World Famous Comics: Manual of Exalted Power: The Infernals (Exalted)
Manual of Exalted Power: The Infernals (Exalted)
From: White Wolf Publishing Publisher: White Wolf Publishing Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 224 Publication Date: April 01, 2009 Studio: White Wolf Publishing
Product Description: A Guide to the Green Sun Princes Gifted by the Yozis with the corrupted Lawgiver Exaltations, the Infernals represent a new and terrible threat to the world and its Exalted defenders. Offered unimaginable power by the fallen architects of Creation to right their greatest failure, the Chosen of the Yozis operate with one shared goal, to transform Creation into Hell. Will the Infernal Exalted succeed at their diabolic mission, or the Green Sun Princes fall before the Chosen of the gods as their masters once did? A character sourcebook for Exalted , Second Edition, featuring: o Everything players and Storytellers need to generate Infernal Exalted characters, including their Charms o Details of the Yozis' prior servants: demon cultists, akuma and Demon-Bloods o Rules for helltech, an occult science dedicated to building wonders from vitriol and the essence of demons
Delightfully savage and innovative ^ To those who play Exalted 2nd ED, the Infernals are unlike anything you have played before. Their power is earthshaking, but it is also completely different than that of the other exalted. Their powers are based in the moods and whims of their patron Yozis. Rather than having several different charms for many different situations, the Green Sun Princes only have a few charms, but they all build upon each other cumulatively. Rather than simply growing in power with their essence to perform potent charms, they actually change the very nature of their being. Many, if not most, of their charms are permanent, actually altering the physiology and psychology of the characters.
More interesting is how they are portrayed in contrast to the other antagonists of the series. While the Abyssals are grim, fatalistic, and austere and the Fair Folk are aloof, eccentric, and alien, the Infernals have an unrivaled ferocity and savageness with a clear goal: Make Creation into Hell. They do not seek to destroy like their Abyssal cousins, but rather corrupt everything. The Yozis do not seek oblivion, but rather they want the world they created back in their control. They poison society and wreak havoc on the world around them and bring a little bit more of Hell to the world with each act they perform. Even if they must break the world in the process, they want to take it back.
To those who want to play as the greatest generals and soldiers Hell has to offer, this is an amazing book.
Strange terrible things are in this book... ^ If you are looking for an evil like that of the Abyssals, these folks are not it. Enter the Green Sun Princes: The chosen of hell. Gifted with the remade solar exaltations given to the yozis by the Neverborn, that, rather than being merely corrupted, they have been reforged into similar but at the same time very different forms. Their charms are based more off of the nature of the one of the Five Architects of the Reclamation: Malfeas, Cecylene, She who live in her name, Anhjoran, and, the Original Creature of Darkness himself, the Ebon Dragon. Their abilities tend to be very strange in some ways, like one from Malfeas that makes your character stop to sleeping and in stead live in a strange dream like state. Many have absolutely no analogue with their solar counterparts, save things like devil body, which is their version of ox body. when all is said and done, they are rather a sort of rock star evil as opposed to the more dour or depressive one of the Abyssals. In fact they are not capable of redemption like the Abyssals, as they are, in fact, heros of a sort, those of hell. Bombastic and inhumanly amoral, they are an odd and fun addition to the exalted setting.
Green Sun Princes at last! ^ Champions of Hell serving the Yozi in a whole new era of war on Creation, these characters are the Glamrock star warlords of a twisted and defiled world. As a resource for Storytellers (like me) who want to corrupt existing characters or introduce villains to a group that has grown tired of the Abyssals or does not like Abyssals in the first place, the book provides plenty of resources.
I do not think that Infernals come across and one dimensional as the Abyssals tend to be, and this book is, honestly, very good. While the Infernals as written are somewhat objectionable, committing atrocity after atrocity, an option for the Infernals to rebel without needing to be redeemed first, as it generally goes with Abyssals (and the Storytelling chapter reminds the reader).
The artwork as usual helps to get the mood across.
Evil made fun ^ With very few exceptions, products from white wolf tend to be equal parts good and bad. A thrilling idea ruined by either a fatalistic mood, or merely too many flaws to list to prevent players from ever actually playing something lighthearted.
Exalted: Infernals thankfully belongs amongst the exceptions. While the book makes a weak attempt at coming across as grizzly and macabre, it is quickly forgotten as the book is more or less about playing villains. The sort of villains you see in Bond-movies or memorable action films. The kind people remember and quote. This is a book about how to be the -right- sort of villain, and thwart the good guys' futile attempts at ruining your schemes of world domination. And it does a very good job of both making it possible, and making it fun.
In a market flooded by games of shining two dimensional heroes who try to do the right thing for no apparent reason, Infernals is a breath of fresh air, and a well written one at that.
Feel for the Bad Guys! ^ In the latest expansion for the Exalted tabletop RPG, we are finally presented w/ the Infernal Exalted!! I say finally, as Infernals were mentioned frequently throughout the last 8 years of books, but only in passing, no details provided... only shadowy myth and terrifying implication. Until now! Finally we get a book dedicated to the Green Sun Princes, as they are also called, that details their origins, their patrons, their might and mysticism and the mysterious helltech they employ in their nefarious plot... and don't ask for more detail than that. That would be spoiling the fun!
The book itself feels a little light in comparison to some of the other "fatsplats" we've seen from Exalted, but they've decreased font style slightly and decreased the margin size, so while the book feels thin, it is as dense w/ information as the other books (in fact, the Charms section is actually longer than the 2Ed lunars and sidereals charm chapters.)
I also not as impressed w/ the art this time around as I have been in past books... I don't know why, but i find myself constantly craving details or angles that weren't provided. What is there is certainly well done, but this is a White Wolf product and they've set the bar extraordinarily high in the art department, having employed some of the very best in modern fantasy art. Here, we get mini comics for each of the signature characters, but w/o that dense paragraph of information, I didn't feel like i got to know them as well as I did in books past. The narratives given in these mini comics though could each easily be turned into a chronicle, so to that end, they are unique to be sure.
For those not very familiar w/ Exalted, I will simply say, you'll need the core rulebook for Exalted's 2nd edition to fully play and understand this supplimental work... and then, you'll blame me for getting you hooked on the coolest RPG in a very long time. I can't say enough good things about the franchise, pick up these books if you enjoy tabletop RPGing at all... this game WILL entertain! In a world that has seemingly moved on to video games for recreation, tabletops really get to show off their strengths, because unlike a video game, a tabletop game is only constrained by your imagination and that that of your fellow players: Want to go on a crazy insect-monster hunt w/ giant magickal swords, jacked up power armor and Essence Cannons? Exalted can do that. Like your games full of puzzles and storied intrigue? Yup, Exalted can do that. Are you more the kind of person who likes a straight up fight hurling flaming energy spheres or rippling lightning racing down your hands, in a group or mano e mano? You guessed it, Exalted can do that too. Heck, if you're a fan of racing games, we have skyships, dinosaurs, fire breathing gondolas, and spectral horses... now what video game gives you options like that?
To conclude, Manuel of Exalted Powers: Infernals provides the statistics to flesh out these newest (and yet one of the oldest) types of Exalted and plenty of flavor material to get you in the mood to be the bad guys!
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