@everyone

[frontlinetitties]

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.

Comments

[earthborn]

You said not to ask, but...

[It feels relevant to ask. It feels like "Why is he god?" is, in fact, the most relevant question a person could ask, in response to this.]

...But uh. No. Not a lot of that sounds reasonable, to me. I mean, I was with you right up until the god part. Everything starting with the part where your emperor insists he's a god is a little fucked up.

But then, I also tend to feel like most dead things ought to stay dead, and I know enough by now to recognize that that isn't really a popular opinion where you're from, Gideon.

[northerndragon]

It would help if I knew why people followed him.

But a man is not a god, not even if he has stepped out of the grave or his funeral fires. He is only a man with more power than most. What he does then matters.

Is he only fighting to protect his people? Does he put them above himself?

[Thank the gods Jon isn't taking this personally.]

[frontlinetitties]

I mean, I'm about as far from devout as its possible to get, and I've never met the guy or anything. But he literally gave life to us all? Life to everyone in the Nine Houses anyway. Isn't that kinda what gods are all about? Honestly question, he's the only one I ever heard of before coming here.

Also though...yeeeaaaah, that's one of the big parts that really has me wondering. I've been here a while. Obviously I've noticed that most people would be pretty upset if we took all the bones out of the graveyard and made them into servants who did like, the farming and shit. People get real riled up if you say things like 'finders, keepers!' about the dead.

I get it. It's creepy, right? Except it wasn't. I even felt kinda weirded out about the lack of skeletons when I first got here.

[cryptsleeper]

(There will be a real response in a moment. To start with, there is only one question and the dhampir trusts his tone will be conveyed by the length of their friendship alone.)

Why is your home sphere Like This?

[earthborn]

I hear what's you're saying: What's normal to you is normal. Even if it's pretty messed up when you take a step back and see it from the outside.

That said, if anybody ever tries to bring any part of me back... [Or, well, does it again anyways.] ...They better hope they can run pretty damn fast.

Because I've seen gods die before, and they go down just like everybody else.

[frontlinetitties]

I never paid attention during service, I'll be honest with you. But I think he does it to protect us all? Like, from his enemies that want to destroy us. And him. In all the Cohort comics it was like a holy honour to fight for him and protect the Houses and keep everyone safe.

[The chances that those were propaganda comics she was reading? Very high.]

And I don't know. He brought whole worlds and all the people back from extinction? Except the enemies, I guess? It sounds like something only a god could do. I don't think he ever died himself, but I never really got the whole 'man who became God and God who was a man' thing. I didn't ever really think about it much until I came here.

[frontlinetitties]

Beats me. Obviously at the time it just seemed kind of normal. Shitty, sure. But normal.

[frontlinetitties]

Yeah. So much of the shit I've seen here just kinda makes me wonder, you know? Like all that shit with the cult. They thought they were doing the right thing, all those acolytes. Like for the greater good. It was fucked up but they thought it was right.

I just kinda wonder if maybe we were the cult all along. Not just the actual cult I was in. I mean like, the whole Empire.

And I don't know, man. I guess he must be able to die, but you'd have to get near him first. Past the Cohort, past the lyctors...although lyctors can die. I should know. Me and my necromancer took one out.

[earthborn]

You're still thinking like a swordfighter; You'd be surprised how far away "near" can get, when it comes to it. Not that I'm recommending you take up a career in assassination by mass-casualty event or anything.

You might have a point about the cult idea, though. Then again, some people call the marines a cult, too, so I might not be the best judge.

[Real power tends to be quieter; a proper god, if any existed, would never need to argue its own veracity, and wouldn't need guards or empires to protect its interests.]

So Lyctors are pretty tough? Beating one of them sounds like a story.

[frontlinetitties]

I don't know. Maybe? I don't know if anyone's ever even got passed the Cohort before. No ones ever made it into our system before. But like, academia makes me wanna die. I never paid attention. And I was living on a shitty heretical rock on the far edge of the system. There's a ton of shit I just don't know.

It just makes me wonder who the enemy really was. Like, why did they wanna destroy us? Being here and all the shit that's happened, it makes it obvious war is more complicated than it was made out to be.

But yeah, lyctors are the most powerful beings after God. It kinda takes a lyctor to beat a lyctor. It's a hell of a story but kind of has a bummer of an ending.

[northerndragon]

I don't know what comics are. Some kind of song? The songs don't tell you how hard something was, not even the laments.

Why does he have enemies? That's the question — who his enemies are. And if he didn't bring them back, how are they there?

[frontlinetitties]

Kinda? But with less words and more pictures.

[She's heard a good few of Jaskier's ballads. They're not all that different.]

But yeah, fair one. I never really questioned it, you know? If his enemies wanna destroy him and all the Nine Houses then they've just gotta be mindlessly evil...or that's how it was always portrayed. But like, is all of Thorne evil because their ruler decided to blow the shit out of Libertas? No. Were all those acolytes evil because they got caught up in a dumb cult and believed they were doing the right thing? I don't think so.

I know next to nothing about the Emperor's enemies. But like, looking at it from the outside, from here, where most people's cultures don't involve playing around with bones for shits and giggles? I just have some questions, you know?

[cryptsleeper]

I mean, you don't know any better. I understand that.

But to genuinely answer your question: this sounds like basic human nature when someone has too much power.

[thedevilwhorose]

You wouldn't happen to know if this so-called God is a small mousy looking fella?

But sorry, wait, are you trying to figure out if this 'God' is the reasonable one or those fighting him?

Also did anyone ever stop to consider if he was the one that caused the initial catastrophe?

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[ushiri]

If he's your god, I don't think it matters whether it sounds like reasonable behavior or not to any of us. Your faith in him should give you the answer.

Or your lack of it, if that's the case.

[earthborn]

Well, you'll never make an officer if you can't hit the books, but if I know you at all you'd make one hell of a grunt. Sometimes that's what's most needed.

[Assuming Gideon still has a military career in mind, at least. But from what she's hearing, that might no longer be on her to-do list, or at least not so highly-ranked as before.]

Wars are... costly. Most enemies can be placated or intimidated, at least to a point— that's why Free Cities keeps such a big army, for example.

Real, existential war, conflicts where it's fight or die, are rare— but they have the advantage of being straightforward in purpose. But you're right: usually it's not about survival of the fittest, it's about not being willing to put up with the other side's shit any more.

[No point in existing as a sovereign government if you roll over and give up power the moment your neighbors start showing their teeth, after all. Pacifism is all well and good, but the rules only apply to those who agree to abide by them; war is the definition of what happens when all of society's fine rules go right to hell.]

Trade you stories? Tell me about the Lyctor fight. Make it good, and I'll tell you about the First Contact War.

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[frontlinetitties]

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.

[frontlinetitties]

I've never met the guy myself, but according to my necromancer he was kinda non-descript. Like, just some guy you wouldn't look at twice in the street.

And yeah, I just always thought it made sense you know? If someone attacks God and his people they've gotta be like, evil beyond all reason. But when you stop and think about all the messing around with dead bodies stuff, you've just gotta wonder? It was normal before. But meeting so many people here who look at me like I've grown a second head whenever I talk about that stuff raises some questions.

I never did wonder that, no. Although someone else here mentioned it to me once. But like, it makes no sense? Why would he cause the catastrophe only to resurrect everything?

[frontlinetitties]

Well I guess he was a man once? It's not something I've ever really understood. Or bothered to think about, if I'm being entirely honest. But like, what does that mean, you know? He was a man and then he turned into God? If he wasn't always God, was there another one before that?

It's a mind-fuck. But it’s just another one of those things that everyone knew, like oh okay sure. I just didn’t think about whether it made sense of not.

[frontlinetitties]

Yeeeeaaah, that kinda makes me wonder even more. Like, who started the fighting in the first place? Was it us, or them? Who are they, anyway? They've always just been 'God's enemies' so they must be my enemies too, but like...why? If it was them who had enough of our shit...what did we do that pissed them off so much they wanna kill us all? Was it the necromancy?

I know these are kinda pointless questions when I'm this far out of my own system and there's no one around who actually knows the answer. I'm just trying to figure some stuff out for myself, I guess. Shit here is complicated. I just figured this place was weird. But like...maybe it was always complicated all along.

I'm up for trading stories though. But I've gotta warn you, if you're not keen on the kind where the dead don't stay dead you are not gonna enjoy this one.

[cryptsleeper]

I personally think religion never makes sense, but I'm biased and have not had the best experience with it in the past.

There could have been a god, there could have been no god. Apotheosis - becoming god or godhood - is a useful way of framing this. It seems like it is something that can be attained in your world.

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

[ushiri]

[ 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?

[earthborn]

[It was probably the necromancy. But, Shepard doesn't say that; Gideon's gotten herself on a roll, and not in a bad way.]

Sounds like you've been doing some growing up. Good for you.

[She's a good kid.]

Look, if I were going to complain about a story with undead stuff in it, I wouldn't solicit a report from the woman raised on Necromancy Planet. You don't have to share if you don't want to, but I know what I'm about.

omg that's so funny!

[frontlinetitties]

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.

[frontlinetitties]

Yup. That's me all over. The epitome of maturity.

But I don't mind talking about it. Just like, not over this connection, you know? It isn't something I've told a lot of people about. It didn't wanna freak anyone out.