abraxasnet | TO: EVERYONE [mid-event #20]

[ This message is sent for all Summoned to see about a week after the dreams and Heralds made their presence known. ]

Hello everyone. I know we're all dealing with a lot right now, but I thought this was worth the surprise eyeball-script.

The Heralds of War likely need no introduction at this point, but some of us still remember when they first arrived a few years ago after a poorly performed ritual in Solvunn. During that time, I'd managed to make contact with Koth and have tried to maintain some communication.

[ Not necessarily advised--Himeka did this of her own accord and curiosity. Those who are aware of her tree-form may have noticed that some of the limbs have been wilting and rotting the more time she's spent reaching out to Koth. But that's neither here nor there. ]

She's not always easy to understand, but when we spoke when they first appeared, one word came through:

"Mission"

For years my friends and I have been wondering what this meant. Now that she's back, I sought clarity. Or...I guess confirmation.

I understand her more easily these days so I reached out to her earlier today and she did confirm that this is that mission. What's happening right now in all of our communities. I'm not sure if war itself is inevitable...but she seems to believe that what she's doing will help there to be peace afterwards.

I know many here have seen war in their own lives and on their own stars before this place. If you'd like to share your stories, I would welcome them. I don't think peace is ever as simple as we want it to be, but as for if this is the only path forward...

I'm rambling a bit. This may not be a grand revelation, but I thought it important to share that what is happening now may have been building for the last few years and mayhaps some time before that as well. Only now, we may have a part to play.

Please take care,

水

[ ooc; This is Himeka's interpretation! So it may not be 100% accurate. Based on the mod response here. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

We're not from the same world, exactly, since mine didn't have vampires, but I think they're kinda close. Except he's from like... six hundred years before my time. Something like that.

They don't really have powers so much as they bring terrible stuff with them, in a certain order. There's something about breaking seals in the... I guess you could call it a prophecy? It's hard to explain. But anyway, each broken seal brings a new horseman, until the fourth seal is broken and they've all come to bring punishment to mankind. The first horseman is Conquest, with a bow and a crown on a white horse. Then War on a red horse, carrying a sword. Then Famine, riding a black horse and carrying scales. The last horseman is the most famous, that's the verse of the book everyone knows. Revelation 6:8.

"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."

So, you know. There's... some parallels. Anyway, after the Horsemen, there's three more seals to break, but I gotta try and remember what they are.

[ THIS IS NORMAL, NOT TERRIFYING STUFF TO TEACH TO YOUNG CHILDREN, BY THE WAY. ]

[ Himeka is always interested to learn about other people's worlds and beliefs, no matter how macabre they may be. The similarities are always striking, only furthering her own belief that worlds are connected in some way. (Even if they may not all be reflections.) ]

Yes, there do certainly seem to be parallels. All things which afflict us and cause conflict...It's hard to believe in coincidences around here.

Three more seals? So more things that come in four.

No, it's seven seals total. After the seventh seal is broken, Heaven is supposed to be silent for half an hour, and then there will be seven angels with seven trumpets, and the seven trumpets signal the start of the final judgments of God. Each trumpet is its own judgment, which is basically another word for "God destroys each part of creation in the world". The seventh trumpet calls seven more angels, with seven bowls. The seven bowls are the seven wraths of God, the final punishments for the last humans left, who would supposedly be nonbelievers and evil people and followers of the Devil. Then, the end of the prophecy is that what comes after the bowls is so terrifying that God told John to not record it. The end of all creation everywhere except Heaven.

[ This is a real thing that real people believed in Julie's world, and they had passed it down for thousands of years.

Of course, in Julie's experience, the end of the world isn't nearly so grand or ceremonial. It's quiet until the final moments, then utter chaos and horror. ]

Seven is a real important number in the religion I grew up in. Seven is God's number, the holy number, especially in sets of three like 777. Six is the Devil's number, so the same but for wickedness. The Antichrist, the child of the Devil who will rise to power and set the prophecy in motion, will supposedly have the number 666 somewhere on their body. Like a scar or birthmark or something.

So another call for destruction. Do people want this to happen? Or is it all sealed so that it can be avoided?

7 and 6. This has me wondering if there are numbers I haven't paid attention to here. I never really thought about it before.

Some people want it to happen. Usually they believe that they'll be saved and live forever in paradise with God. Some people think it'll happen in the far-off future. Some people think it's more of a symbolic thing than literal, like there will be a downfall of men, but not literal horses or angels or bowls. Lots of people don't believe in it at all. Like any religious teaching, I guess.

I don't think I've heard anything like that about numbers here. But they were real important in a lot of cultures and beliefs back where I'm from. Sometimes they were tied to superstitions, too. 13 is unlucky, bad things happen in 3s, that kinda stuff.

I imagine that people here might feel the same, whether they believe the Heralds can really usher peace afterwards or not. If there's a hope, would it not be worth it? That sort of thing.

People across stars aren't that different, are they?

13...

The Thirteenth became a Void when a rejoining was botched. It's enveloped in darkness, Elemental Darkness. I wonder if that could be a connection.

People are mostly the same. It's just the circumstances around 'em that are different.

[ At least that's Julie's takeaway, after three years in Abraxas. ]

13 isn't really an evil number in my world, just unlucky. Or at least that's what people believe. Enough that some buildings don't have a 13th floor, or people will change things so that they use 12 or 14 instead. I don't really know why that's the superstition, but enough people are so afraid of 13 that we have a word for the fear. But I don't know the exact word off the top of my head, it's "13 in Greek (or maybe Latin?)"-phobia.

I would agree with that.

Really! I suppose it could be a coincidence, but I feel there are so few when it comes to the people who ended up here. Symbols themselves have power, don't they?

Some of them do. When a symbol means something to people, that can sometimes be stronger than actual magic. People have gone to war over just little drawings. Two or three lines in the right order.

I agree with that as well. On my star, there are deities that came to exist purely through the act of belief.

I'd originally thought the old gods here were similar, but it's turned out a little more complicated than that, hasn't it?

I think the gods here ain't really... hungry to be worshipped. The main God in my world was real controlling, jealous. He destroyed people all through history for following false idols. "Golden calves", they were called. He made all the angels in Heaven just to worship Him 24/7.

Some people believed in other gods, but from what I know, there was only the one uppercase-G God that actually existed.

He was a fucking asshole, too. Refused to save people who begged Him, people who didn't do nothing wrong, then destroyed half the survivors cause they found someone else who actually listened and tried to help. Fuck that God.

The gods here seem to just kinda exist. Like, they don't care much if people do or don't follow rules, or constantly pray or whatever. They just wanna do their own thing, like normal people.

Only one? You're the second person I've heard of that only had one. I hadn't considered that really being a thing until coming here. But no, he doesn't sound like a very nice one.

I do think that at least some of the gods here are like that, yes. The ones I've met seem content to do what they need to do.

TO: EVERYONE [mid-event #20]

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