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The Good: The Green Sun Princes are extremely cool and on a conceptual level there’s a lot to love here. The setting material is exactly the sort of interesting and inventive stuff you’d expect from the Exalted line. In addition to working as a resource for villainous protagonists and hardcore evildoers the book can provide good support for a game wherein one or more of the existing PCs becomes corrupted by the Yozi.
The Bad: Other Exalted products have always had an interesting theme that provided some compelling play. Abyssals were wonderful because they weren’t necessarily bad guys. They could do extremely evil actions, and many did, but the characters were tragic and often complicated. Not so with the Infernals. Every trace of humanity is excised from them, their Virtues encourage a twisted perspective on good, and the characters are monitored by Yozi masters at all times. While playing hardcore evil characters already has a variety of drawbacks that can make a game more difficult, combining the inhumanity of the Green Sun Princes results in a product that’s much more likely to be used as a Storyteller resource than as a game in its own right.
The Physical Thing
At $31.99, this 224 page black and white hardcover showcases the same excellent production values you’ve come to expect from the Exalted line. The comics do a good job of introducing the chapters, editing mistakes are rare, and the art tends to do a decent job. The writing is where the book really shines, with plenty of creative description that firmly places the home of the Green Sun Princes in the mind’s eye.Under the Cover
Chapter One The Green Sun Princes - 31 pages.What are the Infernal Exalted? This question, the central question for this chapter, is best answered by starting at the beginning. To quickly sum up a lot of history, after the Solars were betrayed for their madness in the First Age their essences were bound away. The Neverborn (dead Primordials slain by the Exalted) servants set out a plan to steal away the Solar prison and corrupt it. They took aid from the Yozi (Primordials that did not die but were contracted away to Hell) and in return for that aid the Yozi were granted 50 of the Solar exaltations. While the plan was partially bundled by the Deathlords (Neverborn servants) they still delivered on the owed 50 Solar essences.
The Yozi created a special vessel, the womb of a 12 year old girl now kept bloated and pregnant with exaltations, and in this vessel they stored the 50 Solar exaltations. Part of the nature of the Yozi is that they can no longer create, but they can change. Without the power to make their own Exalted, the Yozi worked together to subtly twist and change these essences. They didn’t want to twist them too far, as they were well aware of just how potent the base weapon is, but they needed. The Ebon Dragon hatched the plan, but by the time the essences had been truly corrupted many Yozi had had a say in the changes.
These new essences, now Infernal exaltations, were twisted versions of the original Solars. While the Abyssals function as dark and polar opposites, the Infernals sport far more brutality in their design. With these 50 Infernal Exaltations ready to be divested, each of 5 Yozi sent their demonic servants into Creation to find appropriate mortals ready to receive an exaltation. With tethers connecting themselves to the phylactery-womb these demons searched long and hard for mortals that were just right.
When a mortal receives a Solar exaltation it tends to happen at a moment of great need. When a mortal stands up and says “No, no more,” when a mortal steps into fire to save a child, or when a mortal stands alone against an army – these are the times when Solar Exaltations are bestowed. With Infernal exaltations it’s so very different. The demons hunt for the mortals that almost stood up, almost said no, and watch them fail. They find people that were destined for greatness but, at the last moment, took a step back. They whisper to these people of what might have been, what could have been with enough power, and then they make the offer.
The demons don’t lie, trick, or deceive. Those mortals that reject the offer are immediately killed (can’t leave an almost-champion alive) while those that accept are immediately granted the Infernal Exaltation. Power flows through them and the demon encourages them to have a great time with it. Whatever they had wanted from their lot in life they take and enjoy for a time. Then they’re summoned home to Hell.
They spend time in a construct called the Chrysalis Grotesque, a horrifying experience that does little for sanity. All traces of humanity are purged from their soul just as their flesh is purged of imperfection (or twisted to demonic beauty). When they emerge they are evil, twisted things. They are immediately encouraged to engage in atrocities until they become accustomed to doing horrible things. Their first and foremost goal is to serve the Yozi by transforming Creation into Hell so that the Yozi may escape.
These Green Sun Princes take an honored place in Hell society, with an enormous number of gifts granted to them. Palaces, slaves, trainers, libraries, and more are all made available to them. They’re rock stars, and all of Hell looks to them in hope that they might actually be able to free the Yozi from their eternal torment.
There’s a lot more here than just a discussion of the Green Sun Princes, of course. Information on each of the major Yozi, the laws and politics of Hell, and the operations of Hell in Creation can all be found here. It’s good stuff, though there’s not really enough setting information here for an extended campaign set in Hell (not unlike the Abyssals book in that respect).
In wrapping up your introduction to the Green Sun Princes allow me to explain what I love and hate about this setup. I am crazy about the idea of the exaltations being given to mortals that had a chance to be heroes but failed to seize the opportunity. It has the potential for a lot of very interesting roleplaying. I’m also excited about the status of the Green Sun Princes within Hell. They really are the champions that all others look to to set the world right again.
Unfortunately, I consider the characters to be very one dimensional. With all traces of good excised a lot of opportunities for interesting roleplay are toast. The characters are monstrous and hardcore evil entities, and while it can be fun (for some) to play abusers, rapists, and murderers any interesting internal character conflicts are excised. These are characters that slaughter and torture with no conflict about it, and for me this makes them boring.
While the Green Sun Princes aren’t as compelling as I had hoped they would be, the same isn’t necessarily true for other servants of Hell. Let’s look at them next.
Chapter Two Servants of the Yozis - 18 pages.
The Akuma are among the most powerful servants of Hell outside of the Green Sun Princes and receive the most attention here. An Akuma is an Exalt or powerful essence using mortal who has given their being over to a Yozi in return for power. The Yozi reshapes their body, mind, and soul and in the process teaches Infernal Charms and powers. Mechanically this is reflected in the Charm “Investiture of Infernal Glory” which grants the character XP for each mechanical object the Yozi decreases. If, for example, a character’s Appearance goes from 5 to 1 then the character receives XP equal to the amount it would take to go from App 1 to App 5. This XP is then reinvested in other mechanical qualities or in Infernal Charms. The character also gains Demonic Patron and Demonic Inheritance, two new Backgrounds, at 5 dots which provide even more bonuses to spend. When the Yozi offer incredible power for surrendering to their cause they really mean it!
After covering a few infamous Akuma we learn about the Demon-Blooded, split into Hellspawn (humans) and Devil Beasts (animals). Both have demon blood from a mating of human or animal with a demon, and because of this they can wield significant power. A variant on the Hellspawn, Yozi-Kin, is also included. These are simply people who were invested with power by the Yozi later in life. No matter which option you’re tinkering with the real infusion of power comes from the Demonic Inheritance and Demonic Patron Backgrounds.
Demonic Inheritance grants extra bonus points at character creation (or xp later on) along with points of demonic mutations. In return for the obvious connection to the Yozi the character is increasingly easier to identify as demonic in nature. Demonic Patron is another super-background, in this case counting as both a Mentor background and just about every other background (but only a few times a session). Finally, eleven new demonic mutations are provided to enable characters to be more demonic and for non-Exalted to have a bit more punch.
Taken together you have the tools to corrupt any Exalted with real power and build the offspring of demons. I think most Storytellers are far more likely to make use of these tools than they are to run Infernal Chronicles, and so I’m glad they’re here. I do believe that the way Exalted are reshaped by the Yozi can be a little mechanically messy, especially since some starting characters can effectively have a lot more XP than others depending on how their points are distributed. Nevertheless, for those that want to corrupt a wayward Solar the system will work well enough.
Speaking of game mechanics, let’s take a closer look at the guts of the Infernal Exalted.
Chapter Three Character Creation - 8 pages.
As you may suspect, Infernals are built the same way Solar Exalted are. Attributes, Skills, Favored Skills, and Caste functions remain exactly the same. With that in mind, let’s look at the differences. In addition to Motivations the Green Sun Princes have an Urge created by a Yozi. The Urges are exceptionally negative and tend to force the characters towards acting like, well, demons.
The Dawn have become the Slayers, Zenith the Malefactors, Twilight the Defilers, Night the Scourges, and Eclipse the Fiends. The Caste powers are the same with two exceptions. Malefactors can destroy holy symbols, harm servants of good, and desecrate an area to make demonic summoning much easier. Fiends can sanctify oaths but they can also interfere with oaths sworn to Heaven.
New Backgrounds are available and each character begins with Cult, Influence, and Backing. Virtue dots remain unchanged, but the meaning of the virtues is different. Valor, for example, means using force to conquer all. The Virtue changes dictate playing evil, twisted beings at all times and a particularly high Virtue can quickly dominate a character’s personality.
Chapter Four Traits - 25 pages.
While the changes aren’t enormous, they’re worthy of additional discussion and that’s what Chapter Four does. With more information and background on each of the Castes and new mechanics, this is where a player goes to really dig into the mechanics and background for an Infernal. Since it rehashes much of what I’ve already discussed above I’m focusing on the new Backgrounds here.
Familiar (Demonic) can be very strong, as it enables the character to have a demon that, at the higher levels, knows several Charms and has a higher essence score. Unwoven Coadjutor reflects the fact that all Infernals also have a First Circle demon living inside of them. With higher ranks this Background enables that demon to keep an eye out for the Infernal’s best interests.
Two more Backgrounds are of special interest to me. When the Yozi changed the Solar essences they chose to enable the bearers of these essences to be able to more easily remember past lives in the hope that those lives would provide strength and power. Because of this two Backgrounds are available to any character who wants a deeper connection to those memories. The Savant Background provides information on the First Age while the Past Life Background provides a flat 1 to 5 dice bonus to actions by calling up memories while risking that those memories will seize control of the character for several hours.
I really like the idea of Savant and Past Life, though I find Past Life’s mechanics to be a little problematic. Losing complete control of a PC for hours while they turn on the other Infernals could quickly bring the fun to an end for a player or even a whole group. Still, it is a neat idea.
Of final note are Urges and Limit. Urges were forged by various Yozi and urge a character to perform certain actions. Fighting against these Urges produces Limit and, as with Solars, when Limit hits 10 the character is compelled to behave in a certain way. Fortunately for the Infernals they can decrease Limit by performing horrid deeds. Given how the characters are constructed this should be fairly common.
While the new Backgrounds and other mechanics are interesting, it’s the Charms that often draw the most attention. Let’s take a look at a unique new approach to Charms.
Chapter Five Charms - 70 pages.
Infernal Charms can be used in Combos and have the same dice adding limitations as Solars. New Keywords include Blasphemy, Desecration, Messianic, Sorcerous, and Velocity. Blasphemy Charms screw with the Tapestry when they’re used and quickly alert the Sidereals and Realm Defense Grid that they’re being used. Desecration Charms bestow or force mutations upon their targets. Messianic Charms require the Cult Background to use. Sorcerous Charms are somewhat like Sorcery and somewhat like normal Charms with benefits and weaknesses of both. Velocity Charms require the user to keep moving at a high rate of speed while they’re being used.
Keywords are only the tip of the iceberg, of course. Excellencies, those Charms that boost core stats, tend to be defining between the lines and that continues to be the case here. The First Excellency must be purchased a number of times equal to the character’s Essence and must be purchased again every time the character’s Essence increases. This may sound harsh, but there’s a reason for it. You see, this Excellency is tied to one of the core five Yozis behind the Infernals. It counts for all Attributes, not just one, and can be used to add dice to any action appropriate to that Yozi. So, for example, a person with First Malfeas Excellency can spend motes to add dice to any role that involves obvious force, wrath, or sadistic joy, among other things.
This is interesting to me because it’s a looser mechanic that involves more Storyteller interpretation but which also opens the door for more descriptive play. If your group wants to play Infernals and also likes lots of opportunity for well meaning description then this will work out great. If they’re a little more mechanically enthused or have trouble with description then this may pose a challenge in play.
Charm trees aren’t based around Attributes or Skills but around individual Yozi. This gives them very strong themes which make their origin obvious to any observer. Unfortunately, while I love Exalted I just don’t have the head for Exalted mechanics that many forum residents do. The folk I play with are pretty casual in their approach to RPGs, so if you want consideration of Charm and mechanical balance your best bet is to hit the forums and find out what works well and what doesn’t. For my part I find the Charms to be flavorful, though I do feel like there’s a little overemphasis on the Yozi patrons. While all Exalted types have Charms that reinforce a theme, my belief here is that the way the First Excellencie are implemented along with the split by Yozi results in just too much focus on a given Yozi.
Allow me to provide a few Charm examples to illustrate how the Charms are both really neat but also follow a Yozi theme. Consider, for example, Transcendent Desert Creature which is the base for all of Cecelyne’s (the Endless Desert) Charm Trees. The Charm is always on and provides significant bonuses to desert survival, effectively transforming the character into a complete master of the desert. This is essential for actually journeying across Cecelyne (don’t forget that Yozi are also geography in Hell) but could result in the character having significant advantages in Creation. What’s most notable, though, is that since this Charm is the key to a number of trees a character can quickly mix and match a wide variety of Charms from the get go.
Another thematic example that I mention because, frankly, it’s simple enough to easily explain in a review is Faster Than Sight. Adorjan’s gifts focus on the speed of wind, and with this Charm active (5m) a character is invisible and inaudible along with being untrackable. The Charm is a Velocity Charm and so ends if the character stops moving. I like it a lot, thematically, because it results in the character becoming the wind and traveling appropriately.
Please do be aware that some of the Charms can be quite hideous and deal with the sorts of atrocities you would expect a champion of Hell to commit.
Chapter Six Wonders of the Demon Realm - 37 pages.
While the Charms can be quite vile, even the weapons and armors used by the Green Sun Princes are tainted by Hell. Many Infernal Relics are constructed from transmogrified demons while a substance called Vitriol allows Infernals to use weapons made of the magical materials, though they will eventually decay. New mecha, Hellstriders, are included alongside sapient artifacts that offer a great deal of power so long as the user obeys a new Urge attached to the artifact.
Chapter Seven Storytelling - 12 pages.
My interest in Infernals waned when I saw how inhumanly evil they are. Being bad guys, even pretty screwed up bad guys, isn’t the issue so much as how difficult they seem to be to involve in an Infernals campaign. I was really hoping that the Storytelling section might bring it all together for me, but this wasn’t the case.
In fact, this chapter seems out of touch with the rest of the product. Sections on the characters being good guys just don’t mesh with the murdering, raping champions of Hell that have had every bit of humanity stripped away after receiving a corrupted essence from the bloated womb of a child. If you’re going to use Infernals then approach it with a few ideas in mind to begin with. Don’t expect a lot of help here.
My Take
On their face the Green Sun Princes are very neat. Champions of Hell serving the Yozi in a whole new era of war on Creation, these characters are the rock star warlords of a twisted and defiled world. As a resource for Storytellers who want to corrupt existing characters or introduce villains to a group that has grown tired of the Abyssals the book provides plenty of resources.However, as for playing the Infernals as protagonists I think this product has some serious problems. As presented the Infernals are completely one dimensional, committing atrocity after atrocity with little possibility of conflict except with agents of Creation. I wish there was more emphasis on some sort of existing conflict within the characters, or better options provided for characters that have a lot of interesting personal issues going on. As it stands it’s hard to imagine an Intimacy that will last beyond initial contact with the Infernal except for negative Intimacies or anything already aligned with Hell.
If you’re a Storyteller then pick this one up for some more antagonist options (if you need them). If you want to play another type of Exalted, however, then be prepared to take on the mantle of a champion of Hell willing (and desiring) to perform the most heinous acts in the service of the Yozi.
