Dace (Exalted)

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Dace from the front cover of the novel Relic of the Dawn written by David Niall Wilson and published by White Wolf Publishing.

Exalted is a role-playing game published by White Wolf Publishing. The game is classified as high fantasy. It is strongly influenced by Japanese anime and manga, the cultures of China and Rome, and a number of literary sources such as the writings of Michael Moorcock. Dace is one of the signature characters of Exalted, a representative of the Solar Exalted Dawn Caste.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Pre-Exaltation

Dace grew up in the mercenary camps, having joined the camps at the age of five or six after the Ravenous Wolves hit a rebel town near Thorns. Sergeant Redda made Dace her aide and made him a wooden practice sword and taught him a few basic moves. He scrubbed armor, polished blades, cleaned tack, looked after Redda's horse and learned that being a soldier was a whole lot of dog work. His proudest moment was when Redda gave him a pike and a shield and set him with the shield wall guarding the company's archers. He pissed his pants the first time a charge came, but he didn't care. He was a hero!

From there, he worked his way up from shield wall to light infantry, then to standard bearer. He bought himself better armor when he could, and eventually inherited Redda's horse when she fell at Nardan Creek. After the fifty under his command saved the rest of the company by driving back a horde of hobgoblins near the Hundred Kingdoms, Captain Vanil stepped down and gave him command of the Wolves and of the Black Fifty, his elite troops. Dace then led the Wolves for fifteen years before his Exaltation.

[edit] Exaltation

The Wolves had been hired by Great Forks to drive a Lookshy force out of some prime qat land they'd taken a year earlier, and Dace thought that Greentooth Pass would be his last battle. He was feeling the wounds of years past with his advancing age and his vision was starting to go. After the first big push, two companies, Garsey's Fifty and the Black Fifty were cut off from the main force by a Lookshy cavalry charge. Garsey's Fifty broke when she went down and Dace, enraged, went after the Lookshy forces that killed her, feeling stronger and stronger. He began to block attacks almost before he saw them coming, and some of his blows took the lives of both horse and rider in a single swing. After defeating the Lookshy cavalry, he led the charge back to the front and the main forces. When he finally gave the call to rally the rest of the Wolves and lead the charge against the retreating Lookshy force, he noticed that he was surrounded by a brilliant golden aurora, and fully a third of the remaining Lookshy troops and no few of his own were fleeing before him in terror.

[edit] Since his Exaltation

Rather than continue to lead the Wolves as a monster and anathema, Dace turned command of the Wolves over to one of his lieutenants and asked for volunteers to accompany him to do some serious and dangerous work. Nearly a hundred men volunteered, but he knew he couldn't take that many and leave the Wolves intact, so he narrowed it down to two dozen men and rode off for Nexus. The forces of the Realm and the Wyld Hunt caught up with Dace and his men six days later. Dace knew that the Realm was a mess when the Wyld Hunt was comprised of only one Dragon-Blooded warrior and a dozen troops. Dace told the Dragon-Blooded officer that he could either massacre her and all her men, or the two of them could fight one-on-one, with amnesty for the loser's troops. She didn't want to agree, but the look on her men's faced convinced her. The fight didn't last long and Dace knew that she must have really hated him because she wouldn't accept the surrender he offered her. After the duel, he buried her and let her troops go. They were disheartened by her weakness, both in the duel and as a leader, and her lieutenant and four others broke ranks and joined up with him.

Now known as the Bronze Tigers, they eventually reached Nexus and offered their services to the Council of Entities, offering to work one season of service every year in exchange for food for Dace's people and animals - no pay. Since then, the Council of Entities has treated Dace and his men fairly, and Dace's company has not only grown, but also taken on jobs for the Guild and other interests. They have battled Raksha, Wyld Barbarians, the Dead and the forces of the Yozis in the time since, as well as more conventional foes.

Dace is a member of a Solar circle with Panther, Arianna, Harmonious Jade, and Swan. Dace feels that they can grab a large section of the Threshold before the Realm settles down and starve them out of their tribute now that the Scarlet Empress is gone, but is in disagreement with Panther and Swan, who feel that they must cut the cancer out of the Realm before they tackle any other problems.

[edit] Stories involving Dace

• Dace was a mentor and friend to the young Solar Exalt, Yushev, a member of the Dawn Caste (Chosen of the Sun and Beloved of the Dead). Both he and Lilith helped to train the boy.
• In the book, "A Day Dark as Night", Dace meets up with Harmonious Jade and attempts to unravel a mystery that involves Nexus, the Salmalin and the release of a Third Circle demon from Malfeas. They work together to stop the Third Circle Demon, Jacint from releasing the Yozi Adorjan into Creation. During the story, Dace battles with the Emissary of Nexus, a spirit mightier than even Jacint whose past is shrouded in mystery and somehow tied into the Yozis.
• In the book, "Relic of the Dawn", Dace meets Lilith, who believes him to be a reincarnation of her First Age lover, Desus. Together, along with Dace's Wood-Aspected Dragon-Blooded lieutenant, Risa, they stop an invasion of the dead into Mishaka by the forces of the Drinker of Seeping Poison, a Deathknight in thrall to the Deathlord Walker in Darkness. They were also aided by a Dragon-Blooded by the name of Daedalus, who was himself a servant to the Deathlord Mask of Winters.

[edit] Other notes on Dace

• He is a mercenary and a leader by nature.
• He owns an orichalcum reaver daiklave, name as of yet unknown.
• He is friend to the First Age Lunar Exalt, Lilith. Lilith (also known as the Owl Woman) is a signature character of the Lunar Exalted.
• His virtue flaw is the Foolhardy Contempt.

[edit] References

• Exalted (2001) - ISBN 1-56504-623-4, WW8800.
• Caste Book Dawn (2001) - ISBN 1-58846-653-1, WW8830.
• Chosen of the Sun (2001) - ISBN 1-58846-859-3, WW10080.
• Beloved of the Dead (2002) - ISBN 1-58846-801-1, WW10081.
• A Day Dark as Night (2004) - ISBN 1-58846-859-3, WW10065.
• Relic of the Dawn (2004) - ISBN 1-58846-860-7, WW10066.
• Exalted: Second Edition (2006) - ISBN 1-58846-684-1, WW80000.