Lunars
In Exalted, Lunars are characters blessed by the fickle incarna Luna, which gives them the power to shift their bodies at will and take various animal and (at higher levels) elemental forms. They are basically furry demigods. Crunch-wise, they are less powerful but more versatile than Solars, since their Charms are based on their Attributes instead of their Abilities. They can also transform into a half-man half-animal all-rape machine called warform which, with the right Charms, puts them almost on par with a Dawn Solar.
Lunar Fluff
History
When the gods wanted to rebel, the Unconquered Sun threw a hissy fit and demanded that all the other Exalts bowed to his. Luna agreed with a shit-eating grin and arranged that each Lunar exaltation was magically and deeply bound to a particular Solar exaltation. Sol was pleased, since that meant the Solars had the power to command the Lunars. Luna was pleased because if one Solar tried something stupid, the other 299 Lunars could wreck his face.
When the Usurpation happened, some Lunars were killed along with the Solars. Most, though, ditched the mad assholes their mates had become and ran far away from the Blessed Isle. But then they realized that the coup was staged by Sidereals since they came knocking on all their hiding places. So the Lunars figured that the best way to escape fate-tracking assassins was to go where there was no fate at all, and jumped into the Wyld. Since the Wyld is not kind to Creation beings, even the Lunars started suffering its corruption, shifting even their exaltations, making them lose control of their body shapeshifting powers (which, as the Intelligence excellency suggests, includes their brain) unless they get rad moonsilver tattoos.
In the time the game happens, the Lunars are mostly busy trying to create a human society that doesn't need Exalted to function, and also having sex with everything to create beastmen.
Exaltation
While Solars exalt when they try to do something awesome, Lunars exalt when they survive an extreme hardship and they choose to keep going. Your city gets destroyed, leaving you stranded in the wilderness with no place to go, but you decide to carry on surviving? Exaltation. You're surrounded in a battle, with no hope of escape, but keep fighting? Exaltation.
And yes, we are aware that you are now thinking about furry Spartans.
Lunar Games
Full Lunar Party
Assuming your gaming group isn't a bunch of horny furries, games of this type could easily become awesome stories of society-shaping, Dynast-impersonating, espionage warfare action. Or they could just fuck everything that moves.
Lunars in mixed parties
Lunars are to Exalted as Bards are to D&D. They tend to attract a huge quantity of that guys because of their ability to shapeshift into every fetish in existance. Storyteller approval and close inspection are recommended. Never, never, never let a Solar player bring his girlfriend to play as a Lunar. Trust me.
Protips
- Lunars can work in a lot of different ways depending on individual charm/shapeshifting knack focus
- The book tells you to get the Ox-Body Technique Charm as many times as possible, as extra health levels are needed against some of the more powerful enemies in Exalted. This is a grotesque lie. Having a large essence and Willpower pool and therefore the ability to use many magical dodge-anything Charms gives you dramatically better value. (Slightly fixed as of the Scroll of Errata, but increasing your pool of magical power is still better value for most characters than purchasing Ox-Body Technique.)
- New players might find their attribute based charms confusing. THe official White Wolf Wiki have good index-pages of lunar charms, divided into groups ordered by theme and concept (Combat charms, social charms, and so on)
- Hybrid Body Rearrangement, a knack, is your friend (Allows you to shift only the parts of your body that you want. It's less funny that you think to change those parts though)
See Also
Terrifying Argent Witches, a homebrew version of Lunars
| Exalted Classes |
|---|
| Solars - Lunars - Sidereals - Dragon-Blooded - Infernals - Abyssals Alchemicals - Liminal - Getimian - Exigents - Fair Folk Jadeborn - God-Blooded - Mortals |