Rebellion in Harborhead: December 2011

All the Incarnae could reasonably have predicted that something was going to exist after the Primordial War ended, that their chosen would exist, and Creation would exist, and that the one would have lasting effects on the other. And have planned for the eventuality. You can see a lot of that planning. But they all think differently, and plan for future problems differently.

The Sun is a straightforward solutions guy. His answer to the problems of an uncertain future is a be so good that he can handle anything. And the anything he expects to handle is direct threats; monsters from the Wyld, leftover behemoths, renegade Primordials, and so forth. Discreet, external, unambiguously Bad Stuff. So, he built his chosen that way, like him, because that's the best way to be. If a Solar can identify a problem, he can work, and prepare, and eventually, probably pretty quickly, stand in front of that problem and shut it down cold. The Sun doesn't anticipate problems, or plan for them, he identifiesthem and then solves them.

Meanwhile, the Maidens are cheaters. They're the opposite. They intentionally look ahead in the game, via crazy precognition magic and Samsara, and then, at the right time, just conveniently happen to have a solution already prepared for the problem. When ghosts show up, having never previously existed, well, gosh, it's sure convenient that their chosen have magic that puts the animate dead to rest, isn't it? Gosh, it's like they knew... And so, they skip all the intermediate steps and just insert the solutions to problems. This doesn't always work, because the Maidens still like a surprise now and then, plus the illusion of Free Will, so they just peek ahead a little bit, and stop as soon as they think they understand enough of the problem to solve it, rather than getting a complete walkthrough. This is frustrating for their chosen, because frequently they get to stroll around making it look easy, but sometimes they drop into a situation ready for a zombie apocalypse and realize they're actually dealing with a flash mob of unruly cosplayers.

Luna, on the other hand, plans for the future all the time, but she doesn't have cheaty future-looking powers. She plans the old-fashioned way, by thinking hard, sometimes with multiple brains at once. And she's powerful, but not infinitely powerful, so she can't always plan on steamrolling any threats. Plus, she's good friends with some who CAN steamroll just about any threat, so why should she bother? It's no fun to be, literally, a pale imitation of the Unconquered Sun. If there's a problem that can be solved with force, she can always pick up the phone and call the sun. If there's a problem that can be foreseen, she doesn't even have to call the Maidens, they'll know about it and deal with it on their own. Luna plans for the problems that Sun can't steamroll, and the Maidens can't cheap-shot. She's there to pop up when some jackass Ishvara thinks he's discovered kryptonite for the Sun and Creation is his for the taking, to deliver a quick kidney punch and send him crying back to Nirupadhika. Luna thinks sideways, to solve problems that weren't anticipated. And, I maintain, her chosen are built from that same philosophy.

So, then, what does this have to do with giving every Lunar a solar bondmate?

The answer is that the solar bond does not, in the end, exist for the benefit of the Lunars. It also does not exist for the benefit of the Solars. Luna wasn't trying to help either of those groups; they didn't exist yet when she was forging exaltions.

Solar Bond exists for the benefit of Creation, which Luna is Fiercely Protective of, after all.

I think Luna, in all her tricksy, tricksy, glory, looked around at things and tried to figure out what Creation would need the most. She tried to figure out what the greatest threats to Creation would be, and make sure her Chosen were set up to do something about it. And, being the sort of outside-the-box thinker that she is, the being whose first act upon creation was to win a knife fight with infinite potential varieties of herself and eat them, Luna realized that the greatest possible threats to Creation, in the long run, stemmed from the Solar Exalted.

Solars, in their purviews, are unbeatable. Like their patron, if a Solar sets about doing something, it will be done, unless opposed by someone of equivalent power.

Therefore, so long as the Solars exist and are reliable, Creation is safe. It's protected. It's secure. That's good.

It follows, then, that any real threat to Creation is necessarily going to involve either some enemy neutralizing the Solars, or the Solars themselves turning on Creation and becoming a threat. To threaten Creation, you must either take the Solars out of play, or turn the Solars themselves against the world.

Luna is the only patron who could make this determination. The Sun could conceive of his chosen losing, but there's nothing he can do to protect against that which he hasn't already done. He's made them the best he can. And he can no more imagine them turning against the world en mass than he can contemplate turning traitor himself. It's not how he operates. And the Maidens are totally unreliable. If they look ahead and see that Creation should end that way, they'll sit by and let it happen, and praise the workings of Samsara. Plus, there's no cheat code for beating Solars.

So, Luna spat on her hands and set to work, and built a solution Luna Style. To protect the world, she needed her chosen to protect the Solars; protect the solars from getting chumped when some unanticipated weakness popped up to take them off the field, and to protect their loyalty; to ensure that most of them always served Creation, and would not abandon it to build their own castles in the Wyld or tear it down with their own hands.

And, being Luna, she drew on her experience with Gaia and utilized her most powerful and terrible weapon: love. Gaia wished to abandon Creation, and would have, but Luna loved her, and was loved by her in turn, and so anchored her to the world. Luna bound Gaia to the good of Creation with bonds of affection, and not even the other titans could pull those apart.

So, Luna recreated that, in miniature, with her chosen. Each Lunar loves one Solar, values him, will fight for him. And each Solar, no matter how far he grows from humanity, no matter how old he becomes, has one person who loves him, and will seek him out, sooner or later, and stand with him.

Capture a Solar alive, and send him to the most distant shores of the Faraway, lost and unable to reincarnate? There is one being who will never stop looking for that solar, never give up, because love does not give up, and that being is equipped with every advantage Luna could give to survive any hardship and trail her prey across any distance. Bury a solar at the bottom of the sea, and the lunar will become a fish and swim to the rescue. Entomb a solar in the underworld, and the lunar will turn into a ghost and hunt him still. And whatever means you used to disable the solar, whatever trick or weakness you employed, will not stop the lunar, because the lunar changes like the moon, and can change weaknesses as easily as changing a face.

And, if a solar were to turn against Creation, become its enemy, still the Lunar is there. When the neverborn whisper to an Abyssal that the world has nothing good in it, that all is ashes and pain, there's one being who will stand there and call them liars, out of love. One being that can't be scourged by Resonance, can't be driven off by horror. No abyssal can truly say, "I hate all things, for all things hate me." When the Yozi sing their songs of failure and spite and envy, when they say that an Infernal has been given nothing good by Creation, and should give it back evil in turn, there's always a Lunar there to call them liars, and offer one good thing, at least. One being they can't be punished for associating with, for making compromises to, one being who will not flinch at monstrous form and inhuman changes. No infernal can truly say, "I despise all things, for all things despise me."

Obviously, this plan hasn't been perfect. The Lunars were driven off, for a time, and the solars were neutralized, and then many turned against that which they should protect, just as Luna thought might happen. But that's when you need a plan of last resort the most. And there's still time for this plan to bear fruit, because Luna's chosen are still there, they still love, and they were selected to never, ever, quit.

Rebellion in Harborhead

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Found on RPG.net and Relevant: Solar/Lunar Bond

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

What Fesojynok Looks Like