What Lunars ought to be

The latter is a bit complicated, but I eventually summarized thusly: Lunars are driven, empowered, and defined by their relationships. With their bond mate, with their pack, with their people, with their animals. A Lunar alone is certainly going to be weaker than a Solar. But a Lunar acting in concert with others -- the strongest being with their bond mate -- is a being of incredible potency. This means that Lunars organize into groups organically: to solve a problem, for mutual aid, for comfort. It also means they are terrible at establishing or maintaining the constructs of civilization; nation-building is not their forte.

Out of all of the Exalts, they are probably the worst at leading organizations. This has a limited impact on smaller scales; a Lunar is still an exceptional person, better than a mortal on average, and so they can run very successful businesses, lead armies in successful campaigns, and even become a pillar of a society. But a Lunar general would struggle to lead two armies. A Lunar businessperson would specialize in their core business to the absolute detriment of the ancillary profit centers. A Lunar elder would focus their energy and attention on the priorities of their constituents almost exclusively. Scaled up to significant organizations, Lunars struggle to lead effectively; they could manage if they developed strong relationships with key lieutenants, but in the absence of those relationships they are not going to be the best choice or even, really, an adequate one.

Moreover, Lunars are chosen on the basis of their sublimation of their goals in pursuit of the greater good. They naturally shy away from leadership roles, disinterested in credit and focused on accomplishing the goals that they take upon themselves.

Mechanically, they'd receive bonus successes based on whether or not their actions supported the goals of other members of the group. This is why packs form and why they're so effective at accomplishing their primary task. A pack of Lunars who get together to free the slaves of Gem will almost certainly succeed. But they probably won't fix anything else; it's ancillary to their goal to agitate for political change or garner the support of local merchants. Easier to just remove the slaves from slavery and let Gem figure out how to cope.

But the flip side of that is they're very decentralized by nature. Task accomplished, a pack will probably disperse, which is why the most permanent packs are the mutual protection ones; they're also rare because as other goals reach primacy, some pack members may drift off.

With a Solar present, Lunars will naturally organize around the Solar's goals; the Solar provides stability for the pack and the pack is a major asset. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement.

This is also why Lunars have trouble dealing with Sidereals. When you can't remember who they are, how do you know what you're trying to do?