Since Fortress Luseng appears to be currently winning, I'd like to outline a few potential issues that I see with it. Even if this doesn't convince people, it may help us to better foresee and address them.
The basic goal is to cram twenty or even two hundred million people in a capital city that currently holds two million and was only designed for two hundred thousand. Paradoxically, this last fact is actually what makes this feasible, as most of the current infrastructure was created essentially from scratch. We don't have to put everyone in the capital, but the logistics of sorcerous empowerment mean that it is probably easier to do so. The exception would be those who will be working agricultural or other extractive jobs.
We'll have to provide basic necessities for these people: food, water, shelter, sanitation, and hope. Before long we'll need to provide occupations and entertainment, lest they get bored and cause too much trouble. To merely get them here we'll have to organize the largest mass migration Creation has ever seen. We'll have to provide transport and supplies, and then secure them against pirates and raiders. These are not insolvable problems, but neither are they trivial. There is a reason we don't have enough excess time to also implement much of one of the other plans.
Fortress Luseng will require a number of potent sorcerous workings dedicated to benefit it's population merely to make it possible, let alone make it vaguely palatable. This is not a serious obstacle, but it will consume an enormous amount of time and XP. We may have a decent reserve of experience, but how long will that last? The time can be somewhat compensated for by the Sundial Throne, but not entirely. Remember that it is tiny, and can't help us to accelerate any working that would encompass a large external area, like the city. This means that rather than completing four or five workings in a month, we will only be able to complete one. We also can no longer depend on the Lily to boost our progress, though perhaps Moon might have a similar charm?
We'll definitely need a variant of the Translucent Champion, or at least her various abilities. She was potent before, but would be utterly insane enhancing tens of millions. Reducing food and disease will make supporting the population much easier. Less sleep means more productivity. A time bubble would be oh so tempting, if we can afford the time to create it and the additional logistical burdens required. There are numerous lesser workings that would be useful, but I don't think we can afford the time necessary to perform all of them. Perhaps if we could get a Celestial Circle Sorcerer or two? There's always Ivory, if nothing else. Really, attempting this plan without her would be insane. Uplifting a corps of mortal sorcerers might be useful, if we can possibly hope to produce enough. Initiating any relevant Celestials into an accelerated course of sorcery might not be a bad idea. Moon should be able to learn the training charms to allow this. I'd even be tempted to uplift a loyal Dragon-Blooded to Celestial or even Solar Circle Sorcery simply to ease the burden on Ulyssian, but that's more iffy.
While the immense concentration of population can allow for truly enormous benefits from economics of scale, assuming the formidable logistical issues can be overcome, it also creates enormous amounts of risk and potential for catastrophe. One single disastrous event could wipe out a substantial fraction of the North's entire population. Luseng will be extraordinarily well defended, so lesser threats like rampaging fae or invading armies won't be an issue. Even most single Celestials or small groups of Celestials won't be a serious problem. Larger coalitions certainly may be, and we won't be doing anything to prevent one from forming against us, or even simply without us. We might not come in to conflict at first, but we will be too big to ignore.
The largest issue, however, is dealing with more potent catastrophes. The kinds of things that will wipe a single city off the map, no matter how large it is, and no matter how well defended it is. Such threats are numerous in Creation. Solar Circle Sorcery. Void Circle Necromancy. The eldritch powers of forgotten nameless horrors. Rampaging behemoths. Horrific plagues of supernatural potency. Doomsday weapons from the First Age. Monstrous demonic creations. Luseng will be a very attractive target, especially for those who oppose us or would benefit from our fall. Several of our enemies will have access to such things and the will to use them. They would only have to get lucky once. We have to stop them every time. We'll have to continue to guard the Emerald Mountain, only now without the assistance of Lily or the wards placed by Ragnar.
The direct downsides of Fortress Luseng are comparatively miniscule, but so are the benefits. In one option, we secure the Blessed Isle and the Sword of Creation. In the other, we unite the Exalted host, or at least a substantial part of it, the part worth uniting. In the third, we'll rule a very shiny city with an enormous amount of displaced mortals and probably a few Exalts. We'll have enormous economic power once things get settled out, but is that really what we need? Sure, there's a lesser chance of failure, but we'll also have to invest an enormous amount of experience, something that isn't nearly as easy to come by these days. The failure states of Pax Odyssial are also by no means unrecoverable. A few of them could even be quite interesting, if extremely aggravating.
One might say that Fortress Luseng is playing it safe after an extremely risky choice, but is it really? Or is it simply refusing to pursue our current course of action to the logical conclusion? Will it give us the strength we need to deal with Anys, should her own high risk plan succeed?
What's the point of throwing Creation into peril to unite the fractious and warring Exalted Host if we don't bother actually uniting the Exalted Host?
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