James Yozi Will Not Return

The more you print something, the more true it becomes. Hell, sometimes once is enough. A rejoinder like "it might not succeed" doesn't really mean anything in the face of an edition where every time the missing Empress was mentioned some writer used the chance to stroke it about how “she’s not actually in Malfeas, honest!”

More to the point: Infernals use Yozi Charms.

The Yozis are their Charms. So the Infernals are channeling the Yozis themselves.

Through the Yozi Charm sets, Infernals become the Yozis. This is depicted through "gateway" Charms. One of them is demonstrated in the Ebon Dragon's statblock.

That the Reclamation is the founding principle of the splat's thesis is well documented. The original argument was that it would be limp if the Infernals couldn't actually break the Yozis out of prison. This argument convinced the people working on the book and manifested its results clearly. That the Yozis can be freed is present in the thesis of Infernals, predicated on the argument that the Infernals would be ineffectual if they could not actually achieve this goal. This goal gets its strongest representation from the mechanics, through the Yozi Charms, the statement that the Yozis are their Charms, and the eventual publication of a gateway Charm in Return of the Scarlet Empress.

The Infernal Charm set undoes the Primordial War. The Yozis are figuratively free at chargen and literally free at high Essence. You are free to believe that the Reclamation is easily ignored. I know better. I watched your threads. I saw what the imminence of the Yozis did to Creation and our ability to write the setting, and reader ability to feel anything but cynicism for things that were not somehow extensions of the Yozis, as if the world were simply a selection of fine fruits for the Yozis to pulp into juice between their infinitely powerful buttocks.

The Yozis lost the war. They're locked away. This ain't their show.

This is actually better for them, because they can go back to being the infinite and nuanced superpowers we once imagined. Balance isn't a problem when they're not getting free—the more legitimate they become, and the more the thesis of Exalted is upheld…so long as they remain irrelevant to the world as a whole, and relevant only at the tables of those who choose to use them. It also avoids the whole issue of the Infernals existing solely to be the pregame show before the Yozis are released, do a dance on Creation and smoke the Infernals as an afterthought. The legitimate conclusion of the Infernal presentation in 2e was not only the guaranteed irrelevance of every Exalted book ever printed, but also the irrelevance of the Infernals themselves. Make way for the Yozis, y’all.

To paraphrase Geoff, Exalted is about politics and personalities—not about powers.

The depth and value of the setting drops to nothing in the shadow of the Yozis, and the Infernals taught you to play mechanics rather than characters. If you step back and look at what the game was supposed to be and what it became you will see how complete and extensive the damage is.

To the person who asked if Legend of the Titans was a mistake: No. It was an attempt to reel the Yozis in, to make them mythical and variable, to get away from the lessening effect the edition's treatment had over them. Yet my ability to write well and the guarantee that I will write what you want are not mutually inclusive. Legend of the Titans stands alone and reflects depthier characters than would ever be possible under the mechanical assumptions laid down in Manual: Infernals. It reflects my seriousness about Exalted and the standards to which I hold it.

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