As if I don't have enough irons in the fire.

Or test-tubes over the Bunsen burner. Maybe that's a better metaphor.

In the works (running in parallel with Creation is Burning) is Exalted: City of Darkness, which is an alternate-universe take on Creation. Imagine the guy who says "In a world..." at the beginning of the movie trailer. Now, say it with me:

"In a world... where the Primordials failed to hold back the creeping tides of Chaos. Where Autochthon's last desperate act to save Creation was to merge his Primordial essence with Mount Meru, the very axis upon which all the world spins. Where there once was a Blessed Isle... there is now the City of Darkness."

(cue Matrix music)

This is a kitchen-sink setting for a game line that lives and dies by kitchen-sink settings. The idea being that the Primordials' ability to spin order out of chaos was overmatched by Chaos's ability to go beyond order (or something like that). As Creation withered away, the Most Mighty and Ancients retreated to the Blessed Isle, and there made their last stand. In an effort to fortify the place, Authocthon merged himself with the Earth pole – and amazingly, his gambit succeeded... but at a price. As the Builder's spirito-mechanical soul merged with the land, nearly all facets of the landscape became reflections of his technological nature. Cart paths became maglev tracks: trees became utility poles. In one swift "Oh shit, we've converted the planet to stable strangelets" moment all of Creation that remained had changed. Where once stood grandiloquent Manses were now harsh-edged arcologies of stone and steel. In Mount Meru's place stood Authocthon's immanent Core, a megalopolis of sky-piercing crystalline towers. On the shores of the Blessed Isle sprouted adamantine walls, grim and grey and glassine.

And then the normal Exalted history we know and love/hate/ignore takes over from there. At its cold, cybernetic heart, Exalted: City of Darkness is but an excuse to get all the Exalt types under one roof, in the same game, with moonsilver sniper rifles and orichalcum hovercycles.

Also, there's a detective story in the works, tentatively titled Monkey. I am sorry to report it has nothing to do at all with real monkeys.

Ook ook!

Dr. Madu

Edited to add: "That movie trailer guy" mentioned in the link above is the inimitable Don LaFontaine, who died Monday, 01 September 2008.  It's the passing of a voice without a face.  I will miss you, Don.

"In a world... where voiceovers are not what they once were."