EXIGENTS: Out of the Ashes for Exalted 3rd Edition
Created by Onyx Path Publishing - Exigents: Out of the Ashes
Help us create a PDF and limited edition Hardcover for Exigents: Out of the Ashes for Exalted 3E.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Wed Jun 22 '22 Announcement
almost 2 years ago
– Wed, Jun 22, 2022 at 07:20:50 AM
Hello Chosen of the Little Gods,
We're in the final DAYS/HOURS countdown for Exigents: Out of the Ashes, with just over 40 hours to go from when I'm posting this. The campaign ends on Thursday, June 23rd at 11:59PM PDT, so there's still a tiny bit of time for more Exigents to spark, but we're definately getting closer to the finish line. With that in mind, I've been touching on some of the basics to make sure everyone has all of the information they need to support this project in the way that works best for them.
Final Week Program
June 19 - Perk Review
June 21 - Final Draft Manuscript Chapter available (Appendix!)
June 22 - Stretch Goal Review (That's TODAY!)
June 23 - Final Day Checklist & What Comes Next
If you've got questions about how this campaign works or what the different Perks are or want to read the ENTIRE draft manuscript before we finish tomorrow, it's well worth it to scroll back through the updates noted above and check them out.
(An aside to new backers - if you're curious about this project and looking for more information, scroll back a few more days on the Updates to find a Final Week countdown post that lists a bunch of resources, including most of the current draft manuscript, podcasts and interviews, the recent Exalted panel from OPP Con, and more!)
Refresher Course
We've had, and will have, a bunch of new backers join in during these last days. I want to take a moment to highlight some key Update posts that new backers may want to check out (and existing backers may want to read as a refresher!).
MANUSCRIPT PREVIEW- As noted, throughout the course of this campaign, I've shared the entire current draft manuscript for Exigents: Out of the Ashes. That means you're be able to read the entire book before we reach the end of the campaign, though it's broken out into a few chunky downloads (you can just scroll back to yesterday's update to see all of the download links).
Once the campaign is over and our Pledge Manager is up and running (say, mid-July?), I'll compile all of the sections together and make those available in a single download for all backers of this project, so you'll have something to reference and review (and play with!) right up until the PDF of the book is released!
Remember, though, there are still some minor edits, development and proofing that need to be done. But, you can consider them about 98.7% finished. Making the manuscripts available for review before the campaign ends ensures that everyone know exactly what our goal is - making these books - and are on board with our aims for this project. Thanks for your support, we're all in this together!
PLEDGE PERKS - your best starting point for figuring out which Reward Level to choose to help support this project.
Your basic options:
Petitioner of the Spark - Choose this Perk if you want to support the campaign, but aren't interested in either the PDF or deluxe hardcover version of Exigents at this time. You can select Add On perks with this reward, and you'll have full access to the post-campaign Pledge Manager, should you wish to update your options in the future.
Bearer of Heaven's Flame - Choose this Perk if you're staying digital - either saving trees or saving shelf space. This Perk is built around the Exigents PDF, and you can select Add On perks and have full access to the post-campaign Pledge Manager.
Chosen of the Little Gods - Choose this Perk if you're interested in the limited edition Deluxe Hardcover version of this book. This Perk also includes the PDF version, and you can select any additional Add On perks and will have full access to the post-campaign Pledge Manager.
There are also several Premium Perk levels with limited availability. These premium perks are expensive, but offer an additional level of interaction with the setting and lore of Exalted, from submitting a character description for the supplement artists to incorporate into their work to providing a name to be used by the writers for an NPC to suggesting a custom Charm that the developers can add to our supplement. Many of these Perks are currently accounted for, but shifting pledges over these final hours sometimes open things up, so if you're interested it's worth checking in over the next day.
Choose Wisely
Choosing the correct Perk for your desired rewards, and then filling in any "gaps" with add-ons, ensures that you'll be claiming all of your desired rewards as a thank you for supporting this project and bringing this world to life.
Remember, your TOTAL PLEDGE AMOUNT is equal to your PERK + ADD ONS + SHIPPING. You will also be able to select Add On options in the Pledge Manager after the campaign, but remember that only funds added during the campaign count towards Stretch Goal funding targets.
Also to note, only those who participate during the campaign are able to have Stretch Goal rewards added automatically to their rewards lists. If you're waiting to pre-order at a later time, it's better to pledge to the Petitioner of the Spark perk now and then simply upgrade your pledge later to include these bonus rewards.
On Thursday afternoon, I'll be posting one further "Final Day" update, covering What Happens Next and outlining what to expect once the campaign ends.
But until then, we're going to hopefully hunt down one final Stretch Goal achievement as we race through our final day of the campaign!
Over the past 4 weeks, we've been working solidly through our Stretch Goal quests, to the point that we've already achieved FOURTEEN Stretch Goal targets. You had no idea, right? It's really been humming along!
Within these Stretch Goals are some milestone markers that allow us to celebrate how the campaign grew as well as opening up some additional ways to show off your Exalted fandom, a jumpstart PDF, and one really cool new supplement noted as the Exigents Expanded Content goals. Let's review and see what we've accomplished so far...
Exigents Expanded Content – Additional Exigents content will be added and expanded via Stretch Goal achievements. New content added this way will be released as part of a PDF supplement (or supplements), which will automatically be added to the rewards list of all backers receiving the Exigents: Out of the Ashes PDF as part of their reward perks. Content created as part of the premium reward perks may also be included in these supplemental PDFs.
In fact, we've hit so many Stretch Goals that writing this update has used all of my word count! Do you want to know what's next? Look for a second update coming soon...
Tue Jun 21 '22 Announcement
almost 2 years ago
– Tue, Jun 21, 2022 at 07:02:40 AM
Hello Chosen of the Little Gods,
It's been four weeks since we unveiled the first chapters of Exigents: Out of the Ashes, and as we approach the conclusion of this campaign, it's time to release the final section of the draft manuscript - the Appendix.
Before we dig into the Appendix, let's celebrate our latest Stretch Goal achievement! We'll be reviewing all of our Stretch Goals tomorrow, but for now, check this out!
UNLOCKED! - At $135,000 in Funding - Exigents Expanded Content: Streets of Great Forks #2
An expansion to the Great Forks gazeteer, providing an in-depth portrayal of the city’s three thearchs and exploring a variety of cults, faiths, shrine-gangs, and heresies.
With about 65 hours left in the campaign, will we land another Stretch Goal achievement before the end? I think so! But, will we land another two? Let's keep at it!
At $140,000 in Funding - Exigents Mobile Wallpaper
Epic Exigents artwork will be used to create a wallpaper for your mobile device lockscreen. This mobile wallpaper will be added to the rewards list of all Indiegogo backers supporting this project.
At $145,000 in Funding - Exigents Expanded Content: The Foxbinder
A design seed for the Foxbinder and Wicked Grin Shifune, detailing the history and nature aof both the Exigent and her mischievous patron god while providing traits and sample Charms to use as a beginning point for designing a full Charm set yourself.
Throughout the course of this campaign, I've shared the entire current draft manuscript for Exigents: Out of the Ashes. That means you're be able to read the entire book before we reach the end of the campaign, though it's broken out into a few chunky downloads.
Once the campaign is over and our Pledge Manager is up and running (say, mid-July?), I'll compile all of the sections together and make those available in a single download for all backers of this project, so you'll have something to reference and review (and play with!) right up until the PDF of the book is released!
As noted, we've got the Appendix today, the final section of this book! Normally, the appendix might be a smaller section, expanding or clarifying a few concepts. Not this time - it's HUGE, as big as any section we've shared previously! Dig in!
As I said, really good stuff here - and you can help make it even better! Breaking the chapters out into different updates helps guide and focus the conversation, and helps the development team keep on top of the feedback while this manuscript goes through its’ final development and editing stages.
In fact, if you want to provide feedback directly to the development team, Onyx Path has created a special Feedback Form just for this Exigents project. You can access that here: https://forms.gle/q4bAHWFeBo5dMcdh8
This is it - your last opportunity to share your feedback with the developers before they take the manuscript to editing and the final development stages! We'll get a look at the book again when the PDF is complete and shared with backers one final time before finalizing and release, but that's still a long time away. Make sure you've shared any thoughts and caught any issues now if you can!
So, let's enjoy this last section, enjoy the total manuscript, and please continue to spread the word about this campaign. As I mentioned, we've got just under 65 hours to go, and that's going to slip by very quickly! Let's see if we can't get more the Exalted fans on board and unlock another few Stretch Goals before we finish!
Tomorrow we'll take a look at the Stretch Goals we have achieved and see where we are as we make our race to the finish. And then in the afternoon on Thursday, I'll share our final checklist and next steps as we work towards the conclusion of this campaign.
Sun Jun 19 '22 Announcement
almost 2 years ago
– Sun, Jun 19, 2022 at 08:02:25 AM
Hello Chosen of the Little Gods,
We're in the final days countdown for Exigents: Out of the Ashes on Indiegogo - it ends on Thursday, June 23rd at 11:59 PM PDT! There's still time to peitition for a spark of Exigence, but we're definately getting closer to the finish line. With that in mind, I wanted to touche on some of the basics over these last 5 days to make sure that everyone has all the information they need to support the project in a way that works best for them.
Final Week Program
June 19 - Perk Review (that's TODAY!)
June 21 - Final Draft Manuscript Chapter available (Appendix!)
June 22 - Stretch Goal Review
June 23 - Final Day Checklist & What Comes Next
Whether you've just Exalted or have memories of earlier ages, these are good items to review to make sure we all end up where we want to be.
(An aside to new backers - if you're curious about this project and looking for more information, scroll back a few days on the Updates to find a Final Week countdown post that lists a bunch of resources, including most of the current draft manuscript, podcasts and interviews, the recent Exalted panel from OPP Con, and more!)
PLEDGING YOUR SUPPORT
To borrow an analogy that I've used in past crowdfunding campaigns, this process we're a part of works similar to the "Viewers Like You" support campaign from your local Public Broadcasting Station (for those who get American television channels or watched Sesame Street in the pre-HBO era): There are various levels of support that you can pledge to, and these come with various levels of rewards offered as a thank you. Like getting a tote bag or t-shirt when you give money to public broadcasting to fund them doing their thing, you can get rewards for helping Onyx Path work on this project.
Let's review the primary choices to ensure that you've pledged to a Perk that provides all the rewards you wish to receive.
STEP 1: CHOOSE YOUR PERK
This Indiegogo campaign builds upon three core Perks:
Petitioner of the Spark - Choose this Perk if you want to support the campaign, but aren't interested in either the PDF or deluxe hardcover version of Exigents at this time. You can select Add On perks with this reward, and you'll have full access to the post-campaign Pledge Manager, should you wish to update your options in the future.
Bearer of Heaven's Flame - Choose this Perk if you're staying digital - either saving trees or saving shelf space. This Perk is built around the Exigents PDF, and you can select Add On perks and have full access to the post-campaign Pledge Manager.
Chosen of the Little Gods - Choose this Perk if you're interested in the limited edition Deluxe Hardcover version of this book. This Perk also includes the PDF version, and you can select any additional Add On perks and will have full access to the post-campaign Pledge Manager.
The first step in joining our campaign is to select your Perk. When you join us, you pledge a certain amount to support this campaign's main goal, which is the creation of a limited deluxe edition Exigents: Out of the Ashes book and PDF. As thanks for your support, we offer perk rewards based on your level of funding pledged. The Perk descriptions outline the various rewards reflecting various levels of support pledged. Please note that perks including the deluxe hardcover may automatically add additional charges to cover shipping expenses.
It's also important to know the projected delivery dates on these rewards. Onyx Path likes to add some padding to their release projections, so chance are the rewards will go out earlier than this... but, the past few years have demonstrated why it's important to add in some padding! The team works hard to turn the draft manuscript you've been reading into these fantastic books, but that absolutely takes a lot of time, so be aware that there will be some waiting for these rewards. I'll keep you updated all throughout the post-campaign period, though, so you'll always know where we stand on each reward. More on that in an upcoming post.
PLEDGE MANAGERACCESS- After the campaign is over we'll launch BackerKit, our post-campaign pledge manager, and invite the backers to set up their rewards via survey. This allows you to confirm your pledge and add on anything that you might have missed, as well as possibly increasing your pledged reward Perk, should you choose to expand your reward selection. This option will give international backers additional time to investigate shipping options, should they choose, knowing they can confirm a physical reward at a later date. Funding collected in BackerKit after the campaign does not count toward any campaign Stretch Goals, however.
COMPILED DRAFT MANUSCRIPT PREVIEW – During the course of the campaign, we will be posting the ENTIRE manuscript for Exigents: Out of the Ashes over a series of preview updates. After the campaign, these draft previews will be compiled into a single document and made available to supporters of this campaign.
EXIGENTS: OUT OF THE ASHES BACKER PDF - Indiegogo backers will receive a redemption link for an advance version of this book before it goes on sale to the public. This initial "Backer Version" will be used to get feedback from the fans to make the final version the best that it can be. When it has been updated to the final version, it will automatically be added to your DriveThruRPG library and available for download at your convenience.
EXIGENTS: OUT OF THE ASHES DELUXE HARDCOVER - A limited, premium version featuring a foil-stamped cover, metallic-edged pages, and silk bookmark. The deluxe edition will list the names of the backers that supported the Indiegogo campaign. Additional shipping charges are automatically added to your pledge by Indiegogo, based on your delivery location.
OPTIONAL DISCOUNTED PoD VERSION – For this Exigents: Out of the Ashes campaign, you will have the option of using DriveThru’s Print-On-Demand service to purchase a physical, printed copy of the PDF directly from their PoD partners at discounted cost (this cost is not included in your pledge, and you do not need to increase the cost of your pledge to use this option). When the PoD versions are available to order (which may be some time after the books have gone to print), you will receive links to purchase this version of the book from DriveThruRPG.com. You DO NOT need to take advantage of this PoD offer as it does not affect in any way your pledge rewards.
In addition to these primary Perk options, there are several limited premium Perks that involve a little more interaction with the setting and lore of Exigents. Whether you want to submit a name to be used for an NPC in our upcoming Stretch Goal PDF supplement, or want to suggest a minor god to be further detailed, or even get a design seed from a specific Exigent, these premium Perks have interesting options for you. Check the Perk listing down the right side of the main page for additional details. These premium perks do have limited spots available, however. At this time, they may all be accounted for but pledges slip and slide around as we move through these final days, so if you were interested in any of these rewards, keep checking in as we approach the finish line, because early backers may change their plans as we get closer to locking in.
I know that many backers were eager to join the campaign, but also interested in seeing more about the book before any larger commitments were made. Since Indiegogo collects your support pledge when you confirm your Perk, it's not easy to modify your pledge after the fact. In our post-campaign pledge manager, Backerkit, you'll be able to upgrade if you decided to move from Supporter to PDF or Hardcover version, as well as adding in any Add On optional rewards that you've decided to grab at a later time.
The only other option that I know of for altering your pledge at this time (before the campaign concludes) is to pledge a second time, picking your new pledge, and then canceling your current pledge in your Contributions review page. That has the benefit of getting everything locked in early, but BackerKit will allow flexibility and we won't process any charges until the Exigents book is finalized and preparing for distribution.
So, if you're interested and hesitant, I suggest pledging at the $5 Petitioner tier to ensure full access to rewards and options when the BackerKit pledge manager is launched. If, like me, you're ready to go, pick your final Perk now and ensure that's what's showing up in your Indiegogo Contributions review page.
STEP 2: CHOOSE ANY ADD-ONS
After you've chosen your Perk you will see a menu of additional reward options that you can select before your final confirmation. Each can be added to your DriveThruRPG.com digital library via a special redemption link that will be sent out as part of our perk fulfillment plan.
In addition to this selection of Add On options, there are a few other Exalted Third Edition PDFs available, including the Dragon-Blooded: What Fire Has Wrought, Lunars: Fangs at the Gate, Arms of the Chosen, and The Realm. Again, these options will also be available in BackerKit, our post-campaign pledge manager.
Once you've picked your Perk and chosen your Add-Ons, you will be asked for a final confirmation and your supporting pledge will be processed by Indiegogo.
While we will have a pre-order option for those who are unable to participate in this Indiegogo project, joining in with our crowdfunding campaign before the June 23rd conclusion provides the following benefits:
You'll have full access in the BackerKit Pledge Manager and the ability to upgrade your pledge and add on additional rewards
You'll be listed as a supporter in the Deluxe Exigents book
You'll be eligable to have any unlocked Stretch Goal rewards added to your Perk Reward list as a bonus!
REWARD DELIVERY
About 6 weeks after the campaign has ended, I'll launch our post-campaign Pledge Manager to collect information from all backers and confirm which rewards you'll be receiving. At this point, you'll be able to review your rewards and also also adjust any Add On Options that you may have missed. Once we have everything confirmed, I'll be able to deliver any rewards that are currently available - like the PDF versions of the other Exalted Third Edition rulebooks, like Dragon-Blooded and Lunars or The Realm and Arms of the Chosen, or the fiction bundle, audio bundle, or the Exalted Third Edition core rulebook! Backers who have pledged for these options will be sent special redemption links to claim these digital rewards from our partners at DriveThruRPG.com. Clicking these redemption links will allow you to add these PDF titles to your digital library to download anytime. I'll send an update when all of that is happening, though, so you are aware every step of the way.
So, while it will take some time for Exigents: Out of the Ashesto move from manuscript form to a final product, you won't be waiting a year for PDFs that already exist. (You'll be waiting about 6-8 weeks or so, just enough time for us to set up the reward infrastructure.)
Physical Books
It's going to take some time to create the final PDF for Exigentsand even longer for the eventual print run for the hardcover books. When the books are at the printer, I will be in touch with all Indiegogo backers and go over lockdown procedures and confirming addresses one final time. But that's a long time away, and we'll cover all of that as we get closer to that part of the process.
Conclusion
As we move through these final days of the campaign, please ensure you've chosen the correct Perk for the rewards you want. If you have any issues with the pledge process, either selecting the reward tier or Adding On optional rewards, try a different browser or device. Indiegogo is always refining their processes, but sometimes things are a little sticky. Changing browsers often solves the issue.
On Thursday, before the campaign ends, I will send an update detailing the steps that occur after the campaign concludes, including notes about our Pledge Manager and the communication plan going forward.
So, just like always: Spread the word! Share your excitement on social media! Tell your friends! We're about to begin our final run towards the finish, so let's make sure that none of our friends miss out!
And I'll be back Tuesday with the FINAL manuscript section for Exigents: Out of the Ashes, making the complete text available for all backers to review before the campaign ends! Let's see if we can't unlock another Stretch Goal before our review on Wednesday!
At $135,000 in Funding - Exigents Expanded Content: Streets of Great Forks #2
An expansion to the Great Forks gazeteer, providing an in-depth portrayal of the city’s three thearchs and exploring a variety of cults, faiths, shrine-gangs, and heresies
Fri Jun 17 '22 Announcement
almost 2 years ago
– Fri, Jun 17, 2022 at 09:13:36 AM
Hello Chosen of the Little Gods,
We're in the final week of the campaign, with the finish line looming ahead - June 23rd at 11:59 PM PDT will see the gates close, the lights turned low, and the security alarm set. Or maybe I've just been having a lot of flashback dreams to my retail store days. Either way, the time behind us is growing longer and the time ahead is growing shorter, and we've only got one more piece of the manuscript to share before the end.
But it's a big piece!
The Appendix is coming on Tuesday, and it's as big as any chapter we've seen so far. Appendix: Creating New Exalted explores adding entirely new kinds of Exalted to your game, with three examples of optional Exalted: the Dream-Souled, masters of illusion and transformation; the Hearteaters, monstrous Exalted who feed on free will; and the Umbral Exalted, wracked by inner turmoil and a darkness that both corrupts and empowers them.
Before we take a peek at the Dream-Souled, let's see where we are regarding our current Stretch Goal targets. We are currently a backer or two away from unlocking our next milestone and setting us up to add additional content to our Stretch Goal companion supplement.
At $130,000 in Funding - Exigents T-shirt on Redbubble
As I type this, we are "this close" to hitting that T-Shirt number. And then, after we take a pause, we can push on to
At $135,000 in Funding - Exigents Expanded Content: Streets of Great Forks #2
An expansion to the Great Forks gazeteer, providing an in-depth portrayal of the city’s three thearchs and exploring a variety of cults, faiths, shrine-gangs, and heresies.
Please remember to spread the word where you can, sharing the news about this campaign in your social circles and on your social media. Let's see how many Exalted we can spark before the end!
Creating New Exalted
From a purely design-oriented perspective, there’s little difference between designing an Exigent and designing an entirely new type of Exalt. The main difference is in how they fit into Exalted’s setting. Some Exalted have had had world-shaking impacts on the setting: the Dragon-Blooded of the Scarlet Dynasty, the Lunars of the Silver Pact, the Sidereals of the Bureau of Destiny. Others are subtler presence. The Solars, while massively impactful in the First Age, have been absent from Creation for centuries, only recently returned alongside the corrupted Abyssals and Infernals. Liminals are solitary figures, shunning mortals who would judge them as monsters. Getimians strive to avoid Heaven’s eye as they prosecute their shadow war against it. The Alchemicals dwell within their creator’s world-body, save for a handful created in the Divine Revolution and left in stasis for millennia. The alien Spoken are extinct, slain in the Niobraran War, and their civilization faded into memory.
When adding new Exalted, consider the impact they’ve had on the setting. If you want to use them without significantly deviating from canonical depictions of Creation, think about why they haven’t had a major impact on the setting: perhaps they’ve only recently been created, or they’re very few in number.
If you want your new Exalted to have had a major impact on Creation’s history, you should discuss this with the playgroup to make sure everyone’s on board. You’ll also want to talk with them when it comes to deciding how to handle setting information from the books that’s contradicted by this change.
This Appendix presents three new Exalted who are “optional canon,” for Storytellers to include or leave out of their games as they see fit: the Dream-Souled, illusionists and idealists; the Hearteaters, mind-eating horrors; and the Umbrals, tormented by their inner darkness. It doesn’t provide everything needed to play one, but enough of their concept, details, and Charms to give you a start in creating them or to provide inspiration for other new Exalted.
The Dream-Souled
A merchant nods off in her market stall, dreaming of silver boughs heavy with jade blossoms. An exhausted laborer finds no respite from work in his sleep, building towers that stretch into the clouds and beyond. A priestess drifts in and out of a trance as she respires subterranean vapors, sees a world where all share her transcendent vision.
It is from such sleepers as these that the mysterious Ketu chooses his Dream-Souled, those consumed by a vision of the world as it could be. They wield unmatched power over dreams but are formidable forces in the waking world as well, masters of illusion and transformation. They bend Creation and the Wyld both to their vision, imposing their personal utopia on reality.
The Dream-Souled are newcomers to Creation compared to the likes of the Dragon-Blooded but have nonetheless left their mark on the world. Along the Blessed Isle’s Wandering River, Cynis Kotoba, hero of countless tall tales, is reborn — or rather, a Dynast’s servant has donned Kotaba’s mantle to conceal her true nature as she bedevils the wicked and the hypocritical. The merchant prince Heron of Zebremani seeks lost Cozen, a mythical city born of dreams that turned to nightmare, not realizing that the ruins and relics he finds are forged by his own will. Araya, a scroll-keeper of the legendary Library of Marita, has quietly amassed a trove of tomes and codices thought lost to the ages, and some that were never written at all.
Ketu, the Dreaming Prince
Ill-known is Ketu, that numinous poet-king who dwells beyond the deep Wyld’s farthest horizons. Neither fae nor god nor kin to the Yozis, the Dreaming Prince has been encountered only rarely even by the deep Wyld’s raksha. In each account, it takes a different form: a gigantic seven-eyed stag whose antlers are coiled around with rainbows; a hungry murmuration of countless birds flying together in the shape of one vast hawk; a beautiful youth whose head has been cleanly severed. Closer to Creation’s edge, the Fair Folk know Ketu only as a name that chills even their hollow hearts, if at all. Almost none in Creation know of the Dreaming Prince — including its Chosen.
Yet distant as Ketu may be from Creation, there is something of the world that intrigues it. It bears witness to all Creation’s dreams — those of mortals, of animals, and of stranger things. Its understanding of Creation, drawn solely from dreams, is fundamentally warped. Its motives are unknown and may be incomprehensible. But it looks into a Creation it does not understand and it sees in some rare dreamers a potential to reshape the world. Ketu breathes its divine fire into these sleepers, and they awaken as its Chosen, the Dream-Souled.
The first recorded Dream-Souled arose hundreds of years after the Great Contagion. Perhaps it took that long for Ketu to glean the secret of Exaltation from the dreams of the Chosen; perhaps Ketu discovered the secret through some great and unknown quest; perhaps it simply had not noticed Creation before then.
The Dream-Souled do not know their patron. They receive no prophetic visions or knowledge of Ketu upon their Exaltation, nothing to suggest the existence of some alien and infinitely distant patron. The Dream-Souled are dedicated to their personal Ideals, and few have any need for divine counsel even if they knew to seek it.
Dream-Souled and Other Exalted
Both latecomers among the Chosen and few in number, the Dream-Souled remain an open question to most other Exalted. Most know them only from sporadic interactions with individual Dreamers, whether as allies or enemies — assuming they don’t mistake them for Exigents or puissant Fae-Blooded.
The Sidereal Exalted keep well-apprised of the Dream-Souled, counting them as a threat to fate, albeit one that may take decades or years to come to fruition as they slowly warp the boundaries between Creation and the Wyld. In a perfect world, the Bureau of Destiny would act immediately to thwart their threat, but faced with the more immediate threat of the Getimians, the returned Solars, and the other upheavals of the Time of Tumult, the Bureau can’t afford to devote its limited personnel and resources to the Dreamers. It’s not unthinkable that the Bureau might even sanction a joint operation between Sidereals and Dream-Souled if it served Heaven’s agenda.
The Fair Folk and other fae hate and fear the Dream-Souled, recognizing them as a force antithetical to the Wyld as it is now. Unlike the Sidereals, the fae have little reason to stay their hand — while a Dream-Souled traveling through the Wyld need not fear ambush around every corner, she’d be well-advised to conceal her true nature from any fae she encounters.
Traits
Dream-Souled are intended for Terrestrial play
Ideals
Each Dream-Souled possesses an Ideal: a Defining Principle that reflects her vision or understanding of a perfect world, of what both Creation and the Wyld should be or become. The Ideal can’t be weakened, eroded, or otherwise subverted, either by social influence or the Dream-Souled’s own conscious actions.
Example Ideals include:
No one should have to suffer.
I should rule over the world.
People should be loyal, moral, and scrupulous.
Art should be the highest cause.
The wise should hold authority over the ignorant.
At the Storyteller’s discretion, a Dream-Souled’s Ideal may change under suitably dramatic circumstances, with the Dream-Souled’s player designating one of her other Defining Principles as their new Ideal.
Martial Arts
Dream-Souled are restricted by the Terrestrial keyword (Exalted, p. 427) when using Martial Arts. They can’t learn Sidereal Martial Arts.
Sorcery
Dream-Souled are capable of initiating into the Terrestrial Circle of sorcery.
Evocations
The Dream-Souled are neutral with moonsilver (Arms of the Chosen, p. 16). They are dissonant with all other materials.
Dream-Souled Charms
Excellencies
Dream-Souled have Excellencies for all Abilities; they receive five for free at character creation and must purchase others separately. They may add up to (Ability) dice to rolls, or (Ability + Essence, maximum 10) for actions that uphold their Ideal, paying one mote per die. Automatic successes count as two dice towards this limit. Static values such as Evasion or Resolve can be raised by half this dice cap, rounded down.
Dressed in Fantasia
Cost: 1m; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Shaping (Object)
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Dreamstuff-Sculpting Reverie
The Dream-Souled armors herself in little more than confidence and imagination, wearing sheer silks like the sturdiest full plate.
The Dream-Souled grants her clothing the traits of her choice of light, medium, or heavy mundane armor. It has the Buoyant and Silent tags (Exalted, p. 593), unless these tags are inconsistent with the enchanted clothing’s design. This may overtly transform the clothing, making changes that are superficial or purely cosmetic, but permanent. Such armor is nigh-invulnerable for this Charm’s duration, as though it were an artifact.
An Essence 2 repurchase lets the Dream-Souled pay a nine-mote, one-Willpower surcharge to use this as a Simple Charm, granting her clothing the traits of light, medium, or heavy artifact armor. She can make any number of additional repurchases, each granting an Evocation that can be used with armor enchanted by this Charm. These Evocations draw their themes and function from the Dream-Souled’s personality and Ideal and themes of dreams and nightmares.
A third purchase at Essence 3 extends this Charm’s duration to Indefinite.
Nightmare-Venom Sting
Cost: 5m; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dreamstuff-Sculpting Reverie
The Dream-Souled decants fear and trauma into a draught of poisoned dreaming.
Upon purchasing this Charm, the Dream-Souled’s player chooses one of the following sets of poison traits:
Damage 3i/round, Duration (higher of Essence or Manipulation) rounds, −1 penalty
Damage 1i/round (B in Crash), Duration (higher of Essence or Manipulation) rounds, −3 penalty
Damage 1L/minute, Duration (higher of Essence or Manipulation) minutes, −2 penalty
She can use this Charm to apply a single dose of the chosen poison to a touched weapon, foodstuff, beverage, or appropriate vessel, such as a plate or a prince’s favored goblet. If she has a relevant Craft, like alchemy, she receives craft points for meeting objectives by poisoning characters with this Charm as though she’d completed a basic project (Exalted, p. 240).
The Dream-Souled may purchase additional sets of poison traits, adding them to the repertoire she can create with this Charm, for three experience points each.
Dream Chrysalis Awakening
Cost: 1m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 2
Type: Simple
Keywords: Shaping (Body)
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Face-Changing Glamour (x2)
The Dream-Souled bids monstrous forms and angelic beauty forth from the cauldron of the unconscious, working wondrous transformations.
To use this Charm, the Dream-Souled must either be in her target’s dream (typically by using her anima power), in an attuned manse or demesne, or in the Wyld. She grants a willing character (higher of Essence or 3) dots of mutations. Player characters incur experience debt (p. XX) for gaining mutations in this way; a given Storyteller character can only benefit from this Charm once per story.
The Dream-Souled can use this Charm on herself, needing no magic to enter her own dreams.
Scourge the Broken World
Cost: 1m+; Mins: Essence 1
Type: Supplemental
Keywords: Aggravated, Dual
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Dream-Souled’s will is a blade by which the world is cut into a better form; at times that blade must be turned against her foes.
The Dream-Souled spends up to (lower of Essence or Strength) motes, adding +1 Overwhelming on a withering attack or ignoring one point of Hardness on a decisive attack for each mote spent. If the Dream-Souled is attacking a fae or an enemy who threatens or opposes her Ideal, a withering attack also adds this bonus to its raw damage, while a decisive attack deals aggravated damage.
And so much more to come! We'll get the full appendix on Tuesday! Let's continue to rally this final week, see if we can't unlock another Stretch Goal or two, and push hard towards the finish!
Thu Jun 16 '22 Announcement
almost 2 years ago
– Thu, Jun 16, 2022 at 11:33:13 AM
Hello Chosen of the Little Gods,
My understanding of how time works has certainly been shaken over the past few years, and the past three weeks just add to the confusion. This campaign started 23 days ago but it feels like it's been about 2 months and about 15 minutes at the same time.
My headband is probably too tight.
Regardless of how it feels, I can tell you for certain that we've got ONE WEEK left until the campaign concludes!
Exigents: Out of the Ashes wraps up it's IndieGoGo campaign on Thursday, June 23rd at 11:59 PM PDT - That's about 3 AM on June 24th where I am, so I'm not 100% sure I'll be totally conscious during the finale, but it'll still be exciting!
Now that we're officially in the final week countdown for this crowdfunding effort, I'll be sharing a handful of instruction and review-type posts about Pledge & Add On Perks, reviewing where we stand with Stretch Goals, and outlining What Comes Next, so if you've got any process questions or are wondering about how the IndieGoGo steps work, I'm hoping to clarify any remaining questions before we finish. Of course, if you're still wondering about something, please ask and I'll help as best I can.
Final Week Program
June 19 - Perk Review
June 21 - Final Draft Manuscript Chapter available (Appendix!)
June 22 - Stretch Goal Review
June 23 - Final Day Checklist & What Comes Next
Next Tuesday, I'll be posting the final draft manuscript download section for Exigents: Out of the Ashes. If you've been following along, you'll be able to read the entire draft manuscript for the book before we finish, before IndieGoGo sends out any conclusion note. So, if you haven't joined up yet, please do so in these final days and know that you can cancel your pledge before the end if this book isn't for you.
BUT - if this book is for you (and if you're reading this, I think you already know that it is), let's work together to see if we can maybe achieve another Stretch Goal before we review our many accomplishments next Wednesday! I sure would love to add another Stretch Goal reward on to the list!
IF YOU ARE already a backer, then an assignment for you:
Share a spark of the Exigence!
I know, this is something I've already said many times (and seem to say during every project!), but for this final week, you are officially a duly-deputized ambassador for this IndieGoGo project. It's our last opportunity to spread the word and invite others to join in on our Exaltation! Basically, we want to recruit as many interested backers as possible over this final week.
I know I've said "Keep spreading the word! Invite others to join in!" - but what does that mean, and how do you do it?
Easy answer - don't stop talking about Exigents: Out of the Ashes until next Thursday June 23rd (when the campaign has ended). Yes, we've all heard about it and read each chapter as it comes across our e-mail, but there are others who haven't yet heard or don't know about the campaign.
With this campaign running on a platform that's a bit different from Onyx Path's usual crowdfunding haunt, there will be lots of Exalted fans and potential backers who haven't checked it out yet. So, please remind everyone you can that the campaign is wrapping up soon, and every backer gets us closer to unlocking another Stretch Goal and expanding the world of Exigents even further!
Here's another tool to maybe help spread the word. I'll collect some resources together here, so that you can point potential backers to this post if they're looking for more info!
First up, as noted above, the current draft manuscript is available to read in previews during the campaign. Once the campaign is over and our Pledge Manager is up and running (say, mid-July?), I'll compile all of the sections together and make those available in a single download for all backers of this project, so you'll have something to reference and review (and play with!) right up until the PDF of the book is released! Until then, check these out while they're available:
Wanna know what's gone into the making of this book? If you want even more information about Exigents, the best source is straight from the horse-shaped Lunar Exalted's mouth. Or something like that, you get what I'm saying... the developers and Onyx Path team are the best people to talk about Exigents, and I've got a couple of podcasts to point you to where they do just that!
First up, the Systematic Understanding of Everything sees (hears?) Elliott and Vance, the developers for this book dig in to Exigents: Out of the Ashes. Who are the Architects? What were the Umbral Exalted? How do you make your own Strawmaiden Janest?
A little closer to home, the Onyx Pathcast also had an episode of excitement leading up to the Exigents emerging to our crowdfunding campaign. Episode 204: We're Excited about Exigents, in which Dixie interviews Robert Vance and Elliott Freeman about Exigents: Out of the Ashes!
And if you want to know more about this book and the future of Exalted, check out the EXALTED panel from the recent Onyx Path Virtual Game Convention!
MORE PLACES TO TALK ABOUT EXALTED
If you've got questions about the rules or setting, or just want to discuss this game with other fans (as well as the Onyx Path writers and developers!), you can check out these Onyx Path discussion zones:
We've got one week to go, everyone! Thank you all so much for your support! Like a group of Little Gods pooling their power to spark one Exigent into existence, we've come together to not only fund the further development and creation of this book, but to expand on the world of Exalted with Stretch Goals and additional Exalted celebrations!
Let's continue to work together to grow our backer count and enjoy these moments of escape from the chaos and confusion of the world, if only for a brief moment. Let's imagine new and creative Exigents, dissect and review the rules material, and check out tomorrow's sneak peek from the Appendix!
And so much more to come! We'll get the full appendix on Tuesday! Let's continue to rally this final week, see if we can't unlock another Stretch Goal or two, and push hard towards the finish!
Regardless of how it feels, I can tell you for certain that we've got 