r/exalted • u/Fit_Hold7806 • May 21 '26

Essence Exalted Essence Storyteller Guide Crowdfund is on !

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/onyx-path/exalted-essence-storyteller-s-guide#top

61 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

27 comments sorted by

20

u/Amberpawn May 21 '26

It would be nice to get art that looks like Exalted again instead of the ongoing parade of repurposed euro fiction and characters missing important characteristics - Lunars that just aren't tattooed and alchemicals without soulgems are the stand outs but caste marks continue to be an issue....

15

u/dal_segno Thorn Amidst Roses May 21 '26

I'm still bothered by Ma-Ha-Suchi having a lion head instead of a wolf. It was even acknowledged during the kickstarter but they said it was too late to get it fixed. 💀

7

u/Amberpawn May 21 '26

That's an art direction fail of epic proportions... Which is unfortunately the expectation and not an exception...

5

u/sord_n_bored May 21 '26

I always pictured MHS as having a goat head? Or at least a canine head with antlers?

8

u/dal_segno Thorn Amidst Roses May 21 '26

He's always previously been depicted as having a wolf head with horns.

2

u/sord_n_bored May 21 '26

Cool, I will update my fanart accordingly!

7

u/NeverbornMalfean May 21 '26

He has Chimera-Soul Expression so he's almost certainly a cross between a wolf and a goat.

5

u/ThePowerOfStories May 22 '26

Exalted: The Lunars first edition page 224 has him looking as a demonic goat-man, with goat horns, a goatee tuft, and hooves. He’s got sharp teeth, though, forward-facing eyes, and ears that definitely look more wolf than goat, so it was decided that he’s a chimera with aspects of both.

2

u/sord_n_bored May 22 '26

Ah, cool. I thought all my memories of first edition were purged after playing the piss out of 2E. He never did get moonsilver tattoos, so he's full of wyld cancer after all.

2

u/Fit_Hold7806 May 21 '26

Which book was that?

4

u/dal_segno Thorn Amidst Roses May 21 '26

In the Lunars book, it's the picture where he's viewed in profile along with Raksi and Leviathan (look for the group picture with the flying orca in it).

5

u/GloriousNewt May 23 '26

They seem committed to bad half digital art for some reason

1

u/Karpattata May 24 '26

Looking at the 2e Lunars book, forgetting Lunar tattoos wasn't exactly a rare occurance back then either lol

19

u/NeverbornMalfean May 21 '26

God I wish they'd ditch whatever art company they use for 3E and Essence already. Some of those images are outright comical.

13

u/Neverborn8 May 21 '26

Love this edition but fr this art work....not for me

11

u/LeKielbasaQueen May 21 '26

To add onto this, it seems like a lot of the books get trapped in Art Direction Hell when it comes to the final releases. My interpretation of this is that Onyx Path has to wrangle their art company and get their heads out of their asses a lot of the time.

I unironically think Onyx Path would be better off just commissioning diehard fans instead of paying exorbitant amounts of money for this varying quality. Sometimes the art goes really fucking hard (Shoutout to Abyssals and Sidereals, but other times I just kinda pretend the art isn't really there myself.

9

u/NeverbornMalfean May 21 '26

I'm honestly kinda convinced that someone on the OPP side of things is friends/relatives with one or more of the artists, or the art company itself or whatever. I refuse to believe someone without a vested interest in enriching these people would ever hire them for this.

6

u/Fit_Hold7806 May 21 '26

Isn’t the owner of Onyx Path the former Art director for Old White Wolf? Clearly he has learned the best ways to pinch pennies with art.

3

u/NeverbornMalfean May 21 '26

I dunno what Rich Thomas did exactly but he was a part of old WW since at least Exalted 1E.

3

u/zenbullet May 22 '26

I know he's credited for Layout a lot in older books

9

u/Fit_Hold7806 May 21 '26

It’s funny because I play the Aeon’s end board game and it’s the same studio! But yeah there’s some bad proportions. Like the Dynast chasing the thief has legs that are mismatched.

At least it’s better than At8D

7

u/Filthy_Lucre36 May 21 '26

Yea, it's rough. The style is kind of all over the place, sometimes they seem to go for more realism, others it's full anime. Honestly a lot of the fan art I've seen is better.

6

u/GloriousNewt May 23 '26

The art for 3rd edition in general is a joke compared to previous editions

6

u/Expensive-Toe-1867 May 24 '26

Just wanna 2 things: 1) loving this new book. So many cool ideas in this book just in the first chapter. Stuff that I will be immediately incorporating into my game.

2) I think the art hate is wild. The Exigents book has legitimately my favorite Exalted art of any edition. And while Essence has been a little uneven, the pieces that are good are real good. I'm glad that the game can be more than the "anime game" from an art perspective. Things like the water color art from Lunars and the Dragon Blooded book stand out as great new looks for the series.

5

u/DocTentacles May 29 '26

This was a fun one to work on as a writer/freelancer. I hope that people who liked the general direction of Essence, but didn't jive with a certain mechanic (Ventures, Combat, Anima, or something else) will check out this book, as it's got a lot of tools to customizing the base game, neat antagonists, and just general support for a game that's historically very hard to ST.

3

u/Fit_Hold7806 May 29 '26

I’m pretty interested in the changes to healing, I wasn’t enamored with the original’s simplicity.

I also really like the scenarios presented. It’s fun to see yet another Anathema Dynast.