Ars Exaltavi Domain Creation

The players of Ars Exaltavi will largely determine the flavor of the game via constructing their domain. This isn't necessarily a kingdom, it's merely something that they own as a group and communally own, and represents their overall standing - materially and socially - in Creation.

Characters bring fifteen (15) Construction Points to the table. They may purchase up to ten (10) more, at a cost of two bonus points each.

Setting

Year

The game will begin in the year 764. Until the the disappearance of the Scarlet Empress, the Bronze Faction was often aware of Solar Exaltations before they even occurred, and responded accordingly. At least one person in the group - if not the entire group - is known and agents are already on their way. The Bull of the North dies early in this year. The Bronze don't receive such a crippling blow, but the Tepet Legions are, at least for a time, shaken, though they didn't lose so many Terrestrials.

Place

Where you are. Again, most of these do not cost or grant points, except for beginning in the Blessed Isle - which gives a decent boost, 'cuz that implies a lot of pain about to happen.

• Blessed Isle: -10 points per player, +250 xp to all characters. If discovered, which is almost certain, the characters are looking at starting an unusually unified Realm Civil War very early.
• Mobile: 5+ points. You have a skyship, a teleporting fortress, a ship that sails across both land and sea, or possibly under... Being Mobile means more than just being able to sail around on a ship, it means you can go places in such a manner that purely mortal resources simply cannot follow.

Otherwise, pick one of the following. The implication is that the group will have an emotional connection to an area of their

• Ocean: Yarr! You work off of a boat. Ninja-Pirates? Maybe.
• Scavenger Lands: You are based somewhere inside the great river basin that flows into the Yanaze.
• East: This covers the heavily forested region far to the East.
• Southeast: The jungles and mountains of the Southeast, from the Bayou of Regret to Rathess.
• South: Lots of sand.
• Southwest: The jungles and other fun areas down here. Autocthonia may be saying hello.
• West: An island, or part of one.
• Northwest: Covers the northern islands of the West, out to the areas controlled by the Varajtul Cannibals.
• North: A little frozen place to call home.
• Northeast: Halta, Linowan, and a few others.

Land

You only purchase stuff here if you have a solid, static base of operations of one sort or another. Your territory does not have to be contiguous, of course, but it can help. Land is purchased in 'Units', each of which is treated on its own, acting as a single character when the need arises - see Ars Exaltavi Cooperation Rules.

Each unit costs 5 points, and represents an area of about 50 square miles. It can hold one Demesne, though if you hold other units, geomancy may have moved that demesne into another area. The following items are each purchased for a single unit of territory.

• Shadowland: -4 points. The area is within a Shadowland. In addition to problems of ghosts both hungry and annoying, the area provides half the normal number of heroic mortals. Fertility is rated at -2, for no points, and cannot be raised. Starting demesne ratings are reduced by one point, which may be bought back.

• Fertility: -2 to 2 points. This governs how lush and fertile your domain is. At the low end of the scale, it's a desert or wasteland, where only the hardiest of people survive. At the high end, it is thriving with life, both wanted and not.

• Population: 0 or 1 point. If zero, population is sparse. If one, the region is populated. There is one Heroic Mortal for every 50 people inside your domain (or per 100 inside a Shadowland), and one Heroic Mortal in 20 is highly talented (a god-blooded, powerful thaumaturge, etc). Note that these people can also be moved to another area, to help protect them better and direct more resources.
  • Fertility -2: 25 people, or 2,500 people if populated.
  • Fertility -1: 50 people, or 5,000 people if populated.
  • Fertility 0: 75 people, or 7,500 if populated.
  • Fertility 1: 100 people, or 10,000 if populated.
  • Fertility 2: 150 people, or 15,000 if populated.

• Natural Resources: 0 to 7 points. While, technically, there is no limit to the number of resources that your domain may hold, you do want to be able to defend them. A certain minimum level of resources is assumed, though the type can vary. The following applies annually. Note that I use 16 dirhams to the talent, which makes the dinar a bit more tolerable (still 400 dinars to the dirham). See Ars Exaltavi Domain Management for taxing rules.
• ○○○○○○○○○○ - The base assumption of resources results in about one jade obol worth of goods annually per person (about 30 silver dinars).
• ●○○○○○○○○○ - 2 jade obols worth of goods (about 61 dinars) per person per year. This is decent, if poor, living for most folk.
• ●●○○○○○○○○ - 3 jade obols per person (about 92 dinars) annually. Peasants in the Realm rarely surpass this wealth - communal taxes are painful.
• ●●●○○○○○○○ - 4 jade obols (~123 dinars) per person a year.
• ●●●●○○○○○○ - 5 jade obols (about 153 dinars) annually per person.
• ●●●●●○○○○○ - 6 jade obols (~184 dinars) per year per person.
• ●●●●●●○○○○ - 7 jade obols (around 215 dinars) per person annually.
• ●●●●●●●○○○ - 8 jade obols (one shekel, or about 246 dinars) per person a year.

• Demesne: -1 to 6 points. Each Unit is assumed to have a 2-dot demesne, uncapped, by default (1-dot inside a shadowland). For -1 point, it's reduced by one dot. For 1 point, it's increased by one. Players are free to group demesnes into 0-3 ratings as desired. A Unit with a 4-dot demesne costs 3 points, and one with a 5 dot demesne costs 6.

Relations

Friends

Yay, everyone wants friends! They come in all shapes and sizes. Namely, contacts, allies, and henchment.

Enemies

If you chose the Blessed Isle, you've already decided who to fight (good luck!). You may take up to one enemy per PC at the start.

Starting enemies grant between 1 and 10 points to the party. In all cases, these represent groups of people - even if one such grouping is followers of a Yozi or Deathlord. This means killing one isn't going to end the threat, and taking down the entire group is going to require effort even for a one point enemy, and may bring more. Note that these are the sorts of people whose motivation is "haet you" and have intimacies to match, for whatever reason, so converting them will be tough.

There are two potential sorts of enemies, orders and nations. The players get to choose which, the following descriptions represent something in between.

• ○○○○○○○○○○ - Mortal organizations are common. This represents a village of five hundred with about a dozen heroic mortals or so.
• ●○○○○○○○○○ - An organization with the resources of a small town of about five thousand - a hundred heroic mortals, with a handful or powerful ones and/or god-blooded.
• ●●○○○○○○○○ - Triple the above. They may have an outcaste in their ranks as well.
• ●●●○○○○○○○ - Continuing on the above pattern, they have the resources of a city of nearly fifty thousand, including a circle of outcaste dragon-blooded or equivalent.
• ●●●●○○○○○○ - The resources of a tiny kingdom, and have a small organization of relatively inexperienced dragon-blooded or equivalent supernatural force to back them.
• ●●●●●○○○○○ - A small kingdom with maybe a half million people under its sway, and have a more experienced or larger supernatural organization supporting them.
• ●●●●●●○○○○ - A mediocre kingdom with well over a million people. They have extensive supernatural assets, though not quite the backing of celestial exalted.
• ●●●●●●●○○○ - A large kingdom with some five million people. One or more celestial Exalted may come to their aid. The party's strength is estimated to lie between this and the next group.
• ●●●●●●●●○○ - A huge kingdom with around fifteen million people. They may have a circle of Celestials backing them, or an elder.
• ●●●●●●●●●○ - This represents being on the to-do-in list of a Deathlord, or a mighty true First Age Exalt with armies to match such as Raksi, Leviathan, or an elder circle of the Bronze faction. Lookshy, or one of the more powerful Great Houses of the Realm may also be represented.
• ●●●●●●●●●● - As above, but somehow you have deigned to become their top priority, or close to it.