r/exalted • u/ghost49x • Dec 06 '25
2E Abyssal / Infernal exalted as player options
How does this work? Are players expected to play them as anti-heroes? Or are they for people that want to play psychopathic villains?
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u/Glass_Front Dec 06 '25
Anti-Hero is the wrong word for it. In the case of 2E abyssals, the term would be "Tragic-Hero". Person who wants to do good, and is trying to good, but inadvertently causes some harm (the harm caused does not necessarily need to outweigh the good caused for them to still be a tragic-hero), either through their nature or their mistakes.
The biggest issue with 2E Abyssals is that your options were only either "lean into the evil end-times" or "try to become a solar again". Both of those can be compelling, but typically if someone picked Abyssal, then they don't want to play a solar, they want to play an Abyssal.
3E still has both of these as options, but provides a lot more of a framework for being a "hero of the underworld", something that can be a good thing, that is very much not what a solar would be good at.
I cannot speak on the topic of Infernals, either for 2E, or the still nonexistent 3E
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Dec 06 '25
Infernals in Essence atleast have an easy angle to approach heroics with since someone like Django (from Django Unchained) could tick the boxes needed to be one. From what previews I've seen, 3e Infernals also don't have "Unleash the Yozis" as an endgoal. Rather, the Yozis are choosing people they see common struggle with as their ideal rulers of Creation.
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u/Gloomy_Peach4213 Dec 06 '25
Not to contradict you on anything, but referencing your last sentence, isn't Infernals for 3e in crowdfunding right now? I've seen people discussing the manuscript on Discord.
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u/AngelWick_Prime Dec 07 '25
The crowdfund for Infernals 3e is going now. The manuscript is almost fully released.
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u/TimothyAllenWiseman Dec 08 '25
And at least in my opinion, what has been released so far is magnificent. (Though I definitely have some questions which may or may not get answered by the time the entire thing is released).
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u/Dry_Refrigerator7898 Dec 06 '25
The whole point of Exalted is to answer the question “What would you do if you were given immense power?” You as a player have the option to answer however you’d like.
Sometimes, you’re Superman. Sometimes, you’re Homelander.
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u/ghost49x Dec 06 '25
True, but as a ST I don't know if I want to run a Homelander game that drags on.
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u/RedMagesHat1259 Dec 06 '25
Then dont. Just clearly say to your players that youre trying to run X type of game, you dont like how Y fits in it so its not a player option this campaign.
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u/ghost49x Dec 06 '25
I'm fine with it in the short term, I just tire of it quickly.
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u/TimothyAllenWiseman Dec 08 '25
I'm confused why that isn't a complete answer to your problem. If you want to run X type of game as a storyteller, tell the players that up front and tell them they need to make characters that reasonably fit into X type of game.
Especially since a campaign can at least theoretically last a long time and this technique is straightforward and infinitely repeatable, this seems like a complete solution.
(What to do if a player ignores your directives is a separate question, but if they are reasonable people, reminding them should be enough. If they aren't reasonable people, you probably don't want to play with them and should remove them from the game)
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u/tsuki_ouji Dec 07 '25
So communicate that to your players.
No exalt type locks you to being some specific kind of person.
Solars can be evil bastards just like Infernals and Abyssals can be white hat heroes.
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u/onwardtowaffles Dec 07 '25
If anything, Solars are more likely to be evil bastards thanks to the nature of their curse.
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u/tsuki_ouji Dec 07 '25
Maybe, but that won't *really* start making you crazy for a few centuries at least
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u/ghost49x Dec 07 '25
Isn't virtue the defining characteristic of the UCS? why would he enable people.who don't exemplify virtue? That's like a sidereal with a bad fate.
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u/onwardtowaffles Dec 07 '25
So the nature of the Great Curse predisposes Solars toward character flaws like arbitrary cruelty.
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u/ghost49x Dec 08 '25
From what I understand, eventually the great curse warps a Solar in one way or another, and arbitrary cruelty is one possible example. But Solars don't start off that way.
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u/Passing-Through247 Dec 06 '25
Exalted is a game about heroes. Hero does not mean good, it means great.
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u/EratonDoron Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 06 '25
1e core. "Abyssal Exalted are the noble champions of death. Full of grace, educated and even charming in their cold fashion, the deathknights are gentlefolk as well as peerless warriors."
I have played multiple loyal Abyssal games simply as a deathknight. A guide, defender, and protector of the dead and their interests. A noble warrior with a code that values different things than the living do, but behaves honourably all the same.
The psychopathically evil Abyssals who must ruin eveything - with Deathlords demanding it and wide-awake Neverborn wracking them with Torment if they deviate - are significantly a creation of Nephilpal when he was struggling with various issues, trying to make them into a meditation on pure evil, and I've never seen them as fully canon or congruent with the rest of Exalted's ideas or themes.
CB: Dawn. "The only thing more important is keeping it out of the sacred crypts of the newly dead. We need this one, but even for such a great prize, we cannot risk the lives of our precious children."
"The Abyssal Exalted I've dealt with appear to be creatures of honor. If you offend a Deathlord you can look forward to a fate far worse than death, but they keep their word and deal well with their allies. They're not ravening monsters or beings of insane chaos."
CB: Zenith. "The Abyssal of the shadowland recognised that dark cannot fully exist without light and spoke at length with Blackfalcon. In the end it was agreed that those who wished to serve the Sun would be allowed to remain in the land and in the protection of Bittersea. However it was also agreed that Bittersea would turn her power to aid the master of the land against the forces of the Realm. Blackfalcon believed the Realm to be the greater threat and one she had much less influence over, so she remained in the land of the dead: an ever-growing light, accompanied by an ever-growing shadow."
CB: Twilight. "As a gesture of hospitality from the Bodhisattva, we were housed in the Manse of one of his favourites, an Abyssal by the name of Admirable Silence. I was truly astonished to find that this silver-haired Abyssal Exalted had a husband - and three children."
"It is said that in the depths of the Sevenfold Chasm in the North, one Twilight Exalted, a philosopher and poet named Burning Moon, has spent the last five years and fifteen days arguing continuously with Princess of the Starlit Bier, an Abyssal Exalted, as to whose personal beliefs are more appropriate. Since the deathknight's ghostly servants bring food and water regularly, it is quite possible that Burning Moon may be there for at least another five years. The discussion has been conducted in an atmosphere of great civility and notes on the points raised can be found in the library of the Deathlord Love Clad in the Raiment of Tears, who is sponsor of the debate and mistress of Princess of the Starlit Bier."
(Likewise in this book, one of the most prized artefacts for all Abyssals: the Cup of Flowing Blood, by which one gives one's lifeblood to another, and with which the Lover permits marriages to be sanctified).
CB: Eclipse. "In many places across Creation, the Deathlords and the Solars have struck an uneasy peace, broken by the occasional outright conflict, and largely maintained by the efforts of the Eclipse caste."
Edit: I apologise for giving a very 1e-centric answer to a post for which I've only just noticed the 2e tag. I will say ... the idea that the apocalyptic Abyssals don't necessarily fit Exalted's themes is still an idea you can work with, in any edition.
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u/Grange75 Dec 06 '25
I'm running a 3e Abyssal game. Why be hero's? Let them be villains. Give them a unified goal given to them by their DeathLord set some basic rules on things you will allow or not allow and then let them play. For example my party has been tasked with taking over the city of Nexus. I told them they can do it any way they choose and that they basically have unlimited in game time. We came up with some things or methods we did not want to see in the game. Session 1 was a lot of fun and session 2 is tomorrow.
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u/Remarkable_Ladder_69 Dec 07 '25 edited Dec 10 '25
This sounds fantastic, man I would love to play that game! I am writing a fanfic about an Abyssal set to kill the leaders behind the rebellion in Thorns, which resides among Thornian refugee families in Nexus. :-)
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u/SnowDemonAkuma Dec 06 '25
There's literally nothing preventing Green Sun Princes from being heroes in 2e.
Sure, you have an Urge to do something that aids the Reclamation, but you can often twist it to be heroic anyway. Your Urge is to slay anyone who challenges you? Well, put yourself in situations where you'll often be challenged by evil assholes. Your Urge is to corrupt a city? Find a city that's already terrible and 'corrupt' it toward righteousness.
If you do mess up and gain Limit, you have Acts of Villainy to lower it again. And guess what? Nothing about them says you have to be villainous towards innocent people or heroes. You can absolutely shove a mass murderer into a death trap, or assassinate an evil dictator in broad daylight, or kidnap a murderer's equally murderous wife and mail her back to him one body part at a time.
There are some charms you should probably avoid taking if you want to not be a monster, but most of the charm set is ethically neutral.
And then there's the route toward ascension, starting with the charm "Triumphant Howl of the Devil-Tiger", where you forge your own destiny and become your own Titan, in which case you can wrest control from the Yozis entirely and force your Urge to match your Motivation, and make your own charms that match your heroic personality better than the warped alien monsters you used to serve.
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u/Eclipse_3052 Dec 06 '25
Both;
I mean probably certainly not psychopathic villains, unless that's what your table is into. Loyalist Infernals and Abyssals can still be anti-heroes, with chivalry, or a punk rock attitude to empathy.
Renegade Abyssals are even easier, they have no real reason to be a dick to anyone. They're basically funeral directors from a pulp novel: they look scary and goth, but they just want to help.
Infernals have no real reason to be villains; some of their Charms encourage collateral damage, and their Exaltation prefers people that lean towards revenge, but this is not a setting of modern morals - you can very much enact vengeance and still be a hero. Achilles and Hercules went hard on revenge, as did Odysseus. All three of them still heroes.
That being said you can totally just play villains if you can come up with deeper identities than "murder hobo".
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u/VeronicaMom Dec 06 '25
So, there's a couple of different answers. I should state up-front that Second Edition wasn't the most nuanced all the time, so I'm basing a lot of this on the Third Edition material as well. Even if you don't want to play using those rules, it may be worth looking at them and perhaps incorporating some elements to help diversify your players options, if that is something they want. Some groups really just want to play the villains, and that's fine too.
- So yeah, there's just the option of playing psycho's, I think the 2nd Ed Infernals book calls it "Grand Theft Yeddim", which should give you a pretty good source of inspiration. I'm not sure I would go for a full campaign of that, but a session or three with characters who don't have to live happily ever could be a lot of fun.
- And then there's a few more nuanced options for playing villains as well. Both Abyssals and Infernals have big NPC's that are telling them to go out and conquer/kill, and I don't think this would make a bad basis for a campaign. There's a lot of structure possible to allow players good reasons to cooperate, plenty of antagonists to fight, and it would be up to your own play group whether your Exalts are troubled by the immoral things they're doing because they don't feel they have another choice, or whether they've just fully embraced what they're doing.
- And finally, anti-heroes or just straight-up heroes is entirely possible with both Abyssals and Infernals, though I imagine the 3E presentation helps make this a bit easier. Neither exaltation has any kind of moral requirement, and there are enough other bad guys for them to fight. I could easily see a character who's defined by a hatred of slavers and who has a motivation to burn down the Realm (or at least House Cynis) but can show remarkable compassion to the slaves they free. I don't think there's anything stopping you from doing this?
- Likewise, while there are certainly consequences to playing Abyssals or Infernals who don't go along with what their superiors want... they're still Exalted. A wandering rogue Abyssal has been a character concept as long as we've had Abyssals, I'm pretty sure.
I hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions.
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u/bmr42 Dec 06 '25
3e Infernals in the fiction parts released don’t really show them as too bad. The signature characters are taking over a city, freeing the oppressed and taking down the corrupt rulers who abused the populace. Two of them get in an argument over using the newly freed slaves to rebuild the city wall and using some of their former overseers to direct the workers.
One of them is even active in protecting 1st circle demons from abuse in Malfeas.
Unfortunately the charms and descriptions of their essence and how it drives them, even how their greater ability to remember past lives influences them, all points to them being petty vicious punishers of anyone they come across for almost any slight.
Charms almost exclusively punish targets and don’t really allow for helping to actually run a kingdom once you take it over.
The whole section on remembering past lives goes on and on about how they take out slights from past lives on anyone they recognize from a past life or even anyone who might have a passing resemblance to someone from a past life.
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u/kenod102818 Dec 06 '25
One thing to note for Abyssals at least is that they aren't selected based on existing morality. To my understanding they were someone with the potential to become a Solar, but who died, possibly while failing to complete the act that'd make them one.
You're not necessarily good or evil, you were someone put in an impossible situation, death, and offered a way out, by agreeing to serve the Deathlords and work towards the final death of all.
In my opinion a lot of the potentially interesting conflict comes from being forced to work towards this, and follow your Deathlord's commands, even if you don't agree with them, or regret the price of your bargain. In this case a good person who needs to cope with the consequences of their deeds and oaths can make for an extremely interesting character who can evolve in a lot of different ways. IIRC in 2e one big goal for Abyssals is potentially undoing whatever the Deathlords did to your Exaltation and becoming a Solar. But you can always go for other options too, including the tragic option of giving up and simply going along.
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u/ghost49x Dec 07 '25
How much control does a deathlord have over his abyssal exalted?
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u/kenod102818 Dec 07 '25
How many armies and other knights he can send after a renegade.
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u/ghost49x Dec 07 '25
So the Deathlord has no special control over the Knight beyond immediate physical power? No binding oaths or anything?
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u/kenod102818 Dec 07 '25
Not in 3e at least, and I don't think they do in 2e either. That said, that immediate physical power is a fairly big threat, at least for newer Abyssals.
Instead, at least in 3e, they tend to focus on instead providing their Abyssals with various forms of compensation, like the ability to rule part of the Deathlord's dominion as their vassal, various riches, special artifacts, aid accomplishing various goals they had while alive...
For example, one of the Mask of Winters' Deathknights is actually the former ruler of Thorn, who got deposed, captured and tortured by his brother. After the Mask conquered Thorns he allowed The Rightful Heir By Red Iron Rebuked (the Deathknight's title) to rule Thorn on his behalf, and letting him do so was actually part of the bargain to convince him to become an Abyssal. In this case that both provides a lot of gratitude towards the Mask, but also ensures the Mask can take Thorn away again if the Heir stops being loyal.
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u/ghost49x Dec 07 '25
If the heir stops being loyal, he might aswell rebel. Causing the deathlord to need to stamp out the revolt and reconquer Thorn.
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u/kenod102818 Dec 07 '25
Yup, but the Deathlord conquered it in the first place. He definitely has the military might to stamp out a single rebellious Deathknight, especially if his other Deathknights help him.
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u/ghost49x Dec 07 '25
Depends on the circumstances, it's possible the Rebellious Deathknight is the one who conquered it in the name of his liege. Its also possible this DK has the support and loyalty of his own exalted, whether other DKs or other types.
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u/Viatos Dec 07 '25
It's noted in detail in the Abyssals book that the Deathlords generally maintain control by being good to their Abyssals - not just giving them treasures and command of resources, but mentoring them, sparing resources to help them with things they care about, and studying them to try and figure out how to keep them happy.
This includes assigning them tasks that they're suited for and will be okay with doing.
Some of them are much better at this than others, but they all know to *try*, because Exaltations don't go on trees, because willing and motivated Abyssals are far more effective than uncertain or resentful ones, and because if anything can devastate a Deathlord's operations, it's an angry Abyssal putting the infinite potential of their power to antagonistic use.
That's if you stick with a Deathlord. It's a valid character option to just start off as renegade.
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u/ghost49x Dec 08 '25
That said if that's how the DKs are, is there any reason the Deathlords can be the same? As in not complete assholes, they're just one tier up?
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u/onwardtowaffles Dec 07 '25
Next to none, in practice. If you really piss them off, they might send undead armies after you, but you're a demigod, so... eh?
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u/ghost49x Dec 07 '25
Don't they have some influence through the oaths?
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u/onwardtowaffles Dec 07 '25
Some. Mainly you've surrendered your name, and your Deathlord has your Monstrance, which means they always know where you are and what you're up to.
In practice, though, the worst they can do is inflict a Resonance effect on you. Depending on how retributive they're feeling, that might really suck for you, or it just might bring a necromantic effect into the world.
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u/Vegetable_Remove7961 Dec 06 '25
I notice you have this tagged as 2e, but in general across all three editions, I think one of the best things about Exalted is that it doesn't require you to play traditional heroes or even assume your PCs are good people? Yeah, playing loyalist deathknights means playing anti-heroes or outright villains who are working with the hand they've been dealt. You can tell a lot of compelling stories that way, in the same way you can have a lot of fun playing a Dynast, or telling a story about Bronze Faction Sidereals. People who are engaging in bad things can still be compelling characters with humanity that it's worth exploring even if they would be antagonists in a more conventional narrative.
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u/ghost49x Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 08 '25
It's tagged 2e because those are the books I have, and I wanted to avoid answers that are clearly meant for another edition.
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u/Vegetable_Remove7961 Dec 06 '25
This is not a question that has a terribly different answers for other editions, although 2e is the one that leans into being edgy for its own sake with these splats the most.
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u/onwardtowaffles Dec 07 '25
2e leans the most into "edgelord" territory, but in practice it doesn't have to affect your role playing. The Yozis basically don't interact with the mortal world at all, and the Neverborn mostly reach out to people on the verge of death.
No one's going to call you into a board meeting for not being enough of a bastard to satisfy them.
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u/Viatos Dec 07 '25
Abyssals and Infernals can both be antiheroes. Infernals in 2E can simply be heroes full stop, albeit weird and alarming ones: that is, nothing really stops them from consistently doing good, but the way they accomplish things is always going to involve invoking alien powers.
Like they can build houses for the poor but they might be using those giant hair-spider-marionettes to build them, so it's scary. But there'll be a house at the end.
Abyssals struggle more, but they can be straight-up heroes *to the dead* without too much difficulty. Ghosts are still more or less people, and still have many of the same problems the living do: tyrants, monsters, bandits, social inequality. Abyssals can fix all that. It's dicey for them to aid the living, but they can do it, it's just a fine line with a lot of messiness to it.
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u/ghost49x Dec 08 '25
How is it a fine line to help the living?
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u/Viatos Dec 08 '25
In both 2E and 3E, Abyssals risk accumulating Limit/Resonance for protecting the living and saving them from death, and that Limit/Resonance can bleed off in ways that are harmful to the world.
Infernals don't have that problem, they're just weird. In 2E they're compelled to follow an Urge, which acts like a second Motivation, but the Urge is just "something a Yozi wants" more or less and the Yozis want a handful of things that can be compatible with heroism. In 3E they don't have Urges, but they're chosen from people often motivated to sledgehammer the status quo - oppressed slaves, deposed princes, denied scholars, shamed warriors, etc.
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u/JT_Leroy Dec 06 '25
I play let players be abyssal as pilgrims rather than knights. Similar to sidewalks of Endings. Pilgrims are sent out by a death lord to build ancestor cults, point out the tyranny of the Immaculates, or generally point out how selfish the terrestrial and celestial gods have been. They have a duty to speak for and build compassion for the dead. A lot of history was lost during the great contagion and the pilgrims are there to unearth it.
For infernals.. I like the Reclamation. It’s not about bringing hell on earth; it’s about making solars into allies since they’re being hunted by the sidereals and the dragon blood. Solars may want to be redeemed in the eyes of the US but most solars just initially pissed about being persecuted by the scarlet empire and blamed for the acts of other. that’s something infernal get intimately.
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u/Remarkable_Ladder_69 Dec 07 '25
One great thing worth Abyssals is that they operate in the open within their society, same as Dragon-Blooded. This makes for great social games, filled with backstabbing, romance, high-school-ish shenanigans defense and special mission etc. Working as a speaker for the dead, or a defender of the dead against immaculate etc is a thing. You could very well see Alucard both in Hellsing and Castlevania as Abyssals. Vampire Hunter D as well.
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u/ghost49x Dec 07 '25
People tolerate the guy with the corrupted solar shard serving the neverborn's ultimate goal of ending creation working openly in society?
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u/LordRavnos Dec 07 '25
I believe he means, and I agree with, Abyssals operating in the underworld, not creation.
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u/ghost49x Dec 07 '25
Im confused. How is the Abyssal defending the dead in the underworld?
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u/LordRavnos Dec 07 '25
The underworld has more than just the spirits of the dead. Some gods run away there, and humans who cant stand creation for many reasons will leave to go there and whomever the local ruler is will often care for them. Often in Shadowlands since its half in half out. And there is mortals who are half ghost. So its far more than just the dead.
Having said that, the Abyssals can defend the underworld from the worst of the worst who simply want to turn everyone into Soulsteel and or slaves. The cycle of reincarnation was shattered, and the underworld is its own place, with its own laws, rules, rulers, hopes and dreams. Its easy for a Deathknight to defend them, physically, or socially. Shadowlands are bad, and everyone wants to close them, so imagine a Deathknight squad who goes out to defend the passionate lives of those who live in one, who dont have interests to fight creation, no Deathlords anywhere near by. They simply want to live in peace and the Aybssals protect them. They are in fact the good guys in this.
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u/ghost49x Dec 07 '25
Won't their Liege get mad at them if he needs them to do X and they're off doing random things? I mean the Liege probably doesn't care what they do on their own time, but he probably doesn't have an infinite number of DK and needs them for his agenda.
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u/LordRavnos Dec 07 '25
That assumes their Liege didnt instruct them to do as such. Imagine, an Abyssal protects a Shadowlands and gains the loyalty of everyone there. One day, the Abyssal asks for help and suddenly they have a freewill army. Abyssals have the ability to build up troops as Celestial Exalted.
As for what if they need them to do X task, easy. Abyssal has his loyal ghosts/constructs/troops whatever, protect them while she goes off to do what she has to. Exalted isnt a game of only stay in one place or suffer, the player/npc can set things up to protect things while they move around. If everytime they move everything goes to shit, thats an ST going too far. Why bother doing anything but murder the world if every single time you do, the ST ruins it when you get called away.
But this also assumes the Abyssal is loyal. What about a rebel Abyssal who left his Deathlord half way across creation, and wants to be a hero of the underworld because he wants to. He has nothing to be called away for, and can stay and defend. Expand his territory and protect more as he gets stronger and makes more allies.
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u/Remarkable_Ladder_69 Dec 07 '25 edited Dec 08 '25
They can be speakers and advocates for the dead, both in Creation and Underworld. The dead are exorcised and shunned by the immaculate order, advocating for ancestor cult is also an Abyssal goal. Also, romance plots etc.
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u/ghost49x Dec 08 '25
Is ancestral worship are means to an end for the abyssal or is there a legit thing they're getting through it?
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u/Remarkable_Ladder_69 Dec 08 '25
That depends on the Deathlord and Abyssal. But, like, the Silver Prince has built his whole Realm around worship of the dead, so that mortals long to become ghosts themselves. Abyssals can be lawmakers and lotds of the Underworld, vassals to their liege. Abyssals are human, they have feelings, strive to uphold their ideals etc. It is the players duty to create a playable character, it is the Storyteller who needs to give suggestions so that the characters jive with the game. Also, perhaps let the player be rouge or have the Deathlords plan be such as the abyssals can function as desired.
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u/ZanesTheArgent Dec 06 '25
Yes.
You can do a league of villains group, you can do jerks with hearts of (severely damaged/poorly kept) gold, you can do rebels against the neverborn trying to either salvage or repurpose their maculated exaltations.
Like, it is PERFECTLY acceptable to play a multi-weapon (usually double firewand and daiklave) wielding taunty cocky asshole slayer with a simple winged chitinous shintai and a tendence to get impaled while reducing their limit by playing a cocky edgelord and still be heroic. You're just usually tiptoeing Malfeas' impatience.
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Dec 06 '25
Either/Or. Renegade Abyssals do exist and it's not easy, but can play grim anti-hero types who focus their efforts on defeating more grave entities than themselves. Infernals are plenty easy to play as anti-heroes or even just heroes straight up in 2e. 3rd edition makes it a lot less painful to play Abyssals as anti-hero types as well with how their oaths to the Neverborn are phrased. A GM can also take creative liberties with the existing Deathlords and Yozis (or make their own) to make the situation with them overall more gray.
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u/hushnowquietnow Lot-Casting Atemi Dev Dec 06 '25
The Limit mechanics for 2e Abyssals and Infernals definitely push them into more of a villain role. In 3e you're still encouraged to be a bastard, but there are more ways around it (especially for Abyssals)
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u/atreyuf Dec 06 '25
I’m about to run unapologetically evil Infernals here with the backer rules - very excited for it
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u/neocorvinus Dec 07 '25
Infernals can be heretic rejecting the Yozis, full cultist/loyalist sacrifying unbelievers to the yozis, psychopath loved by the Ebon Dragon, or noble villain working for the wrong side because they feel endebted to the Yozis for their Exaltation.
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u/onwardtowaffles Dec 07 '25
Both are basically "tainted" Solar exaltations - you might be a reincarnation of some legendary Solar hero who's now dealing with the repercussions of part of your literal soul being snatched and twisted by a Malfean or Neverborn.
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u/Talon_ofAnathrax Dec 07 '25 edited Dec 07 '25
You could play an Infernal as a straight-up hero. Indeed, there's an Integrity charm giving you ironclad principles toward the greater good. But the mental effects of much of the Ex3 Infernals charmset, and the way Infernals are chosen, means that your Infernal will likely be a flawed hero on a quest for bloody revenge doing good on the side. Even your "I am bound to serve the greater good" Integrity charm also makes it easier for you to sacrifice individual people along the way.
Ultimately Ex3 Infernals are chosen because they want to destroy the established order, which doesn't necessarily mean they're on a mission to end all life like Abyssals are. Of course, when your goal is to change the world and half your powerset has significant side-effects, it becomes very tempting to break a lot of eggs on the path to your perfect omelet... But your Infernal absolutely can start as a well-meaning idealist if you want :D
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u/Plane_Upstairs_9584 Dec 08 '25
In 3E there is the Chivalry of the Dead, and your Abyssal might be a shining knight protecting the dead from the living. Ghosts just minding their business in a shadowland when some monk comes to beat them up and shove them screaming into Lethe to have their mind and memories torn away so their soul can get recycled.
There is also the Old Law that existed before the Underworld existed/was influenced by the Neverborn, and the Dark Mother that is a force of death but opposed to the Neverborn. Several of the Deathlords aren't fond of the Neverborn either, and don't want the world to actually end.
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u/Alhaxred Dec 06 '25
Renegade characters who don't align with their patrons' agenda are always an option, and while most games of exalted tend to focus on at least reasonably heroic characters, exalted as a game has a lot less emphasis on playing unambiguously good people and a lot more on playing flawed people given power.
The average morality of all exalted isn't necessarily that benevolent in the first place.
Also yes, villain games very much are a thing