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View Full Version : [Exalted] Return of the Scarlet Empress



Terraoblivion
2010-08-21, 11:04 PM
Having recently gotten my hand on this latest book in the Exalted line, i cannot claim to have had very high expectations for it. Not only that once i first got my hands on it and looked at a few headlines low expectations turned to outright anger and nerdrage.

I must admit that after thumbing some more through it and familiarizing myself with how it is structured, as well as reading the thoughts others have had about it my anger disappeared. While i still regard going with the Scarlet Empress marrying the Ebon Dragon was a bad idea since the amount of foreshadowing had reached the point where it had almost become a joke, i cannot condemn the entire book with my current knowledge. Though i have not read it myself yet, it apparently contains comprehensive looks at how the great powers of Creation and beyond would react to a major upheaval and chaos in the world. I also found that the final chapter, which i have read the most of, to contain not only impressive amounts of awesome, but also a loose enough framework to not feel stiff and confining.

So while there is still plenty of room for me to be disappointed and reaffirm my first assessment of the book, that initial judgement has turned from anger and disappointment to being excited about it. And now of course i want to hear if others have any experiences with it and if so, what their thoughts are.

The Rose Dragon
2010-08-22, 03:52 AM
I had started a thread about this, which seemed to die pretty quickly (probably because the book had been out for a total of, like, two hours).

Overall, I am disappointed. There are a few gems here and there (such as Szoreny's magnificent bastard plan and the astrological Charms), but most of it seemed to rely on a lot of major non-Infernal players being really, really stupid, and the PCs being the only ones who can stop this on account of being PCs. That is a design principle I dislike, yet it seems to be spread everywhere in the books. Not to mention the whole thing was on the verge of being a love letter to Ebon Dragon, who I dislike as the biggest antagonist of all Creation.

Though I totally called Scarlet being an Earth aspect.

Terraoblivion
2010-08-22, 01:21 PM
I'll be honest, i always saw her as more of an Air Aspect.

And i dunno, so far it seems to mostly rely on giving an outline of what the plan is, without really saying if the outcome succeeds or not. Indeed it seems to expect the various people trying to defend Creation to stop a good chunk of it. At least insofar as the East and the Blessed Isle goes, i don't know about the rest of Creation or other realms of existence since i haven't read that yet.