What do you think?
Rate this book
Exalted
Youve Heard the Rumors
Before the Impergium before the Mythic Ages before the Sundering before there was a World of Darkness there was something else. And now it is revealed, at last. Come adventure in the Second Age of the World, the fantastic world of the Exalted.
Now Play the Game
Though thematically related to the modern-day World of Darkness, Exalted begins a whole new line of fantasy products from White Wolf. This hardcover rulebook invites you to become one of the Exalted, an heir to an Age of Heroes. Created to be saviors and Prometheans to humanity, the first Exalted were corrupted and slain by their own brethren. But now, new Exalted are being reborn into the Second Age of the World. Can you survive in a world that needs you yet reviles you? The fate of this new world is in your hands.
Before the Impergium before the Mythic Ages before the Sundering before there was a World of Darkness there was something else. And now it is revealed, at last. Come adventure in the Second Age of the World, the fantastic world of the Exalted.
Now Play the Game
Though thematically related to the modern-day World of Darkness, Exalted begins a whole new line of fantasy products from White Wolf. This hardcover rulebook invites you to become one of the Exalted, an heir to an Age of Heroes. Created to be saviors and Prometheans to humanity, the first Exalted were corrupted and slain by their own brethren. But now, new Exalted are being reborn into the Second Age of the World. Can you survive in a world that needs you yet reviles you? The fate of this new world is in your hands.
350 pages, Hardcover
First published August 6, 2001
2 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 21, 2014
Epic? Check. Anime-style? Check. Great background story? Check. Awesome antagonists? Check. Breathtaking setting? Check. Simple and elegant? Check. This is one of the best fantasy RPG's ever written, period.
Read
January 28, 2025How? A while ago, I got a good deal on a chunk of this game line, and then, over the years, found the other books. What books are those? These (which I'll break down into subsets):
CORE PLAY: SOLAR EXALTED
Exalted
Exalted Player's Guide
Exalted Storyteller's Companion
Caste Book: Dawn
Caste Book: Eclipse
Caste Book: Night
Caste Book: Twilight
Caste Book: Zenith
TERRESTRIAL EXALTED
The Dragon Blooded
Aspect Book: Air
Aspect Book: Earth
Aspect Book: Fire
Aspect Book: Water
Aspect Book: Wood
OTHER TYPES
The Abyssals
The Autochthonians
The Fair Folk
The Lunars
The Outcaste
The Sidereal
MAGIC
Savant and Sorcerer
The Book of Bone and Ebony
The Book of Three Circles
SETTINGS
Bastions of the North
Blood & Salt
Creatures of the Wyld
Cult of the Illuminated
Games of Divinity
Houses of the Bull God
Kingdom of Halta
Manacle and Coin
Ruins of Rathess
Savage Seas
Scavenger Sons
Time of Tumult
Tomb of the Five Corners
I am in the midst of trying to catalogue my collection, which includes reading and even selling some of the things. Is this collection a keeper or on the chopping block? I'm not gonna keep you on tenterhooks: it's a sale, if I can get my price.
What? I'm not sure I can put together a pitch for this game line, but I can easily put together some keywords: epic, fantasy, anime. So you could go into a ruin to gain treasure (the classic D&D action) or you could use your magical martial arts to destroy an army serving some illegitimate ruler. Rather than an alignment, you have a series of values (compassion, temperance, valor, something else) -- and you might get so compassionate, valorous, etc., that you become an uncontrollable force. (I keep imagining Akira exploding Neo-Tokyo.)
(We might also see threads of Greek demi-god mythology here, where heroes are so full of a feeling that they can't help but murder, etc.)
Let me try to pitch the core game: for hundreds of years(?), an empress has controlled most of the world with her iron grasp, including rooting out any sparks of corrupt divine power that are incarnated in people. But now the empress has disappeared, there's some palace intrigue while the imperial bureaucracy grinds on, and you, the PCs, are experiencing this divine power. Will you be able to help the people before the corrupt government finds and destroys -- or corrupts -- you?
That sounds fun, right? A sort of super-powered A-Team fighting against a bad government.
Of course, this being a game from White Wolf, there's no clear-cut morals. The government isn't totally bad, and of course there are warlords and things from the past that are bad that are also empowered by the power vacuum. And of course, this being White Wolf, there's a lot of sex and drugs and violence that's... kinda boring? And of course, this being White Wolf, there's basically no option for the PCs that isn't explored.
Like, in Vampire, they introduce the idea of playing as a vampire, but not one of the forbidden clans. Then they add the forbidden clans. Also, maybe you just want to play a human, like a hunter. Or maybe you want to play as a ghoul, a human with vampire powers.
So here: you can play one of the Solar Exalted, the original protectors of Creation, gifted by the most powerful god (after the gods threw down the titans), and then cursed by the titans. Or you can play one of the Terrestrial Exalted, the elemental dragon-blooded people who now run the empire. OR you can play one of the Sidereal Exalted, the fate weavers who turned against the Solar exalted because they saw how the Solar's curse would destroy Creation. Or you can play the Lunar Exalted, the shapeshifting animal people who fled into the untamed Wyld after the Solars were cast down. Or you can play the Fairies who have invaded creation -- or the Abyssals, the Exalted servants of the dead titans (or the titans who were cast out into Hell, I can't remember) -- or the mechanical people from one mechanical god who built a world for himself (out of himself) -- or the dragon people who lived in the first age, some of whom might still exist -- or you can play a regular or even heroic mortal. Or play a sorcerer.
There is, in a word, too much stuffed into this setting and game line, stuff that bulges out from the original pitch and the original set of keywords.
There is also a lot of setting, with books on different parts of the world, both geographic (the sea) and social (trade). There are also enough magic books to make their own subset in my ordering, which is interesting to me because one book is extra magic for the Abyssal exalted. (Did we really need that? Or is this just, like, because White Wolf had a lot of stuff that they could put here since they had an entire game line about ghosts?) And another book (Savant & Sorcerer) is meant to be a replacement for the earlier book (The Book of Three Circles -- unless I have that backwards) because, as they note, the original book wasn't well thought out or mechanically tested.
I'll add: there's a 2nd edition and a 3rd edition of Exalted, and I think there's a 4th called "Exalted Essence".
Yeah, so? When I was a kid, when I got one book a month, I would pore over that book, and write up all the adventure ideas I could think of, filling in every corner of the world or using every part. A new spell, a new magic item, a new monster -- everything was fodder for me. (Though, to be honest, most of my adventure ideas were things like "this monster causes trouble -- the PCs have to solve it!" Which is to say, first and minimal thought.)
So I want to acknowledge up front that flipping through hundreds and hundreds of pages and just getting the general gist -- that may not be the most _generous_ way to read this. And I want to be fair, so I want you to keep how much I skimmed in mind when I say that this line is everything that's wrong with White Wolf or even maybe roleplaying in the '90s (even though this was a 2000s game): the love of its own lore, the falling over itself to provide character options and sell splatbooks, and needless/puerile pushing the envelope.
There is, at heart, a good game here and a fun setup: anime/wuxia superheroes rising from the common folk to fight against an oppressive government during a Three Kingdoms-style breakdown and also facing weird mythological foes (the fair folk) and demons (the abyssals and yozi). Who do you ally with? Who do you trust? Can you do good before or in spite of the curse that will take you?
There might be other fun games here: pirates against imperial holdouts -- freeing slaves on a pseudo-Silk Road -- overthrowing the gods -- unearthing the crimes of the gods against their parents.
But, gah, we do not need to able to play as all these characters all at the same time. There may be an aesthetic reason or two to why this product line grew so much and so fast that they were replacing books before a 2nd edition even came out, but it feels like bloat.
CORE PLAY: SOLAR EXALTED
Exalted
Exalted Player's Guide
Exalted Storyteller's Companion
Caste Book: Dawn
Caste Book: Eclipse
Caste Book: Night
Caste Book: Twilight
Caste Book: Zenith
TERRESTRIAL EXALTED
The Dragon Blooded
Aspect Book: Air
Aspect Book: Earth
Aspect Book: Fire
Aspect Book: Water
Aspect Book: Wood
OTHER TYPES
The Abyssals
The Autochthonians
The Fair Folk
The Lunars
The Outcaste
The Sidereal
MAGIC
Savant and Sorcerer
The Book of Bone and Ebony
The Book of Three Circles
SETTINGS
Bastions of the North
Blood & Salt
Creatures of the Wyld
Cult of the Illuminated
Games of Divinity
Houses of the Bull God
Kingdom of Halta
Manacle and Coin
Ruins of Rathess
Savage Seas
Scavenger Sons
Time of Tumult
Tomb of the Five Corners
I am in the midst of trying to catalogue my collection, which includes reading and even selling some of the things. Is this collection a keeper or on the chopping block? I'm not gonna keep you on tenterhooks: it's a sale, if I can get my price.
What? I'm not sure I can put together a pitch for this game line, but I can easily put together some keywords: epic, fantasy, anime. So you could go into a ruin to gain treasure (the classic D&D action) or you could use your magical martial arts to destroy an army serving some illegitimate ruler. Rather than an alignment, you have a series of values (compassion, temperance, valor, something else) -- and you might get so compassionate, valorous, etc., that you become an uncontrollable force. (I keep imagining Akira exploding Neo-Tokyo.)
(We might also see threads of Greek demi-god mythology here, where heroes are so full of a feeling that they can't help but murder, etc.)
Let me try to pitch the core game: for hundreds of years(?), an empress has controlled most of the world with her iron grasp, including rooting out any sparks of corrupt divine power that are incarnated in people. But now the empress has disappeared, there's some palace intrigue while the imperial bureaucracy grinds on, and you, the PCs, are experiencing this divine power. Will you be able to help the people before the corrupt government finds and destroys -- or corrupts -- you?
That sounds fun, right? A sort of super-powered A-Team fighting against a bad government.
Of course, this being a game from White Wolf, there's no clear-cut morals. The government isn't totally bad, and of course there are warlords and things from the past that are bad that are also empowered by the power vacuum. And of course, this being White Wolf, there's a lot of sex and drugs and violence that's... kinda boring? And of course, this being White Wolf, there's basically no option for the PCs that isn't explored.
Like, in Vampire, they introduce the idea of playing as a vampire, but not one of the forbidden clans. Then they add the forbidden clans. Also, maybe you just want to play a human, like a hunter. Or maybe you want to play as a ghoul, a human with vampire powers.
So here: you can play one of the Solar Exalted, the original protectors of Creation, gifted by the most powerful god (after the gods threw down the titans), and then cursed by the titans. Or you can play one of the Terrestrial Exalted, the elemental dragon-blooded people who now run the empire. OR you can play one of the Sidereal Exalted, the fate weavers who turned against the Solar exalted because they saw how the Solar's curse would destroy Creation. Or you can play the Lunar Exalted, the shapeshifting animal people who fled into the untamed Wyld after the Solars were cast down. Or you can play the Fairies who have invaded creation -- or the Abyssals, the Exalted servants of the dead titans (or the titans who were cast out into Hell, I can't remember) -- or the mechanical people from one mechanical god who built a world for himself (out of himself) -- or the dragon people who lived in the first age, some of whom might still exist -- or you can play a regular or even heroic mortal. Or play a sorcerer.
There is, in a word, too much stuffed into this setting and game line, stuff that bulges out from the original pitch and the original set of keywords.
There is also a lot of setting, with books on different parts of the world, both geographic (the sea) and social (trade). There are also enough magic books to make their own subset in my ordering, which is interesting to me because one book is extra magic for the Abyssal exalted. (Did we really need that? Or is this just, like, because White Wolf had a lot of stuff that they could put here since they had an entire game line about ghosts?) And another book (Savant & Sorcerer) is meant to be a replacement for the earlier book (The Book of Three Circles -- unless I have that backwards) because, as they note, the original book wasn't well thought out or mechanically tested.
I'll add: there's a 2nd edition and a 3rd edition of Exalted, and I think there's a 4th called "Exalted Essence".
Yeah, so? When I was a kid, when I got one book a month, I would pore over that book, and write up all the adventure ideas I could think of, filling in every corner of the world or using every part. A new spell, a new magic item, a new monster -- everything was fodder for me. (Though, to be honest, most of my adventure ideas were things like "this monster causes trouble -- the PCs have to solve it!" Which is to say, first and minimal thought.)
So I want to acknowledge up front that flipping through hundreds and hundreds of pages and just getting the general gist -- that may not be the most _generous_ way to read this. And I want to be fair, so I want you to keep how much I skimmed in mind when I say that this line is everything that's wrong with White Wolf or even maybe roleplaying in the '90s (even though this was a 2000s game): the love of its own lore, the falling over itself to provide character options and sell splatbooks, and needless/puerile pushing the envelope.
There is, at heart, a good game here and a fun setup: anime/wuxia superheroes rising from the common folk to fight against an oppressive government during a Three Kingdoms-style breakdown and also facing weird mythological foes (the fair folk) and demons (the abyssals and yozi). Who do you ally with? Who do you trust? Can you do good before or in spite of the curse that will take you?
There might be other fun games here: pirates against imperial holdouts -- freeing slaves on a pseudo-Silk Road -- overthrowing the gods -- unearthing the crimes of the gods against their parents.
But, gah, we do not need to able to play as all these characters all at the same time. There may be an aesthetic reason or two to why this product line grew so much and so fast that they were replacing books before a 2nd edition even came out, but it feels like bloat.
May 14, 2016
★ - Most books with this rating I never finish and so don't make this list. This one I probably started speed-reading to get it over with.
★★ - Average. Wasn't terrible, but not a lot to recommend it. Probably skimmed parts of it.
★★★ - Decent. A few good ideas, well-written passages, interesting characters, or the like.
★★★★ - Good. This one had parts that inspired me, impressed me, made me laugh out loud, made me think - it got positive reactions and most of the rest of it was pretty decent too.
★★★★★ - Amazing. This is the best I've read of its genre, the ones I hold on to so I can re-read them and/or loan them out to people looking for a great book. The best of these change the way I look at the world and operate within it.
★★ - Average. Wasn't terrible, but not a lot to recommend it. Probably skimmed parts of it.
★★★ - Decent. A few good ideas, well-written passages, interesting characters, or the like.
★★★★ - Good. This one had parts that inspired me, impressed me, made me laugh out loud, made me think - it got positive reactions and most of the rest of it was pretty decent too.
★★★★★ - Amazing. This is the best I've read of its genre, the ones I hold on to so I can re-read them and/or loan them out to people looking for a great book. The best of these change the way I look at the world and operate within it.
November 17, 2022
A game that formed much of my expectation surrounding epic fantasy roleplaying, the lore and storytelling are magnificently put together. The rules and the fluff perfectly mesh to create a magical experience of high-fantasy adventure, with nods to anime and Wu-Shu cinema. Highly recommend for those seeking a new gaming experience, or for those who want to inject a hint of over-the-top flavor to your TTRPG.
The rules fall off somewhat at high level play, but by the time you've reached it the implication is you will have become comfortable enough with the systems to *design* your own complex interactions.
Seize the day - fight for glory and power. Are you going to be one of the Chosen?
The rules fall off somewhat at high level play, but by the time you've reached it the implication is you will have become comfortable enough with the systems to *design* your own complex interactions.
Seize the day - fight for glory and power. Are you going to be one of the Chosen?
April 22, 2023
An interesting setting with one of the best versions of White Wolf's Storyteller System.
December 2, 2012
This is the role-playing system that made me fall in love with table top gaming. The setting is rich and wide. Storytellers will having an easy time coming up with plots of any scope or challenge.
As a game it was completely unbalanced. Thankfully, they fixed that with the next edition.
There is an interesting passage at the very back of the book; the author encourages the players not to forget that there is a world outside of role-playing. That world may even be as real as the one inside our heads.
I think they should mandate that disclosure to be printed in the back of every role-playing book.
As a game it was completely unbalanced. Thankfully, they fixed that with the next edition.
There is an interesting passage at the very back of the book; the author encourages the players not to forget that there is a world outside of role-playing. That world may even be as real as the one inside our heads.
I think they should mandate that disclosure to be printed in the back of every role-playing book.
May 18, 2010
THis is a textbook example of an amazing setting made unplayable by a horrible system. I'm always on the lookout for system conversions for playing Exalted.
February 20, 2012
looked into this a long time ago. it seems like a good system but no one around is intrested in playing
February 6, 2016
Really neat gamebook - wonderful developed world with interesting fantasy concepts. I really liked the stories in the book. Worth picking up for my library.
February 3, 2008
The best game. Ever.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews