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It might be possible to design a defensive charm that is truly perfect, but the Exalted of the First Age decided against this for several reasons.
First, as explained to the first Solar Exalted at the Dawn of Time, a truly perfect defense is functionally identical to a truly perfect offense. When two such perfect effects meet, the victor is likely to be the stronger of the two forces. During the Primordial War, this would almost certainly be the enemy of the Exalted and thus such a feat was simply not tenable.
Second, while it might be possible to design a "truly perfect primacy defensive", such a Charm would most certainly have requirements much higher than most of the Exalted would ever reach and be beyond the reach of even the potent Solars for the entirety of their human lifetimes. This would leave the Exalted completely vulnerable to their enemies for long periods of time during every rebirth, and as casualties in the Primordial War were likely to be unavoidable, this was also untenable.
Third, a truly perfect defense that had primacy over offense and was of an attainable level of Essence would -- without fail -- contain some other weakness such that a truly cunning foe could work around this perfection anyway. Is a defense truly perfect if you can't defend yourself with it? No, and thus, this last reason was also rendered untenable.
The solution was to build a small amount of imperfection into the defenses of the Exalted. Enough so that it was conceivable, but unlikely, that they could be defeated yet that still allowed them to consistently overcome even the most potent attacks.
Compassion Flaw: A Charm carrying this Flaw does not function unless the character has some room for love in his heart; in order to use this charm, the Character must have at least one positive intimacy involving another person other than herself. Intimacies towards a group of people (even "My Circle") don't count, only an intimacy such as "Loved One, Friend, Leader or Idol" aimed at a single person. A charm with this Virtue Flaw gains a +1wp surcharge if the character is forced to raise arms and defend herself against someone she cares about such as a loved one or friend.
Conviction Flaw: A Charm carrying this Flaw will not function should the character ever stray from the path of righteousness. After breaking faith with his Motivation, the Exalt is unable to use a Charm with this Flaw until he makes amends or after (Conviction) weeks of inner turmoil. The most common source of such turmoil, but by no means the only such source, is a character changing his Motivation prior to achieving it. A charm with this Virtue Flaw also gains a +3m surcharge if, during the scene, the character acts against any of his Virtues rated 3+ or one of his Intimacies.
Temperance Flaw: A Charm carrying this Flaw will never fail the character, so long as the character does not first fail himself. So long as the character has at least a single point in both Willpower and Composure, he may freely use the flawed Charm, but if either pool should drop to zero during a scene his defense fails him until such time as he refills both pools to at least half capacity (round up). A charm with this Virtue Flaw suffers a +1wp surcharge when defending against an attack that the character clearly caused by his own intemperate behavior.
Valor Flaw: A Charm carrying this Flaw is as steadfast and unyielding as the character himself, yet fails utterly should the character's own will waver in the face of danger or the fear of death, such as by backing down against insurmountable odds when there is reason to make a final stand. Mere use of strategy is not enough to destroy the Perfection of this defense, but acting unheroic for even a moment will do so. A charm with this Virtue Flaw does gain a +3m surcharge if, during the scene, the character holds back from the Valorous course -- even for good reason.
The Abyssal Flaw's of Invulnerability tend to be "stronger" than their counterparts among the Exalted of Creation. That is to say, they generally lack "Imperfections" as the Celestial and Solar Exalted would recognize them. However, that is not to say that taking advantage of the Abyssals' lack of an Imperfection is necessarily a good idea. Whenever an Abyssal would normally have to pay a surcharge of motes or willpower, he instead gains a point of Resonance. There's no limit to how many points of Resonance you can gain this way in a Scene!
Most of the Abyssal Flaw's of Imperfection are unchanged, at least in mechanics. The Conviction and Valor Flaws should be read through the cracked mirror of the Abyssal Exalted. For the purposes of Conviction, keep in mind that the Abyssals' Motivation is destructive if not malign while his Virtues are twisted by the Black Exaltation and it's violations of those twisted Virtues that draw Resonance from the Neverborn. Temperance is identical mechanically and in flavor, and is the favored Virtue Flaw for many Abyssals due to the fact that it doesn't have an Imperfection. The Neverborn simply don't care if you have to defend yourself against attacks that you intemperately caused.
Here, thus, is the Compassion Flaw:
Compassion Flaw: The Abyssal must flense her heart of all love. The perfect doesn't work at all if the Abyssal has a single Loved One intimacy, or any other positive life-affirming intimacy directed at a single person. Only the most devout of the Midnight Caste are likely to take this Flaw, and it's among the rarest of the Abyssal Flaws of Invulnerability. A Charm with this Virtue flaw gives the Abyssal Resonance if she stays Her hand, grants mercy or otherwise gives lie to the twisted Compassion that the Neverborn placed in her heart.
Terms and Definitions
A Virtue Flaw is composed of two parts. The Flaw itself is what denies the user the charm in its totality, rendering it inapplicable. These conditions are often quite rare and in almost all cases require the Exalt himself to fail himself in some fashion. The imperfection are smaller, more easily exploitable, weaknesses in the perfect defense that render it slightly less but have the bonus of giving the defense primacy. A "surcharge" for a given Flaw of Invulnerability is a extra cost for activating the charm, above and beyond the charms normal cost. This surcharge must only be payed once per action, after which the charm may be used as normal until his next action.
The Charm
A character can purchase a singular charm twice to gain a choice of Flaws, and may never have access to more than two Flaws through any combination of charms susceptible to these imperfections. A storyteller may allow a player to change which flaw applies to his character's charm or charms, however.
The Imperfection
An imperfection is completely unsympathetic for the character. Your Heavenly Guardian Defense (Valor) doesn't care that you don't want to die, it only cares that there was a chance for a singularly glorious act of heroism and you did not take it. Similarly, your Flowing Body Evasion (Compassion) does not care that your beloved has been dominated by sorcery, it only knows that you love her and she is attacking you. In general, though, these flaws cannot be "tricked". No charm exists to force an imperfection to come into play when it otherwise should not, and attempts to use unnatural mental influence to attempt the same have no effect. The Charm knows when it is perfect and when it is flawed, and this effect is truly perfect and incontestable. This is not to imply, however, that the Exalt cannot be tricked into sacrificing his own Perfection through no fault but his own.
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