General Exalted Discussion Thread VII: Playground Eternal Essence

[Recaiden]

Sorry, but I zoomed in on this.
I do love that Lunar homebrew...

Solars! Remember that The Unconquered Sun himself willingly gets out of the sky now and then - because it's a better world to let other people have the spotlight, and because if it's all sun, all the time, the world would burn to ash in time.

I think that a Zenith who took that to heart, and spent time using his power in the standard huge way, and then just retreated (probably for decades at a time?) to let other people take over might be interesting.
I don't think it would work without much more thought put into it, but putting more effort into literally emulating the sun instead of just shining as brightly might make a better Solar. Thoughts?

I think that this puts it very well as an explanation for why the Solars can and do break things. Even at his best, Sol is too much for the world.

I once made a solar whose goal was to make mortals win the setting. No, really, he wanted to set up a means of enlightening mortals by the millions and getting them access to charms that would let them effectively protect themselves from the depredations of many supernatural entities, and then he would retire and spend his final millennia in comfort designing manses and perfecting the martial arts.

I've had this thought, or one like it, but never got to play one of them. It's a nice idea, and probably a nice character too.

Hmm...is there, mechanically, some way to access essence 4 charms at essence 1 or 2?