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Shortly after the release of Exalted's Scroll of the Monk, White Wolf released The Imperfect Lotus, a .pdf containing additional martial arts styles that didn't fit into the book. These styles are presented as being rare styles in Creation, and are split into two sections, one on Terrestrial level styles, and the other on Celestial level styles.

Terrestrial Styles There are 4 Terrestrial styles presented here, each of which fills a gap in the previously available martial arts for the Dragon Blooded. Golden Exhalation Style is a firewand style, providing a counterpart to the Celestial level Righteous Devil Style. This provides a nice array of abilities for characters using flame weapons. Of particular note are the Form type charm, which allows the practitioner the use motes of Essence to load their weapon, and Flame-Eater Stance, which allows the catching of an enemy's shot in one's own firewand. In my Dragon Blooded game I had a player using this style, and it worked well in play.

Lightning Hoof Style provides a cavalry based martial art. Both Mongolian type archer and European type lancer concepts are supported, which is nice. In general, however, the style leaves me cold, probably due to the lack of cavalry in my games. It does seem well balanced, however, and I see no reason why I'd object to a player using it.

Path of the Arbiter Style is an intriguing one. It largely creates Dungeons and Dragons style paladins, complete with idealism, holy weapon, and special mount. I sent an Arbiter against the party in my Dragon Blooded game, who was horribly slaughtered. This was the first case of the lesson I eventually learned that my players could destroy a melee focused opponent before melee was reached. For players interested in a noble champion type, or someone looking for a noble NPC, either friend or foe, this style works nicely.

Lastly in the Terrestrial styles, we have Terrible Ascent-Driven Beast Style. Based on emulation of animals, either a variety of animals common to the artist's native area, or a singular legendary beast, this is a natural fit for barbarian characters. It has a brawler feel to it, both in the lack a style weapons and the rough and tumble type of fighting encouraged by the charms.

Celestial Styles Here we have a set of 4 closely related styles called The Four Arguments of Virtue, which I will discuss as a whole. Each of these four styles involves one of the four virtues (Valor, Temperance, Conviction, and Compassion), and does a good job of representing the corresponding virtue. The capstone Charm in each style requires the virtue to have 5 dots, and fit well with the virtue's strength. I was amused by The Art of Victorious Concession, the Compassion based style, which consists of apologetically beating up the opposition. I doubt anyone who has watched Slayers will read this style without the words "Pacifist Crush" leaping to mind, but it holds together well, presenting a well-justified way to use compassion as a weapon. These styles feel nicely metaphysical, but are more grounded than the Sidereal martial arts we've seen.

Summary Overall, the styles here are well done. I've only noticed one major editing problem (Golden Exhalation is contradictory over the use of armor), and those I've played with have fit into the game. One issue is the price, however. $7 for a 26 page .pdf seems a bit steep. I would recommend this for a Dragon Blooded game, as the additional Terrestrial level styles do a nice job in filling in the gaps in martial arts at that level, however the utility of this product in a non-Dragon Blooded game may be limited. It seems that in a game of Celestial type Exlated, this styles here would only come up if a character wished to demonstrate the superiority of their favorite virtue. The .pdf is in full color, but prints well in black and white. The art is pretty much on par with the rest of Exalted's artwork, though there isn't much of it to speak of.