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Infernals: Crowned by Hellfire for the Exalted 3E RPG

Created by Onyx Path

The next supplement for the Exalted Third Edition tabletop roleplaying game

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Charms Part 1 - Universal, Archery to Bureaucracy [Draft Manuscript Download 4]
8 months ago – Wed, Nov 26, 2025 at 06:27:57 AM

Hello Green Sun Princes,

Are you ready to get into the massive chapter on Charms? I've got it split into five sections that we'll get over the next10 days. Today, we're going to get the Universal Charms and then Archery to Bureaucracy. Yesterday's sneak peek had the awesome Crack the Sky Charm, and I'm sure the download today will have even more awesomeness!



Some quick things to note before we get into the manuscript.

Shipping Costs will be Collected in the Pledge Manager

First up, it's amazingly expensive to ship, especially from Onyx Path's home base in the US. And that's as of today - we're all in the dark about how things will look in 2 years. We get that, but there's not much we can do at this time. Onyx Path is in a difficult space where the company is big enough that they're not saving money by fulfilling out of Rich's garage, but small enough that they haven't been able to set up ongoing international partners to handle portions of the fulfillment. So we are where we are - for now.

The best we can do at this point is to plan carefully, advise everyone up front that shipping will likely be expensive (see our projections on the main page) and only charge what it costs us when the time comes. We’ll be charging for shipping in the Pledge Manager once the books are being printed and we can deal with the actual shipping charges rather than using our best-guesses this far out. If you aren't sure you want one of the hardcover editions, you can pledge to the PDF tier now and upgrade your pledge in the Pledge Manager once we know the final shipping costs.




Draft Manuscript Previews

Over the course of the next 30 days, backers will receive the entire current draft manuscript for Infernals: Crowned by Hellfire, but it's not going to come to you all in one go. The previews will come out in Exalt-sized sections throughout the campaign. This helps me seem interesting over the next several weeks, but it's more about guiding the conversation and helping steer feedback for the developers.

Because they want your feedback! These manuscript previews are of the current draft manuscript – the document in its latest, approved form. This may not be the final form after editing and any additional development, but you can consider it about 95% finished, so keep that in mind.

In fact, you can help guide the team through the next stages of development by providing feedback on these manuscript previews! The Onyx Path team has set up a special Feedback Form just for campaign backers for this very purpose: https://forms.gle/vXsoupab1AyG81H29



You can use this Feedback Form to share your thoughts directly with the Exalted creative team to help guide them through the next rounds of development and editing.


DRAFT MANUSCRIPT PREVIEWS - BACKERS ONLY

Remember, thanks to BackerKit magic, these download links are visible to Backers only - you must be logged in and reading this on the website to have access to the manuscript preview links. So, if you're reading this via e-mail, click that "Learn More" link on the bottom and I'll see you below Swift Hart Qu.

Crowned by Hellfire - Chapter Two
8 months ago – Tue, Nov 25, 2025 at 08:15:56 AM

Infernals: Crowned by Hellfire

-Previously-

Chapter Two

Marvelous Cinnabar lounged on a terrace overlooking a district of the Conventicle Malfeasant. Below, a parade wound along the streets, demons clapping brass cymbals and stomping out a rhythm as onlookers danced. Cinnabar hummed along and plucked another glass of claret from a passing neomah’s tray. 

Swift Hart Qu stood beside him, facing into their host’s lavishly appointed townhouse. Denira Sings-the-Tide had adorned her space with Hell-grown flowers that mimicked Creation’s. Bright violet blooms that weren’t quite orchids bore eye-like patterns on their petals, which occasionally blinked at passers-by. “It’s the third time that parade has circled,” he said to Cinnabar. “Surely you’ve seen it all.”

“If you’re bored, by all means, go inside,” said Cinnabar. “I’ll come collect you later.”

They’d been at the Althing Infernal for two full days, sent to represent the circle. Today, they’d announced the Circle’s victory over Shumad and plans for the empire going forward. While the other Green Sun Princes had offered congratulations and praise, one had notably withheld her commendations: Denira Sings-the-Tide.

The Althing was the place to formally solve disputes between Infernals — at least, that was the theory. Denira would have been well within her rights to air her grievances with them there, but a vote would likely have gone against her. She’d had her eye on Shumad, but it was just one of a dozen of her interests in Creation; it was childish to think she could lay claim to so many fruits and pluck them at her leisure. Her issue with them now was a personal slight — still appropriate to address at the Althing, but more interesting to hash out informally.

Their presence at Denira’s ongoing party was tactical. It wouldn’t do to slink away when they were the victors. Nor did Qu want to afford her the opportunity to politick and spread rumors in their absence. She’d been seething since this morning’s discussion. Better they handle it now than let it fester until next Calibration. 

Denira ambled out to the terrace as well, glad-handing with a cluster of demons and warlocks. Now she glided toward them. “Shumad was mine to conquer,” she said without preamble.

Cinnabar scoffed. “Oh? I don’t remember seeing you at the head of the army.”

Neither had bothered to control their volume. In fact, they spoke loud enough for the audience gathering at the terrace’s open doors to catch every word.

Denira cut an imposing figure: tall, strong, and black-veined, one hand resting casually on her daiklave’s hilt. Cinnabar seemed unbothered by the implied threat. If anything, he lounged harder, and took a slow sip of wine.

“The plans were in place,” Denira said. “Ajad knew.”

“Ajad found your strategy wanting. We used none of your little schemes in our offensive. And if you’re looking for recompense, you’ll have to wait. Rebuilding is expensive.”

“Get up,” said Denira. “I don’t want your coin. I’ll take my payment in your blood.”

Cinnabar set down his glass and unfolded himself from the divan. He was of a height with Denira, and for a moment, he was close enough to kiss her. From the murmur that went through the guests, some were hoping he’d do just that. His sudden smirk infuriated her, and she shoved him away.

Denira moved to draw her daiklave, but she’d forgotten about Qu.

He appeared behind her out of nowhere and closed his hand over hers. “You’ll need to fight us both,” he said.

“Gladly.”

Qu caught Cinnabar’s eye, and a nod passed between them. Qu let Denira go, readying his poisoned throwing needles. A gust of hellish wind swirled up at Cinnabar’s command, lifting him just out of Denira’s reach.

Behind them, Green Sun Princes and demons alike applauded and made room for the fight.

To Be Continued ...



Before I get to a sneak peek at some upcoming material shared by our intrepid developers, I wanna thank everyone for their support! We've unlocked another Stretch Goal, marking a milestone at $125,000 and adding the Infernals VTT Token Pack as a bonus reward to the rewards list of all who have backed this project!

I expect a bit of a slow down with our American friends having their holiday in a few days and lots of distractions built around that, but we've still got some excitement coming for the week. Tomorrow and Friday we start digging into the Charms! Tomorrow's download will include Universal Charms, even though I just listed "Archery to Bureaucracy" on the list. I tried it with "Universal to Bureaucracy" and it set off some of my pickiness, since it didn't look like it was in alpahbetical order that way. So, know that Universal Charms are included, right before Archery!

And we'll have Chapter Three of our fiction on Thursday. But let's not wait too long for a taste of Charms, since our awsome developers have provided a sneak peek at one coming tomorrow...



Sneak Peek: Crack the Sky


Howdy, folks — it’s Vance and Elliott, with a sneak peek at just how nasty Infernal Brawl can be.

Crack the Sky


Cost: 15m, 1wp; Mins: Brawl 5, Essence 5
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Star-Shaking Fury, Unwitting Victim Bludgeon (Splattered Foe Barrage), World-Breaker Grip

One day, the monster will tear the sun from the sky. Until then, she flings screaming reminders of this doom into the heavens as her unwilling heralds.

To use this Charm, the Infernal must be grappling an enemy with World-Breaker Grip. She makes a decisive throw attack, which receives Foe-Flung Doom’s benefits for free. (This includes the Fall to Ruin key’s Willpower cost if she has it.) She can throw her enemy up to four range bands, dealing damage as a long-range fall, without needing to expend any rounds of control.

There’s no limit on how many rounds of control the Infernal can expend to increase the throw’s damage. Each round of control expended also lets her add one extra success on the attack roll as a die of decisive damage. She rerolls all dice on the damage roll that initially show failures.

If the Infernal has (5 + target’s remaining undamaged health levels) rounds of control, she can dispense with the need for an attack roll. She simply flings her victim up to (Essence x 5) miles away. When he falls into the ground — something that can take up to five minutes — he suffers uncountable damage (Exalted, p. 205). So do surrounding structures, natural features, and trivial characters, at the Storyteller’s discretion. Against Legendary Size enemies, the Infernal can do so with only 25+ rounds of control, regardless of how many undamaged levels they have remaining. This still resets the Infernal’s Initiative.

Special activation rules: The Infernal can use Unwitting Victim Bludgeon reflexively with this Charm to combine its effect with this Charm’s. If she uses Splattered Foe Barrage, its shockwave extends out to medium range. If she deals uncountable damage to her foe, it doesn’t apply to others — she must make an attack roll against her other target and rolls damage as usual. Dealing uncountable damage increases Splattered Foe Barrage’s range to long.

Reset: Once per scene.
 

Character Creation [Draft Manuscript Download 3]
8 months ago – Mon, Nov 24, 2025 at 06:10:00 AM

Hello Green Sun Princes,

We've got an exciting week ahead! Today, we've got the download with the Character Creation chapter, and on Wednesday we start our Charms section!

And, of course, we're smashing Stretch Goals while getting ready to read these next downloads. Let's see what our current target is, and what lies beyond that.



At $125,000 in Funding - Infernals VTT Tokens

INFERNALS VTT TOKENS - Digital assets will be created to support online play for Infernals, including key character and creature tokens from the book. This online asset pack will be added to the rewards list of all backers.



At $135,000 in Funding - Infernals Companion: The Lords of Hell

INFERNALS COMPANION SUPPLEMENT: THE LORDS OF HELL - Write-ups for more high-level demons, including one of the Third Circle will be added to the Infernals Companion supplement. Backers receiving the Infernals PDF will receive the Infernals Companion PDF as a bonus reward. Backers receiving the Infernals Deluxe hardcover will also receive links to purchase a discounted Print-on-Demand version of the Infernals Companion book.

Once again, we've done a speedrun to get to these Stretch Goals, and looking at adding new material to supplement the write-ups from a chapter we won't even see until December 16! So, about three weeks ahead of plan for now!



Some quick things to note before we get into the manuscript.

Shipping Costs will be Collected in the Pledge Manager

First up, it's amazingly expensive to ship, especially from Onyx Path's home base in the US. And that's as of today - we're all in the dark about how things will look in 2 years. We get that, but there's not much we can do at this time. Onyx Path is in a difficult space where the company is big enough that they're not saving money by fulfilling out of Rich's garage, but small enough that they haven't been able to set up ongoing international partners to handle portions of the fulfillment. So we are where we are - for now.

The best we can do at this point is to plan carefully, advise everyone up front that shipping will likely be expensive (see our projections on the main page) and only charge what it costs us when the time comes. We’ll be charging for shipping in the Pledge Manager once the books are being printed and we can deal with the actual shipping charges rather than using our best-guesses this far out. If you aren't sure you want one of the hardcover editions, you can pledge to the PDF tier now and upgrade your pledge in the Pledge Manager once we know the final shipping costs.




Draft Manuscript Previews

Over the course of the next 30 days, backers will receive the entire current draft manuscript for Infernals: Crowned by Hellfire, but it's not going to come to you all in one go. The previews will come out in Exalt-sized sections throughout the campaign. This helps me seem interesting over the next several weeks, but it's more about guiding the conversation and helping steer feedback for the developers.

Because they want your feedback! These manuscript previews are of the current draft manuscript – the document in its latest, approved form. This may not be the final form after editing and any additional development, but you can consider it about 95% finished, so keep that in mind.

In fact, you can help guide the team through the next stages of development by providing feedback on these manuscript previews! The Onyx Path team has set up a special Feedback Form just for campaign backers for this very purpose: https://forms.gle/vXsoupab1AyG81H29



You can use this Feedback Form to share your thoughts directly with the Exalted creative team to help guide them through the next rounds of development and editing.


DRAFT MANUSCRIPT PREVIEWS - BACKERS ONLY

Remember, thanks to BackerKit magic, these download links are visible to Backers only - you must be logged in and reading this on the website to have access to the manuscript preview links. So, if you're reading this via e-mail, click that "Learn More" link on the bottom and I'll see you below Adaj.

Crowned by Hellfire - Chapter One
8 months ago – Fri, Nov 21, 2025 at 06:25:54 AM

Infernals: Crowned by Hellfire

-Previously-

Chapter One 

Ajad dabbed sweat from her brow with a square of embroidered linen as she strode toward Nerim’s gates. Humidity thickened the air, making everyone sluggish and irritable. That, in turn, irritated Ajad — there was work to be done. Today, she was out inspecting the walls, noting the progress the laborers had made in repairing them. The metodies’ acid had done wonders for letting the Circle’s forces in, but now that the city was theirs, it meant they were vulnerable should an invading army approach. As she neared the scaffolding where the main guard tower was being raised, she cursed softly.

A small crowd had gathered in the plaza where overseers assigned the corvee laborers to their duties. Nehramus stood in their midst, questioning the chief overseer. The man towered over the priestess, but his shoulders hunched further with her every word, making him seem small. He slumped with relief when Nehramus’ gaze snapped toward her Circlemate. She marched toward Ajad, rigid with fury. “Come with me.”

Ajad allowed Nehramus to take her elbow and lead them away from the crowd. They paused beneath a canopy, the only scrap of shade to be found. 

“How dare you?” Nehramus said, pitching her voice low so eavesdroppers couldn’t hear. “We freed them.” She meant the laborers, whom Qu and Ajad had ordered conscripted from among the city’s former slaves.

“Have we freed them from their need for security?” Ajad asked dispassionately as she smoothed the sleeve of her hellsilk dress. Had anyone else touched her like that, they’d have lost the hand. “If someone else takes this city, they’ll be enslaved all over again. Would you prefer they help fortify us now, or do you want all your efforts to go to waste? This is temporary. And necessary. Come find me in the palace later. We can discuss it there.” The suggestion was partly so they didn’t have to have this argument out in the open, and partly because Ajad didn’t want to have it in this dreadful heat.

But Nehramus had chosen her venue. She wanted to be seen standing up for the people. Ajad might even have admired the tactic, had Nehramus not said, “I put the knives in the people’s hands once. Do you think they’ll hesitate to wield them again?”

A few shouts went up as a shoving matched ensued between two workers. Their peers separated them quickly, casting nervous glances at the Green Sun Princes nearby. Ajad noticed how several laborers had paused on their way to the walls, tools in hand, to crane their necks at herself and Nehramus. They outnumbered the overseers, but several soldiers had come out from the gatehouse to see what was going on. 

Perhaps it was being questioned in front of the workers. Perhaps Ajad was merely impatient to get the job done. Perhaps it was the humidity finally getting to her. Whatever caused the sudden spike of fury, if Nehramus wanted a fight, Ajad was content to give her one. “Demons did your work there. They’re the ones who handed out the weapons.” 

“You’re right,” said Nehramus, her voice deadly soft. On her forehead, her caste mark glowed sickly green. The already thick air grew heavy with the scent of blood and grave dirt as dozens of demons materialized on the rooftops and walls, ready to follow Nehramus’ orders. 

After a long, bitter silence, Ajad tilted her head to Nehramus, betraying nothing in her expression except a calculated assent. She would wrangle out the details — find some other, comfortable word or circumstance of forced labor to smother Nehramus’ righteous guilt.

To Be Continued ...



Hello Green Sun Princes,

Before I get to a sneak peek at some upcoming material shared by our intrepid developers, I wanna thank everyone for their support! We've unlocked another Stretch Goal, marking a milestone at $110,000 and adding the Infernals Streaming Overlay as a bonus reward to the rewards list of all who have backed this project!

You can tell we're blasting through these because our next Stretch Goal looks to add additional spells including more Adamant Circle Sorcery, something we won't even dig into in our draft manuscript downloads for another 18 days!



At $120,000 in Funding - Infernals Companion: Secrets of the Three Circles

INFERNALS COMPANION SUPPLEMENT: SECRETS OF THE THREE CIRCLES - Additional spells, including more Adamant Circle Sorcery will be added to the Infernals Companion supplement. Backers receiving the Infernals PDF will receive the Infernals Companion PDF as a bonus reward. Backers receiving the Infernals Deluxe hardcover will also receive links to purchase a discounted Print-on-Demand version of the Infernals Companion book.

Premium Backer Slots

As noted on the campaign page, this funding beyond our initial target and massive support allows them to unlock additional reward options, including the new material that will be featured in the Companion and the ability to make homes for more premium reward submissions. So, with that, I'll be adding a few more slots to some of those Premium reward tiers that had previously been filled up. If you've been eyeing one of those rewards, remember to keep checking - they may be sold out now, but I find a lot of these shift around when we get to our final week as everyone locks in their budgets and pledges when we get closer to the finish line. You never know what will open up, so stay vigilant and hopeful!

 

Sneak Peek: Devil-Body apotheosis

Hey folks — Vance and Elliott here with a sneak peek at Infernal’s signature power: Devil-Body Apotheosis. Behold their true form, and despair.

Devil-Body Apotheosis

Each Infernal Exalt contains the hidden potential for a terrible transformation. In times of great need, the raw Essence of Hell catalyzes around their corrupted Exaltation like amber, warping them physically and spiritually into a ruinous and majestic demon form. Devil-Bodies can be almost anything, from a hundred-limbed colossus with an immolating third eye to a ziggurat of ever-growing black glass that drives its victims to despair with its maddening chimes. 

Designing Devil-Bodies

Infernal players receive five dots to spend on their character’s Devil-Body, to be spent on a list of powers that range from one to three points. Additionally, a Devil-Body has a package of five dots of mutations which manifest while transformed. Players are encouraged to work with their Storyteller to come up with a distinctive Devil-Body that they feel accurately reflects their character’s inner demon.  

Devil-Body Powers


Expansive Form (•••) 


The Infernal encompasses a wide area, allowing her to become a living tidal wave, a veinous root system or profane temple. This has the following benefits:

  • When she transforms, she can choose to displace terrain within short range, pushing it back one range band to make way for her grandeur. Depending on how this power manifests, this can be temporary, as she warps the boundaries of space for the duration of her transformation in the manner of Hell’s arcane topography, or permanent, as she crushes erodes away that which would confine her or crushes it like a layer of the Demon City.
  • The area within short range of her counts as difficult terrain for her enemies.
  • When she attacks an enemy, she can count as being one range band closer or further away from him, whichever is more advantageous. She gains the same benefit when enemies make ranged attacks against her.
  • She gains Dispersed Form and Area Attack for free.
  • Some variants of Expansive Form are immobile but encompass a much larger area. The Infernal cannot move from her location, but she destroys or displaces terrain within long range when she transforms, can count as being three range bands closer (but not further away) for the purposes of attacks, and can count any area within long range as difficult terrain for her enemies.

#Infernals
#Exalted

The Demonic Realm [Draft Manuscript Download 2]
8 months ago – Thu, Nov 20, 2025 at 05:54:02 AM

Hello Green Sun Princes,

We've got the back-half of Chapter 2 available for backers to download today. Like many, I'm really keen to get into the Charms sections next week, but I don't mind waiting a bit because I've loved the stuff I read in the first section we got on Day 1 and I'm eager for more! Today we're going to travel around Hell for a bit and learn more about the environs.

While we're reading fun stuff, we're also smashing Stretch Goals. We've managed to unlock all of the posted Stretch Goals thus far, which is amazing. I had thought these would take at least a week, and we've crushed them all within the first 48 hours!

So, let's set up our next two Stretch Goals. Now that we're mostly through the first 48 hour rush, I expect these to be our targets through the long middle period of the campaign, so we'll have a couple of milestone markers that will enhance online play, and sandwich those around additional new content added to the Companion supplement that we're building.




At $110,000 in Funding - Infernals Streaming Overlay

INFERNALS STREAMING OVERLAY - A set of overlays for your online game will be created, for your use when streaming your Infernals session. This reward will be added to the rewards list for all backers.



At $120,000 in Funding - Infernals Companion: Secrets of the Three Circles

INFERNALS COMPANION SUPPLEMENT: SECRETS OF THE THREE CIRCLES - Additional spells, including more Adamant Circle SorcerY will be added to the Infernals Companion supplement. Backers receiving the Infernals PDF will receive the Infernals Companion PDF as a bonus reward. Backers receiving the Infernals Deluxe hardcover will also receive links to purchase a discounted Print-on-Demand version of the Infernals Companion book.



At $125,000 in Funding - Infernals VTT Tokens

INFERNALS VTT TOKENS - Digital assets will be created to support online play for Infernals, including key character and creature tokens from the book. This online asset pack will be added to the rewards list of all backers.



While the pace of funding will absolutely slow down over the next few weeks, the amazing world of the Infernals will continue to come at us with maximum amazingness! The first few days of the campaign are exciting and all about getting funded and building a solid foundation for the Onyx Path team to work on and expand this project. The middle weeks (really, middle 26 days!) are for the fans! We've got fiction and lore and sneak peeks and, most importantly, the draft manuscript downloads coming 2-3 times a week over this middle period. I expect lots of discussion on the Discord and in the comments, but don't forget to send your feedback to the writers and developers! 

Draft Manuscript Previews

Over the course of the next 30 days, backers will receive the entire current draft manuscript for Infernals: Crowned by Hellfire, but it's not going to come to you all in one go. The previews will come out in Exalt-sized sections throughout the campaign. This helps me seem interesting over the next several weeks, but it's more about guiding the conversation and helping steer feedback for the developers.

Because they want your feedback! These manuscript previews are of the current draft manuscript – the document in its latest, approved form. This may not be the final form after editing and any additional development, but you can consider it about 95% finished, so keep that in mind.

In fact, you can help guide the team through the next stages of development by providing feedback on these manuscript previews! The Onyx Path team has set up a special Feedback Form just for campaign backers for this very purpose: https://forms.gle/vXsoupab1AyG81H29


You can use this Feedback Form to share your thoughts directly with the Exalted creative team to help guide them through the next rounds of development and editing.


DRAFT MANUSCRIPT PREVIEWS - BACKERS ONLY

Remember, thanks to BackerKit magic, these download links are visible to Backers only - you must be logged in and reading this on the website to have access to the manuscript preview links. So, if you're reading this via e-mail, click that "Learn More" link on the bottom and I'll see you below Marvellous Cinnabar.