Everybody says my way is great
but improbable.All greatness
is improbable.
What’s probable
is tedious and petty.
—Laozi, Tao Te Ching (tl. Ursula K. LeGuin and J. P. Seaton)
Scheduling
Next session (Session 11): Wednesday, 2025-06-11
- Anchorage: Wednesdays, 09:00~13:00
- Houston/Chicago: Wednesdays, 12:00~16:00
- Vienna: Wednesdays, 19:00~23:00
Players and Characters
☼ Raizo the Urchin Prince
○ Shadow Edge, AKA the River Snake
⦿ Datei ma Kagemori
Session Logs
Session Log Index
Logs of past sessions, XP awards, and other notable achievements are listed here.
2025-01-14 Session 1: Brought Together – 5 XP
Link to original
2025-02-04 Session 2: Jibei, Part 1 – 5 XP
2025-02-11 Session 3: Jibei, Part 2 – 5 XP
2025-02-25 Session 4: Oath – 5 XP
2025-03-18 Session 5: Eightfold Clouds Rampart – 5 XP
2025-04-09 Session 6: Blooming Obelisk Isle, Part 1 – 5 XP
2025-04-23 Session 7: Blooming Obelisk Isle, Part 2 – 5 XP
2025-05-08 Session 8: Mother of Orphans – 5 XP
2025-05-21 Session 9: Nazubi Gentle Shroud – 5 XP; gifted the Datei War-Mask
2025-06-04 Session 10: The Blue Legs, Part 1 – 5 XP
2025-06-27 Session 11: The Blue Legs, Part 2 – 5 XP
2025-07-09 Session 12: The Blue Legs, Part 2 (continued) – 5 XP; joined by The Blue Legs
On the Edge of a Sword (Or, Game Pitch)
See also: the setting summary; more in-depth topics
Long has the Imperial Daiklave been wielded against Vaneha’s own people. It was but a scant thirty-one years ago that then-Sword Prince Tenraji brought the last rebellious clan lords to heel. Now, his grandson Gensuji raises the Daiklave northward once again. Vaneha has ruled parts of the Hundred Kingdoms before. He intends to rule all of them.
Even now, the nearby city-state of Nathir is under siege. Once it falls, the Sword Prince will be master of all land between the Yellow and Maruto Rivers and the Great Palisade in the east. But while Nathir is the clear underdog, Gensuji is young and untested, and can afford no missteps on his first impetuous venture nor political embarrassments at home while he and his army are away.
Fortune may favor the bold, but chance is rarely kind to balancing acts. Nathir’s fall is only a matter of time. To withdraw troops would be to invite blockade runs or reinforcements. But with much of Gensuji’s army committed in the west, bandits and other troublemakers have grown emboldened, even lurking in the hills and marshes near the capital city. Nobles not out on campaign bicker and plot, testing the limits of what Gensuji’s siblings will tolerate while their brother is out. Something shifts under the sacred mountain Ama-Ni-Traya, like a hollow in its essence, yet small but threatening to disrupt the balance of forces should it grow.
And the Sun turns its face to Creation, blazing on the brows of heroes. They will enter this Time of Tumult and make the world a better place, as best they know how. Or, perhaps, burn it all to the ground in the attempt.
Character Creation
Make me 2–5 glorious solar wrecking balls and we’ll watch them swing into this Jenga tower and pick up the pieces together.
Normal Solar character creation as per Exalted Third Edition, pp. 120ff. No particular (house) rules or restrictions pertaining to character creation at this point, but see here for miscellaneous decisions and rulings. Just note that the main book I know in and out is the core, so if you want to talk about something outside of it, make sure to tell me.
This is hopefully stating the obvious but you do not need to be native to Vaneha. Just, you know, get there somehow by the start of the first session. If you are Vanehan, feel free to define your clan as much as you like or give me as much leave as you’re comfortable with to define it for you (or have it not be a big part of your character). By default I may offer suggestions but will defer to you unless you tell me otherwise. The same holds for any Allies, Mentors, etc.
Should you have trouble writing down or wording intimacies, my advice is to
- review the descriptions on p. 215 of what a given strength of intimacy means; and
- lean towards trying to make your intimacies’ phrasing concrete and actionable (both in the sense of suggesting ways you might act, or refrain from acting, on them and ways to exploit them).
I have also found it useful to describe Ties with short phrases instead of just one or two words. Your mileage may vary and this is not to be understood as a requirement to write your intimacies a particular way.
Make your character sheets any way you like, as long as you and I can both read them. Something like a google doc where I can always see the newest version without having to check if you’ve updated it is ideal. Send me the link and I’ll put it up under the header, and probably also pin it in the game channel. If you’re feeling extra spicy you can try to submit a pull request to this site’s repo and put it on the site itself, or, if you’re feeling merely one-alarm spicy, we can try using the github wiki that comes with the repo. (NB: I have never tried that before.)