Anyway, like I said, this is a bit of a reimagining...
...the first Blood-Dimmed Tides game kind of got away from me for a couple of reasons. Mostly because I didn't communicate my vision for the campaign well enough, and I didn't really work with the players closely enough to make sure that they had characters that worked with my ideas for the campaign. The end result of this pretty much took my usual, at the time, gaming-style of having a rough idea for a campaign and improvising the specifics and hauled it behind a shed before putting one in the back of the head.
So!
Trying again, in a way.
The original idea, which I'll be returning to, for Blood-Dimmed Tides was a low-to-the-Earth game about tyranny and oppression. It's a game about exploited peoples, about far off elites bleeding the world for their own betterment and using its peoples as pieces in their own private dramas, about the low worth of human life in the games of the Exalted. The primary setting for this particular campaign is the West, but it ranges a bit, from the far off West and its scattered and varied Island Kingdoms... to the immense poverty of the slums of Wu Jian, a city with HORRIFIC levels of oppression despite it's vast importance as a trading point, where the people see absolutely NONE of the benefits of their own position in Creation and one cannot even find a decent meat-bun worthy of the name... to the Blessed Isle itself which teeters on the edge of Civil War due to the posturing and maneuvering of the Great Houses.
Another mini-setting, in a way, is The Depths of the Ocean.
(I'll talk more about the dictotomy between the Surface and the Depths later... I've been thinking about this a lot lately.)
This is a Lunars game, that has room for a handful of Solars, but which will primarily be focused on Lunar themes. This is a game about Vengeance and Vendetta, a game about not merely existing on the margins but making them your holdfast, a game about the thin line between Monster and Man. Weirdly enough, this is going to be an oddly Political game, or at least I'm going to attempt such. A large part of this worldbuilding document will be focused on building up the factions and alliances of the Silver Pact, and the various forces aligned against them, giving me some moving pieces to play with. One of the absolutely key figures in this campaign will be the First Age Elder, Leviathan, who passed most of the last Age brooding in his undersea holdfast until he was finally roused to action recently by the actions of the Realm.
Now, in Sunken Luthe, he has called for the Heroes of the Silver Pact and... amongst others.. the Players will answer his call.
Each for their own reasons, each with their own views of the world, each new to the the depths that they now find themselves in: both literal and figurative.
This isn't a Dragon-Blooded game, but, the Dragon-Blooded are here. This is a game about Greed and Desperation. It's a game about House Peleps, one of the most powerful of the Great Houses, which controls the unmatched might of the IMPERIAL FLEET. Might which the now missing Empress, on her empty throne, was using to teach the powerful House a harsh lesson in the cost of power--literally,--as she'd deprived the House of the means to actually fund that powerful force and hung it around their neck like a weight that would drag them down into the depths. A weight, in the form of House V'neef, which the other Houses continue to keep hung around the Peleps' neck in the hopes that they'll drown in deep waters.
It's a story about an empty throne, and long knives in the dark, about who will be King... about whose blood will water the fertile lands of the Blessed Isle so that the worthy can rule over all Creation..
It's a story about the Downfall of Empires, and how even a Dying Dragon is still very much dangerous, and liable to crush you in its death throes.
This isn't a Solar game, but, the Solar Exalted are returned after their long absence. The age-old King's have returned, but the Empire that they once ruled is dust and memories, their ancient seats held by the Dragon-Blooded who turn knives against their once-masters when they're not plotting against each other. Their power is not any diminished by time, but still needs time to mature, and it could be that once again Creation will quake under the passage of these long-fallen God-Kings. For now, though, the light of the sun is but dim and the ancient bonds have long since been broken. Still, one bond remains that is unbreakable, and though they have changed so much from what they were... Sun and Moon might yet stand together.. if they don't destroy each other.
Even the very wise, though, do not fully understand just what the return of the Solar Exalted portends.
Do they bring with them the Salvation of Creation... or it's final destruction.. and do their Mates even care anymore?
This is a game of tangled webs, of alliances and compromises, of oaths freely given and debts that are owed. The Silver Pact exists as a tenuous web of master and student, of favors and debt, into which the players will have to navigate and exist... and, well, the Lunars are but children in this compared to the Dragon-Blooded. The Great Houses live and breathe alliances,-- they form bonds of marriage, House to House, they enter into agreements and make plans in the shadows, they connive and manipulate,- all as much out of habit as to gain some advantage in the great contest before them. The Solars are strong in so many things, but, they need allies if they are to shine as bright as they must. Of course, where bonds of trust are built-- they can be cut,- and betrayal cuts deep... for honor can be a very imperfect shield against a broken oath.
The Blood-Dimmed Tides, after all, are so colored because of the blood of those who have felt the sting of betrayal.
Creation has already bled so much, yet it still has more blood to spill-- the Seers have seen the time when Creation is finally bled dry and they will do anything to avoid that fate,- even bring it about themselves.
This is an Exalted game. What Legends will they tell of your deeds?
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