Creation

Creation is the world of Exalted. Being a highly magical environment, Creation is a very different environment than a planet.

Geography
Creation is flat, roughly rectangular area about 10,000 miles by 8,000 miles, surrounded on all sides by The Wyld. At the corners of Creation are four Elemental Poles: Fire to the South, Air to the North, Wood to the East, and Water to the West. At the center of creation is the Elemental Pole of Earth, which comprises a giant mountain on the Blessed Isle.

The Blessed Isle is a giant continent (approximately 6 million square miles) at the center of Creation. The rest of Creation is influenced by its corresponding elemental pole: the North is cold and icy, the West is dominated by oceans broken up by archipelagos, the South by deserts and the East by steadily denser forests. As a traveler approaches a pole, the environment gets progressively more hostile to life.

Creation is dotted with several features unique to the Exalted setting, these include Gates To Yu-Shan, Shadowlands and Wyld Zones.

Creation is continuously under assault by the Wyld, which views Creation as a form of pollution - a zone of stability in a sea of infinite malleability. As a result, Fair Folk regularly invade and try to reclaim Creation, most notably after the Great Contagion. The rulers of Creation use a variety of engineering, combat and investment projects to protect Creation from these assaults.

History
Creation was created from the Wyld by the Primordials Gaia and Cytherea. In the time before the First Age, the Primordials created Creation and Yu-Shan, dwelling in Yu-Shan while letting the Gods administer from the Blessed Isle. During the Revolt Of The Gods, Creation was damaged by the Primordials. After the Revolt Of The Gods, the Primordials were exiled and Creation's administration was taken over by the Gods, who largely handed over day-to-day affairs to the Exalted before retiring to Yu-Shan.

During the Solar Deliberative and the Shogunate which succeeded it, Creation was maintained through a variety of methods ranging from colonization at the borders to the institutions of economic controls. In general, Creation's greatest enemy at the time was the Wyld, and anything which promoted stability and security stopped the Wyld.

Until the Great Contagion, Creation remained relatively stable, after that plague the Fair Folk launched an unprecedented assault on Creation that culminated with attacks on the Blessed Isle. The Fair Folk were defeated when the Scarlet Empress activated the weapons in the Imperial Manse, but they did not fully retreat. As a result, Creation is considerably smaller than it was at its height in the First Age.

Natural Processes
Creation is basically a gigantic artifact constructed by the Primordials, as a result natural process and physical law are very different from what one encounters in most other games. Almost all natural phenomena are handled by a huge number of largely corrupt Gods; this means that features like the weather are manipulated by weather gods, who can be propritiated and bribed. Similarly, the Wyld implements a natural-selection style mechanism on Creation, resulting in accelerated evolution at the Wyld Zones.

The governments and religions of Creation are perfectly aware of the interference of Gods in their daily life, which results in a strange blending of economic and physical affairs. An example of this is the Salt Rate in the Realm. The Prime Rate for realm banking is the tithe charged on salt by the various Little Gods of the Blessed Isle; while this rate was originally set by each God, the procedure was eventually institutionalized by the Scarlet Empress], who would formally change the rate through a sacrifice at the [[Imperial City.  The Salt Rate was manipulated ruthlessly by the Empress who, by virtue of her capacity to bully the local Salt Gods, was able to manipulate physical law.  More egregious examples include the manipulation of Fate through Sidereal Astrology, and Authochthon's own manipulation of Fate to hide himself from Creation.

References And Inspirations

 * Map Of Creation
 * The concept of a world carved out of primordial Chaos has appeared in several books and games, most notably Master Of Chaos by Michael Moorcock. The Young Kingdoms are created out of Chaos by heroes.  Earlier versions of the Stormbringer rules system include gameplay instructions for this.