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Anathema: The term used by adherents of the Immaculate Order to demonize the Celestial Exalted. According to Immaculate teaching, the Solar, Lunar and Abyssal Exalted are individuals who have become conduits for the power of evil spirits. Their souls forever tainted by dark power, they must be destroyed before they can use that power to destroy Creation. This doctrine is believed almost without question on the Blessed Isle. Although the people under Imperial domination in the Threshold are forced to pay lip service to the Immaculates, few Thresholders accept Immaculate doctrine without question. An individual’s deeds are more likely to determine the reaction there. Were any known to still exist, Sidereal Exalted would also be deemed Anathema.
anima: A normally invisible aura that surrounds all living things. When an Exalted uses Essence, that Essence often spills into his anima, making it visible. Therefore, Exalted who expend a great deal of Essence are often surrounded by a brilliant display of power that can be visible miles distant.
caste: The predisposition toward a certain role or certain duties, shaped by the Unconquered Sun at the moment a mortal is Exalted and becomes a Solar. The five Solar castes are as follows:
Dawn Caste: The leaders and champions of the armies of the Unconquered Sun.
Zenith Caste: The priest-kings, prophets and mystics of the Unconquered Sun.
Twilight Caste: The scholars, sorcerers and craftsmen of the Unconquered Sun.
Night Caste: The spies, assassins and thieves of the Unconquered Sun.
Eclipse Caste: The diplomats and bureaucrats of the Unconquered Sun.
caste mark: All Celestial Exalted are branded on their foreheads with a sign of their status. This caste mark, like the anima, is usually invisible, but can be seen when an Exalt spends Essence. No two types of Exalted share a caste mark, so they may be used to distinguish one type of Exalt from another. Example: A Dawn Caste Solar and a Twilight Caste Solar will never have the same caste mark
Celestial Exalted: A catch-all term for the Solar, Lunar and Sidereal Exalted—so called because of their patron gods’ celestial nature. Though it’s a bit of a misnomer to group them as such, the Abyssal Exalted are also often referred to as Celestial Exalted as well.
Charm: A form of Essence manipulation that focuses Essence through a character’s Abilities. Charms allow Exalts to perform superhuman feats and are the most basic form of magic the Exalted wield.
Creation: The world of Exalted and everything in it. Beyond its borders lies only the formless Wyld.
Cult of the Illuminated, the: A cult devoted to the worship of the Shining Ones, mystical saviors who are prophesied to lead mankind into a new golden age. The Gold Faction of the Sidereal Exalted has subverted the Cult in order to use it to find, shelter and train newly Exalted Solars.
Deathlord: One of 13 mighty ghost-kings of the Underworld. Their power springs from their Neverborn masters and from their own great age and unmatched knowledge. The Deathlords are quite possibly the greatest threats to Creation in the Second Age
demon: One of a myriad of terrible offspring born of the Yozis since their banishment to Malfeas.
Demon Prince: Any demon of the Third Circle. These beings are the subsidiary souls of the Yozis and each one represents some aspect of one of those dread beings.
Dragon-Blooded: The more common name for the Terrestrial Exalted.
Elemental: An elemental is a naturally materialized spirit of one of the five elements: air, earth, fire, water, or wood. Elemental personalities tend to reflect some facet of the element whence they spring. Although many elementals are quite powerful, they are looked down upon by many gods as rustic and provincial.
Elemental Dragons: The offspring of Gaia, the Elemental Dragons are the lords of the Terrestrial Bureaucracy, responsible for overseeing its hierarchy of spirits. Like most gods, the Dragons have become decadent and self-absorbed in the time since the end of the First Age. The Elemental Dragons seldom inquire into the state of their subjects, and the Terrestrial spirits ignore their duties more and become more independent with each year that passes. The Immaculate Order venerates the Elemental Dragons as the Immaculate Dragons, the apotheosis of spiritual development and the lords of Creation.
Essence: The most basic building block of Creation, Essence is the energy that unites all things and from which all magic springs. To channel Essence is to work miracles, and the might of the Exalted comes from their ability to do so.
Exalted: (Also called the Chosen.) The champions of the gods, who were given power to stand up to the Primordials at the beginning of time. The victorious Exalted were given custody of Creation at the end of the Primordial War. The prominent types of Exalted include:
Abyssal Exalted
Also called deathknights, these Exalts are the champions of the Deathlords and their Neverborn masters. The Abyssal Exalted have only recently appeared, but they appear to be dark reflections of the returned Solar Exalted, with dark mockeries of the Solars’ caste marks, animas and even Charms.
Lunar Exalted
These mighty savages are the champions of Luna. The Lunars were once the mates of the Solar Exalted, as well as their bodyguards and commanders of their armies. The Lunar Exalts either fled to the hinterlands of the Threshold after the murder of the Solars or died alongside their mates in futile battle. Today, most of these shapeshifting warriors live as barbarians, blaming the downfall of the Solars (and even their inability to save them) on civilization’s softening effects.
Sidereal Exalted
The Sidereals are the champions of the Five Maidens. The Chosen of the Maidens are the savants and astrologers of the Exalted, as well as matchless martial artists. It was the Great Prophecy of the Sidereals that led to the murder and usurpation of the Solar Exalted, and the Sidereals have lurked in the shadows since then, manipulating the course of not only the Realm, but Creation as a whole. The Sidereals have been split into two factions, Bronze and Gold, since a disagreement over the fate of the Solar Exalted 1,500 years ago, and the Solars’ return has led to a renewal of outright hostility between the two groups.
Solar Exalted
Known also as the Lawgivers, these Exalted are the champions of the Unconquered Sun. Once the masters of Creation, the Solars were betrayed and usurped by their trusted advisers and soldiers. Most Solars were unable to be reborn until recently, and the Wyld Hunt was organized to slay those few who did find a way to reincarnate.
Terrestrial Exalted
Also called the Dragon-Blooded, these are the champions of the five Elemental Dragons. For the last millennium and a half, they were the unquestioned rulers of Creation itself. Despite being the weakest Exalted in terms of raw power, the Terrestrial Exalts are the most numerous by far. Once the soldiers of the Exalted armies that fought the Primordials, the Terrestrials murdered the Solar Exalted at the behest of the Sidereals and took over the reins of Creation
Fair Folk: A term used to describe the beings who dwell beyond the elemental poles in the Wyld. The unshaped Fair Folk who remain beyond the edges of Creation are hostile to all things of constant shape and form. A great number of Fair Folk, however, have entered the world and taken on shape. The vast majority of these beings are inimical to the beings of Creation—hunting down humans and feeding on their hopes and dreams—but a few do live among men as either lords or simple citizens. During the Great Contagion, the Host of Faerie rode out in a great crusade to bring an end to the blasphemy of shaped existence. It might well have even won had the Scarlet Empress not succeeded in bringing the Realm’s magical defenses to bear against them.
First Age: This was the Golden Age after the Exalted defeated the Primordials, when wonders and magic undreamed of in the Second Age were commonplace. The First Age is commonly considered to stretch from the end of the Primordial War to the time of the Great Contagion, nearly eight centuries ago. Most learned savants place the fall of the First Age some 600 years earlier, however, with the murder of the Solar Exalted.
Five Maidens: These five deities are second in power only to the Unconquered Sun, though Luna is rightly considered an equal. The Maidens are Mercury, the Maiden of Journeys; Venus, the Maiden of Serenity; Mars, the Maiden of Battles; Jupiter, the Maiden of Secrets; and Saturn, the Maiden of Endings.
Gaia: She is the spirit of Creation, the mother of the Elemental Dragons, and godmother of all living things born of Creation. Gaia is, in fact, one of the Primordials, but she sided with the gods out of love for her consort Luna.
Ghost: This is the soul of a human being that lingers on after death because of some attachment it has to its prior existence rather than reentering the natural cycle of reincarnation. Ghosts are aberrations to the proper course of existence, and they have existed only since the deaths of the Neverborn.
god: A god is a naturally dematerialized spirit of some facet of Creation. As many gods exists as there are things and concepts, though few are of significant might to challenge the Exalted. Those gods who represent universal concepts dwell in the Celestial City of Yu-Shan, where they look down in scorn or pity upon their Terrestrial brethren. Since the end of the First Age, the gods have become increasingly decadent and remiss in their duties, often extorting worship, and the Essence it brings, to perform their rightful duties. The Immaculate Order has striven with some success to impose order onto these rogue gods, but truly, it is the recent return of the Lawgivers that worries many of these spirits.
Great Contagion: This supernatural plague was engineered by the Deathlords in the hopes of ending all life. Although the world survived, much of the glory of the previous Age was lost, as well as 90 percent of Creation’s population. In its wake, the Fair Folk invaded the world en mass and would have destroyed it had not the woman who would become the Scarlet Empress dared enter the Imperial Manse and gained control of the Realm’s First Age defenses. The Great Contagion is popularly considered to mark the fall of the First Age.
Great Curse: As the Primordials fell to the Chosen of the various gods, they cursed their Exalted killers. The Curse was elaborate and vast, but its core was that the Exalted would forever be cursed with the hate, immoderation and treachery they’d shown in the Primordials’ murder. The Great Curse has dogged all the Exalted since that day, but it settled most squarely on the shoulders of the Solar Exalted. Ever since, the Solars have been subject to terrible melancholy and violent emotional outbursts.
Great Prophecy: It was this prediction made by a conclave of all the Sidereal Exalted that set the course of the Solar Exalted’s murder at the hands of the Dragon-Blooded. Concerned with the Solars’ increasingly erratic behavior, the Sidereals prophesied three possible futures.
In the first, they did nothing, and the world was destroyed.
In the second, they tried to guide the Solar Exalted back onto the path of righteousness and had a small chance of success, though the world would become a place of darkness and misery if they failed.
In the third, they eliminated the Solars and the world continued on, diminished but whole.
It was decided by the Sidereals that this last future was the safest bet to ensure Creation’s survival, so they conspired with the Terrestrial Exalted to bring it about.
Guild: This organization is a vast network of merchants, trading in goods of all form, from foodstuffs, textiles and metalwork to addictive drugs and human slaves. The Guild is unconcerned with good and evil. Its only concern is profit. If it is profitable to do something, you can bet the Guild is doing it, has done it, or will do it as soon as it is brought to the merchant princes’ attention. Though based in the city of Nexus, the Guild operates Creation-wide.
Immaculate Order, the: This is the state religion of the Scarlet Empire. The Immaculate faith preaches that the soul is reincarnated again and again over successive lives until it reaches perfection and joins with the Five Elemental Dragons. The final incarnation before joining with the Dragons is as one of the Terrestrial Exalted, making the Dragon-Blooded the pinnacle of the Order’s Perfected Hierarchy and the natural rulers of Creation. The Immaculate Order frowns upon the popular worship of spirits of any sort, because it is believed they are merely celestial functionaries rather than true gods. Instead, the Order itself propitiates these spirits at predetermined times. It is the Immaculate Order that branded the Celestial Exalted as Anathema during the period of the early Dragon-Blooded Shogunate. Immaculate monks are known for their martial-arts skill, and Dragon-Blooded monks are rightly feared for their mastery of elemental style martial arts.
The Immaculate Order also serves as a front organization for the Bronze Faction Sidereal Exalted, allowing these Exalts to continue shaping the destiny of the Realm. The existence of the Order has let these shadowy Exalts manipulate the course of the Realm for nearly 800 years.
Luna: Luna is a many-faced trickster god, appearing equally male and female. Luna is the consort of Gaia, is a ferocious warrior nearly the equal of the Unconquered Sun, and is the mother and patron of the Lunar Exalted.
magical materials: Orichalcum, moonsilver, jade, starmetal and soulsteel comprise the five known magical materials. These materials are all easily enchanted, and each one resonates with a particular type of Exalted. This resonance makes any item that is both constructed from one of the magical materials and attuned to an Exalt’s anima preternaturally deft and sure in that Exalt’s hands. It also gives the Exalt access to the powers of any hearthstone mounted on the item.
Malfeas: Malfeas is the demon realm in which the Yozis are imprisoned. This realm is constructed from the body of the mightiest Demon Prince, Malfeas himself
mote: The smallest divisible unit of Essence in the parlance of savants and sorcerers.
Neverborn: Cousins to the Yozis, the Neverborn were those Primordials slain by the Exalted in the time before history. In dying, they created the Underworld. They sleep forever in their enormous sepulchers overlooking the Void, dreaming of the day when all that exists will join them in death.
Primordial: This is the term applied to those who came before the gods and first wrenched Creation from the chaotic stuff of the Wyld. Only two Primordials survive intact, Gaia and the Great Maker Autochthon. The rest were either slain, becoming the Neverborn, or imprisoned, becoming the Yozis.
Realm: The empire that, until quite recently, controlled the whole of civilized Creation. Called also the Scarlet Empire, the Realm never officially “ruled” more than the Blessed Isle directly, but it exacted tribute from countless local governments, which paid it homage. Those governments were independent in theory, but they were actually little more than puppet states.
Since the Scarlet Empress has disappeared, the Realm has been paralyzed by indecision. There is a weak regent on the Scarlet Throne, and the various Houses of the Scarlet Dynasty plot endlessly, each attempting to gain enough power to place its own candidate on the Throne.
In this Time of Tumult, many of the Realm’s tributaries have had their garrisons recalled and been left to their own devices. While some remain loyal vassal states, a few have openly declared their independence. Many more have effectively done so quietly, withholding their tribute under flimsy excuses. Whoever takes the Throne will be faced with the monumental task of re-conquering a majority of the Realm’s old territory.
savant: A scholar and sage who devotes his life to the study of a particular subject, or simply to study in general.
Scarlet Dynasty, the: A collective term for the scions of the 11 Great Houses that rule the Realm. Each House may trace its lineage back to the Scarlet Empress herself
Scarlet Empress, the: During the Great Contagion, it was she who braved the Imperial Manse and used its control of the Realm’s ancient magical defenses to save Creation from the invading Fair Folk. She then crowned herself Empress of the Realm—using her control of the Realm defenses to crush all opposition—and proceeded to rule the world for the next 750+ years. Her disappearance has upset the status quo of Creation, and the return of the Solar Exalted has only complicated the situation.
Scavenger Lands, the: The Scavenger Lands is a disparaging term the Realm coined for an alliance of petty kingdoms and city-states in the Eastern Threshold more properly named the Confederation of Rivers. Located in the First Age River Province, these nations have never bent knee or offered tribute to the Scarlet Empress or her Realm, despite repeated attempts by the Realm to subjugate them. The most powerful of these states are the enormous trading metropolis of Nexus, home to the Guild, and Lookshy, home of the surviving Dragon-Blooded Shogunate Era Seventh Legion and its enormous cache of First Age armaments.
Second Age: This is the current Age of Creation, having begun either with the murder of the Solar Exalted or the end of the Great Contagion, depending on whom one asks.
shadowland: A shadowland is an area where constant or massive amounts of death, possibly augmented by negative geomancy, have brought the lands of the living and the dead into close proximity. Such places are invariably dismal, haunted places plagued by hungry ghosts and the evil spirits of Creation, both of which are drawn to such places by the areas’ negative energy.
sorcery: Sorcery is a more sophisticated and demanding form of Essence manipulation than Charms. With Charms, the Exalt focuses Essence through her Abilities, while, with sorcery, she focuses it through sheer will alone. Sorcery features three levels of initiation: Terrestrial Circle, Celestial Circle and Solar Circle. Sorcerers may also practice necromancy, but advancement in one art inhibits development in the other.
Threshold: Savants referring to the Threshold typically mean all that lies between the shores of the Blessed Isle and the elemental poles that mark the boundary of Creation. More commonly, it is the term applied to the ring of kingdoms, principalities, satrapies and city-states that abut the Inland Sea.
Unconquered Sun, the: Greatest of the gods, the Unconquered Sun inspired the gods to revolt against the Primordials. His champions, the Solar Exalted, led the charge in the war that followed. After the war’s end, the Unconquered Sun continued to advise his Chosen in their rule of Creation until their pride grew so great he turned his back on them. After the murder of the Solars, his temples were pulled down and his worship banned.
Underworld: This is the land of the dead, a dark mirror of the sunlit world dominated by the 13 Deathlords. The Underworld is a land of long shadows and vast, still seas—a dark wonderland full of dangers foreign to the world of the living.
Wyld: The term “the Wyld” is used to describe both the formless chaos that exists beyond the elemental poles and the places where that chaos has intruded upon Creation, most notably in the wake of the Fair Folk invasion that followed the Great Contagion.
Wyld Hunt: The Hunt is a group of battle-hardened Dragon-Blooded gathered both from the Immaculate Order and the Realm military for the express purpose of hunting down Anathema. With the disappearance of the Scarlet Empress, the Wyld Hunt’s effectiveness has begun to suffer, as those Dragon-Bloods who would be most effective in the Hunt now choose to stay at home to lend their support to their Great Houses in the contest for the Scarlet Throne.
Yozis: Cousins to the Neverborn, the Yozis are forever imprisoned outside Creation in their twisted kingdom of iron and black marble beneath a mad green sun. The Yozis constantly plot to escape the demon realm Malfeas and to overthrow the gods.
Yu-Shan: Also called Heaven or the Celestial City, this continent-sized metropolis is the dwelling place of the gods and home to the Loom of Fate, from which all Creation springs.