Here's my Exalted Secret Santa reference journal for this year's exchange hosted by @shiftingpath. Sorry I didn't have time to make new refs, so all I can offer this year is the Neapolitan flavor pack of a vanilla and chocolate Solar/Abyssal Kalara with bonus strawberry golden bone boy!
To make up for it, all 3 are completely shippable with just about anyone, including each other, as the whole crew is pansexual. Kalara and Golden Lies are canonically Friends to Lovers to Enemies to Lovers (it's complicated), while the Dreamer is more of a fun 'what if' concept of an alternate universe Abyssal Kalara who was murdered before realizing her heroic goals. Have fun with them!
Full info dump beyond the cut~
Kalara Vadras, The Uncrucified Solar Exalted, Eclipse Caste, Righteous Devil
Keywords: Elegant, Witty, Easygoing
Mood Music: Meet me at the Top by Unsecret & Unbreakable by Fireflight
A passionate Merchant Prince (though most people refer to her as a 'Merchant Queen'), Kalara can often be found traveling Creation using her charm and wit towards the cause of achieving a more equitable economy and the abolishment of slave labor throughout the threshold.
While she has a friendly public face, her enemies whisper of her spy network, Kalara's "Tongues", who work quietly throughout Creation eliminating threats to her ambitions for Creation.
For more reference, see Kalara's full bio for more pics, etc.
Art Notes
She has a scar from a failed crucifixion on her left hand only, not both hands
NSFW art is ok! She's quite famous for being a free spirit with multiple unattached partners, but please nothing too hardcore into chains. This lady likes luxury. Tis silk or nothing!
Fashion
Feel free to play with her hair and clothing style without sticking too close to the ref. Kalara mixes things up a lot to either blend in on her travels OR to make a big impression, depending on the occasion. She's quite the fashionista!
Note that in her art she's dressed in everything from a Chiaroscuro glass gown to more casual wear with her green shirt. The look with the teal and gold with the jacket resting on her shoulders is her signature look, however.
Iconic Anima
Her totemic anima involves chains of sunlight wrapping around her arms and ankles as the links fall off one by one. Spikes of sunlight, which do not harm her, appear in her hands and melt away. Behind her, a phoenix with a long, trailing tail rises up behind her.
Weapons & Combat Style
Kalara prefers not to let others onto the fact that she's as powerful as she is and has created a whole other persona named Koh to do her gunslinging. She and Koh are rumored to be lovers, much to her amusement.
However, if she's ever backed into a corner as Kalara, her fighting style involves acrobatic agility while dual-wielding two devil casters made of orichalcum with the punishing glory of the Righteous Devil martial art. If the occasion calls for serious business, she uses her jade and orichalcum Prayer Piece pictured below. (Hey, those golden bullets inscribed with prayers get expensive!)
If you're looking for more weapon inspiration since my concepts are still loose right now, check out this awesome artifact write-up for Kalara by @vaultsofthefirstage that suits her themes so perfectly!
Mask of Golden Lies, Abyssal Exalted, Moonshadow Caste, Deathknight of the Lover
Keywords: Nonchalant, Sarcastic, Rakish
Mood Music: The Blackest Hand & Sunlit Grave by Mesa
The young man who would become Mask of Golden Lies came up from the slums of Gem, a slave who conned his way to freedom, but also earned the ire of the Despot when his greed got the better of him, tempting him to take on a risky heist involving the Despot's secret gem mine.
He fled north, thinking himself clever enough to evade the Despot's wrath by hiding in a valley ruled by a mysterious figure the locals worshipped, but others avoided.
It was there the bounty hunters found him, taking his life with the Despot's particular form of execution - forcing him to drink molten gold. They also took his forearms as trophies for the Despot's fort wall.
It was there in a shallow grave the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears found him afterwards, amused by this ambitious, failed thief and thinking him a useful tool with the grudge against society that laid heavy in his soul. She rebuilt his broken, mutilated body with the gold and jewels he craved in life and promised him the power to act on his ambitions that he sought in life.
As a servant of the Lover, Golden Lies' most common tactic is to manipulate rich rulers into positions of imbalance and either wipe out their rulers, usually with lavish events (a la Masque of the Red Death, which is definitely on theme for him), or prime them for manipulations that benefit he and his Deathlord.
Personality-wise, he enjoys disarming people with charm and good humor and is secretly always looking for a way out of his servitude to the Lover. His mortal life is muddled in his memory, but he recalls freedom being the one thing that was most important to him, alongside the silhouette of the face of the woman he truly owed that freedom too.
Art Notes
Golden Lies' forearms are translucent with metallic gold bones.
NSFW art is ok. He's quite the cad of both men and women, usually to pursue targets.
He likes the finer things in life after a mortal lifetime living as a slave. You won't see this man in rags unless he's in disguise.
This is his 'fair form'. He has one that's also hideous that shows the mutilated state of his body at death (think Raziel from Soul Reaver with the missing/mutilated lower jaw), but he much prefers to look beautiful.
Iconic Anima
Glowing red chains appear all around Golden Lies, seemingly binding him until he forces his way through them. A halo of a black sun pattern also appears behind his head. He is also accented by strange red eyes that appear in a flower pattern behind him to watch him intently, signifying perhaps his loyalty is not totally to the Lover, who is always watching him. Sadly I don't have ref art of this yet! Interpret how you like. Have fun with it!
Weapons & Combat Style
He fights unarmed, preferring that personal touch when he is driven to close combat, which he tends to avoid (but doesn't entirely dislike). His golden bone arms also make for excellent rending weapons when put to good use. I haven't decided on what style he should have yet, but it should be an unarmed one utilizing his soulsteel prosthetics as weapons.
The Crucified Dreamer Abyssal Exalted, Moonshadow Caste, Deathknight of the Lover
Keywords: Elegant, Seductive, Manipulative
Mood Music: Martyr by Saint Mesa & Bleed for Me by Digital Daggers
This alternate universe version of Kalara spends her time wandering Creation nurturing revolutionaries and visionaries...then leading them to their beautiful deaths after they follow her pursuing their foolish dreams. Those she finds useful, she scouts as possible servants for her Deathlord, The Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears.
Unlike Kalara, the Dreamer was never saved from her death by crucifixion by The Unconquered Sun. Rather, the Lover came to her in her final moments after a torturous three days and nights and offered her a chance to equalize all in the embrace of death.
Her full name is The Crucified Dreamer Veiled in Truth.
Art Notes
The Dreamer has crucifixion wounds in both hands and both feet that never heal. She tends to 'dress them up' with jewelry and henna.
NSFW art is ok! She's very BDSM-themed as-is. You know she gets up to some kinky vampire stuff!
Fashion
The Dreamer prefers gold and finery usually with a subtle skeletal theme. Gold, fire opals, and garnets suit her well. The three tears below her eye, however, are not makeup, but etched by blood ink into her skin when the Lover 'welcomed' her as an Abyssal. They traced the last tears she would ever shed.
Weapons & Combat Style
The Dreamer doesn't usually engage in direct combat, much preferring to seduce her victims, but if she is driven to conflict, she utilizes the Laughing Wounds martial art, a set of bejeweled claws, and a segmented whip sword with a blade like sharp gold vertebra as it unfurls.
I have no references for her whip sword or battle claws yet, so go wild with your interpretation!
Iconic Anima
The Dreamer's aura flares as her crucifixion wounds seep streams of blood that form tendrils and wrap around her arms and legs. The blood also pours to the earth where scarlet Spider Lilies spring up from the droplets. Behind her, a glowing red mandala materializes with the lotus pointed downwards.
I have no reference of this anima yet either, so feel free to go wild with your interpretation from that description!
