Editing Exalted (section)

====[[Abyssals|Abyssal Exalted]]====
By twisting the Solar Exalted Essences in a Monstrance of Celestial Portion, the Neverborn managed to create the Abyssal Exalted. Abyssal Exalted don't suffer from the Great Curse, but instead suffer if they act too nice to people. They are also kept on a short leash, since the dead Primordials aren't exactly pleased with the Exalted. Generally an Abyssal has two choices in life, be the grand villain or attempt to redeem themselves. Both suck for obvious reasons.

Abyssal Exalted charms are largely mirrors of Solar Charms with a darker aspect. As a general thing, where the Solar Exalted gain bonuses, the Abyssal Exalted force penalties on their foes. Their magical material is Soulsteel, the forged souls of ghosts who live in constant pain (and moan and stuff too). They generally fall into one of a few categories; Emo dicks, giggling psychotic mass murderers devoid of all redeeming qualities, and CRAAAAAAAWLING IIIIIIIIIIIIIN MY SKIIIIIIIIIIIN. There is a part of their soul that is still a Solar and it keeps reminding them of all the bad shit they do, and lots of them use it to be even more emo.

Fortunately, if they run into their Lunar Bondmate, they don't HAVE to suffer if they act too nice to him/her/it and/or those around him/her/it, and if they DO get to the "redemption" stage (BIIIIIG if), they don't have to worry about that pesky Great Curse anymore.

Unless, of course, their player took a look at the way that the Abyssals' development paths basically boil down to either 'devoted slave of the biggest dicks in existence' (which not everyone really wants to be) or 'the Abyssal whose one goal in life is to stop being an Abyssal' (which kind of misses the point) and said, "Fuck that noise, I'm going to be the biggest baddest ass in the underworld and the most horrifying thing in existence, no-one's going to tell me what to do, and it's going to be freaking AWESOME and metal and shit!" and proceeded to rewrite the rules until they could do just that.

Interestingly, this last part seems to be something that Third Edition seems to be running with. Abyssals are no longer slaves to their Deathlord, and are allowed as much free will as they desire to exert, because speculation indicates that Abyssals also no longer have a delete button (A monstrance) that their Deathlord can press if they start thinking too much. Additionally, there is nothing indicating any longer that Abyssals must kick puppies in their spare time to avoid becoming murder nukes. Much of their fate is speculation, but the direction that WW seems to be taking is to make them much more accessible as player characters in 3e than they were in 2e, where everyone pretty much universally agreed they were completely shitty to play. An Abyssal character is probably still not going to be building any orphanages, but at least he's no longer required to arbitrarily burn them down. Abyssals are also no longer required to genocide everything in their path for no reason other than Muh Death, as the Chivalry of Death replaces this compulsion with the imperative to "spread the influence of death to the living", a concept that is very open for interpretation (You can still do shit the old way, which makes people fear death and react with horror, but you can also cultivate positive interaction with the dead as well) since it now states that death itself is not the goal, but how much death influences the living mentally and emotionally.