On the other hand, say, as
part of my Kimbery oath stuff, I've got an option that lets you grant some (minor) powers to people who've already willingly sworn obedience to you, at the small small cost of their near eternal damnation. That's because this is invoking Yakuza oaths and the Esoteric Order of Dagon, where you have to give yourself fully to an organisation and in return you get something from them. Notably, how it works is that they can learn the spirit charms of 1CDs who descend from you from tutors - it's not a fast way of granting power.
sometimes you just gotta sleep with the fishes m80
Which is a good thing, to me. Whether it be out of exhaustion or willful ignorance or even outright malice, Sol should be an immoral figure. That's what he's for, to me. He exists as a blunt reminder that as a setting, Exalted has no use for moral paragons. As far as I'm concerned, the narrative purpose of Sol Invictus is to be a putz. He's there to make a simple statement; "Behold the god of excellence and righteous action! See him broken on the altar of his own vice and exhaustion! Go forth, Chosen, and be your own light in the darkness."
Man I'm like a page and a half too late to a super interesting conversation and all the good points have been taken, motherfucker.
I think...honestly in my capacity as Some Rando Who Enjoys The Weird Hybrid Setting In His Head (like pretty much all of you, let's be honest, everyone's personal Creation varies like
hell for something that it seems like people never play games in
) I significantly prefer
@Imrix's interpretation. It speaks way more to the...dunno, to the
used aspect of the setting that I like. The ruins of Shogunate Las Vegas built around the core of a small, Solar-era luxury manse, now inhabited by a tribal confederation of tropical bird beastmen and monsters and science experiments who were imported as servants and slaves and gladiators. The weight of history and the way past decisions resonate forward I guess?
The Sun turned his face from Creation. He washed his hands of it all and gave up his right to rule it (in fact if not necessarily law) so that he could just enjoy his well-earned rest. It feels thematically dissonant to have him as some big glowy good guy in the sky, intervening just enough to kick off Solar plots but not, like, more than that to fix things. And still claim that he
is a moral figure y'know? And just as a side note 'cause this is as good a place for the thought as any, like, it was brought up elsewhere but nobody really seems to mind the idea that Luna or the Maidens are kinda
immoral in how they choose/guide their champions. Luna is weird and mercurial and their shards reward weird and mercurial things and while they often take an active interest nobody expects it to necessarily be benign or benevolent. Similarly the Maidens are heading up the Heavenly FBI and are a mix of bureaucratic planning and grand manipulation.
But yeah it's somewhat jarring if all he's doing is basically turning away from the television to waggle his fingers a bit and magic up some more supersoldiers during the commercial break. It feels richer and somewhat more satisfying I guess if you can reasonably suspect or outright know in setting that there is no golden safety net so to speak. The closest thing the world has to a high god doesn't really
care anymore. He only vaguely knows you exist and probably won't even realize it if you die. Sol Invictus is broken down and burned out and might honestly resent you for saying that he
owes you anything. He might not even be completely wrong to.
It's a strong, evocative, and personally appealing statement that dovetails in more with a lot of what I like about the setting in all its sloppy glory.
And tying this into the broader argument (for clarity's sake: I enjoy the more sci-fi mythic elements of Exalted which I know is a bit controversial) I like what the Exaltations as a functionally autonomous drone-thing says and does I think. An important, or well one of the important, thematic points in the RPG is that you should be...deeply suspicious I think? Given the Dragonborn and their position as antagonists to many other Exalted and their own internal dogfuckery. Of divine right and other claims to supernal power as being inherently deserved. And it's a closed system running that nobody can really stop or turn off, just guide or work to shape if they pay attention or put in the legwork, like Luna and the Maidens do.
So it's- it works I think if you can say in setting and not be a liar that nobody deserves the supreme, supernal power they have. That there were dozens if not hundreds of others who could have gotten the same shard you did. That every Abyssal or Infernal you meet could have been you and you could have been them. That the supposed, like, massive barriers separating the glorious golden chosen from the nameless failures or the mutant hell-monsters or the deathknights are really wire thin and down to more luck than most people are comfortable admitting.
