Nerdanel
2009-04-10, 05:05 PM
I happened over a promotion for a free pdf of Exalted Second Edition and out of curiosity and desire to have a better idea of what's going on in the Keychain of Creation the OOTS-style webcomic I downloaded it. Reading it, I found something completely unexpected...
In the First Age, magicians typically had their demon servants ferry them to rocky islets in the middle of the open ocean, where they could work their prodigies of destruction [developing spells] without fear of accidentally leveling a metropolis.
Sound familiar? There's more and better.
It turns out that in Exalted becoming able to use sorcery requires overcoming five trials:
The first trial is humility. The initiate must learn to see beyond his own hubris, often in the course of challenges impossible to finish, deliberate humiliation by a mentor or contemplation of past failures. Storytellers might encourage players to take a lead in describing this initiation, as players are sometimes resentful when their character is humiliated at the Storyteller's hands. Brigid's humiliation was that she could not match the power of her peers - she had no skill in developing charms.
V got quite thoroughly humiliated over the course of several months. The challenge of scrying Haley past Cloister was impossible. V involuntarily contemplated past failures every time he fell into trance.
[quote]The second trial is tutelage.
I wonder if these trials need to be in order. V had Aarindarius...
The third trial is a journey.
V's been journeying throughout the whole strip and doesn't look to be settling down any time soon.
The fourth trial is fear. The Solar must learn mastery over her darkest fear - whether a fear of losing her way, of causing others' deaths, of claiming her true power, of finding herself powerless or simply of "spiders". For Brigid, this fear was found at the end of her journey when she faced the Unconquered Sun and feared herself unworthy of him.
V's darkest fear appears to have been powerlessness and being unable to save those that rely on him because of that powerlessness. V met that in Azure City and at the claws the ABD that knew Antimagic Field and Greater Teleport and treatened V's family.
The fifth trial is sacrifice. To become a sorcerer, one must make a terrible sacrifice. This trial is repeated when the sorcerer ascends to a higher level of initiation, so that a sorcerer who cuts of her finger or abandons a brother to learn Terrestrial Circle Sorcery might lose a portion of her sanity to reach the Celestial Circle and cast aside her own true love to master the Solar Circle. Brigid's sacrifice, if any, was unknown.
Abandon two (metaphorical) brothers in the form of Elan and Durkon? Check!
No longer totally sane? Check!
Cast aside own true love? Check!
If V lived in a world functioning under the rules of Exalted, he might very well qualify for learning Exalted type sorcery. (PCs in Exalted are by default Solar Exalted and V is a PC.) And Exalted is an extremely high-powered setting...
I guess this all COULD be just a coincidence, but it would have to be a big coincidence indeed. I'm thinking the Exalted references are intentional, and since they haven't been lampshaded, in line to come up again, even if it's in a scene where V sighs about how unfair it is that he lives in a world that functions along D&D and not Exalted rules.
In the First Age, magicians typically had their demon servants ferry them to rocky islets in the middle of the open ocean, where they could work their prodigies of destruction [developing spells] without fear of accidentally leveling a metropolis.
Sound familiar? There's more and better.
It turns out that in Exalted becoming able to use sorcery requires overcoming five trials:
The first trial is humility. The initiate must learn to see beyond his own hubris, often in the course of challenges impossible to finish, deliberate humiliation by a mentor or contemplation of past failures. Storytellers might encourage players to take a lead in describing this initiation, as players are sometimes resentful when their character is humiliated at the Storyteller's hands. Brigid's humiliation was that she could not match the power of her peers - she had no skill in developing charms.
V got quite thoroughly humiliated over the course of several months. The challenge of scrying Haley past Cloister was impossible. V involuntarily contemplated past failures every time he fell into trance.
[quote]The second trial is tutelage.
I wonder if these trials need to be in order. V had Aarindarius...
The third trial is a journey.
V's been journeying throughout the whole strip and doesn't look to be settling down any time soon.
The fourth trial is fear. The Solar must learn mastery over her darkest fear - whether a fear of losing her way, of causing others' deaths, of claiming her true power, of finding herself powerless or simply of "spiders". For Brigid, this fear was found at the end of her journey when she faced the Unconquered Sun and feared herself unworthy of him.
V's darkest fear appears to have been powerlessness and being unable to save those that rely on him because of that powerlessness. V met that in Azure City and at the claws the ABD that knew Antimagic Field and Greater Teleport and treatened V's family.
The fifth trial is sacrifice. To become a sorcerer, one must make a terrible sacrifice. This trial is repeated when the sorcerer ascends to a higher level of initiation, so that a sorcerer who cuts of her finger or abandons a brother to learn Terrestrial Circle Sorcery might lose a portion of her sanity to reach the Celestial Circle and cast aside her own true love to master the Solar Circle. Brigid's sacrifice, if any, was unknown.
Abandon two (metaphorical) brothers in the form of Elan and Durkon? Check!
No longer totally sane? Check!
Cast aside own true love? Check!
If V lived in a world functioning under the rules of Exalted, he might very well qualify for learning Exalted type sorcery. (PCs in Exalted are by default Solar Exalted and V is a PC.) And Exalted is an extremely high-powered setting...
I guess this all COULD be just a coincidence, but it would have to be a big coincidence indeed. I'm thinking the Exalted references are intentional, and since they haven't been lampshaded, in line to come up again, even if it's in a scene where V sighs about how unfair it is that he lives in a world that functions along D&D and not Exalted rules.