Solaire of Astora MBTI Personality Type
Personality
What personality type is Solaire of Astora? Solaire of Astora is an ENFJ personality type in MBTI, 2w3 - so/sx - 721 in Enneagram, SCOAI in Big 5, EIE in Socionics.
I made a comment pondering this possibility a long time ago, but I decided to come back here to actually make a proper argument for it. After a fair bit of analysis and introspection as to Solaire's motivations in the story, I'm fully convinced Solaire of Astora is actually a Social 7, not a Social 2. One of the most important things to analyse when finding someone's Enneagram type is what motivates their behaviour beyond their essential needs. Everyone needs to eat food, drink water, sleep, find shelter, etc... but as should be obvious, people tend to act for reasons beyond that as well. In terms of higher-order behaviours, what drives people to act in ways that distinguish them from their fundamental needs? Analysing this is the clearest way to find someone's Enneagram, even if it's not always easy to do so. In Solaire's case, his core motivation in life is actually spelled out quite early in the story: "𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘚𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘢, 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵. 𝘕𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥, 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑳𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝑮𝒘𝒚𝒏, 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒌 𝒎𝒚 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒔𝒖𝒏! ...𝘋𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦? 𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥!". His core motivation in life is to "seek his very own sun". But what does this mean? While it's not explicitly spelled out for the player, the clear implication through his story is that the sun, to him, is a symbol of purpose and fulfillment. It's far out of reach, and yet, brings hope and (literally) light to the people of the world. When Solaire says that he "seeks his very own sun", what he means is that he "seeks the distant purpose that will bring fulfilment to my life". And so, he's willingly gone off by himself on a grand adventure across the entirety of Lordran in search of his "sun", holding himself endlessly to his optimism and belief that one day he'll find the one thing that will make him happy and content. His character arc focuses around the fact that, no matter how hard he searches, he cannot find any one thing that will truly fulfill him. The bad ending of his questline involves him giving in entirely to his desire for fulfilment, blinding himself to reality to convince himself that he has found his "sun" and dying to uphold the lie he tells himself. The good ending of his questline involves him coming to terms with the fact that, even though no single thing may ever fulfill him, he can still be happy with what he has. All of this is incredibly indicative of a type 7. He represents the gluttony of the type 7 perfectly; he's always trying to take more from the world in the pursuit of his happiness and fulfilment, not understanding that nothing will ever be enough to make him content. He's also very obviously defined by the 7's core desire for fulfilment and "making the most out of life", as well as his bad ending reflecting the 7's core fear of living in pain or without purpose. Him blinding himself to reality to convince himself that he's happy is reflective of the optimism of the 7, one of their most noteworthy and present coping strategies. I could go on, but the point should be clear; he really does reflect the type 7 in almost every way. If you'd like to read more about the Social 7 in particular, I'd recommend this link: https://www.personalitycafe.com/threads/social-sevens-according-to-beatrice-chestnut.723370/ The reason why he comes off as a type 2 is because of the social instinct; social 7's are very frequently mistyped as 2's, and typically act in almost the same way. But if we look at Solaire's motivations, and cross-reference these with his 2-ish behaviours (such as setting aside his goals to be of service to others as a Warrior of Sunlight), what we see is the anti-gluttony of the social 7; an active, conscious attempt to go against taking more from the world than you're giving out of a belief in some moral, ethical, or social obligation. That's exactly why Solaire operates as a Warrior of Sunlight. Everything about the Social 7 type fits him so well that I'm honestly astounded I haven't seen anyone else bring it up before now. He's a Social 7 through and through.
Biography
Solaire is a Warrior of Sunlight who is determined to find "his very own sun". His faith is upstanding and unwavering, and all holy symbols on Solaire's belongings were painted by himself. Solaire claims to be an adherent of the Lord of Sunlight. His incredible prowess is attributed to training and high-quality equipment, and despite the holy symbols on his equipment, neither Solaire nor his possessions are blessed or enchanted.
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