Hi, everyone. I’ve got a day full of Alchemical Charm trees going on, but I wanted to answer a letter (an honest to goodness paper letter) I received from an Exalted fan in the UK (I omitted his name for the sake of his privacy). I’ll include his writing in quotes and intermix my responses to his concerns and queries.
“Dear Mr. Chambers,
I’ve been reliably informed that one way of ensuring that there’ll eventually be a Celestial Direction book for Autochthonia is to write you a letter expressing interest in such a product. So I have! I’d also like to see The Scarlet Manual of Proper Bearing at some point, though I may be in a minority, being very much a Dragon-Blooded fan.”
We’re all friends here, so please, call me John. As to there definitely being an Autochthonia book, that’s still up in the air, but certainly not out of the question. Also, while there’s actually been little talk of producing The Scarlet Manual of Proper Bearing, the odds of there being a artifact version of The Thousand Correct Actions of the Upright Soldier created are quite good, which as a fan of the Terrestrial Exalted, I hope you’ll appreciate.
“That brings me on to the next topic. I’ve heard it rumoured that there may be a Return of the Scarlet Empress supplement at some point. I think that if done well, this could be very interesting; however, I do have some small concerns. Firstly, I’m worried that it might wind up being ‘canonical’, so that there’s now a metaplot. Secondly, I’m worried that it might be constructed in such a way as to completely marginalize non-Solar Exalts (mainly Dragon-Blooded, due to how Dynasty Charms are sometimes interpreted to work by people on the ’Net who’ve not read the Charmset properly). Thirdly (and this may seem a little odd, however, I’ve just been engaged in a rather bruising Internet discussion on the subject), I’m a bit worried that the characterization of the Scarlet Empress* may lose much of its current ambiguity and nuance, so that she moves from a mixture of hero and villain to a version of Mnemon with the serial numbers filed off. Make no mistake, I’m not in favour of her being classified as a ‘good’ person (it’s established that she sold her daughter to demons for heaven’s sake—though the how and why should be left unclear, IMO), just that her motivations should be more complex than ‘accumulate all power and live forever as a cackling Dark Lord’. The setting loses a lot of what makes it interesting if she doesn’t have some kind of noble, albeit twisted, motivation at the bottom of it all.”
Were we to do a Return of the Scarlet Empress supplement, I agree it could be very interesting indeed. To allay your first concern, about how such a book would be handled to avoid it being canon or metaplot, I would likely handle it much in the same way Geoff did with the adventures presented in Exalted: The Autochthonians, where the adventure would be one way the Empress’ return might play out. As for your second concern, I would never focus on just one type of Exalted, especially in a book with this much scope. Trust me, if such a book were being produced, it would touch upon all types of Exalted. Also, bear in mind that not all the Chosen will be trying to stop her. Exalted such as an Infernal, a loyalist Dragon-Blood, a Bronze Faction Sidereal or even a Dynast under the influence of the aforementioned Dynasty Charms might well be involved with the adventure on the Empress’ side, even if her agenda is tainted by her time spent in Hell. And that brings us to your third concern. No matter what may happen over the course of a book like the one proposed above, I’d make sure that the Empress not sink to being a one-dimensional character. Sure the Scarlet Empress has done some truly terrible things (as you point out), but she also saved Creation and helped to rebuild the world into a safe and orderly place in the aftermath of near annihilation. She’s a hero in the more classical sense of the world—basically, a larger-than-life character who influences the course of world events for good or ill. To be fair, though, such heroes rarely enjoy a happy end.
“* This worry is also present regarding any write-up she may or may not have in a future Exalted NPC book.”
Let me allay this fear right now. The Scarlet Empress will not be statted in Scroll of Exalts, though a number of prominent Dynasts will be.
“I suppose that this concern could be allayed by taking a toolbox approach to the scenario, providing GMs with enough resources to produce a custom version of the Return (possibly even a version of the standard DB ‘rescue her before the wedding’ plot), perhaps with several ways of resolving the issue beyond the straightforward ‘kill the Empress and the Dragon!’ much as Orpheus handled the resolution of the ‘Grandmother’ plot in its final supplement. That said, I was rather negative about the First Age boxed set before it came out, and very pleasantly surprised by it when it did (minus some rules concerns, but I’m mainly a setting guy)!”
I agree that this approach on such a supplement, were it to be produced, would be the way to go.
“Anyhow, enough of this before it becomes a full-length essay. I’d like to thank you and the various writers for providing me with many hours of fun (there’s a Dragon-Blooded game I play in which has been running in some form since early First Edition, which should indicate how much I enjoy the game), and wish you very much the best in the future.
Yours Sincerely,
I. T”
You (and the rest of the fan community) are very welcome. It’s always good to hear from you folk, be it in letters, on the forums or right here in the Chambers of Love. Talk to you soon.
Posted
20 May 2009 7:20 PM
by
johnny redactor