dorchadas | Exalted 3e map is out

So this map was posted yesterday:

Original source here.

I haven't been super excited about third edition in a while. I kickstarted for the deluxe book, but that was mostly on the strength of all the fun I've had with Exalted over the years and how much wonder I felt when I opened up that first edition corebook and read it. At the very beginning, in the intro section, there's a paragraph that I have on my Exalted wiki page because I loved it so much. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw that map:

Before the world was bent but after the Great Contagion, there was a civilization built in the image of the First Age. It sought to emulate the splendor of the bygone Golden Age, but it was in all ways less. It was a time of sorcery and heroism, of fabulous wonders and treacherous betrayals. Ruled by a decadent empire, it slipped inch by inch into barbarism and darkness, until one last cataclysm blotted it out forever. Yet, in its sunset, it was a splendid thing, and glorious were the deeds of the Exalted.

Hell yeah. Emoji The Solar Exalted

I'm still not super enthused about what I know of 3e's mechanics--they sound much better for Exalted-level characters, but I want to run a game without any Exalted and I like the Swords & Sepsis feel of the 2e rules--but that map is just objectively better. There's more interesting cities, more fun details like the Dreaming Sea in the southeast or Wu Jian in the ocean or actual cities in the Burning Sands of the South. The setting always was the best part of Exalted, and it looks like that's going to be even better this time around. None of those cities who are 1500 miles apart being constantly at war, or nations blobbing to fill up all the available map space, or a nearly empty West and a totally empty Southeast.

I'm excited about 3e again for the first time in probably a year!