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

These determine the time and place of the group's escapades, and who they're near.

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.

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. Being Mobile be

• 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...

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.

Static Only

You don't deal with any of this if you're Mobile. Note that, for these purposes, being stuck on the surface of the Ocean counts as 'static'.

Features

Features of your land. This may cover a number of things, typically your demesne (or demesnes), and the material value of your land.

• Size: 5 points per Unit, or 1 point per Ship. A 'Unit' is about 50 square miles, and can hold one demesne. A ship is a ship, though presumably a good one, with a crew of 50 (and doesn't worry about the following). Players should only start with a handful at most.
  • Shadowland: -4 points per Unit. Your domain is within a Shadowland. In addition to problems of ghosts both hungry and annoying, you have half the normal number of heroic mortals available to you, and the automatic value they get from Natural Resources is halved. 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 per Unit. 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 per Unit. If zero, population is sparse: (120 + Fertility*40) people per Unit. If one, the region is populated - multiply result by 50. 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).
  • Demesne: -1 to 6 points per. Each Unit is assumed to have a 2-dot demesne, uncapped, by default (1-dot inside a shadowlands). 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. A single 6 dot demesne may be purchased for 15 points.

• Natural Resources: 0 to 28 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 for the following.
• ○○○○○○○○○○ - 0 points: The base assumption of resources results in about two jade obols worth of goods per person (about 60 silver dinars). Everyone in the party and under their rule gets this automatically - it's a cost of living and basic production thing. This represents a fairly nice life and a good standard of living - at least outside a shadowland. If players want a higher quality of life for their peasants they will need to devote resources to it.
• ●○○○○○○○○○ - 1 point: 16 jade obols worth of goods (one mina, or about 500 dinars) per year.
• ●●○○○○○○○○ - 3 points: 128 jade obols worth (1 bar, or 20 dirhams) per year.
• ●●●○○○○○○○ - 6 points: 1,024 jade obols worth (1 jade talent, or 5 silver talents) per year.
• ●●●●○○○○○○ - 10 points: 8 jade talents or 40 silver talents annually.
• ●●●●●○○○○○ - 15 points: 64 jade talents or 320 silver talents annually.
• ●●●●●●○○○○ - 21 points: 512 jade talents or 2,560 silver talents annually.
• ●●●●●●●○○○ - 28 points: 4,096 jade talents or 20,480 silver talents a year. Players will need to determine just what sort of thing is represented by this wealth. While true of the above, this goes well beyond a massive, rich mine.

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.