Mass Exalt
So I had a ridiculous idea and I need to share it.
In Shards of the Exalted Dream, the book for Exalted 2e about alternate settings for the game, there’s a chapter entitled “Heaven’s Reach,” which is a space opera setting. Humanity reaches the limits of technological innovation in the purely physical realm until they discover Essence and use it as a source of power to create enhanced humans with a variety of seemingly supernatural abilities. Cue Exalted in space.
Of course, since I’m playing Mass Effect, I ended up thinking of this:In the year 2148, explorers on Mars discovered the remains of an ancient spacefaring civilization. In the decades that followed, these mysterious artifacts revealed startling new technologies, enabling powers previously deemed to be mythological. The basis for this incredible enhancement was a force that controlled the very fabric of space and time. They called it the greatest discovery in human history.
The civilizations of the galaxy call them...
THE EXALTED.
The basic structure of the world would remain the same, with the relays and so on, except instead of biotics and Element Zero allowing for mass manipulation, it’d be Exalts and Essence manipulation allowing for FTL. Ships can enter into hyperspace, a chaotic dimension of possibility where only a strong anima field can prevent the ship from dissolving into the surrounding madness, and jump from relay to relay. Jumping without using a relay is possible, but is much slower and ships have to periodically leave near a star in order to prevent hyperspace from eating away at their reality. That way, I get to keep the Wyld and use hyperspace as hell.
The Council races would have the most territory and Exalted. I’m a little tempted to add some of Exalted’s Primordial races, or at least use their appearance, for some of the minor one-note groups. Like, change the Volus to the ereta’een (the species that Autochthon ate whole and thus discovered soulsteel), the Hanar to the pelagials, or the Batarians to the hruggha. Asari, Turians, and Salarians could stay as is. Draw a bit on the Mountain Folk for the Quarians, and say that they’re on the run now because they experimented with beings drawn from hyperspace as a work force until those beings banded together in sufficient numbers and started showing signs of self-awareness, which lead to war, which lead to the migrant fleet. These “raksha” are a persistant danger to travelers in the Terminus Systems.
The Protheans are, of course, the Dragon Kings.
Reapers would draw on Abyssal iconography and motivations. Life is chaotic and messy and full of sorrow. We will grant you the peace of death, in which there is an end to suffering and fear. You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it. And husks are already space zombies, so...
I think this has potential.
In Shards of the Exalted Dream, the book for Exalted 2e about alternate settings for the game, there’s a chapter entitled “Heaven’s Reach,” which is a space opera setting. Humanity reaches the limits of technological innovation in the purely physical realm until they discover Essence and use it as a source of power to create enhanced humans with a variety of seemingly supernatural abilities. Cue Exalted in space.
Of course, since I’m playing Mass Effect, I ended up thinking of this:In the year 2148, explorers on Mars discovered the remains of an ancient spacefaring civilization. In the decades that followed, these mysterious artifacts revealed startling new technologies, enabling powers previously deemed to be mythological. The basis for this incredible enhancement was a force that controlled the very fabric of space and time. They called it the greatest discovery in human history.
The civilizations of the galaxy call them...
THE EXALTED.
The basic structure of the world would remain the same, with the relays and so on, except instead of biotics and Element Zero allowing for mass manipulation, it’d be Exalts and Essence manipulation allowing for FTL. Ships can enter into hyperspace, a chaotic dimension of possibility where only a strong anima field can prevent the ship from dissolving into the surrounding madness, and jump from relay to relay. Jumping without using a relay is possible, but is much slower and ships have to periodically leave near a star in order to prevent hyperspace from eating away at their reality. That way, I get to keep the Wyld and use hyperspace as hell.
The Council races would have the most territory and Exalted. I’m a little tempted to add some of Exalted’s Primordial races, or at least use their appearance, for some of the minor one-note groups. Like, change the Volus to the ereta’een (the species that Autochthon ate whole and thus discovered soulsteel), the Hanar to the pelagials, or the Batarians to the hruggha. Asari, Turians, and Salarians could stay as is. Draw a bit on the Mountain Folk for the Quarians, and say that they’re on the run now because they experimented with beings drawn from hyperspace as a work force until those beings banded together in sufficient numbers and started showing signs of self-awareness, which lead to war, which lead to the migrant fleet. These “raksha” are a persistant danger to travelers in the Terminus Systems.
The Protheans are, of course, the Dragon Kings.
Reapers would draw on Abyssal iconography and motivations. Life is chaotic and messy and full of sorrow. We will grant you the peace of death, in which there is an end to suffering and fear. You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it. And husks are already space zombies, so...
I think this has potential.