Lunar Exalted
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| Lunar Exalted | |
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  Exalted: The Lunars front cover, featuring the image of Strength of Many. The Manual of Exalted Power: Lunars front cover, featuring the images of (from left to right) Strength of Many, Lilith, the Owl Woman and Anja Silverclaws. |
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| Designer(s) | Exalted: The Lunars: Bryan Armor (Author), Chris Hartford (Author), James Kiley (Author), Malcolm Sheppard (Author), Ethan Skemp (Author), Scott Taylor (Author). The Manual of Exalted Power: Lunars: John Chambers (Developer), Dean Shomshak (Developer), Alan Alexander (Author), Genevieve Cogman (Author), Conrad Hubbard (Author), Peter Schaefer (Author), cover art by UDON. |
| Publisher(s) | White Wolf Publishing |
| Publication date | Exalted: The Lunars: November, 2002. The Manual of Exalted Power: Lunars: April 25, 2007. |
| Genre(s) | High fantasy |
| System | Storyteller |
The Lunar Exalted are a sub-category of semi-divine heroes from the high fantasy role-playing game Exalted published by White Wolf Game Studio. They are briefly described in the game's core rulebook, but are given full attention in the "fatsplat" (hard-cover sourcebooks) entitled Exalted: The Lunars (ISBN 1-58846-657-4) and The Manual of Exalted Power: Lunars (ISBN 978-1-58846-694). The books draw heavily on another White Wolf product about lycanthropes: Werewolf: The Apocalypse.
[edit] Overview
The central premise of Exalted is that gods have the ability to infuse ordinary mortals with a shard of their divine soul, exalting the individual into a demigod. The Lunars, obviously, derive their powers from the goddess of the moon, Luna, the Fickle Lady, who typically chooses men and women who are best described as determined survivors. In terms of raw power, the Lunars rank behind the Solar Exalted and Abyssal Exalted, but ahead of the Sidereal Exalted and the Terrestrial Exalted, or Dragon-Blooded.
During the First Age, the Solars ruled an empire of unparalleled beauty, and the Lunars served as their lieutenants and lovers. But the Solars grew arrogant, and the Sidereal and Terrestrial Exalted schemed to overthrow them. The Solars were slaughtered, and the chosen of Luna, outnumbered and outmaneuvered, scattered to the edges of creation. There, some waited hopefully for the return of the Solars, while the rest grew bitter and plotted revenge against the upstarts.
Unlike the other four categories of Exalted, who are often sophisticated and refined, the Lunars are nearly always barbarians: savage warriors, cunning shapeshifters and wise shamans. They live outside the Realm, the empire now administered by the corrupt Dragon-Blooded. However, they can never stray too far from civilization without crossing over into the Wyld, the fae realm of formless chaos and seductive madness.
[edit] Gameplay
Each and every Lunar has the unique ability to consume the Heart's Blood of an animal or human, which allows them to attain the shape of the consumed. There is no limit to the number of shapes they can attain. When each Lunar is chosen, they gain a craving for the Heart's Blood of an animal they feel an affiliation with, which becomes their totem. A Lunar who changes their totem becomes Chimera.
Whereas their brethren, the Solars, are glorious heroes, the Lunars are far more bestial and animalistic, and most of their various Charms (simple sorceries) have to do with shapeshifting. One of the more significant Charms is called the Deadly Beastman Transformation, which melds the traits of the totem and human shapes to create a formidable hybrid war-form. Unlike the Charms of other types of Exalted, the Lunar Exalted channel their Charms through their innate attributes, rather than their learned abilities.
All Lunars have a tell, an inhuman feature such as vivid green eyes, that varies with each Lunar but remains constant no matter what shape he or she assumes. The result of this is while Lunars can change their shape, they may still find it difficult to hide their identities.
The Lunars have a unique affinity for the magical material of moonsilver, and consider it their gift from Luna. Therefore, they consider it a grave insult for a non-Lunar to wield the protean metal.
There are three castes of Lunars, corresponding to the individual's method of survival. Full Moons live by their incredible strength, legendary agility, or unstoppable stamina. Changing Moons get by with their ability to manipulate others through charisma, charm or cunning. Lastly, the No Moons rely on intelligence, perception and, often, sorcery. Unlike other Exalted, Lunars do not have a caste upon Exaltation. Rather, after a battery of tests by elder Lunars, they're assigned the caste they're best suited, to, and fixed into that caste via ritual scarring and tattooing. Lunars who do not have their caste fixed have their abilities change with the phases of the moon. In the First Age, there were five Lunar castes, but the methods for fixing the Waxing Moon, Half Moon, and Waning Moon castes were lost, and were amalgamated into the Changing Moon caste.
The Lunars call their code of honor the Silver Way, which was originally created as a defense against the Dragon-Blooded's genocidal Wyld Hunt. From that code grew a loosely-held and far-flung culture known as the Silver Society, which exists to both unify the Lunars and prevent the Casteless from suffering.
[edit] External links
| Exalted | ||
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| Types of Exalts and other Magical Beings | Solar Exalted | Abyssal Exalted | Infernal Exalted | Lunar Exalted | Sidereal Exalted | Alchemical Exalted | Terrestrial Exalted (The Dragon-Blooded) | Raksha (The Fair Folk) | Dragon Kings | God-Blooded | |
| Major Magical Beings | The Primordials | The Yozis | The Neverborn | Gaia | Autochthon | The Unconquered Sun | Luna | The Five Celestial Maidens | The Five Elemental Dragons | The Deathlords | |
| Five Magical Materials | Orichalcum | Moonsilver | Jade | Starmetal | Soulsteel | |
| Signature Characters | Solar Exalted: Dace | Yurgen Kaneko, the Bull of the North | Panther | Samea | Arianna | Harmonious Jade | Swan Abyssal Exalted: Maiden of the Mirthless Smile | Lady of Darkness in Bloodstained Robes | Seven Degreed Physician of Black Maladies | Disciple of the Seven Forbidden Wisdoms | Prince of Shadows | Falling Tears Poet Lunar Exalted: Lilith, the Owl Woman | Strength of Many | Magnificent Jaguar | Anja Silverclaws Sidereal Exalted: Shepherd of the North Star | Iron Siaka | Crimson Banner Executioner | May Blossom | Chejop Kejak | Black Ice Shadow | Sad Ivory Terrestrial Exalted: Tepet Arada | Mnemon | Cynis Denovah Avaku | Sesus Rafara | Peleps Deled | Sesus Nagezzer, the Slug | Tepet Ejava, the Roseblack Alchemical Exalted: Stern Whip of Industry | Fair-Spoken Rishi | Excessively Righteous Blossom | Unhesitatingly Loyal Weapon (?) | Lissome Avid Engineer Infernal Exalted: Lintha Ng Hut Dukantha The Raksha: Lord Kazour | Neshi of the Double Whips | Subarto | Dilari of the Sea Foam | Nlassa of the Lion's Mane | Laughing Boy | Shikuzi the Weaver | Judge Nehemeth The Mountain Folk: Kravah |
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| Exalted Universe | Anima Banner | The Blessed Isle | Celestial Gateways | Creation | The Cult of the Illuminated | Denandsor | Elemental Poles | Essence | The Great Contagion | The Great Curse | The Heptagram | The House of Bells | The Immaculate Order | The Imperial City | The Imperial Mountain | The Lap | Lookshy | Malfeas, the Demon Realm | Nexus | Rakshastan | The Scarlet Empress | The Scavenger Lands | Shadowlands | The Skullstone Archipelago | Thorns | The Threshold | The Underworld | Whitewall | The Wyld Hunt | Yu-Shan, the Heavenly City | |
| Source Materials | Sourcebooks | Novels | Comics | |
