False Images

by Aaron Rosenberg, Lauren Roy, Onyx Path Publishing

Novia Claro made him up to cover her own tracks while she investigates the murders of Hushanti's priests in Nexus. He's a convenient ruse, a rumor to spark the people's imaginations, distract them from her actions, and nothing more... until the day he bursts forth from the river and offers Novia his help.

Now he's hunted by several Dragon-Blooded, and Novia has to figure out whether she can trust him or if she'll end up as just another body left in his wake.

This novel was made possible by the backers of the Exalted 3rd Edition Kickstarter.

202 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 13, 2019

About the author

Aaron Rosenberg is an award-winning, bestselling novelist, children’s book author, and game designer. He's written original fiction (including the NOOK-bestselling humorous science fiction novel No Small Bills, the Dread Remora space-opera series, and the O.C.L.T. supernatural thriller series), tie-in novels (including the PsiPhi winner Collective Hindsight for Star Trek: SCE, the Daemon Gates trilogy for Warhammer, Tides of Darkness and the Scribe-nominated Beyond the Dark Portal for WarCraft, Hunt and Run for Stargate: Atlantis, and Substitution Method and Road Less Traveled for Eureka), young adult novels (including the Scribe-winning Bandslam: The Novel and books for iCarly and Ben10), children's books (including an original Scholastic Bestseller series, Pete and Penny's Pizza Puzzles, and work for PowerPuff Girls and Transformers Animated), roleplaying games (including original games like Asylum and Spookshow, the Origins Award-winning Gamemastering Secrets, and sections of The Supernatural Roleplaying Game, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and The Deryni Roleplaying Game), short stories, webcomics, essays, and educational books. He has ranged from mystery to speculative fiction to drama to comedy, always with the same intent—to tell a good story. You can visit him online at gryphonrose.com or follow him on Twitter @gryphonrose.

Reviews

[Marco · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the stretchgoals of the Exalted 3rd Edition Kickstarter, and as such it took the book quite a while to come out. But it is a much, much better introduction to the World of Exalted than the anthology that preceded it.
The story deals with Novia Claro, the new edition's Night Caste signature Solar and takes place in the city of Nexus, a place probably rather well-known to players of the game.
As a fixer for the syndicates controlling the underworld (lower case!), most of what Novia deals seems rather pedestrian until she happens to encounter a new character who wasn't supposed to exist, as she had just made him up a few days previously to cover for her own actions. By following up on him, while still dealing with her normal duties, Novia gets drawn into events that turn out to be interconnected parts of a bigger conspiracy.
Aaron Rosenberg introduces a few of the other Exalted types into the story, most notably one of the two new to this edition of the game, and manages to weave all the seemingly disparate or unimportant events of the book together into a satisfying whole, though the final reveal of the story is a bit predictable if one knows the setting. Or maybe it is just well-prepared. In any case, Novia is left more confused than the reader.