Deathlords

Canonical Deathlords

Exalted Canon gives us 9 Deathlords, with histories, titles, details and servants. Canon leaves 4 Deathlords as blank slates to be filled in by the Storytellers of individual chronicles.

Non-Canonical Deathlords

The first edition Exalted core book (p. 75) describes two or three Deathlord ideas that have never been presented as any of the named canonical figures. Those descriptions are inspirations for Deathlord concepts:

Unused canonical description 1: "Some are alabaster angels, wrapped in wings of sobbing knife-edged steel, with diadems of pale white fire and glittering ruby orbs and scepters of hungry yellow gold upon their belts."

Unused canonical description 2: "and still others wear corpselike images of themselves as they were in death, wrapped in the cerements of the grave and stinking of their scented funeral pyre, the wounds of murder still fresh upon them."

The following also represents another description that has never exactly been used for a canonical figure, but I suppose it might be fulfilled in part by the description of the Bishop's unkind form, if you wish: "And some are no longer anything resembling human, having made the descent into the dark hallways under the land of the dead."

In my home game, I have various ideas for the unrevealed Deathlords, though I have not had any reason to include them "on-camera" so far. Importantly, to my players, something that is NOT on-camera yet may never, ever, ever, occur, as I may simply change my mind or come up with something entirely different. Some of my ideas, however, are:

The Emissary - The attributes of the Emissary of Nexus share much in common with those of a Deathlord. You can read other ideas I have about it, though on its own page: The Emissary.

The Windrider - I was inspired by one of the two descriptions of a hypothetical Deathlord in the original Exalted 1st edition book. This Deathlord is winged, and bears Artifacts of hungry gold and rubies. It might have been the Windrider of the Crypt of the Windrider (from the Abyssals 1st edition book). I am not saying that "The Windrider" is the full title of the individual; it is my placeholder.

The Wounded - This one was also inspired by one of the two descriptions of a hypothetical Deathlord from the original Exalted 1st edition book. This Deathlord bears terrible wounds on its body, which can never heal. It might have been a Dawn Caste.

The Lantern of the Far Shores - This Deathlord would reside somewhere far in the West, beyond the Silver Prince (and south of him anyway). She would bear a scythe with a great hook which holds a lantern. Her island would be a place of pleasure designed to rival that of Yu-Shan, yet tragically built of soulsteel. It is inspired by the false heavens of old Wraith: The Oblivion.

Nine is Enough

Alternately, I think a fine argument could be made that nine Deathlords is sufficient to plague Creation. Despite the vast size of the Exalted map, it seems like very little of it is utterly free of influence even with just the nine canonical figures. Could the "other four" simply be alternative identities of the known nine? Take the Prioress of Bloody Sands, for example. She is merely an alternate identity of the Eye and Seven Despairs.

Age of the Four

Assuming that there are four other deathlords, I feel that we know that one of them is part of the later three, having joined the ranks before or after Walker in Darkness, but definitely before Mask of Winters, who is apparently the last. That leaves the other three as being part of the "original" ten deathlords, alongside the other seven canonical figures.

Servants of the Deathlords

One of the things that I do to boost the servants of the Deathlords is to assume that most (if not all) of the Deathlords possess some sort of necromantic equivalent of the Crucible of Tarim. This lets me have death knights, ghosts and other villains occasionally show up armed with necromancer spells they are very much not capable of casting themselves. Occasionally my players' characters capture one of these and then it ends up being like a one-shot Artifact for the game.

Dual Monarchy

This is a "What If" scenario for Exalted and its deathlords.

The Dual Monarchs predate the Deathlords, yet they are not exactly the same individuals they once were. From time to time, one of the monarchs chooses to pass on, leaving her masks and panoply and personae to another. Perhaps the deathlords sought to seize the power of the Dual Monarchs, maybe even at the behest of the Neverborn, and failed. Perhaps two of the Deathlords were subverted, becoming the Dual Monarchs rather than supplanting them. Perhaps four of the Deathlords suffered this fate, pairs of them merging together to become the ultimate realization of the Dual Monarchs. Maybe this is one of the reasons that the other Deathlords move so carefully against the Dual Monarchs, for they know that two (or four) of their own kind have been turned to purposes great enough to defy the Neverborn.

A more cautious use of this idea might have only one deathlord trying to replace one of the Dual Monarchs, but falling prey to becoming the persona instead. Perhaps this deathlord is the only one who considered the idea, and no one is the wiser. Surely the Neverborn are aware of the fate of their missing minion, though? Perhaps the other deathlords know what happened but are not sure of the motives of their subverted confederate. Choosing the Black Monarch seems most likely, given a goal of seizing control over the Calendar of Setesh, and given the recent behaviors of Nebthys. Choosing the White Monarch might make for a more startling revelation.

Of course there is also the obvious possibility that one or more Deathlords have simply replaced the Dual Monarchs, and are secretly running the show and sucking up millions of prayers while doing so. I am not a big fan of this option, because I feel like it robs the Underworld of some of its mystery and variety. However, it is potentially the way to go if you want the deathlords to be that much closer to bringing about the end of everything.

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