#yozi

I’ve been thinking a lot about this because these are two of my obsessions and putting them together just makes sense! Here’s how I’d put Miraculous Ladybug into the Exalted gameworld.

(Beware. Exalted has a LOT of lore, so this post is gonna get long.)

Beetle Clad in Scarlet

In the High First Age, the Yozis, overthrown masters of Creation, made several attempts to escape their imprisonment in hell. One attempt focused on an artifact, left behind from before they destroyed 9/10ths of creation in petty rage, of Magics that have been unknown to Creation since the Primordial War. It nearly succeeded, and would have resulted in the burning of the whole world if not for the efforts of one extremely competent Solar and her Lunar mate.

For those of you who haven’t played Exalted, the Exalted are the equivalent of demigods, granted power by the highest of the gods to represent their interests in Creation. The Solars are the kings and queens of these, and the Twilight Caste of the Solars are the sorcerers, engineers, and artists among them. The Yozis’ plan was opposed by a young Twilight Caste, Beetle Clad in Scarlet, and her Lunar Mate, the Full Moon Caste (peerless shapeshifting warriors of animal aspects) known as Shadowed Claw. Somehow, using a sorcery that she made up on the spot—previously believed to be impossible—Beetle dematerialized the artifact and enfolded it within her own Exaltation, unable to be retrieved by anyone but herself.

This, however, came mere days before the Usurpation, when the Sidereal Exalted, charged with maintaining the integrity of Fate, learned that the Solars were prophecied to run Creation into the ground, and overthrew them, slaying them all and imprisoning their souls deep beneath the sea. Beetle and Claw died together, defending each other to their last breath, taking the knowledge of the artifact with them. However, they did not die at the same second, which means that, for a moment only one person in existence knew of the Artifact’s existence.

Meaning that Nara-O, God of Things That Only One Person Knows, discovered it in that one moment, for if there is a secret in Creation that only one being knows, Nara-O immediately knows as well.

Fighting his very nature, Nara-O contacted a young Sidereal of the House of Secrets named Wang Fu and told him of the Artifact. Commanded him to keep watch. But for three thousand years, the Solars did not return, and Fu’s watch was fruitless.

When the Yozis freed the imprisoned souls of the Solar Exalted in order to steal them for themselves, they hoped that Beetle’s would be among those they captured. Alas, Beetle’s Exaltation escaped, carrying the Artifact with it.

Butterfly Born of Sorrow

Agreste Gabriel was, to all appearances, an average (if obscenely wealthy) citizen of the city of Nexus. A family man, a member of the Guild—the wealthiest merchant group in Creation—and a bit of a recluse. In secret, however—unknown to even their son—both he and his wife were Sidereal Exalted, of the house of Joy. Knowing the dangers of the world thanks to their study of fate, and unable to protect their unexalted son, they chose to keep him within their Nexian estate and protect him as best they could.

Then Emilie was slain by a rampaging demon, and Gabriel fell apart.

Raising the dead is impossible in Creation. Moreover, time travel is forbidden within Creation’s laws—but not in hell, where time is at the mercy of the Yozis, maddened kings of demonkind. To get his wife back, Gabriel traveled into hell to beg the Yozis for the power to turn back time, for the soul of his wife.

Such a feat would be impossible, they explained, unless they were freed from hell and allowed to rule Creation once more.

Gabriel agreed.

The Yozis hollowed out his soul and replaced it with their own will, their own malice, making him into an Akuma under their control. (Akuma in Exalted are very different than the ones in Miraculous.) They set the newly-created Butterfly Born of Sorrow on a quest to recover the artifact, knowing only that there was another Sidereal who knew of its existence hiding somewhere in the city of Nexus. They gifted their new servant with spells designed to mimic Infernal Exaltation, that allow him to temporarily fuse a demon with a mortal in order to command both, then sent him to find Beetle’s soul and the Artifact therein.

Ladybug and Chat Noir

Cheng Marinette is the daughter of two bakers of Nexus, famous as much for their descent from rival gods of baking as for the incredible quality of their goods. Due to their fame and the patronage of several city gods, her family could afford to send her to one of the greatest schools in Nexus, where she excelled. However, her classmate Ivan was the first to fall under Butterfly’s spell, fused with a demonic Blood Ape and sent on a rampage across the city in order to draw out Wang Fu.

Instead, the Blood Ape/Child fusion mortally wounded Agreste Adrien, who has snuck out of his father’s manse, then came across Cheng Marinette and her friend Césaire Alya. In an effort to protect her friend and save this stranger, Marinette fought the Blood Ape... only realizing afterwards that she had taken the Second Breath, been chosen by the Unconquered Sun to carry on the legacy of Beetle Clad in Scarlet. Adrien, seeing her Anima burn with the wings of the Ladybug, knew in that moment he had to survive, to see her again—and so Luna came to him, granting him the Exaltation of Shadowed Claw, binding his soul to Marinette’s forevermore. Together, the new Ladybug and Chat Noir battled the Blood Ape across the city, eventually banishing it back to hell, and then discovered that the artifact within her soul had granted Marinette a single Solar Circle spell: the ability to revert any damage done by demons in her presence.

For example:

It's mentioned in a few places that gods (even UCS) can't be initated into Solar Circle Sorcery. But then Luna's published statblock breaks this rule with the justification that Gaia initiated them.

Another strange thing is that one of Luna's Palpony Charms (I forget it's name) rewrites their entire personality (ie Motivation and Intimicies) on a regular basis. But we're also told that Luna is, always has been, and always will be deeply in love with Gaia (something that would normally be represented mechanically by an Intimicy).

But you can explan both of these things really easily with the idea that this is the result of an Akuma-style pact-for-power (this is consistent with the rules for Akuma; going one Circle of Sorcery up is one of the listed benefits) . Or in other words the Yozi's ability to create Akuma represents a twisted and diminished form of a true Titan could grant those they loved in return for devotion. And that Luna is able to maintain a single point of consistent reality in their chaotic mind despite her Oramos-born nature is due to the stabalising power of Gaia.

So we can infer that with their mental health problems (if you can apply that term here idk) a Titan might well be the only kind of being Luna is capable of loving. Or having any consistent feeling towards whatsoever for that matter. While the Yozi override the free will of thair Akuma with Urges, Gaia gives Luna agency they would otherwise not have by giving them a consistent point if reference.

I've been thinking about and running games with these charicters for almost ten years and I'm still having realisations like this on a regular basis. I think that does speak to something special in a game, intended or not.