Overview:
First splatbooks for a White Wolf game line are always a gamble: I like splats and they do help define some of the more obscure groups (I loved the Martyr book for Hunter) but the first ones are often light on content and rather confused in development (Brujah for example) or narrowly pin one group into simplistic stereotypes (Progenitors). Dawn neatly sidesteps the latter pitfalls and provides the former, good, content. The Exalted books also seem to depart from typical White Wolf splatbook formats key areas that I found were welcome changes.
Setting:
If you don’t know the Exalted setting I’d ask why are you reading this review but in short, quick sketches it is a fantasy world at the turning point in its history – but unlike other White Wolf products the future is not apocalyptic and dark, but rather wide open. The ancient, repressive empire of the Scarlet Empress and her Dragon-Blooded aristocracy is crumbling, and the barbarians are at the gates, sometimes quite literally. Amidst this the Solar Exalted, those mortals elevated by the divine Unconquered Sun, are appearing. The Solars are the long-lost rulers of humanity but were overthrown by the Dragon Bloods and painted as monster by history. The Dawns, symbolized by the rising sun sigils burning like holy fire on their foreheads, were the generals, the warriors, the great, undefeatable sword and shield of the Sun.
Introduction:
The opening fiction is a typical example of a small Exalted game – a couple of Exalts on a quest to destroy a city of the dead accompanied by a few mundane warriors. The whole thing is narrated by the Dawn and is full of the sort of high-adventure, slightly-anime-flavoured, action you would expect. Then comes the introduction – quick overview of the book, and inspirational reading and literary sources. Exalted draws on the idea of the epic hero – both the virtuous good guy and the infamous villain. The rest of the book (with the exception of the game mechanics chapter and the appendices of example characters) are all told through the narration of 5 different Dawn caste exalted, reflecting a number of different takes on the whole ‘champion/warrior’ archetype:
· Dace – the signature character, a former mercenary
· Yurgen, the Bull of the North – an ageing northern barbarian who was exalted at what would have otherwise been the end of his long life, and now something of a barbarian warlord
· Jalith (of the East) – more the solo warrior/mage type, or an interesting take on the ‘Beastmaster’ idea and by far my favourite
· Demetheus – strong like mountain, kind like flower, and about as smart as both, the wandering do-gooder familiar to anyone who watched Kevin Sorbo as Hercules
· Lyta – an unblooded Dragon Blood noblegirl turned into the bitter, proud, and violent tool of her “advisors”, rebel mystics of the Sideral Exalted.
Chapter One: Our Souls Through Our Eyes
This chapter is our introduction to the characters – each in turn tells their stories; their past how they came to be Exalted, friends and foes met along the way, their first encounter with other Exalted (including their first big conflict with the fading strength of the Empire) and what they are up to at the moment. With the exceptions of the Dragon Blooded (where it is merely a trick of genetics), other Exalteds are selected either because they have, or have the potential to, change destiny in some great way.
All in all this chapter is rather pedestrian, we see how each of the signature characters see the world – Lyta for example, is a product of her aristocratic absolute rule upbringing whereas Yurgen almost has a reluctant/resigned attitude (he really wanted to die), and Jalith thinks all of life is one bright adventure. Not everyone takes to being elevated to demi-god status that well.
Chapter Two: Obligations of the Caste
Like all new Exalts (and their players/storytellers) the next big question is “what do I do now?” Congratulations, you got superpowers that mark you as a living god, if you were lucky you weren’t immediately in a position of life or death, you may have even been lucky enough to have a few flashes of memory and maybe an item or two, but now what do you do with your life? Given the raw power (mechanics wise) of the average beginning Solar Exalted, this is sometimes an intimidating question.
Like the more recent White Wolf games (revised editions or news ones) the calling of the ‘splat’ is more of a suggestion, not a strait jacket. It’s like highlighting an aptitude – even if you are good at basketball doesn’t mean you are forced to be a forward in the NBA. Each of the narrators have a different take – some merely continue life as normal, others recognize that certain things have to change, and other go off on totally different directions. Yes, all the narrators becomes warriors of some sort, or are drawn to combat, but it is not a total, absolute. Lyta, for example, dreams of restoring the Solar Deliberative and making her Dragon Blooded ancestors (living and dead) pay for their betrayal, and so she acts in particularly cruel and immediate manner. Jalith is more the sneaky/agile thief who merely continues to cause problems for the various tribes in the East.
One interesting part of this chapter is the use of time. Unlike other splatbooks which merely do a “spot interview”, a snapshot in time of the thoughts and goals of the narrator, the chapter also returns to them one year after their exaltation – how has a year of life experience changed their goals and ideas. Again, the idea here is to move away from the absolute strait-jacketing and pigeon-holing that plagued early White Wolf splats. The one-year update also gives us a glimpse of how the world is adapting to the return of the Solar Exalted, for better and worse.
Chapter Three: The World Awaiting Us
This is the traditional “how we see others” chapter and again, the diversity of narrators shines through and eliminates the “We hate X”. Each narrator has their own personal hatreds and friendships, more often than not they involve individuals from the “X” which are then generalized to the whole group (not unlike how it happens in the real world). We also see that not all Solar Castes get along – again being Solar Exalted or a particular caste is only a suggestion of moods, not absolutes.
Chapter Four: Voices Not Our Own
The counterpart to chapter three, this is the “how X sees us” and is the only chapter where the narrative is not the signature characters, and we are treated to multiple points of view for each of the major groups – non-aligned mortals, the Empire, Dragon Bloods, spirits, Fair Folk, the unliving, etc. Again, not everyone hates the Solars ‘just because’. It seems there is a lot of “enlightened self interest” at work in the world, and exploitation of the Solars by other factions is all the rage. Another problem, one specific to the wandering do-gooder types is the wake of small, often not-entirely-benevolent religious cults they inspire. Not every simple farmer is going to communicate your message of simple hard, honest work, without making something of a name for themself in the bargain. This chapter also ties directly into the signature characters and so provides a nice counterpoint to what the Solar’s think they are doing (every nameless guard killed has a family, every innocent bystander has a life). Great ideas for “blowback” stories here.
Chapter Five: Dreams of the First Age
In Hunter the splatbooks devote some time to looking at the flashes of memory that the Imbued have, the snatches of conversations held with the Messengers. Here in Exalted things just keep getting better and better. A chapter devoted to the memories, thoughts and lost glories of the First Age, when the Solars ruled with arrogance and pride, and the last memories of their downfall. Again, nice to see the thought and detail that went into this “lost world” since it plays such an important, if backstage, element in the current setting.
Metaplot shy readers take note – there is no metaplot here, just images of long lost glories, big towers, great contests, golden harmony. Nothing is really mentioned by name (except one Solar’s Lunar wife), nothing points in any real direction at all (so no “Exalted is the past of the World of Darkness” and no “Exalted is the future”). Put the paper bag down, take slow even breaths, and continue.
Chapter Six: Magic of the Dawn
This is the number-crunching rules section. It has a new martial art series of charms (based on the ‘Tiger’ style), a couple of others, some new hearthstones and relics. The charms all relate to the Dawn’s two major strengths – leading warriors into battle and killing things in combat. The hearthstones are not exactly what I would expect (one is actually there because Jalith owns it so the powers needed to be explained), but they aren’t broken and well-within the realm of PC-ownership (as evidenced by Jalith’s stone).
Appendices – Signature Characters and Notable Dawn Caste Exalts.
Here is the change I liked the most from other splatbooks – instead of “genericizing” the narrators into simple templates we get … the narrators as examples of beginning characters. Honestly I like this more than the templates and with the vary fluid creation rules for Exalted PCs, no template could really do a splat any real justice. And in case you don’t have enough ideas from the signature characters there is a second appendix with the write-ups on a couple of other Solars who were mentioned in passing in chapters 3 and 4: a Deathlord-serving pirate, a Dragon-Blooded catspaw, a Threshold town defender and a southern Assassin.
Final Comments:
There are those who dislike first-person narration in their sourcebooks – reeks of pretentious writing they say, some hate ‘metaplot’ and ‘setting’ secrets dribbled out in their “optional” sourcebooks, others hate narrow boxes, and still others are confused “but if there is a Night Caste, why make redundant Dawn caste thief types?” To these I say the following:
To the narration-hater I say “it’s the White Wolf style, live with it, or don’t the choice is yours.” It works especially since White Wolf is moving away from grand sweeping, third-person object pronouncements on their settings.
To the metaplot/setting-phobe I say that the book is metaplot free (since no metaplot really survives contact with even your most basic chargen-level Exalted PC, let alone a whole group of them and equal numbers of NPC of same, and even more, power). The setting information is setting specific, but not so much that you need to buy other boks to figure out what’s going on.
To the box people and the confused people, who have long suffered under various restrictive White Wolf games I say the long wait is over. The focus of the book is on how the Exaltation effects the person – it does not wipe who they were out of existence, and many remain individuals (hence the southern assassin and the hyper-agile Jalith). The only box here is the one you bring to the game.
No “all Dawn Castes are X” anywhere in this book – I promise.
There is no character sheet by the way – since there is little special about any given type of Exalted (and their weaknesses are individual based, not splat based).
The book strikes a nice middle ground between content and style. You’ll note I didn’t bring up the art but it is the usual sort-of manga a reader of Exalted is used to (I like it, but your tastes may vary).
Style: 4. I liked it a lot, but it didn’t really blow my mind
Substance: 4 Again, very very good, but nothing really innovative.
And for old-time White Wolfers – yes, it did pass the Chupp test. :)
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