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bmpixyIntroduction
Hello, and welcome to the first entry of Supernal Storyteller Style, my attempt to catalog the design process I go through when writing for my Exalted Third Edition game, Glorious Solar [Title]. In this series, I'll be going over how I came up with certain characters backstories and powersets, why I decided on putting certain plot elements before the players, world-building in the parts of Creation my players explore, and other such behind the screen decisions I made as a Storyteller. This series will assume you have a familiarity with Exalted, though sooner or later I'll write up an intro to the setting and system for those completely unfamiliar with it. In this inaugural entry, I'll be detailing one of the first villains I wrote up for the campaign, though she has only been introduced as of late. Her name? Unfettered Dragon Queen.
Backstory
Upon the Blessed Isle, in one of the many mansions that Dynasts own, there once lived two sisters. The elder, Cynis Mayumiyu, was cool, cunning, clever, ambitious, and bore both her parents' favor and their progenitive Essence. In time, when she inevitably Exalted, she would make a wonderful addition to the House's ranks, so skilled in the martial, alchemical, and social arts she was. The younger, Cynis Kaneko, was compassionate, caring, open with her emotions, earnest to a fault - a child born of love between her parents, but looked down on for lacking the progenitive Essence her elder sister had. It was unlikely she would Exalt, and should she manage to do so, she would be eaten alive by Dynast politics.
This is not the story of how Kaneko overcame her disadvantages to be as strong as the sister she looked up to. No, for as time drew on, the ever-blessed Mayumiyu simply failed to claim that destiny that everyone thought was her. Not through any fault of her own, but that potential in her divine blood never appeared. And Mayumiyu grew desperate as she grew older - at one point, paying some Exalted peers of hers to beat her as Kaneko watched, hoping that that stress would finally cause the elder sister to take her Second Breath. Instead, the younger sister did. It was at that moment, as Kaneko woke up to Sextes Jylis's power, that Mayumiyu knew she would never Exalt herself.
The years went on - Kaneko, still looking up to her sister, went off to the great medical academies of the Realm to put her all into learning their trade, and grew a bit wiser, a bit cooler, a bit more collected, but still remained the same woman she was before. Mayumiyu, in desperation to surpass the sister she once looked down on for not having the advantages she did, put herself through the Heptagram, even as a mortal. She taught herself sorcery, graduated with the highest honors a mortal could achieve, a grew a bit more desperate, a bit more jealous, a bit more cruel, twisting away from the girl she once was.
The years went on - Kaneko, still holding on to her kindness, became a travelling doctor, tending to the illnesses of the mortals of the Isle where they themselves could not, banishing disease spirits, flooding chakras with revitalizing Wood Essence, and dispensing seeds for medicinal herbs that they might combat disease in the future. Mayumiyu, letting her darker side take over, put her talents to a use House Cynis appreciated more, developing new alchemical drugs to bring their users to greater highs of pleasure, developing new sorcerous poisons that would see Cynis's foes brought to new lows of despair, and dabbling in demonology to obtain better ingredients for both from Malfeas.
And then, after thirty years apart, the two sisters met once more. Kaneko had grown renowned, an exemplar of the noblesse oblige Dragons were to have towards their mortal subjects. Mayumiyu's name lived in shadows, known only to scoundrels, murderers, and addicts, those who resented having to call upon her. Kaneko had barely scratched the life ahead of her as a Dragonblooded, whilst Mayumiyu was rapidly approaching the last third of hers. And Mayumiyu just. couldn't. stand it. So, knowing that performing such an act would damn her soul to a terrible reincarnation, knowing that she would likely die the next day for performing it, knowing that this was the only option to gain that destiny which had been denied her, Mayumiyu gathered up her resolve, and slipped her strongest poison into her sister's tea. The sorceress went to bed satisfied, knowing that come morning the sister who stole her Exaltation would be dead.
But Kaneko's body had grown hardened on the road, nigh immune to those diseases and toxins that would kill 99 out of every 100 mortals through careful cultivation of her Essence. And so she survived the night, greeted her beloved older sister with a smile in the morning, and Mayumiyu fell into absolute despair upon seeing her at the breakfast table the next morning. That night, a demon offered Mayumiyu an Infernal Exaltation, and Unfettered Dragon Queen was born. Her first act - to restore the proper hierarchy of all things, by finishing what the tea had started. After that, she vanished into Malfeas for eight long years.
Concept & Design
UDQ has been a concept I've been sitting on since I first read Manual of Exalted Power: Infernals some three years ago. When I was naive and thought I could play Exalted rather than GM it, I wanted to play a character that truly deserved the failure that would earn them their Infernal Exaltation. I wanted to play a character whose idea of a heroic act was not to do something to step out of her sister's shadow, but to cut her down instead so that UDQ could see the light. Nowadays, since Infernal Exaltations are now based upon 'oppression', I redesigned UDQ to reflect that - her 'oppression' was entirely imagined, forced upon herself by not getting what she believed she deserved. I have a soft spot for scumbags, as you will likely see throughout this series.
With regards to her name, I looked at the backstory I had written up for her, and settled on Unfettered Dragon Queen, each word coming with its own reasons. 'Unfettered', since she has cast out her attachments. 'Dragon', referring to her past in the Realm amongst the Dragonbloods, and marking herself as a part of but also separate from them. And, finally, 'Queen', due to her setting herself as the peak of the Perfected Hierarchy of all things, even the Dragons whom she once lived below. As for her birthname, Cynis as a House has always been kind of scummy, so it was a perfect fit for a villain such as UDQ. Mayumiyu comes from a combination of the Japanese names Mayu (満優) and Miyu (美優), reflecting the Realm's Asian influences, as well as hinting at her personality - Mayu combining 'real, genuine' and 'excellence, superiority', whilst Miyu combined 'beautiful' and 'excellence, superiority' once more - I really wanted to hammer in that emphasis on her skill. I should note that the 'yu' used in her name has a third definition of 'gentleness', which is very much the exact opposite of her character. I suppose for just this once, two positives make a negative!
Moving on, her concept also led her to being a Defiler Caste, which required her to take She Who Lives in Her Name as her primary patron from amongst the Yozis. For her second patron, I decided on Cecelyne - UDQ stuck me as the sort of woman to insist that the weak follow the rules laid down by the strong, AKA her. Additionally, her building up a cult based upon herself fit naturally with the idea that she believes herself to be the pinnacle of the Perfected Hierarchy of All Things. Thus, before I began to build her Charmset, I had the following traits in mind to design her around - a sorceress, an alchemist (crafting), SWLiHN and Cecelyne patronage, a focus on building herself up, and the use of poisons.
Since she would debut at Essence 3, this meant she would not only have access to Charms of that level, but also Celestial Circle Sorcery. Thus, my first question would be what spells to give her, as well as what shaping rituals. Her control spells would end up being Death of Obsidian Butterflies and Incomparable Body Arsenal - since Demon of the First/Second Circle have no control effects, I went with those for practicality purposes - DoOB to have her better fight, and IBA so that I could give her Evocations from it to enable her to better use poisons in combat. As for her other spells, I chose Magma Kraken and Mists of Eventide so that she could contribute upon large battlefields in a grand and spectacular way, Demon of the First/Second Circle for obvious reasons, and Invulnerable Skin of Bronze to help protect her against my players killing her in one hit like they've done quite a few antagonists. For her shaping rituals, I gave her the Heptagram initiation for her Terrestrial Initiation, and then created a custom initiation for her Celestial Initiation - one to allow her to use those giant, expensive spells easier, allowing her to partially prepare them off screen using geomantic formulas inlaid in giant scrolls (which are always cool). However, I also intentionally introduced a weakness there, such that she can only carry a few of those scrolls, since they are so large - up to six, with Celestial spells counting for three.
For her Charmset (for which I used Sandact6's wonderful Infernals homebrew), I took mostly from the SWLiHN set, since that was the Yozi she more closely aligned with. Additionally, Charms such as Mind Hand Manipulation and Gram Cluster Stance were very cool. Thus, her charmset was designed to have her have a different strategy for each range band for a foe could be in. At extreme and long range, Gram Cluster Stance and Pinpoint Wormhole Shot would allow her attack foes where they had poor or non-existent chances of hitting her back. Incomparable Body Arsenal would provide the Heavy Archery weapon optimal for that sort of play, whilst the Evocation Alchemical Arsenal Assault would allow her to apply poisons from such long range, crippling foes even as they try to press in on her. At medium and short range, she would shift to sorcery - spells such as DoOB and MoE are most effective at these ranges, sapping away enemy initiative without spending her own. Magma Kraken would also be cast here, to provide a hazard that must be disengaged from and dealt with, slowing down her foes even further. And, finally, at close range, UDQ would shift to utilizing Aperion Isolation Alchemy and an Infernalized Craftsman Needs No Tools to create devious environmental hazards out of the very earth to use against those who would think that the sorceress is weak to close combat.
For her Cecelyne Charms, I mostly focused on bee-lining towards two Charms - Holy Land Infliction and Locust Mana Plague. Those two would allow her to truly make her mark on Creation, the former casting an ever expanding portion of Creation into the Endless Desert, whilst the latter creates delicious locusts that, after being consumed for a period of time, turn you into a creature of Malfeas, whereupon UDQ can truly get to work bringing you into her fold.
Conclusion
With that, I finish the first entry in this series. I hope anyone reading this enjoys it, and I'd like to hear some feedback on things to add, change, explore more or less, or cut entirely. It's been enjoyable reading this, and has certainly helped me with establishing UDQ in my mind - I'd forgotten how useful putting things to paper (or blog post) is when filling out your ideas. Regardless, thank you for reading this, this has been Pixy, and have a good day.
Hello, and welcome to the first entry of Supernal Storyteller Style, my attempt to catalog the design process I go through when writing for my Exalted Third Edition game, Glorious Solar [Title]. In this series, I'll be going over how I came up with certain characters backstories and powersets, why I decided on putting certain plot elements before the players, world-building in the parts of Creation my players explore, and other such behind the screen decisions I made as a Storyteller. This series will assume you have a familiarity with Exalted, though sooner or later I'll write up an intro to the setting and system for those completely unfamiliar with it. In this inaugural entry, I'll be detailing one of the first villains I wrote up for the campaign, though she has only been introduced as of late. Her name? Unfettered Dragon Queen.
Backstory
Upon the Blessed Isle, in one of the many mansions that Dynasts own, there once lived two sisters. The elder, Cynis Mayumiyu, was cool, cunning, clever, ambitious, and bore both her parents' favor and their progenitive Essence. In time, when she inevitably Exalted, she would make a wonderful addition to the House's ranks, so skilled in the martial, alchemical, and social arts she was. The younger, Cynis Kaneko, was compassionate, caring, open with her emotions, earnest to a fault - a child born of love between her parents, but looked down on for lacking the progenitive Essence her elder sister had. It was unlikely she would Exalt, and should she manage to do so, she would be eaten alive by Dynast politics.
This is not the story of how Kaneko overcame her disadvantages to be as strong as the sister she looked up to. No, for as time drew on, the ever-blessed Mayumiyu simply failed to claim that destiny that everyone thought was her. Not through any fault of her own, but that potential in her divine blood never appeared. And Mayumiyu grew desperate as she grew older - at one point, paying some Exalted peers of hers to beat her as Kaneko watched, hoping that that stress would finally cause the elder sister to take her Second Breath. Instead, the younger sister did. It was at that moment, as Kaneko woke up to Sextes Jylis's power, that Mayumiyu knew she would never Exalt herself.
The years went on - Kaneko, still looking up to her sister, went off to the great medical academies of the Realm to put her all into learning their trade, and grew a bit wiser, a bit cooler, a bit more collected, but still remained the same woman she was before. Mayumiyu, in desperation to surpass the sister she once looked down on for not having the advantages she did, put herself through the Heptagram, even as a mortal. She taught herself sorcery, graduated with the highest honors a mortal could achieve, a grew a bit more desperate, a bit more jealous, a bit more cruel, twisting away from the girl she once was.
The years went on - Kaneko, still holding on to her kindness, became a travelling doctor, tending to the illnesses of the mortals of the Isle where they themselves could not, banishing disease spirits, flooding chakras with revitalizing Wood Essence, and dispensing seeds for medicinal herbs that they might combat disease in the future. Mayumiyu, letting her darker side take over, put her talents to a use House Cynis appreciated more, developing new alchemical drugs to bring their users to greater highs of pleasure, developing new sorcerous poisons that would see Cynis's foes brought to new lows of despair, and dabbling in demonology to obtain better ingredients for both from Malfeas.
And then, after thirty years apart, the two sisters met once more. Kaneko had grown renowned, an exemplar of the noblesse oblige Dragons were to have towards their mortal subjects. Mayumiyu's name lived in shadows, known only to scoundrels, murderers, and addicts, those who resented having to call upon her. Kaneko had barely scratched the life ahead of her as a Dragonblooded, whilst Mayumiyu was rapidly approaching the last third of hers. And Mayumiyu just. couldn't. stand it. So, knowing that performing such an act would damn her soul to a terrible reincarnation, knowing that she would likely die the next day for performing it, knowing that this was the only option to gain that destiny which had been denied her, Mayumiyu gathered up her resolve, and slipped her strongest poison into her sister's tea. The sorceress went to bed satisfied, knowing that come morning the sister who stole her Exaltation would be dead.
But Kaneko's body had grown hardened on the road, nigh immune to those diseases and toxins that would kill 99 out of every 100 mortals through careful cultivation of her Essence. And so she survived the night, greeted her beloved older sister with a smile in the morning, and Mayumiyu fell into absolute despair upon seeing her at the breakfast table the next morning. That night, a demon offered Mayumiyu an Infernal Exaltation, and Unfettered Dragon Queen was born. Her first act - to restore the proper hierarchy of all things, by finishing what the tea had started. After that, she vanished into Malfeas for eight long years.
Concept & Design
UDQ has been a concept I've been sitting on since I first read Manual of Exalted Power: Infernals some three years ago. When I was naive and thought I could play Exalted rather than GM it, I wanted to play a character that truly deserved the failure that would earn them their Infernal Exaltation. I wanted to play a character whose idea of a heroic act was not to do something to step out of her sister's shadow, but to cut her down instead so that UDQ could see the light. Nowadays, since Infernal Exaltations are now based upon 'oppression', I redesigned UDQ to reflect that - her 'oppression' was entirely imagined, forced upon herself by not getting what she believed she deserved. I have a soft spot for scumbags, as you will likely see throughout this series.
With regards to her name, I looked at the backstory I had written up for her, and settled on Unfettered Dragon Queen, each word coming with its own reasons. 'Unfettered', since she has cast out her attachments. 'Dragon', referring to her past in the Realm amongst the Dragonbloods, and marking herself as a part of but also separate from them. And, finally, 'Queen', due to her setting herself as the peak of the Perfected Hierarchy of all things, even the Dragons whom she once lived below. As for her birthname, Cynis as a House has always been kind of scummy, so it was a perfect fit for a villain such as UDQ. Mayumiyu comes from a combination of the Japanese names Mayu (満優) and Miyu (美優), reflecting the Realm's Asian influences, as well as hinting at her personality - Mayu combining 'real, genuine' and 'excellence, superiority', whilst Miyu combined 'beautiful' and 'excellence, superiority' once more - I really wanted to hammer in that emphasis on her skill. I should note that the 'yu' used in her name has a third definition of 'gentleness', which is very much the exact opposite of her character. I suppose for just this once, two positives make a negative!
Moving on, her concept also led her to being a Defiler Caste, which required her to take She Who Lives in Her Name as her primary patron from amongst the Yozis. For her second patron, I decided on Cecelyne - UDQ stuck me as the sort of woman to insist that the weak follow the rules laid down by the strong, AKA her. Additionally, her building up a cult based upon herself fit naturally with the idea that she believes herself to be the pinnacle of the Perfected Hierarchy of All Things. Thus, before I began to build her Charmset, I had the following traits in mind to design her around - a sorceress, an alchemist (crafting), SWLiHN and Cecelyne patronage, a focus on building herself up, and the use of poisons.
Since she would debut at Essence 3, this meant she would not only have access to Charms of that level, but also Celestial Circle Sorcery. Thus, my first question would be what spells to give her, as well as what shaping rituals. Her control spells would end up being Death of Obsidian Butterflies and Incomparable Body Arsenal - since Demon of the First/Second Circle have no control effects, I went with those for practicality purposes - DoOB to have her better fight, and IBA so that I could give her Evocations from it to enable her to better use poisons in combat. As for her other spells, I chose Magma Kraken and Mists of Eventide so that she could contribute upon large battlefields in a grand and spectacular way, Demon of the First/Second Circle for obvious reasons, and Invulnerable Skin of Bronze to help protect her against my players killing her in one hit like they've done quite a few antagonists. For her shaping rituals, I gave her the Heptagram initiation for her Terrestrial Initiation, and then created a custom initiation for her Celestial Initiation - one to allow her to use those giant, expensive spells easier, allowing her to partially prepare them off screen using geomantic formulas inlaid in giant scrolls (which are always cool). However, I also intentionally introduced a weakness there, such that she can only carry a few of those scrolls, since they are so large - up to six, with Celestial spells counting for three.
For her Charmset (for which I used Sandact6's wonderful Infernals homebrew), I took mostly from the SWLiHN set, since that was the Yozi she more closely aligned with. Additionally, Charms such as Mind Hand Manipulation and Gram Cluster Stance were very cool. Thus, her charmset was designed to have her have a different strategy for each range band for a foe could be in. At extreme and long range, Gram Cluster Stance and Pinpoint Wormhole Shot would allow her attack foes where they had poor or non-existent chances of hitting her back. Incomparable Body Arsenal would provide the Heavy Archery weapon optimal for that sort of play, whilst the Evocation Alchemical Arsenal Assault would allow her to apply poisons from such long range, crippling foes even as they try to press in on her. At medium and short range, she would shift to sorcery - spells such as DoOB and MoE are most effective at these ranges, sapping away enemy initiative without spending her own. Magma Kraken would also be cast here, to provide a hazard that must be disengaged from and dealt with, slowing down her foes even further. And, finally, at close range, UDQ would shift to utilizing Aperion Isolation Alchemy and an Infernalized Craftsman Needs No Tools to create devious environmental hazards out of the very earth to use against those who would think that the sorceress is weak to close combat.
For her Cecelyne Charms, I mostly focused on bee-lining towards two Charms - Holy Land Infliction and Locust Mana Plague. Those two would allow her to truly make her mark on Creation, the former casting an ever expanding portion of Creation into the Endless Desert, whilst the latter creates delicious locusts that, after being consumed for a period of time, turn you into a creature of Malfeas, whereupon UDQ can truly get to work bringing you into her fold.
Conclusion
With that, I finish the first entry in this series. I hope anyone reading this enjoys it, and I'd like to hear some feedback on things to add, change, explore more or less, or cut entirely. It's been enjoyable reading this, and has certainly helped me with establishing UDQ in my mind - I'd forgotten how useful putting things to paper (or blog post) is when filling out your ideas. Regardless, thank you for reading this, this has been Pixy, and have a good day.
