A lot of my ideas, both good and bad, come up when I’m cycling. Which I have to do a lot, since I am still separated from most of my friends and hobbies by somewhat over ten kilometres. This one is one example of those. Another not too original one, though, but I hope there will be some originality in it.
One day, I thought of transforming the whole story of Lord of the Rings (the book, not movies) into Exalted. Of course, it requires a lot of compromises and odd solutions. The characters among the first. Of course, some just automatically define some part of them. Like Aragorn, who’s clearly a Solar. Zenith Caste, I’d say. And Saruman and Sauron would both be Deathlords. That turns orcs into their undead armies, and Uruk-Hai into Abyssals. Trolls would be possibly necrotech machines.
But what about our smaller heroes, who don’t define themselves as easily? Of course, I mean primarily the hobbits. Dragon-bloods? Naw, I want to preserve lot of the feeling of the Cration and its history. Heroic Mortals? Well, maybe that’s it, let’s keep them mortals for now. Tom Bombadil… A weird spirit, or Fair Folk? And what about the other whole humanoid races, dwarves and elves? Well, Elves seem like Solars to me. With that, dwarves seem a little like Lunars, but just a little. Beornings would present more accurate race to be dubbed Lunars, but their part in LotR is extremely small. And, if elves are Solars, then what is Aragorn? He’s not an elf, thus, not a Solar. Gandalf fits the model of a Sidereal quite neatly, though. Probably best as a Chosen of Secrets.
What about the Rings themselves, then? Willing to preserve the feel of Exalted, which doesn’t appear to have too much powerful magical jewelry, they might be better if changed to something else. But other things just don’t have the same… feel as rings: Small, wearable, sensibly possible to enchant with various different powers… Um. Of course, one single thing that should stand out is that the One Ring or its equivalent looks like the most plain version of its sort, though bearing invisible markings that get visible when something not usually thought of is done to that item. As in, tossing a gold ring into flames. Oh, well, maybe I just have to skip that one, too.
Yeah, it really seems like that this is one of those ideas that never will be realised. Although it would be fun to get it to work… Hmmph. Too much of this stuff in my head, and nearly all of it too unclear even to myself to get it out for others to read and screw their thoughts with.
July 17, 2008 at 3:04 pm |
Quite… interesting, I should say. :P
But Gandalf as a Chosen of Secrets? Definitely not. Chosen of Journeys, I’d say. And did you forget that Saruman has the same origins as Gandalf. ;) So he should be an infernal sidereal akuma. Or maybe a Underworld akuma could be possible, if one wanted to tie him closer to Sauron… I just don’t know how. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
And lets see… The Dragon Kings are elves (they were great yesterday, today they are waning away) and of course Jadeborn as dwarves, because, well, they are the dwarves of Creation (except the Artisans). :P
The hobbits are heroic mortals, yes, I can agree with that.
That whole thing with Aragorn, Boromir and the purebloodedness feels very Terrestrial, with their Breedings and stuff, but that just doesn’t fit the image of Aragorn very well. He’s a born King and leader of men, not some thug. Maybe Gondorians as Dragon-Blooded and Aragon is the only Solar around?