| Fair Folk (exalted) |
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OVERVIEW In the beginning of time, Creation , the world, was created out of the '''Wyld''', the mutable murk of dream-stuff. The natives of the Wyld, taking affront to this island of order in their infinite sea of beautiful chaos, immediately attacked this blasphemous stability in a war called '''the Balorian Crusade'''. The leaders were '''Prince Balor of the Terrible Gaze''', '''Princess Melusine of the Glittering Train''', the '''Duke of Mirrors''', the sisters '''Incarnadine''' and '''Veridian''', and lastly the '''Thief of Words'''. The invasion would have been successful, had the woman who would become known as the '''Scarlet Empress''' not puzzled out the long-forgotten secrets of the slain ''' Solar Exalted ''' and repelled the invasion. The above story may cause some confusion, as it dates the formation of this brief Crusade at the very beginning of the First Age, untold thousands of years ago, and the same Crusade's failure at the beginning of the '''Second Age''', a mere seven centuries ago. This contradiction seems not to bother the Fair Folk. Unfortunately for the invaders, those who entered Creation were immediately forced into relatively stable minds and bodies. Knowing the pure Fair Folk would despise them as polluted creatures, these new beings, the raksha, retreated to the borderland between Creation and the '''Deep Wyld'''. They called this the kingdom of '''Rakshastan''', which was comprised of an inner ring, the '''Bordermarches''', and a much wilder outer ring, called the '''Middlemarches.''' GAMEPLAY The Fair Folk are immortal, capable of being slain by their species again and again, however, a raksha slain by someone from Creation remains permanently dead. They are capable of shaping the Wyld into nearly anything they can imagine. Raksha have no need for food, drink or sleep. They feed on the Virtues of mortals and thrive on excitement and melodrama; to a raksha, boredom is terrifying. They are an alien race, merciless and wild, congregating in courts and households governed by many Byzantine laws. Many raksha are stronger, faster, smarter and more charismatic than even those Exalted by the gods. All mortals possess four Virtues, as well as Willpower. Raksha share these qualities, but they also have corresponding Graces, which are actually '''feeding maws''' designed to devour the corresponding character trait.
(Note that, if you change the ring to a pentacle, the first four Graces correspond to the suits of the Tarot .) Common raksha are divided into four equally-important castes, depending on their strongest Grace. (The Heart Grace doesn't count in this reckoning.)
Noble raksha are likewise divided into twelve castes, depending on their first and second strongest Graces.
All raksha have access to Charms of assorted types, ranging from '''Heart-Stealing Kiss''' to '''Limitless Wealth Conjuration Technique''' to '''All-Consuming God-Monster Stance'''. In addition, many raksha can master the art of '''reality shaping''', which allows them to do very nearly anything, though others are capable of rejecting the new reality. One chapter of the book also deals with the Mountain Folk, dwarf-like Wyld natives who were trapped in the very center of Creation and reformed as beings of timeless stability. CRITICISM The Fair Folk can be seen as one of the most divisive topic in Exalted Fandom. While many fans of Fair Folk (Most largely seen as fans of the major contributer of the Fair Folk, Rebecca Sean Borgstrom) cite the focus on the artistic quality over the game mechanics and grandiose style of gaming it is intended for, while critics often point out what they see as overly complicated rules and lack of compatiblity with the rest of the Exalted Types. As well much controversy has stemmed from the editors decision to change the name from Faerie to Raksha, which is seen by some as an unnecessary Retcon . However, with the release of Exalted: Second Edition, and finding no reference to ''Raksha'' within, it can be assumed that Raksha is only the name that the Fair Folk use to refer to themselves as, and are otherwise known as ''Fair Folk'' within Creation. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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