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Solar Exalted

The god-kings of the world, the Solar Exalted led the armies of the Exalted to victory in the Primordial War. Afterwards, however, things got bad. While the Solar Exalted who fought in the war more or less resisted the Great Curse, their descendants were less fortunate, and generations of Exaltation only bred a sense of entitlement into them that worsened the situation. Ultimately, they were overthrown, and the majority were trapped in the Jade Prison.

General Revisions

• As Celestial Exalted, Solars have extremely long lifespans - the longest of any Celestial. Solars do not begin to roll for age effects, or appear to age, until they reach 1600 years of age. At that time, they must make a Stamina + Resistance roll every twenty years, with the difficulty increasing by 1 each time - there is no cap, and no Willpower, Virtue Channels, Charms or other magics that do not specifically focus on preventing age can affect this roll. Once a roll is failed, the Solar has under twenty years to live; still, in the First Age it was not unheard of for a Solar to reach well over 2000 years old using magics.
• In order to reach Essence 6+, a Solar Exalt must both follow the age guidelines listed in the Exalted corebook, and fulfill a Motivation. Solars can eventually raise their Essence as high as 10.

Anima Modifications

Solar Exalts each gain three powers; a Caste Power, an Anima Ability, and an Anima Effect. Caste Powers are permanent enhancements that increase a caste's ability to do their job. Anima Abilities are effects that can be activated at the cost of 5 motes of Essence, and cause a moment of anima flare (at the 11+ mote level) when activated, but which do not retain that flare. Finally, Anima Effects are effects which activate automatically whenever the character's anima banner reaches the 11+ mote range. For Solars, these three effects are always different.

Dawn Caste

• Caste Power: Heavenly General: Dawn Caste Exalts naturally inspire devotion to battle. Any ally within (Essence x5) yards in normal combat, or within the Dawn's unit in mass combat, may choose to apply a +1 die bonus to any required Valor rolls. Multiple Dawn Caste characters add their Essence together when determining the range of the effect, but do not otherwise stack it.
• Anima Power: Warriors of the Sun: For 5 motes, Dawn Caste Exalts can remind their foes of their divine nature. Anyone who sees this anima flare suffers a -1 die penalty to their Valor rolls for the duration of the scene. This effect does not stack with multiple Dawn Caste or multiple activations.
• Anima Ability: Sun's Intimidation: A Dawn Caste whose anima flares at the 11+ mote range is affected by their anima power as listed in the Exalted 2e corebook. This DV bonus applies to both physical and mental DVs, and does not count towards die caps.

Zenith Caste

• Caste Power: Heavenly Priests: Zenith Caste Exalts are considered to be priests of all gods, and thus suffer no penalties when summoning gods, as listed in the Summoning Gods section of the corebook.
• Anima Power: Priests of the Sun: At a cost of 5 motes, a Zenith Caste Exalt can imbue her touch with holiness. For the duration of the scene, any corpse that she touches is immediately consumed with solar fire, passing its soul into Lethe. If the corpse already has a ghost, the ghost must win an opposed Essence roll against the Zenith to not pass into Lethe. If the corpse is animated, its controller must win the Essence roll to prevent the corpse's destruction.
• Anima Ability: Holy Might: A Zenith Caste Exalt whose anima is burning at the 11+ mote level doubles all minimum die pools in rolls against creatures of darkness, including damage rolls.

Twilight Caste

• Caste Power: Heavenly Teacher: Twilight Caste Exalts are natural teachers. If acting as a tutor for anything with training time, each day of tutoring counts as two days.
• Ability Ability: Endurance of the Sun: The Twilights were made to withstand damage. This power functions as the ability to reduce damage in the corebook, save that it does not activate automatically at the 11+ mote range.
• Anima Effect: Anima Protection: The Twilights were often required to perform surgeries, repairs, and the like in battlefield conditions. A Twilight Caste Exalt whose anima is flaring at the 11+ mote level takes no DV penalty for any non-Attack actions she may perform. This includes Shape Sorcery actions, as well as Cast Sorcery actions for non-attack spells.

Night Caste

• Caste Power: Heavenly Shadow: The Night Caste can disguise their animas. This power functions as the ability to surpress Essence use in the 2e corebook.
• Anima Power: Shadows of the Sun: This functions as the power in the corebook, except that it costs only 5 motes.
• Anima Effect: Anonymous Features: This functions as the power in the corebook.

Eclipse Caste

• Caste Power: Heavenly Connection: Eclipse Caste Exalts may freely learn the Charms of other Exalts, gods, demons, elementals, Fair Folk, and other beings that use Charms. They may not learn non-Charm powers, nor may they learn Charms that are specifically forbidden to them. Learning such Charms costs 16 XP each, and if they are of non-permanent duration, they cost +2 motes to activate.
• Anima Power: Emissaries of the Sun: Eclipses are charted as negotiators and ambassadors, and they may reinforce this. At the cost of 5 motes, an Eclipse may flare her anima to declare herself as an Emissary of the Sun when in the presence of gods, demons, Fair Folk, or ghosts. They are thus protected by diplomatic immunity and cannot be attacked so long as they are present on business. This includes hospitality that must be provided, as well as safe passage out of the person's domain for the Eclipse and her companions.
• Anima Effect: Oathbinding: As witnesses of Heaven, Eclipses can automatically seal any witnessed oath, so long as her anima is active at the 11+ mote level. Sealing an oath costs no further Essence or Willpower, but otherwise functions as in the Exalted 2e corebook.

Charm Modifications

• The following corebook Charms are revised:
  • Blazing Solar Bolt (Melee): This Charm costs 5 motes.
  • Glorious Solar Sabre (Melee): This Charm provides [Melee x2] points, and a Speed 6 weapon with Accuracy +0, Damage +0L or B, Defense +0, and Rate 3. Points spent on Damage provide 2 pts of damage per point spent. Reducing Speed costs 2 pts per reduction. Purchasing Accuracy, Defense, or Rate costs 1 pt per point increase. A character may only place up to (Melee) points into a single category.
  • Spirit Weapons (Thrown): This Charm costs 5 motes per scene to create unlimited weapons. Such weapons have a Resources value equal to half the character's Essence score, rounding up.
  • Durability of Oak Meditation (Resistance): This Charm has a duration of One Scene. If the character already has Hardness of 8 or greater from another source, it increases that Hardness by 2.
  • Spirit Strengthens The Skin (Resistance): This Charm reduces post-soak damage dice. The character may spend up to (Essence) motes on it.
  • Iron Skin Concentration (Resistance): This Charm reduces one attack to minimum damage automatically.
  • Iron Kettle Body (Resistance): If the character is wearing armor, this Charm provides +2A/+4L/+4B soak on top of her armor soak.
  • Element-Resisting Prana (Survival): This Charm protects against environmental hazards even if they are directly inflicted on her.
  • Harmonious Academic Methodology (Lore): This Charm replaces its prerequisites with: Any Lore Excellency, Power-Awarding Prana
  • Monkey Leap Technique (Athletics): The character's movement-action leaps can only be done on the tick she acts.
  • Linguistics (All): All Linguistics Charms replace their Ability roll with an Attribute + Linguistics roll.

• The following Charms from Dreams of the First Age or Wonders of the Lost Age are modified:
  • Ultimate Mastery of (Specialty) is revised to Ultimate Mastery of (Ability), and has a cost of 4m, 1w. Any action for that Ability that allows a roll, the character succeeds at automatically. This Charm requires the character to have any six other Charms in that Ability.
  • Solar Hero Supremacy: This Charm only reduces the costs of Solar Hero Style by 2 motes each; it is otherwise identical.
  • Golden Destruction Cut: This Charm deals post-soak damage.
  • Unassailable Aegis of Dual Armament: This Charm allows only (Essence) parries or counterattacks per action. Its cost is reduced to 6m, 1w.
  • Immunity To Armies Approach: This Charm allows a Solar to reduce the effective Magnitude of an enemy unit by her (Essence) rating, and halves their skill bonus to their commander (rounding down). She may still attempt to attack the commander directly, but doing so applies a -2 external penalty.
  • Lion's Roar Recovery: The clause about channeling a Virtue to recover extra Willpower is removed.
  • Infatuation-Gathering Idol Methodology: This is a Simple, Combo-OK, Obvious Charm which costs 15m, 1w to activate.
  • Endurance Of 10,000 Cuts: This Charm does not affect aggravated damage.
  • Wonder-Forging Genius: If the character meets the prerequisites for crafting an artifact already, this Charm reduces the difficulty of constructing it by 1 (this is cumulative with two purchases to a -2 difficulty).
  • Unconquered Might: This Charm is useless and is removed.
  • Understanding Of The Golden Tongue: This Charm is now Essence 5. It requires Ultimate Linguistics Mastery and Twisted Words Technique as prerequisites, and requires those speaking the language to speak it for a week before applying its bonuses and penalties.

Effect

The Solar Exalted do not have the exceptional lifespans of the normal approach, but still live long enough that it is unlikely that there were more than two or three generations of the more peaceful ones in the First Age. Their Charms are not quite as unstoppable at the higher levels, meaning that it probably took slightly fewer Dragon-Blooded to kill them initially, but allowing for them to have had more support during the Usurpation. In modern times, newly-returning Solars can quickly reach the peak of their former power, threatening the fabric of the world.