Sep 20, 2021 2:20 am
Step 1: Concept
Every character starts with a concept. Exalts are heroes by nature, so you can draw inspiration from popular media. Don’t worry about the details — you’ll find enough prompts once you go over the other steps. A sentence or two is enough for now: A smuggler turned hero against an oppressive empire, or a chosen one destined to heal the world’s trauma.
Check with me to see if your concept works, as I might have specific suggestions based on the campaign. Also check with your fellow players. Maybe one of them has a great hook to tie your characters together. Or you discover you have four "introverts with a penchant for sorcery" in the group and decide that’s a bit much (or not — maybe this is now a campaign about sorcerers!).
Once you have your concept, pick an Exalt type and (if applicable) Caste or Aspect. Different types of Exalts can and do work together, but the Storyteller may choose to run a game for one type only. or they might decide this is a Creation-focused game, no Abyssal Exalts allowed. Similarly, check with your fellow players — perhaps their Solar has a DragonBlooded childhood friend, and wants to establish that as the relationship between your characters.
This post explains the Exalt types. While you’re there, make a note of the three Advantages your Exalt has.
Tamara wants to play an "invincible sword princess" sworn to protect the Kingom of Ur in the Hundred Kingdoms of the East. After talking to the group and Storyteller, she decides her character isn’t just interested in protecting Ur, but all of the East against all manner of threats – colonizing Dynasts, unscrupulous Guild merchants, tricky Raksha, and nefarious Deathlords alike. Obviously, such a grand warrior would be a Dawn Caste. She decides her character needs a suitably heroic sobriquet, and names her Radiant Sun of the East.Step 2: Attributes
Your character has a preferred approach to problems. Three Attributes: Force, Finesse, and Fortitude, represent these approaches. This post explains each Attribute in detail, but in a nutshell your character uses Force to power through a problem with physical prowess or hard logic, Finesse when they use quickness or cleverness, and Fortitude if they endure until it’s over.
Take a moment to picture your character under duress, backed into a corner, or standing up to fight for what’s right. What do they do? Your answer should be which Attribute is their strongest.
Assign 4, 3, and 2 to Attributes. A rating of five is the pinnacle of human achievement, two is about average for a mortal, and one is just not very good.
Your attributes have no bearing on your appearance. You can be a seven-foot-tall hulking brute and have the Finesse of a classically trained dancer. Likewise, you can be unremarkable but have a such a forceful personality that queens bow before you.
The Radiant Sun of the East is powerful and enduring, but not very subtle. Tamara chooses Force 4, Fortitude 3, and Finesse 2.
Step 3: Abilities
Every character comes with a skill set gained through training and dedication. One character is an excellent hand-to-hand fighter, another runs like the wind, and a third has an unshakable will. Fourteen Abilities represent these skills: Awareness, Athletics, Close Combat, Craft, Embassy, Integrity, Navigate, Performance, Physique, Presence, Ranged Combat, Sagacity, Stealth, and War. Each has a rating of one dot (beginner) to five dots (exemplar). This post explains all Abilities in detail.
Assign one 5, one 4, three 3s, two 2s, and one 1 to your character’s Abilities.
The five-dot rated Ability is what your character does best, maybe even what they’re already famous for. Someone who crafted the sword Nyandarr, Bringer of Ten Thousand Deaths, has Craft 5. Unless the sword is useless, but your character spun tales of The Great Sword Nyandarr until everyone believed it — that’s Performance 5.
At the other end of the range, the one dot rating represents an Ability your character isn’t very good at. Most Exalts are excellent at something once they apply themselves, so this might be a skill they just started. or, for an interesting subversion of the excellent Exalt, it might be that one area that eludes them — perhaps your Exalt wanted to be a singer, but they can’t carry a tune and so they went into sword-smithing.
You probably noticed that a spread of eight leaves you with six Abilities at 0 dots. That’s okay — those are skills your character has no real experience with. Even Exalts can’t be great at everything.
Step 4: Charms
Exalts are avatars of Creation’s essence, and Charms are essentially their super powers. Chapter 6 (p. XX) lists all Charms in detail.
You start the game with Ox Body Technique or an Excellency, and four other Charms of your choice. You can take the Excellency as part of your four chosen Charms if your first pick was the Ox Body Technique, and vice versa.
Beyond that, choose whatever fits your character. You can find a guide to how to pick Charms most suitable to your character on p.XX. If this means rearranging your Abilities slightly to fit the suggestions, you may do so now.
If you chose a Circle of Sorcery as Charm, you can also select Spells. You get one free Spell to go with the Circle. Every Spell on top of that counts as a Charm. The same one-for-one replacement holds for Martial Arts Charms.
Some Charms have prerequisites which you must meet before you can take it. Feel free to go back to Steps one and two, and rearrange your spread, if there’s a Charm you really want but currently don’t have the right dots for.
Tamara chooses Ox-Body Technique and Bulwark Stance, Excellent Strike, ResolveBolstering Declaration and Glorious Solar Arsenal for Radiant Sun of the East. That’s two Charms to increase her defensive capabilities, one to enhance her Close-Combat attacks, an Integrity Charm for helping others, and a Solar Charm that lets her summon a blade of sunlight.
Step 5: Merits
Your character did not spend their life in a void. They had exploits, impressed people, and maybe found an ancient relic in their pre-campaign adventuring career. These are represented by Merits. Every Merit comes with a dot rating of one to five. Some have a range such as (••••), while others jump between ratings such as (• or ••• or •••••). When a Merit adds its rating as dice to any roll, these do not count towards the dice limit. This post covers the merits in detail.
Pick three starting Merits for your character: a primary, secondary, and tertiary. The primary Merit may have a dot rating of 5-3, the secondary at 4-2 dots, and the tertiary at 2-1 dots. How this applies to each individual Merit is explained within each entry. Some Merits such as Familiar only go to three dots, so you can’t choose those as Primary Merit even if your character’s beloved dire cat is the most important person in their life. This is a ceiling, not a floor. If a player wishes to use her Primary Merit on Artifact ••• because it is important to her concept, she may. Characters are not required to have a ••••• Merit, unless it suits them.
Merits enjoy the Sanctity of Merits. That means the Storyteller can’t just take them away. A third party won’t kill your character’s friend (Allies) for helping them, and their pet (Familiar) won’t die in combat. The Storyteller might temporarily take them away if it makes narrative sense, or furthers the plot. Think of a villain capturing your character and taking their magic sword (Artifact) away — that’s just sensible precautions. or another villain abducting that friend we mentioned, as bait. In the end though, your character should save both of them. Choosing to offer up your Merit as a Dramatic Injury (p. XX) means that you will either be presented with the opportunity to recover a lost or broken Merit, or acquire a replacement. The Sanctity of Merits does have its limits though. If you send a familiar to spy on the Mask of Winters, or tell that villain to go ahead and kill the friend, it won’t end well for them. Use common sense, and heed any warning your Storyteller might give you. If you do lose the target of your Merit dots, you and the Storyteller should work out replacement targets free of charge.
Your Storyteller may restrict Merits at the start of the campaign. If they want the characters to meet while they’re down on their luck and alone, it doesn’t make much sense for your character to have a small battalion at their back through the Command Merit. In this case, ask your Storyteller if your character could gain that Merit later. Alternately, maybe you see a Merit you want, but which doesn’t make much sense for your character to start with. A sorcerer starting their quest for the secrets of Creation might gain a Hearthstone later. Discuss options with your Storyteller and determine a rough timeline for when your character might have the narrative arc to gain that Merit. You can bank some of your Merit dots now, with Storyteller permission, until you can buy it.
You may purchase multiple instances of any given Merit, each applying to a new benefit. For example, Allies (•) would be your God-Blooded friend, and Allies (•••) your Sidereal friend in the Celestial Bureaucracy. You can take them both as Secondary and Tertiary Allies, and still be able to make Artifact your Primary.
Radiant Sun of the East owns an ancient sword named Sun’s Caress (primary Merit: Artifact •••••) which once belonged to her previous incarnation. She also has Hearthstone connected to a Manse (secondary Merit: Hearthstone •••) in Ur – though technically it’s on loan from the Kingdom. As second in line to the throne, she also has Influence •• in Ur as her tertiary Merit.
Step 6: Virtues and Intimacies
After deciding what your character can do, we’ve come to why they do it. What do they believe in, fight for, and — if it comes to that — die for?
Discuss your ideas with the table. Having two character with opposing Intimacies in a group — say, "I never kill" versus "I do whatever it takes" — can be a source of excellent drama, or it can tear the group apart. Talk things through to make sure it’s the former.
Virtues
Exalted Essence uses seven Virtues: Ambition, Compassion, Courage, Discipline, Justice, Loyalty, and Wonder. This post explores them in detail.
Choose one to be your character’s Major Virtue, and another to be their Minor Virtue. A wide-eyed explorer may have Wonder as their Major Virtue and Courage as their Minor, while a martial artist defending the weak has Justice as their Major and Discipline as their Minor. Don’t be afraid to subvert the type. Maybe your wide-eyed explorer wants to be brave, but in actuality they’re not, or the defender works for fame more than actual justice, making Ambition rather than Justice their Major Virtue.
If you choose Ambition, you must choose a specific thing that drives your character, such as Ambition: Drive the Guild from Nexus, or Ambition: Rule Over the Deserts of the South. If you choose Loyalty, you must choose a leader or institution to which you are loyal, such as Loyalty (House Ragara) or Loyalty (the Mask of Winters). See p. XX for more explanation.
Intimacies
An Intimacy is a belief or relationship essential to your character. You choose one Major and two Minor Intimacies — there’s no pre-written list. A Major Intimacy greatly influences what your character does and how they behave. A Minor Intimacy also influences your character, but it’s not the defining factor in their decision making. All Intimacies must be influenced by their associated Virtue. You can find how Intimacies affect gameplay on p. XX.
Use an "I" sentence to check if a belief works for your character. I never kill. Does that sound like something they’d say or think? If so, that qualifies as a good Major Intimacy. If you wanted it to be a Minor Intimacy, I try not to kill is better.
Relationships are about attachment, which needn’t be to a person. Nor do relationships need to be positive. Nexus (protective), My Sister (rivalry), and The Mask of Winters (burning hatred) are all relationships. A character’s Intimacy of The Mask of Winters (burning hatred) may be attached to her Justice Virtue, while My Sister (Rivalry) may be attached to her Courage Virtue. Make sure your Storyteller can work with the Intimacies you’ve chosen. Nexus (protective) isn’t very interesting if Nexus never comes under threat, nor is Mask of Winters (burning hatred) if your campaign is miles away from that Deathlord. On the other hand, an Intimacy might inspire your Storyteller, prompting them to rewrite "a recurring rival" as your character’s sister.
The Storyteller has final say in what makes a good, applicable and not overly-broad Intimacy, as per p. XX
If at this point you’re struggling to choose three Intimacies: don’t worry, you can leave any number of them undefined and pick them during play!
The Great Curse
All Exalted are touched by ancient curses. The Great Curse drives them to take their Virtues and Intimacies too far. Compassion for the disenfranchised prompts them to kill every authority figure in the village. Discipline turns their heart to uncaring stone.
This post for facets of the Great Curse. You get to choose one of the manifestations when it triggers — you may want to review them now, and pick which one you think is most interesting. You do not have to stick with this choice for the entire game and may choose a different manifestation each time Curse triggers.
The Radiant Sun of the East is brave and fights for her people. Courage is her Major Virtue, and Loyalty her Minor.
Her Major Intimacy is "I protect the people of the East"- associated with Courage, and her Minor Intimacies are "My Sister (close older sister) – associated with Loyalty", and "Ur (my people)- attached to Loyalty".
Tamara reads over the Great Curse and thinks that Berserk Anger seems like a fun way to express lashing out when Radiant Sun’s Courage is provoked. When that comes up in play, she’ll choose it.
Step 7: Finishing Touches
This is where we fill in the last blank spots on your character sheet.
Essence
All starting Exalts have Essence 1, with a pool of five motes. Check p. XX under Advancement Templates if you’re starting the campaign at a higher Essence.
Health
Your Exalt starts with six Health levels (two 0, two -1s, two -2s and Incapacitated), plus any gained from Ox Body Technique. You can find more on damage and healing on p. xx.
Defense, Soak and Hardness
Your Defense is Parry Attribute + Close Combat divided by two (round up) or Evasion Attribute + Athletics divided by two (round up) whichever is higher. Add in any Charm effects. See p. XX for Evasion charms, and p. XX for Parry Charms.
Without armor, your Soak is 1, plus another 1 if your Fortitude is higher than 3. If you are wearing armor, add the Armor Soak Value to this total.
Characters start with a Hardness 2 plus any applicable bonuses from armor. Exalted characters add their Essence rating to their Hardness value.
The Radiant Sun of the East is newly exalted, and thus has Essence 1. Tamara adds her OxBody Health levels to the usual starting Health. She’s likely to use Fortitude 3 + Close Combat 5 for her Parry, which brings her Defense to 4 before any Charms.
Equipment
Your character may have any mundane equipment that fits their character concept and background, regardless of their Resources. They also have enough money to pay for food, lodgings, bath services, and so on.
Radiant Sun of the East has a royal steed, a fine leather outfit, a ball gown tucked away at the bottom of her pack just in case, and the usual travel equipment.
Spark of Life
Now it’s time to fill in the details. What does your character look like? This is Exalted, and your character looks however you want. Do they have any peculiar quirks or strange habits? What about social ties beyond their Intimacies — any family, or old lovers around? Make sure to look to the other characters too — does your character know any of them already, and how is that relationship working for both of them?
Every character starts with a concept. Exalts are heroes by nature, so you can draw inspiration from popular media. Don’t worry about the details — you’ll find enough prompts once you go over the other steps. A sentence or two is enough for now: A smuggler turned hero against an oppressive empire, or a chosen one destined to heal the world’s trauma.
Check with me to see if your concept works, as I might have specific suggestions based on the campaign. Also check with your fellow players. Maybe one of them has a great hook to tie your characters together. Or you discover you have four "introverts with a penchant for sorcery" in the group and decide that’s a bit much (or not — maybe this is now a campaign about sorcerers!).
Once you have your concept, pick an Exalt type and (if applicable) Caste or Aspect. Different types of Exalts can and do work together, but the Storyteller may choose to run a game for one type only. or they might decide this is a Creation-focused game, no Abyssal Exalts allowed. Similarly, check with your fellow players — perhaps their Solar has a DragonBlooded childhood friend, and wants to establish that as the relationship between your characters.
This post explains the Exalt types. While you’re there, make a note of the three Advantages your Exalt has.
Tamara wants to play an "invincible sword princess" sworn to protect the Kingom of Ur in the Hundred Kingdoms of the East. After talking to the group and Storyteller, she decides her character isn’t just interested in protecting Ur, but all of the East against all manner of threats – colonizing Dynasts, unscrupulous Guild merchants, tricky Raksha, and nefarious Deathlords alike. Obviously, such a grand warrior would be a Dawn Caste. She decides her character needs a suitably heroic sobriquet, and names her Radiant Sun of the East.
[ +- ] Character Archetypes
Most characters play a role in their group corresponding to five common archetypes: warriors, priests, savants, criminals, and brokers. If you’re having trouble deciding what you’d like to play, here are suggestions for which Exalt types, Castes, and Aspects fit those roles. Remember that this isn’t set in stone: Any Exalt can fill any role, and these may change over the course of a story. A series of Charm and build templates for these archetypes can be found on p. XX.
Warrior: Skilled at arms and combat, these characters are mercenaries, soldiers, generals, brawlers, and bodyguards.
Associated Exalted Types: Dawn Caste Solars, Dusk Caste Abyssals, Azimuth Caste Infernals, Full Moon Caste Lunars, Sidereal Chosen of Battles and Endings, Spring Caste Getimians, Dragon-Blooded Fire and Earth Aspects, Liminal Children of Flesh, Jade and Orichalcum Caste Alchemicals, an Exigent who is a gladiator god’s Chosen.
Priest: Holy persons, cult leaders, wandering monks, and hermits, these characters may lead congregations or strive for personal enlightenment.
Associated Exalted Types: Zenith Caste Solars, Midnight Caste Abyssals, Ascendant Caste Infernals, Changing Moon and No Moon Caste Lunars, Sidereal Chosen of Serenity, Spring and Summer Caste Getimians, Dragon-Blooded Fire Aspects, Liminal Children of Blood, Adamant and Soulsteel Caste Alchemicals, an Exigent whose divine patron is the god of a city.
Savant: Scribes, sorcerers, craftspeople, scholars, healers, and explorers, these characters focus on gaining and disseminating knowledge, whether for personal betterment or to gain broader power.
Associated Exalted Types: Twilight Caste Solars, Daybreak Caste Abyssals, Horizon Caste Infernals, No Moon Caste Lunars, Sidereal Chosen of Journeys and Secrets, Autumn and Winter Caste Getimians, Air and Wood Aspect DragonBlooded, Liminal Children of Breath and Soil, Adamant Caste Alchemicals, an Exigent who is a forge-god’s Chosen.
Criminal: Comfortable among society’s underbelly, these characters are thieves, spies, gamblers, assassins, and others who reject social norms or balk at moral codes.
Associated Exalted Types: Night Caste Solars, Day Caste Abyssals, Nadir Caste Infernals, Changing Moon Caste Lunars, Sidereal Chosen of Journeys and Endings, Summer Caste Getimians, Dragon-Blooded Water Aspects, Liminal Children of Marrow, and Moonsilver Caste Alchemicals, an Exigent who is a gambling god’s Chosen.
Broker: Couriers, diplomats, businesspersons, and administrators, these characters are social movers and shakers.
Associated Exalted Types: Eclipse Caste Solars, Moonshadow Caste Abyssals, Penumbra Caste Infernals, Changing Moon Caste Lunars, Sidereal Chosen of Journeys and Serenity, Winter Caste Getimians, Dragon-Blooded Air and Water Aspects, Liminal Children of Marrow, and Jade and Starmetal Caste Alchemicals, an Exigent who is a commerce-god’s Chosen.
Warrior: Skilled at arms and combat, these characters are mercenaries, soldiers, generals, brawlers, and bodyguards.
Associated Exalted Types: Dawn Caste Solars, Dusk Caste Abyssals, Azimuth Caste Infernals, Full Moon Caste Lunars, Sidereal Chosen of Battles and Endings, Spring Caste Getimians, Dragon-Blooded Fire and Earth Aspects, Liminal Children of Flesh, Jade and Orichalcum Caste Alchemicals, an Exigent who is a gladiator god’s Chosen.
Priest: Holy persons, cult leaders, wandering monks, and hermits, these characters may lead congregations or strive for personal enlightenment.
Associated Exalted Types: Zenith Caste Solars, Midnight Caste Abyssals, Ascendant Caste Infernals, Changing Moon and No Moon Caste Lunars, Sidereal Chosen of Serenity, Spring and Summer Caste Getimians, Dragon-Blooded Fire Aspects, Liminal Children of Blood, Adamant and Soulsteel Caste Alchemicals, an Exigent whose divine patron is the god of a city.
Savant: Scribes, sorcerers, craftspeople, scholars, healers, and explorers, these characters focus on gaining and disseminating knowledge, whether for personal betterment or to gain broader power.
Associated Exalted Types: Twilight Caste Solars, Daybreak Caste Abyssals, Horizon Caste Infernals, No Moon Caste Lunars, Sidereal Chosen of Journeys and Secrets, Autumn and Winter Caste Getimians, Air and Wood Aspect DragonBlooded, Liminal Children of Breath and Soil, Adamant Caste Alchemicals, an Exigent who is a forge-god’s Chosen.
Criminal: Comfortable among society’s underbelly, these characters are thieves, spies, gamblers, assassins, and others who reject social norms or balk at moral codes.
Associated Exalted Types: Night Caste Solars, Day Caste Abyssals, Nadir Caste Infernals, Changing Moon Caste Lunars, Sidereal Chosen of Journeys and Endings, Summer Caste Getimians, Dragon-Blooded Water Aspects, Liminal Children of Marrow, and Moonsilver Caste Alchemicals, an Exigent who is a gambling god’s Chosen.
Broker: Couriers, diplomats, businesspersons, and administrators, these characters are social movers and shakers.
Associated Exalted Types: Eclipse Caste Solars, Moonshadow Caste Abyssals, Penumbra Caste Infernals, Changing Moon Caste Lunars, Sidereal Chosen of Journeys and Serenity, Winter Caste Getimians, Dragon-Blooded Air and Water Aspects, Liminal Children of Marrow, and Jade and Starmetal Caste Alchemicals, an Exigent who is a commerce-god’s Chosen.
Your character has a preferred approach to problems. Three Attributes: Force, Finesse, and Fortitude, represent these approaches. This post explains each Attribute in detail, but in a nutshell your character uses Force to power through a problem with physical prowess or hard logic, Finesse when they use quickness or cleverness, and Fortitude if they endure until it’s over.
Take a moment to picture your character under duress, backed into a corner, or standing up to fight for what’s right. What do they do? Your answer should be which Attribute is their strongest.
Assign 4, 3, and 2 to Attributes. A rating of five is the pinnacle of human achievement, two is about average for a mortal, and one is just not very good.
Your attributes have no bearing on your appearance. You can be a seven-foot-tall hulking brute and have the Finesse of a classically trained dancer. Likewise, you can be unremarkable but have a such a forceful personality that queens bow before you.
The Radiant Sun of the East is powerful and enduring, but not very subtle. Tamara chooses Force 4, Fortitude 3, and Finesse 2.
Step 3: Abilities
Every character comes with a skill set gained through training and dedication. One character is an excellent hand-to-hand fighter, another runs like the wind, and a third has an unshakable will. Fourteen Abilities represent these skills: Awareness, Athletics, Close Combat, Craft, Embassy, Integrity, Navigate, Performance, Physique, Presence, Ranged Combat, Sagacity, Stealth, and War. Each has a rating of one dot (beginner) to five dots (exemplar). This post explains all Abilities in detail.
Assign one 5, one 4, three 3s, two 2s, and one 1 to your character’s Abilities.
The five-dot rated Ability is what your character does best, maybe even what they’re already famous for. Someone who crafted the sword Nyandarr, Bringer of Ten Thousand Deaths, has Craft 5. Unless the sword is useless, but your character spun tales of The Great Sword Nyandarr until everyone believed it — that’s Performance 5.
At the other end of the range, the one dot rating represents an Ability your character isn’t very good at. Most Exalts are excellent at something once they apply themselves, so this might be a skill they just started. or, for an interesting subversion of the excellent Exalt, it might be that one area that eludes them — perhaps your Exalt wanted to be a singer, but they can’t carry a tune and so they went into sword-smithing.
You probably noticed that a spread of eight leaves you with six Abilities at 0 dots. That’s okay — those are skills your character has no real experience with. Even Exalts can’t be great at everything.
Step 4: Charms
Exalts are avatars of Creation’s essence, and Charms are essentially their super powers. Chapter 6 (p. XX) lists all Charms in detail.
You start the game with Ox Body Technique or an Excellency, and four other Charms of your choice. You can take the Excellency as part of your four chosen Charms if your first pick was the Ox Body Technique, and vice versa.
Beyond that, choose whatever fits your character. You can find a guide to how to pick Charms most suitable to your character on p.XX. If this means rearranging your Abilities slightly to fit the suggestions, you may do so now.
If you chose a Circle of Sorcery as Charm, you can also select Spells. You get one free Spell to go with the Circle. Every Spell on top of that counts as a Charm. The same one-for-one replacement holds for Martial Arts Charms.
Some Charms have prerequisites which you must meet before you can take it. Feel free to go back to Steps one and two, and rearrange your spread, if there’s a Charm you really want but currently don’t have the right dots for.
Tamara chooses Ox-Body Technique and Bulwark Stance, Excellent Strike, ResolveBolstering Declaration and Glorious Solar Arsenal for Radiant Sun of the East. That’s two Charms to increase her defensive capabilities, one to enhance her Close-Combat attacks, an Integrity Charm for helping others, and a Solar Charm that lets her summon a blade of sunlight.
Step 5: Merits
Your character did not spend their life in a void. They had exploits, impressed people, and maybe found an ancient relic in their pre-campaign adventuring career. These are represented by Merits. Every Merit comes with a dot rating of one to five. Some have a range such as (••••), while others jump between ratings such as (• or ••• or •••••). When a Merit adds its rating as dice to any roll, these do not count towards the dice limit. This post covers the merits in detail.
Pick three starting Merits for your character: a primary, secondary, and tertiary. The primary Merit may have a dot rating of 5-3, the secondary at 4-2 dots, and the tertiary at 2-1 dots. How this applies to each individual Merit is explained within each entry. Some Merits such as Familiar only go to three dots, so you can’t choose those as Primary Merit even if your character’s beloved dire cat is the most important person in their life. This is a ceiling, not a floor. If a player wishes to use her Primary Merit on Artifact ••• because it is important to her concept, she may. Characters are not required to have a ••••• Merit, unless it suits them.
Merits enjoy the Sanctity of Merits. That means the Storyteller can’t just take them away. A third party won’t kill your character’s friend (Allies) for helping them, and their pet (Familiar) won’t die in combat. The Storyteller might temporarily take them away if it makes narrative sense, or furthers the plot. Think of a villain capturing your character and taking their magic sword (Artifact) away — that’s just sensible precautions. or another villain abducting that friend we mentioned, as bait. In the end though, your character should save both of them. Choosing to offer up your Merit as a Dramatic Injury (p. XX) means that you will either be presented with the opportunity to recover a lost or broken Merit, or acquire a replacement. The Sanctity of Merits does have its limits though. If you send a familiar to spy on the Mask of Winters, or tell that villain to go ahead and kill the friend, it won’t end well for them. Use common sense, and heed any warning your Storyteller might give you. If you do lose the target of your Merit dots, you and the Storyteller should work out replacement targets free of charge.
Your Storyteller may restrict Merits at the start of the campaign. If they want the characters to meet while they’re down on their luck and alone, it doesn’t make much sense for your character to have a small battalion at their back through the Command Merit. In this case, ask your Storyteller if your character could gain that Merit later. Alternately, maybe you see a Merit you want, but which doesn’t make much sense for your character to start with. A sorcerer starting their quest for the secrets of Creation might gain a Hearthstone later. Discuss options with your Storyteller and determine a rough timeline for when your character might have the narrative arc to gain that Merit. You can bank some of your Merit dots now, with Storyteller permission, until you can buy it.
You may purchase multiple instances of any given Merit, each applying to a new benefit. For example, Allies (•) would be your God-Blooded friend, and Allies (•••) your Sidereal friend in the Celestial Bureaucracy. You can take them both as Secondary and Tertiary Allies, and still be able to make Artifact your Primary.
Radiant Sun of the East owns an ancient sword named Sun’s Caress (primary Merit: Artifact •••••) which once belonged to her previous incarnation. She also has Hearthstone connected to a Manse (secondary Merit: Hearthstone •••) in Ur – though technically it’s on loan from the Kingdom. As second in line to the throne, she also has Influence •• in Ur as her tertiary Merit.
Step 6: Virtues and Intimacies
After deciding what your character can do, we’ve come to why they do it. What do they believe in, fight for, and — if it comes to that — die for?
Discuss your ideas with the table. Having two character with opposing Intimacies in a group — say, "I never kill" versus "I do whatever it takes" — can be a source of excellent drama, or it can tear the group apart. Talk things through to make sure it’s the former.
Virtues
Exalted Essence uses seven Virtues: Ambition, Compassion, Courage, Discipline, Justice, Loyalty, and Wonder. This post explores them in detail.
Choose one to be your character’s Major Virtue, and another to be their Minor Virtue. A wide-eyed explorer may have Wonder as their Major Virtue and Courage as their Minor, while a martial artist defending the weak has Justice as their Major and Discipline as their Minor. Don’t be afraid to subvert the type. Maybe your wide-eyed explorer wants to be brave, but in actuality they’re not, or the defender works for fame more than actual justice, making Ambition rather than Justice their Major Virtue.
If you choose Ambition, you must choose a specific thing that drives your character, such as Ambition: Drive the Guild from Nexus, or Ambition: Rule Over the Deserts of the South. If you choose Loyalty, you must choose a leader or institution to which you are loyal, such as Loyalty (House Ragara) or Loyalty (the Mask of Winters). See p. XX for more explanation.
Intimacies
An Intimacy is a belief or relationship essential to your character. You choose one Major and two Minor Intimacies — there’s no pre-written list. A Major Intimacy greatly influences what your character does and how they behave. A Minor Intimacy also influences your character, but it’s not the defining factor in their decision making. All Intimacies must be influenced by their associated Virtue. You can find how Intimacies affect gameplay on p. XX.
Use an "I" sentence to check if a belief works for your character. I never kill. Does that sound like something they’d say or think? If so, that qualifies as a good Major Intimacy. If you wanted it to be a Minor Intimacy, I try not to kill is better.
Relationships are about attachment, which needn’t be to a person. Nor do relationships need to be positive. Nexus (protective), My Sister (rivalry), and The Mask of Winters (burning hatred) are all relationships. A character’s Intimacy of The Mask of Winters (burning hatred) may be attached to her Justice Virtue, while My Sister (Rivalry) may be attached to her Courage Virtue. Make sure your Storyteller can work with the Intimacies you’ve chosen. Nexus (protective) isn’t very interesting if Nexus never comes under threat, nor is Mask of Winters (burning hatred) if your campaign is miles away from that Deathlord. On the other hand, an Intimacy might inspire your Storyteller, prompting them to rewrite "a recurring rival" as your character’s sister.
The Storyteller has final say in what makes a good, applicable and not overly-broad Intimacy, as per p. XX
If at this point you’re struggling to choose three Intimacies: don’t worry, you can leave any number of them undefined and pick them during play!
The Great Curse
All Exalted are touched by ancient curses. The Great Curse drives them to take their Virtues and Intimacies too far. Compassion for the disenfranchised prompts them to kill every authority figure in the village. Discipline turns their heart to uncaring stone.
This post for facets of the Great Curse. You get to choose one of the manifestations when it triggers — you may want to review them now, and pick which one you think is most interesting. You do not have to stick with this choice for the entire game and may choose a different manifestation each time Curse triggers.
The Radiant Sun of the East is brave and fights for her people. Courage is her Major Virtue, and Loyalty her Minor.
Her Major Intimacy is "I protect the people of the East"- associated with Courage, and her Minor Intimacies are "My Sister (close older sister) – associated with Loyalty", and "Ur (my people)- attached to Loyalty".
Tamara reads over the Great Curse and thinks that Berserk Anger seems like a fun way to express lashing out when Radiant Sun’s Courage is provoked. When that comes up in play, she’ll choose it.
Step 7: Finishing Touches
This is where we fill in the last blank spots on your character sheet.
Essence
All starting Exalts have Essence 1, with a pool of five motes. Check p. XX under Advancement Templates if you’re starting the campaign at a higher Essence.
Health
Your Exalt starts with six Health levels (two 0, two -1s, two -2s and Incapacitated), plus any gained from Ox Body Technique. You can find more on damage and healing on p. xx.
Defense, Soak and Hardness
Your Defense is Parry Attribute + Close Combat divided by two (round up) or Evasion Attribute + Athletics divided by two (round up) whichever is higher. Add in any Charm effects. See p. XX for Evasion charms, and p. XX for Parry Charms.
Without armor, your Soak is 1, plus another 1 if your Fortitude is higher than 3. If you are wearing armor, add the Armor Soak Value to this total.
Characters start with a Hardness 2 plus any applicable bonuses from armor. Exalted characters add their Essence rating to their Hardness value.
The Radiant Sun of the East is newly exalted, and thus has Essence 1. Tamara adds her OxBody Health levels to the usual starting Health. She’s likely to use Fortitude 3 + Close Combat 5 for her Parry, which brings her Defense to 4 before any Charms.
Equipment
Your character may have any mundane equipment that fits their character concept and background, regardless of their Resources. They also have enough money to pay for food, lodgings, bath services, and so on.
Radiant Sun of the East has a royal steed, a fine leather outfit, a ball gown tucked away at the bottom of her pack just in case, and the usual travel equipment.
Spark of Life
Now it’s time to fill in the details. What does your character look like? This is Exalted, and your character looks however you want. Do they have any peculiar quirks or strange habits? What about social ties beyond their Intimacies — any family, or old lovers around? Make sure to look to the other characters too — does your character know any of them already, and how is that relationship working for both of them?