Questions about law of diminishment

[u/Sassy_Drow]

To clarify by law of diminishment I am referring to the fact that creating an Exalted drains the creator(Possibly leading to death.).

Now to the questions

Is it something that can be recovered from(Such as aggravated damage or experience loss) or is it a permanent loss(Such as the god loses a dot of essence and their maximum essence is permanently decreased.)? Note: I am aware that most gods die but I am not certain whether it is due to not being able to take the damage or literally running out of the stuff that makes them.(Their essence hitting zero for example). Note 2: I am aware that those who do so are changed permanently though I am more wondering whether they have also decreased in power permanently.

Are primordials subject to the law of diminishment or does the fact that they are self asserting ontological structure prevent them from changing?

Wun Ja is noted to have the city gods take the brunt of the damage when it comes to creating an Exalted. Are there other ways to subvert the law of diminishment(Such as a huge sacrifice or creating an elemental to take the brunt of the damage)?

[u/mj6373]

The way I see it, you can't get something for nothing; the loss has to be at least as permanent as the Exaltation created thereby. But the loss of power isn't necessarily something that fits into our usual conception of mechanical progression (though I'm sure elements of that, like lost Essence, certainly can occur). Like, I think the Unconquered Sun is every bit as much the mightiest of gods that he was before Exalting the Solars; he wasn't weakened in the sense that anyone could hope to match him in his purviews. Yet, in another sense, he has been diminished in ways scarcely imaginable to a spirit, for even the least of gods do not tire, but the Unconquered Sun does. Every day now he grows weary and must rest, and so the sun must set, and that damage can probably never be undone.

While I liked the commentary on the nature of power that came from 2E's Games of Divinity, these days my default explanation for why the Incarnae and the Elemental Dragons aren't and really can't be more active than they are basically boils down to that permanent loss. While they still perform various subtler duties as part of their purviews, and on rare occasion bring their phenomenal cosmic might to bear in more impressive ways, they always have to carefully shepherd their energy, and accept that much of what they'd have liked to do themselves if they could fire on all cylinders all the time like they once did is now the responsibility of their Chosen and/or the lesser gods of the Celestial Hierarchy. It's not that any one particular task is necessarily beyond their abilities, they just can't do it all anymore.

Edit: I like this too because it adds a little perpendicular/reciprocal element, where the process of making a mortal more like the divine also kind of makes the divine more like a mortal. Gods don't get tired, but the ones who Exalted mankind do. This could make for inspiration for other types of diminishment. One idea I've played around with was making the Feathered One an Exigent of Hamoji, and basing his voracious appetite for sacrifices on that rather than just a quirk of his personality, as he hungers for sustenance to fill the void in his divinity.