Jacqueline Bryk, Jacob Burgess, Rachel Cole, Meghan Fitzgerald, Elliott Freeman,

Emily Griggs, Violet Green, Matt Herron, James Huggins, Charlie Raspin, Lauren Roy,
James Mendez Hodes, Neall Raemonn Price, Monica Speca, H. Ulrich, and Robert Vance
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND

Credits Special Thanks

Writers: Jacqueline Bryk, Jacob Burgess, Rachel Cole,
Meghan Fitzgerald, Elliott Freeman, Emily Griggs, Violet
Green, Matt Herron, James Huggins, Charlie Raspin,
Lauren Roy, James Mendez Hodes, Neall Raemonn
Price, Monica Speca, H. Ulrich, and Robert Vance
Developers: Neall Raemonn Price and Monica Speca
Exalted Lead Developers: Eric Minton and Robert Vance
Editor: Gavyn F. Duthie
Dixie Cochran, for constant support.
The Exalted Slack and Discord channels, for brainstorm-
ing and Exalt-focused camaraderie.
To Margaret Mead for the line about a small group of
people changing the world at the end of Chapter One.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, commit-
ted citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only
thing that ever has.”

Art: HIVE Studios, Gong Studios, Studio Navela, Digital

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Creative Director: Richard Thomas

© 2023 PARADOX INTERACTIVE AB.

All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written consent of the publisher is expressly for-
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 TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S
Introduction 9
This Book at a Glance 9
Chapter One
Running a Game 11
Styles of Play 11
Creation as Stage 11
Creation as Threat 14
Creation as Cost 17
Combining Styles 18
Session Zero 19
Genre of Game 19
Collective Character Creation 20
Safety Rules and Best Practices 22
Bringing the Players Together 24
The Two Topics 26
Naming Conventions
in Creation 27
What’s in a Name? 28
Heroic Sobriquets 28
Chapter Two
Storytelling Exalted 31
How to Teach Exalted 31
Teaching Lore 32
Teaching Roleplay 32
Treating Topics
with Respect 33
Fantasy Versus Reality 33
Intentional, Consensual 34
Orientalism and Creation 34
Asian Inspirations 35
Customizing the Setting 36
Removing Exalts from Your Game 36
Games for One Exalt Type 38
Adjusting the Scope
and Scale of Your Game 40
Framing the Modes of Play 41
Games for Multiple Exalt Types 42
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Social Influence 43
Social Influence and Time 44
Intent is Everything 45
Spending Willpower 45
Lore 45
Knowing a Fact 46
Introducing a Fact 46
Challenging a Fact 46
How to Run a Wyld Hunt Game 47
Hunting a Solar Circle 48
Dragon-Blooded on the Wyld Hunt 51
Hunting a Lunar Circle 53
Sidereals on the Wyld Hunt 56
Hunting an Abyssal Circle 58
Hunting an Infernal Circle 59
Exigents — The “Ones of
a Kind” on the Wyld Hunt 60
The Great Curse 61
What the Great Curse Should Be 61
What the Great Curse Shouldn’t Be 61
Storytelling the Great Curse 62
Rules Hacks 64
The Great Curse and Modes of Play 66
Chapter Three
Optional Rules 69
The Orichalcum Abacus 69
Adjudicating Higher Difficulty 69
Easier Stunts 70
Initiative 71
Recovering Initiative 72
Combat Movement 72
One-Roll Resolution or
“Down-and-Dirty” Combat 72
Optional Death 73
Naval Combat 73
Gambits 74
Battle Groups 74
Antagonist Guide 75
Pick Your Battles 75
Contextual Adjustments 75
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
Storyteller Tactics
and Roleplaying Hints 77
Fine-Tuning 77
Minions and Masters 79
Other Conflicts 80
Exalted Quick Characters 80
Variants for the Modes of Play 81
Generational Games 83
Dragon-Blooded Dynasties 83
Celestial Legacies 86
Virtues 87
Virtues and Character Creation 87
Virtues and Social Influence 88
Guideposts for Roleplaying 89
Troupe Play 89
Teamwork 90
The Mandate of Rulership: Project Rules 92
Progress Trackers and Risk Trackers 92
Mandate Rules 93
Conceiving Projects 93
Scope 94
Difficulty 94
Progress Trackers in Play 95
Risk Trackers 95
With Prejudice 96
Granularity 96
Travel and the Journey system 97
Rules of the Road 98
Distance Without Maps 98
Misery by the Mile 99
Paths and Progress 100
Simplified Crafting 100
Craft Ability 100
Crafting Experience and Rolls 100
Projects and Scope 101
Conditions 102
Persistent Conditions 103
Condition Lapse 103
Introducing Conditions 103
Example Conditions 103
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Alternate Character
Creation and Progression 104
Unified Character Creation
and Advancement 105
Streamlined Creation and Advancement 105
Training Montages and
Moments of Inspiration 107
Styles of Play and Streamlined Progression 107
Training Montages and
Moments of Inspiration 107
Styles of Play and Streamlined Progression 107
Training Montages and
Moments of Inspiration 107
Styles of Play and Streamlined Progression 107
Chapter Four
The Chosen in Play 109
The Alchemicals 110
The Alchemical Castes 110
Play One of the Alchemical
Exalted If You Want 111
The Infernals 112
The Infernal Castes 112
Play One of the Infernal Exalted If You Want 113
The Getimians 114
The Getimian Castes 114
Return of the Solars 116
Core Concepts 116
Elements of Play 117
Storytelling Challenges 118
Keeping Solars Fresh 119
Introductory Play 120
Solar Exalted Quick Characters 122
Dragon-Blooded —
The Dragons Rule Creation 124
Themes and Stories 124
Dragon-Blooded for Beginners 124
Realm Civil War 126
Beyond the Realm 128
Coming of Age 129
Lunars — Reflections of a Thousand Selves 130
Core Concepts 130
 TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S
Elements of Play 131
Storytelling Challenges 133
Sidereals — Servants of Destiny 136
Core Concepts 136
Elements of Play 138
Storytelling Challenges 139
Abyssals — Death’s Lawgivers 144
Core Concepts 144
The Chivalry of Death 144
Storytelling Challenges 145
Birth of the Liminals 148
Core Concepts 149
Elements of Play 149
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Alchemicals — Ex Machina 150
The Octet 151
The Divine Ministers 151
The Locust Crusade 152
Getimians — War in Heaven 153
The Origin 154
The Sleeper Awakens 154
Jamais Vu 155
Rise of the Infernal Exalted 156
Vengeance is Theirs 156
No Escape 157
Infernal Revolutionary 158
It’s been a bizarre week, Wandering Teeth
reflected, as he dangled upside down.
Shakudo, the Crimson Crane, stood before the
once and future tomb-robber, watching him
dangle from the gilded fetters that held him fast.
The tomb’s antechamber had all the requisite
traps for its age and occupant’s station it seemed.
Wandering Teeth had been so focused on
disarming the traditional seven deadly traps that
he’d failed to notice his companion preparing one
of their own.
Shakudo had approached him on the street in
Nexus, all carmine robes and too-neat facial
hair, offering him a chest full of jade for his help
plundering an ancient tomb. Wandering Teeth
was Chosen of the Unconquered Sun, and had
no need for the wealth of nations any longer…
but he’d never considered himself the sort to ever
turn down a job, and there might be something
else in it for him, so he’d said yes. A few shady
dealings, a long boat ride, and an uncomfortable
trek through the jungle later, and they were
plunging into the depths of some forgotten tomb.
Well, he thought, that part at least was pretty
exciting. Bribing the wrong scavenger lords with
plundered relics had gotten them in trouble, and
it was only with Teeth’s skill they’d escaped..
Rather than cooling their excitement, the
experience had made Shakudo only more eager.
Perhaps, Teeth thought, that should have been
my first indication that this whole thing was about
to go to Hell.
They had bypassed the early chambers easily
enough; even before the whispers in his head
had gifted him with knowledge, Teeth knew his
way around ancient things. What traps or wards
he couldn’t disarm or wipe away, he sundered
with inhuman strength and the demon’s temper
in his breast. A tomb was just a cage locked from
the inside, and what cage was more formidable
than shadows and sunlight?
Wandering Teeth struggled with the tethers
restraining his legs, which only bit tighter the
more he moved. “Okay, friend,” he said to his
strange companion, keeping his tone affable,
more amused than anything else. Wandering
Teeth wasn’t particularly worried; he knew the
tricks of Hell’s slithering shadows and silent
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winds, such that escaping a binding was pure
instinct to him. “There’s no need for this. You
could have just told me to scamper off and that
would have been that. Now I’m angry,” he said
airily, “And you don’t want me to be angry.”
Shakudo dropped their torch to the floor, leaving
it to gutter out in the dirt. As they straightened
from the wall etching they were examining and
smoothed the wrinkles from their robes, they
shimmered, an anima banner’s light playing
across their sinewy frame and bare, corded
arms. It was unlike any Wandering Teeth had
seen before: Shifting black-and-white and pastel
blue patterns like a snowstorm in moonlight,
and a strangely shifting caste mark so unlike his
own. Teeth thought, for a moment, that he saw a
gilded spider scuttling over the Exalt’s skin. Their
ostentatious moustache quirked as an aggravating
smile played across their handsome face.
“Feel free to ponder your next move while I get
what I came for, friend,” they said. “I’ve expended
all of my uses for you.”
Wandering Teeth struggled, genuine anger rising
in his chest “That wasn’t part of the deal. You said
you needed my help.” Wandering Teeth was of
course really after what Shakudo was seeking;
whatever it might be.
“Yes,” Shakudo replied, “I said I’d pay you for
your assistance, and you assisted me, and I’ve
paid you. It’s fallen out of your shabby pack, but
you’ll have plenty of time to pick it up when I’m
finished.”
Wandering Teeth’s gaze shifted to the pile of
coins he’d been given, indeed now in a scattered,
glittering pile beneath him on the dusty floor.
In the flickering light of his companion’s anima,
he realized the mint of these coins was entirely
unfamiliar. Probably fake and as good as
worthless; nice trick he thought.
“If you’ve given me counterfeits,” he said,
scowling now, “I’m going to kill you.”
If the Crimson Crane heard him, they didn’t show
it, walking out of the antechamber and into the
darkness beyond. Wandering Teeth watched the
other Exalt’s slender back vanish into the tomb.
Treachery, Teeth could respect. Being ignored
was intolerable.
He drew a deep breath and shut out the throbbing
in his ears. No, he wouldn’t slip his way out of
this — he was too angry for that. Wandering
Teeth strained once more against his bonds.
A creaking, groaning sound filled the empty
silence as he felt the warm, sticky trickle of his
own blood run down the length of his shin. The
material, unbreakable to mere mortal thews,
gave way with a sharp crack, and Wandering
Teeth landed nimbly upon the floor, without
disturbing the pile of odd coins.
The Chosen of Hell dusted himself off, pulled an
envenomed tooth knife from a hidden sheath, and
dashed after his duplicitous former compatriot.
Though darkness clung to the edges of the
passageways, he heard the distant rustle of fabric
before he spotted the faint glow of an anima
banner.
Wandering Teeth swung around the corner, blade
raised; and stopped cold at the sight before him.
Shakudo’s back faced him, shoulders tight with
fear. They took a tentative step backwards, nearly
impaling themselves and saving Teeth the trouble
of stabbing them. At the end of the tight chamber,
frigid mist rolled away from a grand sealed
sarcophagus of glass; a dizzying array of coils
and wires spiderwebbed around it like a halo.
Within the transparent tomb rested something,
someone that to Teeth’s untrained eye appeared
halfway between man and machine.
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The glimmer of orichalcum made up its face and
the curves of its joints. Its chest moved, small
dials embedded within whirring in imitation, a
parody, of true breath. Some small light blinked
inside the enclosure, taking a metric that neither
observer could understand.
He cast a sidelong glance at Shakudo. “This your
treasure?”
The stranger shook their head, their hand
pressed to their mouth in shock. “No. I don’t
know what this is. There was supposed to be a
cache of weapons from a lost age here. I found it
in…in another lifetime. Nothing else but me has
changed, so why would this? Everything was…
the same! I thought…”
A moment ago, Teeth had been ready for murder,
but now curiosity overcame him.
Shakudo’s posture deflated, their shoulders
slumping with the weight of a perceived
defeat. Wandering Teeth patted their arm with
a compassionate hand, then glanced back at
the sleeping being. Was it alive? Was it actually
sleeping? Did this Exalt even know what they
were doing, or was this whole venture powered
by one person’s bizarre delusions?
“So,” he said, pressing his fingers to the cold
glass, “We going to open it?”
 Introduction
No hero is mortal till he dies.
—W.H. Auden
The world of Exalted is a dangerous place, even for the
Chosen. Other Exalted have their own inscrutable moti-
vations and reasons for being. For every Dragon-Blooded
willing to join the cause of the Solar Exalted, there are a
thousand more seeking to slay them. For every Sidereal
who offers the protection of the Cult of the Illuminated,
there is another seeking to end the Chosen of the Sun once
and for all. Exigents, as always, go their own way.
This book is meant to provide Storytellers with informa-
tion and additional methods of creating stories in Creation,
with the overwhelming focus being on the titular Exalted
themselves, describing their themes and offering potential
stories for each type.
This Book at a Glance
Introduction: This section provides an overview of this
book, and what you are currently reading.
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• Chapter One: Running a Game starts with basic
advice on how to run an Exalted game, including
advice on how to prepare a Session Zero and deal
with sensitive topics in-game.
• Chapter Two: Exalted Storytelling delves
into the story and mechanical elements that are
unique to Exalted, such as past lives, stories for
each Exalt type, and running a Wyld Hunt for
multiple types of Exalt.
• Chapter Three: Rules of Glorious Divinity pro-
vide a wide variety of alternate rules systems for
subsystems like Bureaucracy and Craft, and rules
hacks for fine-tuning the Exalted variant of the
Storyteller System to a Storyteller’s liking. It also
includes mechanical advice on how to balance
combat encounters to different player character
competencies and how to design challenges ap-
propriate for the Chosen.
• Chapter Four: The Chosen examines each
Exalt type; their themes, their stories, and ways
Storytellers can integrate them into a game.
10
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 Chapter One
Running a Game
Exalted is a big game.
Creation presents a massive tapestry of places, cultures,
and supernatural wonders alongside a huge number of
possibilities. While some Storytellers and fans may as-
pire to an encyclopedic knowledge of the setting and
rules, you don’t need it to run a game well. The systems,
setting, and everything in-between are tools for your
game, not a list of requirements. You have the power
to choose what to include in your games, enabling you
to make it easier on yourself to run, and to help your
players make and play their characters.
Styles of Play
Since Exalted contains many stories, it can be helpful to
break them down into distinct styles. These are general
guides: there’s nothing wrong with deciding to combine el-
ements from any or all of them when deciding how to run
and play your game. These should provide useful touch-
stones for discussing the kind of game everyone wants to
play, and offer guidance in how to make that happen.
Creation as Stage
Heroes and villains stride across Creation, change
blossoming in their footsteps. Rivals clash until entire
Directions are set ablaze by their conflict. Revolutions,
rebellions and upheaval twist whirling gyres around
the passion of lovers, the fury of the aggrieved, and
the dreams of visionaries and demagogues. Creation-
as-Stage embraces drama writ large, with player char-
acters pursuing great goals using their tremendous
powers, and where the stakes are personal, even as the
effect of their conflicts may transform the world.
More so than in other game styles, in Creation-as-Stage
the setting serves the players’ interests. The Storyteller
running a chronicle should consider how major ele-
ments they incorporate will affect the player charac-
ters, and in turn how the characters will affect them.
Threats exist for the Circle to challenge, fight, and stop;
potentates and princelings may be wooed, cowed, or
cast down and the wonders of Creation are there to be
explored, examined, or exploited.
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It’s especially important to establish what goals the
players are interested in from the very beginning. These
will often differ from the goals of their characters; want-
ing to cross blades with a sworn enemy and then later
fall in love is (probably) not a character motivation, but
is excellent input from a player about what they want
to experience. Creation-as-Stage is at its best when ev-
eryone involved has input on where they want the story
to go and what they want to see. Frank out-of-character
discussion before and between sessions is an excellent
way to facilitate this.
When a player decides that an Abyssal deathknight the
Circle encountered early on is a foe they want to see
more of, explicitly informing the Storyteller enables
them to make the Abyssal a recurring character. Open
THE BRONZE AGE
If you’ve paid attention to the materials or develop-
er commentary surrounding the making of Exalted,
you’ll know that the game takes a lot of its sociopolit-
ical and cultural inspiration from the world at the very
end of late antiquity through the Italian Renaissance.
The popular conception of the world at that time is
that people were brutish and cruel; this isn’t really
borne out by historical record. Certainly, times were
harsh, but people were people, even if their cultur-
al mores are somewhat alien to the civilizations that
came a few millennia later.
While Exalted draws inspiration from that time, it’s
made by and for people in the 21st Century. You can
note that the systems of human slavery used by many
cultures in antiquity (and in Exalted) bore little re-
semblance to the chattel slavery of the Transatlantic
trade or modern human trafficking, and you’d be ab-
solutely right, but accuracy isn’t as important as veri-
similitude and verisimilitude isn’t as important as the
experience of the living humans at your table. When
planning your game and setting the stage, be aware
of the history of these places both in and out-of-game,
but also be aware of your players’ needs and feelings;
see Safety Rules and Best Practices on p. XX and The
Two Topics on p. XX.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
communication also lets the Storyteller know where
to put their time and effort; whether the players want
a chance to redeem the deathknight, or if it would be
a waste to fill out a compelling backstory when the
players were just interested in killing a skull-clad
murder-machine.
Details unrelated to the players and their interests be-
come wallpaper and set dressing. While this is true to
some extent in any chronicle, Creation-as-Stage relies
upon an economy of focus to keep momentum; every-
thing in the game serves as tools, toys and thorns for
the player characters, no matter their importance to
Creation as a whole. If a satrapy’s rapacious ruler is ir-
relevant to the means and goals of the Circle, they be-
come a footnote. If the legendary daiklave Hope Found
Amidst Falling Stars interests none of the players, then
the chronicle leaves it behind as an unimportant curio.
Anything that isn’t taken as a part of a character’s sto-
ry is an expendable setting tidbit, not a loose end the
Storyteller needs to address.
Regional war gods, ancient sorcerers, and leaders
of civilization all find themselves trivial next to the
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garrison commander the Circle rescued from assas-
sins. If the players emotionally invest in protecting that
garrison commander —dueling for her affections with
her outcaste suitors or seeking to master First Age al-
chemies that they might match her mortal lifespan to
their own — she becomes a more important character
in the chronicle than any matriarch of a Great House or
scheming Deathlord.
This doesn’t mean that other elements can’t be import-
ant! The garrison commander the players befriend,
the small neighborhood in Great Forks they choose to
champion, or the Guild trading caravan they decide to
destroy can all become the same sort of powerful story
impetus as a character’s crusade against Creation-wide
injustice. The Storyteller can use these points of fo-
cused interest to introduce and demonstrate additional
threats and plot hooks. The war god becomes a major
enemy when his holy conflicts threaten the garrison
commander’s life; the ancient sorcerer becomes a trou-
bling ally in the Circle’s attempt to refine the neighbor-
hood’s cursed geomancy; or the House Sesus liaison be-
comes a continuing obstacle to ridding the area of the
Guild’s influence.
 C hapter O ne : R u nning a G a m e
Interweaving the interests of different players is es-
pecially important for running a cohesive chronicle.
Creation-as-Stage encourages a Storyteller to do this
often, freely pulling together elements from each char-
acter’s story. Since a group can cover only so much
ground in a session, a Storyteller should pepper the
background of scenes with pertinent details to connect
characters and plots together, and show the harbin-
gers events to come. This allows for building overar-
ching plots without loading down an early scene with
all the principal NPCs (Non-Player Characters) the
Storyteller may want to include. After laying down the
groundwork, the Storyteller can tie events together in
a way that seems natural, ensuring the players are in-
vested in the stories of other characters, and keeping
events from seeming to come out of nowhere. Perhaps
the Dynast attempts to regain control of the satrapy by
making a devil’s bargain with the deathknight or the
war god’s cultists target the ancient sorcerer over their
impure magical workings, turning these events into the
primary drive of the story, rather than a contrivance to
pull together disparate player interests.
What’s the Price of Wheat in Sijan?
Many Storytellers make their first conscious choice
about what to include in their games when picking a
location. Every chronicle needs a place to start, and
that choice suggests others. If a chronicle takes place
in the Syndic-ruled city of Whitewall in the North, it’s
natural for a Storyteller to consider the haunted halls of
Gethamane, the Immaculate zealotry of Pneuma, or the
horrific durance of Fortitude as setting elements that
might come into play. Of much less immediate concern
is the wealth of Gem in the far South, the crowded living
of Wu-Jian in the West, or the sepulchral rites of Sijan
in the East. Some Storytellers might choose to focus
more intimately on Whitewall, pushing aside thoughts
of other Northern cities. Dealing with the city’s masked
gods and the threats barely held in abeyance by their
pacts offers plenty of challenges for a group of Exalts,
and focusing on a single city allows a Storyteller to put
more thought into specific details of the location and its
particular story hooks. The scale of Creation provides
the Storyteller and players ample space to fill in their
own settlements, peoples, and threats if they want to
detail an area more specifically, with plenty of room to
expand and explore throughout a chronicle.
Just as it’s sensible for a Storyteller and group to fo-
cus on a specific geographic area to play in, focusing
on specific thematic, mechanical, and tonal elements
can make a game more manageable for its Storyteller,
more engaging for its players, and more rewarding for
everyone involved. A player interested in exploring
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their character’s emotional bonds to the ongoing con-
flict between the Linowan tribes of their birth and the
treebound cities of Halta may not be particularly inter-
ested in learning about the politics of the firedust trade
in the far South for instance. And that same player
might not be particularly interested in engaging with
the Leadership and Project Rules when they’d rather
focus on the personal stakes surrounding their char-
acter’s Haltan ex-lover, rather than who can rally the
largest army. What a chronicle leaves out defines it as
much as what it includes. Groups and their Storytellers
shouldn’t hesitate to focus on the areas of play that
most interest them, whether that is a specific region,
a specific portion of the ruleset, or specific moods and
themes within their chronicle.
Mechanical Suggestions
Exalted is a game that offers a great deal of mechan-
ical tools to its players. For chronicles in the style of
Creation-as-Stage, it’s important to use those tools ju-
diciously. Focusing on story elements that aren’t con-
nected to the players’ interests will often prove to be
wasted effort that ultimately slows the game and dam-
ages its pacing.
Major antagonists and other NPCs relevant to the play-
er characters will likely merit full character sheets of
their own, but for most other less essential characters,
extensive use of the Quick Character (QC) rules will
streamline most encounters and Storyteller prepara-
tion. Sometimes, a character may grow in importance
over time, expanding in rules as well as story impor-
tance, when they started life scribbled down as a last
minute QC.
Similarly, a Storyteller might choose to simplify many
activities that aren’t part of major dramatic arcs.
Using the full Social Influence system when wound in
Dynastic intrigue or trying to convince an ambivalent
Lunar to join your nascent country is one thing, but in a
less momentous social scene, it’s fine to call for a simple
(Attribute + Ability) roll to move things along quickly. .
A good rule of thumb for the Storyteller is to default to
a roll when it would be unsatisfying to simply declare
an action successful, but which doesn’t have much sto-
ry importance. Not only does this save time, but it also
makes clear to players when something particularly
serious is going on. Especially in the case of combat,
using a (Attribute + Ability) roll rather than a full com-
bat scene (see the Orichalcum Abacus, p. XX) makes it
clear when the opponents aren’t a serious threat to the
player characters, while allowing the game to progress
to more dramatic scenes.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
PLAYER INVESTMENT
AND SIMPLIFIED ROLLS
It’s always important to respect a player’s investment
in Charms, Merits, and other character abilities that
might influence a situation when using simplified
rolls instead of full subsystems. If a player wants to
use a Charm that normally only functions for certain
Social Influence rolls in a simplified contest, it’s ap-
propriate to let them. Be generous in interpreting the
Charm’s effects outside of its usual use in the subsys-
tem: using a simplified roll should never leave play-
ers feeling like their characters are less competent
than they would be normally. See also the rules for
One-Roll Resolution on p. XX.
Example: The Solar Sequined Meadow is trying to
convince a guard to let her into the city despite the lo-
cal despot enforcing a curfew for foreigners. Since the
guard is a mortal opponent and failure would be po-
tentially troublesome but not critically dangerous, the
Storyteller decides to allow Sequined Meadow to use
a simple Manipulation + Presence roll, at difficulty 1
to convince the guard she’s supposed to be inside the
city walls. Sequined Meadow’s player wants to avoid
the guard deciding Meadow is a potential threat if she
fails, and asks to use the Socialize Charm Indecent
Proposal Method to keep him from raising an alarm
if she’s unlucky. Normally a Charm that directly inter-
acts with Intimacies in the Social Influence system,
the Storyteller looks at Indecent Proposal Method’s
general description and sees that it causes the target
to feel that the user’s offer is “delightful, charming, or
at least a necessary evil” and allows Sequined Mead-
ow to apply it to this situation. If Meadow does fail the
roll, it will still be trouble, but at least the guard won’t
consider her a dangerous intruder.
Strict adherence to training times rarely meshes
well with the character- and drama-centric goals of
Creation-as-Stage. Using the Montage and Inspiration
mechanics from Chapter Three will allow a player
character’s development to follow dramatic beats.
This is especially important in high-action games that
may take place over a short period of time in setting
but multiple sessions of real-world game time. A char-
acter developing their abilities when backed into a
corner or when inspired by some magnificent or aw-
ful sight aligns perfectly with the goals of Creation-
as-Stage, and avoids a player feeling stymied because
they can’t spend a pile of XP for weeks upon weeks of
playtime.
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Creation as Threat
War haunts the land, flies swarm the carcass-cities left
in its wake. Horrors stalk the night and hunt brazenly
in the noonday sun. Sovereigns and princelings cling
to their power with desperate abandon, deadly rage
directed at those who might disrupt their positions of
safety and comfort. The wilderness falls upon those
who travel away from settlements and -roads, rogue
gods, beasts, and worse things lurk deeper in Creation’s
shadow, threatening dissolution of the self and destruc-
tion of the soul. Creation-as-Threat embraces the fe-
rocious and terrible aspects of the world of Exalted.
Exaltation gives the Chosen the tools to survive in the
Age of Sorrows, but Creation presents them with dan-
gers that require the use of their gifts. Given the dra-
matic impact of such power on the world, the player
characters’ choices in how they survive may well make
them the next threat to loom over the shuddering peo-
ples of Creation.
Every chronicle employs exterior threats, and many of
them take on disquieting trappings: undead monstros-
ities, heavy with the moans of their sewn-together vic-
tims, unnatural beasts baying with bloodlust, covered
in the tattered souls of their prey, but, in many chron-
icles these may simply be set dressing, a challenge for
the Circle to defeat or an opportunity for more martial
characters to shine. Using these elements effectively in
Creation-as-Threat requires moving beyond a surface
level application.
Threats represent potential danger, consequences not
yet materialized. Detailing those consequences makes
them real before the threat strikes. The undead mon-
strosity is grotesque on its own; knowing the names of
the farmers it will absorb into its pulsating body if the
Circle doesn’t stop it makes it a threat instead of a mere
enemy. These details also make the consequences and
nature of the threat matter. When a friendly guard cap-
tain the Circle is fond of falls to demon hounds attack-
ing the city because the Circle failed to respond in time,
the consequences of the beast’s soul-destroying powers
matter more than when it’s a simple creepy critter fact.
Monstrous creatures and grotesque enemies are some of
the most obvious vectors to present Creation-as-Threat
but by no means the only one. A slowly spreading crop
blight that promises to plunge a beloved settlement into
starvation presents a looming problem the Circle can’t
simply slay. A plague of poisoned dreams may have its
origin in a Fair Folk malefactor, but unless the Circle
can deal with the symptoms, many characters they care
 C hapter O ne : R u nning a G a m e

about may be lost. Potential resources may present the

same sort of threat, as the energies from a local un-
capped demesne poison and mutate the children of a
nearby village, or a local god demands sacrifices that
threaten to bankrupt and ruin local communities while
remaining friendly to the player Circle.

It’s important to remember that these threats work be-

cause they offer potential consequences. If the player
characters can’t do anything to intervene then threats
cease being meaningful. Even at its most dire, Creation-
as-Threat shouldn’t harm character agency, but rather
highlight the consequences of character inaction. The
idea that a character might fail to save loved ones, allies,
or communities balances itself against the fact that they
could succeed; a threat requires character agency to make
the possibility of failure and its consequences meaningful.

Storytellers should present actionable failure condi-

tions. Explicitly detailing the results for threats going
unopposed versus the dangers in confronting it goes
a long way to building tension, but if couched mainly
in terms of a player character’s survival it can reduce
player investment in any element beyond mere surviv-
al. It can also set up an unfortunate dynamic where a
player can’t judge a threat’s seriousness if they’re all
presented as existential threats.

Similarly, it’s important not to subject players to a con-

tinual reign of horrors. When every session and story
beat is laden with impending doom, and the stakes
for every challenge are fatal or involve fates worse
than death, it can create a numbing effect for players.
Without contrast, it becomes increasingly hard for
any enemy, threat, or event to provide any real impact.

PLAYER COMFORT
AND CREATION-AS-THREAT

While you should always respect player boundaries

when constructing threats and dire consequenc-
es, this becomes especially important for games
that lean into Creation-as-Threat. Be certain to use
the session zero and safety rules presented in this
chapter to make sure that everyone involved with the
game is comfortable, and don’t assume players will
be OK with horrific material just because it’s hap-
pening to a storyteller or minor character. Be sen-
sitive and receptive to players who realize later that
something bothers them once the game has begun;
nothing in a game of Exalted is so important that it
should be preserved if it is making a player genuinely
uncomfortable.

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 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
What’s worse, this can drive players away from in-
vesting in Storyteller characters and other setting el-
ements, as they lose any reality beyond their potential
as casualties. Allowing benign or heroic scenes and
setting elements room to exist gives threat that much
more weight and focus when it arrives.
Leaving a Mark
Persistence of setting provides an important vector
for heightening useful contrast between the horrible,
the benign, and the wonderful. In a game focusing
on Creation-as-Threat, consequences should create
a lasting mark on the Chronicle’s setting and charac-
ters. A battle with a monstrous undead creature and its
Abyssal master on a major roadway should leave a mark
on the setting even if the Circle is victorious. The Circle
may see travelers and merchants delayed and detouring
to avoid conflict on the road, as local rulers raise taxes
on grumbling city dwellers to pay for repairs, or local
priests and exorcists cautiously journey to the site of
the battle to ensure nothing lurks behind.
Even mundane conflicts provide material for the
Storyteller to work with. Rather than being a simple
threat-of-the-week for a Circle to defeat, a bandit at-
tack on a small village could have its aftermath echo
through later scenes and sessions. Funeral processions
pass by on the road for those who died of their wounds;
words are overheard in the marketplace of good jobs
for those willing to work the land of a widow or wid-
ower; familiar faces, displaced by violence are seen in
neighboring towns and city markets even as the Circle
moves further away.
These examples assume conflicts are won by the players
involved, which helps bring attention to consequences
averted by player action, underlining the nature of the
threat even as it’s defeated. Storytellers should take
care to avoid turning the taste of victory to ash in the
players’ mouths, especially when player characters
take actions specifically meant to alleviate or prevent
consequences. If a character goes out of their way to
tend to the villagers with Medicine and appropriate
charms, further deaths would serve only to devalue the
players’ investment of attention and resources, which
Storytellers should avoid doing. Instead, details such as
seeing people the player characters saved or meeting
their concerned but relieved relatives while traveling
will make their investments more meaningful, while
still suggesting the consequences averted.
Smoke on the Horizon
Clearly signposting problems to come and their
potential ill effects is vital for games focusing on
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Creation-as-Threat. Threat and consequence fail if
they’re nebulous and vague, and also if they’re con-
stant, overused, and unavoidable. The Storyteller must
thread the needle between these extremes. They should
make threats that are credibly detailed while being pos-
sible for the players to react to, and consequences that
have setting and mechanical heft without pushing the
players to disengage from emotional fatigue or lack of
agency.
Sometimes, this means reminding players of ongoing
threats that haven’t been at the forefront of the game
for several sessions. Other times, it means erring on the
side of more rather than less when giving players infor-
mation about enemies and calamities to come. Dealing
with disaster and calamity should occupy the player
characters’ efforts, rather than trying and potentially
failing to discover what oncoming threats exist.
Mechanical Suggestions
Rules that reinforce the limitations of Creation are at
their most useful in Creation-as-Threat. Paying atten-
tion to travel time and the sheer size of Creation helps
make regional threats feel like they matter. A Circle
can’t simply leave an area and avoid spreading word
of the dangers they’ve left behind, while friendly au-
thorities will be too distant to help; when characters
have abilities that let them circumnavigate problems of
distance, then those problems become that much less
meaningful.
The same is true of craft, construction, and social proj-
ects. Forcing players to confront and deal with time
limitations as a dramatic element makes those abilities
that let them raise an army in days or a mystical armory
in a week impactful in a way that doesn’t occur in a less
temporally and spatially bound game.
Like everything, this requires moderation. If players
never can take advantage of longer stretches of time
to work on larger projects, they may focus on powers
and abilities useful in the short term, making time-sen-
sitive threats effectively meaningless. If a player made
her character with the intent to engage with the craft-
ing or sorcerous workings subsystems, and never gets
a chance to flex her ability in it, she may be quite dis-
gruntled by seeming like mechanical dead weight.
Adopting Risk Trackers (p. XX) can also ratchet up ten-
sion and provide players with actionable threats while
simultaneously presenting the limitations of their re-
sources. Storytellers should avoid creating countless
gauges that are impossible for players to address, but
using them to detail multiple ongoing concerns will
 C hapter O ne : R u nning a G a m e

go far in presenting Creation as a dangerous place for the idea that not every situation will have a resolution
those who try to simply sit on its sidelines. that leaves everyone with a happy ending.

Storytellers should be prepared to give characters

Creation as Cost
Iron-eyed generals lead their soldiers in desperate
charges against satrapial defenses, knowing the day will
cost many of their sworn companions. Dynastic politics
drive Dragon-Blooded scions to destroy close friends,
all for the good of House and Realm. Rising Circles ex-
pand their influence over village, city, and region, hop-
ing the change they bring is worth the suffering and
death. Creation-as-Cost taps into the tradition of epic
heroes enmeshed in great deeds and greater struggles:
what will the characters do with their enormous power
and are they prepared to bear the cost?
Perhaps more so than other types of games, Creation-
as-Cost requires heavy player buy-in. If Storyteller
characters, relationships, and communities are re-
duced to nothing more than backdrops for the players,
or resources for their abilities, they become meaning-
less. Players and their characters must be willing to
emotionally invest in other characters and setting ele-
ments that they know they may lose, as well as accept
and places layers beyond the obvious and archetypal.
Characters drawn in broad strokes, especially those op-
posed to player characters’ interests, are easy to classify
as obstacles. Revealing personal details that hint at a
rich inner life and interests beyond opposing the char-
acters can help build empathy for characters the play-
ers might otherwise dismiss out of hand.
These details can be basic and mundane, especially at
first: An enemy commander who always shares their
tea with their subordinates, a harvest god who pauses
in their condemnation of ungrateful mortals to shep-
herd bees to the proper plants, a frustrating bureaucrat
who has a water dish for her assistant’s dog in his of-
fice. These are inroads to building more empathy and
pathos for those characters, and allow the storyteller
to build their personalities and stories as the game goes
on. When and if the player characters end up facing
them directly, this gives the confrontation more heft.
It’s one thing to be willing to kill the bureaucrat fund-
ing the local Wyld Hunt in cold blood when she’s just
a name and a low Defense score. It’s another when the

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 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
players know her as a constant advocate for her under-
ling’s promotion, and as the woman who keeps giving
her lunch leftovers to the local stray dogs.
Friendly and allied characters should receive the same
level of detail. Having distinct agendas and desires both
fleshes out Storyteller characters and provides poten-
tial points of friction between player characters. Having
to choose between compromising one character’s goals
and losing their allies’ good graces can be a wonderful
source of tension and drama, if the player has bought
into the idea of the Storyteller characters’ own agen-
cy. This isn’t a license to constantly turn friendly char-
acters (especially those secured with Merits) against
player characters’ agendas, but rather as a way to com-
plicate character relationships for a more interesting
story.
The abilities of the Exalted mean they will often be able
to overcome opposition to their plans, either holistical-
ly or through the Social Influence system. For games in
the style of Creation-as-Cost, use these as opportunities
to highlight what the characters drawn into the play-
ers’ agendas are giving up. If the players are emotion-
ally invested in a Storyteller character, her losses and
pain aren’t meaningless just because the players got her
to join them. For a Dynast who sides with a righteous
Circle of Solars against the Realm, the friends, family
and station she’s given up should provide as much im-
pact as the benefit in securing a powerful ally.
Forking Paths
Exalts may move mountains and smite armies, but they
must still bear the weight of their choices. Creation-as-
Cost emphasizes this; Storytellers should feel empow-
ered to present difficult quandaries with no clear right
decision or equitable outcome. A Circle allies with a
confederation of eastern tribes, but then must confront
the tribes’ inner struggles over an upcoming succes-
sion. Do they intervene on the behalf of their personal
friends, or support better qualified candidates who may
offer them more advantages in their struggles against
the Realm? A Sworn Brotherhood begins campaigning
to seal a shadowland, but receives word that a death-
knight is hunting their friends. Do they break off their
campaign, risking its success in order to protect people
they care about, or do they stay the course despite the
potential cost?
Presenting players with hard choices only works if
they have enough information to make a reasonable de-
cision, and if the choice is genuine. If they’re going to
be unpleasantly surprised by the option that they pick
with no indication there might be unrevealed factors
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in play, that’s no longer an interesting choice with a
cost; it’s a narrative landmine. Players may feel that the
choice didn’t matter, and rather than having paid a cost
for their ambition, they were the victims of Storyteller
trickery. Conversely, if a choice’s results are presented
as being much worse than they turn out to be, much
of the choice’s impact is lost, and players may begin to
think that there aren’t any real stakes in play.
It’s worth explicitly noting that the risk of outright fail-
ure is a potential factor in presenting meaningful choic-
es. Groups may wish to discuss whether or not outright
failure of their epic tasks is on the table in their desired
mode of play, as opposed to only allowing for indirect
failure such as when the Circle abandons one task to
prioritize another. If choices are consistently meaning-
ful, by the end of a chronicle, players will be able to look
back and consider how their decisions shaped the state
of the world that they leave behind. Such chronicles of-
ten embrace the fact that even great heroes can’t save
everyone or accomplish all their goals without sorrow,
a fact which emphasizes and uplifts those obstacles the
characters have surmounted.
Mechanical Suggestions
Creation-as-Cost benefits from detailed Storyteller
characters whom the players can’t just sway at will.
Using the Social Influence system to systemize strong
beliefs and problematic loyalties helps support the
thematic goals of play, while also allowing players to
mechanically invest in convincing Storyteller charac-
ters to their point of view and providing immediately
quantifiable stakes when some opposing force tries to
sway favorite allies or companions away from the play-
ers’ characters.
Encouraging players to invest in Allies and other social
Merits is also a way to quickly generate player invest-
ment. By offering additional incentives to take social
Merits, a Storyteller can take advantage of this, using
player established Storyteller characters to tie narra-
tive elements into concrete mechanical benefits.
Combining Styles
Many games won’t cleave to any single style of play.
Even a game that starts with very specific goals for
theme and content may very well find itself drifting
in other directions as the players’ interests change
and their characters grow. There’s nothing wrong
with this, as many elements of different styles of play
mesh together well. For example, the intense charac-
ter interest of Creation-as-Stage naturally feeds into
the hard decisions and pathos of Creation-as-Cost,
 C hapter O ne : R u nning a G a m e
while Creation-as-Cost’s concern with oncoming di-
saster and casualties compliment Creation-as-Threat’s
awareness of consequence and looming danger.
As a general rule, elements from Creation-as-Stage work
well for emphasizing Exalted power through character
agency and player interest; elements from Creation-as-
Threat are useful for demonstrating the breadth and
danger of Creation by giving it more mechanical reality;
and elements from Creation-as-Cost help provide more
emotional context and pathos by reinforcing player
characters’ relationships with the world. Using these
concepts as a toolkit, a Storyteller and their group can
construct and adjust their Chronicle to the particular
play experience they’re most interested in.
As a Storyteller, it’s important to prioritize the enjoy-
ment of everyone at the table over abstract ideas of style
or theme. If the chronicle started as a serious meditation
on tragedy consciously leaning into Creation-as-Cost,
but the players seem more interested in seeing if they
can run triage on a half dozen disasters at once, it may
be worth thinking about incorporating more elements
from Creation-as-Threat into the game. Remember that
the Storyteller’s interest in the game is just as import-
ant as any of the players, but that attempting to forcibly
override the direction of the table with any one per-
son’s idea on what the game is “about” is likely to end
poorly, so communication is very important!
Session Zero
When a Storyteller says “We’re playing Exalted,” what
immediately jumps to mind: a game of Dynasts, all vy-
ing for position and power on the Blessed Isle? A Circle
of Solar Exalted, enforcing their will upon Creation as
they dodge the Wyld Hunt? Perhaps a group of hero-
ic mortals, trying to scrape out a place for themselves
amidst the wonders and terrors of the wider world.
These and more are but a small fraction of the tales a
clever Storyteller can offer with Exalted.
This is both a blessing and a curse. It’s unlikely your
play group will get burned out on seeing the same thing
twice, but at the same time, the breadth of Exalted
means that players will have a hundred different expec-
tations. You may want to keep startling developments
in your chronicle a surprise, but establishing a base-
line helps ensure everyone enters the chronicle with
the same expectations. The Storyteller should avoid
“bait-and-switch” chronicles, such as, “I said we’d start
by playing mortals and Exalt in play, but it’s actually
a mortals-only chronicle in which no one Exalts.” or
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“This was supposed to be a kingdom-building game,
but since your retainers were killed in the first session,
you’re going to spend the rest of the chronicle fleeing
the Wyld Hunt.” It’s a good thing to make players aware
of potential developments, as long as changes to the
premise and style of the game come with the assent of
everyone at the table. For instance; “At some point, you
must be prepared to deal with the Wyld Hunt’s reaction
to establishing your power base.” this ensures that no
one is left feeling alienated from the game they origi-
nally wanted to take part in.
“Session Zero” is a gaming term that refers to a plan-
ning session. Generally, during Session Zero, no one
plays their characters or rolls any dice outside of a pre-
lude (p.XX). Think of this as a collective outline for the
story you and your players will be telling together. A
good Session Zero should set expectations, establish
the tone, bring all of the player characters together, and
get the players themselves excited to play through your
chronicle.
Genre of Game
Exalted encompasses entire worlds worth of play.
That’s not an exaggeration; a Solar Exalt can bounce
between Malfeas, the Underworld, the Wyld, and
Creation in their journeys and each has an abundance
of story to delve into. It’s unlikely that your group will
solve all the myriad problems of the multiverse in a
single chronicle, so deciding what your game is ‘about’
becomes important.
Before play, ask your fellow players (remember, a
Storyteller is a player too) what sort of game they’re
looking for. Discuss and combine ideas and themes.
The high adventure game you considered running
might not be the political drama some of your players
were hoping for. Getting a sense of what everyone is
into and what they want out of their Exalted chronicle
will help direct you.
Some examples are listed below — but this is by no
means an exhaustive or mutually exclusive list of what
Exalted games can do. Use this list to start discussion,
not end it.
Mortal-Focused: Games featuring or highlighting the
unExalted can contrast with the high-powered nature
of the setting and show a gritty example of life in the
presence of the fantastic. Magical power may be mun-
dane to the characters but remains novel to the play-
ers, and with the context of mortal life, it accentuates
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
the player characters as the most important people in
the world, but not the only people in the world. This
doesn’t necessarily mean that your players must play
mortals, although they certainly can if the group is
willing. Many Exalts may still find service to prince and
principality after their Exaltation, in the name of patri-
otism, while others may find themselves in service to
individuals, cities, organizations, or nations.
Mythic Fantasy: Your Circle is on a mission to save the
world. They battle undead behemoths, sometimes even
two at once and punch dinosaurs into the stratosphere.
A mythic fantasy game is the classic adventure story
of unlikely heroes taking on gods and demons in the
most epic setting possible. Your group probably wants
to play this if they are mostly interested in combat, big
badass spells, and amassing as much power as possible
to throw against the forces that threaten Creation.
Political Intrigue: Your characters must maintain their
power and influence and maybe take others down in
the process. They could be members of Lookshy’s gen-
tes, scions of Great Houses on the Blessed Isle, or part
of other, more esoteric institutions . Perhaps they’re
trying to overthrow one of the Hundred Kingdoms,
influence the Forest Witches, or even assert their own
place in the labyrinthine politics of Malfeas or the bu-
reaucracies of Yu-Shan. While a political game might
have some combat, these games tend to lean much
more towards mental and social Charms, and players
may want to show off their out-of-game cunning and
skill as well. If your players are asking you how they can
scheme their way onto the Scarlet Throne, your group
wants to play a political intrigue chronicle.
Epic Horror: The worlds of Exalted are full of
mind-bending horrors, from creatures that want to eat
your soul bits at a time to Hell itself, made of a Yozi
flipped inside-out and sewn back together, and who
happens to still be rather upset about it. Neverborn
yearn for the destruction of all things while Fair Folk
consume every unique aspect of personhood. Things
just beyond the ken of normal mortals are all around
the Exalted, and they’re all hungry for what the player
characters have. Such horrors come for their dreams,
their souls, their loved ones, or their reality itself. Your
group may want to play an epic horror game if they
want to face overwhelming odds, struggle with pyrrhic
victories, and make difficult choices in the face of in-
human evils.
Reconciliation and Redemption: This might seem an
odd choice for an Exalted game; after all, when you
have earth-shattering superpowers and swords that can
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cut through mountains, why would you need to bring
two forces to an agreement when you can simply take
them over? Some players do like a challenge, however,
and may wish to mend the rift between the gods and
the ancients or save an Abyssal Exalt from herself. This
type of game takes a delicate hand to run and paints the
worlds of Exalted in more of its shades of grey, rather
than as black and white as some players might prefer.
Be willing to be open and emotionally honest with your
players if you plan on engaging with this type of sto-
ry and make liberal use of the safety rules later in this
chapter.
Multi-Genre: A cosmic horror story might dovetail
into mythic fantasy scenes where the characters have
to gear up and train for the end of the world. Political
intrigue could very easily lead to epic horror when
player characters find out what’s under Mount Meru.
Mythic fantasy could even lead into reconciliation and
redemption when the players find out that the big bad
evil guy is willing to negotiate. Be willing to be flexible
with your genre, and open to readjusting if players ar-
en’t enjoying the direction the chronicle is going.
Collective Character Creation
After you’ve figured out what kind of story you’re tell-
ing and (very generally) where your chronicle is going
to go, the next logical step is character creation. A lot
of groups like to create their characters separately, and
there is nothing wrong with that. No one needs to know
all of the details of everyone else’s characters, and it can
be fun to play a game where the player characters start
as strangers and end up closer than family. For this rea-
son it’s important to decide which character creation
style you’d like to employ before you all start making
characters.
If your players want to engage with the intricacies of
familial Dynastic politics, have complementary charm
sets, or simply know who they’re travelling with into
the vast unknown it’s best that players create their
characters together. Scions of a Great House likely
grew up together; a Circle of Solar Exalted has some
history, while a stranger mix, like a Lunar, a Sidereal, an
Exigent, and a Getimian surely have their reasons to be
attached to each other.
Make note of how players build their characters to
gauge their interest, and be sure to discuss with them
about their desires. One player optimizing for a partic-
ular field like combat or investigation might be inter-
ested in scenes focused on those fields, while another is
trying to end them as quickly and efficiently as possible.
 C hapter O ne : R u nning a G a m e
This applies to Intimacies as well; a player who gives
their character a Tie of fear to a major NPC may be
communicating that they want to engage with them
more, or they might be trying to avoid sharing scenes
with that NPC.
There are two ways to go about creating characters
collaboratively: mechanics-based or story-based. Pick
whichever works best for you and your group or mix
as needed.
Mechanics-Based Character Creation
Each character plays a particular role in their group, be
it the researcher, the tank, the sneak, the face, or any
other archetype. Where one player character is weak,
another is strong. The group balances itself out.
The most obvious problem that presents itself is “what
if two people want to play the same kind of charac-
ter build”? Hopefully, all of your players are mature
enough to talk out issues like this. Maybe someone
plays a tank in this chronicle, but in another they agree
to play a sneak. As a Storyteller, you may be called in
to mediate some of these disagreements. Hopefully you
won’t have to deal with someone who is willing to bully
fellow players in order to get what they want, but if you
do, consider what is best for your game and other play-
ers at your table (see Safety Rules and Best Practices,
p. XX).
A benefit to collaboratively discussing and creating
player characters - is knowing who has what, and how
their powers will complement each other. A Lunar
whose Charmset focuses on trickery finds an excellent
partner in a combat-focused Solar Exalt who can back
up her threats for instance. A clever but poorly social-
ized Dragon-Blooded sorcerer who cannot talk her way
out of a paper bag works well with a fellow who can
charm the petals off a rose but never finished school.
Encourage your players to talk to each other as they
build their characters, and discuss which Charm might
be most useful where. Remember: just because a player
character isn’t starting with a Charm doesn’t mean they
can’t buy it later.
A benefit of starting from character creation is that
story can naturally emerge from the numbers. The
Dragon-Blooded sorcerer possesses libraries (both lit-
eral and figurative) full of mystical occult knowledge,
represented by her dots in Intelligence and Perception,
Lore and Occult, and Merits like Resources, Mentor,
Eyes in Both Worlds, and Geomantic Prodigy. However,
she has very few dots in Attributes like Manipulation
and Charisma and Abilities like Socialize and Presence.
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What made her this way? What experiences shaped
and molded her into the series of dots and numbers on
the sheet? Don’t be afraid to ask questions about why
a character has a particular skill set, and build parts of
the story around those questions.
Story-Based Character Creation
For some groups, creating their concept, or slotting
their characters into the story comes before anything
else. When collaboratively making characters, it’s im-
portant to make sure they play off of and complement
each other — the isolated Dragon-Blooded and her con-
genial friend, or the witchy Lunar and her brutish Solar
partner for example — are character concepts that are
likely to clash and interact in interesting ways.
As Storyteller you should consider how capable your
player characters will be at the start; a Dragon-Blooded
fresh out of secondary school is unlikely to outclass the
Scarlet Empress, so players should try to keep the goals
of their characters immediately relevant, even if they
choose to have more far-off ones. Story-based character
creation should be a starting point for your chronicle
and is part of informing both players and Storyteller of
where everyone wants the story to go. The chronicle
does not begin and end with character creation.
Some players have been taught to believe that if their
character has a relationship of any kind with the world
or other characters, the Storyteller will exploit and de-
stroy those as soon as they have a chance, a notion you
should discuss with your players and disabuse. As such,
they may be wary of making any sort of connection
without guidance or structure. To get them started, you
might encourage your players to build a relationship
map.
A relationship map looks a little like a spiderweb,
drawn on a piece of paper. To start, write down the
player characters’ names and circle them. Then discuss
how they are connected. As you make connections,
draw lines between character names and write the spe-
cifics of the relationship next to it. If two players create
a Storyteller character through their connection (for
example, a perfectionistic mother who loved one player
character and hated the other), write the name of that
character and a short description down in a new circle.
Other players can then connect their characters to the
new Storyteller character as well.
It is extremely likely that this web will get messy and
complicated, like most relationships. As the Storyteller,
it is your job to find the drama in the tension points of
the map and bring those to the front. Don’t endlessly
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
hammer at how awful a player character’s mother is for
instance, but how might he react to attending a grand
ball that his mother and favorite consort both unex-
pectedly gate-crash?
The Lone Wolf
Something to watch out for during story-based charac-
ter creation is the lone wolf archetype. These charac-
ters tend to sit in the corner and wait for plot to come
to them, refusing to interact with the world unless it
pays them particular attention. Unlike other games,
the fiction of Exalted does center player characters
as chosen and special, so it’s unlikely that you as the
Storyteller will have much trouble pulling focus for
them. Like in other games, however, the lone wolf can
pull focus from not just the world itself, but from other
player characters as well. A Solar with a huge panoply
and tragic backstory who refuses to interact with any-
one in the Circle and will not share the spot-light can
spell disaster for your game.
The best antidote for a lone wolf, and other similar
archetypes of players, is to connect all player charac-
ters. Why does the grumpy sorcerer put up with her
effervescent and outgoing partner? What experiences
do they share? Are they from the same Great House, or
did they go to an academy together? Lone wolf charac-
ters are often born of a lack of setting investment, so in
many ways, the world needs to involve them whether
they’d prefer it or not, and questions like these can help
build those connections.
Safety Rules and Best Practices
It’s very easy to dismiss your chronicle as “just a game.”
After all, you’re getting a bunch of friends together to
play pretend, so how could it hurt anyone? Just because
the characters commit genocide and conduct religious
pogroms as they shape the world in their image doesn’t
mean that you as players would ever do anything like
that. No one at your table has the power to burn vil-
lages to the ground with a thought, and no one’s been
a victim of the Anathema in real life. Despite this, if
you’ve ever interacted with people before, you’d know
that words absolutely can hurt under the right circum-
stances. The same thing goes in games.
You might think your joke about wanting to kill your-
self because of work is in good fun, but someone at
your table may have struggled with suicidal ideation
before and still have difficulties because of it. That
Anathema who harmed your character as a child could
remind a fellow player of an abusive adult in their past.
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Sometimes, things come up in your chronicle that
might upset or even hurt a fellow player, and those
things can come up totally by accident. Does this mean
you should walk on eggshells, or that a game is no place
for mature or potentially upsetting themes? No, some
people may even find the experiences offered by role-
playing to be emotionally cathartic, but be aware of the
people around you, as well as sensitive to their emo-
tions; this is good practice for gaming as well as life.
Your own comfort and safety is important too. Keep in
mind the cardinal rule about communication: If you’re
not sure, ask.
Players are more important than the game. Beyond
anything you can take away from this chapter, remem-
ber that. You can’t have a game without players, and
you can’t have players if they’re too upset, uncomfort-
able, anxious, or angry to come to your table. If some-
one needs to drop out for a session, or from the entire
chronicle, you should try to not take it personally.
Chances are something came up that had nothing to do
with you. If you treat your players like employees who
are showing up for their second job instead of friends
who are consenting to play a specific kind of pretend
with you for a few hours, you will lose your players
quickly. Play is a commitment, but only in the same way
a casual dinner date is a commitment. Physical, emo-
tional, and mental needs all come before a game, for
both players and Storytellers.
Below are some suggestions of safety mechanics for
your Exalted game from a variety of sources. Feel free
to use none, some, or all of them as fits the needs and
comfort of your table. Use these like you would any oth-
er mechanic in a gaming text.
Lines and Veils
Lines and Veils allow players to pick and choose what
they want to address in the chronicle. Before game, the
Storyteller should prepare two sheets of paper. Label
one “Lines” and the other “Veils.” Lines are things that
will absolutely not be touched on in the chronicle, not
even mentioned in passing — meaning both things that
are not acknowledged, and things that are actively ex-
cised from the version of the setting as presented by the
Storyteller. Veils are things that can happen, but will
not be played out, and instead addressed with a “fade to
black.” The Storyteller should ask players what they’d
like added to the lists, and note that the lists can be ed-
ited at any time. Veils can be moved to Lines, Lines can
be moved to Veils, new Veils or Lines can be added, or
Veils or Lines can be taken away (with the consensus of
the other players).
 C hapter O ne : R u nning a G a m e
Lines and Veils aren’t to be used to cut out antago-
nists purely for player advantage (i.e. “I don’t want the
Neverborn to be a part of this chronicle at all, not even
mentioned in passing”) but can be used to restrict an-
tagonists that might be uncomfortable for some play-
ers (i.e. “I do not want the villains in this chronicle to
use sexual violence,” or “I do not want to see spiders or
spider-like entities”). The Storyteller should, however,
watch for player goals that are best preempted with
Lines. Many setting elements can impel a player to fore-
ground efforts to eliminate it — not because it seems like
an enjoyable challenge, but because they can’t enjoy
any chronicle with that element. Particularly egregious
examples that some Exalted players might be famil-
iar with include eradicating the Great Curse, breaking
into Heaven to confront the Unconquered Sun about
his perceived failure to fix the world, destroying the
Loom of Fate to end destiny, ending slavery across all
of Creation (see p. XX), killing a canon character they
find personally loathsome, etc. Foregrounding such an
element can be great if everyone will have fun, but if it’s
less about having fun doing it and more about not being
able to have fun at all until after it’s done, it’s best for
the Storyteller to just eliminate that setting element
exegetically before play begins.
Common Lines: Sexual violence, explicit depiction
of torture, force-feeding, starvation, mutilation, racial
slurs, gender-specific slurs, spiders, trypophobia-in-
ducing imagery, needles, bestiality, explicit depiction
of bodily functions
Common Veils: Explicit depiction of consensual sex-
ual activity, torture, emotional abuse, physical abuse,
body horror, human experimentation, dream or night-
mare sequences, childhood memories, prophetic vi-
sions, imperialistic apologia, sex work
Fade to Black
In a movie, when the hero is just about to get into bed
with her love interest or be “forcibly interrogated,”
sometimes the camera cuts away right before the ac-
tion — occasionally with a moan or a scream included
as appropriate. This technique is called a Fade to Black.
If you don’t want to narrate every caress of a love scene
or the weirdness of being in a Wyld prison, simply say
that you are fading to black, and then pull the scene up
elsewhere — perhaps the morning after, or in a meeting
to rescue the trapped character.
The Stoplight System
This technique was pioneered by the group Games to
Gather. The Storyteller lays out three different col-
ored circles on the table: red, yellow, and green. Each
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color indicates a response to different levels of intensi-
ty. Green indicates “Yes, I am okay with and encourage
the scene getting more intense.” Yellow means “The
scene is fine at the intensity level it is now, and I would
like it to stay here if possible.” Red means “The scene is
too intense for me in a bad way and I need it to decrease
or I need to tap out.” Players can tap the colored circles
as appropriate to indicate to the Storyteller what they
might want or need at that moment. 
The Storyteller can also use the Stoplight System to
ask the players if they’d like intensity increased or de-
creased as necessary without breaking the narrative
flow. To do so, the Storyteller can repeatedly tap a color
— tapping the green to ask if they should dial up the
intensity ” yellow for “keep it here?,” or red for “do you
need me to stop?” The players can then touch a color in
response. Players can also respond by saying the color
in question out loud. 
The X-Card
A fairly simple technique, the X-Card was designed by
John Stavropoulos. The X-Card is fairly self-explana-
tory. A card or sheet of paper with an X drawn on it is
placed in the middle of the table. At any point, a player
or the Storyteller may touch the X-Card to call a halt to
any action currently causing them discomfort. If they
would like to explain themselves, they may, but it is ab-
solutely not necessary and the Storyteller should con-
tinue play without the upsetting action once everyone
is settled back in.
The “Okay” Check-In
A LARP (Live Action Role Playing) technique that
has since made the leap to tabletop gaming, the OK
Check-In is a physical method of checking in on play-
ers that may not be having the best time. To ask some-
one if they’re OK out of character, simply hold up an
Okay symbol over your heart. If someone asks if you
are OK, respond with either a thumbs up (“I’m OK”),
LIMITS DOCUMENT
One problem some Storytellers have found with Lines
and Veils is that it tends to place focus on the things
some players would rather not address at all. If you
find that this is a problem with your group specifical-
ly, consider opening a shared digital document where
you can all add or remove things you don’t want in
play. Feel free to add things you want to see in play as
well, so long as both sections are clearly labeled and
differentiated. No one has to sign their name, and no
one will ask questions.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
a thumbs-down (“I’m not OK”) or a hand waggle (“I’m
not sure” or “I’m uncomfortable saying.”) If someone
gives a thumb down or a hand waggle, stop play for a
moment and check in debriefing if necessary (see that
section below). Respect that your fellow player knows
themselves best, no matter what answer they give.
Emotional Bleed
Many of these safety techniques talk about something
being too uncomfortable or intense “in a bad way.” This
is for clarity; some players like being made uncomfort-
able or put into emotionally intense situations. Such
players may play horror games or intense dramas as a
sort of catharsis, a way to experience traumatic emo-
tions in a low-consequence environment: this is called
emotional bleed, or just bleed for short.  this session? What was their favorite interaction with
When a character experiences the emotions the player
is experiencing, that’s called bleed-in. Similarly, when
a player experiences the emotions her character is feel-
ing, that’s called bleed-out. Bleed itself is not bad, and
can even be a very good thing, but it can sometimes be
unpleasant for a player who wasn’t expecting it or didn’t
want it. If a player is getting unreasonably frustrated
or upset at a challenging circumstance, this could be a
sign of bad bleed. Stop play and give everyone a breath-
er before continuing if bleed begins to cause problems
at your table. Bleed can absolutely enhance play expe-
riences and add another dimension of emotional reso-
nance, but only if everyone is on board. Check-ins, oc-
casional snack breaks, and use of the safety techniques
in this chapter are extremely helpful if the table is ex-
periencing high amounts of unwanted bleed.
Open Door Policy
If a player needs to stop play for any reason, they
should feel free to do so after giving the Storyteller a
heads-up. The chapter (game session) is then on pause
until that player either returns or leaves the premises.
Storytellers should use this technique either in con-
junction with others, or during sessions where players
may have to leave abruptly for personal reasons.
Some players object to the use of The Door Is Always
Open, saying that other, hypothetical players might
abuse this technique to coerce the Storyteller if things
don’t go their way, though this is unlikely to happen in
practice. Players who are emotionally invested in their
characters and the story will often not walk away un-
less it’s necessary. Please allow space for them to do so.
Debriefing
Debriefing is a post-game safety technique, and can be
used along with any and all of the suggestions above.
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After the chapter is finished, the Storyteller asks the
players to put away their character sheets and take
some deep breaths. Soft music or snacks can also be
used to assist in debriefing. Slipping into character is
easy — slipping out can be a little less so. Debriefing is
all about bringing the players back into the real world,
back through the thorny maze of the chronicle the
Storyteller has created.
Use this time to talk about the game in a context other
than first-person. Many players tend to refer to their
characters as “I.” The Storyteller should encourage
them to use the character’s names instead, and use
first-person only for things that they felt as players, not
as characters. What did they think was the highlight of
another player’s character? An NPC? Is there anything
the players think the Storyteller could be doing better?
Are the safety techniques and chronicle-building tech-
niques working out for everyone at the table? Should
anything be changed to make the game more fun and
engaging for everyone involved? These are all questions
that can be asked during debriefing, though they’re not
required. If there are other, more important topics that
need to be covered, use debriefing time to cover those
as well. 
Debriefing does not need to last for a set amount of
time. However, after a particularly intense session, it’s
probably a good idea to have a longer debriefing than
normal. If a character Exalts, dies, loses a loved one or a
friend, or otherwise has the focus on them for some rea-
son, make sure to check in on them. Debriefing can also
be valuable for canny Storytellers — hearing what your
players think is going to happen and what they want to
happen might offer good ideas for your chronicle.
Bringing the Players Together
Now that you have your players at the table, your char-
acters created, and your safety rules laid out, you have
the option to end your Session Zero. Give players a bit
of time to get used to their characters and think about
the plots they want to play out. If you wish, there are a
couple of final things you can discuss with your players.
Preludes
Just because the characters are strangers to each-other
now doesn’t mean they might not have history. Every
Exalt may have dozens or even hundreds of past lives,
stretching all the way back to the dawn of the First Age
— not to mention a mortal life before their Exaltation.
These lives all had their own romance, drama, violence,
and danger. If you want your players to get a sense of
 C hapter O ne : R u nning a G a m e
the scale of their characters’ current lives and respon-
sibilities, you might have them play out some of these
past lives together.
Preludes should be played out round-robin style, with
five-to-ten-minute scenes for each player. If they wish,
other players can leap in, troupe style as side characters
that may become significant later or as their own char-
acters from past lives. Establish with the “star” player
(the one who is the focus of the prelude) what the scene
will be, what it tells the player about her character, and
what sort of side characters she wants in the scene.
Other players can make suggestions and ask questions,
but the final decisions about the prelude rest with the
star player and the Storyteller.
When actually playing out the prelude, consider leav-
ing the dice aside. You and the star player already have
an idea of where you want it to go, so spend those five
or ten minutes roleplaying the story out without risk
of a sudden failure changing things. Narrate, negotiate,
and dramatize until the prelude reaches a natural con-
clusion, then pass play to the next star player.
Saying Yes and No
Something all players should feel comfortable doing is
making suggestions or requesting that certain lines of
play stop altogether. Structured ways of doing this can
be found in the Safety Rules section above. But even
when player safety isn’t at stake, it’s important to listen,
both for Storytellers and other players.
Saying No: Sometimes a player might not like the care-
fully crafted story you’ve prepared for them about the
brutal politics of Gem, or might not be comfortable with
attending a Cynis salon. That’s fine! As the Storyteller
and fellow player, it’s part of your job to respect the
wishes of your players. Make it clear to them that you
are open to changing a plot that they are not interested
in or uncomfortable with. Even something as simple as
saying “feel free to talk to me before or after game if
something isn’t working for you,” can do wonders for
both your chronicle and your player retention.
Saying Yes: No Storyteller can read their player’s
minds; there might be plots they want to play out, or
relationships they’d like to progress that slip your no-
tice entirely.. Stay open to suggestions and ideas from
your group. Remember, you are here to play too — just
in a different role — and player ideas can give you direc-
tion and take some responsibility off of your shoulders
while letting players choose to opt into or out of certain
scenes.
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DON’T BAIT AND SWITCH
It’s bad form to switch up the plot established in Ses-
sion Zero without warning the players. If they want a
political story, it’s not appropriate to spring a surprise
war on them without it being the result of player ac-
tions. If the high concept is, “You’re going to be Side-
reals working for the Bureau of Destiny,” don’t pull
the rug out from the players two sessions in by having
most of the Bureau slaughtered. This isn’t to say that
plots can’t evolve organically — if the players politick
their way into a war, that’s the result of events in the
chronicle that can be dealt with in and out of char-
acter. It just means that you should be upfront about
what kind of game you’re running. We have faith that
you can find a way to surprise and excite players
without completely duping them and screwing over
their characters.
Rolling Dice
Exalted calls for throwing big handfuls of dice a lot of
the time, but aside from combat, Charms and spells,
there aren’t a lot of hard and fast judgements for when
players or the Storyteller should roll. While you could
just choose to make players roll at a whim or force them
to roll for every action they take, here are a few helpful
guidelines on when to roll.
Roll when there is a real chance of failure: For a
character with a lot of dots in Lore and Occult, a roll
probably isn’t necessary to recall a minor detail about a
spell’s history. But if she needs to wangle the secrets of
a spell she’s only heard of in obscure texts from a mys-
terious Lunar sorcerer? That’s a good time to have a
roll; perhaps she can impress him with her Lore or use
her limited social ability to stroke his ego. Especially
when there’s a strong possibility of failure, let your ta-
ble feel a moment of tension as the roll is being made.
Rolling becomes exciting when there are stakes to the
outcome. Even if the character does fail that doesn’t
need to be the end. By “failing forward” the Lunar
might laugh, amused by the sorceress’s efforts, and in-
stead offer her direction toward an existing copy of the
spell hidden deep in the Underworld — that is, if she
proves worthy of it by finding it.
Let the player ask: Players usually know when they
want to roll. Rolls provide instant dramatic tension
and a sudden sense of uncertainty that heightens ex-
citement. Players roll for certain scenes as a matter of
course, but sometimes they may wish to show off dots
they’ve bought in an Ability by rolling to resolve.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
Roleplay over roll-play: Sometimes if a player charac-
ter is in a good conversation with someone, like a talk-
ative Sidereal for instance, you might decide that rather
than rolling for an important question to have the play-
er simply ‘play it out’ in character. This is especially
useful for cases where there is some piece of informa-
tion you need the players to have, and it can be more
satisfying for the player. Rolls might come and go, but
the player is much more likely to remember the time
their glib tongue got a secret from one of Five-Score
Fellowship just by building a rapport instead of making
a high roll.
The Two Topics
Two topics are very common in Exalted and may need
special attention during Session Zero and safety dis-
cussions: they are the players’ and characters’ feelings
towards imperialism as represented by the Scarlet
Realm, and slavery in the setting. Both topics should be
included in Session Zero’s safety discussions to deter-
mine if the setting needs adjustment (see Four Degrees
of Evil on p. XX and Customizing the Setting on p. XX).
Imperialism
The Scarlet Realm is the Empire, specifically designed
to be Exalted’s take on the archetypal fantasy “Evil
Empire,” and especially an informal critique of the
Roman, British, and Qin Dynastic Empires in the real
world. Empires are fundamentally engines of gover-
nance designed to systematically enrich ruling peo-
ples at the expense of a subjugated population — and
have always been so. Many people in the real world
have lived under colonial powers or have experienced
postcolonial stress from the long-time cultural and eco-
nomic damage done to their homelands. In Exalted, a
significant character group resides in the Realm or
similar imperial systems such as Prasad or Lookshy —
the Dragon-Blooded. A not-inconsiderable number of
Solar player characters are former Dynasts, and nearly
everyone in the setting has an opinion on the biggest
empire in the world.
The infrastructural and unifying benefits conferred by
the Roman system of imperialism or the Qin Dynasty to
their conquered cultures were real, but almost entirely
in the service of expropriating wealth. Likewise, peace
and prosperity were often secured for the metropole
by practice of empire — but that prosperity came from
enslaving or exploiting millions of others. Rarely was
the concentration of wealth at the expense of the rul-
ing culture, until the imperial peace inevitably ended,
plunging entire now-contiguous swaths of territo-
ry into brutal wars of succession and revolution. The
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Realm is not the sole source of imperialism or colonial-
ism in the setting, nor the sole example of type — many
cultures practice varied measures of imperialism, such
as the conquering Delzahn Horde, the marching armies
of Iscomay, and the economic domination of Skullstone.
The last is an example of indirect colonialism without
direct imperialism, showing the sometimes-subtle na-
ture of such systems.
The Realm itself practices an advanced imperial sys-
tem based around indirect rule, while also reaping the
benefits from satrapies and imperial systems pursuing
less restrictive methods. Like many empires in history,
righteous people can believe in the real benefits that the
Realm confers, such as linking together vast systems of
trade and cultural transmission or providing stability
to regions — but those who benefit and buy into these
systems must numb their souls to the cost and the fact
that their success comes from stepping over and upon
others. The imperial drive undergirding the Realm is
the enrichment of the Ten Thousand Dragons at the
expense of everyone else, no matter what an other-
wise-righteous Dynast might delude themselves into
believing. The benefits of empire are justifications of
convenience, a moral bulwark to shield a Dynast’s com-
passionate heart from the realities of their rule.
Ask the players: How do their characters feel about
the mechanisms propping up the Realm’s culture (or
the culture of whatever society they are in)? A Dynast
may simply not care or rationalize it as the way of the
world; perhaps they believe rule over Creation to be
their birthright despite discomfort with the current
culture; or maybe they seek to reform the empire into
something more equitable in order to maintain the ben-
efits without the hideous downsides. In their too-hu-
man hearts, a Dynast or other imperial beneficiary may
simply fight to protect the mechanisms that keep their
own family and civilization safe, even if they quietly ac-
knowledge those ways of life are what bring their loved
ones into mortal peril from revolutionaries or Lunar
warlords.
Slavery
Slavery in Exalted is generally a social condition and
not an ethnic one, though this is far from a universal
truth. Many characters have grown up with these sys-
tems in place all their lives, rationalizing the misery of
slaves as the vicissitudes of fate or soothing their own
consciences by pointing to systems available to en-
slaved persons to better their own station in life by giv-
ing service and buying their freedom. Certainly, these
arguments have swayed many would-be abolitionists
from challenging these systems in our history, and vae
 C hapter O ne : R u nning a G a m e
victus is a powerful sentiment if you’re the conqueror
and not the conquered.
Many players will have a strong reaction to slavery of
any kind, due to personal history, family history, or
simply growing up in a world where abolition is — os-
tensibly — a popular sentiment. Abolition in the real
world only came after many failures and false starts.
Even now, many systems of slavery persist under a vari-
ety of names with varying degrees of legality — systems
such as prison labor, debt bondage, or the use of child
soldiers — which supporters of abolition often fail to
directly acknowledge as slavery. The word slave itself,
as opposed to enslaved person, can often center the in-
dividual’s social status above their personhood and re-
inforces the dehumanization and separation necessary
for these systems to function on a large scale.
Systems of human enslavement occur in virtually ev-
ery society with a degree of social stratification, a high
population density, and an economic surplus — and
many extant systems of wealth in the world today were
built on the backs of the enslaved. Slavery has existed
worldwide stretching back into antiquity and has tak-
en a wide variety of forms, from debtors and prisoners
of war to the hideous chattel grind of the transatlan-
tic slave trade. Fundamentally, though no matter what
form it takes, slavery allows people to own, buy, and sell
other individuals as property, and was a practice broad-
ly tolerated throughout most of human history — hence
its inclusion in Exalted. Many of the aforementioned
people who have lived under colonial empires have
lived in places that established themselves through a
system of slavery or suffered as the human resource
of that economic system, as systems of slavery often
went hand-in-hand with colonialism and imperialism.
Not all of them — Cyrus the Great, ruler of the Persian
Empire, prohibited slavery and allowed all the enslaved
peoples he freed to return home — but many did.
In Exalted, many cultures practice various forms of
slavery. Some do not practice de jure slavery, though
they maintain de facto or conditional enslavement.
Great Forks and Port Calin, for example, allow a free-
man or citizen to sell themselves into a temporary
or permanent period of indenture, while the Realm
enslaves commoner criminals and debtors, but only
as a matter of Exalted privilege. Lookshy adamantly
denies it practices slavery (and considers the accusa-
tion a grievous social offense), even as their helots are
slaves in all but name. Other cultures practice forms of
serfdom, while cultures led by sorcerer- or necroman-
cer-kings exploit supernatural sources of labor such as
mindless corpses or bound demons.
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THEY’RE STILL PEOPLE
“But what about Dragon Kings, or demons, or ele-
mentals, or — ?” you might ask. “They’re not human,
so we don’t have to treat them like humans.” And yet,
while definitely not human, a sapient creature has
emotions, culture, thoughts, and needs. They’re not
human, but they’re still a person, and one that players
and characters can empathize with, even if total sym-
pathy is all but impossible. Many demons tend toward
malice due to their place in a Yozi’s soul hierarchy, yet
can be capable of kindness and empathy themselves.
Be very careful in treating different species or por-
traying cultures as inherently evil and subhuman —
and by be careful, we mean you shouldn’t do it.
In preindustrial or slave-using cultures, regulated slav-
ery can provide a vital economic pillar and source of
prosperity — although we stress again that that enrich-
ment comes at the expense of the dignity and lives of
human beings. Left to its own devices, slavery is inju-
rious to the long-term economic health of a culture,
as slavery begets significant labor issues. The practice
calcifies social stratification and creates deeply en-
trenched systems of judging a person’s worth based on
class that may persist even after abolition is achieved —
and abolition is far from a foregone conclusion.
The player group should decide how in-focus they
want systems of exploitation to be as part of their game.
Exalted critiques these systems as part of the setting
and it’s important to confront their varied forms in real
life, but player comfort levels and game enjoyment is of
paramount importance at the table. Characters might
be ardently opposed to the mechanisms of slavery and
empire underpinning their power, or they might toler-
ate them, accepting that not even the Exalted can fight
a war or overturn the world alone. Then again, a small
group of thoughtful, determined people can change the
world — as the quote that opens this book says, it’s the
only thing that ever has.
Naming Conventions
in Creation
As any player of tabletop roleplaying games knows, the
hardest part of building a brand-new character is de-
ciding their name. Exalted is no different — perhaps
even more challenging! Creation is a vast place full of
an immense variety of cultures that might inspire you;
how’s a player to choose?
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
What’s in a Name?
Or, better yet, where; a character’s place of origin
should indicate what kind of name they have. Dynasts
of the Realm have names like Negezzer, Cainan,
Ejava, Mnemon, and Lisara, while many places in the
Threshold take names from nouns, like Stone Turtle,
Swan or Rain. Some characters might have names that
are humorous, grim, or ironic; a Ghost-Blooded may
go by Sins of his Father, while a towering elephant
Lunar might be called Little Wu, or a dour Terrestrial
could be Smiling Mairenn. It’s not uncommon for
characters from the West to have names inspired by
Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese or Polynesian
names. Characters from the South might draw inspi-
ration from Arabic, Yoruban, or Amharic languages.
Names vary wildly in the East thanks to the influence
of Nexus, Lookshy, and the Hundred Kingdoms, and
both Eastern European names and descriptive sobri-
quets are common. In the Southeast one might draw
inspiration for their character’s name from Nahautl
or Quecha, or even Spanish. Because of the open, cus-
tomizable nature of the Hundred Kingdoms, you could
invent any kind of homeland you can imagine, along
with their own naming customs. For Northern charac-
ters you might consider Gaelic or Scandinavian names,
or names from North American indigenous languages.
There are no wrong answers, and exceptions exist in
cultures from every Direction.
Remember that characters can come from a mixed-her-
itage background; they could have names like Yurgen
Kaneko or Mitsuya Veierød or Itotia Baran. Stretch
your imagination and think about where your charac-
ter came from and why their parents might have given
them their name. Maybe it’s a family name that your
character hates but feels attached to regardless; maybe
your character was named for her great-grandmother
who was a renowned warrior; maybe your character’s
mother just thought the name was pretty. Thinking
carefully about the culture and origin of your charac-
ter’s name is a great way to breathe life into her.
Heroic Sobriquets
Many characters choose not to go by their given name
at all, while a number of Creation’s societies consider
taking an adult name to be a celebrated rite of passage.
As legendary heroes, many Exalted gain a sobriquet or
heroic appellation that describes a deed for which they
are known, or a personality trait they espouse. This
sobriquet (which can take on legendary connotations;
see Dragon-Blooded, p. 142) might be self-assigned,
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or it may have been given by witnesses to the Exalt’s
epic deeds. Tepet Ejava is known as the Roseblack
while Yurgen Kaneko is the Bull of the North for in-
stance. Your character could be Itotia, Swift as Wind
or Mitsuya, Who Knows Much or one of a myriad of
others.
Alternatively, your character might have decided her
given name is no longer the person she is, and has tak-
en up a heroic one , like Righteous River or Light in
Her Wake. Others might refer to her by a shortened
version of her epithet, calling her “River” or “Light.”
Taking on a new, heroic name is common among those
Solar Exalted and outcaste Dragon-Blooded who do
not feel strong ties to their homeland, or who wish to
reinvent themselves as heroes. No small number of
Solar Exalted originate from within the Great Houses
of the Realm, and most find shedding their family name
to be a cruel necessity. Similarly, Infernal Exalted may
also wish to cast off their ties to an old life and reinvent
themselves under a new name.
Lunar Exalted are sometimes given their heroic epi-
thet by an elder during the tattooing that marks them
as members of the Silver Pact. Most take on appella-
tions that reference their spirit shape, like Strength
of Many or Seven Devil Clever and Venomous Spur.
Some who never receive tattoos adopt a sobriquet upon
their Exaltation anyway, in the manner of outcaste
Terrestrials or Solars.
Sidereal Exalted, once inducted into their duties in Yu
Shan, might choose to keep going by their given names
or they might work under a new heroic name — one
befitting of an agent of destiny, such as Iron Siaka or
Shepherd of the North Star. In time, their names come
to simultaneously mean both much and little — only
their coworkers and enemies will ever know it.
Getimians, as outsiders, and Exigents, as unique
agents, may have any variety of names. A Getimian
might have a name from an origin culture that has gone
extinct in Creation, or a sobriquet based on a heroic
deed that never occurred; while an Exigent’s sobri-
quet may be based on the crisis that resulted in their
Exaltation.
Alchemical Exalted, as created beings, choose names
that sound more like titles to reflect their purpose,
much like ships or books: Names like Stern Whip of
Industry, Instantaneous Transmission of Judgment,
or Lissome Avid Engineer. In a similar vein, Liminal
Exalted tend to possess whatever name their maker
gave them, such as Dame Crimson. Some might choose
to cast this aside in lieu of a new heroic epithet, like any
 C hapter O ne : R u nning a G a m e
of the other Exalted, or they might keep it out of a sense
of sentimentality.
Abyssal Exalted have sacrificed their names and in-
stead bear titles bestowed by their Deathlord upon
accepting the Black Exaltation. These titles are often
specific, indicative of their status as deathknights with-
in the Underworld’s feudal hierarchy, and sometimes
shared across incarnations — though Abyssals are too
new to Creation for decisive trends to emerge. Often
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their titles begin with an article, such as ‘an’ or ‘the’ —
The Falling Tears Poet, The Maiden of the Mirthless
Smile, The Disciple of the Seven Forbidden Wisdoms.
An Abyssal will often trade in a shorthand or reference
to their title as a matter of convenience (such as Poet,
Maiden, or Disciple) and to sidestep the curse which
hangs over them which will bring them grief if they
should claim a name, especially their former one.
 Chapter Two
Storytelling Exalted
While this book generally addresses the Storyteller,
every player shares responsibility to care for the safety
and comfort of other players. The Storyteller may hold
final authority over the game’s rules and fiction, but
they’re no one’s boss. The Storyteller is another play-
er with a specialized role, and all players are equals.
When a conflict arises between player needs and the
game’s needs, player needs come first.
This section also discusses some ways in which the so-
cial level of Exalted and the in-game level of Exalted
inform and interact with each other. When the game
and the surrounding social situation run well, each one
improves the other: the game makes people feel good
out of character, and the players’ personalities and in-
teractions out of character improve the fun and func-
tion of the game. These are some best practices to help
you make sure that happens.
How to Teach Exalted
When you start a new Exalted game, your players’ pri-
or experience with the system and the hobby will prob-
ably vary. First-time tabletop roleplayers, players famil-
iar with other RPGs who have never played Exalted,
and players who have run Exalted since it came out in
2001 may all share the same table.
New players can’t learn everything veterans know in an
afternoon. All you have to do is physically pick up the
Third Edition Core to realize Exalted is a lot. It has an
entirely original setting with far-flung fictional influ-
ences, made-up words, and a complex and competitive
system, supported by an intense fan community with a
long history.
We refer to factors which impede learning and en-
joying a game as barriers to entry. The game itself,
the surrounding social environment, and the indi-
vidual players’ idiosyncrasies and access needs may
erect those barriers.. Just like in a classroom, teaching
Exalted requires not only imparting information, but
also removing or compensating for obstacles to retain-
ing that information. It is okay for players to misun-
derstand, forget, or feel anxious and overwhelmed by
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game concepts. It’s everyone’s job to help everyone else
learn the material at a pace that’s comfortable for them,
without patronizing them, or taking away their agency.
Thus gatekeeping — that is, reinforcing barriers acci-
dentally or on purpose — is one of the biggest barriers
to entry, and one you can fight directly.
Players need not memorize all the rules and lore to
feel confident about play, but they do require enough
knowledge to make informed decisions with an under-
standing of the fictional and mechanical consequences.
Here’s how to give that to them.
If you have new players, or even players who haven’t
played in a while, at the beginning of the game remind
them you’re going to introduce rules in waves. Start
with foundational mechanical concepts like how to
form a dice pool and count successes. During this first
phase, even if a situation comes up where you would
normally use a more complex subsystem, don’t. Reduce
it to one roll. Once everyone feels secure with the ba-
sics, introduce the next wave. Now, encourage players
to push for their characters to use their idiosyncratic
powers and abilities. Once players comprehend those,
move on to complex subsystems like bureaucracy or
blow-by-blow combat.
TELEGRAPH CONSEQUENCES,
DON’T PUNISH PLAYERS
Never teach through punishment. If a player makes
a faux pas while talking to the magistrate, or mis-
takenly acts on a rule or combat option in a way that
would harm their character, don’t surprise them with
negative consequences, then forbid them to walk it
back. We’re playing pretend, not tournament chess.
Instead, telegraph the possible consequences: “That
move leaves you open to a serious counterattack if
you don’t roll well. Are you sure?” “Your tone sound-
ed pretty judgmental about this judge’s judgment. Do
you intend to offend him? Or did you just want to refer
to the issue without criticism?” Let the player choose
to say “oh no, I didn’t mean to do that,” or “hell yeah,”
now that they comprehend the stakes.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
LORE 5, AWARENESS 0
Players with an encyclopedic mastery of the rules or
setting can be great assets, capable of getting new
players comfortable with and excited about the game.
Conversely they can also become overbearing loud-
mouths who constantly provide unrequested expla-
nations and interruptions. To be the former rather
than the latter, you need to strike a balance of timeli-
ness, appropriateness, and most importantly, know-
ing when not to over explain.
Remember to keep your explanations short, fluid and
targeted. Pay attention to social cues, like excited or
confused expressions and ask for consent before of-
fering help or input — “Excuse me, may I make an
observation?” or ‘Would you like a recap?” — espe-
cially if you’re offering a correction.
Save criticisms, addenda, or corrections for after
or between sessions whenever possible. If you’re a
player, consider whether your words might be better
relayed through the Storyteller. Their version of the
setting might be different from what you expect
During this process, tailor plot and activities in the fic-
tion to the system-teaching process, not the other way
around. It might not be as satisfying as free play later
on, but that’s fine: it’s a tutorial level.
Teaching Lore
Flash cards or reference sheets make particularly helpful
memory aids. Sort some colored index cards into different
categories and use different colors for people, organizations,
locations, and objects. Whenever someone introduces one
of those things, write its name in big letters on a card’s un-
lined side with a two- to four-word description underneath
it. When you get time, write further details on the lined side.
When that item reappears in the narrative, take the card
and physically hold it up. It’s a good way to reinforce the
fact that players are welcome to grab it and refer to it.
Encourage more experienced players or Storytellers
to slow down and explain the references they’re mak-
ing and make sure to get in the habit of doing so your-
self. Watch other players for cues as to whether they
understand or not. An ideal explanation of something
is a parenthetical aside rather than an entire new sen-
tence. For example, suppose you’re reintroducing a
Storyteller character the players met earlier:
• Acceptable: “Suddenly, Panther bursts in and de-
mands to know what you’re talking about. Panther
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is the Exalt you met at the coliseum. He’s a Solar
of the Zenith Caste and is known for his favorite
weapons: a pair of orichalcum slayer katars.” This
description is perfectly serviceable, but it’s lon-
ger, which adds up when you have to rattle off a
lot of them over the course of a session. The new
sentences interrupt the flow and focus on the ac-
tion and they rely on identifying details which
are themselves jargon that might prompt other
important but currently irrelevant questions.
• Better: “Suddenly, Panther — the shirtless yelling
man from the coliseum — bursts in and demands
to know what you’re talking about.” The brief ap-
positive phrase focuses on just a few prominent
details. The colloquial description jogs the play-
ers’ memories more reliably and quickly.
Remember to leave space for players to add their own
details. Rather than predefining everything on a street,
start with a couple of overarching descriptions and
encourage players to expand descriptions and add bit
characters, like who runs this cabbage stall or that con-
signment shop. They’ll more easily remember facts in
which they have a personal investment, and it makes
for valuable stunt-fodder.
Teaching Roleplay
What makes a good roleplayer? Some point to players
comfortable with improvisational theatrical elements.
They’re high-energy, quick-thinking, and comfortable
speaking in character. They’re full of clever ideas, fun-
ny quips and impressive stunts.
Trouble is, this kind of “good roleplay” relies on specif-
ic real-life social skills that players are under no obliga-
tion to have, and should not be punished for the absence
of. Playing Exalted is meant to be a leisure activity and
even practiced players might not have the “bandwidth”
after a long day of performative emotional labor, espe-
cially with the stresses added by learning a new system.
Exalted characters are able to excel at fencing or singing
without their players doing the same in real life. We should
treat social skills similarly. If a player feels uncomfortable
about speaking in-character, encourage them without
judgment or penalty to summarize what their character
would say and how they want to say it. Normalize polling
the table for ideas if you’re unsure what to do, whether
you’re the Storyteller or not. If a player can do “funny
voices” i.e. giving their character an accent or a different
way of speaking, celebrate it, but not every player needs to
be held to the same standard.
 C hapter T wo : S torytelling E x alted
However, any roleplayer can and should learn to take an
interest in the other players’ characters. Interplay and
dramatic action between characters is what takes a story
from being about individuals taking turns in the spotlight
to being an ensemble narrative — one which takes full
advantage of the medium of tabletop play. In the Session
Zero section, we discussed building bonds between play-
ers’ characters during character creation. During play
proper, encourage players to take this even further:
• Find opportunities to frame scenes with other
characters.
• Make your characters’ specific relationship sig-
nificant in the narrative, driving their choices and
actions.
• Show how characters need each other. Have them
reach out to each other for help or emotional sup-
port, offer training or advice, even outside of their
own wheelhouses or differing skill sets.
• Ask other players if they’d like to play out squab-
bles or disputes between your characters, then
have fun jeering at each other or verbally jousting.
• If you’re good at in-character quips, focus instead
on evocative banter or conversation. Don’t force
others to speak in-character if they don’t enjoy it,
but set up other characters to express themselves
with witty repartee.
Storytellers may award stunt bonuses (or their equiva-
lents, as per the sidebar) for these actions; but more im-
portantly, encourage players by telling them how you
enjoy their interactions, and how they improve your
own roleplaying to cultivate a positive atmosphere.
Treating Topics
with Respect
At its best, Exalted is sex-positive, supportive of mar-
ginalized identities, and diverse in cultural represen-
tation. At its worst, it has the possibility to be exploit-
ative, tokenizing, and appropriative. This section will
help you guide your game will be the former, not the
latter, but there’s a craft to it.
Fantasy Versus Reality
When marginalized people raise concerns about prob-
lems in fantasy games or fiction which resembles, repli-
cates, and/or reinforces harmful dynamics which affect
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EXALTED WITHOUT STUNTS
Stunts have long been a celebrated design element
and selling point in Exalted, but they can be a lot for
some players. The stunt mechanism works against
the teaching process, adding cognitive load, compe-
tition, and judgment on top of learning new informa-
tion. We discuss alternate systems besides stunting
on p. XX, but you may want to consider, as you intro-
duce Exalted rules to new players, adding stunts last
— and only when all players feel comfortable adding
them. In the meantime, to make up for the Willpower
points that stunts would otherwise provide the PCs,
consider awarding Willpower when a player or char-
acter performs one of the following in-genre actions:
• Failing a roll
• Engaging with a new game mechanic they hav-
en’t tried before.
Taking an action that underlines an in-character re-
lationship (both characters get it and it can go above
one’s maximum Willpower rating)
them in the real world, people who don’t share those
experiences usually shout them down. Sometimes these
detractors supply justifications like “well, that makes
sense and/or means something different in this setting,”
or “these aren’t real people so real people shouldn’t feel
offended,” or “they didn’t mean it like that.” But since
the detractors in question often don’t share the origi-
nal critics’ experiences of marginalization, they don’t
realize the problem exists on an inalienable level of real
experience for those with the most at stake.
Psychologically speaking, humans excel at differen-
tiating between fantasy and reality except during the
moment we’re pretending, where our brains convince
themselves for the duration that whatever we’re pre-
tending is true. That means that mid-game, if some-
thing we act out at the table matches a real-world trau-
matic experience, your feelings about that experience
may flood back into your mind uninvited.
For some, that evocation feels cathartic, letting them
work through difficult real-world sentiments in a safe,
controlled arena. Others can instead be overwhelmed
by anything from dissociative episodes and flash-
backs to simple frustration, killing any enjoyment of
the game. Moreover, none of us gets any choice as to
whether we’re Happy Catharsis or Instant Bad Day.
One can’t hope to turn into the former from the latter
without extensive psychological work under the care of
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
a dedicated therapist, which is not the responsibility of
a gaming group.
When game content makes someone feel bad out of
character, remember: the player is more important
than the game. We must afford the person with the
most personal vulnerability at stake the greatest power
to decide how the table deals with it.
If we want to produce awesome catharsis instead of bad
days via Exalted’s gameplay — and the accompanying im-
perialism, colonialism, slavery, and horror — that cathar-
sis must be discussed and occur with everyone’s buy-in.
Intentional, Consensual
It’s one thing to surprise players with plot twists or ex-
citing action; it’s quite another to spring heavy topics
on them without giving them a chance to give their ex-
plicit consent. If you assume extreme content is stan-
dard, you place the onus of going against the social
grain on individuals to tell you that they’re uncomfort-
able. Safety mechanisms help, but you as the Storyteller
can help them work better by starting from a place of
safety and allowing the players to opt into difficult ma-
terial, letting their enthusiasm carry them forward in-
stead of making them act on discomfort and fear. Here
are a couple techniques on how to do so.
Before Game: Four Degrees of Evil
In the lead-up to a session, think about the materi-
al you’re likely to introduce, whether that’s a thorny
character development or a non-player threat. Not sure
if something counts? Get started with the lists under
Lines and Veils on p. XX. Give the other players a con-
tent warning and ask where on the scale from 1 to 4
below they would want to put it.
• Evil inherent to the setting which we will en-
gage with, but never question or interrogate.
Example: Killing in self-defense.
• Evil which we will engage with, but which
will be a point of conflict between characters.
Example: Professional violence — military or po-
lice, for example — on behalf of the state.
• Evil which will happen, but the players won’t
do it, and will oppose it when it shows up.
Example: Killing non-combatants.
• Evil which even villains won’t think to engage
in, ever. Example: Killing children.
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They may want to qualify it: maybe they’re okay with
bad guys doing sexual harassment but not with in-char-
acter catcalling, or harassment via physical touch. As
the narrative continues, use safety mechanisms to fine-
tune that material once it’s “on screen.”
During Game: Dip In/Dip Out
Many roleplayers prize immersion, the sensation that
the game world is real and they’re experiencing as their
character. Spooky soundtrack music, evocative art, viv-
id description, and especially acting in-character all
contribute to that immersed feeling. However, since
immersion can cause harmful bleed (see p. XX) start
out with less immersive descriptions of upsetting con-
tent, then slowly dip into detail as you confirm other
players’ consent. For example, suppose the characters
encounter some human traffickers; the sentences be-
low, progressively ramp up immersive detail:
• You encounter some slavers.
• They have chained together two dozen people,
marching them toward the city.
• They drive them forward with whips, roughly
hauling them to their feet if they stumble.
• One of the overseers shouts, “Get up, you worth-
less wretch! That’s my investment you’re drag-
ging on the ground!”
Speak slowly and attend to the players’ reactions, espe-
cially if they’re quiet. Remind them safety mechanisms
are on the table, and that you can pause and reconsider
at any time. Then gradually sharpen focus. You will find
moving from low detail to high with the players’ enthu-
siasm is easier than dialing high detail back to low with
the players’ discomfort.
Orientalism and Creation
Nothing in Creation is truly original. Every signifier
points to an analogue from Earth; and over the course
of Exalted’s history, the bulk of those signifiers have
come from Asia, by way of the Western gaze. If this
game is to do right by the real cultures and peoples
from which it draws, we need to talk about orientalism.
As conceived by Edward W. Said, orientalism is an in-
tellectual and aesthetic framework which concerns
the way non-Asians, and especially Europeans, per-
ceive Asia. Based on limited understandings of Asian
culture derived from West-facing Asian media, ori-
entalist perspectives other, exotify, and objectify Asia
 C hapter T wo : S torytelling E x alted
and Asians. Frozen in a picturesque past, this vision of
Asia conflates distinct nations. It exaggerates cultural
differences to characterize Asians as barbarous, effete,
hidebound, or ineffable, in contrast to the normalized
Westerner. In short, it’s everything Westerners think is
cool about Asia, minus any Asian perspective.
Exalted began as a specific rejection of the Tolkenian
and Western narratives dominant in fantasy fiction in
favor of wuxia and anime-inspired fantasy epics. As
you may note with some dismay, this means Exalted
has had strong orientalist traditions in its fantasy, and
all too often still does. Cultural influences from outside
Asia apply to it, but dynamics similar to orientalism
govern those inclusions, too. How, then, does one coun-
teract it? Here are some dos and don’ts.
Asian Inspirations
The antidote to Orientalism is to center the real-life ex-
periences and perspectives of Asian people, especially
where they talk about themselves. To do that, you actu-
ally need to look beyond Exalted, and study Asian peo-
ple. Sometimes anime and manga can be a useful source,
but the themes present there are already overrepresent-
ed in Exalted. What kind of values and heroes show up
in Asian heroic epics? Your goal is to evoke those things
without venturing into stereotypes. To this end there are
a number of recommended readings in the Introduction.
Use of Language
Nobody is saying you can’t have teahouses instead of tav-
erns, or refer to the Mandate of Heaven, or use sifus instead
of masters. These are concepts that applied to Asian soci-
eties in the past, but have clear parallels outside those cul-
tures. Gamers playing with Asian content sometimes adopt
stilted, hyper-formal diction where they stop using contrac-
tions and throw in Asian-sounding terms like “honorable”
or “atemi.” Don’t do this, and don’t pepper your play with
Asian terms from a language you’re not playing in: After all,
this is Creation and everything’s in translation anyway. All
of Creation is in translation, and isn’t going to be the same
as any place in the real world. But you shouldn’t snatch up
and use Asian-sounding terms, or real words like “prana”
and “atemi” to add “an exotic flair” to your game; especially
sans the real world cultural context they come from. Some
roleplayers, when engaging with Asian content will adopt
stilted, hyper formal diction, dropping contractions and
slipping in terms like “sensei” or “honorable” — don’t do
this; you don’t need to pepper your dialogue with terms
from a language you’re not playing in just because it sounds
foreign or exotic. These are real ideas with important value
to real people, and should be treated with understanding
and respect.
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Martial Arts
A common Western misconception is that Asian fight-
ing styles are fundamentally different from combat
systems in the rest of the world: more esoteric, mysti-
cal, impractical, philosophical, or honorable. The term
“martial arts” becomes co-identified with those quali-
ties, and with Asia. Whatever is happening in the rest of
the world is boxing, wrestling, or brawling.
To counteract this tendency, it’s important to present
different styles of combat from different regions and
cultural influences as part of the same whole. A system-
atic martial art taught in a school is not fundamentally
and necessarily different in its execution than street
fighting. Martial arts training does not grant access to
supernatural powers which fighters who learned to
fight in the military or on the street do not have in the
real world. If you use Exalted’s system where specific
supernatural powers do go with specific martial styles,
you can decouple the Charms and powers from the
idea of formal schools and allow fighters who are self-
taught or sufficiently experienced to use them. There’s
no reason a Lunar with the spirit shape of a tiger can’t
figure out how to mold her Essence into the systemic
fighting techniques of Tiger Style given enough time
and martial experience. Introduce formally trained
fighters who don’t have magic powers, even if you keep
formal schools of martial arts.
Cultural Influences
Be distinct when you draw cultural influences from
the real world. It’s okay to have cultures in Creation
which draw from real-world cultures, but draw them
from only a few to avoid conflicting cultural connota-
tions, or imply a reductionist monoculture, like “Asia”
or “Africa.” If they draw from two, either choose cul-
tures with direct and clear links to one another; or
choose two cultures which historically never interact-
ed at all, either in time or geography, and remember
— the world has traditionally been an interconnected
place for longer than we give it credit for. For example,
Prasad draws inspiration from societies and empires on
the Indian subcontinent during the Middle Ages, but
in terms of their societal structure and succession of
power (clans of interconnected bloodlines, and a tenu-
ous practice of nominating a successor from an oppos-
ing clan) they pull from the Celtic tribes of Ireland and
Britain before the Norse invasions and the coming of
William the Conqueror.
Religious Influences
Focus your portrayals of religion on the practical ways
that it features in an individual’s life. Mountaintop sag-
es that spout incomprehensible aphorisms are mostly
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
a Western stereotype born of misunderstanding. Asian
inspired religions should offer community support and
practical benefits, just like Western ones, but at the
same time you should look into wuxia fiction for more
faithful portrayals of wandering monks and itinerant
priests to pull ideas from.
Customizing the Setting
The physical setting of Exalted is, in two words, stag-
geringly large; Creation as displayed on the official map
is enormous. Of course, there are noteworthy places
named and detailed in other supplements, but the map
is mostly blank, with space deliberately left for the
Storyteller to create room for their own stories. Games
set within Creation are not required to take place across
all Creation—in fact, it’s rather inadvisable, unless you
as the Storyteller have accounted for a game with such
a large scope. So then, how do you set the scope? Where
should your game take place?
On top of that, the narrative setting for Exalted is just
as enormous. If you consider each Exalt type its own
game, Exalted is five games (and counting) in one. That
considered it’d be reasonable to want to run for only
one Exalt type at a time where there’s less overhead to
deal with. However, it’s just as reasonable to want to
open the floor to everything Creation has to offer and
see the Exalted clash with their disparate powers and
philosophies. For both options, you need to account for
changes in power scale. But how do you balance scale
in Exalted games? And which Exalts should your game
feature?
Exalted’s setting is at once its biggest selling point and
its biggest barrier to entry — there is so much of it! No
one can hold all of Creation within their mind, and
they shouldn’t feel obligated to read every supplement
and drag them all to every game just to be a Storyteller
(though that’s no reason not to try if you wish). To help
you make Creation your own, this section details how
to curate the setting to suit your specific game.
Removing Exalts from Your Game
If you would like to focus on only certain Exalt types,
there are both positives and negatives to this. Some
Exalts are more easily ignored (or removed entire-
ly) than others. Keep in mind the difference between
removing Exalts diegetically and non-diegetically.
If you choose to make their absence diegetic, then
it is present within the narrative and something the
characters can notice and remark upon — perhaps
they are inaccessible, or missing. Conversely if their
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absence is non-diegetic, you have chosen to declare
that they do not and in fact cannot exist within the
boundaries of your game; they don’t exist because
they simply don’t.
Exigents, Liminals, and Getimians are easiest to dis-
regard if you have a mind to. They are the newest Exalt
types as of Third Edition, and the vast majority of the
setting was written long before they were. Similarly,
Alchemicals and Infernals are simple to filter out — they
are recent invaders from places outside of Creation, and
you can either write them out of existence or just make
nods to the fact that they’re out there somewhere but too
distant for your players to interact with.
Sidereals can be removed from the setting of your
game through a variety of means. They already cannot
be remembered by a vast majority of Creation, so as
far as the canonical setting is concerned, they may as
well not exist at all. If you’d like a little more narrative
justification, you can adjust the dials on their duties
in Yu-Shan: i.e. Sidereals are too busy with their day
jobs, too far removed in their heavenly corner offices,
or too caught up in the War in Heaven to bother with
your game’s setting. Or, perhaps, the Loom has far more
stringent requirements in your game and Sidereals
rarely intervene directly in Creation’s affairs. Keep in
mind this is still barely enough for a certain variety of
savvy players — the type who like to ask a Storyteller
what color every new NPC’s eyes are. That said, remov-
ing Sidereals entirely from the setting raises the ques-
tions of how the Dragon-Blooded were able to stage the
Usurpation alone, and how, or for what purpose the
Immaculate Philosophy and its attendant martial arts
were created — either a result of Dragon-Blooded inge-
nuity, or some other event or entity.
DIEGESIS? NON-DIEGETIC?
While Exalted has an elusive relationship with which
parts of it are narrative or non-narrative, your Story-
telling should not! If you choose to take the diegetic
approach to curating Creation, you should prepare
yourself for the chance that your players will want
to interact with whatever it was you waved out of the
narrative. You didn’t say it doesn’t necessarily exist
after all!
That said, the non-diegetic approach isn’t always cor-
rect for the game, either. You’d be hard-pressed to
come up with a reason why Dragon-Blooded or So-
lars don’t and have never existed without rewriting
the history of Creation from day one.
 C hapter T wo : S torytelling E x alted
As the Chosen of a realm already teeming with narrative
potential, Abyssals also may be considered optional.
The Underworld has plenty of fascinating antagonists
and story hooks even before you bring in deathknights.
Narratively, you could state that the Deathlords them-
selves were eradicated due to the actions of the Scarlet
Empress at the end of the Great Contagion. Or, perhaps
the Abyssals are kept on shorter leashes, forbidden to
leave the Underworld, and thus unable to interact with
your game’s non-Underworld setting. Alternatively,
Abyssals never existed, and you may need to find a new
explanation for the sundering of the Jade Prison.
Paradoxically, despite their importance overall, Solars
are among the easiest Exalts to remove from the set-
ting... at least, in diegesis. Your game could simply be
set in a time before, or which averted the sundering
of the Jade Prison — a durance which conveniently
caught every Solar Exaltation instead of most of them.
Alternatively, the plot to break the Jade Prison was
wholly successful, and the trapped Exaltations were
divided between the Deathlords and the Yozi. Now
there are no Solars! If you wish to accomplish this out-
side the narrative, however, things get complicated. If
Solars never existed, the rest of the Exalted Host still
won Creation’s first and greatest war on behalf of the
gods. But who authored the First Age and then drove
it to ruin? Who did the Dragon-Blooded and Sidereals
betray and usurp? Does the Underworld or Malfeas
still exist? Is the constellation of the Mask still broken?
What would keep the Unconquered Sun from creat-
ing Exalts? Does the Unconquered Sun even exist as a
distinct entity? You may find yourself rewriting whole
portions of the setting if you try to remove the Solars.
On the more difficult side of the scale are the Lunars.
They have enough ties to the history and current state
of Creation that it would be a challenge to remove them,
narratively or otherwise. You may justify their absence
from your game by suggesting the Realm has pushed
them beyond the Threshold into the Wyld, or to the
front lines of the war for the Caul. If you’re comfort-
able with increasing the Realm’s power and influence
even further, you could say the tradition of the Wyld
Hunt has been vastly more successful against the Lunar
Exalted in your game and that not even their elders sur-
vived it. Or you could rewrite history and claim that the
Usurpation saw them join the Solars in the Jade Prison.
This option, however, as well as removing Lunars en-
tirely, leaves a power vacuum within Creation. You will
have to determine what, if anything, challenges the
Realm’s authority. Do they still hold Wyld Hunts? Is
there still a war for the Caul? Were there other con-
scientious objectors to the Usurpation? Why would the
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Sun have his Exalts, but not Luna? Or is the moon with-
out a deity, as the Sun might also be?
Removing the Dragon-Blooded from Creation would
be a herculean feat of Storytelling, requiring substantial
rewrites to the history of the setting as a whole. The set-
ting-as-is provides one prominent hook you can use to
narratively remove the Realm’s Dragon-Blooded from the
Threshold: the impending civil war between the Great
Houses. This is a justification you should use with cau-
tion, as it is neither a definitive solution nor an easily im-
plemented one. A better answer may be to strip Dragon-
Blooded of their Exalted powers entirely. You don’t need
to search very hard through mortal human history to
find examples of far-reaching empires that rule without
the use of magical abilities. This could be due to some
diminishment they suffered after the Usurpation, dwin-
dling to the relative strength of powerful mortals over a
millennium. Or it could be a recent occurrence, beginning
sometime during the Shogunate or the reign of the Scarlet
Empress — perhaps she was the last true Dragon-Blood.
It could be that it’s always been this way, and when the
Usurpation struck it was prominent mortals that Sidereals
led to betray the Solars, not the Ten-Thousand Dragons.
To say that there were never any Dragon-Blooded at all,
however, raises the question of how they could maintain
WHY CAN’T I USE THE CIVIL WAR?
If you would like to kick off the civil war on the Bless-
ed Isle purely as a reason to remove Dragon-Blooded
from your game’s setting, there are quite a few oth-
er factors to consider. Lookshy and Prasad, the oth-
er hegemonic nations ruled by Dragon-Blooded are
powerful enough in their own right to have remained
at least nominally independent of the Realm, and are
unlikely to be caught in the Realm’s internal politics
except as an opportunity they may seek to exploit.
Then there are the outcastes, who were never part of
the Realm; or Dynastic Dragon-Blooded that elected
to leave their imperialist society for one reason or an-
other. None of these even touches on the staggering
narrative consequences of an empire withdrawing
entirely from their holdings like the colonized cul-
tures that would be left in the lurch, the enormous
power vacuums, and the potential for economic di-
saster on an international scale.
Opting for civil war as an option to remove the Drag-
on-Blooded from your game not only fails to remove
all Dragon-Blooded, but it also necessarily sets the
stage for the entire game. Just be aware: a game with
a civil war in the Realm as background flavor will
eventually have that civil war as its driving theme.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
their empire when surrounded by potential enemies as
powerful, driven, and antagonistic as the full might of the
Silver Pact.
Games for One Exalt Type
If Exalted is like five-plus games in one, why would
someone choose to focus on anything less than every-
thing it has to offer? Running for one Exalt type lim-
its the number of subsystems interacting with each
other, which may appeal to some Storytellers. It also
reduces the chance of some player characters vast-
ly outperforming the others in their specialized area.
Narratively, it allows the Storyteller to hyper-focus on
that single Exalt type’s themes and lore, allowing every
player at the table to immerse themselves in the sto-
ry of being that Exalt. It makes space for everyone to
explore that Exalt type’s strengths, weaknesses, and
stories. And, relevant to this particular chapter, it lends
itself well to curation of the setting.
Running Creation for Solar Circles
The all-Solar game, sometimes considered the “vanilla”
experience, is easily run, as very few additional systems
need to be taken into account. The Exalted core book
itself is written for playing Solars. That said, Solars
have few to no direct ties to the setting — or, more pre-
cisely, they have nothing but direct ties to the setting
with no “Solar culture” or societal framework to speak
of. A Solar Exalt can be anyone, from anywhere. The
fact that Solar games take place anywhere in Creation
and may encompass both a huge scale and scope can be
overwhelming for newcomers. That you can add and fo-
cus on whichever part of the setting you like means you
can likewise ignore any part you dislike. Storytellers
should not be reluctant to impose their own limitations
on a Solar game to keep the chronicle from being pulled
in all eight directions. As Solar games have the widest
potential of any in the setting, they can be just about
anything from “travelling all over the South to find lost
First Age artifacts for a helpful savant” to “Exalted on
the Blessed Isle and trying to escape to a contact in
Nexus.” Make certain to guide players on the setting
and tone expectations of your particular Solar game
before and during character creation.
Running Creation for
Dragon-Blooded Hearths
As the most numerous and fractious of the Exalted, and
the ones who have shaped the face of Creation by far
the most, the Dragon-Blooded offer a wide scope and
variety of themes. As the only Exalted to pass on pow-
er through their lineage (barring some rare Exigents),
family and heritage are the strongest ties in the setting
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for the Dragon-Blooded. All Dragon-Blooded, save out-
castes, enjoy more Merits afforded them by their con-
nections with their family and their position in society
than other Exalted, Merits they will definitely lose if
they estrange themselves.
Knowing which families and empires your player char-
acters belong to can help shape the story, based solely on
their motivations. The Realm is preparing for civil war be-
tween the Great Houses, and its families are sharpening
their knives and building war-chests. Lookshy struggles
to keep the peace in the Scavenger Lands even as cha-
os grips the world, and the gentes look to enemies near
and far, ready for their next move. . Prasad’s clans trade
honeyed words and hidden machinations even as they
share their political power. For many of these games, the
player characters’ most notable antagonists will be other
Dragon-Blooded, and they might never even leave these
locales or talk about other Exalts. Dragon-Blooded games
can encompass everything from the deadly intrigues of
the Realm’s Great Houses to Threshold games featuring
the myriad Dragon-Blooded clans of Creation to games
that follow Terrestrial adolescents through their dramat-
ic school days, or mystery procedurals in the seedier cities
of the world.
While Dragon-Blooded hearths may need to go toe-to-
toe with a freshly Exalted Anathema as part of a Wyld
Hunt, the rest of their antagonists are lower in scale,
such as elementals, terrestrial gods, Exigents, Liminals,
and other Dragon-Blooded. Dynasts often venture be-
yond the empire to protect their House’s foreign inter-
ests, or cut their teeth on coming-of-age excursions. In
the Threshold, outcastes and Dynasts band with each
other to face mutual threats. Dragon-Blooded featured
in a Creation-as-Stage game are out to prove themselves
worthy of rule, whether it’s their house, their empire,
or all of Creation. In a Creation-as-Threat game, they
may face the reality of being the weakest of the Exalted
Host, on par with Liminals and most Exigents, or they
may tread water in a treacherous political riptide. In
Creation-as-Cost games, their myriad natures and nu-
anced politics and beliefs shine through, as families are
pitted against each other.
Running Creation for Lunar Circles
The all-Lunar game begins with ties to the Lunar-
specific elements of the setting. Unless they are
Casteless or somehow exiled, all Lunars have encoun-
tered one of the greater Lunar communities, most like-
ly the Silver Pact — if only by the brief association of
tattooing — in addition to whichever town, enclave,
cult, or court they have adopted as their own.
 C hapter T wo : S torytelling E x alted
The most likely antagonist for a Circle of Lunars are
Realm Dragon-Blooded, though they also come into
conflict with Fair Folk, adversarial spirit courts, and
Sidereals — often with the Sidereals and the Realm as
a singular bloc. Confer with players ahead of time as
to which kinds of antagonists they want to face. There
is no need to familiarize yourself with the mysteries of
the Fair Folk if your players want to fight the dead. And
remember that Solars and Solar bonds are not require-
ments for a Lunar game — your table is free to explore
the lore and mechanics of the Solar bond if they want,
but it is absolutely not an obligation.
Lunars in the Threshold shine in Creation-as-Stage or
Creation-as-Cost games, exploring the limits of their
cultural powers, and the consequences of its misuse.
Similarly, Lunars within Realm holdings usually find
themselves center-stage in Creation-as-Threat games.
A young circle of casteless Lunars yet to encounter the
Pact is likewise perfect for a Threat game.
Running Creation for Sidereal Circles
The scope of Sidereal games can range widely, from
taking place solely in Yu-Shan and dealing with con-
trarian gods, to roaming all of Creation on assignment
from their respective bureaus. Their antagonists vary
as well, though all will be either enemies of Creation
and its fate — immoral divinities, Getimians, presump-
tuous Exigents, the armies of the Underworld, the gen-
try of the Wyld, other Sidereals — or enemies of their
faction goals, which could be Solars, Lunars, and other
Anathema, or even Dragon-Blooded.
Like Lunars, the all-Sidereal game begins with ties to
their specific setting elements. Unless they are rogue
or otherwise disgraced, all Sidereals hold positions in
Heaven’s bureaucracy — they have bosses, coworkers,
salaries, and performance reviews. It’s necessary to de-
cide how significant the player characters’ day jobs will
be to your game, and these jobs will serve to limit their
exposure to the different antagonists and elements of
the setting. Most Sidereal games revolve heavily around
the various missions — cause a war here by making the
king fall in love with another nation’s queen, or mur-
dering a young conquering prince after he’s won many
victories but before he can properly set up a succession
— and cycle back to downtime and politicking with lon-
ger-term plots and agendas in Heaven. The Storyteller
should make the upsides and downsides of Heaven’s
direction of destiny clear to the players — when per-
formed with selfless duty in mind, destiny is the best
tool for the long-term health of Creation, but many des-
tinies are planned by committees of selfish deities.
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Additionally, the majority of Sidereals align themselves
with factions touting discrete agendas for Exalted rule,
putting them roughly for or against various Exalted.
Sidereal Storytellers will need to decide whether or
not to include this element in their games. While it can
allow players to weigh in on what sort of Exalts they
want to interact with as Sidereals, it can also potential-
ly mire a game in unwanted politics.
Navigating the cutthroat bureaucracy of Yu-Shan during
the War in Heaven makes a great theme for a Threat
or Cost game, and requires only knowledge of Yu-Shan
and its inhabitants as a setting. Sidereals forced into
“field work” within Creation, where they necessarily
interact with other Exalts, also lends to Stage and Cost
games. Ronin Sidereals are rare enough that an entire
Circle of them can make for a drama-filled Stage game,
full of martial arts exploits. No matter what, a Sidereal
game will likely need other Exalted, like Getimians or
Dragon-Blooded, or, depending on their political affili-
ations, Solars, Lunars and Abyssals to manipulate.
Running Creation for Abyssal Circles
An Abyssal Circle’s closest tie to the setting comes from
the Deathlords. The Deathlords are not exactly cooper-
ative with each other, though they all share roughly the
same goal of seizing total supremacy over the dead and
the lands of the Underworld, and of eventually those
of the living Creation. Unless an Abyssal is renegade,
one of the Deathlords has been pulling their strings
or dangling carrots in front of them from the moment
they accepted the Black Exaltation. The relationship of
the Deathlords to their Abyssals is not one of master
to servant but one of sovereign and vassal. Most of an
Abyssal’s resources are granted them by their undead
patron, and going rogue means losing access to several
Merits. For the Storyteller, it is extremely important to
know if there will be multiple Deathlords involved in
your Circle, and how you’re going to handle the play-
er-characters’ relationships with their patrons, and
what those patrons’ agendas are.
Ignoring any renegades, an all-Abyssal Circle usual-
ly performs their service as missions on the behalf
of the Underworld’s denizens. Deathknights are giv-
en a great deal of latitude to accomplish their goals,
which may even involve consorting with renegades.
Loyalist Abyssal games share many of the benefits of
Sidereal games — where the Storyteller can borrow
structure from other “heist” style games, and arrange
arcs to flow from mission to reward to downtime and
back to mission. The Storyteller is free to craft the ba-
sics of these missions ahead of time and carefully cu-
rate the elements they want their players to come into
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
contact with. Simplicity works best in these cases; i.e.
“The Mask of Winters wants the PCs to convince a
jade-working guild in Great Forks to serve him; they
have one week.” You could even choose to operate your
Abyssal game solely out of the Underworld while main-
taining this format.
As enemies of Creation, the Abyssals’ antagonists can
be potentially any other Exalt, but especially Dragon-
Blooded Dynasts and Lunars of the Silver Pact.
Creation-as-Stage Abyssal games are gothic horror
scenes: dreadful, gloomy, and bloody. Abyssals in this
mode of play are likely spending as much time in the cities
of Creation as they do in the Underworld, as they brood
melodramatically, accruing Limit all the while. Abyssals
in Creation-as-Threat games are often sent into difficult
missions by their Deathlords, expected to pull off a black
miracle or two to survive. Of course, as quintessential
tragic antiheroes, Abyssals of all stripes play naturally into
any Creation-as-Cost game, though renegade Abyssals
struggling to earn back the love of Creation fit especially.
ABYSSAL REDEMPTION
It’s important to clarify what we mean by “renegade”
Abyssals — an Abyssal who has rejected their feudal
obligations under a Deathlord and has largely struck
out on their own. Likewise, they reject the ultimate
aims of the Neverborn to destroy Creation…although
they’re not alone on this front, as many of the Death-
lords have also been dragging their spectral feet, and
some of the ancient necromancer-kings — like the
Silver Prince — never intended to follow through.
There are two primary stripes of renegade: Abyssals
who are on board with being lords over the dead and
becoming Death’s Lawgivers, and Abyssals who have
come to regret the dark bargain they struck for power
and survival or never intended to fulfill it to begin with.
They are likewise divided into two secondary types:
those Abyssals who pay evil unto evil and use their
dark majesty to destroy the corrupt and malevolent,
and those Abyssals who seek to return to the light of
the Unconquered Sun by purging the darkness upon
their Exaltation.
None of these playstyles are invalid, but they are
largely incompatible in the long term — which isn’t
to say you can’t have player characters changing their
minds or arguing in-character, just as long as you
know the plot will eventually force a divide. This is
just to illustrate that there are many paths to playing
a righteous Abyssal, whatever that term might ulti-
mately mean.
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A circle of renegade Abyssals particularly is not far out of
the realm of possibility, since sticking together is a good
way to survive the wrath of their spurned Deathlords.
Adjusting the Scope
and Scale of Your Game
The two most powerful dials to adjust within an
Exalted game are those for scale and scope. Scale re-
fers to the relative power being brought to bear by the
protagonists, antagonists, and other setting elements.
Scope refers to the breadth of the story, whether it is
tightly focused and personal, or wide-reaching and
world-changing. These dials should be explicitly dis-
cussed with the players during Session Zero, as they’ll
affect things like how PCs should be designed and what
long-term prep the Storyteller will be making.
A game with a high scale should choose antagonists
from top-tier existential threats; a resurgent Realm un-
der a singular Empress, or the Deathlords as a united
front. Pick a few compelling, world-shaping artifacts,
and place them at the center of the story’s peril. Fill the
cast of Storyteller characters with well-known named
Exalts from setting fiction, or stress the importance and
legend of Storyteller characters you create yourself.
For a game with a low scale, make antagonists out
of volatile elementals, scheming gods, and scions of
Dynast houses. Keep artifacts rare and let even a single
one of middling power drive the narrative. Allow mor-
tals to take influential actions, and push those of po-
tential importance to the players into the spotlight. You
might consider placing restrictions on Merits higher
than 3 dots.
To foster higher scope in a game, shrink the physical
scale of Creation and take liberties with the map, allow-
ing important locations to rub up against each other.
Allow easier access to sorcery, artifacts, or Charms that
allow for faster travel and communication. Remove
similar barriers to crossing between Creation and Yu-
Shan, the Wyld, Malfeas, or the Underworld as nec-
essary. Focus on interplay between world-spanning
factions like the Silver Pact and the Bronze Faction,
and how the consequences of these factions’ actions
reverberate throughout Creation. Encourage picking
Intimacies toward organizations and ideals rather than
individuals and places in character creation.
In lower scope games let one location and its prob-
lems fill the whole world, not because it’s an exis-
tential threat but because the player characters care
deeply about it. Restrict use of Merits and background
 C hapter T wo : S torytelling E x alted
elements that would necessitate the characters leaving
the game’s setting. Focus on conflicts between smaller
social units, like the play of Great House rivalries in a
single satrapy, or warring gangs in the streets of Nexus.
Encourage picking Intimacies directed toward individ-
uals and temporal concerns in character creation.
Masters of None
With scope accounted for, the Storyteller should take
stock of the player characters and their relative scale.
For instance you should consider how the Circle’s
own power is affected by both the number of PCs and
the degree to which they have specialized in their
Charms and Abilities. With a small enough Circle of
low Essence characters who haven’t invested heavily in
high end Charms, mortals become more viable as major
antagonists. Further, a well-rounded group is capable
of performing well against a variety of challenges, but
will rarely overwhelm any one task.
Considerations of scale can apply to different types of
Exalted as well — a Lunar amongst a group of Solars
can try their hand at a bit of everything and excel in
multiple roles simultaneously, but will generally be out-
classed by their Solar counterparts in their area of ex-
pertise. Dragon-Blooded on the other hand will seldom
outperform anyone, but may find they fit in well with a
Liminal Circle. It’s an important consideration for your
Session Zero to ensure that no one is going to leave an-
other player feeling like their character is perfunctory.
This isn’t to say you can’t have two martial artists in the
same Circle — especially if the players want to set up a
fun competitive rivalry — but you should try to ensure
everyone has their place and something to offer to the
story.
Framing the Modes of Play
Deciding on a mode of play for your game is like picking a
subject for a painting. There is more to it than just “what
do you plan to paint?” Framing the modes of play can help
you focus on specific colors of paint or composition ele-
ments, to better achieve the feelings you want to evoke. To
drop the metaphor, modes of play don’t just begin and end
at the theme of “power and consequences.” You should
also adjust discrete elements of the setting to further
frame the chosen mode: Things like adjusting Creation-
wide concepts, tweaking a faction’s relative strength, lim-
iting (or increasing) the availability of powerful artifacts,
or deciding the likely consequences for given actions all
serve to keep your game from wandering away from your
chosen mode of play.
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Framing the Creation-as-Stage Game
When playing in Creation-as-Stage, setting elements
should serve to highlight the characters’ already pas-
sionate, powerful natures, and their subsequent rise to
greater heights. In Creation-as-Stage games, successes
are more dramatic and more rewarding than usual.
Make power accessible: The tombs of the mighty
are everywhere, and unclaimed demesnes and mans-
es await those brave and skilled enough to take them.
Dragon-Blooded families bequeath artifacts and oth-
er powerful Merits to their Exalted children at their
coming of age. Terrestrial Circle Sorcery is common,
instructional manuals and potential mentors abound,
and sorcery is as much a useful tool as a problem to
overcome.
Provide chances to avoid consequences: Ignorance
of the Anathema is common, and witnesses are un-
reliable, able to be easily convinced to remain silent.
Unfortunately the inverse is also true, as isolated vil-
lages lay troubles at the feet of nonexistent monsters.
Because of this, Wyld Hunts are only dispatched on
credible claims, but tend to have little to no oversight
in their results and methods. Even concerning less-
er-known Exalted, there can be many ways to avoid
potential complications by clever action, as many pow-
erful patrons who offer the Princes of the Earth Merits
and other benefits will seek to retain their loyalty and
offer second or even third chances if their beneficiaries
can save face.
Give players the opportunity to be legendary: The
Realm is still an antagonist worthy of rivalry, despite
its crumbling foundations, but it offers a myriad of
weaknesses a clever or determined hero can exploit in
pursuit of righteousness or fame. On the flip side, the
Scarlet Throne is ripe and ready to be taken by any
Dragon-Blood capable of enough political cunning. The
violence of the Age of Sorrows leaves power vacuums
and people begging for virtuous heroes to step in and
rule. Lunar clans and Deathlord courts are rich with
potential alliances if the players dare to sway them.
Heaven scrambles to send its agents both to befriend
the PCs and to undermine them.
Framing the Creation-as-Threat Game
In Creation-as-Threat games, setting elements should
focus on the paradoxical powerlessness — but never in-
competence — of the PCs and their struggle to come
out on top. In Creation-as-Threat games failure is more
dire, and consequences more severe.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
Make power risky to pursue: Tombs of the First Age
are jealously guarded and keenly watched by anyone
from forgotten groundskeeper demons to elder Lunars.
Ownership of manses and artifacts are cataloged and
licensed by local governments or jealous sorcerers.
Ownership of lesser wonders and any of the magi-
cal materials draws the attention of magistrates. Only
wealthy Dragon-Blooded families maintain collections
of heirloom artifacts, and others are lucky to have a few
wonders they can entrust to a scion. True sorcery is rare
and wholly misunderstood by the uneducated, inspir-
ing charlatans and rumors throughout the Threshold.
Pursuing rumors of a sorcerer who claims the power to
solve your problems is just as likely to uncover a cult of
demon-worshipers as it is a chain of snake oil salesmen.
Make consequences hard to avoid: Reports of the
player characters’ power and deeds can spread like
wildfire to unfriendly ears. Even as the Realm faces
pressure from within, rumors of Anathema remain se-
rious and a competent Wyld Hunt can be organized or
dispatched with little warning and preparation with an
overwhelming force prepared to follow should the first
fail. Goodwill once lost can seldom be reclaimed; player
characters that rely on allies or patrons for their Merits
can quickly lose them should they transgress against
their benefactors.
Telegraph danger everywhere: The Realm is a jug-
gernaut which projects its power everywhere its ban-
ners lie, with the resources to pursue and crush any
singular foe. Anathema radiate disastrous power even
before their presence can be felt, and pockets of Lunar
rebellion lie hidden but potent, able to make their
presence felt even without needing to act. Heaven is a
cutthroat bureaucracy with double agents around ev-
ery corner. Every city is one unexplained incident away
from panic, every Threshold town is a desperate sea-
son away from striking hasty deals with the enemies of
Creation.
Framing the Creation-as-Cost Game
Setting elements in Creation-as-Cost games should al-
ways bring the consequences of player actions to the
fore. In Creation-as-Cost games only the greatest suc-
cesses come without complication.
Attach costs to every source of power: Artifacts
and other wonders are not only powerful, but obvious,
unique, and rare, each with their own story or legend;
open use of one is sure to draw jealous admirers or
terrify bystanders. When granted to a Dragon-Blood
by their family, artifacts are handed down with pomp
and ceremony that marks the wielder as acting not only
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with the authority but responsibility and expectation.
Sorcery is either awe-inspiring or widely feared, pro-
voking worship or terror among the uneducated, and
notoriety or disgust among the sorcerer’s kin.
Attach consequences to every success: the people
of Creation are wary not just of glowing animas and
caste marks, but of the mighty in general — those bless-
ed with unusual strength, beauty or intelligence may
draw the suspicion and notice of mortals or other pow-
ers. These may seek in turn to manipulate the PCs to
their own petty ends, or raise Wyld Hunts of their own..
Conversely, the rewards of excellence by the characters
in maintenance of their duties yield not additional re-
sources or backing from their patrons, but only more
responsibilities and expectations.
Remind players of what could be lost: Every ac-
tion has consequences. the Realm is an oppressive and
grasping empire, but it also prides itself on protecting
its satrapies from worse terrors like the Deathlords and
the Fair Folk — freeing Threshold towns from Dynast
rule means exposing them to greater dangers. As Lunar
conclaves wear down the gears of the Realm’s war ma-
chine, they never flinch away from sacrificing tribes,
villages, or whole nations to do it — supporting Lunars
in the war for the Caul means thousands of mortals will
die as cannon fodder. The youth of Heaven are eager
to court alliances even as their elders will never let a
reincarnated hero forget the atrocities they wrought in
the First Age; striking an alliance with a Gold Faction
agent could mean opening the Circle to Bronze Faction
assassins.
Games for Multiple Exalt Types
If Exalted is a bunch of games in one, why would some-
one try to run all of them at once? Lots of reasons; for
some Storytellers, the challenge of balancing multiple
subsystems and power levels is part of the fun. For
others, it’s simply that every player has their favorite
Exalt type and there’s little reason to stop them from
playing it. Narratively, it allows the Storyteller to ex-
plore the broader themes at work in Exalted, and how
each individual Exalt type addresses the consequences
of their unique powers. It permits space for everyone
to spotlight their favorite aspects of each Exalt type, as
well as letting the Storyteller play with the question of
how to get a group of diverse champions with secret
curses and incredible powers to cooperate and save the
world(or doom it, as the case may be).
Even longtime enemies can be convinced to work to-
gether for various reasons, and Creation is broad
 C hapter T wo : S torytelling E x alted
enough to find those reasons, no matter the Circle
makeup. Crossover games make for fun and viable en-
sembles, showcasing the vibrant diversity of Creation’s
heroes in the microcosm of a single Circle. Crossover
games also provide the Storyteller with a dizzying ar-
ray of story hooks, as each Exalt type brings their own
themes, lore, and cultural history to the table. That
said, as a Storyteller, don’t be shy about limiting play
choices if you aren’t comfortable running for a specific
Exalt type (perhaps you consider Sidereals too arcane,
or Abyssals too bleak), or if you don’t want to make
room for their powers in your game’s scope or scale.
For crossover stories, it’s crucial to find what elements
exist at the center of the Venn diagram of Exalt types
you intend to run for. In the broadest sense, every Exalt
can band together if they all share a common enemy
(i.e. the One-Thousand Eyes Clan, demon-worshiping
martial artists), or a common motivation (Discover and
steal the secret of Grieve’s White Elixir), even if their
methods or reasons may not align.
Outcastes, as true free agents within Creation, can fit
into almost any Circle — as can most Exigents, provided
there are no easily offended Immaculates at hand. Any
Exalt capable of tapping into their previous incarna-
tions may feel the echoes of history drawing them to-
gether, such as immortal enemies with long grudges, or
literal memories of their past lives. In a mixed Circle of
Lunars and Solars, the Bond could be at work — includ-
ing Abyssals and Infernals. If a Sidereal is involved, a
figure in Yu-Shan could be tugging at the strings of fate
itself to gather the Circle for some important goal. In a
pinch, “a powerful being to whom you are all in some
way subservient demands you work together” always
works, too.
For a crossover game in the Creation-as-Stage mode of
play, the focus will be on achieving legendary things to-
gether that would be impossible alone. Such games are
usually high in either scale or scope, to account for the
varied strengths and interests of the Circle.
In the Creation-as-Threat mode, the common foe
shines. Usually this is the Wyld Hunt (on both sides),
but could be an ancient foe, a powerful authority like
the Emissary of Nexus, or an advancing army of hob-
goblins led by a glimmering Raksha prince. Keep in
mind that a foe can threaten different Exalts in differ-
ent ways: a Dragon-Blooded scion threatens the Solar
with death while h threatens the Exigent with harm to
his patron’s worship.
With a Creation-as-Cost game, the focus will be on the
consequences of the Circle’s alliance. Many Exalt types
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make strange bedfellows (not always metaphorically),
and any of the player characters’ families, command-
ing officers, or business partners could take exception
to the Circle’s mere existence. Mixed parties in a Cost
game should feel their loyalty to the Circle and its goals
tested at all times.
Balancing a Mixed Party
A common concern with allowing many different Exalts
into the same game is the difference in power between
them. The difference can be stark between the Solars
and Dragon-Blooded, Liminals, and some Exigents. For
some players this is a worthy challenge, but for others
it can be frustrating.
Consider allowing experienced Exalts from the lower
end of the power tier, like Dragon-Blooded, Liminals
and Exigents, in play with young Solars and Celestials.
Allow these players to build their characters using the
Experienced Characters rules in their chosen supple-
ments, or grant them up to double the starting amount
of bonus points, or an extra 50% Unified Experience
Points (p. XX).
For a simpler solution, grant the weaker Exalt play-
ers extra Charms or Evocations at character creation.
Likewise, limit Solars, Abyssals and Infernals to pur-
chasing Excellencies (which they don’t even do to
start with, so that’s one change already) for only their
Favored or Caste Abilities.
Dragon-Blooded can get a significant power boost by al-
lowing them to take a single Signature Charm for one of
their Aspect or Favored Abilities at character creation,
ignoring its usual Essence minimum. For Dragon-
Blooded in mixed Circles with Solars, you might even
consider allowing multiple Signature Charms.
When a Solar gains access to Solar Circle Sorcery or a
Sidereal learns Sidereal Martial Arts, their power curve
spikes. Rather than cheapening these awesome powers,
offer similar gifts your other Exalt players can earn to
keep them on equal footing. We recommend granting
Terrestrial Circle sorcerers a second Shaping ritual
for free at character generation, and discounting the
experience cost of Martial Arts Charms that match a
Dragon-Blood’s aspect element.
Social Influence
The social influence system introduced in Exalted
Third Edition is a versatile tool for modelling passion-
ate intrigue between the Exalted and the myriad inhab-
itants of Creation, but this can be daunting to use. The
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
purpose of this section is to help break down what’s
going on in each portion of the social influence system
to help better understand what’s happening and help
you adjudicate it in play. For further details consult the
Exalted Third Edition, pages 213 to 224.
Social Influence and Time
There is no set time frame for how long social influ-
ence takes, but pacing out social influence is a good
way to make sure your scenes flow together cohesive-
ly. A read intentions action to discern the reaction of a
suspect to the murder victim’s name might occur in a
few moments, while another might represent hours of
carefully observing how a patrician feels about his fam-
ily through an evening of languid dining.. A persuade
action might encompass a single sentence and a know-
ing look, or a long process of seduction that occurs over
the course of an evening. If the timeframe of your story
permits, err on the side of allowing actions to take their
time. This benefits players by allowing them to con-
serve resources, and may allow their actions and stunts
to encapsulate more action than they might otherwise
be able to fit.
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Sometimes, characters may want to accomplish a lot in
a single scene; an understandable goal, but Storytellers
and players should work to keep the purpose of a scene
focused, and roll only when needed. As a rule of thumb,
try to avoid having more than three rolls from each
group, which might include any combination of social
influence rolls. At the point where one character reach-
es this limit, a Storyteller should begin considering
how to end the scene.
Ending a social influence scene is just as important as
beginning one. Scenes should end when a character’s
social goal is accomplished or failed, even if momentar-
ily. When a scene breaks out into combat or it no longer
makes sense for a character to listen to any attempted
influence is a good point for a scene break.. Endings
are important to provide temporary closure, and if a
character has failed their persuade check or had their
efforts resisted, it’s a good opportunity to encourage
characters to think about their next steps rather than
repeated attempts at the same thing. If a character
was not successful, remind them about the rules for
Retrying Social Actions (Exalted, p. 222) and offer sug-
gestions or the opportunity to roll to reset their action
in a future scene.
 C hapter T wo : S torytelling E x alted
UNACCEPTABLE INFLUENCE
AND THE RED RULE
The Red Rule is intended as a safety tool for players
but uses the mechanisms of the game to handle an
issue that is beyond the scope of mechanical reso-
lution. If the Red Rule has been invoked, pause play
to discuss the situation, or make use of more robust
safety tools such as those in this book (p. XX). As a
reminder, Charms such as Rose-Lipped Seduction
Style may not be used to violate a character’s orien-
tation. The spirit of this effect makes it possible for
characters to seduce alien entities and stoic monks,
but not at the expense of consent. Similarly, Celestial
Bliss Trick and any other Charm based on intimate
encounters only functions when both parties (and
both player and character) consent to the encounter.
Intent is Everything
The most important component of a strong social in-
fluence scene is establishing the social goals of all par-
ties. The read intentions action (Exalted, p. 218) is a
good way to uncover what another character’s wants
in a scene. A character’s social goal guides every action
they undertake in the scene. Consider the context and
intensity of the Intimacy most relevant to the scene, as
well as the narrative of the story to provide social goals
for Storyteller characters. If neither side has a clear so-
cial goal, which may happen even in a scene where only
two characters are talking, consider if it’s necessary to
use the social influence system at all.
Every participant should have a clear goal. Communicate
with your players at the start of the scene and help de-
termine theirs. Not all of the participants will be aware
of everyone else’s social goals, but it’s important for the
Storyteller to do so in order to focus the scene. If the
players are unsure, you should offer them prompts and
collaborate in order to establish a clear goal.
Spending Willpower
As mentioned on p. 219 of Exalted, Willpower points
may be spent to resist social influence that is intend-
ed to change how a character feels by creating, de-
stroying or changing her Intimacies. Social influence
is not “mind control” and for Storyteller characters,
these rules should be used judiciously to give agency to
Storyteller characters while not invalidating the efforts
or investments of player characters. These guidelines
expand upon p. 344 of Exalted to help Storytellers
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adjudicate Willpower spending when a player targets a
Storyteller character’s Intimacies:
• Minor characters such as nameless goons and inn-
keepers don’t tend to spend Willpower to resist so-
cial influence unless it might endanger a Defining
Intimacy. Storytellers should favor the player char-
acters. These minor characters rarely resist suc-
cessful social influence.
• Major characters such as important village elders,
wandering heroes, ministers of state and inhuman
creatures may spend Willpower to resist influence
only if it endangers one of their Major or Defining
Intimacies.
The only times Storyteller characters should be ex-
pending Willpower to resist are moments where do-
ing so would be vital to maintaining their Intimacies.
Never completely shut down the efforts of your players.
If their influence fails, consider opportunities to reset
the social action or offer alternative path to success,
such as by Introducing a Fact or using another Ability.
These guidelines favor players strongly in social influ-
ence, but this isn’t a bad thing. Players who have invest-
ed in social characters are engaging in a power fantasy
that’s just as valid as a character playing a peerless war-
rior or an intrepid explorer.
Lore
The Lore Ability is a powerful tool that permits players
to help shape the world of Exalted directly. The abili-
ty to introduce a fact may make some Storytellers ner-
vous, but is in reality a massive opportunity for collabo-
ration and a way to reward player creativity.
OPTIONAL RULE:
INFLUENCE OVERWHELMING
Some groups may be unhappy with the fact that Sto-
ryteller characters have the option to expend Will-
power to shut down social influence no matter how
well they roll. The reason this rule is present is to
underline that social influence isn’t mind control. .
However, some groups may want to reward an over-
whelming success. For that you can use this optional
rule: for every 5 threshold successes on an influence
roll to create, destroy, or change a Storyteller charac-
ter’s Intimacies, the Willpower cost to resist the influ-
ence increases by one. This stacks with Charms that
increase the Willpower cost to resist social influence.
This does not affect Decision Points.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
FILLING IN CREATION
Locations and cultures described across Exalted do
not come with every detail exhaustively detailed. In-
troducing a Fact can be a great way to help fill them
out, allowing players to take an active role in shaping
the setting during their games.
Don’t be afraid to collaborate; introduced facts can be a sig-
nificant driver of player investment throughout the chron-
icle and a great way to allow characters who have invested
in it heavily to feel knowledgeable and useful. Either as
part of Session Zero (p. XX) or early in a chronicle, you
should discuss with your players if you have any prefer-
ences about what kind of facts you want to see introduced,
or which ones you’d prefer to avoid, such as avoiding the
Sidereal Exalted in a game where they won’t be featured, or
encouraging facts about customs and traditions practiced
by people in the primary setting of the chronicle. This con-
versation should inform what backgrounds or specialties
characters select when they take the Lore Ability, so that
everyone can feel confident in their focus.
Storytellers who set expectations early on during Session
Zero will ideally not find themselves in situations where
they must veto knowledge that a character has introduced,
but if it happens, be transparent. Whatever the reason for
vetoing a fact, be clear with players why it is happening
and consider alternatives or compromises that can be of-
fered. If players understand why a fact was vetoed, they
can take that into account when using Lore in the future
and it can help alleviate the feeling of being shut down.
Whenever reasonable, try to find an acceptable compro-
mise rather than completely reject the fact introduced.
Knowing a Fact
Knowing a Fact covers characters having in-universe
knowledge of facts about the world that the Storyteller
or players have prepared prior to a scene, or to learn in-
formation which is unknown to the player but might
be to the character. A character can roll to know a fact
with (Intelligence + [any relevant Ability]) — a Dawn
Caste could use her Melee rating to recognize a myste-
rious warrior’s school of swordsmanship, while a Water
Aspect’s skill in Bureaucracy offers familiarity with eco-
nomics. Lore can always be used in such rolls as long as
the character has an appropriate backstory or Lore spe-
cialty. Success on this provides working knowledge on
the subject with the Storyteller should provide the play-
er with concerning the topic. difficulty should be deter-
mined using the rules on p. 238 of Exalted.
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Introducing a Fact
The benefits for Introducing a Fact can be nebulous. In
order to ensure that the players feel rewarded for us-
ing their Lore Ability, Introducing a Fact should offer
at least one of the following rewards:
• Narrative Drama: The fact introduces new ele-
ments to the narrative, such as a trial by combat,
a ruin to traverse, or a treaty that affects the po-
litical situation. Elements should subtly favor the
skillset of the beneficiary of the fact introduced,
unless the player is deliberately seeking to make
the situation more challenging.
• Forward the Plot: The fact introduces a way
forward through a dilemma. A character trained
in geology at the Learned Bastion in Corin
Prefecture can determine where deposits of pre-
cious metal are to trade or equip her armies or
there’s a provision in the traditions of the Kajali
people that allows a blood feud to end honorably
if both parties commit to a great deed. Sometimes
the fact may solve a problem outright, but lower
difficulty rolls to introduce facts might provide an
avenue forward that must be accomplished using
other Abilities. This is an opportunity for a char-
acter with Lore to offer useful solutions to prob-
lems the Circle faces, as most facts introduced
should forward the plot.
• Generate Intimacies: The fact introduced is ma-
terially useful to someone with whom it is shared,
or they are impressed with the character’s knowl-
edge. Characters should often gain an Intimacy
when a character Introduces a Fact (Exalted,
p. 170). Such Intimacies should be positive and
reflect the intentions of the player introducing
the fact. Don’t use this as a license to introduce
Intimacies that are completely counter to the
character’s interest. This reward can be combined
with the others, and if you’re ever unsure of how
to reward an introduced fact, consider generating
Intimacies on relevant Storyteller characters that
the player can make use of.
Be transparent about these rewards so that characters can
feel like their investment in Lore has been rewarded.
Challenging a Fact
Albeit a less common use for Lore, Challenging a Face
can be a great addition to social or intrigue scenes.
People do not generally possess perfect recall or
 C hapter T wo : S torytelling E x alted
knowledge of every topic they’ve learned about and
some may offer incorrect information to support per-
suade or bargain rolls intended to advance their agenda.
Players can use the rules provided for Challenging a
Fact (Exalted, p. 238) to respond to these opportunities
and gain an advantage. Success may allow the charac-
ter challenging the fact to disrupt social influence if
the untrue fact provided evidence, generate Intimacies
towards the character that introduced the incorrect
fact, or help the characters prevent or solve the con-
sequences of bad information. Storytellers should con-
sider opportunities to challenge facts into the narrative
in order to help reflect the expertise of a character with
dots in Lore.
How to Run a
Wyld Hunt Game
Every Exalt has to deal with the setting-wide concept
of the Wyld Hunt sooner or later. The Realm remains
a superpower over Creation, even in its current fallen
state; Immaculate doctrine has taken root in Prasad,
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Lookshy, and in nations all throughout the Threshold
and the West. These roots run deep, extending beyond
the soldiers and into the shikari who gather to Hunt
down their reincarnating prey again and again.
For all of their powers beyond mortal ken, many Exalted
are hunted creatures. Regarded as kin to demon princes
in many regions, and considered too dangerous to live
in the Immaculate Texts, reborn Solars and Lunars must
live like shadows. Villagers might regard the characters
as saviors with a mixture of adulation and fear, but that
attitude often irreparably changes at the first glimmer of
a Caste Mark. If the character doesn’t seem like a par-
ticularly strong combatant some would-be hero might
take it upon himself to round up a group and kill the
Anathema in their midst — or at the very least, run the
demons out of town. Eventually, every Exalt has to deal
with a Wyld Hunt — either as hunter or prey.
The threat of the Hunt is ever-present in the early years
of a Solar or Lunar’s existence. Within every Exalt, high
or low, is the power to change history and remake the
world. Cosmic in might and unequaled in puissance,
they must work their plans subtly until they have
amassed enough power to openly challenge the order
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
WHO ISN’T HUNTED?
Despite the decisive statement above, three types of
Exalted don’t have much interaction at all with Wyld
Hunts one way or another: Liminals, Alchemicals,
and Getimians. While Exigents and outcastes are rare
targets as well, these three aren’t accounted for in the
Immaculate Faith.
Alchemicals are unknown, ensconced within their
patron titan, far from Creation.
Liminals are creatures of the shadowlands, seeking
to hold fast the line between the living and the dead.
Most of the Order’s interactions with the unquiet dead
involve Immaculate exorcists, not shikari; in this case,
the Liminals are doing everything that the exorcists
themselves would be doing, so the exorcist orders of
the Immaculates and the Liminals respectfully ignore
one another by longstanding mutual agreement. The
Chernozem are considered unclean by the Order, to
be sure, and there are debates about whether they
constitute an appropriation of power like an Exigent,
but ultimately few consider them a threat to Creation
or the rule of the Dragon-Blooded. If any sentiment
is expressed by Immaculate monks at all it tends to
be, “Leave the graveworms to their dirt.” On rare oc-
casions, aggressive and troublesome Liminals have
been declared Anathema, but the Created avoid a de-
rogatory sobriquet in the Immaculate Texts.
Getimians, on the other hand, have no reason what-
soever to prosecute a Wyld Hunt and multiple rea-
sons to give shikari a wide berth. With the memories
of their nonexistent mortal lifetimes, they may even
root for the shikari. Rakan Thulio’s ultimate plan in
his war against destiny is benefited by keeping Side-
reals occupied by the dangerous, endless Hunt. Sim-
ilarly, prolonged exposure to Hunts might alert either
Dragon-Blooded or Sidereals to the true nature of the
Getimians, a danger Thulio cannot allow. Even Ge-
timians whose destined origins involved conflict with
the Realm will hesitate greatly to throw down directly
with a hunting Kinship. Still, as described on p. 101 of
The Realm, the Bronze Faction is aware of Getimians
and is in the process of orienting the Wyld Hunt to
include them as Anathema.
of the world, and avoid permanently indebting them-
selves to patrons with dissident agendas in the process.
Hunting a Solar Circle
For Solar characters, the impending arrival of the Wyld
Hunt is the iconic early conflict. Shikari are their first,
most obvious, most capable enemies. Most Hunts make
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coming after a Solar Anathema priority over any oth-
er, as Hunts are most effective and dangerous against
Solars newly reborn. And now more are coming.
Solar Exaltations are difficult to hide, at best, and obvious
over a few miles’ radius at worst. Most mortal witness-
es know what they’re seeing when an unusually plucky
human erupts in golden light. They also know the capital
punishments that await them for harboring Anathema or
failing to notify Dragon-Blooded authorities.
Worst of all, Solar Exalts have no community of other Solars
to fall back on and no infrastructure waiting to shelter them.
Isolated, confused, or terrified, Solars new to their power
face being snuffed out before they get a chance to shine.
But this was Creation before the mysterious catastro-
phe that sundered the Jade Prison. Where once a single
Solar Exaltation could flare up with an every-few-years
rarity, Creation finds itself flooded with sudden light.
Entire Circles may Exalt and find each other within
moments. Dying alone and frightened at the hands of
the Hunt is no longer inevitable.
No One Should Have All That Power
The Hunt of a Solar provides an excellent introduction to
two of the core conflicts of any Solar Exalted game: firstly,
the power struggles between Realm and Anathema. The
Realm is a fully entrenched, overwhelming, overreaching
imperialist power, and it labels every entity outside its
umbrella of faith and filial piety an enemy. The unlikeli-
hood of the Blessed Isle maintaining its grip on Creation
is born in part from the infrastructure and dogma dedicat-
ed to careful, systemic extermination of these Exalts, and
especially the supremely powerful Solars.
Secondly, the Wyld Hunt of a Solar Circle gives players a
chance to explore the other dramatic conflict at the heart
of the Solar Exalted: the cost of redemption and reclaim-
ing the past. The Scarlet Empire is a colonizing force and
Solars are potent, even violent reactions to their occupa-
tion of Creation. Solars fight not just to survive an empire
and a philosophy that unequivocally want them dead, but
also to reclaim their personal histories, lost treasures, and
tarnished reputations. They could survive a Wyld Hunt by
hiding and isolating themselves, but this is itself anathema
to the Essence fever that drives their longing for heroism.
Even worse (or better, for an eager Storyteller), this strug-
gle between the mortal survival instinct and the Solar need
for glory demands the Exalt make an attempt to understand
their nature as divine perfection in sloppy, imperfect shapes.
Solars know they want to live, but also to work righteously
in Creation, and these two instincts cannot coexist without
drawing the Realm down upon them.
 C hapter T wo : S torytelling E x alted
Together, the Wyld Hunt and the Solar Exalted represent a
microcosm of Exalted’s overall theme of power and its con-
sequences. In the First Age, Solar sovereigns committed hor-
rifying atrocities in the name of power, and in hindsight it
seems inevitable that someone would rise to put them down.
Now the Dragon-Blooded maintain their rule over Creation
by sending their best and brightest to commit undoubting
murder against anyone with certain signifiers. The Wyld
Hunt is an extension of Dragon-Blooded power stolen vio-
lently at the Usurpation — itself a direct consequence of the
monstrous abuses that typified Solar rule in the First Age.
Now the Solars rise again in new, naïve reincarnations,
unaware of how their righteous anger at the Blessed
Isle’s tyranny is a continuation of an ancient cycle.
Who’s to say if this new age of Solars wouldn’t ripen
into yet another doomed Solar Deliberative?
Solar Wyld Hunts and the Modes of Play
In the Creation-as-Stage mode of play, the Storyteller
and players should be most interested in how the
Solars’ power will elevate them to greatness in their
conflict with the Wyld Hunt. Some ways Stage games
may encourage this dynamic include:
• Dramatic showdowns between rivals with shared
pasts—family against family, mentor against stu-
dent, or lover against lover.
• A Wyld Hunt with a demonstrated reputation as
cruel, irredeemable tyrants, leaving the players
eager to face off against them in righteous battle.
• Shikari who survive conflicts only to return again
and again, despite all odds and at the worst possi-
ble times, for scenic, showstopping fights.
• A Hunt that takes the Circle’s survival personally
and chases them to the ends of Creation, beyond
what duty or reason requires.
• Conflicted Hunters vulnerable to impassioned
pleas or reason who pay witness to the Solars’ acts
of bravery or heroism.
Stage games treat the members of the Wyld Hunt as ambi-
tious and larger than life, just like their Solar targets. They
lean hard on the high drama of what a Solar must do when the
Wyld Hunt comes to claim him. Members of the Hunt, and
the conflicts they create, should exist to highlight how power-
ful, legendary, and virtuous the player characters can be.
In the Creation-as-Threat game, the Storyteller and
players must be willing to explore how the Solars’ pow-
er is made futile in the face of the Wyld Hunt. These
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THE WYLD HUNT IS PART OF THE STAGE
It might be paradoxical to consider the institutional
antagonists some of the players’ best friends. In Cre-
ation-as-Stage games, the Wyld Hunt is just as much
a part of the stage as any other element of the game.
The Storyteller should of course be crafting shikari
with an eye toward challenging the players, mechan-
ically and emotionally, and creating opponents and
conflicts that make the players feel awesome and
give their characters chances to shine.
This doesn’t mean make your antagonists total push-
overs—a hollow victory isn’t going to leave anyone
feeling like an epic hero. Consider this blanket per-
mission to plan for a Hunt without many top-level
Abilities or Charms if it means hitting an emotional
chord with the players instead.
games find a natural fit with newly Exalted Solars, who
are already feeling overwhelmed and alone. A more es-
tablished Circle with experience facing more powerful
foes needs to have telegraphed to them why this Hunt
is a threat that must be taken seriously. Some examples
of tent-poles in a Threat game may include:
• Disproportionately-powerful Wyld Hunts, per-
haps with a horrifying weapon from Lookshy’s
First Age arsenal, or practitioners of world-bend-
ing martial arts among their number.
• A Wyld Hunt beyond the players’ ability to defeat,
which must be endured until there is a chance to
flee or strike back.
• Shikari who know the Solars personally, even
pre-Exaltation, and make use of cruel weaknesses
or emotional blind spots to manipulate them out
of positions of strength.
• Mortals and spirits who appear friendly and co-
operative, but are only looking for excuses to be-
tray the Circle to the Hunt.
• A Realm with eyes and ears everywhere, a mortal
population paranoid of Anathema influence, and
Dragon-Blooded officials closely scrutinizing any
unusual heroics.
Threat games play up the isolation and confusion of ex-
alting as a Solar in a Creation that will kill them without
question. They bring Solars into conflicts with Dragon-
Blooded and other Realm authorities, though Sidereals
and Bronze Faction-aligned gods are also an option.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND

In the Creation-as-Cost mode of play, Storytellers and
players explore how the Solars will be brought low by
the consequences of incurring the Wyld Hunt. While
THREATS ARE FOR OVERCOMING
these games will still be interested in what a Solar has
to gain, they place greater focus on what the Solar will
lose as a result. They find most of their inspiration
from classic tragedies, such as The Song of Everlasting
Regret, or Oedipus Rex. Some of the features of a Cost
game may include:

Threat games in Exalted present a difficult challenge
for Storytellers. While the sources of potential threats
seem obvious, actually making these threats feel vi-
able in the face of the supremacy of Exalted play-
er-characters is can be a challenge. On top of that,
Storytellers of Threat games must strike a delicate
balance between ensuring the players still feel like
powerful Chosen of the gods and making Creation
feel treacherous in spite of that power.
• A dear friend, family member, or lover tries in ear-
nest to help the Solars avoid the Wyld Hunt, only
to be arrested or killed.
• Unwanted memories of a wicked past life chal-
lenge the Solar to either die before the Wyld Hunt
for sins committed centuries ago or defy the Hunt
in the hopes of redeeming themselves.

The most important step to take as a Storyteller of • Successes enjoyed pre-Exaltation—such as a

Threat games is to remember that as much as you
may throw at them, you are on the players’ sides. Ul-
timately, the Storyteller should be a fan of how they
make it out by the skin of their teeth, not how they die
predictably against overpowered foes. Beyond this,
consider the collection of homebrew rules sugges-
tions for Creation-as-Threat games, found on p.XX,
for ratcheting up the tension.
well-paying career, a celebrated reputation, or
a promising academic trajectory—becomes im-
possible to pursue without risking the Solar’s
survival.
• Strong influence from the Immaculate Philosophy
forces devout Solars to question their faith or
doubt their own right to survive the Wyld Hunt.

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 C hapter T wo : S torytelling E x alted
• Tragedy or traumas that haunt a Solar still, de-
spite their newfound empowerment, cripple their
ability to face the Hunt.
Cost games do not shy away from the dizzying highs
of stage games or the tension of threat games, so much
as they focus on the consequences for these scenarios.
And, in a broader sense, cost-games ask the Solar play-
ers what it costs them simply to be Solars and continue
pursuing their passions and goals.
Dragon-Blooded on
the Wyld Hunt
When the Dragon-Blooded tell stories of the history
of Creation, those stories inevitably return to the price
that must be paid to ensure the harmony of all things.
For the generals and soldiers who submit themselves to
the Wyld Hunt, the price is paid in blood — preferably
the blood of Anathema, but many Dragon-Blooded have
laid down their lives to keep monsters from diverting
the great works of the Realm from their course. The
Wyld Hunt is what allows civilization to thrive, and
there can be few greater honors for a member of any
noble house than to lay down their life in its pursuit.
As with any system that has been in place for thousands of
years, there is dissent. When soldiers of the Hunt return,
the more pensive don’t speak of glorious triumphs over su-
pernatural beasts, but instead linger on the faces of youths
not even fully aware of the power they held, drowned in
seas of blood. Glory does not come easily when your battle
is with a confused young man barely out of his teens with
the power to annihilate an entire talon of soldiers.
In the Second Age, the stories of the Wyld Hunt and the
Dragon-Blooded who participate are tales of both the glo-
ry gained in battle and the pieces of humanity that these
soldiers give up in service to the Immaculate Philosophy.
Repeatedly these soldiers are faced with challenges to the
faith on which they were raised — are the Anathema real-
ly the monsters they are made out to be? And if not, what
does that make the empire that vilifies them? Thus, it is
common knowledge amongst the shikari that those they
hunt are Exalted not unlike themselves, but that without
the perfection of the Dragon-Blooded spirit they have no
more ability to fight against the cosmic energies that im-
bue them than the common folk have to fight against that
same Anathema.
Immaculates have this truth revealed to them — the
Anathema are other Exalted, albeit of Celestial energies
too powerful for weak souls — though a young shikari
joining the Wyld Hunt may be hearing it for the first
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WHAT DOES IT PAY FOR?
Creation-as-Cost games are quintessentially trag-
edies, but that doesn’t mean they’re an exercise in
battering your players with unnecessary cruelties or
constant misery. Not only does this make for an emo-
tionally exhausting game, but it also drains the fun
and drama from tragedy. The player-characters need
breaks from stress and sadness and also must earn
something for the cost to be at all meaningful. Give
them bright spots to pursue; these could be momen-
tous, like as claiming a new artifact, or as simple as a
once-reluctant ally unexpectedly offering the charac-
ters shelter from the Hunt.
Additionally, in a Cost game, extra care must be tak-
en to ensure players and Storyteller are on the same
page with regards to what each player is willing to
lose, whether that is resources, Intimacies, or any-
thing else. The group as a whole should also agree
on the issues they want to explore in character, and
which they would rather not bring into play. Please
refer to the recommended safety rules (p. XX) when
considering dealing with potentially sensitive topics
that include surviving trauma.
time. For some, this is a shattering revelation, one that
seizes upon many doubts; for others, this silences them
by reframing the Wyld Hunt as a compassionate en-
deavor to quell the tempestuous Celestial Exalted be-
fore they grow strong enough to rend the world asun-
der once more. Killing the Anathema is a grim, holy
duty for the Hunters, even if they know the Hunted are
victims in the larger scheme of things.
If your players are participants in the Wyld Hunt,
their adventures should force them to confront the re-
alities of enacting peace at the cost of innocent lives.
Anathema come in all shapes, sizes and gradations of
morality – sooner or later, any band of Dragon-Blooded
shikari will be forced to carry out their bloody work
against children and the elderly, against saints and
slaves, none of whom chose to become what they are.
How those hunters deal with this situation – by hard-
ening themselves to it, throwing themselves into fa-
naticism, or allowing the seeds of doubt to take root in
their hearts – will shape their fate.
Alternately, your Dragon-Blooded players may choose
to be objectors to the Wyld Hunt – citizens of the
Realm who have chosen to resist the Immaculate
Philosophy and assist the Anathema. Press your play-
ers to clearly define why their character has decided to
resist the dogma of the Immaculate Order. Resistance
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
to the Realm is dangerous, and resistance to the shikari
of the Wyld Hunt doubly so. Only the brave and moti-
vated can bear to defy the established order, and must
be careful lest they face a bloody execution.
Anathema
When other Exalted interact with the Wyld Hunt, it
is almost always as the quarry, which means that even
some of the most brutally powerful Solars and Lunars
still maintain a healthy fear of the Hunt. Their fear is
well placed: the Hunt is everywhere. Dragon-Blooded
hunters and even those who resist the institution of it
understand the need for its agents to be constantly vig-
ilant. Normal folk have little recourse when treated like
playthings by the crueler of the Anathema and only the
Hunt checks that power.
Yet, the power the Dragon-Blooded wield puts them
in the strange space between mortals and Anathema.
Certainly, the most noble of Dragon-Blooded see them-
selves as sheepdogs; protectors of the flock given the
power to make their protection meaningful. But just as
often, there are those among the Dragon-Blooded who
look down on mortals and see themselves as divinely
superior to both them and Anathema alike: Where the
members of your Hunt fall on this spectrum can have
drastic consequences for the direction of your story.
The Anathema involved in your story are as much the
heroes of their own tales as your players, and will have
a life and goals of their own that follow a clearly defined
motive. Most people wouldn’t immediately start killing
random bystanders if they were miraculously imbued
with godlike power; Rather most would try to make
their own lives or the lives of their loved ones better.
The consequences of using that power are paid for by
the mortals around them – until the Wyld Hunt comes.
There may come times when a shikari faces resistance
from the common folk in pursuit of their quarry. While
they would never say as much aloud, in the far reach-
es of the Threshold or the Blessed Isle, life under the
benevolent protection of an Anathema could be an
improvement. Those who resist the Wyld Hunt may
need to wrestle with the question of fighting against
and even killing shikari who are only trying to protect
citizens from powers from which they cannot hope to
protect themselves. The Dragon-Blooded warrior they
kill may very well be the one who would have saved a
village from a vindictive Lunar the next week.
Mixed Bag
You may encounter a situation where some of your play-
er characters support the Wyld Hunt and others oppose
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it. While it is possible to make such a game work, you
will likely find it challenging to keep a group with such
mixed allegiances together for long. Although you can
get some great drama from betrayal – a member of the
Wyld Hunt who is secretly working to save the inno-
cent Anathema – players working at cross-purposes to
each other usually end up frustrated in the long-term.
A good compromise may be to allow some of your play-
ers to start out opposing the others, with the under-
standing that they will eventually be caught and forced
to have a change of heart or create a new character.
You’ll probably need to work with the player to set up a
scenario for this – this can be an excellent opportunity
to further develop the character their motivations.
If you cannot get the players to agree, consider running
a more limited-length game. A few sessions of players
in clandestine opposition to one another can be a fresh
new experience, as long as your players know that this
means the ultimate conflict will likely end up being be-
tween the people at the table.
Dragon-Blooded and the Modes of Play
Depending on the mode of play you chose (pg. XX),
you can serve the overall tone by adjusting the Hunt to
match the themes you’re trying to highlight.
In a Creation-as-Stage game, the morality of the
Hunt should take a back seat to the more adventur-
ous aspects of being the last line of defense against the
monstrous Anathema. If your Circle are members of
the Wyld Hunt, set them up with clear villains and ob-
jectives. The challenge shouldn’t come from deciding
who to fight, but how to stop them while protecting in-
nocents. If your Circle are opposed to the Wyld Hunt,
make it obvious that the Hunters are just as harmful to
the common people as the Anathema, so that defend-
ing an innocent Chosen doesn’t come with the bag-
gage of knowing that they may be a greater evil. These
guidelines should lead you to conflicts where players
feel they know how their power can be best used, even
if they must struggle with the collateral damage they
inflict.
When running a Creation-as-Threat game, you can use
this as an opportunity to explore some of the darker as-
pects of the Wyld Hunt. Bring in a little more darkness
into the machinations of the Anathema being hunted
– show how their evil arises not just from selfishness,
but from cruelty and sadistic pleasure at the suffering
of those they subjugate. Make your players confront
the horrors that arise when an Exalt with the powers
of a god is free to indulge in their every whim. If you’re
 C hapter T wo : S torytelling E x alted
opposing the Wyld Hunt, consider making the game
about concealment rather than outright conflict. There
is a lot of tension to be wrung from hiding from an un-
just lawman – and remember that the consequences of
being caught will be dire: the Dragon-Blooded can be
just a cruel as their Celestial counterparts.
If you want to really get into the moral grays of the
Wyld Hunt, run a Creation-as-Cost game with the
goal of constantly making your players question what
is right. The Hunt will not always be going after those
guilty of atrocities, nor will they always be crushing
the innocent under their boots. Whether your players
are on the side of the Wyld Hunt or working against
it, produce situations where sometimes the Hunt are
heroes and sometimes they are villains. Present them
with the option of doing their duty at the cost of their
humanity or abandoning their charge with the certain
knowledge that the next time a cruel Anathema shows
up there will be no one to call for help. This can be es-
pecially fun if there are non-player characters involved
with the Hunt whose opinions on their missions can
show where they draw the line and what they might do
once that line is crossed – something that can cause the
players to ask themselves the same questions.
Final Missions
When you are a member of the Wyld Hunt, one thing
to always keep in mind that any mission could be your
last. There are Anathema with the power to kill with
less effort than a thought, and when cornered there’s
no way to say who will be the first to fall. Shikari often
maintain distant relationships with family and friends
because of the assumption that one day they will never
return.
Make these stakes feel real to players by letting them
know that if they don’t think before they act, they could
die on their first mission. One of the most fun aspects
of a Dragon-Blooded Wyld Hunt game can be the ten-
sion the hunters experience, knowing that they’re al-
ways one bad decision away from death. Make sure
that whenever the Wyld Hunt rides out, not all of them
come back, and that your players know that there’s no
safe way to hunt the Chosen of the gods.
Hunting a Lunar Circle
At the culmination of the Usurpation, the vast majori-
ty of Solar Exaltations were trapped within an arcane
prison, locked out of the cycle of reincarnation. The
Lunar Exalted of the First Age, however, proved their
mettle as survivors and escape artists fleeing the be-
trayer’s armies.
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PROBLEMATIC EMPIRE
We keep stressing this, and we’re going to keep
stressing it. When you are running a game of Exalted,
and especially one that deals with the Wyld Hunt and
the Scarlet Realm, it is extremely important to keep in
mind the attitudes and mentality of your players vis-
à-vis imperialism, slavery, and genocide. Depend-
ing on where you are in the (real) world and who’s at
your gaming table, these themes may be a source of
stress. The theme of an autocratic, jingoistic empire
carrying out genocide on a misunderstood minority of
its citizens needs to be handled with care when these
themes aren’t as far from reality as we might wish.
We encourage you to present your players with chal-
lenges to their ways of thinking both in Creation and
in reality, but make it clear to your players that no one
should feel pressured to journey down a dark path or
confront real-world events that may be traumatic for
them. When in doubt, always foster an environment
where your players are comfortable talking to you
and give them a forum to bring up anything that may
be causing discomfort in the story you are all telling
together, and make sure to reference the Safety Tools
section (p. XX) again.
In the centuries since, the Lunars have made them-
selves enemies of the Dragon-Blooded traitors, harry-
ing first the Shogunate and now the Scarlet Realm and
its satellite states. The Wyld Hunt exists not only to
manage the escaped Solar exaltations, but also to curb
the efforts of Lunar hostiles.
Since the fall of the First Age, Dragon-Blooded and
Lunars have waged an ever-escalating war via the
Wyld Hunt, both sides using it to their own ends and
responding to each other’s tactics in kind. While the
Lunars feel the intrinsic urge to ward Creation from its
enemies and protect those under their charge, likewise
do they work tirelessly to destabilize the Realm and its
pretender-princes.
A Lunar Exalt’s power is as obvious and easily-recog-
nized as a Solar’s. Nearly everyone has heard the tales
of unusual light displays and silver Caste Marks. Mortal
bystanders to a Lunar drawing their Second Breath
have no doubt as to what they’ve witnessed, with only
moments to react before the Lunar inevitably, defen-
sively, and instinctively change their shape. The ben-
efits of Lunar shapeshifting are obvious, and most
Lunars are quick to exploit this edge; the Hunt can’t
kill what it cannot find.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
Together We Are Invincible
If physical strength should fail them, Lunars, more than
any other Chosen, may slip unnoticed or even welcomed
into any number of societies, mortal and divine alike.
They experience far less pressure to abandon their mor-
tal community and they are more likely to find shelter
there than any other Exalt, either because they’ve craft-
ed the perfect disguise or already presented themselves
as a culture hero to their people. Engendering the good-
will of the local populace, leveraging anti-Realm sen-
timent, or making them more afraid of you than of the
Hunt are all tactics that have worked to defend Lunars
from early deaths at the hands of shikari.
Perhaps the single most important factor determining a
Lunar’s survival is how long they must hold out before
another Lunar can reach them. None but the youngest
or the oldest and most potent of Lunars can survive in
isolation — the rest gather strength and support from
the Silver Pact or a similar mutual aid society. Even
those who spurn the Pact or have an ideological issue
with such societies must forge a network of supernatu-
ral alliances — and the Chosen of Luna are well-suited
to forming networks.
Lunars as a community have centuries of experience
with identifying and outsmarting tactics employed
by the Wyld Hunt. Established Lunars may employ
countermeasures in the forms of ancient Charms,
moonsilver artifacts, or small armies of zealous mor-
tals. They may also leverage Lunar occult superiority,
like primary sources of First Age history and lore, or
sorcerous knowledge beyond Dragon-Blooded reach.
Primarily, the Pact opposes Wyld Hunts as a social net-
work, delivering rumors and sightings of new Lunars
to any nearby agents available to provide support or
undertake the rescue. Lunars excel at defending not
only themselves but each other, and other Anathema
if their resources and philosophy allow. Players and
Storytellers should not to think of Lunar cultures as
easily-lootable armories or piñatas full of Merit points,
but as webs of knowledge and defense against the
Realm’s attempts to quell the Anathema threat.
Wyld Hunts targeting a Lunar Circle offer perfect
frames for the predator-and-prey theme of Lunar
Exalted games. The Hunt is a monolithic beast to
young, recently Exalted Lunars, still vulnerable and
unconnected while a Wyld Hunt can also prey upon
established Lunars caught unawares and unprepared.
Such Wyld Hunts require experience with facing
Lunars in general, to understand their unusual talents
for metamorphosis and survival, but also prepare for
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the individual Lunar or Circle in question if stories and
legends are available to plumb for details. Even while in
possession of these advantages, a Wyld Hunt in pursuit
of a Lunar Exalt must strive to be as tough, creative,
and adaptable as its quarry.
On the other hand, this dynamic is readily reversed—
the Hunt can, and often will, become the hunted. Many
are the Wyld Hunts that vastly underestimated the
power and silver-tongued magnetism of the Lunar
Anathema, or the collateral devastation they are willing
to wreak — let alone a circle of them.
Lunar Wyld Hunts and the Modes of Play
In the Creation-as-Stage mode of play, the power of
the Lunars and their need for vengeance drive them to
clash with the Wyld Hunt. Even more so than Solars
their clashes are filled with explosive passions as they
work to galvanize the people surrounding their Circle.+
For Lunars both young and experienced, a Stage game
may feature:
• Montage clashes with the Wyld Hunt over the
course of several days, covering hundreds of miles,
drawing followers and worship from both sides.
• Irresistible courtships as the Lunars crack the
stone hearts of solid Immaculates and seduce the
shikari into abandoning their cause.
• A spotlight shone on each lonely, struggling
Lunar, before the Circle comes together at last in
an unstoppable synergy against the Hunt.
• Lunar stewardship and ingenuity calling them to
take up roles as culture heroes, where they stir up
anti-Realm sentiment and convince entire towns
or nations to deflect the Wyld Hunt on their behalf.
• Crusades as Hunters-of-the-Hunt with backing
of the Silver Pact, committed to rescuing fellow
Exalts from an unjust death, and venting their
wrath on villainous shikari.
A Stage game finds ways to thrust a Lunar’s shapeshifting
into the spotlight as a show-stopping power, encouraging
use of interesting, entertaining, or impressive new forms
to overpower or outwit the Hunt. While Stage games nec-
essarily focus on the Lunar and her magnificence, the cul-
tures which the Lunar maintains connections are part of
that stage. In this mode of play, the Lunar’s cultures serve to
provide opportunities for her to be influential, for good or ill,
and always for renown. Storytellers of Stage games should
consider the Wyld Hunt part of the stage as well, meant
 C hapter T wo : S torytelling E x alted
to showcase how magnetic, cunning, and tough the player
characters are.
When playing in the Creation-as-Threat mode, the
Storyteller and players are invested in how the Lunars
and their interests will survive. The Threat game will
necessarily make the Lunars’ power feel meaningless in
the face of the Wyld Hunt, though this can appear in dif-
ferent forms for new or experienced Lunars. For new-
ly-Exalted Lunars, threats may take many appearances:
• Being forced to hold out against impossible odds
and overwhelming force until an older Lunar ally
can provide assistance.
• Frantic attempts to turn public sentiment to the
characters favor, as they are stranded in a com-
munity turned hostile while shikari methodically
search for them.
• Defending not just each other but the vil-
lage they’ve sheltered in, while overzealous
Immaculates weigh whether or not to just burn
the place to the ground.
Though established Lunars have more tools at their
disposal, the Threat game still has ways of forcing them
into tough choices and bad bargains. For older Lunars,
a Threat game may feature:
• Subversive parties — gods, Fair Folk, or other ene-
mies — infiltrating the Circle’s protected cultures,
twisting opinion of the Lunars until their own
mortal charges summon the Wyld Hunt.
• An isolated new Exalt, a desperate plan to rescue
him, and a Hunt that anticipates the Circle’s in-
terference, throwing roadblock after roadblock in
front of them while their window of opportunity
closes.
A Threat game finds ways to make a Lunar’s shapeshift-
ing critical but just shy of overpowering, encouraging
cleverness and stealth over obvious might. The Lunar’s
Tell should share the spotlight with shapeshifting it-
self, reminding the players that changing form isn’t al-
ways a “get-out-of-Hunt free card” if they aren’t care-
ful. Some Threat games play on the weaknesses most
Lunars have in common — that of their communities
and cultures. The threat does not necessarily have to
come to the Lunars themselves, when mortals make
such tempting, squishy targets. Other Threat games
are meant to emphasize a Lunar’s cunning and talent
for survival, both drowning them in impossible odds
55
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and eagerly anticipating what, exactly, they’ll pull off
this time.
For Creation-as-Cost games, the consequences of a
Lunar’s survival of the Wyld Hunt take the spotlight.
Young Lunars may hide in plain sight under anoth-
er shape and watch the Wyld Hunt stroll right by, but
they’ll also watch as their loved ones are interrogated,
and their community torn to pieces. Will they really stay
hidden and do nothing? New Lunars may realize they
can consume human shapes to better escape the Hunt’s
notice, but these people have their own lives filled with
consequence, to say nothing of wrestling with the taboo
of eating human flesh. Questions like these only scratch
the surface of the potential cost for survival. A Cost game
featuring newly-Exalted Lunars might make use of:
• Offered access to potential human shapes that
would allow them to dodge the Wyld Hunt, but at
the price of murdering beloved community mem-
bers, devoted caretakers or respected allies.
• Vulnerable mortals willing and eager to risk their lives
to protect their new culture-heroes, and who will
most certainly die if the Lunars don’t dissuade them.
For more experienced Lunars, the stakes only rise, and
Cost games may force them to:
• Determine if abandoning their adopted island
nation and escaping into the sea is worth it to sur-
vive another Wyld Hunt
• Risk the dangers of infiltrating a Wyld Hunt to
rescue an ally’s reborn bondmate, only to find the
new Exalt bleeding black and turned cold and
hard-hearted.
Shapeshifting in a Cost game places a greater focus on
the Sacred Hunt, the in-system cost for acquiring new
forms. If a Lunar player has a powerful shape in mind,
and there are no logical reasons why she couldn’t attempt
it, the Storyteller is strongly encouraged to make use of
the Sacred Hunt, either as a side-quest or a focused mon-
tage. It is also recommended to let the Sacred Hunt itself
have consequences—the animal was unknowingly sacred
to a local cult, or the mortal’s survivors suspect foul play
and begin an investigation, or some shred of evidence of
the Lunar’s hunt is unintentionally left behind and makes
its way to a magistrate or a shikari. Where a Threat game
is interested in seeing the Lunar survive at any cost, a
Cost game underscores what that cost may be, and since
Lunars are intricately tied into their cultures and commu-
nities, the cost of survival will be likely to fall on these di-
rectly and trickle down to the Lunar.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
Sidereals on the Wyld Hunt
The Wyld Hunt is a natural outgrowth of the Immaculate
Philosophy, which teaches all devotees (among oth-
er things) that the greatest cataclysm in history was
caused by the unchecked power of the Anathema, who
ruled Creation wickedly. The rightful place of rulership
belongs to the Dragon-Blooded who have earned ele-
vation through their service to their communities and
to the Immaculate Philosophy. As active participants in
keeping Immaculate Philosophy orthodox, it is natural
to assume that Sidereals still have their hands on the
rudder in one way or another.
When running a Sidereal Wyld Hunt, you’ll probably
find it helpful to incorporate some Dragon-Blooded
characters — players or not — to interact with, since
Sidereals rarely like to get their hands dirty directly. In
other words, it’s hard to pull strings when there’s no
one around whose strings you can pull. Additionally,
extra allies can lead to interesting complications for the
Sidereals who wish to use their powers without being
seen as Anathema themselves.
The most common resplendent destiny for a Sidereal
joining the Hunt is that of an Immaculate monk.
This permits the Sidereal to avoid a lot of questions.
However, the Maidens’ Chosen disguise themselves as
soldiers, leaders, and even common civilians as suits
their needs. Although these Arcane Fates are inter-
changeable, in the instance of multiple Sidereals col-
laborating on a single Hunt, remember that too much
day-to-day variation of the group’s makeup can arouse
suspicion even when the Sidereals are cloaked by fate.
The morals of a Sidereal on a Hunt can be called into
question by the things they are called upon to over-
see. To a Sidereal, the hunting of Anathema is much
more about maintaining the stability of the Realm and
Creation than truly about fighting evil. They often find
it hard to quell their doubts with the same zeal as their
followers without the ideological safety blanket of a di-
vine mandate.
This moral strain is likely what lead to the fracturing of
the Sidereals into factions in the first place. The Gold
Faction arose at least in part to question what splendor
has been lost in Creation since the loss of the Solars,
and whether the costs of the Wyld Hunt outweigh the
benefits. Since the Gold Faction has begun supporting
the Cult of the Illuminated, suspicion (never far from
a Sidereal mind) accompanies any Wyld Hunt. Every
Sidereal knows that their companions are almost cer-
tainly all playing their own games with their own ends
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in mind, and that any one of them would betray their
allies in an instant if they judged it to be strategically
necessary.
Choosing Sides: Gold and Bronze
When running a Wyld Hunt game for Sidereal char-
acters, there’s always room for duplicity — keeping in
mind the advice above about communicating with your
players to make sure they aren’t frustrating one anoth-
er. Perhaps more than any other type of Exalt, you and
your players have the freedom to explore a whole range
of different approaches and attitudes towards the Hunt
and the Anathema. It’s usually fun with Sidereals to en-
courage everyone to come up with their own individual
goals and have your players think about which of those
goals they share and which they keep hidden.
Still, the beginning of your game will go much more
smoothly if you all agree to be at least nominally on
the same side of the schism — Gold Faction or Bronze
Faction. There’s nothing to say that a player or play-
ers might not be working as double agents, but for the
group to work together they must have some sort of
common goal and trust that their allies seem to want
the same thing.
If you choose to run a Gold Faction game, players
should get a clear sense of how much they risk by sup-
porting the Anathema that have been hunted for so
long. Keep players on their toes by presenting them
with Chosen whose powers threaten to slip beyond
control at any moment. Some of the best moments for
a Gold Faction story are the ones where they question
whether they have allowed things to go too far, and
if the current situation is the one where they should
have intervened. Remind your players that by pulling
the strings of the Chosen they seek to save, they accept
responsibility for everything that Anathema might do
once they are freed. This very same fear of not acting
while their power was still enough to save Creation is
what led these Gold Faction Sidereals to go along with
the plan to cage the Solar Essence in the first place.
They may forgive, but they will never forget how close
Creation came to ruination because of their hesitation.
For a Bronze Faction game, allow your players to feel a
real sense of control over the direction taken by their
group — the Sidereals are almost always the ones di-
recting the efforts of a Wyld Hunt, though sometimes
discreetly. The decision about when to rely on Dragon-
Blooded muscle and when to directly manipulate fate to
seal the doom of a target, be they Anathema or mortal,
should always be in the back of their minds. While the
Dragon-Blooded are a simpler and less pricey means
 C hapter T wo : S torytelling E x alted
to Sidereal ends, they are a blunt instrument, and for
those Sidereals with a genuine concern about the moral
repercussions of their actions there’s an uncomfortable
tension around letting a group of Dragon-Blooded war-
riors loose on a possibly innocent civilian population.
But all Sidereals know that meddling in Fate has a cost,
and sometimes that cost will be taken in far more lives
than a rowdy group of soldiers could take.
Sidereals and the Modes of Play
There are many variables in any Wyld Hunt chronicle,
and a Sidereal chronicle in particular has a lot of le-
vers that you can pull to adjust the tone of the story to
match the Mode of Play you have chosen (p. XX). You
will likely have to home in on the exact level of moral
and physical complications to introduce in order to get
your players to enjoy the game in the way intended.
For a Creation-as-Stage game, the conflicts can be
more straightforward with a focus on the complex sub-
terfuge and martial arts of Sidereal agents. Treat the
question of enacting capital punishment as an academ-
ic problem, something that can be pondered in the qui-
eter moments, but never a concern on the battlefield.
Conflicts that are clearly about defending themselves
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or the innocents they are protecting will allow Sidereals
to feel they are justified in warping Fate and manipulat-
ing reality to achieve their ends. This also encourages
play that mimics the epic martial arts stories and films
that players may be itching to act out. Provide your
players with ample opportunities and backdrops for
cool exhibitions of extreme martial prowess.
When running a Creation-as-Threat game, make sure
the stakes of the Hunt are constantly reinforced. The
Sidereals should see Creation as riding on a razor’s
edge, and that their lives may need to be laid down
to maintain balance. Allow them to see what happens
when they fail in their missions — forcing them to show
up a little too late for a conflict with an Anathema or
the Hunt can give you a great opportunity to remind
your players that if they fail to act the consequences
will be dire and far-reaching. This way you can pres-
ent conflicts of morality without bringing the game
to a grinding halt. It may be hard to order a child to
death, but if the player remembers that last time they
weren’t there to stop the Anathema in whatever form
it appeared, the countryside was irreparably scarred or
an entire neighborhood was wiped completely off the
map, the decision will be easier.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
Creation-as-Cost games are where you will really chal-
lenge your players with the morality of their choices.
As directors of the Wyld Hunt, they will not only have
to choose who shall live and who shall be sacrificed for
the greater good, they will also have to prioritize ef-
forts based on limited information. When a rampaging
Lunar is devastating the crops of a village on one side of
Creation and an Abyssal is trying to resurrect a dark god
on the other, the Sidereal in charge may be faced with the
knowledge that they can only fix one of these problems
in time, and the other may unleash a new kind of threat
that destabilizes Creation even more. Likewise, try to
raise the question of whether the deaths of Anathema
are necessary or merely convenient. The moral high
ground of a preemptive attack can be hard to defend
when you don’t fully understand the circumstances of
your foes or the repercussions of their deaths.
Fated Conflict
The Wyld Hunt is the best and worst thing the Sidereals
ever created, and they all know it. Whenever a Sidereal
Chosen gets involved in the Wyld Hunt, they know that
they will be exposed to physical and ethical challenges
that test their commitment to the protection of Creation.
There is always the very real chance that in the course
of carrying out their missions, they will be asked to do
something that directly contradicts their very purpose
for fighting with their faction in the first place. Bronze
Faction Sidereals will be forced to sacrifice innocent
lives, and Gold Faction Sidereals will be called upon to
kill the Anathema that they were hoping to guide.
When these quandaries arise, it can lead to exciting
new areas of story exploration for your group. For those
who are less sure, a moral test can lead to a need to sep-
arate from their former allies. If you want to explore
this avenue, talk to the player whose Sidereal is teeter-
ing on the edge of rebellion about whether they want to
continue on that path. If so, work with them to deter-
mine how such a split might play out.
A violent break with other members of the Circle is the most
obvious option — after crossing a moral bridge too far, the
Sidereal rounds on their allies and stops them dead in their
tracks with an outpouring of magical and martial attacks.
Don’t forget, however, that Sidereals are masterful manipu-
lators, and that the opportunity to lead their allies in a new
direction entirely is also available. Perhaps the group could
turn over a new leaf as freedom fighters against the kinds of
horrors they had previously witnessed or even committed.
Or there’s always the option for Sidereals to cast off their
resplendent destinies and fade from memory as they wan-
der off into oblivion (though this may lead to uncomfort-
able questions from the Sidereal’s superiors).
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Make sure you determine what path forward works best
for everyone at the table. If the Sidereal’s allies are also
player characters, they don’t want to have moral decisions
made for them by a roll of the dice or an arbitrary plot de-
cision. There’s the very real possibility that such a conflict
could result in one or more players having to create new
characters more in line with the fallout from the fight, but
if your players seem open to the idea this can lead to great
storylines that help the characters who remain grow and
develop in interesting ways.
Hunting an Abyssal Circle
Abyssal Exalted face much the same threats as their
shinier counterparts. Many of the same stories that
can be told of Solars’ relationship with the Realm
and the Wyld Hunt can be told about the servants of
the Deathlords. However, Abyssals have the advan-
tages of the Underworld at their disposal, and they’re
well aware of Immaculate teachings and propagan-
da against the Solars — including what’s accurate and
what isn’t. Solars must take time to gather an army, col-
lect artifacts, and gather other Exalted to their cause to
achieve their goals; this allows for plenty of time for the
Realm to catch word of them. The Abyssals — should
they be loyal deathknights in the feudal apparatus of
the Deathlords — have the support of existing structure
both wider and deeper, all of which are secure from
the Order’s prying eyes and all but the most daring
Sidereals.
Death’s Lawgivers
Canny and forewarned, venturing where Sidereal as-
trology cannot follow, deathknights are far more like-
ly to manipulate a Wyld Hunt into a devastating am-
bush than be sudden victims of it. This isn’t to say that
Abyssals ride across Creation with impunity; they’re
knights, after all, and the Deathlords expect them to
provide for themselves to a large degree. Flaunting
one’s power overmuch is the perfect way to bring the
Hunt down upon you. While Abyssals may have the
ability to call on specialized resources, their infrastruc-
ture is still largely contained within the Underworld,
and conditions must be right to call on those resources.
Thus, many Abyssal Circles subtly work to create shad-
owlands in order to bring their forces to bear, or use
existing shadowlands as vectors into Creation.
It’s not all hordes of the walking dead and vast necroman-
tic monstrosities of sinew and bone. Conquering isn’t the
only tool a deathknight can bring to bear. Abyssals can
work to subtly take over communities by making pacts
with the local gods on behalf of the Deathlords or ap-
proaching the town leaders and offering aid dealing with
 C hapter T wo : S torytelling E x alted
troublesome Lunars and Yozi cultists. They could even
help local artisans increase the quality of their goods to
take to market, stimulating the local economy and insin-
uating themselves within the community. All the locals
need to do is change some burial rites…
Abyssal Wyld Hunts and the Modes of Play
In the Creation-as-Stage mode of play, the Storyteller
and players should be most interested in how the
Chosen of the Deathlords’ obligation will force them
to confront the Wyld Hunt, choosing the time to re-
veal themselves for maximum dramatic impact. Many
of the same examples that apply to Solars also apply to
Abyssals — but when deathknights take the stage it’s
not righteousness they recite, but the poetry of bloody
violence. Some examples of ways Stage games may en-
courage this dynamic are:
• Wreaking havoc on a wide scale and drawing
Creation closer to the Underworld, drawing out
a Wyld Hunt at a time and place of the death-
knight’s choosing.
• A Wyld Hunt whose shikari have a personal con-
nection with the Abyssal Circle from their mortal
lives; former lovers, a Dragon-Blooded sibling, or
an old childhood friend.
• Righteous, sympathetic shikari, who are rightful-
ly angry about the Circle’s conduct.
• A Hunt that fails once before bringing in Sidereal
shikari, drawing more and more celestial atten-
tion to the conflict.
• Renegade Abyssals, bereft of support from the
Deathlords, coming across a venal group of shikari
that abuses the common people while Hunting
who and what they please.
Stage games treat the members of the Wyld Hunt as
ambitious and larger-than-life, just like in Solar games
— with the added twist that the Abyssals are, per-
haps, the monsters the Immaculates claim them to be.
Members of the Hunt and the conflicts they create exist
to highlight how wicked, deadly, or deeply penitent the
player characters can be.
In the Creation-as-Threat game, the Storyteller
and players examine the daunting task of serving the
Deathlords at their pleasure, or existing as a dark pow-
er in the world. These games find a more natural fit
with renegade Abyssals, but certainly even loyalists can
prefer the relative safety of the Underworld to the dan-
gers of Creation. A Threat game can offer:
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• Massive Wyld Hunts on the scale of the Tepet le-
gions, as the characters scare the Realm enough
to unite it.
• Catching Lookshy’s attention, along with their
depleted but dangerous arsenal of First Age
weapons.
• Immaculate sorcerer-exorcists and necromancers
taking the fight to the Underworld, inverting the
advantage Abyssals normally enjoy.
• A Wyld Hunt backed by rival Chosen, perhaps a
virtuous Solar Circle manipulating the shikari into
doing the dirty work of softening the Abyssals up.
• The same plagues that Solars face: An all-seeing
Realm, a mortal population suspicious of caste
marks, and the Abyssal curse wreaking havoc
upon the living..
Creation-as-Cost is perhaps the mode of play best suit-
ed to Abyssals. Storytellers and players can explore how
the zero-sum game of fighting the Wyld Hunt, even as
deathknights enjoy access to vast resources. All grand
deaths further the goals of a loyalist Abyssal, even their
own, and death follows the Wyld Hunt whether they like
it or not. Clever Circles might see the Hunt not as an op-
ponent, but an instrument of death that they simply need
to learn how to play, where every song is a dirge. In this
framework, the Hunt becomes an expendable pawn, and
the cost comes into play depending on when and where
they are sacrificed — and toward what end.
Hunting an Infernal Circle
Corrupted Solar Exaltations roar within the Infernal
Exalted, Chosen of the Yozis. Where once there was order
and virtue, there is now chaos and howling vengeance.
Infernal Exalted are chosen from the disenfranchised,
victimized, and discarded, mistreated and apostatized
by any number of Creation’s unjust institutions — but
most likely the Realm. Rather than grasp at “redemp-
tion,” many Infernals embrace the label of Anathema,
wearing it like a status symbol: Destroying hated systems
of oppression, though some embrace transformative re-
form while focusing on radical compassion.
Even if they didn’t have a penchant for exploding into
violent displays of green light and ichor, they would
have been called Anathema for their anti-establishment
philosophies and tactics, if they had the power to back
it up before their Exaltation. Naturally, Wyld Hunts
are drawn to them like moths to flame. But, an Infernal
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
would argue, what right do they have to declare who lives
and who dies? Infernals hold up the institution of the
Hunt as the ultimate symbol of Realm hypocrisy, though
they are far from the only ones making moral arguments
against the practice and take especial pride in the fact
that Hunts exist solely to kill them and others like them.
Woe betide the Wyld Hunt that uses sorcerously bound
demons to hunt their quarry, for they have clasped the
instrument of their destruction to their breast.
The Chosen’s clashes with unjust institutions may earn
them frightened awe or even breathless respect, but
rare is the Infernal who adopts any sort of heroic la-
bel of the majority. Like the Lunars, Infernal Exalts are
known to track and kill Wyld Hunts en route to other
targets. Unlike Lunars, this is not always on behalf of
the other Anathema. Most Infernal Circles simply like
having fewer Realm sycophants to contend with — after
all, the other Anathema are servants of creatures who
betrayed or imprisoned the Yozis to begin with.
Infernal Wyld Hunts and the Modes of Play
In Creation-as-Stage games, the story explores how
the terrible majesty of the Infernals proves itself supe-
rior to the Wyld Hunt. If Stage games featuring Wyld
Hunts against Solars are power fantasies for the vir-
tuous type, these are power fantasies for raging punks
and antiheroes. These games may feature:
• Remorseless, purgative combat against cruel and
tyrannical shikari.
• Opportunities for clever sabotage against a Wyld
Hunt unprepared for the Green Sun Princes.
• Stalking a Wyld Hunt on their way to kill an in-
nocent Exalt.
When playing Creation-as-Threat games, the Infernals
are forced to face how even their brutal power could be
made meaningless before the Wyld Hunt. This could be
due to the hopeless reality of being unable to dismantle
long-standing authoritarianism without allies; it could
be because the Infernals’ naturally horrifying presence
drives away even the hope of having such allies. These
games may include:
• A never-ending Wyld Hunt with constant sup-
port and reinforcements, leaving the Infernals
broken with little time to recover between direct
conflicts.
• Being forced to rely on patently untrustworthy
allies, such as spirits or sorcerers, expecting be-
trayal at any moment.
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• Inability to contain their own natures and urges,
as unrelenting anger compels the Infernals to
take decisive action at all the wrong moments.
For Creation-as-Cost games, Infernals reckon with
the consequences of being terrifying, misunderstood
rebels in a world that wants them dead. Their cause
may be righteous — even objectively so — but their
methods and motivations are so catastrophic and vio-
lent that their allies are hard-won and hard-kept. The
cost of standing against the entire world is often that
the entire world stands against you. Cost games may
also feature:
• Common folk who can be rallied to the Infernals’
worthy cause, only for them to run screaming at
the sight of the Circle’s true majesty.
• Rescuing a fellow Anathema from their own
murder at the hands of the Hunt, only for her to
misunderstand the Circle’s intentions and refuse
to join them.
• Forging deals and alliances with other insurgent
entities, such as Second Circle demons, and being
unable to stop them from causing collateral dam-
age during conflicts with the Hunt.
Exigents — The “Ones of
a Kind” on the Wyld Hunt
Exigents are unique, and their interactions with the
Hunt are just as singular, each seen through the lenses
of their own Exaltation, their patrons, and their partic-
ular capabilities. When dealing with the Wyld Hunt,
their relationships with the Immaculate Order and
the Realm largely hinge on whether they accept the
Dragon-Blooded as hegemons and agree to hew to the
Order.
Most Immaculate scholars will tell you that Exigents
are the result of criminal congress with rogue spirits
and gods: Those that flout the truth and righteousness
of Creation’s perfected hierarchy are subject to suspi-
cion. Should they not seek to right the mistake of their
existence by admitting Dragon-Blooded supremacy and
strive to aid the Immaculate Order, they are marked as
Anathema. Most of their patrons give varying advice,
but few wish to see their champions hunted or suffer
the spirit-crushing blows of Immaculate Martial Arts.
Exigents also hold the unenviable position of some-
times being caught in the crossfire of forces larger
than themselves. Exigents themselves rarely attract
 C hapter T wo : S torytelling E x alted
the attention of the Realm enough to warrant a Wyld
Hunt — the crisis that resulted in their own Exaltations
notwithstanding — but they are Exalted, and inevitably
find themselves drawn to conflict. It’s an unfortunate
Exigent that crosses paths with a Solar being chased
by a Hunt. Do they offer the Solar succor, or kick the
Anathema to the wolves? Do they join the Hunt, join
with the Solar, or leave events to play out as they will?
The Great Curse
The Great Curse is the doom of the Exalted, the final
vengeance of the slain ancients, an inexorable punish-
ment for an unforgivable crime. It’s both the storied
wrath of Achilles and the demigod sulking in his tent;
the murderous Battōsai persona that threatens to break
Himura Kenshin’s pacifism; Jesus scourging the mon-
eylenders and driving them from the temple. It’s the
self-defeating irrationality of human nature, writ as
large as everything is for the Exalted.
The Great Curse’s mechanics bring these moments
from Exalted’s source material into the game itself.
They ensure the Exalted aren’t hyper-rational demi-
gods incapable of human error, but people possessed of
great power and equally great fallibility.
However, the Great Curse is also a part of Exalted that
can cause issues for play groups. Some choose not to
include it in their game, or to not use any mechanics
to represent it — if that makes your group’s experience
better, go for it.
This section is intended for Storytellers who want to
use the Great Curse. It provides guidance on using the
Great Curse in games and rules hacks to tailor it to your
play group and the themes of your chronicle.
What the Great Curse Should Be
Emotionally Impactful: Like all Exalted’s mechanics,
Limit exists to give players an emotional response. For
most mechanics, that emotion is “fun” — you should
enjoy using them! Limit Break may be the mechanic
most like to provoke other responses: a shiver of hor-
ror, lamentation for an unnecessary tragedy, speech-
less gaping. Regardless of the reaction, the Great Curse
should always be a positive for the players — even if it
puts their characters through hell, the players should
enjoy its emotional effect.
Dramatic: Good stories needs tension, conflict, and dra-
ma. The Great Curse is far from the only source of this —
there’s Wyld Hunts, plagues, systemic oppression, corrupt
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gods, wars, fierce competition between rival noodle stalls,
and more — but it foregrounds the Exalted’s inner turmoil
as a driving force of a chronicle’s story. A player charac-
ter’s actions during the Limit Break and their subsequent
struggles to come to terms with the consequences of what
they’ve done can be as great a source of conflict as any ty-
rannical regime or undead army.
A Roleplaying Opportunity: Limit Break drasti-
cally changes how a player character behaves — a
light-hearted hero might be overtaken with murder-
ous rage; a peaceful messiah might turn against a sin-
ful world; a prince of thieves might repent her wicked
ways and seek absolution. This shouldn’t be an abrupt
change to an Exalt’s personality or an inexplicable bout
of out-of-character behavior, but a chance to portray
a side of that character that doesn’t normally shine
through. People are complicated, contradictory, and
three-dimensional. Limit Break spotlights these con-
tradictions in a larger-than-life way, giving players a
chance to roleplay characters in a way they normally
don’t get to.
A Reason to Act Irrationally: Roleplaying games like
Exalted often have an inherent tension between role-
playing your character and accomplishing your goals. A
player focused on achieving their character’s goals may
try to make the best decisions possible at every junc-
ture, with an eye towards long-term success. However,
this is often at odds with roleplaying a complex,
three-dimensional human being — even with the divine
might of the Exalted, humans are a mess of bad deci-
sions, contradictory desires, and self-sabotaging behav-
ior. Exalted won’t tell you not to try to play a perfectly
rational character, but it will, from time to time, ask if
you wouldn’t rather do something absolutely irrational.
What the Great Curse Shouldn’t Be
Punishment: Limit Break changes the way player char-
acters act, pushing them towards courses of action they
normally wouldn’t take or away from those they’d like to.
This is intended to reflect larger-than-life passions, vic-
es, and the character flaws of mythological heroes, not
to punish players for reaching Limit 10. If one or more
of your players feels like Limit Break’s loss of control is
hurting their enjoyment of the game, the Player-Driven
Great Curse rules hack below (p. XX) lets you put all the
agency over the Great Curse into their hands.
Disruptive: Limit Break has immense potential to dis-
rupt your game’s narrative, depending on what Limit
Break is selected and when it occurs. If your players
have been focusing on an intricate court drama plotline
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
and have finally reached the climactic confrontation
with the conspirators in front of the entire royal court,
having one player character suddenly go on a ber-
serk killing spree probably won’t make anyone happy.
There’s no objective distinction between what makes
a Limit Break an interesting narrative development or
a disappointingly abrupt change of direction, but it’s
easy to make sure your players are on board with it: be-
fore declaring a Limit Break, ask your players how they
feel about your choice of Limit Break and its timing. If
they’re unenthusiastic, you can pick a different Limit
Break or wait until a more exciting moment to spring
the Limit Break.
Upsetting for the Players: Under no circumstances
should Limit Break be personally distressing or uncom-
fortable for the players, as opposed to the characters.
The safety mechanics in Chapter One (p. XX) are your
best tools for ensuring this doesn’t happen. While the
safety mechanics you’ve chosen to use for your game
should always apply, be extra mindful of them when a
player character’s in Limit Break. If necessary, remind
the Limit Breaking character’s player of the group’s es-
tablished Lines and Veils, remind players they can use
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the X Card or Stoplight System, or conduct OK Check-
Ins. If necessary, fade to black, change the Limit Break a
character is experiencing, or declare that a Limit Break
is finished. Nothing is worth upsetting your players in a
way they aren’t comfortable with.
Storytelling the Great Curse
The Great Curse isn’t as mechanically complex as com-
bat or social influence, but still poses challenges for
Storytellers. The following guidance is intended to help
you use the Great Curse with a minimum of difficulty,
letting it serve its purpose without making Storytelling
harder.
The Flow of Limit
Generally speaking, meeting a Limit Trigger generates
1-2 Limit, acting against a Defining Intimacy generates
1 Limit, and acting against a Major Intimacy generates
0-1 Limit. Beyond that, there’s no single fixed rate at
which player characters will gain Limit. The flow of
Limit depends on the player characters’ Intimacies
and Limit Triggers and the frequency with which a
 C hapter T wo : S torytelling E x alted
Storyteller puts player characters into situations where
they might act against Intimacies or meet their Limit
Triggers. There’s no way to say how often Limit Breaks
will occur, but you can take steps to ensure you and
your players are on the same page.
Before introducing a scenario intended to meet a play-
er character’s Limit Trigger or give them a compelling
reason to act against an Intimacy, it’s worth asking their
player if they’re interested in having that event come
up in play. A scene tailored to present a moral challenge
will fall flat for a player uninterested in that dilemma.
Session Zero (p. XX) is the best time to have this con-
versation, but it can take place at any time. Don’t place
player characters in catch-22s where all outcomes will
inflict Limit, like forcing them to choose between two
Defining Intimacies with no third option, unless their
players have expressed being okay with that. When
Limit’s an inevitability, it feels like a punishment in-
flicted by the Storyteller rather than an interesting con-
sequence of a player’s choices.
Avoid introducing scenarios solely for the sake of po-
tentially prompting a Limit roll for one player char-
acter — weave them into your chronicle’s plot, and
include opportunities for other characters to meaning-
fully engage with them. If you want to see if a player
character would forsake their Principle of respecting
their enemies when faced with a Fair Folk who’s honed
cravenness and disreputability into a martial art, you
might tie the raksha into your chronicle by making him
an ally of a Lunar who’s been making trouble for the
player characters, or create an hook for another play-
er character who’s seeking his kidnapped husband by
having the raksha drop hints to his location.
Finally, bear in mind that your players will surprise
you. Don’t try to orchestrate in game events to ensure
that Limit Breaks occur on schedule or anticipate how
a player will roleplay a Limit Break; it’s not going to
work.
Limit Triggers
How broadly applicable should a Limit Trigger be? The
answer is however much the player wants it to be. A
player who doesn’t want to Limit Break as often can
choose a Limit Trigger that’s unlikely to come up of-
ten; a player who loves Limit Break can pick one that’ll
come up all the time. Beyond that, the main goal play-
ers should have in mind when picking Limit Triggers is
fleshing out their character’s personalities by defining
their major stressors, and picking Limit Triggers that
will set up mythically resonant situations when their
characters succumb to Limit Break.
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Legendary Social Goals
Legendary social goals (Exalted, p. 134) are important
to reducing Limit and resetting certain Charms. If you
or your players are having trouble determining wheth-
er an accomplishment counts as a legendary social goal,
the following guidelines provide some broad parame-
ters to consider.
Legendary social goals are incredible accomplish-
ments: As the name suggests, legendary social goals are
the stuff of legend. They need not be entirely beyond
the capability of mortal heroes, but they are remarkable
even for the prowess of the Exalted: overthrowing the
sovereign of a powerful kingdom, converting a satrapy
to the worship of the Unconquered Sun, abolishing a
region’s deeply-entrenched practice of slavery, curing
a plague sweeping the land, negotiating the truce that
ends a war, and the like.
Legendary social goals are rare and effort-inten-
sive: Accomplishing a legendary social goal typically
takes a significant investment of time — achieving one
could easily be the basis of an entire story, and player
characters are unlikely to accomplish more than one
per story, if that.
Legendary social goals are complete: A legendary so-
cial goal is the conclusion of a significant undertaking:
winning a battle is not a legendary social goal, but win-
ning a war could be. This doesn’t mean there can’t be
anything left to do after the goal is attained, like the work
of peace that follows the war, but legendary social goals
are never “step one” in a plan — they’re the entire plan.
Legendary social goals are personally meaningful:
A legendary social goal must be personally significant
to the character who achieves it. If a player character
doesn’t meaningfully care about their accomplishment,
it doesn’t qualify. This often means that the legendary
social goal will align with the character’s Intimacies,
although this isn’t a strict requirement.
Choosing Limit Breaks
Once a player character reaches Limit 10, you have two
important decisions to make: when the Limit Break oc-
curs, and what Limit Break it is.
There’s nothing wrong with having a Limit Break hap-
pen as soon as a character reaches Limit 10, as long as
the current scene provides an interesting context for it.
While most Limit Breaks last more than one scene, the
first scene will often be the most memorable, so it’s best
to choose one where interesting things will happen be-
cause of the Limit Break.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
COMPATIBILITY
These rules hacks are intended for Exalted like
Solars who gain Limit, eventually experience Limit
Break, and then reset to zero. It may still be possible
to adjust them for Exalted with different mechanics
for their Great Curse, but they’re likely to require con-
siderable revision.
If Limit Break isn’t immediate, it hangs over the play-
er character’s head until you decide it begins. There’re
two main types of scene where you’ll spring Limit
Breaks on players: scenes that are already dramatically
charged, and low-key, “slice-of-life” scenes. Beginning
a Limit Break in a dramatically charged scene, like a
heated argument or combat, can escalate the conflict
even further, with the right choice of a Limit Break
— but be mindful of the risk of derailing interesting
conflicts into less interesting ones (like turning a phil-
osophical debate into a grossly one-sided combat), or
falling flat if there’s no more room for a scene to esca-
late. Conversely, beginning a Limit Break in a peaceful,
slice-of-life scene can surprise players with a conflict
in an unexpected context — but again, be mindful; your
players might want to enjoy a quiet, peaceful scene in-
stead of plunging immediately into a new challenge.
Picking a Limit Break is just as important as picking
when it happens. The main factors to consider are the
situation the Limit Breaking character will be inter-
acting with, and how the chosen Limit Break fits that
character’s personality. You should only pick a Limit
Break if there’s something interesting for a charac-
ter to do (or refrain from doing) because of it. Try to
avoid Limit Breaks if their outcome is the same thing
the Limit Breaking character would normally do in that
situation — they’re most interesting when reveal some
of that character’s depth. While you can’t always pre-
dict what a character’s player would have done in that
situation, you can get their input on how they would
handle it when picking a contrasting Limit Break.
In terms of making sure Limit Breaks mesh with char-
acters’ personalities, try to choose Limit Breaks that
give the player a chance to roleplay an aspect or trait
of their character that isn’t usually foregrounded, but
avoid creating scenarios that undermine a character’s
core concept and the reason the player enjoys playing
them. Achieving both of these goals requires walking
a fine line — the best way to ensure you don’t make a
misstep is to ask your players if a Limit Break feels right
for their character.
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Trust Your Players
The Great Curse’s rules place most of the decision-mak-
ing authority on the Storyteller, but you don’t have to
be the sole decision-maker if you don’t want to be! If
you have a good rapport with your players and they feel
comfortable making decisions that are normally the
Storyteller’s purview, feel free to let them take charge.
Instead of single-handedly determining when a char-
acter’s Limit Break begins, the players, and you, can
collectively decide when it would be most dramatical-
ly interesting and entertaining. Instead of you picking
which Limit Break a character enters, that character’s
player can decide.
Rules Hacks
The following rules hacks exist to let you fine-tune the
Great Curse to serve your game’s needs. Keep in mind
that these rules hacks don’t need to apply to every play-
er — if one would prefer to use the Player-Driven Great
Curse rules hack, but the rest are fine with the standard
Limit rules, it’s fine to only apply that hack to that one
player, as long as the whole playgroup is okay with that.
Reducing Limit
Normally, the only ways to reduce Limit are by enter-
ing Limit Break, accomplishing a legendary social goal
(Exalted, p. 134), or with certain magic. The following
rules hacks provide additional ways to reduce Limit.
Storytellers should feel free to use any or all of them
to provide a wider range of choices for managing Limit
if that improves their game, and to mix them with the
Slow Limit or Fast Limit rules hack, below, if desired.
It’s not necessarily best to use all of these rules hacks at
once — while there’s nothing wrong with offering your
players abundant opportunities to lose Limit, the cog-
nitive load of using all of these options at once may out-
weigh their benefits. You may want to begin with one or
two of these options, and gradually introduce others if
it fits your game.
Story Completion: The passage of time soothes stress
and worry, weakening the Great Curse’s hold. At the
end of each story, all player characters lose one to three
Limit, chosen by the Storyteller. The longer the story
and the more the player characters accomplished in it,
the more Limit they should lose.
As the Storyteller, you’re the best situated to estimate
how many sessions the typical story in your chronicle
lasts, and how much Limit your players are likely to
gain in that timespan. This rules hack probably won’t
have a significant impact on the flow of Limit unless
 C hapter T wo : S torytelling E x alted
your players aren’t rolling Limit very often or your sto-
ries are relatively short, but it reinforces the players’
sense of accomplishment for finishing up a story.
Upholding Intimacies: Exalted who stay true to them-
selves and cleave fast to their convictions and relation-
ships can fight off the Great Curse. Once per session,
when a character upholds a Defining Intimacy, she los-
es one Limit.
This rules hack will likely have a significant impact on
the flow of Limit — players can expect to uphold one
of their character’s Defining Intimacies once per ses-
sion or more, especially if they choose Intimacies with
an eye towards meeting this goal. This reduction may
equal or exceed the amount of Limit a player gains each
session.
Hubris: The Great Curse need not vent itself in grand
displays of folly; its mounting influence over an Exalt
may urge them to smaller errors. Once per session,
when a player character takes an action similar to
something they might do while under the effect of
Limit Break — something irrational, self-sabotaging, or
contradictory to her own goals that creates interesting
drama or complications — they lose one Limit. Note
that this rules hack isn’t a reason to ruin other players’
fun or make them uncomfortable — if this isn’t some-
thing the entire table enjoys, it doesn’t qualify for
losing Limit.
This rules hack can significantly impact the flow of
Limit — it’s an easy condition to satisfy, and losing one
Limit per session could cancel out a character’s Limit
gain that session. That isn’t necessarily a problem,
though — a player character that never Limit Breaks
because they’re constantly making bad decisions isn’t
exactly “free” of the Great Curse.
Improved Legendary Social Goals: When a player
accomplishes a legendary social goal and loses a point
of Limit, she also rolls (1 + highest Intimacy relevant
to that goal) dice. Each success removes an additional
point of Limit.
This rules hack is unlikely to significantly impact on the
flow of Limit. Limit reduction from legendary social goals
is rare and unlikely to occur more than once per story, if
that, and this hack increases it from 1 to 1-4. Rather, its
main effect is to make a legendary social goal’s reward
more commensurate to the difficulty of achieving it.
Storyteller’s Bargain: If there’s an interesting course of
action that a player character wouldn’t normally do, but
that the Storyteller and other players would be interested
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to see happen, the Storyteller can offer to let that player
character lose a point of Limit if they take that action.
Storytellers should be careful about what they incen-
tivize with this rules hack — they shouldn’t encourage
players disrupt the game, interfere with other players’
fun, or unwittingly take courses of action will have in-
credibly punishing but non-obvious consequences.
This hack’s impact on the flow of Limit is entirely up
to how often you offer the bargain and how often your
players accept it.
Slow Limit
If gaining Limit and Limit Breaking are too frequent in
your game for your players’ tastes, you can use the fol-
lowing rules hack to slow down the rate at which char-
acters accrue Limit:
• Characters only roll one die for Limit when they
meet their Limit Trigger or act against a Major or
Defining Intimacy.
• Characters can only roll for Limit for acting
against an Intimacy once per session — once they
have, acting against Intimacies won’t prompt fur-
ther Limit rolls for the rest of the session.
This rules hack reduces the Limit gain for Limit Triggers
and acting against Major or Defining Intimacies to 0-1,
and means that characters will only even gain 1 Limit
per session at most from acting against Intimacies.
Fast Limit
If your players enjoy Limit Breaks, and the default
rules aren’t resulting in enough of them, this rules hack
makes Limit more common. Before using this rules
hack, discuss it with your players, and only use it if
everyone is enthusiastic about doing so.
• Add one die to all rolls for Limit from Limit
Triggers or acting against Intimacies.
• Double 9s on all rolls for Limit. If a character has
less than 5 temporary Willpower, they double 8s. If a
character has 0 temporary Willpower, they double 7s.
• At the end of a scene in which a player charac-
ter experiences significant stress, the Storyteller
can assign them one Limit, unless they’ve already
gained Limit in that scene or the previous scene,
or undergone Limit Break that story.
• At the end of each session, any player character who
didn’t gain any Limit that session rolls one die for
Limit.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
This rules hack increases the Limit gain from Limit
Triggers to 2-3 and from acting against Defining or Major
Intimacies to 1-2. Most significant, however, is gaining
Limit from stressful situations — most games of Exalted
don’t spend lots of time in the player characters’ comfort
zones. Keep in mind that what counts as stressful varies
from character to character, depending on their back-
ground and life experiences: a skirmish with bandits is
unlikely to affect a veteran soldier, but may cause the sa-
vant and diplomat who accompany her to gain Limit.
Player-Driven Great Curse
If your players don’t enjoy Limit Breaks or tracking
Limit, you don’t have to use them. Instead, you can use
this rules hack to keep the Great Curse as a setting el-
ement while turning control of it over to your players
and simplifying the mechanics involved.
Under this rules hack, the Great Curse manifests only
when a player chooses to roleplay its effects. Its conse-
quences still take the same general form — Solars act
on a terrifying excess or lack of a virtue, Lunars suc-
cumb to monstrous urges and act like terrifying crea-
tures of mythology and cautionary tales — but these are
guidelines, not hard and fast rules. If a player expresses
her character’s Great Curse in a way that creates in-
teresting drama and fun complications, she earns an
Expression Bonus (Exalted, p. 177). However, role-
playing the Great Curse is never a reason to ruin other
players’ fun or make them uncomfortable — if this isn’t
something the entire table enjoys, it doesn’t quali-
fy for an Expression Bonus, and may call for taking
a break and having an out-of-character conversation
about the issues at hand.
Removing Limit entirely does have some mechanical
consequences. While addressing every possible inter-
action this rules hack could have is beyond this scope of
this section, the following mechanical variations illus-
trate the approaches the Storyteller can take to making
these effects work without Limit.
• Fugue-Empowered Other: This Charm costs
five motes, but the Solar can reduce this by adopt-
ing one of the Intimacies of the persona she draws
on, discounting the mote cost to (5 − Intimacy).
This discount can only be claimed once per scene.
• Hero Rides Away: Instead of losing a point of
Limit, the Solar gains her choice of an additional
one Willpower or ten motes.
• Transcendent Hero’s Meditation: This Charm
can be reset by refusing to act against a Major or
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Defining Intimacy despite facing extensive coer-
cion or duress — like torture, magical mind con-
trol, or threats of harm to one’s loved ones.
The Great Curse
and Modes of Play
Exalted is a game that can be used to tell many differ-
ent kinds of stories, and you should tailor the presenta-
tion of the Great Curse in your chronicle to fit the needs
of the story you’re telling. If you’re using the modes of
play presented in Chapter One (p. XX), the Great Curse
can be a tool to emphasize the parts of your chronicle’s
narrative that you’re focusing on, and the rules hacks
above can tailor it to that purpose.
Creation-as-Stage
Depicting the grand dramas of heroic demigods and
their epic accomplishments, this mode of play empha-
sizes those elements of the setting and narrative that
the players are personally invested in. The Player-
Driven Great Curse rules hack is often be a good fit for
this mode, letting players engage with the Great Curse
to the extent they’re interested in exploring the stories
and scenarios it creates.
Alternatively, if your players aren’t as interested in the
Great Curse’s consequences as they are other aspects of
play, you can let it recede into the background without
vanishing entirely with the Slow Limit hack, together
with hacks that add additional ways to lose Limit. On
the other hand, if your players want to focus on the
Great Curse, you can ensure they have ample opportu-
nities for that with the Fast Limit hack.
Creation-as-Threat
In this mode of play, with its emphasis on the terri-
fying enemies and incredible challenges faced by the
Exalted, the Great Curse is best used to accentuate
threats to the player characters and provide occasion-
al dramatic punctuation between them. Much of this
can be achieved by choosing when player characters
enter Limit Break — you’ll rarely want to have it begin
as soon as someone hits Limit 10. Instead, save it for
a moment where it can bring greater complication or
emotional impact to a challenge. If a player character
already has a strong emotional response to a threat,
a Limit Break that accentuates that emotion — like
Compassionate Martyrdom for a player character ded-
icated to protecting innocents, or All-Consuming Grief
for one who’s already lost something to the threat — can
bring even greater drama to the challenge. Seemingly
 C hapter T wo : S torytelling E x alted
straightforward threats can become complicated chal-
lenges if a player character enters a Limit Break like
Deliberate Cruelty or Berserk Anger.
Limit Breaks can also provide dramatic momentum
when the player characters have reached a point of
peace or safety. If the player characters have driven
back a shambling army of the damned laying siege to
their city, the arrival of the Infernal warlord behind the
army can be punctuated by having the Circle’s Dawn
Caste fall into Crushing Doubt. If the player characters
have figured out a cure to the plague sweeping the coun-
tryside, a Limit Break like Contempt of the Virtuous or
Heart of Flint can pose an additional challenge before
the problem can be solved. Bear in mind that not every
reprieve needs to give rise to a new challenge imme-
diately, especially if the players already seem like they
know what they want to do next.
Given the usefulness of Limit Breaks to Creation-as-
Threat games, the Fast Limit hack is a good way to
bring that style’s themes to the fore.
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Creation-as-Cost
The Great Curse is most at home in this mode of play,
focusing on the tragedies of epic heroes whose mighty
powers birth mightier consequences and the grave
weight their decisions hold. Limit Breaks create inter-
esting decisions for the players, and have consequenc-
es that ripple throughout the setting, reinforcing this
mode’s thematic focus. The Fast Limit hack makes
these decisions and consequences more frequent, and
the Hubris and Storyteller’s Bargain rules hacks create
even more opportunities for weighty choices.
If your players are heavily invested in the immersive
roleplaying aspect of this mode of play, the Player-
Driven Great Curse hack may also be a good fit, pro-
viding incentives for your players to make interesting
decisions and offloading the duties of arbitrating Limit,
letting you focus more on portraying the consequences
of your players’ actions.
EX3
 Chapter Three
Optional Rules
Exalted is a game with many moving parts and lots of
mechanical heft. While this enables the tactical pow-
er fantasy it’s meant to be, it also means some of those
rules might be too much for some groups. Other rules
might not be enough and still others might need tweak-
ing to get just right for your character to kill a bear (look
at their stats, they’re no joke). This chapter is all about
alternate rules or rules tweaks to help in plotting games
of Exalted, from the Abacus — changing the rules them-
selves — to tweaks and further explanation on existing
rules to help Storytellers fine-tune their knowledge of
system topics.
The Orichalcum Abacus
The following section contains optional rules that alter
the way your games of Exalted play. Storytellers should
feel free to use as much or as little of this section as they
think would suit the needs of their individual chronicles.
Adjudicating Higher Difficulty
Exalted characters are capable of rolling tremendous
dice pools. To this end, Storytellers may find themselves
having to adjudicate a roll that generated fifteen or more
successes. Difficulties up to 5 are described on Exalted,
p. 185; here are few more examples of what higher level
difficulties might entail.
Difficulty 7: It’s possible to reliably accomplish diffi-
culty 7 actions without magic, but doing so requires a
maxed-out (Attribute + Ability) pool, stunt bonuses,
and possibly equipment bonuses or a relevant special-
ty. Characters like Solars with high dice caps can use
magic to accomplish these tasks even if their Traits ar-
en’t maxed out. Storytellers should use this difficulty for
challenges that stretch the boundaries of what they be-
lieve are possible for mortal heroes, and that are remark-
able even for the Exalted.
Examples include lifting a boulder as big as the charac-
ter with a feat of strength, taming a tyrant lizard, sailing
through a hurricane while under attack from wrathful
sea-gods, solving a famous philosophical conundrum or
mathematical question by introducing a fact, surviving
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a fall of thousands of feet, translating a text written in a
language lost to time, or climbing the Imperial Mountain.
Difficulty 10: Accomplishing a difficulty 10 task with any
reliability requires a character to have a high (Attribute +
Ability) pool as well as magic that adds dice or otherwise
improves their roll. Dragon-Blooded may not be able
to reliably hit difficulty 10 even with a full Excellency.
Without magic, even if a character has the best Traits,
they won’t beat difficulty 10 without a lucky roll. At the
Storyteller’s discretion, mortals may not even have a
chance to roll. The Storyteller should use this difficulty
for challenges they feel comfortable declaring entirely
beyond the realm of what even the most highly skilled
mortal hero could ever accomplish, and which requires
considerable exertion even from the Exalted.
Examples include lifting an elephant with a feat of
strength, solving a profound mystery of Creation or
worlds beyond by introducing a fact, performing brain
surgery with Bronze Age tools, drinking Yozi venom
without suffering harm, running a marathon in an hour,
or climbing the Imperial Mountain amidst a hurricane.
Difficulty 15: Even a Solar with the best (Attribute +
Ability) pool and a full Excellency won’t be able to re-
liably succeed on difficulty 15 tasks; this requires non-
Charm dice or other magic that improves dice rolls with-
out counting against the limit on Charm dice. Without
magic, a character would need to roll a truly improbable
number of 10s to beat difficulty 15. Difficulty 15 should
reserved only for the most arduous and legendarily chal-
lenging tasks — those that the Storyteller deems possible
for the Exalted, but only just.
Examples include bashing through a fortress’ stone walls
with a feat of strength, swimming across the Inland Sea
without stopping for rest, taming a behemoth whose
only purpose is destruction, breaking a mystical seal
forged by the enemies of the gods, performing a surgery
beyond what modern medicine can accomplish using
only Bronze Age tools, swimming to the bottom of the
Great Western Ocean, gaining fluency in a language lost
to time by studying an untranslatable text, bypassing the
Jade Pleasure Dome’s security measures, and the like.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
At the Storyteller’s discretion, the Exalted automatical-
ly succeed on difficulty 1-2 tasks within their areas of
competence. This doesn’t mean the Storyteller should
inflate the difficulty of basic tasks to 3+; rather, rolling is
reserved only for challenges capable of daunting heroes.
Easier Stunts
To make obtaining higher-level stunts easier, modify the guide-
lines for judging stunt values (Exalted, p. 187) as follows.
• A two-point stunt can be earned by meeting the
requirement of a one-point stunt and incorpo-
rating the environment or other aspects of a
scene into the stunt’s description. E.g. “Agate
Shore dances around the Imperial Garden’s
trimmed hedges and garden boxes, her daiklave
threading between leaves to strike at the soldier.”
Incorporating Caste Marks, Aspect markings, or
elements of an anima banner all count as making
use of the environment.
• A three-point stunt can be earned by meeting the
requirements of a two-point stunt and describing
how the stunt aligns with a Defining Intimacy.
E.g. example, “Agate Shore skims her hand over
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the swaying dahlias, sad memories flooding back
to her. ‘Lumon loved these flowers,’ she murmurs.
‘And I won’t let you trample them!’ She whirls
and thrusts her daiklave straight for the soldier’s
heart!” Three-point stunts following these guide-
lines can only be awarded once per scene.
• The rules for three-point stunts can be tailored
to the modes of play (p. XX) shifting how the
player must relate their stunt to their character’s
Intimacies. In Creation as Stage games, they must
describe how a Defining Intimacy inspires them
to succeed while in Creation as Threat games,
they must describe how a Defining Intimacy or
experiences related to it has prepared them for
surviving or overcoming their present challenge.
In Creation as Cost games, they must describe
how a Defining Intimacy steers them to pay what-
ever cost or sacrifice this action demands.
Even Easier Stunts
To go simpler, use the following rule: All stunts are one-
point stunts by default; each player can designate a stunt
to be level 2 once per scene, and may designate a stunt
to be level 3 once per session. This method provides the
same average results as the core book stunting rules.
 Chapter Three: Optional Rules
Initiative
For Storytellers looking to adjust the way combat plays,
shifting how the game approaches initiative can help.
Instead of using Initiative as both action order and com-
bat resource, consider tracking it as a resource only. This
section contains two different ways Storytellers can in-
corporate this idea: nontraditional initiative and an
initiative roster.
Using Nontraditional Initiative
A simple way to divorce the combat resource initiative
from the general concept of “going first” is to utilize a
form of nontraditional initiative called popcorn initia-
tive or the initiative chain. This means that, rather than
the results of a Join Battle roll determining who acts
first, players choose the order in which they act.
Players still roll Join Battle to generate Initiative and can
gain or lose it through withering and decisive attacks as
usual, but it is not used to determine turn order. Instead,
players agree who acts first (which can include Storyteller
characters, if they desire a challenge) and can nominate
another player to act after them. Any player who volun-
tarily allows their character to act last in a round gains
one Initiative for each enemy who acts before her.
Important Storyteller characters such as named demons,
other Exalts, dangerous gods, and so on, may interrupt and
take their action by spending two Initiative.
In this instance, a tick becomes that action on which the
character takes her turn and no longer needs to be num-
bered. No alterations need to be made to the definition
of round — characters still act in an order, and once they
have all acted the round resets.
If players find the idea of nominating each other and
agreeing on who acts first challenging to get accustomed
to, the Storyteller instead can allow the highest Join
Battle result to determine whether Storyteller charac-
ters or players’ characters act first.
Example of Play: Monica, the Storyteller, runs a game
for four players: Violet, Vera, Rachel, and Meghan.
Their Circle of Solars faces off against a Dusk Caste
Abyssal, a nephwrack, and a battle group of walking
dead. At the start of the encounter all four players and
the Storyteller roll Join Battle, following the default rules
as normal. Though the Abyssal generates 8 Initiative on
their Join Battle — enough to go first — Monica asks the
group if they’re willing to risk the enemy acting first.
Rachel says that she would prefer her Night
Caste to take the first action. She stunts making a
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withering attack against the Abyssal in order to set up
her Circlemates. At the end of her action, she asks if
anyone wants to go next, and Meghan says she would.
Meghan takes her action next, and stunts her Twilight
Caste sorcerer preparing to cast a combat spell. Once
she’s finished with her action, Monica says the Abyssal
is paying 2i to interrupt the action and take his turn.
She describes the Abyssal making an attack against
Rachel’s Night Caste, and then states that the
nephwrack intends to act next unless another player
would like to take their turn. Vera agrees to Violet’s
request to let the nephwrack go, knowing that this
means an initiative boost for Violet’s Dawn. So,
Monica transitions into describing its action, hav-
ing it make an attack against the Dawn. At the end
of this action, Vera says she’d like to take her turn.
Vera stunts her Zenith Caste attacking the nephwrack
that just acted leaving only the zombies and Violet’s
character left to act. The undead horde isn’t an important
character, so it can’t interrupt. Violet says she has a cool
idea in mind, and wants to go last. Monica has the undead
battle group attack Meghan’s Twilight on their action.
Now, Violet takes her action, gaining +3 Initiative from
going last. She launches into a description of a dev-
astating decisive attack against the Abyssal, leaving
the enemy Exalt bloodied and reeling. That ends the
current round, and the group starts the next round.
Using an Initiative Roster
As another optional approach to Join Battle determining
who goes first, Storytellers may opt to use an initiative
roster instead. Players who are accustomed to the dice
deciding the order in which they act may find this more
comfortable than leaping directly into the non-tradition-
al approach.
When using an initiative roster, all characters in the scene
roll Join Battle as normal. As per usual, this generates
Initiatve, but also creates the ticks for player characters
and Storyteller characters. Regardless of who rolled high-
est or lowest, the players decide who acts on which tick
generated by the results of their Join Battle rolls and the
Storyteller decides the same for her characters. Like the
method above, any player who chooses to act during a later
tick gains 1 Initiative for each enemy who acts before
her. Choosing to act on a higher or lower tick does not
change the Initiative pool generated by each character—
only the order in which they take their actions.
Once all characters have acted, the round resets. Players
may choose to switch places among themselves, but the
tick distribution does not change.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
COMPATIBILITY ISSUES
Exalted is a complex system with an enormous
number of effects; changing the system always has
the potential to render a handful of Charms or oth-
er mechanics nonfunctional or redundant. If a rules
change renders a Charm entirely useless, treat it as if
it doesn’t exist. If it’s a prerequisite for any Charms a
player is interested in learning, the player and Story-
teller should work together to pick an alternate pre-
requisite. If a rules change obviates some but not all
of a Charm’s effect, the player and Storyteller should
work together to come up with a benefit that can
compensate for that loss of utility — a cost discount,
bonus dice added on a roll, or some other additional
effect whose value is on par with what was lost.
Example of Play: The same group plays through a new
combat, this time using an initiative roster. The players
and Storyteller all roll Join Battle— this time against two
Immaculate Monks (A Fire Aspect and an Air Aspect), and
an Earth Aspect commander with an elite squad of soldiers.
Meghan rolls 8 on her Join Battle; Rachel, Violet, and Vera
roll 6, 10 and 4 respectively. Monica rolls for the NPCs: get-
ting 5 for the Air Immaculate, 12 for the Fire Immaculate
and 8 for the commander while the battle group gets 7. As
the Storyteller, Monica decides that the Earth Aspect will
act first on tick 12, then the Fire Immaculate on 8, the Air
on 7, and the battle group last on 5.
The players agree that Rachel’s Night should to act first,
giving her tick10, then Meghan’s Twilight on tick 8, Vera’s
Zenith on tick 6, with Violet’s Dawn taking the last slot
on 4.
When all put together it comes out as: Earth Aspect com-
mander (12), Rachel’s Night (10), Meghan’s Twilight (8),
Fire Immaculate monk (8), Air Immaculate monk (7),
Vera’s Zenith (6), elite soldier battle group (5), Violet’s
Dawn (4).
Recovering Initiative
Storytellers that wish to make combat less punishing for
characters that can’t reliably land withering attacks to
recoup Initiative after being left on the verge of crash by
their enemies can allow characters to perform an action
to steady themselves.
When at Initiative 5 or lower, a character can make
a Steady action to roll (Stamina + [Integrity or
Resistance]), and gain Initiative equal to her successes,
to a maximum of 5. This action can’t be flurried or used
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while in Initiative Crash. Narratively, this roll reflects
the character taking a moment to catch her breath and
center herself: wiping the sweat from her brow as she re-
adjusts her sword grip, reminding herself of her master’s
teachings, or looking within herself for strength.
Once a character resets to base Initiative, either by mak-
ing a decisive attack or other effect, she can’t steady
herself again until after she’s suffered withering dam-
age from a foe.
Combat Movement
Storytellers looking for combat movement actions with
fewer rolls may use any of these alternate options.
Rush and Disengage: These actions are only rolled if an
enemy chooses to contest them, trivial foes can’t con-
test them. Disengaging still causes a character to lose
Initiative even if unopposed.
Rise from Prone: A character can rise from prone re-
flexively on her turn, and never needs to roll for it. This
still counts as her movement action for the round.
Take Cover: A character can take cover reflexively on
her turn. No roll is necessary unless the cover cannot be
reached easily on foot (such as requiring a running leap
or climbing). This still counts as her movement action
for the round.
Withdraw: Instead of using the standard rules for with-
drawing, a character at long range from all enemies can
withdraw as an unrolled movement action that can’t be
flurried and causes the withdrawing character to lose ten
Initiative. At the start of their next turn, if she remains
at long range from all enemies, she successfully escapes
from the battle, evading all further pursuit. If any enemy
enters medium range, the withdrawing character must
make an opposed (Dexterity + Athletics) roll against that
character in order to escape. If any enemy should reach
short range or closer, the withdrawing character’s effort
fails automatically.
One-Roll Resolution or
“Down-and-Dirty” Combat
Failure should only be a possibility when it’s interesting or
relevant. Sometimes characters will face a situation where
entering a full combat sequence would be a waste of every-
one’s time. For example, the Circle’s Night Caste assassin
might want to noiselessly garrote an unsuspecting, un-
named mortal guard or other trivial opponent. This type of
instantaneous action is important to the themes and mood
 Chapter Three: Optional Rules
of Exalted. In this instance, we recommend the optional
rule, one-roll resolution (also called “Down and Dirty” in
other Storyteller games). This is an extension of the general
simplified roll advice on p. XX and applies whenever the
player character can be expected to succeed.
When these situations arise, the Storyteller may resolve
them in one of two ways. Either treat the roll as difficulty 0,
where threshold successes indicate how well or cleanly the
character accomplished the task or treat it as a difficulty 3
roll. Failure on this roll should mean something else unex-
pected arose, rather than the character failing to accom-
plishing what she set out to do, and should lead to a more
meaningful challenge later on. For example, she might eas-
ily garrote the guard only for another to walk by just in time
to see his body fall lifeless to the flagstones.
One-roll resolutions need not to be limited to violent
encounters. In the above example, if the Night Caste’s
Changing Moon partner sees the other man notice the
body, she may press him to the wall and hiss “You didn’t
see anything” into his ear. As he is also a nameless back-
ground character, the Storyteller calls for another single
roll here — choosing either method of resolution. If suc-
cessful, the guard flees in terror and says nothing. If un-
successful, other soldiers might notice his abject terror
and suspect something is amiss.
Optional Death
A player character unexpectedly dying in the middle of a ses-
sion can be majorly disruptive to a game, and can leave her
player with nothing to do while the rest of the group gets to
keep playing. At the same time, tragic or heroic deaths can be
the dramatic high point of a chronicle. To balance these, the
Storyteller may opt to give players control over whether or
not their characters die in any given scene.
When a player character is incapacitated with lethal or
aggravated damage, her player should state whether or
not she can accept this as the end of her character’s story.
If not, then the character remains incapacitated until she
heals, but death is off the table. The player should then de-
scribe how her character is able to survive certain death
— if a deathknight impales her while she’s restrained and
unable to move, she might fall into a death-like coma; if
she plummets into a lava-filled caldera, she might land on
an outcropping at the last second, passing out but still sur-
viving. If the player accepts death as a possibility, then the
incapacitation proceeds as normal — including the poten-
tial to be resuscitated before dying with Medicine rolls.
If a player declares at the beginning of a combat that she’s
willing to accept her character’s death as a consequence, she
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adds +2 to her character’s base Initiative for the entirety of the
fight, including the calculation of her Initiative after rolling
Join Battle. The Storyteller can also allow players to make this
declaration if a fight’s circumstances change dramatically — a
masked foe is revealed to be a player character’s sworn nem-
esis, or a sorcerer reveals that his demon legion is sacking the
player characters’ kingdom while they waste their time fight-
ing him, etc. The Storyteller may also apply this rule to signif-
icant antagonists meant to be recurring; in this case, negotia-
tion between Storyteller and players to sustain the antagonist’s
place in the narrative is recommended, rather than saving the
opponent through some wildly improbable event.
Naval Combat
The following are a few optional adjustments that
Storytellers can use to help speed up naval battles as
well as offer other crew members an opportunity to
participate.
• In each round of naval combat, the Naval
Maneuver roll can be made by any player charac-
ter or important Storyteller aboard the ship, not
just the captain.
• The first time during the scene that a given char-
acter rolls a Naval Maneuver, its Momentum cost
is discounted by two — or, if it’s a Positioning ma-
neuver, it grants an additional two Momentum.
• Positioning maneuvers can be rolled with
([Intelligence or Wits] + Sail + Maneuverability)
or ([Intelligence or Charisma] + War +
Maneuverability). A Positioning action always
grants (ship’s Maneuverability, minimum 1)
Momentum even if it is unsuccessful; a success-
ful roll grants additional Momentum equal to its
successes.
• Broadside maneuvers can be rolled with
([Perception or Wits] + Sail + Maneuverability),
([Dexterity or Perception] + Archery +
Maneuverability), or ([Charisma or Intelligence]
+ War + Maneuverability).
• Escape maneuvers can be rolled with
([Intelligence or Wits] + Sail + Speed), ([Perception
or Wits] + Survival + Speed), or [Intelligence or
Wits] + Lore + Speed).
• Ram maneuvers can be rolled with ([Perception
or Wits] + Sail + Maneuverability) or ([Charisma
or Intelligence] + War + Maneuverability).
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
• Concealment maneuvers can be rolled with
([Manipulation or Wits] + Sail + Maneuverability),
([Manipulation or Wits] + Stealth +
Maneuverability), or ([Manipulation or Wits] +
Survival + Maneuverability).
• All Boarding Actions can be rolled with
([Charisma or Wits] + Sail + Maneuverability) or
([Appearance, Charisma, or Intelligence] + War +
Maneuverability).
The Storyteller can modify the above guidelines based
on a player’s stunts — if a Dawn Caste hurls a crate of car-
go to break an enemy ship’s mast, the Storyteller might
treat it as a broadside rolled with (Strength + [Athletics,
Brawl, or Thrown]).
Naval Maneuvers rolled with Abilities other than Sail
can be enhanced by appropriate Charms. For example,
Charms that improve Archery attack rolls could enhance
an Archery-based broadside, while those that improve
an Archery attack’s decisive damage allow the maneu-
ver to deal two Hull damage. Maneuvers rolled with War
can be enhanced with magic that improves any com-
mand action. Effects that enhance navigation rolls apply
to Survival-based escape maneuvers, while those that
enhance rolls to conceal tracks enhance Survival-based
concealment maneuvers.
Additionally, the Storyteller should allow players to
make use of Charms of other Abilities that could logical-
ly improve a Naval Maneuver roll. An Awareness Charm
that improves a character’s ability to see in low-visibility
environments could negate penalties on a broadside roll
from poor visibility, while a Craft Charm that aids in de-
stroying objects by pinpointing their weak points could
enhance a ram maneuver.
Gambits
Gambits provide an interesting opportunity for charac-
ters to take actions that are not direct attacks. This can
potentially provide openings for characters without a
combat focus to contribute meaningfully to a battle, but
because they carry an Initiative cost, this can be chal-
lenging for characters that chose not to focus on vio-
lence. If the Storyteller desires to make gambits more
accessible to non-combat characters, consider the fol-
lowing optional rules:
• Gambits can be rolled with any (Attribute + Ability)
combination that makes sense. A character might
distract an enemy with a (Manipulation + Presence)
roll to mock him, disarm a foe with (Dexterity +
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Larceny), or unhorse an enemy with (Strength
+ Athletics) by dragging him out of the saddle.
Depending on the Traits used, this can allow players
to make gambits beyond the range of their charac-
ters’ weapons, as long as it makes sense for how they
describe their action.
• Likewise, gambits can be resisted with any appro-
priate opposed roll or static value — a Presence-
based distract gambit might be resisted with
Resolve, while a Strength-based unhorse gambit
could be resisted with (Stamina + Ride).
• Distract, disarm, and unhorse gambits do not
require an Initiative roll. Disarm and unhorse
gambits have no Initiative cost, except against
enemies the Storyteller deems sufficiently signifi-
cant and powerful to require them, such as enemy
Exalted or powerful spirits. The Storyteller can
extend this to custom gambits created by her or
the players at her discretion, but it doesn’t apply
to grapple gambits or special gambits made as
part of Charms or other magic.
• If the Storyteller wishes to strengthen distract
gambits she may have every point of Initiative
spent by the character making the gambit grant
two Initiative to the gambit’s beneficiary.
Battle Groups
To better clarify the order in which routing, rallying, and
dissolution occur, codify them into the following steps:
Step 1: When a battle group takes enough damage to
fill its Magnitude track, it loses one Size and makes a
Willpower roll against rout (Exalted, p. 209). If it suc-
ceeds, it doesn’t suffer any further detriment. Move to
Step 2.
Step 2: If the battle group succeeds on its Willpower roll,
the process ends here. If it fails, it is routed, and moves
to Step 3.
Step 3: Between the time the battle group is routed and
its next turn, its leader and allied heroes can use rally
actions (Exalted, p. 210) to avert the battle group’s disso-
lution. If a rally action succeeds, the process ends. If no
character successfully rallies the battle group before its
next turn, move to Step 4.
Step 4: At the start of the battle group’s next turn, if it
wasn’t successfully rallied, it suffers dissolution, break-
ing down and dispersing or surrendering to the enemy.
It’s no longer a participant in the fight.
 Chapter Three: Optional Rules
Antagonist Guide
The Storyteller’s job of creating and playing every antago-
nist can be an overwhelming one — especially when those
antagonists are Chosen in their own right, with their own
sets of Charms, Evocations, and complex capabilities.
This section gives general advice for running Exalted an-
tagonists, along with guidelines and examples for simpli-
fying them to make juggling multiple antagonists easier.
Pick Your Battles
It can be hard to tell whether an antagonist is an appro-
priate challenge for the group’s specific blend of capabil-
ities until you get into it. An Essence 4 Sidereal could be
nigh-unbeatable for young Solars, but offer a fun, quick
scene for experienced Exalts. You’ll need to determine
the antagonist’s role, manage player expectations, and
play up both the antagonist’s strengths and weaknesses.
The basics of determining level of challenge are:
• Attack: Every two dice in a pool translates to an
average of one success. A character with an at-
tack pool of six dice can usually hit Defense 3, for
instance.
• Defense: The same logic above applies. A charac-
ter with Evasion 4 forces characters with attack
pools lower than eight dice to spend motes to
regularly hit them.
• Soak: Two damage dice average out to one with-
ering damage, so you’ll know ahead of time how
likely the antagonist’s soak is to reduce most play-
er damage to minimum.
• Hardness: Higher ratings of Hardness increase
the length of time a fight against an enemy is
likely to last. Hardness 3 is marginal, preventing
characters from making two decisive attacks in a
row and potentially disrupting magic that divides
Initiative between multiple attacks; Hardness 15+
should be saved for extremely powerful monstros-
ities or characters with potent defensive magic.
• Powers: Not all Charms and abilities are neces-
sarily relevant to an antagonist in a given encoun-
ter; or at all. Unexpected scenarios do come up, of
course, but for the most part, zero in on on only
the powers you will think they need for the scenes
you have planned..
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PARTS TO PLAY
It’s rare for every player to invest equally in combat,
particularly in a Solar Circle that includes a Dawn, but
less deadly combatants can still contribute mean-
ingfully to a fight. You can include weaker minions,
or lower the enemy’s Defense while boosting their
soak and Hardness to let dedicated combatants re-
tain a noticeably greater impact while allowing less
dedicated ones to hit more reliably. Characters can
also contribute indirectly in many ways, including by
identifying enemy weaknesses or exploiting alterna-
tive paths to victory: see the sidebar on pg. XX for an
example.
While characters without defensive Charms are more
vulnerable, they’re also less of an obvious threat, so
it’s easy to justify a powerful enemy focusing its de-
cisive attacks on the hulking, armored character —
even if only until the first time the bookish sorcerer
unleashes Death of Obsidian Butterflies.
• Resources: Motes determine how often a charac-
ter can use Charms, while Willpower determines
how well they can push beyond their basic capa-
bilities or reject social influence. Tracking every
resource for every antagonist is a daunting task,
but you don’t always need to; in gauging the chal-
lenge level of an Exalted foe, keep in mind that
unless an encounter goes on for a long time or you
plan for them to dump all their resources on a few
large, powerful effects upfront, they’re unlikely to
run out of motes. Maximum mote pools are rare-
ly relevant because they don’t show up in every
scene.
• Limits: QCs don’t have unmodified dice pools
higher than 14, or unmodified Defense higher
than 7. If you know a player’s character can re-
liably overcome these based on what’s on their
sheet, either add more antagonists to the encoun-
ter or accept that the real challenge in the scene
isn’t predicated on dice.
Contextual Adjustments
If you do need to adjust a challenge on the fly or between
game sessions, you can avoid having to fiddle with num-
bers by changing the context in which an antagonist ap-
pears. An enemy in favorable conditions punches above
its weight, while another may be beatable only under
disadvantageous circumstances.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
Some characters have capabilities that alter a conflict’s
context, or end it before it starts. Awareness Charms
might stymie a deadly ambush from a Day Caste, for
instance, while Survival Charms or a Dragon-Blooded
anima might render a blazing inferno moot. A charac-
ter who can easily resolve the whole conflict inevitably
becomes the scene’s focus, but you can harness this ten-
dency instead of denying other characters the chance
to shine by arranging the encounter such that other
players have different things that need doing while the
specialized character takes the stage. If one character
simply shrugs off what was supposed to be a challenge,
imperil the other PCs or Storyteller characters he cares
about to complicate matters regardless of his situational
invincibility.
Such adjustments can turn an antagonist’s redundant
feature into a cool set-piece. A Water Aspect used to
having the advantage on the water cannot drown a char-
acter with the Gills Merit, but this lets you play out a
desperate underwater struggle where the Dragon-Blood
drags her captive back to her ship while his comrades
give chase, and perhaps discover something interesting
in the process.
Consider these four contexts when fine-tuning a chal-
lenge: setting, consequences, goals, and tactics.
Setting
Some characters function better in a particular envi-
ronment, usually because they can ignore its hazards
or obstacles. Difficult terrain might stymie the player
characters but not their Lunar foe who can circumvent
it by flying; a deathknight’s Awareness Charms might
let him operate in darkness to ambush the player char-
acters; while a Solar with Survival Charms for resisting
environmental hazards would do well to lure foes into
burning buildings. You can make antagonists more dan-
gerous than they otherwise would be when you play to
these strengths, or weaken them by taking their advan-
tages away.
Consequences
Sometimes, you need to remind the characters that even
effortless victories have consequences. Exalts in hostile
territory or unstable terrain must avoid unleashing their
full power: anima flare and devastating Charms attract
unwanted attention, and a volcano god rarely stays dor-
mant during a pitched duel on the volcano’s caldera.
A character’s Intimacies and other social or political
concerns can also impose complications. A Solar wishing
to prove he comes in peace must spare the Immaculate
monks who attack him on sight, while a Lunar pack must
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pull their blows against their spirit-possessed mortal
companion. Bloodshed often leads to hungry or venge-
ful ghosts, and even less violent ghosts have societies all
their own that can be affected by the characters’ actions.
If the characters ignore potential consequences to wreak
untamed destruction on their foes, it gives you an excuse
to introduce fresh challenges. Killing one Dragon-Blood
draws countless more, while an Exigent with strange
powers could do anything from detonating to creating a
new shadowland if slain. Defeating another character in
combat may prompt blood feuds or vows of vengeance,
while the player character’s negotiating tactics may hu-
miliate or anger their antagonist into putting a bounty on
the characters’ heads — all of which translate well into
further story hooks.
Consequences need not be physical, immediate, or even
directly imposed on the characters themselves. A bridge
wrecked in a clash of Exalts cuts off an entire village
from travel and supplies; the protagonists might not
even find out what their violence has wrought until the
village’s warden god appears to beg or threaten them to
fix what they’ve broken.
Goals
Always remember an antagonist’s goals, Intimacies, and
allegiances as you bring them into a scene. A pacifistic
deathknight may always fight to subdue rather than
murder, while a lone Anathema suddenly confronted
with several shikari might fight conservatively and de-
fensively, offering ample opportunities to call off the at-
tack… until her Circle shows up.
An Exalt is a creature of great passions and grand deeds,
and she doesn’t make herself an obstacle without reason or
desire; if she conflicts with the players’ characters, it’s be-
cause she wants something and they’re in her way. These
wants — usually represented by Intimacies or immediate
goals within the scene — are important to keep in mind
because they tell you under what circumstances a charac-
ter chooses surrender over death or mercy over blood. An
Exalted pirate captain with a mortal crew is more interest-
ed in disabling the protagonists’ ship and stealing their pos-
sessions than making sure to finish off every soul aboard.
Most conflicts become more interesting when one or both
sides want something other than simple destruction.
Tactics
Depending on context, a foe might just charge into the en-
counter without plan or preparation, or she might choose
her battles wisely and trade short-term satisfaction for
long-term success. Keep the antagonist’s personality, re-
sources, and priorities in mind when deciding how ready
 Chapter Three: Optional Rules
she is when the characters encounter her and how willing
or able she is to fight intelligently. Is a Sidereal rival the
type to use clever astrology to sabotage the characters well
ahead of revealing her agenda, or is she the kind to rush
into ill-considered conflicts while missing half her mote
pool? Is a nefarious Infernal more likely to hang back and
let her demonic minions weaken her enemies first, or does
pride demand she lead the charge regardless of the danger?
Drop clues for players to pick up on so they can try to
predict their enemies and adjust accordingly, or provide
explicit information if they succeed on appropriate rolls.
You’ll give your players a more satisfying encounter if
they feel like they’ve earned their victories through clev-
er exploitation of a foe’s weaknesses and choices as well
as lucky rolls and lots of spent motes.
You can even invent weaknesses on the fly if players put ef-
fort into learning them but you didn’t prepare any. Don’t be
afraid to abruptly decide behind the scenes that a powerful
Charm the antagonist used has a once-per-scene limit with
a reset condition that creates interesting combat dynam-
ics, or that her Evocations stop working if certain circum-
stances arise that are within the characters’ ability to bring
about, even if they’re difficult to arrange.
Storyteller Tactics
and Roleplaying Hints
It can be helpful to jot down some notes for yourself
before the session on a few situational triggers that will
change an antagonist’s behavior if they come to pass, se-
crets she has that player characters can uncover to turn
the tables or give them leverage, and consequences that
might arise from defeating or otherwise thwarting her.
If you have access to Hundred Devils Night Parade
or Adversaries of the Righteous, you can find exam-
ples of notes like this under “Storyteller Tactics” in
Hundred Devils, and “Secrets” and “Roleplaying Hints”
in Adversaries. Some useful details to note include:
• Under what circumstances will this character
surrender or flee? Or is she willing to fight to the
death no matter what?
• Under what circumstances could they be ap-
peased, manipulated, or even converted to an
ally? Or are she and the characters just irrevoca-
bly incompatible?
• What is this character’s primary goal in the scene,
and what is the most common tactic she’ll use to
achieve it? How far is she willing to go, and where
does she draw the line?
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• What’s her darkest or most pressing secret, and
how might the characters uncover it? What hap-
pens when they do? What is she willing to do
to prevent that? Is it a secret she keeps, a secret
someone else keeps about her, or something she
doesn’t realize she knows?
• What consequences befall the characters if they
kill, imprison, subdue, or otherwise defeat the
antagonist and remove her from the role she’s
played in the story? Who will come after them?
Will it be for revenge, recruitment, repayment of
debts, or just answers? Does she have family who
rely on her? Other enemies who might want to
team up with the characters?
Fine-Tuning
Your Storyteller characters don’t always need to follow
the same rules the players’ characters do. That doesn’t
mean changing things arbitrarily or ruling to favor one
side or the other. It means an antagonist — especially a
QC — can be simpler, which makes running encounters
with them easier and helps you improvise when you
need to. It also means you don’t need to stick with the
original numbers on the page if you find they don’t mesh
well with the group’s composition and distribution of
expertise. Keep in mind that Exalted are meant to grow
beyond some opponents — a group of bandits is no threat
to a Dawn Caste of Essence 2, much less one more ex-
perienced. However, foes such as Octavian (Exalted, p.
530) should be relevant past Essence 5.
Modifying Traits
One way to weaken or strengthen an antagonist that’s
not performing the way you expected is to directly mod-
ify it. You can also use these guidelines to tweak example
antagonists from various Exalted books to better fit the
capabilities of your group’s characters.
Offense
An enemy that can’t land hits is no threat while one that
consistently overcomes all character defenses can cre-
ate a “death spiral” in which the further the characters
fall behind, the more likely it is they’ll continue to fall
behind.
• An antagonist can build Initiative by targeting
weaker opponents, so its attack pool doesn’t need
to stand up to its most evasive target. If a player
character invests heavily in Dodge Charms, let
her dodge things.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
• Adjust a foe’s withering damage by either dialing
their Dexterity-based pools (including attack rolls)
or Strength-based pools (including raw damage)
up and down. In the longer term, gaining or losing
an artifact weapon can also improve withering
damage. It doesn’t have to be pure fiat: find an ex-
cuse for an antagonist to acquire or lose an artifact
weapon, or encourage player characters to steal a
foe’s weapon in advance of fighting him.
• Adjusting a withering attack’s Overwhelming
value helps keep well-armored characters from
shrugging off the attacks indefinitely, without
overloading the damage pool against less durable
targets.
• By default, QCs use the same pool for decisive
and withering attacks. If you want to adjust
a QC’s effectiveness in different scenarios and
against different kinds of combatants, split them.
This doesn’t need to be an exact science — you can
simply choose values as normal from the QC dice
pools chart (Exalted, p. 495) separately for each
type of attack. As a rule of thumb, you can use the
listed pool for withering attacks and subtract
three dice to generate the decisive attack pool.
Defense
• A high Defense helps an antagonist keep from los-
ing both Initiative and health. Adjust Evasion and
Parry accordingly to account for the strengths and
gaps in your players’ Abilities or Charms.
• Soak slows down a fight’s pace, which might be
desirable if the characters often win battles in one
or two quick rounds, or undesirable if fights tend
to devolve into slogs because neither side can ef-
fectively build Initiative. Adjust it based on your
players’ experience.
• Hardness forces the back-and-forth of withering
exchanges to build up further before anyone can
swing in with a decisive attack. It helps put a
buffer between the start and end of the scene if
they’re often coming too close together. Be care-
ful not to overload an enemy with both incredible
soak and Hardness ratings; these tend towards
long, grinding combats.
• Decreasing health levels or shifting them from
lower to higher penalties can prevent a tough
fight from dragging, while increasing them or
shifting them the other way cushions a significant
opponent against being on the wrong end of one
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great roll. Reserve additional −0 health levels for
powerful or supernatural enemies. Wound penal-
ties make a big difference, and inflicting the first
of them should be a meaningful moment.
• To create a shifting, multi-stage boss fight, give an
enemy multiple health tracks. Once one is filled,
it’s discarded, bringing the next health track to the
fore and resetting the character’s wound penalty.
Any excess damage from an attack that fills one
health level doesn’t spill over to the next. Multiple
health tracks can represent a variety of effects in
the game’s fiction: a tentacled behemoth might
need to have each tentacle destroyed individually
before characters can attack its core; a Sidereal
martial artist might create copies of herself that
the player characters will need to defeat before
the real master reveals herself, or a powerful de-
mon might just be that tough. You could also give
an enemy unique effects that they gain at a certain
health track or let their once-per-scene Charms
reset each time it happens.
• To make a lone enemy more of a threat for a group
of multiple player characters, you can balance the
action economy by giving him multiple Initiative
tracks. Have him roll Join Battle twice, or more,
and generate a separate Initiative score for each
and a separate turn for each. Any withering dam-
age he deals that turn adds to that specific track,
and his decisive attacks reset it. The player char-
acters must target each Initiative track separately,
crashing the enemy only if all his Initiative pools
reach zero or below.
• If increasing an enemy’s soak isn’t enough to stop
him from being crashed, you can increase his
base Initiative at well, allowing him to start the
fight with a higher total and rendering him less
vulnerable to being crashed after landing deci-
sive attacks. You can even make him immune to
Initiative crash entirely unless a certain condition
is met, such as raising his wound penalty to a cer-
tain level or exploiting a weakness. Alternate Win
Conditions
There are more ways to defeat an enemy than filling her
health track with damage. The characters could destroy
something essential to her power, like the source of her
sorcerous motes, or exploit the environment, like knock-
ing her overboard from an airship in flight. They could
manipulate or convince her to stop fighting by taking hos-
tages, appeal to her Intimacies, cow her into submission,
or join forces to take out someone (or something) worse.
 Chapter Three: Optional Rules
However, since combat is such a front-and-center part of
the Exalted system, your players might need prompting
to remember that if a foe is too mighty for the sword,
they can use a pen (or a song, or a convenient cliff edge).
Call for a Lore roll to remember legends (or introduce
facts) to suss out an enemy’s weakness, or convey an
opportunity through description and behavior. Perhaps
the necromancer’s power source glows faintly whenev-
er she raises a corpse, or the wind picks up mid-scene
and flings someone’s hat over the airship’s rail. Maybe
the characters notice a wary glance toward what they
thought was an abandoned house, implying it’s not as
empty as they thought.
Gambits provide endless creative options for putting a
foe in a disadvantageous position without killing them.
See Exalted, p. 199 for advice on creating custom gam-
bits on the fly. If a battle is dragging and the characters
are having trouble sealing the deal, let them discover a
gambit to force their Dragon-Blooded opponent from
bare earth onto a wooden rooftop, depriving her of the
Awareness Charms that give her an edge for instance.
Introducing vulnerabilities lets player characters defeat
overwhelming enemies in satisfying ways, and also lets
you adjust the encounter on the fly in more interesting
ways that just dialing numbers up and down. If players
can’t overcome the Abyssal’s soulsteel armor by force, a
Craft roll might reveal a flaw in the artifact’s design that
allows them to ignore its Hardness outright with special
effort.
Special Features
Charms, Evocations, Merits, and other special features
provide a more flavorful alternative to numerical tweaks.
A QC rarely needs magic that adds dice or otherwise
adjusts numbers; as the Exalted core book explains on
p. 494, their dice pools are already assumed to account
for the customary use of basic Trait-boosting powers.
Keeping an antagonist’s established set of Charms to just
the iconic effects that evoke reactions, create stories, and
make a real impact on the scene means you don’t have to
track constantly fluctuating numbers or an enormous list
of relatively similar powers for every Storyteller charac-
ter involved.
Other ways to tweak these abilities include:
• Copy non-Charm features from existing antag-
onists, which may include inhuman creatures
where appropriate. A plague-doctor Abyssal
could have a Merit or artifact that emulates the
zombie’s Deathly Stench ability (Exalted, p.
503). Remember, if your antagonist is an Eclipse,
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Moonshadow Caste Abyssal, or Penumbra Caste
Infernal, you can liberally raid spirit entries for
their Eclipse-keyword Charms, too.
• Weaken existing features with restrictions, such
as limiting a Charm to once per scene with a reset
condition that creates interesting hooks, or putt
requirements on its use like “takes one round to
recharge.” This helps make features borrowed
from more powerful antagonists feasible.
• Adding ways to bypass existing restrictions can
increase the antagonist’s potency and adds flavor.
For instance, a Dragon-Blooded martial artist that
resets her favorite combat Charm after spending
a round underwater encourages characters to get
creative to keep her on land.
Increasing Charm Costs
One simple way to make an antagonist a bit less over-
whelming is to increase the costs of their Charms. The
following are guidelines for common Charm costs.
• Requiring more motes is a straightforward change
that only affects how often a character can use her
Charms.
• Willpower points are scarce and versatile. A
Charm that costs more than one Willpower is an
extreme expenditure.
• Initiative sacrifices control of the fight, but is
easily regained. It’s best as a cost for offensive
Charms that execute a devastating decisive attack
or gambit, or weaker defensive Charms that force
the antagonist to bleed Initiative even when she
avoids harm.
• Health level costs are best added to powerful de-
fensive Charms, to chip away at an antagonist’s
ability to stay in the fight even if their defenses
are formidable.
• Anima costs are usually for flashy, characteristic
Charms that express the core nature of an Exalt
type or Caste/Aspect. They’re also a good way to
naturally limit use of a Charm, since usually an
Exalt must expend precious resources to increase
the intensity of her anima.
Minions and Masters
Introducing more enemies makes a fight more dangerous.
An accompanying battle group, summoned spirit, power-
ful supernatural familiar, or other minion is well-suited to
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
this role, harassing characters to keep the fight engaging
while offering a weaker target for those who aren’t com-
bat powerhouses. Multiple individual combatants can be
fun to give each player someone to interact with, but avoid
outnumbering the group to keep rounds from dragging;
large conflicts are what battlegroups are for.
To make an encounter less deadly, strip an enemy of al-
lies or minions that would normally accompany it. You
can even present this to players as an opportunity or
clue, justified with story hooks — for instance, why is
this Solar princeling sneaking off alone at night without
his usual honor guard?
Other Conflicts
Not every conflict is a fight. While the characters’
Chosen of Secrets rival can trade blows, she’d probably
rather engage them through subtle twists of fate and ru-
ining their reputations. With some antagonists increas-
ing their social puissance is the best way to boost their
effectiveness..
In social conflicts, you can modify a variety of Traits:
• Social pools can reliably beat a Resolve of half
their size unless the target is passionate about
the topic at hand or has Charms to increase their
Resolve. Avoid increasing social pools to the point
that they render Intimacies irrelevant.
• Resolve serves a similar role to Defense but is
heavily modified by Intimacies. Improvising suit-
able new Intimacies is often easier and more in-
teresting than simply dialing Resolve up or down.
• Intimacies are powerful tools for setting limits on
how much characters can manipulate an antago-
nist, and for providing levers for players to identi-
fy and pull. Intimacies should always be reflected
in a Storyteller character’s behavior.
• Increase Guile carefully, as it makes players
work for context, and most of your antagonists
shouldn’t be complete closed books — remember,
players usually need to learn Intimacies for their
characters to engage socially with others, so mak-
ing that impossible means shutting down social
influence as a way to engage with the setting.
Exalted Quick Characters
The Exalted core book suggests using QCs for less im-
portant Storyteller characters, but nothing stops you
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from using them for major antagonists, too. Storyteller
characters rarely need to be as complex or well-round-
ed as players characters, since they exist to populate a
world that shines a spotlight on the latter. While it’s a
good idea to know what your antagonists might be do-
ing while the “cameras are off” you don’t need to play
out every action they take mechanically when the PCs
aren’t there to see it. Antagonists also generally don’t
need the full breadth of a full character’s capabilities
given that they won’t be going up against all of the same
varied challenges the players can face. Quick characters
and antagonists are there to play a particular role in the
story, so you only need to give them what they need to
fulfill that role.
Simplifying Powers
An Exalted QC shouldn’t have as many Charms as a
player character. Choose flavorful Charms that’ll help
make your antagonist memorable; give them the broad
capabilities you need them to have and which provide
interesting challenges for players to overcome. You don’t
need to overload them with Charms that add dice;; you
can abstract that away simply by increasing the relevant
dice pools. Storyteller characters also don’t need every
prerequisite for the iconic Charms you choose for them.
If, for instance, you give a QC a powerful and exciting
defensive Charm, you can skip over their less interesting
prerequisites.
Likewise, if you give a QC an artifact, you don’t need to
come up with a full set of Evocations — you only need to
figure out the ones she has unlocked. They need not be
balanced for use by your players either, since everyone
can awaken different Evocations from the same artifact.
When deciding on Evocations for an antagonist, treat
them like any other Charm. You don’t have to decide
whether a power you give the character is a Charm or
an Evocation; functionally, it doesn’t make much differ-
ence unless the players separate her from her artifact
mid-scene.
If something on a QC’s sheet isn’t working for you in
practice, you can improvise “Charms,” “Evocations,”
and other abilities on the fly to make adjustments that
are, as far as the players are concerned, something the
character could always do. If you realize an antagonist’s
defenses are too low to prevent the fight from ending
prematurely or realize they don’t have a way to engage
the group’s flying Lunar, have the QC do something
flashy, take up a miscellaneous action, and fudge it — but
only if it makes sense for the antagonist to have a sur-
prise countermeasure. Keeping track of powers whose
durations aren’t measured in rounds isn’t necessary for
antagonists, because they’re unlikely to matter past the
 Chapter Three: Optional Rules
end of the scene. If players want to use rolls or magic to
figure out what the antagonist did, turn it into a story
hook! Make something up to give them for their effort
in that moment, but keep it mysterious to entice them
to investigate further. Then, in the downtime between
scenes or sessions, come up with more details.
Resource Tracking
As a Storyteller, you have a lot to keep track of over the
course of a game session. You don’t need to add “track ev-
ery individual mote for every Storyteller character” to that
list. It’s important to know when an antagonist runs out
of motes, but until then, the specific fluctuating numbers
don’t matter much. Here are a few options that could sim-
plify tracking resources for Storyteller characters:
• Ignore costs for Charms, Evocations, and other
powers, and instead give each one a set number of
uses per scene. Charms with reset conditions sim-
ply add one more use when the condition is met.
• Decide ahead of time how many rounds or ex-
changes of actions can pass before the antagonist
runs out of motes, and only then start tracking
their round-by-round gains and expenditures.
• Unless you’re in combat and it’s important to
track her motes each round, tracking specific
mote regeneration for a Storyteller character is
unnecessary. Either her mote pools are full again
the next time the characters see her, or the play-
ers have done something to put her at a disad-
vantage in the meantime. You shouldn’t abstract
tracking sorcerous motes however, as the very act
of acquiring them is both flavorful and a unique
balancing mechanic in and of itself.
• Willpower is easier to track because a charac-
ter’s total Willpower is usually much smaller
than their mote pools. If you’d rather not bother,
though, just choose a few specific types of rolls
you know they’ll spend Willpower to enhance
and/or specific types of social influence they’ll
definitely reject with Willpower, and don’t worry
about the rest.
• You don’t need to track experience for Storyteller
characters, but you may want recurring ones to
advance at least somewhat as the players’ char-
acters get stronger. Don’t worry about experience
costs — choose one thing on the antagonist’s sheet
to increase or add once per story, or perhaps each
time the players collectively spend a certain
amount of experience that reflects the pace you
want to set.
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• Some kinds of Exalts have resources to track that
are specific to them, such as the shapes a Lunar
possesses. Lunar players need to take Merits and
engage in the sacred hunt to gain new shapes, but
unless the players’ characters are present for an
antagonist’s hunt and it’s important to the story,
just choose a set of forms for her.
Variants for the Modes of Play
In addition to framing the setting with themes, system can
be made to work for story by flexing the rules to fit the cho-
sen mode of play, thus underlining the themes a Storyteller
might want to focus on. Keep in mind that none of these
rules are hard and fast changes, but rather guidelines for
making the game function in the way you desire.
The Peril Pool
For Storytellers who are comfortable with improvising
dramatic revelations, unexpected challenges, or deals
with the devil, the Peril Pool is an excellent way to both
keep the story exciting and to give the players a visual
representation of dramatic irony, building tension, or es-
calating tragedy.
The Peril Pool can be adapted to the three modes of play
as follows, with different triggers, releases, and out-
comes for each. A minor trigger adds 2 dice to the Peril
Pool, a major trigger adds 4, and a defining trigger adds
6. Upon release, the Storyteller rolls the Peril Pool and
counts successes like a normal roll. The outcome follows
immediately. The Peril Pool is always reset to zero after
rolling, and at the beginning of each session.
The Stage game: Trigger: The player characters per-
form an action (minor, major, or defining) that adds to
their legendary reputation. Release: An antagonist rolls
at least doubles the successes necessary to overcome a
player character.
• 1 success: A minor plot twist. Example: “The ar-
morer barely considers your offer before she’s al-
ready shaking her head. Then you notice the mark
of House Mnemon hanging over the forge — she’s
probably been supplying weapons to your enemy
this whole time.”
• 2 successes: A major plot twist. Example: “The
Immaculate warrior easily locks blades with you,
your faces inches apart, when you suddenly recognize
them as a childhood friend from primary school.”
• 3+ successes: A defining plot twist. Example:
“After she delivers her shocking monologue,
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
demoralizing your troops, the deathknight re-
moves her helm and you realize she’s your adop-
tive mother you’d believed dead.”
The Threat game: Trigger: The player characters over-
come a threat to their safety (minor, major, or defining).
Release: A player character’s roll at least doubles the
successes necessary to overcome a challenge.
• 1 success: A new minor complication. Example:
“You pick the lock soundlessly and in record time.
When the door swings open, your path is blocked
by a pack of trained guard hyenas, twitching in
their sleep.”
• 2 successes: A new major complication.
Example: “The old man stubbornly wipes away
a tear and agrees to let you hide in his shop a bit
longer. Just then, there’s an officious knock at his
door. Through the cracks, you see the glimmering
jade armor of the shikari that’s been stalking you
across town.”
• 3+ successes: A new defining complication.
Example: “Disarming that trap was easy; too
easy. The walls of the tomb begin to shake, and
the savant, in a trembling voice, notes that in the
disarmed configuration, the trap rune looks un-
comfortably like a summoning for a Second Circle
demon.”
The Cost game: Trigger: The player characters pay a
cost (minor, major, or defining) for something in a literal
or figurative way. Release: The player characters achieve
a party goal or share in a hard-won victory.
• 1 success: A minor consequence. Example: “You
stride into the satrap’s entrance hall to tell her the
insurrectionist band is no more. You find her red-
eyed and tight-lipped. She tells you she learned
only minutes ago that her brother defected to the
insurrectionists, and she couldn’t recall your or-
ders in time.”
• 2 successes: A major consequence. Example:
“In the morning after casting Death of Obsidian
Butterflies, you find your villa thronged with
bleeding villagers wearing jewelry made of
discarded obsidian wings. They all fall to their
knees weeping when they see you, begging you
to ‘call the butterflies again’ and drive off the
Immaculates terrorizing their families.”
• 3+ successes: A defining consequence. Example:
“You take the haft of the direlance and memories
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of the First Age rush into your head. Strangest of
all of them is the memory of driving your lance into
Stalwart Oak’s shoulder. But he’s a mortal. How could
that be? When you turn to him with your new artifact
in hand, his violet eyes sear into your skull and he
draws a blade made of starlight. Roll Join Battle.”
Alternate Rules for Running
Creation-as-Stage
Dramatic Training Times. Once a session, players may
spend experience or UXP (p. XX) to immediately raise a
Caste, Aspect, or Favored Ability or Attribute, purchase
a Caste, Aspect, or Favored Charm, or purchase a spell or
Evocation, provided they work their sudden revelation
or understanding into a stunt.
Forgiving Decisive Attacks. A failed decisive attack no
longer reduces a character’s Initiative.
Forgiving Successes Gained by Willpower. A player
may decide to spend a Willpower to add a success to a
roll after the roll is made but before the Storyteller de-
clares the result.
Alternate Rules for Running
Creation-as-Threat
Guidelines for Maintaining Tension. Describe only
what characters perceive and refrain from drawing con-
clusions for them. If there is any doubt as to their per-
ception, use turns of phrase like “It seems to you,” or “It
looks like…”For example: “It seems like no one heard
you breaking the window,” “You have reason to believe
he could be lying to you.” Only successful rolls or use of
Charms can clear up doubtful observations.
Healing Requires Treatment. Recovering health levels
requires medical attention. Another character must suc-
ceed on an (Intelligence + Medicine) roll at a difficulty of
the highest wound penalty suffered by the patient before
they may begin to recover lost health at the normal rate
of Exalted Healing (Exalted,p. 173). Without medical at-
tention, an Exalt only heals at a mortal’s rate. A character
may treat themselves, albeit at +2 difficulty.
Introducing a Reprieve. Once per session, the player
characters can each spend one Willpower point to in-
troduce a positive or helpful story element. This cannot
help a character duck major threats, but can give them a
bright spot, such as stumbling on a truly safe place to lay
low for a few hours, meeting a kind priest who genuinely
wants to help them, or waking to weather favorable for
their next endeavor.
Strict Investigation. Without attempting an
Investigation roll, players do not receive context for
 Chapter Three: Optional Rules
clues. They may notice the clue itself, such as the duke’s
mouth twitching when he talks about his advisor or the
fact that only children with green eyes have gone miss-
ing, but before the Storyteller can give them the infor-
mation necessary to understand what the clues mean,
they need to make a successful roll with a relevant
Ability. This can optionally apply to other Abilities that
can be used for information gathering such as Medicine,
Occult, or Socialize.
Untrained Abilities. A character with no dots in an
Ability rating suffers a −2 penalty to rolls involving that
Ability.
Alternate Rules for Running
Creation-as-Cost
Artifacts with Durability. Artifacts have a Durability
equal to twice their Artifact rating. At the Storyteller’s
discretion, an artifact may lose one Durability when it’s
subjected to powerful and supernatural destructive forc-
es. For example a daiklave being used to parry a sorcer-
er’s Flight of the Brilliant Raptor, artifact armor plunged
into lava along with its wearer, or even simply being used
to attack with an incredibly powerful offensive Charm
such as Solar Spike (Exalted, p. 260). At Durability 0,
artifact weapons impose a −3 penalty on attack rolls,
while artifact armors suffer −3 soak and Hardness. Other
artifacts suffer similar downsides as adjudicated by the
Storyteller. A character can spend a scene performing
maintenance on an artifact to roll (Intelligence + Craft
[Artifacts]) at a difficulty of the Artifact’s rating, restor-
ing (1 + extra successes) Durability.
Limit for Willpower. Once a scene, players may gain a
point of Limit in lieu of spending Willpower to gain the
same benefits as spending a point of Willpower.
There Must Be Some Way I Can Pay For This... Once
per session, a player may petition the Storyteller for
additional dice on a rolled action by naming the price
they are willing to pay to earn it. The Storyteller rates
the price on a scale of 1 to 3 dice, like an inverted stunt.
The offered price can be simple system cost, such as loss
of motes or health levels, or it can be story-based conse-
quences. The Storyteller is final arbiter for what is a fair
cost for extra dice.
Generational Games
Creation’s history offers groups a chance to tell stories
across generations — whether that’s an era-spanning
epic of Celestial reincarnations or a family drama set
among the machinations of the Realm’s Great Houses.
Storytellers may choose to begin their games in the
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setting’s present day, Realm Year 768, and help their
players’ characters create legacies that will shape the
world. You could also start their adventures in the dis-
tant past, by following a First Age Solar Circle and telling
their tales in hundred- or thousand-year leaps.
Dragon-Blooded Dynasties
Dragon-Blooded stories, and especially Realm-based
ones, are particularly well-suited for generational games.
The power of the Terrestrial Exalted is hereditary; some
Princes of the Earth trace their lineage back to the
Usurpation and beyond. Nowhere is this more keenly
felt than in the Realm, where the Scarlet Empress raises
her descendants above all others, while simultaneously
pitting her children against one another for her favor.
House matriarchs take an active hand in arranging their
relatives’ education, their positions in the ministries and
the legions, and their marriages. Dragon-Blooded lifes-
pans are far shorter than those of their Celestial coun-
terparts, and events that one Chosen of Mela sets into
motion might not come to fruition until her grandchil-
dren are in their sunset years.
When running a generational Dragon-Blooded game,
Storytellers may ask players to name some significant
members of their characters’ immediate families during
character creation. How many siblings do they have?
What expectations have their parents set for them, and
how involved are they in the characters’ affairs? Is there
another prominent member of the house — someone in
the Deliberative, perhaps, or a member of a celebrated
Hearth — who acts as the character’s mentor?
Consider writing down some aspirations or Intimacies
for them, should they appear as recurring Storyteller
characters over the course of the game. How might their
parents use the characters to achieve their goals? These
may be short-term or local aims, like paying back a debt
to another Dynast or dealing with bandits in their terri-
tory before the magistrates come calling. They may be
bigger — perhaps they’re looking to seize control of an-
other house’s holdings, or envision a child of theirs on
the Scarlet Throne. Where would they stand (and what
plans have they put into place) if the Realm descends
into civil war? Fleshing out the initial group of charac-
ters’ families not only helps players feel invested in their
houses, it also prepares them for possibly stepping into
the role of meddling family members later on.
When the chronicle for one set of characters is drawing
near its close, begin discussing who the next story will
focus on. Storytellers might want to give the players an
idea of how far into the future the game will be set. Have
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
the original characters’ adventures spanned enough
time that any children they’ve had are already Exalted?
Or are their families and further notable feats as yet un-
determined? Are you skipping a generation and focusing
on the characters’ grandchildren?
Spend some time talking to your players about what
they imagine their characters accomplishing after their
main stories end. This can take place after a session
ends, in down time between game nights, or as part of
your Session Zero while creating the next generation of
characters. Players may be setting aside their charac-
ter sheets, but they’ll likely have ideas for where their
former characters would go once the spotlight is off of
them. Consider what the original characters set in mo-
tion during the chronicle: what repercussions might they
have in 10, 50, or 100 years? Have they made any enemies
who will hold grudges against their descendants? What
alliances did they form with scions of other houses, and
what could make them crumble? What Anathema might
seek vengeance for a Wyld Hunt?
Players will need to decide who it is they’re playing.
Maybe your new chronicle is switching genres from
high adventure to political intrigue, or you’re retiring a
group of Deliberative movers and shakers to play a game
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set in one of the Realm’s secondary schools. Think about
any existing relatives or descendants in their charac-
ters’ lives who fit these stories as you prepare for them.
Players may wish to dream up new offspring they can
tailor for the game, if they don’t already have someone in
mind. Sometimes, a side character might be better suit-
ed to the role than a favorite. Be flexible with backsto-
ries, and allow players to make changes as needed — if
switching Aspects or declaring someone attended the
House of Bells rather than the Cloister of Wisdom helps
bring the game together, go for it.
While it’s perfectly fine for each player to take on the
roles of their original character’s descendants through-
out the chronicle — following one legendary family line
as they build upon their ancestor’s deeds — it may also be
fun for members of your group to play one another’s chil-
dren. During Session Zero, make sure players are clear
on which elements of their previous characters’ legacies
are available as story hooks, and which ones they’d rath-
er not be touched.
Remember to update or add any Intimacies the retiring
characters have towards their offspring, and ask players
to keep those relationships in mind when determin-
ing Intimacies for their new characters. What causes
 Chapter Three: Optional Rules
friction between them and their parents? Who is in fre-
quent contact and who’s estranged? Have they adopted
any of their parents’ Intimacies as their own, or do they
lie in opposition?
In games where the older generations still take an in-
terest, players can briefly slip into their old roles with
some Storyteller guidance. Let the players know what
the characters have been up to in the interim, especially
the recent past, and what goals they might have during
social influence scenes. (Don’t forget to update the older
characters’ Charms and Abilities, if appropriate.)
Heirloom Artifacts
Dragon-Blooded Dynasts develop deep bonds with their
artifacts, unlocking Evocations and wielding great pow-
er with the weapons of their ancestors. Inheriting an
ancestor’s storied daiklave helps connect one generation
of characters to the next, and presents opportunities for
the younger Dynasts to add to the legend.
Whether the new characters have access to the artifacts
at the start of the chronicle is up to the Storyteller. Is
someone in the previous generation still wielding it, or
have they handed it down? If the character received it
before the story begins, talk a little about how it was giv-
en to her — was it a gift from a mentor within the family?
Did the house matriarch deem her worthy of it? Were
any of her cousins or siblings hoping one day to wield it
themselves?
Acquiring an heirloom artifact may also provide plot arcs
for new characters, and help connect one generation to the
next. Whether it’s an entire story’s theme or just an emo-
tional beat for a single session, passing down an heirloom
is an opportunity for big moments of character develop-
ment. Maybe it’s handed down by a retiring parent, or on
the occasion of an older character’s death. What happens
if the house matriarch decides to give the artifact to anoth-
er member of the family? (This last should be done with
the buy-in of the players involved. Getting the artifact back
might be a story hook, but it shouldn’t be permanently lost
without the player’s explicit approval.)
Perhaps the artifact won’t be handed over until the char-
acter has completed a heroic deed, or proven themselves
worthy in some way. If you’re skipping a few gener-
ations, consider what’s happened to the artifact in be-
tween. Was it lost in battle or stolen in a heist, and in
need of retrieval? Have its interim owners affected its
personality, and what bonds have they built with it?
Whenever a new character inherits or acquires an heir-
loom artifact, they need to build a rapport with the item
in order to unlock its Evocations. Storytellers who know
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UNIQUE EVOCATIONS
Yes, Evocations are all supposed to be unique to each
user, but they’re also generated from an artifact’s his-
tory, and they’re often fairly similar between users
— easing an otherwise burdensome task for player
and Storyteller alike to generate a suite of unique
Charms. Don’t worry overly much about buying an
Evocation right out of the book, even if your mother
or great-grandmother had the same Evocation when
she held the blade a hundred years before. In a gen-
erational game, however, feel free to make minor
modifications to Evocations — a bonus here, a malus
there — in order to better express the distinct rela-
tionship between wielder and artifact.
they’ll be running a generational game may wish to al-
low each subsequent owner to add an Evocation or two
to help tailor the artifact to the new character and build
upon its legendary history.
Story Hooks
Some plot ideas for generational Dragon-Blooded games
follow. These may be the main story arc or can be used as
subplots that tie your chronicles together.
A House in Peril — A character’s house is in decline.
Lack of tribute from its satrapies and the expense of fi-
nancing its legions have emptied its coffers, or several
prominent members are guilty of an unforgivable act.
Realm Civil War — The houses vie for control of the
Scarlet Throne, and war breaks out among the factions.
Chronicles involving civil war in the Realm may involve
the lead-up to the war, the war itself, and its long-term
consequences. Which sides do the characters’ houses
take, and how does it affect their Hearth? What happens
if their houses are on the winning side, or the losing one?
Redemption Arc — Actions have consequences and
something a previous generation did (or failed to do) left
a stain on their reputations. Perhaps they destroyed a
Threshold village in pursuit of an Anathema, or accept-
ed help from an official who turned out to be corrupt. It’s
up to their descendants to clear their names.
Apple Doesn’t Fall Far — History repeats itself, and
the characters find themselves in a similar situation to
one their predecessors handled. What would they do
differently? What have they learned from their parents’
mistakes?
Old Enemies — The characters’ ancestors made a pow-
erful enemy: A House founder, an Anathema, one of the
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
Sidereal Exalted, or the sorcerer-queen of a small na-
tion. The enemy’s hatred runs deep, and they’ve sworn
revenge.
Forging Your Own Path — Sometimes the pressure to
follow in an ancestor’s footsteps is too much to bear. The
characters have the chance to step out of their parents’
shadows and create a new, separate legend... even if it
means severing ties with the past.
Celestial Legacies
While Dragon-Blooded generational games span de-
cades or centuries and focus on a traceable family line,
similar games involving the Celestial Exalted can be
spread across millennia, with little connection be-
tween one incarnation and the next. These games allow
Storytellers to explore different eras, different locales
of Creation, and a wide range of adversaries. Celestial
games don’t follow the core characters’ families (though
they could — see Troupe Play, p. XX) but instead follow
the spark of their divine Essence from life to life.
Celestial Exalted in 3e have potential life spans mea-
sured in millennia, but in practice they typically burn
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bright and die young of misadventure. The setting is ex-
plicitly written this way in large part so that starting PCs
aren’t faced with an “elder problem” where they’re the
only youngsters surrounded by hundreds of centenari-
an and millenarian elders, and so that the history of the
Celestial Exalted isn’t a static story with the same char-
acters going round and round without new blood.
During Session Zero, Storytellers and players should de-
cide what the characters’ original, First Age incarnations
deeds were. Were they a Circle of Solars? If they’re a group
composed of Solars and Lunars, were any bonded, and
what was that relationship like? What awe-inspiring won-
ders did they accomplish? What events did Sidereal char-
acters set into motion? Consider what it is that draws these
characters back together throughout their incarnations.
Were they a Circle? Do they have shared Intimacies that
pull them toward certain places or situations?
Stories involving Celestial incarnations don’t need to
be told in a linear fashion. Storytellers may begin with
a Circle in the present day, and set the next chronicle
during an earlier era, expanding upon scenes and situ-
ations previously only glimpsed in flashbacks. Players
may choose to stay with the same character throughout
 Chapter Three: Optional Rules

all their incarnations, or shuffle roles around and play as

each other’s past incarnations. VIRTUES AND VIRTUE FLAWS

Story Hooks The Virtue Flaws on p. 136-137 of Exalted are derived

The Work Continues — The characters’ ambitions re-
main a persistent motivation from one life to the next.
They’re drawn back to the things they began, seeing how
they’ve changed in the character’s absence, and how
they can be put back on track.
from previous editions’ Virtues. A Storyteller or play-
er looking to create a new Virtue Flaw can draw inspi-
ration from the original Four Virtues described there
in how they can twist a Virtue to a terrible extreme.

Righting Ancient Wrongs — The Lawgivers remember
what terrible things they wrought before the Usurpation,
and attempt to atone.
Family Reunion — It’s unlikely that Celestials will all
be reborn and Exalt in the same area, having known one
another all their lives. Seeking one another out may be
part of an early session in a chronicle, or a short inter-
lude in between.
Virtues
Virtues were an extremely popular element of Exalted’s
First and Second Edition character creation. They
helped define characters’ inherent passions and beliefs,
and offered guideposts to determine their reactions in
any situation. They acted as both a moral compass and
an example of what terrible lengths a character would
go to when pushed too far. Acting against a strongly held
Virtue, like a Major or Defining Intimacy, causes a PC to
roll for Limit.
The classic Four Virtues were Compassion, Conviction,
Temperance, and Valor. The Third Edition Virtues are
Ambition, Compassion, Courage, Discipline, Justice,
Loyalty, and Wonder.
• Ambition: The Exalt desires greatness through
action. She sets goals for herself and is driven
in their pursuit. When choosing this Virtue, de-
cide on a large-scale goal for the character, such
as Purge corruption from the Realm or Drive the
Guild from the Southern Threshold. This goal can
be changed after the goal is realized or when it
can no longer be achieved.
• Courage: The Exalt thrives in adversity, viewing
each new challenge as a chance to prove herself.
She values decisive action, and scoffs at words
like “impossible” or “dangerous”. She is not eas-
ily intimidated, and scorns those who embrace
cowardice.
• Discipline: The character values personal re-
straint and dedication. She acts with precision
and methodical thought, believing caution and
patience shall ensure victory. While prudent, she
is not cowardly, as that would go against her own
views of dedication or devotion. She simply hates
rash action and impulsivity.
• Justice: The Exalt values law and righteousness.
She cares about doing the right thing above all
else and cannot abide wrongdoing of any kind.
She feels it is her personal responsibility to pun-
ish the guilty, seek justice for crimes, and protect
the innocent.
• Loyalty: The character dedicates herself wholly
to someone or something that she values. It may
be an organization, a leader, a country, or an insti-
tution. She values loyalty in others and reacts in
kind. She acts for the good of those she is loyal to
and abhors the thought of a betrayal of trust.
• Wonder: The Exalt views the world with a sense
of wonder and curiosity. She is eager to discover
new things and treats all experiences as valuable
learning opportunities. She values knowledge,
discovery, adventure, and exploration and can’t
stand the willfully ignorant and incurious or
watch the destruction of wisdom.

• Compassion: The character easily puts others

before herself. She is empathetic to the needs and
Virtues and Character Creation
wants of those around her, and often sacrifices
Storytellers can introduce Virtues during character cre-
her own well-being in order to help others. She
ation as an additional guideline for the players. Though
cares for the downtrodden, the oppressed, and
they’re no longer measurable Traits in the game, they
the meek and makes enemies of the wicked and
can inform who a character is and what principles she
tyrannical.
adheres to. Ask your players to write down some or all
of the Virtues and detail a time their characters acted in

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 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
alignment with — or contrary to — the ones they chose.
Did others admire them for their actions? What did they
do in service to those Virtues that made people fear
them? How did those events shape who they are today?
While there are no dot values or ratings assigned to Virtues,
players might simply pick two to consider most strongly.
When choosing Intimacies for characters, you can draw
inspiration for positive and negative ties and principles
from the seven Virtues. A compassionate or just character
strives to lessen suffering and injustice, and may develop
negative ties against those who oppress the weak. She
may form a Defining Tie of hatred toward a despot, or one
of protectiveness toward the city she freed from his grasp.
A character with strong convictions often has principles
based in courage or standing firm in the face of adversity.
She develops ties of admiration and respect to others as
determined and ambitious as she, and feels contempt for
the weak-willed. Characters driven by temperance and
discipline might base their principles around resisting
temptation and staying level-headed amidst chaos. They
may have ties to the Immaculate Philosophy, or gods and
spirits that represent purity and inner peace. Valorous
characters’ principles may sound like heroic catchphras-
es, and her ties are often to strong leaders, brave warriors,
or the loved ones she fiercely defends.
If a player decides that one of her character’s Intimacies
aligns with a Virtue, she should make note of it, e.g. Major
Tie (Compassion): My wife (Love) or Defining Principle
(Courage): “I will never run from a fight.”
A character’s Virtues can also help define his Limit
Trigger. She may be a valorous warrior, frustrated by
those who display cowardice on the battlefield. A tem-
perate character who is seduced to abandon an import-
ant pursuit takes her disappointment in herself out on
those around her, demanding they live up to her impos-
sible standards.
Virtues and Social Influence
When using social influence in Exalted, Storytellers
can use the Virtues to add additional granularity to the
system. Below are some suggestions for how you can in-
corporate them into the existing social influence rules
(Exalted, pp. 213-224).
While there are dice rolls associated with social in-
fluence, most of the interaction is based on roleplay
between the player and the Storyteller, or among the
players. This creates an opportunity to use the Virtues
to flesh out characters’ motives and tactics during an
intrigue. Are they attempting to move a stone-faced
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magistrate to tears using Compassion? Or rally demoral-
ized troops with a show of Courage?
Remember that even when their characters have high
Manipulation, Charisma, Presence, or Performance, not all
players are natural orators — asking them to deliver a speech
on the spot or verbally spar with someone else at the table
can be intimidating for some. However, as the Storyteller,
you can ask questions that help the player define the main
themes of his message. Have him think about how the char-
acter’s Virtues guide his argument, and how they help appeal
to those same values in his intended audience.
Virtues and Influence Rolls
A character’s Virtues can enhance her influence rolls.
Compassion aids in arguments informed by a character’s
empathy for her audience and appeals to kindness, al-
truism, or mercy. Discipline aids in forcefully espousing
one’s beliefs and goals, and emphasizing one’s unwaver-
ing dedication to impress or intimidate. Justice aids in
patient and cool-headed negotiations and in setting an
ethical example for others. Courage aids in both encour-
aging allies to be brave and striking terror into the hearts
of foes. If the Storyteller decides one of a character’s
Virtues should enhance an influence roll, it adds a non-
Charm success.
Virtues and Resolve
When a character uses an Intimacy associated with
one of her Virtues to bolster her Resolve against in-
fluence that is opposed to that Virtue, the Storyteller
may increase the Intimacy’s Resolve bonus by one. The
Storyteller may also opt to increase the Resolve penal-
ty froman Intimacy by one against influence that aligns
with that Virtue.
Virtues and Guile
Virtues can both undermine and bolster a character’s
Guile. A character with strong Compassion might be
especially open and honest when dealing with those
whose trust she seeks to win, but a dedicated confidant
of other’s secrets. A character with high Conviction
might resist spilling information under coercion or du-
ress, but unable to hide her ambitions. A character with
high Temperance might avoid revealing her emotions by
keeping a cool head, but make a poor liar. High Courage
might hide fear, but undermine a character’s Guile biting
back hostility. If the Storyteller decides a Virtue is appli-
cable to a character’s Guile, it applies a +1 non-Charm
bonus or a −1 penalty.
Virtues and Reading Intentions
High Virtues aid in read intentions to recognize
Intimacies and goals driven by those same Virtues, or
 Chapter Three: Optional Rules
a marked lack of them. Compassionate characters are
good at gauging the sincerity of apparent benevolence
and discerning positive Ties. Conviction helps in deter-
mining the strength of another’s ambition and dedica-
tion, and in recognizing what drives him. Temperance
aids in evaluating self-restraint and cool-headedness
and uncovering related Intimacies. Valor can take the
measure of another courage or aid in recognizing what
someone fights for. If the Storyteller decides one of a
character’s Virtues should enhance a read intentions
roll, it adds a single non-Charm success.
Decision Points
Once per story, a player can cite one of her charac-
ter’s Virtues instead of an Intimacy in a Decision Point
(Exalted, p. 219)
Guideposts for Roleplaying
Knowing how keenly some Virtues guide a character, or
how little stock they put in others, can help players fig-
ure out which direction to take the character when they
reach a difficult point. When faced with a no-win situa-
tion, which option at least allows the character to act in
accordance with her highest Virtue? Or, if her Limit is
nearly full and the player wants to tip her over into her
Limit Break, which option flies in the face of it?
Storyteller characters can be guided by their Virtues as
well. When first they meet the player characters, how
do the group’s actions align or clash with the NPC’s own
Traits? Perhaps the excesses of the Dynasts around her
frustrate the Temperate Immaculate monk they meet.
An important member of the Silver Pact may launch into
a fiery speech about the importance of her cause upon
recognizing the Valor of the PCs, so much like her own,
or maybe, led by her Compassion, her arguments are
couched in a community focus.
Between stories in your chronicle, ask players to consid-
er their characters’ goals and aspirations in the interim.
If months or years are passing between the end of one
chapter and the start of the next, how do the characters’
Virtues influence the projects they undertake? Someone
might go on an arduous journey in pursuit of wisdom
driven by her Temperance. Another could become a
wandering hero, following his Valorous instincts to pro-
tecting the innocent.
Finally, the Virtues themselves make useful undercur-
rents when plotting out an adventure. You don’t have
to state outright that “this is a story themed around
Compassion,” or “the tomb’s chambers will test the
strength of your Conviction,” but you can form plot
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hooks around them. A sorcerer-king sends the Circle off
on quests themed to the characters’ Virtues. Instead of
feasting on a village’s dreams, a raksha slowly saps its in-
habitants of their Virtues.
Troupe Play
Often the dynamics of play lead your heroes to amass
cadres of followers or allies outside the player charac-
ters. Solar Exalts pick up worshippers from their he-
roic exploits, Sidereals and Dragon-Blooded become
entangled in local and military hierarchies, and even
the most solitary Lunar may attract admirers. It can be
overwhelming to try and run a game where one player
has a team of twenty hovering around them, but this can
also open the door to incorporating troupe play into the
game.
Troupe play is the term for any time a single player
plays multiple characters in a game. Typically, players
will have a single primary character that is the focus of
their play, with the other characters forming a support
system for them. While it is possible for a single player
to play multiple Exalts in your game, this may end up
being frustrating if there are others at the table who are
playing only one.
If one of your players is interested in trying out troupe
play, guide them through forming their team. For play-
ers who aren’t used to running multiple characters in a
single scene, it may be helpful to advise them on having a
hierarchy amongst their followers. Most scenes will run
more smoothly if there is a single representative for the
thoughts and needs of the group, while still leaving the
door open for members of the cadre to differ in opinion
occasionally.
Making sure that your game remains challenging with-
out becoming frustrating relies on your setting limits for
the abilities of the followers. As a rule of thumb, it’s usu-
ally best to make it clear that at no point will any mem-
ber of the troupe (other than its primary focus of course)
rise to a level of power that could rival another player
character. While an Exalt’s cult of worshippers may in-
clude expert martial artists, they should not generally be
a significant factor in combats against the supernatural
talents of the Chosen — nor should social or economic
talents distract from the brokers or merchants of the
Circle.
It’s also worth prompting your player to put some
thought into the home lives of their troupe. What kinds
of things do they do when they aren’t following orders?
Are there situations where the troupe may be more
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
trouble than it’s worth? Are the circumstances under
which the troupe would defy their orders or abandon
their duty to their leader? Even if the player isn’t asked
these questions explicitly, it can make troupe play much
more interesting if they must answer it through their
roleplay. Whenever you think it’s appropriate, try ask-
ing the player what their troupe thinks about what just
happened.
Sooner or later the group will need to change compo-
sition — either adding new members or replacing lost
ones. The process of getting new members of the troupe
can be a fun way to challenge your player. While hiring
mercenaries is certainly always an option, they will be far
less loyal and more likely to abandon their leader when
the going gets tough. But finding new people to unques-
tioningly worship you as the messenger of the gods is a
lot more complicated than hanging up a “help wanted”
poster. Performing the kind of deeds that inspire loyalty
in followers can be a great seed for an adventure in and
of itself.
Note that playing multiple characters in a game isn’t the
same as playing multiple characters in a scene, or even
in a session. Troupe play eases splitting the party by re-
moving the usual disincentive of not being able to par-
ticipate when a player character isn’t in the scene; this
means that discussion of troupe play needs to address
experience point allocation when the player character
is absent from some or all scenes during a session. The
solution should lean toward leniency; the player is al-
ready less able to affect play due to a lower power level,
and shouldn’t be further punished by being cut off from
XP gain.
Teamwork
In its most basic form, the story of any game will boil
down to a group of individuals working together to-
wards a common goal. Naturally, this will lead to situa-
tions where players will want to cooperate in performing
actions. Sometimes your players will have overlapping
skill sets, where a master thief and a diplomat both think
they are the best candidate for talking their way out of
trouble. Sometimes a task requires two different areas
of knowledge, and it stretches credulity to believe that a
single character was able to complete it alone, like an en-
gineer building and implanting a mechanical heart with
absolutely no knowledge of medicine. And sometimes a
hero will have such an emotional stake in the outcome of
a challenge that they cannot imagine standing by doing
nothing, like watching their lover perform a last-ditch
defensive spell to prevent certain doom.
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Whenever a player attempts to assist another, always
make sure they explain specifically how they are help-
ing. It’s natural for your players to want to help one an-
other, but not every action has a clear way in which an
extra set of hands could make a difference.
Basic Teamwork
A character can choose to provide assistance to another
character making a roll. The character rolling can benefit
from the assisting character’s specialties — even those in
Abilities other than the one she rolls with, as long as they
fit the description of how he assists her. Additionally, the
assisting character can spend one Willpower to add an au-
tomatic success to the roll. This can stack with the rolling
character spending Willpower to add a success as well, but
only one assisting character can provide this bonus.
Example: Crimson Wind is standing on the roof of a car-
riage aiming her bow at the pursuing soldiers. Her ally
Unfettered Blade attempts to control the horses in their
mad rush to steady the carriage long enough for her to take
the shot, spending one Willpower. Crimson Wind adds an
automatic success on her attack roll, and it benefits from
Unfettered Blade’s Ride specialty in “Breakneck Pursuit.”
More Help
On certain actions, the Storyteller may allow teamwork
to play a more significant role: before the acting char-
acter attempts an action, the assisting character rolls
(Attribute + Ability) — using a combination appropriate
to the nature of his assistance — against the same diffi-
culty. His extra successes are added as non-Charm dice
on the acting character’s roll.
If the assisting character fails, however, he inflicts a −1
penalty on the roll. Multiple characters can assist, but
only the highest extra successes of any one roll are add-
ed to the acting character’s roll while the penalties for
failure are cumulative.
This form of teamwork shouldn’t be used for opposed
actions like attack rolls or influence rolls — it’s meant for
actions like feats of strength, introducing a fact, treating a
disease, and the like. The Storyteller should also disallow it
for challenges where she thinks collaborative effort isn’t as
significant a factor as the dice bonus from this teamwork,
using the Basic Teamwork rules above instead.
Example: Silent Dagger is attempting to disable the
tesseract lock that seals the innermost chamber of
her First Age incarnation’s tomb, rolling (Dexterity
+ Larceny) against difficulty 10. Illustrious Aya
aids her Circlemate by solving the lock’s hyper-
geometric equations, rolling (Intelligence + Lore)
 Chapter Three: Optional Rules

at difficulty 10 and rolling 12 successes. Her two
extra successes add +2 dice on Dagger’s roll.
Extended Teamwork
Teamwork on extended actions (Exalted, p. 189) such as
crafting, long-distance pursuits, and performing sorcer-
ous workings functions differently than the teamwork
options above. An assisting character makes her own roll
for an interval using an (Attribute + Ability) combination
appropriate to the nature of her assistance and the act-
ing character can use this roll’s successes in place of his
own if the result is higher.
If an assisting character fails the roll for an interval, her
failure subtracts one success from the acting character’s
roll — and those of any other assisting characters, if there
are any! Even with multiple assistants, the acting charac-
ter can only use the highest single roll, but as before the
penalties for failure are cumulative.
At the Storyteller’s discretion, an assistant’s help may reduce
the time necessary to complete an interval. Additionally, for
crafting projects, an assisting character can contribute his
craft points towards the project’s costs. Likewise, for sor-
cerous workings, an assisting character can contribute ex-
perience points towards the cost.
Example: Prince Diamond pursues a Dragon-Blooded
spy working for House Mnemon astride his faithful steed
Ember, which the Storyteller represents as an extended
opposed roll. A half-drunk Volfer helps out by climbing a
nearby hill and throwing a boulder down to block the spy’s
path. Prince Diamond rolls (Dexterity + Ride) while Volfer
rolls (Strength + Athletics), and Prince Diamond uses the
higher of the two results to oppose the spy’s (Dexterity +
Athletics) for that interval.
Too Many Cooks
There may come a time when more than one player
wants to help with an action, but you should consider
carefully when you should allow them to do so — not
only because of diminishing returns, but also because
making five rolls for every action can slow a game down
tremendously. The default assumption should be that
only one character can assist at a time.
If there seems to be a reasonable explanation for how
each participant is helping, allow the players to assist
using the rules above. Make sure that every player has a
different and logical way in which they are assisting, and
that those methods aren’t working at cross purposes.

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 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
The Mandate of Rulership:
Project Rules
Heavy is the mantle of rulership, and upon the shoul-
ders of the monarch, the potentate, and the luminary
it rests a thousand different ways. The project rules
(Exalted, p. 226) focus on Storyteller-facing narrative
advice for leadership and great endeavors; this section
will offer mechanical options to supplement or replace
those, giving players and groups who want to more me-
chanical engagement with the tasks of rulership and
stewardship as well as more options for doing so. This
combines the project system with Progress Trackers and
Risk Trackers, following the progression of player-insti-
gated projects along with looming threats that threaten
disruption and calamity.
Progress Trackers and Risk Trackers
If the Storyteller doesn’t wish to use the full Mandate
rules (p. XX) but wants to have a means of tracking a
project’s (Exalted, pp. 226-229) progress in game, con-
sider using these generic progress tracker and risk track-
er rules.
Progress Trackers
Progress Trackers are a way to mechanically represent a
character’s long-term efforts, projects and plans, either
by social or material means. The Progress Tracker rules
adapt the Extended Action rules from p. 189 of Exalted
Third Edition, with a number of changes. Projects us-
ing a Progress Tracker have three parts:
• The Progress Tracker itself which indicates
where in the process of being finished the project
is, and rates from 0 to 10.
• The Scope of the project, which is rated from 1
to 5 and indicates how wide-ranging the project
is as well as determining the interval for each of
the project rolls
• The Hardship of the project represents other
external factors that may make a project more
difficult and also ranges from 1 to 5.
First, the player indicates their character’s goal and
means, like any resources, especially from Merits, which
might be helpful to achieving her ends. Determining
her goal defines the project’s Scope, suggests any pres-
ent Hardships, indicates what dice pools the character
will be using, and determines the status of the Progress
Tracker at the beginning of the endeavor. Some projects
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may use different dice pools, but most relevant to finance
or running an organization default to Bureaucracy rolls.
Scope ranges from the strictly personal or local at 1;
neighborhood and town sized, or affecting dozens of
specific people at 2; city-wide or regional and affecting
hundreds of people at 3; kingdom, satrapy or province
wide in an area affecting thousands of people at 4; and
affecting entire Directions and tens of thousands at 5.
Scope 1 actions may roll for every day of intermittent
work, Scope 2 for every week, Scope 3 for every month,
Scope 4 for every season, and Scope 5 for every year.
For projects that affect existing Merits, the Scope uses
the Merit’s rating: for instance, an attempt to create a spy
network through the character’s Contacts Merit with a
rating of 4 is a Scope 4.
Hardship is the combination of Difficulty and meaning-
ful opposition to the character’s efforts, along with any
differences in Scope.
In order to determine a project’s Hardship, first, deter-
mine the task’s base difficulty as normal (Exalted, p.
185).
Meaningful or worthy opposition comes from any acts of
active opposition by a character that the project would
affect. Political rivals, disgruntled underlings with sway
of their own or competing merchant princes are some
good examples. Characters who merely wish the proj-
ect’s initiator ill, or who only have the resources to
cause trouble rather than raise any real opposition in-
stead are factors of the project’s base difficulty. If there
are any characters who qualify as worthy opposition,
then add any of their relevant Abilities as a modifier to
the Hardship. Quick characters use half their dice pool
instead.
Scope mismatch is what happens when the project lead-
er’s dedicated resources — usually their Merits — don’t
line up with the ambitiousness of their project. When a
project leader’s lowest relevant Merit is lower than the
Scope of their project, the project’s Hardship increases by
the difference between the two. Sometimes particularly
suitable or helpful assets can obviate or offset this, letting
them reduce or remove the Scope mismatch entirely, like
being able to call on the aid of a band of hired killers for an
assassination, or having a high Influence rating through
the Guild for a mercantile endeavor. If all of the project
leader’s relevant Merits are higher than the project’s
Scope it decreases the project’s Hardship by 1.
If a project already has much of its underlying ground-
work completed, or is a trifling challenge next to the
 Chapter Three: Optional Rules
project leader’s abilities, the Storyteller can decide that the
Progress Tracker starts partially completed. Each interval
the project leader is able to dedicate some amount of time
to personally direct their agents or at check in with the pro-
cess of carrying out their will, they roll against the project’s
Hardship applying successes to the Project Tracker (and
potentially to existing Risk Trackers as described below).
If the character or their allies undertake other dramatic
actions during regular play to try and ease the project
along, this can even reduce the project’s Hardship.
Projects have no limit to the number of intervals they
can take as long as any Risk Tracker remains unfilled.
Once the Project Tracker reaches 10, at the end of that
interval, the project is complete.
Risk Trackers
Risk Trackers represent growing threats to a character’s
plans, assets, or wellbeing. Often, but not always, they
are paired with Project Trackers when projects begin.
Each Risk Tracker has an interval, a Doom indicating
what will befall the character if the Risk Tracker fills and
the threat becomes realized, and a Risk value indicating
how many dice the Risk Tracker rolls every interval. If
the Risk Tracker is paired with a Project Tracker, it uses
the Project Tracker’s interval, and the doom will include
the failure of the project. Dooms are destructive, often
calamitous events that negatively affect the character,
Circle, or the people and places around them. Based on
the immediacy of the Doom, the Risk Tracker’s interval
will be in days, weeks, months, seasons, or years.
Risk ranges from 1 (opposition by strictly local forces or
distant, slow-moving problems), to 5 (powerful enemies
or other dangerous problems in the immediate future).
Risk successes add to the Tracker, and the Doom triggers
on an interval when the total reaches 10 or higher.
Characters can spend successes from Progress trackers
or other systemic effects to oppose a Risk Tracker to
set the Risk Tracker’s Difficulty before the Risk Tracker
rolls.
If paired Progress Trackers and Risk Trackers complete
on the same interval, a crisis occurs: a situation requiring
the character’s direct involvement to prevent the Doom
from destroying her enterprise. If she overcomes it, the
project completes successfully.
In many cases, characters may proactively seek out the
sources of risks and attempt to remove or ameliorate them.
If they can fully remove or suborn a risk, simply remove
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the Risk Tracker; heroics are the antidote to doom. If they
merely manage to weaken or hinder its efforts, reducing
the Risk Tracker’s Risk rating by a commensurate amount
is appropriate. Multiple Risk Trackers can be in play at
once, potentially even attached to the same project.
Mandate Rules
In the more expansive system, the player conceives of
a project’s goal and its means: this determines its Scope
(the size of the project and how often they will need to
roll) what dice pool to use, and the initial status of the
Progress Tracker. The Storyteller then decides on the
project’s difficulty, based on any external problems or
complications that exist, and any existing opposition or
potential fallout, which may result in a Risk Tracker also
being set (p. XX). The player then rolls for each interval
of the project as determined by Scope, as long as they
spend at least part of that interval’s time communicat-
ing with and directing their organization. Barring a Risk
Tracker filling up or external intervention, the charac-
ter can keep rolling for their project every interval until
the Progress Tracker reaches 10 points and the project
is completed.
Conceiving Projects
A project is any activity a character wishes to commit to
in pursuit of particular meaningful gain over time. Their
goals can be as mechanically specific as “I want to ob-
tain more troops in the form of the Command Merit so
we can take the war to the Fair Folk” or as narratively
focused as “I want to redirect the Great Sorrow River
through the satrapy ironworks, drowning them utterly,”
so long as those goals have distinct end points (when the
character has obtained the Merit or the ironworks are
drowned, respectively).
With this goal in mind, the character then choos-
es her means. Leaders undertaking projects through
their subordinates will often have Merits representing
their available means: “As the ruler of the Iron Ribbon
Protectorate, I have Influence 4 and Resources 4; they
should be happy to obey their leader and I can afford to
arm them easily.” Other times, there may be more specif-
ic assets in play: “I have those engineer-priests on retain-
er; they should be able to get the river where we want it
to go, no problem!”
The player chooses the dice pool for the project. For most
matters of organizational direction and rulership, this
roll with be ([Charisma, Intelligence, or Manipulation] +
Bureaucracy), with the Attribute used depending on the
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
character’s leadership style: Charisma for inspiring lead-
ership and delegation, Intelligence for methodical plan-
ning and analysis, or Manipulation for leadership based
on subtlety, deception, and intrigue. For other projects,
different combinations may be appropriate: (Charisma +
Performance) to spread a cult’s teachings through a re-
gion, (Dexterity + Larceny) to accrue Resources through
a string of daring heists, (Manipulation + Linguistics) to
sway public opinion with propaganda campaigns, and so
on.
Example: Perfect Soul sets out to purge House Mnemon
loyalists from the Jiaran city of Parapet. When the
Storyteller asks her player how she plans to accomplish
that, she decides that Perfect Soul will use her Influence
as the deposed heir to Jiara’s royal family (a three-dot
Merit) and her network of Contacts within Jiara (a one-
dot Merit). Since secrecy is vital to her project, she chooses
to roll with (Manipulation + Bureaucracy).
Scope
With goal and means selected, the Storyteller deter-
mines the project’s Scope. When it comes to projects
to increase Merit ratings, the Scope usually equals the
rating the player is attempting to raise her character’s
Trait to or the rating they’re attempting to reduce an op-
ponent’s Trait from. Undermining a rival’s businesses to
reduce their Resources, or a spreading malicious rumors
to reduce their Influence or turn their Contacts against
them are both ways to reduce an opponent’s Traits. If
there’s no Merit rating to base it on, the Storyteller can
base Scope on the extent of the project’s impact: 1 for
projects with an impact no greater than a single lo-
cal business or other group, 2 for a small village or city
neighborhood, 3 for large villages or small cities, 4 for
large cities and comparably sized provinces, or 5 for en-
tire kingdoms. Anything that would impact a larger re-
gion should require multiple projects, rather than just
increasing Scope.
Scope also dictates the project’s interval. Scope 1 proj-
ects have an interval of one day; Scope 2 projects an in-
terval of one week; Scope 3 projects an interval of one
month; Scope 4 projects an interval of one season, and
Scope 5 projects an interval of one year.
Example: Perfect Soul’s project isn’t directly related to any
Merit, so the Storyteller bases its Scope on its regional im-
pact. Based on how Parapet’s been described throughout
the chronicle, the players are divided over whether it’s
more of a small city (Scope 3) or a large city (Scope 4). The
Storyteller ultimately decides to go with Scope 3, saving
higher Scopes for projects impacting the kingdom’s capital.
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A Scope 3 project would normally have an interval of one
month, but Perfect Soul’s Circlemate Prince Diamond can
reduce that to one week with by using Speed the Wheels.
Difficulty
Once the project’s Scope has been set, the Storyteller
sets the project’s difficulty. This uses the standard rules
for setting difficulty (Exalted p. 185), but with special
considerations for Scope and opposition.
General difficulty should take into account factors that
might hinder either the character personally or her or-
ganization as a whole: “The Iron Ribbon Protectorate’s
peasants hate you since you keep taxing them heavily,
and you’ve banned any weapon ownership for the past
decade so they’re going to be difficult to train. That’s go-
ing to start at difficulty 3.”
Depending on the Scope of the project, if the leader’s
resources are greater than the Scope of what they wish
to achieve, it can reduce Hardship, while having less
than the needed resources will increase it. Hardship
increases by the difference between the character’s
lowest relevant Merit and the Scope of the project, but
decreases by 1 if all the relevant Merits are higher than
the Scope.
SPEEDING THE WHEELS
Speed the Wheels (Exalted, p. 285) and similar mag-
ic can rapidly accelerate the speed at which bureau-
cracies complete tasks. However, these benefits are
limited to bureaucratic tasks such as planning, se-
curing authorizations, allocating of resources, setting
policy, and the like, but it won’t speed physical labor. If
a Solar undertakes a project to reinforce an allied city
with part of her army, Speed the Wheels would aid in
planning the troop deployment and negotiating terms
with the allied city’s leaders, but wouldn’t speed the
movement of her forces. The Storyteller may decide
that a project’s nature imposes a minimum interval
that bureaucratic magic can’t reduce any further —
although players can attempt to reduce it in other
ways, such as by using sorcery to transport troops
rather than making them march on foot.
Characters may devise ways to try and rush project
completion in dramatic play. Heroic acts and support-
ing labor will reduce Hardship rather than progress-
ing the tracker; if a divine king could do all the labor
of state on his own, there’s no need for a Progress
Tracker (and potentially no need for a state).
 Chapter Three: Optional Rules
MODEST PROJECTS
Some projects will already have obvious groundwork
completed for them; training a legion that already has
its equipment and barracks obtained, for example, or
a spy network reactivated after long disuse. Others
may clearly be within the abilities of a character or
organization that hadn’t gotten to them yet: a pow-
erful sorcerous fellowship deciding to finally cap the
demesne within its holdings for example. There may
be other issues that make completing such projects
more difficult (and potentially necessitating a project
and Progress tracker rather than simply declaring
the effort successful), but it’s clear that these proj-
ects should be easier to complete than investing in a
wholly new Merit.
In these cases, it’s appropriate to start the Progress
tracker partially completed from 2 to 5 successes as
the particular project dictates.
However, if the character has cultivated assets outside
of the Merit ratings that explicitly address the project at
hand, those assets may negate Scope differences. These
may be supernatural abilities, the results of a sorcerous
working or previous project, or anything else of import.
Meaningful or worthy opposition comes from any acts of
active opposition by a character that the project would
affect. Political rivals, disgruntled underlings with sway
of their own or competing merchant princes are some
good examples. Characters who merely wish the proj-
ect’s initiator ill, or who only have the resources to cause
trouble rather than raise any real opposition instead
are factors of the project’s base difficulty. If there are
any characters who qualify as worthy opposition, then
add any of their relevant Abilities as a modifier to the
Hardship. Quick characters use half their dice pool in-
stead to a maximum of 5. In the case of multiple charac-
ters opposing the project on the behalf of multiple pow-
ers, use the highest rating among them and add one for
each additional worthy foe.
Progress Trackers in Play
Once the project begins, the character rolls for every
interval she’s spent at least some time involved in over-
seeing or directing her project. Her organization is doing
most of the heavy lifting, however, so the character’s di-
rect involvement can be a mere fraction of any given in-
terval. It’s appropriate for the character to involve herself
with adventures of her Circle or Hearth while her project
continues on in the background. Her successes accrue on
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the tracker until they reach 10, ending the project success-
fully at the end of the last rolled interval. If a Risk Tracker
doesn’t threaten the project, the character can take as
many intervals as she needs to complete it; a plan and a
loyal company or nation can get a lot done! 10 is the num-
ber for most projects, though if the Storyteller decides it’s
appropriate, they can set the clock for longer or shorter.
Risk Trackers
Creation is a dangerous place, and many projects a char-
acter might undertake will exist in the shadow of doom.
Risk Trackers represent growing threats to a character’s
plans and wellbeing, forcing her to split her attention
between warding off danger and finishing her projects.
When a character begins a project, the Storyteller can
choose to set up a Risk Tracker representing an out-
standing concern that threatens to doom the project and
cause further harm to the character or her interests. The
Storyteller first determines the consequence: What will
befall the character if the Risk Tracker fills and the threat
becomes realized. By default, this includes the failure of
the character’s project and destruction of their Project
Tracker. It may also include serious social consequences,
damage or even destruction of organizational assets or
Merits, and other narrative and dramatic threats.
The Storyteller then determines the Risk: How many
dice the Risk Tracker rolls every interval. Risk rang-
es from 1 (opposition by strictly local forces or distant,
slow-moving problems), to 5 (powerful enemies or oth-
er dangerous problems in the immediate future). Risk
successes add to the Tracker, triggering it on an interval
when the total reaches 10 or higher.
However, Risk Trackers always roll after their connect-
ed Progress Trackers. Players can choose to set aside any
of their Progress Tracker successes to represent effort
spent towards keeping the looming threat at bay. Every
success the player spends in this way increases the Risk
Tracker’s difficulty for its Risk roll.
EVEN MORE RISKS
Particularly audacious or belligerent characters
may embark on projects that warrant multiple Risk
Trackers. This can be an interesting challenge for
leadership- and bureaucracy-focused characters,
but Storytellers should add additional Risk Trackers
very carefully, both to avoid overwhelming players
and also to avoid diluting the effect of looming conse-
quences by making them ubiquitous.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
If the Progress Tracker and Risk Tracker complete on
the same interval, a crisis occurs; a situation requiring
the character’s direct involvement to prevent the conse-
quence from destroying her enterprise. If she overcomes
it, their project completes successfully.
With Prejudice
In many cases, characters may proactively seek out the
sources of risks and attempt to remove or ameliorate
them. If they can fully remove or suborn a risk, simply
remove the Risk Tracker; heroics are often the antidote
to doom. If they merely manage to weaken or hinder its
efforts, reducing the Risk Tracker’s Risk rating by an ap-
propriate amount is appropriate.
Granularity
Stories in Exalted tackle topics as sweeping as the fate of
kingdoms and as intimate as theological debates between
lifelong friends. When it comes to the social, material, and
personal entanglements that make up these stories, the
game’s systems reflect that through Merits placed on its
familiar five-dot scale: A wandering vagabond may lack
the Resources Merit entirely, indicating a lack of steady
income or currency, while a great merchant prince may
have it at four dots, marking her luxurious lifestyle and
financial might. Three dots of Backing may represent the
merchant prince’s rank in the Guild, while the vagabond’s
grim-faced, revenge-driven cohort of murderers takes the
form of two dots of Followers. Often, multiple Merits but-
tress each other to give a character’s status more mechan-
ical reality: the guild prince has Influence at three dots,
demonstrating the reach of her position and money, while
the vagabond possesses four two-dot Retainers, each a
particularly notable warrior in his band.
This approach can be quite flexible, especially when
fully employing multiple Merits at different ratings,
such as the example of the vagabond’s Retainers above.
However, many matters fall beneath the five-dot scale’s
base ratings or between its numbers. A single dot of
Resources commands wealth “up to four times the ex-
pected income of a household with two skilled working
adults,” much greater than the sort of regular income
the vagabond expects to see. The merchant prince’s po-
sition in the Guild puts her mechanically at the same
Backing rating as any other merchant prince, leaving lit-
tle room to represent jockeying for position and greater
authority. Some chronicles will see fit to resolve these
issues narratively, the Storyteller judging that the vag-
abond has enough money to pay a blacksmith to sharp-
en his swords or that the merchant prince’s rival has a
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more prestigious and useful post than she does. In these
chronicles, if a character doesn’t like the results of that
determination in game, they can choose to try and re-
solve it in play. However, for situations where a greater
degree of granularity and mechanical representation is
desired, a project utilizing a Progress Tracker (p. XX)
is useful. While Progress Tracker projects still use ab-
stracted Scope, they give a mechanical framework for
working towards a concrete goal, even if it exists in the
middle ground between Merit dots.
Example: Wandering Teeth, murderous vagabond and no-
torious enemy of the state, desires to have his short sword
repaired after breaking it on a magistrate’s helm. However,
being a wandering swordsman with no stable income, he
doesn’t possess the Resources Merit; the modest Resources
1 purchase of a swordsmith’s services is beyond his reach.
Wandering Teeth’s player and Storyteller agree to make
the repair of Wandering Teeth’s sword a project, as time
in the campaign is relevant (needing to meet a local hero’s
challenge, the agreed-upon date in a month’s time), but
not critically important to the immediate plot.
This is a Scope 1 project, as it affects a single sword for a
single warrior. This means that Wandering Teeth can roll
every day he spends at least some time trying to gather
up funds, argue with money lenders, and cajole potential
swordsmiths. The project is a matter of accruing available
funds and services, and Wandering Teeth doesn’t want to
become the most wanted man in yet another city, so he fo-
cuses on mostly legitimate means for gathering together
silver: (Stamina + Bureaucracy), for attempting to save
up money through hard work. Getting a sword repaired
is Resources 1 versus Wandering Teeth’s Resources 0, so
as a modest project, the Project Tracker starts filled to 5.
The Storyteller sets the Hardship at 2; finding work as a
vagrant isn’t easy, and finding moneylenders comfortable
dealing with Wandering Teeth will prove a bit of a chal-
lenge. Each day Wandering Teeth rolls, he accumulates
successes for the Progress Tracker, and when it completes,
he has engaged and paid a swordsmith to fix his blade.
Since Wandering Teeth isn’t wanted in this city (yet),
there’s no Risk Tracker for him to worry about; he can keep
making rolls each day until he succeeds, or something else
causes circumstances in the city to change.
Example: On the other hand, when Guild merchant
prince Vrala Dama tries to outmaneuver one of her peers,
matters are more complicated. She wants to position
herself as a more powerful financial and influential force
without overstepping her bounds towards any of the lo-
cal factors or other Guild leaders. This means out-com-
peting a fellow merchant prince in business, coopting
his networks of contacts, and generally outdoing him,
 Chapter Three: Optional Rules
but right now she’s not trying to undergo the whole-
sale expansion that might involve an increase in Merit
dots. Vrala has Backing (The Guild) 3, Resources 4, and
Influence 3 currently, and her rival also has Backing 3,
so the Storyteller agrees that it’s a perfectly acceptable
project to set her business interests on.
Guild merchant princes jockeying for power could poten-
tially involve trade dealings throughout many communi-
ties across a wide span of Creation, so the Storyteller de-
cides to apply the rule of thumb for project Scope: Vrala
and her foe are jockeying over Backing 3, so this will be
a Scope 3 project, normally involving a roll every month.
As long as Vrala can invest some time in looking over re-
ports and giving guidance to her underlings every month,
she can make rolls towards the project’s completion. She’s
well versed with underhanded tactics in financial war-
fare, so the die-pool is (Manipulation+ Bureaucracy) for
attempting to gain an advantage through deception and
merciless competition. Because this is a project that the
target will actively oppose, though, the Progress Tracker
begins empty, and the Hardship is set at 5 (half the Guild
prince’s relevant dice pool for business dealings, because
the Storyteller is using Quick Character rules for him).
What’s worse for Vrala is that the opposing Guild mer-
chant prince will be actively working to sabotage her as
well, so the Storyteller sets up a Risk Tracker, with a rating
of 5 and a consequence of “Vrala is financially outmaneu-
vered, personally embarrassed, and is known to be an in-
ferior to her foe.” Every interval, the Risk Tracker will roll
its rating, with successes progressing the Tracker wheth-
er or not Vrala makes any project rolls of her own that
month. When Vrala does, she’ll have to decide whether to
set aside any successes to cover stymieing her fellow Guild
prince’s efforts to undermine her. If she does, they count as
Difficulty added to the Risk Tracker’s roll.
If Vrala’s Progress Tracker finishes before the Risk Tracker
does, she succeeds: her businesses are more successful than
her rival’s, and when it comes to commanding respect and
obedience within the Guild, everyone will see her as his
superior, despite their Backing ratings both being 3. If the
Risk Tracker fills to 10 before Vrala’s Progress Tracker
does, her project fails and the consequence occurs, as her
rival effectively beats her at her own game. If both reach
10 on the same Interval, a crisis occurs, which can r be
played out to determine its resolution.
Risk Trackers by themselves can also be useful for mod-
eling ongoing concerns and threats that are beneath or
outside the usual scale of dangers. A game that is con-
cerned with wear and tear on mundane equipment and
delicate gear can use a Risk Tracker with a low Risk
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rating to represent an ongoing struggle against mainte-
nance issues. A chronicle that’s concerned with tracking
regular debt and finance could use one with a Risk rat-
ing that rises with increasing purchases to keep track of
mounting money troubles.
These Trackers will typically have Scopes and Intervals
appropriate for the scale at which the characters they
threaten are acting. Wandering Teeth’s “Your Stuff
Broke!” Tracker functions at Scope 1, as he must contend
daily with his weapons dulling and armor falling apart.
Vrala Dama’s “Owned by the Factors” Tracker works on
Scope and Interval 3, requiring rolls less often as they
concern holdings that cover cities and satrapies instead
of the person of a filthy vagabond. Players must actively
engage with these open-ended Risk Trackers each inter-
val to keep them from maxing out, which can become
difficult if they’re juggling multiple Progress Trackers
and Risk Trackers at the same time.
Ending stand-alone Risk Trackers only occurs by the
character removing themselves from the circumstances
that cause it to be an issue: Wandering Teeth finally join-
ing a mercenary company that can keep him equipped
and in good repair or Vrala Dama ascending to the po-
sition of Guild factor herself, for example. Note that the
group agreeing that such concerns are no longer perti-
nent to the chronicle certainly applies; just because a
chronicle begins with concerns over feeding Wandering
Teeth’s followers or Vrala Dama keeping up fashionable
appearances doesn’t mean that the game will find these
concerns indefinitely relevant.
Travel and the
Journey system
Journeying across a meaningful span of Creation is a
greater adventure than most mortals will experience in
their lifetimes. For those who do travel the roads, wa-
terways, and stranger paths that spider-web across the
enormity of the world, however, it can more difficult to
avoid adventure than not. The journey rules create inter-
esting complications and opportunities for travels across
the breadth of Creation, for wide-ranging Chronicles or
the occasional rare sojourn in an otherwise local game.
They are generally inappropriate for routine travel or in-
tentionally uneventful trips.
At the same time, the journey system assumes that the
trek undertaken is functionally completable. Travels
which labor under immediate existential threats, such
as the outbreak of Realm civil war occurring on a trip
between Mnemon and Sesus holdings, may find it more
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
appropriate to deal with the extraordinary nature of
events at a less abstracted level.
Rules of the Road
When a group decides a planned trip is appropriate for
the Journey system, the players and Storyteller first
BUT HOW FAST DO I GO?
If the circumstances of your chronicle make the
journey system’s narrative handling of difference a
poor fit for a given trip, you can assume as a rule of
thumb that characters on foot can travel ten miles
a day under ordinary circumstances, or five miles a
day in poor circumstances (e.g. ill-maintained roads,
harsh weather, or going the long way around to avoid
a Realm outpost). Characters mounted on horses or
similar mounts triple these speeds. For seafaring
vessels, see Exalted, p. 246.
A Solar using Racing Hare Method (Exalted, p. 264)
can cover (Dexterity x10) miles over open terrain in a
single hour.
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determine the distance, potential complications, and
potential opportunities along the way. Characters put
successes for each leg of travel towards removing or cir-
cumnavigating hardships and benefitting from good for-
tune or simple time on the road, the fruits of which are
determined at the journey’s end.
Distance Without Maps
The Journey system measures distance abstractly. Short
trips are those distances a peasant can walk in a matter
of days; moderate travels are those a rider can comfort-
ably cross within a few weeks; long journeys are what a
Guild caravan heavy with lucre might make in a number
of months; and epic odysseys are the rare travels that
span multiple directions in peregrinations lasting sea-
sons to years.
The Journey system travel times assume that most trav-
el in Creation must by nature be flexible: The weather,
local traffic, and shifting dangers of the Age of Sorrows
make definitive times of arrival hard to pin down even
for experienced travelers. Because of this, the Storyteller
should set travel times based on the distance, but with
this ambiguity in mind. “You should reach the outskirts
 Chapter Three: Optional Rules
of Rubylak within the week” is preferable to “it will take
you four and a half days to reach Sijan.”
The distance also sets the number of rolls the journey
will take. Rather than using set intervals, each length of
a Journey offers a different number of rolls for the group:
One for short journeys, three for moderate, five for long,
and ten for epic. In cases where a Circle has access to par-
ticularly impressive vehicles or traveling magic, it’s appro-
priate to reduce travel time by entire steps on this scale.
A mounted company capable of changing out its riding
animals regularly, a flotilla of particularly swift ships, or
mortal methods of sky sailing can usually reduce the jour-
ney by one timescale (reducing the number of rolls), while
potent magical traveling abilities or artifacts that still re-
quire the Circle to vie with the struggles of travel on some
level may reduce the timescale by two steps.
Misery by the Mile
The travel roll itself is based on the matter of the Circle’s
conveyance. Ride is appropriate for any manner of travel
by mount or beast-driven conveyance, Sail for any other
manner of vehicle, while toughing it out on foot defaults
to Survival or Resistance barring specific Charms to the
contrary. Journeys are matters of endurance and patience,
so most rolls will use (Stamina + [the appropriate Ability]).
Wits is also emphasized as the Attribute used in a lot of
traveling; the Storyteller may offer different sets players
can use for instance (Stamina + [Athletics or Resistance])
for travel on foot, ([Stamina or Wits] + Ride) for horseback,
or ([Intelligence or Wits] + Sail) for seafaring. Calculate
the base difficulty for journey rolls normally.
All player characters involved in making the way are ex-
pected to roll; if some are unable or unwilling, but there is
sufficient passenger space aboard mounts or vehicles, they
may choose not to roll. Otherwise each non-rolling char-
acter adds one to the base difficulty for all the characters
who are rolling. If there are storyteller characters present,
if most are actively useful to the journey (such as caravan
hands or practiced merchant guards) reduce the difficulty
by 1. If most Storyteller characters present require aid or
guidance such as inexperienced travelers or children, in-
crease the difficulty by 1; and if most are competent travel-
ers or a relatively mixed group, don’t modify the difficulty.
Once the time is set, the Storyteller determines what
complications may lie ahead. These are potential prob-
lems and concerns that will arrive during the trip un-
less prevented by the characters. They can range from
attacks by enemy forces or dangerous wildlife, to be-
coming horribly lost on overland treks, to infighting in
a caravan, or ocean gods being angered on a sea voyage.
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RISK AND PROGRESS TRACKERS
Active pursuit, mobile threats, or growing concerns
can be modeled with the Risk Tracker mechanics
from the Mandate of Heaven section. In this case,
Journey rolls will have to deal with the Risk Track-
er in addition to base Difficulty and any other com-
plications. When such Risk Trackers trigger, they end
the current Journey attempt as the players deal with
whatever calamity has caught up to them. In many
cases, they’ll be able to resume their travels and start
a new Journey, assuming the Risk Tracker didn’t in-
volve city-destroying threats devouring their destina-
tion.
This can make for fraught journeys and voyages, as a
Circle juggles the dangers of the roads with looming
threats.
If characters have ongoing Progress Trackers, they
can use successes from their Journey rolls to reduce
the Hardship for their next project roll. Enlightenment
on the roadway is unlikely to complete anyone’s great
work by itself, but may very well provide insight into
elements of their problems they hadn’t considered
before.
Complications have ratings from one to five, and an in-
terval value. If a player spends successes from the char-
acter’s journey roll equal to a complication’s rating to
resolve it, the player may narrate how her character
overcomes the problem or threat without needing to
make further rolls. If, however, a number of journey rolls
pass equal to the complication’s interval rating, the com-
plication occurs instead.
Complications aren’t journey-ending disasters, but rath-
er what the name suggests. “The Journey takes longer
than expected” will be present for most travels, with a
rating equal to the number of rolled intervals. If the trav-
elers don’t buy it off, they arrive days, weeks, or months
later than expected, as appropriate for the journey’s
magnitude.
Travels along trade routes throughout the Threshold by a
Circle of abolitionists might have a complication of “The
Guild knows of our movements” or “slave traders pick
a fight with us again,” while infamous Anathema might
need to vie with “A Wyld Hunt picks up our scent” or
“Immaculate monks. Again.” It’s possible that a particu-
larly active Circle might face all these Complications on a
trip through unfriendly territory.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
Paths and Progress
Comfortable, successful trips not only avoid complications
and dangers along the way, but also give the heroes under-
going them opportunities. Beyond avoiding complications,
characters can put successes towards accomplishing trav-
el goals. These can be explicit goals for the quality of the
trip: such as “None of the elderly or frail traveling with us
sicken or die,” while others can be more character facing:
“Wandering Teeth will spend this time growing closer to
their mysterious friend who is clearly a Sidereal.” Journey
goals have a rating from 1 to 5 but no interval value; char-
acters can work on them as long as the Journey continues.
Some goals will be mutually incompatible with some com-
plications: “The journey completes quickly” can’t be worked
on if “The journey takes longer than expected” still threat-
ens, requiring characters resolve the complication before
allocating successes towards the goal. Otherwise, characters
complete their goals when goal rating is met in successes.
In the case of goals that represent particularly compli-
cated or difficult tasks, the Storyteller may move them
to other resolution systems: The Sidereal is actually a
Bronze Faction spy and Wandering Teeth will need to
resort to social influence or combat! In these cases, suc-
cesses applied toward the travel goal instead become
preparatory actions and represent the character working
to make space or time to on the trip to pursue it. The goal
rating for such preparations should be no higher than 3
and success grants situational bonus dice in subsequent
rolls using the appropriate subsystem for the duration
of the journey based on the rating set by the Storyteller.
The Bronze Faction spy can’t duck Wandering Teeth’s
presence, or their rambling stories, making their at-
tempts to influence the Sidereal all the more effective.
Simplified Crafting
The default crafting system in the Exalted core book is
designed to emulate dedicated crafters who constantly
multitask and never stop generating new projects. While
this works for some characters, others may want to just
dabble, or become known for a few specific and famous
artifacts or weapons. Additionally, some groups’ sto-
ry pacing makes the default system less ideal, as it may
require either a lot of dedicated downtime or a robust
set of Charms that earns them crafting experience even
when they’re not actively working.
The following is an optional simplification of the craft-
ing system that emphasizes individual projects, active
crafting in play, and streamlined resource tracking.
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Craft Ability
Players need only purchase the general Craft Ability to
create things, and this Ability may have Specialties for
what would be individual Craft Abilities in the core
book, such as cooking, architecture, blacksmithing, etc.
Characters don’t require a specialty in a particular type of
crafting to make examples of that type, but they do require
an “Artifacts” Specialty to qualify for creating artifacts, in-
dicative of a certain level of focused skill. Crafting artifacts
also requires a Craft Ability of at least 3 (4 for legendary
projects), Lore or Occult at 3 or higher, and an apprentice-
ship to learn the specialty in the first place (see p. XX).
Crafting Experience and Rolls
Players only earn one generic type of crafting experi-
ence, and they do so over the course of crafting rather
than when the project is finished.
When a project requires a single roll, crafting experience
is unnecessary for completing it. Its results resolve like
any other roll. If it fails, however, allow the character to
create the item anyway but with some inconvenience or
flaw in its design, such as a flimsy horseshoe that will last
one day’s ride before bending or hastily fletched arrows
that inflict a −1 penalty to Archery rolls that use them. If it
botches, the project is a bust and the materials are wasted.
A project that requires an extended action works different-
ly from other extended actions. Rather than a goal number,
an extended Craft action has a crafting experience total
required to “purchase” the completed artifact. This total is
based on the type and difficulty of the project (see the chart
on p. XX). Each time a player succeeds on a roll within the
extended action, she gains (1 + extra successes) crafting ex-
perience, to a maximum of 5 per roll. This maximum rep-
resents the limits of mortal effort on a project of intense fo-
cus; Charms and other powers may increase or ignore this
maximum, allowing an Exalt to complete highly complex
or large-scale mundane projects in a single interval. Magic
cannot increase or ignore this limit when crafting artifacts.
Once the player has enough crafting experience to spend
on the project’s completion, she spends it and unveils her
creation whenever she likes. Any excess experience earned
from that project vanishes, although Charms may allow
harnessing it for some other purpose instead. Repairs cost
half as much crafting experience as building a similar item
from scratch would, unless they’re particularly complicat-
ed, extensive, or difficult.
An extended Craft action’s interval also measures some-
thing different. It’s always measured in narrative time, such
 Chapter Three: Optional Rules

as scenes, sessions, and stories, and it determines how often

the player can make individual rolls. This measure is also
Projects and Scope
based on the project’s type and difficulty (p. XX). This sim-
The four categories of projects remain, but each catego-
plified system assumes that the bulk of the solo downtime
ry determines the type of action needed to craft the item,
work, such as the actual time spent at the anvil or loom,
the difficulty of the roll, the action’s interval, and the
occurs in the downtime between game sessions, as long as
finished product’s crafting experience cost.
the character is in a position to work on it during that time
and the player indicates that’s what she’s doing. No matter Basic Projects
what, rolling happens during game sessions, so the Craft-
Basic projects don’t require extended rolls, as they rep-
focused character can shine at their favorite activity just as
resent mundane endeavors that take comparatively little
often as characters skilled at Performance or Medicine. A
time and use ordinary materials. Most basic projects don’t
player can wait longer than this minimum interval between
require rolls at all — if the character isn’t under duress or an
rolls if she likes, but she can’t roll more often unless her
urgent time limit and isn’t trying to outdo or impress some-
character’s Charms or other magic says otherwise.
one, just tell the player how long it will take to complete the
That means each roll represents something different project and let their character do it. It shouldn’t ever take
than it does in other extended actions, too: with the more than a few hours, and you should only deny a player if
grunt work accomplished between sessions, rolling to the character lacks any appropriate materials or tools.
earn crafting experience means achieving a specific goal
If extenuating circumstances make the project harder to
the player can stunt in a scene with other characters
complete, the item in question is particularly complex, or
present (or helping; see optional teamwork rules on p.
the character wants to make an exceptionally high-qual-
XX). For instance, she might decide to make the first roll
ity example of the item, call for a single roll; the time the
while the characters explore an overgrown ruin to hunt
action takes is the same as with unrolled projects. Set its
down the rare magical herb she needs as the final ingre-
difficulty based on the project’s level of complexity. If the
dient for her alchemical concoction; the second while
character is engaging in a contest with someone else or
sneaking into a Dynast’s estate to steal his equipment
wants to gain significant benefits above and beyond the
or gain inspiration from studying his collection of tinc-
object itself with her artisanship, like a prince’s favor or
tures; the third while negotiating with a truculent god to
earning an apprenticeship with a master, their roll can be
earn its blessing and advice; and the fourth and final roll
opposed by an appropriate pool instead. Basic projects
while visiting the Underworld to find the ghost of a mas-
shouldn’t exceed difficulty 3, but you can add difficulty as
ter thaumaturge and pry out his secret technique for the
normal if it makes sense, such as trying to fletch arrows in
finishing touches. These are all secondary to the purpose
the dark or using makeshift tools and materials.
of the transpiring scene, but the player can use the ad-
ventures her character is already on as springboards for Major Projects
the dramatic, important moments that mark interesting
Major projects usually require a single roll, but may re-
milestones in the crafting process.
quire an extended one if they’re particularly complex. In

SAMPLE MUNDANE CRAFT PROJECT PARAMETERS

Sample Project Category Difficulty Interval Crafting XP Cost

Horseshoe, article of normal clothing, average meal, Basic 1 N/A N/A
basic knife, charcoal sketch
Basic sword, article of fine clothing, high-class Major 1-2 N/A N/A
meal, basic artwork
Glass wind chimes, high fashion, grand feast, im- Major 2-3 One session 5
pressive artwork
Firewand, crossbow, house, clock, masterpiece Major 3-4 Two sessions 10
Merchant ship, large building, topiary garden, siege Superior 3-4 One story 15
weapon
Palace, sturdy city wall, trireme Superior 4-5 Two stories 20

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 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
these cases, if the project takes more time, measure it in
narrative time as though it is the first interval of an extend-
ed action. The player can’t make the roll until that much
time has elapsed, providing she can dedicate at least some
of the downtime in between to the project. Major projects
shouldn’t exceed difficulty 5 and shouldn’t cost more than
10 crafting experience; they never have a terminus.
Superior and Legendary Projects
Superior and legendary projects always require extend-
ed rolls, and may have difficulties above 5. Their crafting
experience costs range from 15 to 30 for mundane items,
although you can adjust it depending on the details; arti-
facts’ costs can increase to 50 or even 75-100 for large-scale
legendary projects like manses (see p. XX). Unlike basic
and major projects, a character can’t attempt these at all if
they don’t have appropriate materials or tools — makeshift
ones won’t cut it. Due to the longer-term nature of these
projects, penalties tend to be applied due to more general
or large-scale complications, such as weeks of heavy rain
when trying to construct a defensive wall or a scarcity of
high-quality glass while building an artifact telescope.
A superior or legendary project has a terminus equal to the
total dice in the player’s unmodified pool for the roll — usu-
ally ([Attribute] + Craft + Specialty). If the character is under
a strict time limit, you can reduce the terminus, but keep in
mind the average successes on a pool of the appropriate size
and make sure it’s not nigh-impossible to succeed — although,
of course, “impossible” is a relative word for the Exalted.
Grunt Work
Although the crafter is the primary person working on a
project, she might have help for less skill-intensive parts
of a complex project, such as chopping wood, gathering
materials, or moving stones. If you have a workforce suit-
able and available to perform such grunt work, reduce the
crafting experience cost of the project by 1, to a minimum
of half its original cost. You may enforce a higher mini-
mum, though, if sheer numbers wouldn’t help much; too
many cooks in the kitchen produce diminishing returns.
FURTHER STREAMLINING
If you want to streamline this system even further, you
can cut crafting experience out of the equation entire-
ly and give extended Craft actions a goal number as
normal instead. Doing this, however, may make it
harder to use existing Craft Charms as-written. If you
go this route, be prepared to do some homebrew on
your characters’ Charm sets to ensure that someone
who invests heavily in Craft still gets what they paid
for.
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For teamwork with other skilled crafters, see general
teamwork rules on p. XX.
Adjusting for Scope
Some projects are mundane but still take more time and
resources because the item is enormous or otherwise on
a larger scale than usual. Examples include ships, build-
ings, defensive walls, siege weapons, and equipping an
entire army with weapons. When this is the case, move
the project to the next category: basic projects become
major, major ones become superior, and superior ones
become legendary. A legendary project with increased
scope doubles its interval instead, and costs up to half
again as much crafting experience, at your discretion de-
pending on its complexity and rarity. Building a manse is
always a legendary project on a large scale, and requires
a Geomancy Specialty instead of an Artifact one.
Conditions
Conditions are an optional system that replaces Flaws
(Exalted, p. 167). While Flaws usually represent per-
manent afflictions or circumstances, a Condition can be
long-term or temporary, reflecting shifting ways in which
the story affects a character and what she can do to move
past them with satisfying drama. Players don’t necessar-
ily take Conditions at character creation. Instead, events
in the chronicle apply them when they’re relevant, and
they remain until certain resolution criteria are met.
Each Condition specifies one or several possible ways the
character can end its effects, or resolve it. You may rule that
other actions not listed can resolve it, if appropriate. When
a Condition resolves, the player gains one Exalt-type-
specific experience point. A player can resolve as many
Conditions as she likes in a single session, but she may only
gain experience for one of them per session. A character
can only have one instance of a particular Condition unless
each applies to a distinctly different circumstance — for
example, she may suffer the Notorious Condition among
members of the Immaculate Order and among fire elemen-
tals. She’d need to resolve each independently.
A Condition is like a story arc in miniature — the character
goes through a harrowing or intense experience, which
ends in a sufficiently climactic manner to reflect charac-
ter growth. Thus, resolution criteria should encourage
appropriate kinds of dramatic beats and reflect ways in
which the story point that created the Condition has lin-
gering effects on the character. For instance, a Condition
that represents a character flying into a blind rage and re-
solves when she deals decisive damage to someone clearly
reflects the violent nature of that story point and the con-
sequences that result from such violence.
 Chapter Three: Optional Rules
Like Flaws, Conditions can possess prerequisites if
they’re only relevant to certain types of characters.
Persistent Conditions
Most Conditions exist until they resolve, and are meant
to resolve within roughly one chapter. Occasionally, a
character may suffer a persistent Condition instead: a
story point whose effects are more long-term. A per-
sistent Condition resolves just like a temporary one, but
it also grants one experience point per story (above the
usual limits) without resolving if it complicates the char-
acter’s life in an interesting or dramatic way. For exam-
ple, a character with the persistent Blinded Condition
may earn an experience point when her inability to see
results in her mortal companion’s kidnapping. Persistent
Conditions specify the types of circumstances that grant
additional experience as well as their resolution criteria.
Condition Lapse
Some Conditions end on their own after a period of
time, such as Limit Break Conditions (see below). These
Conditions still have resolution criteria that encourage
certain kinds of dramatic conclusions, but they also
lapse after their designated durations if they haven’t
been resolved by then. Letting a Condition lapse on its
own grants no experience points; the Condition simply
ends.
Introducing Conditions
Conditions can come into play in the following ways:
• Limit Break: The most obvious way to apply
Conditions is to represent Limit Break (or an
equivalent, for Exalts whose Limit works differ-
ently). Whenever the character would undergo
a Virtue Flaw, a Monstrous Urge, or another rep-
resentation of Limit Break, that Flaw or Urge be-
comes a Condition. It works exactly the same way
that it normally would, except that the premature
ending options that come with each one are the
Condition’s resolution criteria, granting an ex-
perience point as usual. If it isn’t resolved that
way, it lapses after its usual duration. For Dragon-
Blooded, who don’t possess Limit, you might turn
their elemental Great Curse into a Condition the
character gains when she does something dramat-
ic that’s particularly appropriate for her Aspect.
• Stunts: Whenever a player describes a three-point
stunt, she may choose to inflict a Condition on an-
other character instead of gaining Willpower. If a
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Storyteller character suffers a Condition, they gain
a Willpower point instead of an experience point
when it resolves; if they don’t use that Willpower
by the end of the scene, it vanishes. The Storyteller
can also tie this to extra successes on a roll if they
choose, so a particularly good roll doesn’t go to
waste.
• Botches: Inflict a Condition relevant to the situa-
tion when a player botches a roll, to represent the
setback or complication she suffers.
• Gambits: Allow certain gambits to inflict
Conditions that represent their effects, such as
Blinded for a gambit that kicks sand into an op-
ponent’s eyes.
• Character creation: With approval, a player can
take a persistent Condition during character cre-
ation, just like a Flaw.
• Story events: Give a Condition to any character
as a result of story events and actions the play-
ers’ character take, when it seems dramatically
appropriate.
Example Conditions
This section converts a sampling of existing Conditions
adapted from Flaws for use in your chronicle, and in-
cludes a few new Conditions that represent common
character development mini-arcs as well. This is not an
exhaustive list; feel free to invent new Conditions to rep-
resent other kinds of events and circumstances that have
dramatic effects on characters during their games.
Addicted (Persistent)
The character is addicted to something — either a mun-
dane substance like alcohol or something more insidious
like the influence of the Wyld. Whenever the character
is deprived of his fix, withdrawal symptoms impose a −1
to all actions until he indulges again.
Additional Experience: The character chooses to in-
dulge her fix instead of fulfilling an important obligation.
Resolution: Go one full story without indulging, or
Limit Break as a result of a trigger directly related to the
addiction.
Blinded
The character cannot see and suffers a −3 to any action
that primarily depends on sight. This Condition can be
temporary or persistent, depending on circumstances.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
Additional Experience: The character botches a roll or
suffers a major setback as a result of her inability to see.
Resolution: The character regains her eyesight.
Remorseful
Your character feels intense guilt or remorse over some-
thing she did, or something she believes was her fault.
Reduce her Resolve by 1 against all social influence that
uses Manipulation or plays on the circumstances sur-
rounding her guilt; she cannot use any Intimacies re-
lated to her guilt to support her during social influence.
This Condition is common in the aftermath of perform-
ing horrific or treacherous acts while under the effects
of the Great Curse.
Resolution: The character confesses her crimes and
makes restitution for whatever she did.
Leveraged
The character owes someone, I the target of blackmail or
has been tricked into doing someone else’s bidding. This
Condition can be temporary or persistent, depending on
how dire the situation is and how difficult it is to turn the
tables or get out of debt.
Additional Experience: The character capitulates to
a significant request or demand the chosen character
makes of her without resistance or recompense.
Resolution: The character definitively gains the upper
hand over their opponent, pays off what she owes, or other-
wise extracts herself from the situation. If this Condition is
temporary, she can also resolve it by capitulating to a major
demand without resistance or recompense, as above.
Notorious (Persistent)
The character has gained an infamous reputation
among a certain group of people, whether she actually
did what she’s notorious for or not. Example groups in-
clude “the Immaculate Order,” “all fire elementals,” “all
of Whitewall,” or “the Bureau of Destiny.” All opponents
belonging to the chosen group gain +1 Resolve against
the character during social influence, and may banish
the character from places where they hold sway, or ac-
tively hunt her down.
This Condition is common for those the Realm consid-
ers Anathema, whenever their activities draw imperial
attention.
Additional Experience: The character is captured or
badly injured by those hunting her for her notoriety or
those against whom she trespasses while banished, or
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suffers a major setback because others mistrust or hate
her due to her reputation.
Resolution: The character clears her name, definitively
proves her goodwill or innocence to the chosen group,
flees to a place where no one knows who she is and no
one in the chosen group can find him, or gets rid of ev-
eryone in the chosen group.
Obsessed
The character is fixated on a certain idea, person, action, or
object. This Condition comes in one of three severity lev-
els: Minor, Major, or Defining. Treat it like an Intimacy for
purposes of exploitation by opponents in social influence.
Whenever the character is out of temporary Willpower, she
must succeed on a Willpower roll (difficulty 1 for Minor, 3
for Major, and 5 for Defining) to avoid dropping what she’s
doing to immediately pursue the obsession to the exclusion
of everything else. At other times, she’s simply more prone
to doing so whenever the opportunity arises.
Resolving an obsession doesn’t necessarily end the
Condition, instead dropping it down one severity level
(Defining to Major, Major to Minor, Minor to complete-
ly resolved). If the character does or encounters some-
thing that would inflict this Condition again, the current
instance of it resolves and she gains another one at the
next higher severity level. If it’s already Defining, gain-
ing it again does nothing.
Resolution: Reduce severity by Limit Breaking as a re-
sult of a trigger directly related to the obsession, or suf-
fering a major loss while abandoning another responsi-
bility to pursue it. Alternatively, increase the obsession’s
severity level by one in situations that would inflict
Obsessed again.
Special: This Condition can represent other mentally
consuming states as well, such as paranoia or a fugue
state, by replacing the behavior it compels and the cir-
cumstances under which the player must roll Willpower.
For instance, to represent a Paranoid Condition, the
character must roll whenever she’s subjected to intense
stress, and failing the roll means falling prey to her de-
lusions of persecution, losing all benefits of all positive
Ties for the scene.
Alternate Character
Creation and Progression
Exalted’s character creation system gives players the
tools to build and customize epic heroes, be they wan-
dering vagabond warriors, ruthless rulers, or reclusive
 Chapter Three: Optional Rules

At character creation, rather than Bonus Points, a char-

CONDITIONS VS. FLAWS acter gains 55 XP to spend, which players may bank for
later use if desired. Essence advancement is based on to-
The word “flaws” is used in the Exalted core to indi- tal XP spent, including the initial XP. Dragon-Blooded
cate that they grant additional experience when they start at Essence 2 as normal, essentially bypassing that
inconvenience the character — when they act as a experience requirement.
drawback. However, many people in the real world
experience disabilities such as blindness, deafness, Unified Experience Point Costs
or a missing limb, and mental illnesses like addiction
or depression, and they may not consider these expe-
riences “flaws” at all. Trait Experience Cost
Attributes 10 per dot
As the core points out, it’s never necessary to rep-
resent these things mechanically. If players want to, Caste/Favored Attributes 8 per dot
using Conditions normalizes them and makes them Abilities 5 per dot
available to anyone at any time, temporarily or per-
sistently. You can then adjust powers such as Whole- Caste/Favored Abilities 4 per dot
ness-Restoring Meditation (Exalted, p. 344) to inter- New Specialty 2
act with Conditions as a system.
Merits 2 per dot
Willpower 6 per dot
masters of esoteric arts: modifying the character cre- New Charm, Spell, or Evocation 12
ation system allows for Storytellers and players to shape New Caste/Favored Charm or Spell 10
the game itself. Presented here are options for mak-
ing character creation less daunting for new or over- Essence Increase with Unified Experience Points
whelmed players; for bringing character creation and
character advancement more in line with each other; Essence XP Spent
for making character creation feed into focused styles of
Essence 2 80 XP
play; and for making character progression more inter-
esting. These options are an à la carte menu, each ele- Essence 3 280 XP
ment customizable to your group’s preferences. Essence 4 430 XP
Essence 5 630 XP
Unified Character Creation Essence 6+ Storyteller discretion
and Advancement
Streamlined Creation
Unified character creation removes bonus points and
the different varieties of experience points, instead using and Advancement
a single method for character creation and character ad-
vancement. This makes choices made during character The streamlined character rules focus on reducing the
creation more transparently relatable to future charac- importance of mechanical or numerical decisions the
ter progression, and reduces the incentive to maximize player makes when creating and advancing their char-
attributes and abilities at character creation to get the acter, in favor of a more open approach that requires less
most out of spent experience later. It also simplifies lat- planning.
er experience point spending, though it may result in
characters focusing more on their Exalted abilities as
Character Creation
opposed to other traits. The player choses a concept, Caste or Aspect, and
Attributes as normal.
Experience Points (XP) use the below costs for both char-
acter creation and character advancement: Characters Streamlined Abilities
gain 10 XP to save or spend every session, and gain addi- After selecting Caste and Favored Abilities, the player
tional Heroic XP (HXP) in place of Solar (or other Exalt- distributes the following ratings across his Abilities, and
type) Experience. Costs are uniform between XP and their associated Specialties.
HXP, but HXP cannot purchase native Exalt Charms,
following the restrictions for Solar Experience, Dragon
Experience, and so forth.

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 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND

Ability Ratings Concept Merits

Inhuman Watcher Boundless Endurance 2, Contacts
Rating Type 3, Danger Sense 3, Direction
5 The character’s focus; whatever Ability Sense 1, Eidetic Memory 2,
most defines their approach to the Familiar OR Hearthstone 2
world. Select one Caste or Favored Master of Intrigue Contacts 5, Influence 3, Ar-
Ability. Select a relevant Specialty. tifact 2, Hearthstone OR
4 Select two major strengths for the character. Resources 2, Allies 1
Apply to Caste or Favored Abilities. Select a Miraculous Savant Allies 1, Retainers 2, Influence 3,
relevant Specialty for one of these Abilities. Resources 2, Manse OR Artifact 5
3 Select four areas of impressive compe- Prime Specimen Boundless Endurance 2, Fast
tence. Apply to any Ability. Select a rele- Reflexes 3, Iron Stomach 1,
vant Specialty for one of these Abilities. Mighty Thews 1, Natural Im-
2 Select two areas of professional ability. munity 2, Pain Tolerance 4,
Regular mortals could make a living with Powerful Mystic Cult OR Artifact 4, Manse
these; they’re afterthoughts for a hero. 3, Contacts 3, Familiar 3
Apply to any Ability. Select a relevant
Specialty for one of these Abilities. Proven War-leader Allies 1, Backing 2, Command
3, Influence 2, Resources 2, Ad-
1 Select three abilities the character is only ditional Command OR Artifact 3
just developing. Apply them to any Ability.
Righteous Authority Contacts 2, Cult 2, Influence
Streamlined Merits 4, Followers 3, Familiar OR
additional Followers 2.
Merits cover a wide swath of potential character assets
and connections to the world. Streamlined Merit as- Wandering Warrior Martial Arts OR Quick Draw
4, Artifact 3, Allies 2, Hearth-
signment suggests packages of Merits based on general
stone 2, Resources 1, Allies 1
character concepts, the player filling in specific details.
Characters that benefit from additional Merit dots, such Birthright Packages
as for being members of the Scarlet Dynasty, Prasad’s
Dragon Caste, or Lookshy’s gentes also gain either the
Concept Merits
Rising Star or Young Dragon Birthright Package. If com-
bining a Merit Package and a Birthright Package would Rising Star Backing 2, Command 2, Allies 1.
results in illegal totals (i.e., Backing 6), redistribute the Young Dragon Contacts 1, Followers 1, Re-
surplus points. sources 1, Retainer 2

Any character may substitute any value for Mentor or
Language dots, redistributing any points from illegally
high Mentor values.
Merit Packages
Concept Merits
Essential Minister Backing 4, Contacts OR Re-
source 3, Influence 3, Allies
2, Resources OR Contacts 1
Eternal Traveler Allies 1, Artifact 2, Con-
tacts 3, Direction Sense 1,
Hearthstone 2, Resources
2, Retainer OR Familiar 2
Independent Ruler Influence 4, Resources
4, Command 2, Follow-
ers 2, Retainers 1
Streamlined Charms
Streamlined Charms is a rule focused on maximizing
player access to interesting powers for their characters,
focusing on their initial areas of expertise.
Characters may ignore specific Prerequisite Charms
when purchasing native Charms, as long as they meet
the Ability (or Attribute) rating, the Essence require-
ments, and possess a number of Charms from that Ability
or Attribute equal to the normal number of prerequisite
Charms. If some or all of a Charm’s effects modify anoth-
er Charm, the character doesn’t gain those benefits until
they purchase both Charms.
If the character has a Supernal Ability, they may select
any one Charm for that Ability that they meet the Ability
prerequisite for, ignoring all other prerequisites. They
may choose to change their Supernal Charm at the end
of any session, losing access to their current choice in
favor of another, as if they had just learned it.

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Characters who wish to know Occult or Martial Arts
may optionally select Evocations, spells or Martial Arts
Charms, respectively, from any of their available Charm
choices, but must follow all prerequisites for those
Charms and spells.
Streamlined Advancement
Streamlined characters don’t spend Bonus Points or
Unified Experience Points. After selecting Intimacies
and Limit triggers, and calculating their Essence,
Willpower, and Health levels, they’re ready to play.
At the end of every session, a player may choose to
advance any of her character’s Attributes, Abilities,
Willpower, or Purchasable Merits by 1, gain a Specialty,
or gain a Charm, Spell, or Evocation. If she gained a na-
tive Charm, her next session’s choice must be anything
but a native Charm.
These values are modeled after Exalted Third Edition
assumptions: Characters should advance to Essence 2
after 10 sessions; Essence 3 after 25, Essence 4 after 40,
Essence 5 after 50, and Essence 6 at Storyteller discre-
tion. Particularly major story developments or victories
may also warrant Essence increases several sessions
“early.” If a game meets irregularly, it’s also perfect-
ly acceptable to advance as dramatically appropriate
instead.
Training Montages and
Moments of Inspiration
Some groups and Chronicles may be poorly suited to the
regular training time rules. Stories taking place over a
short period of time may contain many sessions worth of
play, but little or no opportunity to engage with days or
weeks of training.
Montages are appropriate when a player or group wants
to focus on the effort required to advance a character’s
abilities or gain new powers. During a session when a
player wants to use a montage, she chooses the Trait,
Charm, or other power she wishes to purchase. She then
describes how the character has been working towards
developing that Trait or power, optionally describing a
series of vignettes and invoking a musical accompani-
ment. The player may then spend the experience points
and purchase the Trait, Charm, or other power. If the
player’s described montage seems particularly appro-
priate for the story or for the advancement they pur-
chased, the Storyteller should award a 2- or 3- die stunt
for Willpower recovery.
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Moments of inspiration are useful when a player wish-
es to display a new Charm or other power developed in
the crucible of strife. During a dramatic scene, the play-
er may declare that the event inspires their character to
push beyond their current limits, immediately purchas-
ing and using a Charm or relevant Trait. Such displays
should generally be in the character’s primary field of fo-
cus, such as Favored, Caste, or Aspect Charms and Traits.
If a character can’t pay for a Trait immediately but it’s
particularly dramatically appropriate, the Storyteller
may choose to allow them to pay off the purchase as soon
as they have the experience points available.
Styles of Play and
Streamlined Progression
Different styles of play greatly benefit from different ap-
proaches to character generation and progression. Just
as those styles of play should be tailored to individual
groups, so should these variant rules.
Creation-as-Stage benefits from options that give play-
ers access to interesting powers at dramatic times. Using
montages and moments of inspiration allows them con-
front surprising challenges without feeling hamstrung
because they chose the wrong Charm purchase or ad-
vance last session. Using the streamlined Charms rules
leans into this even more, though groups that want to
highlight complex character builds or combat options
may find it potentially trivializes encounters.
Creation-as-Threat finds useful footing in providing
the players with immediate stakes and looming threats.
Story Merits at risk (be they Influence over a kingdom,
one’s military Command, or one’s loyal Allies) are poten-
tially powerful motivators. Offering players additional
Merit points at character generation for Merits that will
explicitly be threatened in the campaign can set the tone
for the game going forward, but also offers risk-adverse
players a way to play in the Creation as Threat mode of
play without feeling they are making “bad” decisions by
putting points in Story Merits.
Creation-as-Cost requires that the Storyteller and
players understand what that potential cost is from the
very first moment. Simply moving the Intimacy step be-
fore the rest of character creation helps highlight what
hangs in the balance and more easily informs the rest
of character creation. Storytellers may also want to use
the streamlined rules if players are less concerned about
engaging in mechanically complex character building in
favor of focusing on inter-character relationships.
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Chapter Four

The Chosen in Play

The 10 types of Chosen present a wide variety of playsty-
les and lend themselves to a number of unique themes.
Below are presented the various histories, agendas,
themes, and play styles of each type of Exalted, and
commentary aimed toward helping Storytellers inte-
grate them into their games. The five “classic” Exalted
— Solars, Dragon-Blooded, Lunars, Sidereals, and
Abyssals — have expanded play options and Storytelling
advice. The four newer types — Alchemicals, Infernals,
Liminals, and Getimians — have sections describing
their natures and the machinations of their factions.

MATERIALS OF THE CHOSEN

Arms of the Chosen expands on the information about the magical materials provided in Exalted and expands
on the Evocations featured in that book with the resonant and dissonant keywords. Those Exalted resonant with
certain materials are able to fully access their most potent abilities, while dissonant Chosen are unable to exercise
even moderate potential, and neutral Exalted without either keyword may be able to utilize the artifact fully but
are unable to harmonize with its fullest power. The Exalted described in Crucible of Legends have the following
material associations:

• Alchemicals are living artifacts, resonant with whatever material matches their caste (including the rare magical
material known as adamant). Their affinity with other magical materials or exotic substances is neutral. Alchem-
icals must also install Evocations as physical Charms, either within themselves or on the artifact itself; if installed
within the Alchemical, this permits use of the Evocation without the artifact being in the Alchemical’s possession.

• Infernals channel vast cosmic energies and baleful sorceries, which suits their resonance with orichalcum, while
their demonic Essence also makes them resonant with artifacts forged from unique materials of the Demon City
or which incorporate infernal components such as demon fangs, scales, or venom. They are neutral with all other
materials.

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 The Alchemical Exalted
Far beyond Creation, the slumbering trickster-titan Autochthon lies behind a metaphysical seal that keeps him
safe from any who would do him harm. The Machine God’s body is immense, a world unto itself, and within
that world-body are humans and animals taken with him into exile. A peerless artisan, Autochthon Exalts his
Chosen to safeguard the communities living within him. Champions of the Eight Nations, their bodies are immortal
flesh transubstantiated from clay and the magical materials, while their souls belong to humans with past lives
distinguished by their heroism.

Far beyond Creation, Autochthon lies dying and his world-body dies with him. The Alchemicals are all that stand
between their nations and the death of the titan.

The Alchemical Castes
Autochthon based the Alchemical Castes on the six mag-
ical materials, with each rooted in the specific heroism
of a soul’s past life within them.
Jade Caste: Heroes of the masses, the Jade Caste serves
as the populist face of the Alchemical Exalted to the in-
dustrial workers. In their past lives, they risked or sacri-
ficed on behalf of others again and again. In Exaltation,
they retain this trait, tirelessly working to support their
nation.
Moonsilver Caste: The silent blade of the Nations and
the Machine God, the Moonsilver Caste conforms to any
need. Infiltrators, scouts, and spies, their past lives were
ones of heroic innovation and adaptation, and they re-
tain their unorthodox approach as Champions.
Orichalcum Caste: Holy icons, inspirational leaders,
and brilliant visionaries marching toward a bright-
er future, Orichalcum Castes are the architects of
Autochthonian aspirations. From the ranks of past lives
that doggedly pursued their ambitions without restraint
are these Exalted chosen.
Adamant Caste: Sifus and muses, the Adamant Caste
prizes precision, artistry, and above all, efficiency.
Patrons of the arts, they refract and refine the spiritual
lives of Autochthonians with calculated performances
and inhuman discipline. Theirs are souls that consis-
tently poured themselves into revering Autochthon over
nationalistic sympathies.
Champions of the Machine God
Autochthonia is a place of vast industrial horror, with
molten rivers of magical materials coursing through
massive caverns, arcing blasts of pure Essence, and huge
slamming pistons that support holy engines. The body
of the titan is livable only by the efforts of a civilization
consisting of eight nations supported by the Alchemical
Exalted. These nations work in factories that regulate
Autochthon’s autonomic processes, maintain hydropon-
ic farms of crops taken from Creation, and tap the con-
duits of organic material produced in the Great Maker’s
bio-reactors. The Champions serve this society as guard-
ians and heroes, magistrates and social planners, assas-
sins and soldiers — but never as rulers. The Alchemicals
enjoy communion with the Divine Ministers, the com-
ponent souls of the titan Autochthon, and occasionally
serve the agendas of these inscrutable beings.

Soulsteel Caste: The all-seeing guardians of dogma Masters of Artifice

and law, the Alchemicals of the Soulsteel Caste serve as
detectives, troubleshooters, and merciless warriors to
Autochthonian society. Their souls uphold a legacy of
the heroism and necessity, of vital actions made without
regard to cost or consequence.
Starmetal Caste: Spymasters, plotters, and social the-
orists, the Starmetal Caste are Autochthonia’s greatest
manipulators and intelligence specialists. They take
charge of events, even without authorization, and pos-
sess a deep insight into the nature of cause and effect —
as they have in every incarnation prior.
Alchemicals are the Chosen of the King of All Craftsmen,
and thus Alchemicals are capable of remarkable works of
artifice. Like other Exalted, Alchemical Charms reflect
an internalized expression of Essence applied by tech-
niques; unlike other Exalted, these Charms are physical
objects installed within the Alchemicals themselves,
empowered by a commitment of Essence. Alchemicals
cannot support their entire Charm panoply at once and
must strategically install or uninstall Charm suites to
perform in various roles.

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Pillars of the Community

All must serve within Autochthonia, lest death carry
off entire cities in industrial accidents. Heroes revered
by all mortals as the greatest servants of all, Champions
have an even greater destiny of service ahead of them.
As Alchemicals age and advance in Essence, they may
install heavier and heavier Charms, becoming physical-
ly larger. The Alchemicals serve as objects of veneration
and aspiration for the populace, even as their human na-
ture waxes and wanes.

Play One of the Alchemical

Exalted If You Want
• • to be a champion of your Nation, beloved by the
people for prowess and patriotism.
• • to be destined to become a grand and immortal
city, living in communion with your patron.
• • to work great wonders in a world of horrors,
buoying an enduring and intricate civilization.
• • to be willing to journey great distances to save
your Nation, your god, and yourselves.

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 The Infernal Exalted
The Infernal Exalted stride into Creation crowned with the flames of Hell’s mad green sun, proclaiming their
royalty and revenge to the world that has betrayed them. They are wrathful and righteous, monstrous and divine,
Lords of the First Age reborn from Hell’s depths to reclaim their stolen thrones. Be awed; be afraid, for they have
come to remake Creation anew in their image.

Never has anything like the Infernal Exalted come into the world. They are the Chosen of the Yozis, the Demon
Princes imprisoned forevermore at history’s dawn that created the Infernals out of infinite malevolence and the
stolen power of Solar Exaltation. The Yozis understand little of what it is to be mortal, but the traitor gods and
their Exalted champions taught the Demon Princes what it is to be wronged, to be betrayed, to suffer injustice.
Infernals are chosen from the ranks of mortals who have known the same, blessed with apocalyptic power to wield
however they see fit.

The Infernal Castes superiors. Now, no prison can hold them, and they come
Infernal Castes are rooted in the suffering and wrongs
borne by the Green Sun Princes, answering the injustice
and cruelty that has filled an Infernal’s life with the pow-
er needed to never suffer the same harms again.
Azimuth Caste: Champions, conquerors, and berserk-
ers, Azimuth Caste warriors are chosen from those vic-
timized by violence, brutality, and war. Now empowered
to command Hell’s might and tear down the old regimes
of Creation and Heaven, they come to claim vengeance
on those who harmed them or protect the weak from the
same suffering they once endured.
Ascendant Caste: Prophets, messiahs, and revolution-
aries, these Infernals are chosen from those told that
they are worthless, impure, or abominations. Chosen by
the Demon Princes, they now see through these lies, and
return to the world clothed in righteousness to depose
wicked gods, reform unjust laws, and show Creation the
magnificence and munificence of the Infernal Exalted.
Horizon Caste: Visionaries, infernalists, and won-
der-workers, Horizon Caste savants are chosen from
those denied education or intellectual opportunities,
whether by slavery, illness, the harsh necessities of pov-
erty, or the expectations of family. Now freed of those re-
straints, their genius knows no limits, forging the future
that only their far-reaching vision could see.
Nadir Caste: Anarchists, criminals, and iconoclasts,
these Infernals are chosen from those who have been
imprisoned — whether literally behind a gaol’s bars or
in a slave’s manacles, or metaphorically by rigid social
expectations, strict religious dogma, or overbearing
swift and silent to liberate others as the Demon Princes
have freed them.
Penumbra Caste: Schemers, diplomats, and spies,
Penumbra Caste courtiers hail from society’s highest
echelons, but reject their lofty origins. They have seen
the filth and rot that festers within the ranks of the elite,
seen what others are blinded to — betrayed by ambitious
friends, sickened by systemic hypocrisy, or no longer
able to live in splendor at the cost of human misery. Now
they herald a new order, working from Creation’s shad-
ows to reshape and renew societies.
Green Sun Princes
Hell’s Chosen may enjoy untold riches and unimaginable
luxuries in the Demon City. They dwell in basalt plea-
sure-palaces and malachite seraglios, adorn themselves
in the bejeweled masterworks of devil-smiths, feast
on monstrous delights, and command demon servants
to attend their every whim. The demons of the Third
Circle are their peers, patrons, and rivals who court the
Infernals’ favor and seek to recruit them to their agen-
das. Yet for all the splendor of life as a prince of Hell,
few tarry overlong in Malfeas. Creation is their home,
and their hearts burn with fervent desire to return and
correct its injustices, meting out apocalyptic judgment
or ushering in a new paradise.
Masters of Sorcery
Heirs to the titans who built Creation, only the Infernals
equal the sorcerous puissance of the Solar Exalted. The
Adamant Circle’s world-shaking miracles are theirs to
command — beckoning and binding the mightiest of de-
mons, unleashing apocalyptic war-magic, and rewriting
the very laws of the cosmos.

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Unleashed God-Monsters
In times of dire need, an Infernal may cast off her mortal
flesh and reveal their terrifying devil-body apotheosis.
Each devil-body is a unique embodiment of an Infernal’s
Essence, an avatar of their power and wrath. Many dev-
il-bodies are titanic forms, monsters to trample armies
and scourge the land. Others embody inhuman per-
fection: many-limbed bodhisattvas of burning crystal,
abstract constellations of eyes and hands, or stranger
shapes still. Devil-body apotheosis offers great power,
both in their physical transformation and the enhance-
ments they grant to Infernal Charms.

Play One of the Infernal

Exalted If You Want
• • to have been profoundly wronged and seek jus-
tice for it.
• • to be an apocalyptic power, capable of destroy-
ing or remaking the world.
• • to live in decadence and splendor as a Green
Sun Prince of Hell.
• • to be a champion of the Yozis and a peer to the
mightiest of demons.

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 The Getimian Exalted
A Getimian does not exist until Exaltation, which seizes upon an unrealized destiny and creates a hero who was
never born into Creation. The divergence lies in their own birth: Heaven saw that they would change the world,
and this change threatened the Bureau of Destiny’s plans for a harmonious future. Thus, the threads of these heroes
were snipped out before they could be woven into the Loom of Fate. They are strangers to Creation, but remember
their Origin — another history where they were conquerors, heroes, and saviors.

Chosen of Sacheverell and Oramus before those titans were sealed within Malfeas, Getimian Exaltations were
unsealed scant decades ago by the rogue Sidereal Rakan Thulio (Exalted, p. 64), who saw in them a weapon
capable of destroying Heaven’s hegemony over Fate. Thulio contacts many of the Getimians shortly after their
Exaltation to draft them into his war, but each has their own unique reasons for fighting. Some choose to go their
own path in a world that has not forgotten them — but rather which never knew them at all.

The Getimian Castes The War in Heaven

The four Getimian Castes reflect the eternal progres-
sion of the seasons, a constant between their Creation
and the true one. Each caste is also aspected towards one
of the opposing yet complementary principles of their
Essence, flowing — active, bright peripheral motes — or
still — receptive, dark personal motes. Over time and
through a process of meditation and internal alchemy,
Getimians may change their aspects.
Spring Caste: The Vernals would have been heroes
that protected Creation and its peoples with force and
finesse, warrior-poets and guardians without peer. They
could have been people of grand and great valor in the
manifestation of their destiny.
Summer Caste: Those who might’ve ventured beyond
all boundaries to destroy established orders belong to
the Estivals. Grand prophets, destroyers, and conquerors
alike, they would have torn down all that opposed them
in their way with irrepressible conviction.
Autumn Caste: Inspirational warrior-leaders and heal-
ers, the Autumnals would have been the devil-queens
over the downtrodden and saviors of the meek. They
once cared for their charges with boundless compassion
and fearsome wrath.
Winter Caste: Magicians, lawgivers, and masters of
worldly power, the Hibernals were to be the shapers
of magic and society. In their timelines, they expressed
temperance and transformation to bend society to their
will.
With many of them acting as agents of a rogue Sidereal,
the Getimians all realize one truth shortly after
Exaltation: The destiny they experienced was denied
before they were ever born, destroyed by Heaven’s will
to safeguard the pettiness of the gods. Each Getimian
has a powerful incentive to seek revenge in the obviation
of their origin, with many taking advantage of Thulio’s
network of Exalted operatives and offers to train in sor-
cery and martial arts. Over the course of decades, many
Getimian have established secret networks themselves,
preparing to bring elements of their timelines into
Creation and turning the cold war against destiny into
a hot one.
Masters of the Martial Arts
Getimians equal the heights of martial prowess attained
by Sidereals, possessing the requisite spiritual enlight-
enment and subtle command of Essence necessary to
master the greatest formalized expressions of martial
prowess: Sidereal Martial Arts.
Masters of Alchemy
Each Getimian’s Essence pool is divided, aspected to-
ward the principles of flowing (Spring, Summer) or
still (Autumn, Winter). Combining motes from these
pools produces esoteric effects when expressed through
Getimian Charms, often with wildly divergent outcomes.
This dualist aspect affects even the biology of Getimians,
riddling their animas with emergent pattern-spiders
and transforming their internal biology into an Essence-
laden cauldron. By focusing on the world remembered
only by them, and by subtly mastering their own moods
and bodily processes, Getimians may channel exotic en-
ergies through these spiders, unleashing powerful yet
deeply subtle fates from their Origin into Creation.

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Play One of the Getimian Exalted If You Want

• • to be an outsider plucked from an unrealized

timeline to a world that does not recognize your
glory.
• • to have been a great mortal hero who achieved
grand deeds without Exaltation, now undone by ca-
price before you were born.
• • to rebel against the ruthless, politically motivat-
ed dictates of fate and destiny.
• • to be the last remnant of your timeline, safe-
guarding memories only you hold.

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 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
Return of the Solars
The returned Chosen of the Unconquered Sun exemplify
the greatness of the Exalted and the fragility of Creation.
As such, they provide a useful vehicle to introduce new
players to Exalted.
Core Concepts
The Solar Exalted, mightiest among Creation’s heroes,
offer the most straightforward expression of Exalted’s
themes. With awe-inspiring power at their fingertips
and all of Creation at their feet, what are Solar stories
fundamentally about?
Out of Exile
The Solars are great heroes, returning to the world after
an age in exile. More than any other Exalted, Solars in-
voke and explore “Great Man” theory, which credits suc-
cessful generals, monarchs, inventors, philosophers, and
religious leaders with the strength, wit, and courage to
steer the course of history. Some mythical figures derive
their power from divine parentage (e.g., Gilgamesh and
Penthesilea), while others give or receive gifts in recog-
nition of their skill and virtue (e.g., Scáthach and King
Arthur). Real-world people like Joan of Arc, Florence
Nightingale, and Nelson Mandela became legends in
their own lifetimes, revered for the moral courage and
inventiveness that adversity instilled or revealed within
them. Solars ascend from legends in the making to leg-
ends in reality, actualized in the moment they’re found
worthy by the god of heroes himself.
Young Solars quickly come into more power than most
dared to imagine as mortals, and will only grow from
there. The rush of power can be overwhelming, but the
Unconquered Sun only chooses those who will do great
things with the power given to them; there are no meek
Chosen of the Sun. Solars are more of everything, though
not always all at once: stronger, smarter, more percep-
tive, healthier, more attractive, more passionate. What
resources they initially lack, they can quickly claim as
rewards, bribes, or spoils of war. And even as Creation
abounds with wonders, it teems with dangers and atroc-
ities that must be dealt with. With all their power, Solars
are Creation’s greatest hope for a resurrected golden age
— or the instigators of a final, terrible downfall.
A Brilliant and Tarnished Legacy
The Solars led Creation into an age of glory too corrupt
to sustain and too fragile to survive its creators. First
Age ruins hold sickening wonders, flashes of memory
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reveal unconscionable hubris, and the Solars’ own Limit
Breaks make clear that they’re not stable. Solars led the
other Exalted in building human civilization on a foun-
dation of violence and cruelty, and the Great Curse en-
sures that they’ll never truly escape that legacy. Without
knowing why their torment continues, a Solar finds oth-
er explanations: “violence is the nature of Creation,” “I
lack self-control,” I’m a different person than I realized,”
“Solar power makes mortals monstrous,” or “I’m doing
as I should; Creation is the problem.”
The weight of legacy brings external threats as well.
Most Dragon-Blooded and Sidereals fear the mad Solar
monarchs reborn and move to stamp out threats early.
Spirits distract naive Solars or use them as catspaws,
aiming the Lawgivers away from real change. The bane-
ful Abyssal and Infernal Exalted bring the Solars’ past
crimes and potential for corruption into stark reflection.
Yet despite the horror, guilt, and fear weighing upon
Solars, they still must act, for Creation so desperately
needs them.
Weight of the Crown
Solar themes are characterized by their lack of in-
built purpose, but certain themes carry through their
Charmset: the impetus to build, to grow, to impose life
upon barren fields and order upon chaos. The imposition
of law upon the lawless is an inherently coercive task, so
it falls to the most powerful Exalted: the Lawgivers. In
the Time of Tumult, Creation suffers from the cancers of
war, exploitation, and corruption, from mortal to Exalt
to god. Infrastructural wonders that could solve wide-
spread systemic problems lie broken beyond repair by
any hand but a Solar’s. Mighty empires prey on the weak
because nobody has yet had the strength to stop them.
Broken civilizations can’t escape their death spirals
without the example of a clear-headed ruler, and there is
no Charm for ruling wisely.
Whenever a Solar wields their power, they upset the sta-
tus quo. Every change wrought benefits some and harms
others, but an unjust equilibrium does the same. With all
their power, Solars must wrestle with the consequenc-
es of action and inaction both. As their power grows, so
does their accountability for every choice they make,
including the choice to live or die. Recently Exalted
Solars are particularly vulnerable to the great powers of
Creation and, if they act too rashly, their glorious destiny
can come to a bloody end with their work left undone.
And the next Solar to inherit their power may not be as
righteous as their past incarnation.
 C h a p t e r F o u r : T h e C h o s e n i n P l ay

talented generalists as well. Access to the highest cir-

Elements of Play cles of sorcery, the greatest martial arts techniques, and
artifacts of every magical material mean that Solars can
Solars have a number of elements that lend themselves
succeed in nearly any field of endeavor. But for young
to heroic stories; in many ways, they are the baseline of
Solars this is theoretical: what gifts they don’t receive
Exalted play.
immediately upon Exaltation they must earn in blood,
Mastery sweat, and tears, until they have the power to make their
ideals into reality.
In a world full of predators, spirits, and unfriendly en-
vironments, humans must adapt, learn, and master Limitations
the skills needed to survive. While all of the Exalted
Solars aren’t omnipotent or even omni-competent. They
have Charms based on raw expressions of Ability and
are dedicated specialists. The promise of ultimate power
Attribute that are all about human capability, Solars em-
waits in a future that won’t ever come if Creation suc-
body the drive to master the environment and the self.
cumbs to its creeping doom, and even the enemies of the
Where other Exalted might greet a deadly blizzard as
gods and the unimaginably powerful Solars of the First
elemental kin or grow fur to adapt to the weather, Solars
Age fell to violence. Nobody and nothing in Creation is
build wondrous shelters, face the cold without shiver-
truly safe from all harm, and young Solars often face op-
ing, or beat back the storm itself. Like Pecos Bill riding a
ponents with more knowledge, experience, numbers, re-
tornado, Medea mixing an ointment to make a man fire-
sources, and even individual power than they. Solars also
proof, or Arjuna firing arrows to build a sturdy bridge,
face the limitations of their own nature.
Solars take recognizable human abilities to superhuman
levels and beyond. Individualism
Wielding Supernal abilities, Solars can become peer- Though Solars can theoretically accomplish almost any
less specialists capable of competing with elder Exalts. task, any given Solar is a unique person with a skillset
Powerful, easily accessible Excellencies make Solars and values defined by her history, resources, and the

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 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
challenges she must overcome. Even if she shares a
Supernal Ability with a peer, the breadth of Creation and
of Solar competence ensures that her legend will be her
own. She’ll find or forge her own artifacts, wield differ-
ent spells and martial arts, and take on the titles and he-
roic roles her people need her to bear. Her legend grows
from the soil of her beliefs: Solar Charms often empower
the Solar to pursue any deeply felt passion, however nar-
row or broad.
Each Solar is a marvel, a unique jewel whose like won’t ever
be seen in Creation again. This makes it easy for a Solar
to succumb to narcissism, and who can blame her when
Creation’s people show her, over and over, just how much
they need her? Wise Solars surround themselves with loyal
friends, advisers, and followers who can provide necessary
perspective. A loved one’s words or dramatic example are
often all that can break the throes of Limit Break, but the
Great Curse tests their loyalty again and again. Sometimes
the only person who understands what it’s like to lose con-
trol and won’t judge is another Solar.
Storytelling Challenges
New players and Storytellers often easily grasp Solar
abilities but might struggle with the very freedom and
power that define Solar play.
Modes of Play
As the core Exalts, Solars are well-suited to all three
modes of play. In fact, each mode roughly corresponds
to one of the core concepts described above.
In a Creation as Stage game, the emphasis lies on com-
ing into power. Creation is full of evils and threats for
the players to overcome, and it’s equally full of broken
wonders that only Solars can restore. Challenge Solar
players with problems worthy of their skills and allow
for occasional losses so the heroes can persevere, rise up,
and win in the end. Give players opportunities to show
off their competitive spirit and abilities, and to enjoy the
wondrous rewards of their victories. The Great Curse is
real, but Solars in the Time of Tumult can learn from the
mistakes of their predecessors and be the hope of peace
that Creation yearns for.
In a Creation as Threat game, the emphasis lies on
a brilliant but tarnished legacy. Creation is in its death
throes, full of corruption and horror, desperate for relief.
Solars might have the power and resolve to give Creation
hope, but they definitely have the power to push it over
the edge. Solar player characters might believe they’re
in a losing fight against entropy, but show the players of-
ten that there are precious, fragile things in Creation still
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worth fighting for. As terrifying as the Realm’s cruelty,
Yu-Shan’s corruption, and the Lunar Pact’s rage are, the
greatest horrors in Creation may be Abyssals, Infernals,
and even rival Solars, for they hold a mirror up to the
player characters’ own flaws.
In a Creation as Cost game, the emphasis lies on the
weight of the crown. Creation is a massive, interconnect-
ed mechanism, and fixing it will require someone to de-
cide what parts must be torn out and replaced. Solars
fight not just monsters, but history’s inexorable cycle of
bloodshed, retribution, and respite built on the bones of
the fallen. The Great Curse spurs the Exalted to terrible
deeds, but mortals war over land, resources, and pow-
er without any Great Curse at all. Solars represent and
carry the hope that things can get better, and that hope
drives the greatest tragedies of all.
Free Agents
While any Exalt can theoretically come from any walk
of life, Solars in the Time of Tumult have no shared cul-
ture, ancestry, or masters. Solars can arise anywhere
in Creation, and discreet Solars can travel across great
swaths of Creation with relative freedom. While many if
not most Solar Circles will eventually build a reputation,
shared goal, and position of authority or power, Solar
games can begin in any number of ways. For some gam-
ing groups, that’s just fine. If everyone at the table wants
to sit down, hash out a venue and the barest amount of
detail and see what happens, Solars are an ideal choice.
If total freedom is too overwhelming, directionless, or
chaotic for your group, Session Zero (p. XX) becomes
essential. While considering what the player characters
have in common, consider what many Solars already
have in common: they’re problem-solvers, they’re hunt-
ed, they’re ambitious or idealistic, they have special re-
lationships with First Age ruins, and they have flashes of
memory and insight from past incarnations. Any combi-
nation of these common elements can help player char-
acters start off on a good footing together.
If your players don’t already have a strong idea of what
they want the game to be about, choose a venue (e.g.,
Chiaroscuro) and two or more problems that are cur-
rently or will soon be taking place there (e.g., pirate at-
tacks, Lunar infiltrators, and increased tension between
the Delzahn and the Realm). This gives players the op-
portunity to design characters that will be relevant to
one or more of the campaign’s important elements, and
to begin working out some likely dynamics between
player characters. Make sure to explain the tone and pri-
orities of the campaign you’d like to run, making use of
the modes of play if appropriate.
 C h a p t e r F o u r : T h e C h o s e n i n P l ay
Power Overwhelming
Exalted has a different perspective on power and scale
than many games, and the sheer competence and might
of Solars can baffle new Storytellers. Even inexperienced
Solars tend to win direct competitions against experi-
enced and resourceful opponents. Clever and lucky Solar
player characters can trivialize or circumvent carefully
planned and complex encounters. And that’s okay.
When Storytelling for the Exalted — and for Solars in
particular — effective preparation of challenges means
having the tools to keep things interesting even when
players do something clever and unexpected. Well-
informed opponents use superior resources to stack the
deck, strive to catch Solars off-guard, and adapt to set-
backs. Quick Characters (Exalted p. 494) can be intro-
duced at a moment’s notice, and their stats and Charms
can be altered to suit the situation.
But it’s also okay for the players to just win sometimes
(or often, in a Creation as Stage campaign). A Solar’s
player should feel powerful, and sometimes that means
she walks away from incredible danger unharmed, out-
wits an enemy so thoroughly that he loses everything, or
devastates an army of hundreds with a single trap. Solars
have returned to Creation to reshape it in their image,
and players should be allowed and encouraged to do just
that.
The Legend Grows
As the player characters’ powers grow, so does their
reputation. Creation is a dynamic place, and established
powers in the setting take note of the Solars’ accom-
plishments. Mortals, gods, and even other Exalts may
ask for the Solars’ aid or offer positions of authority. The
more responsibility the Solars take on, the more bound
they become to a people, place, or problem. At the same
time, once-distant threats recognize the Solars’ growing
power, and marshal forces to destroy them before they
get even stronger. Solars who settle down in one place
will draw enemy armies, sooner or later.
An adventure-oriented Solar campaign that goes on long
enough will likely find the Solars deeply engaged with
the mechanisms of power and diplomacy. If you and your
players find this interesting, you can change the pace
and focus of the game to match the Solars’ new circum-
stances. If not, one alternative is to skip ahead several
months or years to the next major problem that requires
the Solars’ personal intervention. Another is to retire the
Solars from the adventuring lifestyle to focus on poli-
tics, war, and diplomacy while the players take on new
Exalted characters to adventure in a Creation altered by
the original Solar player characters’ accomplishments.
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Keeping Solars Fresh
Solars don’t easily connect with Creation’s elements,
wield the delicate touch of destiny, or experience life
as an animal. Like the classic comic book character
Superman, Solars are just people made larger than life.
And like Superman, some players have trouble engaging
with or relating to Solars. Sometimes this is just a matter
of taste, but for players and Storytellers who need help
getting Solars, here are some things to consider.
Better, Faster, Stronger
Solar power is generally some combination of direct,
straightforward, and powerful. It doesn’t take much
strategy or creativity to make Solar Charms useful, be-
cause they’re meant to be universally useful. Solars chan-
nel the nostalgia for a mythical age when people were
stronger, braver, and more determined, when heroes
made epic mistakes for us to learn from. They are, essen-
tially, old-fashioned. Metropolis, Troy, and the Northern
Wei Empire can all be complicated settings for a story,
but Superman, Achilles, and Hua Mulan aren’t especially
complicated. Whether a person is real or mythical, the
sands of history wear away details until only a few core
features remain.
For players uninterested in playing those or similar leg-
ends, there’s good news: they won’t be. As young Solars,
SHOWING OFF
As a Storyteller, you’ll often need to narrate the
outcome of your players’ actions, but it’s difficult to
describe superhuman ability engagingly without a
frame of reference. For some abilities (e.g., Melee),
creative and lovingly detailed inspirational media
abounds. Some light research can provide details that
lend gravity to stunts, as well as real-world limits that
Solar player characters can impressively surpass.
Take advantage of Creation’s uniqueness too, and
allow player characters with superhuman insight to
perceive the Essence and invisible spirits underlying
Creation’s physics.
Sometimes practical details become staid, so supple-
ment them with a cinematic aesthetic. Linger on sen-
sory details the way the camera focuses on important
moments in your favorite movies and anime. Use
NPC reactions to establish a sense of awe. Describe
how the Solar’s supernatural expertise adapts to and
overcomes unexpected complications, or exploits
split-second opportunities. Have exceptional actions
ripple outward to inflict cool collateral damage or
generate unexpected benefits.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
they’ll have the power and potential of those luminaries,
with all the foibles and uncertainty that broad-strokes
legends gloss over. They will be able to freely explore
Creation’s stranger themes through artifacts, martial
arts styles, and sorcery. Your players will be playing a he-
roic origin story, with all the uncertainty that entails. If
they play through that story long enough, they’ll forge
new ideas of what heroism means in Creation, and new
myths your gaming group will remember for years to
come.
Hardly a Challenge
Solars are neither omnipotent nor invulnerable, partic-
ularly early in their careers. Their greatest techniques
take time to develop, and falling back on raw power
drains their Essence quickly. In short bursts even freshly
Exalted Solars are incredibly strong. With experience,
Solars can become as unbeatable in their areas of exper-
tise as Superman is in his. To some players, this feels un-
satisfying, or even like cheating. Why would they play a
game they can’t lose?
The question is rarely whether Solars will win a fair con-
test in their areas of expertise, but whether “winning”
will be enough. In a Creation as Stage game, it might be
enough to regularly trounce the opposition and bask in
glory. In other modes of play, Solars regularly face diffi-
cult or morally compromising choices. A pyrrhic victory
in a Creation as Cost game may waste precious time or
the lives of virtuous allies, while a Creation as Threat
game often calls Solars to defeat monsters by acting like
monsters. The only thing Solars can’t easily accomplish
is changing the relationship humans have with power.
HAMMER FORGES NAILS
Absolute power changes a person’s priorities. It feels
good to wield, which is a problem. Whether she tries
to share it or hoard it, someone will want to destroy
it, steal it, or suborn it. To defend her power, she’ll
have to use it or find more of it. In time, her whole life
revolves around the hope that if she just has enough,
she won’t need to keep chasing it.
This escalation is fundamental to a Creation as Cost
game, but it informs every mode of play. In a Creation
as Stage game, rivals will fear and envy the Solars’
power. In a Creation as Threat game, Creation itself
demands more and more power just to create some
sense of safety. Solar player characters face the pre-
carious moral challenge of deciding who deserves
power (or even life), a responsibility that few young
Solars ever expected or wanted.
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Relating to Power
Exalted is about how people wield power, and how
power affects them in turn. Dangerous, traumatic, and
unstable circumstances demand more power, and power
creates or even demands new problems. All Exalted ex-
plore this harrowing side of power fantasy, but Solars do
so most directly because their powers are awe-inspiring
applications of human ability. Solars are human but bet-
ter, subject to the full range of human experiences but
able to manage those experiences with panache.
For many people, Superman is boring not because they
dislike power fantasy, but because they can’t relate to
him. The idea that a mild-mannered white man from the
American Midwest might have the power to face down
bullies and corrupt industrialists is no longer as revolu-
tionary as it once was. But the Unconquered Sun grants
power based on the worth of a Solar’s heart, not their
circumstances. Instead of starting with an archetypal
Solar god-monarch, have your players start with mortal
characters whose problems they can relate to. Then add
the power of a demigod.
Introductory Play
Solars are the default protagonists of Exalted, and they
are described in the Exalted Third Edition Core book for
that reason. With straightforward powers and the po-
tential to come from any walk of life, Solars are an ideal
vehicle for new players to better understand Exalted.
Introduction to Creation
Every Solar comes from somewhere, but Solars as a
whole don’t come from anywhere in particular. Most of
Creation’s population is occupation-oriented and pro-
vincial, knowledgeable about the daily tasks of survival
but rarely informed about the big picture. Young Solars
are often as naive to Creation’s history and power struc-
ture as new players are. A Solar whose small-town val-
ues clash with foreign ideologies and social structures is
a perfect vehicle for conflict and personal growth.
To help new players orient themselves to Creation, make
sure they understand the broad strokes of the various
Directions and the genres of play that those venues en-
courage. Players who are more comfortable with impro-
visation than setting research might not need to know
exactly where they’re from at first. All they’ll need is a
rough background, an introduction to the chronicle’s
starting location, and a reason to be there. Once they’ve
spent a session or so getting to know Creation, let new
players flesh out and alter their backstories to better fit
the setting and chronicle.
 C h a p t e r F o u r : T h e C h o s e n i n P l ay
Creation is a complex place with a lot of moving parts.
Nations, organizations, realms of existence, First Age
remnants, monsters, inhuman entities, categories of
spirits, and different Exalted all interact in unpredict-
able ways. If you introduce too many of these elements
at once, new players may just see undifferentiated chaos.
Introduce new elements one at a time to better manage
this, adding to the mix at a measured pace. Alternatively,
introduce two elements in conflict and encourage play-
ers to help or force the clashing elements into a new
equilibrium.
Introduction to the System
Exalted is a complicated game built on several interact-
ing systems. Most Charms available to starting Solars
are individually straightforward, but the breadth of op-
tions and complexity of Charm interactions can be over-
whelming for new players. During Session Zero, help
new players figure out what capabilities are important
for their character concepts, and which specific traits
and Charms will help with that. Some players may even
prefer to have you design their starting character sheets
based on their priorities. Allow new players to alter their
character sheets after they’ve had a session or two to
gain familiarity with the system.
Following the example of many modern video games,
consider introducing Exalted’s most in-depth systems
(combat, social maneuvering, feats of strength, investi-
gation, crafting, and sailing) one at a time through rel-
atively easy “tutorial” encounters. Not only can these
encounters provide straightforward, low-stakes oppor-
tunities to test the system, but they’ll also help establish
WHAT ABOUT THE BLESSED ISLE?
The Blessed Isle is such a dangerous venue for young
Solars that few Solar campaigns are likely to take
place there. The Blessed Isle usually functions more
as a distant and scarcely imaginable empire, as a
dearly missed home for conflicted Solar natives, and
as a future conquest for ambitious Solars motivated
by memories of the old Solar Deliberative.
That said, the Blessed Isle is vast, and contains many
places where the Dragon-Blooded aren’t always
present. Sometimes Solars Exalt upon the Isle or in-
filtrate it for their own purposes. The Scarlet Empress
held some Solars as live captives, and in her absence
they could escape. With few to no allies, Sidereal
oversight, and the constant threat of the Wyld Hunt,
a Solar campaign on the Blessed Isle is essentially
“hard mode,” a challenging and unique venue for So-
lar chronicles.
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just how powerful the player characters are. You can also
allow new players to leave their Supernal Abilities unde-
fined until they’re more familiar with the system. The
moment when a young Solar steps even beyond their
fellow Solars in an area of expertise can be very dramat-
ically satisfying.
Newcomers to Power
Young Solars rarely understand the limits or nature of
their power aside from an instinctive control of Essence,
and they rarely have anyone to teach them. Many Solars
don’t even know exactly what they are. While you should
fill players in on the general threats they’re likely to
face — a player frustrated by a game about being hunted
won’t enjoy what happens the first time they flare their
anima publicly in a Realm satrapy — their characters’ ig-
norance provides plenty of opportunities to learn about
the setting.
Solars are also commonly naive about the mechanisms
of power and government, a naiveté their players might
share. Again, you should inform players about the ex-
tent to which your Exalted campaign will focus on re-
alpolitik or the consequences of swords-and-sorcery
adventuring, but if they’re used to more escapist power
fantasy, there will still be an emotional learning process
curve. Keep in touch with your players regularly, partic-
ularly in grittier or darker campaigns, because they may
become especially frustrated or disheartened if it’s been
too long since the last morally unambiguous win.
While Solars can easily begin play in positions of author-
ity, new players may benefit from starting the campaign
relatively unbound. Grateful, zealous, and desperate
NPC’s might commonly offer their service to Solar play-
er characters or offer new responsibilities. Allow new
players to pick and choose which responsibilities they’ll
embrace so they can become familiar with the pressures,
perks, and costs of political power at their own pace. As
they gain experience, they may become more proactive
in claiming positions of responsibility themselves.
Hope Reborn
Exalted as written is a tragedy, an exploration of how
the hope of peace fuels the cycle of violence. Most en-
tities in Creation — living, dead, or otherwise — are
entrenched in personal or political vendettas and too
young to remember the marvels of the First Age. The
gods and elders who remember that wondrous time are
either traumatized by its loss or corrupt enough to pre-
fer the Age of Sorrows. Without the Solar Exalted, many
of Creation’s problems truly are irreparable. For players
new to Creation, playing as other Exalt types might feel
unusually bleak or confining.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
SUPPORTING CAST
Friendly NPCs are extremely important not just as
motivation for Solar players, but as walking, talking
reminders that the player characters’ choices mat-
ter. Mortal loved ones, Exalted followers, and spirit
servants have priorities and moral perspective that
Solars often need. Players can easily get so focused
on problem-solving that they lose track of the bigger
picture, and new players in particular benefit from
regular reminders about what’s going on and what
their Solar characters could do about it.
Make sure that supporting cast members actually
prop up the player characters’ stories. Opinionated
and conflict-prone cast members are fine as long as
they help create fun or build drama, but not when they
make players feel frustrated or browbeaten. Like-
wise, supporting cast members aren’t there to give
the Storyteller a chance to show off or show up the
Solars, unless the players want those cast members
to show off and accomplish things. When players
are invested enough to want your NPC’s to succeed,
you’ve made a truly beloved companion.
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Not only can Solars theoretically fix many of Creation’s
infrastructural problems, expand its borders, and defeat
its deadliest enemies, they also have no particular rea-
son to think they can’t. Solars, like new players, aren’t
necessarily tied to existing power structures or even to
a single era, and might subscribe to moral or political
philosophies that would be unusual or radical in the Age
of Sorrows. While modern problems spur young Solars
into heroic action, the strength and memories of a lost
age help them stay optimistic about making a lasting
difference.
Solar Exalted Quick Characters
Solar Mercenary
This Solar is a horse-archer warrior, traveling the land as
a seasonal mercenary. They might be the target of a Wyld
Hunt, or a lone hero who comes to the characters’ aid.
Caste: Dawn
Essence: 2; Willpower: 7; Join Battle: 10 dice
Personal: 15; Peripheral: 40
Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x2/-4/Incap.
Actions: Command: 7 dice (+7 for 7m); Conducting
 C h a p t e r F o u r : T h e C h o s e n i n P l ay
Ambushes: 5 dice (+5 for 5m); Silent Intimidation: 7
dice (+4 for 4m, +7 for 7m); Resist Poison/Disease: 6
dice (+5 for 5m); Senses: 8 dice (+7 for 7m); Tracking:
5 dice (+5 for 5m)
Appearance 3, Resolve 3 (+1 for 2m), Guile 4 (+3
for 6m)
COMBAT
Attack (Longbow): 11 dice at short range (+10 for
10m; damage 13)
Attack (Tulwar): 8 dice (+7 for 7m; damage 13)
Combat Movement: 6 dice (+5 for 5m; 13 dice
mounted)
Evasion 3 (+1 for 2m, +2 for 4m), Parry 4 (+2 for 4m,
+4 for 8m)
Soak/Hardness: 11/7 (Pride of Night, moonsilver
lamellar)
MERITS
Familiar: Horse (Exalted, p. 567)
OFFENSIVE CHARMS
Unerring Marksman’s Arrow (4m; Reflexive;
Instant): Ignore all visual and non-visual penalties to
ranged attacks, such as darkness or bad weather.
Calculate all withering attacks as if made from short
range regardless of distance.
Hunter’s Swift Answer (5m, 1wp; Reflexive;
Instant; Uniform): When the Solar succeeds at a dis-
engage action, she may unleash a withering or de-
cisive attack with her bow from close range against
the target she disengaged from, even if she already
attacked this turn.
Arrow Storm Technique (5m, 1wp; Simple;
Instant; Decisive-only): Make a decisive attack
against up to six targets with a base damage of 4
+ Initiative divided evenly between each target. The
Solar doesn’t reset until all attacks are completed.
Dazzling Flare Attack (5m; Supplemental; Instant;
Decisive-only): Add two automatic successes to the
decisive damage roll. For each 10 in the attack roll,
add one die to the raw damage. If the attack inflicts
+3 health levels of lethal damage, the target lights on
fire and suffers two lethal dice of damage every turn
until extinguished.
Seasoned Beast-Rider’s Approach (1m, 1wp;
Supplemental; Instant): When the Solar rolls join
battle, her mount gains an Initiative track with a start-
ing value equal to her own, and can make attacks on
its own turn. When her mount performs a movement
action, it does not take up Abhara’s movement action
for her turn.
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REVERSE-ENGINEERING
QUICK CHARACTERS
Don’t bother. Certain Charms printed in Exalted such
as Bestial Traits Technique or Flowing Mind Prana
may make you think it’s necessary to know these
values in order to enhance them, but most Quick
Characters have not been designed to be reverse-en-
gineered and will not provide consistent values if you
attempt to do so.
Instead, the Storyteller should make judgements
about appropriate values to increase in the Quick
Character based on training. Increasing Socialize
might increase a Quick Character’s pools for read
intentions or their Guile if appropriate, for exam-
ple. Increasing Strength should increase their feat
of strength pools and possibly the damage on their
weapon. For actions which may use multiple Attri-
butes, such as a social influence pool, the Storyteller
should err on the side of increasing it, if appropriate
to the target character’s behavior. No effect modifying
the traits of a Quick Character may increase its dice
pools to more than 14 dice, as per the Quick Charac-
ter design rules on p. 495 of Exalted. If a Charm has
a stricter limitation in player-facing text, apply that
instead.
DEFENSIVE CHARMS
Danger of Soaring Leaves (1m; Reflexive;
Instant): Successfully dodge an attack with successes
equal to Evasion. If the Solar successfully dodges the
attack, her opponent loses one Initiative.
Shadow Over Water (2m; Reflexive; Instant): For
an in instant, remove all penalties to Evasion, and in-
crease the Solar’s Evasion by +1.
MOBILITY CHARMS
Elusive Mount Technique (4m; Reflexive; Instant):
the Solar may reflexively disengage whole mounted.
Untouchable Horseman’s Attitude (3m, 2i,
1wp; Reflexive; Instant; Perilous): The Solar automati-
cally succeeds at a disengage action, as long as there
is no more than one opponent at close range. 
Immortal Destrier Grace (3m; Reflexive; One
turn): Convert four dice from the Solar’s mounted
combat movement to automatic successes for one
movement action or one interval in a race. Addition-
ally, Abhara may ignore her wound penalty and that
of her mount to any mounted movement action for the
rest of the turn.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
Dragon-Blooded —
The Dragons Rule Creation
The Dragon-Blooded are tied to Creation at every turn.
From the elemental nature of their abilities to their
centuries of dominating the majority of its landmass,
Creation accepts them like no other type of Exalt. These
Princes of the Earth walk openly in nearly every corner
of the world, with no need to conceal or excuse their
heroic deeds. This comes with obvious advantages, in-
cluding the ability to draw on the vast resources of long-
standing familial lines, but also means being watched at
every turn. With the disappearance of Creation’s most
powerful Dragon-Blood, the remaining subjects of the
Scarlet Empress prepare for war both within and with-
out, and every one of the Dragon’s Chosen stands to in-
fluence the outcome of those conflicts.
Themes and Stories
Even young and inexperienced Dragon-Blooded have
reason to become involved in events that will shape the
course of history, through family ties and expectations.
Every Dragon-Blooded character should have some re-
lationship to one of the many powerful Dragon-Blooded
family lines, even if that relationship involves defying
expectations and choosing to remain an independent
outcaste. As a Storyteller, family ties offer countless op-
portunities to create challenges for your players, wheth-
er they are trying to follow in their parents’ footsteps or
attempting to forge their own path.
Having older Exalted relatives dictating their actions
can make young Dragon-Blooded feel simultaneously
mighty and powerless: backed by the strength of their
bloodline and the power of the elements, yet help-
less when pitted against the previous generation. Your
choices as Storyteller can play this up or tone it down,
depending on the theme and mood of your chronicle.
If you’d like to explore the frustrations of being a small
fish in a big pond, you can include numerous high-ex-
perience Storyteller characters who expect obedience
from the players’ Dragon-Blooded. If you’d rather your
players’ characters feel more in charge of things, you can
start them in a position where they have more freedom,
such as an assignment in the Threshold, or simply tone
down the difference in power between them and the old-
er generation.
Because Dragon-Blooded tend to band together and
form societies, most Dragon-Blooded characters will
come with not just their own internal moral strengths
and failings, but also a share of their homeland’s virtues
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and vices. The Realm has dominated Creation for cen-
turies, amassing wealth and power at the expense of its
mortal citizens as it claims new territory in the name of
peace. As civil war becomes inevitable, satraps and ma-
triarchs squeeze more and more from the masses, acting
out of greed or self-defense. Even Dragon-Blooded who
aren’t related to Creation’s nobility benefit from being
associated with the ruling class, with all its perks and
responsibilities. A Dragon-Blooded chronicle is perfect-
ly poised to tackle the question of what it means to rule
from the position of those already in charge, whether
that question takes the form of action-packed battles,
moral conflict, impossible odds, or the inevitable rise
and decline of a corrupt empire.
If your players are most interested in the Dragon-
Blooded because of their elemental associations, you
can shift your game’s focus away from politics and to-
wards their blood-deep connection to Creation. Just as
the Dragon-Blooded are at war with each-other, so too is
Creation itself in a Time of Tumult, facing threats from
the Fair Folk, the undead, and even the renegade forces
of Yu-Shan and Malfeas. For a highly elemental-focused
chronicle, natural disasters can mirror the turmoil in
the Dragon-Blooded host, with conflict among the latter
causing misbalance in the elemental poles. Your chron-
icle could tackle this problem from either direction,
or both: venturing to the furthest corners of the world
to calm elemental energies, or bringing peace to the
Dragon-Blooded to save Creation from a war that’s tear-
ing it apart both literally and metaphorically.
Dragon-Blooded for Beginners
A Dragon-Blooded chronicle can make for an excellent
introduction to Creation for a group of players new to
the system. Compared to most other Exalts, Dragon-
Blooded characters can move about and act freely on the
world, without needing to hide the nature of their pow-
er. While the weight of an ancestor’s exploits can bear
down upon an individual Dragon-Blood, their connec-
tion to Creation’s ancient history rarely involves their
own past lives. Instead, they come with a built-in sup-
port network — allies, connections, and superiors who
can help guide their adventures. Mechanically, players
may find Dragon-Blooded Charms easier to manage, and
the strong elemental theming provides ample inspira-
tion for exciting stunts.
If your group is experienced with tabletop roleplay-
ing, but coming to Exalted from a classic fantasy game,
there are plenty of familiar adventures for their Dragon-
Blooded characters that you can work into a chronicle.
Family or superiors can send a Hearth on a “quest” to
 C h a p t e r F o u r : T h e C h o s e n i n P l ay
recover a lost heirloom, assist the locals in a distant
holding, or destroy a legendary monster that wanders
the edges of the world, bringing classic fantasy storylines
into the setting. Such straightforward assignments lend
themselves well to the Creation as Stage mode of play
while also opening the door to less black-and-white
conflicts. Why was the heirloom artifact lost in the first
place, and who’s using it now? Does “assisting the locals”
mean putting them in their place when they have legit-
imate grievances with the Realm? Creation asks at ev-
ery turn who the real monsters are, and leaves players to
come up with their own answers.
As with any chronicle where the tone will change dra-
matically over time, keep an open line of communication
with your players in this sort of game, especially those
who may not be aware of what kinds of moral dilem-
mas their characters are going to face playing Exalted.
Realizing that your beloved character is complicit in
colonial oppression can be a fascinating and compelling
storyline, but can also be upsetting and unpleasant to
play through if you haven’t signed up for it. If you’re tran-
sitioning your beginner’s game from a focus on Creation-
as-Stage into something more horrific or tragic, check in
with your players regularly, and don’t make a secret of
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your intent to bring in elements of the setting that will
ask bleak questions with no easy answers. Consider us-
ing some explicit safety tools (p. XX) in your beginner’s
Exalted chronicle, even if your group has played other
games without needing them.
MIXED EXPERIENCE GROUPS
If you’re starting a new group, your players may come
to the table with very different levels of experience
with Exalted, and with tabletop gaming in general.
Pairing Exalt types with player experience level can
be an interesting way to deal with differing levels of
setting knowledge at the table. Beginner players with
Dragon-Blooded characters need only understand
the recent history and customs of the Realm and will
be given the benefit of the doubt by most people they
meet. In contrast, a Solar or Lunar character will
need to tread carefully and interact with the ancient
history of her Exaltation’s past lives. Alternatively, a
single experienced player might make an excellent
long-suffering Dragon-Blooded mentor to a group of
young, naive Solars, using his upper-class Realm ed-
ucation to teach them the ways of the world.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND

could share your player’s characters’ overall political goals

Realm Civil War but be fraught with personal vices that make backing them
unpleasant, or they might wish to do the right thing for
One of the most iconic storylines for Dragon-Blooded pro-
all the wrong reasons. For a game centered on Creation-
tagonists is the war for the Scarlet Throne. Even if your
as-Cost, every potential Empress may be deeply flawed,
chronicle doesn’t start here, Realm-loyal characters will
leaving the characters only the chance to pick their poison,
have many opportunities to choose a side, or push the na-
or launch a valiant but doomed attempt to save the Realm
tion closer to or further from war. The throne is the highest
through some unexpected option.
seat in Creation for a Prince of the Earth, and unless you set
your chronicle in a very distant part of the world, your play- Some players will be more interested in putting their
ers may want to get involved in who’s sitting on it eventually. own characters forward in a bid for the throne rather
than playing kingmaker to a Storyteller character, ei-
With dozens of important actors, multiple arenas of
ther ruling as a Hearth or supporting one of their own
conflict, and a complicated net of political alliances in-
as Empress. This is particularly suitable for a game
fluencing every decision, running a civil war chronicle
centering Creation-as-Stage, where the dramatic goal
can be a logistical nightmare for even an experienced
of winning the Scarlet Throne paints the characters as
Storyteller. By narrowing the scope down to what’s im-
larger-than-life heroes fighting impossible odds. Unless
portant to your players, and keeping careful notes that
you plan to give your players some special advantage
track the right details, you can make the job significantly
that will draw in allies to their bid (a secret letter from
easier, while providing your players with an immersive
the Empress declaring a successor, the keys to the
sandbox to play in.
Imperial Manse, a Sidereal prophecy declaring doom
Choosing an Empress upon Creation unless they succeed) consider starting
your players with a considerable amount of experi-
The Exalted setting provides numerous candidates for the
ence; they will need powerful Charms and artifacts to
throne, any one of whom a Dragon-Blooded character might
keep up with other contenders. Social Merits such as
choose to throw their weight behind. Giving your players a
Backing, Command, Contacts, Followers, Influence and
chance to pick a candidate early in the chronicle-planning
Resources will provide your players with the tools they
process will ensure you’re running a game they can invest
need to make connections, spy on opponents, wage war
in, and leave less work for you as a Storyteller. Asking play-
on a grand scale, and sway the people to their cause. A
ers directly which candidate they want to see victorious,
player could also take on the role of an existing throne
or making suggestions based on how their characters have
contender. If they’re all working towards the same goal,
acted in an ongoing chronicle, will give you a sense of who
consider allowing your players to pool some of their
you need to include, though the unfolding events of the sto-
Merits, treating soldiers, contacts, and specialists as loy-
ry can always change your player’s loyalties.
al to the cause, rather than to one particular person.
Canon throne candidates provide plenty of choice for you
Of course, an idealistic young Hearth might forswear all
and your players. Mnemon is poised for victory (much
potential Empresses, championing a new system of gover-
to the chagrin of most other candidates) making her an
nance in which power is more equally divided either among
obvious antagonist, but players may find her claim com-
the Dragon-Blooded host, or more controversially, among
pelling and wish to help her instead. V’neef is another
all the Realm’s citizens. You can treat this much like try-
strong contender for the throne, and presents a potential
ing to claim the throne for themselves, in that they’ll need
Empress who’s closer in power to starting characters,
a great deal of magical and temporal power to get much of
more an ally than a master. Tepet Ejava and Saloy Hin
anywhere with such a bid. Alternatively, you can have them
are both underdogs, but popular for their heroic exploits
ally with an existing organization like the Immaculate
abroad, and helping a selfless champion succeed against
Order or the Thousand Scales, and force them to balance
the odds makes them popular dark horse candidates.
their ideals against backers with their own plans, much like
Nearly any matriarch could also serve as a candidate for
players who choose to support a potential Empress.
the players to rally around, if your group finds a particu-
lar House compelling. Creating Factions
Of course, there is nothing saying that one of the canon con- Civil war in the Realm is a complex affair. Serious con-
tenders needs win the throne. If you’re playing a game with tenders to the throne can field Size 5 battle groups on
Creation-as-Threat, especially one focused on a moral multiple fronts, control vast spy networks in dozens of
struggle, you could create claimants of your own to better cities, and weave intricate social webs with hundreds of
challenge and foil your characters. A custom candidate Intimacies to be discovered and hidden. Antagonists feel

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flat when they don’t have plans and goals of their own,
separate from what the players are doing, but keeping
track of everything they have and want poses a major
challenge to Storytellers. One way to make things sim-
pler is to organize your antagonists’ efforts into factions.
A faction is a group of people with both the means and
the motivation to stop your players from achieving their
goal. A rival aiming for the throne, outside forces who
wish to interfere, or an organized resistance within the
Realm could all make suitable factions for a civil war
game. As tempting as it is to use every plot hook at once,
beginning your chronicle with only 2-4 factions will help
focus your efforts, and those of your players. Characters
that aren’t in a faction can still make an appearance, but
their plans and actions will generally be relegated to the
background, and you can always add new factions as you
go on if bit players become unexpectedly important.
To begin planning a chronicle with factions, decide on
a centralized place to make notes, whether that’s an on-
line word editor or pen-and-paper in a binder. Each of
your factions will need:
• A name to make it easier for you to refer to the
faction in your notes.
• A leader; they need not necessarily be the stron-
gest member of the faction, but the one who
makes most of the decisions. You’ll probably need
a full character sheet for each faction leader.
• One or more champions; those loyal to the cause
and strong enough to challenge your players
directly. You’ll need at least QC sheets for your
champions eventually, as they’ll likely be in direct
on-screen conflicts regularly.
• An overall motivation for the faction; this needs
to clash with what your players want in some way
to create conflict.
• A list of the faction’s assets. These are the tools,
aside from champions, the faction can use against
the players. You can give the faction merit dots to
represent armies, spy networks, powerful allies,
financial backing, and manse strongholds. Other
assets might be more nebulous: access to secret
tunnels beneath the Imperial Palace, a blood-debt
owed by an elder Lunar, a sterling reputation
that makes challenging them publicly dangerous.
These you can simply record as short sentences,
making note of any limitations or costs they might
have to the faction if used.
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CIVIL WAR: SIMPLIFIED
If tracking factions and troops and spy games all
seems like too much work, you can instead run your
civil war chronicle as a series of challenges your
players must overcome, given to them by a power-
ful Storyteller character, or thrust upon them by fate.
This sort of game gives your players less control over
what happens next, a type of storytelling often called
“railroading,” but it can still be a very enjoyable expe-
rience if you make sure the ride is a fun one, and still
allow your players’ actions to have consequences. If
you plan to run your game this way, be open about it
with your players, and get buy-in for the premise. If
your players want to do something unexpected, it’s
okay to nudge them back on track by explaining you
haven’t planned for that and asking them to return to
the game you’ve designed, or give you time to plan
something different.
Before beginning the chronicle, note where each fac-
tion’s mobile assets, like armies or powerful artifacts, are
currently situated.
• A next step the faction plans to take. This should
be a simple, limited-step plan that will bring the
faction closer to achieving its motivation, and one
that will succeed if no one else interferes to stop
it. It might be a military action (“march on the
Heptagram, using connections among the staff
to occupy the school and add its resources to my
army”), a political action (“have my best courtier
sway Cathak Cainan to my cause”), a form of sub-
terfuge (“poison the wells of Pangu city and blame
it on House Mnemon”), or anything else you can
think up. If a plan requires champions or assets
to realistically succeed, make sure you have them
stationed nearby, and make a note of who and
what will be involved.
Having all this decided beforehand will not only help
your factions come to life by acting on their own plans,
it will help you give your players actionable informa-
tion with which to thwart them. Dragon-Blooded have
many ways to gather intelligence about a rival faction:
stealth, contacts, socializing, Charms, sorcery, and more.
When your players successfully read intentions to learn
an Intimacy, set their network of spies to find out what’s
happening at the House of Bells, or seduce a loyal mortal
guard into betraying his master’s secrets, they’ll expect
to learn something about their enemy’s plans or goals.
By referencing your faction notes, you can give them a
chance to exploit weaknesses, keep pace with their ri-
vals, and gain an advantage for future conflicts.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
While it can be tempting to provide cryptic clues and
little puzzle pieces for each success, remember that
your player’s characters are tactical geniuses, but your
players probably aren’t. Straightforward information,
like “Mnemon is planning to attack the Heptagram,” as
opposed to “Mnemon’s forces are gathering along the
Isle’s northern coast, and three young House Mnemon
Dynasts have just taken sabbaticals from their sorcer-
ous education,” can save your table hours of argument
over what it all means, and keep the focus of the game
on choices, actions, and consequences. It will also help
your players to keep an accessible record of everything
they’ve learned: Storyteller character intimacies, rival
assets, troop movements, and enemy plans. Keeping in-
formation in an online document will let them refresh
their memory between games, and help you remember
what they’ve found out and what remains secret.
At the end of each story, you’ll need to refresh your fac-
tion notes to reflect what they, and your players, have
done. At the very least you’ll need new next steps for
most of them, but you may also need to move around
assets, update champions, or even change motivations.
They may have gained new assets or champions from
succeeding at their next step, or lost them due to player
or rival faction involvement. Factions might even dis-
solve, split up, or change leaders if something drastic has
happened to them and their plans.
Without interference, faction next steps should always
succeed, but sometimes it will make sense for two fac-
tions to interfere with each-other. When Storyteller
characters clash, you can either decide the results with
a few off-screen rolls, or simply use your best judgement
of their relative strengths to decide who wins. Showing
the results of these off-screen conflicts to your players
will help them feel like the war is multidimensional, not
just an assortment of antagonists out to get them in par-
ticular, and potentially reward them for the work they’ve
done in pitting opponents against each other.
Factions: The War in the West
One possible direction the civil war could take is Peleps
and Cathak choosing to ally, the former house being
promised dominion over the west and its seas while
the latter takes the Blessed Isle and eastern Threshold.
Other houses rise up against this alliance, planning to
stab each other in the back just as soon as the greater
threat is taken care of.
To turn this complicated scenario into a chronicle plan,
you’ll need to pick some key leaders to spotlight. Even if
you want disorder, mapping every opposing house as its
own faction is difficult to track, so pick a few you want
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to spotlight and waive the rest as unimportant in your
version of Creation: lacking resources, stubbornly neu-
tral, or already under the thumb of one of your chosen
leaders. You’ll probably start with a single faction for
the Peleps/Cathak alliance, led by whichever Matriarch
you want to have the upper hand in the arrangement.
Their first step could be taking V’neef’s Western hold-
ings, seizing the Imperial Manse, or assassinating a rival
candidate. The unstable opposition could begin as one
faction, assuming everyone is working together at first,
or multiple factions, beginning with similar motivations
but acting separately, to emphasize how at odds they are
already. Each could begin by building their own naval
armadas, seizing Peleps land holdings, or trying to sow
dissent among the Peleps/Cathak ranks.
Other factions in the West might include the Caul, led by
Sha’a Oka with younger Lunars as its champions. While
their material resources can’t rival those of a Great
House, their supernatural power and flexibility makes
them well-suited to disrupt everyone else’s plans, turn-
ing dragon against dragon in pursuit of their own moti-
vation. The island of Abalone could field a faction, led by
the Feathered One or Hamoji himself, full of desperate
citizens trying to free themselves from Realm rule. The
Skullstone Archipelago, led by the Silver Prince, could
also serve as a faction, if you decide the Deathlord is mo-
tivated to interfere with the civil war. 
Whichever factions you choose to detail, remember that
they should all have both the means and the motivation
to stop your players and their allies completely. Smaller
day-to-day threats, like an angry Storm Mother or a Fair
Folk raiding party, don’t need to be factions. They can
get in the way as a one-time thing, and then vanish back
into the background. If a minor threat becomes a serious
one during the course of play, you can model them as a
faction during the campaign. 
Beyond the Realm
While the Blessed Isle houses Creation’s largest Dragon-
Blooded population, it’s hardly the only setting for a
Dragon-Blooded game. Lookshy offers a vastly different
political landscape, where military success and meri-
tocracy trump bloodline and history (in theory at least).
Rather than centuries of tradition imploding all at once
as with the Empress’s disappearance, Lookshyan politics
have always been rife with carefully managed internal
conflict, but events outside the River Province threaten
that tenuous balance. The Dragon-Blooded of Lookshy
are respected, but not revered in the same way Dynasts
have come to expect, making it an appropriate setting
for a game where your players will have to interact and
 C h a p t e r F o u r : T h e C h o s e n i n P l ay
DRAGON VERSUS DRAGON
Dragon-Blooded characters from different back-
grounds might disagree with each other on funda-
mental issues of religion, the responsibilities of the
ruling class, and their own place in the divine system.
Exalted mechanics support player-versus-player
conflicts, whether they come to blows or get resolved
through social actions, so it’s entirely possible to run
a Dragon-Blooded chronicle where your players are
on opposing sides, either as a Realm spy or the Look-
shyan officers defending their home, rival queens
in the East, or supporters of two different claims to
the Scarlet Throne. Deliberately antagonistic games
can be fun for the right group, but as the Storytell-
er you’ll need to do more work to make sure every-
one respects everyone else’s boundaries while their
characters scheme and fight. Reread the safety rules
section of this book (p. XX) carefully, and consider ex-
tending the Red Rule (Exalted, p. 222) to cover other
uncomfortable situations, like being enslaved or tor-
tured.
bargain with powerful mortals as well as other Exalts.
Since every Lookshyan citizen is expected to serve in the
military, it’s also a good choice for games that will focus
on mass combat, if that’s something all your players are
interested in exploring.
Dragon-Blooded have also congregated into smaller,
and stranger, communities. The Forest Witches live
half in Creation, half in the strange Sea of Mind, and ex-
tend their lives through reincarnation. Others, like the
fae-touched Cult of the Violet Fang quest among the
Wyld, while Heaven’s Dragons live in the celestial city
of Yu-Shan, and the Wanasaan commune with the dead.
Beyond the reaches of the Realm, lone outcastes or small
families of Dragon-Blooded are big fish in small ponds,
ruling tiny kingdoms of mortals or minor spirits as un-
caring gods or fierce protectors. Any of these societies
could form the setting for a chronicle, or inform the his-
tory of your players’ characters.
If a particular Dragon-Blooded society interests you and
your group, you can begin to build a chronicle around it.
Alternatively, you can choose a society to suit the mode
of play your group finds most appealing. Monarchs of a
small nation, Grass Spider assassins, or ruthless Seven
Storms bandits could each make an appearance in a game
of Creation-as-Stage, setting the stage for larger-than-
life conflicts against archetypical foes. A game focused
on Creation-as-Threat might enjoy the larger politics,
and moral complexities, of a city like Prasad, or an eso-
teric group like the Forest Witches, whose paradise can
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turn into a nightmare over the course of a story. Lookshy
serves as a suitable backdrop to a story of Creation-as-
Cost, itself descended from a legion of doomed heroes,
still fighting for a Shogunate that has long since fad-
ed to dust. The players’ story can hold a mirror to the
city’s failing First Age artifice, itself a testament to what
they’ve lost and can hardly hope to regain.
Coming of Age
Most Dragon-Blooded Exalt in their teens, time, stress
and hormones all coming together to ignite the latent
power in their blood. This creates a unique story type for
Dragon-Blooded characters: the school game. Burdened
with great expectations, burning with hormonal passion,
and brimming with barely controlled elemental power,
teenaged Dragon-Blooded can hardly avoid coming-of-
age stories filled with larger-than-life conflicts.
Teenagers can be a bit ridiculous, and it’s easy for a school
game that centers Creation-as-Stage to lean heavily into
the fantastical elements of the Exalted setting, mix-
ing wuxia and the ever-popular superhero high school
genre. This style of chronicle can be a lot of fun for ev-
eryone, mixing comedy and drama and giving everyone a
chance to play a flawed-but-lovable young adult getting
involved in all sorts of shenanigans, and maybe even sav-
ing the world while they’re at it. As the Storyteller, you’ll
have some control over how far your game slips into
comedy: if your group enjoys a funny game, you can dou-
ble down on incompetent adult characters and ridicu-
lous school assignments, or bring in some anachronisms
to the Exalted setting (after all, there’s nothing saying
the Heptagram doesn’t have an annual prom). If you’d
rather things stay a bit more serious, build stories and
characters around the challenges of young adulthood
that are dramatic, but more realistic: straining against
parental expectations, worrying about the future, deal-
ing with tough emotions for the first time, and trying to
maintain friendships with equally struggling peers.
Despite their supernatural might, teenaged Dragon-
Blooded can also feel powerless. Just stepping into a
world where everyone is older and better than them,
making their own decisions can feel impossible against
teachers who can walk through walls and parents who
command legions. Young Dragon-Blooded, especially in
the Realm and Lookshy, also find themselves the young-
est representatives of ancient societies, inheriting old
enemies and grudges along with their Exaltations. For
games centering Creation-as-Threat, this gives you
plenty of angles to work from to create horror, whether
it’s being hunted for sport by the Anathema whose whole
village was slaughtered by Realm troops, or coming to
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
the slow realization that the all-powerful adults who
control the world can be ignorant, stupid, and cruel.
Finally, a school game set after the disappearance of the
Scarlet Empress can put the characters in the tragic po-
sition of sitting helpless at the center of a civil war: too
old to be kept in ignorance, but too young to do anything
important. A school game centering Creation-as-Cost
plays on the pathos of the young soldier, desperately he-
roic, yet doomed by forces beyond his control.
Storytellers can find more information on the Realm’s
secondary schools, and running a secondary school
game, in the Dragon-Blooded companion book Heirs to
the Shogunate.
Lunars — Reflections
of a Thousand Selves
For players and Storytellers looking to explore culture,
mythmaking, and identity, the Lunars offer a prime
choice, combined with unique mechanical and narrative
flexibility.
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Core Concepts
The Lunar Exalted are not as overwhelming as the
Solars, or as numerous as the Dragon-Blooded; they are
neither as esoteric as the Sidereals nor as grim as the
Abyssals. Instead, they stand at the crossroads between
all of them, flexible enough to fit into almost any Exalted
story — but heroic enough to more than merit their own
tales.
Self-Discovery
Lunars are shapeshifters. They can be whatever they
want to be, in the most literal sense; so many Lunar sto-
ries are stories of self-discovery. Like the Solars, Lunar
characters are well-suited for exploring how people —
good, bad, or otherwise — are affected by power. But for
the Lunars, this question is more internal: The Lunar
Exaltation frees them from being any one thing, and so
whatever they become — whether monster, king, god, or
something else entirely — is a choice they consciously
get to make.
At the moment of Exaltation, each Lunar also awakens
their spirit shape, an animal that resonates so strongly
with their identity that that animal is one of the Lunar’s
 C h a p t e r F o u r : T h e C h o s e n i n P l ay
true forms. Cultures throughout our own world and
Creation have used animals as metaphors for identity
and personality, so exploring what a spirit shape means
can jumpstart an interest in self-discovery for a player
character. Since the spirit shape is a choice made by the
player and not the character, it can be selected to either
emphasize a character’s preexisting traits, or to high-
light something the player is interested to see the char-
acter grow into: It’s one thing for a seasoned gladiator to
have the heart of a tyrant lizard, but another thing en-
tirely for a painfully shy librarian to have that same spirit
shape instead.
Sometimes, stories of Lunar self-discovery can in-
volve very intimate aspects of personal identity, such
as gender and ability. These are powerful narratives for
players to explore, but should absolutely be discussed
during Session Zero before being included. Storytellers
shouldn’t surprise players with them or try and force
them to the fore when they’re unwanted.
The Sins of Empire
Empires are built from the ground-up bones of the weak
and forgotten. The Realm of the Scarlet Dynasty reigns
over the lesser empires of the world, who in turn reign
over their own subjects, and so on forever — until the
muck and blood eventually pool at the bottom of the pyr-
amid. Even Lunar empires cannot escape this truth, al-
though they may struggle to mitigate it. This is all to say:
Chronicles about the Lunar Exalted are inherently and
unavoidably political.
LUNAR CULTURES
While Lunars are absolutely viable as wandering he-
roes travelling Creation in search of glory, passion,
and wisdom, their Charms and aesthetics often push
them towards positions of power and influence within
specific societies. These positions aren’t necessarily
as direct leaders — a Lunar can spread her influ-
ence just as much by positioning herself as an An-
ansi-style trickster, or as a tradition-enforcing figure
like the Baba Yaga. Both serve to define the boundar-
ies of civilization and morality for their own culture,
while reinforcing a trickster’s role as teacher.
Because of this, Lunars often become patrons to one
or more cultures, used here as a broad term to en-
compass everything from nomadic tribes to sprawl-
ing empires. Unifying the idea of cultures big and
small, imperial or subculture, serves as a reminder
that Lunars are at their best when embedded into
specific, vibrant peoples with their own customs, his-
tories, and legends.
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Lunar stories can’t really escape colonialism; Lunar sto-
ries are told in relationship to tribe, nation, and empire.
Not even the Lunars can build a just empire, although
some certainly make the attempt. As the wardens and
heroes of the Threshold the Lunars are uniquely poised
to see the effect of empires — especially (but not exclu-
sively) the Realm — on cultures across Creation, and to
resist them.
The foremost mission of the Silver Pact is the destruc-
tion of the Realm, or at least the dismantling of its he-
gemony. Despite this, when Lunars knowingly position
themselves as culture heroes — patron gods, vaunted
ancestors, bogeymen — they are, in ways both small and
great, complicit in the same kind of hegemony they fight
against. This isn’t to say that they’re wrong to do so, only
that their role as wardens of their chosen cultures is far
from simple.
Stories of the Margin
The Lunar Exalted are among the greatest powerbro-
kers of the Threshold, serving as heroes, patrons, and
god-emperors to cultures across all eight directions.
This places Lunar chronicles at the literal margin of the
world. While Lunar-backed societies are often mighty
in their own right, they still exist in the shadow of the
Realm. Embedding the Lunar Exalted in marginal cul-
tures means that their stories are about peoples resist-
ing colonialism and holding fast to important traditions,
norms, and systems.
While many Threshold societies draw from real-life cul-
tures, most avoid one-to-one comparisons, instead draw-
ing on multiple cultural palettes to create something
distinct from the original inspirations. Because Lunar
chronicles often deal with the value of cultural heritage,
it’s important to check in with players to ensure that cul-
tural details and nuances avoid easy stereotypes and the
impulse to “exoticize” cultures by emphasizing them as
foreign or arbitrary.
Elements of Play
The Lunars are ever-flowing and changing, offering
players and Storytellers considerable flexibility in solv-
ing problems through shapeshifting, Charms, and the
politics of the Pact.
Shapeshifting
Every Lunar Exalt is a shapeshifter. This means that
every Lunar Exalt is also one hunt away from being as
strong as a bear or as nimble as a cat. They are one hunt
away from wings to fly or fins to swim or thick hide or
keen sight or a thousand other animal traits. No one
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
WATCH OUT FOR SUSPICIOUS CATS
It’s generally known that the Lunars are shapeshift-
ers, so if someone knows a Lunar is after them, they’ll
probably get skittish around animals and strangers.
Remember, though, that Creation is a breathtakingly
huge place, and there are only a few hundred Lunars:
If everyone was always on guard for Lunar infiltra-
tors, they’d never get to sleep.
This is to say: Not all Dragon-Blooded will watch ev-
ery suspicious cat and wonder if it’s Anathema. Not
even occultists do that, unless they have a compelling
reason. Unless a shapeshifted character is being de-
liberately reckless people don’t see a rat and think
“Anathema!” Don’t try to hard-counter these strate-
gies unless you’ve got a really compelling narrative
reason.
Once the players have tipped their hands, though?
Well, when you know a shapeshifter is on your trail,
paranoia is a rational and appropriate response.
form can match the power of a properly trained Exalt,
but Lunars can quickly acquire broad competence, giv-
ing them unparalleled adaptability, at least on a purely
mortal level.
Human shapes, on the other hand, give Lunars the abil-
ity to infiltrate a society wholesale, as long as they are
either willing to kill their prey or possess the necessary
Charms to steal their shape in some other, more palat-
able way. If animal shapes give Lunars tactical solutions,
then human shapes give them strategic ones, allowing a
Lunar to seize a character’s social standing (and the re-
sources thereof ) to suit her own plans. A single Sacred
Hunt can take a Lunar from utterly unsuitable for a giv-
en mission to being not only competent, but essential.
Lunar flexibility means that out of the gate, they are able
to tackle mortal-level problems outside of their areas of
expertise. Telling a Lunar story means allowing them to
shine when they find ways to leverage their shapeshift-
ing abilities, especially when those ways are creative,
unexpected, or satisfying. It also means that with rel-
atively little investment, the players’ characters can all
have ways to contribute in a wide array of challenges,
which can keep everyone engaged and involved.
Lunar Charms and Flexibility
Lunar Charms are notably different than their Solar
equivalents. The most obvious difference is that their
Attribute-based Excellencies are extremely flexible,
allowing Lunars to take on challenges that they might
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not be well-trained for. Much like shapeshifting, this is a
feature and not a bug. In exchange, many Lunar Charms
are actually less flexible than Solars Charms: While Solar
Presence and Performance Charms can inspire a wide
range of emotions, Lunar influence leans in to attraction
and fear, playing on Lunars’ identities as both heart-
breaking muses and mad-eyed beasts. Lunar Charms are
built around these identities and aesthetics, and their
flexible Excellencies are in many ways the only tools in a
Lunar’s toolbox that allow them to approach a problem
without dipping into their primary themes.
Be mindful of the dice cap on Lunar Excellencies, which
can be increased by a stunt that shows how the Lunar
leverages another one of her Attributes in an action. As
a general rule, these stunts should be interpreted gener-
ously, with a relatively low bar. If you intend to ask for
more from a Lunar player, that’s something best estab-
lished in Session Zero (p. XX). While not recommend-
ed, some Storytellers and groups may find that adjusting
the expectations for Lunar Excellency stunts might help
with parity in mixed games where other characters have
lower dice pools.
The Silver Pact
Of all the Exalted, the Lunars have what is perhaps the
most flexible framing device: The Silver Pact is built to
naturally accommodate differences between groups
and chronicles. This flexibility comes mainly from the
fact that it provides a framework with only minimal
restrictions. Being a member of the Silver Pact means
that Lunars have a built-in network of important char-
acters and locations that they can interact with — or
not! A Lunar character and the Circle as a whole can
be as involved in the Pact as they like, or they can avoid
becoming entangled in it, often with greater ease than
a Sidereal skipping out on assignments or an Abyssal
dodging their Deathlord.
This flexibility also means that it’s important for a group
to discuss their expectations about the Silver Pact during
Session Zero: How involved will other Lunar characters
(and their schemes, empires, and enemies) be in this
chronicle?
In a “strong” Silver Pact chronicle, the players’ charac-
ters are likely to have a clear set of allies and mentors
they can turn to in times of need and who, in return, help
to frame challenges for the characters. These chronicles
can be a great choice for novice players because they pro-
vide a natural way of pacing challenges and can also in-
clude episodic or mission-based sessions that introduce
them to specific types of gameplay or setting elements.
 C h a p t e r F o u r : T h e C h o s e n i n P l ay
ELDERS OF THE PACT
Even in a strong-Pact game, elder Lunars don’t have
to be an everyday presence. Many are embedded so
strongly in the rhythms of their cultures that they have
little opportunity to escape without inconveniencing
themselves — what good is Mahalanka when its
Queen of Fangs is wandering abroad?
Elders can be narratively and mechanically over-
whelming and are best used with a light touch. It’s
one thing for players to receive advice and missives
from other Exalts every month or so; it’s another thing
altogether if those elders are literally and physically
present in day-to-day affairs. The best compromise
for highly involved elders is for them to be relatively
near, while remembering that Creation is incredibly
vast. Lilith might be willing to deflect a Wyld Hunt
from your newly Exalted Circle, but she’s harder to
get ahold of for immediate, smaller-scale issues, like
from solitary Immaculate mendicants or rampaging
behemoths.
Adjust these expectations to suit the game and the
players and remember that even the friendliest allies
have their own needs and agendas. Elder Lunars can
be excellent mentors, but like all mentors, they also
know when pupils must stand on their own.
The alternative is a “weak” Silver Pact chronicle —
which has little to do with how strong or weak the Pact
itself is, but instead focuses on a weak connection to or
from the Pact. If the players’ characters reject the Pact
or venture out on their own, the chronicle will need to
focus on either location-specific issues or player-driven
stories. This denies them access to valuable resources
and support, but also allows them greater freedom to set
their own priorities and design their territory from the
ground up, helping them to become invested in the sto-
ries of that place.
Choosing a level of Pact involvement can also influence
(or be influenced by) the location of the game, as many of
Exalted’s iconic Lunars are strongly embedded in place:
Leviathan and Sunken Luthe, Raksi in Mahalanka, and
Ma-Ha-Suchi in his nameless lair. Games set near these
locations don’t have to include these iconic characters
but placing the action near them does set up certain
expectations.
Remember that like so many other setting elements, the
Silver Pact can and should be adjusted to suit the chron-
icle and the players — and that it can be adjusted in play,
too, to reflect shifting alliances, altered priorities, and
reallocation of resources.
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Storytelling Challenges
The Lunars offer a comfortable middle ground for
Storytellers and players, combining some of the freedom
of Solars with the structure and support of entrenched
Exalts like the Sidereals. Storytelling a Lunar chronicle,
then, is about navigating that balance.
Modes of Play
In a Creation-as-Stage chronicle, Lunar characters are
ideally situated to embrace their roles as provocateurs,
mediums, and monsters, taking on larger-than-life roles.
Many Lunar Charms shine in this mode, especially love-
and fear-based social influence. This makes them a neat
foil to Solars: Instead of epic ambitions, Lunars are often
better defined by epic passions. Changing Creation is a
process of self-discovery, and if Creation is a Stage, then
they are players who are able to take on other roles at the
drop of a hat until they find one (or many) that fits. This
mode casts fledgling Lunars as eager heroes seeking op-
portunities to earn glory and recognition while more
experienced Lunars instead enter a game of politicking
within a society of god-monsters, all intimately tied to
the interests of their chosen peoples.
A Creation-as-Threat chronicle can emphasize the
material conditions of Creation, putting a spotlight on
dangerous roads, brutal winters, and deadly plagues —
all of which fit nicely into Lunar stories. As patrons of
Threshold cultures that make do without the wealth
and resources of the Realm, Lunar characters are often
well-positioned to explore and overcome these mortal
challenges, both personally and for their chosen cultures
at large. Harsh conditions are a common feature of many
Threshold locations, and overcoming these obstacles
can become part of a Lunar’s mythos: The jackal-headed
king who led his people through the burning sands of
the furthest South, or the rat-tailed shaman who fought
back the Weeping Plague.
Creation-as-Cost chronicles can emphasize the price
that Lunars pay for building and strengthening one
culture, all too often at the expense of another. Lunars
who try to avoid the sins of empire can easily find
themselves repeating them instead as their societies
grow large and strong enough to attract the attention of
rivals who must be either placated or subdued. These
games can also emphasize the fact that Lunars cannot
“share” their power as readily as Solars — while they
have a number of Charms for shaping a culture and em-
powering subordinates, Lunars can’t match the sheer
capacity of Solar infrastructure, or the far-reaching po-
tential of Sidereal fate-weaving, or the hellish miracles
of the Infernals. So much Lunar power is internal that
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
if a character leaves home, the people and things they
love are left distinctly vulnerable.
From Hero to Legend
Chronicles that embed the player characters in a spe-
cific place often follow a fairly regular arc. PCs change
from fledgling Exalts to mighty shahan-yas in their own
right over the course of their stories. At each stage, the
characters grow in power and responsibility at the cost
of becoming increasingly intertwined with the affairs of
their chosen peoples.
At the first stage, newly Exalted Lunars are often seeking
validation and respect as members of the Silver Pact or
as new powers in their own right. In a strong-Pact game,
this period can be framed as a series of errands and initi-
ations from elders and mentors; in a weak-Pact game, the
characters are likely more vulnerable and must prove
themselves to nearby powers. Some common challeng-
es at this stage include bringing unruly spirit courts to
heel, solving resource issues, embedding oneself in lo-
cal politics and religion, and challenging unjust power
structures. In a game unconcerned about the Pact, or
where player characters have actively eschewed Pact
membership, Lunars may instead seek to either contrast
themselves against their Pact fellows or cultivate a place
in an established culture. In this sense, they are not seek-
ing validation from their elders, but from those they rule
over or champion.
At the second stage, the Lunars move from participants
in the Silver Pact or individual heroes to young men-
tors. The players’ characters begin to acquire powerful
allies and subordinates who look up to them specifical-
ly, including outcastes, God-Blooded, spirits, and young
Lunar (or even Solar) Exalted. This is also the stage
when they begin to transition from heroes within their
chosen cultures into patrons in their own right, often be-
coming part of a culture’s pantheon.
In the final stage, Lunar characters become shahan-yas
in their own right, standing not only as members of the
Silver Pact, but respected leaders — or as fearsome god-
beasts respected as the peers and clear equals of other
shahan-yas. At this level, the players’ characters influ-
ence can extend throughout entire directions, rallying
other cultures and Lunars to their side. This stage is one
that fundamentally changes the setting: While there are
many shahan-ya throughout Creation, the characters
(as protagonists of their own chronicle) will energize
the Pact towards a discrete goal, whether it is breaking
up the Guild, shattering satrapies, or taking down the
Mask of Winters. While this final stage is best suited for
characters as they reach higher Essence levels, the most
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important step is galvanizing the Pact (or a sizable por-
tion thereof ) towards decisive action — high Essence is
more an effect than a cause, simply because it takes time
to garner this level of support.
Don’t Call them Barbarians
In previous editions, the single word most associated
with the Lunar Exalted was “barbarians,” but this edi-
tion has consciously moved away from that word for
two reasons. First, “barbarian” is a loaded term that
implies a sense of cultural superiority, which says more
about the people saying it than the people it’s being said
about. Secondly, it’s reductive: Calling the Lunars (and
especially the cultures they support) barbarians painted
them with a broad brush that left very little room for nu-
ance, detail, or sympathy. Characters in the game (espe-
cially Realm dignitaries) will absolutely think of and call
them barbarians, but try to avoid the word as a catch-all
description in narration or discussion.
The cultures championed by the Lunar Exalted run the
gamut from large to small and from simple to complex.
Lunar characters can embrace or reject elements of soci-
ety and technology as freely as anyone else. If they tend
towards less sophisticated technology and organization
it is not because they lack the ability to realize them, but
because their tactics and lifestyles don’t require them.
You can demonstrate the value of this to the player char-
acters through Lunar mentors or allies, especially by
highlighting the ways in which infrastructure is unnec-
essary in the face of Lunar guerrilla warfare.
Where the Moon Rises
The choice of where to set a chronicle is especially im-
portant for Lunar characters because they tend to be-
come culturally embedded in a way that is different from
other Exalts. In a Solar game, it might not be remarkable
if each character came from a different land, or even a
different direction. Lunars work best when the charac-
ters are invested in the cultures they are entangled with,
and the easiest way to achieve that investment is for a
character to serve as patron to their own culture, or at
least one they are familiar with.
The same sense of place is clear in a Lunar’s personal
aesthetics, especially their spirit shape — a shark-Lunar
might be an interesting way to play against theme in the
dune-choked city of Dajaz, but players generally want
their spirit shapes to be useful and relevant.
Remember that Creation is enormous, with vast swathes
of “blank space” on the map between major locations.
You and your players can populating that blank space
with unique and interrelated cultures at whatever scale
 C h a p t e r F o u r : T h e C h o s e n i n P l ay
fits your game. If it stretches credibility to have multi-
ple player characters who hail from a single kingdom or
city-state, consider working with players to flesh out (or
invent whole cloth) the surrounding cultures, giving the
players’ characters a preexisting set of expectations and
a dynamic situation to explore: If the game is set in (or
at least, starts in) Randan for instance, what sorts of cli-
ent-states and islands could the players come from, and
how do these cultures relate to one another in a way that
is dramatically interesting?
Many locations in The Realm, Lunars, and Across the
Eight Directions include “postage-stamp” suggestions
about neighboring societies. These short write-ups can
be extremely useful for Lunar players who want to be
tied to an existing culture, but who also want room to ex-
plore and develop a background of their own. Inventing
or fleshing out new cultures also specifically empowers
players to be the expert on that culture, giving them a
measure of narrative authority that can help them feel
like true Lunar patrons.
The Sun and the Moon
The Solar Bond is a powerful storytelling opportunity. It
is also entirely optional. For players who are interested
in the Solar Bond, it can be an invaluable source of drama
and beauty, an opportunity to tell stories of abiding love
that conquers the eons — or of the epic tragedy of loves
twisted or lost. This is an element that should absolutely
be discussed with players during Session Zero, especial-
ly because the Bond is such a fruitful source of drama
that its presence or absence can completely change a
chronicle’s focus and trajectory.
In terms of narrative, the Solar Bond gives the Storyteller
access to characters the players are already invested in.
If the Lunar and the Solar have positive feelings towards
one another, then they might end up as friends, lovers,
allies, or (friendly) rivals. This can be complicated if one
side feels the connection more strongly or in a different
context than the other — romantic on one side versus
platonic admiration on the other, for example. Players
uninterested in a positive Bond might instead take bond-
mates to serve as foils: Solars who represent the empires
they struggle against can make excellent recurring en-
emies who desperately want to understand and be un-
derstood. Some players might even have their characters
bonded to an Abyssal or Infernal, either as star-crossed
lovers or proof of the possibility of redemption.
Mechanically, the Solar Bond means that the play-
er characters will likely either be with or against their
mates; while Quick Characters work well for low-XP
games these Solar characters likely require their own
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full character sheets. In a pinch, you can simply choose a
few flashy, signature Charms (or combinations thereof )
for the Solar, especially in their Supernal Ability, rather
than fleshing out an entire build.
The Realm Will Burn
Lunars are an external force posing an existential threat
to the Realm and its satrapies. Individual Lunars pur-
sue their own agendas as culture-heroes, tricksters, and
god-monsters, but the Silver Pact unites them in a great,
protracted war against the Realm and its Empress.
Lunar chronicles are a natural fit for fighting the
Dragon-Blooded. A fledgling Lunar’s allies and men-
tors have almost certainly earned the enmity of one
Dragon-Blooded or another, if not entire satrapies and
Great Houses. Stories of the long war against the Realm
are stories of guerilla tactics and attrition: Infiltrating a
hidden compound, rousing a peasant rebellion, or lead-
ing a midnight raid on the treasure-houses of a Dynast
are the bread and butter of Lunar strategy. Large-scale
operations might involve a series of targeted missions,
connecting together to hamper the Realm in an imme-
diate, material way, such as destroying a vitally-located
harbor or convincing the lords of a city to halt their trib-
ute payments.
Missions against the Realm resonate with all three
modes of play. In Creation-as-Stage, they provide a
concrete way of illustrating the players striking back
at the Scarlet Empress and her dynasty; they also offer
any number of opportunities for heroic moments as the
player characters lead a rebelling mob, leap into battle,
or snare some unwary dynast in their trap.
Creation-as-Cost and Creation-as-Threat, on the oth-
er hand, do well to highlight the collateral costs of Lunar
insurrection. At the end of a raid, when the group is
still thrumming with excitement, ask them to count the
dead. Show them someone lost in grief, or someone hurt
beyond their ability to heal. Let them have their moment
of victory, but make sure the scene lingers just a little too
long — time enough to ask if it was worth it.
The Lunars pursue a long, protracted strategy because
they don’t currently have the strength to crush the Realm
decisively. If the players are invested in the fight, help
guide them towards opportunities to make that kind of
decisive attack: A gala for all the greatest scions of House
Ragara might be their chance to crush a Great House in
one swoop, or a peace talk between Mnemon and Sesus
Raenyah might be turned into an ambush. These kinds of
world-shaking events give the players a cause to which
they can rally their allies and the Pact, helping them to
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
step into their role as leaders in their own right. While
an elder Lunar ally will help counter certain threats, the
player characters should control the agenda, because
these missions are the proving grounds of the Pact.
Other Challenges
In designing challenges for a Lunar chronicle, it is im-
portant to recognize the value of both external threats
— monsters, conquerors, and Creation itself — as well
as internal threats, including the Lunar’s own sense of
identity.
The most straightforward challenges for Lunars are
beasts, monsters, demons, and the like. Full Moons are
the premier warriors of Luna’s Host, but for Changing
Moons and No Moons alike the right bit of shapeshift-
ing can turn a bookish herbalist into a frenzied siaka.
For best effect, a monster fight should have something
more at stake than just victory: It’s easy to put a village
in danger, but Lunars might also be drawn into bat-
tle as a test of mettle, in search of powerful reagents,
to take heart’s blood…perhaps even just to vent their
frustrations.
While this edition doesn’t emphasize the Fair Folk as the
primary enemy of the Lunars, they still represent a use-
ful source of antagonism. Cultures in the further regions
of the Threshold often have some relationship with lo-
cal fae courts, ranging from relatively friendly to bloody
defiance. Fair Folk can make interesting recurring char-
acters as either allies or enemies, especially if they can
provide something the player characters want or need
— goblin treasures, strange elixirs, faerie familiars, or
ancient lore, especially. The costs they exact can come
in a thousand different forms but should be devised to
be both strange and provocative, requiring characters to
make compromises or adjustments in order to reach a
bargain.
As cultural patrons, one major source of conflict can
come from within a Lunar’s own culture, especially if
the character has recently overextended her influence
or led them astray. This can be doubly damning because
it challenges the character’s authority in a way that
might not be easily answered: Enemies can be hunted
and brought to heel, but a Lunar who gets repudiated by
her chosen people is caught between a rock and a hard
place. If she overwhelms her opposition, she sets her-
self on a dangerous path towards tyranny and solitude;
if she cannot respond, she looks weak and loses respect
from the people she must lead and protect. These kinds
of internal challenges can come from the families of the
dead or injured, shamans and other spiritual leaders, or
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respected allies — whatever the source, these conflicts
are among the hardest to resolve because they are emo-
tionally fraught and resist clean solutions.
The player characters can also be challenged by the
Silver Pact at large as they are caught up in someone
else’s plans or pressured to play their part despite their
own self interests. When Leviathan surfaces with an
army of beastfolk and demands that the Circle house
and feed his soldiers, how can they say no? When the el-
ders of the Dreaming Sea finally conspire to topple Ysyr,
will they be dissuaded if the plan will cause collateral
damage for the players’ cultures? These are far-reach-
ing challenges that should be used sparingly, because
they can feel deprotagonizing; when they are used, they
should be foreshadowed appropriately, giving the play-
ers opportunities to intervene well before the fact.
Whatever challenges a Lunar faces from the outside
world,there remains one challenge that is within them-
selves: The beast. This isn’t a literal force or an alter-
nate personality, but rather the fact that Lunars have
tremendous, personal power, and that power is tooled
to make them into apex predators. They are powerful,
and prone to all the ways in which power can corrupt,
but the unique nature of their Charms and other abili-
ties pushes them towards certain archetypes that might
challenge their personal identities — tempter, berserker,
and nightmare. When the opportunity presents itself,
put the spotlight on a character’s actions, especially in
the wrap-up of a scene or session. Ask the player what
their character felt in a moment of frenzy or darkness.
Listen carefully, and use their answers.
Sidereals —
Servants of Destiny
Sidereal characters and chronicles offer a vividly spe-
cific take on heroism in Creation, one that is often best
suited for groups already familiar with the world and
mechanics of Exalted.
Core Concepts
Esoteric; secretive; subtle; these are the traits of the
Sidereals. The Sidereal Exalted are Heaven’s own Chosen,
agents of Fate who serve the Celestial Bureaucracy as
spies, assassins, courtiers, and specialists. Chronicles
which focus on the adventures of the Sidereal Exalted
have useful frameworks to work within, including the
politics of Yu-Shan and the trappings of bureaucracy.
 C h a p t e r F o u r : T h e C h o s e n i n P l ay
The Splendors of Yu-Shan
While the abode of the gods can play a role in any game
of Exalted, it is the most prominent in Sidereal chron-
icles. The Sidereals are — one and all — employees of
the Heavenly Bureaucracy and the anointed agents of
destiny itself. Their chronicles often take place in, or at
least heavily feature, the glories of Yu-Shan, abode of
Creation’s greatest divinities. It’s a place of sumptuous
delights, ancient politics, and corruptions both subtle
and overt. Navigating its alien mores can imbue Sidereal
chronicles with a sense of both the numinous and the
mundane: Every day, the Viziers work alongside gods
as old as the world…and in so doing, discover them to
be subject to pettiness, vanity, and every other brand of
mortal failing. No other characters can explore Yu-Shan
as fully or as meaningfully, making it both a key element
of Sidereal storytelling and an iconic setting in and of
itself.
Highlighting Yu-Shan is a matter of strong, concrete
details that engage the players’ senses: What do they
smell as they walk down gold-cobbled streets where lit-
eral gods bark for their custom? What do they feel and
hear? While too much description can bog down a sto-
ry, picking strong sensory details can help cultivate and
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maintain a sense of alien wonder. These details don’t
need to be universally grandiose. Sometimes, the simple
smell of perfectly steeped tea or the rustle of spun-moon-
light silk is enough to remind the players that they dwell
in the highest and holiest of cities. The same applies to
describing Yu-Shan’s corruption — what is a slum like,
by godly standards? How do the deities of hideous and
undesirable portfolios comport themselves when they
literally drip with noxious sludge?
From the Shadows
The Sidereals are powerful martial artists and cunning
warriors, but they do not fight openly if it can be avoid-
ed. When they broke the constellation of the Mask, they
afflicted themselves to be forever forgotten by Creation
— a destiny which suits their chosen methods as spies,
assassins, and advisors. Their tactics favor the shadows,
influencing the world through words whispered in the
right ear or a clever web of astrological blessings. These
same tactics come from an abundance of caution, for the
Five-Score Fellowship cannot risk an agent casually.
Sidereal chronicles can emphasize these themes through
both social pressures and outside consequences. At the
simplest level, social pressure ensures that peers and
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
elders favor a light touch; Sidereals who make a nuisance
of themselves with dangerous, foolhardy, or bombastic
solutions to their problems may find themselves weight-
ed down with scorn. Outside consequences reinforce the
need for subtlety further; from official censure from su-
periors to drawing dangerous enemies into Sidereal af-
fairs — after all, the Solars have returned, and many may
see through Arcane Fate to find their ancient betrayers
playing with Creation’s puppet-strings.
Weary are the Wise
The Sidereals have a unique vantage point on the world
of Exalted, with at least passing awareness of most of
the disparate threats originating in Creation and beyond.
There are a thousand things that demand their atten-
tion: Petitions to be filed, memorandums to be written,
gods to be placated (or threatened, or bribed). A Solar
warlord is sitting on the throne of Plenilune, the Realm
is at the edge of a civil war, and what’s the deal with this
Mask of Winters fellow over in Thorns?
In some ways, Sidereals are the closest the setting gets to
experienced players of Exalted itself, because they have
an acute awareness of Creation’s scope and challenges.
This means that while it is easy for Sidereals to involve
themselves or be involved in almost any aspect of the set-
ting, their time and resources are stretched razor-thin.
Prioritizing problems and taking acceptable losses is a
core element of Sidereal play — after all, the Five-Score
Fellowship is only (approximately) 100 strong, and even
the most peaceful corners of Creation demand the care-
ful administration of destiny.
Elements of Play
Sidereals offer players and Storytellers an experience
that is often more bounded and specific than other types
of Exalt. As in so many other cases, though, restrictions
can encourage creativity, helping to put players in the
role of Sidereals: Put-upon agents of Heaven, forever
called upon to do more with less.
Sidereal Charms
The Sidereal Charmset can sometimes feel like you’re
being asked to save the world with a paperclip, seven
gallons of insecticide, a genuine Ming vase, and a bad-
ger named Maurice. Their abilities are purposefully ab-
struse, approaching problems (and the Abilities) from
odd angles as if daring players to find the best way to
use them. At times, this casts the Maidens as the “gad-
geteers” of a spy movie, outfitting their agents with a
seemingly random assortment of gear that nonetheless
turns out to be exactly what the situation required. At
other times, it can seem like the Sidereals are burdened
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by strange, moon-logic powers that must be jury-rigged
into a semblance of usefulness.
Just as planned.
Sidereals are secret agents and esoteric magicians and
the Chosen of the Maidens. Their Charms mark them
accordingly. Players who prefer direct solutions to
problems might not enjoy the arcane nature of Sidereal
powers. This conversation should be part of a Sidereal
Session Zero, especially for novice players. Remember
that characters can supplement their Sidereal Charms
with martial arts, sorcery, and Evocations, which can
help to mitigate gaps in their natural abilities.
At the same time, the Storyteller should be generous in
allowing players to use Sidereal Charms in unorthodox
ways, especially when they either delight the other play-
ers or expedite play. For Charms which have a narra-
tive-driven effect — like Shun the Smiling Lady — follow
up and ask the player what they’re hoping to accomplish,
specifically. Creating a distraction by forcefully severing
the bond of love between two people is a hideous solu-
tion to a mundane problem, but Sidereal pride often fa-
vors expedience over empathy.
The Bureau of Destiny
Unlike any other Exalted in Creation, the Sidereals have
a job — not just a purpose, but a literal set of duties as-
signed to them from on high, complete with paperwork,
assistants, office space, and an operating budget. As a
major framing device for Sidereal chronicles, their heav-
enly duties can be dialed in to support various stories
and playstyles, usually by answering one question: What
does their work really look like?
Games that want to emphasize Sidereal agency can
downplay the bureaucratic elements, allowing them to
occur mostly off-screen. Scenes are framed to side-step
(or at least accommodate) whatever demands their jobs
might have, in the same way that other chronicles don’t
frame scenes around an uninterrupted afternoon nap —
scenes, by the nature of the game, are meant to be pur-
poseful, and the bulk of the Sidereal’s bureaucratic work
is just fodder for one-liners, put-upon sighs, and strange
anecdotes.
Games set in Heaven or with a focus on Sidereal poli-
ticking have to engage with these issues more meaning-
fully. While no one is expected to roleplay form-filing,
a Sidereal’s work can inform and consume almost their
entire life, especially when the Five-Score Fellowship
is in the middle of a pitched internal battle for the liter-
al Fate of the world. Responsibilities in Heaven make it
difficult to pursue personal goals and projects, leaving
 C h a p t e r F o u r : T h e C h o s e n i n P l ay

the player characters scrambling for the time and space While their increasing esoteric styles may represent a
they need. hundred contradictory philosophies, strengthening one
another strengthens the whole Fellowship’s ability to re-
Other games may choose a more episodic frame, espe- spond to threats against Creation.
cially for players new to Sidereals or Exalted in general.
Small, self-contained missions can serve as excellent in- Storytelling Challenges
troductions to various setting elements and mechanics,
while larger missions might see the Circle working in Sidereal games present a number of unique challeng-
Creation at their own recognizance for months or years es and opportunities for Storytellers, allowing them to
at a time. draw on tropes from political dramas, legal procedurals,
espionage, and wuxia — a broad palette of genres that
Be clear in communicating how their various respon-
can be dialed up or down to shape a chronicle’s tone.
sibilities will be framed to players at the outset, as it
can dramatically impact their characters in terms of Modes of Play
both narratives and mechanics — a Sidereal built for
Creation-as-Stage chronicles provide a bounty of oppor-
Hollywood-style heist missions is very different from
tunities for Sidereals to shine as martial arts masters,
one meant to flit from parlor to Heavenly parlor in
shadowy influencers, and magnificent bastards entan-
search of gossip and support.
gled in plans upon plans upon plans. In games that fo-
cus on the players’ characters working for the Celestial
Grandmasters of the Martial Arts
Bureaucracy, missions are generally epic in scale, send-
The Sidereals are the foremost masters of martial arts
ing the Circle across Creation and back again in defense
in Creation. While all Exalts have access to supernatu-
of destiny. Heaven-bound games instead see the charac-
ral martial arts, they occupy a special place in Sidereal
ters circulating through the salons of the mightiest gods,
chronicles for many reasons: First, the arcane nature of
rooting out corruption and pushing their own agenda for
Sidereal Charms means that martial arts can provide ac-
the destinies of entire nations. Whether in Creation or
cess to a number of more straightforward strategies that
Yu-Shan, these chronicles have a sense of being “above it
might otherwise be unavailable. Moreover, the Sidereals
all,” and often highlight the bird’s eye view that Sidereals
are the creators and masters of the eponymous Sidereal
have over Creation. Doing so can provoke both hubris
Martial Arts, which offer characters access to truly daz-
and abject loneliness — for the Five-Score Fellowship is
zling and bizarre powers; training in lower-Essence
a fractious, back-biting group of contradictory prophets,
martial arts provides a foundation for these later tech-
their own greatest rivals…and the only ones who will
niques to build on.
ever understand one another.
The martial arts also offer countless narratives and
Sidereals occupy a strange position in Creation-as-
roles for the Sidereals, foremost among them being the
Threat chronicles, because they have access to Yu-Shan
sifu-student relationship. It is the nature of Sidereal
and its many splendors, a world that is removed from
Essence to instruct and guide, even if they do not do so
the worst and most base problems of Creation. At least,
consciously. Many of these relationships are harmoni-
it seems that way: Despite its luxury and glamour, Yu-
ous, with like-minded elders passing down their secrets
Shan is as corrupt as Creation, or perhaps even more so.
to up-and-coming allies. Other mentors may choose
A Sidereal in Heaven has access to decadence and in-
their students based on other criteria, creating relation-
dulgences that would beggar emperors, and as the only
ships despite friction: An aging Bronze Faction luminary
mortals in a room full of gods, they know that this is fun-
might choose a rebellious Gold Faction upstart, either
damentally wrong. The sense of foreboding and dread
out of duty to Fellowship, an attempt to coax the young-
inherent to Creation-as-Threat games is strongest when
er Chosen to her philosophy, or simply because he is the
the players’ characters are dispatched to Creation, em-
best student to inherit her style.
phasizing the contrast between Yu-Shan and the mortal
world. Possessed of considerable power and resources,
Other martial relationships — fellow student, snobbish
the Sidereals will see many problems arrayed around
prodigy, bitter rival — can bring characters into one an-
them that they could solve, almost trivially — but which
other’s orbit, helping to reinforce the feeling that what-
they mustn’t or shouldn’t, because Fate, policy, or con-
ever political divides they may have, the Sidereals have a
venience don’t align with a solution.
special bond of duty to one another. A Sidereal may even
inadvertently mentor their rival, providing insight into
Creation-as-Cost chronicles can put Sidereal infight-
Sidereal techniques from surviving the Sidereal’s blows.
ing in sharp relief, vividly illustrating the costs of pride

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 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
on Creation, its peoples, and the Sidereals themselves.
Arcane Fate is an especially useful tool for Storytellers in
these chronicles, because it literally prevents Sidereals
from ever truly belonging in Creation at large. The peo-
ple they love have forgotten them, and anyone else they
might love will forget them, too. It is no wonder they are
lonely. No wonder they seek solace in their power and
position. No wonder, indeed. These games may also em-
phasize the ways in which Sidereal politicking shapes
and reshapes the flow of destiny — incautious use of as-
trology may go awry, causing a Sidereal’s plans to lead to
her own undoing, even endangering Creation itself and
leaving it vulnerable to be exploited.
Sketching the Fellowship
In Sidereal chronicles that are interested in either Yu-
Shan politics or the internal strife of the Five-Score
Fellowship, one vital tool to maintain is a relationship
map. Because those destined to Exalt as Sidereals are
spirited away to Yu-Shan and raised as apprentices to
the Fellowship, and because the Fellowship is only one
hundred Sidereals strong, it’s more likely than not that
the players’ characters know almost every other living
Sidereal, whether in person or by reputation. Keeping
track of who’s who — and who wants what, and whose
knife is in whose back — becomes cumbersome without
a plan at the outset.
In establishing the relationship map, start with the play-
ers’ characters and connect them to any figures relevant
to their Backgrounds — such as Allies, Mentors, or Sifus.
Beyond this, the Storyteller and players are free to add
any other characters they want to highlight, including
iconic Sidereals like Chejop Kejak or Ayesha Ura, but
keeping the map relatively sparse leaves more room for
things to develop in play. To add initial texture, make
some basic connections between the players’ characters
and others already on the map: How does Jukashi the
Radiant feel about his Circlemates’ sifus, and how do
they feel in return?
A broader map can also be used to include important gods
relevant to the player characters and the chronicle. While
additional characters can add a level of complexity, it is one
of the most direct ways to remind players about who’s in-
terests are in conflict, especially when the time comes to
navigate between otherwise irreconcilable plans.
The Nature of Destiny
It’s important for the Storyteller and players to have a
shared vision for how destiny works in Creation, because
the words “fate” and “destiny” can evoke a wide range
of meanings, each with a slew of associated tropes. By
default, “fate” refers to the causality of Creation, while
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“destiny” refers to the active plan composed by Heaven
for the orderly functioning of the world. Gods wrangle
with one another over which destinies to include, from
the general (“The city of Gem shall prosper”) to the spe-
cific (“Jyga Five-Trials will rise to prominence among
the people of Azure, introducing a popular new dance”).
Seemingly petty destinies can be the product of either
divine nepotism or a kind of long game, using someone
as a means to an end.
Fate and destiny aren’t infallible. It’s like a river’s cur-
rent: Let yourself get carried along and things unfurl
with relative ease; resist and you’ll be paddling upstream.
Exalts and other powerful beings are touched by destiny
only lightly, and their presence can easily interrupt the
proper progression of things, warping or even invalidat-
ing Heaven’s plans. When Sidereals speak of destiny, it is
a prescription for good order, a series of political nego-
tiations, and a numinous, omnipresent force all at once.
Bronze and Gold
One of the most fundamental aspects of a Sidereal cam-
paign is factional politics. The Bronze Faction represents
an entrenched party, supporters of the Usurpation who
still prop up the Realm and oppose the return of the
Solars. In contrast, the Gold Faction is a growing bloc that
seeks to support (and leverage) the return of the Solars,
ushering in a new Age. The rift between the two factions
is often but not always generational; young Bronze initi-
ates often come from those who bear strong, even haunt-
ing memories from previous incarnations. The rift is also
far from polarized — Sidereals young and old can hold a
range of opinions between the two, and even maintain
good relations with partisans of both factions.
Factional loyalties shape how the players’ characters
will approach the return of the Solars as well as the rise
of the Abyssals and Infernals, but there’s still a lot of gray
space between the two extremes. Chronicles that mix
factions should make intraparty conflict part of Session
Zero, establishing ground rules to make sure that even
when the characters disagree, the players will still enjoy
the game.
Games focusing on the Gold Faction give the player char-
acters the opportunity to be at the vanguard of a growing
movement, supporting and guiding the newly returned
Solars. Gold Faction characters are easier to integrate in
mixed-Circle games with Solars, Lunars, and Exigents
because of this. Gold Faction games are fundamentally
hopeful, often aligning well with Creation-as-Stage.
These are chronicles about shepherding the world into
a better future, and while it will be difficult and perilous,
the perfect future is possible.
 C h a p t e r F o u r : T h e C h o s e n i n P l ay
Bronze Faction games are more likely to emphasize
Creation-as-Threat or Creation-as-Cost, as their posi-
tion is inherently tragic. Whether or not it was justified,
the Usurpation diminished Creation greatly, making it
lesser, but safe. The dramatic thrust of a Bronze Faction
game is to explore the return of the Solars and the ques-
tion of necessity: How much will the Bronze Faction sac-
rifice in the name of keeping Creation safe?
Characters sympathetic to both or neither side can pro-
vide an interesting take on the way that Sidereals blind
themselves with their pride and certainty. While opting
out of factional politics might cost the characters a lot
of potential support and allies, it can also give them the
freedom to shape a future for themselves.
Espionage
Sidereal chronicles often involve some level of espi-
onage, if only because it allows them to play to their
strengths as the secret agents of Yu-Shan. This isn’t a
genre of play that all players may be equally familiar or
comfortable with, though. One of the simplest ways to
generate buy-in for this kind of play is to find a media
touchstone: Sidereals can certainly draw inspiration
from spy movies of every stripe, but they also resonate
with heist stories like Ocean’s 11 and Leverage. Finding a
shared touchstone can give everyone a clearer picture of
where the game is going and what to expect.
Many of these stories — and especially heist movies —
rely on narrative twists and counter-twists as the heroes
respond to unforeseen circumstances only to reveal that
everything is, in fact, going as planned. There are essen-
tially two ways of modeling this kind of action: forward
and backward. In a forward model, players are encour-
aged to plan out their actions with some depth, writing
down major steps and contingencies beforehand. While
some players thrive during planning sessions, others can
become either paralyzed by examining every possibility
or else simply check out.
The alternative is to let players plan backwards, giving
them a certain number of “flashbacks” they can use to
adjust their circumstances in small ways, or letting them
make retroactive rolls to see if they might have consid-
ered a problem during their planning phase. This puts
the spotlight on improvisation, helping to model the fact
that the characters are probably better at planning super-
natural heists than their players would be. Storytellers
looking for a more concrete way to model this kind of
play can take inspiration from the Charm Master Plan
Meditation (Exalted, p. 318), especially focusing on ef-
fects like destroying evidence.
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However the Storyteller chooses to model these adven-
tures, Sidereal espionage is a major undertaking, one
that helps the Five-Score Fellowship and the gods of the
Celestial Bureaucracy to set policy and weave Fate. It
is especially vital in any dealings with powerful Exalts,
rogue gods, demons, ghosts, and Fair Folk, all of whom
can distort the intentions of Fate without even meaning
to. While their positions in Heaven give the Sidereals
access to a broad swathe of basic information, it cannot
replace the necessity of having boots on the ground to
infiltrate the operations of the Deathlords, discover the
schemes of the demon-princes of Malfeas, or gather
compromising information on potential contenders for
the Scarlet Throne.
Legal Procedural
In addition to spycraft, Sidereal chronicles are a natural
fit for legal procedurals — stories that follow characters
as they investigate crimes, create and strengthen their
case, and argue it in court. These procedurals can vary
greatly depending on the where and the who of a given
case: Investigating a missing god in Great Forks is dif-
ferent from prosecuting Exigence-smugglers in Yu-Shan
is different from serving as defense counsel for a trial
against a captured Infernal with the Unconquered Sun
at the bench.
When creating a procedural adventure, it is important to
understand the players’ personal preferences and their
characters’ strengths. Running the boots-on-the-ground
work of a case spotlights Investigation, Awareness,
Socialize, and Survival easily enough, but remember
to make space for all characters to contribute, even in
unorthodox ways: Craft might help track down the
only source for a certain kind of silk in the city, while
Performance can be used to create a distraction while a
Circlemate slips into the vault in search of incriminating
evidence. Be open to a variety of tactics and find ways
to make the contributions of all the player characters
meaningful in order to help everyone engage with the
genre.
Sidereal procedurals bring characters into contact with
heavenly agents, from the unyielding orichalcum lions
that guard Yu-Shan to the lesser elemental dragons
who administer justice as court censors. If a chronicle
wants to highlight the corruption of the gods, it can be
paradoxically important to have at least some Storyteller
characters that are doing their best to stay on the straight
and narrow. This juxtaposition helps to avoid a sense of
futility, promotes a sense of hope, and provides the play-
ers’ characters with a much-needed set of allies when
the entire world may seem against them.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
Whether in Creation or Yu-Shan, laws in Exalted are
different than those in the real world. This is an area
where character expertise is very different from player
expertise, and Storytellers should be generous in deter-
mining what information requires a roll, and how diffi-
cult that roll should be. While questions of wording and
precedent can be narratively impactful, the players will
never have the full, lived context that their characters
have: err on the side of giving the players more infor-
mation than they need, especially when providing them
with context for their hard-earned discoveries.
Procedurals that incorporate legal proceedings can han-
dle these in a number of different ways. Lesser hearings
might be resolved in one or two rolls, with bonuses (or
penalties) assigned for the quality of evidence the play-
ers can provide. More complicated or impactful cases
might form the bulk of a full session, with back-and-forth
action between the characters and the accused as they
attempt to sway the judge, censor, or jury — although
these sessions often demand strong improvisational
skills from both the players and Storyteller. Particularly
damning or vital evidence shouldn’t require a roll at all,
especially if the characters invested considerable time
and effort in uncovering it.
The Way of the Fighter
Because the Sidereals are the premier martial artists of
Creation, their stories lend themselves well to games
that emphasize the martial arts — not only as a way to
fight, but as codified philosophies and aesthetic state-
ments. Young heroes come to blows with friends and
rivals alike, settling their differences in the ring. These
chronicles foreground the Sidereal-sifu relationship as
one of absolute importance, and a shared sifu can be a
strong framework for the players’ characters to work to-
gether even if they’re otherwise unaffiliated.
Martial arts-focused games often work best in the
Creation-as-Stage mode — in this case, the stage is
a fighting ring. Tournaments are a frequent feature in
martial arts narratives and can provide an interesting
way for novice players to become oriented to the com-
bat system in a relatively low-effort way. However, the
one-on-one nature of a tournament match can side-
line the other characters; countering this requires the
Storyteller to either divide their attention between the
fighter and other dramatics occurring off-stage, or else
to hold group-based matches. Smaller groups will find
either option more manageable and satisfying than larg-
er groups, simply because everyone’s character will have
more time to shine with a minimum of downtime.
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These chronicles can easily resonate with the theme of
Sidereal hubris, not only because pride often motivates
fictional martial artists, but also because the martial arts
world is one where might does, in fact, make right. This
is especially true of elder Sidereals, who have not only
spent thousands of years gazing down on the affairs of
Creation from on high, but who have mastered countless
styles, including the transcendent techniques of Sidereal
Martial Arts. They can be cast as implacable antagonists,
harsh teachers, or wise mentors, but they should always
show the ways in which a Sidereal can fall victim to
pride: Obstinacy, righteousness, arrogance, condescen-
sion, callousness, and a hundred other ways of interfer-
ing either too much or too little with a world they see as
beneath them.
Given the diversity of martial arts stories in media,
Storytellers and players should work together to find
shared touchstones. These can range from the films of
Bruce Lee to high-flying wuxia like Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon or the fantasy-rich worlds of xianxia
cultivation novels. This shared media vocabulary gives
players a clearer understanding of the intended tone
and tropes — what may seem overwrought in one sub-
genre might be played as intentionally melodramatic in
another.
The Foes of the Wise
Sidereal chronicles inevitably and necessarily deal with
the gods, whether the celestial deities of Yu-Shan or the
earthly spirits of Creation. Bureaucratic corruption runs
rampant in the societies of the gods, and so Sidereals are
often cast as targets, benefactors, or investigators of di-
vine misconduct. As targets, the Sidereals are subject to
the whims of gods who are either their superiors (such
as celestial censors or the heads of Heaven’s divisions
and bureaus) or who have some leverage over them (of-
ten in the form of a needed service, item, or blessing).
As benefactors, a Sidereal might find themselves as the
subject of godly favoritism — and then have to choose
between being party to violating the law or rejecting
much-needed support. Finally, as investigators of di-
vine corruption, the Sidereals take on an active role
in policing the conduct of wayward gods; this is more
easily done in Creation where few gods have direct
lines to their celestial superiors, but some ambitious or
righteous Sidereals might prefer to right the wrongs of
the Celestial Bureaucracy directly, regardless of ruffled
feathers or the risk of divine ire.
As the custodians of Fate, the Sidereals can easily be
drawn into dangerous situations by beings outside of
fate: The demon-princes of Malfeas, the terrors of the
 C h a p t e r F o u r : T h e C h o s e n i n P l ay
Underworld, or marauding Fair Folk from the Wyld.
Each of these foes create snarls in the warp and weft of
destiny, and the greater the snarl, the greater the chance
that a Circle may be dispatched to resolve the problem.
These encounters can serve as the bread and butter of
episodic, mission-based chronicles, or they can be used
as palate cleansers in intrigue-charged games, offering
the characters a brief respite from politics in favor of
solving a “punchable” problem.
Other anomalies in Fate might come from the interven-
tion of other Exalts, especially the Solars. Highlighting
the return of the Lawgivers and their overwhelming
power can dramatically emphasize the importance of
factional politics. Bronze Faction characters may treat
the returned Solars as demons writ large, sabotaging
their nascent empires and plotting out assassinations.
These challenges can form a clear skeleton for missions
and play sessions, with each episode focused on taking
out a different pillar of the Solar’s strength.
Gold Faction characters might instead serve as
high-ranking agents of the Cult of the Illuminated or cast
themselves more directly as benefactors and patrons to
the Lawgivers. This is harder to build into a chronicle,
because it places the player characters in the orbit of the
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Solar, which can become deprotagonizing very quickly.
These are better suited to interstitial moments between
real missions or in-between sessions, allowing the focus
to be on the Sidereal’s growth as a mentor.
The War in Heaven
The Getimian Exalted have access to Yu-Shan, and al-
though their conflict with the Sidereals is primarily a
cold war, that doesn’t preclude outbursts of violence,
especially from bold or desperate Getimians. These ene-
mies have infiltrated Heaven at many different levels and
are conducting a war of attrition against the Bureau of
Destiny — a war which the Sidereals are ill-equipped to
solve quickly or decisively.
Groups can highlight or minimize this new conflict as
needed, but having the Getimians maintain at least some
presence in Yu-Shan can add a powerful element of un-
certainty for the players. Even if they never encounter
one, the Getimians will remain an ever-present possibil-
ity…which is often more nerve-wracking than an open-
ly seen foe. Off-screen attacks, sabotages, and thefts by
Getimian agents don’t need to target the players or their
allies directly to be effective tools for cultivating tension.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
Abyssals —
Death’s Lawgivers
For players and Storytellers seeking a chance to play mon-
strous villains or tragic anti-heroes, the Abyssals offer a
uniquely grim take on Creation, and the opportunity to
doom or redeem the world in all its messy, unjust splendor.
Abyssals also exist as vassals in a feudal Underworld — they
have rights and obligations to the Deathlords, but also vast
power over those who serve them.
Core Concepts
When the Abyssal Exalted ride upon Creation, they
bring sorrow and horror in their wake. Abyssal stories
are often stories about tragic choices, dark philosophies,
and death in its many forms and guises.
The Dark Bargain
One key difference between Abyssal characters and
other Exalts is that they chose Exaltation. Caught be-
tween life and death, every Abyssal struck a deal with
the Deathlords: their service for unholy power, and their
lives. The nature of that choice can help frame starting
characters. Did they agree readily, or hesitantly? Were
they fed honeyed words, or did they go into it knowing
full well what would be required of them? Do they regret
it? If not, why not? What would it take for them to regret
it? When is it no longer worth the cost?
Finding answers to any or all of these questions can
inform a player’s experience and helps to shape the
relationship between the Abyssal and Deathlord.
Throughout play, it can be useful to circle back to their
decision to accept the Black Exaltation, because it shows
a distinctly Abyssal take on one of Exalted’s core themes:
What cost would you pay for power, what will you do for
your survival?
When Does It End?
The Abyssals are charged with the destruction of
Creation. That much is as close to absolute as possi-
ble. But apocalypse comes in many gradations; what do
the players’ characters (and for that matter, the players
themselves) expect? What does destroying Creation
mean?
For many of the Deathlords, it means mass genocide of
the living and ruling over the Underworld for all eternity.
The Neverborn howl for the end of all things, Creation
and the Underworld alike, in the feverish hope that this
might finally free them from their endless suffering.
How much destruction makes something destroyed? If
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Creation is a realm of ash and bone, will that suffice? Can
there be anyone left alive under the tyranny of the un-
dead? Ultimately, every Abyssal must struggle with set-
ting their own goalpost, especially under pressure from
every dark authority in their un-life.
The Chivalry of Death
The will of the Neverborn was not revealed to the
Deathlords when they swore themselves to the dead an-
cients’ service. The fallen ancients cannot voice their de-
sires, and no tablet bears their commands. Over centuries,
the Deathlords have sought as best they can to learn their
masters’ desires— scouring the Underworld’s hidden cor-
ners for secrets lost when history began, wielding necro-
mancy and puissant artifacts to unearth the past, stealing
the secrets of ancient specters, or communing with the
Whispers that emanate from the Neverborn’s corpse-
tombs. The chivalry of death is a code that embodies the
Neverborn’s desires, as understood by the Deathlords.
Abyssals are taught the chivalry of death by their patron
Deathlords, though their lessons may vary starkly. The
Lover espouses it as the philosophical foundation of all
that she does, while the First and Forsaken Lion grimly
regards it as a line that must be toed to keep his masters
content. The Silver Prince gives it little weight, prefer-
ring his own grand visions of cultural supremacy, while
the Dowager can scarcely distinguish her own will from
that of the Neverborn. Even masterless Abyssals come to
understand death’s chivalry, gleaning insight from intu-
ition, premonitions, and dark dreams.
The Abyssals are not the Deathlords, and need not fear
the Neverborn’s punishment should they renounce the
chivalry of death. Yet an Abyssal’s very Exaltation is
stained with the dead ancients’ Essence, and upholding
death’s chivalry brings them into harmony with their di-
vine nature.
The foremost tenets of death’s chivalry are these:
• Better long torment than a quick death. It is
not enough simply to kill the living — they must
be made to despair, to abandon their hopes and
ideals, to become complicit in horrors them-
selves, before they are slain. Deaths born out
of the culmination of such degradations please
the Neverborn far more than a hundred lesser
slaughters.
• The mighty must fall ere the weak. Death visit-
ed upon the vulnerable and defenseless is a paltry
offering to the Neverborn. Better to break the
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heroes and champions of the living — those who
are looked to for hope, protection, and guidance —
before turning to those under their guardianship.
• Let life be drowned in death. If the worlds of
the living and the dead are as one, the Neverborn
might imagine themselves free of their eternal
death. When shadowlands open the boundaries
between Creation and the Underworld, when
necromancy taints the Essence of the world,
when the living walk alongside the dead — these
things offer the slain ancients a transient solace.
Aesthetics of the Grave
For all their gruesome potential, the deathknights have
an allure of dark romance, something languid, macabre
and Gothic. It’s the romance of beautiful, crumbling
buildings, pallid faces, ruined glories, and slow decay.
Abyssal narratives can be tragic, even melodramatic —
stories about finding some beauty in awful things.
This theme should be discussed when first deciding on
an Abyssal campaign, because while moments of Gothic
tension and romance can happen even in other chron-
icles, this is a genre and a feeling that must be careful-
ly cultivated and maintained. Doing so can help play-
ers frame their characters’ stories in terms beyond the
bloody and the brutal, either expanding the emotional
palette available to draw on or else sidestepping some
of the more overt aspects of body-horror and grim dark-
ness that might otherwise dominate a chronicle.
Storytelling Challenges
Unlike their Solar cousins, the Abyssals offer a strong
framework for their default chronicles as champions of
the Underworld and vassals to the Deathlords. Even still,
Storytellers and groups have a lot of latitude in how they
choose to use this framework, whether embracing, re-
sisting, or subverting it entirely.
Modes of Play
Creation-asStage emphasizes the Abyssals as harbingers
of vengeance. Each Abyssal died, and stories of those
who return from death almost always include a search
for revenge, Deathlord psychodrama, and the grand and
baroque heroics made possible in the Underworld. Who
killed the Abyssal? What crimes have been committed
against them? Against their loved ones? Against the dead
creatures of the Underworld? Play to the Abyssals as
dark mirrors to justice-seeking Solars: In this big, bad
world, sometimes doing the right thing means getting
blood on your hands.
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Creation-as-Threat chronicles can be strange for the
Abyssals because, in many ways, they are the threat. By
emphasizing Creation’s corruption and blasphemy, players
can see the dark and vital purpose of their Exaltation: To
bring an end to such a wretched place. Alternatively, the
Storyteller and players might decide to focus on Creation as
a legitimate threat to the Underworld and the Neverborn,
bringing in Solar, Lunar, and Sidereal antagonists. While
the gruesome themes of Creation-as-Threat seem like a
natural fit for the Abyssals, the group should still discuss
the genre before committing to this mode of play, because
horror treated without seriousness often turns into comedy.
Creation-as-Cost combines elements from the other
two modes of play, casting Abyssals as justice-seekers and
agents of the apocalypse…but it also turns inward, explor-
ing the cost that the characters pay in their blood-soaked
rampage, both material and metaphorical. This mode is
marked by moments of introspection and doubt as the char-
acters question their motivations but find themselves too
far gone to choose any other path: Like Lady Macbeth try-
ing to scrub the blood from her hands, the characters can-
not absolve themselves of what they chose to do. This mode
of play is difficult as the primary thrust of a full chronicle,
but pairs well with the others, creating a sharp juxtaposi-
tion against the righteous anger of Creation-as-Stage and
the full-throated rampages of Creation-as-Threat.
The Deathlords
There is no decision that will make a bigger impact
on an Abyssals chronicle than the choice of the death-
knight’s Deathlord. Each has a unique territory, per-
sonality, and agenda; taken as a whole, they are almost
sub-genres unto themselves: Military nihilism with the
First and Forsaken Lion, psychodrama with the Lover
Clad in the Raiment of Tears, or dark intrigue with the
Mask of Winters. The Storyteller can present a pitch for
one Deathlord or another, but it should ultimately come
down to a Session Zero discussion — not just out of per-
sonal preference, but because each Deathlord embodies
different sensitive issues, from religious corruption to
toxic relationships, and each deathknight has a differ-
ence sovereign-and-vassal relationship with these pas-
sion-bound ghosts, ranging from obsequious service to
outright defiance.
The same Deathlord can be approached from a number
of different angles as well, with the main consideration
being the Deathlord’s level of involvement and presence
in the story. If the Deathlord is highly involved in the
lives of the players’ characters, this can lend itself to a
mission-centered, episodic chronicle where the death-
knights primarily act as field agents. These chronicles
can be very useful in guiding players through the game
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
and the system, with the Deathlord serving as a proxy
for the Storyteller and choosing missions and objectives
that will challenge the players’ characters without over-
whelming them. They might even design certain mis-
sions with the explicit aim of training the characters in a
certain part of the system: Naval combat in the waters of
Skullstone, for example, or a first foray into social influ-
ence at an embassy gathering in Sijan.
While this can seem restrictive for some players, a
chronicle framed by strong Deathlord intervention
can retain a number of important ways for character
to pursue their own agendas. Downtime, especially in
the Underworld, is likely less structured, providing
opportunities for the characters to seek out treasures
and mentors, hone their skills, and gather a following.
As the Deathknights prove themselves and increase
in strength, their Deathlord may give them increasing
levels of independence, including control over fortress-
es, colonies, armies, and other broad swathes of their
empire.
This is a key feature that helps to separate Solar chron-
icles from Abyssal ones: While the Solars must fight to
make their way in a hostile world, the Abyssals have not
only personal power, but access to valuable tutelage and
resources from their Deathlord patrons. Emphasizing
that relationship, whether positive or negative, rein-
forces the fact that the Abyssals have a place in the
Underworld, a network of supporters, and a wealth of
options in how they approach their bloody work.
Other groups may choose to use the Underworld and
Creation as a sandbox for the player characters to pur-
sue their own motivations, downplaying the influence of
the characters’ Deathlord. Some Deathlords make this
easier to justify than others; the Lion is unlikely to be
loose-handed with his servants, while the Lover or the
Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible might be more free-
wheeling when allowing their Abyssals greater latitude
and agency.
A more freeform game might also invent a new Deathlord
wholecloth, allowing the players to help determine why
they have greater freedom than their peers. While some
Deathlords have been named and described in Exalted,
a number have been left as blank slates for players and
groups that want to develop their own dark patron. This
can be especially useful for players and Storytellers who
favor a more improvisational style, because it allows de-
tails about the Deathlord, their resources, and their plans
to develop organically through discussion and play.
Once the group decides on a Deathlord and that
Deathlord’s role in their chronicle, it’s also important to
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consider how the Deathlords relate to one another. How
safe are the players’ characters when interacting with
other Deathknights? Which Deathlords are nominally
cooperating, or at least not actively sabotaging one an-
other? This decision allows a chronicle to either create a
wider society of Abyssals for characters to interact with
or provides ample opportunities for the Storyteller to in-
troduce Abyssal antagonists. The most effective answer
is usually to split the difference, which positions some
other Deathlords as potential allies, mentors, or tempt-
ers for the characters, giving them a fuller picture of
what being an Abyssal can look like.
Whatever the character’s relationship is to their
Deathlord, it can be helpful to give them scenes togeth-
er that aren’t focused on either exposition or missions.
Even small vignettes can help to make the Deathlord a
stronger presence in the characters’ life and a more vivid
character in their own right: The Mask of Winters might
challenge his Dusk-caste general in Gateway or offer
a critique of a Daybreak’s latest necromantic wonder.
Even if these moments are only given a few sentences
between sessions they can give players much needed
context and grounding.
Seizing the Bleak Throne
The Deathlords are hideously, blasphemously powerful
— as cruel as a scythe, as terrible as a storm of fire. They
number among the strongest entities in Exalted.
And the Deathknights can absolutely overthrow them.
As an Abyssal chronicle moves into its prime, a number
of potential endgames begin to emerge, and first among
them is the fact that the Circle will probably throw off
the shackles of their Deathlord, whether through active
betrayal or by simply growing beyond them. For all their
might, the Deathlords are broken geniuses, each seek-
ing their own way to damn or conquer Creation. Unless
those plans align perfectly and neatly with the charac-
ters, things will eventually come to blows. When they
do…well, the Abyssals tap the true, bleak power of the
Void, and their Solar predecessors famously slew things
that could not die.
At this point, the characters have the opportunity to slot
themselves into the new power vacuum. If they’ve culti-
vated strong relationships with other underlings — the
Deathlord’s ghostly lieutenants, spymasters, and oth-
er key supporters — then the process can be relatively
smooth, but it can also be an opportunity to turn the fo-
cus of the chronicle inward, having the characters con-
solidate their power in the face of their own unrest and
betrayal.
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The Underworld
The Underworld is a cross-section of Creation’s calci-
fied history, the remnants of bygone eras stacked one
atop the last like stone strata. While Creation informs
the Underworld, the Underworld isn’t strictly a mirror
— precisely because things tend to stick around, heaping
together ghosts from across the millennia.
Abyssal chronicles always deal with the Underworld,
at least in so far as the Deathlords are headquartered
there (except for the ever-ambitious Mask of Winters
and his newfound stronghold in Thorns). It’s the place
where they are most at home and at their strongest, able
to respire their deathly Essence in the cold air of the
Underworld as easily as the living breathe in Creation.
Deciding on an approach to the Underworld will shape
the role it takes in the chronicle.
Chronicles seeking to highlight the Underworld can
focus on the bizarre, hallowed beauty of its famil-
iar-but-alien vistas. These games can also show how
ghosts are distinct from living mortals, playing to the
traumas and passions that anchor them to unlife, cast-
ing them as larger-than-life personalities unable to see
beyond their own motivations, or they might be reduced
in scope, their emotional range narrowed to empha-
size their nature as shadows of who they once were.
Conversely, games that focus on Abyssals in Creation
can still benefit from descriptions of the Underworld,
drawing its bleak landscape in contrast to the vibrance
of Creation.
Heralds of the End
Whether they overthrow their Deathlord or not, some
Abyssal chronicles will lean in to the mission to destroy
Creation, whether “destroy” here means to unmake ev-
erything entirely, or simply slaughtering all life and set-
ting up a kingdom of ash and bone in its place. This is
the endgame that the Neverborn dream of and that the
Deathlords must at least play at working towards, and if
they embrace it, the player characters will walk as apoc-
alyptic god-kings, slaughtering millions.
This is not an option that should be chosen lightly: be-
yond a certain point, carnage risks becoming comedy.
If the players’ characters have put entire empires to the
torch, there’s no sting in killing anymore. The drama is
in a character realizing how far they have gone; until
then, things may simply be so grim that nothing really
fazes them. Some groups might gravitate towards this as
a kind of black comedy, but for everyone else, a game of
apocalyptic Abyssals risks becoming stale unless players
are truly invested in the psychodrama of people doing
truly terrible things.
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For those who choose this path, the chronicle might
build to a final confrontation with a desperate alliance
of the living — what but the Deathknights could unite
The Realm, the Celestial Exalted, gods, mortals, and
perhaps even the raksha of the Wyld? The farther the
Circle’s influence spreads, the greater the forces which
will be arrayed against them. Alternatively, the play-
ers’ characters might target some lynchpin of Creation:
Seizing the Imperial Manse to transform the Blessed
Isle into a Shadowland, creating a successor-plague to
the Great Contagion, or murdering the Unconquered
Sun himself. Whatever their audacious plan, dramatize
their final “push” in the war against the living with an
epic challenge that will forever leave the world sliding
into Oblivion.
Champions of the Dead
Games and groups interested in telling stories that
draw on the wrong-righting adventures common to
other Exalted might instead focus on the Abyssals in
their role as champions of the dead and saviors of the
Underworld. This gives the player characters a great
deal of freedom in defining their own place in the
world, because there is no easy model they can turn
to. What does it mean to be a champion for the dead?
They will explore that question together, figuring out
how to turn their otherwise dark and dangerous power
towards more productive ends.
Young Abyssals who slip their Deathlord’s leash may
decide to wander the Underworld, Shadowlands, and
Creation as dark vigilantes and justiciars, the tireless
foes of murderers, extortionists, and ghost-binders.
They make especially good travelling heroes: Abyssal
magic can blight the land, encouraging them to move on
or else vent their curse on anyone around them.
As they grow in power and prestige, free Abyssals can
put down roots, especially in the Underworld. While
their magic is deadly to Creation, the Underworld is a
different story. There the Abyssals may take their turn
as god-kings in the lands of the dead. These stories
parallel Solar ones, but should emphasize the fact that
the dead are fundamentally different than the living:
In their needs, their priorities, and their very natures.
While a Solar god-queen might have to barter with
field-spirits to feed her people, an Abyssal might in-
stead have to barter with the living for prayer and grave
goods.
Champions of the dead may also seek to help ghosts re-
solve whatever trauma and unfinished business prevent
them from passing into Lethe. In this way, an Abyssal
kingdom might be more like a refuge and waystation — a
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
temporary respite meant to be outgrown. Others may
find the idea of Lethe offensive: Scrub the soul clean, and
what even is left? Both attitudes are interesting fodder
for stories, and the Storyteller can have other charac-
ters highlight these philosophies to prompt the players’
characters to come to their own conclusions.
Darkness Turns to Light
The Abyssals were Solars once; they could be so again.
How does an Abyssal free herself from the darkness of
the oath she swore? Dramatic quests of atonement and
enlightenment, ancient magic of terrible power and
danger, or the personal blessings of the Unconquered
Sun himself are all likely answers. A player interested
in exploring redemption should know at the start of a
DARK, BUT NOT WICKED
Some Abyssals seeking redemption might follow
the same general trajectory outlined here, but re-
main Abyssals, instead focusing on finding produc-
tive ways to wield their deathly power as shepherds
of the dead, divine assassins, and implacable foes of
tyranny in all its forms.
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game if it is possible, but the Storyteller needn’t reveal
how, because they might not even have a good sense of
it yet. Whatever the method is, it should be truly epic
in the oldest sense of the word, requiring tremendous
effort and a transformative journey. As the player and
Storyteller feel out what the path may require of the
character, they might also decide that the character’s
previous actions were part of the path all along, us-
ing previous achievements as the starting blocks of a
broader story.
Games that highlight the path to redemption are es-
pecially appropriate for Abyssal characters in mixed
Circles, especially among Solars. While a Circle of
Abyssals could pursue redemption together, this risks
taking the bloom off the rose — a single redemption is a
miracle, but an entire group cleansing themselves of the
taint of Death necessitates even greater challenges.
Birth of the Liminals
The Chosen of the Dark Mother represent the endur-
ance and fragility of life within Creation and the blurring
of the lines between the living and the dead.
 C h a p t e r F o u r : T h e C h o s e n i n P l ay
Core Concepts
Liminals offer themes of self-exploration and of living
out lives on mortal terms. More than the sum of their
body parts and more than the sum of the memories they
half recall, they are newly born into Creation, exploring
it for the first time. In this, they are much like players
new to Exalted.
Body Horror
The Liminal Exalted are made from corpses — often the
body of whomever their maker was attempting to resur-
rect, but rarely from multiple disparate sources. These
body parts carry the echo of the Essence of whomever
they belonged to; this Essence blends with the Liminal’s
own, and they may draw power from it. However they
are made, there are unifying factors in the creation of
Exalted from an attempt to bring forth life from dead
flesh: the intense emotion in the mind of the would-be
resurrectionist; and the interference of a mighty, ancient
being that dwells deep within the Underworld.
Chernozem are capable of superhuman feats at a cost of
permanently damaging their component limbs — lifting
a heavy ox-cart clean off the ground is within their ca-
pabilities, but doing so shreds their arm and back mus-
cles. While they heal some of this damage naturally,
Liminals may replace damaged parts of their body with
a corpse’s flesh. Some memories linger within, allowing
the Liminal access to hidden secrets and muscle mem-
ories not their own. In time, this becomes a patchwork
addition to the Chernozem’s skill, and some learn to
draw arcane secrets from the severed limbs of powerful
beings. When their anima flares, the Liminal’s body re-
veals itself as the once-dead thing it is.
A Liminal cannot die unless her brain is destroyed or
she is drowned in water. Her body reconstitutes itself
to a basic level after a period of time, upon which she
must retrieve more corpse-flesh to rebuild herself. Many
come to see the skills locked within the flesh of others
and regard a fallen ally or foe as a source of new power.
Mediumship
Death is the domain of the Liminal, and it is their fate —
as assigned by their patron, the Dark Mother — to safe-
guard the shadowlands and hold fast the line between
life and death. Liminals are creatures of emotion, often
born of mourning and anguish. This emotional connec-
tion carries with them all of their lives, both in the form
of the lifeline and in their ability to recognize the emo-
tional resonance of people and places. The dead past re-
veals itself to them through impressions and memories,
both within the Liminal and without.
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This fixation on emotion results from their birth.
Liminals are the result of one resurrectionists’ obsession
and all-consuming fixation on their purpose, whether
the Exalt’s body comes from a single corpse or formed
of parts of disparate people combined towards arcane
ends. So too are they able to navigate the undead passion
plays of ghosts, who are unfettered by mortality or fear
of death. Liminals have a sense for these emotions, fer-
reting out Intimacies linked to their aspects and finding
kindred spirits in the unlikeliest of places.
Hunting the Dead
The Dark Mother of the Chernozem granted them
Exaltation for a reason: to stand sentinel at the bound-
ary of life and death, generally by hunting the restless
dead whenever they intrude upon the lands of the liv-
ing. Thus, many Liminals work as warrior-exorcists
and ghost-hunters. Shadowlands are their most favored
hunting grounds; at the places where Creation and the
Underworld meet, the Liminals find their purpose.
Liminals aren’t bound to this purpose, merely inclined to
it — pushed on by the ephemeral presence of their mak-
er within their mind. Many seek to keep a low profile in
the great cities of Creation, vanishing into the throngs
of mortality by day and hunting hungry ghosts by night;
some become caravan guards or join mercenary bands,
seeking to see the wide world. Still others retreat from
the world of mortals entirely, forsaking their Lifeline,
becoming strange and dreadful hermits trying to ignore
the howling of the hungry dead — but never for long, for
monstrosity comes easily to those Chernozem who forgo
mortal ties.
Elements of Play
Liminal stories are unique in that they require a con-
nection to their maker or a mortal called the Lifeline,
although more powerful and experienced Liminals can
form a Lifeline with another Exalt.
The Maker and the Thread of Life
A Liminal’s life force isn’t the same as other Exalted; they
must anchor their very existence within a nearby being
to which they have strong ties. This tie is automatically
formed with the Liminal’s creator, regardless of nature,
but a Liminal may transfer the Thead of Life to a mortal
to whom they feel a strong tie. Without this anchor, their
minds and bodies begin to decay, as the Chernozem’s
Essence flares out of control. Within a lunar cycle, they
will become a shambling creature of passions, little bet-
ter than the hungry ghosts they hunt; within a few scant
lunar cycles more, this change is irreparable. Canny
Liminals keep their chosen anchors safe. It’s for this
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
reason that Liminals are often found guarding others;
the mortal prince has their fearsome Exalted champion,
but few know of the reciprocal personal bond between
the two.
The Thread of Life is a spiritual link, similar to that be-
tween Exalt and Familiar, but far deeper and more ex-
pansive. The Liminal can sense their anchor’s emotional
states, or even determine with Charms when they are
endangered or threatened. Liminals who have spent a
lifetime with their anchors can even lend some of their
prowess to their charges, though this is at their own peril
— the Essence of the Chernozem is not meant to be con-
tained within living flesh.
Liminal Charms
The Charms of the Liminals derive from the associations
of their Aspects and the might of their unnatural bod-
ies. Marrow Aspect Charms, for example, may allow a
Liminal to analyze a crime scene and determine wheth-
er a murder was committed in the throes of passion, but
also allows analysis of powerful necromantic magics or
the ideal way to guide a ghost to Lethe, as well as influ-
ence over the curiosity and obsessions of others. Flesh
Charms might aid in sensing rage or aggression, while
just as readily helping the Chernozem push her bodily
frame to its material limit. Other Charms might allow
a Liminal to loose their own hungry ghosts from their
body as hunting dogs or familiars, absorb memories
from treasured objects, or temporarily achieve height-
ened states of artifact resonance or sorcerous might by
taking the right pieces from the right bodies.
The Dark Mother
The necropolis of Sijan is a vast tomb, dedicated to the
arts of interring the dead according to ten thousand
different customs. Kings and emperors are buried in
tomb-complexes, while the Mortician’s Order trains to
put the dead to rest across Creation. Yet Sijan’s memory
is long, extending past the First Age and into the Time
Before, where even then it was known as a city for the
dead, before the formation of the Underworld.
The death of beings never meant to die shattered what-
ever old order lay beneath, consigning whatever Old
Laws ruled that place to dust and legal limbo. The ear-
liest myths and legends in Sijan’s vaults speak of Lethe
as a vast and fine web, torn apart by the death of titans:
if the web of Lethe is tattered and ripped, what of the
spider?
The Dark Mother existed before this cruel and cold
Underworld came crashing down. The end of the Divine
Revolution injured her, and she slept in a realm of death.
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The shock of the Deathlords pledging fealty to the
Neverborn in the Shogunate’s reign awoke her. In the
internecine wars plaguing Creation, she scrutinized the
relationship between the reincarnating higher souls and
the lower souls swollen with Exalted power. As untold
numbers of Dragon-Blooded slaughtered one anoth-
er in the frenzied final days of the Shogunate, the Dark
Mother gleaned the secret of Exaltation from them.
Resurrection of the dead is impossible. But the Dark
Mother hears every plea to the named and nameless gods
of death, every call for a soul to return to flesh and live
again. Sometimes, she chooses to answer these calls, but
none can give what those aspirants desire, so the Dark
Mother Exalts the corpse as a new champion of the spac-
es between life and death. Her touch recedes from her
Chosen, but remains as a light presence in their mind;
her immanence connects every Liminal to one another.
The Dark Mother exists as a weight within the spirits of
her Chosen, driving them to hunt the hungry dead and
stymie the machinations of the Deathlords.
Alchemicals —
Ex Machina
Living god-machines, the Alchemical Exalted exist to
be champions of the Eight Nations of Autochthonia,
those societies of humans within the world-body of
Autochthon himself. Their heroism is confined to the
Realm of Brass and Shadow, their great deeds unknown
to the rest of the Exalted Host. Fear not the unrighteous
darkness of the world with no sun — the Alchemicals
will light the way for all and preserve the order sacred
to the Great Maker.
While it was the Celestial Incarnae who first aspired to
create Exalted champions, Autochthon’s counsel pro-
vided the gods with indispensable insight. First Age ac-
counts state that Autochthon turned his holy attention
to the lowly beings most capable of utilizing his greatest
gifts; doctrine, faith, and tools — the teeming masses of
humanity. Sometime after the Divine Revolution, frag-
mentary records and Autochthonia’s own Tome of the
Great Maker agree, the titan fled Creation and ward-
ed himself behind the Seal of Eight Divinities. He did
so with tens of thousands of his loyal worshippers and
many others, taken with him into exile.
The body of Autochthon is a world of industrial horrors
— vast slamming steam pistons, huge poles cracking with
elements foreign to Creation, corridors of stippled met-
al, engines of Essence sending cascading bolts of energy
across areas the size of continents. Oddly mechanized
 C h a p t e r F o u r : T h e C h o s e n i n P l ay
spirits crawl through the interior, their purposes built to
a titan’s needs and never meant to interact with mortals;
the only sustenance palatable to human life is organic
matter pumped through vast pipes and tanks.
Into this grim tableau came the Autochthonians. Eight
heroes, guided by Autochthon’s visions, ventured into
Creation to find the Well of Souls before the Machine
God fled. This Well was the ultimate source of higher
and lower souls, and when it was finally located by these
heroes, they brought with them a container of mystical
aspect called the Ewer. Having reforged it on their epic
journey, they filled the Ewer to the brim to feed and en-
lighten the titan in his long voyage Elsewhere. When
Autochthon finally fled Creation, these heroes led their
fellows into the darkness to survive and establish civili-
zations; upon their deaths, their souls catalyzed the first
Alchemical Exalted, rising from construction crèch-
es ready to continue leading their peoples by example
instead of rulership. Satisfied that his body would be
well-maintained by his, now-safe, worshippers and well-
fed by thousands of souls, Autochthon slept.
The Octet
Whole nations exist within the titan, each carving out
an extensive civilization over the course of millennia.
Their existence is harsh, strewn amidst habitable pock-
ets throughout the bowels of the Machine God. The Eight
Nations, also known as the Octet, have grown, trans-
formed, and remade themselves in the thousands of years
since they arrived. Autochthonian society sustains itself
with a rigid caste system to guide the souls of the people.
It is souls that sustain the Machine God, specifically the
lower soul swollen by a lifetime’s Essence. Thus, souls
are central to Autochthonian society. The Nations cap-
ture the higher soul with a special soulgem implanted
in the forehead at birth, carefully recording the life
and past lives of each living person. Upon death, their
lower soul is released to feed the titan; their higher
soul — marked by the soulgem — is recycled through
the Ewer to be rejoined with a lower soul, then reborn
whilst being tracked across incarnations. When mortal
specialists identify a potential Exalt from a worthy soul
that has expressed a particular brand of heroism over
multiple incarnations, they construct a special vessel
out of sacred clay and an appropriate magical materi-
al. With luck and sufficient heroism, the soul catalyzes
the Alchemical frame, Exalting a new Champion. The
Alchemical castes are themselves a reflection of the en-
tire Exalted Host; together, they protect the entirety of
the Octet, body and soul.
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Unburdened by world-shaking calamities and aid-
ed by the crafting genius of Autochthon’s spirits and
Champions, artifice has reached heights in Autochthonia
not seen by Creation in thousands of years. Alchemical
Charms are purpose-built god-machinery constructed by
mortal savants and harmonized with the hero’s Essence,
not solely the result of Essence enhancing an Exalt’s
natural prowess. As they grow in power, Alchemicals be-
come capable of equipping greater and heavier Charms,
until they stand equal in might and height to many of
Creation’s warstriders. The Alchemicals shed their
Charms with regularity, switching out arrays of Charms
to maximize their puissance in any situation.
The Divine Ministers
Autochthon is an ancient being, brother to the Yozis he
betrayed in the Divine Revolution. Too vast to contain
within a single soul, he possesses a similar spiritual hi-
erarchy to that of his imprisoned brethren. The mighti-
est of these component souls are the Divine Ministers,
who are themselves comprised of a vast array of souls,
each a unique and powerful being capable of creating
other, lesser spiritual beings to serve them. Together,
the Ministers and sub-souls guide Autochthonian soci-
ety as worshipped deities, sometimes engaging direct-
ly with Alchemicals for missions of import. They rule
over the ecology of elementals that have arisen from the
Elemental Poles contained within Autochthon, though
their elements of Crystal, Lightning, Metal, Oil, Smoke,
and Steam are foreign to the Creation-born.
The Ministers live and carry out their duties in the spac-
es between the Octet, occasionally deigning to visit the
great cities of Autochthonia. Each of the Machine God’s
great cities actually has an Alchemical Exalt as its core,
Exalted grown huge and sessile with mighty Charms
capable of sustaining municipal infrastructure. They
have bonded permanently with Autochthon, his radiant
Essence intertwining with their own to sustain great
wonders and feats of engineering.
Yet in many ways, they are like their demonic cousins;
they argue and war, even as the slumbering titan puzzles
over divine mysteries and patterns of thought beyond
mortal ken. Navigating these arguments are the pur-
view of the Exalted, too, as is keeping the Nations safe
from the occasional wrath of the Ministers. The souls of
Autochthon have grown more agitated and unreasonable
over the course of the last century, as the sickness that
has ever plagued the titan worsens and slowly kills him.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
The Locust Crusade
Created upon Autochthon’s self-exile, the Seal of Eight
Divinities is the greatest ward ever constructed. Breaching
the Seal cannot occur from an external force without awak-
ening the Primordial, assuming such a force even exists. But
now, Autochthon’s slow decay nears its completion. Across
his world-body, gremlins overrun distant communities.
Stagnant zones of deathly Essence grow with frightening
speed. Nutrient conduits lie exhausted, while the babies of
the Nations are stillborn without souls. The Ewer runs dry,
heralding the doom of Autochthonia.
Each Nation has come to the same grim conclusion: the
Machine God’s death is nigh. Each has realized that the
Great Maker never intended to sleep this long, and his sick-
ness has overtaken him. And, pouring over ancient tomes
and consulting with the proper Ministers, each has made
ALCHEMICALS IN CREATION
Like the Yozis escaping, many Storytellers have
balked at using the Alchemical Exalted in a game
set in Creation in prior editions. We don’t blame them
— Alchemical presence speaks to the breaching of
the Seal of Eight Divinities, a world-shattering event.
This inevitably means any game featuring Alchemi-
cals becomes about the Locust Crusade, or at least
the emergence of a deeply foreign society into Cre-
ation. This might be acceptable for a multi-arc story
in a long-running game incorporating the return of
the Autochthonians into the wider Time of Tumult, but
even so, the amount of setting real estate needed for
Alchemicals to come play with everyone else is pretty
expansive.
The Tome of the Great Maker states with certainty that
the first Alchemicals were Exalted after the titan left
for Elsewhere. But no craftsman creates a master-
piece without making prototypes first, and it stands to
reason that Autochthon would not claim to the Incar-
nae that Exaltation could produce the champions they
needed without proof. What fragmentary historical
records and memories of the Divine Revolution ex-
ist agree that no Alchemicals were fielded in the war.
Yet other myths and legends of the First Age speak of
shining heroes protecting communities, wholly clad
in magical materials. Perhaps they relate a Solar or
Lunar wearing armor from head to toe, or perhaps
they are records of some other kind of Exalt.
Who knows what secrets remain in hidden tombs
and sorcerous workshops, untouched since the early
days of Creation?
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the same, seemingly innocuous, but world-shaking discov-
ery: the titan designed the Seal of Eight Divinities to be im-
pregnable from the outside, not from within.
The Octet knows of Creation only through the most frag-
mentary myths and legends. Yet they also know the land
beyond the Seal has vast bounties of magical materials and
huge reserves of Essence, and they know that the Well of
Souls can refill the Ewer. That’s all they need to know. Each
Nation argues and agonizes over the decision, but each pre-
pares to breach the Seal and re-enter Creation to save the
Machine God and their entire way of life. It’s possible they
may turn back from this course, or it’s possible that a holy
crusade of brass locusts will sweep across lands wracked by
plague and tumult, fielding advanced artifacts rivaled only
by the Realm and Lookshy. The Well beckons, waiting with-
in a world that has forgotten it even exists. Whether these
bounties are enough to save the Great Maker, and whether
the Autochthonians will succeed in their crusade, none can
say — but Alchemical souls are heroes many times over, and
if they must die, they will die fighting to save their people.
Industrial Hero of the People
These traits are appropriate for an Alchemical possessed
of a work ethic deemed heroic even by the standards of a
Champion — he will work quintuple shifts to give work-
ers a much-needed rest, abstain from eating for days to
free up supplies, or brave terrifying industrial horrors to
preserve the life of any of his Nation.
Caste: Jade
Essence: 4; Willpower: 7; Join Battle: 5 dice
(+5 for 5m)
Personal: 19; Peripheral: 36 (49)
Health Levels: -0x2/-1x7/-2x9/-4/Incap.
Actions: Endurance: 11 dice (+10 for 10m); Feats
of Strength: 6 dice (+5 for 5m; may attempt Strength
3 feats); Impassioned Influence: 6 dice (+5 for 5m);
Remembered Lore: 5 dice (+5 for 5m); Resist Poison/
Disease: 7 dice (+7 for 7m); Senses: 4 dice (+5 for
5m) 
Appearance 2, Resolve 4 (+4 for 7m), Guile 2 (+1
for 3m)
COMBAT
Attack (red jade grand grimcleaver): 12 dice
(+7 for 7m; damage 16, minimum 4)
Attack (Unarmed): 6 dice (+5 for 5m; damage
11)
Combat Movement: 4 dice (+5 for 5m)
Evasion: 2 (+1 for 2m), Parry: 4 (+3 for 6m)
Soak/Hardness: 9/2 (Subcutaneous Armor
Plating)
 C h a p t e r F o u r : T h e C h o s e n i n P l ay
MERITS
Giant: The Alchemical is huge, eight feet tall and
weighing nearly a metric ton. His personal quarters
have reinforced furniture, but he uses paramagnet-
ic Charms to remain nimble and avoid destroying
walkways meant for lighter folk.
STRENGTH CHARMS
Hydraulic Musculature Reinforcement (4m;
Supplemental; Instant): The Alchemical may treat his
Strength as two higher for the purpose of meeting
a Feat of Strength, and adds one success towards
these that does not count towards the dice cap. This
manifests as pistons straining and steam escaping
from within bulging muscles.
ENDURANCE CHARMS
Alloyed Reinforcement of Flesh (5m; Reflex-
ive; Instant): The first time in a scene the Alchemical
suffers damage that would reduce him to Incapac-
itated, he may activate this Charm instead. Rein-
forced magical material alloying his bones reduces
this damage to his -4 health level.
Industrial Survival Frame (6m or 1m; Reflexive;
Indefinite): The Alchemical gains the effects of Integ-
rity-Protecting Prana (Exalted, p. 303) in addition
to becoming immune to environmental damage cor-
responding to the primary weather in one of the four
Directions. He may commit an additional mote to
gain immunity to an additional Directional environ-
ment.
Body-Reweaving Matrix (6m, 1wp; Simple;
Instant): Calling upon hidden automata within
his frame, the Alchemical duplicates the Charm
Wound-Mending Care Technique (Exalted, p.
342), save that he may only target other automa-
ta or constructed objects. This does include himself,
however.
OFFENSIVE CHARMS
Piston-Driven Megaton Hammer (3m; Supple-
mental; Instant): Attacks gain 1 automatic success. All
1s are rerolled until 1s no longer appear.
EVOCATIONS
Embers of the People (5m; Simple; One scene):
The wielder may bank their anima banner, surround-
ing their weapon with power. For every anima level
banked in the grimcleaver, rounded up, its with-
ering attacks add +1 die of raw damage, up to a
maximum bonus of 5.
The Alchemical has had this Evocation constructed
as a personal Charm; she does not need to wield the
grand grimcleaver to use it.
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HOW MANY EXALTS ARE THERE?
The exact number of Exaltations extant in Creation is
up to the Storyteller — seriously, it’s your game, you
can (nay, should) choose how many Exaltations exist.
Pinning down any kind of hard numbers inevitably
leads to those numbers cast as primary canonical
gospel, no matter how many times one appends deu-
tero- before the canonical part. Despite that, we offer
these rough suggested numbers for your Exalted
games, repeating the advice that you can — no-fool-
ing — change them in your game if you want.
Solars: ~150
Dragon-Blooded: ~25,000
Lunars: ~300-400
Abyssals: ~100
Sidereals: ~100
Liminals: ~250
Alchemicals: ~800 (~100 per nation, handful in Cre-
ation)
Infernals: ~50
Getimians: ~64
Exigents: ~200-300 (but highly variable)
Getimians —
War in Heaven
Created in the Divine Revolution, the Getimians were
jointly born of the ancients known as Oramus and
Sacheverell, who sought to create their own cham-
pions to counter the warriors of the gods. The cost
of creation and the nature of the new Exalted horri-
fied their patrons, and the Getimian Exaltations were
sealed in the stronghold of the ancients as a result.
Both titans are bound now, their natures irreparably
diminished and changed, and possess only the dim-
mest awareness of their revolutionary heroes. Yet if
they knew the reason for their Chosen’s freedom, they
might well rejoice.
An eon after the Revolution, and half a century before
the Scarlet Empress disappeared, a rogue Sidereal trav-
eled beyond Creation, seeking a weapon he could use to
break the hegemony of the gods over fate itself. Wronged
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
by his fellows, he had come to accept that he could not
fight a war against Heaven alone. He delved deep into
infernal lore and forbidden techniques, until he found
a place of ancient power. In a ruined and forgotten ce-
lestial city beyond Creation, he found Zen-Mu, the lost
and Wyld-tainted resting place of the ancients before the
world was made. In Zen-Mu, he found his warriors.
No Getimian exists before the moment of their Exaltation.
Once, they might have had a great destiny before them that
would change the world. This destiny threatened the plans
of Heaven, which forecasts the fate of nations and peoples
to their own, oft-petty, political ends. The pattern spiders
cut the heroes’ threads out of the Loom before the warp
and weave of destiny accepted the errant fates. The spiders
snuffed out their lives before they were even born. The
Exaltation seizes upon these cut and forgotten strands and
brings them into Creation.
To their own line of existence, the Getimians are con-
querors, healers, saviors. They were mortal heroes un-
blessed by any Exaltation, but their determination and
talent changed the fates of thousands. They made a mark
upon Creation felt for centuries to come. And then, one
day, everything shifted for them. Their great works
are not merely undone, but never happened in the first
place. Their parents do not remember them among their
siblings. Their lovers know them not. The Getimian,
possessed of strange and new powers, eventually comes
to the startling realization that she never actually per-
formed the heroic deeds she remembers — and since
none else could, those deeds never happened.
The Origin
The Getimian’s Creation, called their Origin, would have
been like Creation in all aspects save one: the Getimian
was born, and wrought epic feats that changed the course
of the world. This could have been as simple as being at
the right place in the right time, but most often was a
sustained effort of heroism — the work of years, perhaps
decades, or even a full lifetime. The Exaltation’s power
births the Getimian physically, rendering their Essence
into dual aspects and creating bodies with hollowed-out
spines and chakras nested with newborn pattern spiders.
Besides the subtle awareness and command of Essence
bestowed by the Exaltation, Getimians find that they can
bring aspects of their origin into true Creation, sweeping
away what is to reveal what should have been, if only for
a few moments.
The Getimian’s iconic anima shows vistas of their Origin,
mixed with scenes of their glory. They have their mem-
ories, and those memories are theirs; none can take the
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truths they hold within themselves away. Their Essence
blends around the principles of active flowing and cold
stillness. Getimians find their Essence pools naturally
trend toward one aspect or another, while fueling the
same Charm with different Essence produces radically
different effects. Getimians bring foreign relationships,
causality, and effects from their origin in response to ex-
ternal stimuli and internal alchemy.
These effects are often completely new to Getimians in
their early days in Creation — many were sorcerers or lo-
remasters in their memory, and thus rationally capable of
figuring out what has occurred, but many also had no real
exposure to Essence theory. They are lost, deeply con-
fused as to the sudden absence (from their perspective) of
their origin’s trappings, and frequently accidentally over-
write elements of Creation to fit with their origin.
Rakan Thulio comes for them, then.
The Sleeper Awakens
This is the tale told to almost every Getimian: In the First
Age, Rakan Thulio loved a man. They were happy at first,
but Rakan’s work with the Bureau of Destiny left his part-
ner oft-neglected, and their relationship faded. The love of
Rakan Thulio’s life chose another, dying after a happy mor-
tal lifetime. Rakan was heartbroken, but accepted this as a
cruel and necessary sacrifice to duty. Yet the sacrifices nev-
er ended, and Rakan became increasingly bitter.
Even in the First Age, Heaven’s corruption blossomed,
though only rarely revealed for the rot it truly was. Rakan
served the gods for long centuries as inquisitor, investi-
gator, and demon-hunter with few peers. His task was
ending the fates of secret and dangerous things, without
ever absorbing their taint, and he did so with unwaver-
ing integrity. Yet as centuries passed, he grew more and
more disillusioned with the politics behind the shaping
of destinies and the cruelties inflicted upon the world in
the name of preserving fate. Once tasked to destroy for-
bidden tomes and techniques, the Sleepwalker opened
his eyes and saw clearly instead.
It was a small thing, and simple, that caused his exile from
Yu-Shan. Rakan sought out his own records, reading the
thread of the Loom that was his life. And he saw the lie for
what it was: the love of his life had not chosen another free-
ly, not truly, but only after their love had been condemned
to die by the will of Heaven to focus Rakan on his duties.
In that moment, he turned against Heaven fully. When the
time came for Saturn to make her Sign against him, Rakan
parried it and his own death with blasphemous power
gleaned from long-destroyed tomes. Ripping his thread
 C h a p t e r F o u r : T h e C h o s e n i n P l ay
EXALTED LONGEVITY, PART 2
The lifespans of many Exalts are well-known (Exalt-
ed, p. 34), but what of the newcomers to Creation?
If they and the world survive into ages to come, the
Getimians may find their lifespans ending around
1,000 years…but dedication to ascetic rituals and
their own internal alchemy greatly extends this, po-
tentially to 4,000 or even 5,000 years.
Alchemicals might well be immortal — none have
died of natural causes in the millennia-long history
of Autochthonia, though their Charms age and tarnish
slightly, which indicates some upper boundary to
their lifespan. Complicating their studies of longevity
is the fact that Alchemicals who become great cities
are assuredly immortal, but like all immortality, this
has a price — if Autochthon dies, so too do the cities
linked to him. Some Alchemicals ponder what would
happen if they took root as cities in Creation, or if such
a thing is even possible.
The Infernals have a lifespan roughly equivalent to
the Solar Exalted and the same techniques to extend
it. Their mastery of sorcery means immortality is well
within their means.
out of the Loom, he fled Yu-Shan, swearing vengeance and
freedom for the world in a war against Heaven. The golden
lions guarding the city’s gates deemed him an exile, barred
forever from the Heavenly City.
For centuries since, Rakan has worked with willing col-
laborators within the Five-Score Fellowship to frustrate
the gods of Yu-Shan and work to undermine the stymied
destinies of nations. He has laid down secret and gen-
erational networks of spymasters, agents, and provoca-
teurs across the whole of Heaven and Creation. And half
a century ago, he found a weapon within fallen Zen-Mu
that could win the war in victory as he desired. He un-
leashed the Getimian Exaltations to bring heroes who
never were into the fight.
Jamais Vu
Most Getimians suspect Thulio has some means of iden-
tifying and tracking new Getimians without consulting
the Loom of Fate, but whatever his methods he can find
the newcomers unerringly, or near enough. Thulio will
frequently drop his current plans to rush to a new Exalt’s
side via all means of transportation, or else employ
powerful communication magic. Then, he tells them of
their lost destiny, and offers them a chance to join with
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him and take the fate they deserve. Not every Getimian
chooses to serve Rakan Thulio, and he takes this in
stride — they are exercising a choice long denied them,
and their mere existence furthers his war by damaging
destiny and creating more work for the gods. Many do
join him, however, grateful for the opportunity and the
resources afforded for their revenge upon Heaven, once
the Sleepwalker has explained their situation.
Some have even cultivated their Essence and refined their
martial prowess to the point where they can learn Sidereal
Martial Arts, eagerly but carefully taught by Thulio and
a few Sidereal conspirators. Many of Thulio’s long-held
plans have been rapidly abandoned in the past few years,
as the return of the Solars offers a new opportunity to final-
ly remake the world. The Sleepwalker has worked to plant
agents within the Cult of the Illuminated to bring Solars
into his crusade, but mainly he sees the reincarnation of the
Chosen of the Sun to be the best opportunity he will ever
have to make his cold war against Heaven into a hot one.
One by one, the Getimians reveal themselves to
Creation. It is a lonely existence for them: even more so
than Exigents, for they are unique in the entire world.
Inevitably, the thought occurs: when will they stop
mourning what could have been, and honor their memo-
ries by building something new?
Getimian Sorcerer-Queen
These traits are appropriate for a Getimian who, in her
origin, reformed an entire society around philosophy,
lore, and love of sorcery. A prodigy in her mortal life, she
is now a supreme sorceress, one infuriated that her soci-
ety tore itself apart in war in prime Creation.
Caste: Winter
Essence: 3; Willpower: 7; Join Battle: 5 dice
(+5 for 5m)
Flowing: 19; Still: 36 (49)
Health Levels: -0x2/-1x2/-2x2/-4/Incap.
Actions: Knowledge of How Things Should Be: 11
dice (+5 for 5m); Impassioned Influence: 6 dice (+5
for 5m); Sorcerous Lore: 10 dice (+5 for 5m); Resist
Poison/Disease: 7 dice (+7 for 7m); Senses: 7 dice
(+5 for 5m) 
Appearance 4, Resolve 4 (+4 for 6m), Guile 4 (+2
for 3m)
COMBAT
Attack (Unarmed): 9 dice (+5 for 5m; damage 11)
Combat Movement: 5 dice (+5 for 5m)
Evasion 4 (+1 for 2m), Parry 6 (+3 for 6m)
Soak/Hardness: 6/0 (buff jacket)
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
MOVEMENT CHARMS
Space-and-Time Understanding (4m; Sup-
plemental; Instant): Understanding the places where
reality is sewn together, the Getimian may cross
the distance instantly and without any trace of her
passage. She may bypass obstacles, environmen-
tal hazards, difficult terrain, traps and so on with this
instant movement, and the movement may be in any
direction.
PERCEPTION CHARMS
Forgotten World Echoes (1m; Simple; One
scene): Perceiving the flows of Essence and fate,
the Getimian may add her Essence in non-Charm
successes to detect spirits, sorcery, or how fate and
destiny is affecting an area, including through the use
of Sidereal Charms.
SOCIAL CHARMS
Devil-Queen’s Court (8m, 1wp; Simple; Indefi-
nite): Drawing upon the power of her followers and
her forgotten destiny, the Getimian creates a pool of
16 dice, which do not count towards her Charm cap.
Using dice from this pool depletes it, until the Charm
expires. If she committed Flowing motes, she may add
this dice to any roll involving movement, persuasion,
and using Melee or Brawl and Martial Arts. If she
committed Still motes, she may add this dice to any roll
requiring subtlety, stealth, or using Thrown or Archery.
Sleeper-Guiding Whisper (4m +2m, 1wp; Sup-
plemental; one scene): The Getimian gains her Essence
in bonus successes on a roll to socially influence
someone. So long as she beats the target’s Resolve,
she may instill a “shadow Intimacy” that overrides
one of the target’s normal Intimacies for the scene, po-
tentially causing them to act wildly out-of-character.
She may spend an additional two motes to cause the
target to forget she influenced them at all.
DEFENSIVE CHARMS
Bent Reality Stance (6m; Reflexive; Instant): Twisting
space, the Getimian blocks a blow meant to end
her. This Charm may be applied against one or more
attacks; if they are in a flurry, increase the dice penalty
by 2. If Flowing motes are spent, the Getimian steals
two Initiative from the attacker on a miss; if Still motes
are spent, the Getimian gains one Initiative while her
anima flares an additional level.
OFFENSIVE CHARMS
Throne Smashing Ambition (6m; Supplemental;
Indefinite): This supplements one of the Getimian’s
decisive attacks. In addition to inflicting damage, this
Charm creates a devastating curse, causing one of
two effects: committing Flowing motes reverses the
target’s social standing, effectively turning their Allies,
Contacts, Cult, Influence, or Follower Merits hostile
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and uncooperative for as long as the motes remain
committed. Still motes may be spent instead of being
committed; this permanently disables one Merit of
the Storyteller’s choice for the remainder of the arc,
or until the Exalt discharges the curse through Desti-
ny-Manifesting Method or similar techniques.
SORCERY
The Getimian is a talented sorcerer; her control spell is
Silent Words of Dreams and Nightmares. She knows
all the first circle spells printed in Exalted.
Rise of the Infernal Exalted
At history’s dawn, the Divine Revolution’s victors sealed
away the defeated Yozis, imprisoning them forevermore
within the warped and broken world-husk of their king.
The Demon Princes have spent millennia hating the gods
and Exalted who betrayed them, yet the bars of their
prison have long denied them their revenge. But when
the Jade Prison shattered and loosed the Solar Exalted
once more upon the world, the Yozis found their malev-
olent hopes fulfilled by their oldest enemies. Wresting
away a handful of Exaltations with ancient sorceries and
titanic power, they corrupted the Sun’s Chosen to create
their own Infernal Exalted.
The Demon Princes created the Infernals, but are not their
Chosen’s slave masters. The Yozis and their demon-souls
have no intrinsic power of coercion over their Exalted, and
an Infernal who wishes to forsake Hell need only venture
into Creation to be forever beyond the Demon Princes’
reach. Many Infernals nevertheless serve the Yozis — re-
paying a debt of gratitude for being raised out of lives of
toil and misery, or else plied by their bargains, temptations,
and seductions — but this service often comes second to
an Infernal’s own goals. After living beneath the bootheels
of gods and tyrants, few are satisfied without retribution.
Often, this retribution is chaotic and bloody, burning down
injustices indiscriminately.
Vengeance is Theirs
While newly Exalted Infernals are haled away to
Malfeas, many soon return to Creation. It is their home,
and they still have unfinished business in humanity’s
world. While few pursue personal crusades to the exclu-
sion of all other agendas, rarer still is the Infernal who
puts their past entirely behind them — it would be diffi-
cult enough to do nothing to right old wrongs with their
newfound power, let alone when Essence fever urges
them to remake the world as it ought be.
Some Infernals want nothing less than bloody retribution,
to see all those complicit in the torments of their past made
 C h a p t e r F o u r : T h e C h o s e n i n P l ay
to pay. Others protect and champion those facing similar
injustices, tearing down the systems and structures perpet-
uating that suffering. Some draw no distinction, meting out
punishment with one hand and delivering salvation with
the other. The time needed to accomplish this vengeance
can vary greatly. One Infernal might fulfill her vendetta in
the early days of her Exaltation; another might only be sat-
isfied after years, if not decades.
An Infernal who’s completed her revenge can take many
paths forward. Some find a new goal in the fulfillment of
their vendetta — an Ascendant revolutionary who depos-
es a hated tyrant might claim his empty throne; a Horizon
savant who harnesses her homeland’s natural resources to
enrich her people might found a mercantile consortium to
elevate it to a center of commerce; a Nadir assassin who
slays her former slave masters might guard her newly freed
comrades from the shadows. Some enmesh themselves in
the Demon City’s politics and intrigues, establishing them-
selves as trusted champions, intriguers, or troubleshooters
for powerful demons. Others find themselves adrift, wan-
dering Creation or Hell in search of a new purpose.
The Schemes of Demons
The Yozis do not make demands directly to the Infernals.
When the titans speak to their Chosen, it is through re-
velatory visions that overwhelm the senses, grand the-
ophanies that defy all comprehension, and rapturous
spiritual ecstasies — communion, but not communica-
tion. It is beyond them to diminish their majesty to mere
words; thus, it is the demons, emanations of the Yozis,
which speak for them. As aspects of the Yozis, demons’
desires and agendas are the Yozis’ own — and yet, one
demon is not the whole. A Yozi’s myriad souls might
scheme against each other in pursuit of wildly differ-
ent agendas, reifying that Demon Prince’s thoughts as it
makes up its mind.
Hell’s Chosen have much to offer demonic peers and
patrons. Unlike demons, which can only depart Malfeas
when summoned by sorcery or loosed by rare conjunc-
tions of esoteric phenomena, Infernals freely cross
between worlds. Many demons’ agendas reach into
Creation — like Octavian, who seeks to expand his vast
empire beyond Malfeas’s bounds, and Vicuska, who
hungers for the words of mortal prophets — and after
millennia of imprisonment, the Infernals finally offer a
chance to see those desires fulfilled. Other demons em-
ploy Infernals as their own agents in Hell, seeking them
out as mercenaries, advisors, spies, artificers, ambassa-
dors, and more. Such Infernals are well compensated,
either with the exotic wares of Malfeas — voices spun
into cloth by Berengiere, the naming-venoms brewed in
Lupul’s bejeweled cauldron, hellish artifacts forged by
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Ligier — or unique services offered only by certain de-
mons — a pleasure cruise aboard Florivet’s landship, the
false resurrections worked by Saphrax, or a secret con-
tained in Orabilis’ glass library.
To most Infernals, First Circle demons are little more
than monsters, servants, conscripts, toadies, or court-
iers. Unlike more powerful demons, those of the First
Circle don’t embody the will of the Yozis, or even of the
demon that created them — they are more akin to teem-
ing mites symbiotically intertwined with a Yozi’s soul
hierarchy than a true part of it. Yet their lowly status
does not put them entirely beneath the notice of Hell’s
Chosen. An Infernal whose mortal life was marked by
slavery, poverty, or brutal oppression might see her own
plight mirrored in that of the First Circle demons, and
seek to improve their lot. A Green Sun Prince then could
be a bureaucratic reformer struggling to overturn the
Demon City’s unjust laws, a resourceful business part-
ner to a neomah couturier, or a folk hero championing
the cause of the common blood ape.
No Escape
The Yozis will never escape their imprisonment in Hell.
At the Divine Revolution’s end, the victorious gods and
Exalted forced conquered Ancients to swear oaths of
surrender on their own names, twisted the Yozis’ nature
to bind them within their own flesh and Essence, and
worked unimaginable miracles to seal the Demon City’s
gates against its prisoners forevermore. Over millennia,
most Demon Princes have resigned themselves to this
fate. Only the Ebon Dragon — the Shadow of All Things,
who loves only that which is doomed — still tests his
prison’s bars, not trusting the work of the gods to contain
him, for he is that which they are not. His struggles are
doomed to failure, his efforts all in vain.
Many Infernals are largely unconcerned with the
Demon Princes’ freedom. Some know liberating them
would be impossible, either from the counsel of demonic
peers or their own memories of sealing the Yozis away in
past lives. Others don’t realize their masters are impris-
oned; to a young Infernal gazing upon Malfeas for the
first time, the Yozis seem like the natural and inextrica-
ble foundation of Hell. Some strive to free the Demon
Princes, whether moved to help the divine patrons who
freed them from their lives of suffering or scheming
alongside those souls of the Ebon Dragon bent on free-
dom in pursuit of their own self-interest. Some are un-
aware that their goal cannot be achieved; others know,
but refuse to accept this. Even with their Exalted power,
they will never free their masters, but their labors may
yet damn Creation along the way.
 CRUCIBLE OF LEGEND
Infernal Revolutionary
A bitter, jaded scion of theocratic Kour’s royal bloodline,
this Infernal now serves to undermine her former rel-
atives. A formidable spymaster, courtier, and dissident,
she now wanders Creation — sometimes serving at the
behest of the demonic crime lord Ricimer, the Tree of
Agonies; other times indulging her own desire to see the
folly of the righteous revealed.
Caste: Penumbra
Essence: 2; Willpower: 8; Join Battle: 7 dice
(+7 for 7m)
Personal: 16; Peripheral: 30 (10 committed)
Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x3/-4x3/Incap.
Actions: Administration: 6 dice (+5 for 5m); Disguise:
10 dice (+7 for 7m); Infernalism: 6 dice (+5 for 5m);
Monastic Education: 7 dice (+7 for 7m); Read Inten-
tions: 11 dice (+10 for 10m); Senses: 6 dice (+5 for
5m); Social Influence: 11 dice (+10 for 10m); Stealth:
8 dice (+7 for 7m); Theft: 8 dice (+7 for 7m)
Appearance 5, Resolve 4 (+3 for 6m), Guile 5 (+5
for 10m)
COMBAT
Attack (Broken Sky Dreamer, black lead
razor parasol): 11 dice (+10 for 10m, damage 12,
minimum 4)
Attack (Unarmed): 9 dice (+7 for 7m; damage 9)
Attack (Grapple): 5 dice (+5 for 5m; 2 dice to
control, +2 for 2m)
Combat Movement: 8 dice (+7 for 7m)
Evasion: 4 (+4 for 8m); Parry 5 (+4 for 8m)
Soak/Hardness: 10/7 (orichalcum-reinforced
buff jacket)
INTIMACIES
Defining Principle: I don’t want to be good.
Defining Principle: Every virtue is just a pretty mask
hiding something horrible.
Defining Tie: Hypocrites (Scorn)
Major Principle: The best way to help people is by
ripping away their self-imposed limits.
Major Tie: The Yozis (Awe)
Minor Tie: Ricimer (Respect)
ESCORT
The Infernal complements her modest martial prowess
by surrounding herself with bodyguards. The makeup
of her escort varies considerably with her current cir-
cumstances at locale — at times, she may have only a
Size 1-2 battle group of elite bodyguards or assassins
158
EX3
(Exalted, pp. 497, 499); but she sometimes boasts
outcaste or Exigent champions, or even subtle and
silent demons.
OFFENSIVE CHARMS
Green Sun Nimbus Flare (2m; Supplemen-
tal; Instant; Dual): Add a success to a withering
damage roll or one die to a decisive damage roll,
and roll an additional die for every 10 on the damage
roll.
Ravenous Whirlwind Principle (1m, 1wp; Sup-
plemental; Instant; Decisive-only): A decisive sur-
prise attack adds the attack roll’s extra successes as
dice of damage, up to maximum of the number of suc-
cesses the Infernal’s Stealth beat her victim’s Aware-
ness by.
DEFENSIVE CHARMS
Bitter Heart Unbleeding (3m; Reflexive; Instant;
Uniform): Ignore wound penalty to Defense and
add (current temporary Willpower / 2, rounded up)
natural soak.
SOCIAL CHARMS
Broken Silence Laughter Defense (5m; Re-
flexive; Instant): Bursting into laughter as a character
makes a spoken influence roll to impose a −2 penalty
on it. If the Infernal hasn’t previously made any vocal
utterance this scene, subtract successes instead of
dice.
Golden Years Tarnished Black (8m, 1wp;
Simple; Instant; Mute, Psyche): Roll Social Influence
as a special instill against one character to change
a positive Minor Tie’s emotional context to a nega-
tive one, distorting the target’s memories to cast the
Intimacy’s object in the worst possible light. If this in-
fluence would align with one of the target’s Defining
Intimacies, the Infernal can affect a positive Major Tie
instead. Resisting requires a Decision Point, invoking
an Intimacy stronger than the one affected. She can’t
target the same Intimacy of a character more than
once per story.
Inner Voice Betrayal (3m [+1m]; Supplemental;
Instant; Mute): Double 9s to Read Intentions. Upon
discerning an Intimacy, the Infernal may pay one
mote to also learn what her target considers his great-
est failure related to that Intimacy.
Naked Wicked Souls (1m; Reflexive; Instant):
When a character acts against one of his Intimacies,
reflexively roll Read Intentions to discern it; the Intima-
cy penalizes that character’s Guile against the roll as
though it were his Resolve.
MISCELLANEOUS CHARMS
Echo-Devouring Aura (4m; Reflexive; One scene;
Mute): Become completely imperceptible to hearing.
 C h a p t e r F o u r : T h e C h o s e n i n P l ay
Wind Cloak Vanish (2m; Supplemental; Instant;
Mute): Reroll 1s on Stealth and can attempt conceal-
ment without cover. Reduce the penalty for Stealth in
combat by −1, and ignore the increased penalty for
Stealth while crossing wide-open terrain entirely.
Mysteries Beyond Revelation Devil-Body
The Infernal can enter her Devil-Body once per story,
upon suffering damage to a −4 health level or recogniz-
ing that a powerful character is acting against one of his
own Major or Defining Intimacies in a way that harms
or threatens her or her own Intimacies. She grows doz-
ens of feet tall; her skin turns a vivid violet; disembod-
ied limbs appear floating in the air, orbiting her, as they
reach up to tear away her face, revealing a black void full
of dying stars. This Devil-Body Apotheosis confers the
following benefits:
Beyond Your Understanding: The Infernal has
effectively infinite Guile.
Infernal Vigor: The Infernal’s health track is re-
placed by an alternative track of nine −0 health levels.
If this track is filled with damage, her Devil-Body ends,
but none of the damage to it carries over to her true
health track.
Legendary Size: The Infernal suffers no onslaught
penalties from smaller foes’ attacks, unless inflicted
by magic. She can’t be crashed by smaller enemies’
withering attacks unless they have 10+ post-soak
damage, although attackers gain the full amount of
Initiative damage dealt. Smaller enemies’ decisive
attacks can’t deal more than (attacker’s Strength + 3)
damage to her, not counting levels added by magic.
She makes unopposed grapple rolls against smaller
foes.
Thousand-Armed Titan: The Infernal can make
close-ranged attacks out to short range and ignores
flurry penalties on physical actions. She can attempt
Strength 10 feats of strength with a pool of 20 dice.
Immanent Divinity’s Presence (5m; Reflexive;
Instant): Upon entering this Devil-Body or landing
a decisive attack, reflexively roll Social Influence
with double 7s to threaten all characters that can see
or hear the Infernal, cowing them into either fleeing
from her or kneeling and worshipping her. Affected
159
EX3
POWER OF THE EXIGENCE
What of the tenth type of Exalted?
Their themes and stories are as manifold as they are.
The Chosen of the Gods may find use for most of the
Storytelling advice featured here, depending on the
specificities of the Exigent. Their themes include be-
ing empowered to fulfill a specific need, of surviving
beyond the bounds of an immediate need and seek-
ing some new purpose, or of a very personal rela-
tionship with the god who empowered you. Heroes
will often make pilgrimages to Great Forks in search
of the Exigence, a practice that can be used to kick-
start a chronicle. As the Unconquered Sun turns his
face back to Creation, the Exigence is granted with far
greater regularity; but ancient Exigents might still be
worshipped as Princes of the Earth. Terrestrial deities
must deal with the Silver Pact, while Celestial deities
encounter the Five-Score Fellowship. Their god might
be demanding like a Deathlord, or the god may have
perished to leave the Exigent all alone in the world
like a Liminal.
The only advice we truly have for an Exigent game is
this: Treat every Exalt as a hero. Even if they are on
the level of a “mere” Dragon-Blooded, the Princes of
the Earth outstrip mortals with ease. Properly armed,
attired, and possessed of tactical sagacity, a Drag-
on-Blooded may kill a Solar — and many did, thou-
sands of years ago. Ask the Getimians: one person
is all it takes to change the world. How much greater
can that change be if that person is Exalted?
characters count as having a Major Tie of awed fear
towards her for the rest of the scene, even if they spend
Willpower to resist.
No Secrets from Me (4m; Reflexive; Instant;
Uniform): Whenever an enemy attacks the Infernal,
makes a social influence roll against her, or takes an
action opposing her, she reflexively rolls Read Inten-
tions against them. If successful, she adds (Intimacy)
to her Defense or Resolve as a non-Charm bonus, or
(Intimacy) non-Charm successes to her opposing roll.
The Exalted stand astride Creation,
ready to remake the world in their own
image. From the mightiest Solar to the
lowliest Exigent, they are heroes one
and all. Yet Creation is vast, and the sto-
ries it can hold innumerable. Herein are
the tools of the forge where heroes are
made, the grand crucible in which the
story of the Exalted can be told.

Crucible of Legend presents Storytellers

and groups playing Exalted with tools to
help them tell the stories of their charac-
ters in Creation and beyond. From char-
acter generation aids to alternative craft-
ing systems, from details on the secret
agendas of the Exalted and the factions
ruling Creation, Storytellers will find a
wealth of tips and tricks within this book.
The conflicts of the Time of Tumult are
the myths of the age to come.

What legends will they

tell of your deeds?