# Forum > Gaming > Roleplaying Games > Older D&D/AD&D and Other Systems > Exalted Reading Sidereals: Charting Fates Course Preview

## Lord Raziere

Greetings everyone its me, Raziere back again with another preview of an Exalted book straight from the kickstarter. This time? I'm reading the 3e Sidereals previews. and let me you, we're for a treat with this one.

*Spoiler: Preview One:*
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This first preview is where we will get a vast majority of the lore, but to start us off I want to draw you attention to a couple quotes fromt he book that I think really set the tone for Sidereals and Yu-shan in this edition:
_"The Solar Purge did not go as planned."_

_"On paper, the Celestial Bureaucracys organizational chart is a tangled mess. In practice, its worse."_

_"Meetings take place in nearby teahouses, eateries, and dens of vice as often as in the Cerulean Lutes offices. Its not uncommon to see the divisions employees smoking pipes of cannabis or snorting
from heaped-up platters of cocaine while at their desk."_

_"Every manner of biome appears here, though touched with Heavens mystery and strange magic: mountains that bleed, stained-glass forests, fungal archipelagos, and more."_

*Chapter 1: The Sidereal Exalted*
This chapter reintroduces us to the Sidereal Exalted, seers of fate, masters of martial arts, and agents of heaven. the humanity of Sidereals have been emphasized here: the loneliness Sidereals feel because of arcane fate and how they deal with that, young Sidereals recklessly thinking their plans for destiny are the best ones due to essence fever, their past lives being more emphasized and more prominent in their minds than other Exalted, how Sidereals having children is a recipe for heartbreak because their children will probably never know their parent, things like that. furthermore they changed the details so that joining Yu-shan as an agent isn't technically required, Yu-shan won't pursue you or try to coerce a Sidereal into being an agent because that never ends well- often its the arcane fate making everyone not a Sidereal or a god in the bureau of destiny forget them, through other Exalts in a mixed circle game can remember them. like they actually intentionally say that a Bureau Sidereal can just be on pretty much an indefinite sabbatical with other Exalts without worrying about the details from a story standpoint, if you don't want to deal with Yu-shan politics, you simply don't have to.

like, one of the details that is important, is that Sidereals are very discouraged from killing other Sidereals due to how little numbers there are-only 100 at a time-, not just because of power or political reasons but because other Sidereals are like all they have that will remember them aside from a few gods outside of that. That other Sidereal may be your political rival and you disagree with them on everything you kill them over it all the other Sidereals will come down on you hard for it, and at least they remember your name consistently. Like, every Sidereal knows almost every other Sidereal, its that small of a group. Any Sidereal that joins up with Rakan Thulio (and the book states that there ARE a few who do just that) get imprisoned for rebelling against Heaven's design- but thats an extreme case. most of the time if a Sidereal doesn't want to work for Heaven or wants to do their own thing, they are very much allowed to do so. 

*Chapter 2: The Celestial Bureaucracy*
Remember the quote I put above about the CB's organization? yeeeeah that's only scratching the surface of how messy and complicated it is. It is a baroque labyrinthine thing that even in setting people joke about how ridiculous it is.

There are five bureaus of heaven, but each one has their own quirks and are further divided into various divisions then offices, committees, sub-divisions, units, task forces and so with little consistency between them. Furthermore you can't divide Creation cleanly into five categories leading to arguments over which gods domains go where. these disputes end up being political squabbles and thus passing such positions back and forth between bureau and divisions for favor trading, leading to things like the God of Hares being in the Division of Aquatic Life for a time. redundant positions get proliferated, addressing problems without coordinating, or have forgotten or overlooked gods who technically have positions but no one wants to put them in a division so they are just kind of floating in some bureaucratic space between and have trouble getting paid. oh and this is all set after the Contagion, a plague that killed many gods and thus screwed things up even more, losing institutional knowledge, which archives hold the answer to a question, what procedures to use for this or that, and so on because the gods who knew how to do that are dead and replaced by gods with less than an millennium of experience, which is apparently not a lot in Yu-shan terms. nepotism, incompetence, bribes, are common.

oh and everyone is disorganized, high on drugs and doing everything in their power to avoid actual work so they can party more, gossip about celebrities and look at art. aside from the exceptions who are actual dutiful bureaucrats thus are often actually pretty powerful like Chejop or Ryzala goddess of bureaucracy, or the god of bankruptcy. In short, Yu-shan is much like Los Angeles. 

the Bureau of Destiny is the Sidereal's bureau and it has five different workplace culture depending on which division:
Journeys: harried post office
Serenities: hollywood on drugs
Battles: military with elementals
Secrets: actual intelligence agency
Endings: morgue built next to a wild night club.

weirdly enough, somehow its the Division of Endings that are the nerdy ones with weird obsessions and geek hobbies and not Secrets, because their division handles things like funerals, assassination, divorce and so on and the divisions atmosphere is somber and quiet so they have to blow off steam from that REAL hard. like imagine being the one who has to plan a couple breaking up and no longer loving each other anymore because all the gods there agreed that is the best way for things to go forward according to their predictions and having to arrange things so that specifically happens and not some other thing, thats what the Division of Endings does.

another thing this chapter goes into is changed details of how the Usurpation happened:
-first of all, there is no three visions anymore. instead the whole plan to kill the Solars was at first rejected as being stupid and unworkable at the time but some Sidereals planned to do it behind everyone's backs anyways
-second, nothing about the Solar Purge goes as planned. some Solars were paranoid enough to prepare for sidereals attacking, some were just that good at fighting, and it became a bit of  long ten year war against the ones they didn't get- though at the same time, in this edition some very few Solars and Lunars fought on the Bronze factions side, believing that they were right about what Solars had become and fear what they might turn into- there is descriptions of all the horrors that Solars made in the first age, including weapons to destroy free will.
-another detail changed is that the Solar exaltations were imprisoned in the Mask constellation in the sky and well....that screwed things up and gave them arcane fate, the whole arcane fate deal being unplanned and actually derailing their first plan to just take over as the new rulers to get things back to normal and instead sending creation into this descent
-the bronze and Gold factions are not about the DBs and Solars but rather about status quo vs taking risks for a better world, and even then they're less hard line factions and more a web of alliances and relationships between the Sidereals, with room for sidereals independent of factions and everything.
-the Sidereals positions and goals are based more on the modern problems of things like the Realm falling or whatever than whatever happened a few thousand years ago.
-the imprisonment of the Solars Exaltations was only possible because of a golden tear that the Unconquered Sun shed when he turned his face from Creation. 

other Bureaus:
-Bureau of Heaven:
the most powerful Bureau, steals humanity's domains to make themselves more powerful and holding onto the status quo. manages everything relating to abstract matters.

-Bureau of Nature:
manages nature in general, but divided into two hierarchies: the Hierarchy of Type which categorizes things by animals, plants, geography, and the Hierarchy of Function oversees things based on behavior, activities and purposes as carnivorous plants, symbiotic relationships, and so forth. the Hierarchy of Function is doing far less well than Type because most of its abstract and conceptual classifications of nature fell out of use after the Contagion, while the gods of say dogs, trees, and such still do relatively fine even if there were mass extinctions, and thus many Function Nature Gods are unemployed and criminals now.

-Bureau of Humanity:
a bureau managing all things relating to humanity that once was more powerful but got cannibalized in the Contagion and now is really wrecked state with gaping holes in its hierarchy and knowledge. is involved with prayer laundering, being disobedient and resisting the Bureau of Heaven

-Bureau of Seasons:
a bureau founded by due to elemental labor strike back in the first age, used to be apart of the bureau of nature, has real big workers union vibes. but also the Aerial legion, heavens military has been integrated into it structure so that the bureau's leader has positions at the top of both- and they want to use their military force to do things regardless of the potential destruction.

*Chapter 3: Yu-Shan*
we have some rough guidelines of how powerful gods are, some descriptions of notable places in Yu-shan was well as its general economics, culture and the like, to give highlights:
-ambrosia now requires artisan skill to properly make what you want from it and those gods that do so are called prayerwrights. 
-gods duel each other to the death for recreation, but don't consider it a big deal because death is temporary for them without exalted power behind it.
-gods divide art to timeless and novel categories
-it is possible to steal the peaches of immortality
-it is also possible to storm the Games of Divinity to talk to the Incarnae- but doing so is considered basically a final dungeon/endgame thing. like Exalted are forbidden from going into the dome, and its defenses designed by the primordials and basically turn into it a labyrinth of the most dangerous things they could cook up. like if your doing this, its supposed to be the last thing you do in your exalted campaign because there is nowhere higher you can go from there.
-the Quicksilver sea around Yu-shan is much weirder now and full of oddities and mysteries that you can use as per my quote above, and Yu-shan has vast stretches of supernatural wilderness now, rather than just being all city
-the criminal underworld of Yu-shan is called the Shadow City and is full of god mafias
-humans exist in Yu-shan but aren't well off. they're a minority and they must be clever to survive because the canals are full of toxic quicksilver rather than water, can't drink from that and gods don't need food or sustenance at all so they're no hurry to adjust Yu-shan to fit humans because humans weren't meant to live there
-finally there are remnants of the primordials design in Yu-shan here and there, things that even gods have no idea about- including a wall that implies there is some threat out there that the Primordials made a pact with to not build near, which is scary because what kind of weird powerful thing would make Primordials not want to fight it and just make a deal to leave each other alone?

this is leaving out a bunch of colorful NPC's they introduce in each bureau and such, like.....I can't begin to cover every single thing even in these three chapters! like there is no simple way to sum up Yu-shan or how Sidereals are presented now, its so full of nuance and complexities, so made to be flexible to what you want to do with them, with writing ranging from the humorous to the thoughtful to the creepy, to the mythic, and so full of a bunch of weird things that are just mentioned off-hand and are just left to your imagination to make something from them. 

like we haven't gotten to any of the traits or charms or martial arts, and already this book is hitting it out of the park for me. just lorewise, I feel my mind being expanded on how to better use Yu-shan, and the whole book is just filled with how screwed up and corrupt Yu-shan's bureaucracy is while having some people working to make things better amidst it all. it makes the Realm's section on its bureaucracy look comparatively simple. I can't wait for the rest of these previews.

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## Rater202

So the thing to take away from this is that they've more or less fixed everything wrong with Sids Lore?

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## Lord Raziere

> So the thing to take away from this is that they've more or less fixed everything wrong with Sids Lore?


Yes. Gods don't hate Sidereals just for being in Heaven, or hate DB's for existing. the Bronze Faction isn't inherently going to send death squads after Solars (they might in fact encourage a Solar to integrate themselves with existing power structures and follow certain rules so change doesn't happen too fast) and things like the Sidereal's political party are just that-one of the more interesting things is how much leeway Sidereals get when they go on a sabbatical now both storywise and in setting wise, as story-wise its to ensure the player can determine whatever situation they want when playing with other PCs and setting wise its actually pretty brilliant: the Gods do NOT want the Sidereals burning out from work overload and given that the gods in this book tend to take a lot of siestas away from their actual jobs and are immortal beings who've been doing so in increasingly extravagant and decadent ways for thousands of years, a Sidereal taking a century off or quitting for a while is taken as "okay, we'll see how you feel after dealing with a lifetime of arcane fate or so. we'll probably be here when you come back" and Doctor Who is explicitly listed as one of this books inspirations. so your Sidereal going around being mythical fantasy Doctor going around solving problems while deriding the other Sidereals methods is explicitly a valid archetype.

while fate and destiny themselves, none of that is predestination. fate is just....how physics work and what is most likely to happen and destiny is just what a committee of gods and Sids want to happen (with the caveat that if its decided that this Should Happen and Doesn't Happen, reality is damaged for it Not Happening, even though everyone has to make it happen no matter the difficulty), their is no samsara or script to reality. like how destiny works is that a bunch of gods sit down and go "okay, this nation's fate is that this storm will come through and kill a lot of people, what destiny do we weave to prevent that?" or something like that. and if the destiny comes true, reality is strengthened against the Wyld but if it doesn't well, reality is weakened a little and things go malfunctiony. nothing gets "deleted" if you fail to make the destiny come true but things can go badly in currently vague ways. there is a reason why Sidereals often don't hang destinies on the actions of Exalts they can be pretty unpredictable and when they have to they try to hang it on things that they know an Exalt would do, like protecting their lover or something. 

so yeah, the weird nature of weaving destiny and how its basically some god committees plan for what they want to happen I've seen can be a bit hard to wrap one's head around because fate and destiny are used to refer to two different things in this context and in the actual setting while terms exist with separate definitions the Sidereals and gods will use them interchangeably anyways and your not expected to be precise with the definitions and are allowed for your Sidereal to use them dramatically and poetically when speaking. especially when this destiny committee planning is how potential Getimians are born in that the Getimian is created from whatever destiny is written up As a Plan In the Loom but isn't actually implemented into reality.

like say two Sidereals make different plans for destiny and but the committee is ultimately like "yeah plan A sounds better" Plan B is still there in destiny/fate. it doesn't go away, once written its always there even if it doesn't have a world to be in. or say if a Sidereal has a plan but suddenly the situation changes and the committee pressure the Sidereal into making a new destiny from scratch to solve it better, the old destiny still is around, and the Getimian can be born from any number of circumstances involving the Sidereal's shenanigans in Yu-shan. gods are corrupt and full of politics after all.

basically TLDR:
fate: apple falls from tree
destiny: apple falls from tree in front of Isaac Newton and he goes to write stuff about gravity and laws of energy and matter that changes the world because a god committee decided that was the best way forward
Getimian: in some hypothetical reality some person who is not Isaac Newton did that, they now exist in the modern day and they are ticked about not existing before.

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## Lord Raziere

the second preview is up!

*Spoiler: Preview Part 2*
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In this preview we cover character creation and traits and will be much shorter than the previous preview.

*Castes:*
Their descriptions have been made to cover a wider range of concepts within each Maiden's conceptual space, breaking down any potential overall stereotypes
Examples:
-Serenities: while the social aspect is still there, a part of the description specifically calls out that some Serenities are not extroverted and can be things like reclusive poets and artists, eremitic philosophers, craftsmen and artificers are all put as examples of a Chosen of Serenities
-Secrets: while the caste seems perfect for silent taciturn types, the description gives examples of Secrets who never stop talking giving an example of someone who is constantly REVEALING secrets. and can be both seekers of knowledge or liars. 
-Endings: not all grim reapers, some are healers and caretakers who end pain by healing it, some are revolutionaries, some are legal reformers, a strange example concept given is "pacifist atoning for a violent past",  and they heal and help as much as harm as untimely ends snarl fate as much as ends that don't come. 
-Battles: while it is the combat caste, examples are given of people who debate and argue such as politics, business, family vendettas and the like, and some Battles are even said to aspire to pacifism only turning to violence when they must

things like that, there is also at least one example concept in each caste that is less than legal, or otherwise not a perfect follower of Heaven's laws probably to break people of the stereotype that all Sidereals are workaholics married to the job. anything from a pirate, to a crime lord to a vigilante, to a flamboyant duelist to procurer of divine vices, or gambler are examples of Sidereals in Heaven.

there is also a sidebar on Sidereal skills, pointing out that sidereal charms can be weird and that you might want to invest in some unexpected skills to get more advantage out of them, listing the relevant skills for this and that, a welcome sidebar to include because how Sidereals work can be weird and unintuitive. (but you will get say, melee charms in Sidereals that just melee but this sidebar is there to help with figuring out all the charms that do weirder things and thus require weird cross-skill expertise)

also Sidereals can get pattern spiders as three dot familiars. awesome.

*Martial arts:*
All Sidereals get martial arts as a favored ability and get the martial arts merit for free, meaning its real easy for a Sidereal to dip into martial art compared to any other Exalt out there. this is real good.

*Arcane Fate:*
the trait that makes everyone forget Sidereals, Its TN7 to remember a Sidereal in 3e- about as hard to see through a Lunar's Tell. However Circlemates and gods of the Bureau of the destiny are immune and gods and exalts are more resistant than mortals. So, don't worry about your fellow players having to re-remember your Sidereal every time they show up, and don't worry about any god coworkers you work a lot with ever forgetting you. Also, arcane fate works to hide INDIVIDUAL SIDEREALS, not knowledge of Sidereals as a whole unless that knowledge is written down. you can know what Sidereals in general are like and what they can do but you can't remember individual Sidereals that your not friends with, and if you write down your knowledge its going to be destroyed unless you describe sidereals in the most symbolic, indirect and vague ways like the Immaculate Texts do.

*Sidereal powers:*
Sidereal Prophecies are basically the system for Sidereals weaving destinies themselves. they basically work like sorcerous workings with a few modifications. but basically you state a prophecy and you roll to make it happen over time like with sorcerous workings, if you get a failure you get complications. not going to get into too much detail but one of the more interesting complications you can get with this is something called a paradox spirit- a spirit that is just accidentally created and tries to fulfill the destiny by any means necessary even immoral ones and the descriptions of what paradox spirits are, are creepy. like they're shadowy things that shouldn't EXIST kind of creepy. creepier still, some paradox spirits shares traits with their "parent" inheriting anima color, their appearance or sharing their voice or memories and can have sidereal charms, so yeah hope your Sidereal is good at Prophecy because if they aren't bad things happen.

resplendent destinies are back and are much better and simpler than 2e, much easier to use, still use astrology signs to base their archetypes on. but it specifies for this and Sidereal Prophecies that if you don't know the signs, thats fine, you can just make the resplendent destiny or Prophecy you want without referring to a specific one if you don't know them yet. probably to make things easier for new players.

y'know that 2e charm, Auspicious prospects for caste? well its no longer a charm- its just a power every Sidereal gets now, and fulfilling stuff for destiny helps with limit. oh right. I should talk about Sidereal limit.

*Sidereal limit:*
Is different from ordinary limit tracks like Solars or Lunars. its based on hubris and the Sidereal's ego. basically the more a Sidereal thinks they know best and acts like they know better than everyone else, the more limit they gain. the gain limit from people rejecting meaningful plans or advice from them, clearing legendary social goals doesn't clear limit from Sidereals- success doesn't diminish an ego after all, and gaining limit restores willpower because Sidereal limit is all about how confident they are in their plans. however if a Sidereal looks into the future to see how fate wants something to go, and goes about fulfilling that, they lose limit. meaning a Sidereal gains limit by acting like they know whats best, and lose it when they let themselves be humble and submit to a greater design than their own. because they know so much, their own ego is their own worst enemy.

their limit breaks can have a Sidereal act like for example:
-a crazy prophet convinced some doom will come no matter what and try to avert it at all costs
-try to kill something they see as a threat by the most extreme means possible
-become arrogant and convince themselves they have foreseen every possibility and thus can't possibly lose
-just straight up not listen to anyone completely certain they are right
-be convinced that they are surrounded by fools/idiots/incompetent people like some supervillain
-blame everything on some greater unseen threat, unwilling to entertain alternative theories.

like Sidereal limit is subtler, but when they go bad its either supervillain kind of stuff or straight out of well-intentioned extremist playbooks. 



and thats all for that preview, but I haven't mentioned something else: lore/story previews as in a story that will be in the book, much like the little stories you get between chapters in every Exalted book are also being previewed in between the manuscript previews of full chapters depicting the new Sidereal circle. its good but I'm not going to go into detail on any of that or them, best you find out what their deal is yourself.

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## Lord Raziere

Charms.....

Charms!

CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRMMSS!!!

*Spoiler: Manuscript Preview 3*
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Dice Limit and Excellency:
Sidereals are limited to 3-5 dice added from excellencies, but they lower target numbers for success on a d10 roll, from 7 to either 6, 5 or 4 depending on their essence

Enemies of Fate:
an important concept, basically encompassing anything outside of fate's weave: demons, fae, undead, as well as getimians, abyssals and infernals. Liminals are also technically enemies of fate, but maintaining their lifeline to their creator or other living character exempts them from this. huh. Alchemicals on the other hand aren't enemies of fate, even through they're from another world. okay, cool

Prayer Strips:
they are capstone charms requiring ten charms of the ability, making use of a prayer strip to the Maidens bearing the scripture of the maidens associated with said ability. interesting.

Maiden Charms:
each maiden has a set of non-ability associated charms and chosen of that maiden counts them as favored (!), and count as belonging to the maiden's abilities to meet prayer strip requirements (!!), but can only be used this way once. (oh...)

Sidereal charms and the celestial bureaucracy: 
these things can interact with the Celestial Bureaucracy's administrations and records, and functionaries can't gainsay Sidereal authority by simply rejecting the paperwork. cool

Recognizing Sidereal Charms:
Sidereal charms unlike most Exalted are not abstract representations of exalted prowess, but distinct techniques for weaving fate. people can recognize them, but any sidereal charm without over displays cannot.

some stuff about Sidereal themes and how important a scripture's themes is to the esoteric nature of Sidereal charms. a sidebar about how its impossible to predict Exaltation, except for Sidereals given how they Exalt and their ties to fate.

New Sidereal charms can't be created independently, but there are two ways to make it happen: either by entreating the maidens as a player with guidance on how to do so in a narrative sense, or by a Storyteller deciding they have always existed but in both cases are still just as esoteric as any other Sidereal charm.

New keywords:
Divination: basically a keyword to denote a Sidereal using foresight, and how it doesn't effect enemies of fate, able to divine their actions and presence but not their appearance, powers or specific nature.

Shaping: basically to denote things that transform things and can be defended against using things like destiny manifesting method

Versatile: an interesting keyword, to denote various combat charms that can enhance martial arts if a Sidereal uses a weapon compatible with that ability. interesting, so there is good reason for Battles to take combat abilities in addition to Martial Arts! meaning there is good reason for a Battles to take Brawl in addition to a lot of MA.....

yeah, this is gonna be complicated, just looking at these basics....people who want to make Sidereal builds are going to have to account for SO much.....

and we get to the charms....and already there is strangeness, because this isn't an ability charm: "Ascending Journeys Horoscope"? its basically a blessing on another character to enhance rolls with some requirements to bestow it upon depending on the specific sign your using for things related to travel. okay it makes sense Sidereals would have basic charms to bless people like this, but I wasn't expecting this, I thought it'd be all Sidereal Prophecy. it requires that you know three journeys charms.

the Descending Horoscope in contrast, curses people on their travels. yeah, there is going to be these kinds of charms for every maiden. a sidebar explains that an ST can handle the effects of these horoscope blessings offscreen, narratively rather than having to keep track of them.

already we're seeing maiden charms...

.....ha. AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA! Good Worker Spirit is basically a "be lazy while lying to your boss that your working hard" charm. already the workplace humor of Sidereals begins....

hm, the Maiden charms in some ways seem more straightforward then usual Sidereal Charms, but still keeping within their themes. I like this, they're a good patch for Sidereals

oh, they explain the themes of the individual charmset for each ability before getting into it in addition to providing the scripture! thats so good! we don't have to guess WHY Sidereal charms work the way they do! this is great!

*Journeys:*
Resistance charms:
notable charms are unswerving juggernaut principle which have strict requirements on the unswerving part: things like turning ten degrees off or turning your head void it! and the scripture is harsh-if you don't complete your goal you lose your name forever- you can requisition a new identity at the Bureau of abstract matters, but your not the previous person anymore, because everyone forgets i,t even yourself.

Ride charms:
heh Ordained Bridle of Mercury and Breaking the Wild mortal still exists- and it describes a mortal placing the bridle on themselves an embarrassing moment! now I imagine a Sidereal trying to go find mortals to remember them by presenting a yellow glowing bridle asking them to please put it on and it just becomes this comedic skit about people misinterpreting this as something else! then field mouse rider makes it so you can like, place a bridle on a flea and ride them without any ill effects. now I'm imagining journeys just going to find nearby pigeons and seagulls and just riding them to their destination by standing on them. then there is Plausible Stabling Arrangement which uses fate hacking bull to make sure its at a stable when you dismount- or to instantly return your mount to yourself- this charms name feels like a blatant lie, or ironic.

Sail charms:
oh, the fixed Salt-Into-Ash Sleight. this is great, now its more than just underwater basketweaving of Sidereal charms and applies to other spirits than just random water elementals. and interesting, sail charms seem to have a "speed up disasters to get a benefit from it" kind of theme to it, like speeding up a big a disaster you know of it to lessen it by making it happen sooner, or making a obstacle of threat happen during a journey to speed up the travel time once you overcome it.

Survival Charms:
stuff like changing the weather, going to sleep to possess animals, reshaping the environment, then there is marshalling infinite strength which makes a Sidereal able to do a task indefinitely and infinitely- if they die while doing it, their ghost and hungry ghost continue to do it and their next incarnation will feel an a sense of urgency from memories relating to it. that is powerful.

Thrown Charms:
the first charm can make thrown weapons have a range of extreme at its max power, what the heck. shrike roosting gesture meanwhile recalls any object you have held to hand during the scene, but is discounted for a thrown weapon. another charm MAKES YOUR OWN SHADOW RISE UP, SPLIT INTO THORNS TO EMBRACE YOU AND BECOME ARMOR FOR A BUNCH OF BENEFITS! whaaaaaaat. ....oh there is a charm to just make Thrown weapons compatible with a Sidereal Martial Art and give all her thrown charms Versatile. Okay. Sidereals can just bypass some things I guess, thats insane. okay, Sidereals can just steal your shadow now and throw it at someone else as a weapon. okay. thats both awesome and terrifying. and thats only some of the crazy stuff here, we need to move on.

*Serenity:*
horoscope charms but with social stuff instead of travel, makes sense. whats notable is that even mystical bonds like Lunar bonds and DB sworn kinships count for Sidereals cursing or blessing relationships so this can can get messy.

Craft charms:
a craft charm for enhancing prophecies and horoscopes, sure, expected. Elemental Vision is a cute little reference to how craft worked in 2e- five elements, five maidens and such. destiny knitting entanglement returns, which binds an object to your fate so that if you lose it a series of coincidences returns it. charm to stitch enemies of fate into the loom-but also curses them if they defy fate anyways and the sidereal receives a vision of you doing it before its done. there is a charm delivers an object to someone, even if its their next incarnation which is crazy. another to imbue a destiny into a blade to get evocations...other charms help in crafting communities and fellowships, seal away breaches to Creation, and things clothes, gifts and such. and the prayer strip charm inspires the world to make an artifact for you- yes you read that right.

Dodge charms: 
usual dodging things normally impossible to dodge nonsense like relationships, worries and such. but also a counterattack to make people be infatuated with her? wait, why is there is a charm for Sidereals to dodge INTO romantic pursuits this seems backwards.....WHY IS GRACEFUL CRANE STANCE IN DODGE!? Guess they're dodging falling off I guess?? then the Sidereal somehow evades her foe having ammo left, then a charm to make enhance making excuses when an ally fails a roll, to...dodge a social situation. okay. Duck Fate is here, of course, as is Avoidance Kata, now just called Avoidance, sure...oh I get it, all these social charms in Dodge, are about _Dodging Conflict or Dodging the Issue_ Maidens darn it, its all a pun. Neighborhood Relocation scheme is still there and still great, lets move on.

Linguistics Charms:
there is a charm called "Best Friend's Couch Invitation" that allows Sidereals to mooch off people's hospitality and another called "Favorable Inflection Procedure" that allows Sidereal to make people forget why they are mad at them by calling them by a nickname. getting a little manipulative here. other charms include repairing relationships, comforting people before they go to sleep, make a pact to gain eclipse charms from a spirit, Beloved Maiden's Bride which allows the Sidereal to marry her patron Maiden (at least in a pledge to their god sort of way), they have to have a positive defining intimacy to do this so, this is a canonical Fate Lesbian Marriage charm- of all the Exalts you wouldn't expect Sidereals to be the ones to actually be able to marry their Incarnae. and the prayer strip charm is basically a powerful marriage charm, makes sense for Serenity to have something like this.

Performance charms:
there are charms for......performing in life general? I guess because all the world is a stage? while also accepting failure and finding joy in imperfection. okay. charms for throwing parties, to make a performance continue playing without you- as in fate makes people believe a performance is still going even when no one is on stage. okay.  more hedonism/party charms, some actual performance charms including one about singing a song the maidens themselves once sung, Fivefold Maiden Harmony.

Socialize Charms:
these charms turn positions of servitude into power and look how relationships are unequal in Creation.....
there is quote here:
"No matter how happy it may make people, love is a knife held to each others throats."
woooooow, Venus. this sign gets cynical and manipulative about love. yeah this tree really leans into the manipulative love and objectification aspect, but also makes you able to: say nonsense as to convince people to do something and have it work. the prayer strip charm is basically a shipping charm and it works better the more plausible the ship is: put two prayer strips on people to make them fall in love and the charm will make them do that. 

*Battles:*
oh a Sidereal as a maiden charm just has enhanced use of improvised weapons. another allows them to use martial arts weapons as melee ones. oh hey, Sidereal version of strength replacing dex charm, use strength instead of social attributes for intimidation, Wearing Red to a Wedding returns from Shards of the Exalted dream allowing you to attend fancy dinners with blood on your clothes without anyone thinking it strange, and other such charms up to a charm that makes people unable to be upset by violence that a Sidereal perpetrates even if she kills someone- they still face legal consequences, but they're carried out dispassionately as no one cares that you did it.

Archery Charms:
basically all about tactical flexibility and "having any arrow in the quiver" and such, making multiple gambits,  Generalized Ammunition Technique is there and awesome as ever,  Strange Quiver Trick helps to retcon an object to her hand she might want but not be around for GAT, charms to manipulate where shots go and how many you make, firing a shot without designating a target but a point so you just....fire in a general direction, and of course a charm to make archery compatible with an SMA. charm to gain unlimited ammunition, fire your own anima at people, a distract gambit to allow an ally to hide,  a charm to grab a derangement or psyche effect your suffering and fire it at someone else to get rid of it, Many missiles bow is the prayer strip charm and its as great as it always is, providing many more tactical options

Brawl Charms:
oh boy here is what I've been waiting for. I'm interested to see what Sidereal Brawl looks like so without further ado....
its about accepting conflicts inevitability, and making sacrifices necessary to win, but specific charms do things like beat you until your hideous, use a grapple to force a foe to make a hard decision, choke people to death without dying form asphyxiation yourself if your both underwater, there is a versatile granting SMA charm again for Brawl so.....it seems Versatile only is granted when you get specific charms at essence 3, hm okay. there is a charm to basically hit all enemies in short range at once with a withering attack, thats cool. then prayer strip charm just makes a random calamity fall upon foes on a battlefield to change the course of it.

Melee Charms:
wait what, there is just a charm....to deal aggravated damage.......to anyone. at E1. okay Sidereals. The Spear Not Held: wait is.....this a charm to attack a foe....without attacking.....by envisioning the outcome of the attack....? okay, thats cool and weird. overall, this tree is about discipline, perception and restraint.

Presence:
the charms her kind of....make the Sidereals personality go beyond the limits of herself and into others so they have and do things she wants without them knowing, such as granting an intimacy influencing them to do something according to conditions the target knows, someone else's destiny returns, shield of destiny makes a counterattack that reflects an attack on someone, take on the fate of a bear to scare people, bind a spirit to protect something,  a charm to scare even more people away, a charm to.....literally a share a memory with someone not through words or anything, they just have it now. a charm thats basically a mental healing charm by going into their mind to fix their mental problems.

War Charms:
Sidereals have special form charms for these called Battle Patterns, apparently armies can form into certain formations to empower themselves. there is a charm that only benefits you if you got a stratagem or prophecy for it laid out before hand, some recruitment and training charms including one that grants an army arcane fate immunity until they no longer serve the Sidereal, a battle pattern that negates charm effects, a battle pattern that screws over enemies of fate, a charm that...makes people dream of a battle that just happened to give them an intimacy involving it. huh. a training charm for charms and spells to teach exalted and gods, spirit-binding battle pattern allows you to bind a spirit by offering everyone who falls in the battle as a sacrifice and either bind them to a task, or bind them to serve the Sidereal for a year and a day, hm.

*Secrets:*
....the requirements to curse or bless the target for the Mask are the same: "the Sidereal observes her target without him being aware of her" hoh boy that makes it easy for any Sidereal to use secret horoscopes given their arcane fate.

Maiden charms:
Enticing Puzzle Exculptation is a good evidence-concealing/faking charm. Never Cease Moving is a charm for Sidereals to count reading, writing, researching and performing bureaucratic tasks as restful sleep- they have a charm to _deal with paperwork overload_. 

Investigation charms:
Hello efficient secretary technique, nice to see you again and your looking better than ever. next charm is to just....make details you want appear at a crime scene basically to find clues, the charm after that is to predict when and where the Calibration Gate will arrive, cool, research assistant invocation is also back, but a new charm, Wilting Petal Witness makes a flower bloom that won't die unless a narratively significant lie is spoken its presence, useful, a charm to draw upon a past lives knowledge, a charm to make an object into a character-not humanoid or anything, just ALIVE- that can help in various ways for a scene

Larceny Charms:
lets see, there is a charm to pick a lock even if you fail being free if escaping some imperils you, a wyld-protection charm...in larceny....okay. a charm to disguise yourself as an enemy of fate for that infiltration of underworld, malfeas or wherever you need. name pilfering practice is back, there is a charm to pickpocket someone's dreams "bump into them on the street" style, Sidereal shell games is still here. and there is Expedited Approval of Justice which...this is weird: the Sidereal confesses to a crime to a legitimate authority figure automatically teleporting to a prison and can bring the entire party along then learn three secrets charms to aid in her purpose for imprisoning herself. why. worse you can do this with both Yu-shan and Malfeas's prisons regardless of distance and with Malfeas you can go there without even a confession, but it still takes five days to travel through the Endless desert to reach the prison. why is this "lol I get imprisoned" a charm? (also this charm sends a memo to the god of Blackmail so use this carefully) Talisman Forgery technique basically lets you become a scam artist selling lucky charms and possibly making them actually lucky with horoscopes, a charm to work lazily to speed up a project things like that.

Lore Charms:
lore specialty charms and charms to look into facts about the future pretty standard, a charm to make a Sidereal look real scholarly,  ah Avoiding the Truth Technique, classic. a charm to accomplish a task in a montage at a price if all players agree to it, change what horoscope constellations she has for the purposes of Sidereal prophecy, and charms to basically be an argumentative scholar. transcendent hatchet of fate is the prayer strip charm bringing doom upon somebody.

Occult charms:
first two charms are basically social ones towards spirits and unexalted people having respect to you,  mark of exaltation returns to make dematerialized beings visible, other charms to detect or manifest spirits, a charm to gain understanding of more common folk divination, a charm to attack people by unweaving their fate, disguise herself as a god, exorcise a spirit from their body, convince gods to support her in some political matter, treat any unexalted being as a spirit for the purposes of sidereal charms, and of course willing assumption of chains, the "promote/hire a god" charm

Stealth:
after some normal stealth charms we get one that obscures details about a sidereal and prevents someone from understanding what they say, a charm to strengthen arcane fate for some reason because the Sidereals don't have enough problems with that, charms to extend a resplendent destiny to her allies, to insert social influence directly into a target's thoughts, a charm to seal away your own memories, a charm to put arcane fate on someone else, and Ceasing to Exist Approach is prayer strip charm, offering a very thorough and complete cover identity for the Sidereal  

*Endings:*
and of course, we finally come to this one. 

Maiden charms:
there are surprisingly less of these than other Maidens. hm.

Athletics:
some charms for demolition and destruction, Burn Life embodies the theme of this tree most starkly and clearly: the Sidereal shortens their lifespan by a few days to gain advantages in combat.  seems mostly normal athletics stuff so far- What is Chains of Adorjan: whyyyyyyy do Sidereals have a charm to summon PORTION OF ADORJAN!? WHY? WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA!? THE CHARM CALLS IT OUT AS SOMETHING TO BE USE CAREFULLY IN CASE ADORJAN LEARNS SOMETHING! WHAT THE MALFEAS, SATURN! WHAT THE LITERAL MALFEAS! 

Awareness:
standard see the future stuff, retcon yourself into having already readied your weapon, and then there is the charm to turn yourself into a raven so you can fly around and look at creation from above, track characters using fate, sense certain activities and....why is there a normal pickpocketing charm in awareness. the prayer strip charm basically shows another character a vision of their death for nasty effects, the funny part is for an abyssal this just shows the moment of her Exaltation and is less bad.

Bureaucracy:
Terminal Sanction is the first charm and basically the Sidereal's spirit killing charm. the rest so far seem esoteric ways of reforming bureaucracies, Underliving invisibility practice is here again, Old Fellows Society Luncheon is basically "infiltrate corrupt organization" charm and just has to look busy to fit in, charm to inject a poison through Icy Hand that non-corrupt characters are immune to, Celestial Intervention Appeal calls upon a celestial censor and whatever forces they bring to fight a major threat which is a big deal and has inter-bureau repercussion as such censors are from the Bureau of Heaven not the Bureau of Fate and thus has impacts on the Bureau of Fate down the line so not a charm to use lightly. 

Integrity:
lots of hope themed charms here, in the sense that hopes always end. yeah, real cheery Saturn. 

Medicine:
yeah lots of autopsy, funeral rites, and psychopomp charms here- no wait, got to them, there is some actual healing charms here, but overall the Sidereal does less healing and more smoothing the transition to death along so that its peaceful. very grim inevitability kind of stuff.

*Overall:*
All the classic Sidereal charms are there, just updated to work better with various additional charms added on to fill out some holes and gaps in the sidereal charmset, while not impacting the Sidereals overall weirdness, while also doing things that make sense for Sidereals to have. there are a lot of charms that allow the Sidereal to just ask questions and know a lot of things that I didn't mention, like every Maiden has a charm to ask and investigate something somewhere, the horoscope charms make a lot of sense for Sidereals to have and I wonder if there is a build to just use horoscopes and Sidereal Prophecy to affect things from afar really well without doing things directly, there is a lot of weird charms here, but the combat stuff is probably the most straightforward of them and easiest to understand in all instances, they have this very well defined structure where each combat ability has a form charm as if they are a martial art that grants good bonuses and a charm to get into SMA, like I think this is all very well done.

at the same time, this is probably the most complex charmset I've seen in 3e, in terms of how many moving parts and factors to consider. the Solar charmset is probably bigger sure, but this charmset has so many things to take into account: how many horoscope charms you should get, what abilities you should get for specific charms and synergies, what skills you should invest for this or that, the maiden charms and how you get them by having enough charms from this or that maiden, the risks and costs associated with some of the bigger charms, how you should build a combat Sidereal, some charms being in abilities that only make sense from a weird thematic standpoint, its just a lot of things to consider and figure out for a character, its a lot of structural weirdness that you have to figure out for what you want, and that could be a problem for some people. because Solars, lunars, DBs their charmsets are all linear and simpler to some extent, Exigents those charmsets are very understandable, but Sidereals is when things a little crazy and out there in terms of structure and effects so it'll be interesting to see how that works out going forward. But overall I like what I see, its probably a charm set for experts or someone with experience to figure out a bit, but I love it, thats just how Sidereals are. looking forward to seeing the martial arts next.

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## Grod_The_Giant

Iiiii'm literally about to start a (d20) Exalted campaign, this could not have come at a better time.  Thank you!

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## Lord Raziere

Now for the manuscript for sorcery and martial arts, while sorcery is cool the real main attraction? Is the martial arts when it comes to Sidereals and especially.....the terrifying...the legendary...and the utterly bizarre....Sidereal Martial Arts.
*Spoiler: Manuscript Preview 4*
Show


First martial art is....Throne Shadow Style, a normal martial art that Sidereals practice because of its indirectness, subtlety and misdirection, befitting their nature as manipulators in the shadows. the user trains up shadow finger disciples to you to use in its charms, all the while assuming a humble countenance and assessing people of their martial prowess, using the allies around them as weapons to fight. a classic as always.

the second? is another classic, Violet Bier of Sorrows Style, an ancient style emphasizing speed, exploiting injuries and powerful killing blows, maintained by the Bureau of Endings, a deadly martial art to emulate Saturn herself. it is all about the martial artist embracing the certainty and inevitability of endings and working to kill their foe as fast as possible. good.

then we get....to Sidereal Martial Arts. the big ones.  they abstract and esoteric, each one a meditation on a cosmic principle or concept. these martial arts warp and transform reality itself. only Sidereals, Getimians, Solars, Abyssals and Infernals can learn these powerful techniques. some rare or unique beings might be able to achieve them as well per storyteller discretion, but these are exceptions. furthermore, before anyone can learn an SMA, they must learn all charms of a single martial arts style, or ten MA charms across various styles. Solars even with Supernal, cannot learn SMA's early- they must wait until their essence reaches the requirements and learn another martial art like everyone else. there is no exception to this, any similar advantages like Supernal are under the same rules. the SMA's are incredibly powerful like that, and not even the Solar Exalted can shortcut their way into having them.

Only Sidereals are capable of learning these styles without a mentor or creating a new style. others must seek out a Sidereal's tutelage. However, a Sidereal's essence is inherently instructive- one can learn SMA from fighting a Sidereal if they are an Exalt with the potential. But given how powerful SMA are? you better hope you survive long enough to learn properly.

Charcoal March of Spiders:
a classic Sidereal style throughout all Exalted editions, it is the martial art meditating upon the cosmic principle of consumption. the techniques devour essence, dissolve souls and reweave reality in emulation of pattern spiders. they can spin webs of essence, stand and run on thin air, and attack people with deadly reality warping effects like consuming your soul, a nasty poison that drains motes, and of course the signature charm that everyone loves Pattern Spider Touch that can punch people into other things- you can make a person become a chair or a lamp, or a duck or hat.....

Citrine Poxes of Contagion:
another returning style, Citrine Poxes is the martial art of meditating upon decay both cause and reversal of it. Its a style using pressure points to cause strange and terrible ailments-wait a minute "Nature: Flowing"? Nature is...a Getimian thing. oh, they're future planning these styles for Getimians, cool! ahem. back to the styles.- also a character with ten medicine charms can learn this instead of martial arts, making this a weird path to power for Sidereal doctors. the style can heal, inflict weird supernatural diseases (the ST can veto learning the Great Contagion however) manipulate those diseases to erupt like your some diseased fist of the north star, the defensive charms purify and strengthen your own body, and it cap it all you can unleash a wave of decaying miasma that infects everything in a zone as a environmental hazard that it touches and expands up to *5 miles*. the final charm is basically a disease nuke, you use that charm, your playing with _biological warfare_. do not underestimate the Sidereal doctor when they start poking you.

oh and next is the list of disease introduced in this book for Citrine Pox users to know what they're inflicting on people, the Three Supreme Plagues:
-Drunken Moth Sickness: the victim is infected with one of the stylist's principles acting more and more aligned with that principle until they do nothing but try to advance it and die from neglecting to drink water or eat.
-Jigsaw Organ Condition: it sounds like how it is, this incredibly rare disease makes your organs and limbs into jigsaw pieces, being detachable without actually killing you, as long as the organ remains intact- you can take your heart out and be fine, until someone stabs or destroys the heart. however its most advanced stage makes your body fall apart completely.... without killing you- you basically become a bunch of parts that can't be kept together long enough to do anything. Exalted never reach this stage
-White Sun Fever: a fever of the soul, this disease that causes hallucinations, malaise and disorientation and more essence you spend the worse it gets and the powerful die from their essence tearing them apart from the inside while locked in ceaseless hallucination. mortals never reach this stage.

a fourth mysterious disease is detailed, Iphimedea: its melts and warps victims flesh while driving them to dance feverishly, until they complete final dance as all their flesh slips off. augh.  :Small Eek: 

Emerald Gyre of Aeons:
A new style for this edition, it is a style upon the nature of time and eternity. its movements are spiraling and circular and the treatise it is learned from is endlessly recursive with no beginning or end. the style allows the user to remember things yet to come, striking the foe recurringly, revert objects to an earlier form, slow an enemy with a strike, attack mulitple times kind of, make people repeat an action, punch people to experience a groundshog day within their own mind, and then WHAT? a charm to learn other charms from a possible future self at the cost of changing an intimacy that reflects a profound change in the future, a charm to sever.....the consequences of an action from that action, thus undoing it, delay a harmful effect put on themselves,  and the final charm is an attack that kills a bunch of people within a split second basically being the closest this style comes to stopping time and killing everyone because thats basically what it does. 

Obsidian Shards of Infinity:
a returning style, but no less crazy than Gyre, if the previous one was about time, this one is about the nature of possibility, choice and percpetion. it manipulates possibility by changing the location of the user, multiply into various reflections, trap people in reflective surfaces, strike people's sense of selfhood (so this is where charms from Borders of Kaleidoscopic Logic went) create a reflection clone to fight people with, Breathing on the Black Mirror returns from 2e but has been nerfed so that the player has to get agreement for all the other players as to what happens and doesn't allow a straight up win, instead of just being the New ST for a scene. Honestly I'm surprised they even kept that charm in.

Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Style:
the final style and one returning of course, probably the more understandable of these styles, but no less powerful and useful. it is the meditation upon essence itself, how its in all things, how its flow is the dance of all things and the most foundational of the Sidereal martial arts and the most commonly practiced. the charms are simple yet powerful compared to all the others I just read, "merely" turning your skin to orichalcum and drawing upon essence of various natures to enhance your attacks, breaking astrology, strike at the foes essence, breaking sorcery spells, manifest a hearthstone upon their brow, emulate another Exalts anima and caste, possess a character or object, become resonant with jade, orichalcum starmetal and moonsilver, take a stance emulating the greatest beauty possible, and finally the final charm which allows one to gain the benefits of three other martial arts forms from any MA the user knows or all the benefits of this styles forms at once. Whoa. 

but alas, we must move on from the stars of the show, to talk about sorcery. I know I know, the SMA's are great but we must be thorough.

we move to look upon the sorcerous initiation of The Path of Celestial Design. basically attaining sorcery through the pattern that binds heaven and creation, being Yu-shan's way of initiating people into sorcery.  its shaping rituals are about strengthening or helping bureaucratic processes, assert bureaucratic authority of herself or a god, or by seeking patronage through a petition, as well as gaining benefits like making gods who hear the sorcerer speak have a tie of respect towards them, a merit to counter people stealing your identity, and a merit to replace lore with occult or bureaucracy for some rolls.

the spells included are all celestial level- no terrestrial or solar circle spells here. the most notable spell to me is the one that turns the sorcerer into living molten glass for various effects such slipping through cracks and burning things with a touch. there are others but....I'll leave it to you, to find out what those are. 

so yeah, SMA's be crazy! if they seem very out there, abstract and bit overpowered? aaaah yeah, thats kind of intended. don't screw with high essence Sidereals they will kill you with the secrets of the universe. That said, these styles are explained much better and more clearly than they were in 2e, and they are all strictly Essence 3 and up. these aren't martial arts you teach to starting Exalts. unless your ST starts you at E3, your not going to be playing with these right off the bat and even then your going to be using a normal MA to start off even there, with like one or two SMA charms your beginning on. now given the "ten MA charms of any MA style" requirement, this gives the player a lot of options of how to meet this requirement to get into the SMA even before they get to the proper essence- its possible to have ten MA charms at character creation, the question is what will you combine together to use with your superhax SMA later on? and thats not getting into all the Sidereal versatile charms they have and such to combine these with normal combat abilities that Sidereals have. there is a lot of build possibilities to this. but what I'm really wondering is what a fight between an Emerald Gyre of Aeons stylist and an Obsidian Shards of Infinity stylist looks like, that just _has_ to be mindscrew: the duel.

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## Lord Raziere

Final manuscript Preview:
*Spoiler: Manuscript 5: allies, antagonists and artifacts*
Show


notable highlights include:
-Anys Syn being the eccentric old master and also the arrogant kung fu opponent who explains her powers to you. careful though- she is incredibly dangerous and meant to be an endgame threat, its implied she knows a ridiculous amount of martial arts
-weird artifacts like a pair of sandals made by tricking a shapeshifter and nailing them into that form, a chariots wheel that can be used an improvised weapon.....or turned into an actual chariot. or a chisel, or a sash for armor
-stats and writeups for celestial lions, lion dogs, pattern spiders, lesser elemental dragons giving Sidereals a lot of potential ally/retainer/familiar merits to get 



not much else to say, only that judging from this manuscript, I think Sidereals will be a great book when it comes out and look forward to seeing how the final book looks. visual art unfortunately, takes time. we will also be getting a companion book for Sidereals much like Heirs of the Shogunate was for Dragon-Blooded, that will have 12 martial arts styles in it! only the Ex3 corebook has that many in comparison! other than that, there are various references and teases to threats the Sidereals have faced that aren't elaborated on throughout the manuscripts such as the "Paper Legion" or "Devil-stars", or the "Plague of Ethics" just to name a few to spark the imagination. It makes the world of Exalted much more mysterious and open and full of wondrous things. If you like Exalted, Ex3 and books like this are the best its ever been and I hope they keep up the good work.

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## Rater202

Okay... Jigsaw organ condition scares the hell out of me.

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## Lord Raziere

Yeah? its pretty scary. the three plagues though have certain roles and uses I think:
-Drunken Moth Sickness is to make someone do certain things you want or make their death look like they're just they got way too obsessed with something than anything murderous
-Jigsaw Organ condition makes it so that you weaken somebody enough so that others kill them with their attacks- need a powerful enemy general dead when they go into battle? put it on them beforehand, and watch them get killed by people attacking them in combat. alternatively its organ detachment feature can be used to take out a person heart then be like "you do what I say or I crush your heart". 
-White Sun Fever is meant to take out powerful essence beings like Exalts and gods, being a great assassination tool for say, powerful Exalted tyrants.

while Iphimedea is like Jigsaw Organ Condition while being more direct with its penalty, damage and being specific in the dancing obsession. 

Citrine Poxes of Contagion style may not be the coolest SMA, but its certainly one of the more dangerous and nasty ones.

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