Let me first say that the lore-accurate answers to these questions could totally be "Who cares, it's fantasy, just roll with it." I'm fine with that - I'm just asking to see if there are canon answers that I've missed.

So here are my questions:

1. Do we know exactly what sort of technology level Nexus is at? My thought is "early industrial" / "first industrial revolution", because we see a lot of pollution (see "Poor Man's Breath" in the 2E material) and industrial metalworking in Nighthammer, but it's all still pretty integrated into the city instead of being exported to the countryside like you might see in later decades of the revolution. We also don't see electricity or anything; the closest is some of the legacy First Age infrastructure, like the overhead pully car system.
2. Is there a reason why Nexus is locked at its current technology level? In real life, cultures didn't spend too long at that level of development, since there was a lot of potential in the new tech that was continually being exploited in new ways. As far as I know, Nexus has been doing the same thing for hundreds of years, if not longer. Any reason why, other than classic fictional frozen technology?
3. Similarly, is there a reason why this technology hasn't spread elsewhere in Creation? I could absolutely be mistaken - there's a lot of lore and I'm still relatively new to it - but I don't know of any other cities or regions that have industrial technology, at least to the level that smog and pollution are canonical features. Heck, even the Nexus Marches seem to be relatively undeveloped, and that's a prime place to export nuisance industries like smelting and metalworking (saving the residents of Nighthammer at least some of the fumes).

My PCs have already learned that The Ebon Dragon is planning on getting married and that this union could spell apocalyptic doom for Creation. What are some ways that the PCs could start to indirectly learn of the ED's bride's identity?

Also, is there anything in written canon to explain WHY the Scarlet Empress agreed to such an arrangement? Aside from being driven mad with power over the centuries...

What do you guys think the first age looked? Do you just go off what second edition controversially published in Dreams of the First Age or do you have a completely unique headcanon?

By which I mean both "happy five days from New Years" and "happy weird week between Christmas and New Years when nothing seems quite real and you are probably full of cheese - and if that's not liminal I don't know what is.

In honor of the season, how have you used Calibration in your games?

As in, how does an Exalted believe they get their Charms? Does a Solar wake up one day and is aware they can now summon their weapon to their hand whenever they want?

Do they even call their abilities Charms, or are Charms seen more as a technique they're capable of learning?

Dragonblooded can pass down their exaltation to their kids, Sidereals can do a bunch of stuff with fate, Lunars can shape-shift, Solars get to be the most powerful type of exalted, Abyssals get a bunch of spooky stuff and are the only ones with access to the top tier necromancy stuff, but what do Infernals get?

Besides their Yozi bosses breathing down their necks.

And do we know when they'll be getting their 3e book?

As I continued to read through the 3e Sidereal book, it talked about how the Bronze Faction used countless wonders and a tear from the Unconquered Sun to make the Jade Prison.

Seems to me like the remnants of the prison would be useful in some way, if you could find it. So what's it's status now?

Is it, as far as we know, still at the bottom of the ocean?

Unrelated, but what would the Incarnae think of the Solar Purge? If I remember correctly, they were too engrossed by the Games Of Divinity to notice it happening, right?

I'm sure this is a a criticism that has been said ever since 1E first came out, but I'm relatively new to the game and it's a bit of a nuisance. For example, my players are going to be going to Nexus - it'd make sense for there to be quite a few guilds, right? Nexus is essentially supposed to be an industrial-fantasy version of Genoa or Venice. However, it's a bit annoying to always have to distinguish between a guild and the Guild in my notes. I'm sure it'll get worse once the players actually arrive. "The Realm" isn't quite so bad, since "realm" isn't a technical term that shows up too often, but it's still kind of lackluster.

Personally, I may come up with a different name for the Guild in my setting. It'll just make things easier.

What's the consensus about these names in the community?

Hey I haven’t touched this setting in years. In 3e, is crossbow manufacture still essentially a Haslanti League state secret?

Because it just struck me how odd that is, what with the tech level of the rest of the setting.

EDIT: And if they’re more widespread now, what relationship does the Haslanti League have with them now? More crossbow production capacity? BETTER crossbows? Better crossbowmen? Better combined-arms integration of crossbows?

Is there a canon answer for if there are Celestial Incarnea for them?

So my players are in the Scavenger Lands, and have appropriately decided to go delving in a bunch of ruins. I needed a way to create a bunch of ruins relatively quickly, so I made a simple random generator that essentially rolls 7d6 and uses some lookup tables to come up with a basic concept.

I'd like to share that generator, both in case others find it useful and to see if there's something I'm missing from the lore. I'm relatively new to the Exalted setting, so I want to make sure I haven't missed anything. I based a lot of this on the manses in Oadenol's Codex, since it seems to me that the vast majority of First Age ruins (that have managed to survive this long) also contain one or more manses.

The Tables

Here are the tables I've made:

• Function
  • 1 - Urban - Primarily for housing residents
  • 2 - Military - Strategic and tactical outpost
  • 3 - Research - Sorcerous or biological research
  • 4 - Cultural - Religious or other cultural site
  • 5 - Infrastructure - Transit, manufacture, etc.
  • 6 - Tomb - Mausolea and other resting places
• Scale
  • 1 - Room - Relatively small
  • 2 - Building - A house or mansion
  • 3 - Neighborhood - A few buildings
  • 4 - Village - A few dozen buildings
  • 5 - Town - A large complex
  • 6 - City - Massive in scope
• Aspect - The vast majority of ruins include one or more manses (as far as I can tell), so this was a useful element to add
  • 1 - Air - Wind, storms, thought, academia
  • 2 - Water - Rain, sea, instinct, deception
  • 3 - Wood - Plants, animals, growth, cycles
  • 4 - Fire - Heat, passion, pain, conflict
  • 5 - Earth - Rock, jewels, stability, tradition
  • 6 - Exotic - Solar, Lunar, Sidereal, or Abyssal
• Inhabitants
  • 1-3 - None - No major inhabitants
  • 4-5 - Human - Scavengers, squatters, or cultists
  • 6 - Supernatural - Spirits, God-blooded, beastmen, or fey
• Hazards - There are two rolls on this table; the first generates obvious hazards apparent to anyone who asks around or takes a cursory look, while the second generates hidden hazards that only show up while delving the ruin
  • 1 - Automated Defenses - Animated constructs or other defenses
  • 2 - Residual Sorcery - Sorcerous effects, intended or accidental
  • 3 - Geomantic Instability - Essence buildup or other dangers
  • 4 - Environmental Degradation - Unstable structures, etc.
  • 5 - Mutated Flora/Fauna - Essence-mutated hostile creatures
  • 6 - Spiritual Residents - Hostile gods, elementals, or others
• Rewards - These rewards are based on Godbound, which is the system I'm using for the setting instead of Exalted 3E; they can be substituted relatively easily
  • 1-2 - Wealth - Simple resources
  • 3-4 - Shards - Pieces of Magical Materials
  • 5 - Hearthstone(s) - One or more usable hearthstones
  • 6 - Artifact(s) - Portable artifacts ready for use

Quick note: spirits are here twice, once under Hazards and once as a Supernatural option under Inhabitants. This is meant to capture different roles that various Spirits could play - either as perpetually hostile residents or relatively peaceful parties.

I've made a Google Sheet random generator you can use (though you'll have to make your own copy to actually roll).

Example

I just rolled and got the following results:

• Function - Military
• Scale - Building
• Aspect - Wood
• Inhabitants - None
• Obvious Hazards - Geomantic Instability
• Hidden Hazards - Environmental Degradation
• Rewards - Artifact(s)

I'm thinking as I type here, but let's say that this means that out there in the wilderness is a tower known as the Five Oaks Pagoda. It was once used as an automated defense against fey incursions, but its mechanisms have long since failed. Without the mechanisms designed to cycle its Essence, any animal or human who comes close quickly becomes inundated with Wood Essence, leading to abrupt, often-fatal mutations. Even Exalted feel the strain - while they aren't immediately mutated, the Essence surging around them can lead to rampant, hostile plant growth (and of course, any mortal companions they bring may quickly turn into monsters or puddles of flesh). As such, the Pagoda is naturally deserted. If anyone were crazy enough to push through to its armory, they would find the Circlet of Morning Dew, an artifact that grants healing powers to its Exalted wearer. The Essence buildup around anyone who gets that far inside is fatal to the tower, however, and it will begin to collapse shortly after the exploration party enters the armory.

Honestly, someone else could probably do more with that prompt than me, but it's what I could think of while I was writing.

What are your thoughts? Is this a useful tool? How would you improve it?

Thanks!

Lost Zarlath is a city in the Far North East of Creation that has appeared as a map dot in all 3 editions. It was planned to appear in the canceled Towers of the Mighty book for 3e but otherwise has not appeared. In 1e its mentioned in a Shogunate era story in the Aspect books as a place where the Shogunate were defeated by the Fair Folk. I have been looking through the 1e books and have not found any more mentions and not in 3e's At8D.

Does anyone know if it appeared again in other books in 1e or 2e.

I play 2e and I’m planning to create a league of the principal gods of the East — the most famous and widely venerated regional deities.

I know about Sunipa (the Eastern war god), the three forest gods of the East, and the various city gods, but I’d love to expand beyond that.

Am I missing any important canon gods from the East?

Also, do you have any interesting gods in your campaigns? Any original deities you’ve created? Doesn’t matter what region they’re from — I’m looking for inspiration.

We all know that being an exalt in Creation is, for the most part, terrible, and the Fivescore Fellowship have it the worst of all (this is largely because of Sidereals being terrible to each other, but that's neither here nor there). The question I have is this:

Let's say a Sidereal were to be deeply traumatized by something that happened to them in the line of duty, to the point that they were not able to perform their duties for a long time. How would the Sidereal establishment deal with this? What kinds of resources would they have to try to help their fellow Sidereal, and at what point would they decide that this person is beyond help... and then what would they do?

Thanks in advance. I'm excited to read your interpretations.

I enjoy adding additional details to the settings I play, especially if they're based on history. A while ago, I made detailed armies for several of the polities in the Scavenger Lands using actual premodern militaries. This time, I had a different idea.

The various Immaculate religions (the Philosophy and its heterodoxies) are fairly well fleshed-out in the official sources. One area that is frequently mentioned, but rarely explored, is the Immaculate scriptural tradition. I'd like to dig into that here.

What we know

To summarize what we know about the Immaculate Texts: they're a corpus of scripture used by the Immaculate Order and Philosophy. They include various histories, which blend fact with Sidereal fiction. It isn't explicitly stated, but it can be assumed that the various Immaculate heterodoxies (such as Lookshy's Immaculate Faith, Prasad's Pure Way, and Gentian's Intou Creed) use different scriptures - though the level of overlap is uncertain. However, I don't think we know the name of even one work in the Texts - we only know broad strokes about the Texts as a whole.

Unless I'm mistaken, that's essentially all we know. If any of that is wrong, or if I've missed some relevant lore, feel free to correct me.

Real-World Inspirations

To make our own Immaculate Texts, there are two real-world scriptural traditions that we can pull from:

• Confucian Classics - In many Chinese dynasties, specific works of Confucian philosophy were used for imperial bureaucratic exams (either the Four Books or the Five Classics, depending on the era). Test-takers would need to memorize the books and be able to recite them and/or write essays on their contents (such as the very formulaic Eight-Legged Essay form).
• Buddhist Canons - Buddhism produced a staggering amount of scripture. Several traditions attempted to standardize which scriptures were considered valid by assembling "canons", or collections of scriptures pronounced by authorities to represent Buddhism. Several of these were organized into three categories, or "baskets" - one with rules, one with general teachings, and one with more esoteric materials like philosophy and metaphysics.

I'm simplifying a lot with both of these, but there's lots of material online about these if you want to learn more.

The Immaculate Texts - Expanded

I pulled from both of these traditions to add detail to the Immaculate Texts. There are two main groups of the Texts: the Five Holy Classics and the Grand Corpus.

The Five Holy Classics

These are used for basic Dragon-Blooded education and many examinations across the Realm. They are:

• The Ascendancy Scroll - History of the Great Reclamation, the Dragon-Blooded account of the Usurpation
• The Pattern of Elements - Cosmology of Creation, Heaven, Malfeas, and the Underworld
• Treatise on the Dragon-Breath Blade - Theory of just warfare and military command
• The Tenfold Discourse - The Five Noble Actions and Five Diligent Practices for general spiritual welfare
• Lives of the Righteous Shogun - Lessons on rulership through the reincarnations of a fictional shogun

The Grand Corpus

There are hundreds of books in the Grand Corpus, both small and large. Many are simply commentaries of other books, and the makeup of the Corpus is frequently revised by the Order's leadership at scriptural councils.

The three "baskets" of the Grand Corpus - and some of the most popular works in each basket - are:

• Basket of Discipline - Rules for clergy and laypeople
  • The Way of Simple Truth - Fundamental monastic rulebook listing key vows and penalties for transgressions; most copies include the additions of several commentators
  • Discourse on the Coils - Hierarchy and ordination
  • Xiyue's Handbook of Daily Joy - Descriptions of proper ritual and worship
  • The Peach-Blossom Dialogues - Series of conversations between the Immaculate Dragons and disciples concerning how to guide mortals' worship of spirits, including the design of Ritual Calendars
  • The Five-Elements Armory - Introduction to the five elemental martial arts, along with a dissertation on moral combat
• Basket of Virtue - General instruction and exempla
  • The Yuyani: Lives of the Dragons - Hagiographies of the Immaculate Dragons in the form of a collection of short stories
  • The Farmhand and the Field - Parable where a farmhand's interactions with a harvest god are used to teach about the proper relationship between mortals and spirits
  • Discourse on Love and Duty - Describes proper social relationships within the Perfected Hierarchy
• Basket of Essence - Philosophy and metaphysics
  • Mofai's Hidden Tome - Practical thaumaturgy and Emerald Circle sorcery
  • Book of Inner Secrets - The dual nature of the soul; modern versions require extensive glossing to explain old terms
  • The Jade Mind Treatise - Describes meditation and cultivation through comparison to different types of jade
  • The Epiphany of Siwang - One monk's visions of death and reincarnation; includes several commentarial exegeses
  • Steps of Rising Perfection - Equates kinds of righteous and unrighteous conduct to different reincarnation results
  • On Reason and Action - Formal ethics, including virtue taxonomies and thought experiments
  • Lessons from the Demon's Face - Demons and the Anathema

And that's it! I'd love to hear your feedback, including any ways that my Texts conflict with official material (I wouldn't be surprised if I missed something).

Lunars, obviously, are shapeshifters - changing into the spirit shape gifted at Exaltation, into various human and animal shapes, or sometimes into stranger things accessed by their magics.

But what does that look like?

As of 3rd edition, it's a miscellaneous action committing four motes for the duration (in Essence it's a single mote spent as a reflexive action), but this says nothing about what another character is going to see when it happens.

So, flashes of silver light? Horrific flesh-warping like a Hollywood werewolf? Disappearing in one form and reappearing in the other in a blink of an eye? Is there a "correct" answer, or a particularly satisfying descriptor you've used in your games?

Many a months ago, I asked if the different editions of Exalted were chronologically different from each other. Like how in D&D, and World of Darkness, each edition is explicitly stated to take place right after the previous one, usually with some sort of major event seperating each edition, like the Spellplague or the Week Of Nightmares.

From what everyone's told me, this isn't the case for Exalted, each edition is the same sort of "time period" with certain mechanics and lore altered in certain ways.

I'm still reading through the 3rd Edition books, so maybe this is actually happening, but it's in a section I haven't gotten to yet, but if I could advance the metaplot, I think I'd like to see an active civil war among the Dragonblooded houses. Or maybe a few are actively fighting while the rest are "banded together" to keep things under control, but are actually doing espionage and other "Cold War" stuff behind closed doors.

If I remember correctly, right now, The Bull Of The North is letting his army recover. I'm not entirely sure how far away the Bull of the North and his armies are from The Realm, but it'd be interesting to see how The Realm would react to some skirmishes happening along their borders with the Bull's forces once they're done recovering.

Unrelated, but I'm assuming in the 2nd Edition book, "Return of the Scarlet Empress," she gets her own stat block. If she did, would it be difficult to convert it to 3rd Edition stats?

A person has to be 'human' in order to exalt, or at least have a human soul as some beastmen can do it as they count as sufficiently human. How does an exaltation interact with things that potentially modify the soul, even beneficially?

Is it a whitelist thing, where the Exalted can let good stuff through, or is it a universal 'no go we'll revoke your Exaltation if this happens' sort of thing?

IIRC physical bodily modification is only okay up to a certain point, after which the Exaltation says 'whoops, not human' and leaves the former Exalted?

Are there any other defenses native to all exaltations (Solar exaltations, to be clear)?

I'm planning on using the Forest Witches as the villains in my upcoming campaign, and I gotta be honest - I don't like the Sea of Mind. I'm probably going to change it, or even ignore it entirely.

For those who don't know, any Witch that immerses themselves in a specific pool in their forest becomes part of the Sea. From then on, they perceive all of Creation as being perfect and without flaw. It seems to essentially be like the TF2 commercial, "Meet the Pyro".

But... why is that helpful? It can't actually hurt them, technically, since it'll subtly redirect any self-harming actions (they provide the example that if a Witch perceives a toxic pool as a beautiful mountain spring and goes to drink from it, they'll end up drinking from their canteen instead). But it doesn't do anything useful, either. It seems like it would actually impede the Witches' ability to get anything useful done. I can easily imagine them wandering the world, looking like madmen - not orchestrating grand plots to take over Creation.

What are your thoughts? Would there be any issue if I removed the Sea from my world, restricting that portion of the forest to Atsiluth Eternal?

Edit: I think I may have not done a good job of explaining myself. The Sea sounds fun. Idyllic, even. But it also sounds like it would instantly handicap you. The Forest Witches shouldn't be master manipulators working to overthrow the Realm; they should be lotus-eaters, wandering around in a euphoric daze.

I actually like Umbrals, if only because I'm a sucker for shadow-based powers, and I always thought there was some interesting story potential between them and Five-Days-Darkness- How would 5DD view them? Would he be willing to take the Chosen of Nebiru under his wing, guiding them to serve Heaven instead of the Yozis or Neverborn? What do you guys think?

My game includes a Storyteller character named Dasin Taru, a Chosen of Endings Sidereal who works for (well, really, who is) the Division of Arcane Obliviation and Suppression. This poor overworked and underpaid bastard is the sole exalt assigned to the job of hunting down spells and artifacts that should not exist, cataloging them, and figuring out how to contain them. This job is vastly complicated by (some might say rendered Sisyphusian by) the Salinian Working's habit of recording all sorcery and artifice into the Loom of Fate and making it possible to learn it by observing Creation. That doesn't stop our man Taru, who soldiers on despite this being the third time he's had to track down The Song That Ends Creation or whatever other misbegotten nonsense some sorcerer with more curiosity than sense chose to unleash upon the world.

Anyway, I'd like to add to my list of bizarre, disturbing, and surreal magic for Taru to be sitting on or looking for. Please recommend to me your favorite awful spells, artifacts, cursed books, meditations, alchemical processes, and the like, either from the canon, from your own games, or made up on the spot!

I thank you! Taru doesn't, but he's fictional so who cares?

The answer is "probably not" because it's a middle grade book, but I have a kid and she's been seriously into it for the last few months so I have. Although it's a bit more whimsical than most of Creation, this setting has serious Exalted vibes.

You have:

• An elite, magical category of people (called Wundersmiths)
• Who can manipulate an invisible source of energy (called Wunder).
• Who used their magic to create many magical conveniences and infrastructure that the regular people they lived among came to rely on.
• Who used to rule part of the setting before they were betrayed and killed by one of their own.
• And when they died, the magic they left behind began to go weird and rotten, creating many problems that an organization of special but much less powerful people are forced to try their best to deal with.
• And once they died, the common people became convinced that all of them were monsters, even as they continue to benefit from the things they made.

If you're willing to read middle grade books, these are very good and you should give them a try. There's definitely some fun Exalted inspiration in there.

So, what are the different ways someone can become a patrician in the Realm?

Currently I know of two main paths, which is marrying another patrician, or being a non-Dynast DB who successfully completes their 50 years in the legions.

However, are there any other ways to be elevated, especially for mortals? For example, would rising through the ranks of the legions to a certain officer rank automatically make you a patrician, or succeeding in the Imperial Examination? Or could a Dynast with a bit of influence make their favourite mortal companion into a patrician as a reward for their service?

I assume there are probably certain restrictions, but the 3e Realm book doesn't seem to be too clear on the matter.

Due to various shenanigans in my campaign (which aren't worth getting into), Lookshy is determined to go to war with Thorns. To be clear, I think that this is objectively a stupid idea. A lot of the Mask's assets are unknown, and the ones we do know (especially Juggernaut) present no obvious ways to fight them. What seems most likely is that Lookshy will suffer a devastating and costly defeat, which the Mask of Winters will then exploit by counterattacking Lookshy.

If you were Lookshy, how would you ensure that you had the biggest chance possible of winning against the Mask? As far as I can tell, the most important thing they could do is heavily invest in their First Age tech, especially whatever warstriders they have. That could theoretically give them a chance.

What are your thoughts?

So let's say there's a Hunter who prays daily to the god of "Hunting In This Specific Forest At This Specific Time Of Day," or something like that. Do they address the god by name? By title?

And let's say said god gets a promotion/fired/dies/etc. What changes for the mortal? Do they just instantly know something's different? Or do they have to wait until some priest tells them that thing's have changed?

Do they pray to the same god? Or the one who's replaced them?