 
  character creation. Characters receive no free Charms. 
  There are a few limitations to Charm selection. First, the 
  Ox-Body Technique cannot be selected to give extra -0 
  health levels. God-Blooded can learn supernatural martial 
  arts of various styles, but they can only learn Terrestrial 
  styles as skilled mortals can. They learn these styles as 
  magical beings do, however.
  Buying Charms at character creation costs seven 
  bonus points each. All prerequisites must be met. Also, 
  God-Blooded cannot develop Combos, so they cannot 
  activate more than one Charm at a time. Specific Charm 
  guidelines for the various heritages are as follows:
  God-Blooded: The children of gods and elementals 
  learn spirit Charms like their parents. They cannot learn 
  Hurry Home as gods do, but they can learn a lesser version 
  that costs permanent instead of temporary Willpower. 
  Charms that involve traits God-Blooded do not possess 
  can be learned, but they work only if some outside force 
  makes the Charm relevant. For example, God-Blooded 
  have no normal use of Materialize. Yet, a God-Blood 
  who possesses this Charm could use it to become mate-
  rial if she were somehow rendered immaterial. Likewise, 
  God-Blooded are unable to use Possession unless they 
  are somehow made immaterial.
  Storytellers should feel free to ban or restrict Charms 
  based on character concept. The son of a fire elemental 
  will not generally learn how to control water, nor will 
  the daughter of a god of war typically be able to create 
  feelings of peace and tranquility. Nevertheless, Storytell-
  ers should consider allowing such concepts occasionally. 
  Real-world mythology is full of stories of children of vari-
  ous gods and monsters developing abilities far different 
  from their parents.
  All Charms are learned exactly as they are taught. This 
  means that God-Blooded might know different versions 
  of the same Charm and may learn multiple versions of the 
  same Charm. Each of these variant Charms is treated as a 
  separate Charm for the purposes of buying them at character 
  creation with bonus points or later with experience.
  Demon-Blooded: The children of demons follow 
  the same rules of Charm selection as God-Blooded. 
  Storytellers should take into account the powers and 
  demeanor of the demonic parent when allowing or disal-
  lowing certain Charms. The daughter of a blood-ape is 
  likely to have simple, direct, violent Charms. The son 
  
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  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  of a neomah is more likely to have Charms that seduce 
  and beguile. More information on Demon-Blooded 
  can be found in The Manual of Exalted Power—The 
  Infernals, pages 57-64.
  Ghost-Blooded: Children of ghosts can learn Arcanoi 
  just as their parents, but they suffer the same limitations 
  as other God-Blooded. For example, Ghost-Bloods can-
  not usually reshape their flesh. Certain mutations can 
  mimic these effects to some degree, however, such as 
  God Body (see p. 135).
  Half-Caste: The children of the Chosen can learn 
  nearly any of the Charms of their parents as long as they 
  meet the minimums for each Charm. There are a few 
  exceptions. Half-Castes cannot learn perfect defenses 
  or Charms that grant a persistent scene-long defense. 
  Sidereal Half-Castes can learn any Sidereal Charms 
  other than Sidereal martial arts, but many Charms with 
  the Maiden keyword are academic exercises and cannot 
  be used except in the rarest of circumstances. Lunars 
  Half-Castes do not possess their Exalted sire’s ability to 
  shapechange naturally, but they can learn the Deadly 
  Beastman Transformation and Finding the Spirit’s Shape. 
  They are limited to no more than two alternative forms 
  when selecting these Charms. No Half-Caste can learn 
  Solar Circle Sorcery or Void Circle Necromancy. As with 
  all God-Blooded, Storytellers should feel free to limit any 
  Charms they feel are inappropriate for their games.
  Fae-Blooded: Fae-Blooded children can learn the 
  Charms of the Fair Folk. Given the alien nature of the 
  Fair Folk, however, many Charms are not appropriate for 
  use with any being whose form is as static and mortal as 
  a God-Blood’s. Furthermore, Fae-Blooded cannot learn 
  the more advanced uses of Glamour and can create 
  only short-term effects that last no more than a scene. 
  Furthermore, the minimums for all Glamour-related 
  Charms increase by one dot to reflect thinner blood and 
  connection to the Wyld. Generally, it is easier to mimic 
  Wyld-fueled madness and physical changes with muta-
  tions, and Storytellers should feel free to limit Charms 
  they feel don’t fit within their Exalted games.
  SPELLS
  God-Blooded can learn magic assuming they meet 
  the minimum requirements. God-Blooded, non-Abyssal 
  Half-Castes and Demon-Blooded can learn Terrestrial 
  Circle sorcery. Abyssal Half-Castes and Ghost-Blooded 
  can learn Shadowland Necromancy. Fae-Blooded are 
  exceptions to this, as their nature generally prevents 
  them from learning sorcery. Instead they sometimes 
  learn various Fair Folk Charms that mimic a variety of 
  magical effects. Higher levels of sorcery lie beyond the 
  
  114
  BONUS POINTS
  As with heroic mortals, God-Blooded receive 21 
  bonus points at this stage. This is in addition to bonus 
  points granted by Inheritance and is meant to generally 
  reflect life experience, special training and other aspects 
  of a character not directly related to his supernatural 
  nature. These points may be spent on mutations or other 
  powers, but Storytellers can place limitations on doing 
  so if they wish.
  THE SPARK OF LIFE
  As with any character, consider the important ques-
  tions that make a God-Blooded character more than a 
  mere collection of traits. What does she look like? What 
  is her personality like? Who are her friends? Her enemies? 
  How did she discover her heritage, and how does she feel 
  about it? What is her relationship with her supernatural 
  parent, and how does it affect other aspects of her life? 
  Why does she do what she does?
  God-Blooded characters should be something more 
  magical that normal heroic mortals. They should not, 
  however, just be “Exalted Lite!—Now with less Essence 
  and fewer Charms.” Their parents are a diverse and exotic 
  group, and the exotic half-bloods they spawn should be 
  equally as wondrous, even if they are not as powerful. 
  Players should consider what exactly makes their God-
  Blooded characters different from other characters and 
  seek to reflect that both in their character’s traits and 
  how they roleplay.
  INTIMACIES
  Like Exalted and heroic mortals, God-Blooded pos-
  sess Intimacies. They can have no more starting Intimacies 
  than their Compassion and change them according to 
  their Conviction. (For more details on Intimacies in 
  general, see Exalted, pp. 76 and 90.)
  These Intimacies can be anything the player desires, 
  but certain Intimacies are worth discussing. These are 
  Intimacies that are either very common among God-
  Blooded or take on a more complex meaning. They 
  fall into two wide categories: ones that hint at the 
  character’s mortal nature and those that speak to his 
  magical heritage.
  Intimacies that deal with a God-Blood’s mortal na-
  ture are things such as love for a mortal parent, loyalty 
  to a mortal half-sibling or a promise made to a child-
  hood sweetheart. They anchor the God-Blooded to the 
  mundane world. The God-Blooded’s magical parents 
  often view such Intimacies as weaknesses that hold their 
  children back, but many God-Blooded are sustained by 
  their devotion to these people, places and ideals.
  Conversely, Intimacies that deal with the 
  God-Blood’s magical nature, such as devotion to a su-
  normal purview of God-Blooded. Storytellers who wish 
  to allow a God-Blood to learn higher levels of sorcery 
  and necromancy should raise the minimums for learning 
  by at least one dot to reflect the difficulty a half-breed 
  supernatural has mastering such forces. No God-Blooded, 
  not even Solar or Abyssal Half-Castes, can learn Solar 
  Circle Sorcery or Void Circle Necromancy.
  Also, to reflect the general difficulty God-Blooded 
  have in mastering such powerful magic, the cost of sorcery 
  Charms is 10 bonus points (instead of the usual seven 
  for other Charms).
  VIRTUES
  God-Blooded characters receive the same Virtue al-
  lotment as Exalts, one free dot and five dots to distribute. 
  With the exception of those Half-Castes who suffer from 
  the Great Curse mutation, God-Blooded do not suffer 
  from the Great Curse and need not concern themselves 
  with Virtue Flaws and Limit Breaks.
  STEP FIVE: FINISHING TOUCHES
  God-Blooded calculate their health levels and Will-
  power the same as heroic mortals (see Exalted, p. 81). If 
  the Storyteller is using Merits and Flaws, these can also 
  be selected at this time.
  ESSENCE
  God-Blooded are not the natural fonts of Essence 
  their parents are. Their permanent Essence begins at 
  1, though this can be raised during character creation 
  with bonus points. No God-Blooded can begin play 
  with an Essence greater than 3, as their mortal natures 
  limit them in this regard. In truth, few God-Blooded 
  ever rise beyond that level in their entire lives, though 
  players’ characters are exceptional and often buck such 
  trends. To reflect this difficulty in transcending their 
  human limitations, the cost to raise Essence from 2 to 
  3 is 15 bonus points, and all experience costs to raise 
  Essence to 3 or above for God-Blooded are increased by 
  half-again the normal cost. Storytellers should feel free 
  to cap Essence for God-Blooded at 3 if they wish or put 
  special requirements on advancement such as quests or 
  endowment from powerful magical beings.
  Essence pools for God-Blooded are calculated in a 
  similar way as their magical parents. Their Essence pools 
  are noticeably smaller than their parents, though they are 
  still potent. In addition, Half-Castes possess no Personal 
  Essence pool, but only possess a Peripheral Essence pool. 
  God-Blooded are also subject to the same limitations on 
  regaining Essence as their parent. Thus, a Ghost-Blood 
  cannot regain Essence motes naturally in Creation unless 
  within a shadowland, and Solar Half-Caste who travels 
  to the Underworld will find herself unable to regenerate 
  Essence normally.
  
  115
  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  pernatural sire, a driving desire to ascend or even a deep 
  hatred of his heritage, draw the character further into 
  the world of magical beings. Mortals view such goals as 
  meddling in affairs best left alone or as an unhealthy 
  interest in the supernatural. Yet, many God-Bloods 
  have been driven to great deeds while remaining true 
  to such Intimacies.
  The Intimacies a player selects for his character 
  say a lot about who the character is. In particular, they 
  suggest which side of his parentage the character favors 
  or whether he tries to always strike a delicate balance 
  between mortal and magical.
  EXPERIENCE COSTS AND ADVANCEMENT
  Generally, God-Blooded learn and grow with experi-
  ence as normal for the beings from whom they descend. 
  There are a few exceptions. The increased cost for raising 
  Essence to 3 or greater has been noted. In addition, new 
  Charms or spells cost 12 experience points regardless of 
  type. Training times are as normal for the beings from 
  whom they descend, except for Essence, which is (rating 
  x 1.5) months. Learning sorcery after character creation 
  costs 25 experience points and is limited to Terrestrial 
  Circle Sorcery or Shadowlands Circle Necromancy with-
  out Storyteller approval.
  In addition to the increased costs, raising Essence 
  beyond 3 often has special complications for God-
  Blooded. Most simply cannot surpass this level, and 
  those who do often find they must undergo a transfor-
  mation that makes them something more supernatural 
  than mortal. For example, a Ghost-Blood who raises 
  her Essence to 4 might find the increase in power 
  kills her and turns her into a full ghost. A God-Blood 
  might transcend and become a full god. In these cases, 
  many mutations will naturally be lost and should be 
  converted into experience to purchase similar Charms 
  available to the type of creature the character is now. 
  (See “Inheritance,” p. 127, for experience values of 
  various mutations.) The loss of negative mutations in 
  this manner will create a similar experience deficit to 
  be paid off with current or future experience. These 
  changes should not be simply a matter of paying the 
  experience and rearranging some numbers⎯they rep-
  resent a fundamental and lasting change in the very 
  nature of the God-Blood.
  
  116
  STEP ONE: CHARACTER CONCEPT 
  Record Inheritance.
  Choose character concept, heritage and Motiva-
  tion
  STEP TWO: SELECT ATTRIBUTES
  Note that all Attributes start with one dot for free.
  Prioritize the three Attribute Categories: Physical, 
  Social and Mental (6/5/3)
  Choose Physical Traits: Strength, Dexterity, 
  Stamina
  Choose Social Attributes: Charisma, Manipulation, 
  Appearance
  Choose Mental Attributes: Perception, Intelligence, 
  Wits
  STEP THREE: SELECT ABILITIES
  Select one Favored Ability.
  Choose Abilities (25—No Ability can be higher than 
  the character’s Favored Ability, though it may be equal; no 
  Ability can exceed 3 without spending bonus points.)
  STEP FOUR: SELECT ADVANTAGES
  Choose Backgrounds (6—none may be higher than 
  3 without spending bonus points) and Virtues (5—none 
  may be higher than 4 without spending bonus points).
  Selected positive and negative mutations: Spend 
  bonus points provided by Inheritance to purchase positive 
  mutations. Characters may also select negative mutations 
  for additional bonus points to be spent here or in Step 
  Seven. If the optional rules for Lineage (see p. 130) are 
  used, players should select those mutations marked “In-
  herited” at this time.
  STEP FIVE: FINISHING TOUCHES
  Record Essence (1), Willpower (sum of the two high-
  est Virtues—may not start higher than 8 unless at least 
  two Virtues are 4 or higher) and health levels (7, plus any 
  gained from mutations or Charms). Characters record 
  their Essence pool based on their Heritage: ([Essence x 5] 
  + [Willpower x 2] + [Sum of Virtues]) for God-Blooded, 
  Ghost-Blooded and Demon-Blooded; ([Essence x 4] + 
  Willpower + [Sum of Virtues]) for Half-Castes; and (Es-
  sence x 8) for Fae-Blooded.
  BONUS POINTS
  Bonus points (21) may be spent at any time during 
  character creation.
  GOD-BLOODED CHARACTER CREATION SUMMARY
  BONUS POINT COSTS
  Trait 
  Cost
  Attribute 
  4
  Ability  
  2 (1 for Favored Ability)
  Background 1 (2 if the Background is being raised 
  above 3)
  Specialty 
  1 (2 per 1 if Favored Ability)
  Virtue 
  5
  Willpower 3
  Essence  
  12 for Rating 2, 15 for 3 or Greater
  Charm 
  7 (10 for sorcery or necromancy 
  Charms)
  Spell 
  10
  POSITIVE MUTATION COSTS
  Type of Mutation 
  Bonus  
  Experience
   
  Point Cost 
  Point Cost
  Pox 
  1 
  3
  Affliction 
  2 
  6
  Blight 
  4 
  12
  Abomination 
  6 
  18
  NEGATIVE MUTATION BONUSES
  Type of Mutation 
  Bonus  
  Experience
   
  Point Cost 
  Point Cost
  Deficiency 
  1 
  3
  Debility 
  2 
  6
  Deformity 
  4 
  12
  
  117
  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  GOD-BLOODED
  It is to the children of the gods and elementals that scholars most often refer when they speak of half-breed children 
  with magic in their blood. These are the true God-Blooded, and they are easily the most common of their type. Their 
  heritage has become a catchall term for all children birthed from the mating of a mortal and a supernatural being. 
  In areas where a large number of divinities interact on a regular basis with mortals, such as Great Forks, one person 
  in 50 claims some portion of divine blood. This number drops to one in 1,000 elsewhere, but even so, God-Bloods 
  are some of the most commonly encountered supernatural beings. The only exception to this is on the Blessed Isle, 
  where adherence to the Immaculate faith keeps many from being born there.
  The amount of God-Blooded in an area is directly proportional to local attitudes toward gods. Those who hold to the 
  Immaculate Order’s teachings avoid mating with gods and hide or send away those children they birth. In areas heavily 
  involved with the worship of the gods and elementals, 
  such children are common and often hailed as good 
  omens and future heroes. Some mortals even devote 
  considerable time and resources to persuad-
  ing gods to lie with them. Making expensive 
  offerings at temples, playing naked in areas where gods 
  are known to frequent and other blatant tactics 
  are often employed. Unfortunately for some 
  hapless mortals, perfectly innocent offerings 
  and behaviors are sometimes mistaken for 
  invitations (for those who feel such invitations 
  are necessary). This only further increases the 
  number of God-Blooded in such areas.
  The attitudes of the gods themselves also influence 
  these numbers. Long ago, it was considered an embarrassment 
  for a god to mate with mortals. Now, in the Age of Sor-
  rows, this stigma has relaxed, and many gods now consider 
  mating with mortals, a practice commonly referred to as 
  Sunset Dalliances, not only to be acceptable, but also 
  their right as superior beings. Among elementals, these 
  affairs are even more common, since they already dwell 
  among the mortals with whom they dally.
  There are no hard-and-fast reasons a god produces a 
  child with a mortal. 
  Some do so out of 
  love, while others 
  are in it purely for 
  the pleasure of the 
  act itself. Still others 
  purposefully have such 
  children to breed their 
  own powerful servants and 
  champions. Whatever the rea-
  son, God-Blooded are generally 
  considered too valuable to discard 
  or neglect. They are valuable tools, 
  messengers, priests and warriors. That 
  said, even gods sometimes leave their seed 
  where they did not intend, and some God-
  Bloods grow up without their divine parents 
  knowing of their existence. Some of these children 
  seek their parents out later in life, demanding recognition 
  C
  F
  C
  M
  Immaculate Order’s teachings avoid mating with gods and hide or send away those children they birth. 
  involved with the worship of the gods 
  such children are common and oftenn
  omens and future heroes. Some mor
  considerable time and resou
  ing gods to lie with them. Ma
  offerings at temples, playing naked in a
  are known to frequent and othe
  are often employed. Unfortun
  hapless mortals, perfectly inn
  and behaviors are sometime
  invitations (for those who feel 
  are necessary). This only furth
  number of God-Blooded in such ar
  The attitudes of the gods themselve
  these numbers. Long ago, it was considered an
  for a god to mate with mortals. Now, in 
  rows, this stigma has relaxed, and many go
  mating with mortals, a practice common
  Sunset Dalliances, not only to be acce
  their right as superior beings. Among el
  affairs are even more common, since th
  among the mortals with whom they d
  There are no hard-and-fast reasons a
  chi
  So
  lov
  are 
  the p
  act itse
  purposefu
  children t
  own powerful
  champions. Wha
  son, God-Blooded
  considered too valu
  or neglect. They are 
  messengers, priests and
  said, even gods sometimes
  where they did not intend, 
  Bloods grow up without their
  knowing of their existence. Some o
  seek their parents out later in life, demand
  
  118
  or repayment for neglect. A few such God-Blooded even 
  find their way into the service or other gods and magi-
  cal beings, hoping for appreciation their divine parents 
  never gave them.
  Technically, there are rules in the Celestial Bureau-
  cracy against spawning God-Blooded, at least without 
  prior approval and under certain conditions. The laws that 
  govern this matter are very old, very strict and very often 
  ignored. Most gods, if questioned about lying with mortals 
  and conceiving half-blooded godlings, simply bribe the 
  proper officials. That said, a god trying to breed his own 
  personal army of supernaturally empowered children will 
  usually be shut down or face prohibitive bribes, fines and 
  penalties. Such tactics are the province of the more rebel-
  lious or very powerful gods, ones who either do not care 
  or can afford the extra attention. Most gods are content 
  with, at most, a handful of God-Blooded offspring, and 
  the Celestial Bureaucracy is more than happy to look the 
  other way for the right price.
  Most God-Blooded find themselves in the service of 
  their divine parents. The nature and method of this service 
  varies widely. Some God-Blooded are little more than slaves, 
  kept in check by threats, blackmail and other dastardly 
  tactics. Others are spoiled children who have few duties and 
  serve willingly. Most fall somewhere in between these two 
  extremes. Some God-Bloods serve without even knowing, 
  manipulated from afar to undertake quests and errands while 
  ignorant of how these actions serve their parents. 
  Most gods don’t really understand their children. In 
  this, they share a kinship with many mortals, but with 
  an important distinction. Mortal parents tend to not 
  understand their children because of generational gaps, 
  ideological differences and an inability to remember what 
  it was like to be their age. Gods do not understand their 
  half-mortal offspring because they are not mortal and 
  are unable to truly comprehend certain realities of their 
  children’s lives. They tend to forget that mortals, espe-
  cially children, need rest, food and shelter. They do not 
  understand the need for structure and emotional stability 
  in a child’s life. Gods who seek to be sole parent to their 
  child often find themselves terribly vexed by things as 
  simple as changing or feeding a baby.
  After attempting this once or even hearing another 
  god talk about trying it, the majority of gods decide to leave 
  their children in the care of their mortal parents or other 
  humans. Some children are even abandoned entirely, left 
  to survive or perish according to fate. Of course, dad will 
  show up years later with gifts and a story about how it was 
  necessary to prepare the child for a great destiny, but such 
  treatment is almost always more about the god’s failings 
  than his child’s “need” to starve or scrape by throughout 
  his early years. Some God-Blooded children learn to hate 
  their parents after such treatment, though others embrace 
  their absentee parents and strive to please them.
  As a result, many factors determine what a child of the 
  gods becomes. Many serve faithfully as Divine Shadows of 
  their parents, doing whatever is required and asked of them. 
  Others wander aimlessly, looking for a place to fit in. Some 
  even come into the employ of Exalts, demons or other gods 
  in an effort to distance themselves from their families. Some 
  are heroes, some are villains, and some are merely spectators 
  to greater affairs, but all are seeking a way to justify their 
  mixed nature with the world around them.
  Heritage Power: God-Bloods may attune their senses 
  to the spirit world around them. For the cost of three motes 
  of Essence or one Willpower, the character can perceive 
  all sanctum entrances and immaterial spirits around her 
  for one scene. She enhances her normal senses to achieve 
  this effect, so her perception is limited by the range of her 
  mortal senses. In addition to this effect, God-Blooded can 
  increase their own reserves of Essence through force of 
  will alone. By spending one temporary Willpower, they 
  can regain (highest Virtue x 2) motes of Essence. This 
  power may be used only once per scene.
  Associations: Determined by parentage. Children 
  of elementals are associated with the element of their 
  parent, as well as the season, color and direction. The 
  children of gods have associations based on their parent 
  as determined by the Storyteller. The son of a god of a 
  particular river would feel a connection to that river, but 
  also likely with other rivers, water in general, the color 
  blue and freshwater fish.
  Sobriquets: Divine Shadows, God-Kin, Godlings, 
  Half-Spirits, Harvest of Sighs, Sunset Dalliances
  Concepts: divine champion, honor guard for the 
  gods, loyal priestess, messenger of the gods, scribe for the 
  spirits, wandering hero
  Essence Pool: (Essence x 5) + (Willpower x 2) + 
  (Sum of Virtues)
  Heed my words well, for I am my voice of my mother. Turn away 
  from your blasphemies and restore the shrine you have neglected. 
  Observe the rites and offer your best as sacriﬁ ce. Otherwise, you 
  will suffer so deeply your descendants will be born weeping.
  
  119
  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  DEMON-BLOODED
  Since the Primordials became the Yozis and were imprisoned within Malfeas, they have plotted against Creation. 
  Their spawn, the demons, work to free them and visit suffering and anguish on mortals so that none will ever forget 
  they once ruled all and plan to do so again. The demons and their Yozi masters are impossibly arrogant, cruel and 
  possess twisted sensibilities no human can fully comprehend. They seek nothing less than the rule of Creation, the 
  subjugation of humanity, the fall of the gods and the death of the Chosen. They wish 
  to strip away everything gentle and fine and replace it with a hellish reality where 
  sadism is high art and flesh is a canvas for the demons to work their perverse 
  arts upon. It is into this great extended family that the Demon-Blooded 
  are born.
  Demons rarely escape Malfeas on their own. Usually, they are summoned 
  by sorcerers or beckoned by thaumaturgical rituals. Even so, sometimes demons 
  evade their bindings or are not properly banished once their servitude is finished. 
  These demons can sometimes wander Creation for years, avoiding destruction or 
  banishment. Left to their own devices, these demons will sometimes mate with a 
  mortal through rape, seduction or even warped mutual interest. Powerful demons 
  seeking half-blooded children might even have comely slaves secured by 
  lesser demons or cults and brought to Malfeas to provide breeding stock. And 
  finally, many a sorcerer has lain with a demon he summoned to Creation. In 
  fact, some sorcerers summon demons for that exact purpose.
  The children of these unions are either taken by their demonic parents 
  to be used as servants and pawns, left in the care of cultists or their mortal 
  parents, or simply forgotten. Those who serve their parents often find they 
  have marginal but unique status that takes advantage of the lack of limi-
  tations on their half-mortal existence. These children can dwell easily in 
  Creation and survive in Malfeas. Some even serve faithfully and are eventu-
  ally transformed into pure demons. Some Demon-Bloods pass themselves 
  off as God-Blooded, either to hide from their sires, to escape persecution 
  or to infiltrate various societies and organizations. A few Demon-Blooded 
  simply wander, content to seek their own place in the world and all 
  too aware of the hatred and prejudice their demonic nature 
  brings. Some of these renegade children make a good living as 
  demon-hunters and exorcists, though they are rarely welcome 
  in the communities they aid after the job is done. The residents of 
  Creation rightly hate and fear demons, and few will give the spawn of 
  such creatures the benefit of the doubt.
  Demon-Blooded have mixed reactions to their heritage. Some 
  love their demonic nature and revel in the power it brings. These 
  Children of Brass usually strive to serve their parents and the Yozis 
  well in hopes of being transformed into full demons and, hopefully, 
  elevated to citizens of Malfeas. Their parents often dangle such re-
  wards just out of their reach, always asking for one more heinous deed 
  or despicable task before these wishes are granted. Still, just enough 
  Demon-Blooded are granted full demon status and citizenship to keep 
  the dream alive and the children loyal. Hellspawn who reject this call-
  ing often hate and fear their demon half, fighting against its infernal 
  influence. These Demon-Bloods hide their true nature and sometimes 
  reject their supernatural powers altogether. Such efforts usually fail, as many 
  Demon-Blooded find they must use their hated heritage to defend themselves from 
  demon-hunters and demons alike.
  Few Demon-Blooded are born in or spent much time in Malfeas. Most de-
  mons who spawn mortal children feel their progeny are of more use in Creation. 
  119
  HILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  t with a hellish reality where
  o work their perverse
  e Demon-Blooded
  they are summoned
  n so, sometimes demons 
  heir servitude is finished. 
  , avoiding destruction or 
  ill sometimes mate with a
  terest. Powerful demons
  ely slaves secured by
  breeding stock. And
  oned to Creation. In
  pose.
  eir demonic parents
  tists or their mortal
  ents often find they
  of the lack of limi-
   can dwell easily in
  ully and are eventu-
  ods pass themselves
  escape persecution
  ew Demon-Blooded 
  he world and all
  nature
  ving as 
  welcome 
  e residents of 
  ve the spawn of 
  heritage. Some
  t brings. These 
  s and the Yozis 
  and, hopefully, 
  dangle such re-
  re heinous deed
  till, just enough
  izenship to keep
  o reject this call-
  ainst its infernal 
  re and sometimes
  forts usually fail, as many
  ge to defend themselves from
  h time in Malfeas. Most de-
  are of more use in Creation.
  
  120
  Likewise, sorcerers who summon demons to breed Demon-
  Blooded children often prefer to keep them close at hand. 
  Some Demon-Bloods travel between Creation and the 
  Demon City as messengers and spies, but as a rule, most 
  prefer to avoid Malfeas. It is an alien place of misery and 
  torment unkind to mortals, even half-mortals.
  A Demon-Blood’s purpose depends largely on his 
  background. Children of demons are expected to serve their 
  demonic sire with unquestioning loyalty and obedience, 
  much the same way the akuma serve the Yozis. Children 
  resulting from sorcerer-demon mating often work to as-
  sist their mortal parents and might not even know their 
  demonic parents. Half-Damned wanderers, demon-hunters 
  and exorcists tend to behave in ways similar to mortal 
  heroes. This does not keep them from being generally 
  feared and reviled, but it does remind people that nurture 
  is as powerful a force as nature.
  Many Demon-Blooded lead lives that play to their 
  strengths. The children of the neomah often becomes 
  seducers, spies and courtesans, while the spawn of the 
  tomescu learn the ways of assassination and larceny. The 
  offspring of powerful demons are often great warriors, 
  craftsmen or courtiers. Some even overcome prejudice 
  to become powerful and trusted members of the various 
  royal courts of Creation, though this is not the norm. Most 
  Demon-Bloods instead make their way in the world by a 
  mixture of accepting and struggling against their nature. 
  Rarely do they find peace.
  The lives of the Demon-Blooded are almost never 
  easy. Many meet messy and painful ends. Some are tortured 
  to death by their own parents for failure or disobedience. 
  Others are slain as abominations by crusading demon-
  hunters. Still others toil in slavery and submission until 
  they eventually expire. Even those who avoid these fates 
  face fear and hatred from mortals and derision and abuse 
  from demons. Nonetheless, these Half-Damned children 
  have power that eclipses mere mortals, and some use it to 
  meet greater destinies.
  Heritage Power: Demon-Blooded can attune their 
  infernal nature to detect demons and hellish phenomena. 
  By spending three motes of Essence or one temporary 
  Willpower, they can perceive demons (regardless of shape 
  or dematerialization), gates to Cecelyne, helltech and re-
  sidual energies left by the powers and Charms of demons. 
  This effect lasts until the end of the scene.
  Demon-Blooded can also survive in Malfeas indefi-
  nitely. Most mortals sicken and die within seven days of 
  entering the Demon City. The Demon-Blooded find 
  their infernal blood sustains and protects them from 
  these effects. By spending three motes or one temporary 
  Willpower, the Demon-Blood can even extend this pro-
  tection to any items he carries that would normally not 
  survive Malfeas, such as steel. This effect lasts as long as 
  he carries such items next to his flesh, though the item is 
  unmade as normal as soon as this is not the case. While 
  this power is in effect, the Willpower or Essence spent to 
  activate it cannot be recovered.
  Associations: Demon-Blooded resonate with the 
  symbols of demonkind and the Yozis: the empty desert, 
  the green sun, brass, black stone, lies and pain. On the 
  other hand, they chafe at imprisonment and restrictions 
  of laws and morality, preferring freedom and instinct.
  Sobriquets: Children of Brass, Half-Damned, Hell-
  spawn, Tears of Malfeas, Yozi-Kin
  Concepts: demon cult leader, exorcist, heartless 
  assassin, master torturer, procurer of forbidden delights, 
  rogue demon-hunter
  Essence Pool: (Essence x 5) + (Willpower  x 2) + 
  (sum of Virtues)
  Demon-Blooded have some difficulty regenerating 
  Essence in Creation. They regenerate temporary Essence 
  at only half the normal rate through rest and meditation. 
  This rate is normal in Malfeas or while traveling the 
  wastes of Cecelyne. They also regain Essence normally 
  in Creation when resting near places of great sin or 
  suffering, such as slave markets and torture chambers. 
  Demon-Blooded seeking such places for refuge and rest 
  cannot act in a way that alleviates the sense of pain and 
  suffering. If they do, the increased Essence regeneration 
  is lost. To counteract this vulnerability, many demonic 
  sires of Demon-Blooded tithe a small amount of Essence 
  from their mortal cults to their children. Those Demon-
  Blooded not in the service of their parents must make 
  do on their own.
  You think to frighten me? 
  I see the face of Hell in every tranquil pool or polished glass. 
  I feel the pain and sin of ancient evils in my veins. 
  What can you possibly do that will teach me fear?
  
  121
  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  121
  IVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  GHOST-BLOODED
  Before the Great Contagion, few ghosts wandered the Underworld. The realm of the dead was a place of empti-
  ness and relative peace. Yet, the terrible plague that slew countless mortals changed everything. The Underworld 
  became flooded with the restless dead, and shadowlands grew in number and size. Out of these times rose the first 
  Ghost-Blooded. No one lives now that can say if their creation 
  was due to purposeful experimentation or mere chance. 
  Those few ghosts who might know the answer are silent 
  on the matter. The Ghost-Blooded themselves do not 
  know the truth. They simply know they were born 
  from the unnatural mix of death and life.
  From their beginnings, the Ghost-Blooded 
  have always been useful tools for their ghostly 
  sires. The dead appreciate their children’s lack of 
  dependency on the presence of death to maintain a 
  material form. Their mortal blood makes Creation 
  a more comfortable and less costly place for them 
  to travel than ghosts, zombies and other undead. 
  As a result, many Ghost-Bloods operate as agents, 
  messengers, spies and merchants for the dead. For 
  their part, many Ghoul children find that they are 
  rejected and feared by most of Creation. Serving 
  their dead parents gives them purpose and some 
  manner of recognition. Even Deathlords appreciate 
  the uses of the child of an ancient ghost, and most 
  have such Ghost-Blooded serving them or their 
  Abyssal servants. This utility, combined with the 
  arrogance and lingering mortal desires of the dead, 
  make Ghost-Blooded a relatively common sight in 
  shadowlands.
  During the reign of the Scarlet Empress, Ghost-
  Blooded largely existed on the outskirts of society. 
  They were not rare, but they were rarely heard from. 
  The folk of the Underworld recognized their uses but 
  felt little kinship to the Half-Dead, preferring the com-
  pany and service of full ghosts, while mortals rejected 
  them as unnatural and alien. The Immaculate Order 
  in particular condemned them as monsters who should 
  have never been spawned. This changed with the sack of 
  Thorns and the disappearance of the Empress. The dead 
  began to push into Creation with renewed vigor, and they 
  both needed and wanted the aid of their Ghost-Blooded 
  children. Creation saw the Grave-Born as terrible threats 
  who could infiltrate and undermine even the greatest 
  strongholds if left unchecked. The Deathlords have begun 
  to encourage even weaker ghosts to impregnate mortals, and 
  many Ghost-Blooded find ample work in their service as 
  spies, warriors, messengers and assassins for the Underworld. 
  Some of the most powerful Ghouls rise to lead expeditions 
  and invasions into Creation. Such war leaders often serve as 
  part of the larger armies of the Abyssals. These Exalted feel 
  some small kinship to these creatures neither living nor dead, 
  gladly using them as advisors, spies and lieutenants. It is because 
  
  122
  of these actions that Creation has begun to fear and hate 
  the Ghouls more than ever before. The Dragon-Blooded 
  hunt these Grave-Born agents of the Deathlords with 
  renewed vigor and merciless enthusiasm. Not all Ghost-
  Blooded embrace the role of loyal Half-Dead servant of 
  the Underworld, but even those who fight against their 
  undead sires face prejudice and fear from mortals.
  These days, most Ghost-Bloods grow up in or near 
  shadowlands. They are surrounded by the constant con-
  flict between life and death. They are raised under the 
  supervision of their ghostly parents. Sometimes, they have 
  no mortal parents remaining, as many a Grave-Born’s 
  mortal mother has already passed over to become a ghost 
  herself. In this environment, the Ghost-Blooded grow and 
  learn. They walk among mortals during the day and serve 
  the dead by night. They tend Fetters and secure prayers 
  for the dead. Many learn these tasks early and work until 
  they eventually pass beyond as ghosts themselves. Those 
  who serve the ancient ghost clans are the most devoted. 
  They work as courtesans, spies and assassins and wait for 
  the day when they will take their lives and join their 
  ghostly parents as full citizens of the Underworld. Many 
  shadowland-raised Ghouls attend the Abyssals, acting as 
  anything from pleasure toys to honor guards.
  Those who do not serve the Deathlords or their 
  undead parents often strive to avoid detection. They 
  pose as God-Blooded or hide among mortals to avoid the 
  vengeance of the living for the suffering and death the 
  Underworld has brought to Creation. Some fight against 
  the undead, though they do so carefully. They know they 
  cannot trust mortals to treat them kindly. Furthermore, 
  most are aware that they will pass into the Underworld 
  as ghosts themselves one day and do not wish to make 
  too many enemies in that realm. Those who reject this 
  wisdom and choose to make war on ghosts openly are both 
  envied for their courage and despised for their foolhardy 
  rebellion. Still, some Ghost-Blooded do take this path 
  and find work as ghost-hunters and undead slayers.
  These Ghost-Blooded walk in two worlds at all times. 
  They are living and dead, cherished and despised, wanted 
  and rejected, used and neglected. They have the power to 
  fight against their nature but are doomed to become the 
  ghosts they battle. They can serve faithfully while alive 
  but are not truly accepted until after they die. They are 
  too warm and alive to the dead and too cold and pale to 
  the living. They are the Ghost-Blooded, and they truly 
  belong nowhere.
  Heritage Power: Ghost-Blooded may attune their 
  senses to detect the Essence of the Underworld. By spend-
  ing three motes or one temporary Willpower, they can 
  detect dematerialized ghosts and shadowland borders. 
  They may also replenish Essence by drinking blood as if 
  they were ghosts (see Exalted, p. 316). Furthermore, all 
  Ghost-Blooded become full ghosts automatically when they 
  die. They lose all mutations, gain the appropriate Passion 
  for their Virtues and five dots in Fetters. Positive muta-
  tions are converted to experience for the character to buy 
  Charms, raise Essence or otherwise advance the character. 
  Negative mutations are converted to a similar deficit that 
  must be paid off with current or future experience points 
  (see “Inheritance,” p. 127, for experience point values 
  for mutations). For more information on creating ghost 
  character, see Chapters Four, Five and Six of The Books 
  of Sorcery, Vol. V—The Roll of Glorious Divinity II.
  Associations: As living beings forever surrounded by 
  death, the Ghost-Blooded embrace the trappings of the 
  Underworld. They favor funerary garb, grave goods and 
  the colors of gray, black and bone white. They perfume 
  themselves with embalming oils and flowers that grow 
  on graves. They feel drawn to shadowlands, crypts and 
  other places of death.
  Sobriquets: Bone Children, Ghouls, Grave-Born, 
  Half-Dead, Heirs of Dust and Ashes
  Concepts: ancestral agent, courtesan of the dead, 
  deathknight lieutenant, diplomat for the Underworld, 
  ghost-hunter
  Essence Pool: (Essence x 5) + (Willpower x 2) + 
  (sum of Virtues)
  As noted, Ghost-Bloods can regain temporary Essence 
  by drinking blood. Like their ghostly sires, they cannot 
  respire Essence naturally outside of a shadowland, an 
  Abyssal manse or the Underworld. Ghost-Blooded rarely 
  have their own cults, but those who do can gain Essence 
  from the prayers and offerings of their worshipers.
  They call me Half-Dead. Grave-Born. Ghoul. 
  I am daughter to death and agent of your ending. 
  If you kill this flesh, I will rise to strike you down. 
  Death is not my bane. It is my birthright. 
  How then can you stop me?
  
  123
  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  HALF-CASTE
  When the gods created the Exalted, they decided that the Celestial Chosen would not pass their powers directly 
  along to their children. There were two reasons for this. First, they knew that when they finally pushed their creations 
  to battle their Primordial masters, they would need not dynastic lineages, but the most worthy candidates with the 
  greatest connection to destiny if they hoped to raise an army to overthrow their masters. Second, if their plan suc-
  ceeded, they knew the lack of family bonds would render the Exalted just fractured enough to 
  keep the Chosen from uniting against them. Only the weaker Dragon-Blooded were to 
  be the exception.
  Things did not go exactly as the gods planned, however. Despite, or perhaps be-
  cause of, their adherence to the designs of Autochthon, the Celestial Exalted were 
  able to pass some of their power onto their children. These offspring were not full 
  Exalted, but they were definitely more than mere mortals. Called Half-Castes, 
  these children were a surprise to god and Exalt alike. They presented an 
  unknown variable in the gods’ plans and the efforts of their Exalted to 
  overthrow the Primordials. Despite concerns over the role these Half-
  Castes would play in the future, the gods and Exalted found they had to 
  go ahead with their plans lest they lose their window of opportunity. 
  So, confident the young and relatively weak Half-Castes would have 
  little impact on their plans, they moved forward. The Exalted defeated 
  the Primordials, and after the war was over, the gods ascended to fill the 
  power void left by their masters’ fall. During the war, the Half-Castes served 
  as squires and assistants to their parents. Some acquitted themselves quite 
  well, and with the vanquishing of the Primordials, many Exalted felt confident that 
  having more of such children would only bring good things.
  After the war, many Exalted decided to enjoy the spoils of victory and spread 
  their seed. Great harems and brothels were constructed by the Celestial Exalted to 
  house gorgeous mortals for the Chosen to mate with. Solars, Lunars and Sidereals alike 
  took concubines and mortal consorts. Some Exalts had hundreds of mortal mates, kept as 
  something less than wives and more than pets. As the First Age continued, the numbers of 
  children born of these unions grew, and they slowly began to supplant the Dragon-Blooded 
  as the core of the Old Realm’s armies and bureaucracies. The Solars were the most prolific 
  in their breeding. The Lunars were often content to bear the occasional Golden Children 
  of their Solar Lovers (and, in rare cases, to surreptitiously breed half-beast offspring). The 
  Sidereals kept their children sequestered lest they too draw the attentions of lustful Solars. 
  In the shadows of this population explosion of Half-Castes, the Dragon-Blooded grew restless 
  and plotted with the Sidereals to do to the Solars what the Exalted and gods had done to 
  the Primordials before them.
  When the Usurpation occurred, the Half-Castes played a pivotal role. Many Ter-
  restrials seduced, deceived or recruited key Solar Half-Castes who had grown jealous of 
  parents they would never surpass. Nepotism among the Exalted meant that their own 
  children were often placed in positions for which they were ill suited. Those few skilled 
  and loyal Half-Castes found themselves surrounded by traitors and incompetents. The 
  Dragon-Blooded were able to easily overcome the loyal forces of the slain Solars with 
  superior tactics and intelligence. Before they could recover from the fall of their 
  children, the Solars who survived the initial Calibration dinner ambush were 
  forced to defend themselves against hordes of Terrestrials. They eventually fell 
  as the Primordials before them. Half-Castes who surrendered or sided with the 
  Dragon-Blooded were next. Unwilling to risk a Half-Caste uprising, the Ter-
  restrials mercilessly slaughtered every Half-Caste they could find—enemy and 
  ally, infant and adult. The Solar Half-Castes were wiped out, the remaining 
  Lunar children were forced to flee with their parents, and the children of the 
  Sidereals vanished into obscurity.
  d just fractured enough to
  on-Blooded were to 
  or perhaps be-
  Exalted were
  re not full
  f-Castes, 
  an
  o
  f-
  o
  ill the
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  nfident that
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  l Exalted to
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  ortal mates, kept as
  nued, the numbers of
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  were the most prolific
  nal Golden Children 
  beast offspring). The
  tions of lustful Solars.
  Blooded grew restless
  nd gods had done to
  al role. Many Ter-
  d grown jealous of 
  nt that their own
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  124
  In the centuries that followed, all mention of the 
  Half-Castes was wiped from the official histories. The 
  Dragon-Blooded had no interest in admitting they once 
  slew infants and children by the thousands, Anathema 
  spawned or not. The Immaculate Order was charged with 
  destroying any Half-Caste that might surface, and soon, 
  the Children of the Chosen were forgotten.
  With the return of the Solars, things are beginning 
  to change. A few children of the surviving Lunars and 
  Sidereals have surfaced, aiding their parents and, on oc-
  casion, the newly returned Solars. Some few Solars have 
  even grown to sufficient power to conceive Half-Caste 
  children, though most are mere infants. Still, these chil-
  dren will grow, and they could provide their parents with 
  much needed lieutenants and aides. Not to be outdone, 
  many Abyssals have taken mortal lovers and birthed their 
  own Half-Castes. It is unknown if the newly discovered 
  Infernal Exalted have begun similar experimentation, but 
  there is no reason they should not be able to birth their 
  own Half-Castes as well.
  Many Half-Castes work in the service of their parents. 
  Most Exalted are somewhat better parents than many gods, 
  ghosts, fae and demons, even with the emotional problems 
  brought on by the Great Curse. As a result, fewer Chil-
  dren of the Chosen feel compelled to rebel against their 
  Exalted parents than other God-Blooded do. This is not 
  to say that some Half-Castes do not wander or seek their 
  own destiny. Some children of the Exalted are born not 
  even knowing their Chosen sire. This can be due to any 
  number of reasons, from an Exalted father not realizing he 
  has conceived a child to the Half-Caste being orphaned 
  after the Wyld Hunt kills his Exalted mother. Still, most 
  Half-Castes must take care when traveling on their own 
  lest they be slain by the enemies of the Celestial Exalts. 
  Because of this, many Children of the Chosen who do not 
  remain with their parents seek out the companionship 
  My father wishes you all to know that the Chosen have returned. 
  We will no longer allow the tyranny of the Realm to rule here. 
  We will build a new golden age on the ashes of the Terrestrial betrayers. 
  Gaze into my eyes, and you will glimpse our glorious future.
  of other God-Blooded, heroic mortals or similar beings. 
  Creation is a dangerous place for even the Grandchosen 
  of the Gods, and there is safety in numbers.
  Heritage Power: Though far from the powerhouses 
  their Celestial parents are, Half-Castes are exceptional 
  physical and mental specimens. To reflect this, all Half-
  Castes receive on free dot in any Attribute and one extra 
  Favored Ability during character creation.
  Associations: Half-Castes feel a connection with the 
  signs and symbols of their Exalted parents. The daughter 
  of a Solar Dawn Caste would feel drawn to the season 
  of spring, the colors saffron and lavender, the Eastern 
  direction, fire and, to a lesser extent, the full moon and 
  the Maiden of Battles. The son of a Sidereal Chosen of 
  Endings would feel drawn to the color violet, the element 
  of earth and the astrological house of the Violet Bier of 
  Sorrows. In addition, all Half-Castes feel drawn to the 
  prime associations of their parents. Thus, the child of 
  a Lunar feels at peace under the moon while her Solar 
  cousin feels comfort when the sun is in the sky.
  Sobriquets: Anathema Spawn (derogatory), Children 
  of the Chosen, Golden Children (Solar), Grandchosen 
  of the Gods, Grandchosen of the Yozis (Infernal), Moon-
  Born (Lunar), Shadowwalkers (Abyssal), Star-Blessed 
  (Sidereal)
  Concepts: embittered lieutenant, forgotten bastard, 
  hero without a cause, squire to the Exalted, voice of the 
  Chosen
  Essence Pool: (Essence x 4) + Willpower + (sum 
  of Virtues)
  This does mean that Half-Castes generally possess 
  somewhat less Essence than most other God-Bloods. 
  This deficit is balanced by their higher Attributes and 
  extra Favored Ability, as well as their access to potent 
  Exalted Charms.
  
  125
  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  FAE-BLOODED
  The unshaped raksha dwell in chaos and live in the deep Wyld where they can play with form and power in ways 
  unavailable in Creation. Most of these beings ignore the shaped world, uninterested in its rules and structure, which 
  strikes them as alien and unnecessary. Most view Creation as a strange and vaguely diverting playground, at best. 
  At worst, they see it as a cancer festering in the middle of the Wyld. That said, some find themselves drawn to the 
  Bordermarches and then to Creation itself. Some of these creatures are exiles, some are disgraced nobles, and others 
  simply are curious hunters and explorers. These outcasts, rebels and nomads are what 
  Creation knows as the Fair Folk. They take diminished forms 
  and sustain themselves by draining the emotions of ravished 
  humans. They lead mutants and hobgoblins on hunts and 
  take humans as food or sport. In some rare instances, they 
  even take these captives to their bed. It is a testament to their 
  mastery of form that Fair Folk who take forms styled after animals 
  and mortals can mate with humans so easily. In fact, they are 
  surprisingly fertile, and many trysts result in new life. These 
  offspring are the Fae-Blooded. These Fleshdreamt offspring 
  can walk in Creation and the Wyld. While the Fair Folk do 
  not fully understand their half-mortal children, they do see 
  the usefulness of pawns and agents who can travel more easily in 
  the calcifying areas outside the Wyld. Fae-Bloods often work as 
  rangers and huntsmen for their Fair Folk parents, bringing more 
  mortal playthings to sustain and amuse their sires. Many do not 
  suffer the raksha’s intense susceptibility to cold iron, which can prove 
  useful when facing foes who are prepared to face their supernatural 
  parents.
  Fae-Blooded who serve in the raiding parties of their parents 
  are often given charge of groups of Wyld mutants and lesser mem-
  bers of their own kind. These raiders strike deeper into Creation 
  than normal Fair Folk can. They seize human captives and drag 
  their terrified charges back to the Bordermarches where they 
  are handed over to their raksha masters. Some Fae-Bloods regret 
  their actions, but they console themselves that if they did not 
  provide sustenance for their parents it would likely be them 
  next on the menu. In many ways, these Wyld-Kissed are the 
  fortunate ones. They have a purpose and an outlet for their 
  passions and excesses.
  Not all Fae-Blooded are hunters and warriors. The whims of 
  the Fair Folk range wildly, and they conceive children for 
  any number of reasons. Some are little more than living 
  dolls or pets crafted to perform amusing, bizarre little 
  plays and games. Others find themselves devoured by 
  their own parents when they grow tiresome. Some 
  particularly depraved Fair Folk even keep several 
  children for the express purpose of feeding their 
  peculiar hungers. At times, a Fae-Blood will 
  be left in place of a mortal child in the 
  homes of Creation. The original child 
  is usually devoured. Her Changeling 
  replacement either grows to serve 
  as a spy and agent for her parent 
  or is left to her own devices 
  while her parent looks on 
  n to Creation itself. Some of these creatures are exiles, some are disgraced nobles, and otheers
  rs and explorers. These outcasts, rebels and nomads are what
  Fair Folk. They take diminished forms 
  y draining the emotions of ravished
  ants and hobgoblins on hunts and
  sport. In some rare instances, they
  s to their bed. It is a testament to their 
  Folk who take forms styled after animals
  th humans so easily. In fact, they are
  many trysts result in new life. These 
  oded. These Fleshdreamt offspring
  d the Wyld. While the Fair Folk do
  r half-mortal children, they do see
  and agents who can travel more easily in
  ide the Wyld. Fae-Bloods often work as 
  r their Fair Folk parents, bringing more
  tain and amuse their sires. Many do not
  se susceptibility to cold iron, which can prove
  who are prepared to face their supernatural 
  rve in the raiding parties of their parents 
  groups of Wyld mutants and lesser mem-
  These raiders strike deeper into Creation 
  an. They seize human captives and drag 
  back to the Bordermarches where they
  r raksha masters. Some Fae-Bloods regret
  onsole themselves that if they did not
  heir parents it would likely be them
  any ways, these Wyld-Kissed are the 
  ve a purpose and an outlet for their 
  are hunters and warriors. The whims of
  y, and they conceive children for
  Some are little more than living
  erform amusing, bizarre little
  ind themselves devoured by
  hey grow tiresome. Some
  r Folk even keep several
  urpose of feeding their
  es, a Fae-Blood will
  rtal child in the
  original child
  Changeling
  s to serve
  parent
  vices
  on
  
  126
  from afar to see what chaos the Fae-Blood creates. Such 
  children tend to grow up apart from their communities. 
  The Wyld-fueled madness in their blood often leads to 
  erratic moods and strange proclivities. Even those who 
  do not learn of their Fair Folk heritage cannot ignore the 
  fact that something strange stirs within them.
  As bad as things can be for these Fae-Bloods, it is 
  even worse for some. At least Changelings are presumed 
  to be human until their true natures surface. Not so for 
  children born of raids or seductions by Fair Folk invaders. 
  These Wyld-Kissed offspring are often slain or cast out 
  at a young age. Even their mortal parents tend to reject 
  them, convincing themselves that the Fae-Blooded are 
  more affliction than blood relation. Some are rescued 
  by their Fair Folk sires and pressed into service. Others 
  survive as best they can. Some simply perish. Abandoned 
  Fae-Bloods often become scourges of the humans who 
  rejected them, and many take great pleasure in torturing, 
  hunting and killing mortals.
  Unlike other God-Blooded, the Fair Folk have no 
  great plans for their children. They are children defined 
  primarily by neglect, abuse and the constant danger 
  of being devoured by their own raksha parents. Even 
  demons tend to think more of their children’s utility. 
  It is because of this that Fae-Blooded who escape or are 
  ignored by their Fair Folk sires often aggressively seek 
  some greater destiny. Some seek to hunt the forces of the 
  Wyld, perhaps even trying to protect mortals from further 
  abuse at the hands of mutants, hobgoblins and Fair Folk 
  nobles. Others become assassins and mercenaries, trying 
  to find purpose in violence and wealth. In all cases, they 
  always find themselves drawn to the Bordermarches and 
  beyond as their Wyld-infused blood calls to them. Some 
  eventually retreat into the chaos beyond Creation never 
  to return. For most, this is a form of suicide⎯a way to 
  quiet the persistent madness that has plagued them for 
  their entire lives by surrendering to the hungry beasts of 
  the Wyld. Others continue to wander, seeking allies and 
  companions among other outcasts and exiles.
  Heritage Power: Like their parents, the Fae-Blooded 
  are immune to the ravages of the Wyld. They can venture 
  into the deep chaos and maintain their form and sanity. 
  This protection does not extend naturally to their posses-
  sions, though they can spend three motes or one temporary 
  Willpower to protect their belongings for a scene. This 
  immunity does not protect them against direct applica-
  tions of Wyld energies or glamour. Yet, their half-breed 
  nature does grant them a one-die bonus to rolls to resist 
  such effects.
  Associations: Fae-Blooded feel connection to flowers, 
  bright colors, jewels, music and other objects and concepts 
  that suggest passion. They tend to be drawn to excess, and 
  many emulate their Fair Folk parents’ extreme moods. Out-
  side the Wyld, they are most at home in theaters, brothels, 
  arenas and other places where emotions run high.
  Sobriquets: Changelings, Daughters/Sons of Chaos, 
  Fleshdreamt, Wyld-Kissed
  Concepts: decadent wanderer, gifted artist, huntsman, 
  raider, unknown Changeling
  Essence Pool: (Essence x 8)
  Fae-Blooded cannot regain Essence through rest or 
  meditation in areas lacking Wyld taint. They are able to 
  feed on human emotion in the same way their Fair Folk 
  parents can (see Exalted, p. 284), and many Fae-Blooded 
  seeking to avoid their kin use this ability to survive for 
  extended periods in Creation.
  Please, my dear… be brave. 
  The only thing more delicious than your fear is your deﬁ ance. 
  And I would taste all of you before we are done.
  
  127
  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  GOD-BLOODED TRAITS
  God-Blooded do not differ much from heroic mortals 
  or Exalted in the traits they use. However, some traits 
  have particular utility for certain God-Blooded, while 
  others are somewhat rare given their nature. 
  USEFUL CRAFTS
  By and large, God-Blooded learn the same Craft 
  Abilities as other characters. The uses of mundane 
  crafts are the same as for any other characters. Only 
  certain specialized crafts are worth noting as they can 
  be especially useful for certain types of God-Blooded. 
  For example, a Ghost-Blood could find Craft (Jade-
  crafting) or Craft (Moliation) useful if she spends 
  much of her time serving and interacting with her dead 
  relatives. Some rare Sidereal Half-Castes might learn 
  the basics of Craft (Fate), or a Fae-Blood might have 
  some skill with Craft (Glamour). These God-Bloods 
  may possess various appropriate specialties to further 
  refine their technique. Storytellers might decide that 
  certain exotic crafts cannot be learned by God-Bloods, 
  and players wishing to take these Abilities for their 
  character should consult with their Storyteller before 
  doing so.
  MERITS AND FLAWS
  If the Storyteller uses the Merits and Flaws found 
  earlier in this book, players have even greater variety to 
  work with when creating their God-Blooded characters. 
  Merits can be purchased with bonus points provided by 
  Inheritance if desired, and Flaws can provide bonus points 
  for additional mutations and Charms. The God-Blooded 
  often live troubled, complicated and interesting lives, 
  and Merits and Flaws can help flesh this out.
  Not all Merits and Flaws are appropriate for God-
  Blooded, however. Some benefit only certain types of 
  characters or provide abilities the God-Blooded already 
  have thanks to mutations and heritage powers. Players 
  and Storytellers should consider whether a given Merit 
  really is a benefit or a Flaw is truly worth extra bonus 
  points before selecting it.
  Common Merits and Flaws found among God-
  Blooded are: Acute Sense, Danger Sense, Enchanting 
  Features, Heir Apparent, Heirloom (from a loving 
  parent), Internal Compass, Luck, Paragon of [Virtue], 
  Priest (of their magical parent), Prodigy, Special Sense, 
  Derangement, Diminished Attributes, Enemy, Obliga-
  tion, Sickly, Sun-Seared, Unlucky and Wanted. It is up 
  to the players to determine whether Merits and Flaws 
  such as Derangement or Danger Sense are tied to their 
  characters’ magical nature or if they stem from a more 
  mundane source.
  BACKGROUNDS
  There are no definite restrictions on most Back-
  grounds for God-Blooded. The son of a god could possess 
  an artifact, familiar, followers or other Backgrounds much 
  as an Exalt or other character could. A child of a ghost 
  might be given an Underworld manse by a generous par-
  ent. Few God-Blooded have cults that worship them, but 
  such things do happen on occasion. Also, a God-Blood 
  sometimes receives devotion and prayers by association 
  with his supernatural parent. The only real restrictions 
  on Backgrounds are ones that are simply impossible. 
  For example, without some mutation that expands their 
  lives, God-Blooded don’t live the centuries necessary 
  to possess the ghost Background Age (see The Books 
  of Sorcery, Vol. V—The Roll of Glorious Divinity, 
  pp. 117–118). Players wishing to make occasional use 
  of a variety of Backgrounds that are available to their 
  characters’ parents should consider taking dots in the 
  new Background, Patron (see pp. 129-130). Also, a God-
  Blood with the Patron Background usually doesn’t have 
  many Backgrounds with more dots than his Patron rating. 
  Those God-Bloods without patrons rarely acquire more 
  than one or two dots in a particular Background if left 
  solely to their own devices, though this is a guideline, 
  not a rule.
  Storytellers might wish to limit certain Backgrounds 
  for God-Bloods in their games. Doing so is completely 
  acceptable, though they should try to inform their players 
  of such limitations before character creation.
  INHERITANCE
  Not all God-Blooded are created equal. The amount 
  of otherworldly power a child of the supernatural possesses 
  depends on the power possessed by her supernatural par-
  ent. The Inheritance Background represents this power. 
  Inheritance not only reflects the power of a God-Blooded’s 
  parent, it also provides the God-Blooded character with 
  power of her own. Each dot in Inheritance provides a 
  God-Blooded character with valuable bonus points that 
  can be used to boost her traits far beyond those of nor-
  mal mortals. Bonus points gained through Inheritance 
  can be spent on anything except Backgrounds. Dots in 
  Inheritance also determine how many negative muta-
  tions a God-Blood can possess. Taking these negative 
  mutations provides even more bonus points.
  Among the God-Blooded, the Inheritance rating 
  reflects the status and power of the immortal parent, be 
  he god, demon, ghost, raksha or Exalt. It also makes the 
  God-Blood’s superhuman nature easier to identify. If a 
  player rolls (Perception + Occult) for his character to 
  notice signs of supernatural in the God-Blood’s appear-
  ance, he receives a number of bonus dice equal to the 
  
  128
  the First Circle, a potent Fair Folk commoner 
  or an old ghost. You receive 12 bonus points 
  at character creation and may take up to 15 
  points in negative mutations. If you acquire this 
  Background later, you instead gain 30 experi-
  ence points and up to 15 additional points from 
  negative mutations.
  ••• 
  Your ancestry is notable. You can claim as your 
  sire a demon of the Second Circle, a powerful 
  Exalt, an important elemental or local god, an 
  ancient ghost or a Fair Folk noble. You receive 
  18 bonus points at character creation and may 
  take up to 15 points in negative mutations. If 
  you acquire this Background later, you instead 
  gain 60 experience points and up to 30 additional 
  points from negative mutations.
  •••• Your lineage is impeccable. Your sire is a cham-
  pion among the demons of the Second Circle, 
  a centuries-old Exalt, a greater god, one of the 
  mightiest ghosts in the Underworld or a great 
  leader among the Fair Folk. Many minor gods 
  and demons see you as a peer. You receive 24 
  bonus points at character creation and may take 
  up to 20 points in negative mutations. If you 
  acquire this Background later, you instead gain 
  target’s Inheritance rating. It is worth noting that some 
  God-Blooded have such obvious physical mutations to 
  render such rolls to detect their nature unnecessary.
  Some beings, such as various gods and demons, can 
  grant an Inheritance Background rating to an existing 
  character not of their blood. In such cases of “adopted” 
  God-Blooded, Inheritance provides experience points 
  instead of bonus points.
  Trait Effects:
  X 
  You have no supernatural heritage. It is possible 
  that some distant ancestor once lay with a god 
  or other powerful being, but you have inherited 
  none of that power.
  • 
  Your blood is weak. Your sire was a weaker de-
  mon of the First Circle, a minor spirit, one of 
  the least of the Fair Folk commoners or a young 
  ghost. You receive six bonus points at character 
  creation and may take up to 10 points in nega-
  tive mutations. If you acquire this Background 
  later, you instead gain 10 experience points 
  and up to five additional points from negative 
  mutations.
  •• 
  Your blood is fair. Your sire was an established 
  Exalt, a noteworthy spirit, a powerful demon of 
  
  129
  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  TAKING MUTATIONS AS MERITS AND FLAWS
  Theoretically, since mutations grant and cost 
  bonus points, they could be taken as Merits and 
  Flaws by non-God-Blooded characters. This could 
  enable some interesting character concepts, such 
  as a mortal hero who possess some genetic artifact 
  from an ancient ancestor’s tryst with a god but is 
  not himself actually God-Blooded. Storytellers 
  wishing to allow this can theoretically just use the 
  bonus point costs of the various mutations for these 
  Merits and Flaws. They might want to consider two 
  things first, though.
  First, the mutations in this chapter are de-
  signed for use with God-Blooded. They are part 
  of the powers that make God-Blooded special 
  and superhuman. Because of this, not all of them 
  match up perfectly with Merits and Flaws of the 
  same general value. Therefore, while Perfect Heal-
  ing Factor costs six bonus points, it is generally 
  more powerful than a standard six-point Merit if 
  taken by a heroic mortal, yet not very useful at 
  all if taken by an Exalt. Storytellers who wish to 
  allow these mutations as Merits and Flaws should 
  consider changing the costs to reflect how useful 
  the power is. Also, Storytellers should feel free to 
  disallow any or all mutations to be taken as Merits 
  and Flaws if they feel it does not fit the spirit and 
  theme of their games.
  Second, allowing other characters to take these 
  mutations takes away some of the unique nature of 
  the God-Blooded. This may or may not be desirable, 
  but it should be considered before allowing such 
  traits to be selected as Merits and Flaws
  PATRON
  A powerful being, either her sire or some other being, 
  has taken an interest in the character. These patrons offer 
  powerful rewards and support but expect great favors in 
  return. Some patrons view their charges as lieutenants 
  and subordinates, while others dote on them like spoiled 
  children. In every case, the Patron expects the character 
  to return his attention, affection and rewards with loyalty 
  and devotion. The more powerful and active the patron, 
  the more is expected of the character in return. 
  Each dot of Patron counts as a dot of Mentor (see 
  Exalted, p. 113). Also, for every dot in Patron, the 
  character can call upon the resources of her patron once 
  per game session. This reflects the God-Blood being al-
  lowed to avail herself of one of her patron’s resources. 
  Each use of Patron in this manner can provide a single 
  use of an appropriate Background at a rating equal to 
  the character’s rating in Patron. The Storyteller should 
  decide which Backgrounds a particular patron can pro-
  vide, but some commonly available Backgrounds are: 
  Allies, Artifact, Backing, Command, Contacts, Cult, 
  Familiar, Followers, Henchman, Influence, Manse and 
  Resources. These temporary Backgrounds typically last 
  no more than one scene.
  Keeping the benefits of a patron are completely 
  dependent on keeping that patron happy. A divine par-
  ent might cut off support for a rebellious God-Blooded 
  child, or a demonic sire might refuse to aid disobedient 
  Demon-Blooded. Historically, demons and ghosts are 
  the least forgiving and tolerant of patrons, though many 
  gods and Exalts are famous for their fickle natures and 
  fierce tempers. Some patrons might even cut off character 
  temporarily to teach them what the patron considers is 
  an important lesson.
  Trait Effects:
  X 
  You have no special relationship with your su-
  pernatural parent or any other powerful being. 
  Perhaps your sire doesn’t even know you exist.
  • 
  You have little connection with your patron. 
  He occasionally does you small favors when he 
  feels like it and expects the same in return. He 
  either is not very powerful or is very removed 
  from mortal affairs.
  •• 
  Your patron will lend you occasional use of his 
  lesser servants and resources. He doesn’t expect 
  much in return, just a bit of devotion or service 
  from time to time. He is likely of average power 
  and takes some interest in Creation and his 
  children.
  ••• 
  Your patron is an inconstant but major influence 
  in your life. He grants potent boons in exchange 
  100 experience points and up to 50 additional 
  points from negative mutations.
  ••••• The purest of blood. You are nearly an immortal 
  in your own right. Your sire is a demon of the 
  Third Circle, a powerful god, a surviving Exalt 
  from the First Age, a ghost who commands 
  even the Deathlords’ respect (if not one of the 
  Deathlords) or the mightiest of the Fair Folk. 
  You are both respected and envied by many 
  lesser beings and could one day transcend your 
  mortal flesh completely. You receive 30 bonus 
  points at character creation and may take up to 
  20 points in negative mutations. If you acquire 
  this Background later, you instead gain 150 
  experience points and up to 75 additional points 
  from negative mutations.
  
  130
  OPTIONAL RULE: LINEAGE
  Storytellers and players who wish to add a bit 
  more predictability and consistency to God-Blooded 
  mutations might require players to mark a number of 
  bonus points as being universal to all God-Blooded 
  children of a particular supernatural parent. For 
  example, perhaps all the children of a particular 
  demon possess the Night Eyes and Healing Factor 
  mutations or all the children of a certain god pos-
  sess Immortality. Such traits should be marked (or 
  considered) “Inherited”—a distinction important 
  to certain other mutations such as Breed True.
  Players should still pick their own mutations 
  for their characters, but marking certain traits as 
  universal among all God-Blooded with a certain 
  sire can add an element of familial familiarity to 
  the game. It is recommended that no more than 
  half of the bonus points given by the Inheritance 
  Background be marked in this fashion. Even in 
  cases where the sire’s blood produces fairly constant 
  results when mating with mortals, there is still a 
  good amount of diversity.
  NEGATIVE MUTATION BONUSES
  Type of  
  Bonus 
  Experience
  Mutation 
  Point Cost 
  Cost
  Deficiency 
  1 
  3
  Debility 
  2 
  6
  Deformity 
  4 
  12
  Note that there are no abomination-level negative 
  mutations. Such God-Blooded are sometimes born, but 
  those thus afflicted do not survive long after birth. Some 
  expire before their parents’ eyes, while others are too 
  simple, warped or mad to ever survive and are quietly put 
  down. These malformations are very rare, as the child’s 
  supernatural heritage tends to sustain all but the most 
  twisted of forms. In fact, many abominations manifest in 
  such extreme ways that it often seems to casual observers 
  that the God-Blood is cursed or terribly mutated. In all of 
  these cases, however, the abominations grant great power 
  that overcompensates for any limitations they bring.
  for quests, offerings and prayers in his name. He 
  is either a reasonably powerful being or else a 
  very powerful but often absent one.
  •••• Your patron’s power is impressive, and so are 
  his demands on you. He sees you as a regular 
  agent or favored child and expects you to act 
  with loyalty and earnestness. He is undoubtedly 
  powerful and wise.
  ••••• Your patron is among the most powerful of his 
  kind, and he knows it. He is willing to grant 
  great benefits to children (blood-relatives or 
  adopted) who mind their manners, do as they 
  are told and act with the utmost filial piety and 
  devotion. Such patrons are among the wisest and 
  most powerful beings in existence, and they are 
  capable of great generosity and even greater acts 
  of vengeance.
  GOD-BLOODED MUTATIONS
  Much like those mutated by the energies of the 
  Wyld, God-Blooded possess a number of positive and 
  negative mutations. The simple act of being born with 
  their exceptional parentage twists them in ways both 
  wonderful and terrible. Mortal bodies are simply not 
  meant to carry the blood of gods, ghosts or demons 
  untouched. And unlike Exalted or other such mortals 
  infused with divine power, God-Bloods were not crafted 
  to the exacting specifications of greater beings. Instead, 
  they are born in the same messy chaotic manner as all 
  mortals. As a result, God-Bloods gain their powers and 
  problems in a more random and less predictable manner. 
  True, some traits are inherited directly from their sires and 
  sometimes continue to breed true for many generations. 
  Some mutations are either minor or manifest internally. 
  Other changes brought about by a sire’s immortal blood 
  can manifest in strange, sometimes horrifying, ways.
  Examples of various mutations available for God-
  Blooded characters to select are listed in the following 
  section. Mutations that manifest only in certain types 
  of God-Blooded are noted as such in their descriptions. 
  Each mutation costs or grants a number of bonus or 
  experience points based on exactly what it does:
  POSITIVE MUTATION COSTS
  Type of  
  Bonus 
  Experience
  Mutation 
  Point Cost 
  Cost
  Pox 
  1 
  3
  Affliction 
  2 
  6
  Blight  
  4 
  12
  Abomination 
  6 
  18
  POSITIVE MUTATIONS
  POXES
  ATTRIBUTE REALLOCATION
  Some God-Blooded manifest powerful strengths 
  at the cost of weaknesses in other areas. This muta-
  tion reflects that tendency. Characters with Attribute 
  
  131
  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  Reallocation can reduce one of their Attributes by 
  one dot to increase another different Attribute by one 
  dot. Doing so almost always involves some physical 
  manifestation. A God-Blood who trades Strength for 
  Intelligence might appear frail with a slightly enlarged 
  cranium; one who trades Perception for Stamina might 
  develop bony ridges over his eyes and ears. Attributes 
  can be raised above normal maximums with this muta-
  tion, though traits cannot be reduced below 1. Doing 
  so would result in death.
  Note: There is no reason to reallocate Attribute 
  points within the same category (Physical, Social, Mental) 
  at character creation. Such reconstruction sometimes oc-
  curs in cases when a mortal is adopted by a supernatural 
  being and gains the Inheritance Background during play, 
  though. This mutation can be taken multiples times, 
  though Storytellers should be cautious about letting a 
  player craft characters that are incredibly unbalanced. 
  It is recommended that no Attribute can be affected 
  (raised or reduced) more than once by the selection of 
  this mutation.
  DECEPTIVE FRAILTY
  God-Bloods with Deceptive Frailty seem small, slight, 
  pale, sickly or otherwise physically inferior. They have 
  all their normal Attributes, health levels and so on, but 
  they appear to be much less physically capable. This 
  mutation is most common among Ghost-Blooded, who 
  often look moments from death. Deceptive Frailty adds 
  one bonus die to attempts to convince or fool someone 
  into thinking the character is weak or infirm. There 
  could also be other side effects, such as inspiring pity 
  or protective feelings in some individuals. Of course, a 
  God-Blood with this mutation also looks like a likely 
  target for mugging, assault or bullying and is likely to 
  invite such action. Whether or not this is a positive or 
  negative effect is for the character to decide.
  DYNASTIC INHERITANCE
  God-Blooded with this mutation pass some 
  of their supernatural parent’s power on to their 
  own children, but only a fraction. Any children 
  who are born of this God-Blood gain half the bo-
  nus points provided by their parent’s Inheritance. 
  Any grandchildren gain half those points, and so on. If 
  the Storyteller is using the optional rules on Lineage (see 
  sidebar on p. 130), then all traits marked “Inherited” are 
  passed on first.
  God-Blooded with Dynastic Inheritance wishing to 
  preserve the power of their blood must either engage in 
  selective breeding with their own descendants or find 
  other supernatural beings to infuse power into the blood-
  line. In some areas of Creation, whole clans of inbred 
  God-bloods can be found, such as the Lintha pirates.
  FETTER SENSE (GHOST-BLOODED AND ABYSSAL 
  HALF-CASTES ONLY)
  By spending a mote of Essence, a character with this 
  mutation can detect whether an object is a ghost’s Fetter 
  by touching the item.
  LONGEVITY
  God-Blooded often live much longer than their 
  mortal cousins. A character with this mutation lives to 
  a base age of 100 years plus 10 years for every rank of 
  Essence. After this time, the God-Blood’s player must 
  make a (Stamina + Essence) roll at difficulty 2. Success 
  guarantees another 10 years of life barring violence, 
  disease or other unnatural causes. Failure results in death 
  from old age sometime in the next decade. Willpower 
  cannot be spent on this roll.
  NIGHT EYES
  Your character’s eyes have changed so that he can 
  see in darkness as easily as daylight. All penalties for 
  poor visibility due to lack of illumination are eliminated. 
  This mutation usually involves a change in the physical 
  appearance of the God-Blood’s eyes themselves, but this 
  is not always the case.
  STONE HANDS
  The God-Blooded’s hands, feet and other unarmed 
  striking surfaces are rock hard and cause much more severe 
  wounds. All unarmed damage done by the character is 
  now treated as lethal rather than bashing damage. Note 
  that this mutation is mechanically identical to the muta-
  tion Claws/Fangs (see Exalted, p. 288) but is presented 
  to illustrate how differently mutations with the same 
  mechanical effects can manifest.
  AFFLICTIONS
  BEAST SPEAK
  A God-Blood with this mutation can talk to animals. 
  There is no guarantee that the animals have anything 
  useful to say or that they will be friendly, but he can 
  communicate with them. Doing so allows the God-Blood 
  to use social combat with animals, though standard uses 
  of Socialize and Bureaucracy don’t really work. Presence 
  still works effectively, however. This mutation applies 
  only to mundane, mortal animals.
  BREED TRUE
  Usually, there is no guarantee that a God-Blood will 
  pass his supernatural abilities along to his own offspring. 
  Breeding with mortals thins the blood over generations 
  and causes most mutations and special powers to fade. 
  Yet, God-Blooded with this mutation pass the same bonus 
  traits provided to them by the Inheritance Background 
  on to any offspring. If the optional rules for Lineage are 
  used (see p. 130), then all traits marked “Inherited” are 
  passed on automatically. As a side effect, God-Blooded 
  
  132
  with this mutation can mate with mortals, animals, spirits 
  and most other beings to produce their own brood. Mat-
  ing with a creature of greater Essence and supernatural 
  power, however, results in God-Blooded children who 
  favor the other parent.
  This mutation is rare outside beastmen and children 
  of very powerful supernatural beings whose nature tends 
  to completely overwhelm mortal blood. As a rule, the 
  forces of fate and destiny generally resist the concept of a 
  Creation overrun by vast clans of half-blood supernatural 
  beings. This keeps this mutation from often manifesting 
  outside of areas of great chaos, such as the Wyld, where 
  most beastmen and other true breed God-Blooded are 
  born.
  DEATHSIGHT (GHOST-BLOODED AND ABYSSAL 
  HALF-CASTES ONLY)
  This mutation allows the character to perceive sick-
  ness and impending death in the same way ghosts can. This 
  mutation usually results in the God-Blood’s eyes having 
  a bizarre appearance, typically extreme paleness.
  EYES OF WICKED MADNESS (DEMON-BLOODED AND
   FAE-BLOODED ONLY)
  At will, Demon-Blooded 
  and Fae-Blooded with 
  this mutation can meet 
  someone’s gaze and reveal to them the terrors and mad-
  ness of Malfeas or the deepest parts of the Wyld. Players 
  of mortals who meet their gaze must make a Valor roll at 
  difficulty 2. Failure means the mortal must flee in terror. 
  Mortals physically unable to flee will instead collapse 
  into near-catatonic terror. Supernatural beings are not 
  affected in this manner, but even they find such visions 
  unsettling.
  Characters with this mutation often have strangely 
  colored eyes, sometimes with strangely shaped irises or 
  pupils. Some unfortunate children of demons and Fair 
  Folk have eyes that always show images of terror and 
  madness uncontrollably. This version of the mutation is 
  not an affliction, but is instead treated as a debility that 
  grants rather than costs bonus points or experience.
  HEREDITARY POSITION
  The greatness of the God-Blood is written onto 
  her very soul with this mutation. One who possesses 
  Hereditary Position is entitled to assume status equal 
  to her sire should she ever find a way to transcend her 
  mortal blood and become a fully supernatural being like 
  her parent.
  Note: This mutation does not itself guarantee that 
  the character will ever transcend her mortality to become 
  a true god, demon or other being. It simply means that, 
  if the character can achieve this, she is guaranteed a 
  At will, Demon-Blooded
  and Fae-Blooded with
  this mutation can meet
  the character will ever transcend her mortality to become
  a true god, demon or other being. It simply means that,
  if the character can achieve this, she is guaranteed a
  
  133
  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  spot in the hierarchy of Heaven, citizenry of Malfeas, 
  the Fair Folk courts or from whenever her parent comes. 
  Reaching this state will almost certainly require a great 
  effort and could be the end goal of an entire series. Be-
  ings aware that a character possesses this mutation will 
  likely afford her greater respect, though many will also 
  see her as a potential threat.
  MATERIAL RESONANCE (HALF-CASTE ONLY)
  God-Blooded can attune themselves to magical 
  artifacts by connecting with their supernatural parent-
  age and spending the appropriate Essence. They do not, 
  however, gain magical materials bonuses from such at-
  tunement. Yet, Half-Castes with this mutation do gain 
  these benefits as if they were full Exalts of the same type 
  as their parent.
  NATURAL EXORCIST
  God-Bloods with this mutation have a natural affin-
  ity for banishing and expelling spirits, demons or ghosts. 
  When using rites, Charms or other means to exorcise or 
  banish such beings, they receive two bonus dice to all 
  pools to do so. This mutation must be taken separately 
  for each broad class of creatures it effects: ghosts, demons 
  and spirits/gods. This mutation is most common among 
  children descended from the type of creature they are 
  skilled at exorcising and certain Half-Castes, such as the 
  children of Zenith Caste Solars.
  BLIGHTS
  CASTE AFFINITY (HALF-CASTES ONLY)
  A God-Blood with this mutation has a special af-
  finity with his Exalted parent’s caste. By spending five 
  motes and one Willpower, he can use his parent’s caste 
  anima power as if he were a full Exalt of the same type. 
  This cost is in addition to any Essence and Willpower 
  costs of using the anima itself. It is very draining on the 
  Half-Caste to channel his parent’s powers. These effects 
  last as long as they do for Exalted of the same type.
  CHILD OF THE WATERS
  This mutation allows the God-Blood to be at home 
  underwater. Child of the Waters is not necessarily 
  restricted to a particular type of God-Blood, but the 
  character’s parent must have some association with 
  water, the ocean or marine animals. A water elemental’s 
  daughter would be a logical choice for this mutation, but 
  a Solar’s son would not.
  This mutation has two effects. First, it lets the char-
  acter breathe underwater or at least hold her breath for 
  a very long time (player’s choice). Because of the God-
  Blood’s half-breed nature, she cannot stay submerged 
  forever. She must eventually return to the surface to 
  sustain her mortal half, at least long enough to take a 
  few deep breaths. Yet, she can stay under for a very long 
  time without surfacing (Stamina x 30 minutes). Those 
  wishing for their characters to stay under longer can 
  make a (Stamina + Resistance) roll with each success 
  granting another 10 minutes before the God-Blooded 
  must resurface.
  The second effect is that the God-Blood can now 
  swim at the same speeds at which she can walk and run. 
  She also suffers no penalties for fighting in water. This 
  mutation doesn’t give her any special immunity from 
  strong currents or water-based hazards, it simply allows 
  the character to move freely in and breathe water.
  DEATHWALKER (GHOST-BLOODED AND ABYSSAL
   HALF-CASTES ONLY)
  Characters with this mutation are considered to be 
  fully material to ghosts. They may always touch, attack 
  and physically interact with these creatures. They may 
  also be harmed, touched or otherwise affected by ghosts. 
  This mutation grants no special ability to perceive im-
  material spirits, however.
  ELEMENTAL PUISSANCE
  This mutation grants physical might to God-Bloods 
  in direct contact with elements related to their divine 
  parents. This mutation typically manifests in the children 
  of elemental spirits. By spending five motes of Essence 
  and one Willpower, a God-Blood with this mutation 
  gains two additional dots of Strength and two levels of 
  bashing and lethal soak for the rest of the scene. These 
  bonuses apply only as long as the character is in direct 
  contact with the element. The bonuses return to the 
  character if he reconnects with the element during 
  the scene without the need for additional Essence and 
  Willpower expenditures. The mutation provides no 
  protection from the element itself, so a God-Blood who 
  lights himself on fire to channel the power of his par-
  ent will still burn unless he possesses other protection 
  from the flames. The element must also be pure and 
  untainted, so stale air, paved earth or polluted water 
  will not suffice.
  Demon-Blooded, Ghost-Blooded and Fae-Blooded 
  may possess a variant of Elemental Puissance. For Demon-
  Bloods, they can gain these bonuses when inside Malfeas. 
  Ghost-Bloods can gain them when in the Underworld 
  or a shadowland. Fae-Bloods can draw power while in 
  the Wyldlands or the Bordermarches. While channel-
  ing this power, a God-Blood physically changes to more 
  resemble the element or environment from which he is 
  drawing power. Elemental God-Bloods tend to resemble 
  Terrestrial Exalted or elementals in mortal form, while 
  other characters look more demonic, spectral or fae. 
  Half-Castes cannot take this mutation save for Infernal 
  and Abyssal Half-Castes, who can have the same version 
  of this mutation as Demon- or Ghost-Bloods.
  
  134
  GOD-BLOODED PRODIGY
  This mutation supernaturally expands the boundar-
  ies of the God-Blood’s mind and muscle memory. As a 
  result, the character can select an additional Favored 
  Ability. This is treated as identical to any other Favored 
  Ability or Abilities he possesses. This mutation may be 
  taken up to four times.
  HEALING FACTOR
  With this mutation, a God-Blood’s flesh heals and 
  bones knit much faster and more completely than normal 
  mortals’ do. All but the most horrific or unusual wounds 
  mend without scarring. Characters with this mutation 
  heal levels of bashing, lethal and aggravated damage as 
  if they were Exalted (see Exalted, pp. 148–149). God-
  Blooded with a Healing Factor can also automatically 
  staunch bleeding on any tick when they may act. Outside 
  of combat, bleeding stops automatically after five seconds. 
  Disabling wounds are healed after a week of rest or two 
  weeks normal activity and do not require the usual sur-
  gery (see Exalted, pp. 151–152). God-Blooded with this 
  mutation also gain two bonus dice for all rolls to avoid 
  the effects of disease, poison and infection.
  IMMORTALITY
  While not wholly supernatural, the God-Blood gains 
  a complete immunity to the ravages of time. At some 
  point, usually early adulthood, the character simply stops 
  aging. The God-Blood can still be killed or succumb to 
  disease or the elements, but he will never die of old age. 
  Characters possessing this mutation are also immune to 
  any spells or other supernatural effects that cause aging. 
  This mutation is most common among children of gods 
  and other beings who themselves do not age.
  POSSESSION IMMUNITY
  God-Blooded with this mutation possess a spirit 
  so powerful and supernatural that they cannot be pos-
  sessed. Spirit Charms and Arcanoi meant to allow for it 
  simply fail to effect them. Note that many God-Bloods 
  immune to possession are still capable of being possessed 
  by their own parents and supernatural relatives. This ef-
  fect is modeled by selecting the Limited Manifestation 
  deficiency (see pp. 136-137) to reflect the conditions 
  when Possession Immunity does not work.
  SPIRIT SHIFT
  God-Bloods cannot usually become immaterial. 
  They are, despite their supernatural heritage, beings 
  of flesh and blood. Characters with this mutation can 
  overcome this limitation temporarily, but at great cost. 
  By spending five motes and one temporary Willpower, 
  the God-Blood can become immaterial for (Essence + 
  Willpower + Stamina) ticks. This might not seem like a 
  long time, but it is more than sufficient to pass through 
  walls, slip bonds, evade capture and do other useful things. 
  Characters wishing to maintain this mutation and stay 
  immaterial may do so by activating it again. They do 
  not have to materialize first to do so. Dematerializing 
  requires enough concentration that the character can’t 
  use Charms such as Possession while in this form. Also 
  during this time, they can harm and be harmed by other 
  immaterial creatures.
  There is one more side effect of using this mutation. 
  The transformation back into the material form is very 
  painful, though not life-threatening. After the character 
  materializes, he immediately takes an unsoakable health 
  level of bashing damage. If he maintained the Spirit 
  Shift by spending additional Essence and Willpower, 
  he takes one additional health level of bashing damage 
  for each extra expenditure. This mutation is not found 
  among Half-Castes and is rare outside of God-Blooded 
  and Ghost-Blooded, who inherit this affinity from their 
  immaterial parents.
  ABOMINATIONS
  ELEMENTAL REJUVENATION 
  (ELEMENTAL GOD-BLOODED ONLY)
  Children of elementals can use this mutation to 
  duplicate some of their parent’s ability to heal themselves 
  while in contact with the raw element with which they 
  are associated. This process is not as powerful as their 
  parents’ ability⎯their human sides dilute the ability. 
  Still, their recuperative powers are impressive. Using 
  this mutation requires full concentration, and no other 
  actions can be attempted while this power is in use. 
  While concentrating and in contact with the appropriate 
  element, the God-Blooded can regenerate one health 
  level of damage or restore one spent Essence mote per 
  six ticks. God-Blooded using Elemental Rejuvenation 
  are not harmed by exposure to the element even if they 
  normally would be.
  This mutation comes with a strong resemblance 
  to the element in question. The eyes, hair or skin of 
  God-Blooded with Elemental Mutation often change to 
  resemble the element. In many ways, this is similar to the 
  changes in appearance among the Dragon-Blooded, and 
  more than one elemental God-Blood has been confused 
  with a Terrestrial Exalt.
  ESSENCE ATTACK
  This mutation grants an ability to channel Essence 
  into a direct damaging attack. Some God-Blooded can 
  breathe fire, while others can spit acid or generate bolts of 
  solar energy. The exact nature of the attack is influenced 
  by the character’s parentage.
  By spending four motes of Essence, a God-Blood 
  can generate an attack that has an attack pool of (the 
  
  135
  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  character’s Essence + Dexterity + [Archery, Brawl or 
  Occult (player’s choice)]) and has a base lethal dam-
  age of (Essence + Stamina). These attacks cannot be 
  blocked without the use of Charms or spells, but they 
  can be dodged.
  This mutation is almost never obvious when it is 
  not in use. The attacks themselves, however, are far 
  from subtle. They mark the God-Blood as someone not 
  wholly human.
  GOD BODY
  The God Body mutation is actually a broad clas-
  sification for a number of abominations that all allow 
  the God-Blooded to transform their physical forms into 
  less human-looking and more powerful forms that boast 
  features that favor their supernatural parents. A child of 
  a river god might transform into a scaly merman with 
  hair of living water, while the spawn of an ancient ghost 
  might appear as a dread being with fangs, dead eyes and 
  bone-white skin. No two God Bodies are exactly alike, and 
  even children of the same parent who possess this muta-
  tion can manifest drastically different appearances.
  Each type of God-Blood calls this mutation something 
  different. God-Bloods call it God Body, Ghost-Bloods 
  call it Corpse Form, Fae-Bloods call it Goblin Body, 
  and Demon-Bloods call it Hell Form. Half-Castes rarely 
  manifest this mutation and have no special name for it, 
  though occasionally children of the Chosen possess the 
  power to transform themselves into beasts, metal-skinned 
  powerhouses and the like.
  The God-Body Mutation costs six motes and one 
  Willpower to use. Transformation between a God-Blood’s 
  normal form and his God Body takes five ticks and is 
  usually accompanied by swirling energies, mist or some 
  other special effect. Once transformed, the God-Blood 
  gains three dots to distribute among Strength, Dexterity 
  and Stamina. He also gains +2L/+2B soak and can now 
  cause lethal damage with barehanded attacks. Attribute 
  allotments are chosen when this mutation first manifests 
  and cannot be changed. The mutation’s effects persist 
  for one scene.
  This mutation is always obvious when it is in use 
  and cannot be hidden without the use of magic or heavy 
  clothing. In any case, while in God Body form, characters 
  find it difficult to relate to and deal socially with normal 
  mortals. As a result, they suffer a -2 internal penalty on 
  all non-intimidation-based social interaction rolls.
  This mutation can be taken multiple times to reflect 
  a particularly powerful God Body form. Each time the 
  mutation is selected, the character gains another three 
  Attribute dots to distribute and an additional +2L/+2B 
  soak. Social penalties do not stack with multiple God 
  Body mutations.
  GREAT MIEN
  This mutation allows a God-Blood to temporarily 
  channel his supernatural parent’s incredible beauty or 
  awesome appearance to charm or intimidate others.
  By spending five motes and one Willpower, the 
  character may take on a supernatural aspect. This 
  aspect grants three bonus Attribute dots that are 
  divided between the Social Attributes (Charisma, 
  Manipulation and Appearance) and reduce the cost of 
  all Social-keyword Charms and other social powers by 
  two motes. These effects last for the rest of the scene, 
  and the Attribute bonuses must be set when this muta-
  tion is selected.
  In addition to these effects, the God-Blooded ap-
  pears noticeably less human when this mutation is in 
  effect. His eyes glow with power, and his hair and skin 
  change slightly to reflect his supernatural heritage. 
  Valor rolls must be made for mortals seeing him against 
  a difficulty equal to the God-Blood’s Essence rating. 
  Failure grants the character one automatic success on 
  all dice rolls to charm, intimidate, seduce or persuade 
  the mortal. Supernatural characters are immune to 
  this effect.
  NATURAL IMMUNITY (GOD-BLOODED, GHOST-BLOODED, 
  DEMON-BLOODED AND ABYSSAL HALF-CASTES ONLY)
  God-Blooded with this mutation are partially im-
  mune to forces related to their supernatural parents. 
  Children of elemental spirits are resistant to the elements 
  associated with their parents. Children of ghosts and 
  Abyssal Half-Castes are resistant to necromancy effects 
  and harmful effects generated by the dead. Demon-
  Blooded have similar immunities, but against infernal 
  powers. Other God-Blooded do not manifest this muta-
  tion, though all Fae-Bloods have an inherent resistance 
  to Wyld energies.
  This mutation provides total immunity to natural 
  effects related to their parentage. Thus, the daughter of 
  a fire spirit with this mutation will not be burned by any 
  natural fire or heat. Supernatural effects can harm the 
  God-Blood, but they receive three bonus dice to resist 
  any such effects. Supernatural effects that inflict direct 
  damage are treated as if the God-Blood possesses three 
  extra levels of soak.
  In addition to these passive immunities, the God-
  Blooded can spend three motes or one Willpower and 
  become completely immune for an entire scene to 
  supernatural effects from any creature whose Essence 
  rating is equal to or less than hers. Powers and effects 
  from creatures with greater Essence still work, but the 
  God-Blood receives double the usual benefits of her 
  Natural Immunity for the rest of the scene (six bonus 
  dice or six soak).
  
  136
  PERFECT HEALING FACTOR
  This mutation functions as the Healing Factor 
  blight (see p. 134) but with additional advantages. 
  God-Blooded with this mutation heal one level of 
  bashing damage every minute and one level of lethal 
  damage per hour. The healing of aggravated damage is 
  unaffected. Furthermore, this healing occurs whether 
  or not the character is resting. God-Blooded with this 
  mutation also ignore the Crippling keyword for any 
  injuries. Limbs regrow, and maiming injuries recover 
  as soon as the damage levels are healed. Infection and 
  all non-supernatural diseases do not affect the charac-
  ter at all. This mutation is common among children 
  of Half-Caste Lunars as well as God-Blooded of other 
  types whose parents are themselves capable of incred-
  ible feats of regeneration.
  WYLD WALK (FAE-BLOODED ONLY)
  The children of the Fair Folk have learned to travel 
  the Wyld with accuracy and speed unavailable to most. 
  By spending 10 motes and one temporary Willpower, a 
  character can increase his travel rates in the Wyld. This 
  movement boost does not affect the Dash maneuver. It 
  only allows the character to cover long distances with 
  Wyld-enhanced strides. Wyld Walk lasts for an entire day. 
  The Fae-Blood’s effective travel distances are divided by 
  (1 + Essence). For example, a Fae-Blooded with a perma-
  nent Essence rating of 1 can cover 30 miles as if it were 
  15; one with Essence 2 can treat the same distance as if 
  it were 10 miles. Fae-Blooded use this power to outpace 
  and outmaneuver those they hunt, as well as to pull far 
  ahead of pursuers.
  WYLD WARD (FAE-BLOODED ONLY)
  All Fae-Blooded are immune to the warping ef-
  fects of the Wyld, but some are even able to transfer 
  this immunity to others for a time. They must touch 
  the person they intend to affect and spend eight motes 
  and one temporary Willpower. Their players must then 
  make a (Manipulation + Craft [Glamour]) roll, with a 
  difficulty equal to the subject’s Essence. Success means 
  that the target is shielded from the effects of the Wyld 
  for a number of days equal to (successes rolled + 1).
  This immunity is the same as a Fae-Blood’s own and, 
  as such, does not protect against active uses of Glamour 
  or focused attacks using the Wyld.
  VARIABLE MUTATIONS
  Some mutations are not automatically classified 
  as poxes, afflictions, blights or abominations. Instead, 
  they can be taken as any of these levels of mutation. 
  The more powerful the version of these mutations, the 
  more effective they are, and the more they change the 
  God-Blooded.
  ESSENCE ABUNDANCE
  This mutation provides additional Essence to a God-
  Blood’s normal Essence pool. This is a result of even more 
  of her divine parent’s supernatural power being infused 
  into her being. The amount of extra Essence granted 
  depends on the level of the mutation: A pox provides 3 
  motes, an affliction 6, a blight 12 and an abomination 
  16. This mutation grants no additional ability to use Es-
  sence. It simply provides more available raw power for 
  those God-Blooded who know how to use it.
  SUPERNATURAL QUICKNESS
  This mutation allows a God-Blood to move faster 
  than normal without the use of Charms. The character 
  treats his Dexterity as being greater than normal for the 
  purposes of movement only. The exact boost in speed 
  depends on the level of the mutation. A pox treats 
  Dexterity as one greater for determining movement, an 
  affliction two greater, a blight four greater, an abomination 
  six greater. God-Blooded who possess this mutation may 
  or may not appear differently at their discretion.
  SUPERNATURAL FORTITUDE
  Although they are more powerful than normal 
  mortals, most God-Blooded are still remarkably fragile 
  compared to most supernatural beings. God-Bloods with 
  this mutation are the exception. Their bodies have been 
  changed to be more resistant to trauma, physical dam-
  age and pain.
  This mutation provides additional health levels 
  based on the extremity of the mutation. As a pox, this 
  mutation provides one additional -1 health level. Afflic-
  tions provide one -0 health level. Blights provide two 
  -2 health levels, and abominations grant two extra -0 
  health levels or three -2 health levels.
  These mutations do not necessarily change a God-
  Blood physically. Many God-Blooded, however, have 
  tougher or slightly oddly colored skin, increased body 
  mass or some other telltale sign of their Supernatural 
  Fortitude.
  NEGATIVE MUTATIONS
  DEFICIENCIES
  LIMITED MANIFESTATION
  This is not so much a mutation in and of itself as a 
  warping or weakness in an existing positive mutation. 
  Limited Manifestation either slightly reduces the overall 
  effectiveness of a mutation or more commonly limits 
  circumstances where it applies. This happens only with 
  significant mutations, and the effects can never destroy 
  the overall positive nature of the mutation it affects. For 
  example, a character might have a Limited Manifesta-
  tion on her God Body that allows the God-Blood to 
  
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  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  transform only at night. Another might have a limit on her Healing 
  Factor that prevents the character from healing fire damage.
  This mutation can be taken more than once. Each time, 
  it puts a limitation on a different positive mutation the 
  God-Blooded character possesses. Poxes cannot be af-
  fected by this mutation.
  TOO PERFECT
  The beauty and physical form of the God-
  Blood with this mutation is so pristine it’s actually 
  somewhat disturbing. His features are too sym-
  metrical, his hair too well groomed, his eyes too 
  bright and clear. When one first encounters 
  such a God-Blood, there is no real effect. He 
  can charm, seduce and engage people eas-
  ily due to superficial attractiveness. But as a 
  character spends more time around the God-
  Blood, she becomes unsettled. To reflect this 
  unease, God-Blooded who are too perfect suffer 
  a +1 difficulty penalty on all social rolls pertain-
  ing to characters with whom they have been in 
  personal contact for more than an hour. This 
  penalty eventually fades if a God-Blood does 
  not encounter the person for a number of days 
  equal to his Appearance, but it returns once the 
  acquaintance is renewed. God-Blood characters 
  must have an Appearance Attribute of 3 or 
  more to take this mutation, and some magi-
  cal beings (chosen at the Storyteller’s 
  discretion) are indifferent to such 
  eerie perfection.
  TWISTED SENSE
  A God-Blood with this 
  mutation finds that one 
  of his five senses operates 
  strangely. The change is 
  not necessarily crippling, 
  but it is often distracting 
  or inconvenient. For ex-
  ample, one God-Blood 
  might see every color 
  as shades of blue, 
  while another might 
  find that normally 
  pleasant smells seem 
  foul and unpleasant 
  ones smell sweet. This 
  effect might occasionally 
  be useful, but it will more 
  often make it harder 
  for characters to deal 
  with their environment 
  as it actually exists. 
  
  138
  A character may take this mutation multiple times, 
  but each time it applies to a different sense. There is a 
  limit to how much one can change sensory input before 
  it begins to take its toll, however. God-Blooded with 
  three of more Twisted Sense mutations suffer a one-
  die penalty on all dice rolls relating to fine perception. 
  They will still see an enemy attacking them directly, 
  but they might miss one hiding nearby. God-Blooded 
  who have twisted versions of all five senses increase 
  this penalty to two dice.
  VISIBLE CASTE MARK (HALF-CASTES ONLY)
  Half-Caste God-Blooded do not usually display the 
  caste marks of their Exalted parents. Characters with 
  this mutation are the exception. They have a faint caste 
  mark that appears whenever they channel Essence or 
  use their mutations actively. Passive uses of mutations, 
  such as with those that provide armor and the like do 
  not cause the mark to appear.
  Those familiar with the Exalted note that Half-
  Castes’ marks do not appear the same as their parents. 
  They are paler and glow very faintly. This distinction is 
  lost on the Wyld Hunt and most other enemies of the 
  Anathema, who will treat any Half-Caste in much the 
  same way they will full Exalts.
  DEBILITIES
  BEHAVIORAL ARCHETYPE
  God-Blooded with this mutation possess personal-
  ity traits and minor mental instabilities often associated 
  with their sires. Demon-Bloods are cruel and deceitful, 
  Ghost-Bloods detached and morose, Fae-Bloods erratic 
  and eccentric, and so on. This mutation stops short of true 
  madness or serious mental illness, but it makes a charac-
  ter somewhat predictable and, at times, difficult. Other 
  characters who are aware of these tendencies and try to 
  use them to manipulate a God-Blood receive a two-die 
  bonus on all rolls to do so, including social combat.
  DEMON/SPECTRE MEAT (DEMON-BLOODED AND 
  GHOST BLOODED ONLY)
  This mutation causes a God-Blood to exude a faint 
  aura or scent that attracts demons (for Demon-Blooded) 
  or ghosts (for Ghost-Blooded). A successful (Perception 
  + Occult) roll at difficulty (6 – the character’s Essence) 
  allows such creatures to sense the character’s presence 
  from up to a mile away. Hungry ghosts and less intel-
  ligent demons will track the God-Blooded and attempt 
  to devour him if possible. More intelligent ghosts and 
  demons can act as they desire. Since every health level 
  of blood or flesh from the character grants three motes 
  of Essence and is useful in some rare rituals, however, 
  even the more reserved denizens of the Underworld and 
  Malfeas might attempt seek him out.
  INVOLUNTARY MEDIUM (GOD-BLOODED, 
  DEMON-BLOODED AND GHOST-BLOODED ONLY)
  This mutation is the flip-side of Possession Immunity 
  (see p. 134). Supernatural beings gain one bonus die 
  when using Charms or powers in an attempt to possess 
  a God-Blood who has this mutation. Beings of the same 
  type as the character’s parent (demon, ghost or spirit) 
  also gain an automatic success on these rolls.
  OATHSWORN
  This mutation changes the God-Blood’s very nature 
  so that she cannot make false oaths or promises. She can 
  lie or casually deceive but she cannot give a solemn oath 
  then go back on it. If she does break such an oath, the 
  God-Blood suffers the same effects as if she had broken 
  a contract sanctified by an Eclipse Caste Exalt (see 
  Exalted, p. 100).
  This mutation is most commonly found among the 
  Fae-Blooded, who have inherited their parents’ affinity 
  for binding oaths. It occasionally manifests in God-Bloods 
  of other sorts, however, particularly those whose parents 
  are involved with law or contracts, such as Eclipse Caste 
  Solars or the demonic priests of Cecelyne.
  UNNATURAL BEING (GOD-BLOODED, DEMON-BLOODED, 
  FAE-BLOODED AND GHOST-BLOODED ONLY)
  God-Blooded with this mutation are inhuman on a 
  level different from their peers. Most God-Bloods are just 
  mortal enough that they can avoid mystical boundaries 
  and other limitations that affect their parents. This is not 
  the case with God-Blooded who possess this mutation. 
  Their very bodies are affected by wards and bindings that 
  usually affect only their parents.
  Demon-Blooded whose possess Unnatural Being 
  can still leave Malfeas at will, but the trip is painful and 
  discomforting. Until they have crossed Cecelyne and 
  re-entered Creation, increase the difficulty of all die rolls 
  made for them by one. God-Blooded also suffer the same 
  penalties in places or environments that harm or limit 
  their parents, such as an active volcano for water spirits 
  or the halls of Yu-Shan for ghosts or demons. Half-Castes 
  cannot take this mutation.
  DEFORMITIES
  BEAST FORM (GOD-BLOODED, DEMON-BLOODED AND 
  FAE-BLOODED ONLY)
  The God-Blood has undergone a drastic change and 
  now appears as an animal. The character might look 
  like a normal animal or some sort of strange hybrid, but 
  he is clearly no longer human. This mutation is rare 
  and is usually found only among God-Bloods whose 
  divine parents were animal gods, though there have 
  been instances of blood-ape offspring who resemble 
  primates, Fae-Bloods shaped like hunting hounds 
  
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  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  and the like. Half-Castes and Ghost-Blooded do not 
  manifest this mutation.
  This mutation grants all the logical limitations of 
  the new form. A God-Blood who appears as a hound-like 
  beast, for example, could not use tools or weapons, and 
  any armor would have to be specially made. Any advan-
  tage to the form (such as fangs, claws, wings, et cetera) 
  must be bought as positive mutations. Many mutations 
  listed in the Exalted core book (pp. 288–290), The 
  Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. II—The Wyld 
  (pp. 144–148) and The Manual of Exalted Power—The 
  Lunars, (pp. 206–209) are suitable for such purposes. If 
  the animal shape is roughly human and can use weap-
  ons and tools⎯such as a God-Blooded who appears as 
  an ape-like beast⎯this mutation is treated as a debility 
  instead. Yet, even forms such as these cannot use tools 
  and weapons made for human hands easily, and they 
  suffer a one-die penalty on all rolls to do so. Characters 
  can have tools and weapons made that counteract this 
  penalty. Such items cost one dot more in Resources than 
  normal, however.
  Note that this mutation can be used to create a 
  God-Blooded character who is the offspring of a super-
  natural being and a mortal animal. This is not the normal 
  manifestation of this mutation, however, and players 
  should receive Storyteller approval before making such 
  a character. Players wishing to have a character who 
  can take an animal-like form at will should consider 
  God Body instead, perhaps with additional positive 
  mutations that have the Limited Manifestation defi-
  ciency so that they apply only when the God-Blooded 
  is in that form.
  DENIZEN OF BEYOND (DEMON-BLOODED, FAE-BLOODED 
  AND GHOST-BLOODED ONLY)
  A character with this mutation has found that her 
  supernatural nature has eclipsed her mortal blood so 
  intensely that she wastes away in Creation. If she is not 
  in a location where she can regenerate Essence, such as a 
  shadowland for a Ghost-Blood, she actually loses Essence 
  motes from her pool at the rate of one mote per day. Once 
  the character’s pool is depleted, she loses permanent 
  Essence at the same rate of one per day. Upon reaching 
  an Essence rating of 0, the character dies. God-Blooded 
  capable of draining Essence from living creatures can 
  stave off these effects by feeding each day. Permanent 
  Essence lost in this fashion returns at the rate of one dot 
  per week that a character stays in an area where she can 
  regain Essence naturally. Characters suffering from this 
  deformity cannot use stunting to stave off these effects, 
  though they can regain Essence so long as it does not raise 
  their pool over the current reduced maximum imposed 
  by the effects of this mutation.
  THE GREAT CURSE (HALF-CASTES ONLY)
  One of the few advantages Half-Castes have over 
  their parents is that they are not subject to the Great 
  Curse. They have Virtues but do not generate Limit 
  and do not have a Virtue Flaw. Half-Castes with this 
  mutation have no such advantage, however. Instead, 
  they suffer the Great Curse in the same ways as their 
  Exalted parents.
  TOO HUMAN
  God-Blooded with this mutation have a mortal nature 
  that outweighs their supernatural parents’ influence. They 
  appear more mundane and have difficulty channeling Es-
  sence as effectively as other God-Bloods. To reflect this, 
  the character must spend two additional Essence motes 
  to active any Charms she knows or use any powers that 
  requires Essence expenditure. One benefit of this muta-
  tion is that characters with it tend to have less obvious 
  physical changes stemming from other mutations. This 
  will not mean that a God-Blood with horns and wings 
  will be able to pass as human, but it does make him a 
  bit harder to spot in a crowd if he takes steps to conceal 
  himself (a one-die bonus to such efforts).
  WALKING BLASPHEMY (DEMON-BLOODED ONLY)
  Demon-Bloods with this mutation possess an infernal 
  nature that cannot be denied or ignored. This inherent 
  corruption seeks to lash out and destroy any consecrated 
  or holy objects within three yards. This occurs on a char-
  acter’s next action after coming into the presence of such 
  a target but does not interfere with the Demon-Blood 
  taking other actions. This attempt is not optional, and 
  it costs one temporary Willpower. The Demon-Blood’s 
  player rolls (Inheritance + Essence) with a difficulty 
  determined by the power and significance of the object. 
  Normal holy relics are difficulty 3, while ancient relics 
  of the Unconquered Sun might go as high as difficulty 
  10. Stunting can be applied to this roll if appropriate. 
  If the roll succeeds, the object is corrupted and shat-
  ters, burns or is otherwise destroyed. Failure means the 
  object survives and another roll must be attempted on 
  the character’s next action. Demon-Blooded who wish 
  to avoid draining their Willpower in the face of potent 
  holy relics they cannot destroy must withdraw to more 
  than three yards away from the object.
  In addition to the main effects of this mutation, a 
  Demon-Blood possessing it can be detected or tracked 
  with powers and Charms that normally work only on 
  full demons.
  WANDERING PO/WALKING NIGHTMARE 
  (GHOST-BLOODED AND DEMON-BLOODED ONLY)
  Wandering Po and Walking Nightmare are two 
  mutations that manifest in very similar ways. When a 
  
  140
  character with this mutation sleeps, a hungry force tears 
  itself free. For the Ghost-Blood, this is her po in the form 
  of a hungry ghost. For the Demon-Blood, it is an infernal 
  spirit that reflects the inherent corruption that dwells 
  within him. In either case, this sinister alter ego has all 
  of the character’s traits with the following exceptions: 
  Intelligence is halved, Charisma and Manipulation are 
  reduced to 1, it soaks lethal damage with its full Stamina, 
  and it grows claws (Speed 5, Accuracy +1, Damage +1L, 
  Defense +2) and fangs (Speed 6, Accuracy -1, Damage 
  +3L, Defense -2). Once free, the creature stalks and kills 
  humans, animals and any other available targets. This 
  dark half of the God-Blood is not particularly smart, 
  but it does possess a fair amount of animal cunning. It 
  might attack from ambush or employ trickery to isolate 
  tempting targets from their companions. The creature is 
  smart enough not to attack a well-armed force or clearly 
  superior foe, though it can be tricked into doing so. Physi-
  cally, the creature resembles the host somewhat, but it 
  is twisted and inhuman. The difficulty of (Perception 
  + Awareness) rolls to recognize a God-Blood from his 
  Wandering Po/Walking Nightmare form is 3.
  The hungry ghost version of this mutation can be 
  warded by salt or talismans. It can be slain with sunlight 
  or weapons, but it will rise again the next night as long 
  as the Ghost-Blood lives. The infernal version can be 
  fended off by holy relics and wards that affect demons. 
  It too can be slain by weapons, though sunlight does not 
  harm it. It can be banished with the proper spells as if it 
  were a demon. It too cannot be permanently destroyed 
  as long as its host lives.
  A God-Blood who has either version of this muta-
  tion might not know of her curse. She might go to sleep 
  every night unaware she about to unleash a monster. 
  She might even feel driven to hunt this mysterious 
  creature that seems to slay innocents and devour mortals 
  wherever she travels. Those who learn the truth can 
  sleep surrounded by rings of salt or within protective 
  wards. Ghost-Bloods can keep their po from emerging by 
  sleeping during the day. Demon-Bloods do not have this 
  option, but certain prayers and benedictions can have a 
  similar effect. Unfortunately, the dark force inside the 
  character will not long tolerate this treatment. It drains 
  the character of one temporary Willpower for every night 
  it is not allowed to emerge. This Willpower cannot be 
  regained until the creature is released. If the character’s 
  Willpower is reduced to 0, she takes no precautions when 
  she next sleeps, meekly accepting her curse. During this 
  emergence, the Wandering Po or Walking Nightmare 
  is especially active, and the character will wake to face 
  all the carnage and pain her inner nature caused while 
  she slept.
  VARIABLE MUTATIONS
  CRIPPLED ESSENCE
  Much as some God-Blooded have more of their 
  supernatural parents’ power running through their veins, 
  others have less. Characters with this mutation have fewer 
  Essence motes than their base Essence pool. The exact 
  amount less is determined by the level of the mutation: 
  A deficiency results in three fewer Essence motes, a de-
  bility six and a deformity 12. No level of mutation can 
  reduce the Essence to below 0, and no other mutations 
  will manifest that cannot be powered by the amount of 
  Essence remaining in the character’s pool.
  ERRATIC TEMPERAMENT
  This mutation most frequently manifests in Fae-
  Blooded, but all God-Bloods can carry madness in their 
  Essence-infused blood. A character with this mutation 
  changes his personality drastically at semi-regular in-
  tervals due to his supernatural nature warring with his 
  mortal mind. These personality shifts might be true mul-
  tiple personalities or drastic ideological shifts, but they 
  are extreme and potentially dangerous. Hate can turn to 
  love, or submission into rebellion under the influence of 
  this mutation. The severity of the mutation determines 
  how quickly these changes occur. With a deficiency, 
  changes occur once each full moon. With a debility, it 
  happens once every five-day period. With a deformity, 
  the character goes to bed every night with one mindset 
  or personality and wakes with another.
  Each time this occurs, the player should reassign 
  the character’s Motivation and Intimacies to reflect the 
  new changes. A Storyteller wishing the effects of this 
  mutation to sting a bit more might reassign some of the 
  character’s Intimacies herself. This can be very enjoyable 
  if the player is amenable to the idea, though she should 
  take care not to render the character no fun to play.
  NATURAL ENMITY
  As if life weren’t hard enough for most God-Blooded, 
  some carry a mutation in their blood that creates natural 
  animosity among certain creatures. This mutation is 
  always linked in some way to their supernatural parents’ 
  background. This relation can be general or personal. For 
  example, the daughter of a ghost might inspire revulsion in 
  animals simply because of her Half-Dead nature, but a son 
  of a the Lord of the Nine Rivers might create loathing in 
  the demon spawn of the Quarter Prince, Octavian, because 
  of his father’s victory over the demon warlord.
  Creatures who have a Natural Enmity with the 
  character are assumed to be automatically hostile toward 
  him by default. Certain individuals might have personal 
  reasons for not feeling this way, but the vast majority of 
  them simply go with their instincts and decide the God-
  
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  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  creatures (double the character’s Essence or more) 
  will generally just ignore the character unless he starts 
  something first. Sure, they’ll be really rude and dis-
  missive. They might even make a point of reminding 
  the God-Blood how insignificant he is to them, but 
  they aren’t likely to harm him⎯permanently, at least. 
  This mutation is meant to be an inconvenience, not 
  a death sentence.
  VULNERABILITY
  This mutation renders the God-Blood particularly 
  vulnerable to a substance that is not normally harmful 
  to humans. This normally manifests in Fae-Blooded, 
  who are generally vulnerable to cold iron, but other 
  God-Bloods sometimes inherit similar vulnerabilities 
  from their parents.
  The severity of the mutation determines the level 
  of harm contact with the substance causes. A deficiency 
  means that the substance is an irritation and adds one 
  to the difficulty of all actions when it touches the God-
  Blooded. A debility means that weapons of this substance 
  inflict aggravated wounds to the character. A deformity 
  causes such extreme pain and harm that the character 
  takes one die of aggravated damage per five ticks (or 
  five seconds out of combat) during which he remains in 
  contact with the substance. These effects stack, so that 
  Blood is a threat, a villain or generally up to no good. This 
  mutation increases the difficulty of all social rolls with 
  the subject of the Natural Enmity by two. The negative 
  feelings this mutation generates are supernatural in origin, 
  and even if they are overcome by heroics or persuasion, 
  they do not disappear. The God-Blood will always put the 
  target creatures on edge on some instinctual level, even 
  if they choose to ignore those impulses.
  The severity of the mutation determines the size 
  and general power of the group in whom the God-Blood 
  inspires hostility. Deficiencies indicate a Natural Enmity 
  with a relatively focused group that is generally less 
  powerful than the God-Blood (such as a certain breed 
  of animals or a certain class of mortals). Debilities affect 
  either a larger less powerful group (such as all mortals 
  or animals) or a more focused powerful group (such as 
  earth elementals). Deformities involve a larger powerful 
  group (such as elementals or demons).
  Note that simply because these creatures dislike 
  the God-Blood does not mean they will necessarily 
  attack or even harass him. They just naturally don’t 
  like or trust him. This does suggest that some indi-
  vidual creatures will attack the character when the 
  opportunity presents itself, but this is not universal. 
  Also, fortunately for the God-Blood, really powerful 
  
  142
  a deformity-level Vulnerability results in a difficulty 
  penalty, aggravated wounds and aggravated damage from 
  prolonged contact.
  MUTATION AND APPEARANCE
  Many mutations already alter a character’s physi-
  cal appearance as part of the benefits or disadvantages 
  they confer. This is particularly true of more powerful 
  mutations or those that grant things such as claws and 
  armor. Yet, even other types of mutations can have 
  physical manifestations. Many God-Blooded stand 
  apart from mere mortals, even those who generally ap-
  pear normal. Even changes to a God-Blood’s mind can 
  result in the character developing mannerisms or slight 
  physical changes. The most extreme of these changes 
  are themselves mutations, though more subtle changes 
  are common and often overlooked by those who don’t 
  know what they are looking for.
  When creating God-Blooded characters, players 
  should consider these possible physical changes. In many 
  cases, these minor quirks and alterations will have no 
  mechanical effect in the game, but they can help further 
  define a character and might give inspiration for stunts. 
  For example, a player might decide that her Solar Half-
  Caste’s Essence Abundance mutation also means that 
  the character has golden eyes that almost seem to shine 
  with power. He might, then, be able to work an effective 
  description of this trait into a stunt involving intimidating 
  or captivating a mortal who worships the Lawgivers.
  Like many aspects of character creation, thinking 
  about and describing a few of these appearance changes 
  requires little time or effort and can give players a better 
  idea of their characters. What’s more, these ideas can help 
  Storytellers in running their games, such as by being able 
  to drop a hint to a player that she’s met her character’s 
  long lost brother by describing his similar golden eyes.
  USING MUTATIONS FROM OTHER BOOKS
  In addition to the mutations listed in this chapter, players of God-Blooded can select mutations from 
  Exalted (pp. 288–290), The Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. II—The Wyld (pp. 144–150), The 
  Manual of Exalted Power—The Infernals (pp. 62-64) and The Manual of Exalted Power—The Lunars 
  (pp. 206–210). With the exception of Fae-Blooded and beastmen, these mutations are not a product of Wyld 
  energies when they appear in God-Blooded, but they function mechanically in the same way. For example, 
  a Demon-Blooded who possesses Claws/Fangs due to his infernal heritage still inflicts lethal damage with his 
  bites and hand attacks as if he possessed the Wyld mutation of the same name.
  Some mutations are generally more appropriate to certain types of God-Blooded than others. Suggestions 
  for which mutations are most commonly found among the God-Blooded of the various types include:
  Demon-Blooded: Various physical and mental mutations that suggest the violent and alien nature of de-
  mons, such as Claws/Fangs, Wings, Mood Swings and the like. Many Demon-Blooded possess the Diet debility 
  with a focus on everything from human flesh to songs of loss and anguish. In addition, all mutations provided 
  in The Manual of Exalted Power—The Infernals, pages 62-64, are specifically for use with Demon-Bloods.
  Fae-Blooded: Any, though mutations suggesting extreme ugliness or infirmity, such as Atrophy, Ugly or 
  Plague Carrier, are uncommon. Mutations suggesting emotional instability such as Mood Swings or Delusions 
  are quite common.
  God-Blooded: Any that suggest the God-Blood’s spirit or godly parent. A son of a river spirit, for example, 
  might have Gills or Fish Scales, but is unlikely to possess Wings.
  Ghost-Blooded: Various mutations that suggest death and decay. Claws/Fangs, Skin/Hair Color (deathly 
  pallor), Atrophy and Decomposing are common.
  Half-Caste: Minor cosmetic poxes and deficiencies are common. Emotional and mental mutations are 
  also widespread. Massive physical mutations are generally not common.
  Beastmen: Any. Although they are technically Half-Castes, beastmen’s unique nature means that their 
  common mutations are listed separately. This is because animal traits and extreme physical mutations are far 
  more common in beastmen than in their Half-Caste cousins. Also, the Wyld Addiction debility is nearly un-
  heard of in all but Fae-Bloods and beastmen, since God-Blooded’s mutations are a product of their parentage 
  and not the chaotic energies of the Wyld. More information on beastmen can be found in The Compass of 
  Celestial Directions, Vol. II—The Wyld, pages 157–160.
  It is also worth noting that many of the mutations listed in this book are suitable for use when creating 
  Wyld mutants. As a rule, those mutations limited to certain types of God-Blooded are inappropriate, but many 
  others can be found among the strange and twisted beings who roam the Wyldlands.
  
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  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILDREN OF THE MIGHTY
  CREATING NEW MUTATIONS
  Although the list of God-Blooded mutations in this 
  book is extensive, it is far from exhaustive. Storytellers 
  and players might want to create new mutations for God-
  Bloods in their games. This is not only possible, but it is 
  also encouraged. There are few factors to consider when 
  crafting these new mutations, which are discussed in this 
  section.
  STEP ONE: WHAT DOES THE MUTATION DO?
  Before attempting to assign game mechanics to a 
  mutation, the player working with her Storyteller (or 
  the Storyteller himself) should decide exactly what the 
  mutation is. Does it change the God-Blood’s mind? Her 
  body? Is it linked directly to a supernatural parent’s abil-
  ity, or is it a freak anomaly? How does it manifest, and 
  what does it add to the character either in the form or 
  increased power or interesting complications?
  Once these questions have been answered, it is time 
  to create the mechanical effects of the mutation. Lesser 
  positive mutations have slight effects, such as adding 
  small dice bonuses or granting lesser animal traits to the 
  character. Lesser negative mutations give minor penal-
  ties or make a character seem less human in small ways. 
  Greater mutations either have greater effects or affect a 
  large number of related traits. Storytellers should look at 
  the mutations here and in other books such as the Exalted 
  core (pp. 288–290) for examples on which to model their 
  own created mutations.
  STEP TWO: WHAT ARE THE SIDE EFFECTS?
  Few mutations in Exalted are completely one-sided. 
  Many have logical side effects that create problems or 
  provide small advantages. Not all of these effects have a 
  direct mechanical effect, but they all change the charac-
  ters with the mutation in some way. These changes are not 
  always negative. Minor physical mutations might mark 
  a character as inhuman, but in the fantastically strange 
  world of Creation, this is not a terrible thing.
  For example, God-Blooded with the Immortality 
  mutation are pretty lucky on the surface. They will live 
  forever, barring violent death or disease. Yet, they will 
  also see their own children, loved ones and even hated 
  enemies age and die before them. Also, they are not true 
  immortals and must avoid violence or risk ending their 
  potentially unlimited lives. What does it mean to such 
  a character to risk his life or fall in love?
  These are the types of questions Storytellers and players 
  should ask before creating new mutations. As a rule, the 
  weaker the mutation, the smaller the side effects; the more 
  powerful the mutation, the more dramatic the side effects. 
  That said, expensive mutations that cost or provide a large 
  number of bonus points generally have few downsides.
  STEP THREE: SET THE PRICE
  No power is free, and (at least in Exalted) no terrible 
  things afflict a character without some benefit. Storytellers 
  should look at the effects and side effects of a new mutation 
  and decide what category it fits under. The first decision is 
  relatively easy: whether the mutation is negative or positive. 
  Deciding what exact type of mutation it is within those 
  larger categories can be a bit trickier. It is recommended 
  that Storytellers and players experiment a bit with different 
  versions of a possible mutation until they get the hang of 
  designing them. In any case, players attempting to design 
  their own mutations should get their Storytellers’ approval 
  before bringing a new mutation into an Exalted series.
  FINAL WORDS ON 
  PLAYING GOD-BLOODS
  God-Blooded hold a unique place in Exalted. They 
  are neither god nor human, Exalt nor heroic mortal. Their 
  might is eclipsed by that of most of the Chosen, but they far 
  surpass mortal heroes simply by virtue of their half-breed 
  nature. They are neither the most favored of the servants, 
  followers and children of the gods nor the most ignored. 
  They are the troubled middle children of Creation.
  This doesn’t mean that all God-Blooded are miserable 
  half-breeds or even that most feel unhappy with their lot 
  in life. Many are quite content to serve their parents or 
  wander about in search of their own destiny. They have 
  superhuman powers, successful families and often a string 
  of admirers, servants and lovers. Some even have cults 
  devoted to them, though most are associated with the 
  faiths that spring up around their magical sires.
  Admittedly, the norm differs somewhat between heri-
  tages. Demon-Blooded tend to be less content and more 
  abused than God-Blooded or Half-Castes. Fae-Blooded 
  might lead lives of passion and wild adventure, but they 
  also live with the fear that one day their alien parents 
  will simply devour them out of boredom. Half-Castes 
  might be cherished, but they live in the eternal shadow of 
  their Exalted sires. And Ghost-Blooded are useful to the 
  Underworld but always looked at a bit strangely because 
  they haven’t yet had the decency to die.
  Players of God-Blooded characters should consider 
  all of these factors when roleplaying their characters. Are 
  their God-Bloods happy with their heritage or ashamed? 
  Are they stalwart champions of their magical parents or 
  half-breed vipers waiting for the opportunity to strike? 
  Are they interested in ascension, or do they secretly (or 
  not so secretly) despise their magical half? How do they 
  get along with others of their kind? This last question 
  is perhaps the most important because it is often other 
  God-Blooded who form the greatest allies and companions 
  the characters have.
  
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  CHAPTER SIX: STORYTELLING
  CHAPTER SIX
  CHAPTER SIX
  STORYTELLING
  STORYTELLING
  On the distant battlefields of Creation, epic heroes 
  fight and die, waging war while shining like the sun and 
  moon. In a far-off bedchamber adjacent to the Imperial 
  Manse, a mostly dead youth with skin like ice prepares 
  to make love to a centuries-old demigoddess of the earth. 
  In a courtroom in Heaven, a divine barrister delivers 
  an impassioned closing argument, defending crimes 
  she knows her fellows committed to a jury of skeptical 
  gods. Across Creation, beyond it and outside it, heroes 
  surpassing mortal ken deny the odds and make their 
  own destiny.
  But not all heroes are so lucky, blessed and fortunate. 
  The idle passions of the Chosen affect the lives of mil-
  lions of mortals, and few of their crimes are brought to 
  justice in any courtroom, much less a divine one. The 
  bed of the demigoddess has been shared by many a slave 
  girl fearing the fate that awaits her at dawn’s light. And 
  on that lonely battlefield, the fatally injured soldier sighs 
  as he spots his star in the House of Endings.
  Mortals in the Age of Sorrows are constrained by 
  destiny and bereft of special wisdom or supernatural might, 
  trying to survive as best they can in a time of warring 
  heroes. Exalted was crafted as a game of epic heroes—
  people with ambitions and abilities beyond those of 
  mortal men. Yet, all of those heroes were mortals once, 
  and Exalt and mortal alike must choose whether to rise 
  to defend their ideals or merely seek to survive.
  THE GAMES OF MORTALITY
  It’s a valid question—why play mortals when the 
  name of the game, after all, is Exalted? The Primordials 
  designed humans to be fragile and easily killed, reason-
  ing that a near-constant fear of death would inspire 
  ecstatic devotion and fervent prayer. The ten thousand 
  gifts bestowed upon Exaltation render mortal concerns 
  nearly irrelevant within a few scant decades. Of course, 
  
  146
  to mortals, those concerns are paramount, and the world-
  shaping power of the Exaltation permanently affixes the 
  focus of the Exalt on the entirety of Creation. That’s not 
  to say it’s impossible for Exalts to focus on small matters, 
  but their heroic Motivations typically drive them to do 
  great things for all Creation, not just for a small or select 
  group. Possessed of vast supernatural power, they have 
  little to truly fear. This long, wide view lends itself to 
  sweeping and epic tales, but it leaves little room for cer-
  tain types of stories that mortals (by virtue of not having 
  world-altering might) can play much more easily. Ideally, 
  a game about mortals is one played by an experienced 
  group and a Storyteller well versed in Exalted’s milieu 
  and mechanics.
  Children of Earth are not terribly suitable for players’ 
  characters, and why would they be? Exalted is a game of 
  cinematic action and epic tragedy, not a strangely compel-
  ling farming simulation. Heroes, however, enable a group 
  to see Creation through an entirely different lens.
  TRUE GRIT
  Combat and life for the un-Exalted mortal is gritty, 
  for lack of a better word. Brutal and hard, the battles of 
  the un-Exalted have none of the sweeping grandeur of 
  the Chosen. Mortal battles are fought in seedy, violent 
  cities beneath an uncaring sky. Wounds heal only with 
  time, not with the application of post-scuffle Charms. 
  The combatants are cut, the combatants bleed, and the 
  only light within them is the fury in their eyes. An al-
  leyway mugging becomes a life-and-death struggle if the 
  thief gets a lucky strike in. Every seduction of a waitress 
  in a teahouse, every bargain struck in the markets of 
  Chiaroscuro, every new day lived in the Age of Sorrows 
  becomes a victory over the forces of entropy, annihila-
  tion and change that pervade the setting. Tasks that are 
  easy for the Exalted—battling way through a corrupt 
  magistrate’s elite guards, for example—must give heroic 
  mortals pause. In order to accomplish their goals, heroic 
  mortals must be as smart, lucky and subtle as the Chosen, 
  and perhaps far more so, for they cannot fall back on 
  brute force if the situation demands it.
  Players who wish to see the sad, fallen state of 
  Creation are confronted with it easily enough with a 
  mortals play style. A disease that plagues a region, for 
  example, can no longer be cured by a Charm and a touch. 
  Moral decisions become harder for characters to make 
  when they don’t necessarily have the muscle to back it 
  up. Do the characters rob from the corrupt magistrate 
  to give jade to the poor, when they’re not the greatest 
  thieves in Creation? Should they rush headlong into 
  the trapped manse of the mad thaumaturge to save the 
  city? Do they intervene when a slave is beaten by his 
  master in the marketplace, heedless of the well-armed 
  
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  CHAPTER SIX: STORYTELLING
  and -armored guards standing nearby? Do they pursue 
  their rival heedless of their own wounds, for the chance 
  to slay a foe once and for all? For the Exalted, these are 
  no choices at all, and their Charms and artifacts will 
  likely carry the day.
  Of course, the characters can still be larger-than-life 
  heroes. They can still achieve incredible stunts, defying 
  the odds and reveling in their successes. Their personali-
  ties and Motivations can be as broad and nuanced as any 
  Exalt’s. But tasks that were literally effortless in previ-
  ous games, such as scaling the walls of Whitewall, now 
  become nearly insurmountable problems, to say nothing 
  of thwarting a Deathlord when the ancient ghost can 
  slay them with a look.
  SMALLER MOTIVATIONS, 
  SMALLER HEROES
  The Motivations of the Celestial Exalted impel 
  them toward epic tasks such as abolishing the practice of 
  slavery in Creation or restoring the air fleet of the Solar 
  Deliberative or even re-establishing the Solar Delibera-
  tive itself. Even the Dragon-Blooded have broad goals, 
  such as assuring the ascension of their House or healing 
  the ailing Realm. Most mortals, on the other hand, tend 
  toward more transitory, goal-oriented Motivations. It’s 
  not uncommon for a heroic mortal to be focused on a very 
  specific task—a mercenary-turned-farmer whose family 
  is murdered by an outcaste Dragon-Blood might vow to 
  kill that particular enemy. Disparate Motivations can be 
  difficult enough when dealing with a group of Exalts with 
  incredible goals, but a character with a particular task in 
  mind can be difficult to stop, let alone be expected to 
  journey with the group’s other characters away from the 
  fruition of his life’s goal. Some essential and temporal 
  conflict causes a heroic mortal to alter his Motivation 
  from the common “lead a good life” to something more 
  suitable for play. It is recommended that a Storyteller 
  establish harmony among the Motivations of the players’ 
  characters before play begins.
  Freshmen Classics courses teach us that stories de-
  rive their structure from clashes of motivation. These 
  motivations are often defined according to four different 
  categories: mortal versus monster, mortal versus mortal, 
  mortal versus nature, mortal versus self.
  The Storyteller is responsible for generating most of 
  these conflicts in the story. She acts as the natural world, 
  as most of the monsters and as at least some of the other 
  sentient beings in the world. The players are responsible 
  for generating stories between and among their characters, 
  creating memorable tensions between differing aspects of 
  their personalities. A group of night watchmen in Gem 
  can have just as nasty and tumultuous a group dynamic 
  as a circle comprising Solars and Abyssals.
  SMALL HORRORS
  The sheer invincibility of the Exalted lends them a 
  sort of casual air toward mortality and horror. A disem-
  boweling wound on an Exalt will heal within a few days, 
  and a battle against an erymanthus is simply another case 
  of an escaped demon being sent back to Hell. Without 
  the benefit of mighty magical weapons from a bygone 
  era or Essence-fueled defenses, the ravening blood-ape 
  becomes a threat the entire group must deal with, with 
  casualties sure to ensue. A highly visible but benign 
  Wyld mutation—which never would have developed 
  if the character possessed Integrity-Protecting Prana—
  makes a character an outcast for the rest of his life. A 
  mortal stomach wound is cause enough to bid a tearful 
  goodbye to an old friend before mercifully ending his 
  delirious torment—unless the thaumaturge manages to 
  call a disgusting stomach bottle bug into Creation to 
  gleefully knit the victim’s body back together from the 
  inside. The casual brutality of the Solar Exalted in Limit 
  Break or the spoiled natures of the Dragon-Blooded are 
  enough to horrify most mortals (and players), to say noth-
  ing of the Abyssal or Infernal Exalted. Deciding how to 
  put “the fear of Creation” into the players is a matter of 
  some thought when dealing with characters who possess 
  perfect defenses, but for mortals, their fragility lends itself 
  to a game where fear pervades the setting.
  SWORD AND (SORT OF) SORCERY
  Heroic mortals are still heroic, with all the benefits 
  heroism entails. They can perform stunts, they grow more 
  powerful with experience, and they may command a 
  fraction of the cosmic forces wielded by gods and Exalts. 
  Although they tend to be more goal-oriented than the 
  Exalted, mortals are conversely far freer. Mortal heroes 
  go unnoticed by the great powers of the setting, and their 
  adventures do not automatically give rise to vast armies 
  led by ancient enemies. A group of freelance mercenaries 
  (or “wandering adventurers” if you must) can have an 
  enormous amount of fun within the setting. Games that 
  involve playing the street-level members of the night 
  watch of Gem become viable, whereas they’d be too 
  insignificant for the gods’ Chosen. Rather than leading 
  the charge into the enemy ranks, the characters dash in 
  behind a scintillating Dragon-Blooded hero. Teams of 
  mortal heroes must rely on intricate coordination and 
  division of labor in order to function effectively and 
  defeat their foes.
  Along the same vein, Creation is a highly diverse 
  place, peopled with exotic societies and cultures, from the 
  deferential and relaxed customs of An-Teng to the harsh, 
  hybrid vigor of the miners living atop Mount Metagalapa. 
  Exalts, by their nature, stir up trouble wherever they go. 
  
  148
  Designed as semiautonomous, living superweapons, 
  the Exaltation is forged for conflict, choosing people 
  of singular focus and determination who leave societies 
  and peoples radically altered by their very presence. Few 
  Exalted are explorers by nature. Their chosen destiny 
  is what lies at the end of their path in life. As a conse-
  quence, it’s difficult to let a foreign society impact the 
  character rather than the other way around. The Exalted 
  find it easy to transform, but mortals cannot solve the 
  problem of an overpriced teahouse by altering the local 
  economy with an Excellency or a few Charms fueled by 
  Essence. By contrast, mortals are free to journey about 
  the setting, taking in the local culture of various societies 
  without fear of utterly demolishing them in a pitched 
  battle with the Wyld Hunt or a semi-random Berserk 
  Anger Limit Break. Playing as mortals allows the players 
  to have a grunt’s view of the setting, the shaken rather 
  than the shaker.
  WHAT IS THIS, A MUSEUM PIECE?
  Mortal characters are certainly capable of changing 
  the setting in permanent or even arbitrary ways. Since 
  the players’ characters are backed by the players them-
  selves, this technically makes them the most important 
  people in the world, for everything revolves around them. 
  Aside from the players, many heroic mortals—from the 
  founders of the Guild to the Perfect of Paragon—have 
  transformed the setting in a dramatic manner. Every ac-
  tion the players’ characters take can have a significant 
  impact on the setting. Indeed, some elements of the 
  setting—the burgeoning abolitionist sentiment simmer-
  ing in the setting, for example—could benefit greatly 
  from powerful mortal sympathizers. Mortals have a harder 
  time making an impact on society than the Exalted do, 
  however. Given a few days, an Eclipse Caste Solar with 
  the right Bureaucracy and Socialize Charms can alter 
  an entire capital city—and a significant part of the sur-
  rounding culture—in ways that will take months to sort 
  out, and that’s if the Exalt is taking it slow. Even the 
  setting itself assumes that there are Exalts such as the Bull 
  of the North out there, shaking up societies likes snow 
  globes. It’s far harder for a mortal to capriciously alter 
  the setting than it is for an Exalt. Mortals still suffer the 
  same trials and tribulations, but it’s a matter of scale. A 
  priest of the Cult of the Illuminated is hunted just as a 
  Solar is, and a scavenger lord deals with the lost legacies 
  of the First Age in the same manner an Exalt deals with 
  a past life. But wandering mortal characters are much 
  more likely to kick back and see the sights or fulfill their 
  personal goals—and be treated like everyone else in the 
  setting—than to wipe clean a nation’s cultural slate and 
  start anew. By all means, if your players’ characters seek 
  to address an indignity or injustice within the setting, 
  allow them to pursue it. Be aware, however, that they 
  have a very long struggle ahead of them, made that much 
  harder by their mortality.
  THE GUNZOSHA’S CHOICE
  Despite being unable to master their own destiny or 
  even their own Essence, mortals are not without distinct 
  advantages. For instance, highly trained heroic mortals 
  can act as force multipliers in mass combat, supplementing 
  a Dragon-Blood (coordinating with War Excellencies, 
  naturally) or God-Blood against a superior foe. A group 
  of heroic special units can devastate an opponent’s army, 
  especially if equipped with magitech items and armor.
  In fact, the most potent and feared commando units 
  in Creation—the gunzosha of the Seventh Legion—
  are entirely mortal. Sealed in their powerful magitech 
  armor, they sacrifice a vast amount of their life span for 
  the ability to wage war on the same field as the Exalted. 
  Amulets with arcane sigils are surgically implanted into 
  the gunzosha during a risky procedure. They can remove 
  only certain parts of their armor—as long as they live, 
  the armor is always with them in some form. And few 
  gunzosha ever live 15 years past their date of surgery. Yet, 
  the gunzosha’s choice is one many heroic mortals gladly 
  make, burning the candle of life faster so that they may 
  burn that much brighter. Despite a complete inability 
  to approach the power and majesty of the Celestial Ex-
  alted, many heroic mortals accomplish amazing feats in 
  their attempts to earn eternal glory. They cannot match 
  the power of the Celestials, but they can approach the 
  puissance of the weaker Dragon-Blooded, and they have 
  magic all their own.
  Characters who live a world away from Lookshy 
  make the gunzosha’s choice in other ways. Lesser ambi-
  tions must be the fuel that feeds the fire of Motivation. 
  Even if they do not sacrifice their bodies and souls in the 
  dramatic matter of the gunzosha, the choice is the same: 
  to give up their lives to become great. A hero can have 
  friends and lovers in a story, but they are either heroes 
  in their own right (and potential rivals) or part of the 
  home the hero leaves on the journey. Like the Exalted, 
  heroes exist on a level above their so-called peers. Their 
  only true comfort is found in the arms and camaraderie 
  of their fellows, or at the home’s hearth at the end of the 
  series. All too often, that hearth lies cold and silent, for 
  the path to glory and destiny is a lonely one that leaves 
  little room for the pleasures the Children of Earth take 
  for granted. A hero’s life is never easy, and it’s rarely 
  one of luxury. 
  ENLIGHTENED MORTALS
  Even with the advantages granted by training, tactics 
  and technology, heroic mortals are fundamentally limited 
  
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  CHAPTER SIX: STORYTELLING
  by their inability to perceive Essence and wield Charms. 
  Some heroic mortals choose to simply soldier onward, 
  either willfully unaware of the larger world or convinced 
  that being a small fish in a small pond is in their lot in 
  life. Others cannot content themselves so.
  Besides their physical prowess and the capability to 
  stunt, heroic mortals are also able to progress in their 
  enlightenment and understanding of the wider universe—
  or, in mechanical terms, to increase their Essence 
  ratings above 1. Such heroic mortals have an instinctual 
  awareness of the invisible forces that surround them, an 
  understanding that defies conscious thought. But with 
  luck, skill or diligence, they can learn to unlock their 
  hidden wellsprings of Essence to become truly enlightened 
  mortals, capable of utilizing Essence in the world around 
  them. Heroic mortals have several procedures at their 
  disposal by which to become enlightened mortals.
  ASCETICISM
  A long regimen of yoga, meditation, solitude and 
  limited diet—among stranger things—can enable an un-
  Exalted mortal to perceive and channel Essence. Besides 
  the physical aspects of training the body to react in certain 
  ways, these practices include koans, mantras, tantras and 
  sutras to train the mind and spirit to react in a similar 
  manner. These regimens take years to come to fruition 
  and might not work at all times for all mortals. 
  WYLD EXPOSURE
  Exposure to the Wyld can cause the boundaries that 
  bind a mortal’s Essence within him to dissolve like so 
  much candy floss. A technique called power-questing 
  (see The Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. II—
  The Wyld, p. 141) can be used in a deliberate attempt 
  to acquire the Essence Channeler blight. It is certainly 
  much hastier than fasting and prayer, which makes it 
  more appealing to young daredevils and the foolhardy. 
  It is also incredibly dangerous, for only an exceptional 
  will can tame the Wyld, even for a short time.
  SHEER LUCK
  On extremely rare occasions—and never with any 
  sort of documentation or study conducted afterward—a 
  mortal might find himself able to channel Essence without 
  any explanation of why or how he was able to do so. Some 
  mortals describe the sensation as an intense buildup over 
  several days and weeks, culminating in a single jubilant 
  release. Others find their ability to manipulate Essence 
  stemming from a change in Motivation. Their change 
  in attitude is extremely auspicious and lends the weight 
  of destiny to their actions, granting them the ability to 
  perceive and manipulate Essence. Regardless, heroic 
  mortals have been known to become enlightened for 
  no apparent reason.
  To represent this change in mechanical terms, a 
  Storyteller and player might simply wish to dispense with 
  the quest to unbind the Essence within and allow the 
  player to purchase the Awakened Essence Merit (see p. 
  59) for his character.
  MAGICAL POWER
  A Charm called Soul-Enlightening Beneficence al-
  lows the Solar Exalted to grant enlightenment to their 
  lessers by forcibly shattering the bindings containing the 
  heroic mortal’s internal Essence. Solars, Lunars, Sidere-
  als, Infernals, Abyssals and Alchemicals all possess a 
  variation of this Charm. Spirits have access to a similar 
  Charm, Touch of Divinity, that can provide the same 
  benefit given time.
  For the text of these Charms and more methods—
  thaumaturgical means, drugs and artifacts—by which a 
  mortal may become enlightened, as well as Terrestrial 
  martial arts styles, please see Scroll of the Monk, 
  pages 17–20.
  THAUMATURGY
  Beyond simple strength in numbers—an advantage 
  mortals have over even the Dragon-Blooded—heroic and 
  enlightened mortals have the ability to master the arcane 
  principles of thaumaturgy, minor miracles that draw upon 
  the power inherent in the Essence of Creation to work 
  their magic. Without the distractions of the greater power 
  of Charms, mortals focus their efforts on improving their 
  mundane skills and, in some cases, honing their abilities 
  at thaumaturgy. During the Usurpation, even without 
  the powers of sorcery, mortal thaumaturges loyal to the 
  Dragon-Blooded successfully hindered even the mighty 
  Solar Exalted. Although the effects of Creation may 
  be harnessed without a full understanding of the power 
  behind them, mortals who can perceive Essence have a 
  far easier time controlling and using thaumaturgy. An 
  enlightened mortal who has mastered the Arts of thau-
  maturgy may, for instance, be able to transmute lead into 
  gold, summon and bargain with demons, build minor 
  magical artifacts or summon hurricane gales and driving 
  rain during a clear day. Even a No Moon Lunar capable 
  of summoning titanic tentacles of magma or a Twilight 
  Solar capable of bringing life and mineral wealth to a 
  barren region can find a use for small miracles.
  More details on thaumaturgy and its applications can 
  be found in Exalted, pages 137–139, and The Books of 
  Sorcery, Vol. III—Oadenol’s Codex, pages 108–144.
  MARTIAL ARTS
  Enlightened mortals who have trained their bodies 
  and martial skills to the peak of mortal perfection find they 
  have the ability to touch what Sidereals call the Root of the 
  Perfected Lotus, the lowest tier of supernatural martial arts. 
  
  150
  Enlightened mortals must be taught by a similarly en-
  lightened sifu but otherwise require no special initiation 
  to be able to learn the Charms of the Terrestrial martial 
  arts. Indeed, many of Creation’s Terrestrial-level mar-
  tial arts schools consist almost entirely of enlightened 
  mortal practitioners.
  SORCERY AND NECROMANCY
  For those mortals who have reached the pinnacle of 
  their arcane power and are not content with thaumaturgy, 
  methods exist with which to initiate the un-Exalted 
  into the mysteries of Primordial Essence manipulation. 
  Un-Exalted thaumaturges who reach the pinnacle 
  of Occult knowledge and the height of their Essence 
  may learn Terrestrial Circle Sorcery or Shadowlands 
  Circle Necromancy, though not both. Such sorcerers 
  and necromancers are forever constrained by their lack 
  of Essence, denied the status accorded to those who 
  have reached the pinnacle of their arts (that status is 
  given instead to the Dragon-Blooded and the Ghost-
  Blooded). Still, both mortal sorcerers and necromancers 
  can become ludicrously wealthy in a very short time 
  using utilitarian spells. Most content themselves with 
  the feeling that, among mortals, they are very big fish 
  in a very small pond.
  DESTINY
  What sets heroic mortals apart from the Exalted 
  (aside from Exaltation) is the fact that destiny plays a 
  major role in the lives of heroic mortals. Without the 
  ability to channel vast amounts of Essence, most heroic 
  mortals are forced to go along with whatever fate lies in 
  store for them.
  EXPERIENCING MECHANICAL 
  DIFFICULTIES
  Storytellers who decide to run a mortals game—
  besides being strongly urged to make it a mortals-only
  game—must be aware of certain rules and constraints 
  that come along for the ride. If you began playing Exalted
  using the Exalted, a number of rules that players take for 
  granted change significantly for mortals. The Exalted, 
  by virtue of their enhanced physiology, are simply not as 
  susceptible to the aches and pains of mortal life. Some 
  of the rules you need to watch out for are:
  • Order of Attack Events (see Exalted, p. 145): 
  Mortals streamline Step 1 (declare attack), Step 2 
  (declare defense), Step 4 (attack reroll) and Step 9 
  (counterattacks), as they do not have Charms that 
  enable them to function on those Steps. They may, of 
  course, still stunt.
  
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  CHAPTER SIX: STORYTELLING
  • Defense Values (see Exalted, p. 146): Except in 
  rare occasions, heroic mortals do not have an Essence rat-
  ing higher than 2 (though enlightened mortals do, almost 
  without exception). Note also that heroic mortals round 
  down in both their Dodge and Parry DV calculations. 
  Their social defense values are unaffected, however.
  • Soak (see Exalted, p. 149): Mortals cannot soak 
  lethal damage with half their Stamina rounded up, and 
  they have no access to Charms or other supernatural 
  means to improve their soak, unless something is taken 
  using the Artifact Background. Instead, they have to rely 
  on mundane armor, mutations, shields and sheer luck to 
  not suffer immense damage.
  • Healing Rates (see Exalted, pp. 148-149): The 
  Exalted have vastly accelerated healing rates, and all of 
  the Exalted have their own methods of healing faster. 
  Mortals do not.
  • Bleeding (see Exalted, p. 151): Blood is cin-
  ematic. Blood loss isn’t. Unless a mortal has a staunch 
  or compress on hand during a heated combat, multiple 
  wounds will quickly result in a quiet, undignified death 
  from loss of blood.
  • Infection (see Exalted, p. 151): The Chosen rarely 
  have to worry about infection from lethal wounds, but 
  for a mortal without access to medical treatment, a duel 
  with blades in a lush rainforest might mean a painful 
  death weeks later from hemorrhagic fever, even if he’s 
  the victor.
  • Disabling (see Exalted, p. 152): The Chosen do 
  not suffer maiming injuries from massive injuries. Even 
  targeted maiming injuries will heal back without scar 
  or injury, effectively removing the Crippled keyword 
  during natural healing. Mortals, however, have to worry 
  about all of these.
  • Damage (see Exalted, p. 150): Due to the lack of 
  an Ox-Body Technique Charm (or any other equivalent), 
  mortals may never have more than seven health levels. 
  Additionally, mortals do not have access to perfect de-
  fenses (or mote-powered defenses of any kind), leaving 
  them incredibly vulnerable to singular, powerful blows.
  • Disease (see Exalted, pp. 350-353): As with ev-
  erything else, mortals are far more susceptible to disease 
  than the Exalted. Note especially the sidebar “Medicine 
  in Exalted” (see Exalted, p. 353). Mortal doctors must 
  devise complex and involved treatment plans and cannot 
  simply touch and cure.
  GAME STYLES
  The main Exalted rulebook discusses a number of play 
  styles (see Exalted, pp. 262–263), which are excellent 
  suggestions for a Solar game but require major alterations 
  for heroes lacking Exaltations. This section discusses 
  how to adjust those styles for use with a mortals game 
  and offers some expanded styles particularly applicable 
  to the Chosen of No One.
  STYLES REMIX
  “Vanilla” Exalted does not apply terribly well to the 
  un-Exalted regardless of flavor—the sort of high-fantasy 
  BY DESTINY CONSTRAINED
  The overwhelming majority of mortals have 
  no idea how fate and destiny function. The average 
  mortal believes in the lies of other supernatural 
  powers or has some vague inkling that the stars 
  display the shape of Heaven’s future plans. She is 
  almost certainly not aware that destiny is written 
  within a rather large structure in Yu-Shan. It re-
  quires either Lore •••• and a mastery of the Art 
  of Astrology, or an appropriately targeted specialty 
  for the average mortal to be aware of the Loom of 
  Fate as anything more than a euphemism for the 
  night sky.
  Destiny rarely plays a major role in tales of the 
  Exalted, save for the Sidereals, who are both masters 
  and servants of that mysterious force. Mortals are 
  another matter. A mortal’s Motivation may be at 
  odds with the doom Heaven has written in the stars 
  for her—and mortals do not have inexhaustible 
  reserves of Essence with which to shoulder aside 
  Heaven’s plans.
  What heroic mortals do possess—in no lesser 
  quantity than the Exalted—is heroism itself. While 
  stunts might not smash apart destiny’s flow the way 
  Essence use does, they are still capable of nudging 
  events to a margin of potential. Destiny is plotted 
  in broad eventualities, with details left undecided 
  until the moment of implementation. Certain 
  martial arts, such as Falling Blossom Style (see 
  Scroll of the Monk, pp. 43–45) and Path of the 
  Arbiter (see Scroll of the Monk—The Imperfect 
  Lotus, pp. 7–10), enable mortals to take a larger 
  role in their fate, though nowhere near the level 
  of the Exalted. Daring to pass through the wake 
  of the world’s greatest powers or direst enemies 
  might help a hero avert her doom, and applying 
  her every effort toward pursuing her dreams and 
  goals might force a more favorable interpretation 
  of what Heaven has decided for her.
  Or perhaps not. Every mortal owes Saturn 
  the same toll; she collects in the manner that 
  pleases her more often than not. Everyone has a 
  role to play.
  
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  action demanded of the Chosen quickly leaves mortals 
  bleeding out into the dirt and dust. Even an experienced 
  thaumaturge finds it difficult to marshal the arcane energy 
  that comes easily to the Exalted, and without supernatural 
  backing, few will flock to his banner. But for a group of 
  mortals who think small and dream big, great things 
  are possible—after all, the Guild is a superpower, and 
  the Exalted consider it virtually beneath their notice. 
  Enterprising mortals who make themselves indispensable 
  to a particular power of the setting, such as the Haslanti 
  League, Halta or the Guild can become power players in 
  these mostly mortal organizations. As their Backgrounds 
  and influence grow, the inherent fragility of mortals less-
  ens dramatically, with numerous groups maintaining an 
  interest in the character remaining alive. And you need 
  not miss out on cinematic action, just scale it down. A 
  teahouse brawl becomes a life-or-death struggle, and a 
  duel between rivals takes place in a field of grass rather 
  than the head of the Penitent.
  A Land Once Divided Must Unite is an interesting 
  choice for mortals. Unable to command any sort of un-
  natural mental influence, mortals have to rely on sheer 
  charisma, luck and skill to forge alliances throughout the 
  setting. Travel becomes far more arduous and lengthy, as 
  mortals simply cannot cover the same amount of ground 
  as Exalts can. Fortune favors the bold and prepared, as 
  your characters scheme to tighten their grasp over a 
  larger area with an economic fist or a military one. A 
  game set in the Hundred Kingdoms, without any sort of 
  (overt) Exalted influence, can lead the characters into 
  an intensely political game of thrones and treachery.
  “And I’ll Form the Head!” is difficult to pull off just 
  anywhere in Creation, but in places that have a remnant of 
  the glories of the First Age, even mere humans can shine 
  in this play style. While mortals lack the command of 
  Essence necessary to activate or control the technology of 
  the First Age, they can be invaluable in maintaining that 
  technology and taking key support roles in the massive 
  battles that this play style encourages. A Lookshy-based 
  game, for example, could have the players’ character as-
  suming the roles of shugan-junai (sorcerer-technicians) 
  and gunzosha warriors, performing battlefield repairs on a 
  damaged warstrider and fighting off the marauding hordes 
  intent on murdering the wounded Dragon-Blooded pilot. 
  The key to gaming with this play style is emphasizing 
  the role of the cogs in the machine—a hero can fall and 
  die with the battle continuing, but if the characters fail, 
  the machine of war breaks down.
  Outlander deserves its own section (see “Beyond the 
  World”), as the lives of mortals are dramatically different 
  outside Creation. Think long and hard before deciding 
  on this play style. With the exception of the Blessed Isle 
  and possibly Autochthonia, the other realms of existence 
  are inhospitable at best for those without Charms.
  TAKING A BREAK FROM 
  ALL YOUR WORRIES
  This play style assumes that you have a standard, 
  “stock” Exalted game, where you take on the roles of 
  reincarnated epic heroes. Great! That’s why the game 
  was written!
  At certain points in your narrative, you will find 
  the players’ characters coming to a significant portion 
  of downtime. Celestial and Terrestrial Exalted need to 
  spend months raising their Essence to a higher level of 
  enlightenment, or the Circle is traveling a good distance 
  across the world without a form of magical rapid transit. 
  Perhaps real life has intruded slightly on the game, and 
  one of your players has taken a sabbatical. Rather than 
  call a hiatus or running the Mandate of Heaven (see the 
  Exalted Storytellers Companion, pp. 129–156), consider 
  running a mortals game of characters traveling throughout 
  the setting, on a much slower trail directly behind the 
  Exalted. Assuming your Exalted have been doing heroic 
  things, this is a fantastic opportunity to examine in detail 
  the ramifications of their actions within the setting. How 
  have native cultures been transformed? What legends do 
  they tell of the primary characters’ deeds? The players 
  get to see what legacy their characters have left behind, 
  for good or for ill.
  BEYOND THE WORLD
  Humanity has never been picky about where it at-
  tempts to settle, and human colonies exist in the most 
  unlikely of locales, inhospitable though they might be. 
  Most mortal games taking place in a different realm 
  of the overall setting are dramatically different from 
  a Creation-based game, even taking into account the 
  heterogeneous nature of Creation. More information 
  on the lives of mortals can be found in the respective 
  Compass of Celestial Directions for each location, but a 
  brief overview is given here for the benefit of Storytellers 
  who wish to set their games in dangerous locales.
  The Blessed Isle is home to the Scarlet Empire, 
  which glorifies the Terrestrial Exalted, casting the mil-
  lions of mortals on the continent into shadow. The 
  mortal citizens of the Realm are much better off than 
  Children of Earth anywhere else, but they find themselves 
  locked into a rigid social hierarchy. Mortal heroes there 
  find that, if you are not among the Exalted, you are a 
  waste of the Realm’s resources. On a thousand different 
  levels, this sentiment pervades society, eating at the 
  mortal spirit (and, perhaps not coincidentally, rendering 
  Celestial Exaltations slightly rarer than everywhere else 
  in Creation). Yet, some of the Scarlet Empire’s mortals 
  
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  CHAPTER SIX: STORYTELLING
  can briefly consider themselves superior to the Exalted. 
  A junior Dragon-Blooded officer can be remonstrated 
  (albeit gently and with the utmost deference) by an elder 
  mortal sergeant, while elsewhere, a newly Exalted Ter-
  restrial might be undergoing instruction in etiquette and 
  martial arts by an elder mortal Immaculate. And while 
  a mortal cannot hope for Exaltation after his late teens, 
  he may still slowly advance in status by “taking the coin 
  or the razor”—joining the legions or the Immaculate 
  Order—albeit at great personal risk. Ennobled mortals 
  join the ranks of the patricians, and may yoke their fam-
  ily’s destinies to that of the Dragon-Blooded.
  The Wyld cannot be colonized for any serious length 
  of time, but many mortals live in the Bordermarches, 
  where the power of chaos intersects with the stability of 
  Creation. Over time, Wyld exposure mutates these mor-
  tals, often leaving them slightly insane and with an array 
  of edges over their fellow man (hence the wide variety of 
  Wyld barbarians distributed throughout the Threshold). 
  Those unlucky few with obvious mutations face ostracism 
  and a life on the lowest social stratum, while some other 
  mortals are blessed with strength, beauty and the ability 
  to channel Essence thanks to the capriciousness of the 
  Wyld. Within the deeper Wyld, the courts of the Fair 
  Folk keep mortals for food and companionship, protect-
  ing them from the ravages of mutation in exchange for 
  feeding on their very souls.
  Yu-Shan is home to any number of mortals who 
  serve the gods as priests and consorts. Although mortals 
  cannot freely travel to Yu-Shan, the Heavenly City sees 
  a brief influx of mortals each year during the Carnival of 
  Meeting and every 25 years during the Heaven-and-Earth 
  Invitational martial arts tournament. Since the early 
  First Age, a number of exceptional mortals have been 
  whisked to Yu-Shan during Calibration to feast with the 
  gods and briefly experience all the delights of Heaven 
  during the Carnival of Meeting. Only the vagaries of the 
  little gods link the characters, so disparate mortals from 
  all corners of Creation can suddenly find themselves in 
  Yu-Shan, embroiled in divine plots and manipulated 
  like game pieces. The Heaven-and-Earth Invitational 
  admits only the best mortal martial artists to compete 
  on the level of the Exalted for a shot at eternal glory. 
  While none who return from the Invitational are willing 
  to speak of the rules and conditions of the tournament, a 
  number of mortals have won prizes there despite facing 
  Exalted opponents.
  The Underworld itself is not home to many mortals, 
  though thousands live within the shadowlands in an 
  uneasy co-existence with the dead. Those who do not 
  live in a fully integrated society such as Skullstone often 
  find themselves under the yoke of ancestor cults run by 
  ancient ghosts. Still others are pressed into the service 
  of the Deathlords, whether as spies able to interact in 
  Creation or as soldiers. Mortals, the Deathlords muse, 
  are better off dead, for their worth triples in death with 
  each yielding a corpse that may be reanimated, a ghost 
  and a hungry ghost. Most mortals in shadowlands are 
  extremely unhappy with their lot in life but cannot leave. 
  Some stay because of tradition, though, while others are 
  compelled by the protection and prestige offered by the 
  ancestor cults. Many are simply unable to conceive of 
  life anywhere else.
  Malfeas is naturally inhospitable to mortals, but that 
  does not stop thaumaturges, slaves and akuma from living 
  in the lair of the lion. The Demon City is a fantastic place 
  of color, revelry and music, even as it exudes a torturous 
  psychic presence and deadly miasma. Here, a summoner 
  can cultivate a personal relationship with a demon, and 
  a Yozi cult can enjoy direct patronage in exchange for 
  worship, sacrifices and Essence.
  Autochthonia is a place where mortals actually 
  eclipse the Exalted in importance. While the Chosen 
  of Autochthon act as heroes, icons and saviors of the 
  people of the Eight Nations, mortals keep the Great 
  Maker alive and in a state of functionality. They are born, 
  they live, and they die in service to the Great Maker, 
  with the few dissident Lumpen beneath the contempt 
  of the vast majority of the population. For the mortals 
  of Autochthonia, life exists as a triune entity, eternally 
  shifting between work, relaxation and sleep. No escape 
  is possible, but for most, living their lives in dual service 
  to god and state, no escape has ever been considered. 
  Freedom in large doses is bad—freedom promotes chaos, 
  and chaos begets death and destruction. These are the 
  facts in Autochthonia, taught to every mortal until the 
  knowledge is as ingrained as breathing. Prolonged con-
  tact with Creation, however, will only result in growing 
  unrest among the lower classes.
  MORTALS IN MIXED GAMES
  A single look at Exalted makes it clear that there are 
  enormous power disparities even between the ranks of 
  the Chosen. The gap between the lowly Dragon-Blooded 
  and the mortals they rule is even greater. This presents 
  a severe problem if someone wants to play a mortal in a 
  mixed game. If Storytellers want to avoid that, the solu-
  tion is simple: either run mortals-only games, or don’t 
  run mortals games at all. To make things clear: Mortals 
  have no hope of outshining the Chosen in their areas 
  of expertise. No mortal swordsman will ever upstage a 
  Dawn Caste or a Chosen of Battles.
  That said, mixed games can present great opportuni-
  ties. The utility of mortal characters in mixed games is 
  not to be found standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the 
  
  154
  champions of the gods. Instead, mortals provide an excel-
  lent opportunity to showcase the way Exalts transform 
  the lives they touch.
  SHARING THE SPOTLIGHT
  Mortals are fragile. This is true in both a physical 
  and narrative sense. If a player’s mortal character is 
  going to share the stage with Exalts, it is to everyone’s 
  benefit to coordinate their characters ahead of time. 
  The best way for a mortal character to feel useful and 
  valuable in a group of Exalted is to fill a niche of ex-
  pertise none of the Exalts touch. For example, a former 
  Lookshy ranger with great expertise in scouting and 
  moving silently may be of use in a Solar Circle that 
  lacks a Night Caste, but only as long as none of the 
  Exalted decide to invest in becoming supernaturally 
  stealthy and perceptive. For the slightly more than 
  mortal, thaumaturgy almost always offers an excellent 
  niche, as does lesser martial arts. The raw power of 
  Exalted sorcery vastly outstrips such mortal magics, but 
  they never lose their enormous range of versatility and 
  usefulness. Additionally, a trained sorcerer-technician 
  makes an adequate assistant in the constructions of 
  minor artifacts. The mortal character could assist the 
  Exalt in his or her duties. Similarly, a mortal martial 
  artist may teach a lesser style—such as Golden Janissary 
  (see Scroll of the Monk, pp. 48–50)—to the mortal 
  followers of a Solar.
  BIG HEROES, LITTLE STORIES
  Perhaps the greatest role for mortals in mixed games 
  is that of supporting cast. This option is unorthodox and 
  might not match the tastes of many players. Playing 
  Watson or Wilson to another player’s Holmes or House 
  is not every player’s cup of tea. Focusing on the story 
  being told by the group as a whole, however, rather than 
  the stories of its individual characters, can be immensely 
  rewarding. If the player doesn’t mind giving someone else 
  the spotlight, he can magnify the coolness of another 
  player’s character many times over by providing a loyal 
  character foil.
  Solars are god-kings, ruling and inspiring in radiant 
  glory—and they need subjects to rule, inspire and dazzle. 
  Mortals flock to a Lawgiver’s banner for any number of 
  reasons and provide any number of services. Sample 
  concepts include magitech engineers who service a 
  circle’s warstriders, bodyguards for the ethical Twilight 
  who has no desire to enslave spirits, adoring cultists and 
  agents who work to hide and protect the circle as it moves 
  through Realm-controlled territory.
  Lunars are mercurial beast-gods, savage and char-
  ismatic. Mortals are often the subjects of the Stewards’ 
  society-shaping efforts, but Lunars can find as much 
  benefit from human companionship as any other Chosen. 
  Mortals who associate with a Steward could be shamans, 
  complicit in the Lunar’s social engineering, who act as 
  traveling go-betweens with the great moon-god who 
  holds dominion over a region. Other alternatives include 
  procurators who ferry information and goods from stable 
  Creation to a Lunar’s domain at the fringe of the Wyld, 
  Wyld barbarians who act as a Lunar’s fanatical death 
  commandos or lovers striving for value as more than 
  potential breeding stock.
  Sidereals have the most difficulty integrating mor-
  tals into their stories. The Chosen of the Maidens pass 
  through the world and are forgotten, so mortals who 
  will become involved with Sidereals must generally be 
  brought to where the Sidereals are. Such mortals gener-
  ally live in Yu-Shan as the guests or lovers of a Sidereal 
  Exalt, or they are transplanted members of the Vizier’s 
  family. Their ability to carry out Heaven’s business 
  without fading from memory makes them invaluable for 
  certain situations, or so the Sidereals loudly proclaim 
  when forced to justify themselves. In truth, such mortals 
  might simply be a Sidereal’s only enduring touchstone 
  with the human race.
  Dragon-Blooded vary greatly depending on their 
  origins. Dynasts are extremely status-conscious and are 
  strongly inculcated against casual relationships with 
  their inferiors. They regard mortals as porters, servants, 
  slaves and little more. But even elder Dynasts are sur-
  prised by the insights of the un-Exalted, who often have 
  a greater idea of the true powers in the society by virtue 
  of existing on the fringes. A peasant widow could shame 
  an aged Air Aspect general just as easily as a fellow 
  Exalted family member. Similarly, some rapport might 
  be established in the Imperial Army between an officer 
  and his soldiers. Military tales are also strongly suited to 
  Lookshyan society, which promotes more casual social 
  contact between its mortal citizens and the Princes of 
  the Earth. Outcastes might decide to place themselves 
  above the mortal stock from which they arose, but they 
  don’t have to. Mortals attach themselves to Terrestrial 
  heroes in much the same sense as Solars and are often 
  of greater use since the abilities of the Dragon-Blooded 
  are not so vast.
  Abyssals loyal to their appointed role as world-killing 
  weapons have little use for mortals save as raw fodder. 
  Skilled necrosurgeons or wicked murderers survive for 
  a time as aides to deathknights, but their ultimate fate 
  is sealed and likely not too far off in coming. Abys-
  sals always have need of lieutenants, however, and a 
  hero may learn necromancy and martial arts like any 
  follower, aided by the Abyssal’s incredible Neverborn-
  fueled power. Mortals in Abyssal stories are more likely 
  subversive elements, desperately held by renegade or 
  redemption-seeking Exalts as friends, companions and 
  
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  CHAPTER SIX: STORYTELLING
  lovers. This incidentally places such mortals in terrible 
  danger—from the Abyssal’s Dark Fate, from his spurned 
  master and from his enemies. A hero willing to stand 
  by an Abyssal through such trials, however, can play as 
  central a role to a tale of redemption (or tragic failure) 
  as the Exalt himself.
  Infernals, like Abyssals, are newly arrived in 
  Creation, charging forth into the Age of Sorrows with 
  evangelical zeal. Mortal followers of Green Sun Princes 
  are likely to be Yozi cultists, wholeheartedly believing in 
  their newfound messiahs and the new era they promise 
  to usher in. Such mortals support their lords as demon 
  wranglers, helltech engineers, spies and high priests. 
  And, ironically, mortals might well remind the Green 
  Sun Princes of how disconnected from humanity both 
  the Incarnae and the Yozis truly are, spurring a tran-
  shuman apotheosis.
  Alchemicals are not like the rest of the Exalted, 
  in a number of ways. Their relationship with mortals is 
  not one of absolute rule. Mortals can play the familiar 
  roles in an Alchemical game—sorcerer-engineer, field 
  medic, soldier and so forth—but they can also be the 
  social superiors of the Exalted in their midst. A mortal 
  might be a general in command of an Alchemical as-
  sembly acting as special shock troops in his campaign or 
  an explorer of Creation or the Far Reaches with a hand-
  ful of Champions requisitioned to support his mission. 
  Autochthonia presents interesting possibilities for role 
  reversal and perhaps the greatest opportunity for mortals 
  to shine on the same stage as the Chosen.
  ENDGAME
  Inevitably, every game must come to an end, but due 
  to the fragility of mortals, the end of a mortals game can 
  come more suddenly than most. Luck and destiny play 
  important roles in the survival of mortals—even an intel-
  ligent, tactical player might suddenly find her character 
  at the mercy of a few unlucky rolls, with no health levels 
  or perfect defenses to ward off harm. The end of the series 
  for that character is devoid of the drama appropriate to 
  the culmination of the character’s fate.
  To combat this, Storytellers and players are en-
  couraged to plan a finite conclusion to a mortals series, 
  starting the story with a definitive goal in mind for the 
  characters. Character death is inevitable, but heroic 
  mortals tend to die much faster than standard Exalted
  characters. To relentlessly beat the dead horse: They 
  have no mote-powered defenses, they are unable to wield 
  powerful defensive weaponry, their armor is of crude 
  quality, and they never receive more than the starting 
  number of health levels. An unlucky roll here, a botch 
  there, and the heroic mortal is now a heroic ghost. Even 
  the Destiny Background, important as it is in the setting, 
  
  156
  does very little to protect mortals. There are exceptions, 
  of course—a group consisting of gunzosha commandos 
  is afforded a high degree of survivability—but these are 
  exceptions, not the rule.
  Besides planning a definitive end to the series, Story-
  tellers should carefully gauge the strengths and weaknesses 
  of a group before sending them into battle. Players might 
  do well to have multiple back-up characters ready in case 
  their primary characters are killed off mid-session.
  EXALTATION AS AN END
  Perhaps the favorite way to end a mortals game 
  is through Exaltation. The greatest honor and gravest 
  responsibility a mortal in Creation can receive is the 
  Second Breath; the characters have shown themselves to 
  be individuals of exceptional bravery and supernal skill, 
  and they have been rewarded handsomely. From here, 
  though, your players’ characters can no longer sit on the 
  sidelines of Creation’s societies, unable (or unwilling) 
  to change things.
  Trouble now clings to the newly Exalted like iron 
  fillings to a magnet. They cannot remain mere watchmen 
  in Gem and expect the city to stay quiet, nor can they 
  sheepishly slink back to their hometowns and expect an 
  uneventful life. For the rest of their existence, the char-
  acters live in interesting times. (Not even the Exalted 
  of the First Age got more than a few years of peace and 
  quiet.) They are, however, in luck. The Time of Tumult 
  needs heroes of a proven caliber, and the characters will 
  have plenty to do now that their responsibilities have 
  been broadened considerably.
  THE REQUIREMENTS OF EXALTATION
  When he helped the gods design the Exaltation 
  process, Autochthon imprinted the Exaltations with a 
  set of protocols that would make sure that only those 
  who desired the ability to change the world would be 
  Chosen. In the broadest sense, Autochthon attempted 
  to make sure that the mortals chosen by the Exaltations 
  would be suited to their task of battling the Primordials. 
  The Chosen have the seeds of their epic Motivation 
  within them, but many adopt a life’s goal only after their 
  Exaltation, realizing that they now have the power to 
  accomplish their dreams. Few Exalts are reluctant to 
  wield their power, and those who are quickly adapt to 
  their circumstances or perish.
  Nearly every Celestial Exaltation requires that the 
  mortal receiving it be singled out for a destiny in which 
  he will perform heroic deeds. In mechanical terms, he 
  must be a heroic mortal and have a Destiny Background 
  rating of 3 (4 for Sidereal Exaltations). Storytellers 
  who begin an extended mortals game with the intent 
  to have the characters Exalt are encouraged to waive 
  this requirement. The Celestial Exaltation rewrites 
  this Destiny, causing a flurry of activity in the Loom of 
  Fate and reducing the rating of the Background to zero, 
  as the Chosen make their own destinies. This Destiny 
  requirement, strangely enough, seemingly only applies to 
  those mortals born within Creation itself. Mortals who 
  LEGENDARY FAMILIARS
  Ancient myths speak of mortal heroes aided by 
  far more powerful supernatural animal companions. 
  Tales of a young warrior buoyed aloft by a winged 
  horse existed alongside stories of a stalwart knight 
  being advised by a dog gifted with the power of 
  speech. Such myths are easily replicated within 
  the setting of Exalted, where godly power is passed 
  along with lineage and exceptional mortal heroes 
  attract the notice of lesser gods. In essence, the 
  Storyteller constructs a character using the God-
  Blooded template, and the player allies with the 
  beast using the Familiar Background.
  When designing a God-Blooded familiar, 
  Storytellers are advised to assign the legendary 
  animal a Familiar rating roughly equal to the Al-
  lies rating the familiar would have. For mortals, 
  this usually means a rating of •••• or •••••. 
  After the player spends the requisite Background 
  points, the Storyteller should then construct the 
  character according to standard God-Blooded 
  creation rules, using the animal templates found 
  on page 346 of Exalted as a rough guide. The 
  familiar should possess the Beast Form deformity 
  (see pp. 138-139). Such a companion might well 
  be highly intelligent and capable of human speech 
  in multiple languages, conversing with the player’s 
  character as a near equal. Inheritance and patron 
  are primarily up to the Storyteller. A character 
  accompanied by a horse-child of Hiparkes, for 
  example, is a clear sign of the powerful god’s favor. 
  The familiar still acts as a familiar in every other 
  respect, including providing an extra five motes 
  to the mortal (assuming the mortal is capable of 
  channeling Essence and regardless of the famil-
  iar’s own Essence pool), the capability of sharing 
  senses and telepathic communication. Storytellers 
  should think long and hard before allowing this 
  option into a game of mortality. The presence of 
  a semi-divine character circumvents many of the 
  challenges mortals face and can quickly become the 
  focus of a game. Ideally, a character’s Backgrounds 
  should remain in the background.
  
  157
  CHAPTER SIX: STORYTELLING
  are nominally outside fate but connected to Creation 
  through some esoteric gateway are capable of being 
  gifted with a Celestial Exaltation provided they are he-
  roic mortals who meet the proper standards. If a heroic 
  mortal demonstrates immense capacity for heroism in the 
  wake of an upheaval of Essence and a disturbance in the 
  Loom (namely, a mortal caught in the wake of existing 
  Exalts), he might well be gifted by Celestial Exaltation 
  despite lacking the Destiny Background entirely. Lytek, 
  God of Exaltation, has theorized that the Exaltation is 
  attracted to the similar Essence signatures and deems the 
  mortal worthy due to a heroic event outside the web of 
  destiny. Like most of the god’s conjectures relating to 
  the Exaltation, however, he is unable to test for any data 
  with which to confirm his hypothesis.
  Most—but by no means all—Exaltations tend toward 
  a certain caliber of heroism, depending on the individual 
  type. Storytellers are again encouraged to take the follow-
  ing as rough guidelines rather than hard-and-fast rules.
  Solars possess a potential for excellence beyond their 
  fellow men, though they need not have manifested this 
  excellence at the time of their Exaltation (and often have 
  not exercised their true potential in life before they are 
  Exalted). Many are Chosen by the Unconquered Sun at a 
  moment where their skills are put to a life-or-death test, 
  where they heroically put themselves in harm’s way in 
  order to succeed. They need not be good people, merely 
  great people, even if that greatness is not immediately 
  obvious.
  Lunars are chosen for their potential and proven 
  ability to endure hardship, a sheer tenacity to live and 
  thrive amidst incredible odds and life-threatening danger. 
  Stubbornly refusing to die and displaying an incredible 
  streak of individualism—tempered with recognition of 
  one’s place within the larger world—can result in one 
  becoming a Chosen of Luna.
  Dragon-Blooded are not chosen by any higher power. 
  The vagaries of chance determine their Exaltation and 
  relative power before they are born. The Primordial 
  power of the Terrestrial Exaltation tends not to manifest 
  within the meek, though when it does, those Chosen of 
  the Dragons seldom remain meek for long. Over time, 
  their Charms and natural aspect powers cultivate a sense 
  of superiority to mortals.
  Sidereals are also chosen before they are born, 
  destined to Exalt as Viziers. As with Dragon-Blooded, 
  weak-willed Sidereals either die early or learn to adapt 
  to their situation, accepting their roles as guardians of 
  Heaven and fate, however reluctantly. Those Chosen of 
  the Maidens who were adventuring heroic mortals look 
  at their earlier lives as training sessions that taught them 
  valuable lessons.
  Abyssals had the same capacity for heroism 
  and excellence as the Solars do, with one important 
  difference—they were struck down by violence, disease 
  or simple misfortune before that excellence could fully 
  manifest itself. The characters must have been capable 
  of receiving a Solar Exaltation, but at the moment of 
  death, the Black Exaltation offers them a choice—life 
  eternal in exchange for becoming a servant of death and 
  Oblivion. They must accept the Exaltation or die, but 
  they are always given a choice, and their damnation is 
  their own.
  Infernals are likewise capable of receiving Solar 
  Exaltation, but with another important difference—when 
  the time came to manifest their excellence and show their 
  courage, they backed down from a chance at a greater 
  destiny, refusing to place themselves fully within harm’s 
  way to succeed. In the moments of horrible regret after 
  failing to answer destiny’s call, they are approached by a 
  demon who offers them a second chance at greatness.
  Alchemicals are chosen over a long period of suc-
  cessive reincarnations. A mortals game taking place 
  WHY EXALTATION?
  It might seem that we’re devoting a lot of 
  discussion to the process of Exaltation in a chapter 
  devoted to the storytelling of mortals, and that’s 
  true. Although we list apotheosis and a successful 
  resolution of the conflict of the series as a possible 
  end to a heroic mortals game—and although we 
  emphasize keeping the game small and changing 
  the world in small ways—mortal heroes rarely 
  change Creation in a manner satisfactory to their 
  players. A conflict only remains interesting if 
  the stakes are continually raised, and when he-
  roic mortals attempt to play at a higher level of 
  the game, they will run headlong into Celestial 
  Exaltation, either by receiving it themselves or 
  encountering someone it has Chosen. Exaltation 
  enables the players to retain their Motivation 
  and human attitudes (at least for a few decades) 
  and still make a difference in the setting, and the 
  great variety of character involved in Exaltation 
  ensures that some players will meet the criteria. 
  Eventually, the players will be faced with a series 
  of choices. They can choose not to answer the 
  call of heroism and return to the lives of Children 
  of Earth, they can attempt to ascend to godhood, 
  they can keep playing on the international level 
  with their limited capabilities, they can Exalt, 
  or they can die.
  
  158
  over several generations in Autochthonia might well 
  end with the souls of the characters catalyzing a new 
  Alchemical Exalt. Only a soul that has proven its heroism 
  and dedication to the ideals of a specific caste through 
  numerous reincarnations is capable of energizing the 
  birthing matrix and bringing consciousness to the Chosen 
  of Autochthon.
  THE CONFLICT 
  RESOLVED
  As mentioned before, 
  even heroic mortals often have 
  goals and Motivations that are 
  ultimately both transitory and very 
  achievable, such as, “Find my 
  kidnapped daughter,” or, “Re-
  trieve my family’s heirloom 
  from the Gunzota Redoubt.” 
  What happens when the character 
  achieves her Motivation?
  Obviously, there is no need for her to 
  continue adventuring, unless her default 
  Motivation is to explore the world. Many 
  mortals have but one Motivation: “Live 
  a good life.” Even after a crisis event 
  causes them to change their Mo-
  tivation, heroes will usually have 
  another to fall back on if they 
  choose to return to being 
  Children of Earth. Storytell-
  ers are urged to talk to their 
  players before concluding the 
  series, to see if other Motivations 
  can be found. Alternatively, the 
  events of the story could serve as 
  a form of traumatic self-growth, leaving 
  the character a better hero than when the 
  story began.
  APOTHEOSIS
  What happens to those enlightened mortals who 
  reach the pinnacle of Essence 3? What happens when 
  the conquering heroes petition a high-ranking god for an 
  Endowment of Essence? The fact that an Endowment at 
  the pinnacle can transform a mortal into a god is reason 
  enough for many heroic mortal martial artists and sor-
  cerers to go adventuring and attempt to run errands for 
  the most important of gods. The characters are risking 
  everything for immortality, a chance to visit Yu-Shan, 
  freedom from want and disease, and the ability to perfect 
  their chosen skills for the rest of eternity—barring, of 
  course, their duties as gods.
  The story need not end there, either. The newly 
  ascended gods are given a reception both warm and icy, 
  split between those seeking to curry favor with the obvi-
  ously puissant divinities and those resenting the former 
  mortals for their successful attempt at metaphysical up-
  ward mobility. The themes of the series need not change 
  either. After journeying about Creation and interacting 
  with different cultures, the characters now have 
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  159
  CHAPTER SIX: STORYTELLING
  an ecumenopolis to explore and a whole new world of 
  harsh intrigues and different cultures. The first thing the 
  players have to do, sadly, is find a job…
  Suggestions on using gods as characters can be found 
  in The Books of Sorcery, Vol. IV—The Roll of Glori-
  ous Divinity I.
  MORTALS, TRAINING, ESSENCE 
  AND EXPERIENCE
  Except as noted in this section, mortals gain experi-
  ence points, spend them and train for new traits at the 
  same rate that Solars do. Most of this table is available 
  in Exalted, but it is reprinted here for convenience. 
  Note that unless they take the appropriate Merit, heroic 
  mortals have only one Favored Ability. A mortal need 
  not have Awakened his Essence in order to raise his Es-
  sence rating, but he must be able to perceive and wield 
  the fundamental forces of reality to benefit from an Es-
  sence pool. Without becoming enlightened, an Essence 
  rating higher than 1 affects only various derived traits, 
  such as calculation of defense values and the minimum 
  dice rolled for a penalized action.
  Heroic mortals who undergo the effects of Training 
  Charms, such as Tiger-Warrior Training Technique (see 
  Exalted, p. 198), benefit from them as normal and go 
  into experience point debt if they cannot pay the cost 
  of the trait increases up front.
  BACKGROUNDS AND EXPERIENCE
  The main Exalted rulebook gives rules for purchas-
  ing starting Backgrounds, but does not discuss how to 
  raise a character’s Backgrounds once play has begun. 
  Since Backgrounds are especially important to mortals, 
  this topic bears serious discussion before play begins. 
  Please see the free Exalted errata, which is available for 
  download from http://www.white-wolf.com/downloads. See 
  also the discussion of Backgrounds in The Manual of 
  Exalted Power—The Dragon-Blooded or The Manual 
  of Exalted Power—The Lunars.
  HEROIC MORTAL EXPERIENCE COSTS
  Trait 
  Cost 
  Training Times
  Essence 
  rating x 20 
  (Essence) months
  New Martial Arts Charm (Martial Arts Favored) 12 
  (Min. Ability) weeks
  New Martial Arts Charm 
  15 
  (Min Ability + Min Essence) weeks
  New Sorcery Spell 
  15 
  (spell circle) weeks
  Thaumaturgical Degree (Occult Favored) 
  8 
  (Degree) weeks
  Thaumaturgical Degree 
  10 
  (Degree) months
  Thaumaturgical Procedure (Occult Favored) 
  1 
  One day
  Thaumaturgical Procedure 
  1 
  One week
  
  160
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Storyteller [multi]/Exalted/[ww80209] Scroll of Heroes.pdf