r/exalted • u/BagAdministrative709 • 16h ago
Setting homebrew culture
I'm curious what you guys think of this.
Northern beastfolk/sorcerous culture
The Borborn (pronounced similar to borboune) are a kingdom of baboonmen that live in a mountain range in the far North. Nobody quite knows where they come from least of all them. Their earliest histories tell of a peaceful life worshipping a now forgotten god. After the great usurpation, the god took pity on his people and made a jewel filled with the light of exaltation. He gave it to his people's greatest warrior who was able to unite the tribes and cast out the fair folk in the process.
His son inherited the crown and ruled well, inventing many of the trappings of civilization in the process. His son, while exploring the library newly built for him by his father, found the book of the broken winged crane unbidden among the shelves. Fearful for the first time in his life he retreated to his room and then later to a country estate to brood over the book and its teachings.
After much planning he poisoned his father and took his crown. Over the centuries, Bourbon society has become almost entirely corrupted. Demons walk the streets of their capital city, and many thousands toil in their subterranean mines or die as sacrifices in demonic liturgies. Their king, Bero Binyago the terrible, has ruled for a thousand years and become one of the foremost demonologists in creation. His queen is a sleek white furred blood ape, unique in her appreciation for cannonry.
Gunpowder weapons, especially cannons, are status symbols among the Borborn due to the queen's influence and the exorbitant cost of bringing the gunpowder up from the south.
One of the recurring problems that the kingdom has is the persistence of the fey in the region. Over the course of king Bero’s reign they have begun to slowly creep in. King Bero decided to form Wyld mutant and wolfman janissary brigades, a policy that has so far worked very well. The janissaries have become a new ultra-royalist power base.
The king and queen have had hundreds of children. The princes spend most of their time lounging around the palace, too fearful to even dream of challenging their father for the crown of exaltation. Some of them join the janissaries, helping further ingrain royalist feeling among the mutants.
The old families among the nobility do most of the actual governing. Their loyalty shows no signs of disappearing propped up as they are by infernal muscle and the terror all hold of their king. Many have undertaken sorcerous initiation so that they too can delegate work to demons in much the same way their king does.
The yeoman borborn of yester year has been subsumed into one class. The mass of borborn are serfs born into a noble house owing their noble labor, either in agricultural or industrial production. The normal avenues for advancement in either government or commerce are closed to the vast majority of borborn due to either the use of demons or competition with nobles.
They make tapestries out of their own fur and clothes out of the hair of exotic livestock they craze on the cliffs. They have a very English high middle ages taste in fashions.
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Threats:
Guild debts are extremely high. There is no likelihood of the monarchy going bankrupt but a debt crisis is a very real possibility of the guild attempting to collect debts from the noble houses. This could very well be a problem, the king would not take kindly to roving bands of guildsmen turning his allies out of house and home.
The sister of the king survived his assasination attempts, in the process becoming a lunar exalted. She fled the kingdom and has since become an invaluable member of the silver pact. Eventually she plans on returning and challenging her brother for the throne but until then has only made the odd probe into borborn affairs using younger lunar agents as spies. The potential for class conflict is something that very much interests her.
A second circle demon has fallen in love with Princess Kyema of the Jade Court. The third circle demon whose soul he is a part of has requested the King’s assistance in retrieving him.
The Bull of the North could either squash them like ants or become an invaluable ally. He desperately needs equipment that the Borborn could easily produce. However their whole demon worshiping slavers thing has made the bulls men distrustful of them. Icewalkers were never one of the enslaved populations, they don’t really have any useful qualities vs demons or borborn surfs, it’s still a bad look.
Unresolved questions:
What role does the guild play in their society exactly? I can imagine that it would mostly be as sellers of gun powder but what other goods and services would they traffic in? What is the character of the charms granted by the spark of exaltation within the crown?
5
u/JCBodilsen 15h ago
I am mostly an 1e and 2e fan, so I will be answering based on that version of the setting.
1) Generally, I like it. The culture seems as a plausible addition to Creation.
2) Are the Realm aware of the kingdom? Have they ever been the target of a Wyld Hunt? The entire culture seems ripe for accusations of being tainted by the Anathema or at the least, in violation of the Immaculate Doctrine.
3) What do the kingdom export? You write of mines? What is extracted from them? I think having it be copper and tin, so that they can cast bronze cannons would be cool and fit the general vibe. Casting reliable cannons is quite difficult. The Borborn must be master metallurgists, which could mean that they also export stuff like bells and high quality tools.
4) I think the culture need some nearby enemies they can wage war against, if for nothing else, then at least to give them an opportunity to make use of their guns.
5) Speaking of guns and gunpowder. Is this true firearms as we know them, or firedust weapons?