How often do solars see the sun?

[CapitanTypo]

Zenith caste are meant to be the Unconquered Suns messengers in creation, but all solars have some relationship with him.

The question is, in game, how often do your solars have contact from the sun? Visions, dreams portents? Direct visitations?

I'd like to hear how you incorporate the Unconquered Sun into your characters lives.

[webkilla]

Well, canonically then the UCS has a bit of an addiction issue, which led him to stop paying attention to the way heaven was managed, which led to an awful lot of corruption and whatnot.

Now, any Solar can get a personalized vision from the UCS upon exaltation - but its not mandatory, though it is a fairly common way of setting up a character: "You get exalt as a Solar and see the UCS before you. He bids you to make Creation awesome again" or something similar.

In all of my games the UCS has always been a distant and basically non-present thing. Everyone knew why, nobody spoke up about it

[TheCountAlucard]

In my present game, one of the PCs has one of the Sun's hunting dogs, but other than that, there hasn't been much contact between them and the Highest of Holies.

[Jen]

The Mice of the Sun is another way for the UCS to say "I'm watching you ~"

There is a Realm-slave Dawn in the Castebook who say that the UCS keeps sending inspirational dreams to him. Not sure if there are other canon examples.

[TheCountAlucard]

Of course, even if a character does get visions or dreams or visitations, that doesn't necessarily mean it's from the Sun (though they might interpret it as such).

[Isator Levi]

It's an interesting question.

I have an insufficient basis to provide much answer for it myself, but I think I've hardly ever heard accounts of games in which a growing relationship with the Unconquered Sun becomes a thing.

Yet I look at some of the early First Edition books, and that seems to be a premise that they were laying the groundwork for, between the chapter fiction in the core where he tells Panther that he's turning his face back to the world again, and how Games of Divinity describes him as a fairly active advisor and ally of the Old Realm.

It just seems to be a plot hook that not many people ever picked up on, either out of disinterest or not noticing.

I wasn't part of the community back then, but I would not be surprised if the memes about addiction to the magic X Box were still thick and fast back then, and for players who are also a big part of online discussion I would wonder if it might have heavily obfuscated possible stories in which the achievements of players draw increasing attention and support from their god, and includes a stronger association with him.

[Ferryman]

Why, almost every day. They just look up. *rimshot*

Okay, seriously this time. Characters in my games typically have nearly zero contact with UCS. This doesn't have to be due to crippling addiction to the GoD, but is a simple consequence of the immense remove at which he operates from the concerns of the individual mortals among which the PCs typically act. In my games, the Unconquered Sun treats mortals given Solar Exaltation kind of like self-guided awesome bombs - when he sees part of the world that richly deserves his attention, he reaches down and unleashes a Solar upon it. Then he pats himself on the back and congratulates himself for the incredible degree of personal involvement he has in the world, and turns back to other matters. He doesn't remain individually involved in directing their actions or values, because he took care in selecting people who didn't need that kind of hand-holding in the first place. The UCS trusts that his Chosen few have both the will to act and the judgment to do so well, because he chooses people who already meet those criteria. Then he gives them the power to do so and boom - Solar.

Or, to put it another way:

Mortals: "Oh great Sun, please turn your face upon us again!"
UCS: "Okay." *Exalts a Solar* "Handled. Damn, I'm good!"
Newly-Exalted Solar: "Fuck yeah, this is sweet! Uh...so, what am I supposed to do again?"
UCS: "Hey man, you got this. That's why I chose you and not some other chump. Am I right?"
NES: "You know what? Yeah."
UCS: "Cool. Peace out."
Mortals: "...that's it?"
UCS: "It's more than you needed."

[Eura]

When solars look up to the sun all they see is a half-naked oiled up Sol Invictus flexing at them. This inspires them to be as awesome as the unconquered Sun's abs.

[The Wizard of Oz]

My players met the UCS briefly, I think about 2-3 years after we started playing. The players went to Yu-Shan for the Calibration festival, and Lyta turned up with her circle to tell everyone how she'd killed Chejop Kejak in the UCS's name.
So he appointed the PCs, as the only other Solars there, to judge Lyta and her circle. They had her executed, two of her circle imprisoned I think, and the other two task-bound to serve Heaven.

It's probably good that the Incarnae-hating Full Moon wasn't there that session, or things could have gone very differently!

Now, however (or rather, when I stopped running 3rd ed, since they were well beyond Essence 5) the UCS hasn't been seen even in Heaven for years, not even in effigy above the Dome.

Because... well, there's a plot reason (though it was part of a plot they didn't investigate, which is fine), but honestly I find the UCS kind of dull. If I were to run Exalted again from 0xp, standard starting date, I'd just completely ignore him.

[blackwingedheaven]

Zenith caste are meant to be the Unconquered Suns messengers in creation, but all solars have some relationship with him.

The question is, in game, how often do your solars have contact from the sun? Visions, dreams portents? Direct visitations?

I'd like to hear how you incorporate the Unconquered Sun into your characters lives.

In my last campaign, the party went to Yu-Shan to have their leader face charges and defend himself in court. While they were in the city, they decided to seek out the Unconquered Sun and visit him personally. They got a fantastic scene meeting their god, but that was his only appearance in the entire campaign, which ran three years. The current game I'm running will likely have a similar number of appearances. XD

[Morangias]

I never ran a Solars game in 2e, but the PCs in my Sidereals game have met with the UCS once or twice. I tried my best to dissuade them from doing so more often, as I don't have a clue how to roleplay him.

[Elkovash]

The closest my players have gotten to interacting directly with the UCS was in an alterna-verse super powered high school session (part of a vision quest) when he descended from the sky swathed in light during a faculty dispute singing "By the power invested in me by these golden quad guns..."

Otherwise I have prepared material for him focusing on his role as an Incarne of Excellence rather than a god of Good, there is a certain expectation of living up to one's potential especially when they have been given all the tools they need (eg, exaltation).

[Brasstreader]

When solars look up to the sun all they see is a half-naked oiled up Sol Invictus flexing at them. This inspires them to be as awesome as the unconquered Sun's abs.

It's not about the abs. It's the ribs that motivate my players.
Because they're Infernals/Abyssals, and one of them has a habit of cannibalizing gods. Or is it just eating them? Is it cannibalizing if it's sentient, or does it specifically have to be humans?

Anyway, Sol Invictus tends to only show up directly if you're a Zenith in most of the games I've played. One non-Solar, however, wanted to have his One Unique Thing be that the Sun shows up in dreams like Leave It To Beaver, the omniscient Moral Dad in Armchair.

[nalak42]

It's not about the abs. It's the ribs that motivate my players.
Because they're Infernals/Abyssals, and one of them has a habit of cannibalizing gods. Or is it just eating them? Is it cannibalizing if it's sentient, or does it specifically have to be humans?

Anyway, Sol Invictus tends to only show up directly if you're a Zenith in most of the games I've played. One non-Solar, however, wanted to have his One Unique Thing be that the Sun shows up in dreams like Leave It To Beaver, the omniscient Moral Dad in Armchair.

Cannibalism technically requires them to be of the same species as one's self. However, since gods are apparently capable of breeding with humans and producing offspring that can also reproduce then they do get a bit muddy on whether or not they're in a close enough category for real world species classification.

Personally I figure the obvious is Zeniths are guaranteed the one when they exalt. Everyone else might, but aren't guaranteed it. After that it's whether or not you can appeal to him strongly enough to get him to show up with prayers and ritual, or if a situation comes up that Sol decides needs him to get involved and it would best involve him interceding by talking to one of his chosen.

[BjornTheFellhanded]

In our current Abyssal's modern game, we occasionally call/pray to him. A few because they're hoping for guidance on redemption, one wanted to negotiate a removal of the creature of darkness status (we are on mission to save the world from a race between Oblivion and a combined freed of malfeus demon host and fairfolk onslaught. It's a long story).
So far none of us have redeemed or been absolved from being creatures of darkness. This has frustrated some; the calls to Ol' Sunny aren't always pleasant or all that polite anymore.