abraxasnet | @everyone

Yo, it's ya girl, Gideon.

So I kinda wanted to just bounce this off a bunch of people, you know? To get an impartial perspective. It's something I've been thinking about for a while, but I wanna hear other takes on this please and thanks.

Say there's this Empire of necromancers, right? The Empire stretches over a whole bunch of planets, nine home planets and then lots of others that act as necromancy fuel or some shit.

The Empire is ruled by this one guy, who is God. He was also just some dude at some point before the resurrection but now he's God. For reasons. Don't ask me about the reasons, I don't know the answer.

Like 10, 000 or so years ago there was some catastrophe that wiped out all life on all these planets, and then God came along - he's also a necromancer, by the way - and resurrected everyone.

So now he has this Empire where a bunch of people are necromancers and some are just regular folk with no aptitude for necromancy. And he's got like, this huge military force made up of necros and soldiers and battle ships and weapons and stuff. And this military force fights to protect God and the Empire from his enemies who wanna destroy him and all his people for like, no good reason at all. Jealousy, maybe.

This is a very condensed version, but yeah. What I wanna know is, what does this sound like to you? Totally reasonable behaviour or like...something else?

Anyway, come at me.

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I don't know if I'd call it faith. He was just kind of there, you know? More like a fact. One you occasionally think about sometimes but not all that often. He sent a letter one time, which kinda led to a whole heap of trouble.

And I guess you're right in a way. I'm just trying to figure some shit out, you know? Like, were we the bad guys all along? Is it ever as simple as that? That kinda thing.

[ Kahlil has met an incarnation of his own god, knew him once as a man - but there's still something a little funny in reading about a god doing something as mundane as writing a letter.

In his own case, meeting John as a mortal didn't do anything to make him question the Rifter. ]

No, I guess that makes sense. I think most people have the same questions.

[ Except for him. The fanatic. ]

Who are his enemies that his army fights?

You think? Everyone seemed pretty into him. Or like, mostly. I grew up in a shitty fringe cult on the far edge of the system where everyone was out of their minds for a tub full of freezer meat.

And I don't really know who his enemies are? They wanna destroy him and all of the Nine Houses, I do know that much. Until pretty recently I just figured anyone who wanted to destroy god has gotta be a gigantic bag of dicks, you know? But now I've gotta wonder if he did something to deserve it.

You know. Like the necromancy, maybe.

I've noticed that in most other worlds people aren't so intense about their beliefs. Religion isn't an everyday part of the lives of most Summoned, or even natives here.

[ There might be something to fighting over dwindling resources and freezer meat and believing in god but uh that's some self-reflection he doesn't feel like looking into right now - ]

I don't know much about necromancy. How does it work?

Yeah, it really threw me at first. Maybe I did grow up among a bunch of decrepit old nuns but the other Houses seemed really deep in it, too? From what I could gather anyway. But most of the Summoned seem to have some kinda invisible god who may or may not exist, which is a mindfuck.

I am noooot the right person to answer that question, though. I don't have a necromantic bone in my body. But like, it has something to do with innate ability but also a shit-ton of boring theorems and science and stuff. There's a lot of reading nasty old tomes involved.

It's definitely strange to others for a god to walk in the flesh amongst his people.

Even my god would be considered 'invisible'. But he has a flesh and blood form, too.

It's mostly about bringing back the dead, though?

It just seems weird that people would believe in something they can't even see. Although I guess I've never met my god, either.

And kinda? You can't really bring people all the way back. You can raise constructs - made from bones - and get them to move about and stuff. But they're like, empty. You can preserve a body and puppet it around, it's a lights are on but no one's home situation. Some necros can call on revenants briefly, but can't hold them for long. The King Undying is the only one who can fully resurrect anything.

But like, it does other shit too. Like flesh adepts can mend bones and wounds. You can create wards against enemies, all kinds of stuff. There's a bunch more to it. But like I said, I'm no necro.

[ He's been on both sides. As a child he trusted his faith in what others might call an 'invisible' god, but one that he swore he could feel within the halls of Rathal'pesha, in the gaze of the tall statues there. And his faith was rewarded when he was bound to John. ]

But you know that he's real, even though you haven't. You believe he is responsible for miracles.

That does sound like a power gifted only to the divine, and the lesser powers gifted to his acolytes.

Yeah, I guess I do. I guess bringing nine planets back from annihilation and repopulating the system again kinda comes under 'miracles'. I don't doubt that he did it.

Right? Sure okay he was a man, whatever that means, but I've never heard of any other necro coming close to what he can do. And I've known some powerful necros.

I guess I should mention I was a priest in my world.

[ Am. Was. Still calls himself by his title in his head. ]

If you're not a 'necro', then what did you do?

And like, what did that mean in your world? We had a Reverend Father, Mother, and Daughter, then like a bunch of nuns and anchorites and penitents. But even where I'm from the Ninth were kind of a fringe religion, more focused on the Tomb than the Emperor himself. So I feel like my context is off from most people's.

I was Cavalier Primary to the heir of the Ninth House. Kinda by default, but still. Prior to that, a bondswoman.

[ The identifying details aren't something he generally shares with strangers on here, but - ]

My world had a single 'country' I guess you might call it. There was the church and the noble houses who shared power. The Usho was the highest priest, above all others. He spoke for the church and for god. Always a man. Women could become nuns but they were, in general, beneath men.

There were ranks below the Usho, high to low. There were those like me, who were considered blessed by god for our abilities. Adjacent? to us were the higher ranks of holy soldiers, an army pledged to defend the church.

The noble houses had their own hierarchies. They generally employed 'bondsmen' too in their armies and personal guard. Women did not serve as soldiers.

Cavalier Primary sounds important.

Dude, that sounds fucked. No women soldiers at all? And like, my necro was heir to the Ninth House. She would have been highest priest or whatever. Totally not getting the logic in your no women thing, is what I'm saying.

But yeah, Cavalier Primary is pretty much the highest position a swordswoman can get. The Cohort - so like, God's military - always sounded more exciting to me. But if I was gonna do it all over again I wouldn't change anything.

I'm not going to defend it. This was just what we were taught. I've been lucky to experience different ways, now.

So you were Cavalier Primary to your necro, the heir to a noble house and also high priestess. And that made you a personal guard?

I mean, your thing sounds messed up. But I guess people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, you know? I'm the one from the death civilisation after all.

But yeah, that's right. Necros do their bone shit, and a cav protects their back.

Equal opportunity death civilization.

It's fine. I'm not insulted, if you're worried about that. Like I said, I can't defend what they believed and taught us.

[ His people used bones for their weapons. He wielded the bone of a dead god, before he lost it coming here. And there is the Issusha'im, the Oracles. But they aren't bones of the dead raised so much as... bones that never died.

More things he'd rather not get into here, but he'll remember this conversation. ]

Yeah, well. Neat to meet someone who kinda gets it, I guess?

[It's a conversation she intends to keep in mind, herself.]

@everyone

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I'm laughing to myself realizing both their gods are 'John'

omg that's so funny!

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