>>96478550
>>96478640
>>96478645
>3e
Lunars are all in on being anti-Realm failures who never get anything done despite being better organised than ever, while the Sidereal Exalted are all-in on riding out the consequences of being power-hungry megalomaniacs that fail at everything they've ever attempted. Lunars have the pleasure of having a well-written charmset, but the pain of existing in a world where everybody's closer in power levels, which means they can't defeat more than a handful of Dragonblood at once. Sidereals have the pleasure of existing in a world where everybody's closer in power levels while still having a priviledged position of master behind the curtain able to throw Dragonblooded at problems they don't like, while also feeling the gutwrenching pain of elder-level Exalted getting ripped out from under them, when they benefited the most from exponential power levels out of everyone outside the Deathlords. The Fivefold Fellowship can no longer throw down against the Silver Pact in a 100v300 and expect to win. Even 1v1s are dicey. Lore-wise a Sidereal SMA'ist will win the 1v1, mechanics-wise Lunars being legendary size is ludicrous and mixing martial arts with their native charms is very silly, so it depends on how trimped out they are, but the other hand is that Sidereals were written after Lunars and a few of their charms exist to counter to the standard Lunar meta-defining plays, so again I'd just call it dicey and move on. Sidereals going into 1v1 combat against peer-level Exalted isn't supposed to happen anyway. As a group, lore-wise the Fivefold Fellowship is in a much better position and better able to project power and numbers, but the factional thing leaves them less cohesive overall than the Silver Pact. Individually, when it comes to the amount of power that a single Exalt is able to project, Sidereals come out ahead because of their better position, because Sidereals can easily grab a bunch of Dragonblood or sway a kingdom to punch up.
