Exalted By Gaslight[]
Welcome to the Exalted By Gaslight wiki. This is a wiki for the Exalted By Gaslight campaign, run online. Its main purpose is to keep track of all major setting changes and details for a Creation with a dramatically increased technology level, specifically in the North. This is still currently a work in progress, and more information will be added to the wiki before the game begins. There is simply a lot to cover.
Introduction[]
Creation is far bigger, and far more empty. The Contagion wasn't *quite* so devastating. The Balorian Crusade didn't consume *quite* so much of Creation. With the rise of the Scarlet Empress to the De Factor ruler of Creation, more elements of the Shogunate were able to survive... though even those remnants are, slowly but surely, falling apart. Creation is bigger, yet smaller. It is possible for a mortal to journey from the edge of the South to the very tip of the North without it taking a lifetime, though the journey can still be harrowing. Part of the reason is that air travel is more common. Haslanti style airboats and dirigibles allow for bulk transport, while the aerial fleets of the Old Realm survive in far better conditions within Lookshy and the Realm. Along with mundane trains, powered by mere coal, are the elegant Essence Rails, which allow for extremely swift transport along local dragon-lines. These wonders, which are so firmly tied to the fortunes of the Great Houses, slowly but surely wear away.
All The Myriad Ways[]
There was the Primordial War. There was the Great Curse. There was the Usurpation. There was the rise of the Shogunate, and then the rise of the Realm. And then... there was the disappearance of the Empress, and the return of the Solar Exalted.
The Realm is far stronger, however. The Terrestrial population wasn't *quite* so devastated, and with more surviving First Age technology, their power is obvious. But by the same token, large amounts of Outcastes also pervade the Threshold, many of whom object to or refuse to recognize, the Empress's authority. Only the power of the Imperial Manse kept these elements firmly under the Isle's jade boot, and with that trump card gone, antipathy against the Realm is bursting forth. And with larger armies, and better weapons, the possibility of a devastating civil war seems imminent. Admiral Tepet Arada, commander of House Tepet's glorious Aerial Fleet, attempts to keep the satrapies of the north cowed, via explosive destruction of any and all rebel elements and unsubtle displays of Realm Power. With a largely intact, well maintained, First Age airforce, House Tepet is among the most likely of the Houses to grasp the Scarlet Throne. Unless, disaster should somehow befall them.
But the Realm is rapidly deteriorating. Their economic fortunes, so heavily tied up in the failing remnants of the First Age, are beginning to suffer. House Ragara's Essence Rails, for example, are falling apart and becoming almost impossible to maintain. House Tepet's Aerial Fleet is starting to fall apart. House Peleps' attempts at trade dwindles into nothing due to hard economic conditions. Thus, in an effort to maintain their power, the Great Houses are willing to resort to rather desperate tactics in order to gain an advantage over one another to take grasp of the Scarlet Throne. More and more equipment, manpower, and promising scions are being recalled to the Isle, while the satrapies do their best to keep an increasingly irate mortal population in check.
The Immaculate Order still maintains its pious and meditative nature. The Threshold is still a chaotic place, and gods of small and isolated communities tend to make improper demands. Despite antipathy for the Realm pervading the Threshold, the Order still remains a respected institution, in no small part due to the atrocities of the Anathema, especially the Solar Exalted, being well documented. Historical records, dating back from prior to the Shogunate, make evidence of Anathema depravity very hard to dispute, as the mad atrocities of the Solar Exalted were fastidiously recorded by the Shogunate. And should some scholars dig deeper, and find evidence that things weren't so clear, find their theories loudly refuted and their throats quietly cut for their trouble.
The Guild is still an economic powerhouse, not only through its vicious tactics and control of merchants, but also the knowledge of various First Age technologies. It is Guild contractors, who repair the Essence Rails, ensure the Aerial Fleet stays afloat, and so forth. The Realm is extremely good at keeping such knowledge secret, and is aided in this endeavor by a murder-cult that venerates the Maiden of Secrets and operates with the tacit approval of the Forbidding Manse of Ivy, an extreme deviation from Immaculate Dogma that would have likely been utterly annihilated if it wasn't so cursedly useful. The two organizations are blended together so tightly that they are, at this point, utterly undistinguishable, and is motivated largely by using their hidden knowledge for power and economic advantage.