Exalted: The Fair Folk - Official Teaser Thread

[DariusSolluman]

Originally Posted by GoldenH

I'll have my physics BS by summer. I was going to be a CS major though , I realized that it would be worthless by the time I graduated. I think RSB didn't have that chance, she probably got her PHD right before the bubble popped. that's too bad :'(

... I find the idea of ditching CS for physics on accont of the job market funny than I likely should

DS - Proudly studying the intersection or modern life, modern art, and the way we think. CS 4 life!

[GoldenH]

I'm riding a population boom... while most likely, I will have to work in education, at least I'll HAVE a job

Originally Posted by squideye

I mean, you write games. Don't you think you'd be in demand in the Video Game/MMORPG industry with a CS and Game Design background?

....grumble grumble stereotyping grumble...

No, not really

I switched to Physics because the non-physics courses are, in fact, really close to the CS requirements- at that point, the only difference was the classes I would be taking in two years. so if (when?) I go back and get my CS degree, it'll be alot faster than getting my CS degree in the first place, because of all the overlap. In fact, some CS classes are required for a physics degree - since so many calculations are impossible to do without resorting to a numerical method.

Don't underestimate the non-physics education I am recieving!

Combining a Physics and CS degree will make me an all-powerful force in this universe! the market will shudder before me, and I will be overqualified for nearly every job...

[Jenna Moran]

Originally Posted by Kurotowa

I see two options with this. The first is to say that there's an empty slot in the Loom for the kid, since its parents are both part of the Loom, and the kid clicks into the slot as soon as it enters Creation. After all, Half Fae are inside Fate, as are people from Shadowlands. The other is to say that, just like Black Ice Shadow is special because of his background and the effort that was put into making him different, this idea gets the official stamp of Cool. And thus is allowed outside of logical considerations. A great Sorcerer goes to great lengths, using magics and deals with Fair Folk, to shape a life entirely outside Creation. She now has an assassin of unmatched utility and danger at her control, a wonderful plot device and foil for the PC Exalts.

I still think people romanticize fate in Exalted too much. ^_^

Fate is just one of the weak forces that comes into play in the Exalted world, and, really, most of what it means is that "events in Creation don't have to be super-dramatic to make you change and grow." It means that when you're going from Halta to Nexus, it makes a difference---however tiny---whether you meet a washerwoman, bandit, or merchant prince along the road. You'll be a little different when you get there based on who you encountered. That's fate---the fact that a sum of little tiny events can make a difference in your life, rather than stunts, Charms, and Storyteller or player fiat.

That's just a current thought, admittedly. And I think that "the unplanned factor that changes fates, casts down nations, and raises them up" is a cool vision. It's just not "outside of fate"---it's something else. Really, it's a 0-point Merit for any Exalted PC, because the only real difference between an Exalt PC and the unplanned factor that changes fates is . . . some old guy in a robe making it official by pointing at the PC and saying, "You! You are the unplanned factor!"

I love Escaflowne, but everyone with Essence 2+ gives Dornkirk as much of a headache as Van.

This is not a criticism, mind! I really do think that what people keep wanting "outside of fate" to be deserves to exist. It just needs a different name---something to capture "player character unpredictability" in Exalted's physics in a way that can then be reapplied to Storyteller characters. Maybe "random factor" or "outsider" or "fate-defier"---which doesn't have to include any immunity to astrology or fate, just a tendency to not go along with it. ^_^

[Jenna Moran]

Originally Posted by Quendalon

Geoff, Rebecca, will the list of influences / credits / suggested resources include Roger Zelazny's Amber novels, much as Sidereals gave props to John Brunner's Traveller in Black stories? Because there seems to be some significant overtones of Zelazny's Courts of Chaos in the Wyld.

Probably not, but I dunno!

I like the Amber books, but I don't generally refer to them when thinking. My inspirational material needs to give me structure, which Amber does not.

Someone else may have looked at the Courts of Chaos and found useful stuff there. I suspect that Zelazny's Madlands may appear on the list of influences, because I seem to remember it on the list of suggested inspirations.

[Stephenls]

Originally Posted by Rebecca Borgstrom

This is not a criticism, mind! I really do think that what people keep wanting "outside of fate" to be deserves to exist. It just needs a different name---something to capture "player character unpredictability" in Exalted's physics in a way that can then be reapplied to Storyteller characters. Maybe "random factor" or "outsider" or "fate-defier"---which doesn't have to include any immunity to astrology or fate, just a tendency to not go along with it. ^_^

"Essence User"?

That's what the Players' Guide implied, anyway. Every time someone spends a Mote, it alters fate a bit.

Mind you, "Essence User" is a bit ungainly, as far as terms go.

[Jenna Moran]

Originally Posted by Stephenls

So... I'll bring up something practical.

I think we've already seen the effective difference between "the Wyld" and "Rakshastan."

The Wyld is the Wyld as it's talked about in the corebook and Lunars -- roiling toxic chaos, shape without form (or is that "form without shape?") that you can't go into because it will make you look like Captain Amazing as he's being quanto-fraculated.

Rakshastan, on the other hand, is the Wyld as it's talked about in the Eos and Ossissa chapter of Exalted: The Outcaste. It's a place of dreams and endless possibilities that tends to manifest as a series of possibly-connected little realms or worlds, like the place that's endless sky filled with veridian butterflies, or the place that's a giant canyon filled with ruby-feathered gulls, or even just a calm little island with some palaces where a bunch of Raksha relax in the sun.

Am I on roughly the right track? The one thing I found myself thinking after reading that chapter of The Outcaste was "Hey, this version of the Wyld is a lot more useful than the one in the corebook, if perhaps a bit less perfectly incomprehensible and Lovecraftian."

I think you are on a right track.

Suppose that you find a child playing in an endless waste with Nyarlathotep. It's still Nyarlathotep, it's still a thing that ought not be, it's still eating your SAN. But for whatever reason, Nyarlathotep hasn't eaten the kid yet.

And you ask, "Hey, kid, what's that?"

And the kid says, "It's my Skinless One!"

And you look in the kid's mind, because maybe you're starting to lose track of whether you're the kid or the onlooker, and you can see all the shape of the games the kid plays. And you realize, even though Nyarlathotep is perfectly and utterly incomprehensible, the kid still *has* some sort of mental construct for the thing. The kid is comprehending *something*.

Of course, whatever you're comprehending, it can't be Nyarlathotep. You know that. Because you can't comprehend Nyarlathotep. And because you don't know Nyarlathotep's boundaries, you can never comprehend anything else again.

But your mind's still *there*, you know?

Rakshastan and the Eos/Ossissa Wyld is like what you saw in that kid's mind, back when you remembered which one of the three things you were.

[Jenna Moran]

Originally Posted by Sir Bob

Nope; rather, they've incorporated themselves into the Wyld, and are slowly being transformed into the archetypal characters whose roles they've been forced to assume to survive. In the case of the title characters, they're becoming the Archetypal Naval Explorer and the Archetypal Revenge-Driven Vigilante, respectively.

It's interesting to think about why this might be. In a broader context, rather than the context of their particular story.

Why does the Wyld care about archetypes?

It may help to ask yourself:

What other sorts of things care about archetypes?

[Jenna Moran]

Originally Posted by GoldenH

.... :shock: there hasn't been a Wyld for a long time, has there.

There is certainly a definition of Wyld for which this is true.

[taleswapper]

Originally Posted by Rebecca Borgstrom

It's interesting to think about why this might be. In a broader context, rather than the context of their particular story.

Why does the Wyld care about archetypes?

It may help to ask yourself:

What other sorts of things care about archetypes?

sapient individuals who crave structure, order, pattern, paradigm, etc.

[Spook]

Originally Posted by Rebecca Borgstrom

What other sorts of things care about archetypes?

...turtles?