Bear in mind that this information is mostly intended to form a backdrop to the world, so please don’t be put off if you don’t understand half of it! I’m planning on posting more explanations. Elfie -- I told you this would be bare-bones, but there’s only so much you can strip off! Scary.

Have a little extract from the rulebook to start, though I'll not be quoting this too much I think, as it has a very... long-winded style at times. Not that I'm the most concise of people


“Exalted is set during the Second Age of Man. The First Age was a golden time of peace and harmony, when men anointed by the gods ruled the world with an even and benevolent hand. These beings were known as the Exalted, and they were given their powers in the time before history to fight against the enemies of the gods.
When the Exalted were created, they were of two sorts -- Terrestrial and Celestial. The Celestial Exalted were the Chosen of the great gods and could command the power of the heavens, but their power was too great to travel through the blood. Instead, when one individual died, his or her power was manifested into a new individual -- reincarnation, but into a mature adult rather than a newborn. The Terrestrials, also known as the Dragon-Blooded, where the chosen of the elemental dragons. They were less powerful but more numerous, as their children stood a good chance of becoming Exalted when then entered puberty.”

The rulebook has a lot to say about the first age, but the basic information, the need-to-know stuff, is this:

The rulers of Creation in the first age were the Solar Exalted, associated as I guess you would expect with the sun, and more specifically a deity called the Unconquered Sun. The other kinds of Exalted are Lunars, associated with the moon, Sidereals, and Dragon-Blooded. These formed the ruling classes, with Sidereals frequently acting as advisors to Solars, and Lunars often being their consorts. Dragon-Blooded were in fact the soldiers of the Realm. Everything was peachy for a while, but the Solar Exalted ended up on the receiving end of a curse from powerful enemies of the gods, and things went bad, with the Solars essentially carrying out a reign of terror. The Dragon-Blooded, acting to save the butts of themselves and everyone around them, had a big uprising and slew the Solars.

I could be making this sound tons more poetic, couldn’t I? But there’s less to read this way, so deal with it.

Anyway.

From here on in, things go from bad to worse for some time -- first, there’s widespread plague, referred to as the ‘great contagion’. 9 out of 10 people die. As a fun follow-up to this, various nasty creatures invade, such as the Fair Folk (these are not nice fairies, people), and threaten to overrun the World of Creation. They were able to do this because most people were dead, and the Realm’s defences were unmanned. Just in time, a Dragon-Blooded woman managed to gain control of the defences, and turn back the Fair Folk and the chaos they bought.

This woman was able to set herself up as Empress of Creation, and ruled for around 800 years. The Dragon-Blooded Exalted became the most powerful by sheer weight of numbers; although the Sidreal exalted, who are known to be cunning and manipulative, are thought to have lurked on and manipulated things behind the scenes. Measures were set up to prevent the return of the Solar exalted: the teachings of the Realm set them up as completely evil monsters known as the Anathema, and the force known as the Wyld Hunt was set up, with the purpose of destroying any Solars it discovered. The Wyld Hunt is very, very efficient, so while the Empress reigned no Solars of significant power were around. The Lunar Exalted that are left are essentially insane, twisted, and often quite umm.. bestial. They lurk on the borders of Creation, in areas where reality is less fixed than elsewhere, which are known as the Wyld. This is very different to the wild. The two should... not be confused.

During this period, another kind of Exalted emerged. It’s not really known if they even are true Exalted, but they appear to manipulate the world in a very similar way to other Exalted. They are the Abyssal Exalted, who serve Deathlords -- creatures of the underworld, they are moving into the world of Creation -- another threat the the world. There’s a lot of it about.

The time in which we play is a period of chaos. Around five years ago, the Empress vanished in mysterious circumstances. There was no real mechanism set up for replacing her, as she never expected it to be needed, and so the Realm is on the verge of civil war. Various offshoots of the Imperial house are eyeing the throne with great interest. The most important upshot of this from our point of view is that this has led to a great deal of chaos in official organisations. Such as, for example, the Wyld Hunt. For the first time in several hundred years, a Solar who has recently Exalted has a chance to survive for long enough to learn to use his or her powers; and in fact, Solars are reappearing in large numbers, as though this lapse has been noted by the powers as a chance for the Solars to regain their rightful place.

Most people will play a Solar Exalted who has come into his or her power within the last five years.