The Unconquered Sun As The God Of Excellence
Author’s note: For the first few years that I was into Exalted, I could not figure out just what it was that the Zenith were supposed to be preaching. What was their theology of the Unconquered Sun, and was Sol Invictus the god of anyway? The following lays out my thoughts on this matter.-- Munificent Perception
A brief First Age sutra written for assiduous mortal disciples of the Unconquered Sun
For the unenlightened who have yet to experience the flows of Quintessential Essence, the tantras of the Twilight Caste can be hopelessly perplexing. Of equal difficulty are the Copper Spiders' insights concerning the role of the Inscrutable Lord of the Day in the balance of the Ten Thousand Perfected Things that are Creation.
Thus it falls to this humble person of the Zenith, not long removed in years from the limitations of mortal life, to give instruction in the nature of Heaven’s Golden Regent and the means of his correct propitiation.
The Unconquered Sun is the Lord of Excellence. Where the Celestial gods of Yu-Shan and the Terrestrial deities of Creation are the personifications of concepts and the spirits of objects, the Celestial Incarna rule the most fundamental dynamics of Heaven and Earth. The Lord of Dawns and Sunsets, the Divine Maidens, and the Changing Lady represent basic states of being — of being in motion, at rest, in conflict, of being aware (knowing), of ending and of changing. These dominions of the Celestines overlap and interact. While the many aspects of change are the responsibility of the Silver Lady, it is the Sun, the Polestar of Quality, whose existence allows for one thing being better than another and for change to produce improvement in the place of meaningless variation.
This divine aspect of the Unbowed Sun is often called Arete by the scholars of the Twilight. His mundane manifestation in the sky of Creation is normally termed Generative Brilliance, for it is in this prosaic guise that the Sun sustains the life of all that lives and grows upon the surface of Gaia, Maiden of Plenty. The seasons are shaped by his coming and going, and even the most humble of rustic farmers knows well enough the righteousness of propitiating Heaven’s August Lord in thanks for sustenance grown from fields of sun-kissed earth.
It is well known that upon a day of trial — when the tested must be at their best — that the ambitious person will make sacrifice to both the Lord of Excellence and the divinity whose task is to be undertaken. An archer in a contest might seek to propitiate the both the Golden Regent of Heaven as well as the local god of bows, and likewise a future mandarin in need of the highest civil service exam marks will make sacrifices to the Divine Sun and gods of test taking. The superior person, though, does not advance in life by such one-off means. Rather, those who follow the Way of Heaven pursue development in the Fourfold Divine Virtues: Compassion, Temperance, Conviction and Valor, the symbols of which Heaven’s Regent bears his four glorious hands.
The Sun has provided his Chosen to humanity as exemplars of excellence and engines of progress. It falls to the Golden Bulls of the Lawgivers, his priests, to instruct in the Fourfold Path of the Spear, the Shield, the Cup, and the Laurel Wreath. By obtaining development in the Divine Virtues the superior person not only excels in one moment, but becomes superlative at all endeavors — from calligraphy to swordplay, from the stewardship of a family to the regency of a land.
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