InfernalsWhyWeFight
From Exaltedcursejar
YIQRrh wow, awesome article.Much thanks again. Will read on...
[edit] Infernals
It goes without saying that Infernals are Yozi Loyalists. The Yozi have a very good reason to be paranoid about creating powerful underlings, after all, and have only fifty Infernal shards to hand out. And, in the end, the Green Sun Princes must retain their free will, both because the Exaltation requires it and because it makes them proof against the Oaths laid upon the Yozi by the betraying god-machine.
Luckily, even in the Creation from whence the Yozi were banished, there remain a scant few loyal to their creators. These Yozi cults often attract the power-hungry, the cruel, and assorted hangers on, as many cults tend to. Though there is certainly room for cruelty in the Yozis' plan for Creation, cruelty for its own sake is hardly a efficacious tool. Here, though, the small number of Infernal essences available works in their favor; there are certainly, among all the various Yozi cults across Creation, sufficient "diamonds in the rough" who are loyal simply because they believe that the universe should be restored to its true masters.
Certainly, these are not the only Infernals. Mistakes are easily made. The Yozi are not perfect (at least, not anymore, though some might be loath to admit it), and those demons they can send forth into Creation are less perfect still. A mortal suitable for the Infernal Exaltation may well be able to lie themselves into receiving the Exaltation out of a simple hunger for power. And this is acceptable enough, for the Exaltation itself grants the Infernal an Urge suitable to the Yozi to whom they owe their fealty; their ends are accomplished, at least in some way. The only question is how dedicated the Green Sun Prince is to the overall cause versus their own ends, which can be as varied as any collection of mortals.
[edit] The Reclamation
The Yozi can march no armies into Creation, at least not yet. They have no great fortresses, no siege engines, no infrastructure to influence Creation by force of arms alone. But for an insurgency, warfare in the Eastern manner, the Infernals are the perfect weapon. A single Green Sun Prince can slip unnoticed into Creation, where an army would set every alarm in Occupied Heaven screaming. A single Green Sun Prince can upend cities, even nations. A single Green Sun Prince can spread the word of the Yozi, working against the blasphemous propaganda of the god-machine. In the end, the Yozi will turn Creation against the usurpers, and starve the god-machine in Occupied Heaven even as they subvert its servants and turn the Exalted against it.
[edit] A Further Note on Cruelty
Above, we referred to cruelty as a less-than-efficacious tool, and this was perhaps too broad a stroke. For an asymmetrical war, an atrocity here and there can certainly serve the cause. If a city serves the god-machine faithfully, the destruction of that city by the most vicious means possible not only removes that city as a tool of the god-machine, but sends a message to every other city who hears of it: serve not the Betrayers, lest this too be visited upon your home. If an Exalt who fights on their behalf (whether he knows it or not) finds his family and those he cares about butchered, and he can be made to curse Occupied Heaven for this fate, or seek power for vengeance through the Yozi, the Reclamation may gain an ally. Even a broken heart, unseen by the god-machine among millions, can turn one to the service of the Yozi. The Makers do not bar their servants from cruelty; they merely prefer that it have a purpose.
