Exalted: The Lunars

This book, published in late 2002, detailed the third Exalt type to be rendered playable.

The Lunar Exalted, perhaps, hearken most back to the "Before there was a World of Darkness" Tagline. While the correlation between the Hunters of Hunter: the Reckoning were the first to mention the game, with the title characters being lesser things than the Solars once were, the Children of Luna have the clearest ties, in many ways. Natural shapeshifters with an animalistic bent, often warlike and eschewing civilization, tied to the moon and prone to fits of unwanted and occasionally destructive animalistic behavior, the Lunar Exalted connect on many levels to the Fera of Werewolf: the Apocalypse.

In the First Age, the Lunar Exalted were the counterparts of the Solars, capable of being ferocious and terrible while by and large the Solars were free to be shining and beautiful god-kings. Often, whether by personal attraction or political alliance, the two wed, and even today the Lunars remember their time as spouses of the Solar Exalted. These memories are somtimes fond and sometimes terrible, but the result is the same on at least one level: the Lunar Exalted rarely react with ambivalence to the reincarnation of their First Age Spouses.

It is implied that there was a certain amount of complicity from the Children of Luna. Whether this is fleeing rather than protecting their spouses, deliberate ignorance, outright conspiracy, or a case-by-case mix of the three is not fully detailed, and perhaps best left to the imagination of individual Storytellers. A great number of the Lunars survived by fleeing to the edges of Creation.

At the edges, the Lunars were forced to change themselves on a more thorough level than had been accomplished before--the Wyld loosened their minds and their shapechanging abilities, until many completely succumbed and became Chimera, mad and protean things that could only be killed, their spark of Exaltation passed on to a new host.

The protean nature of the Lunars was apparently always at the forefront: even in the First Age, they needed to earn their caste, being Casteless up to that point. Overexposure to the Wyld, however, could and did wear this away, and it was only as the whole matter seemed lost that certain No Moons discovered a solution.

Rituals that involved scarification and tattooing with Moonsilver were devised to maintain their shapes, sanity, and castes, though at a certain cost. No force save the Lunar's own charms (not even Sorcery enacted by the Lunar him or herself) can change the lunar's form at all. Also, three of the castes of the Lunars were lost: The Waxing Moons, Waning Moons, and Half Moons were combined into a single caste that took a little from the social prowess of all three: the Changing Moons. Comparatively, the warrior Full Moons and sagacious No Moons are relatively unchanged. Thus, unlike all other Exalt types, the Lunar Exalted are today divided into three castes instead of five.

A few Lunars from the First Age still survive--the Usurpation was to wipe out the Solar Exalted and their children. Leviathan, Tammuz, Raksi, Lilith, and Ma-Ha-Suchi are each given some level of detail in the course of this book (although the last two had already appeared as early as the Exalted Core Rulebook).

There are new Lunars, of course--unlike the Solars whose Essences were locked in the Jade Prison, the Lunars have been free to reincarnate again and again, despite the Wyld Hunt going after them as often as it can: the barbarian raids often attack Realm tributaries, and thus put a dent in the coffers of the Dynasty.

While a Lunar may add to her library of forms freely, consuming the Heart's Blood of animals and people she slays to take their form later, expenditure of Essence can force her to revert to her true forms: Her human shape, the form of her totem animal, or a bestial humanoid hybrid. The two nonhuman forms come from charms: Finding the Spirit's Shape is possessed by almost all Lunars, and is the prerequisite to Deadly Beastman Transformation, granting the final "True Form." Other charms allow for freely changing details about these true forms, from hair and eye color to sex.

In addition to the moonsilver tattoos (which can be covered up with yet another charm, barring minimal Essence expenditure), a Lunar may be identified by their Tell, a trait that remains constant through all their forms and may be used to identify them.

Also well-detailed in the Lunar hardcover is a tribal network called the Silver Pact, a Lunar meritocracy that upholds the virtues of Cunning, Glory, Succor, and Mettle. Not all Lunars are a part of this society--or even barbarians. Luna values the tenacity to survive and overcome adversity more than anything else, and many exist in the cities.

Play Notes:


 * Exalted: the Lunars was until recently among the Exalted hardcovers unique, in that as opposed to charm prerequisites being based on Ability scores, their charms are based on Attributes. Given that the Lunar Exalted's 3-caste system aligns well with the tripartite attribute spread, much like the other Exalts 5-caste system meshes with the 5x5 ability spread, it has been posited by fans that to First Age Lunars, this may not have always been the case--a thorough warping of all the Essences] of Lunars, not just the three combined into the [[Changing Moons.


 * The Lunar experience point costs are often sharply debated in some parts of the player community. Deadly Beastman Transformation is generally cited as a justification for some of the most expensive charms in the game: while die-adder charms for other Exalted are limited to a given total, DBT adds dice to attributes that not only do not count against this limit, but in fact add to the total number of dice that can be added using such a charm.


 * Lunars often have success charms along with or in place of die-adder charms, converting dice to successes without rolling them.


 * Unlike other Exalts, Lunars run a risk of limit breaking regularly not owing to their actions or presence at certain emotionally-inciting events (though such things can contribute), but owing to the phase of the moon: when their patron goddess is full in the sky, they may begin to accumulate limit automatically, or even spontaneously break.


 * Beastment are often in the company of to Lunars; when a Lunar copulates with a human or animal, while himself in the opposite form, the result is a hybrid creature. Such things were apparently part of Old Realm society, but these days exist primarily as barbarians, often under the sway of their Lunar ancestor.  Such creatures are often God-Blooded Half-Castes as well, if their Exalted Parent was Essence 4 or higher.


 * Lunar Exalts may learn and create Celestial Circle Sorcery freely, and Celestial Martial Arts as well. Any artifacts that would allow one to practice Solar Circle Sorcery are rare to the point of being unheard of, and there is no known way for one to learn Sidereal Martial Arts.