Editing Exalted (section)

===Exalted===
====[[Solars|Solar Exalted]]====
[[Image:Chess-solar-exalted.jpg|thumb|right|Solar Exalted]]
The Solar's main themes are 'excellence' and 'rulership'. Solar Exalted were created by the Unconquered Sun, King of the Gods, to lead the other Exalted, and to rule the world.  Most of their low-level powers are normal human abilities turned up to 11, like simply being impossibly good at sneaking, or fighting, or persuasion.  Their high-power abilities are normal human abilities turned up to OVER NINE THOUSAAAAND!!!  A mortal blacksmith can make a sword using iron and a hammer and forge--a Solar craftsman can take a heap of hematite, and ''wring'' a sword out of it with their bare hands, and it'll be a masterfully made one, too.  A mortal can survive, at least for a little while, in a hostile environment, like a raging snowstorm.  A Solar with the right Charms can survive being at the bottom of the ocean, or '''inside''' an erupting volcano.  A mortal can use a sword to parry a sword-strike.  A Solar can parry an angry Primordial hitting them with a mountain range.  And so on.
Solars also excel at inspiring and persuading others.  Or, to be less polite, only the Fair Folk come anywhere close to their skill at being [[Eldrad|dicks]].

====[[Lunars|Lunar Exalted]]====
Lunar Exalts are the chosen of Luna. After the Terrestrials murdered all the Solars, they then moved on to their second in command Lunar servants. Fortunately for the children of the moon, they had always been good with stealth and survival in the wilderness, unfortunately for them the Dragon Bloods were a very organized and driven genocidal force. The Lunars had no choice but to move into the borderlands between the Wyld and Creation and try to plan their resistance in secret. However the Wyld is not a nice place and the borderlands can mutate even Exalted with its touch. Thus three things have happened: The Lunars have taken to ritually tattooing themselves with moonsilver, the normal 5 caste system has been simplified into the Full Moon, No Moon, and Changing Moon castes, and almost all of them have acquired bestial traits either through their devotion to Luna or the Wyld mutations. Ergo Lunar Exalts are a race of [[furry]] demigods. But one should always remember what power the Exalted wield, telling a lion-man of the Full Moon to "yiff in hell" is almost always a horrible idea as he can rip you and thousands like you to pieces without even trying. The Lunars have the unique "Meerkat Steals The Spotlight Prana", which makes any Real Life conversation about Exalted eventually evolve into a discussion about Lunar Exalted, as, pre-3e, they were by far the most interesting Exalt (except maybe the Fair Folk, below).

The new edition paints them as one of the main threat for the Realm's expansion before the Empress fucked off to Dragons know where. Their caste changing are also given a different reason, instead of being broken by the Wyld they were purposefully changed by the Lunars themselves to better fit into the new age. A couple of Elder's were changed some by a lot, others not so much, and few others were introduced like Aum-Ashatra the Spider King and Sha'a-Oka, The Black Lion the leader of the ongoing holy war in the Caul.

====[[Sidereals|Sidereal Exalted]]====
The Sidereals are the Chosen of the Maidens. To cover up their role in the Usurpation they broke the universe a little, and now everyone keeps forgetting that they exist. If they want to be remembered, they can use Resplendent Destinies, but then people remember the Destiny and not the person. If a certain Destiny is inconvenient or widely hated, the Sidereal can drop it and use another. In other words, Sidereals are anonymous 4chan users, and Resplendent Destinies are tripcodes.

These guys are the Men in Black and the CIA of Exalted.  They live and work in the coolest place evar (Heaven) and are sent on missions to make sure everything in Creation is Working as Intended, "by any means necessary".  Not surprisingly, Sidereals are notorious for being lying, cheating, backstabbing Magnificent Bastards by the people who can manage to remember them.

They are also more crazy, but less powerful than the Solar exalted, when fighting. A battle with a Sidereal can result in you turning into a mountain, your opponent turning into a river, and then the two of you doing battle with the concept of love as a blunt weapon. Sidereal Martial Arts are the pinnacle of kung-fu, and instead of emulating facets of Creation, they make Creation a facet of the Martial Art. This lets them punch people so hard they turn into ducks (it makes marginally more sense in context). Sidereals are also the only Exalts capable of manipulating the Loom of Fate directly, and are tasked with making sure it doesn't break down.

====[[Abyssals|Abyssal Exalted]]====
By twisting the Solar Exalted Essences in a Monstrance of Celestial Portion, the Neverborn managed to create the Abyssal Exalted. Abyssal Exalted don't suffer from the Great Curse, but instead suffer if they act too nice to people. They are also kept on a short leash, since the dead Primordials aren't exactly pleased with the Exalted. Generally an Abyssal has two choices in life, be the grand villain or attempt to redeem themselves. Both suck for obvious reasons.

Abyssal Exalted charms are largely mirrors of Solar Charms with a darker aspect. As a general thing, where the Solar Exalted gain bonuses, the Abyssal Exalted force penalties on their foes. Their magical material is Soulsteel, the forged souls of ghosts who live in constant pain (and moan and stuff too). They generally fall into one of a few categories; Emo dicks, giggling psychotic mass murderers devoid of all redeeming qualities, and CRAAAAAAAWLING IIIIIIIIIIIIIN MY SKIIIIIIIIIIIN. There is a part of their soul that is still a Solar and it keeps reminding them of all the bad shit they do, and lots of them use it to be even more emo.

Fortunately, if they run into their Lunar Bondmate, they don't HAVE to suffer if they act too nice to him/her/it and/or those around him/her/it, and if they DO get to the "redemption" stage (BIIIIIG if), they don't have to worry about that pesky Great Curse anymore.

Unless, of course, their player took a look at the way that the Abyssals' development paths basically boil down to either 'devoted slave of the biggest dicks in existence' (which not everyone really wants to be) or 'the Abyssal whose one goal in life is to stop being an Abyssal' (which kind of misses the point) and said, "Fuck that noise, I'm going to be the biggest baddest ass in the underworld and the most horrifying thing in existence, no-one's going to tell me what to do, and it's going to be freaking AWESOME and metal and shit!" and proceeded to rewrite the rules until they could do just that.

Interestingly, this last part seems to be something that Third Edition seems to be running with. Abyssals are no longer slaves to their Deathlord, and are allowed as much free will as they desire to exert, because speculation indicates that Abyssals also no longer have a delete button (A monstrance) that their Deathlord can press if they start thinking too much. Additionally, there is nothing indicating any longer that Abyssals must kick puppies in their spare time to avoid becoming murder nukes. Much of their fate is speculation, but the direction that WW seems to be taking is to make them much more accessible as player characters in 3e than they were in 2e, where everyone pretty much universally agreed they were completely shitty to play. An Abyssal character is probably still not going to be building any orphanages, but at least he's no longer required to arbitrarily burn them down. Abyssals are also no longer required to genocide everything in their path for no reason other than Muh Death, as the Chivalry of Death replaces this compulsion with the imperative to "spread the influence of death to the living", a concept that is very open for interpretation (You can still do shit the old way, which makes people fear death and react with horror, but you can also cultivate positive interaction with the dead as well) since it now states that death itself is not the goal, but how much death influences the living mentally and emotionally.

====[[Dragon-Blooded|Terrestrial Exalted]]====
Terrestrials, also known as Dragon-Blooded, have a fitting name. They are the Exalts of the Five Elemental Dragons, souls of the Primordial Gaia. This gives them the ability to kill stuff with fire or their personal equivalent.

Since Terrestrials are the current bosses in Creation (with some secret aid from the Sidereals), their empire is the biggest single nation in the world and their state religion proclaims them to officially be the Best Thing Ever, they can freely go around and strut their stuff without being decried as Anathema, a term they invented themselves so that no other Exalts could strut their stuff. This in turn has a tendency to cause them to be enormous assholes. Also, when they use their magic a lot, they are liable to start burning or cause storms or other stuff that's less than safe for innocent bystanders.

The Terrestrials are soldiers. Like, all of them. They lean towards hierarchy, and even if not all of them fight, all of them could, and probably would if they were asked, contribute to a war effort. And the Realm is pretty much always at war in some area. Funny how that turns out.

Life in Dragon-Blooded society is competitive and merciless.  To prepare for this, their training as soldiers and politicians starts as soon as they can speak and is so brutal that many don't survive to maturity even without considering the occasional assassination attempt.  The end product is sort of a Sidereal-lite flavour of badass, particularly the ones that decide to become <strike>Shaolin</strike> Immaculate monks.

Terrestrials take strength in numbers, and since their Exaltation is the only one that is inherited (Dragon-''Blooded'', remember?), family is very important to them. From this follows that the production of new family is also very important to them, so if a Terrestrial isn't trying to kill you, he's probably trying to sleep with you.  Even if he's gay.

====[[Alchemicals|Alchemical Exalted]]====
Basically <strike>robots</strike>Autobots. They work for Autochthon, also called The Great Maker, who is one of the last free Primordials and has a bunch of people living in cities built inside of him. He's got Primordial robot cancer that's called Gremlin Syndrome, The setting is half "Void tainted" (no relation to the Underworld) or infected by Gremlin Syndrome, and the other half varies between Steampunk to Cyberpunk. (Void-tainted Alchemicals are called Apostates, but they're only really comparable to Decepticons if all Decepticons, ever, eventually go into gleeful rampages of slaughter) As Alchemicals get more powerful, they get more and more like giant, inhuman robots until they turn into living cities.

Alchemicals are the only Exalted who require a soul that has demonstrated heroics worthy of Exaltation in many past lives.  Given what's required to become one. Aside from that, then it could be worth noticing that Autochthon, being the guy who invented Exaltation, essentially made Alchemicals as prototypes for all the other Exaltations. Orichalcum Alchemicals for Solars, Moonsilver for Lunars and so on. <strike>Even Abyssal Exalted are covered by the Soulsteel Caste, making you wonder if he anticipated death-themed Exaltations...</strike> Retconned in Second Edition, Abyssals weren't planned for and resonate with both Orichalcum and Soulsteel, but the question remains for ''what'' Autocthon planned to do with them, as well as Adamant Alchemicals that do not fit anywhere, and the later Infernal Exalted don't match any Alchemicals either. On the other hand, said Infernals resonate with ALL of the Alchemical Castes - whether it's because they're proto-Primordials or SCIENCE!/MAGIC!/EXALTED! is up for debate.

====[[Infernals|Infernal Exalted]]====
The result of the Yozi's deal with the Neverborn to steal them some Solar Exaltations, the Infernal Exalts are tasked with turning Creation into Hell so that the Yozi can escape their prison. This is easier said than done because, like their Abyssal cousins, literally every other faction in existence thinks this is a terrible idea. Infernal charms are actually their Yozi's charms, and thus follow strict thematic grouping. When an Infernal develops a custom charm their Yozi learns it as well, which allows individual Infernals to change their Yozi over time. They are also slowly becoming Yozis in their own right over time, though they have the potential to be far more awesome Primordials than the original Primordials ever were.

Infernal Exalted is a collective term used to refer to two types; Akuma and Green Sun Princes. Akuma are the result of the classic Faustian bargain, selling their soul and free will for unstoppable power. Green Sun Princes get the same powers, except they still have the option of flipping the bird at this whole Reclamation thing and running off to get coked out of their minds, and since Akuma don't have free will you'll usually be playing as the latter.

[[That Guy|Some people]] will try to tell you that if you try to play an Infernal who is also a fundamentally decent character, you are [[Matt Ward|doing it wrong.]]  Those people are idiots.  No one says you have to put '''heroes''' in an elaborate death trap, explain your plans to them at length, and then leave with a hearty evil laugh to bleed off Torment.  The head of a major crime syndicate works just as well.
Additionally, the potential to become an Über-primordial means that slipping the leash and gaining 'redemption' places you in the position of absolute power. You can become Armageddon, destroyer of all, Genesis, creator of worlds, or Über Gaia, mother/father/progenitor of everything. Dickhead, dispassionate weeder, or eternally-loving-and-benevolent Cthulu, those monikers become meaningless when you can make your ''soul/imagination'' a REALITY IN OF ITSELF. In theory, at least. In practice, the Devil-Tiger Charms (Said reward for slipping the leash) are absolute garbage and not worth the xp to get them. Of course, after you do become a Devil Tiger, there is always the avenue of custom charms, but that's a whole different kettle of Lunar-Fish

Seriously though, check with your storyteller first.  The [[fluff]] for these guys is positively ''fucked'' from being written by two different teams of dudes that had ''zero'' contact with each other and very different ideas of what to do with the archetype.  Naturally, that means that DMs are divided into armed, angry camps over the "[[skub|right]]" way to play/run an Infernal campaign, and if he wants to use them one way, then let him use them that way.  It might be in your best interests to pick one of the more traditionally "heroic" kinds of Exalt if he wants them to be child-raping murderers rather than screwed-up dudes with many possible motivations and flaws.  And even if he ''does'' let you run the way you want, nobody likes the guy who [[Drizzt|won't stop whining about]] [[Vampire: The Masquerade|how hard it is to be misunderstood]] all the time.  Remember: being an Infernal is fun.  It feels good.  It's like being the centerpiece of a heavy metal album cover, whether you're trying to be a hero or not.

====[[Chernozem|Liminal Exalted]]====
We don't know much about these ones.  They've gotten scattered mentions in the second-to-last book of second edition, have some sort of interest in body parts, and are tied to the lands of the dead.  They're also called "Chernozem", chosen of the black earth. Their Aspects apparently include Blood, Marrow, Flesh, Breath and Soil.

They are on a quest to learn about their Humanity.

It'll probably be years before they receive an official sourcebook.

Based on tentative things released with the Kickstarter, Liminals are the result of people trying to use rituals to bring back the dead (something impossible in Exalted). The Dark Mother, a strange being who lives somewhere in the Underworld meets the conductor of the ritual halfway and instead creates a whole new soul inside the corpse, which is the Exalt. Liminal Exalts are tasked by her with keeping restless spirits bound and down, but can give her the finger and do their own damn thing (unlike Abyssals). They can collect and replace body parts to modify their skills, taking the legs of a legendary dancer, the arm of a swordsman, or the tongue of a master storyteller and making these abilities their own. Additionally, as long as a Liminal's brain is intact and they can access most of their original body's matter, they can recover from any injury.

====[[Getimian Exalted]]====
Apparently at some point a Sidereal looked up from his endless paperwork, realized saving the fundaments of reality every day was something that just wasn't going to end, and said WELL FUCK THAT and wandered off.  He then proceeded to--in ascending order of badassitude, and perhaps sequentially--quit his job, declare war on heaven, and then recruit an entire type of Exalted to help, and they now regard him as their collective boss.  They have some sort of crazy internal alchemy and have a miniature version of the machine that keeps reality running inside each one, thanks to ''colonies of pattern spiders that live in their spines.'' [[Drow]], eat your hearts out. 

<s>And like the Liminals, that's about all we know until their hardback comes out</s> Or the rules-light edition edition comes out I guess.

Getimians are people who were totally awesome in creation, or would be, except that the Sidereals decided to do some other stuff with fate and they never existed. Some of the weirder yozi are involved in getting them into Creation, and they're all super pissed the cool stuff they did un-happened. despite the lore contradicting it everyone makes them isekai protagonists. They're divided into Getimians of Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring, because even the writers don't give a shit about Exalted having five seasons. 

Getimian powers are absolute nonsense based around conjuring their own reality to overwrite creation. They decide people are good at something and that becomes more true, they decide punching you in the face is what happens so running away doesn't work right, and if you're chasing one they were retroactively someone from an alternate reality who suddenly stops existing when you catch up to them. If one steals your hat it was always their hat. If one kills a god, their domain is replaced by what it would be in the Getimian's reality. Shit's weird.

====[[Exigents]]====

Discount Exalted. Basically, every god has the capacity to carve out some of their own power and then give it to a mortal as a permanent upgrade. This would probably result in all humanity being Exalted in short order given how literally every blade of grass has a god and everyone wants their own action figure, were it not for the Law of Diminishment-if you're going to make something that's going to be great and perhaps eternal, you have to permanently give it some of your own power. Hell, the first time the Sun set was when he made the Solars, and that was just stamping his name on the things Autocthon already made! This is often more than what lesser gods can take and what greater gods, being dicks, are willing to give up, hence why they're saved for emergencies. Once that happens though, they each get a custom Charmset, for a personal style of kicking ass.

And you guessed it, that's all we're gonna know until the hardback.