Welcome to the campaign diary of what’s been codenamed Fantasy Avengers. A campaign idea of superheroes in a fantasy setting has percolated within my brain for aeons. I occasionally pretend I’m going to run it, which no doubt gets eye rolls at best or engenders much disappointment at worst when I never get around to it.
This campaign diary will work through how the campaign gets to the table and then, with hope and a prayer, morph into actual play reports.
What’s Happening Here?
If you look into what constitutes Exalted ‘canon’, you will soon realise several things. There is a lot of it. Like so much of it. So many words. It’s got convoluted over time and editions as people have been committed to filling copious word counts.
Like religion, people will forever debate which versions and interpretations are true.
Much of what’s written is just word vomit that sets out many superfluous details while strangely leaving weird things a mystery. It’s a certain type of skill to write so many words that don’t really amount to much in my opinion (and why is a different post).
You will reach a point where you feel you’re becoming some sort of religious theologian trying to divine some truth out of ancient texts. Some people enjoy that. I tend to think, screw that, and step back from the copious amounts of details and ask myself, what is the distilled reason this all exists? What is it trying to say?
What are the principles, conflicts, and decisions all that detail is supposed to represent?
Just assume I do something similar with all other areas where copious amounts of, and to some degree obscure, bollocks have been written by those before me. It tends to be a philosophy of life, not just gaming, but that’s a bigger topic.
Ancient History
At some point, I need to lock down the ancient events that have defined the cycles of history. It’s some variation of the Exalted cycle. Titans get overthrown by the Gods via the Exalted. The Exalted overthrew the Gods, and then the Dragonblooded overthrew the Exalted.
I have a vague sense that I want to shorten and simplify the cycle, but that’s it.
I have locked in that the Dragonblooded overthrew the Exalted generations ago, which is the campaign’s setting. There is another layer to the Dragonblooded overthrowing the Exalted, but that’s not something to be verbalised openly at this stage.
What does this world look like? Well, that comes down to the institutional factors that define the period:-
- The Five Maidens
- The Immaculate Order
- The Dragonblooded
Creation is a varied and large beast, but these three elements define the third age. So, let’s look at the third age through the lens of these institutions.
The Five Maidens
The Five Maidens were once second in power only to the Unconquered Sun. Their duty is the maintenance and administration of Fate. The five sisters, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, control the stars in the sky and the motion of the heavens. For this reason, astrologers of low or high ability or esteem look to the movement of the heavens to see the Fates of nations and individuals.
The Five Maidens are responsible for different domains: –
- Mercury, Maiden of Journeys: Yellow. Travels, roads and messages.
- Venus, Maiden of Serenity: Light blue. Marriage, love, joy and pleasure.
- Mars, Maiden of Battles: Red. Battle, technology, logistics and battles.
- Jupiter, Maiden of Secrets: Green. Secrets, subterfuge and betrayal.
- Saturn, Maiden of Endings: Violet. Change and endings.
So I look at all the verbiage around this and think, who cares? What does this mean in the fabric of the setting? What does it mean for the lives of people? How does it really impact the fiction?
My takeaway was their duty was the maintenance and administration of fate.
Once the Five Maidens became the prominent celestial incarana, and the Dragonblooded betrayed the Exalted, the various forces that had ruled over Creation changed. The magnificent and incandescent lights that used to shape Creation through exerting their belief in their manifest destiny be they Titans, Gods or Exalted, have all gone.
Now the celestial incarna equivalent of middle management is in charge, and they prescribe an eternity of order and fate with everything, and everyone, knowing its place. That’s what was important, and maybe the existential battle between destiny and fate should be woven into the fabric of the setting and be something people live, breathe and talk about.
A whole religion might be created to thread this belief across Creation.
The Immaculate Order
“How will Creation not fall victim to the raw elemental chaos from which it was forged? By each of us accepting our fate. The fate of the many, for the lowest to the highest, working across Creation with divine purpose to establish the order that will hold back the elemental chaos and cement the stability of our glorious Creation. This shall make each of us contributors to the grander divine.”
– Scripture from The Immaculate Philosophy
The Eternal Empress may be the ruler of the Dragonblooded, but the Dragonblooded Houses may be those who actually make it work. The Immaculate Order controls people’s thinking, providing stability not driven by economic or military might. The dogma of the order is the Immaculate Philosophy. Everything in creation has an assigned role in the grand design of Fate.
Much is written about The Immaculate Order and the Sidereal Exalted who are behind it in the official Exalted setting. The volume isn’t the only problem, though; the stuff written about it can get so obtuse and naval-gazing that it ends up just being word salad, a lot of which isn’t really that useful in an actual game.
I’m more interested in impact and consequences. What does it mean materially for people living and breathing in the setting?
One’s Fate. Forever and all time.
– Short prayer of The Immaculate Order
I got thinking about how I like to use language in my campaigns. I don’t mean I get all clever with the words I use, but I do want to think I give some focus on the sort of things people say and how they say it in the games I run. For example, in a Star Wars game, people are concerned about and talk about specific things because they are manifest and important in the setting. In the Werewolf: Accelerated game, I’d try to infuse conversations with the language of the existential and mythical battle the various characters were in – as if it was a Viking epic or something like God of War.
I’m also a big fan of sayings that become tied to specific settings and stories, such as ‘May the force be with you’ and ‘For all time. Always’ from Loki. The short prayer of ‘One’s Fate. Forever and all time’ came to my walking the dog, which is how The Immaculate Order manifests in people’s lives. They believe in their fated position, living up to it and doing it well. This establishes a society that reinforces its stability through its religion as it is that which keeps Creation stable.
The Dragonblooded
This is where my influences started to spread out. The Dragonblooded are taken from Exalted. They’re the terrestrial Exalted who transfer their power through natural birth. I like the idea of them being split into houses, which brings to mind what those houses are.
This brings me to Eberron. We’ve already used Eberron to influence what the Imperial City might look like, so it makes sense to me to take the houses from Eberron as well. We have the Dragonblooded, and Eberron has the Dragonmark houses, so it seems a logical leap. It’s not the Dragonmarks I’m interested in; it’s how Eberron lays out the sphere of influence each house has.
It also makes each house like an ancient guild. I like this approach as it feeds into the more planetary romance, edge-of-Dune vibe. We have houses covering Essencetech, mercenaries, entertainment and spies, security and banking and whatever else.
I don’t need encyclopedic knowledge of this stuff, as it mostly adds colour. This isn’t a game where the characters must track their reputation with various groups in a single city. It’s still helpful to know details like House Cannith dominates the Dragonblooded Empire because they control the Essencetech. It’s hard to compete with a house that is also the closest thing to a ‘Guild of Engineers’.
The houses further represent the ancient stability that currently represents Creation (until it isn’t). They dominate the Imperial Core, subjugate the Middle Kingdoms and try to do everything possible to control the Elemental Reaches.
And, Finally…
These posts have slowed as they’ve reached their slow and natural end, at least before actual play. Their purpose in clarifying things for me has diminishing returns. Any topics worth the words are sort of unformed ideas that would also be spoilers.
When I thought of ‘One’s Fate. Forever and all time’ I thought was worth mentioning here in terms why that was important and how it represented how I think of settings and dealing with massive amounts of canon.