The Road Between Light and Dark (Exalted)

Greetings, folks, and welcome back after the brief hiatus. 

In case you missed it, my group's taking a step back from the adventures of the Moonlight Maiden crew for a bit. In part it's so we can have a literal change of scenery and explore some new locales and new characters to change things up. And also it's because we've been wanting to switch over to the Exalted: Essence ruleset, and felt that taking a trio of Essence 5(!) characters with almost a hundred sessions' worth of XP(!) and trying to approximate them was a bad way to learn a new system.

Which brings me to this post, wherein I lay out the basic idea for this series and introduce y'all to the cast. And if you need it, I put together a setting primer a while back, which you can find at this link.

(Note that it's early enough that details might get tweaked here and there in the early sessions, so I may or may not come back and make adjustments after this post goes live. On a related note, if any of my players see this and I screwed something up in the descriptions further down, let me know and I'll fix it.)

This series is located in the wintry North, with the characters moving back and forth between the cities of Whitewall (an overcrowded bastion of safety protected by mystical pacts and a massive wall that literally glows at night) and Gethamane (a creepy, insular city hidden beneath a mountain), protecting travelers on the road and keeping an eye on villages and towns too often left out in the cold. Their stretch of Creation is beset by all sorts of horrors -- the Fair Folk, the dead, and weather you don't dare turn your back on.

This is "The Road Between Light and Dark."

And now let's meet our cast. In no particular order:

• Wandering Dawn (aka "Wanderer"), a Dawn Caste Solar played by Bryan (he/him) -- A local monster hunter, Chosen by the Unconquered Sun while defending his fellow hunters against an attack of Wyld-mutated animals. Now he and his bonded familiar, a wolverine named Mollie (short for 'Mauler of Man and Beast'), have become minor celebrities in the region as he works to keep the area around Whitewall safe... all while looking for the monster that destroyed his childhood home or any trace of his sister, lost in that attack.
• Stray Dog Serenade, an Ascendant Caste Infernal played by Sean (he/him) -- A wandering singer and rabble-rouser, preaching freedom and anarchy. As a wealthy boyar's son-turned-malcontent, another extremist tried to get him to assassinate another of the city's nobles. He balked, only to see his bodyguard accept the offer and strike the target down -- only to be apparently awarded with his own Exaltation. As he recoiled from this, shocked that that's all it would take, a voice whispered in his ear to offer him an alternative power of his own. Now he wanders with his cult of personality, using the power of Hell to fight for those who fall outside of Heaven's gaze -- and if he can empower them to rise up against their own oppressors, so much the better.
• Lecht, an Exigent played by Zach (they/them) -- A death-priest displaced from their own time, Lecht nearly died centuries ago defending their temple from an attack during the days of the Great Contagion. They didn't fall at the hands of invading raksha, but against those condemning their goddess, Vesmara the Bringer of Eternal Rest, for making the hard choice to spare her congregation of the Contagion's suffering in the most drastic way imaginable. Vesmara put Lecht in a sarcophagus infused with the power of the Exigence, giving up her own existence to save her worthiest follower. After slumbering for most of an Age, Lecht has awoken into a very different Creation with the power -- and the responsibility -- to decide where the line between life and death is drawn.

Anyhow, thank you for indulging me as I introduce you to a fresh batch of characters about to experience a fresh run of stories. If you've read and enjoyed any of my group's Exalted adventures in the past, I hope you stick around for this -- or, if you're just now coming in, feel free to check my index of actual play posts if you want to look back at what my group's done with Exalted so far.

Take care, and enjoy!