#the most sought after thing in the lore: detailed timeline | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

breakingarrows · 1 year

Text

Musings on my introduction to Warhammer 40k

It started with lore videos. Luetin09 had a playlist of lore videos on Warhammer 40,000. I never really paid much attention to the fiction or the tabletop game, but I thought the series would be a good thing to listen to as I fell asleep at night so I added the playlist to my library. I'm not sure when exactly I started to get hooked. It might have been sometime around the 7th or 8th video after the Horus Heresy story was told that I started to become much more invested in paying attention to the fiction. The tragedy of the Horus Heresy still compels me, the fall from grace is a reliable source of drama and emotion when done well, and the dramatic irony of an Emperor who sought to eradicate all religion and faith becoming a God-Emperor worshipped by the remains of his empire is rich.

Since I was most interested in exploring the world of fiction and less interested in the tabletop side of things, I started to look into what books would be the best to read to get introduced to this world outside of lore videos on YouTube. Most online sources and advice from others already into the fiction recommended the Eisenhorn trilogy of books. I happily downloaded and voraciously consumed the first book, Xenos, within a week. It was pretty much the perfect sci-fi space fantasy adventure. You had your cast of characters already known to each other and introduced to the reader through a mid-mission introduction that opens up into the larger conspiracy that consumes the rest of the plot. It moves and moves from beat to beat, seemingly always ending with enough of a teaser or revelation in the last line to make me eager to dig into the next chapter whenever I could. New characters get introduced, there are actual long lasting consequences and losses (most notably the destruction of Eisenhorn's ability to smile) and downtime where characters are given adequate time to believably recover and prepare for the next large setpiece and sustain even more damage before the ultimate resolution.

With Xenos wrapped up and my interest fully piqued into what else Warhammer 40k had to offer, I chose the first of the Horus Heresy novels, Horus Rising. The introduction was comprehensively confusing as it bait and switches your expectation as to future events with a meandering, perspective changing introduction revolving around Horus killing the emperor, emphasis on little e. Once my confusion was cleared up, watching Loken ascend into the inner circle of Horus, and seeing the intimate details of a body of people, the faults and cracks in the Emperor's Great Crusade became everpresent and ultimately believable as the fault of human beings. The Emperor is, as he claims, just a man, and that is why his crusade ultimately fails. As famously claimed by Halo: Reach, "from the beginning, you know the end." Horus will fall, legions of space marines will perish, and after a few more thousands of years we will reach the timeline of Eisenhorn, but for now, I get to fret and worry over the ultimate fates of the periphery characters of history such as Lorken and the various remembrancers accompanying Horus' forces across the cosmo. My one complaint is that due to the ultimate fate of the universe being known, a few too many knowing references are written in, things such as Astartes killing Astartes, Horus himself succumbing to Chaos, the Emperor dying and being worshipped throughout the empire, etc. It cheapens the surrounding characters as fourth wall breaks weaken the overall drama of the current time by referencing known facts the characters can't comprehend. These don't reinforce the tragedy of known events yet to happen, they just call attention to themselves as winks from the author to the reader and not believable dialogue between characters.

Once Horus Rising was completed, I returned to Eisenhorn with the second novel, Malleus. Though I didn't find it as good as Xenos, it was still a great sci-fi adventure, and the epilogue is a huge tease for the finale in Hereticus. Malleus, as a result of revisting and reintroducing various elements present in Xenos, something that, to me, happened only a week or two ago but for Eisenhorn happened a century ago, feels too fresh to have as much significance to me as I feel was intended. This pushes me more towards the various side-novels and short stories involving Eisenhorn, as they, presumably, do not have as many direct ties to each other and the mainline trilogy as to make the universe feel smaller than it is.

Now I'm beginning False Gods, the second book of the Horus Heresy. The series is quite extensive, as I've already looked into the order in which they were published, as well as some of the earliest Warhammer 40k novels as I'm always interested in seeing the very beginning of something that is now so large. It has also made me more interested in the games that seek to capture the experience of living within this world, at this time mostly with the Boltgun game, as I can never get enough of the boomer-shooters explosion (hopefully something will one day surpass DUSK.) I have been really enjoying this dip into Warhammer fiction though, and intend to see it through as long as my interest holds. I've already torn through three novels in less than a month, who knows how much more I can do.

#warhammer 40000 #warhammer #eisenhorn #horus heresy #luetin09 #writing #criticism

4 notes · View notes

avenger09 · 2 years

Text

A Owl in King Arthur's Court

A crossover stpry comcept between The Owl House and Arthurian lore where Luz and King find themselves in the much more stable, but none the less dire, Isles of Avalon when one one of her attempts to go home goes wrong.

Finding themselves in the middle of an eternal war between the legendary Knights of the Round Table, and the Famorian demons from the void, the lost owl residents must help mend the divide thats risen between these legends in hopes of awakening the greatest of them King Arthur himself, from the slumber, Balor, the cruel Famorian King has trapped in, so that Excalibur may again be raised to turn the tide and return them to the Boiling Isle.

(I tried to replicate the shows designs with admittedly mixed results)

Arthurian Legends

The famed Knights of the Round Table, united again in Avalon and gifted with revival by the grace of the Lady to repel the vile Famorians and their endless quest to destroy. However, many remain burdened by their choices in life which remain unresolved or addressed despite their centuries battle together.

Wounds inflicted on the body by a foe my heal in time but ones which are caused through the breach of trust and kinship, and the betrayal of loved ones, run infinitly deeper. Perhaps a neutral party might see them finally begin to heal?

---

Merlin:

The legendary wizard hasn't lost a step in his centuries in Avalon, though his ability to see outside of time continues to cause him some frustration when he looses track of which timeline he's in and gets finer details wrong.

He was delayed from helping Arthur at Camlenn, due to the actions of her dear Nimue, who was tricked by Morgana to keep the wizard within her sanctuary grove and away from the battle Though aware Morgana was using her, Nimue none the less couldn't stand the idea that fate would part them, all the same, she eventually conceded that the world needed Merlin more then her, and opened the way for him, arriving in time to help escort the wounded Arthur to Avalon. Though Merlin has not seen her since that fateful day, Merlin still thinks of her fondly, and wonders if perhaps they'll meet again.

Often Merlin is seen in the company of a raven, who he converses with regularly and seems to function as a personal agent of his. Not uncommon for an earthly magic user, but what is most curious is the birds name... Muninn, which carries strong implications regarding just who else the ancient Merlin is associated with.

Sir Morian:

Nephew of Sir Percival, the moorish prince took his father, Aglovale's, place at the roundtable when he returned to Morian's mother after his knightly duties kept him from her for so long. Morian may be one of the roundtables newer members but he's more than come into his own in Avalon.

Green Knight:

An enigmatic and atypically valorous Sidhe who seemingly acts independent of the Seelie courts. He's proven himself an enigmatic, if intimidating ally to Camelot since his days of trickery on Sir Gwain, all the same, the knights grant him a wide birth less they find themselves suffering his wrath.

Arthur Pendragon:

The Once and Future King. While his legends are famed, the man behind them has endured suffering making them long before he was wounded that fatful day at Camlenn. Weighed down by responsibilities thrust upon him when he pulled mystic blade from the stone, and the costs of upholding them, as being king always took precient over being a husband, a father, a brother and a friend. Yet even then his heroic will endures even in slumber.

Queen Guinevere:

Never forgiving herself for her lapse with Lancelot, which directly led to Arthur forsaking Excalibur when he needed its protection the most, Guinevere sought out the blade to return to her Arthur, which led to her discovering her own potential as arcane warrior. Joining him in Avalon she has protected his form for centuries in hope of one day properly resolving their issues together.

Sir Percival:

Most famed for two things; his quest with Galahad to seek an aspect of the grail to cure Arthur of a dreadfuk curse and his personal family drama. While he, his sister, nephew and half brother have since rallied as a unit he continues his errant mission to locate another piece of the Grail he is convinced lay somewhere in the isles and has uncovered many of its secrets in the process.

Galahad:

Considered to be the greatest exemplar of the Roundtable's chivalric ideals and the noble aspirations of Camelot, however awakening in Avalon upon his death instead of the heavenly gates of St Peter dampened his spirit considerable.

Though he has reconciled his predicament by recognizing the treat posed to creation by the Famorians and the nede for champions like him to stand against them, even his indomitable will is not immune to the inevitable fatigue that centuries of war can affect such a earnest soul.

Morrok:

A longtime loyalist of the Pendragon's, Morrok has mastered the curse placed upon him by his insidious wife, with the help of the talismen made for him by his daughter. Now the knights no longer must wait for a full moon for the wolf knight to come to their aide.

Mordred Pendragon:

The formerly embittered son of Arthur and Guinevere. Galvanised by his aunt to rebel against Camelot in a misguided attempt at satisfying his feeling of resentemt by destroying the kingdom he beliived robbed him of his parents love, wielding a magical blade of his own and dark magics to do so as the dread knight.

Despite his posturing, the battle that decided his and Britannia's fate was not triggered by his wrath but by an Adder and a knight drawning his blade to defend his steed from its bite, misconstrued as an trecherous attack under a flag of truce at Camlenn. While father and son did cross blades in the chaos that followed, no one in fact saw their supposed mutual final blows, in truth neither could bring themselves to strike down the other. Arthur's famed wounds came by other means after admitting his failures to his family.

Despite knowing this the knights have been slow to forgive Mordred for his actions in Britannia despite the dread knight now facing the same voidspawn that besiege Avalon, and for his part Mordred is content with his solitary vigil across the isle.

Morgana Le Fay:

Half-sister to Arthur she was once counted amongst Camelot's greatest allies in its early days, but with the decline of the Old Faith in favour of the Cross, she became subject to derision from those who she had once mended and healed - prefering the unconditional favour of God to the fair trades required for the druidry she practiced to maintain natural balance.

Labed an apostate in her own home, the resentment she shared with Mordred, when he was given to her as ward while her brother fought the invading Saxons, was cultivated into a plot to ensure the old faiths dominion in Brtiannia by gathering it together into a well of power at Camlenn, cursing Arthur to prevent his interference when the chance arose.

But thanks to the Grail Arthur indeed interfered, and Morgana was forced to trust her spell to her acolytes to face the might of Camelot with Mordred, when Guinevere awakened power joined the fray. This proved a grave error as without her expert guidance the spell tore away from her followers and the great maelstrom of power they had amassed threaten to tear the land apart.

Putting aside their feud they broken family united once again to try and contain the spell, but it proved an almost impossible task until her brother made a bold gambit by using Excalibur itself to siphon the energy, resulting in a blast which mortally wounded Arthur. Deeply humbled at the sacrifice he made to avert catastrophe Morgana and Mordred vanished from history, eventually arriving in Avalon years later.

Sir Ector:

When Ector took in the baby Arthur when the mysterious Merlin asked it of him, he had no idea he was holding in his arms the future king of Britannia, he was simply glad to have another soul in his house after the passing his wife.

Raising two sons alone wasn't an easy task, but Ector did what he could, teaching them the values of duty and responsibility hoping it would make Arthur and Kay into honourable knights, but he would later regret not equally stressing the importance of being there for ones loved one's as well. Ector may not have predicted how many responibilities his foster son would go on to have but, all the same, he blamed himself for how bad things became between Arthur and Mordred, feeling his influence contributed to Arthur's tragic flaw of always putting his own desires second to the detriment of his personal relationships.

Seeking redemption of a sorts, he began to study the holy magics of Christendom, hoping to find clarity and wisdom to share with his grandson, unfortunatly, while he held no ill will toward his grandfather, Morderd instead turned to his aunt for guidance, whose own bitterness only increased Morderd's, despite Ector's warnings. He has held strong rivalry with Morgana ever since, which persists even in Avalon, their magic power equal to their faith in deities they've championed.

Champions of the Lady

Famed heroes whose tales sadly ended in tragedy, earning the Lady of the Lake's pity. Given a new purpose as her personal agents on the Isles, they aide the righteous knights of Camelot in their mission and protect the sacred places of Avalon from those who would misuse them.

----

Beowulf:

The mighty Dane who slew the mad troll, Grendel, by ripping off his arm, but there is more to the story. Beowulf tracked the wounded troll to his lair hoping to finish him, but instead finding a climatic battle within those caves the only thing he found was the sight of a mother weeping over her lifeless son.

Unwilling to kill a mourning parent, Beowulf slipped out of the cave seemingly unnoticed, but despite this merciful act the dane was not above embellishments, and boasted of a great battle which never happend. Partially to silence questions but mostly to guard and boost his own reputation, as he believed a true warrior would have never avoided a battle, even out of sentiment.

Despite what he assumed, Grendel's Mother had indeed noticed Beowulf's incursion and in a mixture of appreciation and anger, only understandable to her kin, appeared to him in a dream, as a beautiful women, promising to make him an even greater legend if he sired with her child. After the deal was struck, the King whose Kingdom Beowulf had just saved suddenly died, and being the nations hero had the crown soon placed upon his head, doubts already beginning to form in his mind.

Over the years Beowulf attempted to reach out to the child only to be rebuked by his son again and again, maladjusted over his duel nature as man and monster. Eventually unleashing his wrath upon his fathers people in the form of a dragon. Filled with regret and shame for the selfish actions of his youth, Beowulf faced the dragon in an epic battle, which ended with both father and son perishing.

Boudicea:

Leader of one of the most sucessful rebllions against the Roman Empire in history, Queen Boudicea and her two daughters swore bloody revenge against the Romans when they refused to honor the oaths made to her and her husband after his death annexing the kingdom promised to his family.

Uniting the tribes of Britannia, then known as Albion, her army pushed out the Roman's forces, town, by town, but despite their success they were eventually bested by the ruthless war machine cultivated by Rome's Legions.

Having no desire to spend the rest of her life on the run from the Empire, Boudicea sought to die honorably in combat, but none of her remaining followers were willing or able to grant her wish. It was then a young druid, who would one day be known as Merlin, appeared before her and guided her to the Lady of the Lake, who brought her to Avalon and named the Warrior Queen the first of her, once mortal, champions.

Joan D'Arc:

The Maid of Orleons whose strong faith and indomitable spirit inspired the demoralized and downtrodde French army, during an arduous period of the hundred years war with England, after she came across a lone sword amidst a field. Joan interpreted its discovery as a sign from God to help save French from the ravages of war.

Escorted by a cadre of knights, who rallyed to her due to her grace and wisdom, Joan quickly proved herself an adept to the lessons of warfare they had to teach and personally led a rescue of the Dauphin, the heir to the throne, from his English captors armed with the sword of Charlemagne, the father of France. Her charismatic leadership made her the pride of Franch, but with this fame also came envy. Many nobles resented that a mere girl of sixteen, a peasant to boot, had the ear of the Dauphin, these courtiers began whispering to him lies while Joan was away fighting, undermining his trust in her and leading him to think she sought the throne for herself, which with her popularity and apparent divine sponsorship she'd be able to attain.

Thus, tragically, when she was captured by the forces of Burgundy it was not France who paid her ransom, but England, who tin an attempt o discredit her holy cause, had her burned as a heretic. This however only galvanised the French people, leading them to oust the English occupying forces for, Joan went down in history as a Martyr and was posthumously beautifed as a Saint. None the less the Lady of the Lake felt pity that such a pure soul met such an inglorius end, and brought her spirit to Avalon, offering the young lady the choice of a place among her champions, or, if Joan was satisfied with her life, to be allowed to move on to her final rest. Joan accepted the first choice.

18 notes · View notes

autisticshadowthehedgehog · 4 years

Text

The Babylon Rogues are Dimension Hoppers and I can prove it

[ID: The Babylon Garden flying through space, as seen at the end of Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. End ID.]

I have several points to make in this theory, so I’ll make this intro brief. Here is what I will be attempting to prove in this fun little essay:

The Babylonians are not native to Mobius

They are, in fact, native to Blaze’s dimension

They used to be dimension hoppers, but after the fall of the Babylon Garden they had to cease activity

The dimension-hopping can be proven by looking at Blaze’s world, Sonic Boom, possibly Black Knight, and finally and most damningly, the Arabian Nights of Sonic and the Secret Rings.

Let’s continue.

Babylonians are (canonically?) not native to Mobius

Very quickly, let’s go over some important lore for this theory. This might seem a bit “boring” for the moment, but please give it a read for context.

[ID: Ancient ruins showing the legendary Divine Wings, as seen in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. The Divine Wings looks similar to a spaceship, with two orbs atop and four “wings.” End ID.]

A bit of detail is given in Sonic Riders as to the Ancient Babylonians, such as that they are believed to have been genies. (Remember that specifically for later.) Their incredibly advanced technology marked them as separate from the other ancient cultures.

As revealed in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, the Ancient Babylonians believed in a legendary bird known as the Divine Wings. From what we can gather from what Tails is aware of and Knuckles reads from ancient inscriptions, the legends say that the Divine Wings rode the gods through the heavens, but lost their plumes to the dark and fell to the ground. The plumes became “stars,” returning to the land- these “plumes” (the Arks of the Cosmos) being the power sources that were sought after throughout the game.

Tails eventually concludes that the Divine Wings was a spaceship, and that this “lightless black” that attacked the Divine Wings turns out to have been an actual Black Hole; while Tails believes it may have been programmed into the Arks as a warning “for people to step away from power beyond control,” what actually seems to have happened, though, may have been less of an intentional precautionary measure and more of a malfunction. It’s just as likely that the Arks went out of control either by themselves (as technology is want to do) or due to something in the planet’s atmosphere, threatening to turn their ship’s engine into the black hole.

Unable to control the Black Hole, the Babylonians then lost their ability for space travel; they disconnected the Arks from their ship, sending them into the planet’s orbit. Their ship, the Babylon Garden, crashed onto the planet; while it still floated, they were unable to leave the atmosphere, and thus wished for every “falling star” to be their Arks to help them return home. They only managed to recover two over time, both of which were sealed away separately until it was safe to relaunch their ship.

[ID: The Arks scattering throughout space, from Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. End ID.]

The Babylon Garden remained floating and the Babylonians resided there, eventually becoming notorious thieves, though they are also famous for their technology, including their magic carpet (again, note for later) and “angel wings” they gave a boy that gave him a bit too much power.

This “too much power” seems to have “incurred the wrath of the gods;” the Babylon Garden was buried beneath the Sand Ruins, while the Babylonians scattered, though the Key to the Garden was passed along. Their history, though, turned into legend.

[ID: Art showing an angel-like creature striking lightning down onto the Babylon Garden. End ID.]

So, here is the “proposed” timeline:

Babylonians are aliens

Crash land on Mobius

Become thieves

Gods get pissed and “tower of babel” them

sidenote, but considering the known gods of the Sonicverse are Chaos, Illumina, Light/Dark Gaia and Solaris... I’m literally losing my mind imagining this unlikely group banding together and saying “yeah. yeah these birds need to go”

But here’s a question... what if it wasn’t a spaceship at all?

What if the ship could hop not across different planets, but through different worlds?

The Babylonians were not aliens from another planet, but from another dimension.

And the first of my evidence is that Babylon has actually been seen in another canonical dimension.

Babylon Exists (but is abandoned) in Blaze’s World

Who here remembers Sonic Rush Adventure?

[ID: A stage logo from Sonic Rush Adventure. It reads “Sky Babylon” and features a purple jewel among leaves. End ID.]

Very clearly, a certain “Babylon” does appear in Blaze’s dimension (which we’ll call the Sol Dimension for clarity’s sake). And this isn’t just speculation; the pirates and Blaze refer to the ruins as “Sky Babylon” within the game.

From what Blaze says, Sky Babylon was inhabited by an ancient civilization, and was a continent in the sky. However, one day “it fell from the sky and crashed into the ocean.” Quite similar to the Babylon Garden, huh? After the continent fell, the people had to live among the land-dwellers, but longed one day to return to the sky, leaving keys to point the way.

Sidenote: Blaze later finds ancient writings discussing the ruins- eerily similar to how Tails and Knuckles found out about the Divine Wings in Zero Gravity. And the writing says “To reach our homeland, head north along the shallows.”

[ID: Screenshot from Sonic Rush Adventure, of the Sky Babylon stage. Sonic is swinging on a rope beside pillars. End ID.]

So, let’s review similarities between Blaze’s Babylon and Sonic’s Babylon:

Ancient Civilizations living in floating cities

The continent later fell from the sky and crashed, becoming lost overtime

The people had to live on the planet but longed to return to the sky

Keys were left; the word “key” refers in Blaze’s world to the signs explaining how to reach Sky Babylon, while in Sonic’s world the key is the ability to open the Babylon Garden, left to Jet.

Ancient Writings were left explaining the lore.

Now I’m sure you’re all thinking, “Gee, Connie, it’s probably just the other dimension’s versions of the Babylonians, just as Blaze is another dimension counterpart to Sonic and Marine is the counterpart to Tails.”

But something interesting- almost nothing in Blaze’s world shares the same name as Sonic’s world. Even ones with similar names have notable differences- Eggman is Eggman Nega, the Chaos Emeralds are the Sol Emeralds, etc. And that’s literally the only two things with similar names, unless you count the South Island/Southern Island thing. (Which are. very common names.) Babylon is exactly the same in both dimensions.

“But it’s Sky Babylon and the Babylon Garden, that’s different-” No, actually. The Babylon Garden were the spaceship, and only became a homeland after crashing. Sky Babylon is referred to exclusively as the Babylon Homeland. So what if Sky Babylon was their home base, and the Garden was their ship?

This also isn’t the only dimension with hints of Babylonians.

Babylonian Hints in Other Dimensions

Now these two may be reaches, but they’re just setup to when we hit the big guns, so strap in.

In a canonically different dimension to the main games, the Sonic Boom games have several floating cities with very little backstory.

[ID: The Sky Citadel in Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. Though abandoned, it is in good condition, and features several stone pillars and hanging plants. The citadel is among the sky and vaguely foggy, as it stands above the clouds. End ID.]

In Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, Team Sonic finds their final chaos crystal in the Sky Citadel, an enormous city located within the clouds; however, it has been long since abandoned, with only ruins remaining. In Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Lyric imprisons Amy in Cloud Sanctuary, which are several floating islands joined by roads and hidden by the clouds. Once again, in the sanctuary are ancient ruins; there are no remaining people, only remnants of a lost civilization, with zero explanation as to what this city is or was.

It is assumed that both of those worlds are remnants from the Ancients like Lyric the Snake; however, unless I’m mistaken, there is no confirmation of this, only the news that the Ancients hid the Sky Crystal in the Sky Citadel in order to keep it from Lyric; there’s no word that they lived there. In fact, wouldn’t hiding a chaos crystal from Lyric in a place that he lived be a really bad idea? Not a great hiding spot, guys.

Another sidenote, but speculation: should, as I’m sure you’re inferring I’m implying, these lands have belonged to the Babylonians of the Boom!Universe, who is to say that they didn’t find the hidden Sky Crystal and steal it? They’re notorious thieves after all.

The Sonic Boomniverse also has ancients with insanely powerful tech... hmm.

Secondly, let’s bring in Sonic and the Black Knight. You see, on the modern Babylonians’ ship, a painting of a pirate hawk is hanging above Jet’s desk. It has been speculated to be Jet’s father, or at least an ancestor. In this portrait, this captain holds a sword.

Now, let’s, um. Compare that sword to Caliburn, one of the sacred swords of Camelot.

I’m gonna be honest; at least to my untrained eye, I believe that the Babylon Sword pictured here is very similar in color and shape to Caliburn. The connector to the blade may be a bit more rounded like Laevatin, however that may just be the blurriness of the portrait. Now how would a Babylonian locked in Sonic’s dimension get access to Caliburn?

Well, you say, Sonic was transported to another dimension in Black Knight, wasn’t he? So they could have been summoned at some point, that’s not evidence they purposefully hopped dimensions.

But let’s go back to that. Sonic was transported to another dimension in Black Knight... and also in that other Sonic Storybook.

Which one was that again?

The Big Guns: Sonic and the Secret Rings

[ID: Concept art from Sonic and the Secret Rings. End ID.]

Let’s talk about the source of the name Babylon for a moment.

Babylon was also a city on Earth; it was in ancient Mesopotamia, which is now Iraq. The name at the time derived from the Akkadian bav-il or bav-ilim, meaning “Gate of the Gods.” The city was featured in several stories within Abrahamic culture- the Tower of Babel (which I referenced earlier!), the enslavement of Jerusalem resulting in the famous stories of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. In at least Jewish and Christian tradition, Babylon symbolizes oppressors and worldliness. The city is even personified in the Christian book of Revolutation as the Whore of Babylon.

But outside of this reputation, the city is known as an archeological marvel; very impressive architecture, an interesting code of law, and one of the seven wonders of the world, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, a tiered garden.

Sources: Mark, Joshua J. J. “Babylon.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 23 Oct. 2020, www.ancient.eu/babylon/, also the fact I am and was raised Christian so I Know This Christian Stuff™ just trust me

There’s more I could get into, but I’m sure you’re already bored- yeah, yeah, Sonic Team named their cool ancient civilization after another cool ancient civilization, who cares? Here’s why I mentioned this, though: Babylon was in what is now Iraq. Iraq, as anyone with a georgraphy education would know, is in the Middle East of the planet. Know what else is in the middle east?

The Arabian Nights.

Know what the Arabian Nights influenced heavily, almost exclusively?

The first Sonic Storybook, Sonic and the Secret Rings.

[ID: A screenshot from Sonic and the Secret Rings, showing Shahra the Genie and Sonic having a discussion. End ID.]

Remember all the way back in the beginning when I mentioned genies and magic carpets being a staple of SonicWorld Babylon? Well, genies are definitely canon to the Arabian Nights World, with Shahra and Erazor Djinn, and the idea of a magic carpet, while not appearing in Secret Rings, is very much a middle eastern staple, which most modern people connect to Aladdin, which Shahra references first and constantly throughout the game.

Now, two very interesting dimensional instances are featured within Secret Rings. First off- the titular seven rings.

[ID: Three screenshots of a scene from Sonic and the Secret Rings; Sonic and Shahra are attempting to grab a blue water ring. Sonic says, “Looks like I’m the only one that can touch [the rings]. I betcha it’s because I’m not from this world. Does that mean these rings aren’t from this world, either?” End ID.]

The rings, though insanely powerful, cannot be touched by anyone but Sonic. While it’s never confirmed, Sonic theorizes that the reason for this is that the rings are also from another dimension, possibly even his own. Now how would rings from another dimension end up in the Arabian Nights?

The second dimensional fun thing is one of the bosses in this game- the Ifrit.

[ID: Screenshot from Sonic and the Secret Rings. The Ifrit Golem rises from a fire pit. Sonic is shocked, and Shahra exclaims, “It’s a djinn that controls fire... it’s called an Ifrit!” End ID.]

Now, I could go a lot into certain theories about the Ifrit, but my sister covered that topic pretty well with her kickass Infinite/Solaris theory. So instead let’s just cover the basics.

Ifrit’s name also has sources in Abrahamic mythology, though this one is specifically from Islam. It is a powerful demon, usually identified with spirits of the dead. The whole “death” thing isn’t really brought into this but, you know. Interesting.

In Secret Rings, the Ifrit Golem is summoned by Erazor Djinn in order to burn pages of the Arabian Nights. It seems to be vaguely robotic, but considering it was summoned and seems to be alive I assume it’s just possessing some kind of robotic form, but most importantly it is mostly brown and red and is able to control fire. When Erazor summons it, he claims it is condemned by Iblis (a powerful djinn in Islamic mythology, former angel cast out of heaven, but also literally half of a god in Sonic 06, which was in production around the same time as Secret Rings) and also says he summoned it from Jahannam, basically hell.

[ID: A loading screen from Sonic Rivals 2, showing the Ifrit there, breathing fire. End ID.]

Ifrit also appears, however, in another game released the same year; Sonic Rivals 2. And it is mentioned to, again, be from another dimension. It is summoned by Eggman Nega to destroy the world, but is defeated by the Sonic Squads™ and eventually left trapped in its own dimension. It is, once again, incredibly fire-based, colored red and brown, and actually has mind control powers now, so that’s cool for it I guess.

So in two games, released the same year, Ifrit is connected to different dimensions; Arabian Nights, Jahannam, its own hell-dimension (possibly Jahannam?), and also a bit of Mobius, as Gerald Robotnik was noted to have studied the Ifrit’s legendary power.

So Secret Rings has rings from another dimension, and a fire demon from another dimension. Also a blue hedgehog shows up and does some stuff there idk. Which means that Secret Rings is no stranger to other dimensions popping in and out.

What this whole tangent is leading to- Arabian Nights is clearly connected to dimension-hopping. And Babylon is connected to the Arabian Nights by several things- specifically, the name and history, the magic carpet, and the genies.

(Does that make Jet and Shahra distant cousins?)

Also another interesting thing: the Levitated Ruins.

[ID: A screenshot from Sonic and the Secret Rings. Sonic is running through the sky, and we see several manta-ray like creatures, called the rukh, with cities built upon their backs. End ID.]

The towns there are built on the back of flying rukh flying through the atmosphere.

Flying ruins again? Interesting.

Very fucking interesting.

Conclusion

[ID: Screenshot from Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. The Babylon Rogues look up at the sky, where the Babylon Garden is flying into orbit. End ID.]

So, let’s get down the facts:

Despite almost everything in Sol having a different name than in Mobius, the Babylonians have the same name.

Sky Babylon in Sol was considered the Babylon Homeland, but abandoned after it fell into the sea.

The Babylon Garden was some kind of ship, but it crashed on Earth.

The Babylonians in both dimensions longed to return to the sky and left keys for their descendants to make that possible.

The Babylonians are connected by visual cues to Sonic Boom abandoned cities (with no word on who lived there or where they went), and possibly even Black Knight.

Due to their name, similar technology, and the legends of genies, the Babylonians are also connected to the Arabian Nights.

Arabian Nights itself has a lot of dimensional shenanigans going on.

The Babylonians are connected to Sol, Mobius, Sonic Boom, Black Knight and/or Arabian Nights.

So. What conclusions did I draw from this?

Some thousand or so years ago, the Babylonians, originating in Sol, had the technology to hop between dimensions.

Considering they later became notorious Mobian thieves, we can assume that thievery was also in the picture during these ancient times. How easy would it be to be a thief with dimensional powers? You steal something, hop dimensions, and then hop back when the cops are gone.

Either the first dimension they went to or their main hangout was the Arabian Nights; they picked up a lot of the culture/tech, such as magic carpets and genie myths. Possibly due to this, the Arabian Nights has an open connection to other worlds.

Perhaps the Seven Rings actually came from Babylon, stashing these cool new gems into their inbetween world and forgetting to pick them up.

They set up some cities on flying manta rays, nbd.

They also hopped into the Sonic Boom dimension, where they made some sky cities to rest in inbetween dimension hops. Upon their ship’s failure, the sky cities were left abandoned.

They also may have visited the Black Knight dimension.

During one of their dimension hops, their ship, the Babylon Garden, goes to the Mobius dimension; however, something in their tech fucks up within this dimension’s boundaries/atmosphere.

This one’s just a wild speculation, but if they came from Sol, Sol and Mobius have different emeralds, so I think they may have different power sources.

In order to prevent a Black Hole from destroying them and this other dimension, the Babylonian travelers split their power and fall into Mobius. There, they live on their Garden until it falls.

Back in Sol, Sky Babylon also ends up falling; perhaps whatever caused the Garden to fall hit Sky Babylon, or perhaps some other disaster occurred before Babylon Prime could figure out what happened to their Garden.

The Sol Babylonians settle among the land.

Eventually they all either forget the dimension hopping or it becomes secret as fuck.

So what’s the full conclusion?

It’d be really funny if the Babylonians learned the Arabian Nights prophecy about a blue hedgehog saving their world and passed that story along forever but it just went completely over Jet’s head because the second he saw Sonic his gay kill bill sirens went off and he was like “I have to race him” and it takes him years to remember.

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic riders #sonic riders zero gravity #jet the hawk #sonic and the secret rings #babylon rogues #sonic theory #connie theories #mine

121 notes · View notes

littlesailorinthesun · 4 years

Text

elf primer

As part of a larger joint project (a lore reading order timeline), I wanted to write a post documenting all of the elf and kindred-related weirdness in the story. Once you start diving really, really deep into trying to piece elfkindred information together, you'll find that lots of things contradict each other or become jumbled. This is in part due to our server's translation and in part just because the story legitimately retcons itself. There were also a lot of theories and misconceptions which I wanted to spend some time discussing. So here is some information that will help those who are interested in reading.

By the way, huge spoilers ahead for the newest CN hell event, which has been given the fan nickname “Moonless Voyage”. The translations I used are linked at the end!

Main Cast

Chloris: The duty-bound Prince of Forest Elves. He participated in the war between kindred and elves a thousand years ago. He has very few desires as he's very focused on the well-being of the forest. He's also very powerful. Has been kept in the dark about his family history.

Cesare: The brother of Chloris and the current Lord of Kindred. He was exiled to Shadow City, the world within Lake Bovaly, a thousand years ago. Strongly wishes for Kindred to be simply allowed to live in the forest again, after that right was stolen from him when he was young, and secretly wishes he and Chloris could be normal brothers. Now, he also wants to break the Blood Curse because it affects all Kindred even if they just have the desire to hurt others (not for the same reasoning as Nidhogg).

Lakris: The second Prince of Forest Elves. Stated by Cesare to simply be "a part of him" that was taken. Looked just like Cesare.

Elven Queen: The mother of Chloris and Cesare. Anti-war and fiercely protective of the elves even at the cost of her own Kindred loved ones.

Helsin (Blood Lust): The Lord of Kindred who served as the leader of Shadow City while Cesare was missing. Her primary goal is to break the seal of Shadow City once more.

Evelyn (Flickering Pistill): An elf who was invited to Shadow City by Helsin and subsequently tortured. She became the final seal for Shadow City, never truly dying. Her story is well-known among those in the Pigeon Forest and Shadow City.

Timeline

(Note: Next to the occurrence, I wrote where you can find the source/a more detailed description of the lore.)

Many years ago: Forest Elves (Chloris' kind) guarded the Pigeon Forest since it came into existence. (Chloris 1)

Elves who sought to cleanse the world were corrupted by the miasma they encountered, and became the Kindred. (Moonless Voyage)

>1000 years before Year 680, New Era: Chloris and Cesare were born to the Elven Queen and the Lord of Kindred, who were lovers but could not be together. The two twins did not meet. (Jealous Phantom)

~1000 years before Year 680, New Era: Tensions broke out between Kindred and Elves. The Elven Queen persuaded the Lord of Kindred to take all of the Kindred out of Pamir Forest (north of main Pigeon Forest) and bring them to Shadow City so there would be no more war. Lord of Kindred obliged, and opened up Shadow City, an action that took most of his strength and ultimately killed him. Every Kindred in Pamir Forest went to Shadow City. (Jealous Phantom)

Cesare's father died, Cesare became the new Lord of Kindred, and the Elven Queen made one last visit to him to say her final goodbye. Cesare pleaded with her to change her mind, but she turned her back on him and left. (Jealous Phantom)

The Elven Queen died (as was told to Cesare) or went missing. (Jealous Phantom/Wake Up from Dream)

Cesare would occasionally watch Chloris play the harp from the other side of the lake, aware that Chloris was his brother. (Jealous Phantom/Flower Feather)

Cesare continued to fight the elves. During a fight, the Elven King (Cesare's uncle on his mother's side) told him that his mother had left some words for him before she died. This was a ploy to distract him and disarm him. Elven King then picked up Cesare's sword, Dark Verdict, and stabbed him with it. Cesare sank to the bottom of the lake. (Moonless Voyage)

Lakris appeared under the Tree of Life for the first time. However, he was asleep during the war. (Wake Up from Dream/Chloris 4)

At some point, the King also died in battle. (V2: 4-2)

[Assumption] Any remaining Kindred that were in Shadow City left, and so did Elaine, leaving the elves and her sister Rachel behind in the forest. The seal between Shadow City and Pigeon Forest formed. (Minstrel of Time)

Helsin became the Kindred Lord and the most powerful person in Shadow City and amassed many followers that feared her but respected her. (Moonless Voyage)

Helsin, who wants to break the seal between Shadow City and Pigeon Forest, invited Evelyn to Shadow City to torture her. Evelyn doesn't die; instead, she ends up becoming the final seal, believing it to be atonement for everybody who participated in the war. (Blood Moon)

Year 670, New Era: Cesare stayed at the bottom of Lake Bovaly for nearly a thousand years until Nidhogg one day swam down and retrieved the Dark Verdict sword, stabbing him and releasing him from the seal that the Elven King had placed on him that trapped him there. (Mentioned in Ice Abyss Echo, Dark Verdict suit, and V2: 4-SS2. The year and more clarification on what happened is given in the Miraland Civilization Files book.)

Cesare returned to Shadow City, to the surprise of Kindred there, who worshipped Helsin and viewed Cesare as only a legend considering how long he had been in the lake. (Moonless Voyage)

Infighting began between Kindred who were loyal to Helsin and Kindred who were loyal to Cesare, but Helsin declared her loyalty to Cesare, who went forth and did his best to improve the quality of life in Shadow City. (Moonless Voyage)

Year 680: Cesare and Kindred spirits gather power in Pamir Forest again, using Noah as an agent to stir up chaos and attract the attention of Chloris. Chloris and Lakris go to investigate, and Lakris disappears into a heavy fog as they walk. Chloris goes to the Kindred castle alone and meets Cesare for the first time. It's implied that Lakris was the elven part of Cesare all along, and Cesare reclaims Lakris. Cesare disappears in the light of the Dawnblade. (Chloris 4)

Nikki, Mela, and Momo accidentally get hoodwinked and sent into Shadow City where they nearly get eaten alive by some hungry Kindred. Chloris finds this out and makes the decision to remove the seal between Shadow City and Pigeon Forest to save them. (V2: Chapter 3)

Most of Chloris's strength is used in removing the seal. Cesare escapes Shadow City and bites Chloris, transferring his memories and weakening him further. (V2: 3-SS2)

Elaine and Rachel (boat lifetime sisters) along with Nikki and co attempt to find a way to heal Chloris but he falls unconscious. (V2: Chapter 4)

When the seal is removed, Evelyn (Helsin's prisoner) disappears. Helsin goes mad with desire and experiences severe backlash from the Blood Curse, so she asks to be restrained. (Moonless Voyage)

At some point, Chloris wakes back up. (That one Pigeon welfare suit)

Cesare decides to break the Blood Curse. He recruits Helsin for help and they leave Shadow City and go back to Pigeon Forest. Helsin fights off Elven soldiers with her whip while Cesare tries to remove a giant crystal within the Tree of Life that binds Kindred under the Blood Curse. Chloris approaches and Cesare explains his reasoning for trying to remove the crystal, also dropping the bomb about the secrets behind their parentage. (Moonless Voyage)

Chloris conducts some elfin glowing crystal magic that renders the Kindreds immobile. Peace falls over the entire forest. The backlash of the Blood Curse that the Kindred constantly experienced disappears. (Moonless Voyage)

Cesare orders all the other Kindred to return to Shadow City. He does another bonding ritual with Chloris which seems to transfer energy to Chloris. Though it's not over between them, Cesare returns to Shadow City once more. (Moonless Voyage)

NOTE: Some assumptions had to be made for this timeline. The biggest one is that even after Shadow City had been opened, the war between Kindred and Elves continued until the seal was formed at a later date. Without this assumption, multiple events described in the story do not make sense.

FAQ

How much time passed between the war and the year 680?

Certain parts of our translation refer to it as "thousands of years", but truthfully, it was actually just a thousand years that passed. (Thank you Athena for clearing this up!)

This is almost definitely not an exact number, especially given everything else that was happening with the timeline across Miraland, as well as how many different events were written as occurring a thousand years ago.

Are Chloris and Cesare half brothers?

For a long time, this is what most people (including myself) believed. This is at least in part because of a few lines within the story suit Jealous Phantom which stated:

"Cesare often think[s] about his mother while sitting on bough in the forest, imagining how his brother, who has the blood of the Elven Guardian, spends days with mother under the bright sunlight."

This seemed to indicate that Chloris had some elven parentage that Cesare did not, which both made him a "full" elf and afforded him privileges Cesare couldn't have.

However, we learned recently that this is not true. With the release of the most recent hell event, both Chloris and the fandom was confronted with the truth, which is that Chloris is also born of Kindred and they are full brothers.

Cesare: “and you, the great Elven King, my fated twin, are also born of kindred blood.”

[...]

(a truth he has tried to ignore revealed, Chloris felt dizzy. He closes his eyes tightly.)

(Translation: RavenBlue)

We also learn that the old Elven King was actually Chloris' (and Cesare's) uncle, not his father.

What if Cesare was lying? To tell you the truth, it is highly unlikely that that's the case. Firstly, even Chloris himself recognizes the truth that he was born from a kindred. Secondly, it's very uncommon for half-sibling twins of different parentage to occur, to the point where even fans were second guessing and wondering if this was really what the writers meant to imply. Thirdly, we now don't even have another candidate for Chloris' dad now that we know the king was his uncle and not his father.

Does this make Chloris kindred, per se? Not really. He doesn't display any of the symptoms of being a kindred. The most likely explanation is that he just "didn't get the Kindred gene" while his fraternal twin Cesare did.

How did Cesare fall to the bottom of the lake?

There are now three different versions of this, only one (the most recent one) which actually seems canon-compliant:

First Wind: The Elven King stabs Cesare with the Dawnblade; his body is later dropped in the bottom of the lake.

Jealous Phantom: Cesare was watching Chloris play the harp when his sadness and the light overwhelmed him and he toppled into the lake. (This one could be metaphorical, even though the metaphor doesn't match the other explanations.)

Moonless Voyage: The Elven King stabs Cesare with his own Dark Verdict; his body falls to the bottom of the lake.

The most canon-compliant one is the Moonless Voyage one, which matches the other bits of interconnecting lore about how Nidhogg acquired the Dark Verdict.

Is Evelyn the mother of Chloris and Cesare/the Elven Queen?

This is a long one so buckle in. (Yes, I touched on this briefly in my last post.)

First of all, I want to reiterate that this was never explicitly stated anywhere. Evelyn was never called the queen and was never described as having children, and the Queen's name was never given. I still believe this is up to interpretation. So here, I'll just lay out all the evidence for both sides. Right now, I don't think it's possible to say one way or another.

Some of the evidence for this theory includes the following:

In Chloris' fourth Dreamweaver, Moon Night Poem, Chloris' mother is mentioned by Cesare.

Duke Cesare: "He was so brave and fearless... even when all hope was lost, he refused to surrender, going so far as to put his life on the line. I simply obliged him... nothing more. That's typical of the forest elf, just like your mother."

This indicates that Chloris' mother had sacrificed her life or was self-sacrificing in some way. Of course, Evelyn is also well-known for her sacrifice, as she became the final seal of Shadow City, and her sacrifice is discussed throughout volume 2, chapter 4:

Nikki: "Those Kindred and elven specters in the Shadow City... They longed for sunlight even they knew it would burn them. Evelyn wanted no bloodshed and she sacrificed herself for peace."

Does Cesare and Chloris' mother make a sacrifice? Well, it's said in Jealous Phantom that it's a very difficult decision for her to banish the Kindred, including her lover and Cesare, to Shadow City for the sake of the elves. That's the only thing I can think of that would qualify as a sacrifice.

One potential hint that Evelyn could have been the queen is from this line from Flickering Pistill:

Evelyn guards the quiet Pigeon Forest. When she bleeds, the reflection of stars will turn to white flowers.

However, in my opinion this is pretty weak evidence because pretty much every forest elf is said to guard the forest (as stated in basically any Chloris dreamweaver you look at).

As well, their circumstances also seemed to line up. In the spirit items from Chloris' fourth dreamweaver, Destined Twins and Wake Up from Dream, it's stated:

Every generation, elves will have 2 guardians who protect the Pigeon Forest in turn, a Sword and a Moon.

Chloris is the first guardian and Lakris didn't appear under the Life Tree till Elf Queen went missing.

We also know that Evelyn herself leaves Pigeon Forest to go to Shadow City forever and act as the seal. However, this is largely viewed as a choice (a "sacrifice") and Evelyn herself was willing to take this on. Again, it's really up to how you read it.

Here's the evidence against Evelyn being their mother:

In the most recent CN hell event (Moonless Voyage), we get confirmation that Helsin was the Lord of Kindred while Cesare was in the bottom of Lake Bovaly for nearly a thousand years. Now that Cesare has been woken up, Helsin is subservient to him. The story of Evelyn is mentioned to him, and he knows about it, but he simply does not care. It's explicitly stated that he has no interest and only cares about Helsin for her power.

Cesare’s Underling: “Ever since the seal of Shadow City was broken, Evelyn, who was previously imprisoned, disappeared. Since then, master Helsin’s desires became more and more cruel, and the backlash on her body became stronger and stronger…..”

(Cesare has heard of the struggle between Helsin and the elf she imprisoned. But he holds no interest in this. All he needs is Helsin’s power.)

(Translation: RavenBlue)

Cesare was told that his mother was dead (mentioned in both Jealous Phantom and Moonless Voyage). In the year 680, he also still seems to believe his mother sacrificed her life for something (see the quote from Chloris 4 I posted above). It's incredibly weird that he would show no interest in this development if she was his mother; it's displayed elsewhere in Moonless Voyage that he still showed interest in his mother even after she abandoned him. But it makes perfect sense narratively if Evelyn is not actually his mother and is just the self sacrificing elf of legends.

The next part is that the timeline does not line up.

It makes much more sense if everything regarding Evelyn, and all of Blood Moon, happened after Cesare fell to the bottom of the lake.

The war between Kindred and Elves already seems to be over as described in Flickering Pistill, as Evelyn is "atoning" in part for the winners of the war.

Helsin is described as the Kindred Lord in Blood Lust, but we know from Jealous Phantom that Cesare inherited the position from his father. Considering we know Helsin was the one in power while Cesare was at the bottom of the lake, it only seems logically consistent that she would only obtain that title after he disappeared.

Lastly, there is simply no reason to not say so if Evelyn is Chloris and Cesare's mother. The story of Evelyn is well known in both Shadow City and Pigeon Forest, and even Cesare who has been asleep for a thousand years knows it. If Cesare knows they are the same, and a great deal of Kindred lore is told from Cesare's perspective and centered around his character development, I literally see no point in continuing to talk about both Evelyn and their mother and not just say they are the same. The same is also true for Chloris, who would also have heard of Evelyn. There is nobody left who cares about Chloris and Cesare's mother to reveal the plot point to. But LN definitely seems to be fond of pulling stunts like this, so it's still hard to say.

What about Wind's Whisper?

There is another character called Evelyn in Wind's Whisper. Evelyn is described as a tree spirit in this, and it distinguishes her from "Pigeon Elves" because she hibernates. However, after asking about the original Chinese text, I have learned that there was a word left out in our translation; Evelyn is a tree elf/spirit, but she hibernates unlike other Pigeon elves.

The words for spirit and elf in Chinese are related, and it's possible that Evelyn is the same type of elf as Chloris even though it's written differently in Chinese.

While I'm not really sure if the Evelyn from Wind's Whisper has anything to do with the rest of the story, it's a moot point to me because whether it does or doesn't, it doesn't add any additional understanding or insight.

Thank you to Athena, RavenBlue, and bamboo snek for clearing this up!

Translation Credits

RavenBlue#2752

for their wonderful and speedy translations of the new hell event stages

for their official Miraland timeline translation

As well to athena#2202 and bamboo snek#3897 for sharing and explaining the original Chinese meaning for parts where our translation got butchered! (Noted above)

#love nikki #love nikki lore #love nikki theories #elves #character: chloris #character: cesare #character: evelyn

5 notes · View notes

racefortheironthrone · 5 years

Text

Thoughts on Powers of X #3

Gotta go fast!

Pride and Grace (X^2):

This issue starts off on a pretty heavy note with a look at the religion of humans in the Man-Machine Ascendancy, and what we see is that humanity has constructed a religion around transhumanism and it’s entirely negative.

So here is the catechism of this religion:

“All humans are slaves,” and humans should “accept [the machines]] dominance.”

Human nature is inherently “fallen,” and in order to ascend humans must reject “every last shred” of their humanity.

Critically, humans must reject the “heretics” who preach biological transhumanism, both becasue of the inherent impossibility of “improv[ing] on our flawed design” and their mistaken belief in free will.

And then just in case you were wondering whether Hickman was going to be at all subtle in his belief that mechanical transhumanism is bad, he then shows us a baby being baptised into this faith by having half its face lasered off as it screams in pain.

On a more high-falutin’ level, the purple-clad cyborg priest’s concluding thought that “there is something perfect trapped in your flawed human shell” is Gnosticism turned against itself, from a religion that preached an egalitarian message of salvation through transcendant knowledge into a religion that denies the very possibility. It’s also not a good sign that the priest inverts Milton’s most famous epigram on individualistic defiance into a message of submission.

I find it very odd that so much of the fandom can read these pages and then turn around and call Krakoan culture a cult. As I’ll get into longer, Krakoan culture is all about proving and celebrating individuality as well as community, about rejoicing in the defeat of death, and the multiple layers of call-and-response rest power in the congregation as much as the preacher. If I had to choose between these two religions, I’d pick Krakoa every time.

And then the mutant resistance shows up bringing fire and the sword(s). And yet, in what is surprising for a group of mutants organized and led by Apocalypse, their tone is more disappointed than hostile. More on this in a bit.

Surviving Sol Mutants Infographic:

In this org chart, we learn about the mutant resistance as led by Apocalypse. Some interesting little details here:

Apocalypse has a new group of horsemen (we don’t learn that the first horsemen who Hickman has been emphasizing so much died during the fall of Krakoa until later), with Logan in the War role, Kuan-Yin Xorn as Death, North as Pestilence, and Krakoa/Cypher as Famine.

This group includes “Pureblood” (not wild about this label) mutants, Chimeras, and “Symbiotic” mutants, which covers pretty much every kind of mutant in this timeline in the same way that the All-New X-Men were designed to be internationally diverse.

While some of these designations - War for Wolverine and Death for the nihilist Xorn - make sense, there’s something really ironic about the plant-man representing Famine, and there doesn’t seem to be much of a clear link between North and the concept of Pestilence.

North as a second generation Lorna Dane/Emma Frost hybrid became a fan favorite despite uttering very few words, I guess because of the interesting combination of Magneto’s costume in Polaris’ colors and pink telepathy powers.

For her part, Moira stands in as “Mother” of the younger mutant team (which I guess makes Apocalypse the “Father” of the older team), making this resistance cell a Brady-style fused/found family.

I was wrong about which generations Rasputin and Cardinal belong to: despite the fact that Rasputin is named Rasputin IV, both she and Cardinal are third generation Chimeras. Cardinal’s powerset seems to include Nightcrawler-style teleportation as well as Jean/Rachel/Nate-style telepathy. No idea who Freeman corresponds to, but no one else seems to know either.

The Church, the Church is On Fire!:

On the other side of town, the Machine half of the Ascendancy reacts to the distraction attack. Omega Sentinel both seems to care more about humanity and be more human both in terms of her interests and her affect, while noted sociopath Nimrod the Lesser advocates for human genocide, just in case you were wondering who the bad guys were.

A further sign that we shouldn’t let our pre-existing knowledge color our interpretation is that we find out that the mutant resistance “have always sought to free the humans in some hope that together they might overcome the inevitability of” Nimrod. Needless to say, fighting to save “a world that hates and fears them” hasn’t exactly been Apocalypse’s wheelhouse, but it’s a sign that existential struggle changes all kinds of people’s characters in unexpected ways.

I really like the idea that mutants and humans are two peoples “divided by one language,” because it’s an interesting counter-point to Magneto’s argument in House of X #1 that a mutant language is a necessary precondition for cultural separation.

Further evidence for my thesis about AIs and analysis paralysis: Nimrod the Lesser’s obsession with trying to “disassemble the variables” and his total lack of interest in more qualitative understandings of his opposition leads him to delay just long enough to allow the resistance to get away with their data and unleash a singularity in his capital. Can’t help but see a parallel there with the Phalanx and other intelligences.

We move from there to a Highly Thematically Significant ecumenical debate between the cyborg purple priest and Cardinal, who describes himself as “a pacifist who’s been pushed to the brink” (much like Xavier?) and in the process has abandoned many of his own beliefs, even “overcome my genetic predispositions” for a higher purpose. (Which itself is thematically significant, given that the cyborg purple priest explicitly denied that one could avoid genetic destiny.) Cardinal wants to know why the priest would betray humanity on behalf of a malevolent divinity, but it’s not clear whether his own form of self-destruction is much different (although given that Cardinals deny the self, did the “terminal apocalypse seed” destroy his authentic self or create one?).

For his part, the cyborg priest chooses veneration of the Great Machine above all else, seemingly dying in a state of religious ecstasy. There’s also another interesting contrast being drawn here - after Magneto positioned the mutants as pagan “gods,” we have a decidedly monotheistic capital-G “god” in the form of Omega Sentinel.

Buying Time/Space:

As his X-Men prepare to go down swinging to buy him enough time, Apocalypse and his strike team make it to the data-base. I know that Hickman is usually described as more of a world-builder than dialogue wrioter, but I loved the line “I am older than even the idea of machines.” (Not so sure that’s true, Ancient Egypt loved itself some simple machines, but he could be referring more specifically to the computer.)

We also learn that the data they’re looking for is “when Nimrod came online,” which initially sounds unimportant...up until we see Moira and realize that historical data is priceless when you’re dealing with time-loopers.

Nimrod is alerted by Cypher/Krakoa’s accessing of the data, but it’s worth noting that Nimrod doesn’t know what they’re looking for. He’ll describe it as “old data and machine lore,” but he clearly can’t recall and hasn’t integrated the data that’s been acquired into his own mental framework - which raises the question of whether the Phalanx or higher ups do any better with the data they’ve consumed.

In the mean-time, Rasputin and Xorn unleash his singularity in order to sideline Omega Sentinel and buy their cause a little more time. There’s an interesting parallel with what Erasmus will do in House of X #3, but the singularity adds another level.

Omega’s question “do you have any idea of what lies at the heart of a real black hole” is even more ambiguous in the wake of Powers of X #5, where we learn that there are massive AI societies inside black holes. Is the Man-Machine Ascendancy a vassal of one of these, has Omega seen one? Or is she referring to a more abstract idea about the ultimate death of all things? (Watching A Brief History of Time messed me up as a kid.)

But just as the X-Men of X^1 underestimate the self-sacrificial tenacity of Orchis humans, Omega underestimates that of the X-Men and so a singularity is unleashed on Earth. Does this destroy the planet, in the same way that the singularity of the 4th Generation Chimeras wiped out Mars? Do Rasputin, Xorn, or Cardinal end up in another time/place as the tarot cards from Powers of X #1 would suggest? Is their desination one of the Titan Societies?

In a parallel act, Apocalypse sacrifices himself to get the data away. Even as Nimrod is giving his big speech about how Apocalypse is no longer the “fittest of all,” we see how the Big A has clearly moved beyond that conception of himself, to embrace a larger cause he’s willing to die for.

As Aocalypse is dying, Wolverine awakens Moira in her ninth life and kills her so that she can bring the data about Nimrod into her tenth life. Which is one main reason why I’m really skeptical we’ll see a reboot into an 11th life at the end of the mini-series, because otherwise why devote half or more of your run-time to what she’s learned in this life if the next one is the really important one?

Infographic of the Ninth Life of Moira X:

I just realized that Moira’s last name works as both a play on the Nation of Islam’s tradition of giving out X as a new last name symbolic of the heritage destroyed by slavery (although the X-gene probably gives that a different symbolism for Krakoan mutants), and the number 10. Yes, I can be really short-sighted sometimes.

So what new information do we get about Life 9?

Well, the Apocalypse War goes well for mutants for fourteen years, with Avengers World defeated three years later, and the Annihilation Wave repelled eleven years later. Crucially, however, Apocalypse is unable to prevent Nimrod from coming online in Year 50, and within six years the mutants lose most of their earthly power, forcing a retreat to Krakoa and the adoption of Sinister’s breeding program. This buys the mutants about thirty years, but Krakoa’s fall in advance of the collapse of Mars suggestsa that it was never more than a band-aid.

Note that once again Moira goes into a coma. Man, by this point, she and Emma are going to have plenty to talk about wrt to their Sleeping Beauty syndromes.

#xmen #xmen meta #powers of x #hoxpox

17 notes · View notes

filligan-universe · 7 years

Text

Understanding THE LORD OF THE RINGS

The Lord of the Rings has already inspired two blog-like posts from me: one, written on a particularly nostalgic day, chronicles the most tear-jerker moments of the trilogy and the other, my review for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, served not just as a critical analysis of that film, but I used the Lord of the Rings trilogy as a consistent counterpoint to illustrate why those films are so seminal. I note these two pieces to emphasize this point: Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a monumental cinematic achievement in my eyes, and greatly shaped my appreciation for film and its possibilities. They’re simultaneously well-honed adventure epics and brimming with hints of former lore -- of a history that has shaped the world we get to see. Having taken The History of Middle-earth course, those gaps are now filled, and my appreciation and comprehension of Tolkien's world is far more complete than it was before.

The portrayal of Middle-earth in the films is one of decay, of a bygone era long-crumbled, and the remnants are now scattered kingdoms filled with weak or illegitimate leaders. This is clear from the first viewing of these films, and I always understood that there was a rich history behind these images. The film consistently brings them up: Aragorn sings of the Lay of Lúthien, Frodo and Sam happen upon a decapitated statue of a king, Gandalf warns “they are not all accounted for -- the lost seeing stones” -- the only backstory we get of the Palantíri. Indeed, even things we are shown in the prologue are only given so much information. Viewers have no idea of Mordor’s history -- was it always there? Has Sauron always been a plague on Middle-earth? Where did he come from? And little is told of Valinor, the land Frodo sails off to in the end, the land Gandalf gorgeously describes to calm Pippin during the siege of Minas Tirith.

The Silmarillion tells us of before Earth (or Arda) is even created, how the beings that helped shape it reside in Valinor across the western sea. From it we have better descriptions of Valinor than the poetry Gandalf musters, and we understand the Valar themselves -- their limitations of understanding, their unique desires to see different aspects of Arda to fruition, and the thousands of years of history that explain why Valinor is such a coveted destination -- and a particularly impossible one for the race of Men.

That’s a heavy amount of information already, but it’s enough to bring the grander vision of Middle-earth into the light. Before the course, my understanding of Valinor was that it was a Tolkienized vision of heaven; a place where you never die, you never hunger, you never feel pain. And while heaven isn’t exactly a wrong term to describe Valinor, it’s also incorrect in its lack of nuance and understanding. Valinor is a real place in Arda, a place with its own geography and names and cities. The majestic beauty of the Valar, the godlike beings who first shaped Arda and reside in Valinor, bestow upon the lands a light that gives it a heaven-like quality, but it isn’t a heaven in the religious sense.

While I always inferred a sense of ancient history to The Lord of the Rings, I had absolutely no comprehension of how far back that history ran, nor how much the geography changed since Arda’s formation. When we follow the Fellowship into the Mines of Moria, there is a sense of hundreds of years of decay, but the truth is the oldest places of Middle-earth are under the sea -- sunken from a great battle to expel evil (more on that later). Time, and just how much of it has passed and shaped the people, the world, is lost in the films. All we see are bones now; ruined monuments, frail kingdoms. Another example from Moria is when the Orc stampede awakens a Balrog. This moment is superbly done in the film and still gives me goosebumps: the music halts, stone creaks, and Gandalf for the first time has no answers except “run.” The entire following sequence has entered pop culture. But I was left to come up with my own idea of the Balrog’s origins. It seemed like the depths of Middle-earth held a powerful evil, one of the worst of which could be the Balrog. Turns out, well...

The Silmarillion describes one of the Valar, Melkor, who strayed from the light from pride and desire, and eventually sought to undermine the other Valar and rule Arda. He was the one who began to torture Elves, twist them into Orcs through cruelty (this is shown once in the films and is quite ambiguous -- another gap filled by the history). And Melkor, later named Morgoth, supplemented his armies of Orcs with legions of Balrogs. There used to untold numbers of those foes. They slaughtered Elves and Men in several wars, before the western lands sank, and they even had a leader named Gothmog (a name I suppose Jackson & Co. liked so much they donned it upon the crippled Orc leader in Return of the King). Tales of these wars, of the heroes within them, are often told in detail, and when Morgoth was finally defeated (after a very, very long time), the remaining Balrogs fled into the deeper, darker regions of the world, to hide and await the return of their master. The now-classic Khazad-dûm sequence is given layers of context from this: a creature of ancient evil, created by a Valar of all beings. No wonder Gandalf is out of options; the Fellowship doesn’t have a chance against such a creature. Moreover, when Gandalf holds the Balrog on the bridge, he says, “I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn.” The Silmarillion teaches us that the Secret Fire, or Flame Imperishable, is with Ilúvatar, and that Anor is another name for the Sun. Again these indications of a greater lore behind the present storytelling, but only indications -- only mentions. The Silmarillion doesn’t break down this phrase, but it does use this terminology. I could get the gist of what Gandalf was saying beforehand, but now I know exactly what he’s saying and referencing. And this adds layers to Gandalf, too. Sure, he knows what a Balrog is from the start, but now I know he’s referencing Illúvatar, the light of the Sun as provided by the Valar, and he knows the Balrog’s master, and Melkor’s first fortress Utumno. A kind of snowball effect begins to occur with the extra knowledge of this history, and soon every character feels deeper, feels more connected to a root system going back thousands of years.

Through the history, the origins of seemingly random things can be traced, thereby eliminating their randomness. Sauron, though the highest power of evil in the Third Age, was a mere lieutenant to Morgoth. And Sauron was a corrupted Maiar, a lesser version of the Valar, tasked to aid the Valar with the keeping of Arda. In the Unfinished Tales, we learn that wizards like Gandalf and Saruman are Istari, sent in the fallible form of Men in the Third Age by the Valar to help steer Elves and Men along the path of the light in the wake of Sauron’s growing influence. This was always a point of contention with pedants: “Why can’t Gandalf use magic to help them out here?” -- akin to the “Why can’t he summon the Eagles to fly them straight to Mordor?” argument. My answers, before the course, were more defense of story structure than actual answers. But it makes sense, given the history of Maiar like Sauron, that the Valar would send the Istari to Middle-earth with restrictions on their powers, lest they be tempted to rule by force or seek power. This still happens with Saruman, and so the Valar seem wise to have placed limitations on wizardly powers. But again, these answers are not clear from the films. The films don’t tell us what Maiar are, and thus Gandalf and Sauron simply are. They exist without given reasons. The history detailing the Istari not only illuminates on Gandalf and Saruman’s backgrounds, but it raises the stakes for Gandalf. His susceptibility to human weakness makes him less otherworldly, less out of place from the Fellowship, and the challenges he faces seem greater. He cannot just poof away his problems. And these sorts of things continue to show up in the histories. Ungoliant, a presumed twisted Maiar in the form of a wretched spider-beast, is pivotal in a dark moment in the ancient history of Valinor, and her appearance (without even mention of it) makes Shelob’s presence in Return of the King more acceptable (as in, it’s more than just “a giant spider monster happens to dwell in this tunnel”) and fearsome.

To the strongest point of the history’s effect on the films, I think the theme of doom and how it ripples through the timeline even to Lord of the Rings is the most compelling and rewarding for later re-watched of the films. Morgoth doesn’t start out as this vicious, evil spirit, but his slow descent from disobedience to power-hungry lust is what does it. He learns to lie, to deceive and spread half-truths, to sow evil into the hearts of (first) the Elves and (then) Men. And it reaches out from there. Countless times, a small act from Morgoth eventually incites violence, and those involved don’t even know of Morgoth’s involvement half the time. In Valinor, during the First Age, Morgoth is the catalyst for rumors of discontent among one of the Elvish clans -- the Noldor. And when Fëanor creates the Silmarils, beautiful orbs of light from the Trees of Valinor, Morgoth steals them with the help of Ungoliant. Because the Noldor have learned of deceit, learned of greed, and even learned of weapons thanks to Morgoth’s “advice,” violence and tragedy strike through Valinor as Elves attack Elves, banishments from the Valar are placed, and foul oaths are taken. The Silmarils, through the course of the First Age, bring nearly every big player in that era to their knees, and this theme of doom echoes around them -- the fate of Arda being tied to them. Fëanor, so enamored with his creations, swearing to destroy any kind of being -- Elf, Man, or otherwise -- in pursuit of the reclamation of his treasures echoes the weak will of Isildur to destroy the One Ring. Even the rings themselves are connected to Fëanor via ancestry through Celebrimbor.

This theme of all beings of Illúvatar and their weakness, their ability to succumb to power, to self-aggrandizement, to doomed desire, encircles the entire history of Middle-earth; it isn’t just unique to The Lord of the Rings. The fact that this keeps playing out again and again, in different ways, with different consequences, and yet always with grief and strife one way or another, makes those themes in The Lord of the Rings even more tragic and poignant.

#Lord of the Rings #Lord of the Rings History #the silmarillion #Morgoth #Valar #Unfinished Tales #jrr tolkien #Gandalf #Saruman #Moria #Balrog #Silmaril #Feanor

0 notes